Shin Kamen Rider
Japan | Japanese, English Subtitles
2023 | 121 Minutes
Director: Hideaki Anno
Cast: Tasuku Emoto, Minami Hamabe, Sosuke Ikematsu
With Shin Kamen Rider, director Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion) explores tokusatsu; a Japanese style of television that make heavy use of practical special effects in a live-action setting.
This is the fourth and final film in Anno’s Shin Japan Heroes Universe, following Shin Godzilla (2016), Evangelion (2021) and Shin Ultraman (2022), although Evangelion was an animated film unlike the three others which are live-action. Shin Kamen Rider was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider, and is an ambitious project that has paid dividends. Although Anno is far better known for his animated films, with this being just his third live-action movie, he leaves little doubt as to his skills as a director.
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College student and motorcycle enthusiast Takeshi Hongo was kidnapped by an evil organization called S.H.O.C.K.E.R, bent on world domination using an army of transformed mutant cyborgs, artificial hybrids of human, insect, and machine. Takeshi is a prime subject, being a great athlete and very intelligent — but just before being brainwashed into a killing machine, he’s rescued by Dr. Midorikawa, a Shocker scientist with a guilty conscience. Takeshi now has superhuman powers, but has retained his human soul. He teams up with Midorikawa’s daughter, and together they embark on a rampage of destruction to stop the Shocker invasion. No longer quite human, Takeshi is cursed to fight and fight again for justice, perhaps forever.
Slight spoilers may possibly be found from this point on. Beware.
The strength of Shin Kamen Rider comes from its solid story telling, quirky and fun set pieces and, of course, stunning visuals. Although I felt myself smiling away in the dark through every second of the film, even through the sad bits, there are two scenes that really stood out to me. The first being the incredible battle where Kaimen Rider faces off against Wasp-Aug, which makes brilliant use of motion trails and slick visuals to bang home an epic battle; and the other being an incredible scene that involves a barrage of motorcycles in a magnificent battle that is just too great for words. I’m really trying not to give too much away here… and struggling to do so.
Some of the dialogue is quirky, odd and very entertaining and the character build-up is quite admirable. There are so many films where the audience really doesn’t care about what happens to the protagonist in the picture, because not enough effort has been made in the creation of the build, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth here. Although Kaiden Rider has been around longer than I have been alive, Anno still saw fit to introduce him again, as he does with every other character that stars in Shin Kamen Rider – with perhaps the exception of Scorpion-Aug, who gets the short end of the stick. Sort of.
Whether you’re a veteran of Kamen Rider or along for your first ride, Shin Kamen Rider is a great place to pick up where you left off; or a brilliant starting point. Hideaki Anno has done brilliantly here. I’ll put this out there too; Marvel and DC could learn a whole heck of a lot about creating great films by watching Anno’s Shin series. Yeah, I said that.
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As Anno did with Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman, he has also done with Shim Kamen Rider; and that is to create a glorious piece of film that is both true to the origins of the mighty characters while also breathing fresh life into them, and priming them for yet another generation of fans to adore. A half-century on, and Kaiden Rider is as awesome as ever, thanks to this great new film. After sitting through Shin Godzilla, and then then Shin Ultraman at last year’s Fantasia festival, there was never a doubt in my mind that this would be something special – but I never thought this would be my favorite of the series.
