Tokusatsu 101 Lesson 2, Showa Kamen Riders

Related tags: Kamen Rider, Toku, Tokusatsu Written by: Barim

Well, it’s been some time, but I’m back again. Going right on with what I promised I would, Kamen Rider. Still, once again I threw a word on you you might not know, Showa. No that’s not part of the title, or even officially associated with Kamen Rider, instead its a very persistent fan term.

It’s a time period in Japan, 1926-1989, because then Emperor Showa ruled Japan, in the same way, since then till the present is known after Emperor Heisei. Then why are these names used so much by fans for Kamen Riders? Simply put, the first main series ended in ’89 and only started up in 2000 again, making a clear cut division in the Riders.

Like I said in lesson 1, Shotaro Ishinomori created Kamen Rider which started in 71 and resulted in many staples of modern Tokusatsu. The most important one, suit actors, wasn’t implemented till episode 14, because the 10th episode proved why that was a good idea. Kamen Rider was played by 1 actor, in and out of suit, Hiroshi Fujioka, who some of you might also recognize as Segata Sanshiro, but that is mere extra. The important point in the history of Toku is that during the filming of episode 10 he got into a motor accident and shattered his leg. Remaining episodes were welded together to create a transition to Kamen Rider 2. Who was then played by at least two actors, 1 actor when out of suit and stunt actors for scenes in suit, this practice has persisted in most Toku since then.

For the rest, the Showa period was about many staples at first that took a long time to change, both Kamen Riders 1 and 2 were altered human beings who turned on the ones that did this to them, the Evil Shocker army. The third Kamen Rider, V3, also was, but was instead turned by 1 and 2. The first series lasted for over 2 years of weekly episodes, V3 started the single year running series after it. V3 also introduced the first evil rider, Riderman, who was also the first Rider to use a weapon besides his fists and kicks.

Then came the fifth Kamen Rider, of the third series, known both as Kamen Rider X. Once again a human who was near death, got rebuild into an artificial human and started fighting evil. This series also shows Japan’s tendency to take important things from Western culture and completely change them for their own means. As X’s enemy was G.O.D., or the Government of Darkness. This series is also well known for introducing Apollo Geist, one of the more recognized villains in the series. This series started the decline in ratings and only lasted for 39 episodes.

Then came Amazon, who’s basically the black sheep of the series, not even 25 episodes, which could almost be considered as a transforming hero version of Tarzan. This meant a change from the traditional transforming android and was the first iteration of a bio rider, while not received well, bio riders would return later, for greater success.

Then came Stronger, once again he was engineered upon by his enemies and once again this one also betrayed them. I sees a pattern… Still, Stronger was cut short and not as well received as the original series.

It wasn’t till the next iteration that Kamen Rider returned to it’s former glory. But I’ll go deeper into that one in the next.

Some more Kamen Rider related video’s:

Kamen Rider 2′s Henshin

Kamen Rider V3′s Henshin

Kamen Rider X’s Henshin

These three show the true basics of Kamen Rider, a hero using his belt to transform. Amazon changed this… and as such it should be clear that this was a large departure from the original premise. Stronger returned to basics, but that wasn’t enough…

When it comes to videos like these, I’ll accept requests, as you might think of things that would make a good representation of the subject that I didn’t.

Well, that’s all I feel like telling about the first five Showa series now. The next five and the series return to glory in the second Showa lesson.  After which I’ll probably make the jump to early sentai.

Also, after the first few posts explaining the major series, I’ll most probably dedicate one post to power origins. As those are as wide and diverse as the characters themselves, but clearly fall into a small number of recognizable categories.

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