So... I bet you're wondering "She has a weird user name, even for a trans girl."

The thing is... I'm a geek first. Yeah I lie in bed dreaming about a handsome prince sweeping me off my feet or a beautiful woman to make sweet lesbian love with... but my first passion is my geeky hobbies.

And one of the most important things to me is Tokusatsu.

"What's that?" I pretend to hear you ask...

"Tokusatsu" is the Japanese term for programs that use practical effects. It literally means "Special Photography". Much like how in Japan, all cartoons are anime, Tokusatsu to the Japanese incudles shows like Star Trek, Doctor Who, anything from Marvel or DC... fuck, even Thomas the Tank Engine before they switched to pure CGI animation in 2008. To a westerjer like myself, it tends to refer to live action super hero shows.

The most straightforward explanation is Power Rangers. As I'm sure most of you know, Power Rangers is adapted from a Japanese TV show by splicing in English speaking actors to the Japanese suits and monster footage. That show, the "Super Sentai Series" ("Sentai" meaning team or squadron) is one of the three most popular regularly airing "Toku" shows. Another is the somewhat well known "Ultraman" and the third, from the same company as Super Sentai, is Kamen Rider, which has grown to be my favorite.

One of the things that fascinates me about these shows is their longevity, mostly made by changing out the cast, story and theme every year.

Super Sentai has aired almost continuously since 1975... and it's technically the newest of the three. They're currently on their 43rd season, and have featured over 260 different characters as Rangers. (that term is acceptable as the word or part of the word ranger is often part of the team name. For example, the orginal Might Morphin Power Rangers was adapted from "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger" which translates as "Dinosaur Squadron Beastranger". just for the record, the "Zy" approximates a J sound, so the title (I'm not making this up, I swear on my father's grave and every bible you can find) is pronounced "Jew ranger"

Kamen Rider (Kamen= Masked) was created in 1971, but aired inconsistently in the 70's and 80s and didn't air at all in the 90s, but has been consistent since 2000, running in a hour long block with Sentai on Sunday mornings. It tends to follow a solo hero and mostly doesn't have mecha fights like Sentai/PR. however the fight chorography tends to be more complex and elaborate and the show tends to have a lot of twists and a much more darker tone, heck, having all the heroes survive the season is an exception, not the rule.

The original series stared Hiroshi Fujioka (who you might also know as Sega Saturn advertising mascot SEGATA SANSHRIO!) as a young man kidnapped by SHOCKER, a terrorist organization in the vein of HYDRA, to be transformed into one of their cyborg monsters. He escapes after they convert his body into a cyborg but before brainwashing him (you'd think they'd do it the other way around, but they are not that smart...) and chooses to become a hero to defend the world from Shocker's evil. the modifactions to his body allowed him to transform into a grasshopper themed suit of armor, he takes the title of Kamen Rider

This went on for twelve episodes... until Mr. Fujioka, who was doing his own stunts, accidently wrapped Kamen Rider's motorcycle around a pole and shattered his legs. He was written out of the show to recover and a new character was created, another young man kidnapped to become another rider, who also gets saved. The two are generally known as Kamen Rider 1 (Kamen Rider Ichigo) and Kamen Rider 2 (Kamen Rider Nigo), eventually, Fujioka recovered, and the two swapped in and out before becoming a full time duo, the Double Riders. After a two year run, each new season focuses on a new lead rider, who tends to carry the name of the show with one exception (the 1979 season was meant as a reboot, but was retconned into a sequel. The lead had been known as just Kamen Rider, until he was renamed SkyRider by the prior riders.)

The show has a lot or recurring elements. The Rider's powers are often from the same source as the enemy. One or more of the enemy will make a heel-face turn (if our lead rider wasn't one of them from the start) and the riders defeat the monster of the week with a super powered flying side kick ( Side kick as in a kick with the body held sideways, not as in thowing Robin or Bucky Barns at the monster of the week)

Kamen Rider has seen three western releases for general consumption. 

The first was when Hiam Saban tried his luck from making Power Rangers, creating Saban's Masked Rider from Kamen Rider Black RX. The second was much more well received, in 2009, with Kamen Rider Ryuki getting a similar treatment as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight on the CW (which actually won a daytime Emmy), the most recent is a unique case, a web original series. One of the original seasons was Kamen Rider Amazon. for the shows' 45th birthday in 2016, the production company partnered with Amazon video, creating a new show called "Kamen Rider Amazons", which is most defintly not something you want to show children.... It is currently streaming world wide on the Amazon Video service subtitled in English, as "Amazon Riders"

Here are all of the opening title sequnces for each season from 1971 to 2017

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qojsN5hf0eA

2017

Kamen Rider Build

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpmDzBhjybk

2018 Kamen Rider Zi-o (this is the only version I could find till youtube get's off their asses and fixed the search function

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NEWw3EySRs