They made a movie out of this one

In honor of the 35th Anniversary of Kamen Rider V3, the weekly rundown of the entire 52-episode series continues with episode #2.

If you've been living under a rock for the past 35 years... Spoiler Warning!

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Kamen Rider V3 episode #2 "Last Testament of the Double Riders"

If that isn't a helluva title, I don't know what is. Sometimes "Last Will & Testament" or "Last Will" or "Last Testament" (the one I prefer), either way you know some seriously bad stuff is going down in this one. As this is essentiallly Kamen Rider episode #100, it's fitting that the Double Riders are the real crux of the emotional impact, despite the fact that they're in the background for most of it.

Second episodes usually tend to be where everything that couldn't be done in the premiere gets to show up, or the unique concepts & gimmicks the series has get the most played up. Kuuga had the advent of Mighty Form. Stronger & BLACK had the actual origins more fully fleshed out. Ryuki actually had the guy who we had been expecting to see last week. And Kamen Rider X had the infamous destruction of the JIN Station and that dart-shooting blowgun out of nowhere. On that last one, second episodes tend to introduce nifty ideas which don't show up again that much afterwards. Blade had a monster transforming into a secondary CGI form (taking after Faiz which itself was taking after Ryuki) and then that particular power didn't really crop up again. Den-O had something similar, and it lasted longer, although not as long as everyone thought it would. Kiva did something kinda like that, and it remains to be seen if it was again a one-time only deal or future monsters will just magically summon a pair of wheels/etc. when they need them.

But V3 is alone in being the only show where the Double Riders, who let me repeat here are the baddest mother%$&*ers alive at this point, bite the big one. Well okay, they don't really, and if you want to get technical (and by all means, please do in this case) you could say that somebody named Igadevil repeated the trick in this story called Kamen Rider Sigma, but we'll get to that when we get to it.

Of course, amidst all the Double Rider talk we can't forget that this is really V3's first outing as well, since he got just a few seconds of screen time last week. In a sense this episode is like the handing-over-of-the-reins, the passing-of-the-mantle, the swapping-of-the-torch, or some other oft-repeated phrase of the kind. The Double Riders, who were the main men last time, step into the background here and let V3 really come into his own.

A lot of the basics are covered. Hurricane makes its first appearance, coming literally out of nowhere to get V3 from here to there. On the subject of Hurricane, I have to say that you gotta be a real nit-picky bastard to find something wrong with this one. I can accept that Cruiser looks very non-aerodynamic, Jungler is too cute to be threatening, and Sky Turbo looks suspiciously boxy considering it's supposed to be the one where the speed is measured in "mach" as opposed to "km/hour". But the Cyclones & Hurricane? Dude, those are just untouchable.

And there's the very first use of the V3 Hopper, which was such an ingenious idea that it would later get copied as Super-1's Radar Hands. V3's signature move, the V3 Hanten Kick, appears after a fashion. It's not quite the Hanten Kick as will later be popularized (and thus, having a different name means I count it as a different Combat Technique!) but we see the origins of it here, and the idea of him bouncing off of his enemy for the second kick was a patented V3 first (Rider 1's Hanten Kick had him bouncing off of walls or something else.) And while it's really a Rider 1/Rider 2 innovation, the iconic "camera-punching" which V3 is so well-known for makes an appearance here as well.

And then there's the Henshin. How great is this? The Rider 1 & 2 Henshin sequences were iconic in their own right, and different enough from each other (both in posing and the actual effects) that you could identify them as belonging to their respective owner. V3 continues the trend, making something that has a bit of both, yet still being distinctive in its own way. And the costume, if I didn't mention it last time, is pretty much perfection IMHO. I'd put it in my top 5 Rider looks for sure. The color scheme is what really sells it. Red & green have all the makings of a Christmasy disaster, but the white, silver & little hints of grey really carry it off. It's worth pointing out too that while this would quickly be changed, there are some times in this episode where you can see the stunt guy's neck coming out from the helmet, something they carried over for the new version of V3 in Kamen Rider THE NEXT. It's not something V3 is known for (he, and virtually all later Riders as well as Rider 1 & 2 in return performances would have fully-covered necks) so it's interesting to note.

Onto the episode itself, it's easy to see why it was "blown-up" (cropped and show in theaters for the seasonal Toei Manga Matsuri.) It has pacing that is rarely seen even in the frentic action-above-all-else era V3 comes from. There's barely a moment to breath, apart from very brief scenes where Kazami visits the graves of his family and the episode's requisite Junko moments kicks in, and his conversation with the Kung Fu Catholic Priest (see below.) Beyond that though, it never rests for a moment, and is a series of great set piece battle after great set piece battle. There's the opening rescue of Tachibana, where Destron shows off one of the coolest powers of any Rider villains ever when they control TV itself just to show scenes of the Double Riders runnin' and duckin' from the climax of last week. This quickly leads into an untransformed fight which is soon joined by Hongô & Ichimonji. I'm still not sure what is up with the Destron Combatants standing on each other's shoulders as a way to enter the scene, but I guess it's no less wacky than the Gelshocker goons' preferred method of arrival at a fight. I should also note that, if you keep track of these things, Tachibana gets to crash through another ceiling. That guy must've had a head of solid steel by the end.

And there's another brutal Kazami moment. That one guy he chases down? Watch as that dude runs like hell because he is positive he's a dead man! Kazami is still angry over the murder of his family, and rightly so. While his mood mellows as the series progresses, early on he has vengeance on the mind, right up there with justice. This introduces us the aforementioned Kung Fu Catholic Priest, who I should mention does not, sadly, do any Kung Fun in the show, but if you've played the V3 Playstation game, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I've often seen people comment on the the use of Catholic/Christian churches/establishments as bases by the villains in Tokusatsu (it's something that happens a lot over many different series) and question whether there's a deeper philosophical meaning to it. I tend to think it's just a great gimmick that everybody wanted to use, and it's the last place you'd usually expect to find evil dwelling, aside from maybe a convenience store.

Ah yes, the Junko scene in this one. It's easy to sympathize with her when she shows up to bring flowers to the deceased Kazami family and insists she wants to help, and Kazami just gives her the cold shoulder. He's a moody one, isn't he? There's also more fuel for the Junko-knows fire when she's pretty much just out of earshot when he transforms into V3. Trust me, I will be doing everything I can to make this theory part of the cannon over the next year.

And hey, there's a great little continuity goof (or intentional plot point!?) here; on the scene when Junko kneels down at the graves, we can see quite clearly that their dates of death are Shôwa 48 (1973), February 10th. This means that the Kazami family really would have died a full two weeks before this episode actually aired, and by due process part of this story (which seemingly takes place over 3 nights & 2 days) took place on the same day the original series ended. Which means Hongô & Ichimonji had one hell of a day!

Okay seriously, my own way of sorting out that little issue is by ignoring the rather weak theory that V3 is set years after the original series and simply buying that the last two episodes of the first show (which roughly happen over 3 days with the epilogue probably being later that week) wrapped up some time before they were actually aired, say, early February. Then Destron sets up shop in a week or so (not all that hard to buy when you consider some of the other stuff Kamen Rider has pulled over the years) and V3 really starts on the evening of the 9th. The Kazami family dies on the 10th, and we're now at mid-morning/afternoon of the 11th. Makes sense, right? Right? Right.

The mid-episode fight has a rather odd conclusion, with Hasami-Jaguar very clearly exploding, but V3 is informed via antennae telepathy from the Double Riders that he lived. How they know that is beyond me, but I'll buy it! After that the plot follows through with the revelations that the Priest guy is Hasami-Jaguar in disguise, and Destron is plotting to blow up Tokyo with an A-Bomb. Yes! These guys aren't kidding around. You must love the cutaway scene showing Destron thugs milling about and reporting to the Leader as Hasami-Jaguar explains this plan to Kazami. It is perfectly timed and almost comic-book-like. While V3 battles Hasami-Jaguar, the Double Riders (alerted via that telepathic/radio thing they share with V3) go after the Big Bad Bazooka Joe.

That battle on the bridge is a definitely show-stopper. V3 defeats Hasami-Jaguar, and I love how he randomly stops to exclaim "V3!" at oppurtune moments. It's like the real-life equivalent of a fighting game taunt or something. Meanwhile, the Double Riders conclude that the only way to defeat Kame-Bazooka is to hit him with everything they've got to stun him and then fly out to sea, because one way or another he's going to go boom and well, better there than here. This final climatic moment is a bonafide platinum-card-carrying member of the classics' club; not even the obvious toy figures used for the flying scenes can detract from what is the Double Rider's grand finale.

Well, except for the fact that it isn't. This is one of the most (in my opinion) misunderstood moments in the series. A bunch of people seem to think that having the Double Riders die only to come back later cheapens the whole "death" thing. But (and hopefully the officially subtitled DVD set has helped to clear this misconception up), the thing is... they never really try to make you think they died. Almost immediately after the big boom, the Double Riders appear as projections (astral, holographic or just alcohol-induced delusions, take your pick) and tell V3 flat-out that they will join him again some day, but until then, he must fight alone. Because well, they've got a little world-travellin' to do, ending with kickin' back in Australia. Also, there's the fact that by this point, "dying" and coming back is something the Double Riders have done enough times over, and back then they actually did try to make you think they were dead!

So of course I have to bring up the fact that I put in a nod to this in the second episode of Kamen Rider Sigma, where the Triple Riders (V3 goes this time too, ha!) "die" at the end of the second episode (spoiler warning, although if you haven't read it... why are you wasting your time with this thing!?) Obviously, I don't expect anyone to really think they're dead apart from the characters in the story itself, but like with V3, and any other number of "ZOMG they're dead! Oh wait they're not." twists, that's the real point of it; even if we, the audience, knows they're fine and will be drinking Margaritas in Tahiti like Riderman did, for the characters in the story itself, it's like the weight of the world just came crashing down. Although that said, V3 takes it in stride and it leads to an unintentionally hilarious moment next episode.

Also, it's worth pointing this out: Toei really got their mileage out of that stock footage A-Bomb (or H-Bomb?) explosion; it plays a role in the demise of at least three or four other notable characters in the 1970's alone and probably shows up in other places I don't even know about. It's not quite as common as the "Toei splash" effect or the the "Toei exploding gas station with obvious Satan Rose vine in the shot" effect, but it's up there.

"Toh!"

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Rider Screencaps!










Next Time: One of the most perplexing villain origins ever, plus a lot of stuff getting set on fire. And Junko snarkary, what's not to love?

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