Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider

Episodes 1-3

On a thematic level, the first two episodes of Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider are about the power of fiction. Tojima and Yuriko are both people whose lives have been shaped by their love of Kamen Rider. For Tojima, it was what allowed him to survive emotionally as a child with a father who abandoned him and a mother who worked long hours to make ends meet. For Yuriko, her love of Kamen Rider Stronger's Tackle served as both a connection to her father and the idea that women could be as powerful as men—if not more so. The two have spent their lives trying to live up to a fictional ideal—with Tojima working hard manual labor or training to fight in the mountains and Yuriko lifting weights and learning to fight (when not doing her day job as a teacher).

Simply put, while Tojima and Yuriko are extreme examples, you wouldn't be reading this review if you didn't understand them on an emotional and personal level. After all, you, the reader of this article, care enough about anime that you feel the need to engage with it beyond the shows themselves. You are driven to become a part of the discourse surrounding the work or simply learn what others thought about it, to help further your own enjoyment and understanding of both the anime and yourself.

Because of this, it's possible to both laugh at the pair and their over-the-top reactions and still cheer for them when their time finally comes—when they have a chance to fight “Shocker” for the first time. Even if they're just beating up Yakuza in ski-masks, the sense of triumph is hard to ignore. While most of us have long since given up on our childhood dreams—be that from lack of talent, changing interests, or the environment we were born into—these two have never given up. It's impossible not to empathize with them—to root for them—as they accomplish what they've been working their whole lives to achieve.

Then comes episode three, where things are effectively flipped on their head. With the reveal of an actual Shocker combatant and monster, this is no longer the story of adults “pretending” to be Kamen Rider heroes and villains. Rather, it's the story of Kamen Rider in a world without superheroes.

As far as we can tell, there are no people who have been turned into monsters like the original Kamen Rider heroes and retained their humanity. This leaves Tojima and Yuriko, two people who have trained their bodies to the human limit, to stand against Shocker. And with no one to stand in their way, Shocker has infiltrated all levels of society over the course of decades, leaving the pair with an uphill battle to say the least.

So, in the end, this is a series that asks the question: What does it mean to be Kamen Rider? Is it the powers? Do you need to be kidnapped and merged with a grasshopper or a ladybug to be one? Or, perhaps, is it the soul of a hero that's most important—the willpower to stand up against the impossible because it's the right thing to do. If it's the latter, then Tojima and Yuriko deserve the mantles of Kamen Rider and Tackle as much as any who have come before them. After all, it wasn't fate that forced Tojima and Yuriko into these roles, but their own choices and the dreams that shaped them—and that's what makes them heroes.

Episode 1 Rating:

Episode 2 Rating:

Episode 3 Rating:

Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.