Open your eyes for the Kamen Rider 555 Retro Review! Join Ethan as they take a look back at this, now two decade old, show to see how it stands against today’s standards and entertainment values.
Recap
Smart Brain, one of the world’s most powerful tech companies in the world, is actually run by Orphnochs: humanities next stage in human evolution, creatures born from death given life again with new powers. As part of their plan to take over the world with the Orphnoch King, a being of immense power that will help them in a number of ways, the war between the Orphnoch and humans is brewing. Takumi Inui, a young man, is drawn into this conflict when he dons the Faiz Gear, made by Smart Brain to save a young woman called Mari.
The Bad
I can’t talk about a series written by this man without opening this section addressing the most divisive thing about this series… This is peak Toshiki Inoue, which is not always to everyone’s interest. Kamen Rider 555 is a very soap opera feeling show, at times, with the character drama arising from conflicting ideals and less “there’s a clear villain we need to hit so hard they explode.” By modern comparison, Kamen Rider 555 is what you would get if Avataro Sentai Donbrothers was a soap opera and not a comedy and, if you don’t understand what I mean or did not like Donbrothers, I don’t know if this season will be your kinda thing.
On the subject of how this is a soap opera, one common criticism of this series I’ve seen for years at this point is that “no one talks to each other” which, is just not true; they talk a lot, they just don’t have any reason to each other everything. There are multiple occasions early on where secondary protagonist and horse Orphnoch, Yuji Kiba, and Takumi Inui interact with each other while not transformed, forming a friendship all the while really hating each others transformed selves. Neither share that “they are being attacked by this Orphnoch because they are actually Faiz/an Orphnoch that’s not following Smart Brain” because both don’t want to drag people who they believe are civilians into this conflict. It’s dramatic irony, not miscommunication.
For the final part of this section, some personal gripes. First of all, I really don’t care for Blaster Form, it feels like a movie form they were told to put into the main show by someone on high. It was never enough to make me knock any points off the series but I will say I’m happy there’s no Next Faiz Blaster. I feel like its absence from the anniversary movie is telling. Also, Kamen Rider Delta is just jobber gear, hyped up as the most powerful of the three Rider Gear sets and only ever seems like it when being used by its first user; a villain who gives it up because they got bored. Kamen Rider Delta? More like Kamen Rider Fraud.
The Good
There’s so much to unpack with this series. Its characters and themes are all so dense with so many layers it’s hard to do them all justice in this one article and trying would easily triple the word count. At the very least, for Masato Kusaka a.k.a. Kamen Rider Kaixa, I can send you to MetiNotTheBadGuy’s amazing video analysing him:
Who knows ,maybe a sudden post in support from all of us may see more videos from him covering tokusatsu heroes in the future.
Besides Faiz giving you a lot to think about with pretty much all of its characters, I just want to also shout out the beautiful suits: simple and sleek with the coloured piping that lights up during night time shots. Amazing. No notes, just incredible looking stuff.
Additionally, the cast are fantastic with all giving great performances. It’s always great to see casts of shows genuinely love their time on it and jumping at the chance to come back, like is the case with the cast of 555.
The Conclusion
You might look at the length of each section and conclude that I don’t like Faiz, you would be very wrong. The latest movie might be my personal favourite instalment of the series but all the rest of it is great in its own right and well worth going through. I may find Toshiki Inoue Rider works to be somewhat hit or miss, this definitely lands more than it misses. If anything, I don’t believe I would rank Kamen Rider 555 over something like Kamen Rider Ryuki but some of the characters would absolutely be right up there.
I enjoyed my time with Faiz and I think it’s well with checking out for yourself now to end off, I’ll leave you with this.
What do you think about Kamen Rider 555? Did you go watch that video essay like I told you to? Whatcha think about that? Do you agree with me about Blaster and Delta? As always I’ve been Ethan: Writer, reviewer and Wolf Orphnoch for The Toku Source and I’ll see you next time!
