Secret Origins, Part 1

Over the next several weeks, I'll be covering, in probable exhaustive detail, the real story of how Kamen Rider came to be.

"Now wait a minute, Igadevil" you say. "Everybody knows that Kamen Rider was created in the early 70's by Ishinomori Shôtarô, that guy who made the Cyborg 009 show that was on Cartoon Network for a while, and if they've really done their homework, they know that he also did that Legend of Zelda comic in "Nintendo Power" where Link had to fight the giant spider in the Mountain Tower rather than that centipede thing from the game that took for-freaking-ever to kill."

You then might go on to say that "Some of the real hardcore old-school fans say that it was actually this guy called Hirayama Tôru who made it, and Ishinomori just drew everything and for some reason he became the creator then." Or perhaps you say that "Magical elves and frogs with funny little hats brought it from the peaceful woodlands of the old country for children everywhere to enjoy and delight in before the evil wizard Ban-Die took control of it." or some such nonsense.

If you said the first two, you're partly right. If you said the third, you probably should get out more. But if you've been under the impression that the Kamen Rider franchise was the work of Ishinomori or Hirayama, you're partway there.

It was, in fact, the creation of both of them, as well as many other people. Like a lot of things in the entertainment industry, Kamen Rider was ultimately a group effort, although it is fair to say that both Ishinomori and Hirayama played especially important roles in bringing it to life.



About this time last year, Shuukan Shônen Magazine (which carried Ishinomori's original series manga back in 1971) got writer Oda Katsumi & artist Muraeda Kenichi (of Kamen Rider Spirits fame) together to produce a four-part comic version of the story behind the original Kamen Rider story, collected the following April in Kamen Raidaa Tsukutta Otoko-tachi ("The Men Who Made Kamen Rider") (ISBN 978-4063722857, by the way.)

Subtitled as "Behind the Scene of HERO Creators", it details the original conception of the original series in the late 60's/early 70's, and then goes on to tell the story of the other men behind the masks: the stunt guys. And did I mention it's a comic? That really adds to the appeal, as suddenly visualizing the events (in a slightly embellished way) becomes that much easier.

I'll be covering the entire collected comic in chunks, and let me say, it's a pretty thorough documentation. Chances are, it will also prove to be a surprising ride.

Next Time: We go back to the very beginning, and learn about the surprisingly troubled pre-development phase that makes any later Rider series' planning stage (and that *includes* Hibiki's) look like a walk in the park. and there's some awesome art. I mean check this out:



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