REVIEW: Shin Kamen Rider — The Movie Only Hideaki Anno Could Make
All images via Shin Kamen Rider’s official trailer
Of all the defining works Hideaki Anno has successfully subsumed into his unofficial Shin Japan Heroes Universe, Kamen Rider is arguably the most personal. If Shin Evangelion is viewed as an ending that reflects on Anno’s journey as a creator and battles with depression, Shin Godzilla reframes the monster’s fearful origins in the specter of 3.11, and Shin Ultraman reimagines the hope the icon offered while being co-opted as a PR boost, Shin Kamen Rider feels different.
Perhaps because Kamen Rider itself is a far different beast in the eyes of Anno. The franchise started in 1971 as a relatively dark tokusatsu hero compared to his contemporaries. Concept designs by mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori imagined an intentionally darker hero while partially designing the series as a horror story beyond its heroic, action-heavy appearance. This was about a hero charting a bright future from a dark beginning, understanding justice along the way as a more morally-gray type of hero.
In the original series, both Kamen Rider and the Shocker enemy organization were even cut from the same cloth, having only just escaped from the brainwashing of the evil organization whose in-universe characters held ties to the Nazis. There was bold action, but there was heavier subject matter as the series pontificated on the idea of justice itself, and the bumpy road to understanding it and following that path.
It’s important to understand this when discussing Shin Kamen Rider as it is with this mind that Anno crafted the world of this new film. In conversations about this series, he brought up an anecdote that the horror aspects were part of what fascinated him about the series as a kid, and having watched the series on a black and white TV, it was the striking imagery of the bug-like eyes of Kamen Rider’s mask in the darkness that he remembers most strongly. This darkness amidst the fighting, the hope, and the search for justice, is the key to unlocking this film.
Without build up, the movie opens with Takeshi Hongo kidnapped by Shocker and transformed into the mutant cyborg we recognize as the titular Kamen Rider. Before the transformation is complete, however, he escapes with the help of a woman called Ruriko Midorikawa. As he fights to protect Ruriko and escape from Shocker, we see the shocking power of Hongo’s new strength in a rather brutal attack against the troops sent against them, punching and attacking the group until they die in spades of blood.
It’s a moment that instantly shocks an unsuspecting audience just as much as it does our protagonist, and sets in motion a story of understanding how and when to fight for justice when you have the power to do so. Much of the rest of the story aims not to tell the rise and takedown of Shocker, but instead a moment for Hongo as the Kamen Rider to come to terms with and understand his role as someone with the power to fight back and protect those in need.
We see people murdered in cold blood by Shocker as Hongo is repeatedly both the victim and perpetrator of the violence inflicted on screen in the name of rebellion against their evil schemes. Just as we see blood stain his hand in that first strike against the group’s nefarious deeds, we see Hongo use those same hands to fight for his idea of justice in spite of it all. This choice between justice and injustice, on whether to continue fighting, knowing that to do so risks not only physical harm but the reality of living with the psychological harm of knowing the pain you inflicted upon others, sits at the core of Shin Kamen Rider’s central thesis.
If the choice of justice is the heart of the film, so sits Ruriko as the arbiter of said choice. Their role is not merely some bystander, but a character who inflicts the choice upon the characters she interacts with. SavingHongo means giving him a choice to fight back against his kidnappers. Providing information to fight against Shocker means a choice on whether to act upon it. Later too, her interventions give a choice to others for what side of justice they wish to fight for, with mixed results.
As in the original series, the moral question on how we define justice and who can inflict it sits at the core of Anno’s work, elevating it into far more than a mere nostalgic love affair for a childhood favorite. Let’s not be confused about what Shin Kamen Rider is, however: this is very much Anno’s long-awaited opportunity to play with his toys on an unlimited budget. As a massive fan of the franchise such as him, one who used his work on the live-action Cutie Honey film to create an action sequence in Tokyo Bay heavily inspired by the series, he will do what he can to include as much fanservice and respectful nods to the series he loves as possible.
This means bringing back Spider, Wasp and other Shocker troops, recreating fight scenes from the original, including all Kamen Rider’s iconic moves and taking any opportunity to put in a cheeky Rider Kick with an admittedly more brutalizing twist, swatting enemies out of the sky with a blood-splattering impact. Costumes for both friend and foe are very much modified for this new film while paying direct homage to the original designs — the fact Anno kept the bike and costume designs as close to the originals as possible despite thefar darker interpretation is no mere coincidence.
Yet this film never feels bogged down by such fanservice, as it ultimately never stops drilling at this all-important thematic core that made the 1971 series so fascinating in the first place. What is justice? Can you kill for justice, if necessary? Does being good and fighting evil automatically make you righteous, even if you overstep and commit criminal acts in order to achieve this? How can you get revenge without subsuming to anger? The ultimately righteous tone of exploring these questions never loses the moral ambiguity that has always stood at the heart of this franchise.
Thanks to this, Shin Kamen Rider is the only way Hideaki Anno could have approached making this film. More than being representative of the fans or the character, the Kamen Rider we see on screen is the Kamen Rider that Anno witnessed on blurry black-and-white TVs as a child. The film’s an entertaining experience, especially for the fans, yet I feel the biggest fan of all will be neither me nor you, but one particular kid living in the south of Japan in 1971.
Alicia Haddick is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. If they aren’t watching anime or way, way too many movies, they’re probably outside taking photos or listening to their favorite idol groups. You can find them sharing their other work on anime, gaming and films and rambling on just about anything over on their Twitter account @socialanigirl, or on Letterboxd.
