Ever since tackling Japan’s largest export with 2016’s Shin Godzilla, Hideaki Anno has been dead set on give virtually all of his childhood influences a stark, yet ultimately faithful, face lift, thus creating the Shin Japan Heroes Universe alongside Shin Ultraman and the continuation of his revered series, Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon A Time.
Rounding off this selection of Mecha, Kaiju and alien marauders is the final entry of Shin Kamen Rider, a big screen adaptation of the 70s TV show that saw a grasshopper-helmeted superhero right wrongs from the back of a funky motorcycle.
Giving the material the same, hard-edged visuals that once gave us a Godzilla that squirted blood from its gills, but still retains the ability to embrace the high camp that comes naturally with the cheese of a fifty year old Japanese TV, Anno has seemingly delivered yet another accentric love letter.
We join Shin Kamen Rider already in progress as a helmeted biker tears down a county road with a young woman as his passenger while being chased by sinister black vehicles and the rider – like us – is brought up to date while on the run. His name is Takeshi Hongo and he was a motorcyclist who was kidnapped by an evil organisation named SHOCKER (Sustainable Happiness Organisation Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling) and transformed into a synthetic animal hybrid dubbed an Augment. However, once made into an “Aug”, Hongo’s brainwashed personality was restored by former SHOCKER agent Ruriko Midorikawa who has turned against her morally questionable former employers. Given the abilities of a Grasshopper means that Hondo is super-strong, has incredible leaping skills, but presumably can’t make a chirping sound when he rubs his legs together – you can’t have everything, I suppose… Hot on their trail are SHOCKER troops led by another Aug spliced with the abilities of an arachnid who is unsurprisingly named Spider-Aug and who can spit webs and grow extra arms to choke his prey. At the climax of the chase, Hongo discovers that not only is his abilities been based on that of a grasshopper and is powered by Prana – a type of Lifeforce – but he was created by Ruriko’s father for SHOCKER to be his masterpiece.
Still with me so far? Good, because we’ve got a long ways to go…
Joining the government and renaming himself Masked Rider, Hongo and Ruriko stsets trying to dismantle SHOCKER’s various insane plans to ensure happiness for the human race at any cost (even its destruction) by taking out the various other Aug agents that are dotted around. However, after locking antenna with such bizarre mutants such as Bat-Aug, Wasp-Aug, Scorpion-Aug and a super-crazy Aug gifted the twin powers of a praying mantis and a chameleon, it turns out the greatest threat may be from somewhere close to home as Ruriko’s brother emerges as the all-powerful Butterfly-Aug with the intention of sending humanity into a hell-dimension. On the other hand, help from an unexpected source may prove to ultimately save the day, but at a great cost.
If I’m being honest, I much preferred the big swings and original vision of Shin Godzilla than the crowed, chaotic fan-worship of Shin Ultraman, chiefly because a lot of the former will doubtless be lost on you if you weren’t a reverential fan of all the previous incarnations. For a lot of it’s running time, Shin Kamen Rider feels like it’s going to be more of the same with endless references to the various versions of the show that’s ever existed. Be it the various sound effects lifted directly from the orginal show (the sound of Hongo’s mask coming on and off will now no doubt haunt me in my sleep) or the fact that large swathes of exposition and characters are haphazardly explained in either static conversations or in the midst of a furious, aerial fist fight or absurdly exaggerated vehicle chase. The deliberately episodic feel is obviously meant to mimic the serialized adventures of the various different versions of the show and is similar to the rather ADD style plotting to Shin Ultraman. But while the Shin adventures of that particular Japanese favourite got suspiciously repetitive, Kamen Rider manages to beat this effect by being aggressively weird with almost every aspect of its story. The actors are all trying to find that impossible sweet spot between throwback camp and gravitas that, if played wrong, could feel as confusing as Adam West playing Batman for Christopher Nolan and the action sequences don’t even attempt to try and acknowledge realism in the slightest and yet travelling with Shin Kamen Rider proves to be quite the fun, if baffling, ride.
Anno’s dedication to the source material is total and his stubbon refusal to fully update the character’s look may result in a hero who runs around in a long coat and a novelty crash helmet with antenna on it – but obvious the love the director has for the property is tangible on a near microscopic level. For a start, lodged within the loopy action of Masked Rider popping skulls like he’s going for a world record, the movie also heavily leans into a more sensitive side of the film and comments on themes of death, self sacrifice and fighting for the greater good when Hongo (constantly troubled by the violence he inflicts) isn’t getting the soles of his shoes wet by using his patented flying kick finishing move on whomever so deserves it. Also, even when the movie loses you in some of its impassioned outpourings of inpenetrable lore (which happens more than once) there’s always an utterly bonkers thing coming alone in a minute to keep you glued to the screen. Be it the slinky Wasp-Aug, whose lair invokes the funky/sinister nature of Danger: Diabolik, to the endearingly ridiculous sight of the nattily suited Bat-Aug, who spews dastardly laughter and chews the scenery like a pro while flapping about the place with all the dignity of a moth who can’t find an open window.
However, the movie truly finds its centre with the arrival of Hayato Ichimonji, the second Masked Rider, which chucks an additional theme of brotherhood into the mix that proves to be the most affecting. In fact, in a movie that contains as much animal/hybrid goings on as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, its genuinely strange that the importance of the Kamen Rider’s scarf proves to be not only a major character point and truly moving, but is quite the fetching fashion statement for a hero who can crush a head like a melon.
A definite improvement on the equally strange Shin Ultraman, but a step behind the radical innovation and political digs of Shin Godzilla, Shin Kamen Rider injects new life into its battle-tested, cult franchise the same way it makes you care for its grasshopper-powered, motorcyclist as he frets about humanity while impaling flamboyant insect people with his feet.
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