Rewatching Kamen Rider Black and RX

[Black Fang]

On Black's finale: Is the Century King supposed to be the Great Leader? He says before he dies that so long as evil exists in men's hearts he will return, like the Great Leader always says, but earlier he implied that he was part of a line of Century Kings that are coronated every 50,000 years. If he just comes back as the Crisis Emperor in RX, then that whole thing about dying when the sunspot disappears means nothing.

By the way, why is the Century King a giant heart? Wasn't he a Black Sun or Shadow Moon before he became King? If so, why the sudden change? The comics and SIC Hero stories don't go that route from what I can tell: whoever winds up the King is just a grasshopper cyborg.

 

[Ericard]

Is that heart looking creature called Golgom? that must be a real king of the Golgom..

Kamen Rider Black spotted and Video Game 2016: [video]https://vid.me/RJjr[/video]

 

[Black Fang]

Now that Black is done, on to RX:

- First of, the thing about Crisis is that they're not creepy enough. The first two episodes, granted, do a good job of giving them a creepy atmosphere, plus I appreciate the emphasis on how they're "demonic" with all of their titles. Episode 3 though deviates a bit into "generic alien" territory with the history of the demon world. Kamen Rider villains need to have something unsettling and horrific about them. Crisis should be the type of aliens you hear about on Coast to Coast AM, beings you'd see around your bed during a bout of sleep paralysis. I'll see how it goes from here.

- It was mentioned in another thread that RX could've developed Kotaro's new relationship with Reiko and the Saharas rather than starting him off with them from the start. That might not have been a bad idea. (Though I do like how the dad explains how he'd met Kotaro when he was "tired and alone" and wanted to let him live live fully.) The Kingstone does warn him of what he may lose again by clinging to his desires. Also Dr. Kain mentioned that there was no reference ever made to Kyoko or Katsumi in RX: thinking abut it, I don't believe either of the could ever return to Kotaro and resume their former lives after all that had happened.

- What's with Kotaro's sudden obsession with Rideron in Episode 4? I would get him wanting to complete it for Dr. Walter's sake, but he acts like it was his own creation and his own idea. The call back to Whale Mutant's cave was nice to see, though.

And whatever happened to Road Sector? I don't get why it never made an appearance, if only for Bandai to have an excuse to repackage and sell it.

 

[Dr Kain]

I don't get the transition between Black and Rx. RX's Kotaro seems to be an entirely different person.

 

[Herman the Tosser]

I don't get the transition between Black and Rx. RX's Kotaro seems to be an entirely different person.

I've seen it theorised that Black RX was meant to be a whole new show rather than a Black sequel. It's just that Black was so popular they decided to keep Kotaro around another year.

 

[Black Fang]

I don't get the transition between Black and Rx. RX's Kotaro seems to be an entirely different person.

Not really. It's not like he's a complete downer in Black. He still gets to be silly around Kyoko and Katsumi. Or do you expect him to be depressed the whole time and being a jerk to people because his life sucks?

Actually, I think RX could've started with Kotaro being like Bruce Wayne in his first years as Batman: someone who wants to keep people at a distance so that he and they won't get hurt, but even so still longing for human companionship like the old days. Then build up from there.

I've seen it theorised that Black RX was meant to be a whole new show rather than a Black sequel. It's just that Black was so popular they decided to keep Kotaro around another year.

I brought this up in another thread. There's a story that there was to be another show after RX with FiveBlack's actor as the star.

If RX was its own show, they could've set it up as RX is a Crisis spy who defects after his time on Earth.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

In regards to the different tone, I once read something about RX being a show that has a "worldview never before seen in Rider", which I take to mean it was, overall, less of a bummer for the characters involved than past series.

RX was always going to be a sequel to Black, that was decided pretty early on in pre production. Ryohei Kobayashi (Jiban/FiveBlack) was supposed to star in a Rider show after RX, though it probably wouldn't have been related to Black/RX. The show fell apart (a lot of people think thanks to the Norider stuff) and Kobayashi was offered the role in Fiveman.

 

[Toku Prime]

I don't get the transition between Black and Rx. RX's Kotaro seems to be an entirely different person.

I thought that the Kotaro we see in RX is very similar to the one only seen in flashbacks within Black. He also makes a lot during the first two episodes of how he doesn't want to return to the kind of person he became while fighting Golgom. So I think it was addressed, even if people tend to prefer how we see him in Black.

In regards to the different tone, I once read something about RX being a show that has a "worldview never before seen in Rider", which I take to mean it was, overall, less of a bummer for the characters involved than past series.

I've often heard that there was a lot of resistance to Black by people working high up at the network it aired on. RX seems to me like an attempt to make a Rider show more in line with what Sentai and Metal Hero were doing at that time than the more old-school vibe of Black.

The thing is...70s Rider isn't really my jam. I can respect it, but I don't enjoy watching the ones I've seen as much as I did the 80s Sentai shows that I've seen. Which contributes a lot to why I've always liked RX as much as Black. Personally I think the ending to RX lives up to Black's. It's not the personal battle between friends-turned-enemies, but it's a grander, more "end of the world" level conflict that does gain some personal tragedy in the end.

 

[Dr Kain]

I'm not saying he was a total downer, but he is living with some family because reasons and he is really really goofy. Plus, he gets his ass kicked right away. Kotaro deserved so much better.

Toku Prime, that is kind of how I am with 70s and some 80s Sentai. They just don't work for me. I can appreciate them, but honestly, I'd rather just watch a Sentai show from the 90s. Liveman is my favorite from the 80s, but I wouldn't rank it higher than anything in the 90s except Ohranger and maybe Megaranger. Regardless, I would rather just rewatch Jet, Zyu, Dai, Kaku, and Car over any other Sentai show.

 

[Black Fang]

Episode 7: This episode would've worked a lot better if Kenta Sato was playing Reiko's childhood friend instead of Kotaro's. You can't mention Kotaro's past without mentioning Nobuhiko or Kyoko. Granted, Black had Taki Ryusuke be Nobuhiko's friend that Kotaro didn't know, but even so Reiko would be a better choice. We'd learn more about her plus we'd utilize the fact that she's a journalist. Her speech at the end about valuing a friend would then be more poignant as we'd know Kotaro would empathize with that.

Episode 11: Why does the narrator say that Kotaro's hearing exceeds normal humans since becoming RX? Wouldn't that have happened in Black?

Episodes 14-17: The Roborider-Biorider intro arc. Easily the best episodes in the show thus far. Kotaro's in danger of losing his loved ones again, and the use of the Black soundtrack bolsters this story well. Kotaro ambushing Maribaron in his helicopter is a great moment. But I think it could've used at least one call back to Black, especially when Hitomi becomes Garonia. Also, this could've been a good opportunity to reintroduce Road Sector since there's lots of interdimensional travel. Roboizer and Mach Jabba are pointless; they're even the same color as Road Sector, so why not recycle it?

Joe the Haze: if this was a Heisei show, he'd definitely have been made a Rider. He doesn't get to do that much despite being Kotaro's sidekick, plus we don't learn a lot about him (at least so far). I don't get why some people hate him though. What's the deal there?

Which leads me to episode 21. I like the idea that Joe is a "what-if" for Kotaro: if Nobuhiko had been saved, they might have become the cyborg duo that could understand each other and fight together. This is a good episode in that it shows Kotaro wanting to cling onto what he had lost. Joe is what the Saharas can't be.

I can get why Kotaro's emotions would cloud his thinking, so it's not like they're comparing a disagreement between them to his fights with Shadow Moon. Though I suppose the episode could've done this a little better, maybe by rearranging the flashbacks.