History.
Being completely absent from television during the 1990s, the Kamen Rider franchise was kept alive mainly by stage shows, musical CDs, and the Shin, ZO, and J movies, though many fans classify the movies as part of the Showa series as they treat Shotaro Ishinomori's passing in 1998 as the end of the Showa era (also Kamen Rider are mostly TV series, so early Heisei movies acted as extensions of Showa series). As of the film Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai, Toei has adopted and acknowledged this same classification for the 90s movies out of respect to Ishinomori and long-time fans of the franchise, making Riderman, Shin, ZO and J become Main Riders.
The Kamen Rider series was truly revived in the Heisei Era, starting with Kamen Rider Kuuga in 2000. As this was noted in Kamen Rider Decade (2009), the tenth Heisei era series which initially united the first nine Heisei series, also giving focus on the Showa period despite being 38 years since the start of the series due to Decade's position as the 25th Rider hero (The explanation would be that Decade acts as an anniversary series for the whole franchise, marked by the checkpoint of being the 10th Heisei Series).
In 2009, post-Decade installments starting with Kamen Rider W (2009-2010) and ending with Kamen Rider Zi-O (2018-2019), encompassed what fans recognize as the Heisei Era Phase 2 (often wrongly referred as Neo-Heisei Era). Toei unofficially recognizes this division of the era, since its series have a different airing period, and that its series contains the greatest amount of new trends.
The Heisei Phase 2 is specifically used to refer to the post-Decade time period, the second half of the Heisei Era, with Kamen Rider Decade having been the 10th Anniversary Heisei Kamen Rider show, and Kamen Rider Zi-O having been the 20th Anniversary Heisei Kamen Rider show.
After the Decade, and due to Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight, "Kamen Rider" became the official term for Riders while pre-Decade Riders have been called "Masked Rider" in official localization releases due to Saban's Masked Rider. Merchandise such as the S.H. Figuarts toyline, and Kamen Rider 4 gives since then the distinction.
The Heisei Phase 2 started with Decade's successor, Kamen Rider W, which premiered in September 2009 and ended in August 2010. W was followed by Kamen Rider OOO (September 2010 - August 2011), then Kamen Rider Fourze (September 2011 - August 2012), Kamen Rider Wizard (September 2012 - September 2013), Kamen Rider Gaim (October 2013 - September 2014), Kamen Rider Drive (October 2014 - September 2015), Kamen Rider Ghost (October 2015 - September 2016), Kamen Rider Ex-Aid (October 2016 - August 2017), Kamen Rider Build (September 2017 - August 2018), and finally Kamen Rider Zi-O (September 2018 - August 2019).
On April 1, 2016, the original net series Kamen Rider Amazons was aired. It marks the Heisei Era's first time since Faiz that the franchise has gone back to a darker and more adult-oriented style of storytelling, resulting in a rating of R15+. However, it is only available on Amazon Prime . A second season was released in 2017, and a movie that concludes the series was released in theaters in 2018.
A/N: It's short and brief history of kamen rider heisei, so if you like it I'll make more.
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