Kamen Rider Den-O

Kamen Rider Den-O (仮面ライダー電王 Kamen Raidā Den'ō, Masked Rider Den-O) is a Japanese tokusatsu drama in Toei Company's Kamen Rider Series. It is the eighth series in the Heisei period run and the seventeenth series overall. It ran from January 28, 2007 - January 20, 2008. It succeeded Kamen Rider Kabuto and preceded mh:terribletvshows:Kamen Rider Kiva. The predecessor being another good season. Its lead actor Takeru Satoh is the first Kamen Rider Series lead born in the Heisei period of Japanese history.

Along with the usual film adaptation that Heisei Kamen Rider series have released during the late summer of their broadcast run, Den-O had a second film released in the spring following its broadcast run which grossed 730 million yen (approximately US$6.8 million) and a series of ten OVA shorts, both of which are firsts for any Kamen Rider. Continuing the trend, Kamen Rider Den-O also had a third film released in October 2008, the first for any Kamen Rider series and the second series of 12 OVA shorts was released in November 2008. Takeru Satoh claims that the reason that Den-O has amassed such popularity is because of its comedic timing. A fourth film was released on May 1, 2009, and three more released in the summer of 2010.

Plot
Ryotaro Nogami is a young man with a lot of bad luck. One day, he finds a strange pass and things got stranger from a mysterious girl and a large time-traveling train to being possessed by an entity called an Imagin, beings from an alternate future whose kind are attempting to change the past. Though slightly confused about the nature of the crisis, Ryotaro, along with the aid of the hot-headed, violent Imagin, dubbed Momotaros, becomes Kamen Rider Den-O, traveling to different times on the DenLiner to battle the evil Imagin to prevent them from altering the past to affect the present and future. During his adventure, Ryotaro is joined by other Imagin who aid him as well; the lying, manipulating, and womanizing Urataros, the herculean (and narcoleptic) Kintaros, and the childish yet powerful Ryutaros. He later meets the mysterious Yuto Sakurai and his bumbling Imagin partner Deneb. Yuto is not only Kamen Rider Zeronos but is the younger incarnation of Ryotaro's older sister Airi's fiancé, Sakurai, who mysteriously disappeared and is tied to the mysteries involving the Imagin and a person known as the Junction Point.

Why It Time Travels

 * 1) Decent acting especially from Takeru Satoh, when portraying Ryotaro.
 * 2) Awesome theme song that gets you pumped up.
 * 3) Funny humor/running gags that don't feel forced such as Yuto beating up Deneb whenever the latter embarrass the former, Momotaros getting punched by Hana whenever he says something insensitive, and Ryotaro's bad luck.
 * 4) Every character is likable, interesting, or memorable in their own way specifically Ryotaro (as mentioned in Reason #1) and Momotaros.
 * 5) The designs of the Imagins are well done.
 * 6) The OST is awesome and nice to listen to.
 * 7) The suits are OK to look at.
 * 8) Heartwarming finale.
 * 9) It had great movies such as Kamen Rider Den-O: I'm Born!, Pretty Den-O Appears!, Saraba Kamen Rider Den-O: Final Countdown, Episode Red: Zero no Star Twinkle, Episode Blue: The Dispatched Imagin is Newtral, and Episode Yellow: Treasure de End Pirates,
 * 10) It aired alongside the well-received Juken Sentai Gekiranger.
 * 11) This was the most popular and successful entry in the franchise with 49 episodes, six movies, an anime spin-off, and numerous cameos and crossovers with other Riders many series later.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Kai's late introduction kinda messes up the story.
 * 2) The show did start the 2-Parter/Monster of the Week format.
 * 3) Some assets of the show were stolen for the sake of the awful show mh:terribletvshows:Ressha Sentai ToQger.
 * 4) While it's good, the following two seasons (mh:terribletvshows:Kamen Rider Kiva and mh:terribletvshows:Kamen Rider Decade) weren't well-received at all.

Trivia

 * Kamen Rider Den-O was originally going to get a sequel (Akin to Kamen Rider Black getting a sequel) in 2009, but it got replaced by mh:terribletvshows:Kamen Rider Decade instead.