HK: Hentai Kamen 2: Abnormal Crisis is a hilarious sequel.

 

After revisiting the first Hentai Kamen movie for a tenth anniversary celebration special blog post, I figured it'd be fitting to also look back at its' sequel. Surprisingly, it took 3 years for the sequel to release. Thankfully, Yuichi Fukuda was back in the directors chair as well as writing the movie. Also back were the core main cast of the first movie, Ryohei Suzuki, Fumika Shimizu, Tsuyoshi Muro, Ken Yasuda and Nana Katase, so that was great news! 

Set a few years after the events of the first movie. Kyosuke Shikijoh and Aiko Himeno are now both at university. After the defeat of Tamao Ogane, there has been nothing for Hentai Kamen to deal with except everyday petty crimes. Despite this, Kyosuke's sense of justice causes interference in both his academic studies and in his part-time job as a pizza delivery man for Mach Pizza. After seeing news of Hentai Kamen's re-emergence in the newspaper, Aiko confronts Kyosuke, claiming that Hentai Kamen is no longer needed after Tamao had been dealt with and that he should give her panties back to her. 

Naturally as one might expect of a comedic superhero movie, things don't go according to plan. One day after vowing to retire as Hentai Kamen, the panties of the swimming class disappear, Aiko's included. Whilst Aiko suspects Ryosuke is behind the theft, he reveals that he's innocent and it turns out to be the work of Mr. Vacuum. Mr. Vacuum as it turns out is an underling of Tamao Ogane and stole the panties under his orders to draw out Hentai Kamen. Faced with the threat of all of the panties of Japan disappearing, Ryosuke has no choice but to pantie up and become Hentai Kamen to save the day once more! 

I'm going to be honest, I didn't like the plot as much as I did in the first movie. Aiko's doubt of Ryosuke was kind of conceited and contrived. There were moments that were very far-fetched and things had to a very precise way for the bad guys to achieve their goals and get Aiko to turn against Ryosuke. For instance, the moment where Ryosuke attempts to save the panties of a female student, only for Aiko to appear just in time for her to get the wrong idea. A scene which could quite possibly have been avoided had Ryosuke just closed the window and therefore, theoretically saving the panties. The whole sensei honeytrap was also a rather obvious plot and easy to see through, Aiko was dumb for falling for it. I will say though that seeing the scenes from her perspective, it would be understandable for her to come to doubt Ryosuke, I just wish it had been done better. 

What I did enjoy is how Ryosuke overcame his doubt and insecurities throughout the course of the movie. His attempts to separate himself from Hentai Kamen make him weak and pathetic. Without the panties on his face, he is nothing more than a man. When faced with danger, he becomes cowardly and runs away and his confidence is in the negative, making him weak at fighting. With the panties, he becomes a superhuman, with incredible strength and power that he uses to protect the innocent. Aiko claiming that he truly is a pervert that only become Hentai Kamen because he enjoys wearing panties on his face is shot down by Ryosuke's sense of Justice, inherited from his father. That being said, the truth lies somewhere within the middle as Ryosuke does seem to gain some enjoyment out of wearing Aiko's scent specifically. So, essentially, Ryosuke is somewhat a pervert when it comes to Aiko, whom he loves. 

I loved the whole sequence where he figures out that he became weak because of the panties he was wearing didn't belong to Aiko. The whole world becomes bleak due to the excellent usage of colour from Yuichi Fukuda, which exemplifies just how weak he has become. In a dream-like state, Ryosuke sees the ghost of his father who proclaims that the panties of his sensei where the reason as to why he is weak as they didn't belong to the one he loved and that he can save Aiko through his sense of justice by training with the Perverted Hermit. 

There's some rather obvious nods and references to other movies and series, such as The Avengers, Moteki, Spiderman, The Karate Kid and Marvel in general. One such example is the homage and parody of the heroic scene in Spiderman 2 were Peter Parker saves the citizens and is carried by the crowd with his heroism admired. In a similar fashion, Hentai Kamen is carried after preventing the citizens from being crushed, only for them to proclaim that seeing his bulge is gross in person. The hilariously named Dynoson, named after Dyson vacuum cleaners could also be seen as a homage to Doc Ock, except being a crab instead of an octopus. There's also the training montage featuring similarities to The Karate Kid, which is pointed out by Ryosuke. Hilariously it has almost nothing to do with his new found strength.

Yuichi Fukuda is a brilliant director and he makes use of his directorial skills to great effect in this sequel. He used a wide variety of camera shot types and angles in order to highlight and enhance the comedic fighting and scenes of the movie. There's noticeably more shaky cam this time around such as when Ryosuke is running as the camera keeps up with him from over his shoulder, although it is not too egregious thankfully. The dramatic zooms in and out are still present to highlight the comedic phallic offense and puns used by Hentai Kamen and slow-motion is used to enhance certain moments. The special effects are of course, still hilarious bad which only enhances the hilarity of the movie. 

I enjoyed the variety of music used in the soundtrack. One track I particularly enjoyed was the rock music used in the henchmen fight scene just before Hentai Kamen first fights Dynoson. It reminded me of the Ryu Ga Gotoku series in terms of its' style and beat, which I'm all here for as I love it. 

Once again, I have to commend Ryohei Suzuki. He is fantastic in the dual role of Ryosuke Jingoshiki and Hentai Kamen. He was able to convincingly portray a wide variety of emotions from self doubt to the confidence of Hentai Kamen. His physique was impressive once again, showcasing his commitment to the role and his work ethic is to be applauded. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the return of Ken Yasuda. This time around, he portrayed a different character, although still a perverted one! He had me laughing my butt off with his perverted nature. I particularly enjoyed seeing him suddenly sprint during the baseball training after he has only been seen moving very slowly with the aid of an improvised Zimmer frame. 

Overall, whilst I didn't enjoy the movie as much as its' predecessor, it still made me laugh a lot. I do think that it's worth seeing, especially if you enjoyed the first one and are a fan of Ryohei Suzuki like me.