I've just finished watching Kamen Rider Amazons. For some reason, the show tried to look like an old school film while the clarity and cast shows it's new school. I didn't like the color mode used but the writing was so good I didn't mind it that much. It was written by Yasuko Kobayashi who I assume has managed to spring back to a certain extent. This is a mini-series THAT'S NOT FOR CHILDREN compared to the 1975 Kamen Rider season called Kamen Rider Amazon. No, it's not a sequel to Kamen Rider Amazon. I prefer to view it as its own continuity which tries to take the concept from Kamen Rider Amazon to a whole new level of brutality combined with new school special effects. It just isn't your typical Kamen Rider as it deviates so much that it's pretty much its own show.
Kamen Rider during the Heisei era had a lot of nightmare fuel for the first seven seasons. I can't deny how Kamen Rider Kuuga has more blood than Timeranger has. Kamen Rider Agito is full of nightmare fuel in contrast to Gaoranger. But after Kamen Rider Kabuto, the franchise started a shift to lighter and softer due to a change of trends. Amazons on the other hand tries to visit old school fans with a new school show. Kamen Rider Amazon ended up ridiculous due to how the hero rips apart rubber monsters that bleed paint and there's some plots that imply cannibalism. This show presents really open cannibalism. Take for instance that restaurant that serves human meat to vermin. The scene looks more realistic than the cannibal kitchen in the 80s Conan the Barbarian movie. That's not something you'd see even in older, more violent Super Sentai or Kamen Rider in the past, would you?
It has that Resident Evil feel in some way. The Amazons are all people who can mutate and lose their humanity. If you're familiar with Resident Evil, anybody who's infected by the G-Virus needs to be exterminated once they turn into zombies. The show has that kind of nightmare effect. The whole problem of the Amazons was caused by Nozama Pharmacy. I can't really be clear what their motives are. The whole problem is caused by an experiment gone wrong. I can't tell if Nozama is equivalent to Umbrella in Resident Evil. I feel that should also be expanded in the second season to come.
The protagonist Haruka Mizusawa questions about humanity and being an Amazon. He feels not all of them deserves to be destroyed and that some humans are even worse. It does address how wicked humanity can get like when Yugo Tachibana is potentially a more evil version of Dr. Maki (played the same actor, Yu Kamio) which I hope will be focused on in the second season. As the show goes on, struggling between humanity and becoming an Amazon is somewhat explored. One of the protagonists Mamoru ends up eating up Misaki's arm. In the end, the question is still unanswered. Considering that a second season is coming out by next year (giving Yasuko Kobayashi time to gather her ideas) I hope they decide to expand on what's already a darker and edgier plot.
What I want to expand on is Haruka's dilemma, the possibility that Yugo himself is proof humans can be worse or how the whole process can devolve one's mind. So what will become of the second season then?
I guess Amazons' story is what you get when you let an overworked writer like Yasuko Kobayashi get some well-deserved rest AND let her write the show as she sees fit.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of "some humans are even worse," there is also that guy who tied and beat up Mamoru and especially Nozomi to a bloody pulp.
And maybe to people who watched GoGoV, this is a treat for them as Jin Takayama/KR Amazon Alpha is played by GoBlue.
Oh I didn't notice that Jin Takayama had the same actor as GoBlue.
DeleteAs for Yasuko Kobayashi, I just thought her getting overworked was a contributing factor to why Go-Busters and ToQGer didn't meet the potential they could have met. Hirohisa Soda also had that with Fiveman.