Kamen Rider Decade - Kamen Rider G

Kamen Rider G

In addition to commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Heisei Kamen Rider Series, Kamen Rider Decade was broadcast during the 50th anniversary of TV Asahi broadcasting. In a collaboration with popular band SMAP, TV Asahi and Ishimori Productions put forward a special production for SMAP's SmaSTATION talk show titled Kamen Rider G (仮面ライダーG, Kamen Raidā Jī?). It was premiered on January 31, 2009.

Kamen Rider G featured several actors from previous Kamen Rider programs in cameos. Kohei Murakami of Kamen Rider 555 fame played a medical experiment subject. Mitsuru Karahashi (also from 555) and Kenji Matsuda (from Hibiki and Kiva) portrayed members of the Shade terrorist cell. Kazutoshi Yokoyama and Eitoku, two suit actors commonly used by the Kamen Rider production team portrayed security guards in the TV Asahi building. Voice actor Katsumi Shiono provides vocal effects for the Phylloxera Worm, as he often does for Kamen Rider monsters. Popular TV Asahi announcer Yoko Ooshita also makes an appearance in Kamen Rider G as herself.

The original characters for Kamen Rider G are all wine-themed. The titular character's transformation requires a bottle of wine to be inserted into a transformation belt that acts as a wine opener, and he is armed with a sword that resembles a corkscrew as well as a sommellier knife. His Rider Kick finisher is also wine-based, as it is called the Swirling Rider Kick (スワリング・ライダーキック, Suwaringu Raidā Kikku?). The letter "G" in the title is taken to either meaning "Good", referring to the actor Goro Inagaki, or as an onomatopoeia of the sound of wine being poured out of a bottle (gu~ gugu~ (グ〜ググ〜?)). The antagonist of the piece is a Worm called the Phylloxera Worm (フィロキセラワーム, Firokisera Wāmu?); the phylloxera fly is a grapevine pest. The Phylloxera Worm would later be used as the antagonist for the Kamen Rider Kabuto episodes of Decade.

Within the small production, a terrorist organization known as Shade (シェード, Shēdo?) takes over the TV Asahi studios in Tokyo. The group led by Daidō Oda (Yusuke Kamiji) demands that that the Japanese government release their leader Seizan Tokugawa (Show Aikawa), who was arrested after the group's human experimentations came to light. The Shade cell is assisted by the brainwashed Goro (SMAP's Goro Inagaki), but when he sees that his girlfriend Eri Hinata (Yumiko Shaku) is amongst the hostages, he regains his memories and turns on the Shade terrorists. Oda is forced to reveal himself as the Phylloxera Worm, and reveals that several other Shade members have been converted into Worms. Goro transforms into Kamen Rider G to take on the Worms, defeating them all save for Phylloxera who is much too strong for him. Just then, Kamen Rider Decade and the other Heisei Kamen Riders appear to give Kamen Rider G the confidence he needs to destroy the Phylloxera Worm with his Swirling Rider Kick. As the Phylloxera Worm says in his last breath that the war is not over, Goro reunites with Eri before proclaiming he will protect the world from Shade's evil influence.