Post by Igadevil on Jul 13, 2004 5:29:50 GMT -8
(I still haven't gotten the smilies to work yet, so this post is going to sound a lot more serious than it should. *LOL)
Yesterday I went to Hamamatsu, which is a little under halfway between here (Nagahama) and Tokyo, via Shinkansen. A short bus ride from the station takes you to Hamana-ko Paru Paru ("Hamana Lake Pal Pal"), this neat little amusement park, where you can take the ropeway (or cable car) across part of the lake up to this neat mountain area and get a nice view of the entire place. (for more about it, check out the website: palpal.entetsu.co.jp/ . Sadly I wasn't there for any of the shows, but I might try to get back for the Blade one!)
So what's so special about this place? Well, it was used in in the last two episodes, #97 & 98, of the original Kamen Rider series! (My favorite one, as if you didn't already know!) Having only seen the place before in a 30+ year-old TV series, it was quite a thrill to see it in its current state.
Several significant scenes in the episodes were shot here;
Ropeway- In episode #97 Hongo & Taki ride up on one of the cars to get up to Gelshocker's base atop the mountain (where there's a museum in real life). You can actually see the Pal Pal park in the way-off background, and now it looks pretty much the same save for a very big ferris wheel and some other stuff. Later on Rider 1 fights Revived Gani-Koumoru on top of one of these cars, as it moves up and across the lake!
Pal Pal- Used during the big brawl in episode #98, where Rider 1 & 2 fight a bunch of Gelshocker henchmen before fighting Hiru-Chameleon (Black Shogun's mutant form) himself atop a moving roller coaster (one of the coolest fights in any Tokusatsu series ever, IMHO!) The coaster itself unfortunately seemed to have been taken down (probably due to age, it's been replaced by a more contemporary version) but a lot of the background rides and things are still there, including one of those merry-go-round-like swinging things (hard to describe, but I took lots of pictures that will get on the net next month!) among other stuff.
Mountain (It's got a name, I'm just too lazy to look it up) - This is where Black Shogun's dramatic final scene was filmed. I actually saw the rock that Hiru-Chameleon attempts to blend in with (only to get a Rider Double Chop, you can see a small pic of the scene on my webpage under the Double Rider Combat Techniques) and it was interesting how much the area around it has changed (it was almost barren in the show, whereas now it's all overgrown with trees.) Being in the place where one of my favorite Rider villains went kaboom was indeed a powerful moment.
Afterwards, I hopped on the bus again and went a little ways south to Murafushi, which is a nice little town known amongst original series addicts like myself as....(drum roll) Gelshocker's HQ! Yes, after a grueling hour or so walk (thanks to getting off at the wrong stop) I reached the shoreline of of the lake, where the final battle between the Double Riders and the Revived Gelshocker Kaijin army in episode #98 was filmed. I saw the road where Hongo & Ichimonji get ambushed and do their iconic double Henshin. I saw the roadside stair case where Ei-Dokuger gets booted in the face by Rider 2. I saw the beach where Rider 1 & 2 chuck Mukade-Tiger into the air (a pic of that move also on my webpage) and you know, since they're the Double Riders, he gets blown up real good. Of course the *actual* Gelshocker HQ interior where the big boss himself appears was a soundstage probably somewhere in Tokyo, but in the story anyways, this was the place, and as I looked out over the lake, I could just imagine it being there somewhere beneath the waves.
I've had a lot of memorable moments on this trip, but this one will probably be the most significant to me. In a lot of ways, even though this little trip had few actual encounters with anything Rider-related (aside from the Gashapon figures I bought and the CDs I picked up at Hamamatsu station) the entire time I couldn't help but think about how I was walking on where a small but significant part of history had been made. Significant as far as Kamen Rider goes, because the last episode was also the highest-rated!
One thing I did find funny though, was that when Hiru-Chameleon gets kicked out of the coaster by Rider 1, he lands close to where that rock is on the mountain. In the show, a simple quick cut makes it look like he just tumbles out and falls onto the ground. But in real life, he would have had to fall up a couple hundred feet to reach that location. Oh well, that's the magic of editing!
"Rider Double Kick!"
Yesterday I went to Hamamatsu, which is a little under halfway between here (Nagahama) and Tokyo, via Shinkansen. A short bus ride from the station takes you to Hamana-ko Paru Paru ("Hamana Lake Pal Pal"), this neat little amusement park, where you can take the ropeway (or cable car) across part of the lake up to this neat mountain area and get a nice view of the entire place. (for more about it, check out the website: palpal.entetsu.co.jp/ . Sadly I wasn't there for any of the shows, but I might try to get back for the Blade one!)
So what's so special about this place? Well, it was used in in the last two episodes, #97 & 98, of the original Kamen Rider series! (My favorite one, as if you didn't already know!) Having only seen the place before in a 30+ year-old TV series, it was quite a thrill to see it in its current state.
Several significant scenes in the episodes were shot here;
Ropeway- In episode #97 Hongo & Taki ride up on one of the cars to get up to Gelshocker's base atop the mountain (where there's a museum in real life). You can actually see the Pal Pal park in the way-off background, and now it looks pretty much the same save for a very big ferris wheel and some other stuff. Later on Rider 1 fights Revived Gani-Koumoru on top of one of these cars, as it moves up and across the lake!
Pal Pal- Used during the big brawl in episode #98, where Rider 1 & 2 fight a bunch of Gelshocker henchmen before fighting Hiru-Chameleon (Black Shogun's mutant form) himself atop a moving roller coaster (one of the coolest fights in any Tokusatsu series ever, IMHO!) The coaster itself unfortunately seemed to have been taken down (probably due to age, it's been replaced by a more contemporary version) but a lot of the background rides and things are still there, including one of those merry-go-round-like swinging things (hard to describe, but I took lots of pictures that will get on the net next month!) among other stuff.
Mountain (It's got a name, I'm just too lazy to look it up) - This is where Black Shogun's dramatic final scene was filmed. I actually saw the rock that Hiru-Chameleon attempts to blend in with (only to get a Rider Double Chop, you can see a small pic of the scene on my webpage under the Double Rider Combat Techniques) and it was interesting how much the area around it has changed (it was almost barren in the show, whereas now it's all overgrown with trees.) Being in the place where one of my favorite Rider villains went kaboom was indeed a powerful moment.
Afterwards, I hopped on the bus again and went a little ways south to Murafushi, which is a nice little town known amongst original series addicts like myself as....(drum roll) Gelshocker's HQ! Yes, after a grueling hour or so walk (thanks to getting off at the wrong stop) I reached the shoreline of of the lake, where the final battle between the Double Riders and the Revived Gelshocker Kaijin army in episode #98 was filmed. I saw the road where Hongo & Ichimonji get ambushed and do their iconic double Henshin. I saw the roadside stair case where Ei-Dokuger gets booted in the face by Rider 2. I saw the beach where Rider 1 & 2 chuck Mukade-Tiger into the air (a pic of that move also on my webpage) and you know, since they're the Double Riders, he gets blown up real good. Of course the *actual* Gelshocker HQ interior where the big boss himself appears was a soundstage probably somewhere in Tokyo, but in the story anyways, this was the place, and as I looked out over the lake, I could just imagine it being there somewhere beneath the waves.
I've had a lot of memorable moments on this trip, but this one will probably be the most significant to me. In a lot of ways, even though this little trip had few actual encounters with anything Rider-related (aside from the Gashapon figures I bought and the CDs I picked up at Hamamatsu station) the entire time I couldn't help but think about how I was walking on where a small but significant part of history had been made. Significant as far as Kamen Rider goes, because the last episode was also the highest-rated!
One thing I did find funny though, was that when Hiru-Chameleon gets kicked out of the coaster by Rider 1, he lands close to where that rock is on the mountain. In the show, a simple quick cut makes it look like he just tumbles out and falls onto the ground. But in real life, he would have had to fall up a couple hundred feet to reach that location. Oh well, that's the magic of editing!
"Rider Double Kick!"
That shouldn't be for a genius kaijin! 
