@“exodus”#3 Thank you so nice! And, of course, now I am really tempted to merdepost on something completely unrelated like Madden 97 or Mr. Bones. But let’s free this writeup rotting in draft purgatory since early July…
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/xtgrfQh.jpeg]
MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER
What a title. Perish the thought you’d mistake him with one of those _consensual_ protagonists. The full romanized title, as written on the spine, is MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER: THE LAST JUDGEMENT so you can follow with either R or T for the next game, whichever you prefer.
Mechanical Violator Hakaider (the literal translation of the Japanese title 人造人間ハカイダー gives a much tamer "_Android Hakaider_") is a 1995 feature film from Toei Studios featuring the titular Hakaider, an android assassin notorious among a certain generation of Japanese children for being the main rival and frequent frenemy of bicolor hero Kikaider in a popular _tokusatsu_ TV series of the 1970s, [Jinzō Ningen Kikaider.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLdRyELB9AY) Both characters are the brainchildren [size=10](this is a good pun if you know the series)[/size] of Ishinomori Shōtarō, the extremely influential creator of [Kamen Rider](https://www.twitter.com/RaihanH98/status/1430362261898481669) and the [Super Sentai](https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/power-rangers-battle-for-the-grid-switch/) series, among many other things.
The movie, if you can find it [size=10](hint: YOU can find it)[/size], is heavily inspired by Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which had released a few years prior. Ditching the unambiguously good guy Kikaider whom the intended audience had outgrown by then, we instead follow the adventures of the [much cooler and 'tuder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0KyZWDD5X4) anti-hero Hakaider who is found emprisoned inside a mediterranean mausoleum of sorts, far into Earth's post-apocalyptic future, by a bunch of hoodlums.
This encounter allows Hakaider to free himself[size=12] (and kill the hoodlums in the process[size=10] (unclear on the _mechanical violating_ situation)[/size])[/size], ride on his indestructible chopper bike, rejoin the babylonish metropolis of JESUS TOWN and kick some metallic ass to recover his memory and maybe find out who left him to rot in that mausoleum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcIfV7yIH1A
The rest of the plot revolves around a pious and authoritative local government intent on keeping law and order via subjugation and lobotomy, their philosophical and very literal clash with The Resistance, and the asocial Hakaider belatedly taking the side of chaos, free will and black leather pants. I wonder which side Insert Credit is gonna root for! In the climatic scene, Hakaider gets to fight an angelic Android superwarrior named Michael as they shred a white chapel to reveal the blood red bowel-looking pipes and cables that keep the monstruous city running. It’s all very subtle. The story is pretty much Kamen Rider meets Terminator 2 meets Shin Megami Tensei, but this exciting description obviously oversells the movie. It's just alright, but clearly made with care.
The director of this feature film is another pretty notorious guy, Amemiya Keita, who had sparse experience and formal education with movie making. A man of many talents, Amemiya is mainly known as the character designer and "world builder" for series such as Kamen Rider Black, GARO, Winspector, Iria and more. He was a very influential character designer of the late Seventies and Eighties, and can be considered the key figure in making the *tokusatsu* genre grittier and edgier. I think a good parallel for the superhero comics fans reading this is how Frank Miller's Batman significantly altered the character's persona and universe among both the average reader and following artists.
Amemiya has also been involved in a few video games. For instance, you might recognize his art direction on the terrific [Hagane for the Super Famicom.](http://www.videogameden.com/sfc.htm?hag) He also guest-designed a bunch of demons for Shin Megami Tensei IV (with varying degress of success) and most recently was involved [in one of the Final Fantasy XIV expansions,](https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/002578.html) in a typical YoshiP move. Etc.
Some of you may have guessed it by now, but Amemiya Keita was also the art director, CG movie director and scenarist of Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari, one of his most personal works. [I mentioned back then](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/610-last-letter-game-games-in-your-collection/1083) that Saturn fans mistakenly expected a hardcore RPG from Enix. What I deviously omitted to say is that Amemiya fans expected something even darker from the perceived Edgy Dudebro in charge of the game's setting and characters. That’s not at all what a creative talent like Amemiya had in mind. He wanted to change groove and tell a nice story for children, with just the right amount of instinctive darkness that gave the game an undertone of dread and mystery. Just another reason Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari did not find its audience back then.
There is no such misunderstanding to be found in the Hakaider movie. It’s a pretty dark and violent story. On top of directing the movie, Amemiya was responsible for most of the armor designs and costume designs in the movie, and they are excellent.
It just so happens that Sega co-produced the Hakaider movie, getting the rights for a video game adaptation in the process. This was the same era when Sega was spending beans into stuff like Blue Seed, Evangelion, or Revolutionary Girl Utena to build a lineup of popular cross-media IPs that could make use of the Saturn’s CD-ROM. One of the producers of the movie is Nakayama Haruki, the CEO’s son, who would end up founding his own company Marvelous a few years later.
The game adaptation of Hakaider released in December 1996 on the Saturn, with the story and characters once again handled by Amemiya. He has therefore been involved in two consecutive yet unrelated Christmas period projects on the SegaSaturn (Hakaider in 1996 then Nanatsu Kaze in 1997), strangely enough.
Actual development was handled by Japan Media Programming, a frequent collaborator of Sega’s Consumer Software division for this caliber of titles on the SegaSaturn. I am not sure whether the game’s design was a creative decision by JMP, or rather a top down request from Sega to promote their Virtua Gun, but they ended up creating a lightgun shooting game set in the messianic boilerpunk future of the movie.
https://youtu.be/DMQSXXxIJF8
Unlike most games in the genre, Hakaider does not come from the arcades and can therefore get a bit creative. There is a strong focus on the story and characters, and even some light "dungeon RPG"-style exploration and dialogue choices which you select with the _Virtua Gun_ (or the _Shuttle Mouse_ which is also fully compatibe). The soundtrack also makes some interesting choices, to say the least: [this is not your average menu BGM.](https://youtu.be/PeLwI5QgqMg)
The game's scenario is not an adaptation but rather a direct sequel to the movie, set a decade later, with a bunch of new antagonists. You would almost wonder if this wasn't originally a story that Amemiya had planned for a movie sequel. Interestingly, the game features way more callbacks and cameos from the original Jinzō Ningen Kikaider series than the movie, so it must have been quite a kick for long time fans of the IP. Not sure what the "Last Judgement" of the subtitle refers to in the story specifically, besides the biblical reference and a wish to hammer home the Terminator 2 influence until the nail hit the neighbor’s brick.
I would not call Mechanical Violator Hakaider: The Last Judgment a “hidden gem” by any means but this licensed game is a bit underrated, if you ask me! It’s in the same school as contemporaries like Horned Owl and Elemental Gearbolt on the PlayStation next door, figuring out ways to refresh the Light Gun experience beyond its carnival roots.