Kamen Rider Spotlight – Girls Night Out!

Okay, here’s the thing. I wanted to cover a female Rider, but sadly there aren’t many and usually only appear one time, usually in the movies. So you know what, fuck it, I’m gonna do them all in one go, it’s girls night out here on Kamen Rider Spotlight! And real quick, this only counts towards Riders that are predominantly female, so IXA and Birth and whatnot being used by women don’t count, and sadly Electro-Wave Human Tackle doesn’t count either, but don’t worry, I WILL cover her at some point.

FINAL VENT!

The original female Rider. Sadly, Kamen Rider Femme only appeared in the Ryuki movie “Episode: Final” and in the TV special “13 Riders”. She’s probably better known in North America as Kamen Rider Siren in the adaptation of Kamen Rider Ryuki entitled Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. In a rare instance in Tokusatsu where the English version is actually better than the Japanese, they decided to make her a full character and part of the “big three” that formed the main protagonists.

Like all Riders of that season, Femme used an Advent Deck, possessing a series of cards that gave her different abilities and equipment, and based around a Contract Monster, in her case the swan-like Blancwing. Her Advent card summoned Blancwing for an attack, the Sword Vent brings out a much more powerful sword called the Wing Slasher, the Guard Vent summons the Wing Shield, and the Final Vent allows her and Blancwing to perform the Misty Slash.

CHANGE~!

The second female Rider, Kamen Rider Larc falls into the same category as Femme, in that she originally only appeared in Kamen Rider Blade‘s movie, “Missing Ace”. However, a second Larc would appear in DiEnd‘s World in Kamen Rider Decade, giving the Rider a second chance to appear. She typically served as part of a trio with Kamen Riders Lance and Glaive.

Again like Femme, her powers come from cards. Her Change Keroberos (Red) card transforms her into Larc, and her Mighty Ray card lets her perform the Ray Bullet attack with her signature weapon, the Larc Rouser crossbow (and by the way, L’arc is French for “the bow”).

Kamen Rider Shuki only appeared in two episodes, dying in her second episode. And I can’t help but notice a pattern in that almost every single female Rider died, save for one that I’ll get to later. Heck, even Tackle died. But anyway, I digress. Shuki used a harp called the Ongekigen Kitara, since the Riders of Kamen Rider Hibiki used weapons in the form of musical instruments since the monsters they fought were weak to sound-waves. Not much else to say besides that.

Kamen Rider Amaki is actually an interesting topic, in that she wasn’t really classified as a Kamen Rider originally, just Transformed Akira. She wasn’t made a full fledged Kamen Rider until the appearance of her alternate reality self in Hibiki’s World in Kamen Rider Decade. She’s armed with the Ongekikan Reppu, a trumpet that also doubles as a blaster.

“Kiva-la ikuse!”

Despite appearances, Kamen Rider Kiva-la did not appear in Kamen Rider Kiva. Instead, she’s actually Natsumi Hikari, a girl who had nightmares of a future where Kamen Rider Decade destroys the other Riders in a massive battle, and later travelled with Decade in his  journey through the Alternate Reality Worlds as they saved each one from different disasters. During Movie War 2010, she teamed with a Kivat from Kiva’s World called Kiva-la to become Kamen Rider Kiva-la, first to stop Decade when he goes on a rampage, and second to stand alongside Decade, DiEnd, and the other Riders against Super Shocker, a massive force born of Shocker, the original enemies of Kamen Rider Ichigo. Oh, and she’s also the first Rider to not die in action, and is presumably still operating as Kiva-la along with Decade, DiEnd, and Kuuga.

Not much else to say about her except that she’s got a wicked-ass rapier called the Kiva-la Saber, which I gotta believe is a weaker version of Kiva’s Zanvat Sword. However, what makes hers a bit more easy to wield is that she doesn’t require any Fuestles to perform her finisher, the Sonic Stab. It has been guessed by fans online that she could use Kiva’s Fuestles to summon his weapons, but I dunno. Kiva-la is a lot smaller than Kivat the 3rd, and I don’t know that she can hold those in her mouth.

“Uchuu KITAAAAAAAAAA!”

The girl who fell from the sky created from SOLU, Kamen Rider Nadeshiko is the newest female Rider. Her powers are the same as Fourze’s, except that she only has compartments for the Arm-based Astroswitches. Her belt comes with her own copies of the Rocket and Radar Switches and she’s only ever seen using Rocket, but since her Driver is based off of Fourze’s, it stands to reason she can use any of the Arm-based Astroswitches he can, leading to fan art of her in his different forms being created on deviantArt and the like. Oh, and her motif is a Japanese schoolgirl… … …Nuff said. lol

So yeah, that’s all of the female Kamen Riders. Honestly, I wish there were more, and I actually kinda hope someday we see the main Rider of a season be a woman. But for now, I will give you a hint as to the identity of the next Rider in the Spotlight…

And no, it’s not Michael Jackson. lol Ja né!