Hideaki Anno’s Shin Kamen Rider reboot film isn’t in theaters yet, but a spin-off manga is already in the works. It’s called Shin Kamen Rider Shocker Side (or Shoker Side). It’ll debut in the pages of Young Jump magazine [Thanks, ryokutya2089!]
No visuals from the manga were available, but key credits are already known. Shin Kamen Rider Shocker Side will be written by Kyuri Yamada. Yamada create the sci-fi manga AI no Idenshi (“Genes of AI”). The art will be provided by Akeji Fujimura. Fujimura created the manga series Kami-sama no Iu Toori (“As the Gods Will“). The manga is said to draw on or depict the film’s “Greatest Villain.” Whether this refers to an individual character or a larger group isn’t specified. “Reboot” films like Shin Kamen Rider, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Godzilla often play with and revise portions of the “lore” of their inspirations, so whatever Shocker Side refers to might not necessarily appear as it does in the original works.
In Kamen Rider, Shocker is the original evil organization of the series. Agents of Shocker kidnapped Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji to turn them into the Kamen Rider super-soldiers. Led by a singular “Great Leader”, Shocker has taken on many forms and incarnations throughout Kamen Rider‘s decades of history. In Shin Kamen Rider, SHOCKER is an acronym standing for “Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling.” A promotional app for the film is called “The Official SHOCKER App“, and delivers marketing content in the form of propaganda drops from “Shocker Staff”.
Shin Kamen Rider Shocker Side will debut in the pages of Young Jump magazine. The film will premiere in Japan in March 2023.
