Kamen Rider Black and Black RX - Tribute to Ishinomori

I remember when I was 7 years old, it's my first encounter watching Japanese Adult Video at my friend's home - possibly that Video Tape belong to his brother or maybe his father, it was fantastic experience... from there onwards, I see the world differently....

Well... that is nothing to do with Kamen Rider... OK, let's re-phrase that... I remember when I was young, watching Kamen Rider Black and Space Sheriff Gavan and many others anime series from Japan.... sadly though, at that time in the 80's we watched it from the local TV channel and most of them are translated into local national language... but then, it's not that we have a choice back then, so what ever comes, we just watch it and enjoyed it...

The good thing now, in this modern era of DVD and as a working adults - we have money - we can buy the original DVD box set. So we can re-watched those classics anime and TV series once again and say - wow, it was cool when we first watched it, but now... all those "great effects" of the 80's doesn't seem to be that great anymore.... but oh well... we just watch it anyway.

Recently I just finished watching the DVD-Box set of Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX - the figures we reviewed way back in February 2010.

When I was kid, I don't remember which episode I start watching it and in what is the last episode that I watched.... accidentally saw it on TV and wow... but now I have the chance to properly start from Episode 1 till the end.

Many said that Kamen Rider Black is the best Kamen Rider TV series in the 80's and thus it have a direct sequel of it's own (Kamen Rider Black RX). I'm not sure how many of you agree with the statement that Black is the best at that time.... at the end, different people have different opinion.

Today I will just focus on Kamen Rider Black RX.

RX is the first Kamen Rider to have multiple forms, namely Black RX (the original form), Robo Rider and Bio Rider.

RX is also the first Kamen Rider to have car - namely Ridron - this car can move on the land as well as under water. I'm not really sure what kind of car they (the studio) use to make the Ridron but my guess is the Toyota Trueno AE86.

On top of that, the series is the first to feature a team-up with the past Riders since the 1984 TV special "Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!!".

It really feels like a classic reunion of all the seniors and the current hero (at that time)... I consider this as a "bonus"....




All the 10 "Senpai" (Seniors) helping Kamen Rider Black RX...




If you are a hardcore classic Kamen Rider fans, I'm sure you can named all these Riders by just looking at their pictures;

All the classic Kamen Riders prior to Black and Black RX (which are from the same Minami Kotaro)














As I said earlier, it can be fun and funny watching this old tv series and you can feel the nostalgia and remember your past while watching the series.

I always observe many aspects of the show, the storyline, the character, the actors and actress, the stunt, the actions, the music, sound effects, the graphic and all those explosive effects and many other aspects...

In this show (Black RX), his female friend or maybe girlfriend - Shiratori Reiko is a photographer and she was using a Minolta DSLR camera - with films. Remind me of those days where it was cool when your father have a compact camera and then you bring it to school and spent some money to buy film and do all those photo shooting and then you spent money again to develop all the photos. It's funny to think where are all those photos now after 10 or 20 years later....

Apart from that, I love to analyze and compare the hairdo of that era and our present time now. Lot's of things to cherish and laugh for.

And another funny thing... when Kamen Riders speak, there is no face expression what so ever and thus to "convince" us the viewer that the KamenRider is actually talking at that time, the Kamen Rider have to keep on moving his head a little bit, the shoulder and most important is that his arms will do all sort of things - pointing their fingers here and there, grabbing the fist and many others movements... just to convinced us that they're actually talking...

And from time to time I love to "redo" those actions and it can make me laugh.... very funny...

Eventually after this TV series is completed - it takes another 10 years before a new Kamen Rider (Kuuga) appear on TV screen in 2000 - that was 10 years ago.

Black RX is the last Kamen Riders of the Showa period, though the show lasted in the very early Heisei period.

One thing that I love most about Kamen Riders from the Showa era is those explosive effects and usually they do this on some quarry or mining location. Nowadays, this kind of explosive effects are mostly replaced by computer graphic effects. I kind of miss those fire....






And if you are a regular visitor(s) of Shewsbury Land, you might wonder why suddenly there are many Kamen Rider figure reviews in here?

It's not that we changed or suddenly just fall in love with Kamen Riders. We love it since many years ago (since before puberty) but we only get the opportunity to focus on them now and we feel that during this summer of 2010, it is finally the time for us to pay tribute to the original creator of the series, the great and the most talented Ishinomori Shōtarō, student of Osamu Tezuka.

And for Shewsbury Land, by doing as many reviews of the Kamen Rider toys and action figures as we could, it will help to keep the buzz alive and the legend shall continue when people search for the review thru Google and Yahoo search engine.

It may be a small contribution to the Kamen Rider toys and action figure fans in general but don't forget that Toei (the studio/producer of Kamen Riders series will get at least 5% from the price of the licensed merchandise produced by our good friend Bandai and/or any other toy/hobby company. So if our review can influence more people to buy the Kamen Riders merchandise or even if it can be a helpful guide to those who need to know more about certain particular merchandise, I guess that is good enough.

The Kamen Rider series originally created by Shotaro Ishinomori (石ノ森 章太郎, Ishinomori Shōtarō, January 25, 1938 - January 28, 1998). He was born as Shotaro Onodera (小野寺 章太郎, Onodera Shōtarō) in Tome, Miyagi, and was also known as Shotaro Ishimori (石森 章太郎, Ishimori Shōtarō) prior to 1986, when he changed his family name to Ishinomori with "ノ".

Right after his death in 1998 - the spirit of "Kamen Rider" is back in Toei Company and they produced the all new Kamen Rider Kuuga with new concept and along the way gathering the old and new Kamen Rider fans back together to a new era.

From there onwards, we can see the appearance of the Heisei generation of Kamen Riders one after another as below;

2000 - Kuuga
2001- Agito
2002- Ryuki
2003- Faiz 555
2004- Blade
2005- Hibiki
2006- Kabuto
2007- Den-O
2008- Kiva
2009- Decade
2010- W
20??- OOO

And below is the list of all the Showa generations since the 70's;

1. Kamen Rider (1 and 2)
2. V3
4. X
5. Amazon
6. Stronger
7. Skyrider
8. Super-1
9. ZX
10. Black
11. Black RX


You can read further in Wikipedia, they have lot's of info about this Kamen Riders stuff.


Shotaro Ishinomori has died but his works live on and I'm proud that Shewsbury Land were able to contribute to make the legend goes on by providing some reviews on Kamen Rider toys and action figures.

Tatakai Kamen Raida!!! (Keep on fighting, Kamen Rider)



Now if you have some spare time, please leave some comments on the 3 simple questions below;


Do you also love Kamen Riders series?

Overall, do you prefer the Showa Riders or the Heisei Riders?

Who is your favorite Kamen Rider of all time?





end

Comments

  1. I like Black and Shadowmoon (since basically they are my first kamen rider series) but black RX a bit weird for me :(

    for story and special effect newer rider are better.
    but for character old rider are much better (a bit sick with those pretty boys :x )

    and at least Old rider doesn't have any form :) so I don't need buy multiple toys.

    ReplyDelete
  2. my most favourite kamen rider series was faiz(555) i go youtube chech out watz is the kamen rider black , the theme is ........

    ReplyDelete
  3. I prefer the heisei series and my favorite Kamen Rider is Den-O :P Just got to love those 4 imajins!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the mask rider black series but not really RX... anyway I watch that in Malay as only Malaysia is showing and without subtitle I still watch it then in TV3 if I remember correctly...

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  5. BUt since I haven't watch classic rider(mostly just read from kamen rider spirit manga). my fave rider are from heisei especially Blade series :) like those poker cards idea and sakuya tachibana

    ReplyDelete
  6. I prefer classic rider since have unique design and concept such as kamen rider x related to marine etc

    ReplyDelete
  7. I never watched those classic Showa riders before.... So my favourite would have to be from the Heisei riders. My favourite is a tie between Faiz and Blade. Although the first Kamen rider series I ever watched is the Kamen Rider Ryuki.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Frankly speaking, as at 15 August 2010, I only have watched the following Kamen Rider series;

    Kamen Rider Black
    Kamen Rider Faiz
    Kamen Rider Black RX
    Kamen Rider Ryuki

    Story wise, I like how they end the story of Black and RX - typical classic ending, hero beat the boss of bad guy and everybody leave happily ever after...

    But overall unlike Gundam anime, where I can easily picked Gundam Seed as my favorite of all time... for Kamen Rider... I think it's kind of difficult...

    All are just average in my heart and yet I think they're still quite an entertaining show.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just suggestion if you want to watch more Heisei kamen rider
    1.if you want drama watch kuuga
    2.if you want sad ending watch Blade
    3.if you want "pretty" boys watch Kiva
    4.if you want child impression watch Den-O
    5.and last If you want see kamen rider gay but funny watch double(W) :P

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aya, great info - thanks for that recommendation, that probably will influenced which Heisei Kamen Rider series I will watch next... and maybe it is helpful to others as well...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I do love Kamen Riders after knowing it's existence.

    I like both of them, I like the Showa Rider's for it's cheesyness, I like the Heisei Riders for it's special effects.

    Kamen Rider Black RX, because it's the first one I know back then when I watched Haim Saban's Masked Rider (a cheesy American adaptation of the series) along with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
    Good 90's memories...

    ReplyDelete

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