Spoilers for all Showa Kamen Rider entries preceding this one, including Kamen Rider Amazon, will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
"The heavens cry out! The earth cries out! The people cry out! They cry out for me to destroy evil! Listen up, evildoers… I am the warrior of justice, Kamen Rider Stronger!"
"Kamen Rider Stronger, Shigeru Jo, underwent a cyborg surgery and become an electric human. He has pledge to fight the evil organization, Black Satan, to defend peace and justice throughout Japan."
Kamen Rider Stronger is the fifth Kamen Rider series.
Former football player Shigeru Jo allows himself to be captured and altered, becoming the Electric Human Stronger. When he is forced to pledge loyalty to Black Satan's Great Leader, he shows his true colors by calling himself Kamen Rider Stronger and escaping to seek out revenge against Black Satan for killing a friend of his. While escaping from their base, he rescues a woman who had been altered by Black Satan (but not brainwashed), Misaki Yuriko, who became the Electro-wave Human Tackle. She helps Stronger in his battle against the Black Satan organization.
Eventually, Black Satan falls before Stronger but he ends up faced with the Delza Army, composed of inhabitants of an underground kingdom. However, as it turns out, he wasn't the only one facing Delza's forces around the world...
An expanded version of episode 7 was released in theaters, also titled Kamen Rider Stronger.
Recurring Kamen Rider tropes:
- Automobile Opening: As is the norm for Showa Riders, a good portion of the Opening Credits is Stronger riding the Kabutolaw.
- Badass Biker: Stronger himself, as is the norm for the series.
- Big Bad: The Great Leader of Black Satan. In a twist however, he ends up getting supplanted by General Shadow and his Delza Army two thirds of the way through. At least until he returns and quite literally hijacks Delza.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: HENSHIN... STRONGER!
- Cool Bike: Stronger's Kabutolaw.
- The Dragon: Black Satan has Titan, a snazzily dressed criminal mastermind who oversees their frontline activities.
- Co-Dragons: He later shares the role for a bit with the mysterious General Shadow. Within Delza Army, Marshal Machine has Commander Jishaku and Armored Knight as his two flunkies.
- Finishing Move: Stronger Electro Kick!
- Henshin Hero: Stronger of course, who assumes his Rider form by clicking his metallic hands together.
- Home Base: A rare aversion for this franchise, since Stronger is a travelling hero, a concept which began with the original proposal for Kamen Rider Amazon.
- Last Villain Stand: After clashing with Stronger numerous times, Titan makes his final stand against him in episode 13. He gets brought back later on, and has a second last stand against him in episode 23 over the side of a volcano, which proves to be his last last stand.
- Local Hangout: A rare aversion for this franchise, since Stronger is a travelling hero, a concept which began with the original proposal for Kamen Rider Amazon.
- Monster of the Week: Par for the course for Kamen Rider, Black Satan's Kikkaijin ("Strange Machine Monsters") are humanoid cyborgs blended with animal elements. The Delza Army has the Majin, a race of ancient, animal-themed demons who are cybernetically modified.
- Mooks: Black Satan Soldiers, owl-themed grunts which can disguise themselves as humans and transform into parasitical Satan Bugs.
- The Delza Army gives each Delza monster their own subtype of Delza Army Soldiers which wear distinctive masks and wield unique powers.
- One-Winged Angel: Titan's true form is the One-Eyed Titan, which becomes Hundred-Eyed Titan after he is revived.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation: Black Satan, a Shocker restoration with its hands in a number of underworld activities, and a cache of Puppeteer Parasites to boot.
- Opening Narration: See the top of the page.
- Transformation Trinket: Stronger's Electerer belt.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Kamen Rider, Black Satan generally sends forth a MOTW with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with Stronger and Tackle then arriving on the scene to stop them.
Henshin... TROPER!!!
- Achilles' Heel: Shigeru Jo, as Stronger, has electric and magnetic powers, easily beating most of Black Satan's monsters. However, later in the series, the "Kaizou Majins" (Remodeled demons) from the Delza Army appear, and they're completely immune to Stronger's electric and magnetic attacks in standard conditions, putting Stronger in a great disadvantage.
- In addition, Black Satan's first great commander, Titan, was weak against... water.
- The Kaizo Majin (Remodeled Demons) in general seemed to be actually hurt by Stronger's standard electric attacks if they were immersed in water.
- The Ace: Shigeru Jo is pretty much the prototype for Souji Tendou.
- Action Bomb: Tackle, poisoned and dying, chooses to sacrifice herself to kill one of the commanders, Doctor Kate.
- Alternate Continuity: The manga version where Tackle lives and fights alongside the 7 Riders.
- Artificial Limbs: Jou has cybernetic arms that he always covers up with black gloves. And with good reason - Stronger can shake peoples' hands without electrocuting them, but Jou can't.
- Asshole Victim: In episode 17, a group of pranksters pretend to be monsters to give children a fright but are ultimately slain by the Bat Kikkaijin.
- Back from the Dead
- Most notably, Titan's body is recovered after his first death and is revived in a Black Satan ritual, evolving from One-Eyed Titan to Hundred-Eyed Titan.
- The monsters who deliver Titan's body in #17 are infact revived monsters themselves: Mantis, Hagetakan, Mecha-Gorilla, we even have G.O.D.'s Ari Capone.
- #24 has the return of Kikkaijin Stag, Bubunger, Bat, and Dokugaran.
- #26 has the return of Kikkaijin Mantis, Hagetakan, Stag, Bubunger, Bat, Denkiei, Dokugama and Kemunga.
- The final episode has the Great Leader reviving a pack of monsters consisting of Kikkaijin Antlion, Shark, Mecha-Gorilla, Bubungernote , Crabnote , and Division Commander Wild Eagle
- The 7 Riders Special has Great General Darkness leading an army of revived monsters consisting of Kikkaijin Mecha-Gorilla, Bubunger, Antlion, Shark Kikkaijin, Armadillon, Crab Kikkaijin, General Wolf and Snake Woman.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Villainous example with Mr. Titan.
- Blessed with Suck: The Charge-Up form must have all it's energy expended, or else Stronger will explode.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation / Gretzky Has the Ball: The official subtitles on Toei's Youtube channel translated "Amerikan futoboru" to "rugby". Yes, they are similar, but they're certainly not the same thing.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Quite literally in fact, given the "S" on Stronger's chest and the many of the shirts he wears in his human form.
- Calling Your Attacks
- Clip Show: The 7 Riders Special that aired after the TV show's ending, reuniting the actors of the first seven Riders one last time.
- Crisis Crossover: The final episodes of the series see Kamen Riders 1, 2, V3, Riderman, X and Amazon all return to assist Stronger against the Delza Army and the reemerged Great Leader.
- Coat Over the Shoulder: Jou's trademark.
- Continuity Nod: When Riders 1 and 2 show up to help Stronger late in the series, the music from their team-up battle scene
is the same music from their team-up battle with V3 in his own series, now with added lyrics. - Cursed with Awesome: He's a cyborg with the strength and power to take on all evildoers, but those gloves Jou always wears are insulated (it’s under this trope as it gives Jou a "handy" trick in human form, and he doesn't seem too worried by it).
- He even laughs when his new powers are being explained to him and the energy from his perpetually-electrified hands set something on fire without him trying to.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Tackle's final attack, Ultra Cyclone.
- Although it is speculative if she could have survived using it in normal condition. It definitely costs her a great amount of energy, similar to V3's Reverse Double Typhoon.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The Great Leader of Black Satan is confronted at taken out in episode 26, roughly two thirds of the way through. His death makes way for General Shadow and his Delza Army.
- The Drag-Along: Tachibana Tobei unfortunately seemed to be reduced to this role for most of the series until Jou became less of a Jerkass after Tackle's death.
- Elemental Punch: The Den-Punch, and there's the Den-Kick, Den-Chop... Then he gets his Chou-Denshi (Super Electronnote ) attacks. (The "den" has to do with electricity in this case, if you haven't guessed.)
- Enemy Civil War: Constant. First Titan vs. Shadow, then Shadow vs the whole Black Satan organization, then, when he starts his own Delza Army organization, we get all the new villains versus each other for leadership, which he encourages, figuring they'd try extra hard to get Stronger while chasing the reward (when in practice, Stronger owes more than one victory to the villain who had him cornered being prevented from striking the final blow by another... much as it was when Shadow would cheat Titan out of victory but not be able to seal it himself. Not learning from the past is Shadow's greatest weakness.) Then one of 'em decides to go after Shadow himself...
- Fake Crossover: In a contemporary stage show at Korakuen Yuenchi, Stronger gave Himitsu Sentai Gorenger a helping hand in fighting the Black Cross Army.
- Faux Action Girl: Misaki Yuriko/Electro-Wave Human Tackle. If you only know her by how sad fans were to see her die or how cool the Kamen Rider Decade alternate version is, you'll be surprised to find her unable to deal with any Monster of the Week. Her one victory is the one that cost her her life.
- Faux Affably Evil: Both Titan and General Shadow are various degrees of affable. With Titan, it mainly comes from his suave attitude. With General Shadow, it's his honor and knightly code of conduct (such as refusing to use underhanded tricks to defeat his adversaries). Both are as evil as evil comes however but Titan especially loses his cool after suffering many defeats by Stronger.
- Fully Absorbed Finale: Rider 1, 2, V3 and Riderman participate in Stronger's finale, which ties a certain plot thread left hanging around from their own series. The show's ending segment even includes the first Rider's and V3's openings playing alongside flashbacks of their series.
- Hates Being Touched: Mr. Titan is introduced with him invoking this trope as he kills a clumsy mook with his cigar.
- Hijacked by Ganon: The Great Leader of Delza reveals he was responsible for the Government of Darkness and Geddon. Somehow.
- Hour of Power: Stronger's Charge-Up must expend all the extra energy within one minute, or suffer fatal Phlebotinum Overload. Which is more than enough time, anyway.
- In the Name of the Moon: See the top of the page. Almost always spoken by Stronger from higher ground, before leaping down to kick Black Satan's ass. Done at least once while kicking Black Satan's ass, in the style of a Jidaigeki.
- Japanese Beetle Siblings: Stronger and Tackle are, quite obviously, modeled after the Kabutomushi and Tentomushi, respectively.
- Large Ham: I AM KAMEN RIDER STRONGER!!!
- Leeroy Jenkins: Tackle had a tendency to charge into battle all by herself. It never worked.
- Mythology Gag: Just like the original series, the MOTW of episode 3 is a scorpion. This follows the use of a spider and a bat respectively in the first two episodes of the previous series.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: General Shadow wants to defeat Stronger himself and cares little about anything else.
- Origins Episode: In a franchise first, the series opens with the Kamen Rider already active. It is the second episode which tells the story of how Shigeru and Yuriko became Stronger and Tackle.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Stronger gets himself rebuilt on purpose to get revenge on Black Satan for the death of a friend.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Tachibana Tobei, much to the chagrin of fans. Until Tackle's death, that is
- Power Levels: Only brought up once or twice, such as Stronger's first final fight with Mr. Titan, to explain why Stronger's usual attacks weren't hurting him. Fortunately, Titan turns out to have a Weaksauce Weakness to water.
- Shock and Awe: His bread and butter.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The enemies that Stronger faces keep getting more powerful throughout the series. Even Mr. Titan was upgraded to justify his return. Fitting that this is a show where it stands out a lot, as this is the show that introduced the concept of a Super Mode into the Kamen Rider series.
- Super Mode: Charge-Up form. Notable as the first example in the Kamen Rider franchise. Previous riders had gotten upgraded powers as their shows went on, but they were permanent prior to this: Training from Hell or a new technological tweak resulted in beating the crisis of the day and presumably being stronger thereafter. However, an actual form change happens for the first time here, as does the "it's crazy strong but has requirements/drawbacks" idea.
- Taking You with Me: Tackle kills Doctor Kate, a Kaizou Majin, alongside herself, using her own Suicide Attack.
- Villain Pedigree: The Delza Army's Kaizou Majin (Remodeled Demons), who replace Black Satan's Kikaijins, altered humans, as the standard enemies in the second half of the show.
- Will They or Won't They?: Jou is in love with Yuriko, and she seems to feel the same, though they never tell each other. And they never will.
- Worthy Opponent: Mr. Titan, who shares something of a mutual respect with Stronger. After his final death, Stronger even acknowledges him as a truly worthy foe.
