EPISODE 3
Koutarou, Reiko, the Sahara boy and his two friends get transported to another dimension, one that's mainly a barren, desert wasteland. It's Kai-Makai, the home world of Crisis, long ago ruined and conquered by Crisis. With only one little corner of the world inhabitable, that spot has been turned into a kind of Crisis Vegas. They put slaves into the desert to dig for water. Koutarou and the gang run into some of the slaves, the main one being some weirdo college professor who looks like he's related to Gnome from Zyuranger. His name? Professor Waldo. Yeah. What is this shit?
Waldo befriends Koutarou-tachi and becomes the episode's sacrificial lamb, randomly being killed...but not before giving Koutarou a 1988 computer floppy disc containing the designs of Rideron! Nice and random, just like the rest of the show.
The monster of the week here is a knight who pretends to be all honorable and junk and Koutarou treats with respect. The knight's weakness? The melody played by the pendant Koutarou wears that was given to him by Reiko. (She has her own, because...those crazy women liking to be twinsies, right? Women, right? It already ain't easy being a 20-something ex-cyborg, chopper pilot by day, newly-minted son of the sun grasshopper man by night without mixing crazy broads into things.)
Random notes on a random show:
1) Early in the episode, Koutarou and Reiko are thrown off a cliff by the monster's strong winds. Koutarou's hanging, while he manages to catch Reiko and she clings to him. Koutarou's acting all out of sorts here, making goofy expressions, talking about how afraid of heights he is. He's just really going overboard. I can't tell if this is part of his Clark Kent act for Reiko or if he's serious, because if he's serious...what the hell? Koutarou's fallen off of buildings much higher than the Makuu Rocks in his previous show.
2) Gotta give credit to Tetsuo Kurata for the tearful cry he lets out when Professor Waldo gets killed. I guess I'm a bad actor, I wouldn't have bothered.
3) Koutarou eyes Crisis Vegas with intensity, knowing he'll have to one day take the battle there. But...I don't think the show even remembers this, so he doesn't. We have a really well planned out show here.
4) In many past attempts at rewatching RX, this would be as far as I'd make it.
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EPISODE 4
Koutarou succeeds in building Rideron, making him a Kamen Driver now, too. (An old, old joke in the fandom.) I guess Knight Rider was popular, so Toei thought it would be cool to give their big guy his own cool car? Only...it's not a cool car. I call it the ladybug car, although it's not really based on one. It's just a fuggo design, and it talks on top of it. Worst of all, though, is that Koutarou builds it, and it doesn't work until he takes it to the cave where the whale monster took him to be resurrected in Black. Now, a callback to Black is nice and all, but...really, Koutarou? And there's a ludicrous scene where he's making this over-the-top plea to the forces of the cave to give Rideron life and it's just like...I'm sure whale kaijin let you in on this place knowing you'd one day use it to try to give your fucking car life, Koutarou.
Not only that! But the cave self-destructs after it gives Rideron life, too. This magical, life-giving cave, that has probably served the whale people for centuries is so ashamed of caving in to Bandai that it murders itself out of hatred. Stupid, stupid, stupid move Koutarou. You or someone you care about might have needed that cave, but...you need to be a Knight Rider knockoff, so...*sigh*
Random thoughts for a random show:
1) I've always liked when Rideron is riding out of the sea that it's the same sequence as Aqua Dolphin in Liveman -- they just pasted a Rideron over the Aqua Dolphin.
2) Today I learned that the guy who plays the unfunny Sahara patriarch is the guy who played the unfunny "comedic" relief in the martial-arts show Fight! Dragon. He also guest-starred in the ET Baby episode of Blue Swat which, not so coincidentally, is one of the worst things ever put on television. (Not just one of the worst toku episodes, or one of the worst Japanese episodes. No -- one of the worst episodes in all of television history, period.)
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EPISODE 5
When Shigeru, his buddies and Reiko and some random sempai of hers explore a cave, they discover Crisis' latest monster, who's raising offspring that bite and transform humans into moths. It's up to Koutarou to deliver the antidote in time. Will he make it? Well, whose show is it?
A boring episode focused too much on Shigeru, who gets everyone in trouble by going deeper into the cave to prove he's a "man." Sit your ass down, roundboy!
The Sahara parents also are at peak insanity in this episode. Just so unlikable. They're always insulting and beating each other up. They're like the Bundys, but without the jokes.
This episode ends with Koutarou playing dumb to throw people off the scent that he's Kamen Rider...they keep just calling him "Kamen Rider RX" in this scene. See! This show's so lazy that they didn't even correct this script. My bonkers theory that this show originated as its own thing and Koutarou was forced into it is totally right. Poor Koutarou. If he knew RX was ahead of him, he might have just let Golgom have their way with him.
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EPISODE 6
More Shigeru! WHY?! There's been so much damn Shigeru so far in this show. Is the show called The Adventures of Shigeru? No, it's called Kamen Rider (Black) RX, dammit. And it's not like Takeshi Inoue's one of those bad kid actors -- I actually think he's a good performer -- but the focus on Shigeru is just proof that this show doesn't have its priorities straight. It's got the MMPR made-by-PTA sugar coating. The episodes of this show that are most brutal are the episodes that focus on Shigeru and his buddies and try to teach the most obvious, cheeseball lesson in the most uninspired way...
Episodes like this, in which Shigeru has to learn the courage to stand up for himself -- first with bullies and then with a trio of Crisis monsters, who for some unexplained reason latch onto Shigeru and follow him home to make the Sahara house their hideout. They should have flipped the order of 6 and this episode, because it would have been funny if Shigeru was trying to implement the lesson of this episode -- feeling courageous, wanting to prove he's a man! -- only to have it bite him on the butt as he gets everyone turned into moth-people.
I hate to admit it but I think I tend to only like Black RX because, "Hey it's a kiddie show." or "Saban's Masked Rider really sucks so hard that he considers it an Old Shame!"
ReplyDeleteSo I'd like to share more thoughs:
1.) I wonder why the writers decided to let the cave self-destruct after giving life to Rideron? It's just weird. Yeah, love your statement that the cave might have exploded out of stupidity. I still think KR Drive's car is way cooler.
2.) The Sahara family can be so much of a pain -- but nowhere near as stupid as the family in Saban's Mashed Rider.
3.) Shigeru tends to get annoying because the writers don't know how to handle him.
Anyway, I just wonder how long you'd decide to watch Black RX.
It's OK to like RX because you like it, you don't need excuses.
DeleteI don't really like Drive's car, either. It's just way too small and cramped looking.
It's funny to me that the ONE element of RX that Saban's show kept is the hero living with a random family. I haven't watched much of Saban's Masked Rider, but I don't remember the family being stupid or obnoxious or show-hogs the way the Saharas can.
My RX Project is done, man. I'm long finished with the show and completed all my writing about it. I never post a project until the writing's all completed, I don't post these as I go along. My stuff's too long to do in one post, so I try to break it down into more digestible bites.
@Shogo
DeleteSo anyway I thought about it that RX is still more watchable than Decade - ironic how Decade never caused the infamous hiatus. Still, I think RX did have some contributions but just that they were that well carried out.
I did watch Saban's Mashed Rider (get the joke) but man I can't watch it beyond for what it is. I guess it's because I watched RX first. Yeah... funny I saw some PR shows before their Sentai counterparts. I did watch several episodes but as said the humor is way worse than RX. True, Tetsuo Kurata is right to call RX's humor as bad but Mashed Rider was even worse.
So I wonder what's your thoughts on Ryusoulger and Zi-O as of late? I'd like to hear it too if you don't mind.
I dropped Zi-o pretty early on. I'm only planning to watch the Agito episodes (and Hibiki if they do them), otherwise that show can just piss off.
DeleteFour episodes in on Ryusoulger, and I'm not really enjoying it. There's nothing there, man. And I dislike all of the characters so far, except for Blue and Pink. (And maybe Kureon, who I like to call Crayon.)
@Shogo
DeleteI'm still watching Zi-O and I'm kinda enjoying some of it while other episodes makes me go, "F*** OFF SHIMOYAMA!" though the recent ones are kinda good actually. Though Shirakura is hit or miss.
Right now, I am kinda enjoying Ryusoulger. I wonder do you feel a generation gap towards newer Toku? Heck, I don't blame some people who may have stopped watching newer Toku due to generation gaps!
You're liking Kureon a little bit i find he's voice whiny
ReplyDeleteHe whines everything too
ReplyDelete