Finding Humanity in The Inhuman and Monstrous
Originally Posted on: 5-26-2024
On the Dark Sistsers, and sympathetic monsters and inhuman characters in Kamen Rider but also Tokusatsu as a whole.
Warnings: Spoilers for Kamen Rider Gotchard and Blade are below.
I’m still pretty sick so hopefully this is coherent enough! But I wanted to get it down before I forget:
Something I really appreciate about the Dark Sisters arc’s as the show has been ongoing is one of the things about Kamen Rider but also Toku as a whole: Finding the humanity in the inhuman and monstrous.
Humanity is tied to the concept of “worth in living”. Not every sympathetic monster gets a happy ending, but the fact they get to be sympathetic at all just really gets to me in a way I can’t put into words.
I’m really appreciating the more sympathetic lens I’m seeing the Dark Sisters be shown in thus far. Especially since I thought they wouldn’t even make it this far to begin with and be killed off mid-season. They’re treated as nothing more than mere “dolls” by Geryon and Gigist but you can see that they aren’t appreciative of it, Atropos really comes to mind for this in the case of the latest episode with Gigist disregarding her feelings to see Geryon again.
For Clotho when she was talking about how she feels she’s constantly looked down upon by others, something I noticed is that was when “What’s Your Fire” started playing. Something that is usually reserved for the heroes in Gotchard.
And Lachesis, Kyoka sees that there is worth in trying to find out if she’s more human than Lachesis thinks she is! And is actively trying to research into this, and possibly even turn her into a human.
In non Gotchard examples: The best one I can think of is Hajime from Kamen Rider Blade.
Massive Kamen Rider Blade Spoilers
Hajime starts out thinking that he’s incapable of getting people and connecting with humans so he chooses to fight by himself. But by the end of the show connection with humans is what ends up saving his life!
Kenzaki is told on multiple occasions, that he can’t save Hajime. That he must be sealed away for the good of the world. He’s the Joker, and there’s nothing that can be done about this. It’s just what has to be done.
But that is until Kenzaki sacrifices his own humanity so Hajime can continue to be happy with Amane and Haruka. Kenzaki grew to care about Hajime so much he did a massive sacrifice just so he can continue to be with people he connected with and cared about.
Another good example is The Greeed in OOO, granted they do not get happy endings. But they are looked at with a much more nuanced lens than you’d expect at first. Which is something I was very surprised by when I first saw OOO.
The chemy also are shown in a sympathetic lens as well. While we now know they are creatures who were created for evil, we have our protagonist who is filled with so much love for them, even despite this knowledge. And has hopes to bring them into a world where they can coexist with humans peacefully.
And something created for evil rejecting it in order to do good: This is Kamen Rider.
Overall I just appreciate how much more they’ve dug into The Dark Sisters than I thought they were going to. And have given all life created by alchemy so far in this show a more sympathetic lens in general. It’s currently hard to say if the sisters will end up surviving towards the end of the show, but I hope they do.