Black Sun is still a relatively new series, so I’m going to avoid Spoilers and keep this (mostly) short. I will touch upon some minor spoilers to provide context, but nothing like character deaths or massive plot details. This is also going to be a much more casual and loose review with the assumption you’re familiar with the original series.
But if you want me to sum up Black Sun in short: Kamen Rider meets Clive Barker’s Nightbreed with a dash of Judas and the Black Messiah. It is the most Radical Rider has been in ages, possibly one of, if not the most radical story in the franchise.
If you wish, let’s continue on.
First off, cast out just about damn near everything you know about the original 1987 series. This is a dramatically different interpretation that utilizes very, and I mean very basic concepts and character names.
Starting in 1972, Kaijin began to emerge in Japan and become a part of society, their exact origins a bit muddled. While they have humanoid forms, they were met with fierce prejudice, leading to the forming of a Black Panther-esque civil rights group called Gorgom. Over time, Gorgom would reformat into a political party, and in the modern day be the driving force of the current Prime Minister, Shinichi Donami.
And this is one of the many ways in which Black Sun plays with the audience's expectations. We have a preconceived notion of Gorgom as villains, and now they have become deeply ingrained with the Government. It makes you wonder if maybe something is going on with the Kajin, or at the very least Gorgom. Admittedly, part of that could be read very poorly. You could potentially interpret that as the series saying that "The other" are monsters and should not be trusted, it kinda leans a bit into replacement conspiracies. But I also think that's at least partly intended to mess with the audience.
There was some real concern because the marketing for Black Sun felt like it was going in a really messed up direction, and it did not do a great job indicating how much of a divergence this series would be, nor the exact nature of Gorgom's role.
But having seen the show in context, I think the intent is for the audience to believe that Gorgom is doing a much more elaborate version of what you would see in the '87 series. Their modus operandi was exploiting various weaknesses of society. Providing what was either needed or what was wanted; affordable housing, health insurance, even hiding messages in a damn pop song. Not to mention that even in the original show, the three high priests viewed other lower Kaijin as disposable.
This initially looks like Gorgom seeing how bungled and fractured humanity is when it comes to matters of differences and then brilliantly exploiting that at the cost of lower-ranking Kaijin. It would have been easy to make Gorgom bad guys 101, but having them garner sympathy and be a once radical youth movement turned supposedly progressive political party is far more insidious...but the real twist is that Gorgom isn't influencing the Japanese Government, it's the other way around.
The three high priests did at one point care about their brethren, but they sold out to Prime Minister Michinosuke Donami back in '72 for paltry "rights" which fragmented the larger movement.
Nothing truly meaningful has changed in that time, as Kaijin are second-rate citizens, banned from certain establishments, refused services, and regularly gunned down by police with no consequences. Social progress has stagnated for 50 years and is still ongoing.
Now in the present day, Donami’s Grandson, Shinichi, has since taken the position of Prime Minister and continues to use Gorgom for his own gain, which is primarily in milking the Creation King for profit.
Right, so, the Creation King in Black Sun isn’t villainous or even all that sentient. He’s a massive Grasshopper whose sole purpose is to produce a blue liquid that serves two primary functions: When mixed with human flesh, it can be used to create a Jelly called Heaven, which has almost mystic qualities that keeps Kajin youthful, reinvigorates their energy, and can even bring back the recently deceased. The second function is to turn Humans into Kaijin. Both are major sources of income on the black market, particularly the humans forced to be Kaijin sold as slaves at auctions.
Those humans are sourced from folks on Welfare, the Elderly, LGBTQ, and those who can't have children. Basically, anyone the Prime Minister finds leeches of society.
At the end of the day, neither humans nor Kaijins mean anything to the political leaders. They're all exploitable in different ways. That inequality is needed for humans and Kaijin alike so the Prime Minister can keep raking in the cash and building towards the same goal as his grandfather; changing the constitution to allow overseas deployment of the JSDF for a more militarised Japan.
With those themes of racism, classism, Nationalism, and bigotry playing such a prevalent role throughout the show, I (and many others) had a lot of concern leading up to the premiere in how it would handle those elements. Even putting aside previously mentioned marketing direction and the initial confusion over Gorgom, it was clear Black Sun was co-opting real-world imagery and phrases for its protest scenes, which can come off as very disingenuous.
However, I think (for the most part) Black Sun handles it well. Part of what helps is that it never pulls its punches and takes the matter completely seriously. Granted, that can have its own set of issues, and the first episode does have one or two groan-worthy lines. But I think most of it is good, and being completely brutal in its portrayal is the better (and more realistic) option, completely unabashed in its message.
Seriously, the balls on this show are massive. Just to give an example, at one point, a militia is formed that blows up a portion of the building the Gorgom party occupies, and it’s framed as a just and noble act, while Police are shown to be monstrous arms of the state that will kill enslaved humans to protect state secrets. It does not fuck around.
But, that’s the main theme and the setting. What about the characters?
First off, Kotaro and Nobuhiko are very different from their original versions. Nobuhiko isn’t brainwashed, they’ve been Kaijin since they were children and their fathers performed the operation, and they don’t have Kingstones. Kingstones are still present, but they’re a separate McGuffin entirely. Still, an important one, mind you, because the Creation King is nearing the end of his life and producing less of the liquid that rakes in the cash, so they're still needed to find a successor. More on that in a bit.
Back in ‘72 both Kotaro and Nobuhiko were members of Gorgom’s civil rights movement, but once the leaders sold out to the Prime Minister, a small but prominent band struck out on their own, Kotaro and Nobuhiko among them. The series features flashbacks to these events expounding on the details that I’m not going to get into for spoiler reasons, but they do give Nobuhiko and Kotaro more interaction than the original series did, as well as some development for Nobuhiko.
Eventually, Nobuhiko was captured by Gorgom while Kotaro and others in their group either escaped and kept a low profile or ended up dead.
What I find most interesting is how this is used to contrast Kotaro and Nobuhiko in terms of personality. Even though Nobuhiko has been kept prisoner by Gorgom for 50 years, he’s been fed Heaven, meaning he’s maintained his youth and perhaps because of that, his rebellious personality. The fire never went out for him, and he’s ready to keep fighting and take down Gorgom once he’s free, forming that aforementioned militia.
Kotaro, on the other hand, is obviously very tired. Even before we learn his backstory, it’s clear that he’s exhausted, jaded by decades of bigotry and battles that never amounted to anything.
His actor, Hidetoshi Nishijima, really brings a nice subtle tragedy to the character that’s emotionally and physically broken.
When we first meet Kotaro, he’s just coasting through life as kind of a shit, actually. He’s basically a debt collector and even a hitman at times, whatever pays. Things become more complicated when he meets with a young girl, Aoi Izumi.
Aoi is a 14-year-old Rights activist that is the new face of the Kaijin Rights movement. A bitter reminder of their failure to make real progress half a century prior. Aoi has made quite a name for herself on a global scale, making impassioned speeches at the UN, and ironically, meeting the Japanese Prime Minister.
She gets caught in Gorgom’s crosshairs because a necklace she wears is revealed to be one of the Kingstones, although she ends up protected by Kotaro almost by accident.
I find her chemistry with him intriguing because it’s not just the typical father figure parallel one often sees in this kinda work. Instead, you get the impression that he sees his younger self in Aoi, maybe even a bit of Nobuhiko, and the hope that Kotaro lost 50 years ago. As their relationship grows, so too does Kotaro's reconnection with humanity, including his own.
Likewise, Aoi experiences the harsher realities of activism Kotaro knows all too well: the varying shades of gray, the grueling grind of an unrelenting fight, and that maybe what you're doing isn’t enough and never will be.
Basically, her story is about becoming radicalized through trauma, because this poor girl goes through absolute hell.
The line between right and wrong starts to blur, similar in part to Nobuhiko's back story. In fact, that motif is prevalent throughout both the story and in the characters. From Nobuhiko being the old hat pacifist turned radical who starts to go too far, to Kotaro the drained warrior who gave up, Aoi the new blood learning to go further, and even Gorgom, who truly believe their actions were justified.
Be prepared for constantly shifting allegiances, ideologies, and morally grey conflicts among the cast. New information is constantly being learned and it can recontextualize entire events.
On a related note, that generational gap and clashing of ideals are even seen in supporting characters and extras. Large protest scenes typically feature specific age demographics being skewed on different sides, giving a visual representation of the divide and shifts in attitudes over the years. More younger people tend to be on the progressive end of things, but you will also still see a few on the bigot’s side that the predominantly middle-aged group sunk their claws into. The show in general has a lot of subtle touches like that, and not-so-subtle ones.
Speaking of the supporting cast, they are honestly incredible. I think most people familiar with the original series expected Whale to have a bigger role, and he does. But several other Kaijin also have prominent roles, such as Bat, Flea, and Bilgenia, a few of whom were part of that original splinter group along with Kotaro and Nobuhiko in ‘72. They get a surprising amount of screen time and a fair amount of characterization if not development. Although the most notable of all the supporting Kaijin is Shunsuke Komatsu, Aoi’s best friend.
He gives us an insight into the domestic life of a Kaijin, his family dynamic, and the poor neighborhood in which his family lives. What I love is that it’s never shown in a bad light. The fact their neighborhood is filled with the underprivileged, the homeless, etc. is never in and of itself outright a bad thing outside of the angle of the Government screwing over certain demographics. There’s a real sense of comradery among the entire neighborhood, everyone helps and takes care of one another the best they can. Shunsuke’s life is mostly painfully normal like any other kid his age… except, of course, he’s not afforded the luxury of human life. Because he’s a Kaijin, he and his family are on the receiving end of a lot of vitriol and outright attacks, which unsurprisingly results in him being radicalized sooner than Aoi and joining up with Shadow Moon.
By the way, it’s worth noting that the process of radicalization overall is also never framed in a negative light. It’s not positive per se, or more accurately not glorified.
Rather, the real tragedy is that of systemic oppression getting to the point where the only truly viable option is a violent revolt against a system that had already decided a peaceful and fair change was never going to happen. It’s not broken, it’s functioning as designed.
That’s perhaps best seen in Nobuhiko. I don’t really think it’s a spoiler to say he eventually turns villainous late into the show, probably one of the few things you could see coming. But I have to give credit to how Shadow Moon is handled because most forms of media when they have a sympathetic villain, they tend to treat their actions as a slippery slope. The audience is with them until they cross a certain line and then it’s treated like their actions were always going to end up this way. The villain is now attacking innocence, the hero stops them, and then they build one youth center in one impoverished area, and suddenly the racism/social issue of the day is over or some shit.
Here, the entirety of Shadow Moon’s actions is not condemned. There’s nuance throughout all his choices, and it’s up to the audience to decide if it’s really okay for him to be dragging literal children like Shunsuke into his fight.
It’s only the moment he decides that Kaijin domination is his new goal that we have a concrete “This is wrong” moment. But it never uses this to discount everything leading up to it, leaving an uncomfortable reality that Nobuhiko was justified up until that moment. There’s a sense that perhaps the reason progress has stagnated is that there hasn’t been a truly serious threat to the status quo for 50 years.
In a way, that's Kamen Rider in a nutshell. A Monster who only fights other Monsters.
But I’m getting sidetracked again.
The last two members of the supporting cast I want to point out are Oliver Johnson, and Nick, played by Mochtar and Jua respectively. I think it’s fair to say they stick out for obvious reasons.
I can’t say too much without getting into spoilers as both have very pivotal roles in the story, so I’ll be brief.
Oliver was a human ally to Gorgom back in the early 70s and the one who roped Nobuhiko and Kotaro into the group. He explicitly states the reason he joined was that he understood the bigotry they faced. It shows that racism, and more broadly hatred, never stops at one group. It never stops at Kaijin, it never stops at mixed races, it keeps going and that’s the point. The people who hate Kaijin also usually hate humans.
Nick, another of Aoi’s friends, has a more minute story, but I felt it is worth mentioning. His entire motivation is wanting to become a Kaijin, just because that’s what he wants. Doesn’t matter that there’s a ton of baggage that comes with it, it makes him happy. Honestly, I kinda get a trans narrative out of that, and that’s really unique. Again, it’s very minor and doesn't play a huge role, but it’s there.
Oh, he’s also Oliver’s son, which I guess might be kinda obvious but I don’t think it’s ever directly acknowledged.
Visuals/SFX/Music
I want to preface this with a warning: Black Sun is very graphic. Not Shin graphic, 1980s gorefest graphic. The first episode has guts being ripped out and a decapitation that is not in silhouette.
And I love it.
For as much over-the-top violence the show features, it never felt desperate or cheap in the way Amazons often did. It’s indulgent at times, occasionally just having fun with the gore for the sheer spectacle of it. But it’s not like a head being ripped off takes away from the gravitas of the story, nor is the over-the-top gore the only violence on display.
Oftentimes a far more subdued yet disturbing form is used in situations to illustrate the severity of racism, but there’s always a line between the presentation.
The way one will pop off seeing Crusher Jaws rip apart flesh is very different from the brutal killing of a beloved character. In fact, one of the most disturbing scenes in the show is a relatively bloodless lynching of a Kaijin.
And I think an important part of that is that Black Sun has two directors; Crime Drama Director Kazuya Shiraishi handles the vast majority of the work, while Ultraman/Godzilla contributor Kiyotaka Taguchi directs the special effects scenes. Additionally, well-established Toku Veteran Shinji Higuchi handles the visual concepts and designs and was in fact the one who brought Taguchi aboard.
I specifically want to point out that the series looks fantastic, just in general, even putting aside the monster designs and fights. Shiraishi, whose work I wasn’t super familiar with before, clearly brings their expertise in crime drama to create a somber and disturbing atmosphere full of dread.
Not to keep taking a dig at it, but one of the problems I had with Amazons is that the series is covered in an ugly-as-sin filter, which was very obviously done to hide the fact they couldn’t get the tone quite right. You cannot apply the exact same principles that go into making a weekly show geared primarily to selling toys and expect it to work seamlessly with an adult drama format. No filter in the world that can hide those flaws.
Black Sun actually has proper direction. It can invoke a strong emotion from someone looking like André Delambre being riddled with bullets, because Shiraishi actually knows how to make a scene disturbing, even if it’s about a hate crime on a fly man. He knows how to light a scene, pace a scene, when to need to go full gusto, and when less is more.
One of my favorite scenes is between Whale and Bat, and it's just them sitting outside, reminiscing about past events and talking about breaking away from Gorgom as the world around them gets ever more complicated.
There's no music, their dialogue is engaging, and I'm fully invested in something that is otherwise a static shot.
I think getting someone not associated with Tokusatsu was very important for this purpose. Getting someone that doesn’t have preconceptions of Tokusatsu was needed to avoid some of the snags many other Tokusatsu productions run into when they tackle a more serious story.
That said, it’s also equally important to have someone that understands the medium, particularly someone that has vast knowledge and experience with both old and new productions, and both Shinji Higuchi and Kiyotaka Taguchi were the perfect selections for this. I love Higuchi’s work on the Gamera films, he has a great eye for practical effects, and he’s worked on more recent major productions like Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman. He knows the ins and outs, and perhaps most importantly, he can walk that very delicate line between “Serious social issues with parallels to real-world events represented by x thing(s). But also, isn’t it cool as shit when the monster does something fucked up like ripping an extra arm out for a sword?”
Not to mention Kiyotaka Taguchi is a brilliant director in his own right. If you’ve watched any of the Millennium Godzilla films or any Ultra series from Ginga S onward, you’ve probably seen his work. Taguchi has largely made a name for himself doing unique and often long takes in fight sequences. Ultraman Orb has a fairly famous one with two simultaneous battles occurring at once, one human-sized, and one with Orb fighting a Kaiju in the background.
Unsurprisingly, the action scenes in Black Sun are really good. Just about every fight has one really cool unique moment, often using the monster designs or environment interestingly. One example is the Grasshopper legs on the back of Kotaro and Nobuhiko being used to kick things away. Probably my favorite scene is one of a monster being pinned to a wall with a sword and they’re slightly elevated off the ground, they get punched and they spin at a 45-degree angle. The visual style is oozing all over the place here, and it’s probably the first time I’ve truly felt the speed of a Rider was captured.
It’s also worth pointing out that the suit and practical effects were handled by a different company than Toei’s usual client. Since W, all the Rider suits have been made by Blend Master Co., Ltd.
But Black Sun opted to go with Dummy Head Productions, the company behind the miniatures used in the 2010 Battleship Yamato movie. Again, that and Higuchi having oversight was pivotal in avoiding a toyetic design.
On that note, I really freaking love the look of Black Sun.
You still have that element of Rider as something more than the average Kaijin with a secondary more armored form that, while predominantly organic in nature, covers up and/or streamlines a few key areas. Technically speaking, any Kaijin can enter this battle form if they're strong enough, so it’s not just exclusive to Black Sun and Shadow Moon.
Shadow Moon doesn’t have quite the same heavy mechanical contrast as seen in the original, but then again that also wouldn’t fit. I don’t really have a lot to say about Shadow Moon because it’s basically just a white/silver recolor. Although it’s impressive how much the silver adds to the design, and the green really pops on the armored variant. Incidentally, so does blood.
You also have a bit more of a violent aesthetic with larger spiked legs across the chest, and of course the iconic ankle legs, so there are still some subtle differences from Black Sun.
And even some cameos of those original Mutants.
Most of the Kaijin are just a mask and gloves, which makes sense for the large group shots. Gotta say I really appreciate having several extras dressed up in masks over just 3 dudes repeatedly green-screened into a wide shot.
Despite the relatively simple designs, there are still some standouts for the more notable Kaijins, and the visual look overall harkens back to the likes of ZO, Hakaider, or even Guyver. There’s a great deal of love poured into keeping things practical and it’s frankly astonishing they were able to build some crazy shit like a giant grasshopper with articulated arms. You just don’t see that nowadays because everyone wants to use non-union visual effects artists.
Probably my favorite aspect just from a conceptual standpoint is how some Kaijin will have their human guise literally explode and dangle like torn clothing. This is something I want to see revisited again at some point.
Seriously, this is conceptually creepy.
But there are also a couple of moments that are more blatant and tonally at odds with the rest of the show. Understand, this is a story in which “Kamen Rider” is not used outside of the title, most of the characters do not scream attacks unless it’s being done for a joke, Battle Hopper is just a bike, Kaijin don't explode. Henshin and posing are about the only thing used. I’m typically hard on shows that try to downplay their more extravagant origins, but for the type of story and setting Black Sun creates, it’s understandable.
Yet that also means when an old-school music cue kicks in, it can feel off. There are maybe only two moments like this in the entire show, but boy is it fucking *weird*.
One moment especially, and you’ll know it when you see it- is both cute yet very out of place.
Still, it's a minor grievance and honestly, most of the music used in Black Sun is fantastic.
Speaking of, I might as well briefly mention the soundtrack by Kenta Matsukuma. Most of it is original, although it takes some inspiration from the BGM in Black by Eiji Kawamura. Hell, the main theme of Black Sun is almost a rearrangement of Moeru Omoi, and I don’t say that as a knock. Matsukuma is still bringing a lot to the table with a very heightened and refined sound befitting of what Black Sun sets out to do. In fact, a vast majority of the soundtrack is very diverse, ranging from atmospheric and ethereal, to upbeat electronic tracks. Let me put it this way, Matsukuma is tackling this as an Action/Horror, which is appropriate.
It may be disappointing to some that Black Sun doesn’t have that much in the way of covers of previous tracks, but as previously stated, they wouldn’t really fit here. Taking cues from BGM tracks like ‘kodoku no Seishun’, ‘Gorgom’, and the aforementioned ‘Moeru Omoi’ works much better as original compositions than outright covers. So if you like strings, pianos, and pipe organs, don’t worry, Matsukuma hones in on that well, and his original tracks are truly beautiful at times. Tears in Heaven and Kotaro's theme are probably my favorites outside of the main theme.
Final Thoughts.
I have not loved a Kamen Rider series like this for quite some time. This is a shockingly anti-imperialist, anti-nationalist, and anti-authoritarian work, to the point where I’m surprised they were allowed to make it in the first place. Literally, the only thing they could do to go further is if in the last episode they ended on the schematics to build a shotgun. That’s how goddamn far it goes. And honestly, I respect the hell out of that.
I believe this might be the best Kamen Rider has been in ages, possibly one of the best Tokusatsu series. It will certainly go down as one of the most daring entries, and the most politically charged Kamen Rider has been since the original Manga.
Black Sun is in many ways the ideal that Shin Prologue strived to be. An adult take on Kamen Rider’s themes cranked to 11, but presented in a more reputable well thoughtful manner, while still indulging in special effects beyond that of a standard television production.
It combines that youthful gratuitous edge with that of a seasoned socially conscious mind, and not a lot of stories can accomplish that. I can’t stress enough how great this series is. It may be a hard watch for some, it has an ending that's bitter sweet, and it’s not a perfect show by any means. But goddamn, I’ll probably never see anything like this again in my lifetime.
I think maybe down the road I'll revisit Black Sun again for a more in-depth review. I actually think this would be a very good series to review episode by episode, if not as a whole. There are still things I'd like to talk about, more spoiler-centric stuff and nitpicks here and there. But as is, I highly recommend you watch the show yourself.
With that said, you can donate to my ko-fi here if you like what I do, and you can find me on Twitter for now and also Tumblr (Not posting much on there yet, but will probably be soon)
Still here? Alright, so massive spoilers from here on.
So, the second aforementioned issue I have lies with a lack of clarity within the dialogue that creates both a contradictory scenario and also has horrendous implications.
For context, Kotaro early on mentions that Kaijin should go extinct and he has a desire to kill the Creation King. Now, his self-hatred for his race subsides as things progress, and we get more context for where he’s coming from. But Kotaro still maintains wanting to kill the king since that’s ostensibly a good thing, given the whole mystical liquid in exploiting humans and Kaijins on the black market.
However, it’s also implied by multiple characters that the death of the Creation King will eventually lead to Kaijin’s not existing, and…maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing, a sentiment later echoed by Aoi, oddly.
Now, that is not at all the intent or the case. But the dialogue both in Japanese and English has some poor word choices and severely bad omissions. Ep.5 in particular is egregious.
Firstly, Kaijin aren’t dependent on the Creation King to live, we know they can and do eat human food. Secondly, Kaijin can have children, even with humans. These are things known in the first episode. With that in mind, the only implication one could be left with is that eventually, possibly, Kaijin would get bred out, which also sounds really fucking bad.
We finally get some dialogue from Kotaro which clarifies what he’s accomplishing in killing the Creation King is that he doesn’t want Kaijin to have unnaturally extended lifespans from heaven or for any more humans to be turned into Kaijin. Kaijin will live exactly as humans.
Which, yeahhhh, we would have gathered that from the get-go if the original dialogue wasn’t so fucking vague and then repeated several more times, hinting at a massively fucked up caveat to the whole thing. Kaijins reaching the end of their natural lives is already a recurring subject in Black Sun that didn't need this convoluted addition.
I honestly thought the series was about to pull the rug out from under me with “X thing is so bad that genocide is justifiable.”
I think part of the reason I kept thinking that was One: My own disbelief that they could build up toward a strong anti-authority message without having some really messed up "counterbalance".
Two: the marketing was still casting its ugly shadow.
I know I keep harping on this, but the trailers for Black Sun did a terrible job representing the type of show it was going to be about beyond “social topic”. As much as I was enjoying the show, I was always half expecting either to be misled into an ultimately centrist take or some milquetoast Quantic Dream bullshit. Ya know, not an actual message, just the vague framework co-opting social issues for brownie points with bland ass corn shucking crackers who don’t really know what the fuck they’re talking about, but still like the idea of not appearing racist, yet are too chicken shit to commit to truly effective means of ending it.
I think it’s clear from the review they clearly did not go that route. But man, episode 5 and even a few lines in later episodes really worried me that the first half of the show might’ve been an insanely elaborate fake-out. Guess they pulled wool over my eyes. Just not sure if that was entirely intentional on their part, cause it really doesn't feel like dropping a morsel of information and following up as the story progresses, it feels like someone fucked up a tiny bit.
This is the one significant part of Black Sun that I feel is poorly conveyed, to the point that I wouldn’t be shocked if some of this was hastily rewritten. It’s almost as if there was a completely different version that went with more of a Skull Man “mutant abominations created by man don't belong in this world” angle before doing something else entirely.
Since we’re getting into spoilers, let’s talk about that ending and the things I do like.
Fucking goddamn. There were a lot of groups the Kajin could be seen as a metaphor for, but having them all stem from an experiment on a POW during the War is simply astonishing. Specifically, the date given is 1936, alluding to the very real experiments of Unit 731. It makes Kajin walking reminders of War crimes and atrocities committed. It also brings to mind the discrimination faced by mixed raced children after the second Sino-Japanese war. I would like to point out that the mass immigration of those children began in 1972.
You have the former Prime Minister as the one that oversaw these experiments, and you have his grandson taking over, creating this fucked up sequence of Political Leaders with ties to war criminals and cults, just to really drive home those Abe parallels.
After all of that information comes out, after the massive backlash and upheaval, and even after Donami is fucking murdered- nothing significant changes. His former Aide runs for office and wins. The same party is still in power even after such a controversy, and bigotry is still rampant.
The Creation King is dead, and both Nobuhiko and Kotaro are dead.
But progress was still made. Aoi, who has since been forcibly turned into a Kaijin, has given up on protests and instead recruits would-be activists to a more proactive form of making a difference like Nobuhiko once did. The fighting may never stop, but she never intends to either.
Or in other words:
How I learned to stop Fascism with the power of Love.
by Aoi.
Chapter 1: The Power of Love.
The first step in my Journey was realizing that it is impossible to defeat Fascism with the power of love.
Chapter 2: The Power of Incredible Violence.
Joking aside, that’s not far from the truth. Once again, if nothing else, I respect the places Black Sun goes.
One last thing of note, I’m going to be shocked if Kokoro Hirasawa, Aoi’s actress, doesn’t take off after this. She’s been in things before, you may even recognize Aoi from Go-Busters. She’s one of the few among the cast with notable Toku credits, most others are more experienced in Drama, which explains the top-notch performances across the board. But she absolutely kills it in this role and I hope to see more of her in the future.
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| Can I get a hook/loop patch of this? |
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