Kamen Rider Kuuga: A Uniquely Good Scare Written With Naruhisa Arakawa As Its Head Writer

Kamen Rider Kuuga in itself should be viewed as a very important entry of the Kamen Rider franchise. The 1990s had the problem of trying to revive Kamen Rider but the best it could do were movies but not actual series. Shogo B'Stard's entry on Kamen Rider Shin did inspire me to at least try and check the movie out. Then I remembered way back when I wrote about seven highly nightmare-fueled Heisei era Riders. Kuuga was the ambitious reboot of the franchise and Kuuga means "empty shell". You can tell the show was a reboot that practically gave you no references to Shocker or the Great Leader, a new way of writing which didn't automatically click with me (and back then, the first ones I saw from start to finish were Kamen Rider Den-O and Kamen Rider Decade), I found Kamen Rider Ryuki to be rather unusual at first or how Kamen Rider Blade was compared to a telenovela in its writing format. Kuuga should also be noted for one thing - it was also Naruhisa Arakawa's first writing job. Right now, Arakawa in 2020 has become a major writer for the lighthearted Mashin Sentai Kiramager which I felt like, "Why didn't Toei pick him up to write ToQGer instead?" Though, Kuuga was quite different from the typical Arakawa fare. With Arakawa was important contributor Toshiki Inoue (though I felt he should've been given more Mirai Sentai Timeranger episodes) as well as Tyuyoshi Kida (who's pretty much hit or mess and was the writer of Kamen Rider Hibiki's first half and Kamen Rider Wizard's head writer), Kei Murayama, and Kiyoshi Takenaka.

If you haven't seen Kuuga then you may have first seen Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger first. Maybe, you haven't really known that Arakawa was the writer of some of Chojin Sentai Jetman's weaker episodes such as the infamous Dryer Jigen episode. I also find Arakawa's Dairanger episodes with Shoji to be rather weird in contrast to what Inoue and Kunio Fuji offered with their character stories (Demon Boxer Jin and Kujaku). Also, Arakawa during the 90s was probably trying to find his sense of identity though he did well with writing a good portion of Denji Sentai Megaranger. However, for anyone who, like me, is a casual fan (and yes, I only knew Kazuo Niibori through Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger) - I found it hard to believe Kuuga was mostly written by Arakawa! Take note that Arakawa also wrote one episode of Kamen Rider BLACK - the one where Bilgenia tried to break Kotaro's faith in humanity. Hmmm... I only knew that YEARS LATER. 

So, let's do a big comparison of how Kuuga differed from most of Arakawa's later works. If you do some research - do realize that Arakawa's later head-writing tasks were Abaranger, Dekaranger, Gokaiger, Akibaranger, and lately Kiramager. Kiramager in itself is obviously not meant to be super-serious even with the appearance of the bitchy Yodonna. Sure, actress Nashiko Momotsuki was from GARO VS. ROAD but Kiramager is lighthearted. Kuuga, on the other hand, is ANYTHING but light-hearted. The show itself has generous amounts of blood and deaths - something that you didn't really find much in Kamen Rider Zero-One which can be viewed as another reboot. Zero-One was more lighthearted. Kuuga in itself was frighteningly ambitious.

A dangerous game that doesn't care who dies

The villains are pretty much ditching the nonsense typical supervillain plans. Instead, they start to play the game called the Gegeru. The Gegeru seems to be Toei's spin on the R-18 Predator franchise with the Yaujta's coming of age. So, I'm wondering when will Toei ever make another spin-off the Xenomorphs for Tokusatsu? Kabuto did it but cross-bred them with the Harvesters from Independence Day. Frieza from the Dragon Ball franchise did have his third form inspired by the Xenomorph. The Grongi is an ancient civilization that can transform into monsters. They all spoke a language that can't be easily deciphered. In fact, even the people watching Kuuga back then had to deal with an unknown language called the Grongi language. It took some years before the hidden messages (which some of them contained spoilers) were unearthed. The Grongi would speak their hidden language (which was nothing more modified Japanese) when they were together while they spoke Nihonggo when wrecking terror in Japan. They could blend into human form. There are so many of these guys blending in and the police is powerless. 

Some older fans could argue that Kamen Rider BLACK was also pretty mature. Though what set aside the Grongi from the Gorgom priests is this. The Gorgom priests were always stuck in their unbelievably convoluted plans that fans love about Tokusatsu. Yup, who can remember almost every unbelievably stupid (yet scary) plot of the Gorgom priests? In the case of the Grongi - they were up to a quota that would kill them if they didn't meet it. They wore some kind of abacus that may have predated the Chinese abacus centuries earlier in this world. The monsters of the week would provide different challenges that would extend each one by two episodes. The Grongi monsters would find creative ways to reach their murder quota. The suspense is really there. Can you imagine if the Grongi were real, you were expecting to meet someone, and that someone DIED because of a Grongi attack? What adds to the scare factor, even more, is that the hero Yuusuke Godai as Kuuga doesn't automatically learn his new forms or he has to use objects to create weapons. Kuuga has to really get creative with a time constraint, he has to learn what he can do, and try to develop it while the fate of Japan (and the rest of the world) are in his hands as the hero of the show. 

Not to mention, N-Daguva Zeba doesn't fall short of being a complete monster either. He has a frightening air that actually makes you glad that the Great Leader doesn't return except for mostly non-canon movies. Daguva's main aim has been to take over the Earth by the Grongi and a world a violent place only for the fittest. He even kills hundreds of other Grongis off-screen deeming them unfit for his new world. He only had ten episodes but he certainly still was frightening enough to make you dread that he would finally appear. I feel the way that he was carried out as the hidden, not always there main antagonist was more frightening than how the Great Leader of the Showa era was carried out. Take note that there's no way he's the Great Leader. Not making him the Great Leader of the Showa era made him all the more unique. Sadly, his concept was wasted in that still oh-so-dreadful Super Hero Taisen movie as a Great Shocker general than leading it. Though, I still love how (canonically) he will always be one of the scariest villains. Just feels so unusual how Arakawa's later villains like Dezumozoryla, Abrella, and Emperor Ackdos Gill were never as scary as this guy!

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Although the show is already 20 years - I'd still recommend at least try watching it and forget about the abomination A.R. Kuuga (Yousuke ONODERA) from Decade. Sure, I'd probably still rant it out how I actually still prefer Kamen Rider Agito over this but this show is an interesting spin. It would be a good lesson to learn how Arakawa once got into darker and edgier before he found his identity in writing mostly lighter and softer. Though, I wonder is the toning down of Toku something having to do with newer Japanese censorship laws?