2009 - Kamen Rider G - Ultimate Riders Review

Kamen Rider G (Masked Rider G) was a television special featured on Japanese boy band SMAP's television show SmaSTATION on January 31, 2009. Produced in association with Toei Company, TV Asahi, and Ishimori Productions, the special celebrated TV Asahi's 50th year being on the air as well as acting as a promotional piece for the 10th Heisei Kamen Rider Series, Kamen Rider Decade.

In addition to commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Heisei Kamen Rider Series, Kamen Rider Decade was broadcast during the 50th anniversary of TV Asahi broadcasting. In a collaboration with popular band SMAP, TV Asahi and Ishimori Productions put forward a special production for SMAP's SmaSTATION talk show titled Kamen Rider G. It was premiered on January 31, 2009. Kamen Rider G featured several actors from previous Kamen Rider programs in cameos. Kohei Murakami of Kamen Rider 555 fame played a medical experiment subject. Mitsuru Karahashi (also from 555) and Kenji Matsuda (from Hibiki and Kiva) portrayed members of the Shade terrorist cell. Kazutoshi Yokoyama and Eitoku, two suit actors commonly used by the Kamen Rider production team portrayed security guards in the TV Asahi building. Voice actor Katsumi Shiono provides vocal effects for the Phylloxera Worm, as he often does for Kamen Rider monsters. Popular TV Asahi announcer Yoko Ooshita also makes an appearance in Kamen Rider G as herself.

Publication Information

Title : Kamen Rider G
Japanese : 仮面ライダーG
Release date : January 31, 2009
Written by : Shoji Yonemura
Directed by : Naomi Tamura
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The original characters for Kamen Rider G are all wine-themed. The titular character's transformation requires a bottle of wine to be inserted into a transformation belt that acts as a wine opener, and he is armed with a sword that resembles a corkscrew as well as a sommelier knife. His Rider Kick finisher is also wine-based, as it is called the Swirling Rider Kick Decade.

Plot

Goro is a sommelier who transforms into the titular Kamen Rider G to fight the former anti-terrorism unit Shade, who captured and brainwashed him into a soldier, before the unit went underground due to the use of kidnapped people as supersoldiers. During a raid at TV Asahi led by Daidō Oda, who demands the release of their imprisoned leader, Seizan Tokugawa, Goro encounters his girlfriend Eri Hinata. She jogs his memory and he attacks his former comrades while getting Eri out of harm's way.

This makes Oda reveal his true form as the Phylloxera Worm while his subordinates transform into the Acarina Worm, the Subst Worm, the Brachypelma Worm Viridis, and the Cochlea Worm to attempt to destroy the traitor. After an extended fight across the city and countryside, G manages to defeat Phylloxera Worm thanks to the encouragement of Decade and the other primary Heisei Riders appearing before him. Running off, Goro vows to save the world from Shade before returning to Eri.

Cast