Shin Kamen Rider (2023)

This movie is such a great love letter to the franchise! It was really so beautifully written and quite action packed. While at times some of the sfx or superfast fight scenes can turn out to be quite anime-like, overall the stunts and battles and story telling still makes you feel so exhilarated and excited to know what happened next.

I know of Sousuke from the MOZU series almost a decade ago, and I had looked forward to seeing him play Hongo in his own image. And I have to say that I wasn't disappointed at seeing the result. Since the behind the scenes had been released way ahead of the screening, I was excited to see the final result on film and it was really great to see how all the shots play out.

With every single reimagination of Rider 1 and Rider 2 stories, it never ceased to amaze me at how unique each version of Rider 1 and 2 turned out to be. This movie's approach to introducing Hongo to the audience was quite different compared to how it was in The First, as well as in original. But I love how refreshing the story felt, even when at the very core of each different Rider 1 and 2, there's still that certain quality that remains the same.

I also love the reimaginations of the five kaijins or Augs, and how they have a different stories behind them... to which we learn how twisted they had become after joining SHOCKER.

The movie somewhat ended with a pretty open ending though, like it felt like there should be a continuation after this. Hopefully there is, because I really like to see more of Anno's reimagination of the Showa riders.

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A Kamen Rider Carrying Anno's Spirit

Shin Kamen Rider is a flawed but incredibly fun movie. The info dumps that come with the story structure can hurt the pacing - Hideaki Anno seems to love scenes of characters explaining powers and lore in long-winded explanations, detailing all the little bits of science that go into his concepts. The structure is also very much akin to Shin Ultraman, feeling like an homage to several episodes in one movie rather than being a movie with a single plot line throughout. However, the music is stellar - either one-to-one pulls or fantastic remixes of songs from the original 1971 Rider series. The fight choreography is fun and exciting, the designs of the villains and the redesigns of Ichigo and Nigo are brilliant. The characters have fun chemistry and all work well together. It is an exciting homage to the franchise.

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