Kamen Rider 555 (仮面ライダー555, Kamen Raidā Faizu, officially Masked Rider Φ's, also read Kamen Rider Faiz or Phi's) is a Japanese tokusatsu television drama. It is the 13th installment in the Kamen Rider Series. It is a joint collaboration between Ishinomori Productions and Toei, and was broadcast on TV Asahi from January 26, 2003, to January 18, 2004. This series was the first to use TV Asahi's current logo. It aired as a part of TV Asahi's 2003 Super Hero Time block, alongside Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger.
The Smart Brain corporation, the world's most powerful corporation, is trying to take over the world using Orphnoch, the "next stage in humanity's evolution", to covertly kill off the human population. In pursuit of this, they develop three suits of power armor, called Rider Gears (each for Faiz, Kaixa, and Delta), to find and protect the Orphnoch King, who can fix a defect within Orphnoch DNA which causes their genetic structure to break down, leading to death.
The Rider Gears are stolen by Hanagata, the Goat Orphnoch and former chief of Smart Brain. He sends them to his foster children (dubbed the "Ryuseiji", after the school they attended) so they can stop the Orphnoch from achieving their goal. However, Rider Gears were designed to be worn by Orphnoch, and humans are unable to activate the systems without undergoing genetic modification.
A young loner, Takumi Inui, is unwittingly drawn into the conflict between the Orphnoch and humans and becomes Kamen Rider Faiz to save the life of Mari Sonoda, one of the Ryuseiji. Smart Brain begins targeting him in an attempt to retrieve the Faiz Gear.
However, there is division amongst the Orphnoch, as those who wish to co-exist with humans rather than kill them, begin resisting the Smart Brain, who in turn targets them as well. Most of these "renegade" Orphnochs are either killed, remain neutral, or begin siding with the Ryuseiji against the Smart Brain.
When the Tokyo police discover the Orphnoch are behind a series of bizarre murders, they begin operations to defeat the creatures, largely unaware of the various factions involved. They even begin performing experiments on captured Orphnoch in an attempt to find ways of destroying them, though this does not go well.
The Orphnoch King eventually awakens within a young boy named Teruo Suzuki, whom Naoya Kaido and Keitaro Kikuchi saved and befriended. Now, it is up to the holders of the Rider Gears to band together and fight for humanity's survival.
The Kamen Rider 555 trademark was registered by Toei on October 29, 2002.[1]
The equipment used in the series to transform is referred to as Rider Gear. It was created to be worn by the Orphnoch to protect their Orphnoch King. Each Rider Gear contains a belt known as a Driver used to form armor that protects the wearer and amplifies their strengths and abilities. The armor's theme is based on a letter from the Greek alphabet, and contains the letter somehow within the aesthetic design. The Gears also have a method to input command codes, a cell phone number keypad for most, which can activate armor and various weapons. The sound effects of a dialing in any of the Rider Gear phones were later referenced in episode 17 of Kamen Rider Kabuto.
The TV series focused on three sets of Rider Gear: Faiz Gear, Kaixa Gear, and Delta Gear. During the TV series, Hanagata, the foster father of the Ryuseiji and former chief executive of Smart Brain, attempted to create several new Rider Gears, using two lost people to test out the first two. The two belts failed to create Rider armor, resulting in the wearer's deaths. When Itsuro Takuma of Lucky Clover wore the third one it disabled him for a few seconds before it dissolved. The fourth dissolved without ever being worn. The Kamen Rider 555 movie, Paradise Lost, introduced two additional sets of Rider Gear: Psyga Gear and Orga Gear.
The show featured a series of mass-produced transformation belts called Smart Buckle, which enabled the wearer to transform into a generic Riotrooper. The Riotroopers were introduced in the movie and later added at the end of the TV series.
A live stage show of Kamen Rider Faiz featured three unique riders named Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.
Each set of Rider Gear is code-locked, in addition to being only usable by Orphnoch. These codes, input through the phone of each Gear, are a set of numbers that relate to the theme of each Gear. For the Faiz Gear, the code is 5-5-5, or "fives", phonetically similar to the word Faiz. For the Kaixa Gear, the code is 9-1-3, which is read in goroawase as "Ka-I-Sa". Delta Gear's phone was voice-activated, yet nonetheless also was coded with 3-3-3, a reference to the Greek letter Delta, a triangle.
The goroawase system was also used for the Psyga Gear, where the code 3-1-5 is read as "Sa-I-Go". The Orga Gear, patterned after the Greek Omega, the final letter, is code-locked to 0-0-0.
Kamen Rider 555 the Movie: Paradise Lost (劇場版 仮面ライダー555 パラダイス・ロスト, Gekijōban Kamen Raidā Faizu Paradaisu Rosuto), was released during the run of the series, as a double feature alongside Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger Deluxe: Abare Summer Is Freezing Cold! on August 16, 2003. The film was 81 minutes long. A few new characters and Rider Gears were introduced in the film.
A trailer for Heisei Rider vs. Shōwa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai (平成ライダー対昭和ライダー 仮面ライダー大戦 feat.スーパー戦隊, Heisei Raidā Tai Shōwa Raidā Kamen Raidā Taisen Fīcharingu Sūpā Sentai) was shown in theaters with The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle. The film's website reveals that it would be released in Japanese theaters on March 29, 2014. Kohei Murakami and Kento Handa were confirmed to reprise their respective roles from Kamen Rider 555.
Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider 3 (スーパーヒーロー大戦GP 仮面ライダー3号, Supā Hīrō Taisen Guranpuri Kamen Raidā Sangō) is the 2015 entry of the "Super Hero Taisen" film series, featuring the cast of Kamen Rider Drive and the appearance of Kamen Rider 3, which was originally created by Shotaro Ishinomori for the one-shot 1972 manga Rider #3 VS. General Black (3ごうライダーたい ブラックしょうぐんのまき, Sangō Raidā Tai Burakku Shōgun no Maki). Kento Handa reprises his role in the film, which was scheduled to open in theaters on March 21, 2015,[2][3] and its sequel Kamen Rider 4 (仮面ライダー4号, Kamen Raidā Yongō), which has Mitsuru Karahashi reprising his role. In Kamen Rider 4, it reveals the truth after the end of Kamen Rider 555 TV series, especially on Takumi himself.
Kamen Rider 555: Hyper Battle Video (仮面ライダー555（ファイズ） ハイパーバトルビデオ, Kamen Raidā Faizu Haipā Batoru Bideo) features a boom box called the Faiz Sounder developed by the Smart Brain corporation appearing at the laundromat where Takumi, Mari, and Keitaro work at, causing them and everyone else to break into song and dance. The Faiz Sounder was created as a result of a contest for Televi-Kun for a new weapon for Kamen Rider Faiz.
Kamen Rider 555 20th: Paradise Regained (仮面ライダー555 20th パラダイス・リゲインド, Kamen Raidā Faizu Nijusshū'nen Paradaisu Rigeindo) is an upcoming V-Cinema release scheduled for a limited theatrical release on February 2, 2024, followed by its DVD and Blu-ray release on May 29, 2024. The events of the V-Cinema take place twenty years after the TV series. The V-Cinema is written by Toshiki Inoue and directed by Ryuta Tasaki. The theme song is "Identiφ's" performed by ISSA.[11]
The S.I.C. Hero Saga side story for 555 published in Monthly Hobby Japan magazine was titled Masked Rider 555: Lost World (MASKED RIDER 555 -ロスト・ワールド-, Kamen Raidā Faizu -Rosuto Wārudo-). It serves as a prologue to the alternate story that was 555: Paradise Lost, and features the new character Riotrooper Ver. 2 (ライオトルーパーver.2, Raiotorūpā Bājon Tsū). The story ran from October 2005 to January 2006.
A video game based on the series was produced by Bandai for the PlayStation 2. It was a fighting game that featured many of the characters from the TV series. There were several modes of gameplay for either a single play or two players. It was released only in Japan near the end of the TV series on December 18, 2003.[12]
In 2014, 555 received a three-part Blu-ray release. To promote the release, the cast reunited after 10 years, but they remarked that not much has changed, other than Yoshika Kato changing her stage name to Leilani Gaja and her new life in Hong Kong and series lead Kento Handa's recent popularity on the variety show Tamori Club where he has surprised guests with his knowledge of high-rise buildings and kayōkyoku.[13]
