User Reviews

Warning, this review will affect the way you approach watching this film.

First off, this movie may not be what you expect. This is a not a campy film with tons of "Gillu" guys fighting and monsters. As you have seen in the trailer, Kikaida is modernized and is ferocious-looking. Yes, Hakaida is back and is just as menacing. Your favorite characters are here but they are very different characters. Gone is the slap-stick comedy and instead we are treated to a visualization of Kikaida that is actually pretty deep. The "conscience circuit" is more important than ever and affects Kikaida in ways you might not expect.

I've seen this movie 3 times. The first time as a fan waiting for about 30-40 years for this. "That fan" was initially upset about this remake. Gone were all of the familiar clichés and actions that we fans expected to see. In fact, many things I expected to see were totally absent. In that respect, the film failed.

The second time I promised to view this film as a completely new film and I started to see that this film was made as a modernization and crafted from someone that actually did respect Kikaida, but wanted to remake Kikaida in a way that really showed what was his most unusual and powerful "feature" - his conscience circuit. After the 2nd showing I was still confused as to why things happened the way they did but I did feel better about the film as a whole.

The third time, got me to the point where more things in the film made more sense and I started to see what this film was all about. A remaking of a very popular superhero (in Hawaii). Made with as much care as you can within limits of the budget and a real film score recorded with world class musicians.

Part of me wishes this film wasn't like Batman and Bane or Terminator 2 or like most of the newer superhero plots. But I still support this film and hope they make another.

A fine movie-reboot (circa 2014) of the Japanese SciFi/ Superhero 1970's Toei television series named 'Kikaida' (based on Japanese word "Kikai" = machine).

Originally based on weekly 'manga' (comics) and reflecting imaginative imagination of Shotaro Ishinomori (who also created Kamen Rider, Go Ranger, Inazuman) 

**beware potential Spoilers** There's something particularly fascinating about Kikaida = being an Android valiantly attempting to understand and even protect human-beings. Especially protective of Mistuko & Masaru the children of the brilliant Robotic-engineer Professor Kohmyoji

Professor Kohmyoji implanted a special-experimental 'Conscience-Circuit' into Kikaida (aka Jiro's) virtual Brain, allowing him to perceive 'imperfect' but still operational human compassion/empathy. 

However, the evil-robot mastermind Professor Gil, along with his 'DARK' androids become Kikaida's main nemesis with darkest and most deadly counterpart called "Hakaida"!

"Kikaida: Reboot" is a fine and surprisingly serious re-imagining of the Kikaida television series produced by Toei (in conjunction with manga-Co Kadokawa Shoten) originally shown to Japanese audiences in 2014 --- and later available on English subtitled DVD in USA.

This movie is very well-made with updated "Kikaida" armor metallically colorful, invoking a fantastically-impressive futuristic aesthetic!

The Japanese actors give realistic & intense performances, and the Story is both intriguing and quite serious with abundant action (fans of the original series might have anticipated lighter, more comic-book proceedings, there are also some deeply-philosophical musings inherent about what it means to truly posses 'conscience')

Even with the limited budget of under $10 million, major Kudos should still go to the brilliance of Japanese "Tokusatsu" (special-effects) series and movies like 'Kikaida: Reboot" = for their mighty imaginations that nearly triumph over minuscule-budgets! 

**Spoiler** Unfortunately, this film ends with a bit of a 'cliffhanger' implying that Kikaida will be again 'revived' rebuilt someday soon (by Mitsuko who inherited her father's robotic-engineering brilliance)--- but as of 2017, there is no sign of another Kikaida film on the horizon.

note:  regarding some of the Music themes relating to Kikaida, at the time of the original TV series, they issued an entire song-soundtrack (with 12 individual original-compositions) that were incredibly imaginative, many with fast-paced and Jazz/Rock-type arrangements that perfectly accentuated the action representing an incredible effort on the part of composer Chumei Watanabe in the 1970s, also Kamen Rider's composer Shunsuke Kikuchi both attempting to bring accomplished sophisticated Music directly to 'kids' television shows (although the 'Kikaida: Reboot' film most definitely has lots to offer adults and especially fans of futuristic speculative-fiction.)