Skyrider was just called "Kamen Rider" or "New Kamen Rider". He was also called Skyrider by the fanbase because of his flying ability. So for a reboot -- it didn't really separate itself from its predecessor four years ago namely Kamen Rider Stronger. Stronger was the fifth Kamen Rider installment and the seventh Rider (when you count the sidekick Riders namely Rider-2 and Riderman). The show featured the new villain organization known as Neo-Shocker (though it only had two generals namely General Monster and later he was replaced by Admiral Majin) which was still under the control of the Great Leader. Somehow, it's never explained how Great Leader kept appearing or if he kept using decoys. You know superhero logic, anyone? So for a reboot were they trying to reimagine Shocker as Neo-Shocker? Hiroshi Tsukuba was operated upon by his ally (a former Neo-Shocker ally) who turned him into Skyrider -- a very different approach to how Kamen Rider Ichigo and Kamen Rider Black got their powers!
For an intended reboot -- a lot of later episodes were devoted to linking it to its five previous seasons even when it's not even an anniversary season. At least Kamen Rider Decade and Kamen Rider Zi-O had every right to link to previous shows -- they are anniversary seasons! But Skyrider? No. The show just really felt like it was soon heavily relying on its predecessors than it should. Not that I'm going to praise Black RX either -- I do like Black RX but I still criticize it how the ten other Riders didn't participate in defeating Grand Lord Crisis or how the show just did more fanservice towards its finale. It's hard for me to gush over the arrival of the previous seven Kamen Riders for this reason -- I didn't grow up watching them and I only watched Kamen Rider Black (and later Black RX) before watching all previous Showa era Rider shows.
I just thought that Neo-Shocker was somewhat lacking personality. I guess it's because previous organizations had several generals. It didn't make too much sense to suddenly write off General Monster early on and replace him with Admiral Majin (who was acted by Yosuke Naka who would later play as Desmark in Goggle V). I even thought that maybe the Great Leader of Neo Shocker should've just practically just got rid of Admiral Majin early on. I thought Great Leader was probably playing favorites between General Monster and Admiral Majin -- until he realized that even his favorite couldn't defeat Skyrider. Then he ends up emerging as a giant dragon of sorts and tried to destroy the Earth.
I thought the finale was kind of weird. It does mix the whole idea of "you decide how they survived" in one way or another. Do you remember how Riderman rode on a rocket, it blew up and then he somewhat survived with no explanation? The Kamen Riders showed what it meant to be a hero -- it's not about going home to receive medals but to sacrifice everything for others. The whole scene where the eight Kmen Riders supposedly died probably caused parental backlash. Then again they did appear in the Kamen Rider Super-1 movie. It's really baffling how in the world did they survive. Then again you know superhero logic. If Great Leader keeps returning then why not the Kamen Riders? I guess they probably managed to teleport in time or did Riderman learn how to teleport all of a sudden? Beats me yet screw logic!
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