[Kurona]

Long, Long ago, 20th century.....

This... turned out to be a pretty fun show. It's not entirely to my tastes, and not exactly what I was looking for as a good Rider show to watch as an alternative to what we have right now; but what was there was more than entertaining. If you've been reading any of my posts on this you'll have seen I had a pretty high opinion of it; if in humour if nothing else!

I think first of all I want to say that the characters were unfortunately kinda disappointing. Kotaro is an okay, inoffensive lead; but he just doesn't have any depth to him and at many points his powers of luck and deduction are so superhuman that it's at once hard to relate and impossible not to laugh. Like, in the first movie he sees a bus of schoolchildren and INSTANTLY deduces it's a Golgom plot. Multi-Eye's just a lot more powerful than is let on I guess! Kotaro aside, the other two leads in Kyoko and Katsumi... well, I just had to look up their names right now because otherwise I'd fail to tell you anything about them! I think this is an era-specific thing of the roles female characters were allowed to have, but either way they end up more as props than characters; just constantly moping over other characters' situations or laughing with Kotarou. We never really get any insight into what they're like beyond their relation to Kotarou and Nobuhiko and it's really a waste of 52 episodes -- the most they impacted the series is when they weren't there in the last few! They're once again inoffensive, but I won't be too surprised if I forget their names again two minutes after posting this. At least they didn't die for cheap character drama, at least?

The character dynamic that truly shines through though is Shadow Moon. He's very simple and we get just about nothing on Nobuhiko, but I felt it was just enough to make the tragedy here clear -- just having to come to terms with the fact that someone you once loved so much and considered so close is now that far gone. Shadow Moon displays nothing but the absolute smallest, subtle signs of any attachment to his past self and it's a horror to watch! He's so much more machine than man he makes Vader blush and it's just tearing up our main cast with each passing episode. He kinda dilly dallies with the same old plots as the High Priests for his first few episodes which wasn't a great first impression, but once they're past that stage Shadow Moon truly gets to establish himself as a threat. It's not hard to see why he's so revered.

Talking of villains, yeah, gonna re-iterate my past posts and say this is where Black really shined. The High Priests were and remain my favourite characters on the show for how simultaneously intimidating and enormously stupid they are -- it's a very delicate balance making me laugh at their plans to sow chaos through one kid before making me scared for Kamen Rider's life as they hunt him down without mercy. Darom, Baroam and Bishium made this season and it wouldn't be half as good without them!
Birugenia... was definitely a mid-season boss. I'd never heard of him before and it was obvious to see why -- he had very little to him and was just conjured up as a way to raise stakes until Shadow Moon could get here. But the most interesting thing he ever did for the show at the end of the day was make the priests more desperate rather than being intriguing on his own. He wanted to be Century King and he died to the Century King. Oh well.
Finally, we got the human element -- one that I feel was sorely underutilised! At the beginning we're introduced to Professor Karasuma, and... uh, a politician and a millionaire I can't remember the names of. Sagata and Kyo-something, I think? Either way it was a very good way of establishing the true power of Golgom -- they weren't just unthinkably powerful creatures; they had their hands in society in the fields of science, of politics and of the richest. But then this just sort of... fizzled out! Karasuma dies surprisingly early on but I guess they just couldn't afford that Shin Hayata money anymore, and then the politician and the millionaire got I think all of a single episode each until their return in Episode 38, where they set up a political party... which also never appears again! It's once again another waste of potential, but I at least appreciate what they brought to the show to begin with.

Where Black really shined though was in some of its individual episodes. I've gone on at length about Episode 27 treating its audience with enough respect and raising the stakes so much for our main hero to show the lengths he'd go to for even a single child; but other highlights include Episode 12's Road Sector introduction showing the fear of a man and his child on the run, or all the Whale Mutant stuff towards the end, or Episode 13 just stuffing in so much goofy stuff in one episode because Kotaro can't deal with the fact that he couldn't beat a crab with one punch!

It really is the parts of Kamen Rider Black you have to admire more than the whole, and if that's up your alley it's a hell of a series. It's one I certainly don't regret watching and I had a heck of a time with it, and while it probably won't be any time soon; I'm excited to see what I think of RX!