Bonus Material: Toei TV Hero Encyclopedia Vol. 1: Kamen Rider Black was a post-series Recap Episode of Black released in April 1993. Note it is titled "Vol. 1" as it was succeeded by a recap for Choujin Sentai Jetman. Vol. 1 itself was later included on the Blu-ray release for Black.
Cast the Runner-Up: Takahito Horiuchi auditioned for the role of Kotaro before being cast as Nobuhiko.
Creator Backlash: In 2021, Tetsuo Kurata publicly admitted that he wasn't too fond of his role as Kohtaro Minami.
The Other Darrin: Kiyoshi Kobayashi took over for Shinji Nakae as the series' narrator. Kobayashi himself was replaced by Issei Masamune for the remaining 11 episodes.
Troubled Production: The original head writer for Black only did episodes 1-4 and 12, having seemingly left the production after that point, and there were in the end ten different writers throughout the course of the show. This explains why the show meanders so much before Shadow Moon is made the leader of Gorgom.
Working Title: Ishinomori's proposal for this series was originally titled Kamen Rider Zero-Gō ("No. 0").
Trivia
Black is the first Kamen Rider to forgo wearing the characteristic muffler (scarf), worn by all past Riders. He is also the first with a sleek armored look (in this case, almost form-fitting), which would be the case for pretty much all Riders created since.
It's assumed that Kotaro and Nobuhiko were born on September 22, 1968 - the year can be determined from the fact that they turn 19 on the day of the first episode (since the series takes place in 1987), and as for the day, it's stated that Kotaro and Nobuhiko were born on the day of a solar eclipse - and September 22 was the only day in 1968 that a solar eclipse occurred.
This is the first Kamen Rider series created by Shotaro Ishinomori alone. Franchise co-creator/former producer Tôru Hirayama was involved early in production (and was in a conference with Toei Studios executives and a group of fans, to discuss ideas for a new Kamen Rider movie, which instead resulted in this series), but was ultimately uncredited. This may also explain the lack of Gorgom having henchmen (which were a staple of Hirayama's in all past entries). Instead, in a few cases, Black fights multiple clones of one monster, as was the case in the first episode.
that he wasn't too fond of his role as Kohtaro Minami.