Kamen Rider OOO

TA-TO-BA! TaToBa TA-TO-BA!
"You count the Medals, one, two, and three! Life goes on, anything goes, coming up OOO!"
—The first line of the opening lyrics.

The 2010-2011 Kamen Rider series and twelfth entry in the franchise's Heisei Era. OOO is pronounced as "O's" or "Owes".

The story opens with the reawakening of the Greeed [sic], who are monsters formed from human desire. Each Greeed possesses a number of Core Medals that form the heart of their bodies, and they seek to complete their immature forms by feeding on desire in the form of Cell Medals, which they collect through lesser monsters called Yummy. There's also a prophecy that whoever obtains every Core Medal shall become the destined "Multi King" of the Greeed.

Enter Eiji Hino: an Unlucky Everydude and vagrant without any kind of drive, ambition or passion. He runs into Ankh, a bird-type Greeed (and Magnificent Bastard) whose body has been reduced to a single arm. Having plundered several Core Medals from the other Greeed but without a body to use them, Ankh manipulates Eiji into accepting a forbidden Transformation Trinket and using his Core Medals to transform into Kamen Rider OOO. Eiji just wants to use the power to protect others, but Ankh plans to use the naive boy as his Unwitting Pawn to destroy rival Yummy, rebuild his body from their Cell Medals, and seize the power of the Multi King for himself. There's also the Kougami Foundation, an Omniscient Council of Vagueness who pledge their resources to help Eiji in his fight against the Greeed.

The major recurring theme in Kamen Rider OOO is about "desire"[1] or "greed". The interesting part is that rather than painting a clear Black-and-White picture about the topic, the story maintains a balance between excess and void - in short, it presents a pragmatic view about desire.

Kamen Rider OOO's airing also coincided with the 40th anniversary of the franchise. So, even though he was never promoted as an anniversary Rider, OOO ended up headlining a commemorative 1000th episode of the Kamen Rider series and even the OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Rider movie, where the DenLiner crew and even Rider 1 and 2 also receive a fair amount of focus, but the story was generally told from the OOO cast's point of view.

Tropes used in Kamen Rider OOO include:

Tropes associated with the Rider concepts of Kamen Rider OOO:

  • Animal-Themed Superbeing
  • Animal Motifs: One of the primary elements of the show, with all the animals sorted into distinct groups:
  • Awesome but Impractical: Meta Example. Why do we only see GataKiriBa only a couple of times? A short web movie explains why; CGI Cost. Poor GataKiriBa almost faints when he hears the cost of his power.
  • Celebrity Paradox: in Shogun and the 21 Core Medals. Eiji's channel surfing shows that the Jidai Geki series Abarenbo Shogun/The Bold Shogun exists in this 'verse, and thanks to some freaky time-flipping, the titular Shogun appears in person later on, played by the same actor from said series.
  • Chest Blaster: One of Birth's finishing moves, the Breast Cannon, is... well, this of course.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Each animal group has their own color, used by Greeed in regular and human forms, Core Medals, Can-droids, etc.: Insects are green; Felids are yellow; Heavy animals are white/gray; Birds are red; Aquatic animals are blue; Arthropods are black; Dinosaurs/Mythical Creatures are purple; Reptiles are orange.
    • In the Toyline, Rider Medals (based on previous Kamen Riders) have blue edges and the scanner lights up sky blue for them.
    • All of the Greeed in their human forms wear clothing with the same colors as their medals. Both Dr. Maki and Eiji have started wearing more and more purple ever since they split the purple medals.
  • Combo-Platter Powers: A literal and highly expanded case: OOO is able to choose his own combos by switching out the Core Medals as desired/required. His default mode is Hawk-Tiger-Grasshopper; Taka-Tora-Batta in Japanese, "TaToBa" for short. How many forms does he have access to? There are at least 5 sets of medals that can be mixed and matched, which make up 125 combos. The Super Mode doesn't add a massive number to the combos, however, since the Purple Cores don't mix with the other Cores very well. Naturally, the series can't show all the combos, so it generally sticks to the ones Eiji is comfortable with.

The Medal names in italics are their Japanese names used in the series; yes, some are directly English.

Movie Core War:

      • Scorpion/Sasori, Crab/Kani, and Shrimp/Ebi: Powers unknown; used by Nobunaga.

Let's Go Kamen Rider

The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals

Movie Wars Megamax:

      • Shark/Same, Whale/Kujira, and Wolffish/Ookamiuo: Individual powers unknown; but their abilities are based around water. Used by Kamen Riders Aqua and Poseidon.
      • Super Hawk/Taka, Super Tiger/Tora, and Super Grasshopper/Batta: Enhanced future versions of the Taka, Tora, and Batta Medals. Intended as an homage to Kamen Rider Skyrider.
    • The extent is slightly expanded in the toy as with the Double Driver and DecaDriver: there are Medals for previous Riders or other miscellaneous things. However, these were originally not used in the show, but rather mostly worked with the arcade game Ganbaride, which during the run of OOO included Medal slots that allowed players to scan Medals to power up their characters. These were later canonized in Movie Wars Megamax, where the Kougami Foundation was at work creating new animal Core Medals and Foundation X turned some Showa Riders into Core Medals (and others into Astro Switches).
    • Hacking the OOO Driver even further resulted in more potential Medal animals. For those interested, they include (in the video's order): Hermit crab, Walrus, Polar bear, Penguin, Bee, Centipede, Deer, Bull, Gazelle, Panda, Kangaroo, Ant, and Rabbit (Usagi). The fact that the Panda, Usagi, and Kangaroo Medals have appeared is enough of an Epilepsy Fuel on its own. All of these eventually showed up as Kougami Foundation creations in Movie Wars Megamax.
    • Remember how the PuToTyra Combo isn't compatible with any other Core? Well, in the Combo Change toys, you can still mix and match its parts all the same. You know, just in case you feel your toys don't have enough Combos.
  • Cool Bike: RideVendors. Notice the plural form; yes, in this series, they're theoretically available to anyone, provided they have the clearance and Cell Medals for the "fare".
  • Damage Discrimination: The Medajalibur's finisher is strong enough to cut through buildings, but anything other than the monster reassembles as soon as it's cut.
    • It also creates the effect of a Diagonal Cut, even if the slash wasn't entirely diagonal in direction.
    • The SaGoZo combo also completely rips up the ground, but reconstructs everything as good as new.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The full-set combos: As powerful as they are, in #6, Ankh comments that they're kinda dangerous to use. By #12, Eiji seems like he's starting to get used to their strains, though not by much; he doesn't faint outright afterwards, but still collapses in exhaustion every time.
    • Actually, the only time he has been shown to be used to it is when he is using the Tora add-on while in LaToraTah when the excess power is bled away. Every other time he used the combos leaves him exhausted.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Implied with the Medal Combos and the OOO driver itself; in #1, Mantis Yummy dropped a short line that if he used the Driver, he'll regret it. The jury was judging this Kamen Rider OOO for a while.
    • The Medal Combos are the more obvious ones: In addition to Ankh's (silent) comment of their strain, in #6 and #9, he collapsed immediately after transforming back from using a Combo.
    • The PuToTyra form, which temporarily sends Eiji out of control when he uses it. And worse, since it's inside his body, it's turning Eiji (and Dr. Maki as well) into a Greeed).
  • Discard and Draw: OOO seems to lose Medals as he gains them, thus he never has access to more than two full color combos (though this changed with the introduction of the purple Core Medals).
  • Elemental Powers
    • Core Medals
    • Combo forms
      • An Ice Person: PuToTyra gives OOO the power to create cold winds that can encase enemies in ice.
      • Gravity Master: SaGoZo gives OOO the power to manipulate gravity.
      • Making a Splash: ShaUTa gives OOO the power to change into a liquid state.
      • Non-Elemental: BuraKaWani does not incorporate an element into its full Combo power.
      • The Power of the Sun: LaToraTah gives OOO the power to emit a scorching heat.
  • Finishing Move: Several, called Scanning Charges. There are way too many combinations to be listed individually. However, the pattern common to all Random Combos is that three rings representing the current form appears in front of OOO, he rushes through them, adding each's power to his finisher in the process before dealing the final blow.
    • The Medajalibur can perform the OOO Bash finishing slash, using Cell Medals instead of Cores, powerful enough to slice through a monster and many buildings all of reality behind it. Luckily, it has Damage Discrimination that puts anything that's not a monster back together again afterward.
    • The Taja Spinner has Giga Scan finishers, more powerful attacks drawing more power from the medals.
    • The Medagabryu has Putotyranno Hissatsu finishers, activated when it "eats" Cell Medals.
    • Birth has Cell Bursts as his finishers.
  • Motif: Circles, circles, circles.
    • And Rule of Three.
    • Animal Motifs.
    • Medals - no, make that Coins, and coin-operated stuff: The Medajalibur has a coin slot, Greeed create Yummy by slotting Medals into humans, Birth has a gashapon theme, and the RideVendor turns into a soda machine that dispenses robot soda cans.
  • Multiform Balance
  • Palette Swap: The Panda Arms seem to be a gray-white palette swap of the Tora Arms with a different animal symbol.
    • Let's Go Kamen Rider features the Shocker Medal, which has Dai-Shocker's symbol, and the Shocker Legs, which is a gold palette swap of the Condor Legs.
  • Power Copying: OOO utilizes the Core Medals of the Greeed as his power.
  • Power Limiter: The combo forms are powerful, but highly dangerous to the user, which is why the Kougami foundation developed the ToRideVendor upgrade which allows OOO to use the LaToraTah combo without harm.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Kick-variant with the Cheetah Medal.
  • Robot Buddy: The Candroids; which transform from soda cans.
    • Hawk Can: Used primarily as low-profile aerial scouting and relaying small objects, usually other Can-droids. Kougami's also shown to use them in numbers to gather Medals.
    • Octo Can: They can float, and seem to be multi-purpose; their debut in #2 alone shows pretty varied uses. Usually used in numbers by linking up with each other. They can also spray ink as self-defense and can also be used on their own as tracking devices.
    • Hopper Can: Used for their built-in communication system between each other. In other words, an Incredibly Obvious Bug.
    • Tiger Can: An upgrade module for the RideVendor, transforming it into the ToRideVendor.
    • Electric Eel Can: Essentially, portable handcuffs that can also generate electricity. Like the Octo Can, these are more effective in numbers as a single can is not long enough to tie someone up.
    • Gorilla Can: Alerts the user of a Yummy attack. They can also be used to pick up and throw Medals.
    • Peafowl Can: Can be shot out of a gun and can slice up enemies with its tail which also allows it to fly.
    • Pteranodon Can: Has two alternate functions:
    • Triceratops Can: Flicks Medals to the user.
    • Candroids are also capable of combining their different functions together. #39 demonstrates that a combination of the Eel, Hopper, and Peafowl Candroid can create a holographic video projection of what other Candroids can see.
  • Set Bonus: Combos, using three Core Medals of the same Greeed/color/category, give OOO power equal to a Greeed. In addition, they provide extra powers that individual Medals don't have in Random Combos. The purple Core Medals cannot be mixed and matched with other Medals, because of their power deriving from empty desire.
  • Stupid Statement Dance Mix: They thought ahead and made the Transformation Trinket sound like this.
    • The OOO Driver was just the tip of the iceberg; the Combo-specific ending songs make the Medal names Ear Worms.
  • Super Mode: Zig Zagged. PuToTyra seem's to be Eiji's standard super mode, but in the last episode, he is given a super-powered version of his base form, and he wins the final battle with a hypercharged version of his Mid-Season Upgrade.
    • Movie Wars MEGAMAX will give us Super TaToBa, which has the Taka Brave head from TaJaDor Combo and inverts the colors (colored with black trim instead of the reverse).
  • Transformation Trinket: The O-Scanner. It sings! By Akira Kushida, no less. It sings only for certain combinations, though; generally, for combinations holding medals of the same category/color. OOO's TaToBa Combo seems to be an exception, for some reason aside from that it's the show's default.
    • However, like Gaia Memories of Kamen Rider W, it's the Medals that actually grant the power. Each Greeed has three types of Core Medals for head, body and feet, and they have three of each category, presumably for reserves.
  • Transforming Mecha: OOO's motorcycle, the Ride Vendor, turns into a soda machine. Yes, it actually vends cans, though the cans are Robot Buddies in disguise. It's also an effective disguise, as soda machines tend to blend into the environment.
    • And with the Tiger Can, it transforms into the ToRideVender.
  • Weapon of Choice: The Medajalibur; a sword created by Kogami Foundation, it can be used in or out of any form, it can be fueled by up to three Cell Medals, and can even execute a Scanning Charge. Basically a Cell-based artificial Scanning Charge, as opposed to OOO's natural Core-based ones.

Tropes presented by Kamen Rider OOO:

  • Action Girl: Satonaka surprisingly reveals herself as one in #20. Beginning in #39, this becomes her new role as Goto's backup until Date returns and takes the Birth Prototype.
  • Actor Allusion: In the Shogun and Core Medals movie, we see a guy carrying a guitar who takes up the Perky Female Minion's offer and get a samurai hairdo. The actor in question? Mitsuru Karahashi, who played the guitar as Naoya Kaido and played a (fallen) samurai, Juuzo.
  • Adorkable: Eiji exhibited some of this when he saw the Octo Can-droids in action for the first time in #2, and he acts like a kid while playing with the Hopper Can-droid in #5.
  • Alchemy: Mentioned as the origin of the Greeed and OOO.
  • A God Am I: The original OOO from 800 years ago tried to become an immortal God by absorbing the power of all the Greeed. Didn't quite work out that way. His descendant Kougami intends to do this to Eiji, but for far more noble goals.
  • The Alleged Car: Dr Maki's blue VW in ep. 19. An engine that's louder than some of the show's Finishing Moves, and wipers that make the view worse. At least it has a safety seat for the doll.
  • Ambiguously Human: Hina seems normal but has Super Strength for some reason. Even Ankh wonders what she really is.
  • Arc Words: "Happy Birthday." Aside from Kougami's obsession with the concept of birth and beginnings, maybe there's more meaning to those words. Especially when it's Kobayashi holding the pen.
    • One phrase that appeared as early as promotional materials have a phrase: "The fateful story revolving around Medals.". Variations of it show up here and there after the series started, and in #19, the show turned the phrase into a more complete Arc Question:

"How will things turn out in this battle revolving around the Medals of desire?"

    • For Maki, it's his repeated statements that something's value can only be measured at it's conclusion. In addition to his obcession with endings, it played into his motivation to destroy the world so it's value could be measured.
    • The series tagline "I'll transform!" seems straight forward for a Henshin Hero series, but turns out to be much more than that. In the end, this holds more meaning. Kougami wants Eiji to transform into a God (the reason the Medals were made in the first place), Maki ends up turning himself and Eiji into Greeed, and Ankh plans to transform himself into more than just a Greeed.
    • From the "Time Judged All Image Song, "The meeting of two wishes, a power of two wishes". In the end, it's Ankh and Eiji united that gives OOO the power to win the Final Battle.
  • Ascended Meme: Most likely an aversion, but an interesting coincidence nevertheless: OOO is quite similar to the popular /m/ Fan Character Kamen Rider Yen. Not only in the coin theme and coin operated weapons, but also the main character of both is a homeless drifter and fights monsters born from greed.
    • A probably lesser known example. In a fanfic titled Kamen Rider Shade, the titular Rider swipes three items over the belt allowing the belt to scan the items just like how OOO uses the OOO Driver to scan his medals. The form that Kamen Rider Shade obtains by doing this is named InToTa, taking the first syllable of the animals in which the three items represented, very much like how OOO's TaToBa Combo also uses the first syllables of the animals in which the medals take after.
  • Badass: Shingo Izumi is revealed in a flashback in #19 as such: He breaks his arm to save someone and shrugs it casually off. Also, Eiji, who shows no fear while plummeting to his death off buildings and even confronts Yummies untransformed, and Goto, especially in episode 38. These two just scream "badass".
    • Badass Biker: Goto, again. Perhaps there's a good reason he survived the Ride Vendor squad massacre, along with the fact that he's an ex-police officer.
      • Ankh and Eiji also count.
    • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Ankh thought he'd make Eiji his loyal little puppet, what he didn't realize is that underneath his seemingly naive and carefree persona is someone who won't back down, even if it'd kill him to do otherwise, and, when given the power, sure can fight.
  • Bash Brothers: Eiji and Goto.
  • Batman Gambit: Kougami pulls one on Goto. He set up Date becoming Kamen Rider Birth only to make him Goto's mentor and to build the right mindset in Goto for the job.
    • Ankh pulls one of these on Kazari that involves swapping out Core Medals for Cell Medals, lying so quickly that no one has time to contradict him, and throwing Eiji off a building. The entire thing would have completely fallen flat if Yasu hadn't been such a self-serving pushover or if Kazari hadn't been naive enough to believe that Eiji actually knew where the Core Medals were, so this is probably Ankh's Crowning Moment of Awesome in terms of brilliant manipulative schemes.
  • Battle Cry: Eiji, every time he executes a finisher.

"Oooaaaaaaaaa~! SEIYAH!"

    • For more fun, that cry is the last thing Eiji and Ankh "sing" in "Time judged all".
  • Beat Them At Their Own Game: #1: Eiji defeats the Mantis Yummy using the blades from the Mantis Medal.
    • Eiji is also beating Ankh at his manipulation game. Here's a tip, Ankh: Don't let the "idiot" you're supposed to use know that you're helpless without him.
    • Then subverted in #25, where Ankh seemingly gave Eiji three of his Bird medals simply so that he'd match up poorly with the new Cockatoo Yummy.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: The majority of the Yummy hosts didn't go through of their fulfillments comfortably or unscathed.
  • The Berserker: For the second year in a row, the primary Rider's dinosaur-themed form (PuToTyra) starts out as uncontrollable before being tamed.
  • Big Bad: The Greeed play this role for the series. But the human turned Greeed Dr. Maki eventually took over this role.
  • Big Brother Mentor: Date plays this role for Goto. As #38 shows, Kougami planned for that to happen all along.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In #15, Ankh and Eiji get one saving Hina from Kazari's attack.
    • And in #16, Kamen Rider Birth saves Eiji and and indirectly gives him the Insect Core Medals inside Mezool.
    • Date arriving just when OOO and Ankh were about to be defeated by the two Beetle Yummies in #17. His entry is even more dramatic due to him doing a solo Power Walk and then finally revealing his transformation sequence.
    • Goto transforming into Birth, saving Eiji from the three Greeeds and epically curbstomping them in #38
  • Big Eater: The victim in #3-4; also, it's been implied that Satonaka is one.
  • Bigger Bad: The Ancient King fits this role. Despite being long dead when the series begins, everything that happened in the entire series was his doing because he created the Greeed and OOO in the first place to fufill his selfish desire to become a god and Take Over the World.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Considering who wrote this series...
    • Dr. Maki is dead, and the purple Core Medals have been destroyed, meaning Eiji is no longer in danger of becoming a Greeed. The other Core Medals have all been destroyed, meaning the Greeed are gone for good. Sadly, Ankh is gone, leaving behind the core medal that contained his personality that is now broken in half. Eiji returns to traveling the world with just his underwear for tomorrow as his only luggage, only this time he keeps in contact with the friends he made during the series.
    • However, what truly puts the "sweet" in "bittersweet" is this: Unlike the rest of his Greeed kin (sans Gamel), Ankh met a satisfied, happy end - not as a mass of Medals, but as a being. As such, he truly "dies", and his spirit lingers on, now following every step of his friend Eiji, but still making sure he doesn't notice. Even more, the fact that there was an Ankh who came from the future in Movie Wars Megamax becomes proof that he will come back at some point.
  • Bland-Name Product: Ankh uses a suspiciously Yahoo-like "Search.jp" in #3. In a subversion, an iPhone 4 can be seen shortly after.
  • Blood From the Mouth: How Shingo Izumi nearly dies.
    • Used again to give a sense of how grave Date's injuries are in #38. But not only is death averted again, he's far less hurt than Shingo was.
  • Body Horror: Non-humanoid Yummies have one part or another of a human arm as part of their body, further symbolizing desire.
    • Those coin slots that always open on Yummy hosts. It's implied that they actually exist in all humans, at least symbolically.
  • Book Ends: The first and last episodes feature 'underpants' as part of the title. Not to mention that the titles are similarly written.
    • The final episode has Eiji traveling the world again with his underwear for tomorrow. Only this time he keeps in touch with the friends he made.
    • Also Kougami plays in the beginning and the end of the series an operatic version of Happy Birthday, and the TaToBa Rider Kick, which was used only once in the beginning, reappears in the last episode.
  • Bound and Gagged: In #20, Ankh ties up Hina and lets her hang over a river to get back a core medal. It doesn't work.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In #27 and #28, Kougami lets Eiji and Ankh participate in a movie titled Kamen Rider vs. Shocker. While a film adaptation of the in-universe mythology may fit with Kougami's Crazy Awesome personality, it is clearly an example of postmodern self-referentialism.
  • Brick Joke: The opening. At one point, Hina's hat is blown off. Some other stuff happens. Then, later, Hina is seen retrieving it. (Then she looks up to see the then-mysterious Gotou and Satonaka standing there.)
  • Brutal Honesty: Ankh telling Chiyoko of his origins.
  • Call Back: In #47, Eiji remembers the promise he made in #15 to pay for a year's worth of popsicles for Ankh.
    • In the finale, we get two to the opening. Eiji in the desert with his boxer shorts flag, and a more serious one with half of Ankh's last medal landing before Hina, and then focus on it at her feet as her hand picks it up.
    • In Movie Wars Megamax, Eiji says "Riders should help each other out, right?" when he meets Gentaro; he said the exact same line to Shotaro during his Early-Bird Cameo Big Damn Heroes moment in Double Forever. For more fun, Shotaro says the line back to Eiji during the final segment of Megamax, pulling a Go Through Me and telling Eiji he's returning the favor for the aforementioned Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Canon Immigrant: OOO gets an additional Super Tatoba Form in Movie Wars Megamax.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Ankh has a seriously creepy one in #39.
  • Catgirl: Satonaka goes as one on Halloween.
    • In #13 the Yummy is a dominatrix Catgirl.
  • Catch a Falling Star: Done by Gotou during the finale to save Eiji (See Also Take My Hand).
  • Cerebus Retcon: Dr. Maki's Berserk Button of knocking his doll off his shoulder becomes less funny when you find out what the doll represents to him. Even the writer notices this, as she stops exploiting the joke once we find out Maki's backstory. Not completely, though, as said Berserk Button gets pressed again in #46 for the same hilarious results. Though in #47, it feels more like a Villainous Breakdown would soon ensue.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Sometime after #30, the show becomes more dramatic and #40 kicks off a Wham Arc.
  • Chain of People: Occurs in #40 when Eiji and Hina attempt to save Ankh from being absorbed into Ankh (Lost). It doesn't work.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In #48, we have a "black hole" that sucks up a bunch of Medals. The payoff doesn't come until Movie Wars MEGAMAX, where we learn what happened: the Medals were dumped approximately 20 years into the future, where they corrupted the good Kamen Rider Aqua into the villainous Kamen Rider Poseidon.
  • Clothing Damage: When a Greeed gets stripped of their Core Medals, their outer armor crumbles.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Eiji, occasionally.
    • Chiyoko's a more obvious example. How did she choose her employee in #2? Close the restaurant doors, tie lots of weights to them, and choose whoever can open the door.
    • Kougami's bizarre levels have evolved into a Memetic Crazy Awesome Badass.
    • Doctor Kiyoto Maki definitely qualifies after #10. His Creepy Doll may have seemed as a harmless quirk before, but his Freak-Out after Eiji (and later, Kazari) knocks his doll from his arm is a sign that something is truly not right in his head.
      • Maki's case should be more along the lines of Obfuscating Stupidity. Not the "stupidity" part per se (he is a scientist, after all), but he always looks like he's got something up his sleeve. He might as well be using Kazari for his own ends. He was.
    • Chiyoko's Cloudcuckoolander status is cemented in #13 where in the process of giving her restaurant a Cowboys and Indians theme she tries to convince Ankh to dress up, too. After he brushes her off, she sneaks up on him, puts a cowboy hat on his head, and then proceeds to run around the restaurant with Water Guns Akimbo, laughing and squirting water everywhere (including on Ankh's face) while Eiji and Hina watch in fear of how Ankh might react, all before the actual plot of the episode is hinted at and before the opening credits roll.
  • Cooldown Hug: Hina to Eiji in #32, stopping him from killing Date while in PuToTyranno form.
    • Which makes her character giving his one in Kougami's Kamen Rider movie to 'reawaken his heart of justice' or somesuch a few episodes earlier Harsher in Hindsight.
  • Couch Gag: The opening has three of them: three quick 'scans' of the last forms unlocked by OOO (favoring the full combos in the third one) when the opening music starts, and later two brief shots from the episode proper.
  • Creepy Child: Mezool, while she's a humanoid teenager that is.
  • Continuity Nod: In Movie Wars Megamax, at the end of Fourze's segment, Eiji rides up on a Ride Vendor and says "Yo Gentaro, it's been a while. How are you?", and Gentaro recognizes Eiji as OOO even if he doesn't know his name. This is all a nod to Gentaro's cameo in The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals, where he de-transformed and introduced himself to OOO after helping smack around the Big Bad a little.
  • Continuity Snarl: Movie War Core, along with OOO's appearance in A-Z The Gaia Memories of Fate, opens up a whole can of these. Admittedly they wouldn't really be save for the fact the stories seem to be canon on Double's part. Specifically...
    • The fact that Goto's desire to be Birth's user in the series clashes with the fact he uses it in the movie.
    • Satonaka screaming in fright when Nobunaga's homunculus is first formed, in contrast to her hidden Action Girl nature.
    • Ankh somehow having found two of his Medals.
    • OOO having a medal layout (one of each medal, save for Ankh's bird medals and the dinosaur medals) he's yet to have in the series.
    • The nature of the dinosaur Greeed flying in the face with the fact that Dr. Maki and Eiji each share half of its medals.
    • Eiji acting much more naive than he ever was in the series.
    • And on and on.
  • Creepy Doll: Oh, hi, bald doll in white suit with eyes nearly rolled all the way up sitting on Maki's arm like a pet parrot from #9 on!
    • It even has its own tiny rolley chair!
      • #19 shows that it also has its own car seat and locker with extra clothes in it. Slowly being a subverted trope as the more we see of the the doll the less creepy and more hilarious it gets.
      • Date threw in a lampshading line in #19 on its creepiness, though at that point, it already lost a chunk of its scariness value.
    • In #29 it is revealed that it belonged to Maki's dead sister.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: #38 Goto as Birth vs Kazari, Mezool and Gamel. Goto won, big time
    • #42 Eiji as PuToTyra brutalized Lefty!Ankh and shatters his Core Medals to seal it.
    • Pretty much any time a Greeed reaches its Complete form results in this. The only thing that seems capable of stopping one is the Purple Cores.
    • #47 Dr. Maki in his Greeed form beats the tar out of all three Riders without sustaining one hit himself.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: The Shocker Grunt in #28. When a shot from an actual gun fails to injure Eiji (he switched out a prop gun for a real one), he takes the gun himself and tries to destroy the OOO Driver.
  • Dawson Casting: Or something like it. In Let's Go Kamen Riders, Isao Sasaki plays the "Man in White," who is the adult version of Naoki, separated from the Riders in the 1970s and eventually too important to history to go back and retrieve. However, since he was born in 1942, Sasaki was in his thirties in the year 10-ish-looking Naoki was stranded in.
  • Deal with the Devil: Uva strongly gives off this vibe in #11, as the target's desire is for fame and Uva needs to interact with him to find out what will help him achieve that desire.
  • Death Is Cheap: At least for the Greeed, anyway. Collect enough Cell Medals and get your hands on either enough of their Core Medals or the Core Medal that houses their consciousness, and they can be brought back to life. Unless the Core that holds their consciousness gets destroyed. That's when dead means 100% dead.
  • Delayed Reaction: In #4, OOO and Kazari air joust and OOO is hurt badly, falling to the ground afterward. Kazari gloats about his victory and managing to take back the Kamakiri Medal, but after a few seconds, his body armor crumbles because OOO reached inside him during the air joust and snatched three of his Core Medals.
  • Demonic Possession: Ankh takes over the body of the young police officer Shingo Izumi. Shingo is currently unconscious, barely alive, and doesn't seem to be waking up anytime soon.
  • Determinator: Eiji, despite literally having almost nothing to live for (but not in the suicidal way) before becoming OOO, can be seriously determined when push comes to shove. This is most clear when he would rather fall off a building than let Ankh force him to ignore human lives.
    • Uva could also count as this: betrayed by a teammate, all alone and weak for 10 something episodes, betrayed ONCE AGAIN by two different teammates who he had just revived, and reduced to a single core medal, and what does he have to say about this? "I won't let it end like this!"
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Subverted in #35, when Ankh uncharacteristically congratulates Hina for winning a fashion design contest. It turns out he wasn't even thinking it. This was an early sign that Hina's brother Shingo was starting to recover.
  • Directors Cut: While not uncommon for Kamen Rider movies, there will be one released of the final two episodes.
  • Diving Save: Eiji does one in #10, complete with Slow Motion to keep a bomb from detonating, saving a little boy
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: In #16 Mezool returns to the Greeed hideout severly injured after Kazari stole all of her Core Medals, save one to find Uva who had been drinking in his human form after something similar happened to him. He then attempts to steal her last Core Medal in a rather violent manner.
  • Dual-Wielding: Eiji goes Implacable Man against Uva in the finale with the Medajalibur and Medagaburyu.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Like Double in All Riders vs Dai-Shocker, OOO appears in the Double movie A to Z: The Memories of Fate, one month before his series starts.
    • Unlike Double before him, however, OOO didn't fight the final villain of the movie and instead showed up to take down the unsuspectingly tough Luna Dopant. OOO also first appears out of suit before transforming.
    • Also, OOO exists in the same universe as Double, due to Double Forever being canon to the series, and the O Medals were also briefly seen and mentioned in Double #47.
    • In Movie War Core, the Birth System makes two quick appearances before it's introduced in the series, first used by Nobunaga, and then by Gotou... which results in some Fridge Logic given that Gotou was initially not strong enough to use Birth until Date trained him to do so late in the series. Similarly, TaJaDor is given a brief appearance, despite not having the Core Medals to do so until #20.
    • Gara and the BuraKaWani Core Medals appear in a quick flashback scene in #44, though they don't official appear until the Kamen Rider OOO WONDERFUL: The Shogun and 21 Core Medals movie.
    • Not only does Kamen Rider Fourze appear in The Shogun and 21 Core Medals, but during the end credits of the final episode, as Hina says goodbye to Shingo, Kengo and Yuki walk past with the Astro Switches.
  • Eldritch Abomination: In #16 Gamel and Mezool become a turtle-elephant-squid...thing.
    • In #19 Kazari tries to become a controlled version of this. His Yummies also fit this after #19.
    • The Medal Vessel Chaos Form, the... thing that Uva becomes after being force fed Core Medals by Dr. Maki. A massive entity that consumes everything and spawns hordes of Pseudo-Yummy.
  • Elemental Powers: Each of the Greeeds possess one.
  • Emotion Eater: The Greeed survive on Cell Medals, created by accumulating human desires. To their credit, this is a smart choice as they can theoretically get a virtually endless source from any human.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Dr.Maki's goal.
  • The End - or Is It?: When Uva appears destroyed, we can still hear his voice coming from one Core Medal. And in the finale, there's the case of Ankh. Eiji has both halves of his last remaining Core Medal, thinking "Somehow, someday," and we see a spectral Ankh-hand following him.
  • Enemy Mine: During the climax of the Wonderful movie, the Greeed give Eiji their medals in order to help him defeat Gara's One-Winged Angel.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The original OOO was so selfish and greedy that even Ankh, a living incarnation of human greed, considers him Selfish Evil. That's right, a human manages to be more greedy than a literal incarnation of desire.
  • Hair Decorations: Satonaka wears a large fake flower. Hina tends to prefer a Nice Hat (she does get a hair dec in #31 when the Couscoussier does a high school theme).
  • Eviler Than Thou: A rather complicated example, as this keeps happening so much it's hard to tell who exactly is the most evil. Kazari at first pulls this on the other Greeed by betraying and setting up Mezool and Gamel's deaths. Then it's revealed that the Original OOO was evil enough that the Greeed considered him Selfish Evil, and ultimately pulls this on Ankh by stabbing him In the Back after the other Greeed were beaten. Then towards the end, Dr. Maki pulls this on Kazari, stabbing him in the gut when he's had one of his Cores cracked by OOO and leaving him to die a slow, painful death.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Everyone whose playing a villain in Kougami's Kamen Rider movie, especially Ankh, whose playing the Great Leader of Shocker. When he's not acting, he has his moments of this too.
  • Evil Mentor: If Ankh had his way, it wouldn't matter if the city was wiped out as long as it meant more Medals for him.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: The first OOO's O Scanner.
  • Evil vs. Evil: Depends on how evil you consider him, but Ankh vs the other Greeed probably counts, at least early on. Later on, it's Kazari vs Uva.
  • Evolving Credits: The title sequence often changes which Medals are being shown off, usually displaying ones Eiji recently acquired. #19 also adds Kamen Rider Birth to the sequence.
  • Exact Words: In #27 Kougami asks Ankh if he wants to know who has his Core Medals. He never said anything about actually knowing who has them.
  • Expy: Our quintet of Greeed have some striking similarities of another series of Kamen Riders with demons as major characters.
    • Uva bares a striking resemblance to Momotaros who is impulsive and has a gung-ho style of combat.
    • Mezool's laid-back demeanor, overall stylishness and qualms for manipulation is very similar to Urataros. In fact, both of them are blue and their motifs involve water.
    • Gamel's slow and more strength-oriented style is suspiciously similar to Kintaros.
    • Kazari's playfulness, childish outfit and style is very reminiscent of Ryutaros.
    • Ankh's high-and-mighty attitude and his penchant for birds is very similar to Sieg.
      • Of course, the similarities end at the surface. Dig a little deeper, and you see that they have their own distinctions from the Imagin. Uva is brash, angry, and extremely serious, getting straight to the point without an air of arrogance and cockiness. Mezool is cunning and the one who tries to keep order, as well as a motherly figure to Gamel, who is an immature and rather childish moron who has no desire of his own--except Mezool. Kazari is young, the real laid-back one, and rather hip and trendy, but also fiendishly traitorous and manipulative. Finally, Ankh is calcutating, manipulative to no end, and constantly wants to have things his way, but is also smart enough to see when he should adapt to his situation and will almost always do what's in his best interest, even switching sides
    • Eiji, on the other hand, is very similar to Yusuke Onodera aka Decade!Kuuga. Walking the Earth (or parallel worlds), death in his past (with a touch of Friend to All Children from Godai!Kuuga), and now stuck with helping someone he doesn't agree with...
      • He also has some ties to the original Kuuga. Like Godai, he gains new powers, but it's usually a bad thing as they strain him, with the Super Mode being worst, as it could warp him into a monster. He also desires the power to protect everyone.
  • Face Heel Turn:
    • Date in #37. But #38 reveals it was just a fake-out.
    • Ankh in #43, though it doesn't last and he's back with Eiji for the final fight.
  • Fake Defector: Date in #37-38.
  • Fake Memories: Dr. Maki remembers - or chooses to remember - his dead sister as a kind, smiling person like Chiyoko. But as seen in #30, she was in reality a far more gloomy and somber person who was kind of a Jerkass to Kid!Maki by intending to essentially abandon him after she marries. It actually led to some of his nihilism - only with her death in that fire - which he caused! - did his image of her become complete, and impossible to ruin by her choosing to leave him.
  • Faking the Dead: Date fakes his death for a short while to give Goto the right mindset to fight as Kamen Rider Birth.
  • Fan Service / Male Gaze: No, there was no reason for the camera to swing that low as Satonaka got off her 'cycle. Except that she has a very nice... bike seat.
  • Fastball Special: Done to Eiji in OOO Wonderful by Kamen Rider Fourze to land an attack on Gara.
  • Female Gaze: #1 has several minutes where Eiji is in nothing but boxers, and right after the first commercial we get a close-up of his butt. People into this all approve.
    • As the series progressed, it became something of a running joke for him to appear in boxers, or boxers to be relevant someway. People into this all still approved.
      • #27 has Akira take off his shirt in order to help an injured colleague, which proved to be a pleasant surprise to some.
  • Five-Bad Band: From #37-42:
  • Five-Man Band
  • Flat What: #10 has Ankh saying this when Kiyoto explaining OOO has to be in LaToraTah to control the ToRideVendor. Then Eiji grabs him...
  • Foreshadowing: If you look on TV Asahi's website, you can see purple O Medals in the background... In the series, Dr. Maki gave it away in #29 by using the Pteranodon Candroid.
    • Everytime OOO henshins theirs a purple medal in the rings...
    • In #24, Dr Maki apparently recognizes Chiyoko on the CousCoussier voucher, and for some reason tries to swallow it when Date almost finds out in #25. The Reveal comes in #26 when flashbacks show that Maki's dead sister resembles Chiyoko exactly..
    • 44 gives us a large stone tablet in the King's room. Closer inspection shows three circles with seven smaller slots in each. Count the Medals everybody, that's the Head, Body and Leg medals for all the sets minus the Black set.
    • TaJaDor's Image Song "Time Judge All" has a lot. For starters, "The Meeting of Two Wishes. A Power Of Two Wishes" foreshadows that Ankh and Eiji uniting would give OOO the power needed to defeat Dr. Maki. "A wish comes true if I can have most of it (desire) in my hand" (sung by Ankh) makes a lot of sense once Ankh comes to believe absorbing enough of the cores will let him obtain his wish of becoming alive. Then there's "The flame in my heart burns down the whole darkness" and later "I drove the same darkness away and open up tomorrow". Which combo was used to defeat the Greeed representing the Power of the Void to save the world?
    • During the Shogun and 21 Core Medals movie, Eiji is shown channel-surfing to find any news reports on the current chaos in the city. One of the channels is showing the Jidai Geki classic Abarenbo Shogun (The Bold Shogun), based on the life of Tokugawa Yoshimune. Guess who shows up in person to aid our heroes later on.
  • For Halloween I Am Going as Myself: In #9, this happens unintentionally since Ankh is unfamiliar with Halloween: When he, enraged, shows his Greeed hand, Chiyoko thinks it's a great costume.
  • For Science!: Maki callously displays this attitude in #10. Eiji doesn't appreciate it.
  • For Want of a Nail: Ankh accidentally leaving behind a Cell Medal in the past allows Shocker to create the Shocker Greeed, defeat the Kamen Riders, and take over the world, setting up the plot for Let's Go Kamen Rider.
  • Four Is Death: There are four villainous Greeeds. Ankh was against his own fellow Greeed 800 years ago.
    • Halfway through the show, when there weren't four Greeed, Lost Ankh and the resurrected Mezool and Gamel join Kazari while Uva is killed off, balancing the number. Until Dr. Maki fully evolves into a Greeed. Discounting him, Ankh soon joins the other Greeed as soon as his Evil Counterpart is Killed Off for Real, balancing the number for a brief while.
  • Frantic Object Concealment: While not actually involving an object, this is done hilariously in #39 with Hina using a small bit of cloth to try and keep Chiyoko from seeing Eiji transform into OOO to fight the Shamo Yummy.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: the former Shocker Mook in #27 is out to invoke this.
  • Funny Background Event: The Game-Fowl Yummy pretty much spends the entire time it's not fighting in the background doing its shadowboxing act, even when something serious is going on in the same scene.
  • Fun with Acronyms: In the 40th anniversary movie, the Taka-Imagin-Shocker combo makes TaMaShii, the Japanese word for "soul".
  • Fusion Dance: In #16 Gamel and Mezool become one entity for a while.
  • Good Counterpart: Eiji to the Original Kamen Rider OOO. They're both OOO but where the original OOO was a Selfish Evil tyrant who wanted all the power for himself, Eiji is a kindheart, selfless hero who cares only for others.
  • Good Is Not Dumb: Eiji Hino may seem like a carefree fool, however underneath his simple exterior lies a rather cunning mind.
  • Gratuitous English: Kougami singing "Happy Birthday to You" in English while making a birthday cake for the Greeed and OOO. He also says "Doctor Maki" instead of "Maki-sensei" or "-hakase" or something.
    • WAASUTO GUREEDO OBU ZA GUREEDO!!!
    • The parts of the theme to OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go, Kamen Rider! that weren't the classic theme song may have the worst mangulation of English in franchise history. "Rider chop with the fighting in the truth! Let's go the hero, Kamen Rider!" is not as bad as it gets.
    • Often times, Date will randomly use english words instead of Japanese in his dialogue, such as "nice", "okay," and so on.
  • Gratuitous German: The Time Judged All's chorus.
  • Hammerspace: The Medajalibur has a tendency to appear out of thin air when needed. Despite showing no signs of having carried it, OOO suddenly pulls it out from behind his back.
    • Same goes for the Can-droids; they are a little too big to be carried around (without leaving a dent) in trouser pockets.
      • Somewhat averted in one episode, if I recall. Eiji is shown getting ready for bed, and starts removing Candroids he had hidden in his sleeves and boots, as well as wrapped around the inside of his shins.
    • Birth's Birth Buster applies exactly as well. The CLAW System is a subverted and/or justified version: While the parts are stored in the Receptacle Orbs on the armor, their sizes are... a little too big to fit in the orbs.
      • However, what is shown is that the CLAWS weaponry is formed from many tiny pieces that emerge from the orbs, and considering the birth system's way of forming seems to work via some sort of nanotechnology, this doesn't seem too far from that.
    • It's hard to tell if PuToTyra's Medagabryu is playing this straight or a subversion. OOO just drives his fist into the ground and yanks it out.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Ankh and Kougami's... "negotiation" in #6: The former likes to flail around his demonic arm dramatically along with a matching "dry" intonation in addition to having flamboyant golden hair; the latter is... a Batman-Gambitter CEO who really enjoys making cakes and likes to emphasize his speech at CERTAIN INTERVALS!!
    • They meet again in #16, but Ankh is much more quiet by then.
  • Harmony Versus Discipline: One interpretation of Movie Wars Core, directly shown when the ruthlessly ambitious Nobunaga criticizes the happy-go-lucky Eiji for having no greater desire than "tomorrow's underwear". As Nobunaga dies, he admires the sky is, saying he never really looked at it before, as well as calling the girl he'd been chasing after beautiful.
  • Harmless Electrocution: Eiji winds up getting shocked himself in #13 after dealing with trash Yummy using the Kuwagata's electric attack, end result with twitching body and smoking Einstein Hair.
  • Hey, It's That Place!: Toku fans will probably recognize a lot of locations from other shows.
  • Hidden Depths: As early as #2. Eiji's flashback suggests there's more to him than the happy exterior.
    • Also hinted with Goto, who, as the only survivor of the Foundation's motorcycle brigade, must somehow have escaped the Greeed - or Kougami has a reason to keep him alive.
  • Hikikomori: Eiji's old schoolmate in #33 is a former one.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: It MIGHT be a good idea to maybe... stick closer to Eiji sometimes if you are defenseless, Ankh. Because stealing medals from other Greeed is bound to make THEM want to come after you and take them back.
    • When Dr Maki decides to push Eiji straight into Greeed state by adding more purple medals to him - giving him just the right number of remaining medals to load the TajaSpinner for the kill blow on Maki himself in the finale.
  • Homage: The designs of OOO's Taka and Shachi Heads were apparently inspired by Bibyun and Bashaan of Shotaro Ishinomori's Choujin Bibyun - which is rather fitting, in a way, as the designs of Bibyun's heroes are said to have been taken from unused Rider concepts.
  • Humiliation Conga: #5: Uva found out that not only was he tricked by Kazari into doing his dirty work, but he also lost one of each type of his core Medals to OOO, leaving him very much in need of a little dignity.
  • Identical Stranger: Chiyoko is this to Dr. Maki's dead sister.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every title contains three words related to the current episode, in "<X> and <Y> and <Z>"[6] format.
  • I Have the High Ground: Ankh. Given that he represents the Bird Medals, it make sense.
  • I Just Want to Be Beautiful: The Victim of the Fortnight in #23 #24.
  • I Know Karate: The Orca-Panda Yummy in #30 does Chinese kungfu. The Game-Fowl Yummy in #40 does Muay Thai, with traditional music!
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Somewhat: Ankh, an avian Greeed, gets a chicken served by Hina in #9. His eyelid-twitching reaction was priceless, but he eats it anyway. Since he currently uses the body of a human (Hina's brother), it can be argued how much this constitutes cannibalism. Besides, considering he has complete access to Shingo's knowledge, he might just be dumbfounded at the irony of the situation.
  • Image Song: All of those combo songs in the Crowning Music of Awesome section? All of them are sung by Shu Watanabe, AKA Eiji Hino.
    • "Time judged all", the Image Song for the TaJaDor Combo, is a duet between Eiji and Ankh.
    • And "POWER to TEARER", the song for PuToTyra is a Duet between Eiji and Akira Kushida (who actually sings on the track, as opposed to simply chanting the combo names as on all the others.)
    • Date and Goto have been confirmed to receive a duet as well, entitled "Reverse/Re:birth".
  • Implacable Man: #48: Eiji, after absorbing a massive amount of Cell Medals, go up against Uva in TaToBa Combo, even landing a finisher while two Births had a hard time even landing a good hit.
  • Infant Immortality: Averted, both in Eiji's backstory and when the first two Pteranadon Yummies unleash their people-dissolving mist in an amusement park.
  • Instant Expert: One has to wonder how Eiji is using the Combo powers without any prior instruction scenes.
    • Or how Erika Satonaka gets to use the Birth Buster in #39 without the training Goto went through.
    • In Movie Wars Core, Nobunaga goes from barely capable of functioning to insanely savvy in all areas simply by spending an afternoon reading at the library.
  • Irony: A show with an anti-greed message an enjoying a simpler life... from a show with one its purposes being to sell toys? If it's not irony, it's damn close.
  • I See London: We see Eiji in #1 sporting nothing but his underwear. Probably cause for Memetic Mutation.
  • Japanese Beetle Brothers: A pair of Yummy based on Rhinoceros and Stag Beetles in #17.
  • Jaw Drop: #19 has Dr. Maki showing this reaction repeatedly along with silent Big Nos every time something happens to his doll.
  • Karmic Death: The death of the Original OOO. He meets his end when he tries absorbing the power of all the Greeed's Cores at once, turning him into the stone coffin the Greeed were sealed in.
    • After all his backstabbing, Kazari's final moments after Dr.Maki rips out all but his last, cracking Core certainly counts. And he was not missed.
  • Karma Houdini: Kougami.
  • Lampshade Hanging: In the first, Eiji notes how the belt sings. Ankh says not to worry about the song.
  • Large Ham: Kougami. Full stop and end of discussion.

"WONDERFUL!![7]"
"OOOOOOOOO!"
"Doctor Maki Dokkuta MAAki!"

    • Even Ankh has a moment like this when he plays the the Great Leader of Shocker in #27... because he gets paid for it.
    • Taken to Up to Eleven levels in #32:

"THERE'S A GOOD CHANCE HE'LL GO OUT OF CONTROL!" (to the point where HIS HAIRDO gets destroyed by his hamminess.)

  • Law of Inverse Recoil: Subverted. Goto gets thrown back when he tries the Birth Buster on his first attempt in #20. Date points out that it takes practice to get used to the kick, even when transformed.
  • Leitmotif: Most of the main characters have one.
    • "Open the Sky" for our carefree Eiji.
    • "The Schoolgirl of My Dreams" for Hina.
    • All four Greeed have one each: "Ruthless Uva", "Guileful Kazari", "Mighty Gamel", "Cold-hearted Mezool". Ankh, as the odd one out, gets "Ankh the Greeed". "The Other Bird Greeed" for Lost Ankh.
    • "Restaurant Cous Coussier": Possibly shared by Chiyoko and her restaurant.
    • And of course, "The Kogami Foundation".
    • "Foundation Conspiracy" for Dr. Maki. After he leaves the Kougami foundation and officially crosses to the dark side, he gets a more independent theme with "Doctor Maki's Ambition".
    • Kamen Rider Birth/Akira Date has his own theme as well.
    • The Game-Fowl Yummy in #39 gets one, though not necessarily unique: Since its fighting style is Muay Thai, its shadowboxing scenes are accompanied by traditional Muay Thai music.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: Eiji, whenever he's gonna fight.
    • Dr. Maki during episode 29 has shades of this, when he goes up against the Panda Whale Yummy.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Eiji and Ankh both avert the trope. Especially Eiji, who changes clothing sets pretty much every story arc; for a homeless drifter, he's got a pretty sizable wardrobe.
  • Literally Shattered Lives: The Ankylosaurus Yummy in #42 pulls this on a captive civilian in order to draw out OOO.
  • Living on Borrowed Time: A variation with Shingo, who was a few minutes from death when Ankh took over his body. This essentially keeps him on life-support as long as Ankh is attached to him, and if they're separated for too long, he'll be Killed Off for Real. #41 shows that Shingo was conscious the whole time, but apparently wasn't traumatized by the experience.
    • However, Shingo recovers enough in this stasis to finally reawaken briefly in #35 and is able to be awake permanently in #41, but Ankh forces Shingo back into stasis in #43.
  • Local Hangout: Chiyoko Shiraishi's Cous Coussier restaurant, decorated in whatever theme she feels like this week. Hina works there full time, and Eiji eventually gets a full time job there, AND Ankh is forced to live there, too.

Hina (after taking time off for exams): "Oh, a ninja theme?"
Chiyoko (dressed like a ninja): "Of course not. It's Old Edo."

  • Lost in Translation: For celebrating Kamen Rider's 1000th episode, Toei guest starred quite a few actors with the character for "thousand" in their name (among whom was Megumi's actress, as stated above). It mostly flew over Western fans' heads.
  • Luminescent Blush: EIJI, of all people, after he falls under the Ei-Sai (stingray-rhino) Yummy's spell in #23-24.
  • Mad Scientist: Maki
  • Made of Indestructium: The OOO Driver survives a shot from a cannon at point-blank range without a scratch.
    • Also, apparently the only thing that can destroy a Core Medal is the power of Giru's medals. We didn't know this at first, but later, it turns out the game just got more serious for the Greeeds, as now OOO has the power to actually kill a Greeed.
  • Meaningful Name: "Cell Medals"; they compose the body of Greeed and Yummy.
    • Ankh's name means "Eye" in Hindi, since his head Core is a Hawk. What's more, Ankh is also the Egyptian symbol of "the Key of Life": He's the only thing shielding Shingo Izumi from death. Nice pick, Kobayashi! Even better, later on, he develops a desire to become truly "alive".
    • Each of the other Greeed have names coming from Japanese words regarding greediness/desire:
      • Uva: "Ubau"/"to snatch away".
      • Kazari: "Kazaru"/"to decorate".
      • Gamel: "Gameru"/"to pilfer".
      • Mezool: "Mezuru"/"to love".
      • Ankh was originally going to be named "Ash" (Asshu) to mimic the word Assuru, which is "to oppress/dominate".
      • Giru the Dinosaur Greeed: "Uragiru"/"to betray"
    • Also, each known Greeed's name has to do with their manner of making Yummy.
      • Uva's Yummies rob the source of desire for their host.
      • Kazari's Yummies engulf their host when they mature.
      • Gamel tries to imitate whatever he sees from others, and have his Yummies fulfill his desires instead.
      • Mezool's Yummies draw from the host's obsession.
      • Ankh's Yummies, after "growing up", keep their host cooped up in a "nest" and "nurse" them (by fulfilling their desires), whether they want it or not.
    • Whether the prototype name "Ash" had an influence on this or not, the Cockatoo yummy definitely follows the meaning, even kidnapping the host away and forcibly "fullfilling" his desire.
    • "Medagaburyū" is a combination of three words: Medal; "Gabu", which is the sound effect for chomping/swallowing with a big gulp; and "Kyoryū" (Dinosaur). Basically, a Medal-eating Dinosaur (weapon).
  • Medium Awareness: The entire 'verse has gotten in on the act for the Milestone Celebration arc. Somehow, Kamen Rider is a show, and the characters act and talk about "one thousand episodes", with Eiji even acting surprised at first since he hadn't gotten in a thousand fights. And even though there's merchandise like collectible Shocker figurines, somehow Shocker did exist and a mook (conveniently named In Sendou[8]) has ended up in the Double-OOO continuity and- oh you know what? Just blame it all on Decade.
    • There's even some OOO footage in the screens of various Kamen Rider series that Kougami is watching.
    • Movie War Megamax indicates that the Showa era events occurred 40 years back, and still exists in public consciousness as Urban Legend that likely became inspiration for in-universe media, No Fourth Wall aside.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Sure, toys and collectibles are pretty much no-brainers, but ice-cream? Then again, it's not completely unrelated.

"Strawberry! Vanilla! Melon!"

    • Ironically, for a series centered around desires and dangers of their excession, OOO has the most exploitable merchandise potential than any of his predecessors - mostly from the titular character alone. You've got the (currently confirmed) 24 Medals, one Cell and one Core for each[9]; you've got different versions of OOO's Combo toys, one chain being part-swappable figures, plus Birth; and Bandai wants to release non-swappable figures for RANDOM COMBOS? Really makes you wonder if the "Greed" theme was decided by one of the creation staff as a satire of Toei and Bandai's annually increasing toy count after seeing how exploitable this series is gonna be...
    • Luckily, Kobayashi manages to avert blatant merchandising a la Goseiger, by assigning various uses and roles to all the merch in the series. For example, the Can-droids are given functions and used quite often. And the O-Medal Holder - essentially just a Medal Album - is turned into a make-up gift from Hina to Ankh!
    • Some hints and indications relating to the toys still remain though. Why do you think OOO's suit has a huge knob on his back inexplicably? It's a design leftover from the toys' part-swap mechanism. And since Cell Medals dissipate into thin air when their power runs out, why does the Birth Buster need a magazine to eject the used Medals into, instead of ejecting them directly? So that kids won't lose their Medals while playing with the toy version.
  • Mercy Kill: After Nobunaga is given his three Black Core Medals and loses control, forcing Eiji to kill him despite having once been his friend.
  • The Messiah: What Goto wants to be. Eiji is a small-scale representation of the trope.
  • Milestone Celebration: #27 and #28 celebrate the 999th and 1000th episode in the Kamen Rider franchise, respectively. For bonus points, #28 ended up being broadcast on the exact date the original Kamen Rider first premiered (though this was actually due to broadcast delays after the March 2011 earthquake.)
  • Mirror Match: OOO vs. Ankh's body in episode 29.
  • Money Spider: The Greeed are basically formed from a pile of Medals. Wounding them would cause them to bleed Medals, and then eventually killing them would result in an explosion of them.
  • Monster of the Week: The Yummy[10].
  • Monster Sob Story: The final Story Arc does this with most of the Greeed, showing how terrible it is being one and that with the exception of Kazari, the Greeed have understandable motivations and that simply what they are forces them to do outright horrible things for even the slimmest chance of having things humans take for granted but they desire more than anything.
  • Mood Whiplash: #19 features very comedic elements like the evolving Butt Monkey status of Dr. Maki and Goto's new job, but ends on a very serious note with Date thrown off a skyscraper and OOO losing all medals save one.
  • Mooks: Uva's Pseudo-Yummies, each made from half a Cell Medal. However, they're slow and awkward-moving like zombies and are generally made for distraction purposes.
  • Motion Capture Mecha: Date/Birth's CLAWS Scorpion is controlled in this fashion.
  • Motorcycle Fu: The Tora Can-droid was designed for this.
  • Mr. Exposition: Splendidly pulled off by Ankh in #2: When Eiji asks him to explain the situation, he suddenly starts reciting the Greeed's entire backstory; Eiji has to stop him because it's all Greeed Greek to him.
  • Mundane Utility: Eiji uses a Peafowl Candroid in #21 to cool down melted chocolate.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Ankh keeps telling Date not to call him "Anko".
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
    • Ankh's initial impressions give this vibe, hailing from the antagonists' group/species and giving the hero the means to oppose them. Then comes #2... and the impression flies out of the window. Let alone having a good heart, he's shown to be no less of a bastard than the other Greeed; even around the same level as Uva and Kazari, and that's saying something. If not because of his incomplete awakening and several factors hindering his plans, he'd have gotten on with his usual business, either alone or with the others. [11]
      • He ultimately plays this straight, as not only has he picked up some human traits, he's come to the realization that the Greeed are wasting their time trying to become complete and is pretty much fed up being a Greeed in general.
    • On the other hand, Mezool and Gamel are the ones with most traits to fit with the trope. Especially Gamel, who's pretty simple for a Greeed and content with whatever sustains his mood, a point Mezool also pointed out. She herself also stands out among the Greeed for her fair patronizing control over the group; other than that, though, she follows the Greeed routines like the others.
  • Mythology Gag: Pronouncing OOO as "Ōz", and the Tron Lines on the suit itself, are pretty obvious references to 555/Faiz/Phi's.
    • An Everyman Falling Into the Cockpit in Kamen Rider? Seen it. Twice. Are we seeing a pattern here?
    • Uva, the insect Greeed, looks like a composite of the Joker suit and the Chalice suit.
    • Red Right Hand, check. Former villain turned Anti-Hero who fights the bad guys to further his own interests, check. More than a human but not quite a Kamen Rider, check. Ankh is quickly shaping up to be the second coming of Riderman.
      • Red skin, check. Teaming up with the hero for their own reasons, check. Possessing a human, check. Violent, check. Member of the main kaijin who isn't entirely evil, check. Getting beaten up by a black haired, super strong woman, check. Seems like Ankh would get along with a certain hotheaded Imagin. And wouldn't you know it, he's pretty much at Hina's mercy starting from the end of #8. Later subverted as it's shown that he's undoubtedly a villain.
    • If Ankh was originally to be named Asshu, we'd have had an Eiji and an Ashu. Sorta.
    • The main four villainous Greeed wear belts that almost look exactly like Rider 1/2's belt, only grayed out. And when the Greeed are complete, said belts gain a golden center, similar to the belt of Kuuga's Rising forms.
    • This wouldn't be the first time we've seen an Izumi aiding a Rider.
    • OOO's three-part Combo names are awfully reminiscent of the Grongi (which neatly parallels their shared origin with the villains). For that matter, the one cat-based Greeed resembles the jaguar-based Unknowns. Both the Unknowns and the Yummy were designed by Yutaka Izubuchi.
    • OOO's first use of GataKiriBa's Doppelganger Attack involves a one-man All Riders Kick.
    • The TaJaDor Combo has FangJoker's eyes and a coin-loading Visor.
    • Hina gives Eiji a red scarf in #17, a subtle nod to the standard Scarf of Asskicking mostly older Riders have.
    • The idea of making a monster from a person's desire or wish is similar to the Imagin of Kamen Rider Den-O.
    • The Grasshopper Yummy, besides being based on the same insect as most Riders, bears a strong resemblance to Shin.
      • He even says "Toh!" when he jumps!
    • Shauta combo has the ability to turn OOO into a liquid form. We've seen that before on Kamen Rider Black RX with the Bio Rider form.
    • The cover story Eiji cooks up for Ankh - he claims Ankh grew up alone in a haunted house, not much different from Wataru.
    • Dr Maki mentioning that "Birth" was a bad name for a Rider - considering his obsession with the end, maybe his first choice for a name was already taken...
    • Not only do the Candroids borrow their entire premise from the Disc Animals, but both have a red hawk among them.
    • The Squid-Cat Yummy in #27-28 basically homages IkaDevil and Scissors Jaguar. And Maki's doll gains the same squeaking sound from a previous Creepy Doll.
    • Word of God states that the Kougami Foundation is based on Smart Brain as Smart Brain was the most realistic company seen in Kamen Rider with Satonaka being a toned-down version of Smart Lady. Now show of hands who wants to see Kougami be used to make the Rose Yummy or Horse Yummy?
    • We get another instance of a dinosaur-based berserker Rider form that very nearly mauls the main female protagonist. Of course, while Philip and Shotaro managed to control FangJoker, Eiji hasn't managed to control PuToTyra yet. In #36, however, Eiji is in full control.
    • A subtle gag: Both users of Kamen Rider Birth differ in their combat philosophy, with one relying on power and the second relying on technique (what with Date never bothering to read the manual and Goto liking manuals). The first was replaced by the second due to his injury. This all subtly references the original two Riders. It helps that Birth has a similar color scheme - bluish-green, black and silver, with eyes that light up red.
      • Scans show that Date will return as Birth Prototype, which is basically the Birth suit with some red highlights, just like how the Kamen Rider 2 costume is mostly just Rider 1 with red gloves and boots.
      • Only in Movie Wars Core do we see the Cell Medal that enters the Birth Driver dissipate after use, just like the Zeronos cards.
    • Complete Kazari looks like CycloneJokerXtreme, what with his black/tiger stripe thirds color scheme, with a white band up the middle. His death scene also looks creepily like Kamen Rider Femme from the Kamen Rider Ryuki movie.
    • OOO's Super TaToBa combo may be a nod to his predecessor Double's CycloneJokerExtreme, since they're both upgraded versions of the Rider's default form.
  • Named After Somebody Famous: Given the existence of Oda Nobunaga and a descendant of Akechi Mitsuhide in Movie Wars Core, and a descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu is the titular Shogun in Wonderful! Shogun and the 21 Core Medals, it can't be a coincidence that Birth's first user is named Date (although his finisher does involve putting ya guns on).
  • Never Trust a Trailer: The preview for #33 made viewers believe that Goto would finally transform into Birth; however, in the episode proper he decides he's not quite ready for it yet, and ends up getting restrained by the Yummy.
    • The preview for #46 seemed to imply that Eiji would go Greeed to fight a full powered Ankh, but what actually happened was Ankh had stopped and was apparently reconsidering things when Maki forced Eiji become a Greeed, forcing Ankh to assume his Greeed form in self defense.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: This show is a rather extreme example in that OOO's powers come from his Core Medals, and over the course of the show, the amount of medals he has fluctuates as he boths gains and loses medals due to the fact that both he and the Greeeds are after them.
  • Nice Guy: Right on cue; Eiji falls somewhere between Ryotaro and Shinji.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ankh thought he had a dimwitted puppet in Eiji, instead he ended up picking a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass and giving him a Transformation Trinket that allows him to oppose the Greeed as well as save lives which he apparently really wanted to do. Extra points for letting Eiji know he needs Eiji and the OOO Driver to be able to do much of anything and letting Eiji keep the OOO Driver with him at all times.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In #12, OOO gets hit with a particularly brutal team-up between Uva, Gamel and the Swallowtail Yummy. He only survives because Gamel claims right of The Only One Allowed to Defeat You.
    • He suffers it again in Let's Go Kamen Rider, from a group of Shocker mooks and kaijin headed by the Double Riders.
  • No Kill Like Overkill: PuToTyra Combo's Scanning Charge involves impaling the enemy, freezing them solid while they're still impaled, and then smashing them to bits with his tail.
  • Non-Indicative Name: "Birth" is, no matter how you look at it, not the kind of name you'd connect to a Kamen Rider. It's named so only because... Kougami named it himself.
    • Lampshaded by Maki in #19 when he mentions it's not the name he'd have chosen.
  • Non-Serial Movie: Wonderful! Shogun and the 21 Core medals plays this straight for once. The Reptile Core Medals are brought into present time by Eiji for the final fight, but never resurface in the series.
  • No Social Skills: Eiji cooks up this cover-story for Ankh. Chiyoko buys it.
  • Not Quite Dead: Kazari manages to get Mezool and Gamel to join him, allowing them to destroy Uva. After they leave, however, his Kuwagata Medal rises up and states he's not letting it end like this, revealing he somehow survived.
  • Off-the-Shelf FX: According to flashbacks in Shogun and the 21 Core Medals, conical glass flasks existed 800 years ago.
  • Oh Crap: Kazari, Gamel, and Mezool's reaction to Uva not being nearly as dead as they thought he was and teaming up with Ankh.
  • Omake: Two sets of Net Movies have been released in conjuction with Let's Go Kamen Riders and The Shogun and Core Medals respectively:
    • The first set plays out as a horoscope, matching all primary Riders (with Kamen Rider Kuuga's forms counted seperately) and several secondary Riders with every combination of the 12 Zodiac signs and 4 blood types for a stunning total of 48 short clips.
    • The second promises every live actor in OOO A Day in the Limelight in over 20 shorts, along with the full-color combos and even Kamen Rider Fourze.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: The leitmotif for Kousei Kougami and the Kougami Foundation is based on the trope; as a pure BGM, there aren't any lyrics, but the choir is just as strong as they come. A straight example would be Dr. Maki's all-time favourite, Lacrimosa.
    • "Time Judged All" starts with a stanza of chanting, albeit in German. The Stanza reads as Der Schnittpunkt von zwei Wünsche/Eine Leistung von zwei Wünsche, which translate to something along the lines of The Joining of Two Wishes/The Execution of two wishes. It fits quite well for the nature of the duet of the song, and the fact that it's Eiji and Ankh working together in one body. Sorta.
  • The Oner: One of the Shogun and the 21 Core Medals Net Movies has Eiji attempting to recite all 119 combo names (full, random, everything). An alternate version does all that in one take.
  • One-Winged Angel: The O-Yummies, following in the vein of the Gigandeaths, Sabbats, and giant Dopants.
    • Though, unlike the previously mentioned seasons, this is far rarer this time around.
    • Both Ankh at the end of #20 and Ankh (Lost) in his official introduction demonstrate this trope, if only for a brief moment.
    • Dr. Maki performs this, transforming into the Purple Greeed.
  • Oral Fixation Fixation: Only time will tell if it keeps up but Ankh in #2 spends more time with an ice lolly in his mouth than without.
    • Earns a Lampshade Hanging in #9 when Hina berates Ankh for feeding her brother's body with nothing but that, and makes him eat real food (see I'm a Humanitarian above)
    • Ankh (Lost) was shown to have an interest in lollipops, but it was only shown once or twice before being seemingly dropped or forgotten.
  • Our Homunculi Are Different: The Greeed were created by humans and gained wills of their own when one core medal from each of them was removed.
    • There is also Nobunaga, who is the cell medal based replica of Oda Nobunaga.
  • Painting the Fourth Wall: The Greeed's respectively-colored curtains: They're definitely there, but used as abstract, symbolic props, without anyone addressing their existence.
  • Paper Fan of Doom: Goto uses a large one as an attempt to knock some sense back into a completely lovestruck Eiji in #24, but it fails.
  • Parental Marriage Veto: Parodied in some of the Netmovies, where it turns out that Hina's father is General Shadow.
  • Parent Service: For some, Satonaka and the Siamese Cat Yummy are the main sources. For others, Eiji being on-screen in nothing but boxer shorts.
  • Perma-Shave: Eiji always looks well-groomed for a drifter. Applies to Ankh as well, as they are both homeless during the first few episodes and sleep in a park.
  • Phlebotinum Overload: Kougami takes advantage of this in OOO Wonderful by having Gara use Eiji's desire to destroy the world. His desire is so huge that it, in combination with Loophole Abuse, breaks her power and returns everything to normal.
  • Police Brutality: In the OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders movie, Shocker has taken over the world. And Shocker-infleunced police forces are the first in line to defend their rule against anti-Shocker resistance, which includes beating the snot out of those refugee kids.
  • Pokémon-Speak: The Candroids.
  • Poke the Poodle: Ankh stealing popsicles from kids.
  • Precision F-Strike: The fan-sub gave Ankh one in #28.
  • "Previously On...": "These three things have happened last week...!"
  • Product Placement: Ankh gets attached to an iPhone that's apparently pretty useful in finding Medals. And he doesn't shy away from showing it off or saying how useful it is...
    • Eventually he suddenly manages to obtain an iPad. There's even an application that lets him keep track of all the Core Medals being found.
    • Of course, the product placement is a little ironic considering that this is a series in which the Monsters of the Week are created from greed. Plus, said product placement is being done by a Greeed who is greedy for the other Greeed's medals...
  • Prop Recycling: the Homage to past Kamen Rider in #28 involves a Zerg Rush of past Mooks, including the Leo Soldiers, modified Zectroopers that actually appeared in Den-O before.
    • The Dinosaur Yummy costumes from Movie War Core are re-used as Dr. Maki's first Yummies in #32.
  • Puppeteer Parasite: Ankh's role to Shingo Izumi's body.
    • Kazari's parasitic Yummies can do the same to their hosts.
  • Ramming Always Works : ALL RIDERS BREAK !
  • Read the Freaking Manual: The Self-Destruct Mechanism was explained in Birth's manual, which Date didn't read. Goto did.
  • Red Right Hand: Ankh; it's really all there is to him! And it shows in his wardrobe.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Kougami and Dr. Maki are an interesting case, and opposites in numerous ways. Kougami wears red (or at least rather bright colors), is very loud and outspoken, never seems to leave his office, and is always talking about birthdays and the starts of things. In contrast, Dr. Maki wears a blue shirt under his black jacket, is very quiet and stoic so long as you don't knock his doll off his arm, is seen all over the place, and is much more concerned with the conclusions to things.
    • The show also presents Eiji and Goto in contrast. Goto is stoic, serious, quiet, and focuses on a really big picture [Read: The World] concerning helping people; Eiji is emotional, kind, quite lively, and prefers pouring his strength and soul into doing what he can for the people he can focus on at the present.
    • One could say that of the Greeeds, Uva and Kazari are this. Uva is Hot-Blooded and short tempered, while Kazari is calm, collected and a schemer.
      • And yet the opposite is also true, with Kazari trying to dope himself up using Mezool and Gamel's medals while Uva hesitates due to what happened to them and instead picks a safer means of gaining strength, in spite of how long it would take. Likewise, while Kazari's own schemes are guaranteed to get him desirable results in the short term, Uva was perfectly content to patiently sit back.
  • Regular Caller: Ankh can sense a Yummy's presence; probably applies to all Greeed in general.
    • Date, Goto, and Satonaka, lacking a Greeed buddy, use a Gorilla Candroid that goes off whenever a Yummy is active.
    • Eiji, after absorbing the purple Core Medals, gains the ability to sense Yummy as well.
  • Rule of Three: It'd probably be easier to count the instances where it doesn't apply...
    • Even the toys have it: The Medal Scanner takes three AAA batteries.
  • San Dimas Time: unlike the usual sort of Time Travel, Gara in The Movie rotates a whole section of the city into the Edo period (presumably rotating the same chunk from the past into the present as well), so time on both sides runs unhindered, allowing Gara to interact with either side in real time.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The Greeed free themselves from their containment, and waste no time in wreaking havoc.
  • Secret Test of Character: Date's defection in #37 was a ruse not only to keep an eye on Dr. Maki, but also to give Gotou the motivation he needed to become Birth.
  • Self-Destruct Mechanism: Doctor Maki installed one in Kamen Rider Birth and intends to use it on Date. Fortunately, Goto had deactivated it beforehand.
  • Set Bonus: Similar to how OOO's single colored Combos unlock a hidden power, the Greeeds each have a powerful ability when they are at full power.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The plot of Let's Go Kamen Rider revolves around fixing the past and preventing Shocker from winning.
  • Shadow Discretion Shot: Dr. Maki's transformation into a Greeed.
  • Shirtless Scene: Pretty much how we're introduced to Eiji. Also pantless aside from his signature underwear.
    • Date has this in #24, revealing that he is pretty ripped.
  • Shout-Out: A bit coincidental to ignore: The Siamese Yummy in #13 has scalpels "equipped" on her fingers like claws, taken after her host. This looks exactly like how, in Blassreiter #1, the very first monster fused its hand with nearby scalpels. Both monsters are also "female". Lastly, both OOO and Blassreiter are Kobayashi's works[12].
  • Shown Their Work: Browse through this page and count how many times "Fridge Brilliance" is brought up or linked to. Alternatively, see how sizable the Fridge page is for just one TV series. Evidently a lot of thought has been put into strengthening the core concepts. Thumbs up for the creation team!
  • Signature Style: Dang it, Kobayashi; haven't you creeped us out enough with the Gedoshu and Ayakashi last year?!
    • A Nice Guy suddenly got involved in a conflict he knew nothing about beforehand, and given powers to fight as a result. Shinji and Ryotaro, meet your new kōhai!
  • Simple Score of Sadness: Track 11 on the second soundtrack, fittingly called "Collapse of Friendship". The most notable scene in which it's played is in #48, when Ankh bids his farewell to Eiji.
  • Skyward Scream: OOO gave out a big one as the battle cry in his first transformation to GataKiriBa in #6. To give a good measure: It's a loud, deep-lung roar that lasts for 11 seconds. It even comes complete with a burst of green aura that made Ankh flinch a bit.
  • Slouch of Villainy: Though he's an anti-hero, Ankh is incapable of sitting any other way. The other Greeed also sometimes indulge in this, with Kazari being the most frequent offender.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Mezool, the aquatic animal Greeed, is the only female among them. She's even blue.
  • Sorry I Left the BGM On: In #10, there appears to be a soundtrack of "Happy Birthday" playing over the pre-credits intro - until Maki changes the track on Kougami's radio so he can have ominous background music (specifically, Mozart's Lacrimosa) for the rest of the scene.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: While the Greeed were massacring Kougami Foundation's motorcycle brigade, Kougami was singing along to an operatic adaptation of Happy Birthday to You. Seriously, the opening scene's level of disturbing was brought Up to Eleven because of this.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": His name could be spelled as "OOO", "Ozu", "Ouz", "O's", etc. In the Toei Hero Max Vol. 34 magazine he was "Ooz". The official website finally decided on OOO.
    • The Lion-Tiger-Cheetah form was briefly and officially "LaTorarTah" before "LaTorarTar Combo" was decided upon by the production company.
      • The Cheetah Legs (or "Cheater Legs" according to the official lyrics of "Ride on Right time") cause this problem in all other forms, where the last part of the name is either "-arTar", "-ieTar", or "-uTar" (e.g. TakaTorarTar, TakaKirieTar, and TakaUTar) depending on the arm parts.
    • The Rhino-Gorilla-Elephant form is officially "SaGohZo Combo".
    • The Hawk-Peafowl-Condor form is officially "TaJaDol Combo", and the Condor Medal is officially the "Condol Medal". This was also briefly "TaJyaDol"
      • The weapon acquired in this form is the "TaJa Spiner", which was also briefly the "TaJya Spiner", and never "Spinner".
    • "Greeed" is officially spelled with three es.
    • The bike has been given three names throughout the course of the program: "Ride-Vender" (as seen in magazines), "Ride Vendor" (as seen in the show), and "RideVendor" (as seen on the website).
  • Stalker with a Crush: Eiji's old schoolmate Kitamura acts like this towards him, even going so far as to abduct Eiji's friends to "help" him. A rare homosexual example.
  • Stealth Pun: Possibly: Kazari's head has "locks" on it, reminding of the Predator; and his Core Medals are all Panthera predators.
    • In addition to the actor-name "thousand" puns for the milestone episode (see Lost in Translation above), it might not be a coincidence that a Rider called OOO is the one celebrating 1000 episodes.
  • The Stoic: Mainly Goto and Dr Maki. Satonaka to a relatively lesser extent. Do they ever smile?
    • Goto started to show some extra character dimensions by #12, though his stoicism largely remains. Even Kougami calls him out on his strong pride.
  • The Strategist: Ankh plans for Eiji to defeat the other Greeed and collect all Medals so that Ankh can get his body back and become the "Multi-King" with their acquired powers.
  • Super Drowning Skills: Ep 15. While hurling the Rider into a river is practically a Once a Season tradition, Ankh jumps in after him and turns out fine.
  • Super Strength: Hina Izumi, despite apparently not owing to Medals, or anything supernatural whatsoever. By the series' end, we don't know what makes her so strong and its nature never becomes a plot point. Early in the series she was referred to as a "power type" in Gratuitous English, so it may be that in this universe there are more where she came from.
  • Surprisingly Good English: The opening theme's English is, while odd, not incorrect.
  • Take My Hand: While only really played straight during the finale (see Catch a Falling Star), the concept of reaching your hand out to help someone else is a subtle theme throughout the entire series. During the finale, Eiji realizes that this was the lesson he had to learn, having spent so long offering his hand to others and finally willing to accept help from the people who care about him.
  • Team Mom: Mezool is ridiculously patronizing and its pretty apparent that she holds a lot more influence in the group than we initially had thought. She not only drops a few medals to keep Gamel in shape and share her cell medals to all, but she was able to mediate Uva and Kazari into giving each other back their respective medals.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Deconstructed in #13. Eiji busts out a full Combo against a lone Yummy with no backup, and as a result is too exhausted to pursue it after it manages to get away.
    • PuToTyra's Scanning Charge is kind of like this. First, the Wind Stingers impale the opponent to hold it in place, then the External Fins generate a cool breeze to freeze the monster, then finally, swings the Tail Divider to shatter it.
  • Theme Tune Rap: The opening mixes this with ska.

You count the Medals, one, two, and three! Life goes on, anything goes, coming up OOO!

  • This Is Sparta: In episode 24: "Could this be... the love combo?! Love! LOVE! LOOOOOOVE!!!"
  • Tim Taylor Technology: Pretty much any power inequivalency can be resolved by using more Cell Medals. This is taken to its logical extreme in #48, when Eiji absorbs literally millions of Cell Medals into the Medagabryu for a single strike against Dr. Maki.
  • Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: In Shogun and the 21 Core Medals, Gara's big plan involves harvesting the greed of all the cityfolk with offers of money, drawing one or two Cell Medals per person, that go straight into fueling his Doomsday Machine. Harvesting Eiji alone causes it to overload.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Ankh sure loves popsicles.
    • Kougami and his birthday cake. He even has his assistant keep track of his employees' birthdays so he has an excuse to bake them, though he's seen baking extra cakes for no reason and having Satonaka eat those. She even complains about the sugar intake her job yields in one of her rare off-duty scenes.
    • Date and his Oden.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The "Multi King" plot device is brought up as early as in promotional materials. Though a few characters mention "a 'container' for the Core Medals", the topic is mostly left untouched within the first third of the series.
    • In an invoked case, OOO's Combos were discovered by hacking the DX OOO Driver toy long before their respective debuts.
    • Speaking of the toys, OOO's Combo Change figures all have a small slit at the top of the helmet. Whether it indicates a possible add-on/power-up is anyone's guess.
  • Tranquil Fury: Goto in #38 when he thought that Date was dead.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted. We see Eiji dodging attacks while carefully timing the medal switches and scan, and the Owl Yummy in #34 interrupted him while he was inserting medals.
    • But played straight and justified in #35 when the Unicorn Yummy attacks Goto and Date, Birth's henshin sphere deflects the Unicorn's attack, made more obvious as Birth has to make a quick head dodge the second the sphere ends to avoid a head shot.
    • And again played straight and justified in #37 when OOO's henshin sphere deflects the Yummy's attack.
    • Subverted in #44. While #37 shows that OOO's henshin rings can deflect attacks, Gamel's massive Spam Attack either hit enough times or was strong enough to interfere with the transformation sequence and interrupt it.
  • Trash the Set: The Cous Coussier in Movie Wars Megamax.
  • Village Motorcycle: The Ride Vendor is a literal example, since anyone with a Cell Medal can use one.
  • Victim of the Week: Like Den-O, the kaijin in this show come to people, and make Yummies out of them. They usually have problems that Eiji has to take care of.
    • #1-2: Averted at first, with two different Yummy over 2 eps (one of which is our first One-Winged Angel-type) from two different human hosts who are never characterised.
    • #3-4: A Big Eater.
    • #5-6: A Rich Bitch.
    • #7-8: A gambling-addict husband. Not a Yummy host, as the Yummy was created by Gamel, but nonetheless in need of Eiji's help.
    • #9-10: A Mad Bomber.
    • #11-12: A traveller.
    • #13-14: A Mad Doctor.
    • #17-18: A Kendo student.
    • #19-20: The Stool Pigeon. Again a case of the 'victim' not being the Yummy host. Instead he's the target of the Yummy host, an escaped prisoner out on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against those who got him locked up.
    • #21-22: A Well-Intentioned Extremist with a strong sense of righteousness. He likes having the Yummy around, because it attacks people he sees as wicked.
    • #23-24: A woman, an old acquaintance of Date, who wants to be as beautiful and enticing as her sister.
    • #25-26: A retiring boxer.
    • #27-28: An actor portraying a Shocker Mook, who is in fact an actual former Mook. Similar to the Victim of #21-22, he is delighted by the prospect of having spawned a Yummy, even referring to it as his own Shocker Kaijin. His wish is to defeat all Kamen Riders as revenge for all the mooks, monsters, and Big Bads that the Riders have beaten down over the years.
    • #29-30: Doctor Maki.
    • #31-32: A guy who wants to show his gratitude to the family of his dead teacher who helped him to get out of bad influence.
    • #33-34: An old schoolmate of Eiji.
    • #35-36: A schoolmate of Hina who only gets the 2nd place in a fashion competition where Hina wins and gets a business proposition by a famous designer. The schoolmate is understandably jealous. The Unicorn Yummy is created from her discarded trophy. Hina is kind of a secondary Victim of the Week because the Unicorn Yummy literally destroys her dream of becoming a fashion designer.
    • #37-38: Played with for once. Either Chiyoko, who's one of dozens of Yummy victims for a change, or Date himself, since his condition finally gets focus.
    • #39-40: A neighborhood association president who put up surveillance cameras throughout the town, intending to catch crimes, even minor misdemeanors. Turns out it's his wife who's the real host, using the surveillance to gain a feeling of power.
    • #41-42: Another interesting example. Arguably the victim is Ankh, who was absorbed by Lost Ankh at the end of 40, and his plight had absolutely nothing to do with the Monster of the Week.
    • #43: A man who wishes to be the only man in existence which leads his Yummy to beat up every man it comes across. Interestingly, this Victim of the Week isn't the focus of the episode at all. In fact, he only served to bring Uva back to life.
    • Movie War Core: A ballerina who desires to dance after breaking her leg. Created from her ballet shoes.
    • Shogun and the 21 Core Medals: A boy whose mother had been absorbed into Gara, who takes on her appearance. Most of the cityfolk could also count, since Gara also harvests all their greed to fulfill his goal.
  • Villainous BSOD: #5: Ankh made Uva realize he was tricked by Kazari. The latter didn't get much time to get angry, since Ankh took advantage of it for a truly one-sided beatdown, and stole a whole set of his Core Medals.
  • Villain Team-Up: In Lets Go Kamen Rider, the "Shocker UN" is composed of every Big Bad group from then on, apparently because the Kamen Riders never rose up to stop him in that timeline.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: The whole reason Ankh sticks with Eiji rather than teaming up with Kazari, who's just as underhanded as him.

Ankh: "Eiji and I may have different objectives, and we may undermine each other... but at least we're honest about it."

    • In #15, Kazari is dumbfounded as to why Ankh and Eiji would continue working together after arguing over the importance of Cell Medals or Hina resulted in the loss of nearly all of their Medals.

Kazari: "Didn't the two of you break up?!?"
Ankh: "There's nothing TO break up!"

  • Wham! Episode: #19 has the Medal Case being stolen and Kazari absorbing the Lion, Kamakiri, and Cheetah Medals.
    • Scratch that, any episode that ends with Eiji losing tons of medals then he had previously.
    • These three things happened in episode 29. First: Kougami reveals to Maki he knows about him and Kazari and is not happy. Second: Kazari, fed up with Maki's whining, creates a Yummy out of his desire that ends up targeting Chiyoko. And Third: We find out that Ankh's entire body exists as a separate entity with its own personality.
    • #30: We find out that Dr. Maki himself - as a child! - killed his sister, and he breaks ties with the Kougami foundation to cause The End of the World as We Know It.
    • #31: Eiji apparantly has begun to turn into the Dinosaur Greeed.
    • Scratch that, he's just being corrupted by the medals. MAKI is becoming the Dinosaur Greeed! And he can make powerful Yummy's from NOTHING.
    • #35: A nonstop roller coaster of Wham: Date is beginning to suffer debilitating headaches from a bullet in his head he received during his time in the civil war, Uva is attempting to resurrect Gamel and Mezool, and probably biggest of all, Shingo Izumi, the supposedly comatose Puppeteer Parasite of Ankh, has recovered enough that he's regaining consciousness.
      • Really, the subsequent episodes have had their shares of wham: #36 ends with Eiji in control of PuToTyra, Mezool and Gamel revived by Uva, but betraying the latter to join Kazari. #37 has Akira Date switching sides after Dr Maki makes him an offer too good to refuse.
    • Nearly every episode since #40 has been a wham episode, and much like Double, they combine to make a Wham Arc.
      • #40: Ankh is completely absorbed by Ankh (Lost) and, once again, it seems nearly all of their Core Medals are lost.
      • #41: Ankh managed to save all the medals again just like in #19; Eiji is slowly turning into a Greeed himself, the more he uses his medals; and Izumi Shingo is BACK.
      • #42: Ankh (Lost) is Killed Off for Real as the Medagaburyu could break Core Medals. Ankh comes back and confronts Shingo.
      • #43: Ankh betrays Eiji, possesses Shingo's body again and helps with Uva's revival.
      • #44: Dr. Maki officially becomes the purple Greeed and Kazari becomes complete, but is destroyed for good soon after.
      • #45: Ankh has absorbed most of Kazari's Core Medals, the Medal Case is stolen again, and Gamel and Mezool become complete, but Mezool is destroyed for good soon after.
      • #46: Akira Date returns, Gamel is destroyed for good, Ankh seems to have another change of heart, and then Eiji was a Greeed
      • #47: Ankh's Heel Face Turn is confirmed but is left dying by Dr. Maki, Eiji's desire is revealed to be power and is willing to grab Dr. Maki's cores or absorb thousands of cell medals to get it, and Uva becomes complete.
        • And to cap off all that, in the Medal Count screen at the end of #47, Eiji has no Medals left aside from Purple Cores, and the stone frame just turned into a mass of medals.
      • #48: Naturally, since it's the finale and all.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Kougami's utter fascination with the concept of beginnings and birth; to give a measure, he outright stated his nondiscrimination of the concept, whether the topic of beginning is good or bad. He also makes birthday cakes non-stop while playing Happy Birthday to You... so there.
    • And on the other side of the spectrum stands Dr. Maki, interested in the concept of ends and death. And his favorite music is Lacrimosa. For those unfamiliar, Lacrimosa is the final movement in Mozart's final work, left unfinished due to his death. It doesn't get more symbolic than that, folks...
    • According to Kougami, OOO is written as the infinity symbol with an extra 'O' in front. The implications is that OOO's power is possible to go beyond infinity.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: In #28, especially when OOO confronts the ex-Shocker mook turned stuntman.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Dr. Maki views the Greeed as mere objects with no real life or value instead of sentient beings. Ankh decides to do something about that in accordence to himself.
  • Where Are They Now? Epilogue
    • With Ankh gone, Shingo is back to normal, and is resuming his daily life alongside Hina.
    • Goto is back to being a cop.
    • Date is back to helping people as a doctor in Africa.
    • Kougami is... still himself. So is Satonaka. Chiyoko is pretty much the same person as well.
    • Eiji is back to being a wanderer. However, he carries around with him the iPhone Ankh used to carry, which he now uses to keep in touch with the others. As well as the two pieces of Ankh's Taka Core, hoping that he'll meet his friend again someday. Unbeknownst to him, though...
      • After finally feeling fulfilled in 800 years, Ankh (assumingly) dies as a being rather than a mass of Medals. As such, he lingers on as a spirit, and is following Eiji. He makes sure Eiji doesn't notice though.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: When Goto introduces the new Electric Eel Can-droids in #12, Eiji freaks out, mistaking them as snakes.
  • The Worf Effect: Date in Movie Wars Megamax.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: All of the song titles for the combos are puns on the names of the combos. Since all the titles are in Gratuitous English, some of the puns are fairly cringe-worthy.
    • Tighten Up (Tatoba)
    • Ride On Right Time (Latoratah)
    • Gotta Keep It Real (Gatakiriba)
    • Sun Goes Up (Sagozo)
    • Time Judged All (Tajador)
    • Shout Out (Shauta)
    • POWER to TEARER (Putotyra)
  • Wrestler in All of Us: Birth pulls off a Hurricanrana, a leg drop, (attempts) a sleeperhold, and a surfboard stretch, all in quick succession, on an undeveloped Yummy in #33. The out-of-ring antics continue in #34, #35 and #38, and a brief one squeezed into Shogun and the 21 Core Medals. Makes one wonder if Date used to be in puroresu...
  • Wrong Turn At Albuquerque: Eiji ends up in Brazil after the climax of Movie War CORE.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Ankh and Kazari seem to be in a match of this with one another. This is best shown in #19 and #20 when Kazari performs The Plan to take back all of his Cores by having his newest Yummy lure the Riders in. However, Ankh managed to see this coming and loaded his Medal Holder with Cells to keep Kazari's last remaining Core from him. Yes, Kazari ends up with all but one, but it's still a rather impressive show of how Not So Different the two of them really are.
  • Your Answer to Everything: Eiji and clean underwear for tomorrow. Gets egregious when he attempts to appease kids during #10 and even Shogun and the 21 Core Medals with some spares. Seriously?
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: #40 ends with Hina just about ready to accept Ankh as he is... cue Lefty lying in wait to absorb Ankh back into himself, taking all his Core Medals with him.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Mezool after she and Gamel return in episode 36. Also, Hina in the Wonderful movie.
  1. ↑ Yokubō
  2. ↑ The same can be said about every Random Combo OOO uses, as they are shown to be not as strong as the single-colored Combo forms, but are still quite useful in battle.
  3. ↑ The first time a primary Rider's main form isn't the Jack of All Stats.
  4. ↑
    1. 42 takes this even further when its revealed that PuToTyra can destroy Core Medals.
  5. ↑ Primarily used by PuToTyra Combo, although the other Combo forms can summon and use this weapon through the power of the purple Core Medals in Eiji's body. However, PuToTyra is the only form that can control its Bazooka Mode. Episode 45 reveals that when used by a different Combo, the Medagabryu can execute ice-powered slashes.
  6. ↑ In Japanese, "<X> to <Y> to <Z>".
  7. ↑ Subarashii!!
  8. ↑ "Sendou In" sounds like "Sentouin/Combatant", the term used for Shocker Mooks
  9. ↑ And good luck if you're a completionist, because you're gonna be buying every single toy released, since the Cell Medals are scattered throughout all of them.
  10. ↑ A combination of "Yokubō"/"Greed, Desire" and "Mummy". It may also refer to the English word describing something delicious, which alludes to their consumption of whatever the original human desires.
  11. ↑ For the sake of information, though, Kobayashi tends to go bait-and-switch on character impressions. Pretty often.
  12. ↑ Even though she might not have created the Siamese Yummy's design, the scalpel are undoubtedly carried over from a character she wrote.
  13. ↑ Though technically Mammoth Ranger isn't based on a dinosaur.
  14. ↑ abare
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