Okay, so for those of you that haven’t seen the original Japanese TV series from the 70’s nor any of its countless manga adaptions, let’s start with the basics. There’s this dude, Takeshi Hongo, who just loves riding his motorcycle all day, but an evil organization called SHOCKER kidnaps him and turns him into a brainwashed augmented half-man half-grasshopper killing machine called Grasshopper-Aug. Their goal? World domination of course! It’s run by an Artificial Intelligence with a pretty skewed view on happiness, believing all humanity would reach a state of nirvana when ruled by their augmented superiors. But one of its agents, Ruriko, sets Grasshopper-Aug free and runs away with him… on his motorcycle of course! Behold: the Masked Rider is born! Together they will fight the company and the hordes of augmented insectoids that are sent out to recapture them: Spider-Aug, Scorpion-Aug, Wasp-Aug, you get the idea. Meanest of all? Butterfly-Aug, incidentally Ruriko’s brother, who casts the souls of his victims to an infernal dimension where their prana energy fuels his ever-growing strength. Will Masked Rider be able to defeat him and save all of humanity?

Yes, it’s silly stuff, a bit like an extended big-budget Power Rangers episode with added Buddhist mysticism, but director Hideaki Anno (SHIN GODZILLA, the EVANGELION anime series and films) is visibly having a ball with the material. The costumes, camera techniques (zooms!) and sound design are a loving throwback to the 70’s, with surprisingly gory fight scenes! For adult kids only.