| Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Senki |
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| Directed by | Tarō Sakamoto |
| Produced by | Ishinomori Productions Toei |
| Written by | Toshiki Inoue |
| Starring | Shigeki Hosokawa Jyoji Shibue Shingo Kawaguchi Rakuto Tochihara |
| Music by | Toshihiko Sahashi |
| Cinematography | Masao Inokuma |
| Distributed by | Toei Co. Ltd |
| Release date(s) | September 3, 2005 |
| Running time | 75 min Theatrical/90 min Director's Cut. |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | $11,000,000 |
Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Senki Movie (劇場版 仮面ライダー響鬼と７人の戦鬼 Gekijōban Kamen Raidā Hibiki to Shichinin no Senki, Masked Rider Hibiki & The Seven War Ogres Movie) is the movie presentation of the Japanese tokusatsu Kamen Rider Hibiki, directed by Tarō Sakamoto and written by Toshiki Inoue. The movie's title and plot is a reference to the classic Akira Kurosawa film, the Seven Samurai. The movie serves as an alternate introduction to Kamen Rider Hibiki's final form and also explains the history of the Makamou and Oni war.
The film was produced by Ishinomori Productions and Toei, the producers of all the previous television series and films under the Kamen Rider franchise. Following the tradition of all Heisei Kamen Rider movies, it is a double bill with 2005's Super Sentai movie, Mahou Sentai Magiranger: The Bride of Infershia.
This was the first of the Heisei era Kamen Rider movies to not have a two word subtitle.
This movie also served as the introduction of the new director and writer team that would later go on to replace producers Shigenori Takadera and Shinichiro Shirakura in the series.
Contents |
Hibiki and Asumu are on their way to a Makamou attack on the beach. Once they arrive there, they see dozens of people running from the massive Orochi, a beast rumored to be the strongest Makamou ever created. Once they arrive, Hibiki walks towards the Orochi and transforms, but all of his attacks prove useless against Orochi. The situation is made even more dire when Hibiki jumps in the way of an attack meant for Asumu. Taking the full force of the attack, Hibiki passes out as the Orochi swims away, leaving a panicking Asumu to get help. Hibiki ends up in the hospital and Asumu begins blaming himself for Hibiki's injuries. Feeling useless, he begins helping at Tachibana's, going through dozens of books to try to discover a way to defeat the Orochi. Upon coming across a book with his name on it, Asumu sits down and begins to read what turns out to be the history of Takeshi, the Oni and the Makamou war.
In the Sengoku period, a young boy who has the same resemblance and name as Asumu is wandering around with his childhood friend Hitoe. In this time, the humans all knew and feared the Makamou, sometimes forced to sacrifice one of their own to spare an entire village from the Makamou's wrath. Suzu was such a case as she was offered up as the yearly sacrifice to the Orochi to keep it from killing the villagers. After some protesting from the girl's father, the man was killed by Douji and Hime before Suzu and her father's corpse were consumed by the Orochi. A year later, a mark appears upon Hitoe's hand, making her as the next sacrifice to the Orochi. Asumu, unwilling to let her meet such a fate, sets out to find a way to stop it. Meeting the village elder Tobei and the others for such a means, learning the only way is to bring an Oni, though many villagers see them to be no different than the Makamou, despite the fact that they fight the monsters. Asumu understands the danger but insists on setting out in spite his own history with a Oni. Tobei sends along his daughters, Kazue and Hinako, to help.
The group then enters a town being attacking by a Makamou called Kaendaishou before it is defeated by an Oni named Kabuki who has been hired by the town's people to defeat the Makamou. After realizing that the people can only pay him with food, Kabuki offered some a younger boy, but the boy's mother quickly slaps the food away from the boy due to the taboo of humans' contact with the Oni. Learning of Asamu's blight, Kabuki offers his aid after telling him they need to gather allies to help them against the Orochi. To that end, Kabuki takes Asumu's group to find a small home where a former Oni named Hibiki lives. Asumu instantly declares his hatred for this man as he believes him to be the one that killed his brother. Asumu's older brother, Takeshi, was the apprentice to Hibiki and was killed one day in a rock slide. Asumu found Hibiki carrying his brother's body and assumed that Hibiki was his brother's killer. Without Hibiki, the group moves on to find the next Oni; Ibuki. They find Ibuki, who aided in the war and became daimyo. But bored with his life as a feudal lord, Ibuki quickly takes care of his court and leaves with the group. The group then heads on to a small temple, where they recruit a buddhist priest named Tohki after Kabuki attempted to throws a rock at him to test his buddhist abilities.
The Oni then try to trick the Makamou by setting Ibuki up as the sacrifice in Hitoe's place. After finding out it was all a trick, the Makamou then attack Ibuki, who is quickly aided by Kabuki and Tohki, the latter making quick work of the couple with his freezing power. But the Orochi then shows up and forces the Oni to leave the battle as the Douji and Hime threaten the villagers for their attempted defiance by giving them a month to redeem themselves or suffer the plague that they have inflicted on the girl. After Kirameki arrives too late for the fight, the group sets out to gain more partners. As the Douji and Hime discuss how to deal with their eventual meddling, the Oni group make a stop in a village, with Asumu following them until he is attacked by a group of Samurai and unknowingly being saved by Hibiki. The group then learn of Nishiki, the Oni thief who is to be executed for his crimes. The group comes to witness his public beheading, but Nishiki surprises everyone by catching the sword to be used in his beheading with his teeth. He then escapes and joins the group, who are being watched by a young girl that turns out to be a Makamou named Hitotsumi who specializes in killing Oni.
The Oni then find Habataki, who first refuses to join them now that he has a wife and son. However, Habataki agrees to join the group only after his wife persuades him to take up the cause again as long as he returns to her alive. While they are traveling, they find Todoroki being attacked by Bakegani. Nishiki, Habataki and Kirameki help him dispatching the Oni before he tells them that Hibiki sent him to help them out. Back at Asumu's village, Hitoe illness worsens as she has gone to a cave to hide, with a group of villagers looking for her as the Oni returned. The villagers are found murdered later, with Nishiki's weapon at the scene. The house where the Oni are staying is then burnt down, and the Oni are told by the villagers that Nishiki's weapon was found at the sight of the murders and Hitoe saw the murderer to be an Oni. The group of Oni then get into a fight over the situation if they should fight back against the humans or not, but the fight is broken up once Hibiki comes along. It is then revealed to Asumu that Hibiki did not kill his brother, and that his brother was crafting a special sword for him.
Hitoe is then brought home, identifying Kabuki as the one who killed the villagers and left Nishiki's weapon there to frame him. Though Hibiki and Asumu were confused, Kabuki reveals his intentions as he and Kaendaishou attack Hibiki, the two get away without Hitoe. The group of Oni then break up and head their own ways, but before doing so, Todoroki returns Hibiki's tuning fork and Disc Animals to him. While this occurred, before taken to be sacrificed, Hitoe takes Asamu to the cave he and brother played, finding a katana that Takeshi made for Hibiki before his death. Asumu makes his way to Hibiki as Kabuki ambushes him at his home, handing Hibiki the katana and asking him to fight for the memory of his brother. Taking the request to heart, Hibiki transforms and fends off Kabuki after killing Kaendaishou. After a long battle Hibiki, defeats Kabuki as he and Asumu make their way to the beach as Hitotsumi devours Kabuki. Arriving, Hibiki begins fighting with a massive group of Ninja Makamou as Asumu saves Hitoe. But outnumbered, the tie turns when the other Oni arrive to help Hibiki, killing Hitotsumi and the Douji/Hime pair. The battle goes on until Hibiki comes head to head with the Orochi. At the climax of the battle, the katana is swiped away from Hibiki's hands and into the sea.
In the present, Asumu sees that the last page to the book is missing and not showing how that battle ended. Asumu then finds out that Hibiki is well and fighting the Orochi again. Sensing a presence in the nearby cave, Asumu finds the katana from the story he read and hands it to Hibiki, changing into the Armed Saber as he becomes Armed Hibiki and defeats the Orochi. In the past, in aftermath of their win over the Makamou army, Hibiki and the other Oni take their leave to be of service elsewhere. As the villagers rebuild their home, they decide that a human and Oni partnership would be best for both sides in the future, with Asumu naming this group "Takeshi", honoring the memory of his brother.
These characters possess a resemblance to the present-time characters.
Kabuki is a Taiko Oni and is one of the antagonists in the movie, having double-crossed Asumu and the others into believing he cares for humans (as per his staged fight with a Makamou). He also caused trouble among the seven Oni when they were accused of attacking humans (with Nishiki's weapons found beside a murdered man, while it was actually him who committed it). He revealed that he was disillusioned with his relation with humans because no matter how hard he fights and risks his life for them, they just call him an Oni, a monster, an animal. Thus he forms a pact with the Makamou to become one of them. He has a soft spot, however, for children because even upon his defeat by Hibiki and death at the hands of Hitotsumi, he pleads for Asumu's safety.
A buddhist monk who spends his days praying at a local temple until Asumu and his group come upon him. He bears a resemblance to the present day Kamen Rider Zanki.
Kirameki was Tohki's partner years ago until an incident with an Ittanmomen resulted with Kirameki running off, leaving Tohki to fend the Makamou off on his own. As a result, Kirameki was labeled a coward no one wanted to associated with. However, Kirameki joins the group of Oni when he arrives in his kite and suggests getting more reinforcements.
A thief Oni who loves money, Nishiki is often caught in situations leading people to believe he is a criminal. He refused to join the Oni group at first until tricked in believing there's buried treasure in the village they're saving.
Habataki is one of the older Oni. He fought in a war years ago and has since given up the Oni life to settle down as a farmer together with his family.
While the movie's version of how Hibiki became Armed Hibiki and gained the Armed Saber is different of that than the television series, the rest of the movie is considered to be canon. Much of the history of the Makamou and Oni was only mentioned in small dialogue in the television series. It was not until the movie was released that the true heritage of the partnership between the Oni and the humans was revealed, as well as the history of the war between the Makamou and the Oni. It is believed that the Makamou history was simply written off as myths by modern day humans. Thus, they are unaware of the existence of the Oni and Makamou.
The film is an adapted in a full 3 chapter manga book which is closely related to the film except there are few difference the present framing is removed.
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