Heisei vs Showa vs Reiwa: The Kamen Rider Era Debate

Ask a room of Kamen Rider fans which era is best and you'll start an argument that's been running since the franchise itself split into eras. It's less a debate with a right answer and more three genuinely different shows sharing one name. Here's what actually separates them.

Showa (1971–1989): the formula that started it all

The original Showa-era Riders — starting with Hiroshi Fujioka as the first Kamen Rider — established the core template: a transformed motorcycle hero fighting a secret organization's monster-of-the-week, one story beat per episode, minimal season-long plotting. It's straightforward, sincere, and unmistakably a product of its decade. Fans who love Showa tend to love it precisely for that simplicity — no modern-toku irony, no multi-season mystery boxes, just a hero and a bike.

Heisei (2000–2019): the era most fans point newcomers toward

Kamen Rider went dormant in the '90s and came back with Kuuga in 2000 with a fundamentally different approach: serialized, season-long stories, morally complicated protagonists, and toy lines built to be as narratively meaningful as they are marketable. This is the era most current fans recommend starting with, and it's also where several of the franchise's most-cited "peak" seasons — Kuuga, Den-O, OOO, Gaim, Build — come from. Heisei is also where a well-documented fan pattern shows up: a run of seasons (Decade through Wizard) whose core transformation gimmicks track an ascending numerical theme. Full breakdown: the Numbers Theory.

Reiwa (2019–present): tighter concepts, faster hooks

The current era trades some of Heisei's slow-burn seriousness for cleaner, more immediately graspable concepts — Zero-One's AI ethics, Saber's storybook fantasy, Gotchard's trading-card system, ZEZTZ's dream-vs-reality premise. Reiwa seasons tend to be easier to pitch in one sentence, which makes them accessible, but some longtime fans feel the era leans harder into merchandise-driven gimmicks at the expense of the deeper serialization Heisei was known for.

So which is actually "best"?

Genuinely, it depends what you want. Showa for classic simplicity, Heisei for ambitious serialized drama, Reiwa for fast, concept-clean entry points. The healthiest way to approach the debate isn't picking a side — it's using it as a menu: whichever description above sounds most like your taste is the era worth starting in.

Related reading

Best Kamen Rider Series to Start With · The Kamen Rider Numbers Theory, Explained · Reiwa Kamen Rider: A Brief History

Written by Kakebo · Published August 19, 2026.