Phantom is bored. Well nothing like having other beings from a different universe react to his favorite things, would sure fill the void. He grabs a dart and throws it at a pile of names that are stuck to the wall. With names like RWBY, My Hero Academia, Spy x Family, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, and Negima, are shown like a dart board. Once the dart picked the name, the creator wondered what to react to. His mind is filled with suggestions but then hears the door ring,
"Who could it be?" He goes to the door and answers and sees a package on the doorstep, "Could be from eBay," he opens the box at the table and begins to smile, "Ha! Nice!" The box contains Kamen Rider Ex-Aid LeVel-Up Rider figures of Ex-Aid, Brave, Snipe, and Para-DX. The creator observed and played with them for the rest of the day, forgetting what he had in mind for his grand plan, "I need to get the bike and Gemn…" he muttered, then realized something and smirked, "These kids are going to be in for a treat." He left with his figures in his arms and began preparation.
Few hours later, the room is now a custom home theater with some comfy seats. The creator chuckled happily and soon snapped his fingers. And in an instant, some students entered and landed on the seats.
"What the heck happened?"
"Who brought us here?"
"Is this the work of the Emperor's Coven!?"
"Edric, is this one fo your dumb illusions?"
Phantom coughed and gained their attention, "Greetings, welcome to my personal theater. It's nice to meet you, Luz Noceda, Amity Blight, Willow Park, Gus Porter, Edric Blight, and Emira Blight,"
Luz squinted her eyes and widened them in realization, "Oh my gosh, is this one of those fanfic moments where a higher being brings us to watch something?"
Phantom shrugs in agreement, "Yep,"
"Sweet!" she quickly relaxes a bit as if nothing bad will happen,
"Uh Luz, you seemed to be have no problem with this stranger kidnapping us," Amity said,
"It's going to be alright sweet potato. He's harmless and just want to entertained us with something that he likes,"
"Is this a human thing?" Gus asked,
"More of a fanfiction thing that some people liked to see. So somewhat?" Luz answered to which made the boy nod with a smile,
"So what are we watching?" Willow asked to which has been answered by the sound of a motorcycle.
Off in the distance, comes a grasshopper theme man riding a dirty white motorcycle. The audience sees that the man has a dark green helmet with a forest color mouthpiece, there black teardrop marks under his red compound eyes and they see antennas on the helmet. Then the music plays and revealing the title:
仮面ライダー
KAMEN RIDER
Luz quickly got up in excitement, "Nice! Kamen Rider!"
"Kamen Rider?" the girl with lavender hair asked, "What's that?"
"I would explained but I think our host has the universal knowledge of the subject,"
"Indeed I do, but after this showing," Phantom said,
Semaru SHOKKAA jigoku no gundan
It showed the rider riding down a trail of a mountain, it looked very sloppy to most of the audience's eyes as it cut to the scene of the bikes' tail pipes blowing smoke.
Warera wo nerau kuroi kage
"Why does it look a bit cheap?" Edric asked,
"And old?" Emira added, but both got shushed by Luz,
"All will be answered soon,"
Sekai no heiwa wo mamoru tame
It now showed the rider now on the road with a close up to his masked face.
"Well I gotta say, I like the color of the helmet," Willow said, "The green looks nice and makes the eyes stand out,"
GO! GO! RETTSU GO! Kagayaku MASHIN!
The rider rides his mighty bike up the steps while standing up.
RAIDA… JANPU! RAIDA… KIKKU!
It now changes him riding across the brown grassy fields
Kamen RAIDAA Kamen RAIDAA
The Kamen Rider is now riding down the steps at high speed.
"These are completely random," Amity pointed out, "What is the point of this?"
"To show how cool he is," her girlfriend answered with a playful eye roll.
RAIDA… JANPU! RAIDA… KIKKU!
KAMEN RAIDAA! KAMEN RAIDAA! RAIDA! RAIDA!
The opening ends with Kamen Rider in the air, still mounted on the bike with the front raised up and then landed safely, ending with the close up of the helmet.
The creator arrived, "So what do you think?"
"It looks so cool," Gus said, "But I have some questions,"
"Say no more," Phantom answered and began explaining, "So what you witnessed is called Kamen Rider, it came from a place called Japan. It is a tokusatsu show about heroes with a transformation belt and motor vehicles. What is this specifically is the original Kamen Rider, the first one in the long line of riders in the past 50 years."
"50 years?" The plant track student said, "That's amazing!"
"So do they use illusion magic to transform?" The male sibling of the Blight trio asked,
"Well it's more science based for this rider and throughout the era he is in." Phantom explained, which makes the Boiling Isle residents interested by what he mean,
"Man it feel so nostalgic seeing the opening of the original rider," Luz said,
"So you're a fan much as you're a fan of Azure?" Amity asked with a small smile on her face,
"Heck yeah!" she exclaimed, "Before coming here, I was in the middle of watching Kamen Rider Zero-One, which was a refreshing start of the Reiwa era. I kinda wonder how they celebrated their 50th anniversary?"
Phantom sweated a bit, "Well in this time, it is 2022" which made the human girl gasped in shocked,
"So I am in spoiler territory!"
"Sorry but then again, I am sure you guys don't have Kamen Rider in Boiling Isle," to which the residents shake their heads, "Well as a treat for you, Luz. Here is what was announced for the 50th year!"
They hear the familiar sound and setting from not too long ago, and see the Kamen Rider riding towards the screen and the title card showed:
シン・仮面ライダー
Shin Kamen Rider
They see the same rider but the picture is more clear as they see the helmet is more black and green than the original, they also see the bright red muffler around his neck and he seems to be wearing a black trenchcoat.
"This seems to be different from the first one we saw," Willow said, "But it feels familiar."
They hear the opening song again but it has a different singer, yet they see the rider doing the same thing as the one did 50 years ago. But then they noticed some details from the close-up shots. While the red muffler breezes through the air, they see hair sticking out of the helmet and the front of the bike have a different front, evident by the four headlights in the form of an X shape and the logo on the bike being different from the original. And the tail pipes looked more like rockets as they saw small flames and smoke bursting out of them.
"Whoa now this something," Edric said, "How about you, Em?"
"It seems to be a reboot? Maybe? How about you, Mittens?"
"One, don't call me that. And two, I don't know. How about you, Luz?" She got no response, "Luz?" She turned her head and saw her loved one in trance as she kept her eyes on the screen.
The biggest difference is his belt, showing it has a modern redesign and the overall look of the ride itself, it feels like a modern classic yet a whole new experience that has yet to be seen.
Soon the screening ended as soon as the song ended and Phantom showed up, "So that is Shin Kamen Rider, a new film by Hideaki Anno,"
"The director of Shin Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion ?" Luz asked to which Phantom nodded, "What!?
"And Shin Ultraman,"
"WHAT!?" She gets up and grabs the creator by the collar of his red trench coat, "When it was announced?"
"In 2021, along with Kamen Rider Black Sun and an anime adaptation of Fuuto Detective," upon saying that, Luz fainted a bit but was woken up by the power of the creator, she sits back down next to Amity,
"Anything else happen in the future?"
"Well Kamen Rider Zero-One had a North American Blu-Ray release around late 2021. Not only that but they released a collection of the original 1971 Kamen Rider manga in English format. Which reminds me," with the snap of his fingers, heavy manga books landed on the laps of the visitors. The book is Kamen Rider and the Hexside students were astounded by the sheer size and weight of the book,
"When did Kamen Rider make it to North American shelves?"
"During the summer of 2020, with the efforts of Shout Factory and Team Kamen Rider, they made big plans to help deliver the series to the North American fandom. Especially with their premiere of Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Forever being streamed along with a super special awesome giveaway!"
Luz got excited, "What was the giveaway?"
"A motha freaking BeyonDriver signed by Woz!"
"Iwae!" She exclaimed, "Such an awesome prize!" She then sees the bookcase underneath the screen and squeals in glee as she sees Kamen Rider action figures displayed in cool poses.
Meanwhile her friends are finding humor to see their human friend to get excited over the sight of these toys to which they find interesting.
"It seems Luz feels right at home,"
"Yeah," the former human appreciation club president goes to the bookcase and examine the toys there, "Humans sure have some interesting toys," His attention turned to a rider with pink spiky hair with his right fist on his hip with his left fist is raised in an angle towards the sky, then to a blue knight theme rider holding a fire sword with both arms, then a navy blue and neon green soldier them rider holding a sniper rifle with both hands, and a red boxer theme rider who seemed to have some gimmick, "Cool,"
Then Phantom claps his hands to gain their attention, "So if you guess by now, we'll be watching a lot of Kamen Rider related media, but I am going to have different route than most,"
"So instead of watching one particular rider, we're going to be watching some riders at once and see other worlds that have them?" Luz guessed,
"Yes. And be prepared for when we reach some interesting worlds." Phantom said, "First, we're going to watch some of my favorite riders and possibly watch something outside of Kamen Rider."
"What's that?"
"You'll find out soon." With that said, the screen features the next series to watch as they hear a train passing by.
So I was bored and read some interesting Owl House fics. I got the idea after getting My Level-Up Rider figures from eBay the other day. Not gonna lie, I had a good deal on them. Anyway, so The Owl House premiered in 2020 and took place in the summer, so that is why Luz have no idea of Shin Kamen Rider, Saber, and Revice. Maybe around when school starts in the show, Saber premiered. So major spoilers for Luz but get her excited in the future.
