#mise en scene
Kamen Rider Black edged further to Ishinomori’s true vision for the franchise of a human turned into a creepy monster by malevolent forces and boy, does the cinematography does it’s job here!
First, we start off at nighttime, a first I believe for the franchise, and we get our establishing shots of our villains. When Kotaro is introduced we get a lot of first person point of view shots and quick cuts between showing his face, his feet, and that POV shot. This heightens the tension and puts us straight in Kotaro’s shoes of being confused and frightened. Even when he transforms to Black, his form is fairly shadowed and when illuminated we only see part of his outfit. When we finally get a good look at the suit in the light, it’s towards the end where the confusion has abated somewhat for Kotaro and he has a a clear path for what he wants to do.
I also want to point out that we get a few bird’s eye views and wide shots that makes Kotaro appear smaller than he actually is. This is done to show how small the character is in the grand scheme and how out of control they feel in their situation. It’s only towards the end of episode one that we start getting close ups of Kotaro and his fists to show that Kotaro is taking back his autonomy.
As for the editing, there is quite a few cuts, in particular jump cuts of Kotaro that speed up his reaction and causing a disjointed experience for the viewer. And to go along with Kotaro gaining a new resolve and purpose, the cuts become more static and sequential.
Overall, the first episode relied less on narration compared to Kamen Rider and wanted to put us in a place on fear and confusion.
