The Fall & Rise of Comic V3: Part 3 of 3

Once again, understanding and fully appreciating the following will require you to read the previous two entries. They're not that long, and they make this one all the better.

And now, the redemption of Kazami Shirô, also known as Kamen Rider V3. If you read the last entry, you can see that he hasn't had as good a track record in the comics as he has elsewhere. I am about to right this wrong.

I often throw the name Kamen Rider Spirits around expecting everyone to know what it is, although the cold, hard truth is that not everyone does. So here it is in a nutshell:

Spirits is the still-ongoing Rider comic by artist Muraeda Kenichi that has been serialized in the montly comics mag Magazine Z since 2001 or so. It is, in essence, a retelling of the story of Kamen Rider ZX, but greatly expanded upon and modernized slightly, so it's sort of like "if the ZX TV Special happened now", although everyone still looks close to how they would in 1982~1984 (if not younger.)

Among all the Rider manga ever done, it is standout for several reasons: the artwork is amazing, and while some liberties are taken, many of the character designs remain very true to the TV series (as opposed to Ishinomori's manga, like most of the other comics.) Also, the story itself, which is based on the original thang conceived by Ishinomori, Hirayama and crew back in the 80's, and improved upon by Muraeda, is nothing short of phenomenal. Getting into it is a task unto itself, and while some people got together and translated at least the first few chapters a while back, it seems the project is dead in the water, and the site has gone down.

Anyways, another reason Spirits stands head and shoulders above other Rider manga is that it is, well, good. Okay, so there are some other good ones, but as I've said before, they generally range from silly fluff to utterly painful, and the number that are really good could probably be counted on one hand (Ishinomori's original series manga is pretty solid, I like the ZO adaptation and while I need to read more of it, Ishinomori's BLACK manga looks pretty cool.)

Spirits, however, is undeniably awesome, and I shamelessly admit to drawing on it for influence in Kamen Rider Sigma because, hey, wouldn't you? I collect the compilation volumes that come out every so often, and when I was in Japan, I spent the 600 Yen a month to pick up the phonebook-sized Magazine Z just for that alone. Lately I've even gone to getting a subscription since they added the Ultraman Story Zero comic, and I enjoy Ma Akarui Maou Keikaku's cute irreverence, but let's get back to the task at hand.

The part I'm about to mention is in the compilation volume #10. It's not the best V3 moment in Spirits, but it's up there and a nice counter to last night's horrid OCCness. As for the best moment, I'm still trying to decide that one, but the most recent issues have had V3 using nearly every single one of the 26 Secrets to completely kick everyone's asses, and brother, don't even try to tell me that's not awesome.

Explaining the how's and why's of how we get to where we are involve a lot of spoilers, so this is your last chance to bail out if you don't want to know what's happening beyond the stories that have been translated.

...

Still with me? Okay. At the point in the story we're at, virtually every single Rider villain from the original up to Super-1's show has been brought back to life by Badan, which is now waging an all-out attack on Earth. And I mean everybody, from the big boys like Hasami-Jaguar and Kumo-Otoko down to the last guy, including all them Jindogma guys who somehow manage to inspire fear despite being based on untility ladders and umbrellas. Even Frankenlighter, a monster that is quite literally a giant lighter that walks like a man.

ZX has bounced around from bad guy to good guy and back, but by this point seems to be more or less playing on the same team as the other Riders, and their allies. And when I mean allies, I mean the whole nine yards- Tachibana, Taki, Tani... even people like GangGan G & freakin' Sakuma (you know, the not-Taki from Kamen Rider V3) are in on all this. No Junko yet, but I'm not giving up hope. Heck, nearly everyone else from the early Rider lord makes it in, including one character that shocked me silly (namely because I thought I was the only person who noticed that about him- no spoilers on that one, you'll just have to find out for yourselves!)

After fighting alongside Skyrider against Neoshocker (the Taketonbo Shoot sees uses for like the second time ever), and then with Rider 2 against Gelshocker (GREAT Ichimonji moments abound), ZX has somehow wound up alongside V3, who's kinda screwed at the moment. As an aside, while this is going on, X-Rider is about to take on King Dark (yes, King Dark) as well as a revived Tigerroid, who has developed a major rivalry with X-Rider after he blew off the X-man's arm and took him prisoner, allowing Badan to temporarily turn him evil. Don't worry, Amazon came to his buddy's aid, Yuuki fixed his arm, and our main man will be kicking Tigerroid's feline butt soon enough, but back to V3. He was last seen going after Southern Cross (the "body" of Darkness Ambassador, which in Spirits also serves as the enemy's flying fortress... it's hard to explain, just bear with me) and disappearing in a burst of light.

We pick up with Kazami, frozen solid, his Double Typhoon smashed in, and suspended several hundred feet in the air on giant icicle tusk things. Yes, Baron Fang is back and in the house, and he's got his monsters, including Yuki-Ookami closing in on a bunch of random new characters (there are many by this point in the story.) Later in this issue he completely demolishes ZX as Kyuuketsu-Mammoth, but let's not get ahead of ourselves (again.)

Fortunately, Riderman shows up and helps free his old buddy while ZX gets his butt handed to him by Genshi-Tiger, while getting in a few licks of his own. When the aforementioned big snowy wolf tries to put Kazami on ice yet again, he just ends up freezing Dokuro-Inoshishi by accident, before our Rider #4 smashes that guy with the Swing Arm. See, I told you this was awesome.

Kazami, now free, is unable to Henshin (Riderman later fixes him up after this with the hitherto-unseen Operation Arm) but because he's the cool guy Miyauchi made him to be (and not the Junko-slapping angst bucket from the Sugaya comics) he still takes on the revived Destron Kaijin, despite all odds. That's the Kazami/V3 I like to see. They kick each other around a lot, before falling to the snow-covered ground. And then it's smackdown time.

Tachibana, who you should all know (and if you don't, best to go read my site for a while before continuing) shows up, and the next two pages are simply amazing:






Yes my friends, Tachibana just ran over Yuki-Ookami with his trusty old yellow Jeep. The one from Kamen Rider X, Amazon & Stronger. If that isn't kickass, I don't know what is.

But what does this have to do with V3? Quite simply, it sums up an important aspect of the Kamen Riders that often gets overlooked by other comics- the side characters are important. Tachibana & the crew as just as valuable as any Rider Kick or motorcycle, and in Spirits, Kazami appreciates the fact that his friends are coming to his aid. As opposed to, you know, slapping them.