My childhood in Brazil was very interesting, during the 90's there was a TV channel that doesn't exist anymore called "Manchete". Their childhood program was very influenced by Japan, lots of different Animes dubbed in Portuguese and also "Tokusatsus". Interesting that this last term I learned after watching a review from a Brazilian about this TV Show available in Amazon Prime. "Tokusatsus" are known as these live-action Japanese TV shows about heroes fighting "monsters", a sci-fi genre that exist in that country. Mostly you can find alien/monsters fighting these heroes.
So I got curiou about Kamen Rider Black Sun, since Kamen Rider Black was one of the Tv shows available on "Manchete" Tv channel in the 90's in addition to Flashman (Choushinsei Flashman in Japanese), Jiraya (Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya) , Jaspion (MegaBeast Investigator Juspion), Changeman (Dengeki Sentai Changeman) and many others. All these TV shows influenced the American version of Tokusatsu, which is leaded by Power Ranger, which I didn't like so much. Anyways, this new Tv show at Amazon Prime is a celebration of 50 years of the Kamen Rider tv show.
It is difficult to remember a lot about the story from the original TV show, what I remembered is that you have this guy that makes some strange poses and get armor similar to a black grasshopper and he has this strange grasshopper motorcycle and he fights monsters that affect the humanity. However, the new Tv show tries to create a more sophisticated history about the monsters and all mythology of the Kamen Rider's world. The monsters in reality are humans that for some reason they can also transform themselves into an animal, including the guy who is also called by Black Sun, the main hero of the movie, which can transform into a black grasshopper humanoid figure. These special humans are called "gaijins", which is a word in Japanese for foreigner or strange person, I just found in google. The Tv show inserted some political and social problems to contextualize. For example, these gaijins suffer a lot of prejudice from the rest of the population, most of them try to live a normal life like the rest of the humans but other humans hate them.
comparision between the traditional kamen rider black in the left with the new kamen rider black sun in the right
The story is a little bit confusing, until the end of the last episode it clarifies a bit, because it keeps coming back to the past showing the rebel group that was fighting for the "gaijins" right which in the end formed the Gorgon party which in the present represents the "gaijins". In that rebel group we can find the two friends, Black Sun and Shadow Moon. The two of them got transformed into "gaijins" after a weird experiments, so Black Sun is a black grasshopper figure and Shadow Moon, a white grasshopper figure. In the first half of the show both of them fight for the same ideal, but Shadow Moon starts to go to another direction. After it gets clarified that the "gaijins" aren't natural , they were born by human greed, and politicians that wanted to make super soldiers, Shadow Moon starts to get sick of humanity and he starts to fight for a world where gaijins control humans, also he got motivated after a death of a young "gaijin" that transforms into a cute bird by human racists.
The two friends fighting
Confusing parts
All the mythology associated with the "great king" was weird. The great king appears since in the beginning as a big "gaijin" that is used to be venerated by the others and a provider of a blue slime that help gaijin to heal. So only in the end they explain about the origin of the "great king" which is controlled by the politicians in most of the Tv show. However, it still a little bit cloudy about this blue slime, how it appears only in him for example. Another confusing part is why if "gaijins" are a biological entity in which humans can transform into animal humanoids, why Black Sun and Shadow Moon get upgraded somehow in the middle, mostly like a mechanical addition, so they turn into animal humanoid cyborgs! Essentially they get a mechanical belt inherited in their bodies (from unknown origin) and they transform into a more mechanical gaijin. And some other things concerned to the stones that transform people into gaijins the story is a bit confusing as well.
Good parts
The main thing that brings a good outcome to the tv show is the nostalgy and the last episode starts very good when the opening they use the original music from the old show and a similar opening with the kamen rider. The last episode starts very good because we know that we are going to have the final fight for the Black Sun, however it disappoints a bit in the ending in my point of view. You just finish the show with a "WTF, that sucks". Another good part or bad for some, is that the show is more adult than the original, you have more realistic "monsters" and also more gore, lots of blood
Conclusion
For those who had similar childhood that I had I recommend a lot this show, but maybe for those who are not used to this type of movie, maybe will see only the bad and confusing parts. Here is the trailer:
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