In 1993, the Kamen Rider series launched a separate and original feature film, Kamen Rider ZO.
Planning for Kamen Rider ZO began in 1992. Because the previous game, "True Kamen Rider Prologue", which used the OV sales method, achieved good results in the sales performance of the video, so it was natural to put it on the agenda when considering a new work that could be picked up.
"True Kamen Rider Prologue", "Kamen Rider ZO", "Kamen Rider J" trifecta
At that time, Toei and Bandai decided to join forces to produce this new Kamen Rider work in the form of a movie. Since the distribution method of the film has been chosen, in order to distinguish it from the previous work, some innovations must be made in the content, so as to attract the audience to come to the theater to watch.
Thus, this new work called "Kamen Rider ZO" was born. This work also belongs to the 20th anniversary of Kamen Rider's birth, so the original title was named Kamen Rider 20.
However, the original author of the Kamen Rider series, Shotaro Ishimori, finally changed the "20" to "ZO", which means: "Z" represents the ultimate, and "O" represents the meaning of the origin.
The director of this "Kamen Rider ZO" chose Yoshita Fumiya, who was only 33 years old at the time.
Yoshita Yunomiya, this guy previously served as a costume guide in the previous game "True Kamen Rider Prologue". Today, he is a well-known Director and Character Designer in Japan. He has participated in the production of many special dramas, especially in the design and guidance of monsters, and Yumiya Keita is full of imagination and talent, which is simply a ghost talent.
Yumiya Keita, who was only 33 years old at the time
Moreover, in the film crew of this work, there are well-known modeling experts in the industry such as Takayuki Taketani and Onitou Eisaku, and the final effect is evident.
The story content of "Kamen Rider ZO" continues the basic mode of "Transforming Man Knight", and the villain is set as a monster of "new life form". The protagonist of the story is a man named Katsuo Aso, who is transformed into a modified lifeform with locust genes as a test object by Dr. Mochizuki. Later, Dr. Mochizuki created the terrible "New LifeForm", and Aso Katsu, after recognizing his own strength, shouldered the responsibility of destroying the "New Life Form".
In the end, "Kamen Rider ZO" was released in conjunction with special theater versions such as Toei's Super Sentai series. The original 90-minute duration was also compressed into 48 minutes.
Because of the length of the film, the story focuses directly on the battle between Kamen Rider and the new lifeform, so that the audience can be given a more intuitive amount of information in a short period of time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > a monster design with a hyper-realistic texture</h1>
The monster design in Kamen Rider ZO is definitely a highlight. Using ultra-realistic models, stop-motion animation and other methods, the monsters in this game have achieved the horror beauty of the ultra-realistic texture.
For example, there is a "spider woman weirdo" in the play, whose half-human, half-spider shape, terrifying face, sharp sharp teeth, and cracked jaw design are particularly strange and exciting.
In order to shoot close-up shots, the crew specially made a model of "Spider Woman Freak". The face has a very realistic skin texture, and the facial features are flexible and movable. During the shooting, many crew members worked together to manipulate the joints of various parts of this large model.
Early design drawings of Spider-Woman and Bat Freaks
The full-body scene of the battle between "Spider-Woman Freak" and Kamen Rider ZO also adopts a stop-motion animation shooting method. Although it seems to be a sense of simplicity in today's view, it is undoubtedly very outstanding in an era when CG special effects were not widely used. The horror effect of "Spider Woman Freak" in the play is shown below.
Also well-designed is a monster called "New Life form". The "New Life Form" was created by Dr. Wangyue, soaking in the body pool to maintain life, but awakening himself in the process of growing up, calling Dr. Wangyue "Daddy".
The design of the "new life form" takes the appearance of a human child as the main part, the whole body is green, and the surrounding attachment part adopts a viscous and complex winding structure, which is very similar to the "living internal organs". It shows a newly born, living, underdeveloped design concept.
Early design drawings of the "New Life Form"
Such a distinctive "new life form" certainly has a stunning performance in the play. The dynamics are shown in the following figure.
The "new life form" can absorb the surrounding material and become a strengthened form, Dras. Duras has super regenerative abilities and can also regenerate with matter, and is the main villain in the story.
After Dras absorbs kamen Rider ZO, he can also temporarily become a more powerful form, Red Dras. The redder's body is red , and the insect-like eye and mouthpart designs are more pronounced.
As the protagonist, Kamen Rider ZO, the texture of the knight's holster pales in comparison to the monster's sophisticated holster.
Kamen Rider ZO is a modified human born in the series dr. Mochizuki who combined human and locust genes for the sake of experiments on new life forms. The head is based on a locust and the body is dark green. However, its insect-man characteristic performance is the most concise in the play.
Judging from the visual effects design of the above characters, the production of model props and other items in this game is actually very delicate. Although it is a leather jacket special drama, the sense of wearing of the leather jacket presented on the screen is also greatly weakened. In particular, the outer layer of the strange man's leather jacket has been covered with a layer of wet, viscous liquid texture, which increases the realism of the living body.
However, this is also due to the fact that "Kamen Rider ZO" is a theatrical version, which does not need to share the cost of each episode like the TV feature version, and can spend money and energy on the blade.
After the release of "Kamen Rider ZO", it finally achieved a good box office and word of mouth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="67" > the end of the story</h1>
Although "Kamen Rider ZO" is only a short 48 minutes, the plot is relatively simple, but the ingenious special effects design is indeed a major highlight.
This weird, magical style is very personal to the director and designer. The shape of a ghost movie is also difficult for the children who watched in front of the screen. I don't know if you've ever been afraid?
Kamen Rider ZO crew