No.4268
Hey /m/, I'm a newcomer to Kamen Rider. Just finished W (and am now enjoying the SD OVA), and was wondering. It was my understanding that the shows up to Black RX (and I suppose the J movies) were one canon, with the Heisei era shows being a bunch of separate canons, Gaim not being in the same world as OOO, etc.
However, while absent mindedly checking the Kamen Rider Wikia, I noticed they have a timeline with all the shows happening in the same world. Now, I know not to trust a wikia out of nowhere, but it got me thinking- outside Decade, was it ever made explicit it's not all happening in the same world? Is there any reason I can't assume, as I watch W, that some 30 years before these events and Museum, there was Shocker doing their stuff?
No.4269
The Heisei era riders all seemingly take place in their own, distinct worlds. This is required for some of the seasons where the world nearly comes to an end.
Showa is a different story. Most of the Showa era riders take place in the same world, and even has riders from other seasons jumping in to help frequently.
The concept of crossovers Heisei riders is contained entirely to movies and noncanon specials. Hence the extra timeline where everything does take place in the same world, that is the movie timeline. The reason Decade works is specifically because he is world-jumping in order to gain powers.
No.4291
don't sweat it too much about the older stuff
they'll usually have last season's guys tag in the new hero, and sometimes they drop by to help punch evil, but it's pretty simple to follow even if you don't have ten pages of notes written down about it
No.4301
Kamen Rider is designed so that you can start from any series and understand what's going on. The shows are, after all, geared towards kids who aren't going to go back and watch every single previous Kamen Rider, at least not right away.The references to past Riders are to appeal to those that did watch the shows that came before.
That being said though I'm kind of disappointed not to have the option to start from the beginning without spending years learning moon, especially since we're talking about something as popular and deeply entrenched in Japanese culture as Kamen Rider. Perhaps the first Kamen Rider and Goranger are under the same curse that Great Mazinger is.
No.4468
>>4301You mean that they've aged about as well as milk left out on a summer's day?
No.4548
>>4468Showa really isn't that bad. Sure the shows have a grainy, low-res film look and the special effects might be laughable and not nearly as nice as Heisei, but underneath all that is a campy charm. Back then the individuals in charge of the Special Effects had to be creative. Techniques Eiji Tsuburaya came up with in 1954 are still being used today.
This might come as a surprise to some but I've only started watching Toku this year. I've started with Showa before moving on to Heisei. From what I've heard Babby's First Toku is usually Kamen Rider W for some reason (Hell look at the OP. I'm not sure if OP is new to toku in general or just Kamen Rider).
I can understand why many newer tokufags are averse to Showa but I personally have no problem with it. I wish fansubbers would cover the important Showa era shows despite the lack of interest. I mean fuck, there are like 4 groups subbing Drive right now. There is absolutely no need for that many groups to be subbing the same show when the first in its series isn't even fucking finished
No.4563
>>4548I think that's a good way to go about it.
One thing I've noticed about Showa is that the lack of special effects play into the presentation very well. Because they didn't have CG bananas or toy cars, they instead played up the drama and the fisticuffs in the show far more.
Which is something which I think Heisei seasons could learn from.
No.4602
No.4788
>>4548>>4563OP here, I've no problem with Showa either, or rather, old-school SF stuff. I've just been starting Kamen Rider with Heisei since there's more subs- I don't feel like going through crabsticks.
Meanwhile, I've finished Gaim too, and it's becoming more apparent why the Heisei era can't really share a universe, but at the same time it also becomes a bit annoying because I feel it'd be so easy to do- mention Shocker here, mention "the Kamen Riders are stopping the Inves invasion in their own cities" there, they pulled it off with the Kikaider crossover or the ToQger one easily, so eh
No.4799
>>4788Remember, no crossover in Heisei riders are canon. They exist in their own universes. That includes the ToQ crossover, and the Kikaider crossover. Both of those are noncanon (as shown by the fact that Ryouma puts his brain in a robot).
That said, you do have a point in that I feel they need to have more crossovers. But they paralyzed themselves from doing that by making Kamen Rider Decade, which was an attempt at one huge crossover season that really ended badly for them. So badly that they cut it short by a huge margin just so it would end sooner.
No.4805
>>4799thing is, while the ToQ one can also be easily shoved into non-canon, there's no reason to consider the Kikaider one non-canon, is there? It's actual episodes of the show, the status quo isn't affected in a way that fucks things up (Ryouma puts his brain back into his head by the end, if you'll recall), the only info added is that outside the events in this city, there's other criminal organizations and one does cyborgs. I dunno, maybe it's just me seeing how well Ultraman Mebius pulled it off and being annoyed.