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HK: Forbidden Superhero

Review Date:

Reviewed by:

Released by: Manga Entertainment UK

Age Rating: 15

Region: 2 - UK

Length: 88 minutes

Subtitles: English

Audio: Japanese 2.0 Stereo
Japanese 5.1 Surround

Affilate Links:
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HK: Forbidden Superhero

Summary

WITH GREAT PANTS COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY His father was a lawman. His mother was a bondage queen. His destiny was to put knickers on his head and fight for justice. Teenage martial artist Kyosuke Shikijo wants to be a hero. But when the chance comes to foil a bank robbery and win the heart of the girl he adores, the only way to conceal his identity is to put lady's knickers on his head. This triggers his transformation into Hentai Kamen, the Pervert Mask, with the discovery that female underwear brings him undreamed-of superpowers. Get ready for in-your-face superheroism from a man with pants for a mask. Based on the manga (of course it was based on a manga, what else would it be based on?) by Keishu Ando in Weekly Shonen Jump, HK: Forbidden Superhero is the weirdest crime-fighter in history, not joining the Avengers any time soon. HE'S THE BEST THERE IS AT WHAT HE DOES!

Review

There are films for which is no adequate warning, no easy way for working your way into it. These films are either uncomfortable to watch (war movies, violent drama) or are insane comedies that simply press the START button and go from there at 1,000 mph. HK Forbidden Superhero is a film (no pun intended) that gets off on pressing the aforementioned button.

Kyosuke Shikijo (Ryohei Suzuki) is just an ordinary boy going to school in Japan. He has his studies, his martial arts club practice and his friends. He also has a dead police officer father and a bondage expert mother, Maki (Nana Katase). So things are going great for him in his quest to be a normal boy and all except that he always feels the need to help people being attacked by the enemies of justice (namely people who are usually featured on Crimewatch) only to get pummelled senseless. When Aiko Himeno (Fumika Shimizu) joins the school, Kyosuke likes her and wants to go out with her and tries to introduce himself properly to her. Unfortunately, on her first day she's taken hostage by bad guys along with a bank's staff and Kyosuke can't stand by and do nothing. After breaking in, he covers his face with a pair of women's underwear and is suddenly transformed into Hentai Kamen (Pervert Mask), wearing nothing but a panty (I'm using the term simply for descriptive purposes) mask, tennis shoes, women's fishnet stockings and shocking white mens briefs.

HK: Forbidden Superhero

If you think the above sounds insane, I've good news and bad news. The bad news is that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. From here, Kyosuke saves Aiko and his school from gangs of school lads who want to dig up the school for treasure, a parade of villains ending in the word mask (Serious Mask, Cool Mask, Skinny Mask, Macho Gay Mask and Fake Pervert Mask) trying to destroy and defeat our hero and the sight of a superhero who defeats his opponents by rubbing their face into his cotton covered crotch. From him sliding down a bondage rope with his victim's face at the end to propeller twirling around someone's face at supersonic speeds, Hentai Kamen is the hero you'll get, maybe not the one you need. The movie opens with the aping of the Marvel Studios modern logo complete with images of the original manga and follows 30 minutes later with HK standing atop a large structure ripped off from The Dark Knight. Also, while Kyosuke has a normal voice, he goes all Christian Bale and growls as HK. Being a martial arts master while wearing a mankini has never looked so bizarre. I meant to say something else, what was it? Oh, yeah! The good news! The good news is that this is merely the tip of the iceberg!

HK: Forbidden Superhero

If you couldn't already tell, this was a riot to watch. There is something amazing and funny about watching a ripped bloke doing erotic poses, wearing a mask and women's underwear and a pair of y-fronts and yelling out attack moves. This movie is based on a manga but its origins lie in Go Nagai's Kekko Kamen, a story about a girl who defeats evil doers at a school run by evil people with a mask, boots, nunchaku and a bo staff. Oh and nothing else on her. Just like Hentai Kamen, Kekko defeats her opponents by landing on their faces crotch first. Though, in her case, Go Nagai had the stones to have her do it naked. HK delights in taking all the normal hero problems (girl likes the hero not the boy, inner turmoil, a loss of power at the second act's end, a triumphant final battle) and adding the fact that the guy's a pervert to it. So we have Fake Hentai Kamen defeating our hero because he's a bigger pervert and a masochist. Oh and he defeats him by rubbing his crotch over HK's face. Along the way, HK becomes a hero to all but still people regard him as a pervert. We have him using bondage ropes as web lines as he slings across the city, Spiderman style. He learns he has an inner power beyond mere perversion, making him a better, stronger, er, super pervert. I kid you not, this stuff does happen.

HK: Forbidden Superhero

Along the way, the film has our standing around in his underwear on the streets of Japan (presumably they got permission) and saving people by rubbing the bad guys noses in it (chorkle, chorkle, well you know what laugher sounds like!). Every scene is worthy of being made into a GIF on someones message board or Twitter post. Like the scene where HK convinces a potential suicide victim not to jump by hypnotizing him with his crotch (can't believe I just typed that). Or crotch fireballing Fake Hentai Kamen in the skies over Tokyo. Jesus, I really can't believe I just typed THAT either. The people watching it with me split their sides laughing and that is what you want from a title like HK: Forbidden Superhero. Completely recommended, perverted notions aside, of course.

Rating: 9/10

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