Kamen Rider Amazons

Kamen Rider Amazons (仮面ライダーアマゾンズ, Kamen Raidā Amazonzu) is a web-only Kamen Rider series based on the 1974 TV series and is a part of ‘s (スーパーヒーローイヤー, Sūpā Hīrō Iyā) project. The first season premiered on the Japanese version of on April 1, 2016 and the second season premiered on April 7, 2017. The catchphrase for season 1 is “Open Your Amazons”. For season 2, the catchphrase is “Who are you?” (おまえは谁だ？, Omae wa dare da?)

The series’ first season was later international distributed via the Amazon Prime service under the title Amazon Riders.  The second season debuted worldwide on Amazon Prime in the fall of 2018.

Its story concluded in the theatrical film , which premiered in spring 2018.

TV Broadcast

In July, 2016, an edited version of Amazons aired on two TV channels: the and at the late night time and the catchphrase was changed into “Hunt, start” (狩り、開始, Kari, kaishi).

Production

Following the movie, Amazons was announced in one of the 2016 March Televi-kun magazine pages and later confirmed on March 18, 2016. It changed most of the settings from the original Amazon and doesn’t interfere or alter continuity with anything of the . With the legendary staffs and strongest action teams who produced the , Amazon now is fully reborn in a modern, darker style that makes it not for kids anymore, because this series’ genre is “horror”.

Continuity

A standalone series, the world of Amazons, while not necessarily the as that of the original or contemporary shows such as and , is established as part of the by . The crossover film, which premiered less than two weeks prior to the start of the second season, featured , as well as , serving as his first appearance before his introduction in the second season, in the form of their alternate counterparts from the . Additionally, a appeared as a member of ‘s army.

Ultimately, Amazons was confirmed as taking place in its own by producer in an interview which was published on Hyper Hobby Vol.8.

Plot

Season 1 (Awakening)

The world is filled by thousands of monsters named Amazonz, and the company of Nozama Pharmacy has hired a special team to hunt down and eliminate them. One day, the team were hunting down two Amazon riders, Amazon Riders Alpha and Omega, with their transformers being Jin and Haruka respectfully.

Haruka eventually joined the team to hunt down the Amazonz. However, when they were trying to eliminate a group of Amazonz that were hiding inside a restaurant, Haruka eventually divided his opinion with the group when he found out that those Amazonz have no intention to harm humans. The restaurant has also changed Mamoru, one of the members in the team. He eventually started to have interests in eating human beings. After Jin and Haruka defeated Sigma, Nozama Pharmacy decided to launch a special plan named Tlaloc, a plan to kill all Amazonz. Mamoru was in a struggle during Tlaloc because he previously ate one of his friends, Kazuya Mizaki’s arm. Haruka eventually rescued him and both of them escaped.

Season 2 (Reincarnation)

In the past, a massive spill occurred at the Amazonz experimental lab. Most of the survivors were destroyed, hot-blooded young men enjoyed hunting Amazonz and the experiment seemed to be drawing to an end. Far than ending, however, it was entering a completely new phase. The number of cases of ordinary people turning into Amazonz without warning was rising. The government formed a new extermination unit to assassinate people who had turned into Amazonz secretly and struggled to hide the truth.

Chihiro/Kamen Rider Amazon Neo is a loner, a boy raised by Amazonz who hates them but must suppress his cannibalistic urges. One day he meets Iyu, an Amazon girl who transforms into Crow Amazon and vanquishes Amazon enemies with her awesome fighting power. Chihiro is amazed at his first glance of Iyu, because she’s the first human he’s met without thinking, “I want to eat her.” She’s the first opponent he’s ever wanted to get close to, but Chihiro is unaware of her story. Iyu is a “Sigma Type Amazonz” a biological weapon brought back to life after her parents turned Amazonz and killed her.

Characters

Kamen Riders

Web series

Movie-exclusive

Supporting Characters

Villains

• Other

Episodes

Main article:

All of the Season 1 episode titles are completely in English, some of the Season 2 titles are Latin, but they are both in all-caps, beginning with the corresponding letter of the English alphabet per number (1=A, 2=B, 3=C, and so on).

Movies

1. (仮面ライダー×スーパー戦隊: 超スーパーヒーロー大戦, Kamen Raidā × Supā Sentai Chō Supā Hīrō Taisen) (cameo)
2. (劇場版 仮面ライダーアマゾンズ Season1 覚醒, Gekijōban Kamen Raidā Amazonzu Sezon Uan Kakusei)
3. (劇場版 仮面ライダーアマゾンズ Season2 輪廻, Gekijōban Kamen Raidā Amazonzu Sezon Tsu Rin’ne)
4. (仮面ライダーアマゾンズ 最後ノ審判, Kamen Raidā Amazonzu Saigo no Shinpan)

Stageshows

1. (仮面ライダーアマゾンズ スペシャルイベント, A to M Open Your AMAZONS Kamen Raidā Amazonzu Supesharu Ibento)

Other media

Manga

1. (仮面ライダーアマゾンズ外伝　蛍火, Kamen Raidā Amazonzu Gaiden Hotarubi)

SIC Hero Saga

1. (仮面ライダーアマゾン 獣人症候群, Kamen Raidā Amazonzu Kemonohito Shōkōgun)

Theme song

• – (Season 1)
• – Taro Kobayashi (Season 2)

Cast

• (水澤 悠, Mizusawa Haruka): (藤田 富, Fujita Tomu)
• (鷹山 仁, Takayama Jin): (谷口 賢志, Taniguchi Masashi)
• (水澤 美月, Mizusawa Miduki): (武田 玲奈, Takeda Rena)
• (泉 七羽, Izumi Nanaha): (東 亜優, Higashi Ayu)
• (志藤 真, Shidō Makoto): (俊藤 光利, Shundō Mitsutoshi)
• (マモル, ): (小林 亮太, Kobayashi Ryōta)
• (大滝 竜介, Ōtaki Ryūsuke): (馬場 良馬, Baba Ryōma)
• (高井 望, Takai Nozomi): (宮原 華音, Miyahara Kanon)
• (三崎 一也, Misaki Kazuya): (勝也, Katsuya)
• (福田 耕太, Fukuda Kōta): (田邊 和也, Tanabe Kazuya)
• (前原 淳, Maehara Jun): (朝日奈 寛, Asahina Hiroshi)
• (水澤 令華, Mizusawa Reika): (加藤 貴子, Katō Takako)
• (加納 省吾, Kanō Shogō): (小松 利昌, Komatsu Toshimasa)
• (橘 雄悟, Tachibana Yūgo): (神尾 佑, Kamio Yū)
• (天条 隆顕, Tenjō Takaaki): (藤木 孝, Fujiki Takashi)

Season 2

• (千翼, ): (前嶋 曜, Maejima Yō)
• (イユ, ) : (白本 彩奈, Shiramoto Ayana)
• (黒崎 武, Kurosaki Takeshi): (三浦 孝太, Miura Kōta)
• (札森 一郎, Fudamori Ichirō): (籾木 芳仁, Momiki Yoshito)
• (長瀬 裕樹, Nagase Hiroki): (赤楚 衛二, Akaso Eiji)
• (山下 琢己, Yamashita Takumi): (三浦 海里, Miura Kairi)
• (北村 健太, Kitamura Kenta): (堂本 翔平, Dōmoto Shōhei)

Suit Actors

• : (藤井 祐伍, Fujii Yūgo)
• : (岩上 弘数, Iwakami Hirokazu)
• , : (荒川 真, Arakawa Makoto)
• : (佐藤 太輔, Satō Daisuke)
• : (松岡 航平, Matsuoka Kōhei)
• : (菊池 雄人, Kikuchi Yūto)
•  : (鈴木大樹 Suzuki Daiki)

Notes

• The show itself is an in-joke that this series based on Kamen Rider Amazon would premiere on Amazon Prime.
  • This is further referenced by the show’s catchphrase being “Open Your Amazons”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that Amazon the website is an online shopping site that delivers packages ordered from their site to a customer’s house.
• The series title, Amazons, is a pun that means several Amazon Riders will appear.
• The next-episode previews for Season 1 are titled as “NEXT HUNT” and the last preview of is titled “LAST HUNT”. In Season 2, they are changed into “NEXT TARGET” and “LAST TARGET” respectively.
• Due to its violent and dark premise and the fact that it is for an adult audience, has Yasuko Kobayashi as its main writer and is a Horror/Action drama, some Rider fans view this series as an attempt by Toei to compete/capitalize on the return of the .
  • The fact that the series is going to be released on a streaming-only basis on Amazon Japan, it seems that Toei is following Marvel’s act of releasing streaming-only series’ on Netflix, such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Similar to those series’, Amazons features darker and more violent materials compared to the more “mainstream” parts of their respective franchises thanks to the less stringent censorship.
• It is the only entry in the Kamen Rider franchise to get a second season of the same show with the same title.
  • Even the longest series, the original with 98 episodes, was still technically a single continuous season. The closest to a second season prior to was , which was more of a sequel series to than an actual second season.

• This series was reported to air in the US in September 2016 as the first round of the exportation of the Amazon Prime Original Videos, under the title of Amazon Riders, supposed to be the first original Kamen Rider series to be digitally streamed in the west. Season 1 was launched on April 19, 2018.
  • With it’s American-release, Kamen Rider Amazons is the third Kamen Rider-related project to have an official release for American audiences. would be the first to have that distinction as it was released on DVD by Media Blasters in 2007, with English subtitles. Nearly a decade later, would be aired on TV Japan in 2017, albeit without English subtitles.
• This is one of the few Heisei series to not have present to provide lighting equipment, due to the company already working on Kamen Rider Ghost at the time.
• With a run of two seasons with thirteen episodes each, this is technically the shortest or second-shortest series of Kamen Rider. Coincidentally, the other honor is held by its inspiration, Kamen Rider Amazon, which ran a for single twenty-four episode season.

References

External Links

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