As Kotaku reported earlier this spring, Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno is writing and directing a new Kamen Rider feature film. It’s called Shin Kamen Rider, and the movie’s first teasers give us a good look at how Anno is bringing the character to life.
Only character art had been released prior to this, so these debut teasers give us our first close-up looks at numerous details. The mask, the suit, and the bike have all been tastefully updated and modernized. The music and font are also on point. Everything looks fantastic.
The two teaser trailers are nearly the same. Have look a look:
Part of the cast was also announced on Thursday in Tokyo. According to Livedoor News, Sosuke Ikematsu, who appeared in The Last Samurai and award-winning Shoplifters, stars as bike-riding cyborg protagonist Takeshi Hongo. Minami Hamabe, who played Mia Fey in Takashi Miike’s Ace Attorney adaptation, is Ruriko Midorikawa. The rest of the cast will be revealed at a later date.
Debuting in 1971, Kamen Rider features masked heroes riding cool motorcycles. The lead character is familiar to everyone in Japan, and Anno has said he’s making a movie that can be enjoyed by everyone, fan or not.
Anno grew up a Kamen Rider fan, looking up to the character as a young boy, as did many kids at the time. “I got a lot out of the TV show fifty years ago, and fifty years later, I started this project with the feeling that I’d like to return the favor in a small way,” he said this past spring.
Shin Kamen Rider is the latest in Anno’s Shin trilogy, which are new (or “shin” in Japanese) reworkings of classic Japanese characters. He wrote and co-directed 2016's Shin Godzilla and also penned the upcoming Shin Ultraman.
Shin Kamen Rider is slated to be released in Japan next March. The film’s release was pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has also impacted the release of Shin Ultraman.