Music / Kamen Rider Girls

Current lineup (left to right): Chisato, Hitomi and Jiena

Kamen Rider Girls (仮面ライダーGIRLS) is a Japanese idol group that made their debut on November 29, 2010 at show zero of a six show tour, taking place over nine months, that was a collaborative concert between them and Project.R. They are the official ambassadors of the Kamen Rider series.

For the first five years, the girls had a gimmick of each member representing a particular protagonist of an individual Kamen Rider season, but later did away with wearing Rider belts completely in order to better represent the franchise as a whole.

You can also watch their web series on Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club or its sister YouTube channel kimisuma, which is geared towards a more general audience.

Current Members

• Hitomi Isaka (Founding member and leader; former OOO representative)
• Chisato Akita (Joined 2012; former Wizard representative)
• Tomomi-Jiena Sumi (Joined 2013; former Gaim representative)

Former Members

• Yurika Hirokawa (2011 departure; Ryuki representative)
• Kaori Nagura (2015 graduation; Kiva representative)
• Nao Yatsuda (2016 graduation; Blade representative)
• Erica Yoshizumi (2016 graduation; Den-O representative)
• Mitsuki Endō (Joined 2011; 2017 graduation; Fourze representative)
• Ayako Kuroda (Joined 2015; 2019 graduation; unofficial Ghost/555 representative)^note While she isn't officially associated with any season, she joined during Ghost and used the Ghost-adjacent color of Black. But also, she wore a 555 belt at her graduation, the only time the girls ever wore Rider belts during her tenure.

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Discography

• alteration (2013)
• exploded (2014)
• SUPER BEST (2015)
• invincible (2017)
• 030804-01 (2019)
• starting point EP (2021)
• Re:incarnation (2022)

Kamen Rider Girls provide examples of the following tropes:

• Alternate Album Cover: Pretty much every album (and single) cover up to (and including) invincible has multiple covers. Some are slight variants, while others (like exploded) are vastly different.
• The Cameo:
  • The girls have done this in every season of Kamen Rider from OOO to Drive.
  • Former member Kaori has a cameo among all of the other video recordings in the "We Are GIRLS!!!" music video. She also has shown up to various concerts including the Harajuku concert in 2016 and the 10th anniversary concert in 2021.
  • Ascended Extra: Several years after her Kamen Rider Gaim cameo with the rest of the group as Team Pop Up, Jiena reappeared in a new special as a main character. Although the jury is still out as to whether or not this is actually the same character or not.
• Character Signature Song: All nine girls have covered the theme song to their titular Rider at one point or another.^note Since Ayako doesn't officially represent any season, you could still count her for either Ghost (the year she joined) or 555 (the belt she wore at graduation). But the only time they performed the 555 theme after she joined was at an unrecorded live show. And Yurika, Kaori and Erica have solo covers.^note Yurika and Kaori each performed theirs on the Super Hero Music Studio tour and Erica's cover is her solo track on the exploded album, which she got in place of a "Primary Colors" or "Days" rewriting.
• Continuity Snarl: Sometimes their anniversary is celebrated on their actual debut. Sometimes it's celebrated by the release of their first physical single. The ten year anniversary tour in particular started almost 16 months after the ten year anniversary of their first show.
• Cover Album: Their starting point EP, which was a 10-year celebration with covers of the theme songs of the Riders that each of the current members represented.
• Female Empowerment Song: "Girls be Ambitious", a b-side for "Next Stage".
• Greatest Hits Album: SUPER BEST is a compilation of singles and b-sides, as well as select album tracks, from up to that point.
• Idol Singer: Naturally.
• Initialism Title: They are officially abbreviated as "KRGS".
• Insert Song: For the Kamen Rider series, naturally.
• Japanese Delinquents: Their outfits for the "Saite" single feature their version of Kamen Rider Fourze's take on this trope.
• Japanese Pop Music: Although some of their music can get quite heavy.
• Limited Wardrobe: This has become much more the case since around the time they stopped wearing Rider belts, wearing the same outfit for every appearance for a year. Earlier years they got new outfits for every release (which included singles) and had costume changes.
• Long-Runners: While they haven't been around as long as their sibling band, they have been consistently active for over ten years. And the newest current member has been with them for nine. Not bad for a Girl Group with a heavy demographic of otaku.
• Male Band, Female Singer: Their backing band from their early years was made up entirely of men. And their (male) sibling group, Rider Chips, also sometimes acts as their backing band as well.
• Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: When Jiena was introduced as a new member in the group, the other girls were enamored with her Filipina roots and the fact that they now had a hafu member.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: The girls generally all have the same costume, but with slight differences. However, at the Wizard 10th Anniversary concert they all wore Wizard-era costumes... but not the same costume! With Chisato wearing her Last Engage outfit, Jiena wearing a Just the Beginning outfit and Hitomi wearing her outfit from the alteration album.
• Ojou: Yurika's nickname within the group, making her the only girl to not have a nickname based on their real name.
• Onee-sama: One of Kaori's nicknames was "Nee-san". Although she did also use "Jun-chan" and "Gurako" as well.
• One Game for the Price of Two: Some of their singles, or even full albums, have two separate versions with different b-sides/bonus tracks. Their exploded album is even more egregious by not only having different bonus tracks, but one physical version is more expensive because it comes with the DVD for their Rock and Kicks #2 concert.
• Pirate Song: "YO-SO-LO" from invincible, if it wasn't already obvious by the title.
• Quirky Girl, Quirky Tux: Their Kamen Rider Wizard era costuming included military shirts and ties with miniskirts or shorts.
• Radio: They have two radio shows. The first is Kamen Radiranger, an official Toei radio show in which the girls act as a rotating third host. The second is Let's Go! Kamen Rider Girls, which is their own, personal show.
• Rearrange the Song: Some Kamen Rider insert/character songs exist in two variants: the original and the KRGS version. These include "PEOPLE GAME" from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid as well as "Next New Wφrld" and "Tsuki no Michiru Toki" from Kamen Rider Zi-O.
• Repurposed Pop Song: "Saite" was just an unrelated 2008 single by everset that was repurposed for Kamen Rider Fourze when the girls covered it in 2012.
• Rock-Star Song: "Girls Anthem ~with our BIG LUV~" is about the ups and downs of being a famous singer and how they wouldn't trade it for the world.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Their original costumes had these, as a callback to the original Kamen Rider.
• Solo Side Project: When Kaori left the group, she formed the band Chewing High!! with the guitarist of their backing band. Chisato regularly releases solo music alongside her stuff with the group.
• Song of Song Titles
  • "Heart no Henshin Belt" doesn't reference actual songs per say, but the verses are a conga line of references to previous seasons of Kamen Rider.
  • "We Are GIRLS!!!" is littered with lines from their entire discography, with a specific line from "Saite" given extra prominence.
• Title by Number: The 030804-01 album - which gets it's name from 03 members, 08 years, 04 albums and being the 01 album of Japan's new Reiwa era.
• Title Track: Both alteration and exploded.