Kamen Rider OOO (2010 - 2011)

This is going to be a weird one.

Written by Yasuko Kobayashi, Kamen Rider OOO is the twenty-first entry in Toei's long-running Kamen Rider franchise created by Shotaro Ishinomori in 1971. OOO centers on a drifter named Eiji Hino. A tragic incident in his past left him empty and he's returned to Japan in his continuing mission to find a purpose in life. Elsewhere, a pair of thieves break into a museum and remove the seal on an ancient tomb containing metallic creatures known as the Greed. Sealed away eight centuries ago, the Greed create monsters called Yummy that are spawned from human desires and the Yummy start wreaking havoc among the populace. Detective Shingo Izumi is first on the scene, but he is fatally injured by the Yummy. Hino tries to come to Shingo's aid, but he is nearly killed himself. Suddenly, a severed arm calling itself Ankh appears and gives Hino a mysterious belt that turns him into Kamen Rider OOO. As OOO, Hino defeats the creature, but when he returns to the detective he finds that Ankh has taken over Izumi's body. It turns out that Ankh is a Greed whose revival was incomplete. He offers to help Hino destroy the other Greed to save the city if Hino helps him become complete and so begins a long, complicated series filled with intense action and complex emotions.

 

The Greed

Kamen Rider OOO is from the post-Decade era of the Heisei Kamen Rider entries. I point this out because the post-Decade era Kamen Riders tend to be lighter in tone, have more comedic elements, and some interesting and at times very strange changes to the Kamen Rider formula. When I first saw Kamen Rider OOO, I bailed after the first five episodes because it was so different from what I was used to, but I gave it another go recently and I'm glad I did because it's not until episode seven that the show hits its stride and starts to shine. The gimmick or motif of Kamen Rider is sometimes a major thematic part of the series, sometimes it's only minor. OOO is a case of the former. Medals play a huge role in OOO. As the Greed's themselves are aligned with a particular element so are the medals they need to become complete. This longing, this need to be whole is the major driving force behind the actions of our villains.

Good combo. Good combo.

These same medals are used by OOO to transform and different combinations thereof allow OOO to obtain different forms. OOO can mix and match elements, but a set of three creates a combo which gives him tremendous power in combat. OOO unlocks a number of forms throughout the series and so the fight scenes are always entertaining. Also, the Greed are often at odds with one another so it's not uncommon for infighting to lead to a medal ending up in OOO's possession or in possession of another Greed. The war over these medals is the central conflict and while there's your atypical end of the world looming on the horizon, the apocalypse is also dependent on who controls these medals. We turn to Kamen Rider OOO's characters which are a peculiar mix of the strongest and weakest elements of the series.

Hino Eiji/Kamen Rider OOO

Shu Watanabe plays Hino Eiji/Kamen Rider OOO. He has a tragic past, but he has a good nature and he wants to save everyone who might be in jeopardy. Unfortunately, that's essentially all he is. He's your standard good guy. You can insert most other Kamen Riders in Eiji's place and you probably wouldn't miss him. He's not a bad character, there's just little if anything that is unique about him. He often puts himself in dangerous situations due to his messiah complex which the other characters deconstruct over the course of the series in order to try and curve his recklessness, but even that isn't unique to Eiji and is something of a reoccurring character trait for many Kamen Riders. Sure your average Kamen Rider places the needs of others above themselves, but that's what a hero does. They often have other character traits to go along with that. Eiji is essentially a trope and not much else. Fortunately, there is a diverse cast of characters with strong, and at times strange personalities.

The beginning of the end.

Miura Ryōsuke pulls double-duty as the phoenix Greed Ankh and as detective Izumi Shingo and he acts circles around the entire cast. Ryōsuke plays two characters whose personalities are at opposite extremes. Shingo is kind-hearted, altruistic, devoted to the people and very loving towards his sister Hina. While Ankh - being a Greed is selfish, violent, angry and relentless in pursuing his objective. Ankh is even more unstable than the other Greed, because he is literally unstable. The other Greed revived in an incomplete state, but with their bodies intact. However, something went horribly wrong for Ankh and he only exists as an arm. The only way he can even survive is in the body of Izumi Shingo who would be dead were it not for Ankh possessing him. Ankh is in a situation where he is not only weakened, but he has to rely on the humans he despises to not only survive, but achieve his ultimate objective.

There will be hi-jinks.

The power struggle between Ankh and Hino is a defining aspect of the series. Ankh keeps possession of the medals which Hino needs to transform. Without the medals, the rider belt is essentially useless. Without Ankh Hino doesn't have the means to save people, but at the same-time Ankh doesn't have any way to become complete unless Hino chooses to help him. Both characters use the power of OOO as a bargaining chip which creates some intense conflicts as our hero's greatest foil is also his greatest asset. Easily my favorite character in this series, Ankh is a dangerous wild card throughout. From the very first episode to the last, Ankh is a powerful, wonderfully complex character and Miura Ryōsuke's performance sticks with you long after the series has ended.

 

Loving through pain.

Model/actress Riho Takada plays Izumi Hina - Eiji's love interest and Shingo's younger sister. While she initially starts off as your annoying (atypical) Kamen Rider female lead, she displays  a lot of depth and personality once she finds out what's really going on. Hina loves her brother dearly and she's heart-broken by what's happened to him and profoundly disturbed by Ankh. While she's initially suspicious of Eiji she gradually develops feelings for him, but this causes her no shortage of pain. She doesn't like seeing Eiji put himself in danger, but she needs him to help Ankh so that Ankh leaves her brother. And while Ankh's very existence unsettles her, Hina needs Ankh to stay with her brother until they can find someway to make Shingo well again. She finds herself using both Eiji and Ankh even though she doesn't want to. Eventually she becomes so attached to them she doesn't want to lose either of them, but she knows she has to.

 

Kamen Rider Brotherhood

Brotherhood is another theme of Kamen Rider OOO and Shintaro Goto (Asaya Kimijima) and Akira Date (Hiroaki Iwanaga) round out the rest of a compelling cast. Shintaro Goto is a former police officer and isn't thrilled that a civilian like Hino is Kamen Rider OOO. Initially it seems as if Goto is an elitist who is jealous of Hino, but this isn't the case. Rather, Goto is concerned that in being untrained and inexperienced Hino might be putting himself and the general populace in danger by playing superhero. Then you have Akira Date (I call him Big Chicago) who is older and wiser than the rest of the cast. Despite his youthful and carefree appearance life has been hard, but his experiences have given him sage-like wisdom. He serves as an older brother figure to the others. He teaches Goto and Eiji not only how to be heroes, but how to be men. He also teaches Ankh to change the way he looks at his situation.

I hate it when that happens.

The series isn't perfect. Apart from Ankh the Greed are all your run of the mill tokusatsu villains. You have the mad scientist, the hot head, the manipulator, the weird one, and the token female. Their forms may have changed, but you've seen these villains in other shows. I talked about the medals earlier in the review and this is another issue. The heroes and villains essentially play hot potato with these medals throughout the series and while I understand this was to prevent Eiji from becoming a boring, invincible shonen hero, it does get predictable and even outlandish at times when Eiji unlocks a powerful form, uses it for a few episodes, then loses the medals to the Greed. The tone can be uneven as well. Often times during a tense scene there will be humor inserted at the most inappropriate time. When things get serious there's nothing wrong with lightening the mood, but when a character "dies" and everyone is distraught and that same character turns out to be "just fine and was only kidding" it creates this really weird, uneven tone as though the writers don't know what they want to do with a scene.

Jackpot?

Kamen Rider OOO isn't the strongest Kamen Rider series. It has a lot of small problems that add up over-time. Some of the tropes, cliches, and some pacing issues might turn away people unfamiliar with tokusatsu. I had a lot of fun with it after the show hit its stride and the ending really stuck with me. If you've never seen a Kamen Rider series I'd recommend something from the Showa or early Heisei eras as I tend to prefer the old school, but Kamen Rider OOO is still a good time.