Double Riders


 * This article refers to the original two Kamen Riders. For the Rider that appeared in Kamen Rider W. See Kamen Rider Double

The Double Riders are what the first two Kamen Riders are known as collectively.

History
Before being transformed into the powerful hero, Kamen Rider 1, Takeshi Hongo (本郷 猛) was a college biochemistry student. Born in 15 August 1948, he is an intelligent young man with an IQ of 600 who attended Jounan University and enjoyed riding motorcycles. Hayato Ichimonji (一文字　隼人), born 10 October 1949 is a free-lancer photographer, was kidnapped by the organization Shocker in order to become a reconstructed human able to fight the deserter Takeshi Hongo, aka Kamen Rider.

While practicing for the grand prix, Hongo followed a group of bikers who were calling him out, only to fall into a trap sent up by terrorist organization Shocker as they converted him into a super-powered cyborg before he woke up a week later as they were about to complete the process with brain washing. However, Hongo managed to escape Shocker's base by chance due to his college professor Midorikawa, who had been working for Shocker and was the man who selected Hongo to join the organization. The two were pursued by the Shocker Inhumanoid Spider Man and his forces as they hide out at warehouse 55 at the habor. Unfortunately, Spider Man managed to track Ruriko to their location and killed the Professor as Ruriko arrived, blaming Hongo for her father's death before Spider Man took her. Pursuing them, Rider 1 fought through Spider Man's minions before battling the Inhumanoid, killing him with a Rider Kick.

As the Kamen Rider, Hongo battled Shocker's monsters before learning that Shocker recreated the original Kamen Rider cyborg design on Hayato Ichimonji in an effort to combat the threat that Hongo posed to their organization. Hongo helped Ichimonji escape from Shocker, leaving him to fight Shocker as Kamen Rider 2 while he left the country to fight Shocker's other branches around the world. Eventually, Hongo returned to Japan and, as Kamen Rider 1, joined forces with Ichimonji as the "Double Riders" to finish Shocker and then destroy the Gel-Shocker organization that formed soon after.

Kamen Riders 1 and 2 next appeared in the sequel Kamen Rider V3. The titular V3 was Shiro Kazami, a junior of Hongo's, who begged them to turn him into a Kamen Rider after the murder of his family by the Destron organisation. Despite initially refusing, when the young man was mortally wounded assisting them, the two Riders transformed him into Kamen Rider V3, possessing both Kamen Rider 1's "skill" and Rider 2's "strength". The Double Riders were apparently killed detonating an atomic bomb, but reappeared alive and well later on in the series.

The Double Riders would make appearances in most succeeding Kamen Rider TV series, with the exception of Kamen Rider Amazon, Kamen Rider Super-1 (although they show up in the Super-1's movie) and Kamen Rider Black. Kamen Rider 1 would lead the senior Riders once again in the final episodes of Kamen Rider Black RX.

Between Kamen Rider Kuuga and Kamen Rider Kiva, no past Riders appeared in the new live action productions of the franchise. However, in 2009, Kamen Rider 1 reappeared alongside the other Showa Riders to assist Kamen Rider Decade in the movie Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker. Kamen Rider 1 led the Riders from the Showa and Heisei periods in the final battle against Dai-Shocker and, alongside Kamen Rider 2, defeated Dai-Shocker's Ambassador Hell, with help from Kabuto and Black RX. Rider 1 went on to help defeat Shadow Moon and King Dark.

During the events of OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders, the Greeed Ankh unintentionally altered the timeline that enables Shocker to utilize the Core Medal to create the Shocker Greeed. Though Kamen Rider New Den-O attempted to avert the process, the result of the Double Riders' defeat by the Shocker Greeed was not negated. However, a boy trapped in the past Naoki, ensured that Rider 1 and Rider 2 never had their mind-altering surgery completed and played the role of Shocker agents until they have no more need for the charade and destroy the Shocker Greeed before helping Kamen Rider OOO put an end to the Great Leader.

The Double Riders, along with V3, Riderman, X, Amazon, and Stronger teamed up with Double, OOO, and Kamen Rider Fourze. Meteorites fell from space all over the world, carrying a mysterious substance called SOLU. Foundation X moved to obtain it and involved themselves in a battle against the first seven Kamen Riders. Foundation X's Lem Kannagi revealed that he planned to use the SOLU harvested from the meteorites that have been striking the Earth and combine it with the powers of the Zodiarts Switches and the Core Medals in order to eliminate the Kamen Riders so Foundation X can conquer all of humanity. When his plan comes to light, Gentaro Kisaragi and Eiji Hino team up with Shotaro Hidari, Philip, and the legendary seven Kamen Riders to take on Foundation X to save the world. (Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max)

The First
College student Takeshi Hongo is abducted into terrorist organisation Shocker (Sacred Hegemony Of Cycle Kindred Evolutional Realm), at the hands of a cyborg Inhumanoid (Kaijin) known as the Bat. There, he undergoes painful reconstructive surgery, turning him into an Inhumanoid himself. Unlike the original series, he does not escape prior to mental condition by Shocker, and becomes one of their soldiers, nicknamed "Hopper". He carries out a mission successfully, and meets Shocker's Major Agents, including Dr. Shinigami. Hongo receives his orders— Kill those who have seen Shocker's Inhumanoid soldiers. However, what he doesn't realise is that the two witnesses are the journalist who had interviewed him prior to his kidnapping, Asuka Midorikawa (Rena Komine) and her fiancé Katsuhiko Yano (Hassei Takano). Attacking the two along with Shocker soldier Spider, it is here that Hongo remembers his humanity, and has an epiphany with regards to what he should do. Despite his efforts, Katsuhiko is killed by Spider, and Asuka finds Hongo next to the body. Blaming him for Katsuhiko's death, she begins to follow him, attempting to ascertain why who she thought was a normal college student is a murderer.

Meanwhile, at Shocker headquarters, it is revealed that those who undergo Shocker's treatment need periodic blood transfusions, lest they reject their cybernetic components. Though Hongo seems to lack the need for the transfusions, he is labeled a "traitor" by Shocker and must be destroyed. It is here that Dr. Shinigami reveals his plan to create a second soldier based on Hopper's design to do the job. Hongo, having now abandoned Shocker, visits Tōbei Tachibana, who gives him his motorcycle, the Cyclone. He is then able to defeat Spider. Asuka meets Hayato Ichimonji, who is identical to her fiancé, who she thought was dead. He reveals that "Katsuhiko Yano" was an alias. What he doesn't tell Asuka is that he has been kidnapped by Shocker and turned into the 2nd Hopper. His mission: defeat Hongo at any cost.

The film also features a subplot, interspersed throughout. It involves two terminally ill hospital patients, who get a chance to live after an offer by Shocker. The couple is taken to Shocker's island base, where they laugh and play under the watchful eye of Shocker's sinister bird logo. It is only then that it is revealed that this part of the film has been a flashback, taking place around a year ago. The two had undergone the reconfiguration and surfaced in the current story as Shocker soldiers Cobra and Snake, who branded Ichimonji a traitor for failing Shocker by putting his feelings for Asuka first.

Ultimately, the Riders team up after Bat attempts to kidnap Asuka and turn her into an Inhumanoid, which enrages Ichimonji enough to cause him to turn on his former masters. They defeat Shocker's three cyborg soldiers at their island base, but Shinigami and other Major Agents have survived, and they're already in the fashioning of a new base of operations while plotting a new scheme to eliminate Riders, once and for all.

The Next
Two years after the events of Kamen Rider the First, a strange series of bizarre murders occur with the victims mutilated in a most gruesome fashion while pop star Chiharu's "Platinum Smile" is being played, becoming an urban legend. Meanwhile, Takeshi Hongo has become a high school science teacher with a troublesome class with one student catching his attention; a troubled girl named Kotomi Kikuma who was best friends with Chiharu and is worried about her. By the time Hongo and her find a dying "Chiharu", they learn she's actually an imposter as the Shocker Inhumanoid Chainsaw Lizard arrives with the six Shocker Riders to carry out the task of executing Hongo, forcing him to reveal himself in as Kamen Rider Ichigo (1) to Kotomi before escaping his hunters. At around the same time, Hayato Ichimonji is shown still alive but slowly weakening due to his body's rejection of the cybernetic changes which made him Kamen Rider Nigo (2).

The next day, after saving Kotomi from some punks by exposing his physical ability, Hongo accepts Kotomi's offer to help in finding Chiharu by finding her older brother Shiro Kazami, who is the former president of the rising IT enterprise ExaStream, which is tied to the mysterious disappearance of its staff two months prior. Making their way to his holiday home to meet Kazami, Hongo and Kotomi soon learn that he is in league with Shocker as Chainsaw Lizard and the Shocker Riders battle Kamen Rider Ichigo on as Kazami joins the fray as a Shocker Inhumanoid code-named "V3". After chasing down Rider 1 in a high speed chase across the countryside, V3 and the Shocker Riders take down Rider 1 until Kamen Rider Nigo re-appears to cover Rider 1's escape. But after realizing his "sister" was another imposter, Kazami reveals the incident at ExaStream was a Shocker experiment of Nanobots designed to convert all humans in Japan into cyborgs, with him being a survivor of the experiment. The three riders later learn that Kotomi found the other girl, revealing the gruesome fate the real Chiharu suffered as she and her predecessor were involved, horrifying Kazami as Kotomi is telepathically shown the truth of the real Chiharu's final moments as "Chiharu" runs off and eventually is brutally murdered with the manager and the record dealer who were covering up her death as Kotomi uses Platinum Smile to communicate with Chiharu, learning that she's still alive as the "ghost" took its leave.

After Kazami reveals to Hongo that Shocker's foreign branch brought a shipment of nanobots to spread them across the nation, Rider 1 arrives to intercept the convoy while battling Scissors Jaguar, the mastermind behind the Nanobot Operation, with Rider 2 arriving to back him up as the battle brings to the Legend of Gathering in an all out fight for the nanobots. Though the Double Riders were overwhelmed, the tables are turned as V3 arrives to support them. While the Double Riders kill Scissors Jaguar, V3 manages to destroy Chainsaw Lizard and the nanobots before coming face to face with Chiharu, horrifically mutated by the nanobots into a monster as she pleas her brother to put her out of her misery. Though reluctant to do it, Kazami executes the V3 Punch to honor his sister's wish to die rather than live as a monster in agonizing pain. After the Triple Riders escape the burning restaurant, Ichimonji takes his leave to spend his final moments in bliss at a Ginza bar he regulars, while Kazami decides to start a new life for himself. As for Hongo, he is forced to quit his job after a few complaints made for his earlier stunt as Kotomi decides to walk him home. The Platinum Smile incidents seemingly end as the credits roll.

Later, a post-credits scene suggests that, even though Chiharu was finally at peace, the "curse of Platinum Smile" was still in effect.