Shin Masked Rider

Produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider and the fourth and final film? In Hideaki Anno's Shin Japan Heroes Universe.

Epic Kamen Rider adaptation with stellar cast and production quality. The questionable campy style, pacing and editing confused me a lot. The story didn't had any anchor or fleshed out characters for emotional weight. Also the ending was sad and depressing and thus disappointing for my personal taste.

Produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider and the fourth and final film? In Hideaki Anno's Shin Japan Heroes Universe.

Epic Kamen Rider adaptation with stellar cast and production quality. The questionable campy style, pacing and editing confused me a lot. The story didn't had any anchor or fleshed out characters for emotional weight. Also the ending was sad and depressing and thus disappointing for my personal taste.

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.

This is coming from a non-fan, better known as normie: I think it's pretty enjoyable to watch from start to finish because the movie almost didn't give me room to breath like, dude it's full of action from the Toho logo to credits! Since I'm a non-fan, the things that bother the original fans so much pass me by like wind through canyons, so hey feel free to roast me if you want. CGI didn't bother me that much like in Anno's previous two shins, I mean I could still catch what's going on. Practical effect done rightfully even brutal in some parts, like blood splattering all over the place. I wonder if Anno already had plan to make another shin series of another Japanese IP after this. Shin-Super Sentai anyone?

7.5/10.

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".

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.