SIC Hero Saga - Kamen Rider Decade: Stronger's World

SIC Hero Saga is a series of side stories based on the SIC toyline which is serialized in Hobby Japan magazine that features stories based on the featured Kamen Rider and Decade never escaped this treatment! Called, Masked Rider Decade: Stronger's World (MASKED RIDER DECADE─ストロンガーの世界─), it features Tsukasa and co. adventure in of course, Stronger's world! To those who don't know him, he is easily described as, "the man Tendou was based with."

So far, only ten chapters of this side story was released and it is still on-going! Special thanks to DecaEnd for the translations and GundamModelKits.com for the images!

Episode 1: The Delza Army! Staff Officer Steel Appears!!

It's the same afternoon, in the same Hikari Photo Studio. However, Tsukasa started to feel uncomfortable. He stands up and decides to open the door only to see middle-aged man with a cowboy hat flying in. A photo screen rolls down from the shock.

The man tells that his name is Tobei Tachibana and calls Tsukasa "Shigeru". Yuusuke and Natsumi takes a closer look on Tsukasa, they notice that he's wearing a red sweatshirt with the letter "S" on the chest and a pair of blue jeans.

Tachibana informs that Yuriko has been captured by Staff Officer Steel and pushes Tsukasa into his jeep. They soon arrive at the wasteland and Tsukasa goes to confront Staff Officer Steel. Tsukasa's opponent seems to be calling him Shigeru as well. Tachibana puts his shoulder on Tsukasa and says "Come on, just say your usual lines!"

Tsukasa decides to listen to Tachibana and starts shouting "The heavens call. The earth cries out. The crowd roars. They are calling me to defeat evil! I am just a Kamen Rider passing by!" Tachibana is angered because of the change in the usual catchphrase, Tsukasa simply ignores him and transforms into Decade.

Episode 2: Enter the Kabuto Beetle Riders!!

Tsukasa Kadoya who entered the World of Stronger has for some reason been called "Shigeru." Tsukasa kept thinking "could it be that we are like two peas in a pod? Anyways, he'll probably realize I am not that guy after transforming." However, Tachibana was simply surprised that "Stronger" had changed so much. 

"What happened to the kabuto beetle?" Tsukasa who thought Tachibana was annoying decides to transform into Kabuto. Tachibana noticed how he was so different from usual and wondered if something had happened, he went to save Tackle by himself.

DecadeKabuto used his Clock Up card and kicked around the grunts. "Hey, don't you care about the hostage!?" said Staff Officer Steel as he threw his iron ball towards DecadeKabuto. DecadeKabuto Form Rides into Kabuto's Masked Form and stopped the iron ball. Doctor Kate appears before Tachibana.

Episode 3: Rider Diend appears!!

Doctor Kate pointed to the defeated Tackle. Tachibana hurried over there, Tackle had been exposed to the Kate Gas for too long. Her body temperature had fallen drastically and her body was shaking. Tachibana kept shouting for help. Tsukasa chose to Cast Off and Clock Up only to play around with Staff Officer Steel.

Suddenly Stronger (that is, DecadeKabuto) disappeared and Staff Officer Steel exploded from all the injuries which left Tachibana completely dumbfounded. All of sudden, Tsukasa is standing in front of Tachibana. According to Doctor Kate, they can save Tackle if they can push out the Kate Gas out of her.

Tsukasa started shouting Kaito and Kaito suddenly came out from behind a rock. Tsukasa wanted to borrow one of Kaito's treasures, the Perfecter he stole from Apollo Geist in the World of RX. "I don't think there's any life inside this thing." said Kaito. "Kaito, you are a thief right? Just take the life of Doctor Kate."

Kaito listened to Tsukasa's words and transformed into Diend.

Episode 4: The Last Moments of Doctor Kate.

Diend tried to suck out some of the life energy from Doctor Kate, however Doctor Kate managed to get away before her whole life was sucked out, but suddenly a bullets fires through her. The Diend she was fighting was just from Diend's Illusion card. Diend is able to suck out the life energy from the wounded Doctor Kate. Kaito returns to Tsukasa and gives him the Perfecter.

Just as Tsukasa takes the Perfecter to save Yuriko an aurora curtain (aka dimension wall) appears. From the aurora curtain appears Kamen Rider Stronger, takes the Perfecter and says, "You can't save her." Tsukasa disagrees and transforms into Decade and Kamen Ride's into Kabuto. A fight between DecadeKabuto and Stronger commences.

Episode 5: The Great Fight between Kabuto Beetles.

The violent fight between DecadeKabuto and Stronger unfolds. Stronger tells Decade that if he saves Yuriko, all the Yuriko's in the other worlds will be affected as well. Stronger activates his Charge Up and Decade goes into Hyper Kabuto. 

Before Decade is able to go into Hyper Clock Up mode, Stronger uses his special attack, Super Electro Lightning Kick, on Decade. Hyper Kabuto is defeated. However, the Perfecter Stronger was holding is gone. Stronger looks in front of him and sees Decade Complete Form. The Hyper Kabuto, Stronger defeated was only one of Decade's summons.

Episode 6: The World in Chaos!

Shigeru and Tsukasa revert back to human form and Tsukasa asks Shigeru why he won't save Tackle. When Tackle died, Shigeru blamed himself for being too weak and inserted the Super Electron Dynamo in his body. Stronger says that this isn't his world because of what has happened isn't supposed to happen. Yuriko must die in this world. If this Yuriko lives, all the other Yuriko's will be affected. Stronger might not undergo the Charge Up surgery, this might cause him to lose against the Delza Army.

Tsukasa equips the Perfecter on Tackle and she's brought back to life. Tsukasa gets an uncomfortable feeling and transforms into Decade.

Episode 7: Kamen Rider VS The Great Leader!

Tackle, who came back to life, noticed a strange rocky mountain. The mountain reveals it's true identity as the Great Leader. When Shigeru sees the Great Leader, he's surprised and thinks "this is a different world." In his own world, he and the 6 other Riders had already defeated him. Shigeru notices that they are only 4 here, though Tsukasa mentions together with Yuusuke they are 5. However, Shigeru says that he can't interfere with what's happening in this world and he won't fight.

Suddenly, General Shadow appears and leaps towards Shigeru. The Great Leader throws boulders towards Tackle and Decade. Together they push away the boulder, but it's now heading towards Tachibana. Tsukasa tells Shigeru to save Tachibana.

Episode 8: Kamen Rider Kuuga Appears!!

The boulder is still rolling towards Tachibana, Tsukasa is still telling Shigeru to save Tachibana. Shigeru is refusing and says that he can't interfere with what's happening. Yuusuke appears out of nowhere and quickly transforms into Kuuga Mighty Form and saves Tachibana right before the boulder hits him. The Great Leader suddenly crushes General Shadow and is trampling on Tackle. Shigeru is still refusing to fight, which angers Decade so he turns Kuuga into Kuuga Gouram and rides on top.

Episode 9: The Remodeling of Stronger!!

Narutaki shows up through an aurora curtain and watches the fight. Decade and Kuuga are having a hard time fighting the Great Leader. Tackle is using her bike and Tachibana's jeep with wires in hopes of tying up the Great Leader. However, the wires were easily cut. Shigeru knows that the Great Leader's weak point is inside his mouth, but he's refusing to help. 

Narutaki walks towards Shigeru and tells him to defeat Decade. After hearing Tsukasa say "You are not an ally of justice, if you going to let someone die without doing anything." Shigeru decides to finally transform into Stronger and hits Narutaki (!). Stronger tells Decade about the Great Leader's weak point. 

Decade jumps down behind Stronger and uses a Final Form Ride card. Stronger suddenly turns into a huge Kabuto Beetle called Strong Zecter. Tackle jumps up on Stronger's back. Stronger and Kuuga flies towards the Great Leader.

Episode 10: Capture the Riders! Long Live Delza!!

Stronger and Kuuga flies towards the Great Leader's mouth, but the Great Leader closes his mouth and they lose their chance to fly in. Kuuga suggest that they should use Decade Assault, but it seems like that Kuuga Gouram's fangs aren't able to hold down the Great Leader's body. Tackle moves from Stronger to Kuuga and tells him to rotate and attack the face. The lower jaw is missing and Stronger seems to be standing on the upper jaw. Stronger says that they should hurry and get inside his mouth.

Suddenly a dazzling light covers Tackle, Decade and Kuuga. When the light disappears, Kuuga has changed to a Kuuga no one has seen before. To be continued.

All I can say is, this. Is. Interesting. Asides that it added few more details regarding the impact of the AU worlds with each other, the fact that they used the original Stronger adds the epicness that this side story has. Considering that most SIC Hero Saga side stories are canon, I say it might take place between BLACK RX and Amazon's worlds. So guys, what can you say about this?

Kamen Rider Stronger 02 – I. AM. STRONGER!

AM I SEEING THINGS?!

In this episode, we are explained to Stronger’s origins, how he met Tackle and why American football is important in this series. Meanwhile, in the present time, Black Satan sends its monster, Okamin to invade a lighthouse four their mission.

One of the things that I liked about this episode is that Okamin has the ability to switch bodies for him to use. I find it neat and at the same time, cool. But since he was possessed by Okamin, you can identify him by his scent and some marks that you had a hard time noticing. Because of this, I started to notice something, aside from that occult guy in Den-O, and the DenLiner crew, does anyone noticed Ryotaro when he was possessed by his Imagins?

Since this episode focused on Stronger’s origins, here’s a brief summary. Shigeru Jo is an American football player and volunteered himself to be turned into a cyborg by Black Satan. Since he volunteered, there is nothing they can do with a guy who volunteers to turn into a cyborg for evil. After some test, he was operated into a cyborg, infused with the power of the Japanese rhinoceros beetle or kabutomoshi… and he must wear gloves for others not to feel the electricity coming out from his hands.

Everytime he touches something, electricity will come out from him, causing it to explode or spark, depending on the material, cool. It’s official, he is now stronger than yesterday.

Since he is now a cyborg, he must swear oath to Black Satan’s Great Leader. He laughed and learned that his conversion is not that successful because there is some loose screw when he was being brainwashed, in short, they failed in brainwashing him!

We learned that he volunteered himself to be turned into a cyborg to avenge his friend and aside from avenging him, he wants to be a memetic badass, I mean, wants to save the world. He transforms into Stronger, and kick’s there ass! Wait. The Stronger suit is too shiny to begin with! I am surprised.

Nothing is stopping his way right now and he was able to beat the crap out of them, he heard a voice, it was a girl wrapped in a cloth, he rescued the girl and escaped. He introduced himself as not as Stronger BUT as Kamen Rider Stronger. The girl, after introducing that her name is Yuriko Misaki, she volunteered to help him in fighting Black Satan. Stronger scratches his head if a girl can do anything, she transformed into Electro- Wave Human Tackle. Loneliness is killing him no more, because his now stronger with Tackle along side with him.

His origin story explains everything! Now I understand why his armor doubly looks like an American football armor, because he is an American football player! Him wearing gloves is explained, no wonder he called himself hot stuff or something related to it in the Spirits manga when he introduced himself to Taki Kazuya! The only thing that wasn’t explained in his origin story is why Shigeru loves to wear a long sleeved shirt with the letter S sewed in it. Ignore the last sentence, he wants to be a memetic badass to begin with so, it’s obvious that he will wear a shirt with an S on it!

Aside from that, Shigeru is staring to become suspicious with Master Titan’s human form. Also, in this episode, we saw more Yuriko love… and more Stronger badassery. Now, I am slowly loving this guy!

Overall, this episode solved the mystery why Stronger emits electricity when he attacks and the origin behind him. The episode overall, was great. It was fun to watch Okamin vs. Stronger compared to the last one. The previous episode tried its best to give viewers a good impression on Stronger without revealing his origin story. Now, I am loving this series!

I am starting wonder what if Stronger will shock hands with another Rider or monster. I am thinking of it and it will look like a practical joke to begin with.

Kamen Rider Stronger 01 – I am Electric Man, Stronger!! Review

Dead Fish Fansubs, who has subs random episodes of various Japanese TV shows once, subbed the first episode of Kamen Rider Stronger, the fifth series in the entire franchise. Since I had time to download it, I decided to download it, and so, here is the review of first episode.

The series kicks off in Mikawa Gulf in which a girl is talking about the latest features of this new boat that they are riding. Nothing interesting is happening until, Black Satan; an organization that, like the previous one is bent to destroy the world just seajacked the boat. After doing some warnings to the passengers, one Black Satan foot soldier reposted that they are being followed.

The monster, Gangar ordered one of the foot soldiers to activate the Interloper, I device that its functions will be learned later. While he is going to activate the device, the girl who is lecturing about the boat attacked him. She is starting to get interesting.

The boat landed on shore and they saw the bike of the one chasing them. The foot soldiers are now looking for the man. They foot soldiers heard a whistle and they asked, “Who is he?” The man replied, “Last name Jo, first name, Shigeru.”

He was then ordered to get down because he knows Black Satan. Wrong move, Shigeru just single handedly defeats the three foot soldiers! Back at the boat, we are introduced to Electro Wave Human Tackle, a free warrior who is fighting against Black Satan. She then attacks the monster but the monster escapes. Tackle looks for the monster but there is no sign of him. Shigeru arrives talks to Tackle about what happened and lectured Tackle about getting hasty in transforming.

Shigeru wonders why Black Satan wanted the craft and Shigeru noticed might be their clue, a matchbox coming from a hotel. So, Shigeru goes first, causing Tackle to get pissed. Aw, so sweet!

Anyways, Shigeru arrives at the hotel and bumps on someone who will later have a major role in the series. After the man leaved, he bumps into one Black Satan foot soldier, which led us to discover that he is a member of Black Satan and his true form is a Cyclops. He’s name in the organization is Master Titan. He then carried a flowerpot and ordered his foot soldiers to keep an eye on Tackle.

That flowerpot will be seen again on Tackle’s room in which we saw her wearing gloves. After Tackle wore her leather jacket, the flower started to emit a mysterious fume that caused Tackle to get drowsy. Meanwhile, Shigeru is waiting in the lobby for Yuriko, Tackle’s true name. He is waiting for five minutes for her. Therefore, Shigeru decides to leave the girl (jerk) and saw a truck loading the same flowers from Yuriko’s hotel room. Shigeru noticed that he looked familiar but ignores it, checks his watch. Its over a minute after the last time he check his watch.

Back at Yuriko’s room, the flower continues to emit the said fume causing Yuriko’s head to get hurt and was later abducted by a Black Satan foot soldier. Before the foot soldier escapes, Shigeru arrives at the scene of the crime, confronting the two… and was partly pissed that the two never remembered his name, causing Shigeru to give a proper example on how to call him, its either Mr. Jo or Shigeru-san, either of the two would work for him… and starts kicking the foot soldiers’ ass!

Yuriko woke up and saw Shigeru fighting the two foot soldiers. The two escaped and met up with Gangar and the others. The two reported to their boss what happened. After the two finished talking, we saw a jacket flew towards them. They heard a whistling, its Shigeru… or so they thought. They saw a man who looks like a Japanese rhinoceros beetle, with an S on his chest and emits sparks in his body.

Gangar orders to introduce himself, he replied, “The heavens call, the Earth calls, and the people call… they call me to defeat evil! I am the warrior of justice!” Gangar doesn’t understand what he is trying to say.

Okaay. To begin with, that’s what you call a one-liner. A line you will first say before kicking someone’s ass. In short, he will beat you up. Since it is clear, to everyone to those who don’t understand what “Superman” is trying to say, let’s continue.

The mysterious warrior started fighting the foot soldiers and saw sparks coming out from his body as he chops his enemies. He now then reveals his name; his name is Kamen Rider Stronger. After some short exchanges, he fights the foot soldiers, later, Gangar. But before Stronger was able to finish him, he escapes… but he was followed by Stronger. The two continued fighting. Seeing that his champion will be defeated anytime soon, Master Titan calls for more backup to assist Gangar.

Therefore, a group of foot soldiers riding a motorcycle appears. Stronger rode in his bike and cool motorcycle stunts ensues. After all foot soldiers were defeated, its time for the boss to step up. He was ordered by Master Titan to decorate the hotel’s interior with flowers for their mission. Remember that flower earlier? Yep. They will use that flower. Master Titan then exclaims to himself that Stronger is familiar… very familiar.

We are now brought in a greenhouse. Yuriko was inside the greenhouse and confronted the man who is taking care of the flowers. We then learned that the flower that we saw earlier has poison and it emits toxic pollen in the air. Aside from that, Yuriko points out that Black Satan’s Machinemen can turn into humans.

Now that she reveals his secret, he transforms into Gangar and after evading an attack, Yuriko transforms into Tackle! The foot soldiers arrived, and Tackle started fighting them. After clearing all foot soldiers, she fights Gangar and was defeated. He ordered that she will be hanged in the Satan Dome.

Hanged, Gangar explains their plan. The flowers they cultivate will be send to flower shops around town (Hence, the boat and the truck), once they distribute the flowers, the customer might inhale the pollen and die. Simple, yes, foolproof, yes, that my friends, is chemical warfare back in the 70’s! After learning the whole plan, she reacts about the plan and calls for Shigeru.

Shigeru arrives, pissed and spots Yuriko hanging… and starts acting like a jerk… again. Gangar is about to attack Shigeru and Shigeru decided to call for timeout and explained that he will not win in this form. Pfft. Overconfident. He removes his gloves, revealing an electric coil-like design in his hands, does his henshin pose and becomes Kamen Rider Stronger!

He first saved Yuriko, then fight Gangar… after making his speech and beat the foot soldiers. As they fight, we learned that Gangar likes to spring his body to create a stronger attack. Because of the invisible yet strong attacks Stronger received, he used his Rider Video Signal, one of his abilities to counter him. It turned out that the lower half of his body has a quick release spring on it! Learning the secret, he attacks Gangar and finally, finishing it with his Rider Kick that ended the guy. At the end of the episode, Yuriko is chasing Shigeru with her own bike at the beach.

On to the review, unlike most Kamen Rider series back then, the first episode never explained their origins. That said approach was good, giving us viewers something to expect in the next episode.

Now to the first impressions on Yuriko and Shigeru, Yuriko is the prototype for the female Kamen Rider. She fights like a Rider and not those girls coming from Super Sentai. Even if she fights like a Rider, she still has this feminine charm in her, making her unique in the series.

For Shigeru, I knew about him in the Rider 1-RX TV Special and the Kamen Rider Spirits manga. In the manga, he was someone who is over confident, thinks he is a hotshot and a regular jerk… and it fits in the series! He is like the prototype for Kamen Rider Kabuto’s Souji Tendou except he doesn’t cook and doesn’t quote from his grandma. However, aside that both characters are jerks, and have the same bug motif, they also have a hobby of saying something before fighting. Shigeru is one person I expect to have the most character development considering that he thinks of himself highly. Heck, he even wears a shirt with Stronger’s logo on it!

One thing that I liked between the two of them is that they were rivals and at the same time, friends. That’s one of the things that I liked between the two. Its like they are over best friends but they are not lovers. They have mutual feelings to each other but that’s it. Hope they would develop the relationship between the two in the next episodes.

As for the Stronger suit, I find it awesome and weird at the same time. Seeing Stronger raise his hand made him look like he doesn’t have a neck. The armor looked like he is playing American football. Hope they will explain in his origins why he looks like an American football player. As for the Tackle suit, it looks simple yet at the same time, striking. The suit never made her look like a Sentai female warrior, but more of a female warrior. It is great that we would see her mouth, it gives this certain feminine touch in it.

About him being an electric Rider, it was cool. Seriously, him chopping his enemies with sparks coming out is cool! Also, it seems in the opening theme that Stronger can be an electromagnet, cool.

For the entire first episode, it was good. Like I said, it had a different way of introducing us to the characters. The only think that I hated about the episode is that I never felt certain uniqueness in Black Satan... aside that the name of the organization sounds like a name of a death metal band. I think I will just wait for the other episodes to be subbed to see if Black Satan has something more in store for us.

Overall, the first episode of Kamen Rider Stronger had a different way of kicking off the entire series. Aside that it left the traditional origin story then monster of the week thing, it had a different way of introducing to us the entire cast. Can’t wait for the other episodes to be subbed!