Takeshi Hongo

Takeshi Hongo aka Kamen Rider 1 is the main protagonist of the original Kamen Rider series. He is a biochemist at Jounan University, who also races motorcycles as part of the Tachibana Racing team. He was abducted by the evil organization Shocker and converted into a cyborg to serve the organization but managed to escape before they could brainwash him. After making his escape, Hongo became the first Kamen Rider and dedicated his life to fighting against evil and bringing down Shocker, along with their successor organizations and any other threats to the world.
He was portrayed by , who also did his stunts in suit. In Kamen Rider: Beyond Generations, a younger version of Hongo was instead portrayed by Maito Fujioka, Hiroshi's son.
==Biography==
Takeshi Hongo was a prodigy college biochemistry student at Jounan University's Biochemical Department, in which he also worked alongside Professor Midorikawa. Born on August 15, 1948, Hongo was a young man with an abnormal IQ of 600 as well as amazing physical prowess which attracted the attention of the secret organization Shocker, which planned to bring about a new order to the world, where artificially enhanced beings, both cybernetically and organically, stood at the top of the world. Taken to their underground labs, Takeshi became a victim of Shocker's super-soldier program and was transformed into a cyborg against his will. But before they could complete his Brainwashing, Takeshi was set free by the sacrifice of an unwilling Shocker scientist named Professor Midorikawa. Now Takeshi uses his physical and mental enhancements to fight against Shocker and prevent another tragedy like his, re-christening himself as the Kamen Rider.
He is later joined by Kamen Rider 2: Hayato Ichimonji, a photographer who Takeshi saves from the same Super Soldierprogram. His second ally is Kazuya Taki, an intrepid FBI agent investigating Shocker.
==Personality==
Takeshi Hongo is a benevolent and selfless man who is brave enough to fight against the odds and has a kind hearted soul that tries to help those in need of his assistance. Despite all the troubles he has faced against Shocker's (as well as other evil organizations that use brainwashed cyborgs) soldiers, he is aware of their misfortune and feels sorry for them knowing that he very well could have ended up like them, as well as feeling at least some hesitance at killing them.
Although he is by far more human than most of Shockers experiments, he knows fully well of his less than human nature and initially expressed self-loathing until later in the series, where he accepted himself for who he is and gained a new form upon said acceptance. While originally somewhat distant to those around him aside from Tobei, Hongo does care deeply to the people that are close to him as he treated Taki and Ichimonji as his best friends and brothers. He also acted as an older sibling to his junior Kazami. Later on in the series as his character developed further, Hongo has become more lighter in terms of personality, and while he works just as hard to defeat his foes, has become much more cheerful. He also became more sociable than he initially was. This maturity has increased even more by V3's series as he mentored V3 as well as tried to protect him.
== Overview ==
Takeshi is a young biochemistry college student at Jonan University and aspiring motorcyclist who was kidnapped by the terrorist organization Shocker and forcibly converted into a grasshopper-themed cyborg soldier for them. However, before he can be brainwashed to be loyal to Shocker, Hongo escapes and becomes the first Kamen Rider to fight for humanity's freedom against the evil forces that created him.
==Trivia==
*Hongo's actor, Hiroshi Fujioka, also physically portrayed him in-suit as Kamen Rider. This would later cause problems when Fujioka was injured 13 episodes in in a motorcycle accident while filming, leading to the creation of the character of Hayato Ichimonji / Kamen Rider #2 to replace him until Fujioka's injuries healed.
==See Also==
*.
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