Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de - Volume 4 - Chapter SS3

Chapter 3

? I, Andou Jurai, will now perform the transformation poses of every Heisei-era Kamen Rider!

The Kamen Rider franchise is a collection of many individual Kamen Rider TV series, and those series are broadly grouped together based on what era of Japanese history they aired in. There were nine Kamen Rider series in the Showa era, twenty-one in the Heisei era (counting Kamen Rider Amazons, an adult-oriented, ultra grimdark series that technically aired online), and three to date in the current Reiwa era, with a fourth that will have started a month ago at the time of this translation’s publication.

Note that at the time this volume was published in Japanese, there were only fifteen Heisei series (Kamen Rider Wizard was nearing its conclusion at the time). That said, also note that Andou is performing the transformation poses of all the Heisei-era Kamen Riders, not each series’ protagonist’s pose. Since each series features multiple—sometimes many—Kamen Riders, and since each rider sometimes has more than one signature pose, doing all of them from memory would be both very impressive and excruciatingly time-consuming.

? I was gonna go into my Rider Kick medley after I was done with these too...

The Rider Kick is another staple of the Kamen Rider franchise! It’s a type of special attack that almost all Kamen Riders use some variation of. Typically, a Rider Kick involves the Kamen Rider jumping up into the air, then hurtling themself toward their enemy footfirst with a variety of flashy special effects accompanying the move. They’re usually finishing moves, and they frequently prompt explosions. Note that the vast majority of modern Rider Kicks are comically impossible to pull off in real life, given their physics-defying nature, which raises major questions as to exactly what Andou was planning on doing if Sayumi let him go through with his plan.

? Are you telling me to go find a stone mask to put on or something?!

It’s time for another JoJo reference! This one traces all the way back to Part 1 and Dio’s origins. At the very start of the series, the very first JoJo’s father keeps an ominous stone mask mounted on the wall of his home. Dio, his adoptive son, discovers that the mask can turn people into vampires and eventually uses it on himself, giving up his humanity for the sake of power.

? What’re you laughing at?!

Andou’s specifically quoting Uonuma Usui, a character from Rurouni Kenshin, in this line! Usui says this to Saitou Hajime shortly before their final duel to the death, which Hajime wins.