Kamen Rider ZO
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Kamen Rider ZO (仮面ライダーZO Kamen Raidā Zetto Ō), translated as Masked Rider ZO, is a 1993 Japanese tokusatsu movie produced by Toei Company, loosely based on their Kamen Rider series.
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[edit] Plot summary
Masaru Asou was the lab assistant of geneticist Doctor Mochizuki, and was used as one of his experiments, enabling him to transform into grasshopper-like being called Kamen Rider ZO. He fled into the woods and went into a coma before Dr. Mochizuki sent him a telepathic call for help; he had created the Neo Organism, too powerful for him to control. Masaru must protect Mochizuki's child, Hiroshi, from the creatures made by the Neo Organism.
[edit] Characters
- Masaru Asou/Kamen Rider ZO: The hero of the story. He was originally an assistant to Doctor Mochizuki, the doctor conducted experiments on him, turning Asou into a grasshopper-like cyborg. He was devastated by his horrible transformation and went into hiding. Years later, he dreamt of a boy named Hiroshi, the music from a gold pocket watch, and his mission to protect Hiroshi. He awoke as ZO.
- Hiroshi Mochizuki: A young boy targeted by the Neo Organism. Hiroshi longed to be with his father, who had gone missing years ago. As a memento, Doctor Mochizuki gave Hiroshi a pocket watch that played music. Hiroshi was at first afraid of ZO, but as ZO proved he truly was a friend, Hiroshi affectionately referred to ZO as 'Rider'.
- Doctor Mochizuki: A mad scientist who turned Masaru into ZO and then created the Neo Organism. His dream was to create the "perfect lifeform", but instead it turned on him and was held captive by his creation.
[edit] Neo Organism
A pool of living fluid that took on the appearance of a deformed little boy, the likeness of Hiroshi. The Neo Organism orchastrated the events in the movie, and even overpowered its creator, Doctor Mochizuki. It created its agent Doras to find Hiroshi.
- Doras: A grotesque grasshopper humanoid, the incarnation of the Neo Organism itself. Its mission was to capture Hiroshi. It is capable of regenerating itself from servere injuries, Doras was to asborb ZO to evolve and achieve its full potenial as the "perfect lifeform". When Doras did manage to absorbed ZO, it became a red version fleshy of itself. It then went for Hiroshi, but the music from the pocket watch managed to give ZO the strength to break free from Doras' body. Reverted to its normal state, Doras was finally killed with the Neo Organism.
- Spider Woman: A Neo-Lifeform created by Doras, she was large 4-legged inhuman spider woman who shot strong webbing to entangle Hiroshi. She also has a set of spider legs on her back and two spider legs for a left arm. During combat with the monster, ZO snapped one of Spider Woman's legs and used it to impale and instantly kill her.
- Bat Man: A Neo-Lifeform created by Doras, he was a black bat-like entity. Bat Man was black, had small-but-long bat wings for ears that covered its head (unless he's flying), and an eye on each hand much like Doras. Bat Man could extend its fingers to form wings for flight. It could also disguise itself is as any human. It took on the likeness of Mochizuki to trick Hiroshi. Bat Man took the boy to its master's hideout. ZO killed Bat Man by impaling his fist into the monster stomach.
[edit] Cast
- Masaru Asou/Kamen Rider ZO: Kou Domon
- Hiroshi Mochizuki: Shohei Shibata
- Doctor Mochizuki: Isao Sasaki
- Seikichi Mochizuki: Hiroshi Inuzuka
- Neo Organism: Shingo Yuzawa (voice)
- Reiko: Naomi Morinaga
- Kuroda: Kenji Ooba
- Nishimura: Masaru Yamashita
- Miyazaki: Iori Sakakibara
[edit] Trivia
- Kamen Rider ZO was the first joint production between Toei Company Limited and Bandai.
- Kamen Rider ZO later team-up with his successor, Kamen Rider J, in the 8-minute movie Kamen Rider World.
- The movie was adapted into a full motion video game for the Sega CD with an interface similar to Dragon's Lair, the 'Game' was released in America as "The Masked Rider: Kamen Rider ZO", despite the film never airing in the United States, though footage involving the fights with the Neo Organism monsters were used in Saban's Masked Rider. The game was critically panned, largely due to its script and dubbing (the Neo Organism's dialogue is all but impossible to understand) as well as some scenes from the entire film being cut from the game.
- Bat Man and Spider Woman are not to be confused with DC Comics hero Batman and Marvel Comics heroine Spider-Woman.
| Kamen Rider franchise created by Shotaro Ishinomori | |
| TV series (Ishinomori-era) | Kamen Rider | V3 | X | Amazon | Stronger | "New" Kamen Rider | Super-1 | BLACK | BLACK RX |
| TV series (Post-Ishinomori) | Kuuga | Agito | Ryuki | 555 | Blade | Hibiki | Kabuto |
| Films and specials | ZX | Shin Kamen Rider | SD | ZO | J | Kamen Rider World | Kamen Rider the First |
