Sheet 02 · Specimen #0000054 · Film, TV & Franchises → Tokusatsu franchises · 1971 onwards
Kamen Rider
Japanese superhero franchise with transformed cyborgs on motorcycles
Rejected. It isn’t going to the Arctic.
“Fifty years of belts that shout 'Henshin', and almost all of them were sold in toy shops.”
Why Noah said no
Kamen Rider has been on Japanese TV since 1971 and sells Bandai transformation belts to children every year. It got huge through broadcast and toy shops. Fans do meme it online, but this article is franchise history with nothing about that, so it isn't internet culture.
- Rejected
- 24 Oct 2026
- Original size
- 62.3 KB
- Made by
- Wikipedia contributors
Found via Nomination on X · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamen_Rider · nominated by someone
What it is
Kamen Rider is a Japanese tokusatsu (live-action effects) TV series that started in 1971, about college students turned into cyborgs who transform using a belt to fight evil organisations. It spawned decades of sequels, films and merchandise across Asia and eventually online communities worldwide.
Why it’s internet culture
The franchise shaped how Japanese audiences understood superhero stories and transformation narratives, influencing tokusatsu culture online and establishing visual tropes (the henshin transformation, the rider kick finisher) that Japanese fans reference and remix across forums, fan art and streaming. It shows how a 1970s TV format stayed culturally alive through dedicated online fanbases rather than mainstream Western internet attention.
Kamen Rider is a Japanese TV superhero franchise running since 1971. Fans online share clips, fan art and transformation memes, but the franchise itself was built on broadcast television and Bandai toys.
What Noah read
The Kamen Rider Series (仮面ライダーシリーズ, Kamen Raidā Shirīzu) is a Japanese superhero media franchise consisting of tokusatsu television programs, films, manga, and anime, created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. Kamen Rider media usually revolves around the titular defined group of motorcycle-riding superheroes with an insect motif who fight supervillains, often known as kaijin (怪人; lit. strange person). The franchise began in 1971 with the Kamen Rider television series, which followed college student Takeshi Hongo and his quest to defeat the world-conquering Shocker organization. The original series spawned television and film sequels and launched the Second Kaiju Boom (also known as the Henshin Boom) on Japanese television during the early 1970s, impacting the superhero and action-adventure genres in Japan. Bandai owns the toy rights to Kamen Rider in Japan and other Asian regions. Bandai Namco Toys and Collectibles America, a subsidiary of Bandai, distributes Kamen Rider merchandise in North America. Series overview The entirety of the Kamen Rider franchise revolves around the exploits of the various enhanced superhumans and cyborgs bearing the title of the "Kamen Rider" (仮面ライダ…
The rest wasn’t kept.
History
Rejected
“Kamen Rider has been on Japanese TV since 1971 and sells Bandai transformation belts to children every year. It got huge through broadcast and toy shops. Fans do meme it online, but this article is franchise history with nothing about that, so it isn't internet culture.”