A more modern and darker retelling of the Jinzou
Ningen Kikaida story with elements of the Kikaida anime, Kikaida-01
and the other robot hero series Choujinki Metalder.
Dr. Kohmyoji never refers to his creation as "Kikaida" but only as
"Jiro". Its his evil assistant who tells Jiro he's just a machine
"Kikai") and an imperfect one.. As if any machine could be perfect.
There would have to be perfect humans first. Dr. Kohmyoji made Jiro
(he never calls him Kikaida) blue and red as a reminder that androids
could be used for good (blue) or evil (red). He intends for them to
only be used for the good of humanity. Unfortunantly for Dr. Kohmyoji,
his superior (the Minister of Defense) and his jealous subordinate, a
literally mad scientist from America, have other ideas.
Dr. Nobuhiko Kohmyoji has created "Project ARK" to create robots for
peaceful purposes,
which is why Jiro has a "Conscience Circuit". The Japanese military has
other ideas.
So its not surprising that shortly after his introduction the doctor is
dead and his children, Mitsuko (above, left) and Masaru (above right) are orphans. The doctor is seen a few more times
in flashbacks.
This version of Masaru is not living alone for months, but he does get abandoned by himself in a bus stop later.
"Web journalist" Hanpei Hattori finds it strange there has been no
major announcent about the death of the world famous Dr. Kohmyoji and
that his "Project ARK" is going on without him.
When Mitsuko and Masaru are abducted by men
dressed in black carrying automatic rifles (who it seems are planning on
executing them) a stranger appears to rescue them.
Bullets don't hurt him but they do reveal his robotic frame. So saying
"Switch On" he goes into combat mode. (The Jiro form turns out to be a
holographic projection. His entire skin is covered by a malleable LCD screen.)
The men in black run away, a helicopter drops a
large robot, GREY RHINO KING, to attack Kikaida. The robot is defeated. Like the anime
version the movie version of Mitsuko is afraid of Jiro/Kikida not
grateful for the rescue. Hanpei Hattori arrives too late to have seen
anything. Mitsuko won't let Masaru (who's not at all afraid of
Jiro/Kikaida) tell Hanpei about what happened. Jiro has disappeared.
Hanpei takes the Kohmyoji's to his home. He tells them to stay there and
lock the door when he leaves but Mitsuko doens't trust him and they
leave.
Dr. Gilbert Kanzaki (a Japanese-American), Dr.
Kohmyoji's assistant on "Project ARK", considers his robot Mari to be
superior to the Dr. Kohmyoji's Jiro, because Mari has no "Conscience
Circuit" weaking her with emotions. It is Mari who renames her creator
"Professor Gill". Mari was not in Jinzou Ningen Kikaida,
she's from Kikaida-01. The Minister of Defense
(who has misinformed the Prime Minster as to his intentions for the use
of robots) wants Masaru Kohmyoji captured because he's some how
neccesary for gaining access to Dr. Kohmyoji's files.
Mitsuko uses her smart phone to send a message to
the one person she does trust, her father's mentor Kyujiro Maeno. This
nearly results in their capture. As the military tracks them through
the smart phone. Jiro appears to rescue them again. He explains that he
was instructed to protect them by their father. In a scene taken right
from the live action TV series, Masaru tries to offer Jiro some food as
the trio sits around a campfire on a beach. Later Jiro finally removes
his guitar from its case. It's an electric guitar, not the acustic
guitar of the original TV series.
More soldiers
dressed in black try to abduct
Masaru while he and his sister sleep, but of course Jiro does not
sleep. Fortunantly for them, his "Conscience Circuit" will not allow
him
to kill humans, only beat them up. Mari arrives to attempt to destroy
Jiro. Unfortunantly she does not turn into Bijinda, she just has a
weapon built into one arm and being actually designed for combat she's
better at fighting than Jiro/Kikaida so Kikaida loses this round and
Mitsuko and Masaru are taken captive. Mari showing the arrogance of her
creator, proclaims herself superior to humans and Jiro because they
have "useless" emotions. Which is precisly the reason Dr. Kohmyoji
believe androids need to be programmed with a conscious, so they cannot
be used to dominate humans.
Kyujiro Maeno
(Daisuke Ban, the original Jiro), a
pyschologist who gave Dr. Kohmyoji the idea for the "Conscience
Circuit",
rescues the damaged Jiro. Meanwhile, the Minister of Defense shows more
compasiion than one would expect and had the hidden computer chip
surgically removed from Masaru's body without killing the boy. With Dr.
Kohmyoji's serect files unlocked "Project Ark" becomes the "DARK
Project". However, Professor Gill furious that his contributions are
being ignored puts his own project into play "Hakaida" (Destruction).
Kyujiro Maeno not being able to repair Jiro himself takes the android
to a friend, who it just so happens is connected to Hanpei Hattori.
Hapnpei recognizes Jiro as the work of Dr. Nobuhiko Kohmyoji and
explains how the doctor discovered his work to produce robots which
would handle tasks too dangerous for humans, such as cleaning up
nuclear waste, was being corrupted by the military. Jiro learns that
Mitsuko and Masaru have been released by the defense minister. And
having been twice told his "mission" to protect them is over he no
longer knows what his function is. Mitsuko is planning to leave Japan
to goto college in America.
Wandering the streets without purpose Jiro
encounters Hakaida, who is the third to tell Jiro his mission is
completed, and demands that Jiro return to the DARK with him. Jiro
declines and they fight. This version of Hakaida has Professor Gill's
brain in his head, not Dr. Kohmyoji's so he's more the Kikaida-01
Hakaida than the Jinzou Ningen Kikaida version.
The fights ends when Jiro recognizes Hakaida's voice as that of
Professor Gill and refuses to fight because his "Conscience Circuit"
classifies Hakaida as "human" which of course offends Hakaida as the
insane Professor Gill considers having his brain in his robot makes him
the perfect machine. Hakaida threatens to blast Jiro with his gun but
he detectes the presence of Mari and walks away. Back at the shop where
Jiro is repaired again, Jiro suddenly wonders why Mitsuko protected him
when its an android's duty to protect humans not the other way around.
Hapeni explains that humans sometimes act ouf "love or compassion".
Hakaida has returned to the DARK Project
headquarters but refuses to serve the Minsister of Defense and when
even Mari will not obey him, he rebels, leaving what the news still
calls "Project ARK" in ruins. When Jiro asks his new friend to boost
his fighting powers, he's told the only way to do that is to shut off
his "Conscience Circuit" which is holding him back, but doing so would
destroy his "humanity" so his friend won't do it. Finally accepting
that Hakaida is just a machine, Jiro goes to confront Hakaida, who
threatens to destroy Jiro and kill Dr. Kohmyoji's children before laying
waste to the world. Assuming that the evil android will defeat Jiro,
Masaru and Hanpei head to the bus station to get Mitsuko who is heading
for the airport to fly to America, to help them get Jiro to runaway
instead of 'dying" or "being destroyed". While Mitsuko and Jiro are
talking Hakaida attacks Jiro's "Conscience Circuit" with an electronic
pulse attempting to drive Jiro insane. But Jiro says it not his
"mission" to project humans its his "will" to do so and shorts out the
"Conscience Circuit" ending Hakaida's ability to manipulate him and
removing the restrictions on his combat abilities. During the final
battle a computer inside Jiro displays "Electromagnetic End". Hakaida
accuses Jiro (the name Kikaida is never used) of destroying his "soul"
and betraying Kohmyoji when he destroyed his "Conscience Circuit". Jiro
replies "No, I destroyed my soul to protect other souls". JIro survives
the battle only to "die" in Mitsuko's arms. She says she now knows what
she wants to study and that someday she will "fix" him.
In the middle of the credits there is a final
scene. The Minster of War and Mari have survived and they have
Dr.Kohmyoji's brain in a jar. The Minster says "At last the real android
project begins". "Kakaider-01: Reboot" coming?
As the final credits role, with pictures from Jinzou Ningen
Kikaida being displayed a new version of "Go Go Kikaida" is
heard.
So the movie ends without us ever finding out
exactly what the "DARK Project" is and why the Minister of Defense
keeps trying to put the blame for it on Dr. Kohmyoji when the doctor
wanted nothing to do with the military's plans of conquest. Nor do we
ever learn why Mari turned against her creator to side with the
Minister of Defense instead.
Differences between the TV
series and this movie: 1:
In the TV series Jiro is the name of the human appearing form of Dr.
Kohmyoji's android. And Kikaida the name of the android when its in its
red and blue combat mode. In the movie the android is only ever refered
to as Jiro. Although people, do keep refering to the androids as just
machines "kikai". In the TV series Jiro actually transforms into
Kikaida. In this movie Jiro's human appearance is just a hologram
covering up Jiro's true appearance as the half blue, half red android.
2. In the TV series Mitsuko was there when her father made Jiro/Kikaida
and she trusts the android, in fact even though she knows Jiro is a
machine she's in love with him. In this movie Mitsuko doesn't meet Jiro
until after her father is dead and she fears and resents him. Fears him
because she realizes Jiro is just machine and resents him because Jiro
is her father's creation and she's mad at him for "abandoing" her. Like
it was his choice to be murdered by Professor Gill.
3. In the TV series The Dark is a terrorist group lead by the insane
Professor Gill, which kidnapped Dr. Kohmyoji and his daughter. In this
movie "Project ARK" which later becomes "The Dark Project" is a
government sponsored program for which Dr. Kohmyoji works until he
discovers the military has been backing the project all along.
4. In the TV series Jiro/Kikaida was made by Dr. Kohmyoji as the
ulitmate warrior, to defeat The Dark. The incomplete "Conscience
Circuit" was to keep Jiro from being turned evil. In this movie Jiro
was made for peaceful purposes and the complete "Conscience Circuit"
inhibits the android's combat abilities.
5. There are no named combat moves in this movie. No "Double Chop" or
"Giant Swing Throw". Only at the end is Jiro's final attack against
Hakaida given a name and then only on an internal computer screen, he
doesn't speak its name "Electromagnetic End" ("Denji Endo").
6. There are no androids running around saying "Gill Gill" ("Giru!
Giru!") which all us kids in Hawaii misheard as "Get em, Get em". In
this movie the grunts are human soldiers dressed in black. And they
never actually speak.
7. There are no color based monsters in this movie except for Gray
Rhino King, of which there seem to be quite a few as they are shown in
the rubble after being destroyed by Hakaida. The only colors ever
mentioned are Jiro's red and blue.
8. In the TV series Jiro's guitar is acustic and he plays it to
announce his prescence to the Dark monsters and androids. In this movie
Jiro's guitar is electric. He only plays it twice. Once for his own
entertainment and the second time to annoy Hakaida.
9. No Sidemachine motorycle in the movie.
10. Professor Gill's flute is replaced with Hakaida being able to
generate an electronic pulse from his hand which interfers with Jiro's
"Conscience Circuit".
11. In "Jinzou Ningen Kikaida, Dr. Kohmyoji's brain
is in Hakaida's head, which is why Jiro/Kikaida doesn't want to fight
Hakaida, he would be killing his creator. Its in Kikaida-01
that Professor Gill' brain is put inside a new version of Hakaida and
neither Jiro or Ichiro have any qualms about destroying this version of
Hakaida. Also in "Jinzou Ningen Kikaida, Hakaida
has a "human" form Saburo which does not appear in this movie. Saburo
is not in Kikaida-01 either.
12, Mari is not in "Jinzou Ningen Kikaida she is
in Kikaida-01 and is the human form of Bijinda.
In this movie Mari does not have the Bijinda form.
13. In the TV series Dr. Kohmyoji survived but suffered amnesia. In
this movie he's dead, killed in an off camera "accident" (apparently
arranged by Professor Gill).
14. In the TV series Dr. Kohmyoji had an adult son, a firerman who was
killed fighting a fire set by the Dark. No such character is mentioned
in this movie.
Neither the TV series nor this movie explain what
happened to Mitsuko's and Masaru's mother.
Having something planted in a
child's body which the bad guys need to get their hands on is the
subplot of Kikaida-01, only its the plans for a
giant robot, tatooted on the backs of Professor Gill's two sons with
invisible ink, instead of a data chip inside the rib cage of Dr. Kohmyoji's son.
October 10, 2014 "Kikaider Reboot: Kikaider The Ultimate Human Robot" was released on DVD by Generation Kikaida (which no longer exists)
"Kikaider Reboot: Kikaider The Ultimate Human Robot" will be released on Blu-ray by Discotek Media some time in 2025
