[TheDreadWolf]

Hello there!

I'm so sorry this isn't as short as I'd like it to be, however I do feel this information is necessary for my question to really make sense. Also enjoy an accidental mini-review of Black.

I'm fairly new to the Rider universe, but I've got two (Heisei) series' down and am following both of the current series'. I'm absolutely in love, and have foreseen a lot of Kamen rider in my future. So, before I got in too deep (Too late, by the way) I wanted to check out some of the series' earlier adventures and explore the Showa Era. I'm not quite sure how I ended up choosing Black, but I did. Of course '71 was my first choice because... I mean it's the first one, that seems like a good place to go aha. But, since it has no complete sub release, I eventually made my way to Black.

So, Black was immediately a culture shock coming from deep in the Heisei Era, and it continued to be for the duration. I already knew about the Showa Riders not having any form changes or power-ups like the Heisei Riders, so it didn't really surprise me in that regard. What mostly stuck out was the lack of a cast, and the large, LARGE amount of pointless episodes. I was driven along for awhile just because of how different it is, but about halfway in, the plot's taken about two steps forward and I was really ready to drop it because... there didn't seem to be a point. I ended up trudging through the rest since I was already that far because... I dunno. I guess I just wanted to say I did it. But it is NOT worth it.

So, to both kind of illustrate my point and mainly to help future viewers, I've compiled an abridged version of Kamen Rider Black with only the episodes relevant to the plot.

Kamen Rider Black Abridged is as follows:
01, 02, 12, 17*, 18, 22, 34-36, 38*, 45-51

17*: Episode irrelevant, but a scene from it plays in a very small flashback in a later relevant episode. If you don't mind that, it's skippable.
38*: Episode irrelevant, but two characters appear in this episode who are present in later relevant episodes. However, these characters themselves are completely irrelevant to the series. They literally actually never once say or do anything. Not even in this episode. They mostly just stand in the background of scenes. So, if you're okay with never knowing their names and them just sort of popping up, this episode is skippable. (I'd put them here in a spoiler tag for those who want to skip, but I don't see one so... I'm sorry. You can PM me or something and I'll tell you.)
52*: The last episode of the series is actually just an episode-long commercial for Black RX with a demo reel of all of the previous Riders in it (Because they all appear in Black RX apparently). So I imagine this episode is just kinda for Showa (Or at the time, Kamen Rider in general) superfans.

That's 14 episodes (Minus the asterisked episodes) out of a 52 episode series that matter to the plot. Every other episode is a self-contained story about Kotaro saving a one-off character and defeating a mutant that changes nothing in the world and advances the story in no way. You can skip 38 episodes in this series and miss absolutely nothing, and it's honestly a lot better off for it. I really think that just watching the abridged version makes for an alright show. But the full-length series... is an insane grind in spots if you're looking for plot advancement.

So if you're reading this and you haven't seen Black, I highly, HIGHLY recommend watching the abridged version. If you're really interested in all of the other episodes, save them for a rainy day or when you've run out of Rider content and are really desperate. I don't want to come off negative or anything, I don't even dislike interesting padding now and then. I mean it's soft and comfy. But Kamen Rider Black is 73% filler. I'm not saying some of them aren't interesting or good or worth it, but there's SO MANY. And I think which particular ones are enjoyable are up to you to decide.

I don't even think the format is inherently bad, but to support it you'd need a nice cast of characters to play off of each other and/or Rider power-ups to at least convey a sense of progression in that regard even though the story didn't move forward. This is in stark contrast to Black, where the entirety of the returning cast for over half of the series is... Kotaro. Kyoko and Katsumi are generally walking plot devices with function-only dialogue, as are the early villains. So every episode that doesn't farther the plot is just... uninteresting unless you can get into the plight of whatever side character happens to be the star of this edition of The Misadventures of Minami Kotaro.

Alright, I'm sorry this is so long and I didn't mean for this to be a mini-review of Black, but I really think this information is relevant. So when I was around halfway through and about to drop it, and Googling whether the series ever went anywhere or not, I found that Black is widely regarded as the best of the Showa series'. That's... worrisome to me, to say the least. So with that and everything I've said in mind, here is my question(s, I guess);

Does that mean that all of the Showa series' are similar in structure to Black, or (Rider gods forbid) somehow worse? And if they do have a similar/worse structure, do they at least have a cast or something to support it? If yes (and 'no' to question two), I'm probably gonna be skipping out on them unless anyone happens to have an abridged arrangement like I've done here.

Thank you for reading, and I'm sorry about the length. I just really want a good answer to the question before I hop into another Showa series blind, and tried to provide enough information about what I'm actually asking so as to get as good of an answer from someone in the know as possible.

PS. Black isn't bad by any means, it's just wildly uninteresting if you're looking for the story. Watching it abridged as I've posted above makes for a nice series.

PPS. I love how Kotaro just calls everyone associated with Gorgom "Gorgom", like it's some kind of slur for their organization aha. Makes me laugh.