On the Cutting Edge

Updated Schedule: Due to time constraints (and me remembering that episodes #11~12 are the big ones and thus deserving of a combined analysis) I'll be reviewing episode #8 tonight, #9 & 10 on Thursday, and #11 & 12 on Friday, followed by #13 on Saturday. And then that's it for V3 until the following Saturday, and every Saturday after that ideally until the end of the show.

In honor of the 35th Anniversary of Kamen Rider V3, my praise-heaping of the entire 52-episode series continues with episode #8.

Spoiler Warning, but really, just knowing that V3 exists spoils the entire first series for you, doesn't it?

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Kamen Rider V3 episode #8 "Watch Out V3! The Fearsome Electric Saw Draws Near"

As a wannabe writer, I must confess that resolving a cliffhanger, and doing it well, is one of the hardest things there is to write. After all the build-up from where you last left off, you don't want it to disappoint. If you ended with the hero trapped in a burning car careening off of a bridge while a ninja is in the backseat trying to kill him and the aliens have already begun the invasion, explaining it away as a dream sequence at the start of the next part doesn't really cut the mustard. That's a fairly extreme example, but even still, it's not going to be very exciting if the car hits the water and the hero just swims to shore while the aliens decide to hold off on the invasion because they're distracted by a shiny object. And the ninja just gets forgotten about.

Okay, what does this have to do with anything? In Kamen Rider, cliffhanger resolutions are, generally, pretty good. There is a risk of stumbling: Some times we get daring last-minute escapes and surprises twists. Other times, the combatants seem to just get tired, walk away, and cue the opening credits. There's one episode of Faiz towards the end of the series where infamously, so much is going in the fight scene that the writer clearly got overwhelmed and decided to just end it with a fade to white followed by Kusaka stumbling up some steps.

When we left V3 last time, he was about to get crushed by a wrecking ball. Within the first couple seconds of this episode, he kicks a guy in the face, flips out of the way (causing another guy to get crushed in his place) and is busting heads left and right. This, my friends, is a prime example of how you resolve a cliffhanger.

Knife-Armadillo gets taken down for the count early in this episode, so it's Nokogiri-Tokage's chance to shine. And I gotta say, she is one sadistic @#$%&! She considers Kazami's death by being slowly lowered into an acid pit to be "uninteresting", so she ups the ante by adding a burning candle under the rope!

And check out the scene where she threatens Kawai's son right in front of him. "Professor, are you okay with your kid dying?" It's a chilling line in how honestly it's spoken. Speaking of speaking, Nokogiri-Tokage (who is V3's sole female Kaijin) has a shrill, screechy voice, but it doesn't really grate the way you'd expect it to. This is probably because she's just such a disturbing monster already, with that skull-like face and constant drone of the electric buzzsaw (mostly seen in motion, which is a nice touch.)

She also gets to cut through a wall and decapitate two unlucky Destron goons. Nice.

While we're on the subject of Destron, this episode is a good example of showing off the kickass interior design work of their bases, with the spray-painted swirls and scorpions. I especially like the bone crucifix seen on the doors. As with Shocker & Gelshocker, there's an extra effort made into giving the villains some vanity and logo-obsessions. They've got the Destron mark on everything! Not to be outdone, the good guys have a two-way radio with "V3" emblazoned on it. More on that in a moment. Also, check out the Christmas lights on the Destron computer. Hee-hee!

There's a great bit of ironic foreshadowing in this episode. It's a big spoiler, so if you are somehow watching V3 for the first time and doing so in tandem with my reviews, skip the rest of this paragraph. Okay, keep an eye for the scene when V3 goes into the operating room. Up on the wall there? It's the Leader of Destron! No really, the spray-painted skeleton with a big red heart looks remarkably like a guy
V3 will encounter much, much later on in the series. Of course if you've seen that episode, you know what he really turns out to be. But it's a creepy little touch because V3 is, at this point, completely oblivious to it.

And keep your eyes peeled for the famous "round-eyed-mask" Destron Combatant. There's just one, and he tends to pop up in the Destron goon crowdshots, but you don't usually notice him unless, like here, he's featured prominently in the shot. The way to tell him from the others is that the white detailing around the mask's eye-holes is round, rather than pointed like on the other Destron Combatants. The reasoning for this is that it's the mask that the Destron soldiers were originally all going to have (as well as yellow boots and gloves.) It's an interesting bit of pre-show history that I'll elaborate on at a future date.

There's some great chemistry between the regulars in this one. After fighting off Destron and beating Knife-Armadillo (via a combination of his newly-discovered Secret plus a little kicking), Kazami collapses and is hospital-bound for part of the episode. This allows Junko a chance to stop by with some flowers (and the aforementioned radio, which she plants unbeknownst to Kazami) and be her snarky best.

As it turns out, this is part of an elaborate scheme by Tachibana to... well, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure. Because I'm pretty positive that Kazami was not in on the plan, which consists of him getting captured and brought to Destron's base. The radio was planted to Tachibana & Junko know when this happens, and... um... they leave the rest up to Kazami! Okay, he must have been in on it all along.

This episode also marks the official debut of the V3-flavored Shônen Riders.

I'll level with you: as is oft to happen with kids/kid actors, they take a lot of criticism and not all of it is deserved. Really, they're never that bad. The Junior Riders in Super-1 were more intrusive, and that's because they really did try to make all of them named characters with distinct personalities (which as a result, means more focus much be placed on them in the story.) And as much as I like the de-aged warrior kiddies from BLACK, that's a pretty wacky idea right there, isn't it? And at the end of the way, any of the kid groups mentioned beats out the most dysfunctional pre-school ever from Kuuga. Some of those kids? Had issues.

So as in the original series, the Shônen Riders really don't get in the way that much. They're mostly around to be the eyes and ears of justice, alerting V3 to the weekly menace and then, usually, clearing out and letting him do his thang. Yes, they're more prevalent in some episodes than others, but even then, the fact that it means Increased Junko Screentime (IJS™) means it's worth it.

In this case, they're basically there to convey to Nokogiri-Tokage (in her human guise) where Kazami's at, which therefor leads to Tachibana's masterplan of him getting captured and... well, nearly put to death!

The acid pit escape scene is good stuff, as well as V3's break-out escape and subsequent battle to save Kawai & company. During the final battle with Nokogiri-Tokage, our hero cuts the monster's buzzsaw weapon right off, a moment that got a nice nod in THE NEXT (where she then insta-grows a new one!) V3 beats the saw-wielding maniac with the interesting Double Attack, which consists of him lifting her up, spinnin' her around, chucking her hella far, and giving her a good kick (notice, if you will, that he hits her square in the rear) followed by a big explosion.

And then Knife-Armadillo comes out of nowhere! Didn't he blow up at the beginning of this one? Yes, but he got better. Under pain of death for his son and the other lady (who I think is his sister, if I followed that right), Kawai used his artificial heart-knowledge to revive the dude yet again. He rolls all over V3 until our hero uses another Secret, the Drill Attack. Yes, it's an obvious model V3 hitting a model rolled-up Knife-Armadillo, but it does the job (and doesn't jar nearly as badly as some CGI finishers tend to.) Also, the panning shot to Knife-Armadillo's explosive demise more than makes up for it.

8 episodes in and I'm already re-evaluating V3's place in my list. While it's got stiff competition from the top 3, it may just break 4th place by the end. Especially since the best is still yet to come.

"Toh!"

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Rider Screencaps!










Next Time: Vroom-vroom-vroom! It's the big bike race, and everyone's invited. Including Destron.

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