Hentai Kamen 2: The Abnormal Crisis (2016) — NYAFF 2016

Hentai Kamen 2: The Abnormal Crisis is the sequel to the NYAFF audience award winning film from a couple years back. Seeing the wildly insane story of a high school kid who turned into a near naked superhero when he put his girlfriend’s panties on his head was one of the best experiences you could have in a crowded theater and it was little wonder it took home the audience award. It wasn’t a prefect film, but it had heart and go for broke attitude that won everyone over.

The sequel picks up with our hero and his girl in college. Hentai Kamen is no more having gone into retirement. However someone begins stealing women’s panties across Japan and working at driving a wedge between Kamen and his girl? Could it be an old foe who isn’t really dead? Yup. With all the used panties gone, will Kamen be able to find a way to transform? Of course…

This is more of the same but where the first film had a series of battles between foes, this is more a long caper as the bad guys take steps to stop Kamen. The breezy almost plotless first film is beefed up to mixed effect. Yes the laughs and fun are there, but the actual plot slows things down and you really can feel the films two hour running time. For me the fact that this isn’t wholly new took it down a peg since I couldn’t give it a pass for showing me something new.

The more of the same complaint shouldn’t be held to imply or infer this is a bad film-hell no. There are belly laughs from start to finish and the audience was laughing so hard that had I not been reading subtitles I would have missed dialog. My friend Stan who didn’t see the first film was smiling from ear to ear when he wasn’t doubled over with laughter. Any complaints are quibbling about an 8 out of 10 film following a 10 out of 10 one. This is a film that’s a must see with friends and adult beverages-which were free flowing at the NYAFF screening.

I should probably say as much as I like the Hentai Kamen films, I’m not sure how they will play if you watch them all alone on TV. These are films that are meant for communal screening. They are films where the odd stray comment adds to the experience, as does someone’s infectious laughter which makes everything funnier. If you’re seeing this friends or an audience I highly recommend the film. If you’re seeing it alone at home I do so with reservations.