Kamen Rider’s long history in the world of Japanese superheroes has a bit of a gap. After exploding in the ‘80s, Kamen Rider largely vanished from screens outside of a few movies for nearly a decade, while its sibling superhero franchise Super Sentai resurged in popularity. That all changed with the dawn of the 21st century—and the arrival of a legendary new Kamen Rider.
Kamen Rider Kuuga marked the franchise’s return to regular TV screens in Japan in January 2000. The 10th Kamen Rider series overall but the very first of the Heisei period, Kuuga was a standalone series that revitalized and re-imagined what the character could be in the 21st century. Clearly, it worked; 22 years later, Kamen Rider is bigger than ever, and slowly but surely on the cusp of making inroads into official access to its fandoms outside of Japan. Case in point, the 2014 Kuuga manga adaptation is getting an official English release from Titan Comics at last.
For our last little sneak preview of all things Kamen Rider comics this week, io9 is excited to give you a look inside the English-language release of the first two volumes of Kamen Rider Kuuga. Written by Toshiki Inoue and drawn by Hitotsu Yokoshima, the manga adapts the 49-episode TV series with some changes, not just onboarding newcomers to the Kamen Rider franchise—much like the original show did in 2000—but also incorporates characters and worldbuilding elements from the events of Kuuga’s successor series, Kamen Rider Agito, which served as an indirect sequel.
The first two volumes of Kamen Rider Kuuga are set to hit shelves this November. Click through to see exclusive pages from the first volume, as well as a sneak peek at volume two!
