A couple of weeks ago, I finished my massive re-reading of DJ Diddy Dogg‘s epic Tournament Kamen Rider fanfic.
I’ve been a big fan of the series for quite some time, having initially been interested in the series from a technical point of view and later really growing to like certain characters. What makes the series important to me is how expansive and involving it is of other people in the fandom. Anyone can submit an original character for the series, which means that anyone can be involved in shaping the story and that’s really an amazing thing, in my opinion.
Prior to this series, I hadn’t paid any attention to original character fanfiction outside of the shared universes of antiquated fanfic groups of the late 20th century. If I’m honest, I’d always found the idea of inserting original characters into fanfiction to be intrusive and annoying. TKR is different in that the whole thing is a level playing field from day one. The main characters – Nero Samson, Phoenix Leiter and Taryse Evans – are completely unique in that they are unrelated to any other Riders in traditional Kamen Rider canon. Nero’s story overlaps with elements of Kobayashi Yasuko‘s Den-o but, for the most part, the story is a clean slate… in fact, in my opinion, the only problems the story encounters is when it does overlaps with the canon of other shows.
Earlier in the week, Mister Dogg and myself were talking about continuity and characters in his series and in the broader Rider tradition, which soon turned into an impromptu ‘interview’ of sorts.
And so, without further ado, I present you with ::spaceterrapin::’s very first interview piece. Needless to say, massive spoilers for Mister Dogg’s fic abound:
Q: I know you mentioned in the author’s notes for the first chapter of Tournament Kamen Rider that you were inspired by other ‘submit-an-OC’ fics but can you highlight how TKR came about? What were the specifics that led to this story?
A: It was an idea I’d had for a very long time, going way back to when I first broke into Kamen Rider proper (which was Blade in 2004), especially when I started to go back a couple of series and saw the whole Rider-versus-Rider dynamic (which I was initially not prone to, since Power Rangers/Sentai had been the only Toku exposure I had and they never fought each other except for 6th Ranger and team-up specials). It almost felt like a competition to me. Plus, the whole Rider War of Ryuki was a fun idea and I rolled with that. By the time Kabuto had finished airing, I wrote that first draft, which turned into the opening chapter of AKR with quite a few tweaks (okay… a lot ^^). By then, I did that first draft but never expanded on it as school began to wear and tear on me, not to mention I had limited use of a computer at that time.
Q: The OC system is pretty involving. How much of the plot of TKR was decided before you started writing and how much of it evolved as new OCs were submitted. Obviously it seems that characters such as Sky and Sun Raider (created by Kyo*), Hao Wong and Reina Lang (created by redryuranger11) and Jessie and Anakin Elias (created by Zeltrax541) have played big roles in the story’s development – did these ideas come to you as you read the character submissions or were you specifically looking for characters to fill certain roles?
A: About 60 percent of the former and 40 percent of the latter. Sometimes, characters fall into these roles as if they were a gear custom-made for a machine. And lo and behold, ideas create themselves… or something like that.
Q: I don’t know if you can answer this one but what is the worst character submission you’ve had for TKR or Academy Kamen Rider – and what were the reasons that made the idea so poor? Were you able to overcome the problems with the submission and include the character or was it just impossible?
A: Back when I was poaching Riders for The Golden Thorn, part of me didn’t want to go ahead with Shohei Tachibana/Den-O Wing Form because of my partiality to Nero. Thank god I went with Shohei, as he turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the movie, as did Zetsu-O. I was a little iffy on creating/using original Rider systems as I wanted TKR to be the best of the original Heisei Riders. Apart from those little nitpicks here and there, I never outright rejected something unless the Rider system in question was already taken. To be honest, there wasn’t any bad submissions. Every submission just had their little quirks, that’s all. But that’s what made them so unique.
Q: In later chapters of TKR, it is revealed that the main adversary of the series is a cyborg. This is a pretty significant departure from the standard tropes of Kamen Rider, at least the Showa series which often cast cyborgs as heroes. What was it that led you to make the Architect a cyborg and was this a decisive attempt to contrast the themes of your story with the original series?
A: I thought Jaden ‘The Architect’ Stryder as a cyborg would’ve been a nice callback to the original Showa era (and on a personal apologetic level, I’m sorry for killing off the original Triple Riders which is sometimes a no-no with the fandom). Some great villains either have black hearts or no hearts and I chose Jaden to have a power generator instead of a heart! ^^ But for real, I would agree that making Jaden a cyborg would be a great contrast to the Showa Era. On a side note, while not necessarily cyborg, every Heisei Rider thusfar has had a personality trait less-than-well-received: Kuuga/In danger of turning evil, Faiz/Wolf Orphenoch, Kiva/half-Fangire, etc.
Q: Regarding those Showa heroes, at one point Jack Ryker mentions meeting the original Riders and the evolution of SHOCKER into the American organisation, Neo-Shadows. What was it that made you specifically want to tie TKR into Showa continuity? Likewise, despite the contradictions between shows, what was it that made you bring in aspects of Black and Kiva but exclude other shows like DCD?
A: Personal preference, really. While I wasn’t a watcher of BLACK, I was a major Kiva fan, having watched it from beginning to end and becoming enthralled in the characters. Having TKR tie-in with the Showa era was, as Jaden is, a callback or rememberance of that era. While I haven’t watched much of the Showa era, I always thought it looked cool from the Henshin MVs on YouTube I’ve gone through.
Q: Speaking of DCD, that series came out about half-way through TKR‘s run. I remember noting in my review of episode #1 that it could cause some bumps for TKR due to the overlapping, multi-continuity themes and the notion of Riders from one series squaring off against Riders in another. Was there anything in DCD that made you reconsider your plans? How did this show influence TKR?
A: Decade made me think more about what to do, but it never made me worry. I was off and running by the time Decade started and everyone was getting into the series. It influenced my story in the comrades/friends department, because that was what Decade was all about: comradery and friendship… along with rivalry.
Q: Still talking about DCD, Anakin was quite a difficult character for me to get used to, if only because of the context of Tsukasa’s role in the source material. It’s hard not to contrast how close Joey Harbinger in AKR is with the original Diend, to how Anakin’s use of the DCD belt sort of takes things for granted. What led up to his inclusion and did you, at any point as DCD began to develop, regret using DCD as another ‘regular Rider’? Also, was Dori Nobuya’s introduction in AKR as an alternate variant of DCD a way of trying to distinguish the role of DCD as a character (the supposed ‘destroyer’) from the role that Anakin played?
A: Zeltrax541 approached me before Decade went on the air and asked me if he could submit an OC using the Decade Driver, and I said yes. I was suffering Kiva withdrawal at this point and thought “meh, I’m probably gonna’ miss Kiva too much to get into Decade.” which is the same trap I fall into every year a Rider series ends. Then it progressed and caught my attention, making me think that using Anakin might’ve been a bad idea from a canon standpoint, but at least I let my friend have the latest system, which was fine by me. Nobuya was a case of “kick people’s asses, take no names and spit on them when you’re done”, mixed in with Tsukasa’s supposed role as a destroyer, which made for a pretty interesting personality.
Q: Aside from the hidden traps in DCD‘s development, have you had any other difficulties in adapting new Rider themes to both TKR and AKR? I was quite surprised when Raz Hybrid appeared as W in a recent issue of AKR and I’ve noticed that a reader named KAMENRIDER21 has already submitted a character for AKR based on the Kivara armour seen in the trailer for the second DCD film, which I was quite shocked by. Is there any point where you feel people have gone too far or do you try your best to accommodate everyone who submits a character, regardless of how much info is known about the armour/belt?
A: First question’s kinda’ a hard one, but to deal with that, I usually do a bit of studying on so-and-so because fanfic reviewer A submitted a character based on so-and-so. As for the second, I do try to accommodate and if I don’t know too much, just make some stuff up. Some people do go over the top sometimes, but I just tone it down to a point everybody wins.
Q: As TKR has gained in popularity, there have been a phenomenal amount of origin stories, spin offs and alternate universe scenarios posted on fanfic.net. The two most significant ones for me are The Kiyome Accident by wizard2555555 and One Interesting Week by honoomaru. How do you feel about the impact you’ve had on Kamen Rider fanfiction within the fanfic.net circle? How does it feel when writers who have been working on their own OC Rider series, begin to submit characters from those books for AKR, as blade master 14 did with characters from Kamen Rider C.L.A.W.?
A: It’s been overwhelming. I didn’t expect it to gain as much steam as it did. I honestly didn’t. I feel my impact is being felt in the circle hard because other people have begun ‘submit-an-OC-Rider’ stories in similar fashion (I was asked to help out with a cool series called AERS, but I had to pull out due to increased workload). But it really touches my heart when people do that. And as for Riders from long-running series on Fanfic.net? I feel honoured when they do that because I read a chapter of story A here and a chapter of story B here, and I’m really enthralled with what I’m reading.
Q: Speaking of AUs, how much do you go by the works of others writing these spin offs? TKR reflects a lot of what we see in the individual origin stories people have crafted for their characters, but how do you feel about the canonicity of The Kiyome Accident and One Interesting Week? The last one in particular suggests some pretty interesting things about the Architect and also includes Asuka/the Black Lioness Hybrid from your own AU, Gekijoban Tournament Kamen Rider Resurrection Yami. Will we be seeing Asuka turning up in regular continuity after the events of honoomaru’s recent chapters?
A: AUs are always kinda’ the same universe, but not the same universe, which is the whole point. When people write spin-offs, I’m really honoured and I usually save them to my USB stick so I can read them later. The Kiyome Accident is AU, as you can tell since it was Akachi in the finals instead of Jessie and Nero was kissing Yuri in the end, but it’s a great read all the same. One Interesting Week I have decided is a storyline running parallel with TKR, because it leads up to the events of Resurrection Yami and tries to stop it from happening, or whatever honoomarou decides to do with it. As for Asuka… I’d keep my eyes peeled (^_^).
Q: And lastly… Kamen Rider Sentai: Discuss. (^_^)
A: I’m just going to leave that one there… *escapes*
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For those of you still looking for a Tournament Kamen Rider fix and who have, like myself, read everything that fanfic.net has to offer, then the next step might possibly be… the TKR youtube playlist!
