Ah here we are, at the very beginning. The show that launched Toei’s tokusatsu ambitions forward. The show that is still going strong to this very day. The show that was almost cancelled. When Kamen Rider launched, it was a very dour show, and one that did not appeal to children. As such, Toei had decided that they would change the tone of it to make it a bit more lighthearted in the hopes that it would capture their target audience and if not, then it would be canceled. This is actually kind of funny because the show’s creator, manga author Shotaro Ishinomori, initially pitched Skull Man in its place, which was even more grim than what Kamen Rider was, causing Toei to ask him to rewrite it. It’s also said that the reason the lead hero’s design was based on a grasshopper was because his son loved grasshoppers. Anyway, something amazingly tragic happened to help with this tonal shift. Kamen Rider’s lead actor ended up being injured in a stunt while filming the show’s 10th episode. It was severe enough that Toei was going to have to get a new lead in, which also gave them the opportunity to lighten the show’s mood up without it coming across forced. And as such, with the introduction of a second Kamen Rider, the show became a success. So much so that it ran for 98 episodes, and even then, it was not planned to stop. The success of Kamen Rider means this show is one of the greatest Toku series ever conceived, right? Watch to find out.
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