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What is Kamen Rider to me?
By
TheCeleryman
Otoku? The hell is this? I dunno I just go with it. Welcome to Celery’s Crazy Corner! My Otoku Column, where I talk about whatever the hell I want. This is an opinion piece. It is neither right nor wrong, it is just Celery. So, what is Kamen Rider to me?
In case you do not know, Kamen Rider was created in 1971 by the man god known as Shotaro Ishimori. It was really the closest thing he could get to a TV adaption of his graphic novel, Skull man. He had to change the character to a grasshopper to be child friendly. As a man dressed up as a skeleton was far too Hard Boiled for the 70’s. Kamen Rider became a smash hit, and for nearly 40 years straight it has dominated Japanese culture. Granted there was a Period between Black RX and Kuuga where there was no running series on television. I call the years between the Showa era and the Heisei era the Dark Ages. Just like the years between the 7th Doctor and the 8th and 9th Doctors in Doctor Who.
Every series of Kamen Rider is different from the other, W is completely different from Stronger, but every series shares traits with one another. It centralizes around a male hero, who must take down a vast evil. They start off weak, but after several battles they become stronger and stronger. Apart from the main evil they always have a Rival who is a lesser evil, but will constantly impede the Rider. For Black RX it was Shadow Moon. For W it was Nazca, and for IXA it was Rook. Though granted these rules can change. In Decade his rival was his partner Rider DiEnd. Who was the king of the trolls, he even went back in time and trolled himself, and it worked, before his past self trolled his future self.
Each Kamen Rider fights for a different reason. Ichigo fought because Shocker had changed him into a cyborg for evil, and he had to stop their evil plans. V3 fought because Destron had killed his family. W fought because Museum had killed his mentor, and Kiva fought because it was his destiny to fight, it was in his blood. But for whatever reason they fight they are heroes, they stand for justice and what is right. They are the light that extinguishes the dark. And they will never give up, they will never stop fighting. Ichigo and Nigo have been fighting for 40 years. Nonstop against the forces of evil.
But you’re not here for a history lesson of Kamen Rider. You’re here to know what I think Kamen Rider means to me. I mean hey it is in the bloody title isn’t it? Well, that simple question is has a very complex answer. When I first saw what a Kamen Rider was I thought it was very silly, as I have mentioned in my origin story of my joining RRR the first Rider I ever saw was AccelTrail, as I was subscribed to DosmRider on youtube for his Ben 10 toy reviews. I did not even watch the whole review, I just remember AccelTrail’s helmet. I remember it as clear as day. Some months later I was very bored so I decided to look into what Kamen Rider was. I stumbled upon it, and I fell in love. My first two series were W and Kiva. They had a perfect balance of drama and comedy. They had the impact of death, and how it changes a person. Shotaro had become a man when he watches his mentor die. Wataru had become a man having watched his love die.
While I have said before I prefer Kamen Riders already being men before the series starts, like with Kamen Rider Skull, I do enjoy the Rider being a boy. Eiji Hino stumbled into the life of the Greeed when Ankh chose him to be Kamen Rider OOO. He had no choice in the matter. One minute he was a security guard, the next he had a red head, a yellow body, and green legs. He struggled at first, but as time went on he grew to love being OOO, he needed to be OOO. So he could have the power to protect the entire would, not just what he could touch within his arms reach. He went through hell, he had been through hell, he had lost his best friend to the dark side, he was upon the brink of destruction, but being OOO brought him back. And after he had saved the world from Dr Maki, after he had helped everyone on planet Earth, he was okay with giving up OOO.
A Kamen Rider to me is a person who has been through the worst hell you can imagine, and even though they have been through all of that, they still keep fighting for the greater good. To protect those who cannot protect themselves. This is why Fourze has not become a Kamen Rider to me yet, he has yet to reach and over pass his own hell. For now he is just a boy, it will be some time before he becomes a man.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen, that is what a Kamen Rider is to me. If you liked this format tell me in the comments or in my suggestion box on the Ramboards. If you have anything you want to hear from me let me know, I am a servant to my readers. Til next time, this is TheCeleryman, saying Ta Ta!
