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Kamen Rider Zi-O Show Inspires Rider Time Shinobi Spinoff Net Series
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Toei announced on Sunday that Kamen Rider Zi-O, the latest installment in the Kamen Rider franchise, is getting a spinoff series titled Rider Time Shinobi. The net series will stream only within the Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club app, and it will premiere there in late March.
The show will star Hideya Tawada as Rentarō Kagura//Kamen Rider Shinobi, who is a Rider from the year 2022 in the Kamen Rider Zi-O series. Takayuki Shibasaki is directing the show, and Kaori Kaneko is writing the scripts.
The spinoff series is the second "premium drama" in a collaborative project between Video Pass and Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club (with the first being two spinoff works of Kaitō Sentai Lupinranger vs Keisatsu Sentai Patranger). The video above labels Rider Time Shinobi as a "Kamen RIder Zi-O Spinoff Part 1." Toei will announce the second spinoff work, to stream on Video Pass, on January 23 at the "Chō Eiyū Matsuri" (Super Hero Festival) event.
The new Kamen Rider Zi-O series premiered on September 2 and is based on a time-traveling theme (the series' "Zi-O" title alludes to jiō, literally "lord of time"), with the titular hero wearing the RideWatch and ZikuDriver items that allow him to transform. The new Kamen Rider Zi-O's power allows him to wear the suits of all the Heisei-era Kamen Riders and gain their power.
The story centers around a boy born in the year 2000, who has dreams of him becoming a king. In the fall of 2018, the boy meets a girl who appears before him in a time machine. The girl explains that she comes from the future year of 2068, a hopeless future where a demon king rules and people suffer. The girl further explains to the boy that his destiny will be to become "Zi-O," the same demon king that will rule over the world.
Sources: Toei Tokusatsu's YouTube channel, Eiga Natalie
