[Annuga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwami

I've started to watch Kamen Rider Super-1 on a whim since it's one of the Showa Riders I knew next to nothing about, I'm now 5 episodes in and happy to report that I love it.

It's just so simple and fun. It will never win any award for great story-telling or character development (although I'd like to be proven wrong) but it just feels right to me. I pop one episode every other day and am entertained enough to keep going.

I like how the setup is different yet similar to most Showa Riders, our hero is transformed into a cyborg but this time out of his own free will and with no relation to an evil organization, he's rebuilt as a cyborg to be a better astronaut, a new-age human who can survive in space.

The evil Dogma Kingdom only comes in after the work is done and tries to kidnap him. What follows is rather interesting though: Our hero, Kazuya Oki, can't transform right away. The science institute that rebuilds him and helped him to do that is gone thanks to Dogma, so in order to find his way to transforming into Super-1 again he trains with Shaolin Monks.

This is something I really liked, it not only explains to us why our Rider is so badass at fighting (he learned from the best) but also gives him as a character a journey towards becoming a hero that is worth watching.

In fact, there is a lot of un-transformed fighting scenes and also a lot of different fighting styles which makes this more interesting to watch than the usual battles against grunts and monsters.

I also love the Five Hands. It's the perfect compromise between form changes of later Riders while also keeping the base suit relevant. And the variety of powers Super-1 has at his disposal thanks to the different hands is really cool. I also quite like how Super-1 has a base where he needs to go to check-up on the mechanics inside his body. It not only makes sense but grounds our hero a bit as he sometimes does have malfunctions that then need to be taken care of.

The characters are rather bland and we have a complete idiot who brings the "comedy" to the table but I don't mind really. It's all just a frame to get the plot of the week moving and have Kazuya and his gang help resolve it.

Speaking of plots, the Dogma Kingdom is rather ambiguous, even for Rider-villains. So far they wanted to build a city made out of gold, open a museum with the best art around and, wait for it, kidnapped beautiful people and paired them up so they can produce the perfect offspring to live in their kingdom. Summing it up like that sounds halfway interesting, but what they effectively do is have their spider-monster sack random couples and then let them do the silliest tests in order to see who fits which partner best. Said tests include hanging from the ceiling long enough, being blasted with loud sounds and (my favorite) being locked in cages and hit with a giant fan and a hose. To simulate a storm. Those Dogma guys are so fucked up.

I'm incredibly tempted to open a Dogma-style dating site. Although I'd probably go to jail for the rest of my life because of it

So, all in all, it's just mindless fun so far and I don't hate it. I might get tired of it sooner than later but I try to regulate my consumption of it so I only watch more when I really want to.

I would recommend giving it a try. The only thing that I was quite sad about was to learn that Kazuya Oki's actor is a giant asshole who used his Kamen Rider fame to rip-off fans... geez.

Slight correction. He's currently missing after he messed with the Yakuza, police are trying to find him too, dunno what this rip off thing is about