Producer Naomi Takebe on Why Kamen Rider Gaim Is Built Around Fruit

Kamen Rider Gaim producer Naomi Takebe discussed the show’s design origins in an interview with Hyper Hobby magazine, laying out how a series built around a Sengoku-era theme ended up expressed through fruit.

Takebe said the starting point was a desire to break from the two-Rider format that had defined every series since Kamen Rider W, in favor of a larger roster with more room for factional conflict, an idea she compared to large idol groups and sports teams. The production settled early on Sengoku-period Japan as a stylistic core, with each Rider drawing from that era’s imagery, but needed a way to visually differentiate a large cast of otherwise similar armored warriors. Bandai’s suggestion of fruit as an organizing theme became that answer, chosen specifically because it had never been used as a Rider motif before. Research into which fruits tested best with children put orange at the top, ahead of banana, grape, and melon.

The related “nut” designation for stronger or more antagonistic Riders, including Kamen Rider Gridon, came from head writer Gen Urobuchi, who wanted a ranking system for the show’s Lockseeds akin to the Cell Medal and Core Medal hierarchy in Kamen Rider OOO. The “lock” concept itself grew out of early thematic language the design team kept returning to, “opening a new world” and “unlocking potential,” landing on a mechanism nothing in the franchise had used before.

Takebe brought Urobuchi onto the writing team after meeting him through a mutual friend, having previously exchanged messages with him online; by the time he joined, Gaim’s visual design was largely finished, and he was the one who proposed the show’s dance-crew factions. Lead actor Gaku Sano was cast for the role of Kouta Kazuraba without a formal audition process, having been identified early as the right fit given the complexity of Urobuchi’s scripts. Veteran director Ryuta Tasaki, who had worked on early Heisei-era series including Kuuga, Agito, and Ryuki, was brought on specifically because the production wanted to return to that period’s tone while still building something new under an anime-side head writer.