Review by Frank Plowright

Kamen Rider Kuuga is a long form serial concerning man versus monsters, in this case created by a form of malign elder god for purposes yet unknown. Kuuga is the latest in a line of Kamen Riders, given power to combat this type of threat, and as seen in Kamen Rider Kuuga 01, when not costumed as an insect, Yusuke Godai is a supernaturally cheerful young man not greatly concerned about maintaining a secret identity. Although first seeing Godai as an irritant, broody police detective Kauru Ichijo has come to accept him, and both turn out to be friends of research student Sakarako Sawatari, who had her own grim experience in the first volume.

Artist Hitotsu Yokoshima has a talent for portraiture, and he skilfully he applies a veneer of frost representing the conditions of Tokyo winter. As before, he’s precise and detailed with city locations, and when standing still his insectoid monsters have a stature. He’s less polished with action sequences, which can be difficult to follow.

Toshini Inoue is working from an early draft of the scripts eventually forming the Kamen Rider Kuuga anime, and after the energy rush of the first volume, the opening chapter here explores the well-intentioned characters a little more, giving them greater depth. Over the second chapter that also applies to the monster-creating villains, a revived ancient race calling themselves the Gurongi. They have a hierarchy, and although their motivations in endangering random humans remain unclear, they seem to be indulging themselves in some form of point-scoring game. The presentation of their conversation as makey-up words followed by translated English remains irritating, although presumably the format for the entire series.

Several new characters are introduced toward the end, seemingly without any great purpose, but that’s not the case, as one in particular is known to Ichijo and hated by him, as becomes clear in Kamen Rider Kuuga 03. This is a more intriguing volume than the first, with relationships better defined.

As for the second consecutive volume Shinichiro Shinakura is cover credited for “planning”, the feeling is that Titan Manga could provide some explanation for this unusual credit, and they do via a two page interview at the back. From the interview it would seem his position equates to a TV producer.