Toei recently announced the next instalment of its Kamen Rider series, called Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, inspired by video games.
The series would be celebrating the franchise’s 45th anniversary; with the protagonist’s key items to be a “Gamer Driver” belt and the “Rider Gashatt” transformation item.
The protagonist, which has yet to be named, will start at level one (as in the image) and will be helping those infected by the game virus “Bugster”, level up into their second form and fight the Bugster.
The new show will have visual elements revolving around that of video games, which is very evident in their styling and some of the elements of the protagonist’s costume.
Like most of the recent Kamen Rider series released so far, the new Kamen Rider Ex-Aid will feature multiple riders and while details of those riders are limited, scans of the upcoming toyline for the show have revealed a few things. This includes two possible other riders called Kamen Rider Brave RPG Gamer, decked in a blue and silver suit and, Kamen Rider Snipe Shooting Gamer, that wears a green cape.
Also revealed in the toy catalogue scans are Kamen Rider Ex-Aid’s possible alternative forms as well as his bike. Like previous Kamen Rider series, it’s likely that the latest Rider will have alternate forms and it looks like Ex-Aid will be getting a pink and black form. It also seems that his bike, could either transform into a humanoid form or combine with Ex-Aid to form an armour of sorts.
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid will be the 18th rider of the Heisei period and is the 26th rider since the creation of the series in 1971. The main producer of the series will be Motoi Sasaki has worked on Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters as well as the another Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Gaim. He will be joined by head writer Yuuya Takahashi, who has worked on anime like Lupin III and Tiger & Bunny, as well as director Shojiro Nakazawa, who has worked on Super Sentai series Mirai Sentai Timeranger.
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid will premiere 2 October 2016 on TV Asahi.
