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Kamen Rider Franchise Gets 1st Stage Play

Nelke Planning announced on Wednesday that it is producing the first stage play adaptation for the Kamen Rider franchise. The play, titled Kamen Rider Zangetsu, will run in Tokyo and Kyoto in March.

The play will focus on the character Kamen Rider Zangetsu from Kamen Rider Gaim, the 15th series in the franchise that premiered in 2013. Yūki Kubota (seen above) will reprise his role as Kamen Rider Zangetsu from the live-action television series.

Nobuhiro Mōri (The Seven Deadly Sins, Hakuōki stage plays) is directing the play and writing the script. Nitroplus' Gen Urobuchi (Fate/Zero creator; Psycho-Pass, Madoka Magica scripts) is credited with the original series plan and supervision. Nitroplus' Jun Haganeya (Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu script, Demonbane scenario supervision) is credited with script cooperation. All three are returning from the television series.

Kamen Rider Gaim takes place in a certain booming city that a large corporation controls like a "castle town" from feudal days. Bored kids in this town begin to express themselves by participating in street dance. Among these kids, there are some who use Lock Seeds in order to summon monsters called “Imbess” to fight as a game. The Imbess come from another world through a door that opens when the game begins, but due to more doors being opened in various places, the world is put in great peril. In this world, series hero Kōta Kazuraba and other rival Kamen Riders fight the Imbess with fruit-themed weapons.

Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Forever, the last Kamen Rider film of the Heisei era, opened in Japan on Saturday and ranked at #3 at the box office.

Sources: Kame Rider Zangetsu play's website, The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Stage Natalie