The Kamen Rider Whose Henshin You Still Know by Heart

Every Kamen Rider TV series has a lead rider, and almost everybody who grew up watching has one they still think of as the real one.

Fifty-five years of the franchise sit in this bracket. The Showa riders were cyborgs built by an evil organization and turned against it, with motorcycle stunts and handmade suits. The Heisei era reinvented the formula every single year: card decks, time trains, detectives sharing a body, a doctor who fights with video games. The Reiwa riders kept that habit going, and the belts got louder.

The list draws on every lead rider of a main TV series that has an official video to show for it, which is why the original 1971 show contributes two. Ichigo and Nigo both carried it. The videos come from Toei and its official partners, mostly first episodes and opening sequences.

Nostalgia is going to fight design here. The first rider you ever saw may lose to the one with the best suit, and that is the whole point.