Kamen Rider (1971 TV series)

Kamen Rider (仮面ライダー, Kamen Raidā) is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series and weekly science fiction manga created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. The original airing consisted of a total of 98 episodes and were broadcast from April 3, 1971, to February 10, 1973, on Mainichi Broadcasting System and NET (now TV Asahi). The manga adaptation was also featured in Shōnen Magazine around the same period. The series has evolved into a franchise with many subsequent annual iterations.
The series spawned a second boom in tokusatsu shows, and was Toei's first commercialised series. During its run the brand sold 620 million bags of popcorn (branded Kamen Rider Snack), 3.8 million transformation belts and 300,000 bikes.
The series takes place in a world plagued by Shocker, a mysterious worldwide terrorist organization formed mostly by remaining members of the Nazis. To further its plans for world domination, Shocker recruited its agents through kidnapping, turning their victims into mutant cyborgs (改造人間, kaizō ningen, lit. 'transhuman') and, ultimately, brainwashing them. However, one victim named Takeshi Hongo escaped just before the final brainwashing. With his sanity and moral conscience intact, Takeshi wages a one-man war against Shocker's minions as the grasshopper-themed cyborg superhero Kamen Rider. Another victim of the cyborg process, freelance photographer Hayato Ichimonji, became Kamen Rider 2 after Kamen Rider, who eventually renamed himself "Kamen Rider 1", saved him from Shocker's brainwashing. Assisted by motorcycle race team manager Tobei Tachibana and FBI agent Kazuya Taki, the Kamen Riders fought in both solo and partnered missions against Shocker while later getting help from Tobei and Kazuya's Kamen Rider Kid Corps. Later, after many battles with Shocker the organization was wiped out and its leader created Gel-Shocker to fulfill his goals. After many battles with Gel-Shocker the Kamen Riders defeated the organization's leader and stopped Gel-Shocker. With Kazuya returning to America peace was restored, or so it seems.
Many manga based on the original Kamen Rider series have been published, but only one was penned and drawn by Ishinomori himself. Ishinomori was also the author of one chapter of the Kamen Rider Amazon manga and the entire Kamen Rider Black manga. However, those manga were based on sequels to Kamen Rider, rather than the original series.
The original manga, published in 1971, initially follows a path resembling the first few episodes of the TV series, from basic plot to creature designs. However, when Takeshi leaves the story, the series diverge greatly. In the TV show, Takeshi travels abroad to fight Shocker in other countries, leaving Japan's protection to Hayato Ichimonji, a freelance cameraman who was experimented on by Shocker but saved by Takeshi, becoming the second Kamen Rider. In the manga, Takeshi never left Japan. He was confronted by twelve "Shocker Riders" and was subsequently mortally wounded during his battle against them. Hayato Ichimonji, one of the twelve Shocker Riders, receives a head injury during the fight and regains his conscience as a result. He then turns against Shocker and takes Takeshi's role as Kamen Rider. In spite of the damage to his body, Takeshi's brain survives and guides Hayato, the two fighting as one.
Takeshi eventually returns as a Rider in both stories, but starting with Hayato's debut, villains and even basic story development greatly diverge between the two versions. The manga portrays a seemingly hopeless battle against Shocker, an organization with ties to governmental conspiracies that seems much bigger than either of the two Riders. The live action TV shows portray the Riders as heroes strong enough to bring down Shocker, only to see it replaced by similar organizations led by Shocker's mysterious leader. The Shocker Riders eventually appear in the TV series, too, but they looked different and had different abilities. There were also only six Shocker Riders, rather than the manga's 12.
In February 2021, Seven Seas Entertainment announced they licensed the original manga for publication in one omnibus edition.
Shocker (ショッカー, Shokkā) is a terrorist organization formed by former Nazis. Shocker's goal is to conquer the world. To this end, their scientists turn humans into superhuman cyborgs by surgically altering them with animal and insect DNA with robotic cybernetics. Virtually all of its members are modified the same way. Even a Shocker Combatant is tougher, faster, and stronger than an ordinary human civilian. The original manga showed that Shocker had influence over the governments of the world. Its founders had ties to the Nazis, Illuminati and the Kamen Rider Spirits manga makes references to the group's support by the Badan Empire.
Ruthless and merciless, Shocker would often kidnap prominent scientists and force them to work for the organization, then kill them when their usefulness was at an end, or if they attempted to escape. The decision to kidnap and modify college student Takeshi Hongo proved to be their undoing. He was intended to be another of Shocker's powerful cyborg warriors, a grasshopper-human hybrid, but he escaped and opposed them as Kamen Rider 1. A later attempt to create a second, more powerful Kamen Rider backfired when the intended victim, Hayato Ichimonji, was rescued by the original Rider before he was brainwashed. Hayato joined Takeshi as Kamen Rider 2. The pair, known as the Double Riders, put an end to Shocker, and later its remnants, who formed Gelshocker after their disbandment.
In OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders, Shocker, although with a membership and leadership covering Gelshocker members from the original TV series, obtained a Core Medal and modified it into the Shocker Medal. Though they were originally unable to use it, the appearance of the Greed Ankh in their time enabled the organization to obtain one of his Cell Medals and create the Shocker Greed. This altered time so that Shocker defeated the Double Riders and managed to conquer all of Japan and eventually the world, setting up a union with many of the other organizations that originally emerged after Shocker's destruction. The group is ultimately defeated by the Kamen Riders.
But as revealed in Kamen Rider OOO onwards, there are some surviving members of the Shocker organization, even from Badan Empire who went into hiding to gather data of the Kamen Riders' battles against some of their respective monsters many years ago. But during the events of Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider 3, Shocker's remaining scientists created a History Modification Machine that they use to send a time displaced cyborg called Kamen Rider Three back in time to destroy the Double Riders in the aftermath of Gelshocker's defeat, creating a new timeline where Shocker rules the world with some Kamen Riders in their service. Luckily, the apparent destruction of the History Modification Machine restores the timeline (with the exception of Go Shijima/Kamen Rider Mach who was killed by Cheetahkatatsumuri), only to be found out during the events of D-Video Special: Kamen Rider Four that Shocker secretly uses it to create time loops and alters the timeline once more, allowing to create Kamen Rider Four, as well as the revelation that they have been targeting Takumi Inui, due to his sacrifice-less wish to ensure that no one dies like what happened to one of his old allies to create a loop. As Takumi is about to destroy the machine, the Shocker Leader appears with an appearance identical to Takumi's. In the end, Takumi destroys the machine and disappears alongside the modified timeline, restored back to its original timeline once more. Though most of his allies who do not originate from the Kamen Rider 555 TV series like from Kamen Rider Drive, and even Kamen Rider Den-O's Kamen Rider Zeronos don't remember if they had encountered Takumi, only some of Takumi's old friends from the Kamen Rider 555 TV series, including Naoya Kaido still remember Takumi.
In the movie Kamen Rider 1, there is a civil war between the original Shocker and a newly formed organization called Nova Shocker in an attempt to kidnap Mayu, Tobei Tachibana's granddaughter, and release the Alexander Gamma Eyecon from her body, in order to obtain its power. As all of the revived Ambassador Hell's Shocker faction had been annihilated completely, leaving only himself, and also after he witnessed how dangerous the Alexander Gamma Eyecon is, he makes an uneasy alliance with Kamen Riders Ghost, Specter and a newly improved Kamen Rider 1.
The Shocker Kaijin are monsters used by Shocker who are formerly humans who were enhanced with animal DNA and cybernetics.
Gel-Shocker (ゲルショッカー, Gerushokkā) was formed after the disbandment of Shocker, with the remnants of the organization absorbing another organization Geldam (ゲルダム団, Gerudamu-dan) trained in the deserts of Africa. After Ambassador Hell's defeat, the Shocker Leader reorganized the organization from the ground up, destroying all remaining secret bases and even killing the remaining troop contingent in a bloody forest massacre witnessed by unfortunate campers.
The Gel-Shocker Kaijin are the Kaijin of Gel-Shocker who are hybrids of two different animals or an animal and a plant.
Published in Monthly Hobby Japan, the S.I.C. Hero Saga stories illustrated by S.I.C. figure dioramas portray stories featuring the characters from the Shotaro Ishinomori series. Kamen Rider has had three different stories: Missing Link, Special Episode: Escape (SPECIAL EPISODE -脱出-, Supesharu Episōdo Dasshutsu), and From Here to Eternity (ここより永遠に, Koko yori Towa ni). Missing Link ran in the July to October 2002 issues, From Here to Eternity was featured in the special issue HOBBY JAPAN MOOK S.I.C. OFFICIAL DIORAMA STORY S.I.C. HERO SAGA vol.1 Kakioroshi, and Special Episode: Escape was featured in the October 2006 issue of Hobby Japan.
New characters introduced during the Missing Link story are the twelve Shocker Riders (ショッカーライダー, Shokkā Raidā, each with different colored scarves) and the Shocker Tank (ショッカータンク, Shokkā Tanku).
The Kamen Rider original series famously spearheaded launched the "Second Kaiju Boom" or "Henshin Boom" on Japanese television in the early 1970s, greatly impacting the superhero and action-adventure genre in Japan. The famous "henshin sequence", in which the title hero performs ritualistic poses and shouting a keyword to transform into his superhero form has since become a staple in Japanese pop-culture, inspiring superheroes, and magical girl genres. Kamen Rider went later produce a great number of spin-offs which remain in production today. Several Kamen Rider series were aired in Japan after the first Kamen Rider finished. After Kamen Rider Black RX ended production in 1989, the series was put on hold.
There were three movies released as the 1990s "Movie Riders", which were Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue, Kamen Rider ZO and Kamen Rider J. After the original creator Shōtarō Ishinomori's death in 1998, the Kamen Rider franchise continued in 2000 with Kamen Rider Kuuga. As of 2023, thirty-four Kamen Rider series have been made, with the newest being Kamen Rider Gotchard which premiered in September 2023.
As of 2005, a remake of the Kamen Rider series in the Heisei era was made and reimagined with Kamen Rider The First and continued with Kamen Rider The Next released in 2007.
The cultural impact of the series in Japan resulted in astronomer Akimasa Nakamura naming two minor planets in honor of the series: 12408 Fujioka, after actor Hiroshi Fujioka, known for his portrayal of Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider 1, and 12796 Kamenrider, after the series itself.
As of 2021, starting from Kamen Rider: Beyond Generations, Hiroshi Fujioka's son, Maito portrays Takeshi Hongo's younger self.
As of 2023, another remake of the Kamen Rider series in the Reiwa era was made and reimagined with Shin Kamen Rider.