The Problem Of Showa Riders Trying To Do Throwbacks More Often Than Not

Yeah, BLACK will always be preferred over the failed sequel, right?

I remembered writing about what I dislike about most Showa-era Kamen Rider entries. One of my biggest issues was the appearance of the Not-So-Great Leader who has been fortunately demoted to non-canon crossover movies. I decided to do some re-research on the Internet to find the timeline of the Showa era. 

We had a Kamen Rider series as follows:

• The First Kamen Rider was in 1971
• Kamen Rider V3 was in 1973
• Kamen Rider X and Kamen Rider Amazon were in 1974
• Kamen Rider Stronger was in 1975
• Kamen Rider Skyrider was in 1979
• Kamen Rider Super-1 was in 1980
• In between, we had the MOVIE ONLY Kamen Rider ZX in 1981
• Kamen Rider BLACK was in 1987
• Kamen Rider Black RX was in 1988

One can observe the significant time lapses between certain seasons. Skyrider was a name given since it was just called The New Kamen Rider. It was meant to be a reboot but you had Neo-Shocker and the other Kamen Riders SHOWING UP. Yet, there was a four-year gap between 1975 and 1979. I'm amazed at how in-touch the older Kamen Rider actors were at that time. Meanwhile, Sota Fukushi wasn't able to reprise his role (and we only had a STUNT DOUBLE) because as the show revealed - the actor had a project at that time. Yeah, I kinda think newer cast members have had better chances of acting. Just think that Tori Matsuzaka still has an acting life beyond Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. Meanwhile, Kazunori Inaba never had bigger roles after Hikari Sentai Maskman. 

Some seasons almost felt like they were self-contained. X and Amazon (which were rushed seasons) didn't have any hints of the Great Leader. Meanwhile, V3 before them had the hero, Shiro Kanzaki, volunteer to become a cyborg via Ichigo and Nigo to defeat Destron. Destron's leader was obviously the Great Leader. The Great Leader kept escaping. Somehow, Toei Ltd. decided to give the Great Leader a break in 1974 only for him to return in 1975. The Great Leader reappeared in Stronger though it seemed they were JUST DECOYS. Four years later, the Great Leader (or some decoy) appeared as some giant dragon in Skyrider.

Super-1 had no hint of the Great Leader. However, a movie featured the return of the eight riders to confirm they did indeed SURVIVE. As much as I felt Super-1 was unenjoyable (and I'm already having a feeling he's in the US running that COVID-19 scam that Austin St. John is allegedly part of) - I felt it was a breath of fresh air NOT to have the Great Leader. Instead, we had Terror Macro (symbolic emperor) and the prime minister himself, Marshall Demon. I love how Marshall Demon even became a serpentine monster in the finale. Though, the series overall was boring for me. I still prefer Kamen Rider Fourze's wacky antics over Super-1. Though, it was also nice to see the late Munemaru Koda as a martial arts master before he became Doctor Man in 1984's Chodenshi Bioman. 

Then we had BLACK which tried to do away with that singular timeline

BLACK is often praised as the best of the Showa era. I still find myself liking it or rewatching it. Yeah, it was fun to see the Gorgom priests' really absurd plans mix into a dark atmosphere. The Gorgom priests' plans may be a huge waste of budget. However, many of them were rather scary if you think about a necklace that unleashes killer bees, people getting caught in silk, that bizarre episode that resembles the Village of the Damned (and Goat Mutant was THAT SCARY), etc. The nightmare fuel was somehow well-written with the Gorgom priests' insane plans. It's pretty much like how many of Tube Empire's insane schemes in Maskman are still scary. 

BLACK did some reimagination of older concepts. Gorgom is basically Shocker reimagined. For some reason, Gorgom never had official footsoldiers that went "Eeeeeee!!!!" Instead, they had some human followers who didn't wear some official uniform. The whole show may have some references but NEVER threw back to the other seasons. Nothing is mentioned about Shocker, Destron, Government of Darkness, Geddon, Garanda Empire, Black Satan, Delza Army, Neoshocker, Dogma, Jin Dogma... ZERO! It was practically its own. I feel it'd be stupid if the Gorgom priests had to answer to the Not-So-Great Leader who'd suggest it'd be fun to let two cyborgs duel each other. Instead, the Creation King (who, for some reason, is but a giant disembodied heart in the finale) was voiced by the late Takeshi Watabe and NOT the late Goro Naya. Watebe was also the voice of Emperor God Neros in Chojinki Metalder.

What can be truly seen is the series seems to ignore the existence of the other Riders. You don't have any of the returning at all even in only suit form. Instead, Kotaro Minami is totally alone (but not really) in his fight against Gorgom. I felt the ending song of BLACK RX does a good job recalling the pains Kotaro had when he was BLACK. However, Tetsuo Kurata didn't like BLACK RX due to the excessive humor.

The whole show began and ended without a reference to the other Kamen Rider entries. Instead, we had it act like a show on its own. However, the show's popularity led to...

When BLACK RX ended up refitting everything back together

After all the effort that BLACK had in trying to be self-contained - BLACK RX totally ended up fitting things back in. I even feel that Naya's voicing of the Grand Lord Crisis (who's a giant floating head) was totally on purpose. Okay, nothing on the show suggests that Grand Lord Crisis is the Great Leader. However, the Kamen Riders were fighting Crisis agents across the world. This made me think Maribaron has short-term amnesia. Now moving on...

The start of BLACK RX has Crisis Empire FULLY AWARE of BLACK's existence. So really, why are Bosgan and Maribaron suddenly wondering why there are 10 senior Kamen Riders in the finale? It seems the inclusion of the 10 other Kamen Riders is nothing more than an afterthought. Heck, I felt the writers didn't know what to do with the 10 other Kamen Riders either. I felt dialogue could've been used to at least tie things up. Is it that hard not to mention if Kamen Rider Ichigo will mention Crisis Empire has been the main organization behind the others? Is it that hard to also tie in Shadow Moon to temporarily take command of Crisis Empire? Maybe, have General Jak and the others bow before Shadow Moon as their temporary superior. Later, we can have Tetsuya Matsui become Bilgenia if Jun Yoshida is unavailable

The final episodes really didn't do much to tie the loose ends. I think it was probably unnecessary for the 10 Riders to show up to help BLACK RX. That's unless, of course, Crisis Empire has been another of the Not-So-Great Leader's fronts and perhaps, his FINAL ONE. Stronger had the Great Leader's voice claim he was responsible behind all the organizations. After thinking about the time gap between 1971 to 1988 - WOAH that's a whopping 17 years! Talk about a throwback to shows from the early 1970s! Having rewatched ZX last night made me think that we had too much of "The History of Kamen Rider" one way or another. Yes, this is what BLACK RX IS DOING towards the finale as well. 

It'd be understandable if Stronger did the throwbacks. I mean, there are short distance gaps between Stronger and The First Kamen Rider. However, it became overly repeated such as how Skyrider even had to keep featuring the others. It took away the focus from Skyrider. BLACK RX really makes you wonder, "Do you need 10 other Riders to beat an empire that's been in a crisis because Grand Lord Crisis is a big idiot?" 

BLACK RX did end the Showa era Riders. We didn't have any new Kamen Riders though we had some movies. Maybe, one can talk about the brutal Kamen Rider Shin which was aired in 1992. Yeah, that one that wasn't aimed for children. Instead, after BLACK RX, Toei Ltd. decided to focus on the now-defunct Metal Hero franchise. I still feel that the cancellation of Metal Hero has everything to do with the revival of Kamen Rider. I guess that explains why Kamen Riders have become metallic. There are Metal Hero references every now and then. Kamen Rider Drive having a car is more than just a reference to BLACK RX - one could think of the Metal Hero power cars too. The spirit of Metal Hero somehow still lives on even without any show under that label.

This is also something that the Power Rangers franchise tends to do too much... 

Should I be surprised that Lord Zedd made a guest return in Power Rangers Dino Fury? Maybe not. What surprised me more was how Power Rangers RPM decided to create a near-doomsday scenario AND never had a reference to past heroes. Later, RPM ended up getting retconned as "an alternate dimension" for later series. I feel the same thing happened in Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters to explain how the Ucchu Keiji Gavan crossover happened. Ucchu Sentai Kyuranger did show a black hole (at least, in that reality) to transport anyone into another dimension. Gavan, Sharivan, and Shaider all fought villains and were trapped into black holes until the battle was over. 

I was thinking about how Power Rangers still prefers to operate based on throwbacks most of the time. Meanwhile, Kamen Rider since Kamen Rider Kuuga tries to avoid the throwbacks. Maybe, maybe the only time it was ever attempted was in Kamen Rider Agito - a series I believe is still directly linked. Meanwhile, later series like Kamen Rider Build (which I felt had the RPM vibes) were more or less standalone. Kamen Rider Zero-One was most likely a badly needed reboot because a new era was born in Japan. Though, I think Power Rangers has overused the throwbacks more often than not.

This has me thinking about why I ended up admitting why I dislike Power Rangers. Power Rangers Samurai even had to bring back BULK and it's already 2011 at that time. Worse, Bulk even had to get a nephew in Spike. The series even had to do a rehash of the once-iconic theme song "Go Go Power Rangers". Shouldn't they work harder to avoid the phrase and focus on making it standalone? Yeah, well at least Kamen Rider didn't make the mistake of always putting "Let's Go Rider!" to every opening theme during the Showa Era huh? 

Power Rangers Beast Morphers clearly does too many throwbacks too. Morph-X was from the MORPHIN' GRID. Mayor Daniels had to mention a villain WAY BACK IN 1993 (RITA REPULSA) down to Galvanax. I even felt that Beast Morphers tried to keep doing "The History of Rangers". I wonder why didn't they notice that the older Kamen Rider season had that mistake too? Maybe, the people working with Power Rangers thought it'd be cool. What might be ignored is that keeping things fresh is hard but it'd be worth it. I felt that Go-Busters did a better job by avoiding too many past references in-series (and I'll forever count the Gavan arc as a weak point). Meanwhile, Beast Morphers even went as far as to use the Legendary Weapons or make Evox as Venjix all along. Yeah, try to think if the Messiah Virus were either Yogoscrimaten from Engine Sentai Go-Onger or even Black Cross Fuehrer from FREAKING 1975. I would totally freak out and children watching it would even wonder who the characters are. 

Granted, the Power Rangers franchise is partly owned by Toei Ltd. I wonder why in the world did the Neo-Saban era even do many throwbacks to previous series? Even the first Saban era did it a lot. That's why I really feel watching the Zordon Era can be a real chore. I'm happy how Gekisou Sentai Carranger ended as is and Denji Sentai Megaranger was a new start. I was happy how Choriki Sentai Ohranger had a fresh group. I like the yearly cast change and hardly making a reference to previous seasons EXCEPT during anniversaries. 

Fortunately, the Heisei era Kamen Rider entries did something about that

There weren't any new Kamen Rider series and only three films. Kamen Rider Shin was the only real feature-length film. The other two, Kamen Rider J and Kamen Rider ZO were just short films. The real reboot happened in Kamen Rider Kuuga when the show repeated to do what Black did - start all over on its own. I guess that's why Kamen Rider Agito was prevented from becoming too direct a sequel. Most of the Kamen Rider entries after that didn't make too many throwbacks. 

Kuuga was the start of something new. The Grongi were finally introduced as a new foe with NO CONNECTIONS to past organizations. No story of Grongi having a rivalry with the Geddon and Garanda Empire way back in 1975. Even better, its supreme leader N-Zeba Daguva isn't even the Not-So-Great Leader from the Showa era. I guess Black RX defeating Grand Lord Crisis ended the threat forever. However, it's possible that Toei Ltd. decided to finally write off the Not-So-Great Leader for good. Sure, there will be older fans but it wanted to appeal to a new generation of fans. So, Kuuga really did the right thing by making Daguva his very own character. Daguva gets destroyed and he isn't returning. I guess the Not-So-Great Leader's habit of using Doombots was getting tired. Maybe, that's why Toei Ltd. decided to get rid of him for good in Black RX. Yeah, I wanted all 11 Riders to defeat Grand Lord Crisis if you ask me. 

The only times the throwbacks happened were in Kamen Rider Decade (though we only got A.R. Worlds) and in Kamen Rider Zi-O. Sure, Naya did voice someone in SMART Brain but I think it was just a teaser since the movie Kamen Rider Faiz: Paradise Lost was obviously NOT CANON. The rest of the series were nothing more than separate worlds as Decade may want to present it. Later, we realize that Kamen Rider Build is an entirely new world. In short, actor Akira Hamada's return has NOTHING to do with Mr. Titan and everything to do with another villain, Mr. Nanba. 

It's actually a relief that Kamen Rider Zero-One's Ark-One was an entirely new villain. I'm glad that they decided to create a virus based on the Not-So-Great Leader and then have the same villain way back in 1971 return. Instead, we had Ark-One as a real menace that even returned for the movies. It's way more creative than how Evox was actually Venjix. It's actually a relief that Ark-One is a Venjix-type entity rather than the Messiah Virus or even the Not-So-Great Leader. The same went for the next two Reiwa series - they're all not reliant on throwbacks. 

If Kamen Rider can actually do something - I wonder what caused Power Rangers to repeat a similar mistake similar to the Showa era Kamen Rider entries? That leaves me a lot of room of thought too!