My Current Thoughts On Kamen Rider Series Part Three

Alright this one will actually have an easy theme to work with. I am focusing on the three shows after Kamen Rider Double, but I will go in order of Wizard, Fourze, and OOO. There is a very special reason why I am going to save OOO for last. I will admit I know the flak I got for loving Wizard when it was originally airing. Now as you can clearly see, I still have Wizard in the background because one I am lazy, but the other reason is that this background was made by a friend of mine so I will probably keep it because of that. For Kamen Rider Wizard, out of the three I will be mentioning this is still my personal favorite. I can easily agree that one of the other shows is stronger and that is the difference of a favorite and knowing when something is just better. Again that is all opinionated and if you feel your favorites are the best masterpieces around, you have the freedom to say that. For me as a critic, I need to know my personal favorites because it helps find out who I am and then just knowing what is simply a more well put together program is important for analyzing. Then both of these are important for when you want to recommend shows to other people. So let us actually get to the topic of Wizard and why it is still my personal favorite out of the shows that came after Double.

Kamen Rider Wizard

Why does Kamen Rider Wizard stand out to me as a person? One thing is that I may not be big on magic based heroes, I do love it when they are done with jewelry, weapons, and summons. A great example of this would be M.A.R not the best show, but it was fun to watch what different types of powers and magical weapons there were. In terms of designs, Wizard stands out with the jewel concepts and I love the use of black to make the other colors stand out. For the beginning of the action, I was a big fan of the action, Wizard had a great style of fighting and I will admit, when he got more powers some of those fights did lower in quality. There were some bad uses of CGI and there were good ones as well. I still enjoy the reveal of Water Dragon and the use of the Dragon summon fighting against the Phantoms inside others. I feel the Phantom concept was stronger than the Worms because of how they complete erase a person and will still have their memories which makes them extremely dangerous because of how they can interact with others. The story of how things simply went out of control because of one man's ambition is cliche I will admit that, but in the end the main story was not the focus of the show. Now that is a flaw in itself and it is hard to ignore. To me though, Wizard did have a strong focus on their filler episodes because of the concept of hope and despair. Haruto was helping out others to find their hope and while Haruto did hold onto his to become Wizard, he still needed to find some answers on his own. I find the show to be extremely helpful in regards to facing your despair and sometimes it does require a helping hand. Kamen Rider Beast while his story was simple, I can say his process of becoming a selfless person was fun, encouraging, and bit of a learning experience to how people can change. I even enjoy his motif of being a stage magician which inspired me to create a rider with the same motif, Trickster. No one in the cast actually bugged me and while some characters were wasted like the Mages, it was still a fun concept and had moments still. So with Kamen Rider Wizard it does hit many personal spots for me and it made it special for me to watch and I still remember many of the episodes and moments the show had. If it did focus a bit more on some story points we would probably have a bigger focus on the Mages and the White Mage, but in the end I am still happy to what Wizard was. So for my personal thoughts, Wizard still comes off as an A, but I will admit the show is a bit more of a B or B-

I still keep my opinions about Sora/Gremlin.

Kamen Rider Fourze

I have to say that with some great talks with my fellow Toku Warriors, mostly Janitor Joker. It did give me a bigger appreciation of this show. For Zolda, he extremely loves this show and when I first saw it, I did enjoy it. Now these days I am still rather mixed, but I see it in a better light than I originally did. It is hard for a show to do multiple characters that effect a story and that is probably one of Fourze's biggest achievements. The Kamen Rider Club was full of colorful characters and all had their own importance and even crucial story moments. For many the whole friendship angle can be beaten to death and while Fourze does follow it, the show performs the concept to where things feel nice and warm. By that I mean that the show can surprisingly be strong in showing how friends our made even if these people are completely different. Gentaro who dresses like a punk is actually the nicest person around and he makes a unique group of friends. We got the jock, the cheerleader, the goth, the spaz, the genius, the talented one who first starts out like a bully, and then someone who hides his pain. It really collects a lot of tropes and it has been done before and yet Fourze still has a nice smell to it. It felt natural for the most part in regards to friendship and it does not stop there are many others that Gentaro befriends, even teachers! Now something similar to Wizard, I did enjoy the concept of Fourze's weapons as well. Some were a bit silly and were not even weapons and yet some can be used for different purposes. My personal favorite is the Pen Switch because it was bizarre idea for a weapon and I wished it was used more. I can admit though some were just tossed out. The show did experiment around with them though as one of my favorite moments is when Fourze is just boarding along with with his claw. Cosmic States really holds up to be one of the best final forms around in terms of design and powers. Now one thing that did hurt the show was the villains. I am not talking about the Gamou and his loyal men, Libra, Virgo, and Leo. The rest of the Zodiarts were a bit lackluster though. When Cancer first came into the show, I enjoyed the hell out of him. The fun did not last long though and he was taken out by one of the most ridiculous forms and attacks in Kamen Rider history. Scorpio was good as well and had a good twist on who that actually was, but again when you keep moving on, you soon just forget about it though. Other Zodiarts were then just used for MOTW and while were still good, it would be more amusing if they were bigger villains in the end. The switch use got mixed up a bit in variety which was good and Meteor still had some awesome fights even if his character did just kind of stopped after his story was resolved. At least they still have Ryusei some funny moments and a girlfriend that all the fans want! So overall Fourze and Wizard do have similarities, but Fourze did have a more concrete story. So it is around the B+ area.

Kamen Rider OOO

I remember when I first watched OOO and I can still see my initial thoughts on the show. I praised it pretty well back then and there is Maki who I put as my favorite villain. I have to take back both of these claims. First I have a bone to pick with OOO in regards to what it did to Kamen Rider. We all remember Foundation X from Double. Riku Sanjo wanted to make the new Shocker and while Fourze did bring them back, sadly OOO easily caused a problem of not using Foundation X. There was even a connection in Kamen Rider Double where the foundation was researching the medals. What do we get in place of them, Kougami. While I love the guy's voice, what is reall his purpose in the show? That is pretty much what OOO is, what is the point? Eiji was a traveler and because of his past he did start to have desires, we learned that, then it takes like how many episodes for it to come to fruition? Eiji has a character was quite questionable as well because he is just watered down Godai and I can't believe I put this guy in my favorite characters list before! The Greeed were weak as villains and I still keep true to that. They got heavily ignored when Maki became the big villain and to be honest it is pointless as well. Literally it could have been anyone else who had interest in the Greeed. Then there was Maki's backstory with his sister and I remember originally liking that, but in the end that does not really connect to much. Things just happen in OOO and it just feels cluttered and messy. The whole concept of OOO was poorly handled as literally medals are thrown to the camera because you need to buy these things! The designs for OOO were messy when it was random combos and I will admit I personally like the random combos more though. The use of their powers had to be thought out, but even the writers gave up and just focused on the main combos. I still like most of the main combos as well, but some got overused and others were only ignored for budget reasons. The show just feels poorly planned because I do like the first Gatakiriba fight, but after that this form is so underused. At least the movie did something silly yet cool with that form. We even have Hina and her only connection to the story is because of Ankh using her brother's body and that was just by chance. I will say that I did heavily enjoy both Gotou and Date. Both Kamen Rider Briths were simply fun to watch for me. Gotou was a hero in progress and Date was the hero already that got to teach Gotou. It is Torodoki and Zanki again and while those two were better in the categories of, effective fighters, better development, and better weapons. Still Date was extremely fun as a character and gave the show the best humorous moments. I just feel bad for Birth in the end though, they just never stand a chance in any battle and yet Gotou could take down like three Greeeds when he first became Birth in the show. Then their is Ankh, I still like him and him becoming a threat later on was not shocking, but still fun in the end. Ankh slowly become more humane was enjoyable because meanwhile other Greeeds were just being... dumb. I can believe that Gamou was dumb and yet everyone else was not smart as well. The show's pacing is horrid, most of the fights were forgettable, the concept of OOO's powers are poorly handled, most of the characters are just boring, and yet it sold well. If you want to see how OOO could have been done well, just watch episode three and four of Kamen Rider Double.

Now do not get me started about OOO during the War movies!

My Current Thoughts On Kamen Rider Series Part Two

Now we are back here again, talking about my current thoughts on the Kamen Rider franchise. Now the last time I discussed about the rider shows I really love strongly to this day. Double, Kuuga, and Black. I feel these three shows show great strengths of the eras they were part of. Now I am missing the original era and I know Black is Showa as well, but I feel Black shows new light of the Showa era while the originals had their own thing. Again I will be watching some of these originals, I have seen Amazon and will be watching the original series, V3, and Stronger. Now I am going to change focus on shows I do not think lightly of. I will be honest I have been getting some negative vibes just in my overall life so I feel talking about some in my eyes are bad shows can help me out. There is ton of material to talk about with these shows so let us get straight to it.

Kamen Rider Ryuki

Now even back then I considered Ryuki an average show and there is still a good amount of things that I actually really like in this show. One of them being everyone's favorite psychopath, Kamen Rider Ouja. He was a straight up murderer and even though the show tried to give him a backstory and it was silly, I just end up loving this character for being a murderer. I even like the aspect he brought to the Rider War. The riders were not dying so the war was going on for too long, so the man who started it puts a murderer in the battlefield because he knows bodies will drop because of the murderer. Then there is Kamen Rider Zolda as well who I got to appreciate a bit more from recently playing the Ace Attorney series and talking with my fellow Toku Warrior, Zolda. Zolda was an attorney who would win a case regardless if it was right or not, he just did it for the glory, fame, and riches. Again with Ouja I personally like how he stays true to himself, but this time I can actually respect him as a person. I even like the bond he shared with his assistant Goro. Overall I feel these two characters are good reasons that make the show a bit more tolerable than some others I will be talking about here. There are still minor characters I like as well like Imperer and Taiga, but they were not big focuses compared to others. Now there are some problems with this show, first there is the ending which I will not spoil, but it is a cop out regardless. I hate endings that just ruin absolutely every aspect of the show. I did like Ryuki what it had to do with death, but the ending just ruins that aspect. Now onto the main characters themselves, I do not hate fully, but they can get annoying to me. Shinji does have some arrogance to him even if he is trying to do good, but that leads to a whole other question of what is good or bad that I will not dive into. Renn is then a bit too all over the place. At some points he can be the cool cold lonely solider which I do like, but then out of nowhere he will be hot headed like Shinji and even hold himself back because he has not yet fully committed to what he is doing. Even though he is fighting for a pretty noble purpose in his regards. Then when these two bicker it just stalls the show! Even if the show stalls itself, the actual story is bland with barely any surprises. Then the other problem with Ryuki were some of the effects, I know this is a low budget show during the early 2000's, but they did get lazy and just went to the special effects which look laughable at times. Now there are good moments in terms of effects, designs, and suit action too. I really do like Zolda and his Mirror Monster with their onslaught of the possibly biggest bullet storm around. I really enjoy Imperer's finisher with the use of his herd of mirror monsters. Taiga's has those cool claws and even drags people all over the ground with them. Now bad effects that I get a laugh from is Ouja's CGI body doing the kicks in midair and Gai hopping onto his monster for his finisher. Again I will still say the show is mostly an average one as it did have a good idea putting the Battle Royale concept with Kamen Rider, but I do think the amount of riders should have been less and not just having some for a movie! Then the actual main plot is thin and the closer you get to the end of the show it really starts to fall apart.

Kamen Rider Faiz

Faiz is pretty much this heavily ambitious show, but in the end it becomes a punching bag for us fellow Toku Warriors. I know my friend Janitor Joker really loves to talk about Faiz, he easily will take jabs at it, but he can admit the show was trying to do something. I will not lie I can see these aspects as well. Kiba was an amazing character until a certain part of the show which is pretty much near the end. The whole aspects of the Orphnochs and how they wanted to be the dominant race was a great idea. There were different aspects shown with these creatures. There was Kiba and his group which did not want to be part of the murder spree, there was the organization wanting their goal to work and will get rid of traitors who do not help them, and then there is just monsters. I personally love it when there is like this other faction having fights with the heroes and themselves, it just makes things a bit surprising. Then there is Kaixa, again usually the biggest punching bag of the entire show, but I personally like this character a great amount. He has a struggle with trusting others and when things are not getting done in his eyes, he will do it himself and he ends up making things move along in mostly bad ways. Now for the hero and his allies... yea they are all annoying in their own ways. Takumi I find to be to distant only for the sole fact of hiding plot points, but I do like the idea of his struggle. Mari is a bitch and that is all I have to say and I am sorry for the language, but I had to. Then there is Keitaro... he is useless all around. I hate his guts, I hate his comedy, I even hate his love story which really got insane in that crazy book! Now some other problems with the show are the villains and the lack of explanations all around! There is also the terrible ending which I think is a reoccurring theme for these three shows. Smart Brain is well confusing... the belts which they made make no sense since they are being made by Smart Brain which is secretly an Orphnoch group. Why would they make belts that could end up being used by humans? Wasn't the sole purpose of the belts to be for their leader? Which brings me up to the leader of the Orphnochs... what a lazy and quick way to reveal a final villain. To be honest having the Dragon Orphnoch as the final villain would have been better, I don't like this guy because he just does nothing except be threatening on the battlefield, but at least he was this constant threat in battle. The King just appears and he is just powerful, deal with it. The final nail on the coffin for me though is the constant use of all of the rider belts! You think IXA and Thebee had it bad, you have not seen Faiz. Belts are just passed around to everyone. It just just a gimmick in the end for the show and it got annoying. This is even the first rider show that really just threw around new powers like they were just toys. Again the show did feel gimmicky all around, but the aspects and ideas are good, it is just the execution that ruins them. I do not even like the majority of fights, but I can say when they used CGI effects it was better than Ryuki, but it did use them a bit too much. For designs I pretty much like Kaixa and Horse Orphnoch the most. Overall Faiz is an ambitious mess.

Kamen Rider Kabuto

Kamen Rider Kabuto is so the 50/50 series for me. I can actually like it to a high degree at times, but then I start to think differently because of seeing something I missed or remembering something. I go back and forth on this show, but I feel that this stays true at least to me, that Kabuto is the most over rated rider show. Now I can see why people can like this and it really fully depends on how you feel about the characters. Tendou is arrogant to the point where Shiji is jealous of him. I do remember even back then I said he had his share of struggles, but to be honest it does not last long. Tendou is just this perfect heaven boy and it really gets annoying. Then there is the lack of explanations for about everything and I thought Faiz was bad with this. Things will just happen in Kabuto and the reason for the most part is, deal with it Tendou walks the path of heaven. With the other characters then... yea they are not much better than Tendou. Kagami is not the worst, but he can be annoying and to be honest I liked him when he was Thebee. Personally he should just have stayed as Thebee since in the end Thebee is just thrown away so why even make more rider systems if you are going to ignore one. I feel bad for Thebee, he is one of the worst treated riders. The user for Thebee just end up getting new systems and the last guy just uses it for reasons and did not keep it for reasons untold. The whole conflict with Thebee users is just ends with the Hoppers and yea... I still hate these guys. They add nothing at all to the show! Kamen Rider Drake is underused as well, but he also does not serve much story purposes if any at all to begin with. Gatack is just around because Kagami needs a rider system now even though he had Thebee, but Thebee went to someone else who ends up not using it as well... Dark Kabuto is just Dark Kabuto and again barely serves any true purpose, you will literally say "Hi Dark Kabuto, bye Dark Kabuto" many times. I will say the only rider I liked in the show is Sasword and it does matter if you like his comedy and I do for the most part. I like his relationship with his butler and his story actually has some importance since it connects to the Worm. He is also one of the few characters that at least tried to teach Kabuto something. I say tried because Tendou is just Tendou no matter what. ZECT is even more confusing than Smart Brain because there is never any real reasons for why they do things! Why use the Zecters, why create so many, why try to capture people who use them, but not for the company, and why even bother to try anything since their track record is the worst. So with all of that said, at least I like the fights. I like the whole Clock Up aspect and there were even other Worms that had better versions of that. How the backgrounds would slowly move was nice and you can tell the budget was used up for this purpose. Other than that... there is not much saving the show. So as of right now I am not a fan of Kabuto, but who knows I could change my mind again because I go back and forth with this, but at least the show is not the movie because the hell with that movie!

How much do I hate this movie? Maybe a review could be needed...

Since I mentioned some of my fellow comrades here is the overall blog page. (http://tokuwarriors.blogspot.com/)

Now for the Twitter Accounts

Janitor Joker (https://twitter.com/JanitorJoker)

Samuel Speight (https://twitter.com/GekiZolda)

My Current Thoughts On Kamen Rider Series Part One

I have watched a large amount of Kamen Rider shows, but there have been times when my opinions have changed. Now I will only be covering rider shows I have fully finished which means a good amount of Showa will be left out, but I have been watching the original Kamen Rider (halfway through), V3 I need to get back to, and Stronger is on top of my watchlist. Still I will go in order for how I see fit. There are some that have not changed as much so I will probably bring those series up first.

Kamen Rider Double

Throughout the years I still love Kamen Rider Double, I will say my overall favorite Toku has changed to Metalder, but I can still find new aspects of Double to respect. Still Double is my favorite Kamen Rider series as I wish some current rider really follow in its direction. The show had a unique style and yet still gave tribute to the series before it, mostly the Showa era. The mystery angle the series had yet a bit predictable at times, were still fun stories to watch. Double personally did the best with the two arc style that Kamen Rider picked up thanks to the little mysteries. Sometimes they were not mysteries, it was even straight forward, get the criminial cases like with Arms Dopant. The Dopants in general are still to me some of the greatest monsters in rider not only because of design aspects, but just in terms of characters. Some were a bit complex or completely insane and the degree there was to them was unpredictable. There were basic ideas like Magma and T-Rex, but then we get to Money, Liar, Terror, and even Utopia. Then even when the concept was simple the show found ways to make them surprising like the Weather Dopant. This was thanks to giving unique properties in both design and abilities. What made Isaka stand out was how far he went to gain his powers and even upgrade his own, again in concept he does have a mixture of elements and hence his powers should be weaker than one that fully focuses on let's say the element of fire, but Isaka made sure to make each one stronger and kept that balance too. Then there were just many other surprises all around, the Sonzaki family with how they treated the Nasca and Claydoll Memories, how Accel ended up connecting to the big puzzle, and the dynamics of Shotaro and Phillip. There is even a grand amount of backstory that just helps open the world of Double which has not been achieved in current rider after it, maybe the closest was Gaim. Still in the end Double has just many of my favorites and most are personal and I can see where some might find disinterest. In the end, I do not mind because still to this day I keep watching it and finding new things to think about.

 Also Skull's story is still by far the greatest in modern rider to me, it captured everything that not only made Double strong, but just Kamen Rider in general.

Kamen Rider Kuuga

As I said before, Double is my personal favorite rider show, but I cannot lie and say that Kuuga is the rider show of the Heisei era. Not only did it start the revival of Kamen Rider, it is still by far the most ambitious the franchise has ever got. The whole show itself was changing Toku in general as it does break many traditions. As my good friends and I talked about before, Kuuga can just be a surprisingly good cop show. The police are a major focus in this show and it is great to see them be as brave as the main hero. There are many scenes of them trying to figure out how to stop the Grongi and even solve their little puzzles and without them Kuuga wouldn't stand a chance. Then along with good world building there is so much flavor text all around the show. So much detail is put into about everything! I simply cannot ignore the amount of work the show had. Then there were the amazing use of filming, it is a great use of angles and watching things flow. It is one of the few Toku shows that remembers about how things stay in motion even if it is off camera. Still one of the best moments of the franchise was when Kuuga fights the Hopper Grongi, a great use of slow motion with an intense build up. This just all blends into a perfect show as I barely find faults in the show. Again Double is my favorite, but I cannot ignore the presence that is Kuuga.

Kuuga Ultimate is still by far the best rider design.

Kamen Rider Black

Onto another cherished classic in the franchise, Kamen Rider Black is up there with Kuuga in terms of how much it meant for the franchise. The creator of Kamen Rider, Shotaro Ishinomori really made sure to make this show stand out and the same for the concept of Kuuga. Black took the first step into mutants being used along with cyborg technology to create a Kamen Rider and then in the 90's we get the first pure mutant rider, Shin. One big thing about these first three shows I mentioned they all have a cast of actors that just worked the best for their characters. Shotaro played by Renn, Godai played by Joe, and Kotaro protrayed by Tetsuo. These three actors define their characters and I bet other actors could try, but I bet if I could compare those three would just beat all others who try. With Shotaro he gave such a lively performance, Joe really brought the fun and mature side, and Tetsuo brought the hero into Kamen Rider Black. While Renn is my obvious personal favorite for a rider actor, Tetsuo is still the best. He had everything needed for this hero. He had the appearance and the voice to protray the character. Along with good acting from a main lead, the action of Kamen Rider Black is still some of the best in the franchise. A great use of strings and camera work really makes Black stand out. Now I will admit like some other Showa riders, the focus on the kids can get a bit annoying to me, but hey this is a kids show so it makes sense. Black also broke some ground with the use of Shadowmoon as there have been evil riders before, but Shadowmoon polished the concept greatly with him being a strong fighter, a parallel to Black, and the whole brother story works with their struggle. Then in terms of an ending, Black has pure beauty and sadness with its ending. The concept of loss is strong with Black and it never lost that vision.

So I pretty much started this little series with my top three favorite Kamen Rider shows. To be honest I do not know what will be for next time because I legitly just did this at random. I just typed all of this up in less than an hour. I just got bored and couldn't get anymore sleep, a bit funny if you ask me.

Some Thoughts On Kamen Rider Ghost

Well Kamen Rider Ghost has been shown to the fans in leaked and offical images and I just want to say somethings about this new rider. This is the first quick thought post I am doing where I will not be doing much editing to these types of posts. I am aiming for raw thoughts here. Either way for Kamen Rider Ghost so far I have mixed feelings about this guy.

To start things off I will look at Ghost's design as of right now. For the default form, I really love it! I was surprised by the use of orange for the suit, but it works very well. I also did some little research about the Ghost Moth and some do have a hint of an orange stripe on them, so maybe Ghost is based on that type of moth. The mask is an Oni mask which helps his theme out and the belt is nice. The only part I don't like is the big lever on it, but at least the middle part looks like an eye and gives it an eerie feel to it. Finally, I am a fan of that hoodie it may not work for all of the designs, but I do like this touch for his suit. I just hope the hood won't get in the way of fights. Overall I am a fan of the default form for Ghost, the use of orange and black is great, the belt, mask, and chest give off this ghostly feel, and the hood is a nice ribbion to this package.

Some other forms have been revealed as the gimmick of his forms is going to be based on famous people. So Ghost is using ghosts... Sadly for me this is where the ghost theme starts to die here. I understand the concept, but the execution is sloppy here. Be honest here folks, if you didn't see the default form and just look at these three, can you really say he is a ghost? I mean we got a boxer design here how does that show off a ghost? Personally this concept would work better if they used people that has connections to some darker themes. Maybe like Poe or to the extent of people like that. I won't lie, I like the concept, it is silly and can lead to some great creativity, but this creativity really gets away from the idea of a ghost. I bet there will be some other forms that could work with this better like I feel this Beethoven form can work out because of the grey color scheme, but who knows they could mess it up. One more thing then, why is a form with an apple motif BLUE?!

For Ghost's weapon of choice is can be different weapons and again I like that concept and since Ghost will be switching to forms with different powers this should work... sadly the execution drops again here. Look at this sword, does this look like a weapon that a ghost will use? Why couldn't the default form of the weapon be a scythe, you know like a Grim Reaper. Hell while I am on that, why couldn't Ghost's forms just be based on other spirits like the reaper and such? I would think that easily could have done better with a ghost themed rider. There could also be other famous ghosts from both ficiton and real life stories. How many times has Davy Jones been talked about? I know that is more of a place and not a character, but you can work with that and make it a pirate ghost form. The weapon for that form could have been chains or an anchor. There is so much that can be done here and the weapon we get is pretty generic looking. I mean really if you change the icon and put other hero icons on it I bet it wouldn't look that strange. The sword just has generic all over it, while the design for it could have had a candle look to it and have bits of fire and such.

Some final things to say then would be what the hell is that thing above the text?! This is supposed to be a ghost rider, correct? First off the ghost ship is nice, but what it transforms into is terrible. I think it is supposed to be a chameleon, but what does that have to do with Ghost? I guess the connection is that since Ghost is changing colors that could mean that this beast will change along with him. That is my only guess for why this creature is used. Also the story of the series so far is odd because it just sounds like an adventure and then Ghost is just going to stumble into something else. Hopefully this does not mean the first batch of episodes will be Ghost just getting new icons to use for form changes and then we will just jump to the plot. Sadly, I bet this will happen because toy sales and all of that. Bandai wants to get more stuff out as soon as possible for the kids.

Overall, I don't hate Ghost, I am just disappointed right now. When I heard the name I was happy because I love the idea of gothic or haunting themes for superheroes. It can lead to tons of creativity because they are areas where people don't tend to explore into too much, except for vampires... When I heard of Ghost I was expecting things to be more like his default form and his other forms could have been other famous ghosts. All I have to say is that one of the other riders needs to be a Ghostbuster.

Please let the main villian be Stay Puft!

Sentai Month: My Thoughts on the Super Sentai Franchise

 To begin Sentai month I will describe my personal reactions to the franchise. First I have to say this, I don't hate Super Sentai series. If you seen some of my reviews I am very positive about the franchise. That doesn't mean I got some personal issues and there are some series that just make me grind my teeth together. So let's start with a personal bias I have.

There is a reason why I have a Kamen Rider image in this post and this brings me to the first point. I am a bigger fan of Kamen Rider and that is mostly because of the single hero motif. I just like it more compared to team motives. For example I say both Amazing Spiderman and The Avengers and I liked Spiderman more. This is because a single hero series really focuses on the main character and tells his story. With Sentai it's a team and it's hard to have a story for every member. Now not all Sentai have this issue. There is the red focus issues though that some recent Sentai series have been doing and I'm not the biggest fan for it. I guess this also goes with having too many characters, like Shonen manga and anime. Again not every Sentai does this. There are some though that have too many characters and sadly some will have to be ignored. Look at Go-busters it had three people helping the team and yet we didn't learn much about them. So this is a bias I will admit to that, but I won't give a series a low grade because of this. It's only when a Sentai completely ignores characters including team members. It's a team series and I can see why people can like that more than a single hero. For me personally though I like the idea of having a main hero with secondaries coming in later like Kamen Rider series.

Kamen Rider VS Super Sentai, an endless debate.

Now continuing on with Kamen Rider I feel some of the recent Sentai series have been influenced by some rider series. I mentioned the red focus before and sometimes the leader gets too much focus and it doesn't feel much as a team series anymore. Now with the broadcast wars I will say Kamen Rider is more popular since it had that resting period while Sentai continued on. I mean we are talking about 37 straight years there is bound to be a bad egg in the mix. I know Kamen Rider isn't perfect either, but since it was gone for a while when it came back it had explosive results. Then Sentai followed a motif that was started in Kamen Rider, the power in the pocket motif. Den-o was the first as the hero held a pass in his pocket that could lead him to transform. It was Sentai though that used it to what it is today, small collectable items. Go-onger came up and used this idea and it was very high with humor and wackiness, like Den-o. Then the most recent influence was with Go-busters since the series had too much focus on Hiromu and his rivalry with Enter. I mean really it felt like Hirmou was alone at times because he fought by himself most of the time. So I do believe Sentai has been trying to get a rider feel at some points, but there are series during this period that step beyond that like Gokaiger.

Now onto the biggest thing the Sentai series has and that is the mecha. Ultraman easily had some influence here since giant battles got people's interests. In the first two series the mecha weren't used, but an airship to be exact. Then came Battle Fever J and the robots started to be used. Now this is a point where people can like Sentai a whole lot or makes them want to fast forward. For me it's a mixed bag. There are amazing mechs in the design portion, but when you see them in battle they can barely even move! There are some mechs that are just plain ugly and do the dumbest things possible. Shinkenger is an example for me cause Shinken-oh did have a nice idea, but when doing it, it falls apart. The mech fights in Shinkenger for me were some of the worst parts of the series. The robot was blocky and had trouble moving at points. Then came the clusters in recent series. Go-onger was the first to do a cluster with G-12 and it looks good, but it just makes the fights sooooo slow. Then there was Shinkenger's cluster which had wheels to move.... yea I find that to be dumb. For me the best era for the robots were the 90's since there were so many cool looking and fast moving mechs. It didn't make a negative for the series and the same for some of the 80's mechs. I guess to be completely honest how mechs are being handled lately, I'm not a fan of it. Hopefully Kyoryuger is going to fix this.

Now one thing that didn't effect me watching it was having knowing of Power Rangers first. I am a person who takes things with a clean slate and watch it through making some marks as the series continue on. I am more of a Sentai fan than a Power Ranger fan, but I won't have hatred for any of these franchises for no reason. The debate between Sentai and Ranger purists can be annoying since I look at it as a coin. Sentai and PR are on the same coin as they are both team hero series. Where the differences are though are the engravings on their sides. Sentai is more mature as it had tons of time to age and only has been having issues recently. Power Rangers did fall to the ground and it took a while for it to come back on it's feet. So I am not saying which franchise is better, but if I look at the series I will say if the original or the adaptation is better.

Again another endless debate

Overall I have no unnecessary hate for Super Sentai. I really only have some biases, but again that doesn't mean I am going to give a Sentai series a lower grade. I will critic them, but some aspects are very different. There are team motives, the mecha, and the how everything plays out. I bet there are also many other things I can talk about, but I'm leaving one thing in particular for the next post, as next time will be the first Rant post.

Early Thoughts: Kaiketsu Zubat

If you have seen a post I did before on shows I really wanted to watch this was number five and I finally found some episodes. Thanks to Hi No Tori Fansubs I have watched the first five episodes of this series, so I want to see if my excitement for this show was worth it. First I have to say I am impressed with this show. There are very big things that make this show stand out with other Toku series. The biggest thing in this series is that the villains aren't like monsters. The villains are gangs that apart of a organization called Dakker. Even the hero himself isn't a complete super human being and doesn't transform like other heroes. He just puts on the suit and fights, but it is a powered up suit as the main hero can only wear it for five minutes. I really love the action in this series since there is a lot of out of suit action. The plot revolves around a man named Ken  as he visits and old friend, Asuka. Asuka is attacked by some gang members though and Ken helps him as he has excellent skills. Afterwards Asuka risks his life to get a bomb away and is severely hurt from the explosion. In the hospital it is attacked and Asuka pushes himself, but he is shot down by a unknown foe. Ken now swears vengeance on whoever killed his friend and will take down any other gang member who dare to hurt anyone else. He makes the suit and fights with it. Each episode shows the hero fighting different gangs and their leaders which is my favorite part.

This guy is so skilled he can probably beat Tendou in any competition.

With the villains as I said they are simply gang members and are not creatures. They are monsters in a metaphorical way as they treat others poorly. These guys kill and attack with no guilt which is great to watch villains be serious. Each gang also hires a bodyguard and they have a specific skill that is used in battle. There was a skilled gun slinger to a cue expert. Watching these guys were fun and each episode it shows Ken defeating them in a competition with their best skill. Ken always taunts them saying they are second best with him being the best. I mean this guy is impressive outside of battle and it makes a great image for him. The fights with them are damn good as they can be suspenseful as Ken first fights them out of suit. When things look bad he will get the chance to flee and come back in the Zubat suit. The hero fights the henchmen, the bodyguard, and the gang leader. Zubat actually kills some of his foes which will lead me to another thing about this show. He keeps the gang leaders alive though as he interrogates them to see if they were Asuka's murderer. Seeing a darker side of the hero is very nice as he can really get some impressive kills and attacks. (Also I really love that whip of his again I like whips being used as weapons)

Now with all the talk about gangs and murder this is a dark series. The first episode shows attempted murder, terrorism, and murder! The show also has a good amount of blood shown so that itself was really shocking to see in a toku show. The series continues with the dark tone as there is more bodies being dropped and so many innocent people being attacked. As I said before the villains attack people with ease they have tortured children! The show also has a great western theme and it works greatly with this show. The villains aren't creatures so seeing human fights helps the theme and the way of the battles are done continues to help the theme. One thing that is a little bad is how repetitive the show is. The Zubat action so far came in the end and there has been one or more bystanders killed in the five episodes. It's very little though as each toku show has some form of repetition.

Overall I am really loving this series. It's pretty simple, but thanks to a dark western tone it contains a lot of new things that toku didn't have back then. Heck this show still has many different things compared to today's toku shows. You can't go wrong with a series with Hiroshi being another great toku hero. The character Ken is just awesome and he does many things that continue to impress me. He is a serious hero who will kill his foes. I will easily give it my recommendation and so far I give it an A- the only thing that bugs me somewhat is it's repetition. Everything works well though as it all blends into an awesome toku show.

My Thoughts On Kamen Rider Fourze So Far (Update)

With the new year coming and the character of Ryuusei is coming next week in Fourze. I think it will be good to say my thoughts on the series so far as secondary riders mostly bring a lot of change to a series in story. First is the main rider himself, now there are a lot of people that hate his design. All that hate is only for his head because of how big it is, but overall he is a good looking rider. There are much worse designs in the 2000's like Den-o for example the only great design on Den-o was Wing Form and Linear Form IMO. The only issue I have with Fourze is his belt as it is really bulky compared to other riders recently. For me I like the overall design as it shows a great space motif and a nice reference to a past toku hero. The Astro Switches are very great powers to have as they use a common theme in Toku right now, but it doesn't have countless of forms that Double and OOO had. The switches also bring some really great creativity like the recent Pen switch and each can be used differently with other switches so fights can stay fresh. Sadly though that isn't happening as much and I'm hoping that more switches will have a limit break other than Rocket and Drill. Then there is the character Gentaro who is a good right now. He is hyper and doesn't look like the smartest guy around, but he is a good person who knows more than you think. Gentaro has proven his strengths with the switches adapting to him and how he helps other people.

Overall a B+ for the main character, an okay design with a good personality.

Next is the other cast of characters the Kamen Rider Club! At first I was expecting some cliche character traits from these characters, but they only shown that in the first episodes they were in. The arcs they had were very good as they developed each character perfectly showing their weaknesses. Miu was getting too much popularity and that was corrupting her mind, but she sees inspires herself and she wants people to do the same. She thought that people were only trying to get some light off of her. Jake was a man who didn't really believe in friendship as he saw people for playing certain tasks if it is information or to shield him. This of course bites him back when someone with a grudge attacks him with the powers of the Zodiarts. Jake was seeing that no one would actually help him when a true crisis occurs and thanks to Gen he shown him that friendship is more powerful than he thought. Shun was a boy who only wanted to impress his father, but his father's expectations were very high. This pushed Shun a lot and a lot of his actions are done by his father mostly. Shun wanted to do what he wanted and when he joins the club he can finally get a reward that he wants, it will not be known to many, but it will be very important to him. Tomoko was a goth who felt like she didn't fit in anywhere and she wanted to change. When the opportunity came she took it even with a risk, but again Gentaro helps her to get through it by saying that she is fine the way she is. Yuuki who became a member when the club was first made is a very hyper girl who loves space. She is a funny character, but also helps the team out a lot with encouragement. Its too bad the recent episodes she had to stick with the Glee club. Lastly there is Kengo who starts out like an ass and he saw no purpose in the club. He thought everyone was just messing around, but in reality they were fighting to help accomplish his dreams. Overall the supporting cast is the best thing so far and could be in the same level as Kiva in that category. Each character has big differences and help out in their own ways.

A+ for the supporting cast!

Next are the villains and for right now we don't know much about the Horoscopes as they were just mentioned recently in the series. So far we just see how the powers of their switches work out as each person pushes their limits for their desires. The Zodiarts so far are very good monsters as their designs are great again that could challenge Kiva in design. Each monster has a motif on a constellation and are original for the franchise. Each monster get their own arcs as well and we see their issues. The students in the school have been getting switches from the Horoscopes as they want to find new members. Each students have issues and its their emotions that push those powers. Recently we say the character Motoyama going past the Last One and it shows that the powers of the Zodiarts increase greatly. For the main villains all we know that their leader is the reason all of this is happening as he trapped Kengo's father on the moon. The Horoscopes are teachers so far and I would think that the four that are around are all teachers. If new ones do appear they will probably be students unless the two we haven't seen yet have different ways of doing things. Overall the villains are good as they keep a good mystery and have great designs.

B- for villains

Now I'm going to talk about the overall show and how it feels. Main character is really solid right now as I love his attitude and how pumped he can be. The supporting cast is a lot of fun as they have a lot of interaction. For right now I like Tomoko the most she is a great character who just wanted to change at first and a lot of people can relate to that. She is also a funny character as her attitude is much different than everyone and can act all spooky at times. This also affects her point of interest and she could like the most unusual things. Zodiarts are very fun villains and so far I liked the most recent one because of his desire turning into self greed and the look of the suit and powers were great. The last thing to talk about is the comedy in the show along with the writing and acting. They both work very well as the comedy is very straight forward at times and it doesn't go to the lowest parts of comedy. There are good jokes like with Gentaro saying he was like medicine and people need a dose of him. There are some little dumb moments, but remember its still a kids show, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't put it down because of that. The writing then works greatly as I said about the comedy before as there are great jokes. Along with that, the dialogue is also very good and I wouldn't expect less with a great writer. Everyone has good lines and it doesn't feel choppy at all and sometimes reminds me of my school life at times. With good writing though there has to be good acting to boost it up and this is why I prefer the Japanese toku series because they actually get some great actors for the shows and this show is no exception. Each actor plays their characters greatly as they play off their moods very well. Again this is why Tomoko is a favorite of mine because when she acts spooky at times and her acting gives off that vibe perfectly. Overall the show is doing great right now with strong characters, comedy and writing. There is actually one part I forgot and should talk about and this affects any show greatly. The action so far its going good, but even with many switches some are not being used at all. Like I said before Rocket and Drill are being used too much and I would like to see different Limit Breaks. So far there was the Fire combo with Luancher and Gatling, but that's mostly it. Fourze is shockingly not keep all the fights as fresh I thought it would be.

Its a great show so far, a B+

Why I'm Excited For Fourze

With Kamen Rider Fourze coming this week I am hyped for this new series because of a new theme in the franchise and a good writer. First I will talk about Foruze himself though, by what I see I think there is great potential for the main hero Gentaro because him bonding with people can make good episodes. Also I'm thinking of something for him and his partner (I wont say though because it could make you think too much). Reminding me of that though Fourze is using the partner idea again, but with Kengo who originally has the belt, but cant use its powers. Kengo does have knowledge of all the switches probably as he will be like Ankh, an asshole who knows the powers of the rider. For the main lady of the series Yuki I am not happy about her I think she is going to be that really hyper girl you know in school, shes cute, but you just cant talk with her she reminds me of that. For other characters they seem like what they look like which could be bad, but can be easily changed with the writing.

Probably not a strong cast this time.

For the writing I think that could be a strong point of the series because it has Kazuki Nakashima who is known for his writing for Gurren Lagaan series and Oh Edo Rocket. I like both of those anime series so I hope that he can keep that great writing of his in this series. Then there are the villians who will possibly be Dopant copies, but with the monsters escaping from the capsule is interesting and can make the owner see what he has done. So the Zodiarts seems like a mix of Dopants and Yummies with someone using it, but can also see what that power can do.

Now with the design of Fourze is ok by my standards now and I think the many switches he will use will keep the fights fresh. Also we know that recently rider has been having more focus on the story so fights will probably be quick and sweet and will keep monsters alive for two episodes. Another thing is that the monster designs look really good which can be great for the fights. Also I cant wait for his two new forms because they look very interesting with the electric and fire state. Another thing is the secondary rider who will be based on the ally of Foruze's inspiration from space ironmen kyodain. Fourze was based on Skyzel and high chance the ally rider will be based on Granzel who was Skyzel's partner.



So thats what I thinking and hoping Foruze will be, a new theme for the franchise that is supported with strong writing, but the characters could fall short this time. Also fights will be as good as other recent rider series. Get ready for this rider to blast into space this week. UCHUU KITA!!!!!







Confused About The Fourze And OOO Movie (Spoiler Alert for OOO)

Well we all know this was coming, but I saw the ending of OOO and Im confused on how they can do this. Now if you are still reading this without seeing the ending see that first and come back here. These are RAW so no subs yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVrTopVVVcs http://www.youtube.com/user/animeland100 You have to watch part 2 on the channel to hear the sound. Well with that how is this team up going to happen. If you say the ending of OOO you cleary see that all core medals get destroyed when Maki is defeated by OOO TaJaDol form with Ankh's last remaining powers. Also all the destroyed medals were sucked in and forever lost so even have the pieces is impossible. The only core that is still around is Ankh's core which is in two pieces meaning that yes Ankh is dead. So how can OOO fight along with Fourze if he has no cores to use. Also Fourze is in the same world as OOO so they can do any parallel world crap. Maybe they could do the movie before the ending of OOO, because we do know that Fourze will have his powers by then because he helps OOO in the 21 medals movie.

These could be the only medals left, unless something happens in the movie.

I reall hope that there isnt something really dumb like more core medals around because we know thats impossible because they were originally ten for each set of them and one was destroyed so make the greeed. Now during the greeeds final fights we know that their own medals were destroyed because of the purple medals. So that means there are even less for yellow, blue, and white cores. Uva had all of his and other medals before turning into the vessel, but he was destroyed along with Maki which is how the medals are destroyed. There were the king medals, but even they were destroyed by the purple medals inside of Eiji. I just have no idea how this team up will be possible unless they do it before Ankh change sides. I am happy that OOO had an ending that is happy and sad, but whats the point of this team up now if the hero cant even transform, does Eiji have the belt still? So who knows what can happen I just hope that isnt a parllel world or just somehow similar medals pop out of nowhere. It would be worse if the medals come back from their demise because they were clearly destroyed!

How Goseiger Could be Adapted

Well there is casting for the new power ranger series up now as seen from http://sentaifive.blogspot.com/ so I guess its going to be a different series from Samurai. I'm glad because there are so many things Saban can do with this series. First if they want to try the nostalgic factor again they can do it here because Goseiger has the same colors as Zyuranger expect for the sixth's, but I think Goseiger should be the nostalgic season. First the Goseiger has a talking head like figure to help them, Zordon much? Also there is Datas who is like Alpha being a robot who helps the team. They can try the teenager team again, they just have to make sure that the characters just arent copies of MMPR. Saban still could work with the angels doing their duty if they want, but I think it will be nice to see a teenage team again, but with today's society that can be a bad idea, thanks Disney.

For the villians they can try a Boukenger or Gingaman like feel. Having the mutiple villians fight each other or being a team. Buredoran can easily be the leader or a villian who changes sides at times or maybe being forced to be changed. Buredoran could easily be a space invader at first and is killed during the final battle with Warstar and the Yamajuu find his body or him almost dying and change him to survive. For when he turns into a machine it can be a stragey to kidnap him to use him for killing the Yamajuus and then appearing his mecha form. Then finally he can just go beserk and steal powers from Master Head to become the Fallen Angel form because he is tired of being used.

Then finally there is GoseiKnight who I think can be human in the adaption because they could try another Bullblack move like in Gingaman and Lost Galaxy. It wouldnt be creative though even though Knight was an awsome character and one of the only good things in Goseiger, but seeing a human becoming him will be awsome. First he should be the oldest memeber because he can easily be a mentor for the team or be a rouge because the team is still too young, sort of like Gosieger. He could just join the team because maybe they can make him a follower and his faith gives him the powers. There is also another thing that could be done which is Knight is an actual angel sent down by Master Head to help and teach the team.

Overall this is what I think how the series could be adapted. First having a new teenage team will be nice and nostalgic if Saban does it right and doesnt try to be like today's tween shows. The villians can all be facing each other or a team, but Buredoran still needs to swtich sides or be the leader. Then finally Knight can be an angel to teach the team the truth of protecting the Earth and he can punish them for not doing things right (Mostly just because of the source material anyways a teacher who actually teaches the team a lesson will be nice) If you dont like this I am fine with that, just dont be rude and I will like to see what you think how this can be done because no matter what its all better than copying it! Mostly since Goseiger was not a good series with only some good things like Knight and Buredoran. Also I will call the show Power Rangers Heaven Force. Hell Saban could even use GoseiGreen just for notaglia, would be nice to give him an actual importance to the show than just one episode.