Shin Kamen Rider

Shin Kamen Rider is a fun kitschy throwback to the1970s style tokusatsu genre, a meta re-telling of the Kamen Rider origin story, as part of his Shin Japan Heroes Universe tribute series.

Shin Kamen Rider is a silly piece of nostalgic cheese that might not be for everyone. Hideaki Anno's straight-faced direction will come off as a quirky spin exclusively for fans who grew up on the old Kamen Rider shows. However, first-timers may feel completely alienated trying to get in on the joke.

At its two-hour runtime, the script is episodic, equivalent to roughly four 30-minute episodes on TV, each complete with its villain.

The deadpan acting style that Hideaki Anno has maintained through these 3 Shin films remains an odd choice; the actors seem to be performing experimental theater or in a Yorgo Lanthimos film.

Every feeling the characters have is blatantly stated out loud, and as a result, the film feels more told than shown, focused on the plot, not the characters. I don't recall the acting in old Tokusatsu shows being this way, so it's not a matter of tribute. It's as if Anno is stripping these established cultural icons to their bare skeleton and just presenting them through chilled museum glass.

This cold bland performance style does work better here for Kamen Rider than in Godzilla or Ultraman. Anno builds in quiet meditative moments of the Kamen Rider contemplating his power and responsibilities that worked well. If deconstruction was indeed Hideaki Anno's goal, this is the closest he's achieved it.

The magic kicks in during the action sequences. The old-school special effects, monster makeup, and the theme song all work together and in these short moments, I was whisked away back to my childhood. It was a simpler time when watching actors don silly masks and fight stuntmen dressed in rubber monster costumes on TV was sufficient entertainment.

Once it gets going, it doesn't matter that it's cheesy, the effects are shoddy, or that Kamen Rider uses the same technique to finish off the monsters every time. Those moments are quite fun.

Everything else in between, however, is quite the endurance test.

I have to admit that I wasn't harboring any expectations at all when I sat down to watch the 2023 Japanese superhero movie "Shin Kamen Raidâ" (aka "Shin Masked Rider"). I was only familiar with this movie by its title and from the mask worn by the main character. However, I haven't seen the Anime, so I am not really familiar with this character or the universe in which the story takes place.

However, I must say that a movie such as "Shin Kamen Raidâ" is somewhat of an acquired taste, and I think you need to be Japanese and having grown up with these type of strange superheroes in order to enjoy their movies. I found very little entertainment in the script that writers Hideaki Anno and Shotaro Ishinomori had put together. And I made it about 50 minutes through the 121 minute runtime, and then I just tossed the towel in the ring. I had found nothing enjoyable in the movie, and it was quite a struggle to keep focus on what happened on the screen, as I just simply didn't care one bit about the story or the characters.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but I am sure that the actors and actresses put on good performances. I just didn't take a liking to the character gallery in "Shin Kamen Raidâ".

Visually then "Shin Kamen Raidâ" was an okay movie. Not top of the line special effects, but definitely good enough.

My rating of "Shin Kamen Raidâ" lands on a three out of ten stars. And having made it 50 minutes through the ordeal, I can honestly say that I am not returning to attempt finish watching "Shin Kamen Raidâ".

As the third of "Shin-" series, it is safe to say this title is much better than "Shin Ultraman" but way less developed than "Shin Godzilla" in terms of story, character and most importantly, relevance to the originals. My expectation had been low mainly because of the heart-broken experience in the disastrous parody of Ultraman by the multi-titles-holder Anno, thus the first sequence in this film surprised and even betrayed me a lot in a good way. Visual character designs are retrospective but fresh (almost as always), and battle scenes are exciting and speedy even though some parts are unrecognizable to see what is going on. If you can swallow some obnoxious fetishized scenes (a strong and straightforward woman& quiet but justice boy, rustic and long wordy scene, smell of woman for example) as his authenticity, it is recommendable.

Yesterday evening when I discovered this was having an unauthorised (and I'm fairly certain illegal) screening at my local cinema this afternoon, my jaw hit the floor, but I am far from complaining. While he left our beloved Shinji Higuchi to handle directing duties on Shin Ultraman, Anno focused his efforts on Shin Kamen Rider and it's very much cut from the same cloth as its predecessors. Fast, stylish, cartoony and oh-so-charming, it opens with action and never slows down, not even afraid to fully embrace the camp and horrific qualities of its source material.

I'll admit this is the tokusatsu property I am least familiar with (at the time of writing I've seen ZO, J, Shin Prologue and, more substantially, Den-O and Fuuto PI), but even to a more casual fan of the series, you can easily follow what is ultimately re-imaged episodes of the original show stitched together into a movie. I'm yet to watch the original but the number of side-by-sides I was seeing on Twitter after clips of it were leaked, shows that Anno really does take pride in his childhood influences.

Hyped stylised like the previous Shin movies, there's some very overbearing and pretty redundant CGI in places where practical effects would have been preferable and even cheaper, but it fits the same tone and energy of its predecessors. Anno's direction is great and features the same variety of angles and strange composition choices that make these so visually engaging. The hyper-choreographed fight scenes also help immensely, unafraid to go all the way to 11 with squishy violence.

With regular Anno collaborator Shiro Sagisu committed to Shin Ultraman, in steps Anime composer Taku Iwasaki and boy, does he do a stand-up job. I'm definitely gonna have to get the soundtrack to this the moment it's released, so many styles of music all coming together in a seamless blend of beauty.

While I ultimately feel that Shin Ultraman is the best of these Shin movies so far, Shin Kamen Rider is a very close second. Anno goes hell for leather here, amounting to a beautiful love letter to one of the grandfathers of Tokusatsu, having fun but not poking fun and fully embracing his inhuman worldview he's only ever touched upon in previous movies.

The movie starts pretty strong, with a good fighting scene and the introduction of the Shin Kamen Rider who basically pays homage to the original Kamen Rider from 1971. Sadly, after the strong start, things started to go downhill slowly. The plot became cringy and the fan favorite Kamen Rider was more of a secondary character since they were focusing a lot on someone else.

When it comes to the fighting scenes, they weren't good, it's like they were inspired by animes like Dragon Ball Z and Nartuto, it doesn't sound too bad, but the CGI felt like I was playing a few years old PC game. Was it really that hard to make good fighting scenes like in the other Kamen Rider movies and shows?

The cast, the acting, the costumes, the bikes and the music were great, and the kid from The Last Samurai is actually our Kamen Rider.

Unfortunately, I wish I did something better with my time, compared to Shin Godzilla, the movie is a huge letdown. I'm giving it 5 stars because of the nostalgia factor and the positive things i mentioned above. It really pains to give such a low score to a Kamen Rider movie.