Kamen Rider Zi-O thoughts and predictions

     It seems the Heisei era just does not want to quit! between 2 Heisei generations movies, an upcoming third that was announced and now a new anniversary rider to close out 20  years of Heisei riders. Despite the overload I can't help but be excited for whats to come. Kamen Rider Zi-o is may prove to be an interesting edition to the Kamen Rider Mythos. Without a doubt some interesting things have spawned from the promos and pictures we have so far.
     Kamen Rider Zi-O is a time based Kamen Rider who can harness the power of all of the Legendary Riders that existed in the Heisei era. Every main Rider from Kuuga to Build is on the table. The man in the suit is a young man named Sougo Tokiwa. All we know about him at this juncture is that he is an 18 year old who appears to be the protege of Sento Kiryu (Kamen Rider Build). One description we are given about him states he is "an ambitious young man with dreams of being a king". Forgive the pun, but time will tell exactly how ambitous this character is and how accurate of a description that is of him.
     The design of Zi-O and really all of the characters and forms we have seen are all very unique. I honestly never thought that a watch or a clock was a theme I could get behind aesthetically, but the sleek Rolex design is very cool. I'm not even a fan of the color pink and even those highlights on the suit look cool. The only gripe I have with any of the designs is the belt. I love the design of the belt and the Henshin motion is very simple and unique, but the digital text on the middle just seem a tad distracting to me. I am not too worried about it though. I initially had this problem with Drive, and that turned out to be one of my favorite Riders to date.
     Despite the cool designs, it is strange to consider this series an anniversary series. Not that the series itself is nothing to base its anniversary on, rather because the next Rider series will fall in place for the 50th anniversary of the whole show. Really every series should stand on it's own and all this really proves is that there is going to be a LOT of Kamen Rider crossover movies in the next 2 to 3 years. Though it also raises a possible option for the series after Zi-o.
     One theory I have is that this Rider series will span the course of two years. The main run of Zi-O will of course focus on the Heisei Riders and next year we could expand to focus on all of the other Riders in this vast mythos. We could even get a focus on the other Rider, Kamen Rider Geiz. There have been rumors of the series running out of steam so this could be a good opportunity to focus on anniversaries and things that are already there while also taking that little extra time to think up some great riders for the future. Either way I am sure the older Riders will make an appearance alongside Zi-O, be that in the form of a movie or a continuing series.
     It is also fun to play around with the role of Decade in this series. Decade was another anniversary Rider and could well be at odds with Zi-O. What if Narutaki returns and tries to ally with Zi-O to stop Decade or even turn against Zi-O as the real threat. Truth is it is hard to make predictions about this show since it carries so many possibilities and we don't know to what extent it will be influenced by past characters and how many will even show up.
     I am wholly excited to watch this series and see where it goes. The designs are original and the story looks like it could be off the wall crazy. Maybe this will be the season when we finally get some resolution with Ankh and Eiji? Who knows! Either way, this is the Kaiju Kidd, timing out.