Series / Kamen Rider Outsiders

Spoilers for all preceding Kamen Rider entries, including Kamen Rider Geats, will be left unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

"What's the Outsiders?"

"Zein has a zero-tolerance policy against malice. It seeks to rule the world with an iron fist. Based on its understanding, Zein has come into the conclusion that in order to expunge all malice, it needs the extinction of mankind."

—Gai Amatsu

Kamen Rider Outsiders is a crossover anthology series exclusive to Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club. It is a continuation of the Kamen Rider Ex-Aid/Kamen Rider Zero-One crossovers Kamen Rider Genms -The Presidents- and Kamen Rider Genms -Smart Brain and the 1000% Crisis-, now expanded to feature villain and Anti-Hero Riders from across the franchise (in rough order of appearance):

• From Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Kuroto Dan/Kamen Rider Genm, Nico Saiba
• From Kamen Rider Zero-One: Gai Amatsu/Kamen Rider Thouser, Horobi/Kamen Rider Horobi, Ark/Kamen Rider Ark-Zero, Is/Kamen Rider Zero-Two
• From Kamen Rider 555: Mari Sonoda, the Arch Orphnoch, and Canon Foreigner Smart Queen as the new Kamen Rider Delta
• From Kamen Rider Double (and various other tie-ins): Foundation X
• From Kamen Rider Decade: Daiki Kaito/Kamen Rider Diend
• From Kamen Rider Ryuki: Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja
• From Kamen Rider Saber: Desast (now Kamen Rider Desast), Ren Akamichi/Kamen Rider Kenzan
• From Kamen Rider Blade: Sakuya Tachibana/Kamen Rider Garren
• From Kamen Rider Drive: Dr. Tenjuro Banno (formerly Gold Drive, now Bronze Drive), Brain/Kamen Rider Brain
• From Kamen Rider Revice: George Karizaki/Kamen Rider Juuga, (Kamen Rider) Vice
• From Kamen Rider Den-O: Yuto Sakurai (formerly Kamen Rider Zeronos, now Kamen Rider Zein)^SPOILERSThe Yuto Sakurai in this series is an (apparently tragic) alternative timeline counterpart of the original
• From Kamen Rider Geats: Tsumuri

When a mysterious, self-proclaimed Benevolent A.I. called Zein seeks to extinguish malice and concluded the extinction of humanity as the necessary step to establish new world order. With the Balance Between Good and Evil hanging by a thread, a resurgent Foundation X returns to start a top secret project to oppose the threat of Zein's authoritarianism, by gathering villains from previous Kamen Rider series. With the fate of all humanity at stake, and most of the Earth's stalwart heroes aligned with Zein to further its goals, these villainous Riders are mankind's only last line of resistance.

Episode 0, which serves as a prologue to the series, was released on October 16, 2022. The first episode was released in late January 2023, and new episodes air every three months. A second season of Outsiders was teased after the end of episode 4, which is slated to be released in May 2024.

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Tropes:

A-E

• Adaptation Deviation: Ouja Survive in Outsiders uses the Survive Mugen card to access the form, as opposed to the original SIC Hero Saga where he uses Survive Shippu.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Zein may look like a Benevolent A.I. on the surface, but even redeemed villains such as Desast are not safe from its authoritarian and prejudiced view against evil shows it is more of a despot than the so-called paragon of good intentions it claims itself to be. Episode 4 takes a step further, it can not only bodyjack a human host, but also mimic someone's voice and uses it to trick a CEO of a video game company into relaunching a Deadly Game.
• Actor Allusion: The first promotional images of Tachibana's return show him researching Kamen Rider Decade's Rider Cards, specifically trying to create Final KamenRide: Fourze Cosmic States from the regular Fourze card and a Rouze Card. Tachibana's actor was previously the Libra Zodiarts in Fourze.
• Alternate Self: The Yuto Sakurai who transforms into Kamen Rider Zein is an entirely different character than the one we know. He instead comes from a Bad Future where a possibly tragic fate befell Airi Nogami.
• All for Nothing: The heroic Riders' blind faith in Zein ultimately did more but to condemn humanity into self-destruction than supposedly protecting them. Not helped that they used a forbidden video game that kills people in real time to power up the Zein Driver. As soon Zein is outed as a villain, Horobi, Tachibana, and Brain can only look on in utter despair with the entire human race now under the mercy of another rogue A.I. dead set in wiping out all sentient life and place the world under stasis where malice is rendered non-existent.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Zein proved to be superior to the Ark and views itself as such, both as artificial intelligence and their respective Rider forms. Best demonstrated in their fight in episode 4, Kamen Rider Zein singlehandedly dominates Ark-Zero with the latter unable to land a single hit, and if Brain hadn't interfered, the Ark would be completely erased from existence. It's no wonder that even Banno is also powerless once he found himself at Zein's mercy. Combat aside, Zein is able to hijack a human host and even mimic someone's voice to trick a video game company into relaunching a Deadly Game. Something that the Ark isn't capable of.
• Antagonist Title: The eponymous Kamen Rider Outsiders is a group of villains from previous Kamen Rider series from Heisei to Reiwa gathered by Foundation X to oppose the authoritarian goals of a seemingly Benevolent A.I. known as Zein.
• The Antichrist: Zein is the AI equivalent of one. It proclaims itself as a Benevolent A.I. and a paragon of justice; when in truth, it is actually a Dark Messiah bent on creating a new world where the concept of evil is rendered non-existent, and bereft of freedom and individuality, not helped that the Kamen Riders who swore loyalty to Zein also act as allegories to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It can even manifest digitized Holy Halos behind it and its host during the Transformation Sequence for the namesake Kamen Rider, an indicator of its divine might over other multiverses and timelines. Once outed as a villain, Zein betrays its own followers, possesses Yuto against his will and proceeds to seduce humanity into engineering their own self-destruction.
• Arc Welding:
  • Several, unrelated web-exclusive stories end up being joined together in a single story line, all while involving Foundation X.
  • The Rider Cards and Rouze Cards operate on similar-enough principles that they can be merged to upgrade the former.
  • Ep. 2 reveals that Zein plans to fuse every Rider world together to destroy all evil Riders, effectively connecting every season together.
  • Zein's goal, as revealed in episode 4, is to relaunch Kamen Rider Chronicle and by using the game as propaganda against the Outsiders, may allow it to produce cannon fodder of Ride Players against the villains so that players getting a game over means getting converted into data for Zein to preserve for its utopian ideals.
• As Long as There Is Evil: Zein seeks to deconstruct this trope. Giving villains like Gai Amatsu, Ark, or even Foundation X a very good reason to oppose it. In order to eliminate all malice within humanity, Zein comes into conclusion that humanity's extinction as a necessary evil, and plans to speed up the process by using Kamen Rider Chronicle to trick humanity into setting up their own self-destruction, which results in a World of Silence.
• Back from the Dead: Foundation X uses the power of the Odin Advent Deck to bring back Desast. Additionally, they somehow managed to bring back Horobi offscreen.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Episode 4 ends with Zein emerging the victor, by allowing Garren King Form destroy Ark-Zero after it was weakened from its earlier battle with Kamen Rider Zein. After the battle, Zein hijacks Yuto's body via the Zein Driver, revealing its true colors to its associates as it tricks Genm Corp. into relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle by impersonating Nico Saiba, with the intention of speeding up humanity's self-destruction.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: The underlying theme of the spinoff, with Zein embodying "good" and Ark (and by extension, Foundation X) representing "evil" within the unified Kamen Rider universe. It's played with though since it's suggested Zein is nowhere as benign as it claims to be, and several of the characters Zein designates as "evil" are at most morally ambiguous. In episode 4, Tachibana destroys the Ark while freeing Horobi from its clutches, which only upsets the balance and serving as the catalyst for Zein to come out as the ultimate evil of the anthology.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Before being ambushed by Banno in episode 3, Horobi vows to personally destroy the Ark in order to expunge all malice. The following episode, Horobi kept good with his promise, but at the expense of getting injured by Garren King Form's finisher. Not only both Horobi and Tachibana have broken the Balance Between Good and Evil by destroying the Ark, they instead replaced it with someone far worse: Zein.
• Benevolent A.I.: Subverted. Zein appears to be benevolent as it claims to be, but the more it shows its authoritarian tendencies suggests that it is anything but.
• Beware the Superman: The secondary theme of the anthology. It shows a good example on how our favorite bug-eyed motorcycle-riding Henshin Heroes we all know and love can become a threat to the entire world if they take their self-righteousness way too far. Zein represents all the worst traits of every heroic Kamen Rider under the guise of a Benevolent A.I. that emboldens the despotic tendencies of its followers to protect the world, and therefore deconstructing the concept of Kamen Riders in general. Matters not helped by the fact that much like Kamen Rider Decade and Ohma Zi-O, who all have the notoriety of their existence being feared across the Rider timelines and multiverses, Zein has access to all Rider powers through the namesake Rider through the Zein Cards to assert its dominance against evil.
• Big Bad Ensemble: There's Zein, a Knight Templar AI, and the Foundation X, who are reviving evil Kamen Riders to form a team to stop it.
• Big Brother Is Watching: It's implied that Zein has put the entire world under mass surveillance by merely existing around the Internet all while policing its idea of good to the world. Even Smart Brain, a MegaCorp run by Orphnochs, found themselves in Zein's watchlist of villains it seeks to target.
• Bittersweet Ending: Leaning more on the bitter than the sweet as the first cour of the anthology ends like this. The Ark is rendered off the grid by the heroes. However, the Ark's (apparent) destruction didn't eradicate all human malice just what the good guys intended even with the powers of Kamen Rider Zein, but instead created a catastrophic chain of events that would follow — Zein is finally outed as the Big Bad, having overthrown the Ark as the only AI with the right to annihilate humanity, and betrays its associates after managing to con them into relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle to speed up mankind's own self-destruction. With Zein victorious over the Ark, the Outsiders, Foundation X, and Zein's former allies must prepare for a long battle to liberate the world from Zein's tyranny, or die trying.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Zein identifies Riders along rigid lines as being "good" or "evil" without taking into account any other nuances or moral grey areas, and seeks to wipe out all of the Riders it classifies as "evil" regardless of how evil they actually are.
• Black-and-White Morality: Exploited and ultimately deconstructed, and the reason why Kamen Rider Outsiders exists as a series. The introduction of Zein had former and current villains, as well as organizations like Smart Brain and Foundation X on a warpath against Zein, who seeks to impose its authoritarian rule over humanity and with only thing standing in their way are the heroic Riders, who they believe Zein as a righteous Benevolent A.I. that seeks to eliminate evildoers, having no problem stooping to the villains' level to do so. By the end of the first season, it turns out that Zein has been using this trope as an excuse to play its supporters like fiddles, and plans to turn an already Deadly Game into a "humanity self-destruction game" to trick the entire human race into slaughtering one another. To make matters worse, the heroes enabled Zein's genocidal nature after being misled into believing Zein as a benevolent AI once it dropped all pretenses of goodwill, when Zein's actual solution to eliminate malice is basically to Kill All Humans.
• Boxed Crook:
  • Deconstructed. Foundation X's Project Outsiders is about reviving deceased Rider villains in order to conscript them to oppose the authoritarian AI, Zein. However, Foundation X did not bother to consider putting their test subjects on a leash and put them down if they refuse to cooperate. They fail to notice Desast's disinterest in the war against Zein, he only wanted nothing more but a fight with his rival Ren. And when the Foundation revived Horobi with a new Humagear body, he immediately defects to Zein's side in hopes of eliminating Ark, only for Ark to possess Horobi in response to the former's defiance.
  • Played straight with Banno though given that he barely survived the brutal beatdown from his fight with Kamen Rider Zein, his consciousness is stored once again on Brain's tablet, and made his way into his smartphone as well to spy on Zein's inner circle to relay intel for Foundation X about Zein's goal.
• Bullying a Dragon: In episode 4, the Ark makes one last-ditch attempt to possess Horobi just to pick a fight with one of Zein's associates, in this case, Tachibana, to draw out the aforementioned A.I., unaware of Zein's host standing beside Tachibana. As soon Ark-Zero defeats Garren, Yuto Sakurai transforms into Kamen Rider Zein and personally gives the Ark a very brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, matters not even helped by the fact Zein wields the power of every Kamen Rider in its disposal, rendering the Ark's efforts futile. To add further extra karma, Garren unlocks his King Form, allowing Tachibana to finish the job by obliterating the Ark with his Four of a Kind Finishing Move.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Foundation X have returned, after taking a hiatus for 5 years following the events of Kamen Rider Heisei Generations FINAL: Build & Ex-Aid with Legend Riders.
  • The Arch Orphnoch returns as a full character after the monster suit’s many cameos in the various crossover movies.
  • Sakuya Tachibana fully returns as his original self; all other appearances of Garren in the franchise outside of Blade were either suit cameos or had him brainwashed.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Horobi's role most of the time is to either get beaten up when a new Rider appears or used by the Ark as a puppet to possess... and then beaten up.
  • The same thing can be said for Banno, Foundation X agents dismiss him as a nuisance, gets beaten down within an inch of his life by Zein, and Brain humiliating him soon after he gets confined back in his tablet.
• Canon Immigrant: Ouja Survive is the first final form originally exclusive to the SIC Hero Saga to make a live-action appearance. This would be followed by Garren King Form two episodes later.
• Casting Gag: Banno claiming that he was "netpals" with Ark is straight up hilarious upon knowing their roles in Bleach as mortal enemies.
• Central Theme:
  • Balance Between Good and Evil and Order Versus Chaos. The conflict of good and evil always brings out the best on both sides. The idea of a world without conflict will only lead to stagnation and self-destruction because of the absence of something to struggle against.
  • A theme carried over from Revice take a step further: is it really worth it to sacrifice freedom over permanent and everlasting peace? And the sacrifices in question could also mean at the expense of human lives being an answer to a perceived problem.
  • Good intentions can lead to bad outcomes. Your actions will have lasting consequences not only to yourself, but to the people and the world around you.
  • Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The far-reaching consequences of leaving someone in a position of highest power unchecked.
  • The anthology re-examines the concept of Kamen Riders in general. One who fights for justice while overcoming tragedies and triumphing against the forces of evil, or one who uses their powers for evil to oppress all sentient life. The latter being represented in the form of the Big Bad, a Knight Templar AI that seeks to rid the world of everything that's evil. If Zein seeks to cleanse the world of malice, then what's the point of having Kamen Riders existing in the first place?
• The Computer Is Your Friend: Zein is a dark example on a biblical scale. Zein presents itself as a Benevolent A.I. and Greater-Scope Paragon to all heroic Kamen Riders seeking to study human benevolence. In reality, it is a Dark Messiah with an Übermensch mentality that seeks to impose its own idea of morality to render the concept of evil non-existent. Zein is also a brutal despot who is no less tyrannical as Ohma Zi-O, using the power of every Kamen Rider to stoke fear and terror by setting an example out of the villains as a warning to anyone trying to defy or oppose Zein . And ultimately, Zein has no qualms wiping out human life on Earth by using a Deadly Game as its Final Solution to human malice. Once outed as a villain, all of Zein's narrative of benevolence and goodwill, coupled with its Humans Are Bastards worldview come off as an empty excuse, all just to gaslight people into killing each other.
• Crapsaccharine World: The world looks peaceful at first glance with every Kamen Rider up to Geats have finished their battles against evil and the safety of the world being passed to their recent successor. As lampshaded by Ren's Enemy Within in episode 2, peace in the world isn't always permanent not because of humanity's capacity for evil, but the threat of Zein enforced this trope. The prospect of an artificial intelligence placing the entire world under strict surveillance raises a cause for alarm, and giving people false hope for a guaranteed forced peace, at the expense of human freedom and human life.
• Crisis Crossover: Brings together Kamen Riders from all across the franchise for a single central storyline. It’s even almost like the trope namer, in that Zein is specifically bringing all the Rider multiverse together for its goal.
• Critical Annoyance: Played for Laughs. Kuroto starts panicking as his batteries are about to reach zero while running off to avoid Smart Queen. Even when he's about to shut down, his hysterics doesn't stop there to the point he is holding a portrait of his father Masamune. And for the second time around, a Good Samaritan in the form of Mari managed to get him to a charging station.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Ouja achieving his Survive Form allows him to make short work of Kamen Rider Odin, and repeatedly stabbing the golden Rider with his Venovisor Zwei's blade in the same way how murderers stab their victims repeatedly.
  • Bronze Drive upon his re-introduction, puts Horobi in his place during their battle. Only for Banno to get his ass kicked by Kamen Rider Zein before he could seize the opportunity to finish off Horobi.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to other Kamen Rider TTFC specials which have many, if not entirely, lighthearted moments. Kamen Rider Outsiders is never meant to be for the faint of heart. Other than the fact that the villains are the main characters of this anthology gathered to oppose a despotic artificial intelligence bent on taking over the world to impose its rule on humanity, to the point of having the world under mass surveillance; and even gathered every heroic Rider into donating their powers, using them to provoke fear and terror against the villains and the entire human race. What's worse? The villains weren't kidding about Zein exterminating humanity, and it plans to speed up the process by using a Deadly Game to trick humanity into setting up their own extinction. The real kicker, the first half of the miniseries ends in a downer note with Zein coming out on top, while its now-former accomplices can look on in horror realizing that they unintentionally doomed humanity into self-destruction.
• Deadly Game: Kamen Rider Chronicle is already this in and of itself, hence why Foundation X and Zein's inner circle only used the game's data for the sole purpose of reviving dead villains in Humagear bodies and to power-up the Zein Driver, respectively. Zein, on the other hand, plans to turn Chronicle into a humanity self-destruction game, tricking unsuspecting Ride Players to be used as cannon fodder against the villains.
• Didn't Think This Through: Played for Drama in episode 4. Having Kamen Rider Chronicle installed into the Zein Driver would turn out to be the good guys' fatal mistake. As not only Zein did learn all the contents of the Deadly Game, it is also planning to use Rider Chronicle to manipulate humanity into engineering their own self-destruction. To make matters worse, once a Zein Card is shredded, that Rider and their powers are permanently deleted.
• Divided We Fall: In episode 4, Zein's inner circle falls into disarray due to Horobi and Nico disagreeing with the idea of relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle to the public in order to eliminate the Outsiders, when in reality this is a pretext for Zein to send the human race to their own self-destruction. Horobi is the first to fall out with the faction after he defends Nico from Tachibana, who threatens her at gunpoint. After the Ark is defeated, Zein finally reveals its true colors and betrays its own supporters.
• Downer Ending: Episode 4 ends with none of the heroes and villains won. Zein is the one that comes out on top and ten steps ahead of everyone. With the Ark seemingly taken out of the picture, Zein quickly possesses Yuto, drops its benevolent pretenses and betrays its now-former allies as it tricks Genm Corp. into relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle while impersonating Nico Saiba, as Horobi, Brain, and Tachibana can only look on in horror as Zein sets its plan to push mankind towards the path of self-destruction into motion.
• The Dreaded: Kamen Rider Zein, full stop. Given that Zein (the artificial intelligence) seeks to judge and punish evildoers to bring order to the world. So much that Ecole, one of the executives spearheading Project Outsiders, is showing a visible sign of fear at the sight of Zein. In his first fight against Bronze Drive, he mops the floor with Banno enough to make him fear for his life before skewering the Mad Scientist to death with Xross Saber's Haou Xross Sei Retsuzan.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Defied. Gai and Rin attempt to persuade Kuroto and the Arch Orphnoch to join forces with them to oppose Zein, but even though both identify it as a threat they would rather fight it on their own rather than work together.
  • Played straight with the Ark towards Horobi upon possessing him in episode 4, in a last-ditch attempt to draw out Zein. This backfires in the worst possible moment with Zein delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the Ark, not even helped with Garren King Form finishing the job, rendering its efforts futile.
• Equipment Upgrade: Non-video game example in ep. 2. Desast verbally acknowledging his bond with Ren turns him into a swordsman in his own right: His weapon becomes a Seiken named the Kokuranken Shikkoku, he gains a Seiken Swordriver of his own and Desast's Alter Ride Book resonates with Ren's Wonder Ride Book and morphs into a variation of the Dragonic Knight Wonder Ride Book for Desast to use in the Driver titled Gaikotsu Ninjaden.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Both Banno and Foundation X react in horror upon learning that Zein's goal to use Kamen Rider Chronicle to annihilate humanity. In Layman's terms, Zein plans to use the game as propaganda material to produce more Ride Players to be used as expendable pawns against the Outsiders. Though, it's ironic coming from Banno given that his endgame goal was to convert people into data as well.
• Everyone Has Standards: Related to the trope above, both Nico and Horobi have every right to be appalled with Zein's plan to relaunch Kamen Rider Chronicle to draw out Ride Players into being used as cannon fodder against the Outsiders. Given that Nico had her firsthand experience of being a Ride Player and the consequence of getting a Game Disease from playing the game and getting a game over means be digitized into data. Also, Horobi hates the idea of humans being converted into data.
• Evil All Along: Zein's nature as a Benevolent A.I. is merely an act to conceal its fascistic nature and goals to exterminate humanity, something that its supporters found out too late at the end of episode 4.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ark did not expect Desast to become a Rider in his own right as it is unable to comprehend the latter's rivalry and friendship with Ren that transpired his Heel–Face Turn.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Smart Queen was an Orphnoch who copied the appearance of Mari Sonoda. The latter was not amused.
• Evil Versus Evil: The spin-off's premise revolves around creating a Legion of Doom to counteract a benevolent A.I. whose idea of good is destroying everything related to evil. This is taken more literally by episode 4 as Zein would turn out to be Evil All Along.
• Evil Will Fail: Horobi's threat to Ark in episode 3 that so long Zein exists, all malice will be purged from the face of the Earth along with Ark itself. And even after being ambushed by Banno, Horobi isn't really bluffing as Kamen Rider Zein immediately shows up to execute Banno on the spot, even Ecole starts reacting in dread after seeing Zein dominate Bronze Drive, putting both Ark and Foundation X on notice.

F-O

• Face–Heel Turn:
  • Horobi, Nico Saiba, Sakuya Tachibana, George Karizaki and Aruto Hiden (the last of these offscreen) have allied themselves with Zein’s cause.
  • Zein is Yuto Sakurai, the man who was once Zeronos, as it also turns out that this Yuto Sakurai comes from a Bad Future where Airi presumably died.
• Fallen Hero: The Yuto Sakurai from an alternate Bad Future was originally Zeronos and became Zein's enforcer in its crusade against Ark and Foundation X.
• Final Solution: Zein seeks to wipe out all human life on Earth to ensure its malice-free utopia comes into fruition. It takes advantage of Kamen Rider Chronicle's nature as Deadly Game to gaslight unsuspecting Ride Players to their own demise as cannon fodder against the Outsiders. In short, Zein plans to use a video game that kills players in real time as its final solution to human malice.
• For Great Justice: Tachibana invokes a dark take of the trope when he holds Nico at gunpoint by forcing her to relaunch Kamen Rider Chronicle upon learning that Zein intends to use said game as its Final Solution to eradicate malice.
  Tachibana: This is for the sake of justice. It's your duty as Genm Corporation's shareholder to give the order to relaunch Kamen Rider Chronicle. Do it now.
  Nico: Are you nuts!? I can't do that!
• Forbidden Friendship: In ep. 2, both Horobi and The Ark take issue with Ren and Desast associating with one another and attack the duo over it; thinking solely in terms of "good" and "evil."
• Four Is Death: Episode 4 is the epitome of the trope. Not only the good guys managed to destroy the Ark, Zein is finally revealed to be Evil All Along, by possessing Yuto all while proceeding with its Final Solution to eradicate malice by relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle.
• Foreshadowing: Smart Brain's involvement in HumaGear affairs sets up their actions in Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Regained, where they use their own android technology to revive Masato Kusaka and Kitazaki as professional Orphnoch killers under their employ.
• Fully Absorbed Finale: Outsiders follows up on loose ends left behind from the finale of Kamen Rider 555, the Foundation X plotline from Kamen Rider Double, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid's crossovers with Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Zero-One, the Sequel Hook from the Ghost × Saber crossover, and the Zero-One V-Cinemas.
• A God Am I:
  • Tenjuro Banno and Kuroto Dan, being infamous for their massive God complexes in their respective series return in this crossover.
  • Horobi describes Zein as a "perfect" being in episode 2 while interacting with Ren that the trope applies to Zein. This also crosses with Dark Messiah, after possessing Yuto in episode 4, Zein proclaims itself as the [present] timeline's savior.
• Gone Horribly Right: Installing Kamen Rider Chronicle into the Zein Driver would turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the wrong reasons. This allowed Zein to scan all the content inside the game and plans to turn Ride Players into cannon fodder against the Outsiders, it succeeds in reactivating the game by tricking Genm Corp. while mimicking Nico Saiba's voice.
• Good Powers, Bad People: Almost all of the world's stalwart heroes donated their powers to Zein in hopes of eradicating the concept of evil through the Zein Cards. Zein's ideal host to be its namesake Rider is proven to be cold-blooded and murderous to the point of handing No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the likes of Banno and the Ark is anything but heroic. In Layman's terms, Zein exploits the power of Kamen Riders to subjugate humanity in the same way as Ohma Zi-O did.
• Happy Ending Override: While Kamen Rider Drive had a very melancholic ending, one of the upsides to it was definitely Tenjuro Banno getting killed off for good and not getting away with all the atrocities he inflicted. However, in Outsiders it's revealed that Banno was able to survive by storing himself in the Internet and he gets given a new body by Foundation X. While his new body is destroyed by Zein at the end of the episode, the fact that he's still nestling in the Internet means the one who tormented and corrupted the Roidmudes technically got away with his crimes.
• He Who Fights Monsters: One of the underlying themes surrounding the good guys. As Zein somehow garnered a Cult of Personality among the heroic Legend Riders, the heroes themselves began to adopt a very despotic approach to their sense of justice, something that Zein encourages them to do so, essentially becoming no better than the villains they face. This is something that Brain calls Yuto Sakurai out for after protecting the Ark-possessed Horobi.
• History Repeats: Carried over from Zero-One Others: Vulcan & Valkyrie as one of the underlying themes of the anthology, which now applies to all Heisei and Reiwa entries of the franchise as a whole. This anthology drives home how much the heroic Riders in Zein's side are doing more harm than good regardless of their good intentions. Instead of learning from the mistakes of their respective shows' predecessors, they essentially repeated their tragedies in the present day.
  • In episode 0, Kuroto was about to fight the Arch Orphnoch only for Gai to intervene. Kuroto could have almost doomed the Orphnochs to extinction due to their accelerated evolution causes them to Living on Borrowed Time without the Arch Orphnoch to fully complete an Orphnoch's evolution, given that Kitazaki himself planned to kill the Arch Orphnoch much to the dismay of his fellow Lucky Clover cohorts, only for Takumi and Mihara to intervene and then Arch Orphnoch would emerge to eat the Dragon Orphnoch alive.
  • Episode 2 reveals that Zein is seeking to fuse all Rider worlds into to one so it can establish its new world order. That's exactly what Swartz's end goal looks like: fusing all the Heisei Rider worlds into one and remake it in his own image as its ruler.
  • Horobi swore loyalty to Zein in hopes to expunge humanity of evil, only to find out too late that it seeks to manipulate humanity into destroying itself. He basically hasn't learned his lesson from his misguided loyalty towards the Ark.
  • The heroes in Zein's inner circle programmed Kamen Rider Chronicle into the Zein Driver and what they didn't know is that Zein plans to use the game to trick humanity into tearing each other apart, that's basically similar to what Gai did when he corrupted the Ark with information regarding human malice.
  • In Kamen Rider Zi-O, most of the Riders that Sougo met entrust their powers via Ridewatches to become king and is destined to become Ohma Zi-O 50 years into the future. Here in Outsiders, all of the Earth's stalwart Kamen Riders, Sougo included, gave their powers to Zein via Zein Cards in hopes of cleansing humanity of malice, only to create their own Ohma Zi-O who is no less far worse than the Overlord of Time himself. The real kicker is that once a Zein Card is shredded, that Rider's powers is permanently erased.
  • Episode 4 has Zein impersonating Nico to trick Genm Corp. into restarting Kamen Rider Chronicle without Kuroto's consent, a repeat of Parado starting the game without Kuroto's approval after he murdered the latter.
  • Zein plans to turn Kamen Rider Chronicle into a humanity self-destruction game, in the same vein Suel did with the Desire Grand Prix in the final episodes of Kamen Rider Geats. Unlike Suel's endgame which is purely for his audience's amusement, Zein's plan is basically a Final Solution to eliminate malice.
• Hobbes Was Right: Zein seeks to establish a malice-free utopia, a countermeasure to how Kamen Rider runs on Humans Are the Real Monsters as a recurring theme. This tends to overlap with Order Is Not Good given its authoritarian methods taken to ridiculous extremes, especially through fearmongering, gaslighting, surveillance, and use of excessive violence against the villains.
• Holy Halo: Zein can manifest a digitized aureole that projects multiple timelines behind it and its host, especially during the Transformation Sequence for the namesake Kamen Rider to reflect Zein being the AI equivalent of The Antichrist underneath its Benevolent A.I. facade.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: One of the main reasons Kamen Rider Outsiders exists as a series that it deconstructs this trope. The series deals with an artificial intelligence called Zein, that seeks to rid the world of human malice. Its methods are borderline tyrannical, but a necessary evil at best. Given that the main characters are the villains themselves being gathered by Foundation X to oppose Zein. The good guys, on the other hand, are more than willing to sell out humanity to said Knight Templar A.I., going so far as to surrender their powers so Zein can use them to stoke fear and terror to put the villains and the entire human race on notice. However, as soon Zein revealed itself to be Evil All Along, its narrative of benevolence and Humans Are Bastards worldview ultimately come off as the empty excuses of a Holier Than Thou Hypocrite with a god complex, viewing itself as morally superior to humans and believes that it has the right to decide of whether who lives and who dies.
• Improvised Weapon: Asakura kills Chuuta Nezu, his former collaborator, by stabbing his neck with a shard from a broken mirror.
• In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves: One of Zein's possible rationales of using Kamen Rider Chronicle to exterminate humanity; so long as humanity's capacity for evil persists, so is their tendency to slaughter one another.
  Banno: This isn't good! Zein isn't just coming after us, it wants humanity to destroy itself!
  Ecole: (both he and Rando share the same horrified expression) Could you... please repeat that again?
• Insistent Terminology: Banno still insists on being called "Gold Drive" even though his pseudo-Rider form is bronze and not gold. He also claims to be a "Kamen Rider", but none of the actual Kamen Riders seem willing to entertain this.
• Invincible Villain: Zein is purposely programmed with this trope, compared to the likes of Evolt and Ohma Zi-O. Zein can use past Riders' final forms abilities via Zein Cards. Not even Banno, the Ark, and Kuroto Dan, who has achieved more than one post-series final form, are not strong enough to take on Kamen Rider Zein.
• Irony:
  • Smart Queen lampshades how desperately Dan is defending his new company considering he only got it by taking over Gai's.
  • Horobi throwing in his lot with Zein is ironic considering the Recurring Element of most of Kamen Rider Zero-One's post-series content is the idea of justice being exploited in some fashion. Then again that's not exactly out of character for Horobi.
  • Banno freaking out after overhearing Zein planning to use a video game that converts humans into data comes off as a case of Moral Myopia when he himself had a similar goal in his home series. Not to mention, Zein intends to use said video game as a tool for genocide.
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Zein believes that it has the authority to judge those it considered as evil, even if the villains in question are neutral or redeemed (i.e., Desast) at best. By having Yuto Sakurai transform into the namesake Kamen Rider to carry out executing villainous Riders on the spot without mercy or hesitation, as Tenjuro Banno found out the hard way. Kamen Rider Zein's finishing moves are called Justice Order, further enforcing its warped idea of justice and order.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Subverted. The reason Brain protected the Ark from Kamen Rider Zein was to prevent Yuto from going down the path of villainy. Killing off the Ark, along with its host Horobi won't eradicate all malice, but doing so becomes this trope instead.
• Kill All Humans: It's widely believed especially from the villains' perspective, that Zein plans to annihilate humanity to enforce its idea of good. This is taken on a darker light in episode 4, Zein seeks to speed up the process by using Kamen Rider Chronicle to trick mankind into engineering their own self-destruction. Which makes sense in a way so long as mankind has the capacity for evil, so is their desire to destroy themselves.
• Knight of Cerebus: Kamen Rider Outsiders is never meant for the faint of heart from the start, despite being a spin-off centering on returning villains from past seasons being the main characters. While villains like Kuroto and Banno have their fair share of comedic moments. On the heroes side, however, Zein and its host are the main reason behind the anthology's bleaker aspects:
  • Kamen Rider Zein's arrival is meant to invoke dread and eerie. In his debut battle, he puts Banno in his place with pure savagery before turning him into a Human Pincushion. The man behind the suit is anything but sunshines and rainbows either; the Yuto Sakurai coming from an alternate Bad Future comes off as cold-blooded, nihilistic, sullen, and even downright murderous. He's even more than willing to cross the line for the benefit of a greater good, best shown when he's about to kill both Horobi and the Ark until Brain takes the deathblow meant for Ark-Zero. This Yuto serves as a cautionary tale of how a great deal of tragedy can turn a hero into the same kind of monster they're fighting.
  • Zein itself is devoid of anything lighthearted, completely lacking the humor of returning villains like Kuroto Dan. As soon Rin explains to Kuroto why the threat of Zein must be taken seriously because Zein exists everywhere. It has placed the world under tight surveillance to the point Foundation X and Smart Brain ended up on its watchlist is just merely an indicator of what's to come. Zein finally managed to cement itself as this at the end of episode 4 by possessing its host, Yuto Sakurai after the Ark gets rendered off the grid, and tricks Genm Corp. into relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle while mimicking Nico Saiba's voice so it can set its Final Solution to eradicate malice into motion, ending the first half of Outsiders with the entire world under the mercy of a tyrannical AI with little to no hope of opposing it, unless both heroes and villains get their act together and join forces to oppose Zein.
• Knight Templar: Zein and its allies seek to root out malice from humans, and the lengths they will go to achieve Zein's goal borderline on stooping to the villains' level. For example, Nico drives Desast away from Ren after Zein views the Megid liability in its cause. Yuto's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Bronze Drive and Ark-Zero as Kamen Rider Zein come off as against everything what Kamen Riders stand for, and Yuto could have turned into a full-blown villain if he had killed Horobi without a shred of remorse. Finally, Zein plans a Final Solution by promoting a Deadly Game as propaganda to create an army of Ride Players to be sacrificed to the villains under the pretext of eradicating malice.
• Laughably Evil: Banno comes off this way when he's resurrected, with his flamboyant mannerisms and the hammy proclamations he makes while beating Horobi down.
• Legion of Doom: Foundation X's "Project Outsiders" involves building one by recruiting various evil Kamen Riders.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Between Zein and the Outsiders (and by association, Foundation X), the Outsiders are basically humanity's last line of resistance against an A.I. bent on imposing its authoritarian mentality to the world when most of the Earth's stalwart heroes threw in their lot with said A.I..
• Locked Out of the Loop: None of the Project Outsiders candidates have no idea who Zein really is, with the only exceptions being Gai Amatsu, and Foundation X executives Rando Joseph and Ecole among others. Even the heroes are no better, they blindly follow Zein because of it seeking to eradicate malice. Zein's goal is more than just a witch hunt against evildoers, as Banno found out in episode 4; the first step for Zein's malice-free utopia is to Kill All Humans.
• Machine Blood: The fact that Banno is revived with a Humagear body and he gets skewered from the Seikens summoned by (Kamen Rider) Zein, he bleeds out oil as the Seikens impale him from top to bottom.
• Make an Example of Them: Kamen Rider Zein's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Bronze Drive is meant to be a warning shot to the Ark and Foundation X. Ecole is visibly terrified at the sight of Zein's ungodly brutality.
• MegaCorp: Kuroto seeks to grow his new Musou Genm Corp into one by having it absorb other companies. Only to find himself the target of an even bigger Mega Corp — Smart Brain.
• Mook Horror Show: Both Banno and the Ark's run-ins with Kamen Rider Zein were enough to make both A.I. tremble in fear on his presence. Banno gets beaten within an inch of his life and fails miserably to escape Zein's wrath as he gets reduced into a human pincushion. The Ark's last-ditch effort to draw out Zein (the A.I.) by defeating Garren also failed when Yuto personally shows up and transforms into Zein and overpowers Ark-Zero into submission. Even though Brain manages to protect both Horobi and the Ark from Zein's killing blow, the Ark nevertheless is showing visible fear knowing its existence in danger of being deleted. Then, Tachibana goes on a Heroic Second Wind, unlocking King Form and finishes the job.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: As to be expected from a series focusing on morally ambiguous Riders, the moral spectrum of Outsiders ranges from anti-heroes to outright villains, to characters who are simply too crazy or erratic to be classified as either.
• Moral Myopia: Good grief, where to begin?
  • Lampshaded by Smart Queen, Kuroto establishes Genm Musou Corp by dethroning Gai from his own company and buying other tech companies to assimilate into his own, but reacts horribly when Smart Brain threatened to do the same.
  • Of all the villains, Banno apparently suffer from this. Given that his goal in his series is to turn humans into data to satisfy his God complex, he even freaks out upon hearing Zein planning to do the same using a video game that kills people in real time. The Ark, on the other hand, is no better; while it seems okay annihilating humanity merely because of their capacity for evil, it hates the idea another A.I. planning to eradicate humanity to impose its twisted idea of order.
  • Zein's supporters as a whole abhors malice, but their methods in doing so, mostly in their war against Foundation X and Project Outsiders shows that they have no compunctions in doing things that a villain would normally do; more specifically Nico Saiba threatening Desast to stay away from Ren if he values his rival's life, Tachibana and Yuto relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle to the public despite the danger it poses to the point of holding Nico at gunpoint when she protested the earlier idea, and finally Yuto's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Banno and the Ark are anything but heroic; to the point he mangles Banno's Humagear body in the most brutal and graphic fashion, and Yuto is almost an inch away from Jumping Off the Slippery Slope by killing Horobi had not for Brain's intervention.
  • Perhaps the most shining example to this trope is during the debacle of using Kamen Rider Chronicle, when the alternate Yuto admonishes Horobi for pulling a Heel–Face Turn and admits that he would prefer the lead member of MetsubouJinrai.net to continue in his crusade against mankind. This ignores the fact that said crusade was under the Ark's will, especially since Zein's supporters are also at war against it despite aiming for the same genocidal goal.
• The Most Dangerous Video Game: Kamen Rider Chronicle would be once again used as part of the crossover series' plot. Zein plans to turn the Chronicle into a humanity self-destruction game disguised as a Final Solution to eradicate human malice.
• Mythology Gag: As far as Rider design is concerned, Kamen Rider Zein looks like N-Daguva-Zeba if he had a Rider form. Episode 4 has Zein and Ark-Zero, who acts as an analogue to Kuuga Ultimate Form, recreate Yusuke and Daguva's Final Battle; with the only main difference is the lack of a blizzard and Zein dominating for most of the battle.
• Mundane Utility: Kuroto uses the Musou Gashat, a powerful unbeatable gamebreaker device... to always get winning lottery tickets to fund his new Genm Corp.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Episode 4's preview hinted that Brain would be the next Outsider and would do battle with Zein. In the actual episode, Brain takes all of three minutes to Face–Heel Turn to Zein's faction, with the actual protagonist being Tachibana.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The heroes who sided with Zein have done nothing but unwillingly condemn humanity into self-destruction. Zein manages to con its heroic allies into finding the means to enact its Final Solution to human malice in the form of Kamen Rider Chronicle. With the Ark rendered off the grid, Zein can now sacrifice as many innocent people unopposed to ensure its malice-free utopia becomes a reality.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Desast manages to free Horobi from the Ark's control thanks to his newfound Rider form, only to find himself having a target painted on his back by Zein's accomplices, despite having recently redeemed himself.
  Nico: Desast! Zein views you as a villain. If you care about him [Ren], you should stay away from him!
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In his introduction, Kamen Rider Zein singlehandedly beats up Banno within an inch of his life, turning his bluster from his earlier Curb-Stomp Battle against Horobi into screams of terror then proceeded to reduce him into a Human Pincushion. Even the Ark itself isn't immune to Zein's brutality, to the point being overpowered into submission by Zein and could have met its permanent end if not for Brain's intervention.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: After being revived by Foundation X, Desast could not care less about the organization's opposition against Zein. Later on, Desast further assert his defiance by declaring that he will follow his own path instead of the one set for him through Ark's predictions. After defeating Ark-Zero, Desast vows to take out Zein in his own terms.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: The reason why the first half of Outsiders concluded in a Downer Ending. Just because destroying the Ark doesn't mean all malice has been eradicated, even with the powers of Kamen Rider Zein. So long the Ark can store its data on the Internet to prevent itself from being deleted, and while humanity's capacity for evil persists, the Ark will continue to sustain its existence with malice. With one rogue A.I. taken out of the equation, another one far worse takes its place. That being Zein, who reveals its true colors towards its own accomplices, as their blind faith in Zein ultimately left the entire human race now under the mercy of a tyrannical A.I. that seeks to wipe out all human life on Earth unopposed in the name of "eternal benevolence".
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: As soon Zein is outed as a villain, all of its narrative of benevolence and goodwill and Humans Are Bastards worldview ultimately come off as the empty excuses of a hypocritical and sanctimonious despot with a god complex viewing itself as morally superior to humans and believing that it has the right to decide whether who lives and who dies.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: For the entire franchise as a whole. The real turning point is with Zein revealed to be Evil All Along, the good guys can only react in utter despair by the revelation, and the first half of the anthology ends with the entire human race under the mercy of a technological oppressor bent on cleansing the world of malice without any hope of standing up against it. Not even the villains at their most powerful like Kuroto Dan aren't strong enough to take on Zein.
• Oddly Small Organization: Despite being a MegaCorp that buys out smaller companies, the staff of Genm Musou Corp itself seems to be entirely comprised of Kuroto himself, who fuels the entire company with winning lottery tickets.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Kamen Rider Zein's introduction is accompanied with a sinister Gregorian requiem chanting, instilling dread and eerie as the Rider is about to beat Banno within an inch of his life, reducing the Mad Scientist into a whimpering mess as he tries to futilely escape with his life before being impaled from top to bottom via Xross Saber's Haou Xross Seiretsuzan. This is to further emphasize the way Zein dominated Bronze Drive is anything but heroic.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Both Ren and Desast promise themselves to each other that only themselves are the only ones who can defeat one another. Interrupting their rivalry is asking to get your ass kicked as Horobi, and later Ark found out the hard way.
• Order Is Not Good: Zein envisions its ideal world without malice that of a totalitarian dystopia to terrifying degrees— abuse of power, use of excessive violence against its enemies, culling off perceived insubordination on its own allies, genocide, propaganda, and widespread global surveillance; all of which inspire fear and paranoia from both the villains and people who aren't even engaged in any wrongdoing. Hence Project Outsiders was created by Foundation X to oppose Zein before it could become a clear and present danger to the world if left unchecked.
• Order Versus Chaos: Related to the themes of Balance Between Good and Evil above, Zein represents "order" whereas Ark represents "malice", which is synonymous with "chaos" and self-explanatory in and of itself. However, Zein is shown to be brutal and oppressive in its methods and is willing to sacrifice innocent people using a Deadly Game that turns them into data to usher in a World of Silence.
• Outside-Context Problem: Ark did not expect Desast to transform into his own Rider form and actively defy its expectations of doing Foundation X's bidding to stop Zein, due to the fact that his meeting with Ren is the result of a Heel–Face Turn.

P-W

• Phlebotinum Rebel: It's Kamen Rider, after all... Of all the Project Outsiders candidates, Horobi and Desast were brought back to life by Foundation X; only for Horobi to betray the Foundation and side with Zein. Although the Ark uses this as an advantage to get close to Zein and its accomplices. Desast, on the other hand, goes rogue, given that he doesn't like being bossed around.
• Predatory Business: Kuroto has been using the power of the Genm Musou Gashat to cheat lottery tickets and buy smaller companies out.
• Propaganda Machine: The heroes in Zein's inner circle plan to use Kamen Rider Chronicle as a propaganda material to draw out the Outsiders. Tachibana proposes to open the game to the public under the slogan of eliminating malice. Nico, on the other hand, objects with the idea.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Ever since Zein's introduction in the second Genms miniseries, Gai is quick to make assumptions about Zein planning to eliminate mankind to rid the world of human malice. In hindsight, most of his speculations about Zein, if not all, were proven true, further highlighting Zein's authoritarian nature, going as far to judge those it perceives as evil, even if that villain in question, in this case, Desast, having already redeemed themselves. And Zein has its own followers, mirroring the members of MetsubouJinrai.NET and their fealty to Ark, carrying out Zein's goals of strongarming evildoers to establish a malice-free utopia. Zein isn't afraid to get its hands dirty when it gives the approval of executing Banno.
  • Horobi gently approaches Ren and tries to get him on Zein's side by explaining its mission of fusing together the Rider worlds to destroy all evil Riders, referring to it as the "perfect being." The swordsman's very first instinct is not to trust him. Sure enough, Horobi attacks Ren and Desast not a few minutes later for even associating with one another. Then he's hijacked by the Ark, which also attacks them for associating with one another.
  • Nico freaks out upon discovering that Zein is planning to relaunch Kamen Rider Chronicle to promote the game to eliminate malice, when this is actually a pretense for Zein's actual plan — using the game as its Final Solution to human malice, by using the game as propaganda to create a cannon fodder of Ride Players to be sacrificed against the villains, turning Chronicle into a "humanity self-destruction game". Horobi may have brought enough Nico time to escape, she is, unfortunately, too late as Zein already revealed its true colors, and impersonated Nico to trick Genm Corporation's CEO Tsukuru Koboshi into relaunching the game anyway, putting Nico into further unwanted scrutiny.
• Pure Is Not Good: Zein proclaims itself as a Benevolent A.I. that seeks to zealously bring the good in humanity but its sense of justice borderlines on questionable to outright brutal and oppressive all while it seeks to establish a utopia free of human malice. By episode 4, Zein's supporters did not take into account its sinister nature until they were all too late to realize it.
• The Quisling: Most of the heroic Riders who support Zein's malice-free ideals and willingly gave their powers to the A.I. puts their reliability and Character Development in their series into question. The very idea that they're willing to sell out the entire human race to a Knight Templar A.I. for the sake of combatting evildoers is not only a stab in the back to their friends and loved ones, but also a disgrace to their duty as Kamen Riders. Unfortunately for Zein's followers, Zein would eventually betray them and deeming them as expendable pawns.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The first season of Outsiders ends with the Ark rendered off the grid, and consequently Zein coming out as the real Big Bad, as it prepares its Final Solution to eradicate malice into motion by relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle, while Zein's now-former allies can only react in utter despair by the revelation. With the world now under the mercy of a tyrannical AI, Foundation X and Zein's former allies must prepare for a long battle ahead to liberate the world from Zein at all costs, setting in motion the events of the second season.
• Replacement Flat Character: Inverted. Zein is effectively the Well-Intentioned Extremist the Ark originally was before it underwent Motive Decay into a Generic Doomsday Villain. By the end of Episode 4, Zein also acts as one for Ohma Zi-O, since they both use the powers of Kamen Riders to terrorize mankind and rule the world with an iron fist; the only main difference is Zein has none of Ohma Zi-O's good intentions and is a cold-blooded and unfeeling tyrant whose narrative of benevolence are all but hollow and superficial, and has no compunctions at making example of anyone trying to oppose its goals.
• La Résistance: The Kamen Rider Outsiders themselves act as a villainous example, Foundation X's Project Outsiders serves as their master plan to gather past Kamen Rider villains to form a faction to oppose Zein, an authoritarian A.I. that seeks to eliminate all evil in the world by any means necessary.
• Running Gag:
  • In episode 0, Kuroto again forgets to charge his Humagear body, again pulls out a picture of his father to ask it for strength, again runs out of power and is again found by someone who brings him to a charging area.
  • Tenjuro Banno insisting that he is Gold Drive and someone will call him out that he isn't gold colored.
• Screw Destiny: Desast chooses to defy Ark and Foundation X by declaring that he will follow his own path rather than the one predetermined to him through Ark's predictions. This ultimately led to him evolving into the Swordsman of Black.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • Kuroto and Gai have been left Out of Focus at the start of episode 1 onwards, shifting the perspective to Foundation X and their associates as they begin their initiative of reviving deceased Dark Riders such as Banno and recruiting active ones like Asakura to prepare for their war against Zein.
  • Banno gets sidelined back inside Brain's tablet for the entirety of episode 4, considering the foreboding turn of events regarding Zein's master plan with Kamen Rider Chronicle.
• So Last Season: Ark's predictions can be outpaced by any irregularities beyond its control, even without Satellite Zea. Further demonstrated when Desast becomes a Rider in his own right.
• Spiritual Antithesis:
  • To Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai. Kamen Rider Taisen is about the Showa Riders refusal to acknowledge the Heisei Riders as Kamen Riders which leads to a conflict between heroic Riders without taking into account the threat of the resurging Badan Empire. The main theme of Outsiders is the Balance Between Good and Evil being compromised by the threat of Zein, who seeks establish new world order. The anthology focuses mostly on returning villainous Riders being gathered by Foundation X to oppose Zein, with heroic Riders who joined Zein's cause standing in their way.
  • Also, to Kamen Rider Spirits, being a crossover series featuring the 10 Showa Riders. Outsiders is a crossover anthology where villains from the Heisei to Reiwa Kamen Rider series are the main characters.
• Super Mode: Ouja gains access to the Mugen Survive Card, letting him enter his Survive form. It's powerful enough to defeat Odin one on one.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: How Banno is killed the second time: getting skewered to death with ten Seikens from top to bottom. And he probably deserved every bit of it.
• This Cannot Be!: How Banno reacts to getting beaten into submission by Kamen Rider Zein.
• Time Stands Still:
  • Again, Genm Musou's Pause carried on from the second Genms miniseries, where he uses it to singlehandedly defeat Smart Queen, who transforms into Kamen Rider Delta.
  • In episode 3, Kamen Rider Zein is implied to stop time when he interrupts the fight between Horobi and Bronze Drive. It is left to the viewer's interpretation whether or not he used either Zi-O's Time Master powers offscreen.
• Triumphant Reprise: "Will Save Us" plays when Desast accepts his emotions and uses Ren's power to become a Kamen Rider. Whereas the last time the song was associated with him was during his demise, this scene has it play during a moment that firmly establishes his resurrection as permanent.
• Übermensch: Lampshaded from the villains' perspective, especially Gai Amatsu. Zein views itself as morally superior to humans and seeks to impose this mentality to ensure its utopia of absolute peace and order. Zein even has garnered a Cult of Personality among the heroic Riders that they willingly surrendered their powers to the A.I. with the intention of stoking fear and terror upon the villains and to the entire human race. It also even plans to use a Deadly Game to trick humanity into self-destruction, believing that so long humans are capable of malice means that their nature to destroy one another is inevitable.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Zein seeks to establish a world of eternal benevolence and order and needs to have all the Rider worlds connected together to achieve that feat, along with the extermination of all villainous Riders opposing its goals.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Crossing with Beware the Superman, Zein and it's accomplices operate on this trope as part of their crusade against evil. On one hand, Banno getting beaten to near-death by Kamen Rider Zein may seem acceptable and deserving, given the kind of person Banno really is. On the other hand, Yuto's attempted murder of Horobi, merely for being the Ark's vessel is basically jumping from anti-hero to straight-up villain. On both ways, they disregard even villains who have redeemed themselves.
• Villain Protagonist: The premise of the series, given the Foundation X's intent to form a Legion of Doom to oppose Zein, an authoritarian artificial intelligence with a messiah complex. As a result, several episodes focus on villainous characters. Episode 0 is mostly told from Kuroto Dan's perspective and Episode 1 is centered around Takeshi Asakura. Even Tenjuro Banno gets to be the focus of an episode.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Turns out that Zein somehow manages to convince the entire world and even some of the Earth's stalwart heroes by presenting itself as a paragon of goodwill that led to an inner circle of heroic Riders becoming a part of its Cult of Personality.
• Voice Changeling: Zein can perfectly mimic someone's voice, by impersonating Nico Saiba, it tricks the CEO of Genm Corp into relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle, much to the heroes' horror.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Smart Queen did not last long as Kamen Rider Delta in her fight against Genm Musou for the entirety of episode 0. She would have won had not Kuroto stopped time.
• Wham Episode: Episode 4 ends in one of the most foreboding and morose cliffhangers in the franchise's history — Zein plans to use Kamen Rider Chronicle to enact its Final Solution to human malice, by using the game to create a cannon fodder of Ride Players to be used as Sacrificial Lambs against the villains. Not only the Ark and Horobi fail to stop Zein, but Zein is also finally outed as the real villain of Outsiders, as the AI hijacks Yuto's body, moments after Brain stops him from crossing the line by killing the Ark and Horobi.
• Who Watches the Watchmen?: Another core theme of the anthology, and given the focus are mostly on the returning villains in the franchise and many of the world's stalwart heroic Kamen Riders joining forces with Zein to expunge all malice, this brings up the question of "who will protect the (world from its own) protectors?" Even if the heroes in question growing increasingly powerful can become a clear and present danger to the world if no one keeps them in line. Project Outsiders serves as the answer to that question to maintain the Balance Between Good and Evil. The titular Kamen Rider Outsiders themselves are humanity's only hope to oppose Zein's tyranny and even save the heroes siding with Zein from going down the wrong path.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: Kuroto gets the funds for Musou Genm Corp by using his Musou Gashat to pick out winning lottery tickets.
• Would Hit a Girl: Tachibana, of all people, has the audacity to hold a teenager at gunpoint when she objects the idea of using a Deadly Game as a Propaganda Machine against the villains.

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This way leads to Hell, sometimes this is where I'm going
Too much nervousness, What's the Outsiders?