Kamen Rider Impressions, Part 15: Kamen Sentai Gorider

I was really curious about this series, as I have enjoyed Super Sentai/Power Rangers content since I was a little kid, and as previously mentioned I first learned of Kamen Rider (or Masked Rider at the time) through watching the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers TV show back in the day. If you look at the title, and the images that advertise for this series (on Amazon, for example), it looks like it is about a Super Sentai hero squad composed of color-coded Kamen Riders based off the original Kamen Rider design combined with Secret Squadron Gorenger—arguably the first Super Sentai TV show (though the formula wasn’t fully formed from the start, as they didn’t have giant robots back then). I thought the pastiche looked like a jolly good time, and I figured I would just watch the first of the three episodes produced to get a taste of what was in store, and to see just what these Goriders were and how they came about.

So I watched the first episode… and the Goriders didn’t appear. They DID appear in the preview for the second episode, so I decided I would watch that one, too, given that I thought the whole point of the show was the Kamen Sentai Gorider group.

I watched the second episode… and the Goriders… didn’t appear again. They weren’t even hinted at, outside of the fact that the show had five… no, they had six Kamen Riders assembled. What gives?

Note that I will be going over some spoilers here.

The story takes place in the Kamen Rider Ex-Aid storyline, and so Emu Hojo awakens in a strange amusement park world (the background reminded me of Seibuen Amusement Park which currently houses the Godzilla the Ride attraction, but I don’t think it actually was that place). He is guided to an eerie mansion-like room with a big mirror and is soon joined by a series of other Riders—Another Agito (from Kamen Rider Agito), Kamen Rider Baron (from Kamen Rider Gaim), Kamen Rider Marika (also from Kamen Rider Gaim), Kamen Rider Blade (from the show of the same name), and Kamen Rider Lazer (from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid). As it turns out, they are stuck in a video game that is impossible to win, and Emu Hojo (remember, he is a doctor and a superior gamer) is the main player—but every time he loses, he also loses his memory. Suffice it to say that eventually he figures out that there are nefarious forces lurking behind the scenes, and manages a way to reveal the true villain. However, after the true villain emerges, the heroes still don’t have the strength to defeat him and his minions…

This is where the Kamen Sentai Gorider team comes in. Somehow, suddenly, Emu Hojo (in a super Kamen Rider Ex-Aid form) pulls out a set of five cards with no explanation, and he tosses them to the other five members of his team. They suddenly transform into the Gorider team from the previews, and they perform a series of fight maneuvers based on the Gorenger TV program and they basically mop the floor with the baddies in a jiffy. They have maybe five minutes of screen time before reverting to their normal forms… and that was it.

I was quite perplexed. After poking around a bit, I found that the Gorider team apparently originated from a movie that was released earlier that same year—Kamen Rider x Super Sentai: Chou Super Hero Taisen. But so far as I could tell, that movie is not really mentioned in this mini-series. The ability to change form into the Goriders is not so much as hinted at (outside of the title I guess), and it’s not clear why Emu has the needed cards in his arsenal. I guess you need to watch the movie, and maybe it sets things up… but the fact that this mini-series sells itself as a Goriders series and includes the pastiche hero forms in such a perfunctory manner is really disappointing. I felt like I had been cheated, a victim of the old bait-and-switch.

I did enjoy the show, regardless, despite my confusion. There are lots of twists and turns and fights and even some bloody action and despair at times. But they should NOT have sold this series as a Kamen Sentai Gorider show. What a rip off!

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