Kamen Rider 50th anniversary announcements.

April 4th marked the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider and a lot of news dropped.  Most of it was toy related, but there were several major projects and releases announced that fall more into this blogs forte. I wanted to do a post on the day, but I was busy with other projects and I wanted some time to gather my thoughts on the announcements. So this is a bit late to the party, but I've had a good 2 weeks to process everything.



Bare with me because I have some thoughts about the first two.

Kamen Rider Black review.

Well now, this wasn't something I was originally planning to do. While I was making my way through Ultra Q, I realized I wanted the next review to be more in-depth and praise-worthy. 

Kamen Rider Black is a series I've largely avoided reviewing because quite frankly it seems everyone and their mother who knows about Kamen Rider has heard the praise of this series, and I doubt I could add anything to the discussion. Nevertheless, it had been a while since I watched the series and if I'm gonna watch something, even a re-watch, I usually end up reviewing it. Most of my reviews have been Ultra of late, so I figured some Rider would be nice and if I was going to review Rider it was going to be a series I love and wanted to rewatch.

Part of what sets Kamen Rider Black apart from others in the Showa era is its continuity or lack thereof. All prior Rider Shows had some form of connectivity even if it was very loose in some regards. Usually, with returning characters like Tachibana, past riders, or Shocker reinventing itself into Destron, Black Satan, or the Badan Empire, etc. There was an attempt at a reboot of sorts with 1979's Kamen Rider, but that eventually changed and is now more familiar as SkyRider. The last Rider series before Black was 6 years prior with Super-1, while the last time the Riders appeared on TV was 3 years in 1984's Birth of the 10th special introducing ZX.

So with Black, it was decided to cast all the aside and start from fresh. There's no acknowledgment of past Riders at any point in the run, allowing the series to stand completely alone.