Kamen Rider Sigma Episode #1 Production Notes

Kamen Rider Sigma Episode #1 Production Notes *Updated and Revised as of 2/10/07

- This episode’s title pays a little tribute to the title of Kamen Rider V3 episode #1, “Rider No. 3: His Name is V3!”

- This is in fact the fourth version of the first episode of Kamen Rider Sigma. Previous versions were released (in a very limited manner) in April 2001 and January 2002, and a slightly more widespread release in April 2004. With each different draft I made numerous changes here and there, though significantly less for the 3rd and 4th drafts than I did when writing the 2nd draft. Major changes from Drafts #1 & #2 are listed below as they appear. For the final version you have presumably just read, most of the changes were structural and grammatical, with the actual content being virtually the same. I did add a few little things here and there though, to give an overall tighter feel. The final draft of this episode went public as of 2/10/07.

- The opening scene was written with something of a mix of the first moments of Kamen Rider V3 & Kamen Rider Ryuki in mind. In retrospect, I guess it has a little in common with the opening of Kamen Rider THE FIRST as well, although I originally conceived of the scene back in 2001.

-“Jônan University” pops up a lot in the Rider Franchise, most notably in the original Kamen Rider and in Kamen Rider Kuuga. After seeing Kamen Rider THE FIRST, where it also makes an appearance, I decided that the design of the place Maya goes to here would probably reflect that version (which is the same place used as the new BOARD headquarters in Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace!), even though the versions of Rider 1 & 2 that appear in my story are the originals, from the TV series. But hey, I can pick and choose with my continuity, can’t I?

- The initial nighttime battle between Kamen Rider 1 & the Spider Creature is one thing that remains constant in all versions. For the final draft I had Kamen Rider 1 use some old moves like the Denkô Rider Kick and Rider Kirimomi Shoot mainly just to establish that this is still the same old Rider 1 we know and love.

- Denkô = Lightning

- Kirimomi = Tailspin

- Kaijin = Strange/Weird/Mysterious Person. This is one of the Japanese words that has the distinction of being adapted in my regular vocabulary, which is why I usually don’t italicize it.

- When Maya runs into yet more mysterious figures and gets knocked out cold, she originally only ran into two. For the third draft I added a third, a new character who will figure in significantly in episode #2.

- Senpai = Senior, Superior, Elder. A word used for showing great respect to a teacher or mentor, used exclusively by their student/apprentice/whatever. It is not commonly used to refer to an actual educational teacher (Sensei) however, but perhaps a senior student who acts as a teacher to someone else. Some famous Senpai users in Kamen Rider include Sakuma Ken to Kazami Shirô in Kamen Rider V3, Tsukuba Hiroshi to Tani Genjirô in New Kamen Rider, & Mitsuro Sano/Kamen Rider Impaler to just about everyone else in Kamen Rider Ryuki.

As such, a number of people have wondered why Maya refers to Hongô by this term, given that he was her actual college teacher (and no longer just a student, as he was when he was Kazami’s senior) and that it is usually reserved for members of the same sex. Thus, a female student calling her male college professor by Senpai seems rather odd. I didn’t do this without good reason, as will become apparent much later in the story, but to give you a hint, Senpai can also have a somewhat more informal connotation, meaning “old-timer”, and notice Hongô’s initial reaction to Maya’s use of the word as a suffix to his name.

- The note about Hongô’s apparent age is mainly just how I envision him, basically the way he’s seen in Kamen Rider Spirits comic (which itself has had a big impact on Sigma.) However, like a lot of things that will happen throughout story, while I do provide some illustrations of how I imagine it, I also want leave it open to different interpretations as how certain things look, sound, etc. So if you imagine current-day Fujioka Hiroshi, well, then you imagine current-day Fujioka Hiroshi.

- The mention of Hongô going to New York is another nod to Kamen Rider Spirits, and the “old friend” (three guesses who) bit will actually play a part in the story later on.

- Oyasuminasai = “Goodnight”

- The guest appearance by Ichijô from Kamen Rider Kuuga is one way of establishing an early connection to the more contemporary Rider series. As mentioned elsewhere, Kamen Rider Sigma takes place in essentially an “All Kamen Riders World”, where all the Riders, new and old, exist in one time line (at least as far as TV & movies-based-off-of-TV Riders go. Shin, ZO & J will all show up, although not how you may expect.) Please note that I am doing this merely to write an entertaining and interesting story, and explore what kinds of reactions old Riders and new Riders will have to each other, and how the different Rider stories can connect. Hence, it is done just for fun, and shouldn’t be taken as gospel as far as the official TV series (some of which currently do take place in different time lines) are concerned.

- The conversation between Maya & Ichijô concerning the Kamen Riders has gotten major facelifts over the years. Originally, I had Ichijô do most of the talking about the older Riders being legendary and such, but ultimately I felt it would make more sense to have an older officer come in and do the spiel. To make things more interesting I made even the older officer take a skeptical stance to the whole Kamen Rider idea, to show that with changing times, even the older generation can take on a more cynical view. To really underline the point, no one thinks of Unidentified Life-Form #2 & #4 (Kamen Rider Kuuga) or “that Agito character” (Kamen Rider Agito) as Kamen Riders. This is slightly poking fun at the concept that by not actually calling themselves Kamen Riders, no one even thinks of them as Kamen Riders.

- The throwaway line about “weird-looking guys with the giant dragon and bat robots” is of course referring to Kamen Rider Ryuki & Kamen Rider Knight. The ensuing reaction has a double meaning: even though they did refer to themselves as “Kamen Riders”, no one (in the story) has actually thought of them as such (why will be explained much, much later down the road) and how exactly anyone even knows about them is still something of a mystery (again, to be answered on a later day.) As for Ryuki or Knight ever actually showing up (and how they possibly will), well, we’ll just have to wait and see.

- It was difficult getting down Ichijô’s personality in the earlier versions, and even in the final draft he still takes on a more skeptical view than when we saw him at the end of Kamen Rider Kuuga . But, a few years have passed, and as with other old returning characters, I want to show how time has changed them. Ichijô will go on to play a fairly important role in some later episodes, and we’ll eventually see him back to his old self by then.

- The “other rumored characters they blather on about all the time in the tabloids” is another reference to the post-Agito Riders from Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider 555, and so on, and how they are even more mysterious than Kuuga or Agito because the police weren’t actively involved with any of them. While characters from Kuuga through Kabuto will appear, I need to see how things on Den-O go before I start planning any appearances from that series. Naturally, as much as I love it, Kamen Rider THE FIRST is strictly alternate universe in regards to my story, but I do incorporate a number of FIRSTy-inspired elements, and there’s a great little gag coming down the line involving that film.

- We’ll learn a bit more about the mysterious “Kurobe-san” in upcoming episodes.

- Kazami Shirô’s initial appearance pays homage to Hayakawa Ken, human alter ego of Kaiketsu Zubat, right down to the “tsk-tsk-tsk” sound made with his tongue and the “sniffing the air” bit. Of course, the well-known and respected Tokusatsu superstar Miyauchi Hiroshi brought both characters to life, and a great deal of his own personality goes into his roles.

- The ??? Combatants’ sound of “Ii-gah!!” is a subtle reference to one of my own oft-used online nicknames, “Iga”.

- Kazami catching the knife between his teeth: another intentionally ridiculous Hayakawa-style stunt.

- -san = -san is attached to a person's name (It is customary in Japan to use last/ family names, though there are plenty of exceptions.) Other versions you'll see are "-kun " and "-chan", usually used for children.

- Kazami coming from Egypt is both a reference to Kamen Rider Stronger (where he followed The Delzer Army’s Generalissimo Machine to Japan) and the Spirits manga once more. Rider 2 was in some fictional Southeast Asian country in Spirits, but it was in the same area as Cambodia, so that worked.

- There is something of a running in-joke in this episode involving Hasami-Jaguar and TV-Bae, who get most of the villain dialogue. In reality, both Kaijin were voiced by the same veteran voice actor, Sawa Ritsuo, who provided many other villain voices throughout the various Rider series, and can even be heard voicing some classic Shocker Kaijin in the 2004 Kamen Rider: Genealogy of Justice PS2 game!

- Hasami = Scissors

- Bae = Pun on “Hae” = Housefly

- Originally TV-Bae listed off several random villain organizations in the “so-and-so lives!” speech. Ultimately I thought it would be funnier if he just gets to the Garander Empire, only to be cut off by Kazami. A true testament to the long-windedness of evil.

- Onore = Literally, "You…!” in an insulting manner. Other version: "You @#$%^&*!" Signature phrase of Kazami Shirô right before he does his Henshin.

- Henshin = Transform, Metamorphosis

- Geier, the new villain group’s name, is also the German word for “Vulture”.

- Some more classic moves like the “Rider Punch”, “V3 Kirimomi Kick”, and “Rider Manji Kick” get used during the daylight rooftop battle.

- Manji = "Falling in swirls", or Swirling. It’s important to note that the Kanji used for this word resembles (and also means) the fylfot or gammadion, more commonly known in the west as the swastika. In Japan, the symbol is used to denote the location of Buddhist temples on maps, in addition to its meaning as used here.

- V3 pulls out two of the 26 secrets, “V3 Hopper” and “Electro Eyes” in this episode.

- Ari = Ant

- “And KILL HER!” : Hasami-Jaguar has this thing with killing people, as you can tell...

- Maya goofing up V3’s name as “V… uh, 1?” is a reference to both the “V-1 System” worn by Hôjô Tôru in Kamen Rider AgitΩ, and the way I’ve sometimes seen the Riders named on ebay auctions and websites- for example, Rider 1 is V1, Super-1 is V9, etc. I still don’t know what the deal with that is.

- What exactly would a “reverse-Henshin surge” look like? I’ll let you decide that one.

- “Jeez-! Some things never change!” references the way in which early Rider villains would often kill their own captured henchmen to prevent them from revealing information, as seen in both episode #4 of the original Kamen Rider and its remake, episode #39 of Kamen Rider V3, among others. As you can probably guess, this line will come up a lot in various forms throughout the series.

- “This talk” refers to the Double Rider’s conversation with Kazami Shirô, post-Kazami family-murder, in Kamen Rider V3 episode #1, which as you can probably tell by now, had a major influence on the creation and writing of Sigma.

- Writing the entire “Make me a Kamen Rider!” scene was fairly difficult, because I wanted the Riders to reject Maya’s plea without seeming too out-of character (since it’s pretty agreeable that the whole “loss of humanity” angle that is always touted as a hallmark of Riderdom gets addressed only a few times in the early Rider shows, and after that they do seem just like somewhat above-average folks who happen to have the ability to transform, with the notable exception of Kamen Rider Faiz and a few others. Plus, since the TV show didn’t include the “facial surgical scars” seen in the comic version, the Riders never seem to appear externally different when in human form, aside from Jô Shigeru with his metal hands.) So basically, I tried more to play up the actual danger of being a hero fighting a worldwide evil organization. Also, Maya’s counterargument will be a major theme throughout the series (“You’re human because of who you are, not how you look.”)

- “Join some secret spy agency? Or are you just born with the powers, like a mutant or something?” are references to Himitsu Sentai Goranger and Inazuman.

- Kaizô-Ningen = Reconstructed Human, i.e. cyborg, what most of the early Kamen Riders and their enemies are.

- “It’s not like you’re some robot or something!” is an obscure in-joke: in the 6th and final part of Ishinomori’s Kamen Rider comic, Hongô Takeshi, who had been killed by the Shocker Riders in the 4th part, returns to help save Ichimonji via his brain inside of an android Kamen Rider body!

- When the Riders meet up with (or rather hear) the Great Leader once more, Rider 2 mentions RX having defeated the Leader years ago. While no official connection between the “Great Leader” of the early Rider series “Emperor Crisis” (both of whom are voiced by Naya Gôro) has been established, many fans take it that these are the same entity. For the purposes of Kamen Rider Sigma, all of the villain groups from Shocker~Crisis Empire were led/controlled by the same being. At least, so it seems right now…

- The choice of revived Kaijin was pretty simple: the first four from both the original Kamen Rider & Kamen Rider V3, in keeping with the appearances by Kamen Rider 1, 2, & V3

- Kumo = Spider

- Kômori = Bat

- Sasori = Scorpion

- Kame = Turtle

- Ika = Squid (or Cuttlefish)

- One of the biggest differences in the first three drafts of episode #1 is how exactly Maya gets the brutal, near-death attack, and the reasoning behind it. Originally, I had it set in Jônan University, where Maya would return after having departed for errands (and hence, the entire conversation with Hongô, Ichimonji & Kazami never happens.) Just the spider creatures attacks and mortally wounds her, and the Riders have to go all the way from the Geier base, with villains in pursuit, back to Tokyo to perform the surgery on her and save her life. The biggest problems I had with this were 1) too unrealistic, even for a Kamen Rider story, 2) no real good motivation for why the Riders decide they need to save Maya, aside from her just being an innocent and friend of Hongô, 3) using Geier’s facilities to do the operation made more sense than just using stuff lying around in Hongô’s lab, and 4) in that version, Maya didn’t even learn the identities of the Riders– which would have been just too time-consuming to explain later on (besides, the “unaware of others’ identities” subplot will get used with other characters later for more interesting results.) In the second version, I had Maya follow the Riders to the base (which is much more in-character) and get attacked by the new Geier Kaijin. Mostly everything else seen here (getting saved by V3, talking with Triple Riders) was the same. In the third version, I added in the bit about Maya saving the Riders from the Anti-Rider field, and coupled with having saved V3 from TV-Bae earlier, it seemed that by now Maya was more than just another innocent. Thus, there would be even more determination on the part of the Riders to save her life and grant her request. Also, as outlined below, I added in the mention of “Sigma Energy”. The fourth, final version is pretty much the same.

- Shimatta = an exclamation usually indicating something bad. It’s been translated as “Oh no!”, “Damn it!” or even “Oh, $#%@!” depending on the context. Originally just Rider 1 said this, but for the final version I changed it so it was all three Riders, because it’s something they’d do.

- The utter thrashing on Maya is perhaps one of the most shocking scenes in the episode, and it is meant to be extra brutal to further underline how deadly and cruel the Geier Kaijin will be. Even though I slightly upped it a bit for the final version, later episodes are going to have some pretty heavy stuff, and this is still fairly lightweight. The brief appearances and dialogue of the Kaijin hint at what kinds of characters they are, as we’ll see next episode.

- Another old goodie, “Rider Triple Power”, is of Kamen Rider V3 fame.

- The scene with the villains trying to break into the operation room is patterned after a similar scene in Kamen Rider V3 #49, except in that episode Riderman was trying to perform brain surgery on Kazami while the latter was holding the door closed!

- The “Sigma Energy” concept was literally a last-minute addition to the third draft. It came about after re-watching the 8 Kamen Riders vs. Milky Way King movie. The plot of the film deals with the Riders & Neoshocker duking it out in a rush to get the secrets of… Sigma Energy, utilized by this space station in the beginning to blow up stuff in outer space. I thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to use that for another connection to the old Riders?” and sure enough, it went in. It will play a pretty important role later on in the series, aside from just being the spark the gives life to Sigma. As for how Geier came across it, we’ll find out in due time…

- Having Kamen Rider Sigma only appear at the very end of the episode was always something I wasn’t too sure about, but ultimately, as many of my friends and fellow fans online pointed out, it made for a strong, memorable image and gave time for us to get reacquainted with Kamen Rider 1, 2, & V3 before seeing the new Rider in action.

"Dragon Fang Rider Kick!!"

~Igadevil

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