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Super Hero Time; READY, GO! (2012-2013 season shown)

Super Hero Time is a programming block on the Japanese television network TV Asahi, featuring new episodes of tokusatsu television series from the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series. Both series have decades of history and have been intertwined in the public imagination for some time, not least of all because the driving creative force behind both was mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori and they were both produced by the same production company, Toei Company. However, they did not air together until 2000 with Kamen Rider Kuuga and the last few episodes of Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV, though at the time they were not acknowledged together; even before 2000, the slot Kamen Rider ended up in featured the Metal Heroes and Robocon going back to 1989, while Super Sentai had only moved to Sunday mornings part-way through Denji Sentai Megaranger.

From 2007 to 2012, Super Hero Time was branded as part of a larger "Nichi Asa Kids Time"note  programming block which was on from 7 am to 9 am JST, with all shows generally sponsored (and merchandised) by Bandai. Even before this branding, the general lineup of Sunday morning kids TV on TV Asahi was more or less formulaic, even sort of extending into 6:30 am starting in 2011:

The "Nichi Asa Kids Time" branding was discontinued in 2012, but the line-up remained consistent for another 5 years until the entire schedule was changed in late 2017. A news program called Sunday Live! replaced all morning programming up until 8:30, when Pretty Cure begins. After Pretty Cure is now the Super Hero Time block... with Kamen Rider first at 9 am and Super Sentai at 9:30.


Series that aired in this kids' block:


The two Super Hero Time series share the following tropes:

  • Beast Man: Accounts for a great many villains and a bunch of heroes as well.
  • Calling Your Attacks
  • Combining Mecha: Super Sentai in general, though recent iterations of Kamen Rider have had their vehicles fuse with other beings to make mecha.
  • Crossover: Commonly among their own series and sometimes with each other. For nearly 20 years Super Sentai has had the Vs. movies, teaming up the current Super Sentai series with the previous one, they were originally direct-to-video (then DVD) but changed to theatrical releases for the 15th anniversary of the Vs. series. More recently, Kamen Rider has the Movie War series. The crossover only happens at the start and the end of the block.
    • Super Hero Taisen was a Crossover between the two franchises that are used in Super Hero Time. This later became a yearly tradition for a while; from 2011 to 2017, there was one film per year (except for 2016's Kamen Rider 1, which didn't feature Super Sentai at all). After Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Chou Super Hero Taisen, Toei announced that they won't make any more.
    • Additionally, there are often crossover bumpers done for the Super Hero Time that will feature the characters interacting with one another (like Den-O fighting alongside the Gekirangers, or Gaim doing the ToQger team pose), but some feature more direct crossovers (the Kabuto/Boukenger era had some, like Tendou making a meal for Akashi).
    • Starting with Gaim and ToQger, the current Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series will do a crossover, either in an hourlong special or having the titular Kamen Rider appear in an episode of the Super Sentai series and one of the Super Sentai members (so far it's only been the red) appearing in the Kamen Rider series.note 
    • The final crossover between the two would be Kamen Rider Saber + Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Super Hero Senki.
  • Crossover Punchline: Super Hero Time idents of recent years have Rider and Sentai casts meeting and interacting in their respective hang-outs and Hilarity Ensues.
  • Dramatic Hour Long: Super Hero Time itself, Kamen Rider and Super Sentai on their own last just under 25 minutes.
  • Elemental Powers: Several Kamen Riders and Super Sentai teams use the power of the elements.
  • Evil Twin: There have been many instances where the Kamen Rider faces a evil copy of himself, as do the Super Sentai teams face an evil Sentai. The nature of these evil duplicates vary.
  • Fake Crossover: Most Super Hero Time idents have the contemporary Riders and Sentai posing side-by-side, while recent years have the casts interacting in their respective hide-outs, giving the impression that they are all good friends. Of course, this has no canonical bearing on their proper crossovers, if they have them.
  • Finishing Move
    • Kamen Rider is famous for the Rider Kick, others include Rider Punch, Chop, and Slash.
    • Super Sentai has the Team Bazooka. Alternatively, they just set their weapons to finish.
  • Henshin Hero: All of the shows in the block have heroes the power to transform into stronger hero forms.
  • Long Runner: The year 2020 marks 49 years of Kamen Rider (Kamen Rider premiered in 1971) and 45 years of Super Sentai (Himitsu Sentai Gorenger premiered in 1975note ). A Super Sentai show has consistently been on Japanese television for the past 41 years (1978 saw Spider-Man and his giant robot Leopardon instead), while Kamen Rider has had several more, and much longer, gaps in its broadcast history (1976-1979, 1981-1987 if you ignore the TV special Birth of the Tenth! Gather All Kamen Riders!! featuring Kamen Rider ZX in 1984, and 1989-2000 when instead the films Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue, Kamen Rider ZO, and Kamen Rider J were released in this timeframe). It wasn't until the year 2000 with the premiere of Kamen Rider Kuuga that both shows have been consistently on Japanese TV with new heroes annually.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: A few intra-franchise and a few inter-franchise:
  • Merchandise-Driven: To the point that Bandai is the block's main sponsor. Individual shows of both franchises are made to be broadcast across a year, financially divided into quarters of about 12 episodes, each accompanied by a new wave of toys.
  • Monster of the Week: The standard in both Sentai and Rider, though in the latter its more "Monster of the Fortnight" thanks to two-week mini-arcs.
  • Passing the Torch: There's a tradition of the current Sentai's Red Ranger passing the time slot over to his successor as seen in this video.
  • Red Is Heroic: In Sentai, the Red hero is almost always the leader, and even when he isn't, he is still the central protagonist. As well as that, the majority of leading Kamen Riders have some element of red on their suits, no matter how minor it is.
  • Sixth Ranger: Super Sentai has Sixth Rangers, Kamen Rider has Second Riders.
  • Villains Act, Heroes React: Generally, the villains send forth the MOTW with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.

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