Kamen Rider Black Sun (Spoiler Free) Review.

 

Black Sun is still a relatively new series, so I’m going to avoid Spoilers and keep this (mostly) short. I will touch upon some minor spoilers to provide context, but nothing like character deaths or massive plot details. This is also going to be a much more casual and loose review with the assumption you’re familiar with the original series.

But if you want me to sum up Black Sun in short: Kamen Rider meets Clive Barker’s Nightbreed with a dash of Judas and the Black Messiah. It is the most Radical Rider has been in ages, possibly one of, if not the most radical story in the franchise.

If you wish, let’s continue on.

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.