[ljacone]

--Kamen Rider Episode 11. In case you weren't sure if Shocker was an evil buncha bast'ads, this episode features the monster GebaCondor, who enjoys drinking the blood of newlywed girls... on their wedding day. Yeeeeaaaah.

Anyway, this episode had a lot of good action, with two well done fight scenes between Kamen Rider and GebaCondor. It was clear that Fujioka was hurt, as he only appears in stock footage in this episode, with Kamen Rider spending almost the entire time in costume. The character of Taki, Hongo's racing rival, is an interesting analoge for our hero.

--Kamen Rider Episode 12. Shocker's new monster GeckoGilas, steals an experimental Heat Beam, and things get worse from there. Ruriko takes center stage here, as Hongo is stil stuck in stock footage only. But it's a happy accident, so to speak, because it really put over Ruriko as a viable and useful ally to Kamen Rider. She's smart and resourceful, and even holds her own in a fight against two Shocker goons. Her stunt double for the motorcycle scenes is clearly a man, however! Good episode with another brutal weapon put to use by Shocker -- the Danger Light Heat Beam burns away it's target's flesh, leaving only a (2 dimensional) skeleton behind. Yikes!

--Watching both this show and Ultraman at the same time is an odd juxtaposition. It's very clear that even though it was made 5 years earlier, Ultraman has substantially better production values and effects. But Kamen Rider, possibly by virtue of it's lower budget, seems to take more risks creatively and break up the formula more than Ultraman does. So it's sort of a microcosm of the difference between Tsuburaya and Toei right there.

Also, it's weird that Captain Muramatsu and Tachibana are the same guy.