Active Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
7,217
I read once that Black RX was originally conceived to be its own show separate from Black, with Ryohei Kobayashi (who played FiveBlack and appeared in Jiban) as the star. But due to Black's popularity Tetsuo Kurata was brought back for one more year. What if RX hadn't been a sequel, though? Would it have been better received, or was its style the issue regardless of the fact that Kotaro is now smiling and doing Clark Kent-style shenanigans?

If RX was its own show, I'm thinking that Black could still have made guest appearances like previous Riders had done: perhaps once for the Shadow Moon arc and once more for the finale instead of ten suits. Maybe even the first episode too a la Blue Beet in B-Fighter Kabuto. (That was actually a story idea I once had for an Black/RX adaptation: Black breaks or has his Kingstone broken in two and implants them into a cyborg created by Crisis to save his life, and who thus is reborn as RX.)
 
Active Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
6,410
Ryohei Kobayashi was actually considered for a third series that would follow Black RX, but production stopped likely due to the misgivings of one of the producers with the Rider franchise in general (disliking how Ishinomori gave his approval to an unofficial parody that also aired at the time and publicly complaining about it, which is pretty big for something like this in Japan).

If RX was its own show, I'm thinking that Black could still have made guest appearances like previous Riders had done: perhaps once for the Shadow Moon arc and once more for the finale instead of ten suits. Maybe even the first episode too a la Blue Beet in B-Fighter Kabuto. (That was actually a story idea I once had for an Black/RX adaptation: Black breaks or has his Kingstone broken in two and implants them into a cyborg created by Crisis to save his life, and who thus is reborn as RX.)
They clearly weren't willing to use guest actors there, and barely were willing to give them any screentime, aside from making Black RX look better and stronger, so Black not being the lead wouldn't really change anything. You'd just get Black appearing alongside the other Riders to be mostly useless. I guess he'd get V3's role in that case (getting beaten up by upgraded Jark to show how powerful he had become).

He could also have gotten those two earlier episodes rather than Shadowmoon though - but even for those they couldn't even bring back Shadowmoon's actor, just his voice actor, which luckily was different from his human actor.
 
Mad Skillz
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
19,145
I think RX can sort of work as a Black sequel with some transitional episodes at the start of the series. It's interesting if you look at Kotaro's personality in this show as someone who's moved on from tragedy and is now enjoying life but...maybe show us how that happened? Give us a few episodes introducing us to the new aspects of his life and not just lumping it all on us from the start.

Ryohei Kobayashi was actually considered for a third series that would follow Black RX, but production stopped likely due to the misgivings of one of the producers with the Rider franchise in general (disliking how Ishinomori gave his approval to an unofficial parody that also aired at the time and publicly complaining about it, which is pretty big for something like this in Japan).

This is one of those things that always strikes me as a bit of surprise. I can't imagine anything like that would happen today with the toy monster Kamen Rider has become. (and I wonder if it would have happened back then if RX was more successful in that regard)
 
D

Dr Kain

Guest
I definitely think it would have been better off that way. Kotaro felt out of character in RX compared to his mannerisms in Black. Not to mention he is just suddenly living with this family and has a girlfriend, but never talks about his sister. Also, he seemed really under powered in Rx as he had to get help from the other Kamen Riders instead of defeating the villains on his own. I also didn't like the villains being aliens as that also made it feel like it belonged somewhere else.

As for some unofficial parody, what was this? Why did the producer hate it?
 
Active Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
6,410
As for some unofficial parody, what was this? Why did the producer hate it?

Kamen Norida. The Black RX producer who complained about it was Susumu Yoshikawa, who said that by condoning something like that it became impossible to take the actual show seriously. He eventually was a producer for the 90s movies too though.
 
Joined
Jun 19, 2014
Messages
276
Kamen Norida. The Black RX producer who complained about it was Susumu Yoshikawa, who said that by condoning something like that it became impossible to take the actual show seriously. He eventually was a producer for the 90s movies too though.

Here's the clip of the episode.
[video=youtube;0PVQNch8tnA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PVQNch8tnA[/video]

You can find more (if not entire series) on Veoh.
 
D

Dr Kain

Guest
Kamen Norida. The Black RX producer who complained about it was Susumu Yoshikawa, who said that by condoning something like that it became impossible to take the actual show seriously. He eventually was a producer for the 90s movies too though.

Wow, what a moron. I mean, we are talking about grown ups who were armored spandex in the allusion of insects that fight monsters trying to take over the world. WHAT PART OF IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUS?!
 
Active Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
7,217
^ Then by extension no superhero can be taken seriously when you boil them down to the basics.

Aoi's idea of the audience gradually seeing Kotaro transition from his Black self to his RX personality sounds pretty good. Perhaps build up this new life he's achieved only to have it torn away again (at least in part as the show did end up doing). But I agree with Kain that there ought to have been a few more Black callbacks. The arc where Roborider and Biorider debut was a perfect opportunity for that, with history repeating itself regarding Kotaro's loved ones, but it was never brought up. (Though it still was good from what I remember of it.)
 
Would like to change his avatar
Joined
Mar 3, 2005
Messages
5,677
Wow, what a moron. I mean, we are talking about grown ups who were armored spandex in the allusion of insects that fight monsters trying to take over the world. WHAT PART OF IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUS?!

I like that Yoshikawa had enough respect for the franchise that he didn't want it tarnished by a parody. I like that he wanted it to be taken seriously, that he had integrity. Jesus, if the people working at Toei today had even a small shred of integrity, Kamen Rider wouldn't have spent the majority of the past decade in the crapper.

Some people just feel that when something reaches farce that it's dead, and it's time to just go away and rethink and reinvent the thing. I don't think it's a coincidence that Yoshikawa's answer to Norida is Shin Kamen Rider, a fresh and dark take on the classic Rider formula -- probably the darkest the franchise has gotten.
 
Heroes are forever
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Messages
3,124
Kotaro's personality in RX was already seen in BLACK. It is mostly seen in flashbacks when Kotaro reminisced about the days he spent together with Nobuhiko, his sister, and his girlfriend. Every once in a while they'd also goof around in an episode, and it's all later remembered by him in the final one when he's saying farewell to them and his old life.

Kotaro is a bit sillier in RX than he was in BLACK, but it's not as far-fetched as it's usually made out to be.

As for Norida, I have to give some credit to the thing, it had Akiji Kobayashi reprising his role as Tobei Tachibana! If that isn't taken it seriously I don't know what is.
 
Top