Book Review: Kamen Rider EPISODE No.1~No.13

If you haven't checked them out yet, there's some updates on the main site, namely the all-new Riderman Combat Techniques page (well, a guide to his many arms more like it.) More on the way soon!

For now, how about a little trip back to a more simple time, when Kamen Rider 1 was just "Kamen Rider", things like the Henshin Pose were yet to be fully realized, and experimental film techniques were all the rage? I'm talking, of course, about the original 13 episodes of Kamen Rider, which are covered top to bottom in the recently-released 35th Anniversary Terebi Magazine Special Compilation: Kamen Rider EPISODE No.1~No.13. As the name implies, it covers just the first 13 episodes.

And believe it or not, there's enough material in those alone to fill up a 65-page book, because this thing covers pretty much everything you could possibly think of about those episodes, and amazingly enough, only those episodes. This means we get things like an examination of the different Kamen Rider masks (both close-up, "Hero" masks, and the stunt ones) on an episode-by-episode basis. There's every possible version of the transformation (since this was before the standardization that came with Rider 2), every variation and manner of attack, and pretty much everything we see and learn about Shocker...in the first 13 episodes, of course. Every Shocker Kaijin gets a two-page spread, and just Hongô Takeshi alone has four pages of Hongô-y goodness. There's episode synopses (told through screencaps) and the OP, ED, and Preview sequences are covered in the same way. There's many photos I've seen before, but a couple more that I haven't, which makes it all the better. And speaking of photos, this book has a TON- like the other deluxe Terebi Magazine books (such as the famous Perfect Super Encyclopedias) there's plenty of great quality photos, and quite a bit of accompanying text as well (and even some English! Just character names, but it's still pretty neat.)

And at roughly 15 bucks, it's a real deal. I got mine from Amazon Japan, and I've also seen it on Hobby Links Japan. If you love the original series like I do, you need this book. If you haven't gotten a chance to see what the big fuss is all about with the original 13 (which form their own little mini epic of sorts), this is a good way to get introduced, and otherwise see where it all began 35 years ago.