Kamen Rider BLACK! Episode 18 - Sword Saint Birugenia. Summary/Review

With an episode title that sounds like it could've been a cool spin-off series, this is my summary and review for episode 18 of Kamen Rider Black.  Yeah, it's going to be a special episode indeed.  (Click on "Read More" to read the full article.)

Summary

This episode opens up with the reveal of Golgum's boss, Lord Creation King.  Lord Creation King is pissed off at the Golgum for being unsuccessful with their plans to kill Kamen Rider.  Lord Creation King also isn't happy that the Dark Moon project isn't finished yet. This is where the Golgum become really desperate and so they unleash a bad guy that even they fear.  They feared him so much that they locked him up in a casket.  This is Sword Saint Birugenia and not only does his name rival Lord Creation King in silliness, but he also looks like a spiky version of Pink Guy.

Meanwhile, Kyoko returns home from seeing the museum and tells Kotaro about a mysterious new exhibit featuring a bizarre looking sword and shield.  Kotaro already suspects Golgum activity and dashes off to the museum.  Birugenia knew that Kotaro would want to go to the museum because Birugenia planted the weapons there to trap Kotaro.  Kotaro sneaks around and parkours his way into the building and falls into the obvious trap.  What happens next?  Well, a cute little black kitty cat walks into the room and tries to gouge out Kotaro's eyes.

The black cat morphs into the monster of the week, Black Cat Mutant.  IT'S HENSHIN TIME, BABY!   Kotaro morphs into Kamen Rider Black.  Black Cat Mutant is a bit too fast for Kamen Rider, so Kamen Rider uses his antenia to track down Black Cat Mutant.  Before Kamen Rider could finish off Black Cat Mutant, Birugenia kills the poor puddy cat with his sword magic.  Birugenia beats up Kamen Rider with ease.  Kamen Rider is pretty hurt, but he is alright thanks to him being able to get away thanks to Battle Hopper.

Birguenia is back at Golgum HQ where he is insulting the Golgum while trying to come up with a plan.  Birguenia does come up with a clever plan.  This is a plan that's so clever, so evil, so delicious that it can only be thought up by a cleverly delicious evil mind such as Birguenia.  Birguenia is going to challenge Kamen Rider to a one on one fight.  Damn!  Biruenia is bloody hardcore.  Oh, if you can't tell, I'M BEING SARCASTIC! THIS PLAN IS DUMB AND POINTLESS!

Kotaro returns to home base, but not for long as he hears that Birugenia's sword got stolen.  Kotaro has no time to mend his booboos, so he dashes off to find the sword thief.  What he finds is an incredible sight indeed.  A crazy man is holding a woman hostage, while the police have him surrounded.  The police apprehend the man and the crazy man has no idea what had just happened.  One of the officers picks up the sword and yup, it possesses the police officer.  Birugenia's voice tells the police officer to attack Kotaro and so he does.  Kotaro catches on and flees to a place where there won't be any civilians in harms way.

While Kotaro is riding away on his bike, Birugenia knocks him off and into a graveyard, where they'll be having their epic fight.  Kotaro morphs into Kamen Rider Black and we see a lot of awesome special effects and martial arts.  Birugenia throws his cape at Kamen Rider and this sends him to a mysterious dark world.  (Something that Super Sentai Zyuranger/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would go on to steal.)  Birugenia creates copies of himself and slices and dices Kamen Rider.

Kamen Rider breaks the spell and now has a chance to attack, to which he does.  Sadly, Kamen Rider can't break though Birugenia's shield.  This doesn't matter though because Birugenia gets struck by lightning and flees the battle to live another day. Yup, you've read right.  Lightning comes out of nowhere and strikes Birugenia.  Kotaro goes home and amends his wounds and that's it for this episode.

Review

There's nothing much going on in this episode due to it being one big long introduction for a new character.  That character being the new bad guy, Sword Saint Birugenia.  This wasn't a bad thing though as it was interesting and served its purpose at getting me excited for future episodes.

Birugenia wasn't the only character introduced as we did get to see Golgum's higher up, Lord Creation King.  Despite his silly, silly name, I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in the future.  Although, I'm only expecting rare appearances until the final few episodes.

Speaking of silly. This episode has got to have the most silly of costumes in the series so far.  We've got Birugenia looking like the musician Pink Guy with his pink armor and exposed face.  Black Cat Mutant looks like a rip-off of the Preditor, but with a cats face.  Last of the silly is when we see a man and a police officer get possessed by Birugenia's sword.  They looked like knock off versions of the wrestling tag-team, Road Warriors.  Heck, they came close to looking like me during that time I wore gothic make up.

The action in this episode is really over the top and special effect heavy.  It won't satisfy your martial art needs, but it was still very entertaining seeing what they got away with.  Some of the effects were decent, while others were soo bad that they were good.

Overall, I wished we had a bit more meat to the story, but it did end up being fun to watch.  I give this episode a 6.8 out of 10.