Behind the Hero: Niji Riders
By SolarGemX
[Set Up!] [Build-Up!] [Armor Time!] [Ansatsu] [Accel Synchro!][Game on!] [Level up!]
HENSHIN!
Kon'nichiwa! (HELLO!) What else needs to be said? Kamen Rider, Super Mighty Rangers, Sentai. Are you truly a Japanese hero fan if you haven't heard these words at least once? The Super Sentai genre is perhaps one the oldest forms of the hero genre to ever live and it's the father of many, many, modern day heroics. These Warriors of Justice are only matched in popularity by the Mystical Defenders of Love: Magical Girls. At least if you're an anime fan or live in Japan that is. In today's world of heroics, sometimes you just want to see the classics and in Ginza Tokyo, Japan; you get just that. Although I've yet to meet a Magical Girl in my stay here, I can proudly say that the Kamen Riders are alive and Kicking! Joins us today in a very colorful and explosive chapter of Behind the Hero, when we take a look at one Japan's most beloved hero teams, The Niji Riders! All together now! Henshin!
Perhaps one of the longest performing hero teams we have seen yet, the Niji Riders have been fighting for Justice for over 10 years. This Technicolor team has seven armored members to its name and is actually sponsored by the world-famous Toei Corporation! Indeed, the father of many of history's most famous Riders does in fact have it's own Rider team. In fact, if you believe some rumors on the internet, people have said Toei has a secret society of Kamen Riders somewhere in Japan, where they train new generations of Kamen Rider… nothing's been confirmed though, but can you imagine? Although, there has been talks that Toei's lawyers and the Horizon hero Valiant Silver used to have some rather heated debates way back when; may she rest in peace. Either way, why don't we start this analysis by talking about the leader of these crime fighting septuplets with the Red Niji Rider of Flames, Burning Bulwark, also known as Homura Ijisu.
[Providence Revolt!]
[Henshin!]
Ms. Ijisu is the red-haired, 26-year-old leader of the Niji Riders, and started out as a rider alongside her sister Sunlight Phantom about 10 years ago. Armored from head to toe in a stylish red armor with emerald highlights, Burning Bulwark cuts an impressive figure. All members of the team have their own set of armor increasing their strength, speed, and endurance to metahuman levels, not only that they can switch in and out of it at will! (and with a catchphrase obviously). Not only that, but they also have a set of metahuman abilities to further enhance their combat capabilities. As you could peruse from her name, Ms. Ijisu's power is fiery in nature. She can produce extremely durable shields from her flames that are capable of blocking all sorts of hits, from physical to energy she has endured it, not only that, if anything does touch the front of the shield it will get engulfed in flames or explode on contact making the act of even touching her a struggle, and that's not counting the ports in her armor were she can bellow flames to enhance her un armed strikes or increase her maneuverability. In addition, she can make other armaments out of her fire. Things like swords, claws and clubs of fire are also at her disposal, just as long as she can hold it. Hmm, if every single member is packing armor that complements their power sets like that, there might be some credence to Toei having some tricks of their sleeve if they can afford such impressive armor.
[Pierce Through!]
[Henshin!]
The second member of the team is one of the two males in this rider team, the drill that shatters evil hearts, Hesperidium Driller, Sora Kagi. Donning an impressive, burned orange armor with silver highlights, this 20-year-old is one of the Niji Riders heavy hitters. Mr. Kagi's main power is the ability to summon a light construct of a drill that he can change the size of up to a certain range. From the size of his hand to the size of a car this thing is the last thing you want to see heading your way, and don't think that you can block it. If that drill touches you and doesn't pierce through at the beginning? Just give it a minute or two, because it will. You see Hesperidium Driller's… well drill, has a unique property, the longer it spins while hitting a target the faster and stronger it becomes, making sure that it will eventually get through any defense. Not only that, but HR's armor will absorb the heat generated from the construct and the target to generate some heavy steam that can be released from thrusters at the back of it to launch the armored hero forward like a car.
[Photon's Ignite!]
[Henshin!]
The third Rider to join the scene is the golden tomboy herself and sister of Burning Bulwark, Hikari Ijisu, also known as Sunlight Phantom. Armored in an impressive gold and silver armor, SP is the stealth specialist of the team. The older Ijisu sibling; ("HA!" told you I'm older.- said a blonde tomboy; "Yeah, for like 1 minute, and you don't act like it either way"- says a red head woman. "Hey!") took her metahuman ability in a different direction to her sister, where she's the tank of the party, she's the rouge. With the ability to control light in about a 4-foot radius of her, Stealth Phantom is capable of cloaking herself in a veil of reflective light, turning herself invisible. She uses this ability in conjunction with shaping light in her hands to form a blade of light from her fingertips, letting her cut even armored foes. Theres just something about punching someone in the face while they can't tell where you are, that is just… fun. In addition to her powers, Sunlight Phantom can channel her light through her armor in order to shoot arrow shape light blast towards her enemies.
[Target locked, commence the operation!]
[Henshin!]
Even if other members are stronger or more capable with their powers, Viridian 97, otherwise known as Kairi Shinzo is perhaps the most famous member of the Niji Riders. Covered in a stylish emerald armor with silver highlights, Ms. Shinzo's acclaim to fame is entirely because of her powers. You see, Viridian 97… is a combat healer. For the first time in a very long while, Behind the Hero will talk Metahuman with healing abilities, there few heroes with acclaim to having the ability to heal others, and for good reasons. One just has to look at world famous healer Medicant, to know why any hero group, would probably kill for a healer; and for quite some time we did in fact not know. 21 years of age, it's been less than a year since finding out Viridians 97's hidden ability. For several years, many fans only knew that she was capable of generating a green light that was capable of charging electronics. Some people speculated that the hero may had a hidden power, but they correlated it to being tied to her impressive marksmanship skills (No… she's just that good with a gun and sniper rifle). Thanks to Viridian 97's armor being capable of carrying her custom-made armaments that can harness her energy to shoot lasers from them, people just assumed that was it. That is, until last year where a monstrous Named Behemoth: Pestilent Izanami, a massive bus sized Japanese snow fairy, and while the animal it tried to emulate is quite cute, this monster was not. Carrying a smell similar to rotting flesh, every part of this behemoth's body was capable of melting inorganic materials at a rapid pace if touched and organic material, including human flesh, would begin to rot in less than a minute, and that's not counting the number of bacteria covering its plumage. The team was called to the outskirts of Tokyo in order to deal with the monster and had to get creative due to the fact that they had to stay away in order to not get harmed from the behemoths rotting abilities, a fact Izanagi pounced on with fervor. After a long battle the beast laid dead, but not before tearing Void Purple's armor just enough to scratch his stomach, leading to the rot to start setting in. Without hesitation, Viridian 97 ran towards her comrade and with a stream of green light, began keeping the rot at bay; long enough that they were able to transfer him to a safer place to remove the infected tissue, but not without some witnesses to the action. With the cat out of the bag, Viridian 97 began using her abilities more often and with that people manage to figure out that she is capable of accelerating the growth of healthy cells in a body, letting her rejuvenate and heal wounds, in some accounts it's been said she can even regrow lost limbs, but not organs. This revelation has made her a bit of a target during some missions, not that they get far since she's armed to the teeth.
[Reach for the Sky!]
[Henshin!]
The fifth member of the group is the Skybound Sōjutsu (Spear arts) Master Emi Aoki, also known as Cerulean Valkyrie. Ms. Aoki's armor is cerulean in color with a white trim, and strangely enough has some metallic tips around the waist of the design. While in combat, Cerulean Valkyrie uses a Japanese spear as her main weapon, but is more than capable of fighting hand to hand if needed. Her skills with a spear are enhanced thanks to her metahuman ability, gravitational direction. You see Ms. Aoki is capable of altering her own sense of gravity, letting her fling herself in any direction, not only that she can essentially walk on walls or even ceilings thanks to this ability. Her armor has some higher specs compared to her teammates due to the fact that her powers don't require it to be modified to further enhance her abilities. Nonetheless, her armor has an internal gyroscope that lets her keep her balance no matter her orientation, it also helps to prevent dizziness.
[Kesshō-ka suru]
[Henshin!]
Next is the sixth member of the Niji Riders, Burst Sapphire, or Asuka Tanaka to her friends. Ms. Tanaka is an interesting case when it comes to the Niji Riders. Her armor is actually less fortified than the rest of her team, having her elbows, fingers and her kneecaps exposed. You may think this is a design flaw, but its actually intentional. Ms. Tanaka's power is actually visible at all times; her neck, shoulders, knees, and fingers are all covered in a crystal-like shell. When in a confrontation these "shells" grow into massive spikes or claws made of crystal, so if the armor was plated in those areas it would end up destroyed. Burst Sapphires crystal doesn't stop there, they are in fact capable of absorbing different forms of energy, cracking in power when full and further enhancing the hero's power. She can also break the crystals and throw them like grenades towards her enemies, since they will eventually grow back in a couple of minutes. Its for this reason that Burst Sapphire prefers fighting with Sunlight Phantom and Viridian 97, since she can absorb the energy, they produce to amplify her own.
[Fading Stars]
[Henshin!]
The final member of the Niji Riders is the shadow loved Dark Hero of the riders Riku Yugure or Void Purple to his enemies. Mr. Yugure has an imposing dark purple armor with a black trim and is actually the tallest member of the group at 6'2. Starting out as a solo rider, he eventually joined the rest of the team after having an enthusiastic duel against the orange member of the squad Hesperidium Driller, who he later became friends with. Much like Viridian 97, Void purple is the physically strongest of the group just behind Burst Sapphire and his armor has been modified to enhance his agility. Using a combination of karate, judo and aikido alongside his powers, the dark champion of the Niji Riders is the most skilled when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. As for his power, Mr. Yugure can reduce the combat abilities of any opponent he hits, lowering their strength, speed, or endurance after a couple of blows. These reductions require a couple of solid hits to begin their magic, but once the pain train starts it just keeps rolling until it just gets out of hand. However, if an opponent is capable of evading the heroes blows for around a minute or two, the effect will wear off.
Quite a colorful and explosive cast we have here huh? From beating bad guys, to helping civilians; The Niji Riders are probably one of Japan's most loved teams. The amount of merch they have also doesn't hurt. Well, I do believe it's about time I went back to the states, need to make sure the house is still intact, but I sure enjoyed every last second of this trip. Here's hoping we can see each other again, this has been Behind the Hero, Singing off.
Authors note:
I reserve every right to say that I have no idea what I'm doing. Hey, welcome to the seventh episode of BtH, also known the Mr.Kermie/Bitterman/Kamen Rider fans will rightfully judge a guy that has not touched the Sentai genre since the original Power rangers. Also, the episode that aired 3 omake's early because of REASONS! By all means, feel free to criticize, I'm just glad I managed to do it. A few fun facts about this little team are that they are based on the colors of the Rainbow (If it wasn't obvious from their names and team name).
I took the risk of adding a Named Behemoth and a Healer to this team because it's probably the strongest team I have made, and they have a organization backing them up. Hopefully it works, if not we can lower the Behemoth to gold level and change Viridian 97's so she doesn't have healing ability, or have it that she carries medical supplies in her armor as well.
As I was making the team it was around the time, I was around the time I was naming the 6
th member of the team that I caught on that I had mad 5 female riders and only a single male, So Riku came into existence to save Sora from being the only dude in the squad.
A little head canon that I have after this and Bitterman's confirmation is that one of the many discussions between Toei Lawyers and Valiant Silver was because of her name. Niji Riders Burning Bulwark, Hesperidium Driller and Viridian 97 didn't really mind and would have loved to swap stories with the heroine. Sunlight Phantom, Cerulean Valkyrie, Burst Sapphire, and Void Purple just made popcorn and watched the back and forth like it was a legal drama. As for inspiration:
Burning Bulwark and Sunlight phantom were slightly based on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Pyra and Mythra and their armors are based on the Siren Artifice, just with their colors. Homura's sword and shield looks like Shinegreymon's Burst Mode sword and shield and Hikari finger sword looks like the light sword the Nahobino uses in Shin Megami Tensei 5.
Sora's name came from the Japanese word for Sky, specifically a sunset sky and a bit of the Yugioh Card Neo Spacian Grand Mole. The armor looks a more a bit like the Kingdom Hearts armor, only more technological.
Viridian 97 was inspired by Sharla from Xenoblade chronicles 1, and those videos of dads taking their daughters to shotting ranges. Fun fact: Her main weapons are a pair of pistols, a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher that shoots capsules with her healing energy stuffed in them. Armor was slightly inspired by Skystriker Ace- Hayate.
Emi was based on the Dragoon/Valkyrie class from Final Fantasy. Armor takes after a more techno theme Dragoon armor from FF 14.
Asuka was based on a character from Wargroove 2 Rhomb, especially his groove form, only less hulky. Her armor looks like a futuristic version of Gem Knight Aquamarine. Just a lot slimmer in some places.
Riku was based on saboteurs from FF 13 and the monk class from FF and his armor looks like Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis, but with human proportions.
