Kamen Rider

Kamen Rider (仮面ライダー Kamen Raidā lit. Masked Rider) is a multimedia superhero franchise which was created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori on April 3, 1971. This series is one of Japan's enduring franchises, having existed as a staple of the country's pop culture with a still ongoing TV series and a large array of merchandise produced by Bandai.

The show's general formula revolves around different young men each season caught in the midst of a battle between an organization of evil monsters, donning a "Henshin Belt" to fight them. This is done by the protagonist either by choice or they are forced to become a Rider due to being surgically altered by the villains into serving them (which usually fails) or thrown into a war they never wanted to be in to protect the ones they love. The series is martial arts based and one of the signature finishers used to defeat the monsters is the Rider Kick, a flying kick attack that uses energy from their belts which makes the monster-of-the-week explode (though in a few cases, the monsters are not destroyed but reverted to human form or sealed away.). In later series, the Riders can change into different forms to adapt to their opponent's stats or gain new weapons and abilities. This was developed by the show's producers to increase the amount of toy sales.

Despite its toyetic nature, the series is slightly more violent than Super Sentai and geared towards middle schoolers, teens and in rare cases, young adults.