Kamen Rider Black


Kamen Rider Black is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero-drama television series. It is the eighth installment in the Kamen Rider
 series and a co-production between Mainichi Broadcasting System and Toei. The series aired on all Japan News Network affiliates from October 4, 1987, to October 9, 1988. For distribution purposes, Toei refers to this television series as Black Masked Rider.
The series has spawned a manga adaptation that ran in Shōnen Sunday during its broadcast; a direct sequel, Kamen Rider Black RX, in 1988; and a reboot, Kamen Rider Black Sun, in 2022.

Synopsis

The Creation King is the pinnacle of the evil cult Gorgom. As his life begins to extinguish, the elected Creation King will inherit his power. On the night of their 19th birthday, stepbrothers Kotaro Minami and Nobuhiko Akizuki were kidnapped by Gorgom and submitted to a mutant cyborg surgery to become the candidates for the next Gorgom Creation King. Both of them are called Century Kings and are destined to best each other in a final battle - whoever wins will become the next Creation King. Kotaro escaped before getting brainwashed, with help from his foster father, and turned against Gorgom. He soon finds out the horrific truth from his stepfather: Gorgom originally killed his true parents and, since both Kotaro and Nobuhiko were born on the day of a solar eclipse, are referred to as "Black Sun" and "Shadow Moon". Kotaro, taking on the name of Kamen Rider Black, was determined to rescue his stepbrother from Gorgom while protecting Japan. However, later in the series, Nobuhiko emerged as Shadow Moon to fight Kotaro with the survivor becoming the next Creation King.

Episodes

  1. Black!! Transform
  2. The Mutant Party
  3. Strange? Strange Cyborgs
  4. The Devil's Laboratory
  5. Run Through the Maze, Kotaro
  6. Riddle Of The Secret Espers
  7. The Regenerated Bio-Machine
  8. The Devil's Trill
  9. Bishum's Red Lips
  10. Where's Nobuhiko?
  11. The Starving Mutants
  12. Birth Of The Super Machine Legend
  13. My Mom Is A Mutant Nanny
  14. The Day The Tuna Disappeared
  15. The Targeted Ghoul School
  16. My Friend! Go Beyond The Sea
  17. Kyoko's Strange Dream
  18. Sword Saint Bilgenia!!
  19. The Suffocating Trap Of Hell
  20. Rider's Grave
  21. Clash! The Two Super Machines
  22. The Shadow That Stalks Dad
  23. Marumo's Magical Powers
  24. The Female College Student's Nightmare
  25. The Roaring Armed Machine
  26. Rescue The Psychic Girl
  27. Fire Breathing Danger Road
  28. Scarab Beetle's Invitation To Hell
  29. The Targeted Death Mask
  30. Aloha to an Assassin!
  31. Burn! Boy Warriors
  32. Dream Girl Yuki
  33. Father, Son And The River Of Love
  34. Revival?! The Prince of Hell
  35. Showdown! The Two Princes
  36. The War Declaration of Love and Death
  37. Memories of Yubari's Sky
  38. Mystery!? The EP-Party Boy Squad
  39. The Idol's Poison Fangs
  40. Secret Of The Karate Master
  41. The Dangerous Time Thief
  42. Tokyo Mutant Gathering
  43. Battle at the Mutant Farm!
  44. An Ocean Inside The Closet
  45. Death Of Flower Mutant Bishum
  46. Baraom's Fierce Death
  47. Death of the Rider!
  48. Bouquet of Reminiscence, Into The Ocean
  49. Fierce Battle! Death Of Darom
  50. The Creation King's True Form?
  51. Gorgom's Last Day

    Related media

TV specials

Kamen Rider Black Sun is a political drama reboot of Kamen Rider Black, broadcast as part of the Kamen Rider 50th Anniversary Project.
The reboot was announced at a press conference on April 3, 2021, with Kazuya Shiraishi heading the project as director. The series was announced to release in spring 2022, with a worldwide release being considered. The show's staff was confirmed in October 2021, with Izumi Takahashi as a screenwriter, Shinji Higuchi as a concept designer, and Kiyotaka Taguchi as special effects director. The first visual of the show was slated to be revealed the following month. The show's two leading actors were confirmed in November 2021, with Hidetoshi Nishijima as Kotaro Minami/Kamen Rider Black Sun and Tomoya Nakamura as Nobuhiko Akizuki/Kamen Rider Shadow Moon.

In other media

;Opening theme
;Ending theme
  • "Long Long Ago, 20th Century"
  • *Lyrics: Yoko Aki
  • *Composition: Ryudo Uzaki
  • *Arrangement: Eiji Kawamura
  • *Artist: Norio Sakai

    International Broadcast, Home Video and Streaming

  • In its home country of Japan from August 1992 to August 1993, the full series was released on VHS by Toei Video and spread across 13 volumes with four episodes on each tape, with the last volume containing only three episodes. Then from December 10, 2004, to April 21, 2005, the series was released in full on DVD in five volumes. Each volume contains 2 discs and 12 episodes. Then from December 5, 2014, to April 8, 2015, the series was released on Blu-Ray and spread in three volumes. Each release containing three discs with 17 episodes. The Official Toei Tokusatsu YouTube channel also broadcast the series online from August 1, 2011, to January 22, 2012, then December 23, 2013 to June 15, 2014, then May 6, - November 4, 2017 and June 16, 2021. The Toei Tokusatsu Nico Nico Official Channel also broadcast it online from May 6, 2012 – April 14, 2013. Re-runs of the series aired on the Toei Channel during the frames of June–December 2001, January–April 2004, February–August 2013 and February–August 2015.
  • It aired in Thailand in 1990 on Saturday before noon on Channel 3, dubbed as weera burut nakak dam..
  • In the Chinese-speaking world, Cantonese, Mandarin and Hmong dubs were produced and aired in Hong Kong, Taiwan and in the Hmong-speaking regions and respectively.
  • *In Hong Kong, the series aired with a Cantonese Chinese dub aired from July 2, 1990, and finished on September 5, 1991. Originally, it aired from July 2 to October 1990 at first on Asia Television. At the time, it was titled: "Kamen Rider 1990." The broadcast time was initially at 8:00pm every Monday to Friday, about half an hour, and later changed to an irregular time slot. Later on, the same channel premiered the sequel series, Kamen Rider Black RX from July 1 to August 1, 1991, and then renamed this series, Kamen Rider Black for re-runs from August 2 to September 6, 1991, which was the only time this happened. After the re-run, the channel combined both shows into naming it Kamen Rider 1991.
  • *In Taiwan, the series aired from December 1996 to December 1997 as Masked Rider Black on the Star Chinese Channel with a Taiwanese Mandarin dub, along with its sequel series, Kamen Rider Black RX. This was the very first Kamen Rider series to air in Taiwan.
  • *For the Hmong-speaking regions, A Hmong dub was produced and titled under Ntsaum Nab and was released direct to video.
  • It was initially the first of the two series of the Kamen Rider franchise to be broadcast in Brazil, by the now-extinct network Rede Manchete from April 22, 1991, to July 15, 1994, and was also released on home video. This series debuted on the same channel on the same day as two other Toei Tokusatsu shows being Hikari Sentai Maskman and Jikuu Senshi Spielban. Even with the title of Black Kamen Rider adopted by the dubbing and early TV promos, the series was announced later as Blackman, which was also used for the toy line and the Brazilian soundtrack album. It also aired reruns in 2010 on the channel Ulbra TV and also returned briefly on August 30, 2020, on the Band network. Originally, The last episode was never shown, as Toei only shipped 50 out of 51 episodes for cost reasons. In 2020, that last episode was finally dubbed and was supposed to air on Band. However, after a dispute with Sato Company over the license towards dubbing rights, the series was pulled from re-runs in the following week from after only showing the first two episodes. On July 16, 2023, the final episode finally made its debut held at theater chains ran by the company, and all 51 episodes in dubbed format are now available for streaming. On November 7, 2023, a Brazilian Portuguese dub of Kamen Rider Build was confirmed to be in the making, thus making that the third series to officially be displayed with a dub in the region.
  • In the Philippines, Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX were aired on IBC-13 from 1991 to 1998 under the title Masked Rider Black with a Tagalog dub every Sunday. It has become one of the highest-rated TV shows of that time.
  • In Indonesia, this series has been dubbed in Indonesian three times. The first dub aired was broadcast as Ksatria Baja Hitam which means The Black Steel Knight and aired from 1993 to 1994 on RCTI with a cult status earned. A second dub aired from 2004 to 2006 on Indosiar as Masked Rider Black. Then the series returned in 2020 on RTV and for YouTube also under the title Masked Rider Black with a third dub being shown.
  • In Malaysia, the series has been dubbed in Malaysian and first aired on TV1 in 1990 under Suria Perkasa Hitam and it recently previously aired on RTM TV1 in 2021.
  • In the Latin American Spanish speaking regions, it is currently being streamed on Pluto TV with subtitles in the original Japanese audio.
  • The series was licensed by Discotek Media for Blu-Ray in the US. It was announced during the Spooktacular” Discotek Day stream on October 25, 2022, and was released on February 28, 2023.