Changes: Sokichi Narumi

Revision as of 13:58, 5 June 2013

This article is about a rider in Kamen Rider W.

For the Soukichi Narumi from another world seen in Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010, see Soukichi Narumi (A.R. World).

"Now, count up your sins."

―announcement before battle.^[src]

Kamen Rider Skull (仮面ライダースカル, Kamen Raidā Sukaru) is a Kamen Rider first appearing in Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Double & Decade: Movie War 2010.

Background

Soukichi Narumi (鳴海荘吉, Narumi Sōkichi) was Shotaro's mentor (whom he refers to as "boss"), Akiko's father, and founder of the Narumi Detective Agency in Futo City. While working as a private investigator, he was partnered with a man, similar to his protege Shotaro Hidari's partner Philip, named Seiichiro Matsui (nicknamed Matsu) and had the personal policy of never getting clients in danger. He also provided his childhood friend Fumine Sonozaki (now Shroud) refuge after she was forced to leave her family and take up her new identity. Soukichi gets a job to protect a friend of his and Matsu's, Melissa, who is a singer. She receives a letter from a man calling himself "the Spider Man" (クモ男 Kumo Otoko) , which tells her to sing a specific song. The letter goes on to say that the Spider Man will rate the song on a scale of 1-100 and for every point below 100, he will kill an audience member. After confronting Melissa's agent at the concert, the Spider Man, revealed to actually be the Spider Dopant, attacks the crowd. He gives Melissa 100 points, and no one would be killed. However, Soukichi takes the opportunity to attack the Dopant armed with only the Stag Phone. A young Shotaro is in the audience, and comments in awe of how cool Soukichi is. After returning home, Sokichi talks to Shroud, who is working on the secret hangar (which then housed the SkullGarry). Shroud offers him the Skull Memory and Lost Driver when he asked her for suggestions on how to fight the Dopants. He rejected the gift outright due to wanting to keep his humanity intact.

Soukichi investigates further into Melissa's agent, and at the Agent's house encounters the Spider Dopant again, along with the Bat Dopant and many Masquerade Dopants. Soukichi is almost killed by the Spider Dopant, but at the last second, Shroud arrives and tosses him the Lost Driver, the Skull Memory already inserted. The Driver attaches itself to Soukichi's waist, and he transforms into Skull Crystal against his will. Shroud notes that Skull is still incomplete, but Soukichi resumes his fight with the Spider Dopant and his horde of Masquerade Dopants nonetheless. During the fight, an energy sphere begins emerging from Skull's armor, but its appearance distracts Soukichi and gives the Dopants the upper hand. After receiving a call on the Stag Phone from Akiko, Soukichi gets the motivation to fight off the two Dopants. After seeing the man he assumed to be the Spider Dopant, a man who was supplying Museum with test subjects, killed by one of the Spider Bombs, Soukichi determines that the Spider Dopant's true identity is Matsu, thanks to noticing a quirk in his handwriting appear in a message the Dopant webbed on a wall. Soukichi confronts Matsu and learns his whole reason for becoming the Spider Dopant was because he was madly in love with a singer named Melissa, but she loved Soukichi. He implanted a Spider Bomb in Melissa, and tells Soukichi that the bombs activate when their host touches the one they love most. After infecting not only Soukichi, but most of Fuuto as well, Matsu departs as Spider Bombs all over Fuuto explode.

Soukichi runs after Matsu but is intercepted by the Gaia Memory Dealer, Eren Komori, who transforms into the Bat Dopant. Soukichi transforms into the complete Kamen Rider Skull, and fights the Bat Dopant. Instead of a Memory Break, Soukichi leaves Komori to die by leaving her trapped under a leaking gas tanker truck, which then explodes. He then goes to fight Matsu, and begins counting his sins: how he didn't see the darkness in Matsu's heart, how he hesitated to fight Matsu when the time came, and because of these sins, Fuuto suffered. He then tells Matsu to count his own sins, and the two fight once again. Soukichi ends the fight with his Maximum Drive, but because of the Memory's side effects, Matsu dies.

Despite his crimes, Sokichi still called Matsu his partner. Since the incident, Sokichi took the motto "Now, count your sins!" to heart so that nothing similar ever happens again. Furthermore, the Spider Bomb implanted in Soukichi did not fade after the Spider Memory's destruction. Knowing what would happen if he ever saw her again, Soukichi isolates himself from Akiko to ensure his daughter's safety. After this, Soukichi became involved in investigating cases involving Dopants that the police force could not handle, including the armored car robberies performed by the "Beastman".

Eventually taking Shotaro Hidari as his protege, Soukichi agrees to help Shroud stop the Museum by infiltrating a research facility known as the Gaia Tower with Shotaro in order to find the young man at its center. However, Soukichi is intercepted by several henchmen of Museum. Telling Shotaro to stay put with the suitcase he brought with them (which contained the Double Driver and all of Double's Memories), he defeats them with little effort. However, the men become Masquerade Dopants, and the Taboo Dopant appears. Having no choice, Soukichi transforms into Skull, much to Shotaro's awe. After dealing with the Dopants, Soukichi finds that Shotaro inadvertently sent the young man they were looking for to the crystal chamber used to create Memories at the top of the tower. Soukichi touches the chamber upon their arrival, and enters the Gaia Library, something the boy says only an impressive man could do. Soukichi offers him freedom to find atonement for his part in the creation of the Gaia Memories, naming him Philip after his favorite fictional character, Philip Marlowe. After Soukichi frees Philip from the Gaia Tower and begins to take both him and Shotaro out of the building, he is shot by several armed guards. As he dies, he gives his white fedora to Shotaro and asks Shotaro to become a man worthy of wearing it. It was after the Gaia Tower fell into ruins that Shotaro and Philip, spurred by his advice to continue in his place as Double, learn that Soukichi's body is nowhere to be found.

In Begins Night, Soukichi Narumi and Kamen Rider Skull are among the identities taken by the Dummy Dopant while pretending to be the Death Dopant in a scheme to assume the identities of Futo's upper class members, using Soukichi's form to drive Shotaro off from the case before he realizes the truth. However, Shotaro finally overcomes this and Double ultimately defeats the impostor Kamen Rider Skull. After the case is concluded in Movie War 2010, Tsukasa Kadoya uses a Kamen Rider Skull card he has acquired to summon an iteration of Soukichi Narumi from an alternate dimension, giving Shotaro closure. This Soukichi does not seem to know Shotaro but recognizes the very thing that the real Soukichi wanted of Shotaro: for Shotaro to become a true detective.

Kamen Rider Skull's final appearance is in Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate, where he gives Shotaro his Lost Driver before fading away as he takes his leave, enabling Shotaro to transform into Kamen Rider Joker. The Skull Memory is also one of the 26 T2 Gaia Memories in the film.

Kamen Rider Skull made an appearance in the film Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W featuring Skull: Movie War Core, with his daughter Akiko finding out the full story behind him becoming Skull through one of the Pteranodon Yummy and the Memory Memory.

Kamen Rider Skull

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Skull Crystal

Kamen Rider Skull Crystal (仮面ライダークリスタルスカル, Kamen Raidā Sukaru Kurisutaru) is the incomplete form of Skull that first appears in the events of Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W featuring Skull: Movie War Core. It differs from Kamen Rider Skull's standard form in that the helmet is iridescent and it lacks the S-shaped "crack". Skull Crystal is able to attack by releasing energy from his chest in the shape of a large purple skull that can bite opponents. This form is named after the crystal skulls.

File:Skull00.jpg

Kamen Rider Skull

Rider Statistics

Rider Height: 205cm
Rider Weight: 110kg

Ability Perimeters:

Punching Power: 2t
Kicking Power: 6.5t
Maximum Jump Height: 45m
Maximum Running Speed: 100m/6.3s

With the use of the Lost Driver and the Skull Memory, Sokichi transforms into Kamen Rider Skull. Skull is unique in that besides wearing a white tathered scarf he also wears a white fedora. It is revealed that he was original user of the quote "Now, count your crimes!" (さあ、お前の罪を数えろ！, Sā, omae no tsumi o kazoero!), a quote now used by his successor. Skull's motif is that of a human skull and the letter S. Like Skull Rider, Skull appears to be a homeage to Skull Man, Shotaro Ishinomori's previous creation, who was adapted for the creation of Kamen Rider 1. Kamen Rider Skull's primary finisher is the long range shooting attack Skull Punisher, the Maximum Drive ability of his Skull Magnum. In Skull: Message to Double, Skull is shown to have a second Maximum Driver, known only as Finisher Kick (必殺キック, Hissatsu Kikku), that involves releasing a giant energy skull from his chest, which stuns the opponent and knocks them back before rising into the air. Skull then puts the Skull Memory into the Maximum Drive Slot, jumps up, and does a roundhouse Rider Kick, which propels the energy skull toward the opponent, whom it bites down on. Kamen Rider Skull also appears as one of the Kamen Riders summoned by Kamen Rider Diend's Complete Form and his Gekijouban Card. In this appearance, his Maximum Drive attack is a generic Rider Kick, similar to Rider 1's famous somersault and kick attack, but with a purple swirling energy around Skull's right foot. In Ganbaride, the name of Skull's generic Rider Kick is Silhouette Kick (シルエットキック, Shiruetto Kikku).

Equipment & Ability

Equipment

Lost Driver

Main article: Lost Driver

The Lost Driver is Skull's transformation belt. Sokichi received this from Shroud to combat Dopants easier. It is similar in design to the Double Driver used by Double, except for having only one Memory slot.

Gaia Memories

Skull Memory: The Skull Memory also called the Skeleton Memory is the Gaia Memory used for the transformation into Kamen Rider Skull and for Maximum Drives. When placed in the Maximum Drive slot, it performs a Finisher Kick, and the Skull Memory can also be used in conjunction with his Skull Magnum.

Skull Magnum

The Skull Magnum is a firearm similar to the Trigger Magnum in Maximum Mode used by Double. It is gained through the power of the Skull Memory its Maximum Drive called the Skull Punisher which blasts the opponent with powerful rapidfire shots.

Memory Gadget

Skull, like Double, also used Memory Gadgets, supplied by Shroud, to combat the Dopant threat.

The Stag Phone (スタッグフォン, Sutaggu Fon) is the only existing Memory Gadget in 1999, used by Sokichi Narumi as his primary weapon prior to his becoming of Skull. The Stag Phone switches between Cell Phone Mode (携帯モード, Keitai Mōdo) and Stag Mode (スタッグモード, Sutaggu Mōdo) with the use of the Stag Memory (スタッグメモリ, Sutaggu Memori). When in Cell Phone Mode, it allows Kamen Rider Skull to summon the SkullGarry.

SkullBoilder

Main article: SkullBoilder

Skull also has a modified Honda CBR1000RR motorcycle similar to Double's HardBoilder, but all black in color and with half of the "W" symbol painted silver, to represent Skull's Lost Driver. It is armed with a series of guns called the Universal Launchers (ユニバーサルランチャー Yunibāsaru Ranchā?).

SkullGarry

The SkullGarry (スカルギャリー, Sukarugyarī) is a tank/garage that holds the SkullBoilder. It was created by Shroud and the vehicle later becomes Kamen Rider Double's RevolGarry after extensive redesigning. The SkullGarry only appears in the Kamen Rider Skull: Message for Double portion of Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W Featuring Skull: Movie War Core.

Picture Gallery (Equipment)

Other media appearances

Kamen Rider Skull briefly makes an appearance in Kamen Rider W episode 13 "The Radio Q/Targetted Princess". Soukichi Narumi (portrayed by Kikkawa) makes an appearance in a flashback in episode 10 "The S Terror/The Great Detective's Daughter", as well as in a flashback in episode 31 "The B Carried on the Wind/The Beast Pursues".
During the encore at Koji Kikkawa's concert at the NHK Hall, Kikkawa appeared dressed up as Soukichi Narumi and performed the song "Big Sleep". At the same time, he was joined on stage by Kamen Rider Double.
Soukichi Narumi and Kamen Rider Skull are the main characters in the side-story presented in the "Nobody's Perfect" music video, a song credited to Narumi but sung by Koji Kikkawa. In the music video set during his life and prior to Philip's freeing, Narumi takes on a case of a kidnapping by the Museum of a young girl. He crosses paths with several Masquerade Dopants and the Terror Dopant, fighting the latter as Kamen Rider Skull.

Kamen Rider Skull appears as an Other Rider in the video game Kamen Rider Battride Wars.

Behind the scenes

Notes

Kamen Rider Skull is the only Kamen Rider to have a major role in a Movie War film, but not be a Main Rider.

Portrayal

Sokichi Narumi is portrayed by singer-songwriter Koji Kikkawa (吉川晃司, Kikkawa Kōji). Kikkawa also performs the song "Nobody's Perfect" under the name of his character. As Kamen Rider Skull, his suit actor was Eitoku (永徳, Eitoku). In Skull's appearance in Episode Yellow: Treasure de End Pirates, his suit actor was Riichi Seike (清家利一, Seike Riichi).

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 [[Category:Riders from the past]]
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