Time to talk about one of the most famous Dark Riders of the entire series, Shadow Moon, Kamen Rider Black’s rival and one of his biggest, if not the biggest enemy he ever faced. Shadow Moon is a great antagonist to the Black series, instead of being simply a evil doppelgänger, he has his own unique design, with a silver armor and green eyes, which are a great contrast to the hero’s black suit and red eyes, fitting well for two characters that are opposite as the sun and the moon. And unlike the Shocker Riders who only appeared for a couple of episodes, Shadow Moon remains as one of the main antagonist for the majority of the second half of the Black series, where the series starts to go great from the moment he shows up. Note: I am only going to talk about the Japanese series, I am not going to talk about Donais from Saban’s Masked Rider.
But before I get into his story, I need to clarify an important fact about both Shadow Moon and the Shocker Riders, Toei don’t consider them to be Riders, as much as they are considered as Gaijin, the monsters the Showa Riders often had to combat. It’s because during this period only the main heroes were considered officially as Riders, and even through Shadow Moon & the Shockers Riders were similar to the heroes, they were still villains that usually never got along with the heroes, so they weren’t much different from the monsters and evil generals the Riders fought. The Dark Riders would start to appear more often in the Heisei & Reiwa Era, when the series took more liberties with the concepts and mythos. But still, from my point of view, I do consider them Dark Riders, since both of them have the same type of powers as the heroes and are pretty similar to them as well. And I feel it’s important to address Black Moon, especially regarding his role in the Black series, since he is a great part from it.
In Kamen Rider Black, Nobuhiko Akizuki is the adoptive brother of the protagonist Kohtaro Minami, both born in the same day during a solar eclipse. During their 19th birthday, they were abducted Gorgom, since they were chosen to be the candidates to become the new Creation Leader. Both brothers went an alteration procedure, with Kohtaro receiving the Stone of the Sun Kingstone & Nobuhiko receiving the Stone of the moon. Kohtaro managed to escape and started to fight Gorgon’s mutants as Kamen Rider Black, while Nobuhiko fells into a deep coma due to the procedure, still under Gorgon’s clutches. He would remain unconscious for the next 30 episodes, until he was forcibly reawakened by the high priests, and his mind was altered so Nobuhiko become an ally to the Gorgons and was turned into Kamen Rider dreaded nemesis, Shadow Moon.
As I said earlier, Kamen Rider Black was already a good series, but it started to go great once Shadow Moon appeared. It’s a big tragedy that Kohtaro’s biggest foe was also his dearest kind brother he respected and cared about, and now he became an arrogant, cold, and merciless tyrant that was obsessed in defeating Kamen Rider Black. Also, the plots starts to gain a much greater sense of scale and peril, now that Shadow Moon takes a more relevant role in the story as one of the main antagonists. And as the episodes goes, the emotional conflict between these two brothers and the build-up to the sad realisation that the two brother must fight to the death is the heart of this series. This is one of the best hero-and-villain dynamics the series has offered.
And it’s not just a tough emotional battle, as well as a tough physical challenge. Shadow Moon’s physical capabilities exceed Gorgom's followers, making him almost as strong as Kamen Rider Black. Besides, he possesses other mystical powers and weapons at his disposal, being able to teleport, create energy beams, posses others, summons weapons, and even cheat death. It’s also said he Moon’s Kingston’s grants him immunity to changes in the timeline. He also wields the powerful Satansaber, a blade so powerful that could defeat the Century King himself. In the short movie Kamen Rider World, Shadow Moon was shown to able to turn into a giant, using the Kingstone to absorb J Power, similar to Kamen Rider J.
Shadow Moon would return in Black RX, to fight his brother once again for a couple of episodes, as well in other movies, such as Kamen Rider World, OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders, Super Hero Taisen & Super Hero Taisen Z, again taking the role of a villain. An alternative version of him appeared in All Riders vs. Dai Shocker, known as Nobuhiko Tsukikage, the butler of Tsukasa’s family and one of the main antagonists of the movie. Tsukikage seems to have earned Shadow Moon’s powers though Dai-Shocker's advanced technology. He also is capable of reverting back to his human form, unlike the original Shadow Moon.
Also, in the film 3D Battle from Ganbaride shown at theme parks, it was featured a new form for the character knows as Red Shadow Moon, a form attained once Shadow Moon becomes the new Creation King. Red Shadow Moon is capable to turn giant like in Kamen Rider World and summon an army of shadows of himself. This form would appear again in later games and even stage shows. He is also serves as the final boss of Battleride War Genesis.
In the S.I.C. Hero Saga “After 0”, it tells the story of what happened after the finale of Black RX, showing a final confrontation between Kohtaro and Shadow Moon, now returned as White RX (Another RX), the Black RX’s equivalent form of Shadow Moon, powered by the moonlight. Kohtaro fought White RX in his Black form, however during the fight, Another RX pulls out his Kingstone and becomes the Creation King, Another Shadow Moon, similar to his Red form. It turns out that the fight between Black Sun and Shadow Moon was to determine which body would be most suitable for Gorgom’s ruler, the Creation King to use, which the King somehow ended up in Shadow Moon’s body. It’s revealed that inside of Another Shadow Moon’s armor is just a skeleton with a beating heart, for the remains are being controlled by the will of the Creation King itself. Then the wounded Kohtaro turns into his Black RX form without his Kingstone and faces the Creation King one last time and defeats him. Later, Kohtaro wakes up, wondering if it was all real or just a dream.
His latest incarnation appeared in the reboot series Black Sun, with the same name as the original. As a child, Nobuhiko was transformed into the Silver Locust Kaijin using one of the Kingstones, being a candidate to succeed the Creation King, along Kotaro. In 1972, he and Minami joined Gorgom, but Nobuhiko was imprisoned by the Three Priests after the group split. After escaping in the present, he gathers like-minded Kaijin under him to kill the Creation King and overthrows Gorgom, evolving into Kamen Rider Shadowmoon, this version finally receiving the moniker of Kamen Rider.
