Secret Origins, Part 4

Previously in this overview of Oda Katsumi & Muraeda Kenichi's "The Men Who Made Kamen Rider", Toei creative producer Hirayama Tôru & manga artist Ishinomori Shôtarô teamed up to create the look for the hero of Toei's upcoming sci-fi/fantasy action series. After going through the names "Maskman K", "Masked Angel" and "CrossFire", the project was about to take on another alias after Ishinomori decided the design (which had won critical acclaim from the Toei & Mainichi Broadcasting heads) was too safe. Too "Been there, seen that". So what did he come up with? This guy:

Skullman! Well, not quite. Skullman was actually a comic Ishinomori put out in 1970 which predated Kamen Rider (both in show and comic form), but Ishinomori liked the design enough that he decided to play around with it and create a sort-of live-action version (albeit with a lower jaw piece, something the comic character's helmet lacked.)

Needless to say, this unconventional (at the time) design strikes a cord with Hirayama. The initial plot he had worked out suddenly requires much re-thinking, and the new hero goes from a crime-fighting wrestler to a more tragic character waging an unending crusade against greater odds (and not wrestling in his spare time.)



The folks at Mainichi Broadcasting are less enthusiastic however. They fail to see what good can come from such an oddball, fearsome design. Hirayam tries to remind them of Golden Bat, a real old-school Japanese hero with a fierce skull-like face, but they're still not convinced.



Furthermore, they feel that the sponsors, who are "run by a bunch of old men", would disapprove of a fearsome, evil-looking character being the star of a children's TV series (see, the 70's really are where everything changed!) Hirayama runs about, guzzling gasoline (and alcohol) as he goes from Tokyo to Osaka like a man without a cause, desperately seeking somebody to approve of the design and back the production that has become his own personal crusade. Without sleep, he soon becomes a total wreck. No really, look at him!



Things aren't looking good for the future of Hirayama's series...

Next Time: Hirayama receives inspiration in the most unlikely of places, and Ishinomori (with some help from his agent) creates the design that would change history.

Bonus: What if the Skullman-inspired hero had taken off after all? He might have looked something like this:

***