The Challenge Of Sitting Through Showa Era Kamen Rider Shows In This Digital Age?

I gave a thought on how much of the Kamen Rider of the Heisei era I've watched but not in their proper order. I even remembered how I got so stuck with Super Sentai that nothing else mattered IMO. Now it's time for me to talk about the Showa era of Kamen Rider. I started with Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX. I watched several of the Showa era but not in their chronological order. I watched Kamen Rider Den-O then Kamen Rider Decade then I went backwards and forwards. Officially, I've seen everything from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to Kamen Rider EX-AID even if I never saw them in their chronological order.

Now it's time to talk about the Showa era. I remembered getting a fascination at it like every other child. I went WOAH when I saw a Kamen Rider Black toy with the picture of the 11 Riders on the box. I remembered collecting some Kamen Rider cards in the late 90s without dreaming something could change. Then something happened: I started having a different mindset with the Showa era ever since I saw more of the Heisei era.

I can't explain exactly what happened. Sure, I started watching other old school Kamen Rider and the ones I saw from start to end are Kamen Rider Amazon, Kamen Rider Stronger and Kamen Rider Super-1. I haven't seen much of the Showa era myself. I watched them both and started getting a bit of boredom. For some reason, I just find the Showa era to be that boring for my taste. This is strange considering that I tend to prefer the writing style of 80s to 90s Super Sentai series over the new school Super Sentai while I can enjoy all of them to varying degrees. If I could enjoy Super Sentai at varying degrees so why couldn't I do the same for Kamen Rider?

The Showa era has been a rocky era indeed. There's been hiatuses in between seasons. Kamen Rider Black came after a six year hiatus with Kamen Rider Super-1. Kamen Rider Stronger was meant to end the franchise and that means Kamen Rider was supposed to end with only five seasons. Skyrider came four years as a reboot and yet everyone got brought back. I guess the whole Showa era was pretty much where Kamen Rider still had no idea on what to do. I even use that a basis for my biases towards the Showa era. I even tend to forget that without Kamen Rider V3 there would be no legendary Hiroshi Miyauchi or without the first Kamen Rider the franchise wouldn't even start. Sidenote, I don't even feel like watching Goranger or JAKQ from start to end either though I don't see any reason why not to.

What gets me interested to watch Showa era Kamen Rider? It's when stuff like the Kamen Rider Fourze quiz show pops up. I may end up rewatching Kamen Rider Fourze all over again over Kamen Rider Super-1 any day but I still feel like respecting the latter. It may be Kamen Rider Fourze that brought in a space age for the series while I think that without Kamen Rider Super-1's concept - I doubt it there would be a stepping stone. I still think about how often many obsolete things in the past are also all stepping stones towards the stuff we enjoy today. It's like even if we don't use Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone but we honor him for inventing the first one. 

As of late, I think that watching old school Kamen Rider isn't really my type of show. Sure, I'd want to check them out (at times) but I still think it's not as enjoyable as most of the new school ones. I admit, I've watched Black and Black RX more than once but I find most of their predecessors to be not as good. But as said what's a franchise without its ups and downs? Innovation hasn't been a smooth road. Instead, it's a road of challenges. Watching old school Kamen Rider has helped me see through the struggle of the franchise before it became a yearly trend from 2000 up the present where we get a new Kamen Rider per year though Kamen Rider Decade didn't last a year so Kamen Rider W up to Kamen Rider Build start in late September to early October instead. 

That's how I view my viewing of Showa era Kamen Rider shows. It's all about learning lessons and appreciating the struggles of the past and seeing how Toei managed to fix it for years to come. What's life without history lessons right?