This weekend, Toei Company aired the season premiere of the 32nd entry in its long-running Kamen Rider series: Kamen Rider Revice. Designed to celebrate the franchise’s 50th anniversary, with the first season airing in 1971, Revice is very much an anniversary show. The first episode of Kamen Rider Revice featured Minoru Suzuki as a guest character. Suzuki is best known for his work across Japanese wrestling organizations including Pro Wrestling NOAH and, more recently, New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Suzuki is also among numerous wrestlers to have appeared in Kamen Rider programming; other names include Hiromu Takahashi, Hirooki Goto, and Hiroshi Tanahashi.
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The plot of Kamen Rider Revice is as follows: Ikki Igarashi, a young man who runs a bathhouse with his family, forms a pact or “contract” with a demon. This is done to protect his family, as well as the world, against a group of demon worshippers known as The Deadmans. With the use of the Revice Driver, Ikki and his demon ally, Vice, become Kamen Riders Revi and Vice. In the first episode, Minoru Suzuki, who plays a criminal named Tomoyuki Harada, reluctantly forms a pact with a demon that causes havoc. Together, Ikki and Vice put an end to the threat.
As stated earlier, Minoru Suzuki isn’t the first wrestler to be featured on Kamen Rider programming. For instance, Hiroshi Tanahashi, a longtime fan of the series in his own right, has appeared in everything from music videos to video game commercials to films. In terms of the latter, Tanahashi performed in the Japanese action film known as Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid & Ghost with Legend Riders. In this film, Tanahashi was among the various antagonists that the heroes overcame. Tanahashi has also been perhaps the most openly expressive regarding his love for the franchise, often donning attires inspired by Kamen Rider suit designs and adopting the signature pose of Kamen Rider Kabuto, the 16th entry in said franchise.
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