Film / Shin Kamen Rider (2023)

"Those who change. Those who don't change. And, those who don't want to change."^note Pictured: the mask of a SHOCKER Phase Variant Batta Augment/SHOCKER Rider, with Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider's eye visible under the tear-duct lens

Kamen Rider, Takeshi Hongo, is an augmented human being. He was upgraded by SHOCKER, an all-loving secret society that pursues happiness for humanity.

Kamen Rider has pledged to fight against SHOCKER to ensure human beings stay human.

—Poster text

Shin Kamen Rider (シン・仮面ライダー), also known as Shin Masked Rider^note not to be confused with Saban's Masked Rider, is a Kamen Rider Tokusatsu film, based on the original series by Shotaro Ishinomori, and created to commemorate the franchise's 50th anniversary. The film is written and directed by Hideaki Anno; and casts Sosuke Ikematsu as Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider, Minami Hamabe as Ruriko Midorikawa, and Tasuku Emoto as Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider No. 2. Additional cast include Shinya Tsukamoto, Toru Tezuka, Nanase Nishino, Yutaka Takenouchi, Takumi Saitoh, and Mirai Moriyama.

College post-graduate and motorcyclist Takeshi Hongo's life is irreparably destroyed when the shadowy organization SHOCKER kidnaps him and surgically alters him into a grasshopper-based augmented human being. After escaping from the organization with the help of a mysterious associate, Ruriko Midorikawa, the devastated Hongo decides to fight SHOCKER and their schemes—not as the Super-Soldier mutant known as "Batta Aug", but as a protector of humanity: "Kamen Rider".

Released in Japan theaters on March 18, 2023^note following a preview in select theaters on March 17, with a PG-12 rating. The film also had a one-night engagement in five-hundred US theaters on May 31st, 2023, with a second showing on June 6th. It was released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on July 21, 2023.

The official site is available here. Videos available: 25-second "Super Special News" announcement teaser, Kamen Rider Memorial video, September 2021 Promotion Videos A & B; May 12th 2022 PV; February 10th 2023 PV; Follow-up Notice PV.

A prequel manga, Nulla in mundo pax sincera^note There is no true peace in this world: Shin Kamen Rider SHOCKER SIDE, written by Kyuuri Yamada and illustrated by Akeji Fujimura, is published in Weekly Young Jump since December 2022. The manga follows Ichiro Midorikawa as he is inducted into SHOCKER by his father, Professor Midorikawa, following his mother's death.

Additionally, SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble, a side-scrolling Chibi-style Beat 'em Up game based on the film, was released on Nintendo Switch and Steam in Japan and Southeast Asia on March 23rd, 2023.

Has no story relation to Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue, despite the name. Instead, it is part of the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, along with Rebuild of Evangelion, Shin Godzilla, and Shin Ultraman; and thus shares its "シン" title scheme with those films.

For the Heisei-era reimagining of the original Kamen Rider show, see Kamen Rider: The First and its direct sequel The Next.

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Tropes that apply to this work:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: The film is not scared to dial down the action to devote time in developing the inner turmoils of Takeshi Hongo (who is obviously trying to pick up the pieces of his life and identity following his conversion into Batta Aug/Kamen Rider) and Ruriko (for essentially being a Category Traitor to SHOCKER). This gains greater personal weight when it is revealed one of the highest-ranking Augs is her brother, and SHOCKER has essentially been her longstanding extended family, for all their flaws and villainy.
• Action Prologue: The film immediately starts with high-intensity chase music as a chase in progress is revealed: two trucks in pursuit of a pair on a motorcycle. Eventually, the chase ends in explosive fashion, followed by a Curb-Stomp Battle between the man on the bike—the "Batta Aug"—and the spider-masked man's Mooks.
• Actor Allusion: Before this film, Shinya Tsukamoto and Sosuke Ikematsu both appeared in the former's 2018 samurai film, Killing. The story saw Tsukamoto's samurai character recruit Ikemtasu's character, a ronin who had never killed anyone before. Here, Tsukamoto plays another character who recruits an innocent young man, this time with more force; and Ikemtasu's character has to deal with the weight of having just killed several mooks.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: Just like the previous reboot film duology, Kamen Rider: The First and The Next, this film combines elements of the original 1971 TV series and the manga, such as Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider No. 2 being introduced as a Shocker soldier rather than being saved from the procedure by Takeshi.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The film expands upon Takeshi Hongo's background prior to becoming Kamen Rider, an aspect that the television series never explored in depth. Before the events of the plot, Hongo witnessed his father, a policeman, die in the line of duty attempting to rescue a hostage. This, in addition to his debt to the Midorikawas and his own Character Development, is what pushes his fight against SHOCKER.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • This film's iteration of Ruriko Midorikawa is able to handle herself in a fight, demonstrating her skill with firearms when going after Koumori Aug. This, together with her semi-augmentation, is thanks to being the daughter of one of SHOCKER's major members—compared to her TV-show counterpart being an ordinary university student and a Damsel in Distress.
  • Kamen Rider's iconic mask. In the original series, the Riders' grasshopper masks were part of their transformed states. This film puts more emphasis on them as a necessary component for the Batta Augment system, as they amp up the user's natural fight-or-flight response to make them more effective in battle.
• Adaptational Context Change: While very much downplayed (especially considering the storyline remains recognizably faithful to old Kamen Rider stories penned by Shotaro Ishinomori), certain character and story elements were worked around to be more realistic and plausible in the vein of Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman—not to mention a few Mythology Gags within the Kamen Rider franchise.
  • Both Dr. Hiroshi and Ruriko Midorikawa, instead of being merely smaller functionaries of Shocker, are in fact intimately involved with SHOCKER's current machinations. Namely, the Augments and related technology are a result of Hiroshi Midorikawa's research into prana. There's also the fact that one of its highest-ranking members is in fact Ichiro Midorikawa/Chou Aug, Ruriko's brother. The Midorikawas' larger involvement in SHOCKER also seems to root from their collective attempt at coping with the premature death of the family's mother, with Dr. Hiroshi and Ruriko only turning away from it pretty recently. Ruriko, for that matter, is in fact a computational organism, one who is augmented and connected to SHOCKER's databases and technology. This in turn makes it way more plausible for the both of them to release Takeshi Hongo and aid him directly in his fight against SHOCKER, even if it ends with both of their deaths.
  • Likewise, SHOCKER is less of the Nebulous Evil Organization it was in the original series and more of a Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy, since its goals are to loosely give its Ax-Crazy high-ranking members "happiness" rather than a concentrated plan to Take Over the World. This serves to explain why said high-ranking members only ever attack Hongo one at a time instead of teaming up against him, since all of them are ultimately working for their own self-centered goals, but it also means it's virtually impossible to completely destroy the organization in one fell swoop because more Augs keep popping up everywhere. The closest thing the organization has to a Great Leader is a pair of completely-autonomous AIs that act neutrally more than anything, and the film's Big Bad is no more than yet another high-ranking member who's been scarred by his experiences like any other.
  • In the original show, Tobei Tachibana was a racing coach and Kazuya Taki was an independent FBI agent, brought by circumstance to aid Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji. That being said, it doesn't make much sense for a random civilian and an agent well outside of his legal jurisdiction to do so, especially in this film. Instead, Tobei Tachibana is a Japanese government official already investigating SHOCKER with no prior connection to Takeshi Hongo, and Jiro Taki being an agent from Japan's PSIA, giving them more plausible motivation and justification to cooperate with Hongo and Ruriko Midorikawa.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Ruriko Midorikawa, who was more often than not merely a Damsel in Distress in the early episodes of the original series and was eventually subject to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome after Hongo was Put on a Bus, plays a much larger role in this film, functionally acting as the Deuteragonist. In fact, the movie is just as much about the Midorikawa family as it is about the Kamen Riders' origins. Her disappearance is also explained; whereas the original series' Ruriko went abroad with Hongo to fight Shocker overseas, only to never appear after that, this version of Ruriko is physically killed off by K.K Aug, but has her consciousness preserved thanks to Hongo's helmet. Her Prana was later being placed in a secure location after the film's Final Battle.
  • Man Spider, Bat Man, Wasp Woman and the like were all Kaijins of the Week in the original Kamen Rider series. Here, they're executive-level members of SHOCKER, and are given considerably more divergent characterization from each other.
  • The show's battle between Kamen Rider versus Man Spider and his Shocker Combatants was basically just that. In the film, the battle between Kamen Rider and Kumo Aug establishes through dialogue what each opponent stands for, with Kumo reveling in his inhumanity as both an Aug and as a killer, and Kamen Rider's staunch rejection of such things being "good", especially not killing people.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In the original sources, Hongo and Ichimonji were mechanized Cyborgs who simply used wind power to activate their internal nuclear reactors, which triggered the transformation into their Kamen Rider forms, supplementary material even providing cross-sections◊ of their Cyborg anatomy. This film instead has them absorb and condense the Life Energy Prana found in the atmosphere through their Typhoon belts and Converter Lung chest armor, transforming them into grasshopper hybrid mutants a la Shin Kazamatsuri. This also applies to the SHOCKER Augments, who are likewise reliant on Prana to trigger their full mutations from a base human form, whereas their original kaijin counterparts were more straightforward monsters (though in the case of Kumo Aug, Koumori Aug, and the "SHOCKER Rider" Batta Augs, their transformations into mutant forms are evidently permanent already).
• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed, as Professor Midorikawa still plays the same role he did in the original series by freeing Hongo from SHOCKER's grasp. However, the prequel manga reveals that he originally joined SHOCKER out of his own free will, eventually leading to his son Ichiro joining the organization's ranks and later taking on the role of the film's Big Bad; whereas the original Professor Midorikawa was a Reluctant Mad Scientist abducted by Shocker, who additionally threatened Ruriko's life to ensure his cooperation. This changes the context of his actions in the film proper into that of a Defector from Decadence—one who cannot allow SHOCKER to continue existing, yet violated Hongo's body into a half-grasshopper mutant in order to stop SHOCKER.
• Adapted Out:
  • Because the film primarily draws upon Ishinomori's manga and the first 13 episodes of the original television series, the campier Shocker kaijin and commanders that appeared in the later episodes, such as Ambassador Hell and General Black, are totally absent.
    • However, Dr. Shinigami does appear in the prequel manga, being referred to as Dr. Ivan and alluding to the "Shinigami" title as an Appropriated Appellation from one of his enemies within SHOCKER. The mention of a "Shinigami Group" that developed K.K Aug also suggests that Dr. Shinigami himself may still have a presence as a Greater-Scope Villain during the events of the film.
    • Colonel Zol also makes an appearance in the prequel manga, being portrayed as a SHOCKER executive with neo-Nazi fantasies rather than a former military officer of the Third Reich proper, keeping with the overall Setting Update.
  • The Great Leader of Shocker himself is excised, with this film's closest equivalent, the artificial intelligence I, having no direct role in the plot despite its creation being the catalyst for SHOCKER's entire existence.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The "I" Master Computer, and all of SHOCKER by extension, was created and programmed to "bring happiness to humanity". Unfortunately, it turned out that instead of trying to improve things for people at large, it settled on gathering the least happy people it could find (most of which are various flavours of completely nuts) and giving them superpowers and resources to find their own brand of (horribly destructive) happiness, regardless of the cost. Of the operatives we see in the movie, most are simply killing and destroying for fun, two have hatched separate plans to mass-brainwash humanity, and one more is setting up an Assimilation Plot, though even he agrees SHOCKER's designs have gone spectacularly wrong and wants to rid the world of the rest of the organization in the process.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • All of SHOCKER's Augments are selected from the Organization's inducted/kidnapped by I based on the level of despair that a given candidate has experienced. With that in mind, it's not known what happened to Hayato Ichimonji to "qualify" him for SHOCKER to abduct him, then to choose to make him an Augment.
• An Aesop:
  • Striving for happiness at the expense of everything else is a foolish and destructive endeavor. Kumo Aug and Sasori Aug both derive pleasure from killing people, yet they soon meet their demise in the process because it distracts from their original purposes. Koumori Aug's plan to determine those who deserve to be happy consists of infecting all of humanity with his virus, and seeing who survives; yet his plan is ruined when he is too busy gleefully crowing about his genius. Hachi Aug justifies her mental enslavement of her town as a means of giving humans Happiness in Slavery, even though it's borne from her desire for dominance over others as her source of joy. Ichiro believes his "Habitat World" will make its inhabitants peaceful and happy by taking away their ability to lie, something that Ruriko also believed until she realized just how hellish an existence that would be. Meanwhile, Hongo, Professor Midorikawa, Ruriko, the Anti-SHOCKER Alliance, and Ichimonji (after he is liberated from SHOCKER's Mind Control) all make progress against SHOCKER because they are putting aside their personal desires in order to accomplish a shared goal to stop the Organization and protect innocent lives from their machinations. Ruriko cooperated with Midorikawa despite hating him because she knew that SHOCKER and its current plans had to be stopped. Ichimonji initially declined working with Hongo and the Anti-SHOCKER Alliance because he wanted to fight the Organization alone, but his decision to put this aversion aside and join Hongo results in Ichiro's defeat, and later in the Kamen Rider's continued crusade against SHOCKER.
    • On another note: the Augs' pursuit of happiness leaves them unfulfilled when they die. Koumori Aug's last words are him lamenting how nobody understands him, Hachi Aug dies regretful that Ruriko wasn't the one to kill her, and even Kumo and Sasori Aug end up Dying Alone because of their murder-happy hedonism.
• And I Must Scream:
  • As Kamen Rider, Hongo's mask overrides his aversion to killing by activating and amplifying his brain's fight-or-flight instinct, making him treat battle with it on as a fight for survival. The first time he does it, Hongo can only be horrified by what he did to the Low-Class Members, wondering why he couldn't stop himself. At the end of his fight against Hachi Aug, Hongo even rips the mask off his head immediately after he deliberately redirects his Rider Kick into the roof beside her, warning Hachi that he would eventually kill her if he kept it on. However, with each encounter with a SHOCKER Augment, he slowly exercises more and more restraint over this enforced instinct, being able to restrain his full power with the mask on by the time he faces off against Ichimonji.
  • Ichiro's "Habitat World" is treated this way by Ruriko, one of the project's architects. In the Habitat, human souls are stripped of their ability to lie to each other, in an attempt to curb the possibility of betrayal and senseless wrongdoing. When Ruriko learned that her project would be a Fate Worse than Death precisely because of this, she cooperated with Professor Midorikawa's defection in order to stop Ichiro from subjecting all of humanity to a hopeless dystopia.
• And the Adventure Continues: The movie ends with Ichimonji, now known as Kamen Rider No. 2+1, riding off on the Shin-Cyclone to confront the Cobra Aug alongside Hongo, whose spirit resides within the helmet. Their fight against SHOCKER is far from over, but both Ichimonji and Hongo are heartened that they have found comrades in each other.
• Arc Words:
  • The word "prana" (Prajñā, Sanskrit for "breath") is liberally invoked throughout the film. In-story, it refers to the Life Energy that SHOCKER's Augments drain out of people (sometimes even from their Mooks) in order to sustain their inhuman existence. However, the word itself roots from the Hindu and Buddhist understanding of "higher consciousness" (the one that brings genuine wisdom akin to the gods in Hinduism, or the wisdom that allows freedom into Nirvana as per the Buddha). Appropriately, SHOCKER's technology seems able to maintain and upload traces of people's consciousness within them as Virtual Ghosts. That said, only the heroes seem able to do so even after their bodies dissolve—as per Ruriko (in order to motivate Hongo and finally convince Ichiro to back down), as well as Hongo himself (who survives in the Rider-1 helmet to guide Ichimonji as he lives on).
  • Trust (信じる shinjiru). The word is used in many instances, such as when Hongo tells Ruriko that he chooses to trust his heart's desire to protect others. Additionally, when Hongo asks Ruriko to trust in his plan to defeat Hachi Aug, Ruriko instead says that she would rather trust him as a person; and Hongo outright tells Ruriko's brother Ichiro that their relationship isn't romantic, but one based on trust. Making this even more poignant is that Ruriko introduces herself to Hongo by telling him that she doesn't trust people and is only clinically viewing him as an asset, with this growing trust adding to their mutual Character Development. After reconciling with Ruriko's Virtual Ghost, Ichiro tells Hongo that he'll trust him like his sister did, succumbing to a Villainous RRoD while Hongo's consciousness lives on within the helmet alongside Ruriko.
• Art Evolution: Shin Kamen Rider updates the costumes of the Kamen Riders and the SHOCKER members.
  • Kamen Rider's design in particular remains as close to the original TV show's design as possible. The Double Riders are depicted with suit designs that are basically remasters of their original suits from the show. These ones, though retro in some aspects (such as the huge size of the helmets, compared to how much sleeker they were on the previous reboot duology), they possess some modern elements like armor on the gloves and indent-line patterns on the chest armor.
  • The design of Kumo Aug, the film's counterpart to the Man Spider kaijin, leans away from its original mutant design in favor of a suit that shares technological aspects of the Riders' designs.
  • The design of Hachi Aug shares its technological Cyborg aspects, such as the insect mask, with the Riders and the Spider-Aug. On the reverse side, Koumori Aug appears to be an ordinary human in a white suit, save for two conspicuously large bat-like ears and a bat-like face, suggesting that he shares his original-series counterpart's mutant nature.
• Artificial Human: During the Hachi Aug arc, Ruriko Midorikawa casually reveals to Takeshi that she's a "computational organism" created by SHOCKER, meaning she has the ability to use her brain and eyes to program and re-program SHOCKER software and technology. SHOCKER's use of this trope is implied to earlier in the Koumori Aug arc, with Koumori Aug's theater-lair being filled with what appears to be identical copies of Ruriko, all treated as Koumori's demonstration of his Bat Virus, including its capabilities of mind control and on-command death.
• Assimilation Plot: Echoed in Ichiro's "Habitat Plan". The gist of it is that it's a closed world that only human souls exist in and in such a habitat, humans would be unable to lie to each other. It turns out Ruriko was one of the architects of this plan next to Ichiro, when she was younger and naïve. Now, she understands the inherent wrongness of the Habitat and seeks to stop Ichiro from enacting it. Ichiro, for his part, is willing to send SHOCKER into this Habitat in order to destroy the organization.
• Automobile Opening: Promotional Videos A and B both feature Kamen Rider driving on his motorcycle, the Cyclone. Of the two, Video A is a faithful shot-for-shot recreation of the series' first opening; while Video B is a modern homage to said opening.
• Badass Longcoat: Both Rider wear one over their body armor outside of battle, with Hongo possessing an old flayed black coat, and Ichimonji wearing a new cleaner black coat. Ruriko also possesses an inconspicuous brown one, though early promotional images show her with a shiny bright-red coat with a purple turtleneck and white boots.
• Behind the Black: Just like in the TV show, characters tends to appear seemingly out of nowhere as the plot demands.
  • When Kumo Aug summons his Low-Class Member combatants on Kamen Rider, they seem to suddenly appear on either side of him in a similar shot from Episode 1, albeit without the zooms and cuts between.
  • When Hachi Aug first transforms, she also has some of the brainwashed townsfolk appear between the heroes and the elevator. Later, when Hongo spares Hachi Aug, the latter notices the Government and Intelligence Officials standing on the rim of the roof. Once they eliminate Hachi Aug, they then take the elevator.
• Being Good Sucks: Takeshi Hongo, as a rogue Augment fighting against the organization who ruined his life, suffers greatly throughout the film, perhaps moreso than his original TV show counterpart. His enforced killing ability as Kamen Rider weighs heavily on him, and the fact that other Augments such as Kumo Aug revel in killing innocent humans horrifies him. His attempts to hold his own strength back allows a Brainwashed and Crazy Ichimonji to break his leg, a Game-Breaking Injury that leaves him helpless to stop Ruriko's murder at the hands of K.K Aug.
  • Hayato Ichimonji also suffers this trope. While he takes to his new role as Kamen Rider like a duck to water, he evidently recognizes that he is only capable of destruction, not healing. After K.K Aug stabs Ruriko, Ichimonji kicks him away to spare her of a coup de grâce and eliminates him, but comes back to Hongo sobbing over the spot where Ruriko's body was. Later, Ichimonji eventually joins Hongo to fight the SHOCKER Riders and Ichiro Midorikawa/Kamen Rider No. 0, but can only watch helplessly as Hongo and Ichiro dissolve into nothing after Hongo's plan is accomplished, leaving him alone.
    Ichimonji: HONGO! [Cut to the otherwise empty throne room.] Seriously…? I'm alone again…?
• Big Bad: It's an adaptation of the original series, so it's a given SHOCKER are the main antagonists. They're the ones who forced Takeshi Hongo to become Batta Aug, and are behind the other Augments he faces after escaping and fighting the organization as Kamen Rider.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Upon joining the government-sanctioned Anti-SHOCKER Alliance, Hongo and Ruriko are constantly monitored by intelligence agents, ostensibly for the purposes of providing a means of communication that SHOCKER cannot intercept, but with the not-so-implicit threat that this is another measure for ensuring their cooperation. When freed from SHOCKER's brainwashing, Hayato Ichimonji cites this, as well as his general distrust of the government, as the primary reasons for why he refuses to join forces with Hongo, pointing out the Van in Black watching them from afar.
  • On the side of the villains, K is a Zig-Zagged version of this for SHOCKER. He observes all of SHOCKER's Augments, with the implied advantage that nobody outside of the Organization seems to notice him watching from afar. However, his observations are mostly for the sake of gathering data for I to improve SHOCKER's efforts to find happiness for humanity; and while he can occasionally report events to other SHOCKER executives, he does nothing else. He never does anything to stop Ruriko from acting against SHOCKER, and he doesn't do anything to protect her from K.K Aug's attempts to kill her out of vengeance.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ichimonji gets this twice:
  • First when Kamakiri Kamereon Augment is about to finish off the fatally-wounded Ruriko; Ichimonji, who was freed from being brainwashed, jumps in and fights (and ultimately kills) K.K Aug.
  • The second time, when Hongo heads for Ichiro's lair, he gets overwhelmed by other Batta Augs and is in danger until Ichimonji rushes in to help him.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Not so much regarding Takeshi Hongo himself, who remains an All-Loving Hero, but it applies to the other elements involved in the battle against SHOCKER. The Midorikawa family was deeply involved with SHOCKER's operations prior to their defection, Hiroshi Midorikawa himself being the mastermind behind the development of Prana technology rather than a Reluctant Mad Scientist whose sole contribution to Shocker was the creation of Kamen Rider, while Ruriko was born into the organization and is revealed to have been one of the architects of the Habitat Project, alongside her brother Ichiro. Meanwhile, the government forces that spearhead the Anti-SHOCKER Alliance bring The Men in Black to mind, handing out a few unsubtle Implied Death Threats to Hongo and Ruriko while recruiting them and keeping the two under constant surveillance. Hayato Ichimonji's distrust of the government isn't treated as being particularly unreasonable, and Hideaki Anno's proposed sequel idea involves the government creating their own AI for nefarious purposes. That said, SHOCKER is still very much a monstrous cult/terrorist organization responsible for untold amounts of death and suffering, and everyone outside of the organization—Hongo, Ruriko, Dr. Midorikawa, the government men, and Ichimonji—agrees that they have to be stopped. Hiroshi Midorikawa broke away from SHOCKER because the Organization is using his research to empower the Augs who hurt countless innocents for their own satisfaction, and Ruriko has realized that the Habitat Project she thought would being peace to mankind is in truth a realm of despair, a place that humans do not belong in.
• Bloodier and Gorier: As per its PG12 rating, the film proves to be this compared to the original TV show, the gore of which was implied through artistic workarounds.
• Body Horror: Downplayed for Kamen Rider himself, since it only applies when in his transformed state, which brings certain elements of the "other" Shin Kamen Rider to mind. When his powers are active, Hongo's physical form changes into that of a grasshopper mutant, sporting vibrant red irises, open gashes across his face, and barbs on his discolored hands, much to his initial horror. After being taught how to power down by Dr. Midorikawa and Ruriko, he is able to return to normal. The same situation seems to apply to the other Augs who primarily look like "cybernetic helmet wearing unique streetwear", such as Kumo Aug, Hachi Aug (who we actually see maskless for most of her screentime), and K.K Aug, as well as the other Grasshopper-Augs (i.e. Ichimonji/Rider 2 and the SHOCKER Riders—not to mention the Butterfly-Aug himself).
  • That said, there are Augs who seem to primarily maintain their inhuman appearances:
    • The Kumo Aug always keeps his human body covered with a red-and-black outfit and full-head mask. He also has four additional arms in his body that he can bring out, giving him a total of eight limbs to work with.
    • The Koumori Aug's nightmarish face has two noses, with the "extra" nose growing out of his forehead. The skin on his cheeks folds into lines parallel to his mouth, giving him a really creepy smile.
    • The Sasori Aug looks like a regular woman wearing fetishized gowns, but has a scorpion-pincer hand, and her organic face eerily juts out of a clearly-cybernetic head.
• Bookends: While not explicitly framed this way, the beginning and ending sections of the film involve the protagonist riding the Cyclone down a highway. Whereas the beginning features Takeshi Hongo and Ruriko Midorikawa escaping from SHOCKER, the ending has Hayato Ichimonji and Takeshi, via the latter's restored mask, riding onward to their next battle against SHOCKER.
• Camera Abuse: Kamen Rider's first "fight" against Kumo Aug's Low-Class Member soldiers has plenty of it, with geysers of blood splattering the lens each time Hongo subjects a hapless henchman to a single-stroke No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Canon Character All Along: Hongo, Ruriko, and later Ichimonji are assisted by the Anti-SHOCKER Alliance's two envoys, a government official and a member of Japan's intelligence agency, who go nameless for most of the movie. At the very end, Ichimonji practically forces them to introduce themselves, and they reveal themselves to be the film's incarnations of Tobei Tachibana and Kazuya Taki.
• Central Theme: Change.
  • Takeshi Hongo embodies the portion of the "Change" poster tagline, "Those who do not change." After the Kumo Aug and Koumori Aug cases, Takeshi's newfound Heroic Resolve remains a constant throughout the rest of the movie, even as he deals with tragedy such as failing to save Ruriko from K.K Aug. In the final battle, Takeshi yells at Ichiro that he doesn't understand people, but that he wants to—and he wants to change himself, not the world, to do that.
  • In the beginning, Ruriko doesn't trust Takeshi Hongo, because in her eyes, even with his new abilities, he isn't ready to help her fight SHOCKER. As Hongo proves to be committed to the fight in order to protect people, she starts to open up to him, and even trusts him enough to stop Hachi Aug's plans.
  • After being freed, Hayato Ichimonji admits that he's not one for teamwork. However, as he tells Hongo after saving him from the SHOCKER Riders, Hayato is willing to give liking teamwork a try.
  • The film asks the question about what happiness is and how one can attain it. The Founder of SHOCKER himself asks I and J to discover this. SHOCKER's Augs all claim to be pursuing happiness, but their actions anount to little more than indulgent hedonism that leaves them wanting when they are defeated.
• Chekhov's Gag: The Sasori Aug segment of the movie is treated in a strictly comedic light (though most certainly the black kind), with a Laughably Evil villain that doesn't accomplish anything and is unceremoniously offed without even Kamen Rider's intervention. But it later turns out the Anti-SHOCKER Alliance seized her venom reserves and used them to create Depleted Phlebotinum Shells capable of killing even the superhuman Augs.
• Combat Breakdown: The final fight starts with the Double Riders giving their all against the Big Bad, who retaliates with massive surges of prana. By the end of the fight, Ichimonji's too injured to move outside one last surprise attack, which he delivers with his head because his arms are broken, while an exhausted Hongo and Ichiro spend most of the back half of the fight slowly wrestling each other because they're too tired and too drained of prana to do anything else.
• Composite Character:
  • Hachi Aug acts as this film's counterpart to Bee Woman, even retaining the latter's plan of mass brainwashing, but her real name, Hiromi, and past friendship with Ruriko are taken from the TV show's Hiromi Nohara, who was introduced in the very first episode as Ruriko's classmate and made sporadic appearances as an ally of Kamen Rider. Her death in this film is a nod to the manga, as she died as a result of the Bat Man infecting her. Also doubles as Ascended Extra and Adaptational Villainy.
  • In addition to being a combination of Mantis Man and Shinigami Chameleon from the original series, Kamakiri Kamereon's dual nature also acts as an homage to Gel-Shocker's hybrid kaijin, which were featured in the last stretch of episodes. K.K fittingly acts as this film's final Augment antagonist before the climactic battle against the SHOCKER Riders and Ichiro Midorikawa/Kamen Rider No. 0.
• Cool Bike: Kamen Rider's Cyclone, which comes in two forms: one possessing a dirt-bike design, and the other being a sleek, geometrically-angled update to the original series' Cyclone. It even gets an updated Transformation Sequence, where it morphs from dirt-bike form to Rider-machine form like in the original series.
  • As Hongo's intended Superior Successor, Ichimonji/Batta Augment-02 has a duplicate Cyclone of his own. Each of the eleven Phase Variation Batta Augments also possesses their own individual Cyclone, leading to a spectacular display of Bike Fu during Hongo and Ichimonji's battle against them.
  • After the original Cyclones are destroyed during the final battle, Ichimonji, as Kamen Rider No. 2+1, receives a much sleeker, streamlined bike based on the New Cyclone that was introduced in the latter half of the TV series.
• Cool Helmet: Combined with Cool Mask. The visibly-fully-changed SHOCKER Augments seem to share this.
  • In addition to being part of his Iconic Outfit, the Kamen Rider helmet also doubles as a regular motorcycle helmet when the user's powers are not active. As shown with both Hongo and Ichimonji, the helmet can apparently collapse into a non-descript black motorcycle helmet and only folds out when he re-activates (together with the Cyclone Machine's transformation).
  • The same also seems to be the case with Kumo Aug, the K.K Aug (who actually suffers a Broken Faceplate in his confrontation with Ichimonji) and the Hachi Aug (who we mostly see in her human form before she transforms).
• Creator Thumbprint: While most of the September 2021 Promotion Videos focus on faithfully recreating the original series' first opening, the endings segments (where the original show would showcase the Monster of the Week) featuring the spider-like Shocker enemy are set in an industrial setting favored by Anno, with storage tanks and steel supports in the background.
  • Characterization-wise, there are even noticeable commonalities with Anno's Evangelion cast.
    • For at least the first quarter of the film, Hongo/Rider 1's state of confusion and initial reluctance to fight is a more mature take on Shinji Ikari.
    • Ruriko's relative lack of emotion (up until her When She Smiles moment and Heroic Sacrifice) are hallmarks of a Rei Ayanami Expy.
    • Hayato being outgoing and personable makes him similar to Kaworu Nagisa. Both characters request the main character to drop the -kun honorifics at some point.
• Crucified Hero Shot: When Ruriko is captured by Kumo Aug's goons, the position they hold her in looks similar to her being tied to a cross, on top of it being similar to Episode 1's shot of Professor Midorikawa being helplessly brought to the Man Spider.
  • In his first bike-mounted transformation, Kamen Rider stands up on his Cyclone at spreads his arms to the sides.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Any altercation between Kamen Rider and SHOCKER's Low-Class Members ends up as this, in especially bloody fashion. After Kumo Aug is defeated, the Low-Class Members that appear for the rest of the film don't even attempt to fight Hongo, as if SHOCKER itself is aware of how little they would accomplish against him.
  • An almost literal example in Kamen Rider's "fight" against Koumori Aug, which consists entirely of Hongo chasing the Augment on his bike before executing a Rider Kick that drives Koumori into the ground.
  • Ichiro Midorikawa, as Chou Aug/Kamen Rider No. 0, subjects Hongo and Ichimonji to one at the start of the final battle, ending with them being Blown Across the Room. Shifts towards Curb Stomp Cushion when the Double Riders get their Heroic Second Wind and Ichiro falls into the first stages of a Villainous RRoD.
• Cyberpunk: The film carries elements of the cyberpunk genre, wrapped up in the setting of present-day Japan. SHOCKER is the equivalent of a cyberpunk MegaCorp or Cult, preying on the despairing masses with promises of finding happiness. With prana, it's possible for a human being to gain superhuman power as an "Augment", but these superhuman individuals loyal to SHOCKER unfailingly degenerate into hedonistic Transhuman Treachery; Hachi Aug regularly consumes the prana of her brainwashed minions, a process that kills them, and plots to dominate ordinary humans through a global Mind-Control Device, while the likes of Kumo, Koumori, and Sasori Aug have goals that are purely homicidal or even outright genocidal. The Hero is turned into an Augment against his will, by the machinations of a traitor who has decided that SHOCKER must be destroyed. Adding to the cynical tone is the way Hongo and Ruriko, both already intent on fighting SHOCKER, are approached by mysterious government men for their aid (with Implied Death Threats to nudge them into it), Ruriko agreeing because their goals align, with all parties gaining information out of the deal. Even after the Final Battle, SHOCKER is still intact and active, while Takeshi Hongo suffers a corporeal death after stopping one of the Organization's executives.
  • Despite all of this, the film isn't completely beholden to the tropes of cyberpunk. Despite his conversion into an Augment, many of whom has cast aside their humanity, Takeshi holds onto his humanity, and chooses to stand against SHOCKER to protect others from them. The Anti-SHOCKER Alliance, despite gaining a means to terminate Augments, don't get rid of Hongo and Ruriko, honoring their agreement to protect them and continuing to depend on them for things only they can do.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Much darker than the original Kamen Rider TV series. Compared to it, Shin Kamen Rider features more doses of Body Horror, villains who are much more nuanced and an overall bleaker tone that's more in line with Ishinomori's manga instead of the TV series.
  • It is also this to the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, being the first film to get a PG12 rating in Japan for violence and character death; whereas previous entries and even the Gorn-tastic The End of Evangelion only got G ratings.
• Death by Adaptation: Both Hongo and Ruriko die in this film. It's ultimately zigzagged with both of them, as they each upload their consciousness into Hongo's helmet to escape their bodily demise, with Ruriko moving out to an undisclosed external location after the final battle while Hongo remains in the helmet.
• Deconstruction:
  • The opening chase and fights Hongo/Kamen Rider engages against SHOCKER grunts and even the Kumo Aug showcases just exactly how much of a Mook Horror Show a Super-Soldier like him can dish out, with Ludicrous Gibs and liberal splashes of blood emanating from every punch. Quite understandably, he himself is horrified at what he is capable of.
  • Ruriko warns Hongo early on to be more conservative and efficient with his fighting, since his body is now sustained entirely off of Prana, and without it he would die. We see the consequences of this twice-over in the final battle. The damage to Hongo's belt and the injuries he sustains ultimately lead to his death, but Ichiro also fails to take this lesson to heart as well; brutally beating down both Hongo and Ichimonji with excessive force and Prana usage rather than going for quick and direct kills that he eventually just runs out of gas, and is left in a similarly exhausted state as them in spite of sustaining no damage whatsoever in the fight prior.
  • In the original series, Takeshi and his allies tend to cross paths with Shocker and their plans on a per-episode basis. In this film, Hongo and Ruriko don't have up-to-date information on the current Augs' whereabouts (save for Ichiro's), but the Anti-SHOCKER Alliance is working to locate their lairs, giving the intel to the two as needed. They have already discovered the lair of Koumori Aug and possibly Sasori Aug before formally meeting Hongo and Ruriko.
• Divergent Character Evolution:
  • The differences between Kamen Rider 1 and 2 were always present, but was increased some. The two differ more starkly in belt color and design, hair style, and helmet optic lens color. Additionally, whilst the original two actors were roughly the same height, Sosuke Ikematsu being a different height than than Tasuku Emoto results in Kamen Rider 1 being shorter than Kamen Rider 2.
  • Previous iterations of the Shocker Riders have generally been Palette Swaps of the Double Riders (or in the case of the manga, identical to Rider 2 due to Ichimonji initially being among their ranks). Here◊, the SHOCKER Riders receive a more tactical appearance with a darker colour palette, while also uniformly sporting yellow mufflers a la Kamen Rider: The Next.
• Elemental Motifs: The film leans into wind motifs, especially with prana, a life force named after the Sanskrit word for "breath"—being the basis of Kamen Rider's power. Ruriko describes Hongo's body, powered by atmospheric prana, as being filled with the life of other people. He can only transform into his Batta Aug form by taking outside winds into himself. Meanwhile, Hayato Ichimonji doesn't depend on winds the same way, but he can transform into an Augment that matches Kamen Rider only with the prana that he inhales normally.
• Elite Mooks: The Phase Variation Batta Augments, AKA the SHOCKER Riders. While every other Augment fought by the heroes retains their individual personality and possesses some degree of independence, the SHOCKER Riders are eleven identical mass-produced versions of the Kamen Riders who are devoid of any individuality. They pose enough of a threat to corner Hongo/Kamen Rider 1, who was only saved by the timely intervention of Ichimonji/Kamen Rider 2.
• Evil Counterpart: Almost every SHOCKER operative the heroes encounter serves as their opposite in some way:
  • Kumo Aug is this for Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider. Kumo Aug is an assassin who enjoys his task of killing traitors since it lets him kill humans to his heart's content, while Hongo is horrified by his newly-granted power to kill so easily.
  • Koumori Aug is this for the deceased Hiroshi Midorikawa. Both are Mad Scientists, but Midorikawa wanted his research on prana to benefit humanity, while Koumori Aug mainly researched his Bat Virus in a selfish attempt to get the last laugh on Midorikawa.
  • Hachi Aug/Hiromi is one to Ruriko Midorikawa. While Ruriko is disillusioned with SHOCKER and its mission statement after discovering how harmful her own project was, Hachi Aug refuses to abandon SHOCKER mainly because it would mean abandoning her source of self-gratification. Also, while Ruriko trusts Takeshi's abilities and relies upon his physical prowess as Kamen Rider, Hachi Aug is a Dark Action Girl who drains and discards her minions—including her yellow-suited manservant—for prana.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: A lot of it early on in the film, from the Ludicrous Gibs that spurt out whenever Hongo punches or kicks a Mook to Sasori Aug's bloody rampage against government Red Shirts. Special mention also goes to Koumori Aug's death, with Hongo's Rider Kick driving him into the ground with enough force that his foot is left embedded inside Koumori's back, said foot being covered in blood and viscera when Hongo wrenches it out. This violence tapers off as the film progresses, reflecting both the Lighter and Softer approach that the series took and Hongo's growing Heroic Willpower, allowing him to hold back his mask's killer-instinct amplification.
• Fish-Eye Lens: Used early in the film with close-ups of Takeshi Hongo's new grasshopper-like Batta Aug mask, and him shutting his mask over his warped mutant face, especially during his grappling with what had been done to him by SHOCKER.
• Flashback: Given how character-centric this film is, this technique is used for both Takeshi Hongo and Ichiro Midorikawa.
  • For Takeshi, his flashbacks are mostly brief monochrome, depicting events out of order as he wrestles with what has happened to him. Most of these cuts include him killing Kumo Aug's Low-Class Members, then earlier to him getting captured by SHOCKER, then him waking up post-augmentation operation and being freed by Ruriko, then the end of the opening chase. There's also a brief flashback of a bloodied man, eventually confirmed as Takeshi's father, a police officer, on the day he died.
  • By contrast, Ichiro has one in-color Happy Flashback to his childhood with his mother, one that's framed with nostalgia and even some of Ichiro's childhood drawings surrounding his late mother's face.
• For Happiness: A really creepy version of this trope exists in SHOCKER: they are an "all-loving organization" that seeks happiness for mankind. Said happiness involves offering people who have fallen into despair a chance to be happy in SHOCKER, either as an Empty Shell of a soldier among other empty shells, and/or being physically remodeled into animal- and insect-based soldiers.
  (slogan on a SHOCKER lapel pin) If You Want To Be Happy, Be.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early in the film, there are hints that Ruriko Midorikawa isn't all that she seems. In the opening chase, she survives a steep fall after getting thrown off of Takeshi's bike. At the abandoned house, a desperate Takeshi grabs Ruriko by the arms, immediately stopping when he realizes he could crush her; but Ruriko is hardly pained by this. She later declares to Hongo that the only thing she and her father Hiroshi Midorikawa share is "a bit of genetic material". It turns out that Ruriko herself is augmented, just like the other SHOCKER Augs. The difference is, instead of being a Super-Soldier, Ruriko is a "computational organism", produced from SHOCKER's artificial womb and some of Hiroshi Midorikawa's DNA.
  • After Kumo Aug's defeat and subsequent bodily dissolution, Ruriko notes that when she and Takeshi die, their bodies will disappear this way too. Both Ruriko and Takeshi die by the end of the film, dissolving into foam.
  • Hayato Ichimonji makes an Early-Bird Cameo in Ichiro's throne room during the latter's discussion with K regarding Kumo Aug's death.
  • While Ruriko and Hongo are in a meeting with Hachi Aug/Hiromi, the Intelligence Official comments about the Anti-SHOCKER Alliance's role in the event Hongo fails, looking at a few red-tipped bullets with "SV1" engraved on the tips. It turns out that they are anti-Augment bullets created from Sasori Aug's venom, the materials seized by the Alliance during the battle between her and government forces.
  • In the tunnel sequence, one of the SHOCKER Riders comes close to pulling off Hongo's Typhoon belt. In the Final Battle, Ichiro hits Hongo's Typhoon, forcibly venting the latter's prana, contributing to his death.
  • Also in the tunnel sequence, Ichimonji/Kamen Rider No. 2 punches another SHOCKER Rider hard enough that his own arm swings loosely. In the Final Battle, Ichiro breaks both of Ichimonji's arms, taking him out of commission until Hongo gives him an opportunity to destroy Ichiro's mask with a powerful headbutt.
• Fun with Acronyms: Based on the official site's downloads page, this version of SHOCKER is an acronym that means Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling. The full name of the Organization, juxtaposed with the menacing SHOCKER acronym, reflects how warped and harmful to people they are.
• Henshin Hero: Downplayed. While Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji's augmentations still need to be activated via the switchers in their belts, this does not result in a total costume change. Instead, their protective gear is worn first to facilitate their transformation into their grasshopper mutant forms. Hence, while a "henshin" sequence technically occurs, it's "under the fabric", with the Kamen Rider costumes being actual items of clothing that can be removed in-universe, much like in Ishinomori's manga.
  • Also, the franchise's staple transformation phrase—"Henshin" (変身)—isn't used by Hongo, as it wasn't used in the original TV show until Hayato Ichimonji was introduced. Instead, three SHOCKER Augments use the phrase: Hachi Aug ("Change."), brainwashed Hayato Ichimonji ("Henshin."), and Ichiro/Chou Aug ("Hen…shin.").
• The Hero Dies: As in Ishinomori's manga, the titular character does not survive the story. However, Hongo's consciousness does survive within his helmet that it taken up by Ichimonji, making this a subversion.
• Heroic Willpower: As the film proceeds, Hongo starts to show control over his mask-enforced killing ability. By the time of their battle, Ichimonji/Batta Aug-02 notes that Hongo is able to pull back on his strength despite the mask, asking him if it's Hongo's willpower or his kindness.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Zig-Zagged and subverted. In order to protect Ruriko from being returned to SHOCKER, Hongo/Kamen Rider has to fight the brainwashed Hayato Ichimonji/Batta Aug-02. Both Hongo and Ruriko realize (separately) that Ichimonji is fighting the mind control; so Hongo tries to hold back during their duel, while Ruriko uses the data she stole from Ichiro to pariphalyze the mind control. Eventually, Ichimonji defeats Hongo, crippling his leg, but Ruriko intercepts him and pariphalyzes the brainwashing, freeing him.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: Both Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji start out as Batta Augs, with body armor and masks similar to their original counterparts...save for the red scarf. Ruriko fastens a red scarf around Hongo's neck early in the film. She does the same for Hayato Ichimonji after breaking his brainwashing.
• In Medias Res: Downplayed. The Action Prologue immediately begins with Takeshi Hongo in the middle of an intense sequence, with no context for the audience. Shortly after the title card, the film shows Hongo flashing back to his "fight" against the enemy in the prologue, then flashes back to his capture by SHOCKER's Low-Class Members, his Augmentation procedure, then his escape from said procedure thanks to Ruriko. The film largely sticks to the present from then on.
• Inhuman Eye Concealers: The "Those who change" poster, if brightened around the teardrop of the mask, shows inhuman, crimson irises and what seems to be some sort of green scaling. The very first scene of Hongo trying to discover what happened to him in the mirror reveals this is what he in fact looks like with his powers on—as does every other SHOCKER Aug.
• Insane Troll Logic: I, and by extention its AI observer agents J and K, seek to help the members of SHOCKER find their happiness. Unfortunately, they see nothing wrong with what that leads their members to, especially since those members are all different varieties of completely nuts as a result of being given this freedom at their absolute lowest. It is indirectly taken to its logical conclusion when K.K Aug fatally attacks Ruriko as revenge for his senior Kumo Aug, without considering Ruriko's importance to Ichiro Midorikawa/Chou Aug. K was the only one who knew that K.K Aug was going to go after Ruriko and Hongo, but did nothing to stop K.K because revenge was the hybrid Aug's greatest wish.
• Life Energy: Prana, the omnipresent life force that all living beings possess, discovered by Professor Hiroshi Midorikawa. Thanks to Midorikawa's research, SHOCKER was able to create Augments, superhuman mutants powered by possessing more prana than an ordinary person. Each Augment seen in the film employs and obtains prana from the world around them differently, often in ways that reflect their relationships with other people; to the point that characters such as Ruriko use prana in dialogue as a metaphor for people and relationships.
  • Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider takes in atmospheric prana—the life force generated by the lives of other people—in order to live, and he has to condense a great deal of prana to transform. Despite that, Hongo describes it as "the wind screaming in my body", especially after his helmet-amped violence against SHOCKER henchmen.
  • Koumori Aug is already permanently transformed into his mutant bat form, and he himself dismisses Midorikawa and his research of prana in favor of his own Bat Virus. This arrogance leads to his Bat Virus being ruined thanks to Ruriko's plans, and he dies wondering why no one understands him.
  • Hachi Aug transforms by directly feeding from her obedient subordinates' prana, even from her own devout lieutenant (whom she discards once he's run dry). Her understanding of human relationships is warped to the point that she only ever takes from people until they can't give anymore, and she wants Ruriko to kill her because they used to be friends.
• Light Is Not Good: SHOCKER's Mooks, the Lower-Class Members, now wear a blinding-light design mask, instead of the red and green facepaint seen in early episodes of the original series.
  • Ichiro Midorikawa wears stark white robes for most of his screen time and later sports a white scarf as Kamen Rider No. 0.
• Ludicrous Gibs: As Batta Aug/Kamen Rider, Hongo has enough punch and kick power to kill Low-Class Members with a single blow, leaving behind fine red mist and caved-in heads. Against other Augments, the level of bloody damage is far less pronounced.
• Magitek: Where supplementary material for the original show showed Kamen Rider as nuclear-powered, in this film all of SHOCKER's superhuman creations run on Prana, which is described as somewhere between Life Energy and what the human soul is made of.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Once again, following Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman, the "Shin" (シン) in the title can add different meanings to this incarnation of Kamen Rider, such as "new" (新) or "true" (真), the latter being close to Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue (真・仮面ライダー). In this case, the film is a return to the storyline that Shotaro Ishinomori had in mind for the TV series, which he told in the manga version.
    • The release of the film reveals that much like Shin Ultraman, the "Shin" can also be read as meaning "death" (死). Notably, main leads Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider 1 and Ruriko Midorikawa die—the latter at the hand of the Mantis-Chameleon Aug (but not before freeing Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider 2 from his brainwashing), the former in a Mutual Kill with Ichiro/Kamen Rider 0 due to Heroic RRoD. As a consolation, Hongo's consciousness survives in the Rider 1 helmet, allowing Hayato to wear it afterwards and become the 2-in-1 Double Rider by himself.
    • Ichimonji's costume as Kamen Rider No. 2+1 in the film's ending acts as a visual Mythology Gag to the Shin (meaning New) Ichigou/Nigou (新１号/新２号) designs from the later episodes of the TV series. This adds another interpretation of the title: Ichimonji and Hongo, who guides the former as a Virtual Ghost within the helmet, act together as a New Kamen Rider.
  • The new meaning given to SHOCKER (as detailed in Fun with Acronyms above) also casts the organization's aspersions in a more unique light, instead of merely being a global criminal organization. In particular, the tragedy of the Midorikawas (Ichiro in particular) mourning their mother means that Ichiro's view of "happiness" is essentially a pursuit of immortality. Unfortunately, that was eventually perverted into Transhuman Treachery—as evidenced by the angst of Hachi Aug, the self-preservation instinct of Koumori Aug, as well as the fanatical loyalty of the Kumo Aug and K.K Aug (not to mention Ichimonji/Rider 2 before he was freed).
  • Hayato Ichimonji's family name roughly translates to "one character" (一文字). After the film's meditation on the inseparability of the kanji characters for pain and happiness, both Ichimonji and Hongo finally find happiness through their partnership against SHOCKER, when they become Kamen Rider Number 2+1.
• Mind Screw: The film adapts some of the more surreal stylistic elements of the original TV show, particularly those from the earlier episodes. For example, when Kamen Rider confronts Kumo Aug at the dam, the latter's Mooks suddenly appear beside him via Behind the Black and Offscreen Teleportation, the sequence being an almost shot-for-shot recreation of a scene from the first episode.
• Mirror Match: The battle between Hongo/Kamen Rider and the brainwashed Ichimonji/Batta Aug-02. Both combatants are evenly matched, as they leap over the industrial zone that serves as their battleground.
• Mooks: SHOCKER's Low-Class Members, this film's counterparts to the iconic Shocker Combatants of the original television series. They're numerous, wield a variety of weapons, and possess some degree of augmentation, but are ultimately no match for Kamen Rider and treated as expendable by the higher ranking members of SHOCKER (much like in the TV show). In the prequel manga, Dr. Ivan/Shinigami explains to Dr. Midorikawa that they were drawn from loyal subordinates who agreed to "give up their body and soul", effectively making them Brainwashed and Crazy, using Midorikawa's own neuroscience technology to boot.
• Mythology Gag:
  • From promotional material:
    • Promotional Video A is a faithful recreation of the original series' first opening, with Kamen Rider's new costume and bike (featuring two different versions of each). It even uses the original theme, with a new singer. The video also ends with the film's version of the Spider Man^note not that one, Kumo Aug, retaining the tradition of Kamen Rider's first enemy being a spider mutant, which began with the original series.
    • The film's downloads page was revealed on the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider Vs Shocker, a TV movie set during the original series.
    • On February 10th, 2023, the official website made this news post on the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider's final episode.
    • The Shin Kamen Rider Chips product comes with various collectible cards portraying characters and locations from the film. Among them are pictures of the characters engaging in the "Shocker Telephone" gag, which was created during the original series' production.
  • The plot of the film reflects a number of plot elements from other Kamen Rider franchise entries (from both Showa and Heisei eras):
    • When we are first introduced to Takeshi Hongo, he tries to take off his mask and gloves before discovering his body has been transformed into a sickly-green colored grasshopper hybrid. The insectoid segmentation of his arm and the patterns of his face look eerily identical to that of the titular character of Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue. The later-revealed Kamen Rider 0 also transforms into an insect-themed mutant with his face splitting in half, not unlike Shin's Painful Transformation.
    • Hongo's fight with Ichimonji leads to Hongo's leg getting broken, requiring the newly-unbrainwashed Ichimonji to take his place in fighting the K.K-Aug, calling back to the real-life leg injury that necessitated Ichimonji's creation in the original show.
    • The film's Big Bad being ultimately revealed as Ichiro Midorikawa, another Rider-like being, is akin to Shadow Moon from Kamen Rider BLACK. Ichiro's Butterfly-Aug/Kamen Rider 0 form, for that matter, is mostly a silver-metallic body not unlike Shadow Moon's, with the only difference being the purple eye lenses and highlights instead of green. Also, Ruriko (the female lead) happens to be the sister of Kamen Rider 0, which is similar to how Kyoko (the female lead of Black) was the sister of Shadow Moon.
    • Ruriko's Virtual Ghost convincing Ichiro to stand down is shot in a very similar way to Yui finally convincing Shiro to stop the Rider War. For that matter, Hongo's physical death and his fight being taken up by Ichimonji is not unlike Ren/Kamen Rider Knight surviving Shinji/Kamen Rider Ryuki in the TV continuity, and the reverse in the 13 Riders Special.
    • The Sasori Aug's poison being used to manufacture special bullets capable of killing Augments harkens back to the Nerve-Breaking Bullets in Kamen Rider Kuuga.
    • The setting of the battle between Kamen Rider and Kumo Aug is Ogouchi Dam, where the original series' Kamen Rider and Man Spider fought in Episode 1, over fifty years ago. Many camera shots at this location in the film are one-to-one to the corresponding shots in Episode 1.
    • The conversion of Takeshi Hongo's consciousness into a Virtual Ghost in the Rider 1 helmet, which Ichimonji/Rider 2 eventually takes for himself is a more plausible-tech version of how Shotaro and Philip share the same body in Kamen Rider Double. This is also akin to the manga, in which Hongo becomes a Brain in a Jar able to communicate with Ichimonji (before eventually being placed in a new cyborg body).
    • On a design note: the logo of the Cyclone Machines was redesigned to look a bit more sinister (as they are originally SHOCKER tech in this version—with Tachibana being a government official, he plays no part in equipping the Riders). At the same time, the redesigned emblem◊ looks remarkably identical to the series logo and helmet of Kamen Rider Agito.
    • One of the front organizations for SHOCKER is named "Faust". "Faust" was also the name of the SHOCKER expy Nebulous Evil Organisation in Kamen Rider Build.
  • The film uses a few details from the original show's production. For example, the stylized manner in which characters' dead bodies would dissolve like foam was originally from the original show (first seen in Episode 1), recontextualized here as a secrecy measure for SHOCKER. The trucks that SHOCKER sends after Hongo and Ruriko during the Action Prologue are from the company Sanei Doboku (三栄土木), a real-life company that was near Kamen Rider's filming location in the 1970s; in fact, the name of the soundtrack in the chase is "3A-DB", based on the company name. The Midorikawa family photos feature two different motorcycles, a Suzuki T20 and a Honda SL350K1, each of which were the basis of the show's original and New Cyclones.
  • Regarding the Shin Japan Heroes Universe: the English version of the title is similar to the painted/written English titles of the Rebuild of Evangelion, Shin Godzilla, and Shin Ultraman. It also uses the literal English version of "Kamen Rider", "Masked Rider"; similar to how Shin Godzilla uses "Godzilla" instead of "Gojira" as a romanization.
• No Body Left Behind: The strange stylized death sequences of the Shocker kaijin and Mooks in the earlier episodes of the TV series are recreated here, but with an in-universe explanation: the bodies of dead SHOCKER personnel (at least the high-ranking members; Low-Class Members don't seem to disappear this way) dissolve into foam as part of a security measure that eliminates evidence. Ruriko and Hongo suffer the same fate, but they ultimately live on as Virtual Ghosts.
  • Occasionally, those who die this way leave certain items behind, though the film doesn't directly expound on why. Hachi Aug's black shawl is the only thing left of her after her body dissolves; Hongo's scarf is left behind despite it being on Ruriko's fatal wound, and later dissolves after Hongo's body dies; and Hongo's helmet is spared thanks to Ruriko disabling its self-destruction program.
• Our Souls Are Different: In this film, one form of prana is a person's prana sequence (alternatively, "Somatic code"), which makes up a person's soul and personality. Ichiro's powers as Chou Aug allow him to seize people's prana sequences, leaving the victims' bodies in a state of being both "alive and dead", according to Ruriko. When shown several bodies of special-forces operatives in this state, Ruriko can only advise Tachibana and Taki to have the bodies cremated; since Ichiro will not or cannot return their souls to their bodies, they may as well be dead.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: Just like the original, and keeping with the broader themes of Shotaro Ishinomori's works, the Kamen Riders fight against the very organization that gave them superhuman powers. The Art Evolution for the SHOCKER executives, some of whom incorporate more mechanical aspects such as a Cool Helmet, and the common "Augment" designation for each of them, including Hongo and Ichimonji (who are referred to as Batta Augments by SHOCKER), leads to a greater degree of synchronicity between the Kamen Riders and the film's adaptations of the original show's kaijin.
• Plot-Based Voice Cancellation: When setting up preparations for their confrontation with Ichiro/Chou Aug, Ruriko gives Takeshi's helmet a new program to secure his prana when he dies. She refers to it as...well, it's not known. The film deliberately mutes Ruriko's for that bit, but it focuses on her lips when she says it.
• Poor Communication Kills: Why K.K Aug is allowed to kill Ruriko Midorikawa despite Ichiro Midorikawa needing her for the Habitat Project (and because she's the only family he has left now). Because the Augments all operate on their own projects and roles for SHOCKER, K never steps in in the event one Augment's plans go against another's, because he has no reason to if it makes both Augments happy. While Hayato Ichimonji was (presumably) ordered to bring Ruriko to Ichiro alive while brainwashed, just as Kumo Aug and Hachi Aug before; and even K hoping in vain that the pair would return to SHOCKER; K.K Aug desired vengeance on Ruriko and Takeshi Hongo and acted on this desire, paying absolutely no heed to Ruriko's importance to Ichiro's plans. The result was Ichiro left in grief over losing family to absurdity once again, this time absurdity born of SHOCKER; as well as both Hongo and Ichimonji mourning over Ruriko in their own ways.
• Powerful and Helpless: Despite his superhuman abilities as Batta Aug/Kamen Rider, Takeshi Hongo is powerless to save Ruriko from dying to K.K Aug's knife to her back. Even Hayato Ichimonji seems to recognize that he can't really do anything to save Ruriko beyond intercepting K.K Aug and defeating him.
• Punch Parry: Hongo and Ichimonji's fight begins with one in mid-air, resulting in a Kung-Fu Sonic Boom.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Kumo Augment possesses a red-and-black jacket, much like his original mutant counterpart's red-and-black upper body.
• Red Is Heroic: Lampshaded by Ruriko, who notes that "red always looks good on a hero, not that I would know", while tying the franchise staple Scarf of Asskicking around Hongo's neck.
• Reimagining the Artifact: The Kamen Riders' masks. In the original series, these masks automatically appeared whenever Hongo and Ichimonji transformed, and the tear-duct lenses were used to incorporate their Reluctant Warrior natures into their design. In this film, the Batta masks tap into their wearers' fight-or-flight response, overriding their aversion to violence and giving them superhuman lethality.
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: Not so much in tone, which stays pretty consistent the whole movie, but the trope is in play in the film's presentation. To mirror the original show, the visuals get a lot less horror-themed after Ichimonji shows up, especially as Hongo gets more and more control over his powers. It's especially noticeable when you compare the film's two Multi-Mook Melee fights; the SHOCKER grunts at the start of the movie die in spectacular amounts of Ludicrous Gibs, while the Shocker Riders subscribe to the later-established tradition of Defeat Equals Explosion. The film ends with Ichimonji requesting a new suit and being given the more colorful look of the Double Riders' later appearances, suggesting that his future adventures will be a lot more optimistic than the grim beginnings of the legend of Kamen Rider.
• Revisiting the Roots: Similarly to Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman with their respective franchises, this movie goes back to basics in terms of the original series' tone and story. The May 12th 2022 and February 10th 2023 promotional videos convey a more thriller-like atmosphere, with the enemies being portrayed not as cartoonish villains, but ominous cybernetic/mutant threats. The protagonist, in some scenes, is seen despairing at his transformation, similar to the first three episodes of the original series.
  • The movie also pulls extensively from not only the TV series but also Ishinomori's manga, including a number of elements that could easily be mistaken for Deconstruction when in fact they're taken straight from the source. In particular, Hongo's Virtual Ghost being uploaded into his refurbished helmet used by Ichimonji references the manga storyline involving him being reduced to a Brain in a Jar who similarly spent time advising Ichimonji until they could get him a new cyborg body.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • After Hongo defeats Kumo Aug and he and Ruriko leave the scene, Ruriko mentions that she knows of five other SHOCKER Augs that they'll need to contend with. From this moment to the Hachi Aug arc, the film introduces the following Augs in this order: the Chou Aug (albeit in his Chrysalis Box to hatch), Hayato Ichimonji/Batta Aug-02, Koumori Aug, Sasori Aug, and Hachi Aug. Then a sixth Aug, the invisible K.K Aug, is introduced. His assassination of Ruriko ends up making him a Spanner in the Works because her preparations failed to take SHOCKER making more people into Augs into account.
  • The revelation that Ruriko Midorikawa is a "computational organism" who can hack SHOCKER hardware explains some uncommented-on moments from the beginning of the film to that point in the film. Specifically, it explains why Kumo Aug made to gouge out Ruriko's eyes to make sure she "can never escape again"; and how Ruriko was waving at Koumori Aug through his security cameras, with four different variations on four different camera fees all at the same time.
• Retraux: Much like Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman, certain sound effects and musical tracks are taken directly from the original 1971 Kamen Rider TV series, as well as other Shotaro Ishinomori tokusatsu shows, such as Kaiketsu Zubat. Anno also went to great lengths to match the "un-polished" camera work and live-action fight scenes from the original series, to convey the speed that Kamen Rider fights his opponents.
• Rule of Symbolism: The film periodically tends to focus on shots of Takeshi Hongo's Batta Aug helmet-mask, usually in first-person from Takeshi. Initially, it's a cold, dark-blue piece of equiptment that bypasses his aversion to violence and taps into his survival instinct. By the end, Hayato Ichimonji receives Hongo's mask, which now carries Hongo's prana inside, and has the shell repaired and repainted with a brighter color scheme. Hayato comments that his previous Batta mask was "cold and hungry" (presumably much like Hongo's in the beginning), but Hongo's mask feels "kind". The camera even uses a first-person camera view that mirrors the same earlier shots from Hongo's perspective. When he puts it on, Hayato asks, "Is this your heart, Hongo?"
• Scarf of Asskicking: The updated designs for both Kamen Riders retain their red scarves. Instead of having them from the start, Hongo and Ichimonji are given their respective scarves from Ruriko as she frees them from their brainwashing (in reference to the scarves her father and brother liked to wear before they became involved with SHOCKER), as a symbol of their defiance against SHOCKER. Both of them keep it as a Tragic Keepsake after she dies. That said, Ichiro seems to have also kept his white scarf in his Kamen Rider 0 form.
• Sequel Hook: Ichiro is defeated, but there are more SHOCKER Augs out there for Ichimonji to fight, Hongo and Ruriko are stuck in Virtual Ghost form with the latter currently being kept in government custody, and K is still quietly observing humanity. Anno revealed at an April 2023 screening that a sequel project hadn't been greenligt at the time, but that a theoretical sequel would be based off of the last chapter of Ishinomori's manga, involving Ichimonji fighting SHOCKER agents being planted in the Japanese government.
• Scars Are Forever: Subverted. As seen with Hongo, Ichimonji, Hachi Aug, and Ichiro/Chou Aug, SHOCKER's Human Augmentation procedure has given them visible facial scarring. However, these scars only emerge when they take in enough prana to transform into and maintain their Augment forms; otherwise, their faces look fairly normal.
• Shout-Out: Several towards the other tokusatsu works of Shotaro Ishinomori:
  • The lower jaw pieces of the Kamen Riders' helmets open and close with a sound effect taken directly from Kaiketsu Zubat. The same sound effect is also used when Hachi Aug and Ichiro Midorikawa don their own helmets.
  • K is a direct Expy of the titular Robot Detective, albeit subject to Adaptational Villainy as a functionary of SHOCKER. K's precursor model J shares a similar design to another Ishinomori series, Kikaider, with circuitry visible under the left side of both Kikaider and J's robotic faces.
  • In addition to taking inspiration from Shadow Moon and Kamen Rider V3, Ichiro Midorikawa also shares a butterfly motif with Inazuman, even forming similar facial marks and forehead antennae in his fully transformed Chou Augment state.
• Sigil Spam: In addition to the massive SHOCKER emblems plastered on the walls of just about every one of the organization's facilities, Kumo Aug's costume includes a column of SHOCKER insignias along his left pant leg. The same SHOCKER emblem is also placed on the back of Batta Augment/Kamen Rider's helmet, almost as a narrative reminder of his nature as a Phlebotinum Rebel. The Rider's helmet sigils change from the SHOCKER emblems to the Batta Aug/Rider "R" emblems when Hongo and Ichimonji individually solidify their Heroic Resolve to combat SHOCKER.
• Soul-Powered Engine: The superhuman Augments subsist entirely on Prana, which Ruriko outright says is the matter of the soul, making the transhumans in this movie basically powered by soul engines. Hachi Aug "refuels" herself by consuming the Prana/souls of others, while Ichiro is able to remove a human's Prana and trap it within his Habitat World.
• Spanner in the Works: K.K Aug becomes this when he fatally wounds Ruriko out of his desire for revenge. Her subsequent death screws up both Ichiro's plans (her data being necessary for the Habitat system) and her own (stopping and saving Ichiro with the Batta Aug mask). The only character to know about K.K Aug's intentions, the observer AI K, does nothing to address it simply because his role in SHOCKER is to observe and report to I, not to infringe on the Augments' desires.
• Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy: SHOCKER.
  • The Emperor: I, the AI that runs the organization.
  • The Right Hand: K, who acts as I's mouthpiece for monitoring the world.
  • The General: Ichiro Midorikawa/Kamen Rider No.0, who is the primary executive presiding over Shocker's operations.
  • The Guard: Hiromi/Hachi Augment-01, who controls an entire town through brainwashing.
  • Security Officer: Kumo Augment-01, who is in charge of hunting rogue members of the organization.
  • The Oddball: Koumori Augment-01, a leading scientist of the organization.
  • Evil Counterpart: Batta Augments-03 through 11, made with the same motif as Riders No.1 and 2.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Daizo Ishigami, who originally founded Shocker and created I and K before leaving them to run the organization after his death.
• Standard Evil Organization Squad: The Augments, or "Augs" (オーグ ōgu) for short, are senior members of SHOCKER who have been granted cybernetics or mutations based on animals and insects. Kamen Rider is also an Aug — specifically the Batta (Grasshopper) Augment — but he escaped SHOCKER's brainwashing and now stand against the organization.
• Stealth Pun: Early the movie, Ruriko points out to Hongo that the kanji character for "pain" (辛) is only one stroke away from "happiness" (幸). At the end of the movie, Hongo manages to find happiness by putting his hopes on Ichimonji, whose name is written as "one character" (一文字).
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • The Action Prologue sees Kumo Aug detonate explosives, catching his targets (the fleeing Hongo and Ruriko) and his own mooks. Kumo Aug later traps Hongo inside the abandoned shack with a timed explosive, which pulverizes the house in spectacular fashion. Despite that, Hongo and his Cyclone emerge unscathed.
  • The government's response to Sasori Aug and her plans involve blowing up her decoy trucks.
  • Late in the film, the Cyclones are revealed to have self-destruct functions; they can explode into brief black-hole-like blasts (think Interstellar or Shin Ultraman). The SHOCKER Riders attempt this on the newly-minted Double Riders, but this fails to destroy them. Later, the Double Riders pull this on Ichiro, destroying his throne, stopping his work on the Habitat and taking away his prana fast-charger.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In tandem with the Deconstruction tropes above:
  • Kamen Riders have always had punches and kicks with force measuring in tons, but punching normal humans never seemed to reflect that. Here, Kamen Rider's attacks on the Low Class SHOCKER troops (who are only minorly augmented) are realistically portrayed as instantly fatal and sending blood flying everywhere.
  • Hongo and Ruriko's relationship to Tachibana and Taki is closer to Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, such as Taki shooting Hachi Aug with an anti-Aug bullet, after both Hongo and Ruriko decide that they cannot kill her. Despite this advantage for the government, there are still things that only Hongo and Ruriko can do, such as confront a powerful Augment that can steal people's prana with ease.
  • Being an Ax-Crazy leader of a Quirky Miniboss Squad doesn't work on its own, as shown in the case of the Scorpion Aug. While she engages in wanton violence while being aided by her own group of female SHOCKER mooks, subsequent onslaughts of regular Japanese government armed troops with high-powered weapons were ultimately sufficient to bring them down. Her fatal mistake was fighting the government forces instead of fleeing, simply because she enjoyed slaughter more than she desired to live.
  • The original series' incarnation of SHOCKER is supposedly an international conspiracy and criminal enterprise formed by former Nazis. Here, despite its vast resources, SHOCKER's bases and operations (at least by the time of the film proper) ultimately seem to be located outside major cities, and it's more of a loosely organized Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy more than anything. Hence, it would make it more plausible that the moment their most advanced augments (Hongo and Ichimonji) and two of their most key members manage to break away from them, their operation would have significant threats to their sheer existence.
  • A Drama-Preserving Handicap cannot be superseded or ignored by a Heroic Second Wind, even if the person suffering the handicap is an augmented/mutant human being. Hence, the moment the then-SHOCKER-controlled Hopper-Aug 2/Ichimonji cripples Hongo/Kamen Rider 1's left leg, he's down for the rest of the fight. Only Ruriko's last-minute mental liberation of Ichimonji stops the fight—which then opens her to be stabbed in the back by the hidden Mantis Chameleon-Aug. Even if the freshly-liberated Ichimonji defeats the Mantis Chameleon-Aug, Hongo could only watch as Ruriko dies and dissolves in front of him.
  • A Refusal of the Call (or at best being Resigned to the Call) is very reasonable for someone like Hongo and Ichimonji, whose lives were ripped apart from them. Hongo seems to be driven mostly by doing right by the Midorikawas (and needed to confront his Freudian Excuse) up until his death by Heroic RRoD against Ichiro/Kamen Rider No. 0. Ichimonji, for his part, seems to prioritize the upside of his newfound strength (both during and after his brainwashing), and needed to be motivated by doing right by Ruriko's memory for saving him. Losing Hongo to his Heroic RRoD—and only after realizing that Hongo survives as a Virtual Ghost in his abandoned Rider-1 helmet—was ultimately what convinces him to carry on fighting and Riding into the Sunset.
  • In an example that mirrors Ishinomori's manga, the SHOCKER Riders outnumber and outgun Hongo, on top of having their own Cyclone duplicates; the only difference is that they have somewhat less all-around power due to being mass-produced. Thus, they credibly pin down Hongo/Kamen Rider 1 before Ichimonji/Rider 2 comes to his aid.
  • The circumstances of the Double Riders' final fight with Ichiro/Kamen Rider 0 also likely falls under here. While their augmented bodies may essentially be Super Prototypes compared to the other augments like the SHOCKER Riders, they are ultimately still of a lower class compared to Kamen Rider 0. Their combined power still ended in a very close fight with him—and it took Ichiro essentially giving up due to Ruriko's Virtual Ghost for them to win. Even then, Hongo's longer fight with SHOCKER (at least compared to Ichimonji, who was only freed at the latter half of the film) meant he was dealing with more wear and tear, which makes it more sensible that he would be the one to suffer from fatal Heroic RRoD. Again, no Heroic Second Wind saves his deteriorating body.
  • The Anti-SHOCKER Alliance has multiple connections with other departments of government, such as the PSIA (The Intelligence Official), but there are other departments who aren't part of the fold and instead act on their own regarding SHOCKER. The Alliance's raid against Sasori Aug is ultimately successful; but a separate special-ops group attempts to raid raid Chou Aug on their own without the full intel, resulting in them perishing.
• Tagline: Those who change. Those who don't change. And, those who don't want to change. ^note "変わるモノ。　変わらないモノ。　そして、　変えたくないモノ。". The kanji "変", highlighted in red, is the first kanji in "henshin" (変身).
• Tragic Keepsake: Two iconic pieces of the Riders become this.
  • The signature Scarf of Asskicking for both Riders becomes this when Ruriko is killed, a little moreso for Hongo as he was closer to her, though Ichimonji shows that he shares the same sentiment in his own way. Hongo's would dissolve with his passing, while Ichimonji seems to consider letting it go at the end but puts it back on once he resolves to continue fighting.
  • Then after it's all over, Hongo's helmet is passed on to Ichimonji, with his having been destroyed in the fight with Ichiro. Hongo's helemt bears his and Ruriko's will within and Ichimonji has it given a new paint job as he accepts his position as the new solo Kamen Rider.
• Transformation Sequence: Like in the original series, Kamen Rider's Cyclone can change form, with the white outer shell of a more mundane dirt bike configuration morphing into the updated version of the original Cyclone and gaining the Rider "R" logo on the side.
• Tron Lines: The armor of the Double Riders, the chestplate and pair of "wings" like backplate, have patterns of indent lines that resemble this trope. Perhaps to make it more in-line with current cyberpunk and technology aesthetics, while preserving the original idea and shape of the suits. These components even glow when charging up on Prana.
• Truer to the Text: While the film still draws a significant amount of influence from the original TV series, the events of the plot follow Ishinomori's manga more closely, including Hayato Ichimonji's Brainwashed and Crazy state followed by a Heel–Face Turn, the presence of eleven SHOCKER Riders who almost gun Hongo down, and the loss of Hongo's physical body. Additionally, unlike the Bowdlerised TV show, the movie is truer to the manga in terms of graphic violence, though the amount of gore largely goes down in the latter half of the film.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: Just like in the original series, Takeshi Hongo is kidnapped and converted into an Augment against his will. Zig-Zagged in that as an Augment, he's more of a mutant than a Cyborg.
• Use Your Head: When Kumo Aug has Kamen Rider restrained in the former's six arms, Kamen Rider dislodges him by jumping in the air, spinning himself around, and hitting the spider Augment with a backwards headbutt. The Final Battle against Ichiro/Kamen Rider No. 0 only ends when Ichimonji, who's had both arms broken, smash his head against Ichiro's, resulting in both Rider's helmet breaking apart.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: SHOCKER's plans for "Sustainable Happiness" revolve around their high-class members regularly deriving Prana from gratifying activities, and the Mooks live to serve them, even becoming their food if they so wish (e.g. Hachi Aug taking her subordinates' Prana to activate her Augment form).
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Subverted, with the movie starting with the newly-empowered Hongo viciously and mercilessly tearing SHOCKER's Mooks apart, only for the next scene to immediately show that Hongo is absolutely horrified by the violence he inflicted on them while under the influence of the killer instincts reinforced by his mask.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: How Ichiro Midorikawa/Chou Aug-01 kills the special forces soldiers offscreen. When the government men show Ruriko and Takeshi the bodies, they mention that the bodies have absolutely no injuries or traces of bioweaponary use upon them. Ruriko explains that Ichiro has taken their prana—their souls—and that the bodies should be considered dead.

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Tropes that apply to spin-off material:

• Crossover:
  • Promotional material featuring the Rebuild of Evangelion cast has Shinji Ikari dressed as Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider, Rei Ayanami as Ruriko Midorikawa, Kaworu Nagisa as Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider No. 2, Asuka Langley Shikinami as Hiromi/Hachi Aug, and Mari Makinami Illustrious as Ichiro Midorikawa/Kamen Rider No. 0.
  • Much like with Shin Godzilla on the Shin Japan Heroes Universe side and with Kamen Rider Den-O and Kamen Rider Fourze on the Kamen Rider side, Shin Kamen Rider got a crossover special with Crayon Shin-chan.
  • Guest Fighter Downloadable Content for SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble features the Shin Japan Heroes Universe's incarnations of Eva Unit-01, Godzilla, and Ultraman as playable characters joining the battle against SHOCKER, as well as fighting enemies from their respective worlds.
  • Kamen Rider 1 appears as a Guest Fighter in the Godzilla mobile game Godzilla Battle Line alongside the rest of the Shin Japan Heroes Universe; that game also features the MonsterVerse as well, allowing for the first crossover between Kamen Rider and King Kong.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: The game sees the defeated Augs disappear this way, as opposed to turning to foam as in the film.
• Lighter and Softer:
  • The video game SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble is a campier take to the film compared to the later episodes of the original series, with Takeshi, Hayato and Ruriko all surviving.
  • The crossover episode of Crayon Shin-chan called "Shin-Kamen Rider, you know!" is also campy and comedic with Takeshi, Hayato, and Ruriko fighting together against some cartoonish-looking Augments much akin to the original show's later tone. With this being a Shin-chan episode, the Augs are way more cartoonish (e.g. there's a Pickled-Plum Aug, a Scary-Face Aug, and a Cloud Aug that looks suspiciously like a toned-down Spider-Aug and shares a phonetically-similar name), Shin-chan and his action figure get in on the action, and the only character who actually dies is Cloud Aug (Pickled-Plum and Scary-Face were some of Shin-chan's teachers, so they were instead saved in the end).
• Mythology Gag: The video game SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble feature loading screens that call back to the original show's Eye Catch panels, with the chibi-fied Kamen Rider's motorcycle poses occasionally being accompanied with a paint background reminiscent to them. It even has a new version of the Eye Catch's musical sting! It also includes clean Anno-esque versions of old episode title cards: for example, "The Freakish Man Spider" in a painted font is changed to "Freakish Kumo Aug" in a clean (and slightly compressed) serif-equivalent font.

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