Can someone take true meaning from a piece of children’s media? The Tojima Wants To Be a Kamen Rider premiere is the beginning of that answer. Unsurprisingly, the series clearly wants to make the answer a resounding “yes.” Even so, there is something beyond brand placement in this one. While containing familiar hints of other recent anime fare, couching the good word of Tokusatsu in its midlife crisis still makes for a satisfying introduction.
A benefit of long anime titles is that they explain the premise.
Tojima Wants To Be a Kamen Rider is a pretty self-explanatory title: Tanzaburo Tojima (Katsuyuki Konishi) spends his entire life inspired by the original Kamen Rider television series, desperate to be one himself. He lives in reality, though, so it is obviously impossible. The obsession also makes it difficult for him to connect with people, as the premiere spends its first half establishing. As a child, he very easily tunes out the world when Kamen Rider is on. His enthusiasm and focus on physical training comes off as scary in high school, but this doesn’t dissuade his dream.
But, in an interesting turn, this doesn’t make Tojima anti-social. He doesn’t balk at the idea of going on a date as a teenager and that bad experience doesn’t turn him into a shut-in. By the time the anime settles into its current timeline, he’s 40 years old, has a job, and has a nice enough living space. He’s also totally shredded, thanks to never letting up on his self-imposed Rider training. None of this makes him a Kamen Rider, of course, and that truth is setting in. Tojima sells his collection of memorabilia, thinking of what might happen if a stranger had to clean up following his death – making some kind of peace with not reaching his dream.
Some of this will feel familiar.
Obviously, there is some middle age angst similar to that of Kaiju No. 8 (though the Tojima manga actually predates it by a couple of years) and even some One Punch Man if you squint hard enough. Tojima even has a similar temperament to Saitama. However, unlike those series, this anime has that pesky rooting in another series. Instead of being an otherwise ordinary man that stumbles into power, Tojima is a character closer to us and how we are inspired by stories.
Seeing young Tojima imitating Kamen Rider poses with stars in his eyes takes me back to my own exposure to Tokusatsu. For me, it was Power Ranger (an adaptation of Super Sentai), but the genre’s heart and spirit does manage to break through the translation. A sense of general goodness and honor permeates this genre, but also passion and expression. The influence that Kamen Rider has on Tojima’s life actually appears to make him a decent member of society; even if his fandom has made it hard to make close friends.
Meaning in the age of IP
Of course, this series is an officially licensed Liden Films produced ad for Kamen Rider. It’s not really a good one, frankly. The anime very much assumes familiarity with the brand going in – which is probably the largest barrier to an international audience enjoying this series. The closest thing to fanservice is Hiroshi Fujioka cameoing as the first Rider, the character he originated. Kamen Rider is just a fact in this world, with the only real explanation of what that means coming from the kind of person Tojima is.
That suggests that this series might not delve into later Rider incarnations and the themes they explore. Given that Kamen Rider occasionally pushes into more mature storytelling than contemporaries Super Sentai or Ultraman, it’s a bit of a shame. It doesn’t seem likely that Tojima Wants To Be a Kamen Rider will make many new fans, even with the aid of finally getting a legal simulcast of the current series Zetez and the ever present Hideaki Anno fandom; they’re probably Gundam fans now instead. So that leaves this anime with the question at the beginning.
What does it mean to be inspired by a children’s show?
Thankfully, that question – can a brand mean something more – does seem to be at the core of the Tojima Wants To Be a Kamen Rider premiere. When Tojima finally dons his festival mask styled after the original Rider to take on gangsters using the brand as cover, he breaks into tears. The anime never says it, but it doesn’t need to: finally inhabiting his inspiration gives him purpose. He feels truly alive. Not alive in a way that will send him to the nearest toy store for more merch, but in a way that gives meaning.
As the premiere ends, it showcases a Kazuma Kiryu looking gangster and an entirely separate vigilante. It’s clear that how the themes of Kamen Rider and Tokusatsu inspire people will be the driving force of the series. That promise is what makes Tojima Wants To Be a Kamen Rider worth giving a chance. This could easily be an ad for Kamen Rider or a self-referential enforcement that fans of the series are correct in doing so. Perhaps it will become one or both of those. However, this opening episode suggests that there is more than just IP management going on.
Tojima Wants To Be a Kamen Rider is available on Crunchyroll.
Images courtesy of Crunchyroll.
REVIEW RATING
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'Tojima Wants To Be a Kamen Rider' - Episode 1 - 7/10
7/10
Travis Hymas is a freelance writer and self appointed Pokémon historian out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known to be regularly obessive over pop culture topics, gaming discourse, and trading card games, he is a published critic featured on sites such as Uppercut and The Young Folks.
