Kamen Rider (1971) Episode 12 Review

This episode’s kajin is GeckoGelas, who looks kinda cool with red and black motif to go with his character design, but unfortunately doesn’t really have any special offensive capability until the middle of the episode, with the only exception being a combo spray that can immobilize his opponent into a white sarcophagus-like structure. As for why, we’ll get to that in a few. This episode is basically Ruriko Rider with that Hongo guy just hangin’ out, and she has come a long way from the first episode or this series, your tolerance of this episode will largely depend on how you’ve come to like the character.

"Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit, with a Special Heat Ray..."

The episode begins with a couple of scientists developing and testing a special light gun that can apparently turn the aforementioned rabbit here into a cardboard cutout with some bones sketched in. No, seriously, that’s what they used for the melt-ya-down-to-the-bones look, and it took a few for me to actually understand the actual power of the Light Gun. Upon seeing its destructive capabilities, the head scientist Shirakawa plans to destroy the Light Gun as well as make sure the plans are hidden despite his assistant’s objections. Conviently of course, the assistant is a Shocker spy who is remolded into the GeckoGelas and tasked with nabbing his former boss in order to rebuild the Light Gun as well as expand it’s abilities.

We then cut to a scene where Ruriko is play-racing Hongo, except, well, just take a look here:

Well Ruriko, when did your face get blocky, along with the rest of your body, and where did that stubble come from?

Yeah, they could’ve at least gotten a female stunt rider for that scene, but I’m sure Toei needed that money for the explosions for later in the episode. Ruriko ends up running into an escort that is driving Shirakawa around when Shocker arrives to try to kidnap the scientist. Naturally Kamen Rider shows up to foil the kidnapping and Shirakawa is taken to his place of residence where he lives with his sister Machiko. At this point one should keep in mind that they couldn’t even really use too much old dialogue of Hongo, so for the most part the episode has to be carried by Ruriko as she tries to do the questioning and detective work. Shirakawa is being defensive and not willing to tell the truth of why Shocker is after him and decides to hide the plans for the Light Gun inside a locket given to Machiko for her birthday. She is then captured, leading Shirakawa to go after her and end up completing a even more powerful Light Gun, and of course Ruriko has to track them both down.

The effects in this episode are pretty good at this point, you can tell they do like blowing stuff up, as evidenced by a Shocker wet dream of blowing up airplane minis, and they do a pretty good job with the fight choreography. The only problem I had was the with the weak kajin of GeckoGelas. Once he is stripped of his Light Gun, he’s pretty much forced into constantly running away, and is even taken down by Shirakawa in the end, with one almost feeling like Kamen Rider was only there to serve as a distraction. That’s not really good storytelling. You should always end with a Rider Finishing Move.

My final judgement is that if you like Ruriko bouncing around and playing Kamen Rider, you should watch this episode, otherwise, just skip it, there’s nothing of too much worth and it has become very obvious that the writers are starting to become desperate for ways to stretch out the Hongo footage they have. I’m really starting to anticipate the arrival of Kamen Rider 2.