Connecting the Toeiverse

One thing that has been bounced back and forth between me and fellow T'nT'er Trevor is the theory of all of Kamen Rider Seasons happen within the same universe.

Let's be frank and up front with this, there is no official explanation of this theory and, truth be told, the Toei Executives, Marketeers, and Writers don't care enough to give a defined explanation as that would, in their own words, limit what they are able to do with their works.

So really, it's up to the fans to decide on their own what they want the continuity to be. (From now on, continuity will be referred to as "apples") One person's red apple could be that all the series could be all within their own universe and are not connected, another's red apple could be that everything is connected, while another's green apple could be that only some are connected while others are not.

But, for the purpose of this article, we'll take our Yellow Apple and try to connect what we can together using as much or little connections as we can.

So we'll start with our center of the universe, the Kamen Rider series.

One thing we do know is that every season of Kamen Rider from 1971 till 1989 (Hereby referred to as "The Showa Era") are all solidly connected through their stories. All the 11 Riders during that time have interacted at one point or another.

Now, loosely connected to the Showa Era are the seasons Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000) & Kamen Rider Agito (2001) (which are directly connected story wise), as the Arcle Belt of Kuuga & the Seed of ΑGITΩ in Agito are both "King Stones" which were also used by Kamen Rider Black & Shadowmoon of the seasons Kamen Rider BLACK (1988) & Kamen Rider BLACK RX (1989). So Kuuga & Agito are connected to The Showa Era, so to simplify things let's call this connection "The Showaverse".

But we have an issue as in-between 1989 & 2000 there were 3 movies released: "Shin Kamen Rider: Prolouge", "Kamen Rider ZO", & "Kamen Rider J". We do know that ZO & J are connected as they teamed together in a 3D Short Movie known as "Kamen Rider World". There was also a cameo appearance of the series creator, Mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori, in Shin as a scientist but he also made a cameo in Kamen Rider BLACK's movie "Hurry To Onigashima" as a fisherman, as well as a cameo in "Kamen Rider: Eight Rider vs the Galaxy King" as an Astronaut. While that is a very loose connection, in an internet special series, Toei gave an official statement that Shin, ZO, & J are apart of the Showa Era, thus placing them in our Showaverse.

So above is a rough diagram of our Showaverse as we take this all in. We have the Showa Era which spans from 1971-1989, the movies on the right from 1992-1994, and the seasons Kuuga & Agito from 2000-2001. So let's continue.

The next season of Kamen Rider is Kamen Rider Ryuki. From 2002, the season was an all out battle between 13 Riders with the winner gaining their wish of whatever they wanted. Using scanning tecnology developed by the scientist jumping through mirrors Shiro Kanzaki, the Riders had many weapons at their disposal brought to them using cards. One of the these cards used by Kamen Rider Odin was a card called "Time Vent". What this card did was revert time to before the Rider War began, to what Odin hoped was a better result of his work. What this caused was multiple timelines that were created to essentially create an infinite multi-verse. One of these timelines (The movie "Kamen Rider Ryuki: Episode Final" (Ironicly, not so final)) included cameos by characters from Kamen Rider Agito, in character. Meaning that timeline was connected to Kamen Rider Agito, thus connecting it to our Showaverse. This multiple timeline paradox also could have caused the creation of an alternet telling of the Ryuki story. Known as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. Thus this connects Dragon Knight to Ryuki which connects to our Showaverse. While not canon due to it being a dream, there was also a VHS release with the magazine "Televi-Kun" known as the Ryuki Hyper Battle Video (Abbreviated as Ryuki HBV) whjere Ryuki teamed with Agito. Not canon, but still worth a mention, making our diagram as such.

The next season of Kamen Rider is where things start to get difficult. Kamen Rider 555 (2003) has no connection at all to any fo the previous seasons, and is mostly standalone. While there is no evidence to suggest a connection, there is nothing that says it isn't connected. As in of itself, it's within itself. It's really up to the fan to decide if it's connected or not. For purposes of this article, we'll let it float away from our Showaverse and it's connections... for now.

2004's Kamen Rider Blade is also standalone-ish as there is no reference to previous seasons with the exception of a background chalkboard that had the names of an important boat in Kamen Rider Agito. They are also called "Kamen Riders", but while just a name, does not mean it is directly related but can be viewed as such. While the absolute flimsiest of connection, we can pair it up with Agito and thus the Showaverse, but very loosely.

Kamen Rider Hibiki of 2005 is another strange beast as it is not connected to our Showaverse but is connected to another Toei Show, "Henshin Ninja Arashi". Hibiki and Arashi are connected as the transformed states of both are very similar with one Oni Rider of Hibiki looking almost like Arashi. So, like 555, it's off by itself, this time with company. Making our chart now look like such.

2006's Kamen Rider Kabuto is another standalone...kinda. As it does have references to the original Kamen Rider season but does not follow up on it enough to really make it a solid connection. That and a major point of the season is that a town in Japan, known as Shibuya, was destroyed in 1999 and is still in reckage in 2006, contradicting the Showaverse as Shibuya is fine and is referenced as Shibuya. This puts it on it's own, but like Hibiki, is not alone. As a cameo by Kamen Rider The First from the movie "Kamen Rider The First" & "Kamen Rider The Next" was in an episode of Kamen Rider Kabuto and was confirmed by the producers of the season (Atsushi Kaji, Shinichirō Shirakura, & Naomi Takebe) that is was the same character. There is also a connection to 2009's TV Special "Kamen Rider G" as that special had villains that were the same as Kabuto's villain race, the "Worms". Thus to simplify, we'll call this connected universe as the Kabutoverse.

2007's Kamen Rider Den-O & 2008's Kamen Rider Kiva are directed connected with each other. As characters from both interact with each other in varying circumstances and situations. Also in Kiva there was another story being told in the time period of 1986, which has connections to Kiva's story. And while Den-O does have other connections, we have to address those later as they happen after a certain point in 2009.

Kamen Rider Decade (2009) was eventually shown to be a reincarnation of the Showa Era's Main Villain "The Great Leader" connecting it to the Showaverse as well as bringing about a certain event, the creation as well as the merging of new and old worlds. Including connecting Kamen Rider with Super Sentai, and with the 2011 season of Sentai, Gokaiger, it shows that all of Super Sentai happen within the same world. As well as Power Rangers being connected to Super Sentai with Power Rangers Dino Thunder's "Lost & Found in Translation" episode. AAAAND Power Rangers connected to 1995's "Masked Rider" & "TMNT: The Next Mutation" with more crossovers and Big Bad Beetleborgs with cameos by the comic. Bringing our convoluted connected Toeiverse as such

So now we have this huge bubble that encompasses a lot of different shows unified into one universe by the work of Decade. Meaning that all shows that were separate now overlayed onto each other and all happened within the same universe.

2009-2010's Kamen Rider W, while not having much connections to the previous series is considered the new start of this unified Riderverse, a new story told after all past separate histories were now unified into one. W also debuted by helping the previous Riders beat Shadowmoon

2010-2011's Kamen Rider OOO has a couple of connections as the main cast interacted with the Den-O Cast and brought in 3 series into the continuity of the Riderverse: Kikaider (& Kikaider 01), Inazuman (& Inazuman Flash), & Kaiketsu Zubatt. In the same movie they also interacted with characters from 1971's Kamen Rider. There was also a crossover with a Toei Period Drama "Abarenbo Shogun"'s Main Character Tokugawa Yoshimune. This crossover essentially renamed this new universe the Toeiverse to encompass any and all interaction of the Toei produced characters and crossovers. There is also a slight connection between Kamen Rider OOO's Main Character Eiji Hino having the same family name and a father in political power as Sailor Moon's Rei Hino (Sailor Mars), which one could skew into saying that Rei & Eiji are Brother & Sister. There is also the fact that the Kamen Rider OOO Forms "TaJaDor", "ShaUTa", & "BuraKaWani" are very remicent of Toei's "Chojin Bibyun", "Chojin Zushiin", & "Chojin Bashaan" respectively. The "Chojin 3" were directly connected to the Toei show, "Akumaizer 3" (An Alien version of the 3 Musketeers).

With the current season of Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Fourze, the producers have stated that in this new universe where everything is connected, the explanation of how it all happened despite some inconsistencies, is that all previous seasons now occurred in different cities and are labeled as Urban Myths. While we haven't seen much mention besides a montage of previous Riders fighting in YouTube videos shown on an iPad. As well as Fourze appearing the same movie with OOO & Tokugawa. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here.

There are also some small non-impactful connections to other series including Japanese Spider-Man with Kamen Rider V3 & Battle Fever J. Which I'm sure if you played Six Degrees, you could connect Spider-Man or TMNT to St. Elsewhere thus making the entire Toeiverse the figment of a little boy's imagination. There was also Kamen Rider #1 who teamed up with Ultraman who teamed up with Yugenjikko Sisters Chouchoutrian. Also the fact that Kamen Rider is connected to Shotaro Ishinomori's "Skull Man" which is connected to the expanded "Ishinomoriverse" which include shows like Cyborg 009, Robot Detective K, & Space Ironmen Kyodain (As well as the aforementioned Kikaider, Arashi, Super Sentai, & Kikaider).

In the future they might add some more shows, but I think this point is a good one to stop on. Rumors are that Toei is going to include it's abandoned "Metal Hero" Series into a Sentai movie, but we'll see what happens.

In conclusion, I hope you enjoyed this explanation, and I hope your brain is still intact.