Post by Yuri Petrovitch on May 31, 2014 16:37:51 GMT -5
"Kamen Rider, Takeshi Hongo, is a cyborg. He was altered by Shocker, an evil secret society with aspirations for world domination. Kamen Rider fights against Shocker for the sake of human freedom!"
KAMEN RIDER
SYNOPSIS
During a time trial with his motorcycle racing mentor Tobei Tachibana, Takeshi Hongo is abducted by Shocker, a secret organization bent on conquering the world and subjugating them by transforming them into cyborgs. Hongo is thus modified, becoming the grasshopper like Kamen Rider. Soon rebelling after trying to save the life of a person marked for death by Shocker, Hongo dedicates himself to battling the armies of Shocker, with an eye towards defeating their Great Leader and ending the threat of the organization once and for all.
However, despite the numbers game being way tilted in Shocker's favour, Hongo is more than up the challenge. Time and again he is able to defeat the Shocker cyborgs one on and even when Shockers sends all 11 at once against him, he triumphs. Stymied by their inability to defeat Hongo and further their aims in Japan, Shocker creates a second Kamen Rider using cameraman Hayato Ichimonji as their subject. But Hongo is able save Ichomonji from Shocker's brainwashing and Ichomonji becomes Kamen Rider 2, Hongo's ally in the war against Shocker.
Safe in the knowledge that Japan is protected, Hongo leaves Ichomonji to battle Shocker in Japan while Hongo attempts to stop their global operations. Ichimonji proves to be Hongo's equal (if not slightly moreso, there's a reason Kamen Rider 2 is called "The Kamen Rider of Power," after all) Stymied both at home and abroad, Shocker hits upon a reversal of the initial plan: Kidnap and enhance Hongo and pit him against Ichimonji.
Unfortunately for them, Hongo was able to beat their brainwashing with self-hypnosis, and, newly enhanced thanks to Shocker, joins with Ichomonji and forms the Double Rider team. United in a common purpose against Shocker, they at last make some headway in crushing the organization, so much so that Shocker's Great Leader "destroys" Shocker and allies with an organization called Geldam and creates Gel-Shocker, an organization with renewed power who unleashes their most furious plan to destroy the Double Riders yet: The Shocker Riders--a group of Kamen Riders totally loyal to Gel-Shocker.
Neither they nor Gel-Shocker's upgraded cyborgs (now humanoid hybrids of two animals) can ultimately stand against the Double Riders and finally, after years of struggle, the Double Riders make their final stand against the Great Leader himself, and the threat of Shocker finally appears to be vanquished . . .for now.
ANALYSIS
Sincer the notion of me being able to talk about every single thing that is awesome about the series in this synopsis would be ridiculous, I'm gonna have to bullet-point this (and even then it'll be long-winded): Kamen Rider is a seismic shift in Japanese culture, Japanese kid's TV, special effects shows, and probably a dozen things I'm forgetting. Kamen Rider changed the game for Japanese superheroes on pretty much every level, allowing for an explanation of new themes, new styles, and new approaches that forced an evolution on every level.
The previous big hit show that had caused a shakeup in Japanese superhero shows was Ultraman. Previous to this, Japanese superhero shows borrowed a lot from American serials and television programs, coupled with a few stylistic tics carried over from samurai films and worldwide successes of the time. The heroes were mystery men in the style of Batman or the Green Hornet--street-level characters who typically fought stock criminals or space aliens operating in secret in exciting but smallish and penny-conscious adventures.
Then Ultraman hits in the 60's, driven by talent that cut their teeth on the Godzilla films. Suddenly, big, expansive, colourful action is the rule, as is action choreography that borrows a lot from professional wrestling--lots of grapples, throws, etc. The heroes remain remote beings, generally only factoring into the episode to beat the giant monster and save the day. The stories tended to be very black and white with very little in the way of ambiguity.
As the 1970s dawned, darker breeds of anti-heroes (like Golgo 13) became in fashion in Japanese manga. One such creation was Shotaro Ishinomori's Skull Man, the story of a man whose parents are murdered and who starts a brutal campaign of vengeance against those responsible, and who is all too willing to sacrifice the innocent if they happen to get in the way. The series was a success and was optioned for television. However, certain elements would have to be toned down and changed for Skull Man to make the jump to Japanese TV. Ultimately, these modifications (including the replacement of the skull helmet with the grasshopper motif) would give us the genesis of Kamen Rider.
But most of the dark tone still survived. Look at the first episode above--it borrows a lot from Ultraman, You Only Live Twice, and the Adam West Batman TV show (note the exaggerated sound effects) but look at the juddery edits and the strange shot compositions--this looked like pretty much nothing else that was on Japanese TV in 1971, whether it was in genre or not. Additionally, the action choreography is much different from Ultraman--harder, more impactful and more visceral with lots more strikes, falls, and grappling, lots more karate and judo, primarily influenced by Sonny Chiba (whose Japan Action Club was the school of record for most of the actors in most of 1970s Japanese Super Hero shows from Toei--early Kamen Rider and Super Sentai is stacked with their work) This also added to the rougher, darker tone, as did the fact that these weren't giant-size heroes--these were people like you and I, fighting on our level. In a way, you could see it as a reach back to the mystery men from the days before Ultraman, but with the kind of character shading that was happening with American superheroes during this time as Marvel Comics' approach was reach maturity.
In a sense, if Ultraman is Superman, then Kamen Rider is Spider-Man.
Going back to this first episode again: Hongo escapes Shocker, and tries to save their target, but ultimately gets him killed and is blamed by the professor's daughter for the murder. Even though we know that Hongo's on the side of right, we're given another side of it--to the people he's trying to protect, they have no way at all of knowing if Hongo is helping them or fighting against Shocker for his own purpose. He may be as much of a danger as Shocker, and so long as he is feared and mistrusted he is, for all intents and purposes, alone in his struggle against an implacable enemy. His few allies, like his victories, are hard-fought for and earned at tremendous struggle.
This was something we take for granted now, but was shocking at the time and blazed a new trail.
And while it was definitely of the time, it took awhile to properly catch on, and one specific behind-the-scenes incident nearly derailed the whole thing less than three months into its run and turned it into an institution. Hiroshi Fujioka, who played Kamen Rider 1 in and out of the suit, broke his leg in three places while filming a motorcycle stunt (blinded by pain so bad he hardly remembers the incident, he actually realigned his own leg, badly twisted in a way that legs normally don't go, to keep going. Special note: Hiroshi Fujioka is one of the most hardcore human beings who ever lived) As the producers desperately tried to buy time and figure out what to do (should they kill off Hongo and bring in a new Kamen Rider? Replace the actor and keep the character? Cancel the show?) Ultimately they decided to write Hongo out, and bring in Ichimonji as a new Kamen Rider, and similar to Doctor Who's conceit of regeneration, this set the precedent of allowing the show to continually evolve and keep the interest level high. With a new Kamen Rider, one more lighthearted than Hongo had been, ratings actually improved and, when Fujioka was finally healed, he was able to return full-time, they were then able to give the series another shot in the arm and create something so legendary that minor planets have been named after it and not even an earthquake can destroy it.
From this has grown a franchise (now nearly 45 years old) from this grew a cultural touchstone, and from this grew a national institution. Even though Kamen Rider has never really properly taken off in the United States, its cultural DNA had touched our shores, whether by being referenced in a multitude of anime (if you see a guy with a scarf striking a pose or taking someone out with a flying kick, it's a good bet that's a homage) or Power Rangers (whose Super Sentai progenitor flowed from Ishinomori, and whose early iterations followed Kamen Rider's tone and style) in some sense they all pass through or flow from Kamen Rider.
NEXT WEEK
Having looked at the beginnings of Kamen Rider, let's take a look at what happened when, stymied by their inability to equal the success of the first two series, they decide to completely reboot the show, then decide not to. Once again, Neo-Shocker kidnaps a civilian, camper Hiroshi Tsukuba and turns him into a cyborg and once again, things don't go quite as planned, which is rather meta when you think about it. In seven, join us for [The New] Kamen Rider!