Likewise, Kazumi joins the gang having lived a life as a farmer, but whose livelihood was ravaged by the civil war, convincing him to become a Kamen Rider. Driven by a lust for power and to become the prime minister of a united Japan, the death of his father provokes him to alter his perspective and become an ally of Build as Kamen Rider Rogue. Gentoku is introduced as one of the primary villains, initially battling against Sento using the Rider-like powers of Night Rogue. Kamen Rider Build‘s angst-driven motifs come to play once more with these additional Riders. Along with Sento and Banjou Ryuga, Kamen Rider Cross-Z, who’s purpose in Evolto’s masterplan of galactic conquest has equally world-spinning ramifications, Gentoku Himuro (Kamen Rider Rogue) and Kazumi Sawatari (Kamen Rider Grease) join the fray, eventually joining together to stop Evolto once his true ambitions are revealed. Initially, Build roots itself in the traditional narrative set-up of having a duo of Kamen Riders battle the forces of evil, something that’s been a tradition since the very first series of Kamen Rider in 1971. Working in tandem with this slow-burn revelation throughout the series is the forging of other relationships with other Kamen Riders. Horrific secrets are unboxed as the amnesiac Sento’s place in Faust and the Pandora Box is revealed by the omnipotent alien destroyer, Evolto. This is the crux of the drama from which Kamen Rider Build becomes a thoroughly engrossing watch, as the relationship between Sento, the Build Rider System and Faust is cautiously revealed to us episode by episode, like a curtain being drawn slowly.
This includes the Rider System, which Sento uses as Kamen Rider Build to tackle the Smash, genetic mutations caused by Faust’s experiments. The box is opened and results in a gargantuan wall tearing into the skies of Japan and splitting the country into three separate nations, and eventually leading to a civil war.īuild wrenches forth much of its drama in how its themes of war-profiteering, fascism, gas-lighting, emotional abuse and body horror come into conflict with Sento’s mission in battling against the villainous underground organisation Faust, who wish to exploit the alien properties of the Pandora Box to construct weapons of war. The series is set 10 years after an expedition to Mars returns with the Pandora Box, an ancient item of cryptic origin. Kamen Rider Build takes place in a distorted, inharmonious world. For a show that reaches for such optimistic goals, it rests on a bed of much darker ideas. In Sento Kiryuu’s own words, the hero of the series, they’re fighting for a world of love and peace. Kamen Rider Build is a story of a rag-tag bunch of youths searching for a brand new world. These duel perspectives do much to legitimise the growth of these shows to take themselves more seriously. A long-time alumni of writing Ultraman and Kamen Rider for the past 20 years, he derided Tokusatsu shows of the 20th century as “shallow and unproductive” in a 2004 interview with Hyper Hobby. The groundwork for Build‘s central themes feels like a combination of Shogo’s perspective along with that of fellow screenwriter Keiichi Hasegawa.
Instead, Toei’s official website for Kamen Rider Build candidly revealed the logic of the series’ story in the run-up to its broadcast, saying the show would hark back to earlier, more recognisable themes of Kamen Rider, something reaffirmed by its head writer, Shogo Muto, and head director, Ryuta Tasaki. Video game and time travel-themed Riders aren’t the order of the day in Build. The 19th entry in Toei’s long-running flagship superhero drama stands at a unique point in the franchise, caught between the aesthetically jarring Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and the 20th anniversary series Kamen Rider Zi-O.