Kamen Rider Spirits

A manga started in 2001, drawn by Muraeda Ken'ichi and based off of the original Showa era Kamen Rider series (well, except for BLACK/RX). Essentially an alternative version of Kamen Rider ZX, depicting everything as the original shows would have done with a A-movie budget, it revives the first ten Riders for a Crisis Crossover.

Takes place in the present day (to the extent possible). It begins with Taki Kazuya (still an FBI agent) in New York City investigating a series of grisly vampire-like murders. As it is clear he can't rely on the Riders for help (Hongo Takeshi tends to appear and disappear like the wind), he has built his own Rider Suit, homaging Skull Man and informally known as "Taki-Rider". Taki is more than man enough to take on the Mooks, but when the man behind the plot shows up... so does Hongo and his Scarf of Asskicking.

Following that, we then see the other Riders battle various monsters of the week on their own, leading up to the appearance of the evil Badan Empire and their new champion, Kamen Rider ZX. However, Badan didn't expect the seemingly amnesiac ZX to regain his memories...

This series, more than anything else, is about reminding modern readers just how awesome the original characters were, without needing a revision.

You can read the manga in english here


 * Adaptational Badass: The Riders were already very badass, but the manga took it even further by making all of them capable of performing stunts that would make Superman jealous.
 * Adaptation Expansion: What did you expect when they're making a serialized Manga out of a 45-minute TV special?
 * The manga also helps explaining the various Plot Holes in the Showa era shows, such as the unexplained return of Riderman in various reunions despite him dying in the original show.
 * Ass Pull: Lampshaded hilariously in-universe when Skyrider and Stronger show up at Badan's aerial base. Skyrider can clearly fly, but Stronger apparently just kicked his way in.
 * "How the hell did you get in here?"
 * "HOW SHOULD I KNOW!?"
 * Back Stab: TONS of them.
 * Badass: Of course!
 * Badass Army: SPIRITS. Especially Platoon 10.
 * Badass Biker: ...take a guess.
 * Badass Bookworm: Riderman by default, as he is nowhere near as powerful as the other Riders. He thus tends to fight indirectly or at a range, and above all strategically.
 * Badass Crew: When all ten riders are in the same place at the same time. It says something about them that this is very rarely necessary.
 * Badass Normal: Taki, Anri, and GanGanG especially. Later followed by SPIRITS, to a lesser level.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Sometimes the plural isn't even necessary.
 * Bloodier and Gorier: Not just Kamen Rider Amazon here. And no, it's not foam and Kool-Aid blood.
 * Car Fu: The Riders, naturally, but even Anri gets into the action by crashing a damaged helicopter into Crabroid.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Big Bad has the power to transform into any of the nine Kamen Riders and use their abilities. Where have I heard that before?
 * Dynamic Entry: many:
 * Taki crashing his bike through a church window... and then Hongo Takeshi suddenly appearing in the open door to save Taki sticks out: the "Dynamic" part is more his subsequent Henshin - in color!
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Half the Man He Used To Be: The Rider Kick now rips monsters in half. Usually followed by the traditional explosion.
 * Topped by Amazon's Super Daisetsudan, which cuts a mutated Salamander the size of a T-Rex in two. Down the middle.
 * Heel Face Turn: ZX
 * In the Name of the Moon: Stronger, usually. Subverted, in that when he does say it this time, he's visibly battered and broken, with no obvious chance of winning. And then he does.
 * Mythology Gag: Hellroid responds to a punch in the face by saying "No fear! No pain!", which is part of Kamen Rider Kuuga's theme song.
 * Rule of Drama: Some monsters have tragic backstories, and as such get to have a dramatic death scene. Others don't, and simply explode.
 * Serial Escalation: We get to see the individual Riders face off with individual members of Badan earlier on, and then start taking on veritable armies of their (revived) monsters of the week - at which point this trope kicks into high gear.
 * Time Skip: 4 months forwards shortly after ZX's first battles
 * Theme Music Power-Up: Later on in the series, when something major happens or when the starring Rider really starts throwing down, it's marked with song lyrics on-page.
 * Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: When Badan starts their invasion of Earth, they concentrate entirely on Japan; Mikage explain that this is because the island was the seat of Badan's power in the past and they're just reclaiming what's theirs.
 * Oh Crap: One MOTW has this when he realizes that a single spot on his near-impenetrable armor is weakened from repeated attacks by Riderman... as the latter slams a machine gun into the weak point and blasts away at point blank range. Turns out that impenetrable armor means the bullets can't get out = death by ricocheting bullets aplenty!
 * What Could Have Been: On his blog, the author said that he was denied permission to use Black and RX in the story, but did a few sketches of Kotaro for fun.
 * He also did a skecth of Tsukasa Kadoya as a favor to Masahiro Inoue. Who knows...
 * He also did a skecth of Tsukasa Kadoya as a favor to Masahiro Inoue. Who knows...