Kamen Rider J, the last of the movie rider, the last lead rider where Okamoto Jiro don the suit. The worst rider flick and the first (and only I insist, I hope, I pray) rider than can grow into giant Ultraman size.
Since ZO has nothing new to offer, I think the production crew has come to a bottleneck, and perhaps after a few packs of Marlboro and a dozen bottle of sake, some boo zoo suddenly said "Make him a giant, Ultra-Kamen!!!" Fuck~!
Trailer
The lead actor for human form...forgettable. The rider design, almost like ZO; maybe they took ZO design and just made some changes.
The bad guys, known as Fog Mother. Guess the writers have some row with their mum. Won't suggest this as a Mother's Day flick.
The evil mother, I mean Fog Mother.
Fog Mother has three hench dudes, a little too much for a 45 minutes flick. As like ZO, zero character development and almost no sincerity in production.
Evil Hench Dudes in human disguise and monsters.
Unlike multiform rider, giant rider obviously is suicide, as this concept never being explored again; unless you count the evil rider in Kiva's movie. But that is not Ultraman like giant, just bigger.
Nothing much to say, this is like a final nail to the coffin and there is no any new rider appeared in the 90s. Hence, the end of Dark Age for Kamen Rider franchise.
J and ZO later has a 8 minutes movie. Should have named the movie Kamen Rider Dumb and Dumber. Who approve such dumb designs anyway?
A year after Shin, Kamen Rider ZO arrived to the theater. It is the first movie rider that appears only in feature film, being a the first join production between Toei Company Limited and Bandai.
From here onwards, most new rider monster will follow such concept.
In this film we can see the union of things the production crew learnt from Black, RX and Shin. This rider costume, like Black and RX, has no fabric. It is sleek and clean, the only downside is instead of a henshin belt, it spot some sort of a gem in his ab. The effect from Shin is, the monster is very organic looking. Instead of those bulky rubber suit in previous series, the monster anatomy is more humanoid which makes them more flexible and fight better.
Bad guy boss is a machine?
Being a 48 minutes show, without a series to equip the audience with the character background, the characterization and the motivation is almost non-existent. I got a feeling this production's purpose is to squeeze a Kamen Rider to the theater and remind the public of the existence of Kamen Rider franchise.
The villain looks cooler, I actually hope he wins!
Plot wise, typical if not boring. Action wise,is Ok, since the suit action is the very same with Black. In fact all 90s riders are played by the same person - Okamoto Jiro.
The bike is transformable, and looks like its owner. Reminds me of Batter Hopper.
Sadly, it does not offer anything new and we are lucky they never make a series out of it.
No, this is not a cool baddy. This is Shin Kamen Rider.
Three years! Three years after the lackluster RX, they gave us this, Shin Kamen Rider, literally "The Real" Kamen Rider, or so they hoped. It is said that this is based on the utmost representation of Kamen Rider as envisioned by its creator Shotato Ishinomori. Well, since he is the creator of Rider, we can't argue, but this show really derive greatly from all other riders.
For a start, it is not a series, but a video special entitled Shin: Kamen Rider Prologue. Since it is a 'prologue', it is safely to deduce that they may want to make a follow up, maybe a feature film or a TV series. But since it is almost universally panned by the purist, they idea never come into reality.
While some embrace the new take on this old franchise, most detest it. Reason being it is too bloody different. The rider in this case is not a cyborg like being, but a mutant. A human being genetically manipulated with some grasshopper DNA and become this mutant. It has a bug like features,along with the iconic tentacles, but unlike other riders (especially No 1 and No 2) where they can be unmasked i.e. take the helmet off, this rider is transformed Incredible Hulk like into this fearsome being. It is not technology based, it is more to organic based.
Another thing is, this rider never rides in its transformed form. He only rides when he is the human form. Thus Kamen Rider, meaning masked rider really cannot be apply to him. Furthermore, he does not have those signature move like rider punch or rider kick, and lacks of the fancy belt which plays a big part is almost all rider story. He doesn't even has a henshin move. He just change when he is pissed off, hence Incredible Hulk like.
Shin Henshin...
The mood of the story is much darker and grimmer than Black, with far more violence scene, and being credited as the first and only rider show to have a topless scene of a woman and nudity. Reason being, this production celebrates the 20th anniversary of the franchise, and the producers think that those kid growing up watching rider shows since this first rider should have enjoy this adult version take.
The bad guys in this video is lacklusterly named "The Syndicate" and a campy take on the American CIA. It does have several monsters but is all the evil cousin of Shin.
Based on this screenshot, one may take as baddies fighting each other.
Overall, the production is not bad. It can be a solid FX flick if the plot got polished up a bit. If you watch it without thinking it is a Kamen Rider show, the special effect really will put you in aw and you will enjoy it. But too bad, thanks to RX, the 90s is the dark age for Kamen Rider, not because the stories take a dark view, but none of the early 90s idea really works...
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.
Kamen Rider G, not a series, but a special production to promote the Kamen Rider Decade series. It is a tribute to both Showa and Heisei rider series, with elements from both eras combined in it. Kamen Rider G is played by Goro Inagaki, of the popular SMAP boy band.
It is quite a funny show, though.
The obvious are
Showa elements: - The Rider's design. - The plot where the protagonist was kidnapped, brainwashed and altered into a cyborg. - The design of the evil organization's emblem. - The stunt where the rider on his bike jumps over an explosion, this is a rather standard scene on most opening in Showa series.
Heisei elements: - Henshin device and concept echos the one from Kabuto. - The use of elaborated, transformable weapon. - Finishing Rider Kick similar to Faiz. - The appearance of all 10 main riders from the Heisei series.
Moral of the story, if you are a terrorist, don't drink during a mission.
Kamen Rider Black is the eighth Kamen Rider series and the eleventh rider. It was made and broadcast in the late 80s. At one typical evening when I was in Standard 5, my brother and I accidentally stumble across this remarkable series. I remember still the episode that I first watched wad the one with the Cactus Mutant as the monster-of-the-week, and it is the eleventh episode. From then one, I developed an ongoing interest with this tokusatsu series.
Kamen Rider Black, non-geek-fans in Malaysia will know him as Baja Hitam.
The seven series prior to Black, I can't find their respective DVDs now, but I do able to get their feature movies that somehow shed some light on how their series will looks like. The DVDs for riders after Black are easier to get. Therefore, although limited, but still I can make some comparisons and comments.
Black is the first rider that does not wears a scarf. Probably scarf is no longer fashionable in the 80s, or somehow the producer realize it is not practical at all for a fighter. The series was made three years after the TV special or pilot highlighting the birth of Kamen Rider ZX, that for certain reason failed to developed into a series.
Although the series still retain a few typical Showa riders' convention, but in a lot of ways it is very different. The first being the rider's design. There is absolutely no trace of fabric in the costume, all is either latex, foam or plastic, unlike the 10 riders before him, where their costumes are combinations of sports attire as based with armour and gloves and boots. Black is a pure cyborg design, with neatness like a ninja, suggesting efficiency and not at all campy. Black also has two batter motorcycle where he use interchangeably, depending on the nature of the battle he is in.
Black, and his riders, Road Sector and Battle Hopper.
And like a typical rider story, there is also an evil rider, but not an exact evil twin of the main rider, but a totally different one. He is Shadowmoon, who ultimately becomes the leader of the evil cult Gorgom. So, Shadowmoon is not just a plot device of only one or two episodes as in the other series, but he is also the central of the story. Reason being he is the adopted brother of Black.
This twist, where the ultimate villain is the hero's brother may not be a special plot in any adventure story, but it is the breakthrough for rider series. The rider we have here no longer launch a personal crusade to save the world and being a boy scout, but his main motivation is to save his brother from the dark side. This conflict give the titular character more depth, and the series thus becomes more grim and dark in nature.
The villain Shadowmoon is also one of the best design rider / villain. In fact I found him look as cool as Darth Vader, and to a great extend, cooler than a metal hero made by Hollywood in the 80s - Robocop. Where Black is sleek, flexible and hyper kinetic, Shadowmoon is majestic, elegant and calm. Yet, being a brainwash supervillain, he is badass and has no mercy.
Shadowmoon, you will cherish every scene he is in.
The evil organization behind all the chaos this time is not a typical organization, but an ancient evil cult, run by three priest, where their ultimate vision is to dominate the world and serve the Creation King a post that supposedly being held by either Black or Shadowmoon after they duel to death. But just like typical Showa rider, Black escaped before he managed to be brainwashed, and thus, the priests have no choice but to let Shadowmoon to be the sole candidate to assume the role. In this cult there is also a character named Birugenia, and ancient warrior that has eyed for the role of Creation King but was not favored. He will sometimes be the allied, but for most of the time the rival for the priests, in his agenda to destroy Black.
Three High Priest - Bishium, Darom and Baraom with Lizard Mutant and Birugenia. Three round pictures below is the Priests' Grand Mutant Form.
Although this Gorgom cult still employ the typical monster-of-the-week plan but unlike the previous evil organization, Gorgom has no campy gimmick. There is no Dr Death or Baron Blood or Captain Chaos, but just three high priest, a rouge warrior and a capable candidate for Creation King. The monsters they have, are based on the theme of animals, insects and plants.
Although the series is filled with quite a number of plot holes, typical to tokusatsu series, but its overall more adult themed, the effective music score, the atmosphere, special effect, fight choreography, production design and the absence of prominent annoying kid in the main cast made it one of the best Kamen Rider series.
But too bad, its popularity gave it a direct sequel, where Black is upgraded into the first multiform Kamen Rider - Kamen Rider Black RX. Black RX series has back step into a campy series, and the main character has become almost moronic. Where Black ends in an almost apocalypse Japan and Shadowmoon ended up presumed dead, Black RX pick up with the main character being a carefree and bland character. There is no inner conflict, and he is but a typical do good fella.
Another blow is, the existence of Black RX means the design of Black will not be used anymore. If can, really hope there will be a feature where Black RX has to be modified back into Black permanently...
Kamen Rider J...J for Jiant?
The evil mother, I mean Fog Mother.
Evil Hench Dudes in human disguise and monsters.
J and ZO later has a 8 minutes movie. Should have named the movie Kamen Rider Dumb and Dumber. Who approve such dumb designs anyway?
