A New Year Dawns

And so we bid farewell to 2008, and hello to 2009 (well, Heisei 21 if we want to get technical.)

2008 was a pretty good year overall, one that I'll reflect back on one of these days. It certainly was a long year; the end of Kamen Rider Den-O feels like ancient history now, and did Shin Kamen Rider really finally come out on DVD last spring? It seems so long ago.

In any case, I'm hoping 2009 will be another good year for Kamen Rider, what with the upcoming Kamen Rider Decade, the end of Kamen Rider Kiva, and who knows what else? I've got a lot of things planned, and once again hope against hope I can pull them all off (there will be a teaser of some of them soon!)

Among other things, I hope to marathon V3 one of these days so I can clear some space for the two other past shows I want to review this year: Kamen Rider Kuuga (the first Heisei TV series), and New Kamen Rider (now 30 years old!) I intend to start on Kuuga near the end of the month, and Skyrider's odyssey soon after. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Oh, and I would be remiss in not mentioning that today marks 37 years since this:



Er... that is, episode #40 of the original Kamen Rider. I know I say this about everything, but seriously you guys: this is one of the most important episodes of Kamen Rider ever. Why? Because it's the first time this happened:



Two Riders at once! Yes, that was the first time the Double Riders met, to battle Snowman (he's a Yeti, okay?) Rider 1 returned to the series, what with Fujioka having recovered from his career-halting accident, and things were changed forever.

This episode also saw the debut of Doctor Shinigami, and I don't even need to tell you how important that is. It saw the first appearance of Rider 1's new "Sakurajima" look (named after the exotic location this and the next episode were filmed in.) And heck, it's even the first time cards were used as deadly weapons (one of the new Rider girls throws 'em like shuriken. Hey, there's a reason this show is my favorite.)

But it's the Double Riders that take top priority, because in this age of multi-Rider spectacles, it's easy to forget that many of the classic series had two or more Riders runnin' around together as well. Ryuki/Knight, Kabuto/Gatack, Den-O/Zeronos, and yes, even Kick Hopper/Punch Hopper... all the great teams are throwing back to this.

And if that's not exciting enough, the next episode featured the first ever Rider-vs.-Rider battle! And we all know how much they loooooooooooooooooooove to return to that idea.

So here's to a Happy 2009!

***