32Play Blog: The henshin that was lost in translation - Kamen Rider

And now for something a little different.

I've made passing mention of this in my blogs before - but I am a massive Kamen Rider fan.

Kamen Rider is a super hero show (tokusatsu genre - live action special effects) that has run since 1971 with a ten year gap in the 90s - much like Dr Who. When I was a kid a friend of mine from Hong Kong had a bunch of tapes that he'd picked up in a market - those rather crappy tapes had some episodes of Gundam ZZ, Tekkaman Blade, Macross and Kamen Rider Black on them. This was just before the Power Rangers came to the UK and you can imagine that my mind was blown - especially given that I had grown up on Thundercats, Robotech (oh the irony) and Transformers in the late 80s. Naturally it was all in either Chinese or Japanese but at that age it was just cool to watch dudes in plastic suits and robots beat the crap out of each other.

Skip forward a couple of years and previews of 'Masked Rider' showing up on UK tv tying into Power Rangers showed up..I even recognised Black RX as the Rider in question. The hype was real for my 12 year old brain..however what we got was..well..not what I was expecting. Time for a little compare and contrast:

with the first episode of Black (RX - the source of Masked Rider fight scenes is a continuation of Black so..I prefer Black anyway)

Both are 'kids shows' and Black is from 1987. I take the, probably controversial, view that Kamen Rider is the Japanese Dr Who - something that both kids and adults can enjoy. Now obviously the demographic (and time period) is different between these two programmes - Saban wanted to tap into the Power Rangers demographic while Black had it's own thing going - but going from one to another was deeply annoying for my 12 year old self. Rewatching Black now I'm not even sure that it qualifies as a kids show..there's some scary stuff in there. I never looked at Silkworms the same way again after episode 5.

After the disappointment of Masked Rider in '96 I forgot about Kamen Rider until around 2011. Trawling the internet (as one does) I came across some mention of a new series - at that time it was W - and was surprised to find out that there had been new Kamen Rider series since 2001. I decided to start with the most recent which was Decade..both a good idea (short and a good premise) and a bad idea..but the bad idea didn't become apparent until after I'd watched some of the previous shows. Decade acts as a retread/revisiting of all the Heisei-era (2001-2009) Riders before him - the dimensions are being destroyed and in order to stop the collapse of reality Decade must travel to all the previous Heisei Kamen Rider worlds and destroy? those Riders..thus we get a whistlestop tour of all the series since 2001 starting with Kuuga. Unfortunately all the characters and plotlines have been changed to such a degree that it really annoyed fans of those characters...add to that the confusing nature of what is actually going on - Diend alone can start fights between fans - and that the ending of the show is only seen in the movie I can only suggest Decade to new viewers or people with a love of pink cameras. It should probably be noted that in 2009 Saban once again attempted to bring Kamen Rider to the west with Dragon Knight (Ryuuki) and fair play to them..it was a lot closer to the source material. Some liked it..others didn't. I've only seen a handful of episodes and I don't like Ryuuki anyway so..I don't really know on that count.

Following Decade I watched some of W - a fantastic concept of having a Kamen Rider made up of two people - two halves - with a sprinkling of 'Soft Boiled Noir'. It's a fun show, as is OOO's - the one that followed. However that's when we really began to hit the kids demographic. Den-O was the beginning of the trend and the recent Fourze and Gaim have just..overdone it to my mind. Kamen Rider has increasingly become about themes and..well..selling toys. Blade has the card theme, as did Ryuuki. Kabuto has a bug theme, while Decade has a Kamen Rider theme. Gaim has a fruit (yes) theme, Fourze has a space theme and Deno-O has a train theme..with added possession in the mix. Don't get me wrong - I accept that people enjoy Fourze and Gaim but I'm just not one of them. The Kamen Rider I want to see is Faiz (mass murders of teenagers, suicide attempts, introspection, laundry) and Kabuto (super speed, asteroids hitting earth and decimating Shibuya, bodysnatching, Tendou Souji, miso) not..fruit based powers. Not people screaming 'Space KITAAAA'..it's turning/turned into Masked Rider and that's not something I want to see.

This

vs

However I can appreciate, again much like Dr Who, that some people will swear by Den-O and think that Faiz is terrible. You'd be crazy but you're allowed to be crazy..

For those interested in watching Kamen Rider - my personal suggestion would be to start with Black if you can handle the old school charm or Faiz and Kabuto. Kuuga is fine too as it leads into Agito. I would avoid Den-o, Hibiki, Fourze and Gaim but ymmv. All of these can probably be found in subbed form on Youtube - much like Black above. KRDL is also a great website in that regard.

To close out this little retrospective of my Kamen Rider journey (and to be honest what prompted this blog post..and seeing @corruptedevil user icon all the time) I've been recording some videos of my Kamen Rider games - mostly on psp. Here I take a look at Eighting's Super Climax Heroes on the aforementioned console - it's a fun, yet dumb, fan game with a great selection of heroes and villains.

I make a bunch of dumb mistakes in the video regarding time frames and characters..Coming up I have a look at Rider Generation 2, Lost Heroes and hopefully Battride War. There are other games that riff on the Kamen Rider idea - most notably Viewtiful Joe and Wonderful 101 - though that's more Sentai than Kamen Rider.

Anyway thanks for joining me down this highly opinionated trip down memory lane. Seriously, if you enjoy Dr Who or just fun TV Shows - give Kamen Rider a try. It won't be for everyone but it's worth seeing if only for the henshins, fight scenes and dramatic poses.

Have you seen the newest Kamen Rider yet? Kamen Rider Drive, he's a car, he drives a car. He looks really cool except for the tire.

@corruptedevil: Which changes with his form..yeaaaah.

I'll give it a shot. It's a homage to Knight Rider apparently..so we shall see. But a car instead of a bike..Works for the new Ghost Rider but Kamen Rider? I dunno

I grew up watching a butt-load of tokusatsu on TV after school. Kamen Rider has a very special place in my heart. Kabuto, arguably, is my last modern favorite. The newer "themed" ones just aren't doing it for me. I think it needs another reboot: a "back-to-basics" "back-to-form" fresh start. I REALLY tuned out after the sommelier one.

I got WAY into Kamen Rider a couple of years back, I think it was while Decade was airing. Since then I've watched all of the Heisei era shows except Black, Kuuga, and Wizard, taking a break from watching any for a couple of years somewhere in the middle of OOOs.

I actually started with Kabuto back then, and yeah, it's a great show and a real good starting point. I'd have to disagree on Faiz though, I remember being real bothered by a lot of that shows "people being mad at each other because of miscommunications" (much like Kiva, pretty sure they had the same writer) and the ending/non-ending being pretty awful. Though, no Kamen Rider show can beat Hibiki for horrible, horrible endings.

I've also been way into the post-Decade shows, with the exception of Wizard. I'd put W, OOO, and Fourze in my top favorite shows for sure all for pretty different reasons though. I don't mind the more serious-minded Kamen Riders, Agito is also up there as one of favorites, but I prefer when there's a bit more of a balance between comedy/drama which I feel W, OOO, and Kabuto do pretty well. Fourze is basically comedy for the most part, but it actually hit me pretty hard emotionally a few times and for some reason I just found all the characters super endearing and likable.

Also, I'm curious, did you stop watching Gaim at some point? Somewhere in the mid-20s I think that show took a turn and WAY dark (though I'm a couple of episodes behind right now).

Oh, also all the Showa shows are incredible in their own way and I really have to get around to watching more of them sometime.

On the games side, I remember having a copy of the PS2 Climax Heroes games (which ended with Decade I think) but haven't been able to find it recently which is a real bummer. I also played a lot of (Platinum'd) Battride War which was pretty OK. A lack of co-op mode was a huge bummer.

Yeah it gets straight savage half way through. Basically becomes Ryuki but not quite as brutal.

@epidehl: I can see how the whole 'miscommunication' thing can be annoying in Faiz. The whole 'are they really the bad guys?' thing made it more interesting to me as opposed to Fourze which, as I've mentioned, is not to my taste. I think the recent Taisen movie is actually the canon ending to Faiz - but like Decade it has issues. I just really like the suit and powers in Faiz. I may take another look at Gaim but wading through 20 episodes and the dumb fruit conceit is asking a lot. I would suggest watching Black because it's so damn good for it's time. RX even has a guy called Joe the Haze..what more do you need?

@ikabubu: Can't really argue with that at all. I feel it's just overdoing the 'quirky' side of things at the moment..street dancing? Come on now.

Fine, I'll watch it.

I had a toy of Masked Rider and his bike.

There is almost no dancing in the show anymore once you hit the halfway mark. It's just Rider vs Rider battles all the time.

I recommend watching Garo if you like toku with darker stories. Terrific armor designs and great music too

@tumbell: I've seen the first episode of Garo and it was okay..I should catch up on it at some point. KRDL had a server crash unfortunately and I think that all disappeared.

@corruptedevil: I'll take another look..those armour designs though really don't do it for me. @gunslingerpanda: At last...bwahahaha

@jazz: I can totally agree that the design/powers of Faiz were really cool. People basically fighting because of games of telephone was, for some reason I'm not really sure of, a bit much for me though (I can typically handle some real dumb shit). Black has been on my list to watch for a while, though honestly I haven't been watching a ton of KR recently, besides half-assedly keeping up with Gaim. I know my brother watched all of Black and really dug it, and with it being the literal middle point between the Showa/Heisei style of riders it'll probably be way up my alley (Plus again, the designs on Black and Shadowmoon are super cool). Does Black RX actually have good subs anywhere? I remember back at the height of my KR watching the only subs of it were HK bootleg subs.

@epidehl: A dude named Stone subbed the entire series pretty well.

@epidehl: I'm not sure if the ones on youtube are decent or not as I haven't watched them yet but I'd be surprised given it's popularity if there aren't decent subs for RX.

@corruptedevil: Good to know. Maybe when I run out of anime to get through I'll make Black/Black RX next.

Great too see some Toku fans on Giant Bomb!, Kuuga will always be my favourite Rider. But every series has something for someone.

Gaim is/was amazing and am totally looking forward to Drive.

You're pretty tough on W and Gaim... both were amazing. I'm trying to watch through OOO now and it's alright but I think my biggest gripe is that it isn't W.

This blog is being relocated to Off-Topic as no game, or gaming related topics, are being discussed.

@zombiepie: Thanks. I didn't expect it to be more about the series than the game - or to have any replies.

@dogby: I don't know where you get the idea I don't like W - I think it's great and say so in the blog.

Following Decade I watched some of W - a fantastic concept of having a Kamen Rider made up of two people - two halves - with a sprinkling of 'Soft Boiled Noir'. It's a fun show, as is OOO

Gaim has so many things that put me off but I will give it another go. Nothing in this universe will get me to watch Fourze.

I remember playing the old Sega CD game and seeing some of the westernized show. That spider monster was absolutely terrifying.

And looking back, it seems like a more gritty Power Rangers. I was curious about it a couple years ago, until I realized there's 40 years of history there.

I really like the design of Faiz, but the plot is a complete mess and the pacing is terrible. His friend pretty much just goes "Hey, have a power-up form!" and throws him a box with a phone in it. The whole thing is so rushed and the ending feels like "We're filming the new series in a half-hour, pack your shit and lets go go go! Just grab all the boxes you can!"

@csl316: You don't need to know the history. Every series exists completely separately from every other one except for the occasional crossover and Decade which is just weird.

dude Gaim was legit really good. like the dancing fruit-themed ninja stuff is goofy and dumb but when shit gets real it gets real hard, and the fruit actually ties into some cute themes. i genuinely consider it the best thing Urobuchi's ever written and i hope he gets a chance to do more stuff like that in the future, ideally with better costume designers.

as for Fourze, they intentionally went full-on happy upbeat friendship because Toei/Bandai wanted to take kids' minds off of the earthquake. i liked it a lot, the characters were great and had really good chemisty and it was just good fun throughout, but i can understand why someone who heavy into showa/early heisei Rider would dislike it.

@domowoj: I feel like i've gone to a different dimension or that I just watched some other show calling itself Gaim. To be fair I only watched the first 3 episodes and that was enough for me to say 'nope'. I will give it another chance though. As to Fourze, that explains a lot and puts it in perspective - but as you say..really not for me.

@alkaiser: I watched it after Decade - perhaps that puts a different spin on my enjoyment of it. Also that suit is so damn cool - and Kaxia just kicking dudes in the chest and then waiting a while to do his finisher is hilarious.

Got hold of some Garo so I'll watch some of that and Gaim and report back.

@corevi: After watching nearly all the Gaim series I can now accurately say that..I was completely wrong. It went full on Evangelion at one point there. It's truly a fantastic story lost in dumb suit designs (yay EVERYONE HAS A BOW THING), forced betrayals and...what happened to the hot waitress?

So thanks all for getting me to give it another go. I may give Ryuki another shot but alas KRDL seems to have bitten the dust.