is a Japanese
tokusatsu television series. It is the 13th installment in the Kamen Rider Series. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei, and was broadcast on TV Asahi
from January 26, 2003 to January 18, 2004. The series' catchphrase is .
Story
The Smart Brain Corporation, the world's most powerful corporation,
is trying to take over the world using
Orphnoch, the next stage in humanity's evolution,
to covertly kill off the human population. In pursuit of this, they
develop three suits of power armor, called Rider Gear (
Delta,
Faiz, and
Kaixa), to find and protect the Orphnoch
King, who can fix a defect within Orphnoch DNA which causes their
genetic structure to break down, leading to death.
The Rider Gears are stolen by Hanagata, the Goat Orphnoch and
former President of Smart Brain Corporation. He sends them to his
foster children (dubbed the Ryuseiji, after the school they
attended) so they can stop the Orphnoch from achieving their goal.
However, Rider Gears were designed to be worn by Orphnoch, and
humans are unable to activate the systems without undergoing
genetic modification.
A young loner, Takumi Inui, is unwillingly drawn into the conflict
between the Orphnoch and humans and becomes
Kamen Rider Faiz to save the life of Mari
Sonoda, one of the Ryuseiji. The Smart Brain Corporation begins
targeting him in an attempt to retrieve the
Faiz Gear.
However, there is division amongst the Orphnoch, as those who wish
to co-exist with humans rather than kill them, begin resisting
Smart Brain, who in turn targets them as well. Most of these
"renegade" Orphnochs are either killed, remain neutral or begin
siding with the Ryuseiji against the Smart Brain Corporation.
When the Tokyo police discover the Orphnoch are behind a series of
bizarre murders, they begin operations to defeat the creatures,
largely unaware of the various factions involved. They even begin
performing experiments on captured Orphnoch in an attempt to find
ways of destroying them, though this does not go well.
The Orphnoch King eventually awakens within a young boy named
Teruo, whom Naoya Kaido and Keitaro Kikuchi saved and befriended.
Now, it is up to the holders of the Rider Gears to band together
and fight for humanity's survival.
Rider Gears
The equipment used in the series to transform is referred to as
Rider Gear. It was created to be worn by the Orphnoch to
protect their Orphnoch King. Each Rider Gear contains a belt known
as a Driver used to form armor that protects the wearer and
amplifies their strengths and abilities. The armor's theme is based
on a letter from the
Greek alphabet,
and contains the letter somehow within the aesthetic design. The
Gears also have a method to input command codes, a cell phone
number keypad for most, which can activate armor and various
weapons. The sound effects of a dialing in any of the Rider Gear
phones were later referenced in episode 17 of
Kamen Rider Kabuto.
The TV series focused on three sets of Rider Gear:
Faiz Gear,
Kaixa Gear, and
Delta Gear. During the TV series,
Hanagata, the foster father of the Ryuseiji and former chief
executive of Smart Brain, attempted to create several new Rider
Gears, using two lost people to test out the first two. The two
belts failed to create Rider armor, resulting in the wearer’s
deaths. When Takuma of Lucky Clover wore the third one it disabled
him for a few seconds before it dissolved. The fourth dissolved
without ever being worn. The Kamen Rider 555 movie,
Paradise Lost, introduced two additional
sets of Rider Gear:
Psyga Gear and
Orga Gear
Riot Trooper Army
The show featured a series of mass-produced henshin belts called
Smart Buckle, which enabled the wearer to transform into a
generic
Riot Trooper. The Riot Troopers were introduced in
the movie, and later added at the end of the TV series.
Naming Conventions
Each set of Rider Gear is code-locked, in addition to being only
usable by Orphnoch. These codes, input through the phone of each
Gear, are a set of numbers that relate to the theme of each Gear.
For the Faiz Gear, the code is 5-5-5, or "fives", phonetically
similar to the word Faiz. For the Kaixa Gear, the code is 9-1-3,
which is read in
goroawase as
"Ka-I-Sa". Delta Gear's phone was voice-activated, yet nonetheless
also was coded with 3-3-3, a reference to the Greek letter delta, a
triangle.
The
goroawase system was also used for the Psyga Gear,
where the code 3-1-5 is read as "Sa-I-Go". The Orga Gear, patterned
after Greek Omega, the final letter, is code-locked to 0-0-0.
Orphnoch
The series
kaijin; they are humans who are
resurrected either naturally or by Smart Brain, with enhanced
physical attributes and the ability to transform into monsters.
Their goal is to annihilate humanity either by turning other humans
into more Orphnoch or killing them off completely. However, there
are those who believe they can still live peacefully alongside
humans; those who possess that mind set quickly become targets for
elimination by Smart Brain.
Episodes
Paradise Lost
, was released during the run of the series, as a double feature alongside Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger: Abare Summer is Freezing! on August 16, 2003. The film was 81 minutes long. A few new characters and Rider Gears were introduced in the movie. The character of Leo/Kamen Rider Psyga, played by Peter Ho, became the first non-Japanese Kamen Rider, although the Saban adaptation of Kamen Rider BLACK RX, Masked Rider, featured American actor TJ Roberts as the main character.
Paradise Lost takes place in an
alternate universe which answers the
question "What would happen if Orphnochs ruled the world?" In the
near future, the world is ruled by the Smart Brain Corporation,
with 90% of the population being Orphnoch, and the once prominent
human race is nearing extinction. Takumi Inui,
Kamen Rider
Faiz, was once regarded as mankind’s savior until, in an
attack by Smart Brain troops, he was presumed dead. Since then,
human rebel groups have staged attacks on Smart Brain's complex in
an attempt to steal the top-secret
Emperor Belts, with no
success. Kiba Yuji, Naoya Kaidō and Yuka Osada attempt to ease
tensions between both races but their peace meeting is interrupted
by Smart Brain troops and their newest warrior, Kamen Rider Psyga.
Takumi, believing himself a young cobbler named Takeshi, regains
his memory and becomes Kamen Rider Faiz again to settle things with
Smart Brain once and for all.
Lost World
The
S.I.C. Hero Saga side
story for
555 published in
Montly Hobby Japan
magazine was titled . It serves as a prologue to the alternate
story that was
555: Paradise Lost, and features the new
character . The story ran from October 2005 to January 2006.
- Chapter titles
Video game
A video game based on the series was produced by
Bandai for the
PlayStation
2. It was a fighting game which featured many of the characters
from the TV series. There were several modes of gameplay for either
a single play and two players. It was released only in Japan near
the end of the TV series on December 18, 2003.
Cast
- :
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- : Hiroshi Yanaka
- :
Guest actors
Paradise Lost cast
Suit actors
- Kamen Rider Faiz, Centipede Orphnoch, Wolf Orphnoch:
- Kamen Rider Kaixa, Horse Orphnoch:
- Kamen Rider Delta, Autovajin:
- Crocodile Orphnoch, Rose Orphnoch, Arch Orphnoch:
- Crane Orphnoch, Lobster Orphnoch:
- Spider Orphnoch:
- Snake Orphnoch:
- Dragon Orphnoch:
Songs
- Opening theme
- Ending themes
- "Dead or alive"
- "The people with no name"
- Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
- Rap Lyrics: m.c.A·T
- Composition: Cher Watanabe
- Arrangement: RIDER CHIPS
- Artist: RIDER CHIPS featuring
m.c.A·T
- Episodes: 21-32, 39
- "EGO ~ eyes glazing over"
- Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition & Arrangement: Cher Watanabe
- Artist: ICHIDAI
- Episodes: 33-38, 41-48
- "Justiφ's -Accel Mix-"
- Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition: Kazutoyo Satō
- Arrangement: Kazunori
Miyake
- Artist: ISSA
- Episodes: 40, Movie
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
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