Tokusatsu in Review 02 - Kamen Rider Black RX (1988 - 1989)

This is the direct sequel for Kamen Rider Black, where the protagonist is the same guy, but was capture by new evil organization in the beginning of the series and thrown to space. The sun however, manage to cause some reaction to him and thus "upgraded" permanently into Kamen Rider Black RX.

Frankly I have the DVD but do not watch it as keen as Black, most of the time I fast-forward it. The plot is predictable anyway.

The Opening

Departing from the dark and grim nature, RX is back to the campness that is thought to have ended since Black. Maybe the producer think this will become more kid friendly, but since most kid shows in Japan is dark in nature (try calculate the body count in Dragonball series, its more than all James Bond films combined!!!), why ever bother?

As mentioned in the entry for Black, the presume death of Shadowmoon means the protagonist is freed from his internal conflict, and now he is a boring happy go lucky guy and worries not on how to save his brother, but more to how made spoiled brats happy.

The campy Crisis Empire where I don't bother to name them one by one.

The evil organization this time is not that cool ancient cult, but an alien race known as the campy Crisis Empire. Yeah, it does sounds like a parody kind of name like Dr Evil, not at all intimidating. The character designs of this aliens are simply depressing.

Yeah, Kamen Rider drives...

RX is credited as the first rider to have multiple forms - Robo Rider and Bio Rider, where the ability he discovered as the series grows. It is also the first and only rider to have a car, thus it won't be too much to call him a Kamen Driver. The main finishing move is no longer a rider kick, but an attack using his light saber.

Lightsaber, see?

Roborider and Biorider

Roborider with his custom ride.

Biorider with his custom ride.

This series also revealed that Shadowmoon did not dies in the Black series, but the character was killed of in this series, where he experience some kind of Darth Vader plot - during the final minutes of his life, he regain his memory and save some lives. Yeah, it's typical and down right soapy.

While Black battles Gorgom all alone, with a few non-rider allies, RX plays cheat, like most of his senior where in the final episode, all previous riders appear to help him on the showdown with the campy Crisis Empire in a very campy kind of finishing.

If he summon them all in the beginning, we don't have to suffer 47 episodes of this series.

Maybe because this considered one of the least favourite rider series, there is no other rider series after this. There are a couple of rider movies and one prelude, but none able to develop into a series, until the franchise revival in the Heisei era.

RX has been used by Saban to be made as a spin-off of power rangers. But the production is so shitty it is universally panned. This made people hate this RX character more.