Igadevil vs. Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider

Well after being the latest thing you'd see on this site for months, aside from the constantly-rotating banner, I feel obligated to review this thing now that I finally have it, on Blu-ray no less! Just a warning up front: I'm going to be going into detail on this one, since it's one of my favorite Rider-related things like, ever. So if you just want the details of the actual disc itself, that's down at the bottom under And Now The Actual Disc Itself. Shuwatch!

As I mentioned all those months ago, the eventual re-release of this 1993 direct-to-video (and Laser Disc) special was open to speculation for years. I remember earlier this year telling my dad how I was hoping they'd find a way to release it. The Blu-ray packaging even refers to it as a "work of dreams", as if even the disc can't believe that it actually exists! But apparently the cosmos were in alignment of something, and Bandai Visual has brought it back at long last, on the timely occasion of Ultraman's 45th Anniversary and Kamen Rider's 40th.

If you started watching Kamen Rider (or Ultraman) any time after 1999, the release of this special almost seems like some kind of weird armor-plated prehistoric fish that suddenly washed ashore. It's primarily a clip show, but of stuff all predating the big comebacks of Ultraman Tiga and Kamen Rider Kuuga. It even predates some of the early 90's productions for both franchises, those being Kamen Rider J (which came a year later) and Ultraman Powered (which is from around the same time, but this was made before any completed footage could be included.) In other words, an interesting curiosity, but what's the relevance?



That's actually what I found most fascinating about watching it again earlier this week. There's been almost no attempt to change or update the content in any way. It's still got the same old 90's video transitions, the same collection of clips, and the same narration (shared by both classic Ultra narrator Urano Hikaru and Rider's own prolific narrator Nakae Shinji.) The only alteration to content I could find is slightly revised ending credits visuals, which you likely won't even notice if you haven't watched the original any time recently (I dug out my VHS a few months back.)

And truth be told, I've no problems with any of this. I wanted 1993's Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider, and I got 1993's Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider. While the thought of a potential expanded edition or a "Part II" featuring the rest of the Heisei era is pretty tempting, it's a wonder if we'll ever see anything like it. Considering it took 18 years just to get this one out, I wouldn't get my hopes up, but it would be pretty cool (and hey, a couple years ago, how many of us would have laughed off the idea of Toei actually doing an inter-company crossover between Rider & Super Sentai? Not anymore!)



So if you're going to sit down and watch this, you have to do so with the knowledge of what it is: a joining of Japan's two biggest heroes circa the early 90's. As a result Ultraman coverage only runs up to the Australian-made Ultraman Towards the Future (Ultraman Great or G in Japan) and Kamen Rider ZO, which came out April of the same year, making this special kinda notable in that it was the first real glimpse at ZO for those of us outside Japan.

Also notable is that Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider had some money behind it. There's the famous crossover event at the end, but it doesn't stop there. There's a handful of notable guest stars in newly-recorded segments, and this thing actually had not one but two new songs composed just for it (and you only hear the instrumental version of one of them!) In other words, this ain't just a Hero Club compilation video we're watching here.

In true Japanese fashion, the "vs." of the tile is a slight misnomer, as the special compares and contrasts both franchises, but it's all in good fun and not with the intent of proving the superiority of one over the other. Instead the comparisons are actually like a series of nice highlight reels for both series, showcasing notable elements of both. Interspersed with these are several interviews, as well as new footage teasing an eventual confrontation between Ultraman and a giant-sized Kamen Rider 1 (more on that later.) But come on, you know how this is really gonna work.



The clips are grouped together by some kind of comparable theme, i.e. weapons, villains, mecha, etc. First up is "Specium Beam vs. Rider Kick", showcasing the various killing moves of all our heroes. As is usually the case here, Ultraman clips come first, followed by the Rider stuff.

On the Ultra side of things, there's many of the classics, from the signature beams to cutting attacks to more unusual stuff like Ultraman Jack's bracelet that does everything. Also featured is Taro's Ultra Dynamite, where he appears to blow himself up to destroy Kataan-Seijin (Taro survives, but the model of him sure didn't.) You also get to see the end of the classic Guts-Seijin story line from Ultra Seven, wherein Seven spectacularly destroys a UFO full of birdmen that appear to be disco-dancing (it makes a lot more sense in context, trust me.)

For the Riders, there's plenty of kicks (including Amazon's little-seen version and BLACK's seizure-inducing edition) but they also kindly point out that even in the Shôwa era, Riders did more than just kick people. A couple of ZX's weapons are shown, there's some Ridol action, Supes using the Radar Hands as offensive weapons, and Riderman's Rope Arm, where the clip is taken from New Kamen Rider so the Rope Arm looks like the Swing Arm... you know what? Never mind. Shin's decapitation maneuver is included, given the name "High-Vibe Nail". Lastly, there's the explosive climax from RX's mini-movie where he teams up with himself a couple times over.

First up on the interviews is Moritsugu Kôji, Moroboshi Dan/Ultra Seven himself. He's joined by Mitsuta Kazuho, Seven-era director who's also the famous "Fourth Gate, Open!" voice in the Ultra Hawk launching scenes. There's some short talk about filming the series, and Moritsugu is as entertaining as ever, reciting his signature "DUA!" transformation call.



Next up is "Jet V-TOL vs. Cyclone", contrasting the various Ultra support team mecha with the Rider's rides. For Ultra fans, there's a medley of the various "Wandaba" songs, plenty of wacky ZAT vehicles, and an appearance by the UMA Hummer from Towards the Future (which still have one of the coolest take-off sequences, IMHO.)

As for the Rider Machines, we have the first of two musical montages that are almost worth the price of admission alone. Here it's all set to the "Kamen Rider Praise Song", which probably only trails "Let's Go!! Rider Kick" and "Lonely Kamen Rider" as my favorite song in the entire franchise. They picked some of the best clips for this, including Rider 1 vs. Shocker Rider 1, Stronger driving circles around Black Satan, Super-1 pursuing Machroller up a flight of stairs, Skyrider's Rider Break, and much more. If you want to see old-school Rider bike action at its finest, look no further (well okay, there's still a lot more, but this is a good taste.)

Following this we have Miyauchi Hiroshi and Orita Itaru, a longtime Toei director with plenty of Rider credits to his name. As with the Ultra interview segments, they're also surrounded by vintage merchandise plus posters for the then-new VHS & LD releases. There's some talk about the trials of filming (you'll never look at that scene in V3 episode 2 again the same way now that you know the bike had some problems) and Miyauchi talks about his signature standing-whilst-riding Henshin, which is a good reminder of why Miyauchi is the man.

Following this we have "Kaijû vs. Kaijin", wherein Ultra monsters are contrasted with those of the Riders. There's heavy emphasis on the original series for both, though on the Ultra side of things we also get all of Seven's capsule monster buddies busting their asses for great justice. The Rider clips are like a Greatest Hits for Shocker, showing some of the most memorable and gruesome deaths they inflict on their victims. As a kid the Torikabuto scene used to scare the crap out of me, which is exactly as it should be.



Other highlights include some Destron action, the famous scene from later on in BLACK that is like the father of every Kuuga and Agito police massacre ever filmed, and some nice stuff with the monsters of ZO. It all ends with another great montage of various evil laughs from assorted lead villains, including the Neo-Organism back when it was a legitimately-creepy stop-motion thing.

After that it's back to Miyauchi & Orita. There's some discussion in regards to Miyauchi's thoughts on participating in a new Rider production were he ever asked. Took them long enough! All this makes me somewhat regret that Kamen Rider didn't return to TV a few years earlier, since Miyauchi here, whilst visibly older, looks like he's still got the moves. These days his age is showing a lot more, though I think for less-action-oriented scenes and voice overs, he's still got it.

After that it's "Henshin vs. Henshin", and to change things up the Ultraman and Rider clips alternate one after another in quick succession. As a result, since there were less main Ultras at that point than Riders, they skip over a few to keep it equal. In a real first, Shin Kamen Rider gets a special position as his comes last and is by far the longest. Hey, they paid good money for those special effects, they're gonna show them off. I guess it says a lot about my childhood that this sequence never bothered me much, but Torikabuto melting a dude? The stuff of nightmares.

Next up we have "Great Fierce Battles vs. Great Turn-arounds". By the latter I think they mean 'turning the tide of battle', since it's all Rider fights where despite seeming overpowered at first, our heroes turn things around and proceed to mop the floor with evil. Basically it's a collection of major battles for Ultramen & Riders alike.



First up there's several incarnations of Ultra arch-nemesis Baltan-Seijin (including his son, Baltan-Seijin Jr.) Following this is a very short glimpse of the Double Riders' rumble with the Shocker Riders, but even as a wee lad who had yet to watch the original series in full, I knew these guys were badass. Rather humorously it jumps right from the end of episode 93 to that of 94. After that it's Ultraman Jack's famous defeat by (and later rematch with) Knuckle-Seijin and his bodyguard monster Black King. It's one of the most intense two-parters in the series and kind of a landmark episode for the Ultra series in that it not only features regulars getting killed off, but also basically created Ultra-continuity by bringing back the original and Ultra Seven to help out.

Continuing the epic Rider reversals-of-fortune is BLACK vs. Shadow Moon (including Battle Hopper's big moment) which then segues into BLACK RX vs. Shadow Moon. RX sometimes takes heat for how it handles (or bungles) its links back to BLACK, but I gotta say I always thought the RX vs. Shadow Moon stuff was pretty great. The climatic fight shown here is one of the best parts. After that it's Ace & the gang vs. Hipporito-Seijin, who I hold a particular affinity for since his toy inadvertently got me into Tokusatsu in the first place. In addition to seeing the Ultra Bros. turned into statues, there's the first-ever glimpse of the Ultra Father. The epic battles are rounded out with ZO against Doras, which includes the big Red Doras scene which has that awesome music.

Next up is one of my favorite parts of the special, featuring an assortment of random, strange and always out-of-context clips all framed by an old-fashioned TV set. There's various Rider Kaijin battle cries (with onscreen captions no less.) There's Ultra monsters being strange or silly. And of course, there's Fake Skyrider being a public enemy #1 and tormenting children. Evil rules! One of the most interesting clips features a weirdly-voiced BLACK RX. It's actually from a movie called Right-bend Dandy (I think, I haven't seen it.)

It's back to the Ultra interviews after this, where Moritsugu talks about his thought process behind how he played the role of Dan. The legendary Seven finale is also touched upon- you basically cannot do any kind of Seven retrospective without it, and this ain't the last time we'll be seeing it in this special. Also, how ironic is it that I have met Moritsugu twice now (hence the famous quote) but not gotten to Miyauchi yet? Some day...



That segues into the last clip show segment, "Message from the Stars vs. Lonely Rider". First up there are a couple of moments from some Ultra finales, including Ace, Returns, and of course, Seven. Good luck figuring out what the heck is going on in the Ace one without proper context, though it's got a good message from the kiddies.

Jack's departure from earth features a recitation of the 5 Ultra Oaths, and as I mentioned, the Seven finale is something special. You have to really watch both episodes to appreciate the full scope of the situation, but they included the best part right here. The music alone gets me misty-eyed every time.

The Riders get something a little different. It's another montage, set to "Lonely Kamen Rider", and as great as the bike one. What's different about the clips selected is that virtually none of them are from finales (though Skyrider's comes close.) Instead they're all particularly dramatic or defining scenes, ranging from Ichimonji's moment of self-doubt in episode 31 of the original to Yuuki's famous arm-rip in episode 44 of V3. The importance of Tackle & Nobuhiko are spotlighted, and they picked simultaneously one of the best shots from Shin Kamen Rider, and one of the more infamous (let's just say Shin bared all long before Zanki did.) The X clip does make me laugh though, because I imagine anybody watching this who hasn't seen X yet will wonder what the hell that's all about. It all ends on ZO's memorable homage to the original Rider transformation.

There's one more interview segment: the epic meeting between Tsuburaya Noboru (Eiji's son) and Ishinomori Shôtarô himself. There's lots of discussion about the creation of heroes as well as past and future projects. There's an interesting mention of taking Ultraman to China, and it's great to see the two creative titans get along so well. Some interesting trivia: This isn't the only time in 1993 that Ishinomori and Tsuburaya would collaborate, as Ultraman and Booska (another Tsuburaya creation) would go over to appear on an episode of the Ishinomor-created Shushutorian, one of Toei's "Fushigi Comedy Series".



The final part of the special is the one we've all been waiting for. It's time for Super Battle: Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider. It's only a couple minutes in length, but they are an epic couple of minutes. The plot is about as simple as it gets: a giant monster called Gadoras appears in Tokyo, awakened by the evil plans of Shocker's Dokusasori-Otoko (a sort of beefed-up version of the original Sasori-Otoko.) Ultraman shows up to fight the giant monster while Rider 1 arrives on the scene to battle the cyborg mutant. Although the good guys are victorious, thanks to a little plot-convenience, the defeated monsters merge into the super-powerful Sasorigadoras. Rider 1 evens up the odds by first driving right through Sasorigadoras and then growing giant (because Rider 1, that's why) and the two heroes defeat the monster in a spectacular battle. Cue happy ending.

For what's essentially a direct-to-video production, this segment looks great, even now. Cash was clearly spent on the suits and effects, and the miniature work is virtually movie-grade quality, with some incredible shots (street-level views, inside-building views, etc.) Amemiya Keita apparently was involved in this, and it shows. There's even a nifty shot combining footage from the original Ultraman and Kamen Rider to show Hayata & Hongô transforming together.

There's two interesting facts about the sound track and effects. The sound effects are largely culled from archival material, including all of Rider 1's lines. This works really well, and has always made me wonder why they don't do this more often. I know you gotta pay those voice actors, and for characters with actual lines of dialogue like Rider 1 & 2 in All Riders vs. Daishocker, it makes sense to record new stuff with different guys. Though if Toei can outright reuse old footage in a 2011 movie, I wonder why they shy away from reusing audio? Unless it's a royalties thing.

Also notable itself is that the soundtrack uses some music from Ultraman 80, Kamen Rider BLACK, and music from Ultraman Towards the Future, including some that never made it into the final show but is included on the soundtrack CD. Since that show has some of the best music ever, it really helps give everything a majestic feel.

Putting on my fanboy hat, I think that this is probably the best modern Rider 1 costume, even topping the 2000's stuff. The proportions of everything look just right, like it really is the 70's costume with everything tweaked to perfection. The Dokusasori-Otoko costume is also great, reminiscent of Nirasawa's take on Sasori-Otoko from a Hobby Japan issue around the same time. He predates the Shocker Greeed as a new post-1972 Shocker monster, and like Greeedy has a golden belt buckle, so you can place this post-episode 67 if you care about that kind of thing.

Maeda Hiroshi, who would go on to play Rider 1 in THE FIRST & THE NEXT, does the suit acting here. Interestingly the Ultraman suit actors are guys who normally play monsters in Rider & Sentai shows, and suit-acting for all the monsters is Miyazki Takeshi, action director for all Rider shows since Agito (and most of the movies.)

And I love how at the end, the entire city is trashed, but who cares about that, right? Ultraman & Kamen Rider rule! Following the ending credits, there's some nice bonus shots of Ultraman on a giant-sized New Cyclone (with appropriate decals) and Rider 1 doing the Specium Beam pose.



And Now The Actual Disc Itself

First off, if you actually read all of the above, congratulations, you are awesome. Now onto the specifics of the Blu-Ray itself.

Given that this was originally a VHS/LD release from the 90's, before much of the archival footage used had been digitally remastered for DVD, I think that this is probably not the most extensively-restored picture you'll ever see. Don't get me wrong, it's still worlds beyond the VHS I have, but don't go in expecting a spotless crystal-clear picture on the old footage. I don't think we'll be seeing that until the actual individual Blu-Ray releases of all the shows/movies (if even then.)

The new (for 1993) footage though, while shot on video, does look great, and the final film sequence is pretty much exactly what I wanted. All told, I think it's safe to say that this is the best that Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider will ever look, and I've no problem with that. I watched this on a decent-sized screen and it looks fine.

The extras on the disc on the other hand are another matter altogether. Newly-shot 15-minute cross-talks with Kurobe Susumu & Fujioka Hiroshi (a press conference-style one and another smaller, more personal conversation between the two) look amazing. It's like they're in the room with you! This is great stuff. We're kind of used to seeing Fujioka being the most commanding presence in the room, but he's actually sort of humbled to be next to the original Ultraman.

Kurobe's always great and every bit as interested in hearing Fujioka's comments as Fujioka is to hear his. There's a real sense of mutual respect between them and it reminds you that, ultimately, it doesn't matter whose show is more popular or more widely-discussed by fans. Both will forever be an integral part of Japanese pop culture.

I was particularly happy to hear both share their memories of mutual coworker Kobayashi Akiji, Captain Muramatsu in Ultraman and Tachibana Tôbei in the early Rider shows. Kurobe still called him "Cap" right up to the end, and Fujioka relates how he wasn't just "Oyassan" on the show, but in real life as well. All in all the combined half-hour with these two is a blast. For guys who are getting up there in age, both are still as lively as ever (and Fujioka apparently stopped aging at some point.) I don't know if this special has ever been (or ever will be) subbed, but it'd be pretty cool to see these segments done at least.

Also included with the Blu-Ray (and DVD version) for the initial release is a linear notes pamphlet, and a nice booklet with the storyboards for the Super Battle portion. The spirit of cross-promotion continues even into the ad inserts, which cover both Rider & Ultra products. Also, did anyone watch that animated version of Tezuka's Buddha? After seeing the trailer like a bajillion times when I was last in Japan, I'm kinda interested in checking it out.

The Blu-Ray release also comes with an additional DVD disc, featuring the simultaneously-released "cut down" versions of Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider, divided up into an Ultraman part & a Rider part. Basically you get big chunks of the footage used for either series, no interviews or newly-shot stuff, and a couple additional scenes not seen in the combined version. There's new narration too, and on the Rider side of things more Gelshocker screen time. I gather these were originally sold as like lower-priced digest versions aimed at the kids (since some of the more objectionable Shin stuff is left out.) So if you wanted just the Ultraman stuff or the Rider stuff, this was the way to go, with only hints of the crossover nature as a framing device. These are interesting, though definitely meant for the completists.

All in all this was definitely worth the 18-year wait. I love this special, and Bandai Visual gave it about as good of a release as we're likely to get. While it's tailor-made for fans who enjoy both franchises, it makes for a pretty good sampling of the older days of both if you're only familiar with one or the other, or only the newer incarnations of both. Highly recommended.

I also have to note that as a Towards the Future fan, it's great to finally see that getting some attention. Now if it could just get a full-series release.