[DreamSword]

I finished Super-1.

Before getting into the show itself, I wanna give props to Bereke Scrubs who did a great job at subbing the show. The subs were all very clean and easy to read, and alot of the dialogue felt very natural. I also appreciated their attempt at converting many of the Japanese puns to English ones. I also only ever noticed one typo, so good editing overall too. I'll definitely be using them whenever I get around to watching Stronger and Daimajin Kanon. As for the show itself...

In the end, while I still feel that the second half is way weaker than the first, I will atleast say that it isn't ALL bad.

However, the critiques I gave earlier still stand: The Junior Rider Squad still drags the show way down, Jin Dogma is nowhere near as interesting as Dogma was, and the plot, what little there was to begin with, basically doesn't exist anymore.

It's rather telling that most of the better episodes of the second half are the ones where the Kids are barely in it, and coincidentally many of those episodes are ones where my favorite of the Jin Dogma squad, Doctor Ghost, is the focus bad guy. Amazing name aside, he turned out really well!

For real, Doctor Ghost is the only Jin Dogma goon to get serious results, and the lack of kids in most of his episodes actually allows Kazuya to display some actual agency and be a superhero. You know, the very thing most people would be tuning in to actually see? Ghost's' actor as does a pretty good job at giving him a memorable personality in contrast to everyone else.

Speaking of his plots, while I don't doubt the timeslot change actually happened, thus resulting in the second half, it really does make me wonder what 80s censors were on. Because such new "kid friendly" content includes: A guy being stabbed to death on screen, people getting shoved into a gas chamber, Super-1 ripping a monster's' eyes out, and my personal favorite; People getting melted into bloody flesh-puddles. Black came nowhere close to this stuff.

If there's one thing that remains consistently good throughout the entire series it's the action. No joke, both Kazuya's' actor and Super-1's' suit actor actually learning kung-fu for the role lent alot of authenticity to the fight scenes that wouldn't be seen again until Power Rangers, and ontop of that the choreography and the utter intensity of what goes on makes alot of episodes really fun to watch even if they're super bogged down by the obnoxious Rider Squad. Despite my complaints, I had alot of fun watching this show!

Overall, assuming you're watching it solely in terms of a fun ride and not taking anything in too seriously, I give Super-1 a 4/6. I do definitely prefer the first half, as there was actual effort put in towards character development and story, but if you can get past the kids, the second half isn't out and out horrible. That said, I wouldn't be able to blame anyone who decides to treat episode 23 as the actual finale and decides to just stop there.

I also consider myself lucky in that I watched this right after Fourze, because it's clear that Fourze took alot of inspiration from Super-1. Think about it. A Kamen Rider originally built for space exploration who can swap out body parts to gain different equipment to use in his fight against evil, a Rider Club is prevalent in the plot, and there's a secondary focus on kung-fu.

Yeah, that added a whole new layer to watching this, and I'm overall glad I saw it when I did.