All spoilers for Kamen Rider: Skyrider are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Super-1 and his rather pimped-out ride.
Kamen Rider Super-1 is the seventh Kamen Rider series lasting from 1980-1981. The titular Rider is Kazuya Oki, an astronaut who is rebuilt by NASA into "Super-1", as a space exploration and development cyborg without the need for bulky external gear. But the Dogma terrorist group attacks just as NASA is putting Super-1 through tests; everyone except Kazuya are killed. Unable to transform of his own volition, Kazuya escapes to Japan, where he trains in martial arts, eventually using it to replace the external henshin command — and getting some fighting skill in the process.
Now not so much a dude with a built-in spacesuit as a force of two-fisted (and two-legged!) justice, he goes after Dogma. He fights Jin Dogma, a second group, later on.
In addition to the main series, there is a Kamen Rider Super-1 movie tie-in where Super-1 teams up with the eight Kamen Riders that came before him.
It is also the final Kamen Rider series to feature Shunsuke Kikuchi's music as well as Shinji Nakae's narration.
Followed by Kamen Rider ZX as the next Kamen Rider, and Kamen Rider BLACK as the next TV series.
Recurring Kamen Rider tropes include:
- Automobile Opening: As is the norm for Showa Riders, a good portion of the Opening Credits is Super-1 riding the V-Machine.
- Badass Biker: Dogma monsters beware of Super-1 on his V-Machine.
- Big Bad: Emperor Terror Macro, leader of the Dogma Kingdom and the commander of the alien force looking to conquer Earth. In the second half Marshal Demon, the leader of Jin Dogma, picks up from where Terror Macro left off.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Kamen Raida! Supaa-One!"
- Calling Your Attacks
- Cool Bike: Super-1 actually has two bikes — a Harley Davidson and a Suzuki, the "V-Machine" and the "Blue Version" respectively. The V-Machine is better at flat-out speed and can transform into the even faster "V-Jet", while the Blue Version is better at rough roads and general agility.
- The Dragon: The Dogma Kingdom has General Megarl.
- Co-Dragons: Jin Dogma has four - Princess Yokai, Commander Onibi, Doctor Ghost and Staff Officer Witch.
- Defeat Means Explosion: With a Monster of the Week it's pretty much expected, but even the Mooks tend to explode when they're defeated.
- Finishing Move: Super-1's main one is "Super Flash Kick", though variations of it also do appear.
- Henshin Hero: As with all Kamen Riders, Kazuya strikes a pose and calls out his name to transform.
- In the Name of the Moon: "Kamen Rider! Su-per-One!"
- Last Villain Stand: #22 has General Megarl making his last stand after all of Dogma's other monsters have been defeated. Following his death, the next episodes sees Terror Macro finally deciding to fight Super-1 himself.
- Monster of the Week: Naturally for Kamen Rider, the Dogma Kingdom's monsters are humanoid cyborgs with animal elements. Jin Dogma's monsters are based on inanimate objects.
- Mooks: The Dogma Kingdom and Jin Dogma have their own distinct "Fighters".
- Multiform Balance: We won't get full suit changes 'til Black RX, but this is the first series to give the hero different modes. The Five Hands system allows his gloves to take different forms (and colors) allowing for different powers:
- Super Hands (Silver) are his default, allowing for Super-Strength as he uses his martial arts might.
- Elek Hands (Blue) shoot beams of lightning.
- Power Hands (Red) grant him Super-Strength, allowing him to lift over fifty tons.
- Thermal Hands (Green) give him a freezing spray from his left and a flame blast from his right.
- Radar Hands (Gold) let him send a device into the air that lets him scan for miles. It's not much good in combat but it's one of his best tools.
- Nebulous Evil Organization: The Dogma Kingdom. Their goals have something to do with turning humans into a "might makes right" kind of society and they apparently are or have ties to extraterrestrials. The Jin Dogma organization that follows them is even more nebulous, as their goals seem to be to just create chaos most of the time.
- One-Winged Angel: Like previous series, the Big Bads and Dragons reveal their true forms for their Last Villain Stand: General Megarl is Death Buffalo, Terror Macro is Kaiser Crow, Princess Yokai is Killer Doll, Commander Onibi is Onibibinba, Doctor Ghost is Gold Ghost, Staff Officer Witch is Majoringa and Marshal Demon is Satan Snake.
- Transformation Trinket: The Cyclode, Super-1's transformation belt.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Kamen Rider, Dogma generally sends forth a MOTW with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with Super-1 then arriving on the scene to stop them.
Kamen Rider Super-1 provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alien Invasion: A franchise first. The Dogma hail from Dark-Nebula B-26, though they do recruit human agents, most notably General Megarl. Expanded universe sources also claim Dark-Nebula B-26 as the point of origin of the Great Leader of Shocker.
- Arm Cannon: Green Hands are a Flame Thrower for the right and an ice sprayer for the left. Blue Hands shoot lightning.
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: In the second half of the show, pretty much all Jin Dogma's plans boil down to "take over the world with evil and/or mind-controlling objects," including soap, roller skates, cameras, spray cans, sunglasses, umbrellas...
- Artistic License – Martial Arts: Avoided when possible — the Sekishin-Shourinkennote , while invented for the show, is as efficient as they can make it.
- Back from the Dead: The Movie has the "Dogma Revenge Army" consisting of Fire Kong, Kamagirigan, ChameleKing, Spiderbaban, Arigisandar, Snakecobran, Ganigannee, Gyosutoma as well as Neo-Shocker's Kurageron, Golden Jaguar (wielding Jaguar Van's shield) and Zombieda.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Yes, Super-1 has the Five Hand System, and yes, he's a cyborg on a bike. But he doesn't actually need them. This guy learned how to transform by beating his way through a hundred martial artists...
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Justified, as Kazuya was enhanced for deep space travel.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: The first fight in the series amid the exploding NASA base.
- Canon Welding: The show itself is standalone, bar reintroducing Genjiro Tani from Skyrider. Super-1 is firmly tied to his predecessors when they appear in The Movie.
- Cursed with Awesome: Unlike all other Showa Riders, who were either subjected to Unwilling Robotization, got an Emergency Transformation to save their lives or had some other major drawback, Kazuya Oki's transformation into Super-1 was completely voluntary and originally meant for space travel—he just so happens to also use it to fight evil.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Shunsuke Takasugi sings the opening and first ending, as well as a few image songs - apparently, he wanted to be a singer growing up.
- Don't Think, Feel: How Kazuya learns much of his fighting skill.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Master Genkai Roshi, unlike Benkei (see below), dies a very anticlimatic death moments later, he trips over an explosion caused by Kaiser Crow (Terror Macro) and dies. You don't even think he's dead until you see Kazuya's reaction to this.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Benkei, the other Badass Normal in Kazuya's martial arts school, saves him from some Dogma archers, however, this causes him to take a lot of arrows, which kill him.
- Evil Knockoff: Jin Dogma has the Robot Super-1 who, rather than be pitted against the real deal, is scrapped by the MOTW in #37 to prove his worth.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: If the Five Hand System doesn't utilize Power Fist, it utilizes this.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: When General Megaal's fiancee finds him, it really looks like he's going to turn good. Unfortunately, Terror Macrow then takes control of him, turning him into a mindless berserker who kills said fiancee, forcing Super-1 to destroy him.
- Hidden Depths: Choro, Tani's assistant at the motor shop, tends to be a generally dumb, immature, clumsy, and overconfident goofball. But in episode 44, he reveals himself to have been one of Japan's most skilled burglars in the past who can dislocate his joints to crawl through tight spaces with enough grace to safely carry explosives while doing so.
- Leotard of Power: Jin Dogma's Princess Yokai and Staff Officer Witch default outfits. While Princess Yokai discarded her leotard for a dress when she transformed into Satan Doll, Staff Officer Witch retained her leotard (albeit with slightly different design) when she transformed into Majoringa.
- Lighter and Softer: The second half of the series, due to the increased focus on the Junior Rider Squad and generally increased Camp.
- Meaningful Name: Benkei is named after a mythical Japanese warrior-monk who also died by getting shot full of arrows.
- Mecha-Mooks: Dogma Fighters, spandex robots that sound a lot like R2-D2. Unusually for the trope, they aren't all mooks, as some are scientists.
- Mind-Control Eyes: In a way; mind control is represented by dark eyeshadow.
- Mythology Gag: Robot Super-1 is distinguished for wearing a yellow scarf rather than a red one, which was also the distinguishing feature of Shocker Rider Number 1 and the Fake Skyriders.
- Power Fist / Swiss-Army Appendage: The Five Hands System gives him five types of Power Fist!
- Shooting Superman: Marshal Demon's final plan to kill Super-1 is to lock him in a sealed room and suck out all the air, suffocating him to death. Unfortunately for him, Super-1 was originally built for the vacuum of space.
- Shown Their Work: Informed that the show was going to have a heavy martial arts theme, the face actor* and the suit actor* trained in kung fu to get the Sekishin-Shourinken to come across properly.
- Space Whale Aesop: According to Episode 38: Never enter a discarded refrigerator, or else you'll travel through a 4th-dimensional tunnel into an alternate world where alien terrorists have successfully taken over Japan.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Radar Hand. It serves as a radar, which won't be useful in fights. Subverted that the only thing to make it useful is combat is to use it as a rocket launcher.
- It's basically what Fourze's Radar Switch is based on. Most notably, he can send up a small camera-like "radar" device that shows him what's going on for miles. It may not be a weapon but it's one of his most useful tools.
- You No Take Candle: Americans speaking Japanese and not much English?
