Kamen Rider Black RX: Stay in the World (1989)
Production: Toei Corporation
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By Areaseven

Introduction

In 1989, at the peak of Kamen Rider Black RX's popularity, Toei released this 17-minute movie at an amusement park in Japan. Kamen Rider Black RX: Sekai ni Kakeru was the Kamen Rider franchise's first (and only) attempt at a 3-D feature.

Story

The story begins on an abandoned complex, where our hero Minami Kotaro aka Kamen Rider Black RX (Kurata Tetsuo) arrives on the scene and battles three Grim Reapers. He spends the first couple of minutes dodging scythes and jumping off roofs before transforming into RX, not knowing that the Crisis Empire has set a trap for him.

RX finds himself in a forest and is shocked to see the three priests of Gorgom in front of him. A minute later, he reverts back to original Kamen Rider Black, but before he can do anything, he is trapped by the Gorgom priests, to the delight of General Jak and the Crisis Empire. However, just as Black is to be impaled with a giant crystal, RX's car Ridron speeds through the forest, narrowly missing the priests before stopping the crystal from making its mark on Black. Black looks towards Ridron to see who's driving it; lo and behold, it's none other than RX, who was separated from Kotaro when he was sent back into time by Crisis.

Black and RX run for their lives as they're confronted by an army of Crisis kaijin. Our two heroes appear to be outnumbered until from out of nowhere, Roborider and Biorider (two of RX's alternate forms) appear on the scene to assist Black and RX. The four Riders use all of their abilities to finish off the bad guys. In the end, the Riders walk forward and merge back into RX, who hops onto his bike Acrobatter and rides into the sunset.

Review

I've seen a few 3-D movies that looked like crap when converted into normal format, but Kamen Rider Black RX: Sekai ni Kakeru actually looks good without the use of red & blue tinted glasses. This movie has what you expect from any other Kamen Rider title: non-stop action and huge explosions. It also has some awesome camera angles, where you can still see objects like the Reapers scythes and Jak's staff pointing directly towards you, even on a normal TV screeen.

Unfortunately, all the action doesn't clearly explain the storyline of the movie. There's no real explanation on how RX separated from Kotaro and traveled back into time to save his alter ego. No one really knows how Biorider and Roborider managed to become separate entities.

Another noticeable problem is the trimming of certain special effects. When Kotaro does his Henshin, we don't see the lighting effects seen on the TV series. Instead, he simply jumps and instantly becomes RX. Another example is the variants of the Riders' attacks. Black's Rider Punch and RX's Rider Kick look rather weak compared to the TV versions. I guess it's because the camera angles attempted to make the attacks look like they were headed right towards your face, but it was more like a rush job at most.

But then again, this is a short movie originally intended for viewing at an amusement park. Kids didn't go to the park to spend an hour or two on one movie.

Conclusion

Despite having a cheesy and illogical plot, Kamen Rider Black RX: Sekai ni Kakeru is very enjoyable. It's not Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost, but at least it's much better than both Shin Kamen Rider and Kamen Rider J.

Rating: B

"Rider...HENSHIN!"

Areaseven