Super Legend God Hikoza (2022)

directed by Minoru Kawasaki

Japan

70 minutes

3.5 stars out of 5

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Me? Reviewing a tokusatsu movie that's less than 40 years old? Strange but true!

So this is one of those lower-budget tokusatsu movies that are made specifically to promote tourism to a smallish town. Kawasaki's managed to spin a whole movie out of the "local hero" concept, but with an added history lesson: the backbone of the plot is Aichi Prefecture's hometown hero (I use this term facetiously, aware that it doesn't begin to convey the nuance of a historical figure who has been respected and remembered for something like 500 years), Hikozaemon Okubo. Okubo served sengoku-era shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, and while he was a real person, it seems like his place in history was largely cemented by storytelling, which eventually evolved into kabuki theater and now into a movie with basically a super sentai mecha in it.

The basic story is... well, it's basic, alright. Hundreds of years ago the guardian of the town of Koda fought against an evil monster and was victorious, sealing himself into the form of a wooden doll to be uncovered when the cycle inevitably repeated and the evil rose again. At the same time, there's a team of scientists working on technology that harnesses latent psychic energy, two of whom find the Hikoza doll and transform into God Hikoza when they both hold it together. God Hikoza becomes the darling of Koda, spending a good five minutes doing stuff like shilling for onsen, driving schools, welding shops, and restaurants, and shaking hands with the mayor.

They have four suits in this thing and all of them are more or less great. The shark person felt unnecessary and looked oddly mole-like rather than shark-like, but the weird golden fish creature was aces. As for God Hikoza, I love me a henshin hero who has to go through stages - think Inazuman - so I think it's very cool that Hikoza has a less powerful form, which it takes when only two people are combining, and then a final form that takes four people to achieve. (The final form is essentially Muteki Shogun from Kakuranger.)

I really admire how this movie can be so self-aware without verging (at least to me) into self-parody. We all know what kind of movie this is, we know what to expect. There's no pretentiousness here because the movie knows it wouldn’t be able to get away with it. The actors seem very aware that they're playing a role, and even when their performances feel awkward or unpolished, it all works with the overall vibe of the movie. It's just a super casual viewing experience. A high tolerance for fun is required. You kind of get this feeling from watching older tokusatsu TV sometimes, but now there's an added layer of self-referentiality.

I have to say also that this feels very restrained for Kawasaki, which is to the film's credit. A lot of his earlier works try too hard to be funny all the time, but Super Legend God Hikoza is fun to watch precisely because none of its goofy charm feels forced. It's not a perfect movie, but it's a good time. Also, I'm pretty sure they got Masato Shimon to do the theme song, which is kind of insane.