The Tokusatsu Thread

[\gunther]

Nadeshiko's acress/character has been revealed.

http://www.jefusion....zPEg7s.facebook

The actress of Nadeshiko Misaki aka Kamen Rider Nadeshiko is finally revealed. Hailed as the first school girl Rider, she will be played by Hello! Project member, Erina Mano.

She first appears falling from the sky and barely Gentaro catches her. The mystery of her identity and how she got a Fourze system will cause a large development in the story.

Nadeshiko's Rider Kick is a reference to player Homare Sawa's heel kick that won the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Final. Moreover, series producer Hideaki Tsukada confirms that she was named after the soccer team of the same name.

Not Yuki or one of the other girls like most people seemed to be expecting, but I'm not any less excited to see this suit in action.

Never noticed that she wears her belt lopsided until now. I like that.

[Octarine]

So Octarine recently screwed his sleep schedule right the hell up, and had to spend an uncomfortably long time awake in order to sort that out. Too tired to do anything of actual substance, he decided that the best thing for his sleep-deprived brain would be to watch as much of OOO as he could in one go, since he skipped watching it when it aired for some reason. Slightly delirious impressions as of episode 20 follow, spoilered for absurd length.

Things I like:

- The consistency of all of the different medal-based stuff. The OOO powers, the villains, the bike, the candroids... it all fits together much more smoothly than its equivalents did/do in many other Rider series, and that's a huge plus for me.

- The OOO Driver. It's compact and simple, but its gimmick is still interesting. It's one of the better transformation belts, for sure.

- The Ridevendors. They transform, they fit in well with the series' theme, it's cool and different that there are hundreds of them and everyone rides them, they serves an extra purpose by storing candroids, they've got a perfect excuse for showing up out of nowhere... it's just a pity that the show hasn't done a whole lot with them. They're probably my favourite bike of any Kamen Rider series.

- The Greeed, for the most part. I adore sympathetic, oddball villains, and the Greeed do that pretty well. I particularly like Mezul and Gamel's weird mother-son relationship; it's funny and awkward and adorable all at once. I like the way they create Yummies, too, and that they each do it in a different way to keep things fresh. My only caveat is that they tend not to be very intimidating in a fight, especially with how easy it apparently is to swipe medals from them. I know there really wouldn't be much of a show if it didn't work that way, but still. Also: those coloured sheets are the coolest thing.

...Ankh is great too, of course. His power struggle with Eiji and rivalry with the other Greeed adds some extra dimension to otherwise mundane situations, and his adoration of ice cream and anything made by Apple has made for some of the show's funnier moments. Doesn't hurt that he's ~fabulous~, either. I want that hair, dammit.

- Goddamn Birth. Love the hell outta that suit.

Things I don't:

- Hina. My god is she boring. The other female characters are decent, if a little shallow, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a blander female lead than Hina in any Kamen Rider series. OOO is practically begging for an Akiko to play foil to Ankh. Also, her super strength really isn't as funny as the show seems to think.

- The OOO suit is a mixed bag. I like the contrast between the medal colours and the black, but it's a bit awkward that there's really nothing on the back of the suit... it looks almost unfinished. Still, there are certainly worse suits (for me: Faiz, anything from Blade, most of Den-O's forms), and several of the combo forms look really good.

- The fight scenes haven't been that great. They aren't exactly bad, but they tend to be a little bland, and the medal gimmick really isn't adding as much variety to the fights as I expected it to.

[Ekaje]

Fourze 6:

Nice wrap-up to the arc, though I wasn't really into the episode for whatever reason, probably because I still don't like JK that much, though he looks like he'll be causing more funny scenes annoying Kengo.

Elec State was pretty cool, though I wish there was more swordfighting with the Zodiart once it was working.

Next episode is looking more interesting, and I think I see a broken Hopping attachment on Fourze when everyone's running through rubble.

On another note, raws for Let's Go Kamen Riders are out, so it should be subbed in a week or two at the most.

[Aquaslash]

Gokaiger:

DAIRANGER AAAAAAAAAAA!

Fanboy mode aside, love how this one was handled. Unmorphed fights are always awesome, and nice to see RyuuRanger's still got it. I especially liked the use of the DaiRanger theme in the fight cause that's probably my favorite sentai song.

I've been noticing come complaints that HurricaneGokaiOh has become as overused as ShinkenGokaiOh. I know it's To Sell Toys, but my only real beef is that GoZyuGokaiOh hasn't been whored out at all. I was expecting that one for the six rangers in one mech dynamic. Ah well. KanzenGokaiOh is coming up and I'm totally looking forward to that.

[Octarine]

I've been noticing come complaints that HurricaneGokaiOh has become as overused as ShinkenGokaiOh. I know it's To Sell Toys, but my only real beef is that GoZyuGokaiOh hasn't been whored out at all. I was expecting that one for the six rangers in one mech dynamic. Ah well. KanzenGokaiOh is coming up and I'm totally looking forward to that.

Ooh! Ooh! That's me!

I don't mind general trends toward the use of new toys, obviously; I just wish that the older mecha could appear once every couple of episodes, even if it's just to deal with some Sgormin or something. MagiGokaiOh and DekaGokaiOh are still my favourites, dammit. Also, I wouldn't mind a little more GoZyuRex action. Why would they bother making such a cool costume if they were barely ever going to use it?

...

So I've finished OOO. My (shorter than last time, I swear) thoughts follow:

Ehh.

It's weird. OOO started out pretty strong for me, but somewhere in the early twenties it kind of gave up on most of the things I really liked. Mezul and Gamel, my two favourite Greeed, died and stayed that way for ages, taking a lot of the fun of the differentiation between each Greeed's Yummies with them. Gotou becoming Date's sidekick meant that Kougami and Satonaka, both of whom I also liked a lot, made themselves scarce too. Core Medals almost completely stopped being exchanged between characters, removing a lot of the tension and leaving Eiji with the same damn combos for episodes on end. Even the Ridevendors largely disappeared. The purple medal thing never really interested me, and Hina continued to be of no value whatsoever. The story just deflated in the middle, and while it definitely did pick up in the last few episodes, it wasn't enough to save the series for me.

Another big problem for me was the medal system, which seemed like a great idea in theory but really didn't live up to its potential. Unlike in W, where every single Gaia Memory could drastically alter W's fighting style, or Fourze, where every Astro Switch has a very specific purpose, OOO's medals tended to feel like filler a lot of the time. I mean, the torso medals got a decent amount of play, but in 90% of the fights the head and legs had absolutely no bearing on anything. The amount of time it took to swap out medals was kind of a problem as well; it often ground the action to a halt whenever it happened, and it also meant that Eiji rarely switched medals more than once per fight, hurting the variety that should've been the show's strongest point.

OOO still wasn't bad, and there are certainly Rider shows I've liked lessonoreDecade, but it was awfully bland. Ho-hum. Unmemorable. Hina-like.

Now I'm off to watch the first season of GARO so I can keep up with the second season as it's subbed. Blood 'n' tits ahoy~!

[Ekaje]

Yeah, that'd about sum up my thoughts of OOO as well, though I liked it a little more. The show had so many gimmicks that it couldn't keep up with all of them, and many were pretty much forgotten partway into the series, on top of the show apparently having budget problems, which is the reason why there were only a few very large Yummies, and only two uses of GaKiriBa. And the medal system just had too much stuff to use for its own good as well, even ignoring the scarce use of mix and match forms, there were too many combos to have them all be used satisfactorily. Though one thing I will give OOO is outside of Hina's blandness, I really liked the supporting cast.

[Octarine]

They were definitely pretty good, even if most of them were severely underused. Like I said, I loved the hell out of Kougami, Satonaka, Mezul and Gamel. Ankh was always a ton of fun to watch, even if he was weighed down a lot by all of the Hina's brother stuff. His relationship with Eiji kind of reminded me of Om and Brutha from Small Gods, which is never a bad thing. Date was pretty great too; the middle part of the series might've been a lot weaker than it was if it hadn't been for him. I just love his attitude; he's definitely one of my favourite secondary riders.

OOO really was okay, but in a series with so many entries, being decent but bland is almost more of a problem to me than being actually bad but unique.

[\gunther]

You both sum up my feelings towards OOO quite well. Even though I feel like there was so much wasted potential, the show's overall good.

Anywho, I finally started watching Kamen Rider Kuuga and holy shit, I am in love with this series. I'm almost hard-pressed to think of another protagonist that's as awesome as Godai.

I can honestly say that, so far, this is one superhero show where I care just as much about seeing the humans interact as I do the monster fights.

[Octarine]

Gokaiger 34:

The rest of Luka's backstory this week, which was predictable but not badly handled. I particularly liked the Terminator-style apocalyptic hellscape of Luka's planet; it gave me nostalgic flashbacks to the destruction of Hazard from Carranger. The Zangyack trying to infiltrate the Gokai Galleon is always fun, and it was great to see Furaimaru get to do something other than combine with GokaiOh. I didn't like Cain all that much, though; he just didn't have enough screentime to make any kind of an impression on me. That might've been okay if this was a very early episode, but so late in the series it felt a little weak that Luka had this best friend who she'd never mentioned before. Kinda like the bounty hunter in the Jetman episode was for Marvelous, only for Luka he's key to her entire motivation. Ehh.

Looking forward a lot more to next week's episode. I'm a lot fonder of Go-Onger than I have any business being, and this tribute looks like it'll be pulling out most of the stops. We get Sosuke, Bomper, Speedor, BearRV, Machalcon, the Gaiark and even a Brane World? This makes me very happy. I really can't wait for the tribute Gokai Change in the second part, though. I just know that they're going to 'met on over their Gokaiger helmets and it's going to look gloriously stupid. They'd better do Go-Onger's full roll call with the catchphrases, too; it's one of my absolute favourites.

Fourze 7:

The last two-parter was good but not great, but I'm really loving this one so far. JK seems to work a lot better as a part of the Kamen Rider Club, and pairing him up with Miu for the episode was a pleasant surprise. Miu herself is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters, too. It was nice to see Shun get a little depth, as well, and the Hound Zodiart not seeming to have anything to do with him was a change of pace.

The fights (well, fight) were quite good as usual, with plenty of new switch action and a pleasant lack of new-form spam. I loved the Winch + Elek combination in particular; I hope we see more of that kind of thing as the series progresses.

Let's Go Kamen Riders:

I love that the way OOO's powers work means that it's basically impossible to make a cool movie that fits into the series' continuity. Not that All Riders was trying particularly hard to make sense anyway, what with Black and Black RX fighting side by side among other weirdness, but I still find it kind of funny.

Anyway, I've never been a huge fan of these giant gatherings of Riders (if they're not going to be seen out of suit and they're not going to get enough screentime to use any of their trademark abilities, then what's the point?), but this movie was still kind of fun. I probably would've liked it more if I knew anything about New Den-O, though. Or if it was more about Eiji and less about those damn kids, no matter how important they ended up being. Seriously, the poor guy got, like, five lines in the whole movie.

My favourite part was the crowd chanting the names of all of the Showa Riders as they appeared; I'm sad they didn't do that for the Heisei Riders as well. Ah, well, at least we got twenty seconds of Shotaro and Philip. Squee~

[Ekaje]

Fourze 07:

Enjoyed this episode much more than the last two, though oddly I liked JK much more in this episode. Plenty of nice interactions between the members of the club. Fight was very nice, continuing the quick introduction of new switches, as well as making good use of them in combonation.

Let's Go Kamen Riders

Liked this very much. Felt that it lagged a bit in the middle, though that's more because it focused more on New Den-O then, and I have only seen one episode of the Den-O series, let alone the multitude of post series movies. But it got really good once Riders 1 and 2 showed up in the 70s, it really felt like an episode of the original series with current tech and budget.

The "All Riders" part was pretty much held off on until a montage in the last half-hour, but I liked that for what it was, though TaMaShii combo was a bit disappointing.

[Octarine]

Various internet issues prevent me from being able to post my usual long-winded thoughts on this week's toku, but goddammit I needed to bump the thread for this.

So basically according to the rumour mill,

Zealousto is going to return to Gokaiger. Twice. Once for the Gokaiger vs. Gavan movie (which is already complete crack as it is) alongside the Gaiark Ministers and Shizuka from Boukenger, and again to fist fight zombie Walz Gil in an episode. Dear lord, I hope this turns out to be true.

[Ekaje]

That would be amazing. Speaking of Zealousto, I wonder if we'll ever see his half-human, half-rubber suit child?

Fourze 08

Very nice wrap-up. Daimonji and Gentaro's heart to heart was both sad and hilarious at the same time. Fight was great, especially now that we have football style Power Dizer.

Next week, cults and firefighters.

Gokai 35:

Pretty standard beginning to a two-episode tribute. Haven't seen Go-Onger, so a lot was lost on me. But next week we'll be getting the tribute fight and finally a new power for Gokai-Oh, was getting tired of the Hurricanger one, though this one looks the Gaoranger power in that we'll probably be getting another power that makes the leg replacement into a full combination.

I've also been watching some Garo (just finished 6 recently), and while the first few episodes were pretty tame compared to what I'd heard about the series, it gets creepy really fast once you get to "Dinner".

Edited October 26, 2011 by Ekaje

[Aquaslash]

Gokaiger:

Battle FEVER! Man I love those suits just cause they look so freakin crazy. Then they all turn into dance battlers! Loved Luka taking out the "Grinders" with break dance moves. Then there was Changeman. I like the idea behind those suits, so nice to see them get used. Looking forward to next week. Gave the Go-Onger theme another listen, and I really like it.

Rumor has it that the B-Fighters are gonna have a bit part in the Gokaiger vs Gavan movie. I'd be speechless as to how awesome that would be.

[Octarine]

So I could be sleeping right now, but then I couldn't post about Gokaiger spoilers that everyone's already seen. Space pirates are better than rest.

We've got new pictures of

Complete GokaiOh, Walz Gil's mech (also, we get to see GoZyuGokaiOh a second time) and Ackdos Gil and his red Imperial Guard Sgormin (that had better be a Star Wars reference). Complete GokaiOh looks a lot better than I thought it would; it's probably the coolest-looking final mech we've had since... damn, I don't even know. It's still weird that MachFalcon is involved, but if that's the result then I refuse to complain.

Also, 1000% confirmation of the Gavan crossover in that Ackdos pic. Y'know, that suit is pretty damn cool.

There are some more rumours, too. Apparently Don is some kind of legendary hero who lost his memory, and that'll come into play in a two-parter following the Timeranger episode. Basco will be back, and he'll have the Sun Vulcan and Fiveman powers (boo hiss to less tributes, but at least it means we're definitely getting a Kakuranger tribute). All of the other Gokaigers will be kidnapped, defeated and/or vanished, and it'll be up to Don to save the day on his own. I... think, it's not totally clear.

...add in possible zombie Walz and the episode where the Gokaigers travel back in time to their cameo in Gosei vs. Shinken, and the last 15 episodes look like they'll be every bit as weird and awesome as I could have hoped.

EDIT: What. What. What.

Can I mention how much fun it is to get spoilers in the form of kids' magazines and toy ads with GIANT SUPER EXCITED JAPANESE TEXT!!! all over them? I wish all of the not-for-five-year-olds shows I watch worked the same way.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Octarine

[Ekaje]

Fourze 09:

Okay. It had nice character moments (that Nozama creepiness), and some nice switches to show off (Fire looks nice, and OH WOW A GATLING GUN), but the plot was kinda eh since we all knew it was going to be a Zodiart all along. I'm just glad they got that resolved in one episode rather than that being the story for the whole arc.

Next episode looks much more exciting though, with Nozama being pressured to use the switch and Fire getting shown off in a full fight. AND DANG IT MEGAMIX, STOP LOOKING SO GOOD WHEN I WON'T BE ABLE TO SEE YOU FOR LIKE HALF A YEAR.

[Octarine]

Gokaiger 35 & 36:

Like I've said, I've got kind of a soft spot for Go-Onger despite it not really being very good, so it was really nice to see it paid tribute in such style. I mean, the quantity of returning characters and use of the brane worlds were great, of course, but even the overall production quality was a step up from the last few episodes. The fight scenes were fantastic, and it was a huge surprise to see the Gokai Machines actually doing something outside of combining with the Gokai Galleon. Kind of a last hurrah for them, I guess, since they won't even get to do that once Complete GokaiOh starts showing up.

My favourite little moment in the two-parter was the brief fight between the Zangyack and Gaiark, and particularly the remark about how powerful the Zangyack are by comparison. I love the idea that they're considerably stronger than most Sentai villains, and they only seem so pathetic because the Gokaigers are totally broken.

I also totally called it about the 'met on thing, but I certainly wasn't expecting to see Gai to shove his two together like that. Nice touch.

Fourze 9:

One of my favourite episodes so far. There wasn't a ton of action and the mystery was... well, barely a mystery at all, but it more than made up for it with all of the great character interaction and the number of unusual locations. I really wish there were more scenes shot at night in toku in general.

I'm still loving all of the non-combat Switches Fourze has; they allow for plenty of action scenes that aren't necessarily fight scenes, or at least fight scenes where Fourze has a slightly different goal than just hitting the bad guy a lot. Even the switches that are pretty much just weapons are being used pretty creatively... it was delightful to see Fire's Limit Break used for a completely non-violent purpose, for instance. I dunno, maybe it's not all that special and I'm just out of whack because OOO barely did that kind of thing at all.

Also, a non-TV-N group has started subbing Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, so God help me, I might have to start watching that too. l have a crippling weakness for the magical girl genre, and I'm curious to see how it translates into live action. The little I've seen of the series before now gave me bad fan film vibes, but I'm willing to give it another shot.

Edited November 1, 2011 by Octarine

[Ekaje]

A director's cut of the final two episodes of Kamen Rider OOO will be released soon. The two episodes were re-edited into one by director Ryuta Tasaki, with the eight additional minutes of never-before-seen scene. A new epilogue has also been added, giving a deeper and more profound sense of closure. The special features include an audio commentary provided by Ryuta Tasaki, star Shu Watanabe, screenwriter Yasuko Kobayashi and producer Naomi Takebe, as well as an essential handbook for the fans!

New scenes:

*Satonaka talks to Kogami about a present that she wasn't able to hand. Eiji is transported sometime before that.

*Eiji goes to Maki's place without hearing the persuasion between Date and Goto at the Kogami Foundation.

*Eiji gets a cell medal from Kogami in order to win a losing battle.

*Rider Birth and Birth Prototype fight against the Completed Uva despite the odds.

*The human form of Uva puts a core medal into Maki.

*While Date is in the lab, Goto has a conversation with Kogami.

* A scene in which daybreak arrives while Goto and Date are in the lab.

*Kogami gives orders to make a birthday cake for Eiji like he desires.

* The epilogue now has a voiced narration

http://animation.blo.../post_f73d.html

Doesn't sound like much substantial was added, but it might have better closure than the somewhat rushed TV ending, so it'll be worth watching at least once I guess.

Edited November 2, 2011 by Ekaje

[Jacky]

Not a toku fan, but huge spidey fan and just was reminded of dat japanese show from the 70s

SPIDER-MAN WITH A GIANT FUCKING ROBOT, WHO WILL POP A CAP IN YOUR ASS, YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID

[Ekaje]

Fun fact: The suit for Spider-Man's giant robot was actually stolen less than halfway through the series, so in most of it's appearances it's just stock footage.

[DSP001]

I understand why one would steal it now, but damn was it that popular back then? enough to be stolen?! that's just cruel, poor leopardon probably being sold on some underground toku fan black market!

[Ekaje]

But in exchange, it gets called "mightiest instant killing giant robot in the history of tokusatsu" by Toei.

...though this is all just because its battles were turned into 15 second "stock footage attack, monster dies" because they didn't have the actual suit.

Edited November 4, 2011 by Ekaje

[\gunther]

Man, I've been meaning to watch that shit for years but haven't even seen a single episode yet. The episodes are all still on Marvel's site, I think. I should really get my butt into gear and start watching it asap.

I guess it's safe to assume that the Spider-Man toku is a big reason why Marvel apparently has a decent-sized fanbase over in Japan? lol

[Ekaje]

Houston, we have second Rider.

Kamen Rider Meteor.

Design looks pretty nice. Wonder what his "thing" will be, since his belt appears to only have room for his Meteor Switch. Something to do with those knobs and the disco ball in the middle?

[Octarine]

Hooray, Meteor!

I'm really liking Meteor's design. The blue "visor" over the eyes kind of reminds me of Decade's weird card face thing (and I love the asymmetry), the plain metal mouthpiece is a little reminiscent of Black's, the belt looks a lot like Birth's, and the whole package feels very much in the style of Kabuto or Den-O. The starfield pattern on the chest is a nice touch too. I'm one of the three or four people on the planet who actually likes Fourze's suit, but even I think that I'll probably like Meteor's better. Now all that's left to worry about is his character. The last two series have both had great secondary riders; I hope Fourze can keep that streak going.

Magnet States (or whatever it's called, but Fourze isn't terribly subtle about its names) is... interesting. I definitely like the idea of magnet-based powers, and that switch gimmick is pretty cool, but it's hard to say much about the suit from a picture of a toy.

Also, from Megamax:

I'm pretty sure this form only exists so they can make a Figuart that doesn't need to come with eighteen sets of hands.

And more Foodroids, including one that would totally be Dr. Eggman's best secret weapon ever:

They're cute, but there's really not much else to say.

[\gunther]

Hot DAMN, Kamen Rider Meteor is definitely one of the most eye-catching secondary riders we've gotten in a while.

The Magnet States make me think of a less beefy version of Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor. I like it.