The Story of Kikaider
Dr. Komyoji, a brilliant robotics scientist, was kidnapped from his family and forced to work for the mysterious Professor Gill, the evil ruler from the malevolent secret society the Dark Demolitions Corps. This evil organization deals in the international weapons trade and the sale of advanced military secrets to unbalanced third-world countries - and the theft of world treasures - to build economic/lobbying power in order to subvert major countries of the world. Why? World domination. In order to carry out his directives, Dr. Komyoji (and other unwilling scientists) was put under pain of death by Gill, in order to create a veritable army of android monsters.
To combat this menace, Dr. Komyoji secretly built Kikaider, a mechanical man, capable of defeating the twisted androids of the Dark Demolition Corps. When he didn't need to fight, Kikaider could change into Jiro, a human form of a motorcycle-riding, guitar-playing youth - in the image of Komyoji's deceased son, Taro. While Kikaider was stronger than any of Professor Gill's androids, he had one weakness, his incomplete Conscience Circuit. This device allows Jiro/Kikaider fully independent and sentient existance - unlike Gill's android armies, who are slaves to his mind controlling electronic flute.
Jiro and Komyoji's teenage daughter/assisstant Mitsuko were separated from the doctor during a lab explosion, and Komyoji (at first, thought dead) never got to complete the circuit - which would of made Jiro immune to Gill's evil flute. Realizing Jiro's weakness, Professor Gill exploits this fact whenever he can - hoping to seduce Jiro over to the Dark side. The playing of the flute, creates a great conflict between Jiro's conscious and Gill's bidding - causing Jiro much agony, and prevents him from changing into Kikaider (who is unaffected by the hypnotic sound).
Almost every episode follows the same format. It usually starts with Dr. Komyoji, suffering from amnesia caused by the trauma of his escape from the clutches of Proffesor Gill, wandering from town to town. Masaru and Mitsuko, Dr. Komyoji's children, are always nearby searching for him, but they never find him, even with the help of their goofy detective friend Hattori Hanpei (a direct decendent of a famous Iga ninja). Komyoji, caught in the middle, is filled with fear and confusion - he doesn't know who to trust - so, he just runs from both sides. Yet he still retains his knowledge of robotics engineering - even stumbling upon an injured Jiro, on several occassions, and was able to repair him! (Mitsuko, although not as confident as her father, is also called upon to save Jiro, from time to time.)
As if they didn't have enough problems, Proffesor Gill, obsessed with recovering the brilliant Dr. Komyoji for himself (and he does eventually recapture him), always sends a new android monster and a squad of Androidmen after them. But when the monsters look like they have their victims surrounded, they hear the sound of a guitar being strummed above. This is Jiro, using his play-the-guitar-to-surprise-the-monsters entrance technique. They fight for a while, and then Jiro does his "Change 1-2-3" routine, which transforms him into Kikaider. Then the trouble begins for the monster. They will usually run away, only to cause more trouble later in the episode.
During some of his battles, Jiro waits too long to change into Kikaider, and Professor Gill begins playing his flute. As Jiro's Conscience Circuit was never completed, this paralyzes him as he tries to fight the instinct to follow Proffesor Gill. This gives the monster a huge advantage, but just before they are about to kill or render Jiro immobile, some loud noise from a nearby explosion, heavy machinery, or some other lucky coincidence always blocks the sound of the flute, allowing Jiro to make the change. As Kikaider, the flute is powerless against him, and the butt kicking would begin.
This final fight usually goes on for several minutes (always in what looks like a rock quarry), until Kikaider does his "Double Chop" attack, which ends with "Denji End" ("Electro End" - which was originally "The End" in the first episode) a finishing blow that kills every monster. Once things are safe, Masaru, Mitsuko, and often Hanpei run to find Jiro, but he's always speeing off on his motorcycle, sometimes leaving them in the middle of nowhere.
Finally, you get the shot of Jiro riding off into the sunset with the melancholy guitar and trumpet version of the Kikaider Theme playing softly in the background. This somehow always makes me sad...
Things changed radically towards the end of the series, with the introduction of Kikaider's "brother," Saburo. Created by Professor Gill's loyal top-scientists, this leather-clad android would change into the ultimate black warrior: Haikaider (derived from "hakai" meaning "destroy"). Stronger and more powerful than Kikaider, he was programmed with one mission: "Destroy Kikaider!" Little do our quartet of heroes realize the true reason behind Haikaider's superiority to all other creations: he consists of an android body operated by a living, human brain - Professor Komyoji's brain! It is in this phase of the series in which the stories became more grim, less formulaic, as KIKAIDER reached its emotional and powerful cresendo.
Thanks to August Ragone of Kaiju Productions for all of his help.
Back to main page
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page