All right! This is one of the many soon to be fantabulous home pages of my favorite Japanese super hero, Kamen Rider Black RX! Before RX, there was Kamen Rider Black! I first discovered KRB at a convention years ago. The name Kamen Rider was foreign to me, since I grew up on Ultraman, Johnny Sokko, and the Space Giants. I checked this hero out, enjoyed the action, the monsters he fought, and of course, the "henshin" pose. The rest,we can say, is history.
A young man is running for his life through downtown Tokyo by three enigmatic phantoms. The young man in pursuit: Kotaro Minami.. They claim he has a destiny with Golgom, and must return him to the syndicate-dead or alive. Kotaro eludes them for a few moments, yet is caught and thrown onto the neon lights of the Ginza, then is thrown through a concrete wall. As the three priests claim their prize, they are frightened by a mutated Kotaro, first a human insect, and then into a black armored grasshopper. One of the priests gasps 'Black Sun', and Kotaro beats the three into a hasty retreat. He then summons his trusty motorcycle steed in the form of Battlehopper, and rides off.
Later on the next day, Kotaro receives a message from his foster dad- Professor Soichiro Akizuki(father of his best friend Nobuhiko), whom he is to meet at a deserted factory.. When he comes to meet him, there the professor tells him the awesome truth:
There exists an evil secret society called Golgom, comprised of rich industrialists and scientists, plotting the downfall of human existence by plunging the world into chaos with bio-genetically altered humans. The "Eon of Golgom" is coming, and the three high priests-Dalom, Balaom, and Beshium; chose two men as the unwilling candidates: Kotaro Minami and Nobuhiko Akizuki. They were sold to their protector, Professor Akizuki. Kotaro and Nobuhiko was fitted with the mystical King Stones- lending them the power of Century Kings. These two kings, to be known as Black Sun and Shadow Moon,would compete for the throne of Eon King for 100 years.
Feeling the burden of guilt, Professor Akizuki set to stop the bioengineering process, but was too late. The stones were already fitted, yet as Akizuki interfered, Kotaro was able to escape before his human soul was to be purged from his body.
Kotaro, unable to handle what the professor had told him, found himself and his stepfather interrupted by Golgom's Spider Mutants. In the resulting attack, Professor Akizuki is killed for defecting. Now, Kotaro must face Golgom alone. Renouncing the 'Black Sun' name, he transforms into Kamen Rider Black; and with his motorcycle, Battlehopper,he defeats the mutants, and begins the pursuit to destroy the minions of the Golgom Syndicate.
Kotaro returns to the scene where he was abducted by the Golgom priests and recalls the day he and Nobuhiko was sold to Golgom. He remembers how he, Nobuhiko and his girlfriend Kazumi, and Kyoko his step-sister attending a party. Kotaro and Nobuhiko shared the same birthday. He meets his stepfather Professor Akizuki, and a few other guests, including Doctor Kuromatsu(played by none other than Susumu Kurobe a.k.a. Hayata:the original Ultraman),and a beautful woman named Yukari Tsuikage(probably either a movie star or idol singer). The boat is then attacked by a swarm of grasshoppers. As Kotaro, Nobuhiko, Kyoko, and Kazumi tried to brush them off, the other party guests aren't affected.
Later,the two men ride on their way home, until they are both attacked by the three Golgom priests and are taken back to their lair. Dalom prays to the Eon King and requests the King Stones, surgically implanting them into Kotaro and Nobuhiko. Professor demands the priests to stop the experiment, but to no avail. Kotaro is freed from the operating tubes as the professor pleads for him to escape and save himself. Kotaro uses the Battlehopper for the first time to make his escape.
The next day, Kotaro drops by Yukari's apartment to warn her about Golgom. As soon as she lets him in, he notices the chain lock was still on. He breaks in, and sees that there had been a brief struggle that took place. Kotaro finds the woman dead, with claw marks on her neck. Without warning, another one of Golgom's mutants attack in the form of a mutant Jaguar. They fight, and the mutant jaguar throws Kotaro out the window, enabling him to henshin into Kamen Rider Black! The battle begins as Black chases the jaguar to a warehouse. Black then finally gets the best of the monster and finishes the mutant-jaguar off with his powerful "RIDER KICK!" The jaguar explodes as our Masked Rider wins the day.
The three priests check out the process of Nobuhiko evolving into their Century King, Shadow Moon. Beshium explains to Dalom and Balaom about the chaos that will occur once Black Sun(Kamen Rider Black) returns to the fold. They then send out their next mutant to wreak havoc in Tokyo. Outside the city, a passenger train rolls through the countryside. The train enters a tunnel as the engineer sees something in the way of the tracks. He blows the whistle and comes to a complete stop. Later, Kotaro rides along the highway and notices the train wrecked. As the reporters ask about what had happened to the missing passengers, Kotaro investigates. He goes into the tunnel and finds a little boy left behind. The little one is crying and wants his mommy. He explains to Kotaro about some ugly caterpillar-cocoon like mutant(Guago) attacking the train. It then spits its web to entangle them. The boy's mother gets him out in time before she is taken away. Kotaro and the kid is then attacked by the monster, with Guago taking him away. Kotaro henshins into Black, and retrieves the kid for a hasty retreat. Kotaro brings the boy back to his job, meeting up with Kyoko and Kazumi. On TV, there is a newscast taking about a new satelitte sent into space. Suddenly one of Golgom's mutant bats intercept the satelitte and pushes it back towards Earth. Kotaro ponders on what Golgom is up to. Later,at Dr. Kuromatsu's lab, his hand mutates into a hairy claw(possibly that Kuromatsu is a mutant himself). Distracting his security guards, the caterpillar mutant steals a chamber the guards had been watching. Meanwhile, the monster attacks a rooftop restaurant. Using its cocoon to keep anyone from escaping, Golgom's mutant bat then carries the kidnapped patrons back to its lair. Kotaro helps rescue a few bystanders caught in the caterpillar's cocoon. He sees the cocoon trail and follows it back to its hideout. Kotaro finds the missing satelitte, and is confronted by Beshium. She shows the missing passengers from the train, from the restaurant and in two cages hanging above, entrapped in cocoon. The prisoners all cry out for help. Kotaro curses Beshium, and demands her to release them. Beshium laughs and tells him she will trap Black as well unless he surrenders. Kotaro runs toward the prisoners, and is intercepted by Guago. Beshium fires her eye beams as Kotaro's hands is caught in the cocoon. He breaks free and transforms into Kamen Rider Black once again! As the two battle, Beshium zaps the ropes holding the cages. Black swiftly catches both cages, then throws the mutant towards Beshium. Of course, the main bad girl priest uses the better part of valor and retreats. KRB and the monster caterpillar continue to battle. He smashes the monster, knocking it out. However, it was playing dead, takes Black by surprise and sprays him with its cocoon. Guago laughs in triumph as it approaches the cocoon-trapped masked rider. But, KRB breaks out of the cocoon, reenergizes himself, and goes for the final blow. With the Rider Punch and Kick, Guago is defeated and destroyed. KRB proceeds to free the kidnapped people and rides off on the Battlehopper. Later, Kotaro meets up with the boy's mom and she thanks him for taking care of him. The boy tells Kotaro how Kamen Rider Black had saved everybody. Kotaro responds very enthusiastic about all this. Kotaro rides off again, with another job well done by his alter-ego.
Kotaro rides through downtown Tokyo and is suddenly ambushed by Golgom's pet mutant bats. He henshins to Black and chops the bat's wing. The bat retreats to the three priests. Balaom curses 'Black Sun'. Beshium corrects him and tells them he is now officialy called Kamen Rider Black. The priests proceed to dispatch the next mutant. On a running track on campus, an athlete discovers Dr. Kuromatsu and flees for his life. Thinking he had eluded him, Kuromatsu appears before the athlete. The evil doctor comments on him missing his appointments(I think),and the poor guy shows him his hairy arm, saying,"Look what you've done to me!" Kuromatsu asks him to come back with him to his lab. The man says no, and is then attacked by a mutant flea. The flea injects a toxic poison into his neck. The man runs out rampantly and kills himself. The next day, one of Kotaro's friends, a motocyclist named Tooru Hayami(played by tokusatsu vet Takumi Hirose in a rare good guy role), completes another race.His sister is with him. He then leaves for school, where he meets Dr.Kuromatsu. He introduces himself to him,and gives Tooru his card. Kuromatsu reports to Golgom and informs them of his plans. He meets the cyclist the next day and bring him to his lab. As the man is strapped down on the table, Kuromatsu reveals his secret lab, removes his hand and puts on a mechanical one. He then removes his eye as well, replacing it. Tooru demanded to know what's going on. Kuromatsu explains about an experiment with a new hormone that will enhance his athletic abilities. He brings out the mutant flea as the monster injects the guy with his poison knocking him out. The mad doctor injects him with the hormone. Weeks later, the racer begins to win various motorcycle races all over Japan. The country is in awe of this new superstar. Kotaro is suspicious about his friend and follows Tooru to investigate. Tooru tells Kuromatsu about his victories and feels great about the experiment. At the race track the next day, the racer gets dizzy and crashes on the grass. It was not a serious injury, but as Kotaro, the racer's sister, and his team try to help him, Tooru ran in a panic. Kotaro feared the worst. That night, Tooru wakes up and discovers his face in the mirror looked like sime sort of wolfman.In his panic, his sister tries to stop him but runs off. Kotaro, passing by, goes after him. The cyclist returns to the lab, slowly mutating into a werewolf. The hormone injected into him earlier enhanced his abilities, but with a deadly side effect. Its bioengineering creates humans into deadly mutants to do Golgom's bidding. As the mutant flea was about to give Tooru more poison, he escapes and tries to kill himself. Kotaro stops him in time. He is then ambushed by the flea mutant. With blurring speed, it hits Kotaro with the poison, weakening him. When the flea has Kotaro on the ropes, he remembers his stepfather murdered by Golgom's mutants. He recovers, and henshins into Kamen Rider Black! The battle begins, yet the flea mutant is too fast for Black..The monster continues, leaping at him with blurring speed. Black activates his 'Bug Eyes', enabling him to detect where the mutant is, and detects where it would land. Black grabs it, punching its leg. Now comes the finishing 'Rider Punch', crippling the flea's leg so that it couldn't leap anymore. Then comes the finishing 'RIDER KICK!!',kicking the monster off the cliff, and explodes. Black takes Tooru back home, with the effects of the hormone wearing off and changing him back to normal. Kuromatsu reports back to Golgom, explaining his failure. The evil doctor says that it wasn't his fault, but Kamen Rider Black got in the way. Balaom zaps Kuromatsu with an electric bolt as the doctor begs for forgiveness. Now that everything was back to normal, Kotaro and Kyoko meet up with Tooru, and goes back to racing as usual. KRB wins again, yet Kotaro is more determined now than ever to stop Golgom.
It was a dark night, and a child rode inside a darkened passageway. He was suddenly ambushed and then kidnapped by another one of Golgom's mutants, this time in the form of a Chameleon. The monster travels around various homes to kidnap other children in the process. This prompts our hero KRB to battle the mutant chameleon. Before Black could attack, it shows him the captive kids entrapped in crystal orbs. As Black confronted the chameleon, the so-caled Holy Knight Belgenia attacked KRB, distracting the mutant in order to make its getaway. During the fight, BattleHopper tried to help the masked rider but was injured by Belgenia's sword. Black then calls up RoadSector, attempting to run through the villain, but makes its escape.
Later, at the undergound Golgom headquarters,the Eon King seems to be punishing Belgenia, the mutant chameleon, and the three Golgom priests. The century king was powering up the chameleon and splitting it into five of them. The priests went down to an underground basement where the children was strapped upon tables. Dalom described their current sinister plan to them, and revealed a Golgom statue with a heart shaped face and demonic red eyes. Golgom's plan required abducting Japanese children, testing them, raising them to eventually change them to mutants and serving the Eon King.
Kotaro returned back to the restaurant, meeting up with Kyoko and Kazumi. They watched a report on the missing children as their mothers plead for their safe return. Immediately, Kotaro deduced it was Golgom's work.
Kotaro then noticed a bus full of kids being taken to what was advertised as the Cosmos Survival School. The grownups scattered fliers attracting others to come along. Kotaro follows the bus suspiciously,knowing it was actually a Golgom plot. As the children played games,(and even munching on Kamen Rider Black snacks)!?!, the bus driver then reveals itself as the Chameleon mutant! The frightened kids were trapped with nowhere to escape, crying to Kotaro for help. The bus turns the corner, and disappears without a trace!
Kotaro finds a fisherman and asks about the missing children. The old man(played by our creator of KR, Shotaro Ishiniomori)tells Kotaro about an evil island where the kids were taken to. The fisherman warns how dangerous it was, yet Kotaro talks him into taking him there by boat.
He gets to the island as Dalom and the other priests were about to operate on the poor helpless kids, in the same fashion they implanted the King Stones within Kotaro and Nobuhiko at the beginning of the series. Kotaro makes it through the hideout, but not without the chameleon mutants stopping him from goinf any further. They blended in the dark cave at every turn, thwarting Kotaro's attempt to save the children. Kotaro then henshins to Black, beginning round two with the five multi-colored monsters! They battle as Black was knocked through a wall, stopping the operation in time! However, as our hero were about to free the kids, KRB fell through a trap and now, he himself was trapped, strapped upon a table!
As the children pleaded to Black to help them, Dalom, Beshium, and Balaom were about to operate on him with the help of the Golgom statue, he blinded then with solar energy, breaking the shackles, and leaped upon top of the dais. KRB promptly destroys the statue with a handy Rider punch!
A special thanks to August Ragone-where the research of this article was originated in Markalite#1.
Kamen Rider Black and all characters within are a production of Ishimori Pro, Mainichi Broadcasting, and Toei Co. Ltd. All rights are reserved to the original producers of this show. Copyright Ishimori Pro-Mainichi Broadcasting-Toei Co. Ltd.