Kamen Rider VS Shocker (1972)
Production: Toei Corporation
By Igadevil

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Introduction

Long before there was a Kamen Rider V3 or Black, before there was a Kamen Rider Ryuki or Blade, there was simply- a Kamen Rider. Well, two of them actually. Hongo Takeshi/Kamen Rider 1 and Ichimonji Hayato/Kamen Rider 2 defended the world from the evil hordes of Shocker, a ruthless, secret society with the ever-popular goal of world domination. The adventures of the Double Riders & friends as well as their Shocker foes was the stuff of the wildly successful original Kamen Rider TV series. So as you can guess, it didn’t take long for the folks at Toei to try bringing their hero to the big screen.

The first actual Kamen Rider movie, Go Go Kamen Rider was an enlarged and cropped version of the classic episode #13, “Tokageron and the Great Kaijin Army”, shown at the annual Toei Manga Matsurai in July of 1971. The follow-up for March of 1972's festival was an entirely original 32-minute story, featuring both Rider 2 as well as Rider 1 (the former was still the star of the series at the time, and the latter had been making regular guest appearances here and there in preparation for taking back the lead role of the show mid-series in episode #53) Simply titled Kamen Rider vs. Shocker, the film is basically like your typical episode on a larger scale; when all is said and done it ends as any episode of the series would, but the road to get there is a little bit more explosive than usual

Story

It’s basically your good old tried-and-true plot of many early Rider episodes: “Villains kidnap scientist’s relative (in this case, daughter) in order to get some secret scientific thing, intended to be used for peace, and turn it against the world for evil purposes” (whew!)

The target this time is the gravity-generating GX Device, desired by Shocker. The device’s creator, Doctor Daidouji (Izu Hajime, best known as “Doctor Komyoji” in Jinzo Ningen Kikaida) has the mother of all bad days when he gets a visit from Shocker’s officer Doctor Shinigami (Hideyo Amamoto), resulting in his assistant being killed and his laboratory getting blown up. As you can guess, it’s only a matter of time before the Kamen Riders & co. get involved, and sure enough, Ichimonji Hayato (Sasaki Takeshi) as well as both Riders’ ever-faithful sidekick, friend and FBI connection Taki Kazuya (Chiba Jiro, Sonny’s younger brother) show up to save the Doc when he’s ambushed later on by Shocker villains Hae-Otoko, Saboteguron and Mogurang (all of whom were once defeated in the TV series, which makes you just know Shocker is planning something big.) Ichimonji does his signature “Henshin!” and defeats the revived foes. But even with the good doctor safe, it turns out Shocker is far from through; they’re also going after his daughter (Hiroko Saito) who is celebrating her birthday, and conveniently the plans for GX are hidden in this big teddy bear from dad (obviously not knowing a world-conquering evil organization would want them!)

So it’s Hongo Takeshi, Kamen Rider 1 (Fujioka Hiroshi) to the rescue! He fights against more revived monsters, Arigabari and Dokugunder. But then a new dude shows up- Zanjio (voiced by Tsujimura Mahito), Shocker’s elite Salamander Kaijin (literally, “Mysterious Person”)! The fire-breathing, teleporting creep makes off with the girl, and the good guys are faced with having to exchange the doctor for his daughter (by order of Doctor Shinigami, via the telephone) in the middle of a big, wide open quarry-like place. The exchange goes smoothly until Shinigami reveals he isn’t playing fair; on his command nearly 30 Shocker Kaijin, all back from the dead, jump out of nowhere and encircle the entire area! It looks like game over for Ichimonji. Fortunately, our hero has an ace up his sleeve. I won’t tell you what exactly happens, as it’s just too good to spoil, but basically the result is the Double Riders turn the tables big time! But they’re not getting away without a fight; as revived Shocker Kaijin are all over the place! Clearing up this mess involves plenty of action, including a motorcycle chase, lots of Rider Kicks, and an all-out battle royale between the Double Riders & Zanjio!

Review

I won’t hide the fact that while I love and enjoy all the various Rider series, the original Kamen Rider is without a doubt my favorite. There is a certain charm in the simplicity and roughness of the show; half the stuff they do appears to be made up on the spot (though actually there is a great deal of thought behind it all) and the focus on action and fast pacing are well complemented by the colorful cast of characters and expansive back story. The costumes and effects may be simple by today’s standards, but hey- these things were made before today’s standards even existed!

The same kind of enthusiasm and entertainment one finds in the TV show carries over into the movie, with excellent results. It’s basically like watching an all new episode of the series on the big screen, or at least it must have been if you saw it on the big screen! Still, on your home TV, it’s just as enjoyable, once you get used to the wide screen format, of course.

The movie is probably best enjoyed by those already familiar with the series; all your favorite characters get to appear, all your favorite Rider moves are used (including the always-awesome “Rider Double Kick”) and the wicked sound track from the series is employed to its best. Of course, that’s not to say people new to the original series won’t enjoy it, but overall it does help to have some idea of who’s who before diving in. (This is the case with most of the Rider movies.)

For reference purposes, the movie does kind of mess with continuity a bit- the Kaijin Gilgaras shows up among the revived hordes (he’s in the last episode with Ichimonji as the star of the series, before he leaves for South America in pursuit of Doctor Shinigami) and the Shocker base layout and henchman costume designs are of the kind seen from episode #53 onward. But hey, who really cares? :) Another interesting note, even though Rider 1 still has his older style costume in this movie, Hongo performs the same Henshin pose first seen in episode #53 of the series (this came along with his newer costume that he has today) So this is really the first time we see the Rider 1 Henshin pose (as opposed to how he did it in the early episodes of the series, riding on his motorcycle.)

The action scenes in the movie are all top-notch, the motorcycle chase scene being a particular case. Watching hapless Shocker henchmen crash into each other and drive off cliffs, exploding for no particular reason, all to the upbeat tune of “Rider Action”, is quite a sight. The battles with all the old foes returning from the TV show are great as well. Hey, just seeing that many Shocker Kaijin in one place at one time is cool! One of my all-time favorite classic villains, Egyptus, even gets to shout his signature line “Abarabarabara-Ebarabarabara!” (The idea was that he doesn’t actually speak Japanese, but some kind of ancient Egyptian language. Thus, no one knows what he’s saying!)

If I had to find any negative points for the movie, it would probably be that since it runs at a brisk 32 minutes, there isn’t time to defeat all the foes- a bunch get to show up for the big ambush scene, but vanish thereafter. I think the usual excuse for unaccounted-for revived villains in the older Rider series is they were in some secret base when it blew up, or something like that. Whatever, you know they all get defeated eventually!

Conclusion

While later Rider movies get higher budgets and more dramatic storylines, Kamen Rider vs. Shocker is fine as it is because if you like the regular series, the movie gives you exactly what you want. I think the budget was probably a little higher than a TV episode, as the movie allows the staff to pull out even more stops (as is evidenced by the huge number of stunt guys!) Otherwise, the same look and feel of the show is retained, and that’s especially good for a movie like this, which is set in the middle of an already well-established “world”.

Kamen Rider vs. Shocker is probably my favorite Rider movie yet (not surprised, huh?) I highly recommend it, along with the rest of the series itself (don’t be put off by the number of episodes- they’re 98 quality episodes) and the follow-up film, Kamen Rider vs. Hell Ambassador.

“Rider Double Kick!”
Igadevil