RTMI: Kamen Rider G
Hello everyone! The name’s Ruby Knight – a cosplayer, otaku, tokusatsu fan and a new addition to the Otakultura team! For my initial post, I’ll be reviewing a special Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) special that’s taken for granted – Kamen Rider G.
It’s actually a special one-shot episode done by Toei with the help of TV Asahi and Ishimori Productions (the production outfits behind the Kamen Rider franchise). It was featured on the TV show SmaSTATION (SMAP’s show) on January 31, 2009. It served two purposes – one, to celebrate TV Asahi’s 50th year; and two, to act as a promotional piece for Kamen Rider Decade (the 10th Heisei Rider series).
The story is all about a sommelier named Goro is a sommelier (wine critic in layman’s terms) who got kidnapped and brainwashed by a terrorist organization named SHADE. SHADE’s leader, the eyepatch-bearing Tokugawa Seizan is in prison and one of the high-ranking officers named Daido Oda stage an attack on the TV Asahi studio. Goro, in turn, is included in the assault party. Daido demands that Seizan be released in two hours. If the deadline passes and he is not released, they threaten to shoot a hostage every minute.
Meanwhile, Goro’s love Eri recognizes her and tires to make him snap out of it, but to no avail. Finally, she gives him a glass of wine which he drinks. A flashback scene occurs and Goro’s memory comes back. He changes clothes from the SHADE uniform to a semi-formal one, complete with a white coat to match. They try to escape through the station’s rooftop, beating up some SHADE soldiers along the way, but Daido (who already transformed into Phylloxera Worm) blocks their way. Goro holds him off by gunfire, but his enemy is far too powerful. Daido throws the sommelier to the ground, but he manages to survive. Some soldiers come in to finish him off, forcing him finally transform into Kamen Rider G and defeats his enemies (who also turn into Worms).
With the hindrances gone, he chases Daido who has Eri hostage in a helicopter. Eventually, he rescues Eri at the cost of his own bike. The final showdown happens in an abandoned factory where the helicopter crashes. Daido becomes Phylloxera Worm once more and Kamen Rider G is about to lose hope. But lo and behold, look who appears! All the Heisei-era Riders, from Kuuga to Decade appear right behind him and motivate him to fight as the “Kamen Rider of Love”. Upon hearing this message, G stands up and fights. He does his finishing move afterward, the signature move that made the Kamen Rider franchise popular – the Rider Kick. Daido expires, but not without saying that the fight is not yet over. Eri gains consciousness and sees Kamen Rider G leaving. The entire special ends with an unmasked Goro standing on top of a building looking at the sunset, promising to fight evil before he returns to his love.
Being a fan of tokusatu myself, I noticed three details about this show with respect to other tokusatsu shows. First, Daido’s monster form Phylloxera Worm appears after this as a villain in Kamen Rider Decade. He plays the antagonist in the episodes where Decade is in the world of Kabuto (Kamen Rider Kabuto’s setting). Second, many familiar tokusatsu actors also appear in this special. An example would be the test subject in the beginning of the movie. His role is played by Kohei Murakami, who also plays Masato Kusaka (Kamen Rider Kaixa) in Kamen Rider Faiz. Kenji Matsuda (Kamen Rider Hibiki’s Zanki) and Mitsuru Karahashi (Kamen Rider Faiz’s Snake Orphenoch) also appear as SHADE members.
I personally believe that this special deserves to be remade into a full-blown series. Its motif is centered on wines, from G’s henshin (transformation) belt inspired from a corkscrew, his weapon modified from an (oversized) sommelier knife to his use of alcohol-related metaphors in his language. The stories behind SHADE and how they came to be have some potential to be expanded since they were introduced in the opening part with only a small amount of detail. What appeals to me the most is that they starred SMAP’s Goro Inagaki in a lead role. I see this as some sort of big break for him, since I only noticed his fellow SMAP member Takuya Kimura getting lead roles in Japanese shows. Moving on, I also liked how they portrayed Kamen Rider G as a Rider, especially the fact that he can take out four Worms in one blow. However, the only thing that the viewers see regarding his background comes only from a single flashback – the time before he got kidnapped.
I can only see two low points in this special. First one would be that Kamen Rider G left its audiences hanging. It was a good story, with good use of special effects that shows the beauty of the tokusatsu genre – thus my opinion on it to be remade into a full-blown series. Secondly, Tokugawa Seizan (the true main villain) only gets limited screen time and gets under-utilized as an antagonist character. He exudes a mysterious aura that wasn’t much elaborated on, given Kamen Rider G’s nature of being a special. His exceptional calmness, as seen in how he sits in a meditative fashion in his cell, belies some kind of power. I wish that they maximize Seizan’s capability if ever they do a remake.
To end this, Kamen Rider G is not bad for a tokusatsu one-shot. Good story, good characters and good use of the theme made this show appeal to me; therefore I give it a Rasen Rating of 4/5
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamen_Rider_G
Tags: Ishimori Productions, Kamen Rider, kamen rider g, Review, RTMI, SMAP, special, Toei, Toku, tokusatsu, tv, TV Asahi
