Kamen Rider Skyrider



New Kamen Rider (also known as Kamen Rider: Sky Rider) is the sixth program in the Kamen Rider franchise, airing from 1979 to 1980.

While on a camping trip, aerial photographer and hangliding enthusiast Tsukuba Hiroshi rescues Professor Shido Keitaro, who was a prisoner of Neo Shocker, a new version of the old Shocker group. Recaptured after Tsukuba helps him, Professor Shido tricks Neo Shocker into experimenting on Tsukuba, claiming that he will turn Tsukuba into a mighty warrior of evil.

Professor Shido's plan changes Tsukuba into a Kamen Rider, who manages to use his powers to escape and destroy the group who changed him. His father, a prominent scientist, and his mother are kidnapped and kept as slaves, as he attempts to rescue them and tries to have a normal life.

Produced four years after the end of Kamen Rider Stronger, the show was originally just titled Kamen Rider and intended to be a Continuity Reboot for the franchise. When this idea fell through, fans took to calling it New Kamen Rider (and later ''Sky Rider')' in order to distinguish it from the original. Similarly, the hero himself was just called "Kamen Rider" until Shigeru Jou gave him the sobriquet "Sky Rider" in Episode 21.

This series provides examples of:

 * The Ace: Stronger returns in this series making his usual flashy entrance, training Sky Rider and rescuing him several times. He stands out even more in some aspects due to the more down to Earth way that Sky Rider himself is written compared to previous Riders. Rider 2 too is in later episodes of the series, when his actor returned, would fit into this.
 * Although V3 doesn't get an impressive entrance in this series, he shines as the leader of the 8 Riders in their first team up in this show. Rider 1 takes the leadership role in the movie and in later TV episodes, but in those episodes he's generally overshadowed by Sky Rider himself and even Stronger and Rider 2, whose actors actually return, while Rider 1 was just a Fake Shemp throughout the Sky Rider's series and movie.
 * Motorcycle Fu: Sky Rider fights using his motorcycle often. The Rider Break attack his Sky Turbo can pull off is something of a series trademark.
 * Continuity Reboot: What the series started out as. It didn't take.
 * Calling Your Attacks
 * Degraded Boss: After General Monster, the first main antagonist, transformed into Yamorijin and was killed by Sky Rider, Neo-Shocker made two "second generation" Yamorijin, who fought as Mooks alongside other minor second generation kaijin and were easily destroyed by the previous Riders.
 * Development Gag: you know it's a Continuity Reboot when they name the lead character after the man who played the original Kamen Rider, Hiroshi Fujioka.
 * Fake Shemp: New Kamen Rider was the first Rider tv show since the accident with Rider 1's actor in the first series to feature the transformed Riders with different actors voicing them. The original actors appeared in some episodes, aside from Rider 1's and Amazon's, but, whenever there was a large gathering of Riders, they were all voiced by assorted voice actors of the time and never appeared untransformed, aside from two returning Riders in the final battle.
 * Heroic Wannabe: Kanji Yada puts on a suit of metallic armor and attempts to be Japan's super hero, Gan Gan G! Usually, he just gets in the way of the Riders.
 * Hero of Another Story: All the previous Riders are continuously fighting off screen against Neo Shocker's troops throughout the world, but that's only mentioned, and they're only actually shown when they visit Japan and help Sky Rider directly.
 * In the Name of The Moon: Although he had stopped giving his full introductory speech after  in his own show, Stronger's entrance speech returned in this series.
 * Legacy Character: Both the original concept of the show, with the new hero called just Kamen Rider, and later, when the previous Riders return and enthrust the mission of defending Japan to Sky Rider while they go to face Neo Shocker around the world.
 * Legion of Doom: Shocker has done it again!
 * The Man Behind the Man: The Great Leader yet again. Somehow, the one in Kamen Rider Stronger was just another fake.
 * Massive Multiplayer Crossover: What the series eventually becomes in a sense.
 * Mid Season Upgrade: Skyrider gets one.
 * Monster of the Week
 * Monster Sob Story: As a result of having the monster of the week turning against Neo Shocker. Notable ones include episode 4.
 * Nice Job Fixing It Villain: General Monster is  If the Admiral had waited ten seconds longer, the world might be run by Shocker to this day.
 * One Winged Angel: General Monster not only looks monstrous in his human form, he has a hidden form too..
 * Phlebotinum Rebel: Not only the titular Kamen Rider and some of the past Riders, some of the weekly altered humans end up turning against Neo Shocker too.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: GanGan G.
 * Also there is Tonda Kondo, a hapless reporter whose only purpose is to get scared and faint when a Monster of the Week shows up.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Shido Keitaro suddenly was said to have left for the USA in episode 14 of the show due to his actor's health problems. His replacement was originally meant to be the old recurring character Tachibana Tobei, but his actor refused to return, so a new character called Genjiro Tani was created to take a role similar to Tachibana's.
 * This trope is also where the creators got the idea of the Rider Break attack, after Skyrider's actor crashed his bike into a wall (he didn't know how to drive a motorcycle at the time).
 * Retool: What happened after (New) Kamen Rider didn't find immediate success as a reboot of the original. The heavily Colonel Zol inspired General Monster was replaced by the more original Admiral Majin and, from a show heavily based on its predecessors, but out of continuity with them, it became a follow up to the previous series, featuring the previous Riders in more than half of the episodes after Stronger's sudden return (His actual actor hadn't even returned to the show yet, resulting in Stronger sticking around during two episodes transformed all the time and with an unrelated VA. See Fake Shemp above too).
 * Retronym: The main hero was simply called "Kamen Rider" until the previous Riders appeared as guest stars, forcing him to adopt the new moniker of Sky Rider to distinguish himself from his predecessors.
 * Scarf of Asskicking
 * Shonen Upgrade: Sky Rider receives a harsh training from all seven previous Riders, gaining a power up and his more well known colors.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Genjiro Tani to Tachibana Tobei, even though Tachibana himself was never in Sky Rider. Especially obvious in some later episodes, when the Riders from previous series interact with him in a similar way to how they interacted with Tobei, in spite of not knowing him nearly as well.
 * Up Up and Away: Sky Rider's method of flying.