Kamen Rider Build

is a Japanese tokusatsu drama in Toei Company's Kamen Rider series. It is the nineteenth series in the Heisei period run and the twenty-eighth series overall. Toei registered the Kamen Rider Build trademark on June 5, 2017. The show premiered on September 3, 2017, following the finale of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, joining Uchu Sentai Kyuranger and later, Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger in the Super Hero Time line-up. As with the web series Kamen Rider Amazons, Kamen Rider Build is the first TV series in the franchise to have taken place in an alternate universe.

Summary
Kamen Rider Build follows the same general format as other shows in the series, with a single story that plays out over the entire run of the show describing a war between good and evil with global implications, but a standard pattern to the events of each episode.

The primary event of each episodes is usually hand to hand skirmishes between the heroes and a progression of named antagonists with their own story arcs, nameless and usually voiceless "minions," and sometimes inhuman monsters, with the dialogue during each major battle usually progressing the larger story.

The protagonists (and often antagonists) are capable of transforming, through the use of a special belt, from ordinary individuals into powerful warriors called Kamen Riders, with superhuman strength, advanced weaponry and devastating martial arts powers, allowing them to fight monsters and other transforming enemies. The term Rider comes from the protagonists use of a distinctive motorcycle in each show to travel or even to fight on.

In Build, a cataclysmic event involving an artifact of an ancient Martian civilization has created a supernatural barrier called the Skywall which separates Japan into three territories, with passage between them very difficult for most. Along with creating a complex power dynamic between the three regions, the event brings waves of monsters called Smash down on the country, who terrorize and attack the citizens.

The protagonist, Sento Kiryu, is an amnesiac taken in by a mysterious cafe owner who provides him with a belt called the Build Driver that allows him to turn into Kamen Rider Build, which he uses to fight the Smash on his own. Build has different powers determined by the combination of a pair of Fullbottles inserted into the belt, each containing the essences of different animals and machines, such as Rabbit and Tank. Many combinations exist, but some are Perfect Matches, which are more powerful in battle.

Over the course of the story, Sento learns that his forgotten past is connected to the events of the Skywall Catastrophe, that the Smash are the work of a larger organization attempting to destroy the world, and that his allies are not what they seem. In his search for the truth about his past and a solution to the crisis, Sento makes several allies who also gain the ability to transform and fight with him, encounters several nemeses who brutally push back at his attempts to save humanity, and is forced to question who is on what side, and what the sides even are.

Themes of the show include the search for truth at any cost, the value of rationality versus raw passion, the role that science and technology play when morality is not taken into account, and the ravages of war on civilians and combatants alike.

Detailed Plot
Ten years ago, a Martian expedition crew brought a mysterious artifact nicknamed the "Pandora Box" to Earth. The artifact was activated during a national conference which caused a massive catastrophe in the form of a Skywall, which burst up from the earth and split Japan into three regions: Seito in the west, Hokuto in the north, and Touto in the east. Each region retained a section of the fragments of the Pandora Box.

In the present day, a genius physicist named Sento Kiryu is hired by the government-funded Touto Institute of Advanced Matter Physics to help uncover the secrets of the Pandora Box. Sento suffers from amnesia, having no memory of his past other than being held captive by the mysterious Night Rogue of the Faust organization.

Unbeknownst to his employer, Sento secretly moonlights as Kamen Rider Build to fight the Smash, monsters created from victims of Faust's experiments, with the aid of cafe owner Sōichi Isurugi and his daughter Misora, who has the unique ability to purify Smash elements into Fullbottles to enhance the Build Driver's power.

Sento befriends a fugitive named Ryuga Banjo, who escaped while being experimented on by Faust. Ryuga eventually gains the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Cross-Z and fight alongside Sento.

The two Kamen Riders eventually learn that Night Rogue is in fact Gentoku Himuro, son of Touto's Prime Minister, Taizan Himuro, and that his former ally Blood Stalk is Sōichi, the cafe owner. Sōichi caused the Skywall disaster, and now works with industry mogul Jūzaburō Namba in manipulating the nations into declaring a civil war - in reality, a ploy to reassemble the Pandora Box.

The revelation worsens when Sento learns he was actually Faust's founding member, Takumi Katsuragi. Sōichi wiped his memories, while altering his face into that of the deceased musician Tarō Satō.

As the civil war begins, Hokuto sends Kazumi Sawatari, a soldier who can transform into Kamen Rider Grease, along with their own army, to steal Touto's Pandora Box and Fullbottles. After a period of devastating fighting, the nations agree to settle matters with a proxy battle, a duel between their Kamen Rider Grease and the champion of Seito, Kamen Rider Build. Sento manages to defeat Kazumi, however, during the chaos of the battle, Seito seizes the moment to conquer a defenseless Hokuto.

Seito then turns their attention to invading Touto, assisted by an exiled Gentoku, who has gained the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Rogue. Kazumi joins Sento's side to help liberate Hokuto, but during this battle, they learn that Sōichi is an unwilling host to Evolto, a mysterious extraterrestrial entity responsible for wiping out all life on Mars, and the mastermind of the catastrophes there and on Earth.

After unleashing the true power of a nearly complete Pandora Box, Evolto manages to gain back the Evol-Driver and Evol-Trigger, to transform into the nigh-omnipotent Kamen Rider Evol. He also reveals that Ryuga is actually a part of himself, and transfers himself into Ryuga's body in order to gain even more strength.

Evolto kills Namba and his cohorts now that he no longer needs them. A repentant Gentoku joins Sento to stop Evolto, even as the latter regains his memories as Takumi, giving him the means to fight a fully corporeal Evolto on equal ground.

While Evolto is aided by Namba's former aide Nariaki Utsumi (after becoming Kamen Rider Mad Rogue) and Takumi's father Shinobu Katsuragi, Evolto is unaware that the two are acting against him, as Shinobu gives Takumi the means for him and Ryūga to destroy Evolto once for all.

With Evolto managing to fully restore the Pandora Box, the final battle for humanity ends with the alien's demise when Sento causes the Pandora Box to assimilate his reality into the "Prime" Kamen Rider world, creating a new world where the Skywall incident and the resulting tragedies never happened. While saddened that none of their friends remembered them and their times together, Sento and Ryuga resolve to start making a new life for themselves in this new reality.

Episodes
Similar to the previous series, half of each episode's title is an English word, though spelled in katakana instead of English letters, and the other is written in kanji. Also, each episode briefly shows mathematics and/or physics formulas, which forms the episode number.

Films
Kamen Rider Build made his debut as a cameo in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid the Movie: True Ending, prior to his first chronological debut in episode 44 of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.

Heisei Generations Final
A Movie War film, titled was released on December 9, 2017. Aside from the casts of Kamen Rider Build and Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Shu Watanabe and Ryosuke Miura (Kamen Rider OOO), Sota Fukushi, Shion Tsuchiya and Takushi Tanaka (Kamen Rider Fourze), Gaku Sano (Kamen Rider Gaim), and Shun Nishime and Takayuki Yanagi (Kamen Rider Ghost) returned to reprise their respective roles. The musician and writer Kenji Ohtsuki portrayed the main antagonist of the movie, Mogami Kaisei/Kaiser. The events of the movie fit comfortably between episodes 14 and 15.

Be the One
was released in Japan on August 4, 2018, double billed with the film for Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger. Actors Masanobu Katsumura, Takashi Fujii, and Rena Matsui portrayed the main antagonists of the movie. It also featured a cameo appearance of Build's titular successor, Kamen Rider Zi-O, before his proper debut in his own series. The events of the movie took place between episodes 45 and 46.

Heisei Generations Forever
A Movie War film, titled was released on December 22, 2018, featuring the casts of Kamen Rider Build and Kamen Rider Zi-O along with Kamen Rider Den-O. The events of the film took place after the end of the main series.

Special episodes

 * is Televi-Kun's . It took place between episodes 19 and 20.
 * is a web-exclusive series released on Toei's official YouTube channel. It comprises three episodes, but the final episode is exclusive to the DVD. The first episode and the second episode took place during episode 21 and the last episode was a month later.
 * Rogue is included as part of the Blu-ray releases of Kamen Rider Build. It comprised three episodes and is a side story focusing on Gentoku Himuro. The first episode took place three years prior to the main series, and the second and final episodes took place after Episode 20.
 * 1) Night Rogue Rises
 * 2) Dark Night Fall
 * 3) Kamen Rider Rogue
 * is Televi-Kun's "Hyper Battle DVD". It takes place between episodes 41 and 42.
 * is a side story of Kazumi Sawatari. It serves as a prequel to Build New World: Kamen Rider Grease and was released alongside Grease.

Build New World
is a set of two V-Cinema releases that are written by Shogo Muto and serve as spin-offs of characters from the Kamen Rider Build series. The events of the V-Cinemas take place after the end of the main series.
 * focuses on a side story of Ryuga Banjo. The V-Cinema is directed by Kyohei Yamaguchi and was released on April 24, 2019. The theme song is "CROSS" performed by J-CROWN & TaKu.
 * focuses on a side story of Kazumi Sawatari. The V-Cinema is directed by Shojiro Nakazawa and was released on November 27, 2019. The theme song is "Perfect Triumph" performed by Masanori Kobayashi (WAЯROCK).

Novel
, written by Shogo Muto and Takahito Ōmori, is part of a series of spin-off novel adaptions of the Heisei Era Kamen Riders. The novel will be released in 2020.

Video game

 * , is the sixth installment of the Kamen Rider: Climax series, and was released on December 7, 2017 for PlayStation 4. It's a role-playing fighting game and featured characters from Kamen Rider Gaim to Kamen Rider Build. It's also the first Kamen Rider game to be localized in South East Asia & Korea regions.
 * is a mobile city-building game.

Cast

 * , Evol-Driver and Evol-Trigger Voices:
 * Build Driver, Nebula Steam Gun and Genius Fullbottle Voices:
 * Sclash Driver, Crocodile Crack Fullbottle, Cross-Z Magma Knuckle, Great Cross-Z Dragon, Genius Fullbottle and Grease Blizzard Knuckle Voices:
 * Narration:
 * , Evol-Driver and Evol-Trigger Voices:
 * Build Driver, Nebula Steam Gun and Genius Fullbottle Voices:
 * Sclash Driver, Crocodile Crack Fullbottle, Cross-Z Magma Knuckle, Great Cross-Z Dragon, Genius Fullbottle and Grease Blizzard Knuckle Voices:
 * Narration:
 * , Evol-Driver and Evol-Trigger Voices:
 * Build Driver, Nebula Steam Gun and Genius Fullbottle Voices:
 * Sclash Driver, Crocodile Crack Fullbottle, Cross-Z Magma Knuckle, Great Cross-Z Dragon, Genius Fullbottle and Grease Blizzard Knuckle Voices:
 * Narration:
 * , Evol-Driver and Evol-Trigger Voices:
 * Build Driver, Nebula Steam Gun and Genius Fullbottle Voices:
 * Sclash Driver, Crocodile Crack Fullbottle, Cross-Z Magma Knuckle, Great Cross-Z Dragon, Genius Fullbottle and Grease Blizzard Knuckle Voices:
 * Narration:
 * , Evol-Driver and Evol-Trigger Voices:
 * Build Driver, Nebula Steam Gun and Genius Fullbottle Voices:
 * Sclash Driver, Crocodile Crack Fullbottle, Cross-Z Magma Knuckle, Great Cross-Z Dragon, Genius Fullbottle and Grease Blizzard Knuckle Voices:
 * Narration:
 * , Evol-Driver and Evol-Trigger Voices:
 * Build Driver, Nebula Steam Gun and Genius Fullbottle Voices:
 * Sclash Driver, Crocodile Crack Fullbottle, Cross-Z Magma Knuckle, Great Cross-Z Dragon, Genius Fullbottle and Grease Blizzard Knuckle Voices:
 * Narration:
 * Sclash Driver, Crocodile Crack Fullbottle, Cross-Z Magma Knuckle, Great Cross-Z Dragon, Genius Fullbottle and Grease Blizzard Knuckle Voices:
 * Narration:

Theme songs

 * Opening theme
 * "Be The One"
 * Lyrics, Composition & Arrangement: Tetsuya Komuro, Daisuke Asakura
 * Artist: PANDORA feat. Beverly
 * Episodes: 2-11, 13-15, 18-37, 39-48
 * Episodes 1, 12, 16, 17, 38, and 49 do not feature the show's opening sequence. This song is used as the ending theme in episodes 1, 12, 38, and 49 and as an insert song in episodes 16, 17, and 39.


 * Insert themes
 * "Ready Go!!"
 * Lyrics: Mio Aoyama
 * Composition & Arrangement: ats-, Takehito Shimizu, Toru Watanabe
 * Artist: ats-, Takehito Shimizu & Toru Watanabe Feat. AXL21
 * Episodes: 27, 28
 * "Burning My Soul"
 * Lyrics: BOUNCEBACK
 * Composition & Arrangement: fo(u)r Scream
 * Artist: J-CROWN & TaKu from 1 FINGER
 * Episodes: 31, 32
 * "Evolution"
 * Lyrics: Kyasu Morizuki, Mio Aoyama
 * Composition & Arrangement: ats-, Takehito Shimizu, Toru Watanabe
 * Artist: ats-, Takehito Shimizu & Toru Watanabe Feat. AXL21
 * Episodes: 33
 * "Build up"
 * Lyrics: Chisato Akita
 * Composition & Arrangement: Kikuo Sato
 * Artist: Kamen Rider Girls
 * Episodes: 40, 41
 * "Law of the Victory"
 * Lyrics: Ricky
 * Composition: Koichi Terasawa
 * Arrangement: Kikuo Sato
 * Artist: Rider Chips
 * Episodes: 44, 45