Kamen Rider (1971) episode 45 took me out back and deconstructed my bookshelf so I'm going to talk about it
SPECIFICALLY the opening scene, a press conference which sets up the macguffin Shocker will be trying to steal the rest of the episode
Although at first it seems ridiculous that something that big is considered a "miniature computer" it's actually REALLY IMPRESSIVE for the time. For context, this is a photo of a contemporary "miniature computer", the Kenbak-1.
As an aside, the image of the Kenbak-1 above has a file size of 39293 bytes- over 153 times the memory that the device itself had.
Alright, so we've got a miniature computer! How neat! But hey what's that rabbit doing ther-
OH NO. OH GOD
Whoever was responsible for the camera direction in this episode I am shaking their hand I am laying flowers at their feet I am bursting into tears because what does the camera go to after this??? Does it go to the reporters, who are all talking over one another at how exciting this development is, the next logical place to put the camera because they're the next speaking lines??
NO. IT GOES TO A CLOSE-UP OF HAYATO'S FACE.
The way this is framed... direct center of the shot. Under a spotlight. Lines in the background pointing towards him. Everyone else talking in a rabble of voices while Hayato stays absolutely silent.
Listen if they didn't want me to think they were comparing Hayato to that rabbit then maybe they shouldn't have cut the camera directly from a scientist describing how they cut up and cybernetically enhanced an animal to the nonconsensually cybernetically enchanced protagonist.
And the parallels don't stop there!!!
Oh what's that??? One of the effects of the modification is to increase the jump height of the subject??? WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT BEFORE (screaming)
The crowd starts cheering for a demonstration and I just
THE RABBIT CAN UNDERSTAND YOU. It can HEAR them all clamoring for "an experiment" and I just. What connotation does that word have, for this rabbit? How does it feel, in that moment?
It leaps across the room into Goro's arms and you can just SEE those questions ROILING in Hayato's head. He's dissociating like no tomorrow just absolutely checked out of the situation
Meanwhile the reporters are VERY excited about this and
MAYBE LET'S NOT DO THAT.
Hayato just stares off into space after that. He only has a reaction when he hears the word "Shocker" and just this JOLT runs through him and his eyes SNAP back into focus. It's like he's trying hold everything that's happening at arms-length, but as soon as Shocker's brought up, he puts himself right back in the thick of it, because he has a duty to fulfill. He can't just pull himself away, even when it's upsetting and it hurts.
I cannot and will not shut up about the rabbit-Hayato comparison this scene is framing because ok. In comparing this rabbit to Hayato. What the hell are they saying about Hayato?
Both the rabbit and Hayato are silent this entire scene. Despite the rabbit's ability to understand human language, it cannot speak.
The cyborg surgery "made it capable of understanding human speech"... but it can't be understood by others.
We don't know anything about Hayato's life before he was taken and modified by Shocker. We know his profession as a photographer, we know he was skilled in martial arts, but. We never meet anyone that he knew from Before.
The unintended implication here, is that he didn't HAVE anyone Before.
Is this??? Is this trying to say that this is what Hayato feels like? That he felt like an animal, unable to understand human beings, and now, after he was taken and changed and suddenly surrounded by other people who know him and care about him, now he feels like he can finally start to understand others, but he still doesn't understand how to express his own feelings to them?
When you're really and truly alone, for a long time. It starts to feel easier if you rationalize it to yourself. "Well, it's ok that everyone ignores me- I can't really understand them anyway." "It's okay that no one wants to talk to me like they do other people. I'm not really like other people, so it makes sense that they feel that way." "Since I'm not really the same as other people are, I must be something else."
It's so easy to dehumanize yourself, when no one is there to remind you you're human.
And when that changes, and you find people who DO care about you, it's hard to break that! You keep thinking that to yourself, like "Oh, these are people that care about me. I must be something that they can love."
It takes time and it takes patience to ease out of that, and it takes people that are willing to really truly listen and try to understand you for the person that you are, even when you can't put it to words yourself.
And hey. Good thing Hayato's got just those kind of people in his corner, huh.
