#THE THING ABOUT KAMEN RIDER IS THAT THE FEMALE CHARACTERS ARE ALWAYS REALLY INTERESTING BUT THEY STILL DO NOT MATTER

[texeoghea]

kamen rider really is a series about women. with obstacles. to me

[ilikekidsshows]

https://www.tumblr.com/ilikekidsshows/751741085530931200/drip-irony-about-ladybug-holders-mister-bug

Thomas Astruc: I'm the only creator to have come up with a ladybug-themed superhero!

Kamen Rider Stronger, a show that aired in 1975:

Astruc thinks "binge-reading" comics makes him an expert on the superhero genre, which it really doesn't. "Binging" on something means moving on to the next piece as soon as you're done with the previous one. It's consumption where the point is to be done as quickly as possible with no time for thinking about what you're eating/reading/watching. He claims he "binged decades of comics" which is meant to make it sound like he read a lot of comics, but he mustn't have put much thought into what he was reading, since he says incorrect stuff like "Miraculous is like having Catwoman and Spider-Man in the same comic, except the genders are reversed" (Spider-Man comics have a prominent cat-themed female ally character already) and "girls are always sidekicks to boys" (all "girl versions" of boy heroes are actually independent heroes, especially Batgirl) all the time.

These mistakes are also really obvious if you ever watch or read anything based on the Batman or Spider-Man comics other than the movies, so they shouldn't have happened if Astruc really did read "decades of comics" as he claims. Black Cat is a prominent supporting character in Spider-Man comics and shows up in almost every cartoon adaptation and is even a love interest. Meanwhile, Batgirl is almost always depicted as an independent agent and not someone who answers to Batman, with the one notable exception of The Batman where she basically takes the role of Robin because DC executives were scared of having more than one version of any character in cartoons at the time. In fact, just looking at DC's comic lineup tells you that Batgirl has had several of her own solo books with no Batman necessary.

Basically, unless Astruc's "binge reading" was really more just glancing at the comics, he really should know more about the genre he claims to be subverting. His understanding of the superhero genre is on the level of a Buzzfeed article back when those were still a thing; people complaining about a movie or genre they've never watched and everyone thinking their distorted idea is the reality. Remember when "Belle has Stockholm Syndrome" was a common take on Beauty and the Beast? "Girls are always sidekicks" is that exact thing, people who have never read or watched Batman look at the name "Batgirl" and think she's a sidekick because she was inspired by one of the most famous superheroes ever both in and out of universe. It's like Astruc has heard other people talk about comics more than he has actually read them.

I'm saying of course he doesn't know about a super sentai giant like Kamen Raider. He doesn't even really know anything about the things he claims are direct influences on his work, like Batman and Spider-Man, the two most well-known western superheroes.

[sakiaii]

so

I kinda wanted to make a longer series of posts going into my idea for Armored x Magic girls series, title always being "work in progress"

of course i always don't end up doing it

it started when I had few things subconsciously on my mind like Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Mighty Morphin, KRgirls group just changed and a lot of members graduated, I wanted to see an all female team, this poster

it looks cool but spoiler it's a poyn and not the good kinda poyn

now if PR are light armors, KR medium armors and Iron Man heavy armor i definitely wanted medium i could only make exception for heavy just so it's not the same as KR but they were intended to be medium

eventually i just started fantasizing and didn't have anything planned. to tell you the truth the starting story is just meh it's the characters that make first season interesting. their story and plot twists are what 1st series is really about. actually instead of season I should call it series as every series is a new instalment. 2nd series wasn't planned at all i did have some random things going through my head a possible 2nd season but it was just random trash. As i was checking Umbrella Academy some things started clicking and 2nd series started with all new characters and continuation from 1st series. The 3rd was really cool it had the biggest cast, was set on a different planet. What was going through my head at the time was a lot of different groups like Angerme, BiSH and i don't remember other (they were some small groups unrelated to H!P or WACK). originally i didn't even know if this was going to be a prequel in some way like how it all started, what's the story with the armors? is it going to have a bad ending?. THEN i wanted to watch Maji Majo Pures but finding episodes was a struggle needles to say my fantasies took me into what i thought was going to be a sister series with magic but I started to ignore the first series and as future series would turn out this was all.. connected!!!?

yes I couldn't believe it as nothing was planned but the sister series would later reveal to me that there was another story, hidden and with its roots there from the start!

i took some inspiration for 5th series in Garo and Saki being in Jinga stage, this is where the series completely moves to another dimension the world of magic

now 6th series was tricky as i had a teaser for it in 5th series finale after listening to FATE GEAR version of Headless Goddess but.. something happened in 5th series and as i had no real ideas just yet for the 6th and as i was listening to Last Idol and 'Ghost' performance from Revue Starlight the event from 5th series butterfly effected a new 6th story and that 6th story couldn't be 7th series or give its place to 6th series which i eventually started fantasizing about after listening to Predia and Kalafina. so the 6th series is now serie 6 but 7th story and that other one is 5.5 series all because the teaser in series 5 can't be removed we also have a mysterious appearance in 5, 5.5 and 6th series also 8th which can't be put out of order. the 7th series is kinda silence before the storm, slice of life comedy starring a character that might look like this *cough*

the 8th series is just Pato-Lupinranger ripoff

now the technically 10th story wasn't intended to be a series as it just quickly goes over something that happens in the past some 60 years ago. the ending we see here was the first scene in 4th series but... we see something new here that changes everything we thought we knew about that scene

the era finale aka 11th story is where we find out everything about mysterious woman that started showing up as we follow a mix of the story set in the past and the stories where we bring back everybody from other series ending their stories, tying loose ends, giving them a send off as the final battle is about to happen and even the future will intervene because if they fail in this one, there is no future

also i don't remember telling Airi what the story was with 2 shadows

yeah there's actually 2 mysterious woman manipulating with butterfly effects and they're not exactly on friendly terms anymore. seriously i don't remember telling Airi what the story was

now for the second era i wanted it to be more free from continuity of 1st era but we are meeting that future or the characters that will be that future one day here we also discover more about this worlds

oh yeah we kinda have earth, space and other dimensions which are more like pocket or buble dimensions

now before i could end the 2nd era i was already fantasising the 3rd xD

you thought the battle in 1st era was the deciding one, you were wrong the 3rd era battle doesn't even connect to the future no time traveler can go past that point

[reversemoon255]

Fifth Review - Kamen Rider Revice

The first thing I ever saw of Revi and Vice was their cameo during the final episode of Saber. Y’know, the one filled with fart jokes and lazy cutaways? Needless to say, that made me somewhat hesitant going into Revice, even with the dinosaur motif hitting my aesthetic sweet spot. But it ended up being pretty good. A lot of stuff I liked, some stuff I didn’t, they tied the anniversary neatly into the aesthetics rather than making it a focus like with Decade or Zi-O. So let’s get into the nitty-gritty.

The Good: Let’s start with characters, like we usually do. Ikki was a perfectly fine main character. He was fairly…normal? Except for his major standout trait being that he liked to get involved in everyone else’s business and help them out. I actually really like this, as it’s a trait that most every main Kamen Rider has, and here during the 50th anniversary series we take a magnifying lens to this very basic trope and consider it more thoroughly, coming to the realization that is isn’t always a good thing, but it’s better to extend your hand in aid rather than not at all. It’s a very interesting disassembly of Riders as a whole. I’ve said before that the characters I gravitate toward are usually the most upbeat and positive, which was definitely Vice in this instance. Turning the gimmick of Double on its head with a single Rider splitting in two, Vice felt very necessary in a season that felt much more grounded and dour, adding most of the much needed levity. Their ceremonial battle at the end of the series was great, and I like how they handled Vice’s departure; with nobody beating it into Ikki that he existed, but Ikki reflexively copying some of his mannerisms to show that he’s not fully gone. Daiji was my least favorite character for reasons, but when he wasn’t at odds with Kagerou or his family he was fine. I think he’s a serviceable character thematically, just not in execution. Sakura was great. I’ve mentioned before that power-ups can be a physical representation of a character’s emotional growth, and Jeanne got a few weapon powers over the course of the show, ultimately finishing with a new form in Invincible. The main reason I bring this up being that she’s the first female Rider to get this in spades, having multiple mini-arcs and undergoing several character shifts that resulted in new powers.

As for the side characters, I liked Hiromi. He was a fairly serious character that could also pull off a good comedic moment. Even though he returned, his death early on was a very impactful moment. Karizaki was another very positive character. I like that in the crossover material he was depicted as a big Rider fan, and he was enjoyable to watch in both those and the series proper. His spat as Juuga was also quite an emotional one that gave him a strong serious moment to ride the series out on. This isn’t the first season with two female Riders, but both Sakura and Hana were strong ones where being a Rider was a major part of their character instead of an addition to it. Also, I kinda just enjoyed watching their little maybe-romance, and Girls Remix has been surprisingly good so far. Tamaki was fun. I like how much and yet how little he seemed to change during his face-turn. And his few character episodes were pretty strong. Rounding out the group is Hikaru. Not a ton to say about him. He had a few good moments, but he was definitely the most minor of the side characters. 

Moving on, this season had a very strong plot that continued to evolve as the series ran, with very few filler episodes, and even the few that did had B Plots that touched on the main plot, or swerved into the main plot (like the soccer episode where Ikki learned about how his contract with Vice worked). I also enjoyed that the final string of episodes extended beyond the final boss and focused on the final development of the characters and Ikki and Vice’s relationship/contract. Most of the time, the series wraps and maybe does a final episode that revolves around a final unrelated encounter, or does a crossover with a character from the next season. Here it wasn’t just a one off, but several episodes, which helped to strengthen that idea.

Last thing I want to talk about is the designs this season. Firstly, loved the pink and blue, but I also love dinosaurs. Dinosaurs is a motif usually used by the Super Sentai, and is very rarely used by Kamen Rider as a power-up, but never a main motif, so it was cool seeing it used like that for the first time. The fact that Revi and Vice could combine in their base forms was neat, even if that feature didn’t extend into their evolved forms, and the extension of gimmick on those evolutions was very cool. Their first form had Revi receive an armored upgrade, their second passing it on to Vice and gaining a new, contrasting upgrade. Then, they had an incomplete combined form, a complete combined form, and a final separate form that allowed each of them to fight on their own for the first time. They handled the 50th anniversary well, too, merely having the 50 on the belt, and the base forms referencing the general appearances of their Senpai without ever being called out for doing so. These references faded after receiving Barid Rex, only returning at the very end with Juuga referencing Ultimate Kuuga, but it’s also cool that the series’ designs could stand on their own without relying on the previous seasons as a crutch.

The Bad: My biggest problem with the show is just Daiji. He’s fine at best and insufferable at worst. First was Kagerou, who isn’t terrible, in fact I find the overly edgy persona somewhat funny, but I can’t help comparing him to the much more creatively designed Vice and Lovekov, who were both way more interesting in both appearance and character. Then Kagerou was shunted into a comedic role for a bit, and at this time Daiji was ok. Then we move onto the part where Daiji has to fight Kagerou, which is a nice, dramatic scene, where he conquers his inner demon and receives a power-up because of it… Then he gets one good fight and immediately after gets his butt kicked.

Then we get to the part of Daiji I dislike the most; his time without his demon. Granted, the fact that without his inner demon Daiji ends up essentially copying Kagerou’s philosophies and actions is a very interesting idea, and adds credence to them sharing an appearance. However the execution was crap. Daiji switching sides was pretty abrupt, him getting angry at his family was very abrupt, he is made entirely unlikable and while they try to make you sympathize with him it is not handled well and just makes him look dumb and stubborn. Additionally, the only thing I found interesting about Kagerou was his over the top edginess, however outside of that he isn’t interesting, and as demonless Daiji was essentially Kagerou without those aspects he is even more uninteresting.

And this would be fine if it was a two or three episode arc, but it was almost a quarter of the show, normally taking up the A or a very prominent B Plot so you couldn’t escape it. It drags down the entire show for me, and even though I like elements of this series I will never watch this season again in its entirety specifically because of this aspect.

Look, I find this season to be pretty mid overall. Very few things are excellent, but, equally, very few things are terrible. This is just the show’s one terrible thing to the point that I have no other complaints about the show besides this. And if you like Daiji, that’s fine, I admit there are plenty of moments where he's ok, but I viscerally dislike his final arc, and feel the show would be much better if it was heavily foreshortened or removed.

Where we droppin’ boys: Geats looks neats. This is the first time in quite a while any of the Rider toys have interested me, but I would like to see how they plan on expanding the gimmicks before I decide to go in on a belt or the transforming figures. Aesthetic is great, plot feels very Gaim, which is my favorite season, so I’m hoping everything turns out well.

Overall, a decent season with a massive flaw that takes it from being pretty good to just mid. At least for me. The good didn’t outweigh the bad for me in this one, but there was still plenty of good to be had.

[kaysutcliff-michaelis]

SOUMA-HEN 2021 CAST

Hi, humans and oni, all fans of Hakumyu!

Since Souma-hen is a thing again I’ve recovered my original cast announcement post and updated it. The info about the actors is a mix between what I’ve found about them and info from the official cast page, but I haven’t included every past myu/stage play in the official info, so I’d recommend checking it if you’re interested in seeing more of any of these people.

Without further ado, I present you the official cast for the 2021 version of Musical Hakuoki Souma-hen:

Mizuki Umetsu (梅津瑞樹) is Kazue Souma

28 years old, his Twitter is @MizukiUmetsu, and he’s been in Musical Touken Ranbu and the Sanrio Boys stage play .

Risa Matsuzaki (松崎莉沙) is Chizuru Yukimura

She’s a member of Roys, a Japanese female duo chorus group. Playing Chizuru in this myu will be her first time as an actress. Her Twitter is @risadegozaimasu and she’s 24 years old.

Hidetoshi Kubota (久保田秀敏) is Toshizo Hijikata

Has worked in films and dramas before, also has myu/stage play experience (Sengoku Basara stage play , Moriarty the Patriot myu, etc.). He’s 33 years old and his Twitter is @kubotahidetoshi.

Shuji Kikuchi (菊池修司) is Souji Okita

First difference with the 2020 cast! Shuji Kikuchi replaces Shogo Yamazaki, who first appeared in Hakumyu in Shitan Hijikata-hen. He’s 25 and his Twiiter is @kutisyu. He’s been in some stage plays before, like the Pirates of the Frontier UtaPri stage play .

Shoichiro Oomi (大海将一郎) is Hajime Saito

His Twitter is @shoichiro_oomi. The protagonist/”your” character in the Fate/GO Babylonia Myu, also has some experience as a seiyuu (in fact google doesn’t list him as an actor but as a voice actor) and is/was in a group called "Hi! Superb" 

Yuta Higuchi (樋口裕太) is back as Heisuke Todou!

His first Hakumyu was Shitan Hijikata-hen! He is 25 and he won a Junon Superboy contest (Most Photogenic) and according to Anime on Stage he’s been in other myus/stage plays, like Ensemble Stars and Yona of the Dawn. According to the cast page he’s been in  Ao no Exorcist and Hitman Reborn stage plays too. His Twitter is @higuchi24yuta.

Ryousuke Koike (小池亮介) is Nagakura Shinpachi

Second change in the cast, he’s replacing Yuta Kishimoto, who was Nagakura in both Shitan Hijikata-hen and Shitan Kazama-hen. He’s 25 and his Twitter is @ryosuke19951117. He was Akito/Agito in the Air Gear myu, and according to the cast page he wants everyone to think that Nagakura Shinpachi is cool (literally, 「永倉新八カッコいいな」kakkoii and everything)

Shouta Kawakami (川上将大) is Sanosuke Harada

He’s been in Tenimyu, Rice on stage, Hitman Reborn and Touken Ranbu stages/myus, among others. He’s 27 and his Twitter is @rjpmission. An anecdote: a few weeks ago someone I follow on Twitter went to see Rice on stage and he was one of the actors performing, which made me wonder if Souma-hen would happen since people from the cast were working on other things and I supposed that meant the situation in Japan was good enough to resume events like stage plays, included those that had been cancelled.

Teruma (輝馬) is back as Keisuke Sannan!

Sannan since Hakumyu Reimeiroku, he’s been in Kuromyu (William T Spears), Bungou Stray Dogs stage play, the Nanatsu no Taizai stage play and Tenimyu. His Twitter is @teruma_060 and he’s 31.

This makes me really happy! I still prefer Ryosuke Mikata, but he’s showed that he deserves the role, so I hope he stays in Hakumyu for many years to come! And I’m still mad that Teruma wasn’t in the Tango on the Campania Kuromyu...

Taizo Shiina (椎名鯛造) is back as Susumu Yamazaki!

First appeared in Shitan Hijikata-hen, and he’s been in some Sengoku Basara and Danganronpa stage plays, among others. He’s 34 and his Twitter is @TaizoShiina.

Taira Imata (井俣太良) is back as Isami Kondou!!!

Best dad since Okita-hen (second Hakumyu) and by this point, everyone’s senpai, what else can be said about this man??? If you’ve watched any Hakumyu other than Saito-hen, you already know him. Great man and actor, he’s 45 and his Twitter is @TAIRANT1975.

These are the characters/actors & actress that I covered in my first Souma-hen cast post. I actually wrote another one with the rest of the cast, but thanks to a broken mouse the whole post got deleted when it was almost finished. Time to redeem myself!

Syuya Sunagawa (砂川脩弥) is Saburo Miki!

Replacing Allen Kohatsu in the role of Miki, he’s 26 and his Twitter is @suna_syu_. It’s his first time in a musical, but he’s in the Kamen Rider Zero One drama. According to the Kamen Rider Wikia, he won the Avex Boys Award in 2016.

Masashi Sonomura (園村将司) is Risaburo Nomura!

He’s 22 and he’s @masashisonomura on Twitter. He’s been in Tenimyu and has done some stuff on TV (the cast page lists some things but I’m not familiar with them ;_;)

Masafumi Yokoyama (横山真史) is Kyuju Amagiri!

He’s 34 and he’s @masafumi21yoko on Twitter. He’s been in Touken Ranbu, Ikemen Sengoku and Toki no Kizuna stages.And as my friend and Amagiri’s biggest fan Lawrichai pointed out, he played Amagiri’s grandpa/relative in the Toki no Kizuna stage.

Takuma Sueno (末野卓磨) is back as Kyo Shiranui!

He’s 36 and he’s @sueno0724 on Twitter. His first Hakumyu was Shitan Kazama hen. Has been in the Sengoku Basara stage play and the Rantaro Shinobu myu (this one wasn’t that long ago so I remember seen funny pics of this on Twitter).

Hiroyuki Kawamoto (川本裕之) is back as Kodo Yukimura!

Egg dad since the times of Harada hen, he doesn’t have a Twitter account and apparently there isn’t that much info about him on Google D:

And... drum roll a big round of applause for our returning demon, the original, the one and only, SHOGO SUZUKI (鈴木勝吾) AS CHIKAGE KAZAMA!!!

I already spoiled this in my Souma-hen is back post but I’m sooooooooooooooo happy to see him back. He’s @Shogo_Suzuki_ on Twitter (where he’s posted photos of his Hakumyu-watching sessions more than once),he’s 31 and he played Kazama from the very beginning in Saito-hen until Live 2. During his absence from Hakumyu he didn’t stop acting, some of you may remember my post about his appearance in the Moriarty the Patriot myu.

Not that I dislike Yoshihide Sasaki (Hijikata in Reimei, and Kazama in Harada-hen and the 2020 Souma-hen cast), but I will always see him as my dear Viscount Druitt from Kuromyu. And let’s be honest, Shogo has his “own brand” of Kazama. He took the character and made it his own, having a unique way of portraying him and enjoying every last bit of it.

And that was the complete main cast! This time we had all the info from the start so I don’t think a follow-up post will be necessary.

As an ending note, I would like to dedicate this post to Serizawa’s actor, Akira Kubodera, who passed away last month. I’m sure he would love to see that everyone has been hoping for Souma-hen to return and that the Hakuoki Shinsengumi, or at least its spirit, can’t be defeated.

[fantasyinvader]

Kamen Rider Saber: Finale and Series Review

Okay, before I start disemboweling this series I want to give the finale two points of props.

It was nice to see the main trio fight the big bad together rather than it just being the lead Rider.

The ending really feels nostalgic for me. It's like one of those old games or anime that tried to do something like Evangelion, mostly Star Ocean 3 comes to mind.

I was going to add another point: how the ending didn't have to rely on a cosmic retcon to turn things into a happy ending like Build or Zi-o did, leaving those who died dead and having some level of maturity. I was going to give the show that point, even if it felt like it was leading into Touma essentially becoming God, but then the show did it and...I'm going to be honest here, I was saying fuck you at the screen. Multiple times, kinda like when Doctor Who's 50th anniversary where it turns out Gallifrey wasn't destroyed, the Doctor sealed it away and just couldn't remember it. Like, that is the level of bullshit I was calling out, and with Doctor Who I only said it as an “oh fuck you” rather than just “fuck you fuck you fuck you” until I noticed I was doing this and stopped myself.

Got it? Good. Now let's put Kamen Rider Saber on the examination table, rip it open, and see what went wrong with it.

Oh my god, where to begin with this series?

You ever see a show or movie that tries to do too much for it's runtime? Maybe a book that has some ultimately good ideas, but it never fleshed them out properly? That's my biggest feeling with Saber. Individual parts of the story, some arcs and characters are good on paper. Not to mention, Touma has two incredibly sexy upgrades (the Ryuki-inspired Draconic Knight and the berserker Primitive Dragon). But there is just so much in here that, given the proper focus could have carried the show if properly developed. It's a case of quantity over quality.

But the main problem comes to it's central McGufffin, the Omniscient Tome. This book is supposed to have all knowledge and later on all stories contained within it. It's what powers Wonderworld and the Wonder Ridebooks that are the main collectable trinket of the season. But when you stop and think about it, Saber is a world where there is no free will and the antagonists are all rebelling against this in their own way. Kento's dad (former Kamen Rider Calibur) went rogue in the backstory because he was given a vision of the future through his sword, and it led to the former Saber taking up the role of Calibur and going rogue in order to learn the truth. When the other riders are turned against Touma, the argument is over how he's destined to become more powerful, making Touma seem like he's seeking power and could be a future threat. When Kento returns from the dead, he's haunted by visions of the world ending in multiple variations, leading to him trying to seal the Sacred Blades in order to stop it. But then Master Logos is revealed to be buttfucking insane, wanting to rebel against his position in the world. Then it turns out the monster faction's leader, was a former poet who lost hope when he learned that all his creations were already in the Omniscient Tome, so he decided he would end the world his way rather than the predetermined ending. And even then, the world still ended the way it was always fated to end, even with Touma disappearing to nu-Wonderworld if only for a year.

The world wasn't saved, it was destroyed and then rebuilt because Mei wrote an online post that encouraged people to share their stories, which they did in oblivion even though these guys shouldn't have seen the post at all and instead just heard her voice.

Like, maybe the nu-World has free will. I'd buy that. But when applied to the 47 episodes I've spent the last year watching (alongside the Zenkaiger crossover episode), it felt pointless because it ended the way it was foretold in the Omniscient Tome. It didn't matter that Storious was defeated, fate was not averted. It's like, the complaints people have about the MCU post-Loki. It doesn't matter that Tony decided to sacrifice himself, because he didn't have free will. He was always going to sacrifice himself. Thanos was always going to snap away half the universe, and it would always be undone because choices didn't matter before Loki's ending.

And that's not even going into how they final arc reveals that Touma can somehow create stories not present in the Omniscient Tome. That he can somehow, because the personification of Wonderworld choose him as a child, that for some reason he's the only writer in history that can do this. His catchphrase is about how he'll be the one who'll decide how the story ends, but with the idea that everything was set into stone? It's laughable.

Like, my problem with Zero One's ending was the last scene. Aruto had learned a lot about the Humagears and was an advocate for them finding their own dreams as they became self-aware AI. So him trying to treat a new humagear as just an amnesiac Is  and try to help her “remember”? That felt like a betrayal of the character and what he stood for. But the post-series movie revealed that Is left a copy of herself in the Zero Two driver, and merged with the non-self aware nu-Is who the movie kept reminding us wasn't the Is we knew. Aruto even had a sobbing scene about what he was doing, lowkey acknowledging what he was doing but without overtly calling him out. It fixed Zero One for me after that last scene left me with a bad taste in my mouth that overshadowed an otherwise excellent show.

You can't fix Saber with a single movie, that's what I'm getting at here.

So, with that out of the way let's go into my thoughts on each character.

Touma: Is one of the blandest main riders in the franchise. His sense of style is probably one of the worst I've ever seen though. Like I know they like to try and give the main riders their own look rather than having them dress like normal people, like Aruto wearing a hoodie under his suit jacket alongside with his very bright shoes, but this wasn't a W or even something like Ghost (where honestly I really liked Takeru's robe-like shirts). What they eventually settled on with Touma was a stupid hat, really baggy pants, and shirts that look like they came out of a stern librarian's closest. You know, the type with her hair in a bun and their horned-framed glasses on a chain.

Rintaro:Is one of those cases where he's meant to be the secondary Rider of the series, but is overshadowed because the writer likes to use someone else more. The idea of him having to turn against the organization that raised him (like a child soldier) could have worked really well if the series had a more free will-direction. But alas.

Kento: Kento's the one character I found I could really like. His arc was more interesting during the first quarter, his return as Calibur, but then he returned to being Espada and, as much as I love that suit, he just became Touma's main cheerleader. Really, I felt like towards the end it was a waste of him, especially since he doesn't get any power ups like Rintaro did to solidify him as one of the main three. He definitely feels like a victim of rewrites or just the writer not knowing what he was doing.

Mei: The female lead. Honestly, I just found her annoying most of the time. A womanchild to match Touma's more manchild moments, with a potential romance with Rintaro thrown in to only be confirmed in a future movie. Really, she should have taken over as Espada after Kento disappeared early on (especially since she's one of the three in the Ending dance while Kento isn't).

Daishinji: I'd say best boy, but he became a background character pretty quick.

Ogami: An older Kamen Rider who is also a father to a young child? Cool, and could even have worked in contrast to Rintaro's raising as essentially a child soldier. But alas, it was not to be.

Ren: OMG. A somewhat psycho younger Rider, idolizing Kento, and his social Darwinist beliefs on strength leading to conflict as Touma gets more powerful, leading to him abandoning the team to train with an enemy monster? HOW DO YOU MAKE THAT NOT WORK! I swear, Ren should have been the secondary Rider of the series, with his changes in beliefs being used more effectively.

Yuri: One of the most competantly written characters in the entire show. One of the original swordsman who became his sword, returning after 2000 years and not only feeling the culture clash of then and now but even how the idea of what makes a hero has changed? Good boy. Also loved him using a shadow body early on during fights.

Sophia: Why are you even here?

Reika: Oh boy, the swordswoman who leads the rest to distrust Touma under the orders of Master Logos, and doesn't sway from this until he's proven to be batshit insane? And even then, reluctant to join the others? Could have been better, especially if her relationship with her brother didn't come across as incesty. Though, could we please return her to Magine in Zenkaiger? Reika hugging her was really cute, in a socially awkward type of way.

Ryoga: Reika's brother. With his powers being something out of Jojo, time manipulation powers which are a bit hard to explain. He starts them and to his opponents things seem like the fight is continuing as normal, but he really exists outside of that and then can attack from a blindspot? Could have been really good with if the series had gone Team Free Will is all I'm saying.

Master Logos: What I mentioned above, but his Rider suit is one I'm in lust with. Just laughs like a madman and you're wondering why Reika and Ryoga don't rebel against him earlier.

The Megid: Two are a waste who I never bothered to learn their names. Fall out of focus for a bit and only return to be beaten, with the sad fact that they were once human. Storious is the exception, but even then I felt he was a little too late to save the series.

Tassel: Bon Lecture! I still hate you you weirdo, even if your death scene made me feel a little sad. The fact that you treated the early parts of the show as a story you were reading? Have you seen my other complaints?

As for the message of what the show tried to say? I don't really mind it. It's encouraging people to love stories, even if they are copies (considering the controversy of Time Paradox Ghostwriter and Cheat Slayer within recent memory, I'm trying not to make jokes about Saber encouraging plagiarism). And I don't think that's a bad thing in itself. Hell, how many stories take stuff from older stories and just tweak elements to make them their own? I love the Elric saga, but that was based on old legends and meant to subvert the likes of Conan the Barbarian, and some other stories I've liked have borrowed elements from it as well. The idea that stories can be used to pass on our hopes, thoughts and dreams to others is pretty nice as well, rather than writing being a form of masturbation on the author's part.

But in the shadow of the Omniscient Tome and it's implications, I really feel the story should have taken another route.

A lot of Riders start of weak, having to introduce the plot as well as the main release of whatever trinket they want kids to gorge themselves on this year. But they usually start getting better towards the end of the first quarter, while maybe stalling a bit towards the end of the second/third. Saber was a series that I felt never really found it's legs. Too many bareboned plot threads on the go, dropping some for a while only to pick them up again after they've been forgotten about. This is not a good series, to be honest I think Zi-O and even Ghost were better, and really feel it would have been better handled in the hands of someone who could actually write. 

Not to mention, this gave me flashbacks of Power Rangers Megaforce over how much this series relied on fight scenes. Throw in greenscreen everywhere, lack of civilians...oh god, it is Kamen Rider Megaforce. And it felt like Saber was trying to have a story, unlike Megaforce, but it has the same “it’s a kid’s show, we don’t have to try that hard” energy.

[ryo-maybe]

kuya, if you don’t mind me asking!! so far, what’s your most favorite part of your least favorite kamen rider and what’s the least favorite part of your favorite kamen rider(s)?

Haro you would have to try and make any of your questions/trivia/conversations sound anything but engaging, so no, I do not mind at all. Lessee if I can answer this with an equally interesting reply...

Least favorite Kamen Riders: Kiva, Faiz

My favorite part of Kiva: The body swap episode was one I liked, if only because it showcased the superb acting talent involved in imitating Otoya’s mannerisms. Otoya’s antics in general were something I used to look forward to, at least until he came down with a bad, bad case of Inouefication. And, of course, an obligatory mention goes to Matsuda Kenji, who no matter what role he performs in, is always a treat to witness! Even if his character was hardly the most compelling, witnessing the genuine effort and entertainment he put in his performance made up for it.

My favorite part of Faiz: I feel putting Kiva and 555 on the same plane is extremely unfair to the latter, because for all its faults (most of them due to, what do you know, our friend Inoue), there is plenty to enjoy in 555. The suit design and concepts were all top-notch (I love love love the industrial feel of having your transformation trinket be carried inside a briefcase, complete with the instruction manual!), the Orphnochs had some of the best aesthetics as far as mook designs go, the “villainous” trio were very compelling characters regardless of their writing often suffering for the sake of needless drama, and of course, Kusaka. He set the bar for rival Riders and villainous characters in general really, really high, no wonder he was such a beloved character!

Favorite Kamen Riders: Kuuga, Agito, Ryuuki, OOO

My least favorite part about Kuuga: I feel like pointing out the bad CG is frankly unfair considering the context and time frame (and let’s be real, I may as well consider it a charm point of its own). Instead, the only real flaw I can think about is that some characters felt a tad underutilized, along with Daguva feeling like a bit of a Dio-like villain: the myth behind him felt greater than the character itself. Even so, this is me trying really, really hard to be nitpicky, because at the end of the day, every character still fulfilled their thematic purpose perfectly fine, and Daguva being “flat” can just as well be interpreted as an intentional choice with thematic significance I won’t delve into, but perfectly understand. God, it’s like I’m trying really hard and failing to think of any valid criticism of Kuuga, bwhahah! Actually, I think I have a much easier and personal answer for this one: I wasn’t particularly impressed with the performance of the actress who portrayed Yusuke’s sister.

My least favorite part about Agito: HIKAWA JOBBED TOO MUCH. They gave G3 an upgrade and still didn’t let him be anything but a tool to stall for time until Agito or Gills could come in time to save the day, barring exceedingly few instances, which vexed me to no end. Speaking of Gills, his Exceed form is one of the ugliest in the entire franchise. Poor Ryo really got the short end of the stick, especially with that weird deal with his not-girlfriend that lasted for all of two episodes solely to give him more reasons to brood??? At least he got a puppy in the end, so I guess things worked out for him one way or another.

My least favorite part about Ryuuki: Imperer sure was one of the characters of all time. The Rider itself was criminally cool for what was a character with such forgettable writing I remember nothing about him. Scissors had more staying impact by dying like the Mamiest of Tomoes than Imperer had for the entirety of his screentime. Also, obligatory mention to Femme. Wonderful design for the first female Rider who got the most needless fridging ever.

My least favorite part about OOO: Fully equipped Birth looks so goofy lmao. Other than that, I feel like the rate of appearance of certain combos felt a bit skewed, with some barely getting any use while others got used too much.

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

I don’t like disliking Zero-One.

Like, okay, first of all; it makes me way more bitter than I ever want to be about any Tokusatsu show. There’s so much about Zero-One’s endgame that makes me extremely frustrated and it is never a joy to discuss at all between Ai, between Ark-Zero taking over the show from anything interesting, between every character either being turned on their head or having nothing to do. Contrary to what angry internet opinion people will try and make you believe, it’s actually not that fun to talk at length about something you dislike this much.

But more than it frustrates me because... I have issues with a lot of things in the Tournament arc like Yaiba and how it’s structured and how they never truly figured out how to actually integrate the Kamen Riding, right? But the story it tells is so close to perfect it blows my mind it even happened and I’m so sad that what followed never really came close to matching it. Fuwa and Naki’s arc was legendarily rich in development and parallels all over the place; the premise of each episode while perhaps a bit clumsily handled was still fantastic in interrogating how advanced robotics/AI would fit into many different industries and what moral questions those raised while also being a great fit for a kid’s show in getting them to think about a wide variety of jobs; Gai was... bloody fuck was Gai a scary good villain. I never expected them to take him as far as they did but the way he is always ahead of the game despite a show like this usually necessitating the hero win out in the end, and how a show about a CEO Kamen Rider straight up said “the nature of the CEO is such that abandoning all morals and feelings for the pursuit of profit is the one that will win out in the corporate world” is not exactly something I expected Toei or Bandai to be okay with having, but boy here Gai is; winning a workplace competition despite how the firemen and the lawyer cases had Aruto reach a great conclusion! That scene of Thouser rallying the public against Humagears as a whole and goading Aruto into a flustered, lost rage is one of the most terrifying things Kamen Rider has ever done, and the way it still leads on from that into Aruto deciding to forge his own path through creating a smaller company that puts Humagears first and doing it his own way rather than just using the tools and ideals inherited from his predecessors is... I’m rambling, but this entire arc was so rich in thematic beauty and it might just be one of the greatest heights Rider has ever reached for me. Despite the many many problems present, I was so willing to call this one of my favourite Rider shows for how expertly everything was fulfilled here.

And then Ark-Zero came along.

I’m not gonna act like Zero-One was this perfect work of art that had no problems which Ark-Zero suddenly intruded upon to make everything bad. In reality a lot of the seeds were there -- Yaiba was disallowed from having a character arc, Jin was a contradictory mystery of a character and not in the way the writers wanted him to be, Izu is a travesty of lost potential who never even so much has develops her own thoughts or disagreements with Aruto in a show about advanced AI very quickly approaching the point they pass the Turing test with flying colours. Said questions of AI gaining that sentience were also very often quashed under the question of how advanced AI would effect our lives. But no matter how inevitable these bad points were to the show and how they would at some point drag it down very badly, I could not predict the travesty that was everything after Raiden coming back to life and laser-eyeing the Ark driver into existence. Fuwa getting absolutely nothing to do, Naki’s entire development being reversed, Aruto and Horobi going in increasingly bizarre and out of nowhere directions, Gai becoming a walking parody of everything wrong with Rider’s insistence on handing out redemption arcs like candy, all pretence of the questions surrounding Humagears abandoned in favour of completely unearned character drama, Hiden Manufacturing’s point reaching its apex with Zero-Two only to be completely abandoned with Aruto basically never using that form again and walking right back to Hiden Intelligence, our main female lead being fridged for contrived drama...

It’s. A Lot. Despite so many negatives being inevitable this was just beyond the pale to me and it frustrates me deeply when Zero-One was previously a show that was breaking out of every bad pre-conception to try and prove its worth as something dazzling and new, only to go back to the same bad tropes that plagued the likes of Ex-Aid and Drive’s final arcs. It’s painful to see something this good dragged down this far.

[gentaroukisaragi]

i watched literally half of zero one in the last twenty four hours because i always meant to go back, i just dropped off because i do that often with regularly updating media. thoughts on the series, which got a bit long

I liked Fuwa and Naki, though I wish we had seen so much more of the latter, but what we got of Naki was very good. I’ve loved Fuwa for a very long time, and in my opinion, I like what happened to him best. (just. running around being a vigilante with no one to tell him what to do.)

Kamen Rider Naki will mean so much to me, so just for them, Zero one will be important to me

but i can understand why people might not like it or even outright hate it. I wish more had been done with Yua, like where she ended up isn’t the worst ending (that title is saved for the other female main character) but I wanted to know more about her motivations and backstory like we got for Fuwa. What’s her family life like? Its okay that she doesn’t have any dreams, because that’s what united her and Fuwa (and Naki) on their side for a bit but like. Can I please get more Yua.

I really dislike how as the series progressed I was like I dont care about whats going on with Aruto. This was specifically in regards to how the story seemed to separate what he and izu were doing from what Fuwa and Yua and thouser were doing from what metsuboujinrai.net was doing (also fuck thouser. You already know, and what he got in the end was too good for him but also fuck thouser)

(part of it is me assuming aruto’s very unqualified to be working on something so complicated as robots and artificial intelligence, but that’s me thinking too much about a kids tv show. technology is magic, feelings make things happen)

i was surprised by how much more i liked Jin as a character in the latter half? he was just a lot more interesting now that he had resolved himself to a certain cause that put him at odds with his parental figure. i liked his suit and his hesitations and his genuine love for his fellow humagears

I also wouldve liked more Raiden but I get it. Only so many characters can be focused on. Poor guy didn’t even get his own kamen rider get up he was just constantly borrowing other peoples

Also i really thought that the vp and shesta would be more important but they were just supportive side characters at best i guess even though they were in the opening and Naki and Raiden never made it there but okay. sure.

i really wish zero two wouldve been the final form. it was literally the unification of humagear and humans to fight together like. i feel it shouldve been the ending form or like the best one because its the culmination of what aruto wanted and he made it on his own merit too he wasnt just borrowing his grandfather’s resources

(also did we ever get what happened to aruto’s mom. was this a movie thing i missed. where is she)

man it sucks that the human gears didn’t get anything. they just went back to what they had before. no laws passed giving them rights, no agency to be more that what they’ve been programmed to be. 

thinking about flowers’s 01 ending bingo card and how i feel both ‘izu is revived’ and ‘izu isn’t revived’ are invalid squares because you made a clone of a person you knew, gave them the same name and clothes and are going to force them to be the person you knew because you can’t deal with the fact that she’s gone like fucking hell aruto. this is the opposite of giving humagears right this is just continuing to treat them like the tools they are

anyways i wish aruto had been a robot like we were all suspecting OR Izu should’ve been the kamen rider w aruto as a guiding ceo friend if you really needed a boy there but you know toei wouldnt make the main character a girl

[rainy4thmonth]

Cherry magic - It's more than BL drama

Recently, i put my eyes into a fresh BL drama for Japan titled 30-san made doutei dato mahoutsukai ni narerurashi or if you virgin until 30 years old, it seems you'll become a wizard or known as Cherry maho (cherry magic). The title seems so long enough to forget it by its original name. You could get the information around almost all social media such as twitter or instagram. It's kinda trending somehow. Even in MyDramaList, they got more than 9.0 rating. The actor is not really new at japan entertainment. The protagonist is 30 years old a dull virgin, Kiyoshi Adachi who work as salary man, starred by Akaso eiji who well known in series Kamen rider build as Banjo Ryuuga. He start his career as a fashion model. The second lead is Kurosawa Yuichi, a perfect talent handsome man, colleague of Adachi who have crush on him, starred by Machida Keita, member of popular talent group, exile tribe. It seems that Machida already more popular before play this role. At first sight, they seems like another type of couple in romance drama, when the popular one meet an unpopular person then falling in love with each other, but before you judge it immediately, please watch for 3 episode rule, although maybe you could attracted to it only for first episode. I want to point out some of its good side. It maybe contain my self opinion, so maybe you have different opinion with me.

Warning: maybe contain spoiler

So what's make this drama so special? 1. The characters portray so well. Thanks to Director and Script Writer who make each Character more precious in drama. It's not like I say the manga version is bad, but i can tell that the Characters in drama are better. Adachi is an introvert character. The introvert trait here is not showed as hikikomori, or have anxiety disorder, but as a normal Introvert who still can work and speak to other people properly, although he's not good with large group of people (ep3). He have low self esteem but still he live based on his ideal. Being Salaryman is an usual job in Japan society, to manage to get this job, i think Adachi is not really fool. However, he often compare himself to someone else that make him have low self esteem. On other side, Kurosawa is an extrovert who looks perfect in other's eyes, not just because He's handsome, He also clever and easy going. To be top sales in the company, often surrounded by female co-worker, is normal things if others envy him. He also being gentleman around Adachi. However, nobody's perfect, bring those image everywhere is tiring to person like Kurosawa, because once he makes mistake, other people would bad-mouthing him. We also know somebody like him in real-life, right?. It makes Kurosawa hide problem for himself. However, He one day told Adachi about his heart problem (ep7) and surprisingly got unexpected respond. Adachi told that seeing his weakness is kinda refreshing. For the first time, He heard that 'it's okay being not okay' despite forcely being perfect all the times. Beside, Kurosawa is the character of seme who have really good self-control eventhough sometimes he have pervert mind (in manga He even more pervert, a closet pervert). We also got Fujisaki-san which also very different with manga version. In manga, Fujisaki is just merely hardcore fujoshi with wild imagination who ship Kurosawa x Adachi so hard and often have dirty mind of them. But in drama, Fujisaki is a friendly, cute and seems to be family-oriented woman whose the truth, She doesn't have any interest into romance. However, She wants Adachi happy with Kurosawa since She notice Kurosawa's feeling to Adachi. Tsuge is closest friend to Adachi. Tsuge is a bookworm novelist who likes cute creature such as cat (and minato LMAO). Tsuge gradually love Minato, the delivery man who recently often sent a package to him, after he got same power with Adachi. TBH, for the first time i feel second couple not as strong as main couple, but they're also got interesting story later. 2. The Actors and their acting. I like how they play their role and portray each character and bring this character live. We can see Akaso eiji and Machida keita have a good chemistry. Eventhough they didn't do intimate skinship, i can feel their feeling through their eyes. Even forehead kiss scene at episode 3 seems more romantic than kiss on lips. Akaso's awkward acting also seems natural and all his gesture create the super cute Adachi. Machida as Kurosawa is also gentle and handsome. His sight when see Adachi, I can see the pure love of Kurosawa to Adachi through his eyes. Surprisingly, Kurosawa who seems cool outside is cute and sometimes hilarious inside his mind (whether his imaginations or sudden poetry lol). Also their gesture and their inner voice match perfectly. 3. The story is not just about love between two guys. Maybe this drama cannot fullfills somebody's fetish who want bunch of skinship and intimate scene in every single episode on BL drama. If you are those kind of people, better not watch it or you'll miss every good point of its story. Ofcourse its main story is about homosexual difficulties, how Kurosawa have to hide his feeling toward Adachi and how Adachi should respond to Kurosawa's feeling because they both man, when it seems better as collage than as a lover. More that that, this drama also show a pure love with consent. Kurosawa always considers Adachi's feeling. He doesn't want Adachi to feel forced into relationship or being uncomfortable around him. It also tells about dream and goal, when Adachi feels nothing he want to reach in life but gradually change to find his goal (spoiler for next episode). It also tells about how someone's feeling can have impact to other's perspective. Because of Kurosawa's love, Adachi can grow up and move forward. Because of knowing that everyone have their own problem, Adachi can be more confident to help others. Also Tsuge who try to come out of his comfort-zone and reach Minato's heart. The never give-up Minato, the hardworking Rokkaku, and aromantic Fujisaki-san who likes her career. Every Character have their own story which are amazing. I rarely see BL drama that have those kind of value, very decent. 4. The comedy. Priceless expression and anime-like joke. If you don't similar with these kind of comedy, i don't know whether you can enjoy it or not, but i laugh very hard at some scene. Also the backsound of Kurosawa imagination always tickled me 😂. The mole scene, Tsuge and Adachi's hilarious headbanging, memeable face of Tsuge, Kurosawa's jealousy, etc. 5. Easter egg in each episode However i learn it after several rewatched. It tells that Kurosawa often pay attention to Adachi since episode 1, when Adachi enter the office then slipped his feet, Kurosawa suddenly stand up. It also means that Kurosawa research about Adachi ever since He had crush (7 years? 😳) That's why he's very confident when said "I know everythings about Adachi". Kurosawa already knows that adachi like sweet tamagoyaki, He already put his finger to take sugar (ep2) but he still asks Adachi to not look suspicious. In Kurosawa's imagination, Adachi wear white tshirt, that tshirt Adachi wear inside his shirt. He also imagine Adachi sleep at his personal bed 😳. Since Adachi caught by elevator door, Kurosawa hold the elevator door for Adachi (Ep 3-4). Adachi very love onigiri, there's onigiri's display on his desktop (ep6). I hope i'll find more next time 😂.

[tokumusume]

tokumusume’s list of best and worst movies and dramas watched in 2019:

There’s a new category this year. Inspired by kpopalypse, welcome the Honorable Mentions! Movies that weren’t exactly bad but also weren’t good. Movies and dramas are qualified to enter if I watched them for the first time this year, not that they were released this year. Click on ‘keep reading’~~

Best Movies:

1.      Parasite

Another masterpiece from the director of Snowpiercer (let’s pretend Okja never existed). A poor family con their way to a rich household. Choi Woo-Shik from The Witch (see below) is the eldest son and mastermind, fabulous as always. Definitely the best movie of this year. For me, movie of the decade.

2.      The Witch Part 1 The Subversion

This movie is amazing, hard to describe without spoilers. A perfect mix of Stranger Things and Hanna. Choi Woo-Shik can come to my house and kick my ass anytime. I can’t wait for part two.

3.      Death Trance

Visually stunning, kinda like Amemiya Keita’s style in early Garo or Mad Max. I wish the movie was longer and the characters were better fleshed out, Ryuen the monk and the little girl had so much potential... The most interesting thing about this movie is how sexualized the main male character is compared to the female ones, and apparently, the swords were designed to look like veiny penises (can’t find a source for this info), and yes, they do look like veiny penises. The final showdown is heavy with sexual energy. Have I already said that Ryuen deserved better? #RyuenRights

4.      Gintama 2: Rules are made to be broken

The barber shop scene is a fucking cinematic masterpiece. I never laughed so much like I did with this movie. The way it doesn’t take itself seriously, the meta jokes, everything is perfect. Even better than the first one.

5.      Kingdom

While I think that some fight scenes were way too long (like the bamboo forest one), the dynamics between Shin and Hyou/Eisei were highly entertaining, at least in my shipper eyes. I like that (SPOILER) the King of the Mountain People is a woman and not once they try to call her Queen. She is a King. Hashimoto Kanna is adorable as a Ten, Kanata Hongo does a great job as Eisei’s psycho brother, Sakaguchi Tak waves his sword around, the usual stuff but with added layers of dirt and sweat.

6.      Bravestorm

A movie I lovingly call “Japanese Pacific Rim”. Full of Kamen Rider stars (Hino Eiji! Misuzawa Haruka! That girl from Heisei Generations, the one with a sword! She has a sword in this as well!) and giant robots (god, I love giant robots!), I waited so much for this movie and it exceeded my expectations. I just wish I could’ve watched in theaters, it had a limited showing in my country.

7.      Twelve Suicidal Children

What begins as a murder mystery ends with a twist you won’t see coming. All of the actors are amazing, but special mention to Sugisaki Hana and that guy from that one boy group I forgot the name but can’t be bothered to Google.

8.      Gakkou Gurashi

Four girls and their teacher try to survive the zombie apocalypse trapped inside the school. This one destroyed me for days.

9.      Forest of Love

I’ve watched some Sono Sion movies but nothing prepared me for this. Be aware of extremely gory sequences and sensitive topics. Hinami Kyoko is so amazing as blue-haired, punk girl crush Taeko that I totally didn’t notice she was AkibaBlue in Akibaranger.

10.  The Host

After watching Parasite I decided to go on a Bong Joon Ho binge and watched this horror movie. Not as good as Snowpiercer and Parasite in my opinion but heart-wrenching nevertheless. The little girl is the star of the movie.

11.  The Hungry Lion

A story about the dangers of social media and slut-shaming. I want to punch Mizuishi Atom in the face.

12.  Cromartie High

A little absurd comedy about yakuza-style high school boys (played by middle-aged men lol) forming a club to battle aliens summoned by themselves just because. It made me laugh like a child. A hidden gem.

Honorable Mentions:

1.      River’s Edge

Depressing as fuck. Warning: the cats die. It’s not graphic but it’s traumatizing. Yoshizawa Ryo is a gay boy who sleeps with old men for money. There’s a graphic sex scene (not Yoshizawa, sadly) where my only thought was “That thing is gonna get stuck in there! Use a condom!” Can’t remember much from it except for these three scenes.

2.      The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Yamazaki Kento has the acting chops of a dead fish but it comes handy for playing a teen with psychic abilities and zero social skills. Hashimoto Kanna is one of the prettiest girls in Japan. Yoshizawa Ryo with white and blueish hair looks more like Sakata Gintoki than Oguri Shun in the Gintama live action. The end is a huge let down but the fun ride is worth it.

3.      Ano ko no, Toriko

Congratulations to Yoshizawa Ryo, he has FIVE movies in my list of favorite movies this year! This is to make up for crowning GIVER as the biggest waste of time of 2018, this list is totally not biased, lol. “Ano ko” could be just another romance movie but the (very) little insight into how the entertainment industry works and not focusing on school life made me love it. Poor Sugino Yosuke being left behind again, when will this boy get the main girl?

4.      Monstrum

It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it’s pleasant enough to fill a rainy afternoon with a lot of blood and spilled guts. Hyeri of Girl’s Day is the heroine and Choi Woo Shik is the commander she falls in love with.

5.      Weirdo Go

I confess I watched this one just to see Ji Li (aka my snake son Nie Huaisang) dressed as a woman but it was enjoyable and not that problematic.

6.      Real - Kanzen Naru Kubinagaryu no Hi

Directed by the same guy that did “Creepy” and “Before we vanish”, there are lots of twists you won’t see coming. And a dinosaur. A fucking dinosaur.

7.      Tomodachi Game: The Final

The movie loses its focus halfway through then picks up again minutes before ending. Yoshizawa Ryo delivers again as the sadistic Yuuichi, much like his role in Gintama. The plot twists are the star of the movie.

8.     The Living Dead

Sorry Wen Ning. I saw the plot twist coming in the first 30 minutes of the movie, not very smart of the writer. His personality did a 180° turn for worse and I’ll demote the movie to an honorable mention for it. Gao Han is cute though, I would like to see him as a better character.

9.      Backstreet Girls

Some recycled scenes from the drama to situate the viewers, a completely new story for the movie, it is certainly funny and enjoyable, if you can get past the forced gender reassignment surgery background and transphobic jokes (you shouldn’t get past it btw). I like the soundtrack.

Best Dramas:

1.      The Untamed

Do I need to say more?

2.      The Tale of Nokdu

This Korean romance had everything to be a mess but it wasn’t!!! *claps* I don’t hate the main female character and the whole palace politics actually kept me interested until the end. The complete shift of atmosphere mid-season was strange at first but ultimately very welcomed.

3.      The Naked Director

Netflix original Japanese content is amazing. This one is a look at the life of a legendary porn director in the late 80s, I learned a lot about the history of Japanese porn and censorship (yay pixels!) and went looking for his, erm, works. Very graphic, 69/10 don’t recommend watching with people in the house.

4.      Channel wa Sonomama!

I don’t remember it well but it’s about a news station and what is like to be a journalist and it was very interesting and funny.

5.      SCAMS

Forgettable. Sugino Yosuke with black hair cons old people via phone calls.

Worst Movies and Dramas:

1.      The cat in their arms

The cats spend 90% of the movie in human forms, and halfway through it they simply abandon the cats’ plot to show a fucking long montage of a weird guy painting a picture of a nude girl. It’s also super creepy to see a grown-up man acting like a cat, getting belly rubs and eating cat food from a bowl. Yoshizawa needs to choose his roles more wisely.

2.      Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

A waste of Suda Masaki’s talent. Can Japan stop casting Tsuchiya Tao already?

3.      Samurai Marathon

Almost two hours of dirty men running through a forest. Maybe Japanese History experts will enjoy it, because I certainly didn’t.

4.      Lady Vengeance

While there are legit great moments, I didn’t find this “classic” to be anything special. The animal cruelty was too much for me.

5.      Hot Gimmick

This movie makes Bohemian Rhapsody’s editing look like a work of art. There are more flashing cuts than a T-ARA music video. I have no idea who likes who, who’s banging who, what even are they saying. Too much poetic shit for my like. I wanted to see Shimizu Hiroya naked. I was bamboozled.

6.      The Divine Fury

While some parts were interesting, at the end I still don’t know if the protagonist is possessed by a demon (if yes, then why would he help a priest destroy his friends?) or if he was blessed by God when his father died and talked to him (the glowing hand thing, why and how??). The exorcism parts are really, really scary, or maybe I’m just a chicken, but I had to avert my eyes. The best (only) part is that the protagonists are hot. Hello Woo Do-Hwan, you can sacrifice me to Satan any time…

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Movie Wars #1-#6

So... what is all this stuff?

When I decided on starting my Kamen Rider watch I was determined to watch as much as I could, everything seemed okay but there was always a huge problem: the movies.

I didn't know where to look at for information so most of my research was done in the Wikia and if you visit the Kamen Rider Wikia you'll see that the way they list the movies IS CONFUSING AS HELL so I set my mind in watching only the stand-alone movies and any extra released after the show ended that wasn't part of any crossover project.

I decided to do this way to try to avoid spoilers of the previous series that I haven't watched, not necessarily because I didn't want to know what exactly happened in those series, but because I didn't want to have a certain impression of a Rider before I could watch their own show and don't be so judgemental about it before actually knowing that character and the set of extras that'll orbit around it.

But then we cut to 4 months later and I'm watching a video on youtube about W and they comment about how in the crossover movie they explain the events of Beginning Night and I go "shit, these movies DO have necessary information, I think I'll need to watch them orz", so here I am.

Before I go talking about these movies let me just say I think they're all pretty stupid. Like, even calling them movies is a low move, they're extended episodes of each series that converge on an awful CGI battle scene at the end, it's not a lot of fun considering the thing that sells the movie usually don't last longer than 30 minutes. I think the thing that just really pisses me off is how they aren't very considerate of people who didn't watch these movies and they'll usually bring up in the show events that only happened in the movie to the show itself, don't explain them, and expect that the audience will already know what the things they're referencing means. I know it seems like a dumb complain since I'm watching these seasons after they aired so I can watch the movies in the proper time if I want to, the thing is I shouldn't need to watch a movie to understand a thing that happened in the show, the movies should be extra material. And I'm not saying these movies shouldn't be canon, but they shouldn't be integrated with the main continuity in a way that would exclude people who didn't get the opportunity to watch said movies to understand them.

But that's enough for my rant let's get to these movies.

Movie War 2010

So, for the original Movie Wars, I watched only the W's portion, I didn't watch either the Decade part or the conclusion because of the reasons I mentioned up there.

This movie was more or less just a huge flashback, this is also the movie that pisses me off the most because it introduced Skull and the Lost Driver that are things that would become key elements not just for the show but also for their movie and well I already made a huge paragraph about this issue so I won't repeat myself.

I honestly don't remember much about it, but as many problems as I have with this whole set up, I enjoyed this movie. Huge part of it was because Skull was there and he's cool as heck, I'll admit, but I had fun. Though nothing will change my mind that this should've happened in the show not isolated in a movie.

Movie War Core

The next one in line is Movie War Core, I had more fun with this one but this was still pretty bad.

W's portion of it was pretty decent, seeing more of Skull was great, and it was also nice seeing what would lead up to the events in the Accel movie. My biggest problem here is that Akiko never seemed so against the Kamen Rider before so it seemed a little off that she would freak out like that only now, but oh well, it was still nice seeing Skull, I wish we had a movie exclusive to him he's so cool he deserves it (I know it's probably late for me to ask for this, just let me leave XD).

Sadly from that moment on the movie got really boring. I wasn't interested in the attempt of reviving Nobunaga plot, I feel like things were happening way too fast in that, and also Kamen Rider Core was just awful as a final villain, I hated that.

Movie War Megamax

The Fourze x OOO movie is probably my least favorite of the bunch. I really didn't buy that thing of a Kamen Rider from the future coming out of a black hole after meteors were falling, the implication that the medals weren't destroyed in OOO's final battle kinda weakens the ending of the series and the fact they didn't explain Ankh being back just shows how this plot wasn't very well thought. Also, the Kamen Rider from the future coming back at the end just to give OOO the Super TaToBa medals was very dumb, that form also doesn't look good either.

And the Fourze portion was awful because they decide to "give" Gentarou a "girlfriend" and that was just the most stupid plot EVER. They gave the girl a rider form but even that they screwed up, it still baffles me they made the girl attack with her butt. I know this is a show that has primarily boys in mind but you don't have to make every female character like that, especially in a live-action where real people have to act that with their bodies.

Gosh, I hate this movie so much.

Movie War Ultimatum

The next movie wasn't as bad, it was just way longer than it should've been. I watched the director's cut and that is almost two hours, that's absurdly long for a movie where not a whole lot happens. This movie was also pretty weird to watch because they did a whole bunch of homages to older tokusatsu, and while having those didn't make the movie any less good or bad it was still off, you could tell those weren't creatures that originated in this world/franchise. I also wasn't really here for this time travel concept, especially in here it was done in a very messy way, it wasn't cute.

But you know, for the part while I was still paying attention I enjoyed it. The Fourze cast is way more bearable when they're not stupid teenagers, seeing them as adults was quite fun, I like how it started like an actual action movie with Ryusei and that girl from the Fourze movie doing some spy work, and I also like to see that he and the goth girl still have their thing. Gentarou as a teacher looked like a mess, but I like that they put him to be a teacher, it makes a good amount of sense for his character. The students were also a bit interesting so watching Fourze was actually fun for me for the first time! But once again Fourze was there being nasty and doing a whole bunch of close-ups in the girls' tights during the fighting while one of those two was supposed to be a teenager in school and that's just gross. Nadeshiko also comes back for this afterward and ew the butt attacks came back, she even jumped at a monster once where it looked like she was reverse cowgirling him and that was very uncomfortable to watch.

The Wizard portion was quite decent as well, I like the concept of the "farm of monsters", I wish they had used more of these smart ideas in the actual show, Poitrine was fun and I like the reveal that in the end, she was actually the Donut Shop keeper, but I think this portion was longer than it needed to be, especially considering they don't do much. But I guess this is the best way to describe this movie. The joint part was pretty bland, but I like that they had a good amount of out of suit fighting, that kept my attention for a while.

Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle

This was an odd one, kinda like Core this one had a decent first portion and a meh one for the current season but overall it was still pretty bland. It was good seeing an actual epilogue for Wizard, I wanna complain about jetpacking in this plot because Haruto was in Brazil for some reason and then in the next scene he was in Japan again, but he has a teleport spell so I can't call them out. But it sure was funny to see they randomly put a Rider on Brazil for the second time in this movie series. The thing of using a 3D pen to make another Koyomi and make her the villain was a fun twist, but I feel like it wasn't used at its fullest.

The Gaim portion was just awful, I didn't care for this parallel world where they revived a Sengoku battle, I feel like this is one of the things that works better with people who actually have knowledge of Japanese History, but I believe that even if you have knowledge this would still such because we're in those Gaim early days where the characters aren't very likable yet so it's really not enjoyable to watch.

This movie also introduced crossover power-ups and Holy Jesus, this is probably one of the worst ideas this franchise has ever made because none of them look good. And speaking of things that don't look good, they ruined a very good design Bujin Gaim had going on for it in order to make him this weird CGI flower thing that doesn't look good, neither intimidating, it was just awful.

Movie War Full Throttle

Last in the list is the Gaim x Drive movie and while this isn't the movie I disliked the most, this is the movie I less cared about, this is the movie I less remember about, which is weird because I watched it twice. I think my problem comes from the villains for this movie, I didn't buy the idea of this apparently alien race defeating an actual space god and capturing another one, I also didn't care for their designs they were pretty bland. But this movie gave Gaim an actual closure so I guess it wasn't so bad. The Drive portion was weird because it seemed very disconnected from the plot. I like this story and I like Lupin's design, but this should've been, if not an actual episode, a TV special, especially considering they give Krim's backstory about how he ended up being in the belt and nothing can change my mind that this should've been explained in the actual show.

Ironically enough, the part of the movie I remember the most is when Gaim and Drive use each other's powers and they get in those awful crossover forms. Again, this idea was a mistake, Drive's hat looks like a fucking trash can lid, it's awful.

Just like these movies. I had fun at moments, but I'm not gonna lie, I wish I could have those hours back, these movies aren't good, they completely drained my energy. I think I'm gonna wrap up for now, what are your thoughts on the movie wars, let me know in the comments. I'm gonna try to be happy again now. I'll see you guys tomorrow for the second Drive review.

[13unknownmind]

The Arrowverse is back Supergirl S4E3

Aight y'all know the drill, if you haven't seen the episode go check it out then come back and read this if you feel so inclined.

Now we got some stuff to cover today, first things first #SUPERCORP lol

Now that we have that established let's get to the rest.

Alright so last time we saw Supergirl she was falling out of the sky her body completely infected buy Kryptonite having been released into the atmosphere by the lead dispersal device that got rid of the daxamites... Thank you so much white people.

Now we have J'onn with the game-winning catch my dude the Manhunter saves the day again!

I know I have a lot to say about this whole flashback thing like for real this dude was all for aliens and then his house burned down, I can't blame him for getting upset about that and his dad was killed yeah that would make somebody snap I would think, but for real becoming "Agent Liberty" that to me is just not the way to handle things. But I am not a sociopath / homicidal maniac. You can see clearly through the flashbacks that he is slowly descending into insanity much like Lex I would assume, it's sad to watch it honestly.

We see through his whole story that he was fighting to not be that way up until the point of his dad death.

I specifically heard the lines "who pays the price for it" of course in reference to progress.

His little thing at the bar "what are you doing here you're human" referring to Kara which was actually kind of funny to me. And that of course was a Kara (knight in shining armour) Danvers moment I loved it (no she was not standing in front of Lena but it was still one of those moments)

"why doesn't CatCo cover the impact of extraterrestrial attacks on the average citizen" that moment with James we saw some serious frustration and hostility building.

And

His interaction with Lena after his father's death "blaming other people for your problems" says Lena and Ben fires back with "they're not people" that one kind of pissed me off honestly.

It really sickens me to think that he would have been fine Burning Down the place if there were only aliens in the building but as soon as he seize the floor directors stumble out he says "oh he's human" but as soon as the image inducer fails he beats him over the head with a pipe. what's really sick is there are actually people out there that would do that in the real world.

A man in a suit... They can be anything, do anything and that is not limited to fictional worlds.

There are so many people in this world that are so much in the same way sick, demented, twisted and wrong as Agent Liberty is and that bothers me.

Alright so a Kryptonian design Shield is not strong enough to defend against Kryptonite... Okay I guess I can believe that with the amount that is concentrated into Karas body... Maybe.

Now I have a lot of other thoughts about Supergirl in a general sense but I'm going to finish up this episode and then I'm going to go on a small rant so feel free to stay and read the rest and then read my rant or you can check out my other posts about the arrowverse under the tag [#my thoughts on the arrowverse] now back to your regularly scheduled programming

"people underestimate me but I care I really do" this line had me screaming internationally lol Supercorp is alive and well ladies and gentlemen.

And now that Lena has saved Kara by putting her on a Kamen Rider suit let's see how Kara will talk her way out of the reason she is wearing it next time she sees Lena... I can clearly see that Lena already knew that Kara and Supergirl are the same person but if the writers make a different call that's gonna be interesting.

Aight now it's rant time!

Okay so seasons 2 and 3 Lena shows up clearly sweeps Kara off her feet and Kara does the same (look at their faces when they meet and tell me that it was not love at first sight) and we all know what James' reaction was and how he always talked about her as well as what he thought, seasons three and four... THEY'RE DATING‽‽‽ WHAT THE HELL‽ I don't get how he can be such a James (I in my life have not yet known a James that I could look at without getting angry they all have very punchable faces) and then magically he starts going out with one of the best characters on the show and one of the most beautiful woman I have personal ever seen. I wonder sometimes if she is just with James to make Kara jealous or something... I don't know but I think "Jimmy" needs to be written off the show.

Ok now next thing on my rantpage lol

Why if Kara trusts Lena which we all clearly know and have seen she does, did she try and have James to break into her vault thing? that is not something Kara would ever do. They just wanted drama so they could ignore it the next season and make us confused. Kara almost let the city explode instead of letting Lena die and Lena has saved her so many times WHY WRITERS WHY‽‽‽

Next thing... Now I don't keep up with real life stuff and I don't know much about what the real life people are doing or anything like that... However why did Sam leave? Her and Alex should have been a thing Ruby would have loved it and they could have adopted a baby together but nope Sam left with Ruby and now Alex is running the D.E.O. in J'onns place which I love how that's going but she could have gotten together with Sam and she still be runnin' the D.E.O.

Now another thing...

Why was Mon-El even a thing ok great the daxamite invasion was a thing but they could have done that so differently, since they do a lot of stuff that Superman did but instead it's obviously Super 👉girl👈 so they do females where the males would be in the same role. I even saw a post the other day about this Mon-El could have been a female and everything would be going so very differently right now. Lena would leave James because she wants to be with Kara and now knows that she has a chance and we could have all seen Lena almost married to a woman... Just sayin' that would have all made so much more sense.

Now last thing and I will stop ranting.

Am I the only one that thinks maybe Kara and them should use the breach device Cisco gave them in the Flash Supergirl crossover more often?

I guess that's it.

Alright everyone I am so glad that I am getting this out, there was probably a lot more to cover and I could go more in-depth with this episode but I watched it this morning wrote down my notes and this is what all came out of it not much in the way of review but I tried this was just kind of a slow-moving episode that went all over the same place if you know what I mean but anyway thank you for reading if you got this far and don't forget to check out my other posts under the tag [#my thoughts on the arrowverse] thank you for the support I'm glad I'm getting my thoughts out there so I can focus on other stuff so thank you I appreciate it. Tomorrow you will be seeing a post in the morning to afternoon time hopefully about Arrow and tomorrow evening into the next morning hopefully you will be seeing a post about Legends of tomorrow and of course Wednesday at some point in the day will be my next thoughts post about The Flash feel free to leave your thoughts and theories things that you would like to see whatever you can think of as a comments or please make a post about it let me know tag me in it and I will happily read it. Again thank you for reading and God bless I will catch y'all tomorrow ✌️

[himitsusentaiblog]

Well, Ex-Aid: True Ending looks amazing, and it's showing a new ninja Rider called Kamen Rider Fuma, and he looks pretty awesome! And since, for better or for worse, Movie Exclusive Riders have been a tradition ever since Agito, I might as well ask: What are your Top 5 Best and Top Five Worst Movie Riders?

Good question!  Movie exclusive Riders are always frustrating to me.  They are either amazing and I want more of them but they only get that one appearance or I just want them to go away so I can get back to characters I actually give a care about.  So, that makes this list pretty fitting for those Riders who only exist on the big screen to either get their day in the sun or return to the end credits where they belong.

Let’s start positive!  These are my top 5 favorite Movie-Only Kamen Riders!

5) Kamen Rider Eternal from Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate

Katsumi Daido is a dead man walking, literally.  He was returned from the dead by his mother as the first of a group of super soldiers called the Necro-Over.  As such, he leads a group of similar revived mercenaries known as NEVER.  They once worked for Foundation X but rebelled and stole the T2 Gaia Memories.  Katsumi uses the Eternal Memory to become Kamen Rider Eternal and can also use all of the other Gaia Memories thanks to his bandoleers that function as slots for them.

4) Kamen Rider Kabuki from Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Senki

This is one of five movie only Riders to appear in this film but he’s the most memorable. He at first appears to be a hero, joining with the other Seven Oni recruited to save a young woman from being sacrificed but it turns out he’s working for the monsters, as he wants to become one of them.  Shifty, treacherous and a trickster of sorts, I just love his outift!

3) Kamen Rider Psyga from Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost

Our second evil Rider is one of the enforcers working for Smart Brain. His real name is Leo and he is one of the most powerful of the Riders, using a new Gear that is ‘perfect’ and can only be used by the elite Orphenochs. He is cocky, egotistical and has a superior attitude.  He also has a jetpack so he can back u that attitude. Oh and he speaks perfect English!

2) Kamen Rider 3 from  Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider 3

Hey, who’s that guy? That’s Kyoichiro Kuroi a.k.a. Kamen Rider 3, Shocker’s most perfect Rider in the altered timeline where he was completed and defeated Kamen Riders 1 & 2, allowing his evil Masters to take over the world. He has a fantastic design somewhat reminsicent (Thanks to his gold scarf) of Shocker Rider but he has his own motives and eventually, at the cost of his own existence, ends up becoming a hero of Justice.

1) Kamen Rider Femme from Kamen Rider Ryuki: Episode Final

Out first Rider to start out as anything better than a villain on this list, Miho Kirishima is a shadier figure than most riders. She’s a con artist using her looks and wits to lure in rich men and then rob them.  She secretly wants to win the Rider War to bring her dead sister back to life and also wants to kill the man who took her life, Asakura a.k.a. Kamen Rider Ouja. She also has the distinction of being the first official female Kamen Rider!

And now for something a little less positive…

Now, some of these are characters I am ok with but I don’t like how they were used in the story or how they interacted with the established characters. Also, this is entirely my own opinion and I know there will be at least one entry on this bottom five that people will disagree with me about.

Let’s get started.

5) Kamen Rider Nadeshiko from Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max

Let me start by saying I have no problem with this character in theory and I do find her cute however, I am fundamentally opposed to the idea of Gentarou having a girlfriend. He even stated in the series proper at one point that he is only interested in people as friends. He seems oblivious to romantic gestures and suddenly, in this movie, he’s interested in this new girl. It doesn’t really help that she’s actually sentient space slime capable of copying just about anything, even his powers.

4) Kamen Rider Kivala from Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010

I like this design! That’s the best thing I can say about this movie only Rider. I also like the character who becomes Kamen Rider Kivala.  However, what’s the point?  She’s a pointless addition to a meandering story that seems to come out of nowhere.  Had she been in the actual series, I would have been more ok with it but she was the payoff to a setup I didn’t care about.

3) Kamen Rider Glaive, Kamen Rider Larc and Kamen Rider Lance from Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace

I did not like this movie and I did not like these designs.  They seems too simple after the elegant and complex designs of the Blade TV suits.  They are all equally underwhelming and so they tie for third place.

2) Kamen Rider Sorcerer from Kamen Rider Wizard In Magic Land

I didn’t really care for this movie and I was disappointed that this supposed Sorcerer and evil magic user turned out to just be another Phantom. Also, he came across as a pretty generic ranting villain.

1) These Three from Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love

Kamen Rider Kabuto had some great, original designs and each new Rider was a surprising interesting and unique character. These three are different colored versions of the same suit with slightly different helmets. They are fairly unmemorable and if Toei couldn’t bother to come up with new suits, I can’t be bothered to remember their names. I don’t hate them, I just feel meh about them and that’s worse than hate in many ways. Hate at least elicits passion, these just make me shrug and want to go back to the TV series, which is something a movie should never do.

[reversemoon255]

1t's Never 0ver

Hot take: Brain is the first Reiwa Rider. Still, for the first Reiwa series, Kamen Rider Zero-One was a great start. I've seen a surprising amount of kids shows tackle the idea of treating robots like people, and this show handles it pretty decently.

The Good: Aruto was surprisingly funny and competent. I was optimistic when they presented him as an unfunny comedian turned CEO in the preview material, but I'm impressed by how well he turned out, with full credit to the actor for nailing most of his deliveries. One of my big problems with both Build and Zi-O was that I couldn't always get behind the characters, but Aruto was definitely a step up, being the first Rider since Drive to really grab me.

Considering we just came off Zi-O, with a large cast of stoic characters, it's amazing how much Izu, the emotionless robot, pulled it off better. (Actually, credit to all the Humagear actors for outstanding mono-emotional performances. They all did very well.) I think a big part of that was the fact that they allowed her to make jokes and do silly things with a straight face, instead of being purely dour. And it was an excellent payoff, seeing her slow progression from a very basic personality to a much more lively one as the series progressed.

I really liked Fuwa, and his was another character that underwent several shifts during the run of the story, those the moments where he started turning are more evident than Izu's (but he's also not portrayed as very bright, so that makes sense). His entire arc is him overcoming his hatred for Humagears, eventually reaching the point where he wants to help them, with the final expression of this being him declaring his will to carry on Naki's dream and using his Progrise Key to transform. And he was just pretty fun, being the serious character who likes bad jokes, and often ends up the butt of them himself.

Yua is a troublesome character. There was a lot of untapped potential there that I feel wasn't reached, but there was some good, too. Her arc was seeing Humagear as people rather than tools, which isn't as well executed as Izu or Fuwa as she took a back seat for about two show arcs, but is ultimately satisfying. Most of her development in this department seems to comes from her interactions with Izu, but her experiences during the Fire Fighter training were also a big push. And her resignation was amazing. I feel most of her issues could have been solved if they didn’t push her so hard in promotional material at the beginning.

I disliked Gai for most of this show, which I think was the point. He was a total butt for the majority of the runtime, but it's also amazing how quickly I 180'd on him after his dog showed up. He was very functional, and I wasn't really interested in him as a character until, again, Dog Thouser showed up.

Jin was definitely the villain I had the most investment in throughout the show, even if that started waning near the end when he was just sitting around and letting Horobi do whatever he wanted. Still, he was very similar to Izu, being a Humagear that we see slowly obtain his own singularity and ideals, but taken from a different perspective. He was also a lot of fun. I've found my favorite characters are usually the ones with positive attitudes and outlooks, even if he was aiming for mankind's extinction.

I know a lot of people like Horobi, but it took me a while to warm up to him, and even then I wasn't the biggest fan until his changes in the final episodes. When Gai replaced him as the main antagonist of the series, I wasn't sad to see him go, but I am glad he eventually came back because they did good things with him. It's also cool how he sparks Jin's first major development with his death, and Jin sparks his final changes with his own.

I found myself very invested in the story, especially since this series was very good at not letting a status quo settle for very long. As soon as the Aruto VS A.I.M.S dynamic was set up, he reveals himself to them. As soon as Metsuboujinrai.Net is defeated, Gai shows up. After 4 "nice" contests between humans and Humagear where the humans learn something through the competition, we get one where the villains win and Aruto is ousted as CEO. And I think that was to the show's benefit. A lot of Rider shows will wait half the show before a shakeup, but Zero-One was constantly keeping the viewer interested with new story lines and revelations.

Oh, and every belt chant was amazing.

The Bad: Going in the same order, Yua had a lot of unused potential. I remember how much hype her character had out the gate, being the first female Rider to start a series. She even got a form change, which is a first. However, she only got one form change, and as I mentioned when discussing LupinRanger and Ryusoulger, power-ups in Tokusatsu shows are often used as physical representations of a character's growth. Yua's second form showed up before episode 10. Yes, she also had Fighting Jackal later in the show, but that was a monster form; it's made to represent her fully giving in to Gai’s will, which is why we don't see it after she quits ZAIA. I would have loved if she had used Fighting Jackal in the ShotRiser and had gotten a new form as a representation of her moving on from those painful memories, or forgiving Gai. It sucks, because we got a ton of short-use Riders and forms in this series, so you'd think they could swing it. Just in the last few episodes, we got Arc-One, Arc-Scorpion, Vulcan Japanese Wolf, and Eden. At this point, I think Toei's just not sure what to do with a female Rider. At least they treated her better than Poppy and Nico.

I really didn't like Gai. And I know that's the point, but there's a difference between there being a character you're supposed to hate for the whole show and a character you're supposed to come around on. You can have a despicable character become a good guy, but there has to be something about them that makes you want them to become one in the first place, otherwise it's just jarring. Dan Kuroto is a great example of this. He was also a despicable character, but he had this humorous over-the-top attitude to him that made him fun to watch, and you want him to join the main cast to see how that persona bounces off everyone else. Gai didn't have anything like that; he was just dislikable. If they had hinted at all to his past, it would have worked, but they waited until the episode where he face turns to do it. And that just doesn't work.

This is also a personal nitpick, but when they were teasing stuff for the finalé, I thought Aruto was going to use Rocking Hopper, not Realizing Hopper. Thematically, that would have been awesome, but I'm ok with what we got.

There were also quite a few episodic plots I'd wished they'd covered in regards to the Humagears. We covered quite a broad range of topics with them, but there were a few big things they missed. One of them is about Humagear choosing new careers. It's cool that Humagear have dreams, but they're all in regard to their predisposed profession. The manga assistant wants to write a manga, the coaches want to teach the best athletes, etc. But no one wants to change jobs. We don't get a farmer Humagear that suddenly wants to become an artist or anything, and I would have liked to see how Aruto would handle that. And what about love? It was briefly brought up, but what happens when a Humagear falls in love with a human? Or when two Humagear fall in love? How did they have sentient robots and not talk about love!?

I also can't help but wonder what the show would have been like if we hadn't lost 4 episodes due to current events. I have a feeling we might have had a Gaim Finalé situation with Eden and that's why they had the costume on hand. Who knows; maybe we'll get some interviews down the road that will give us some insight.

And lastly, spoilers, I want top talk about the death of Izu, because that's the one thing I see the most that people disliked about the ending. It's not that she died at all, because we've had that before with characters like Ankh, but because Aruto created a new, identical Izu, with the same name, and proclaimed he was going to retrain her.

I had to think on this for quite a while, but I'm ok with this. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred an ending where Izu was restored like Jin, or where Horobi becomes Aruto's new assistant, but the thing is this was foreshadowed. In the early episodes, every time Metsubojinrai.Net corrupts a Humagear, and Aruto or Fuwa or Yua has to destroy it, what happens? The owner gets a new Humagear of the same model and retrains it. Aruto is following his company’s policy. And yes, it’s painful. You can see him well up as he’s reminded of the first Izu, but he smiles and moves forward.

There is a form of Japanese pottery called kintsukuroi. In it, you take a piece of broken pottery, and along the cracks you piece everything back together with gold. It's not an easy process, it takes time, and the cracks are still there, but the end result is far more beautiful that what you started with. Aruto is always going to remember the first Izu, and living with the second Izu is going to be painful, but there’s the potential for this new relationship to be even greater than the one he started with. Or at least that’s me reading too much into it.

The Next: (At the time of writing this,) Saber premieres this weekend. Love the designs, as I'm big on the knight motif. I think the belt gimmick is cool, and might get it if they reveal some interesting power-up books. I think a story about story is very fun, very meta, could be great, but could also go horribly wrong if not given to the right writer. We'll have to see. After how well Zero-One was handled, I'm excited to see how the rest of Reiwa will go. They probably won't all be winners, but I enjoyed most of Neo Heisei, with only the last few entries being bad-to-ok in my book, so here's to hoping we'll get a repeat of that trend, without repeating their themes.

Overall, this was a good season. Not my favorite, but certainly in the upper half of the show's library. Looking forward to the movie, whenever that happens. Looking forward to Saber, too.

"A Rider Kick to the sky turns to take off toward a dream!"

[furederiko]

My interest is definitely building up for Kamen Rider Build...

As I have stated before, I'll be recap-viewing the new episodes in batch post. For this occassion, I'll be covering episode 02 to 04! Here goes...

02 - "The Love and Life that's Lost"

- After several replays, I can now admit that the opening theme song does remind me of "Kamen Rider Blade" and "Kamen Rider 555". And also a bit of "Kamen Rider W" and "Kamen Rider OOO". Just to be fair, I'm still not too keen on it, but it's definitely a standard Kamen Rider song. - This episode proved that Sentou is a much likeable protagonist when he's being serious. His confidence, deduction (albeit not so scientific), and compassion for Ryuuga's situation added actual charm to his character. At the same time, the others got their share to shine as well, particularly, the ladies! Episode 1 only showcased a very thin imagery of either Misora and Sawa, so I was really glad that we got to see more of these two. They unexpectedly added more (and much needed?) spark to the show. Misora's "I don't give a crap" attitude for example, was enough to make me feel curious about what's really going on with her powers. Sawa still served as plot-driver, but at least her inclusion as part of the team worked naturally. Well, sort of. She just casually walked in to their secret HQ, so the others couldn't really say no! LOL. Even Souichi wasn't as annoying as usual, and actually imbued the episode with an amazing 'WHAT THE HELIUM' moment that literally made me jump out of my bed seat. Dang it, this guy has SECRETS... - I wasn't too fond on the action this time around. Gorilla/Diamond's Dazzling Destroyer GORILLAMOND form looked... nice. A little heavy on the right arm, but still nice. And we got more motorcycle chase. Must the troops combined themselves into the infamous low-quality CG giant though? *sigh*. Oh well, at least the science thingy (using Ryuuga as bait to catapult Build)... made more sense than that weird 'Rider-Kick'. - The episode also truly capitalized on Eiji Aso's emotional talent, one that he has proven through "Kamen Rider Amazons S2". Unfortunately, this was also the part that felt... a little over-dramatic and overly-done. I mean, did the show really need to kill Ryuuga's... uhm, girlfriend (it's implied that way, but he never explicitly called her that) Kasumi Ogura (played by Risako Itou) so early in the show? That's a combination of dark and harsh! I know that Tokusatsu generally avoids romantic angle to its protagonists, so it's not a surprise. This one served to add shadows of doubts to Ryuuga too. But, was it really necessary? Shouldn't audience be given the chance to know more of her, to get emotionally invested, so the death scene had more impact? This felt rushed, so it's hard to sympathize with Ryuuga's loss. Oh well, I guess her sole importance was to 'produce' the Dragon Full Bottle for Ryuuga. As in, his next step towards becoming Kamen Rider Claws. - Speaking of girlfriend, dang it with all those yaoi teases!!! Sentou was even shown to be genuinely surprised that Ryuuga has a 'girl'-friend. These two needs to get a room. Oh wait a sec... they are, huh? Along with everyone else. After all, the secret HQ only has ONE small bed that we've seen being used by Sentou, Misora. Ryuuga probably slept there too now!!! LOL. - Bat-man himself, the elusive Night Rogue made his presence known! The way he dealt with Kasumi... showed what a ruthless fella he could be. Interestingly, if Build was using liquid to transform, we could see Night Rogue utilizing steam, as in Gas. Could we be seeing the next Riders representing the three other state of matters, then? Hmmm. What's more interesting about this reveal, was that it pretty much confirmed that neither Gentoku nor his assistant Utsumi was behind the mask. If either of them was the real Night Rogue, then Sentou transforming in front of him meant blowing out his cover in the company from the get-go! I don't think this show would be THAT sloppy. Then again, I can't really say I'm 100% sure about it, can I? Hmmmm...

Overall: Ain't this a wonderful surprise! While I noticed that many audience seems to see this 2nd episode in a somewhat negative light, it did a complete opposite to me. IMHO, it worked wonders, and actually scored a point in teasing my curiosity! Eventhough the second half felt a little too over-dramatic for my taste, at the very least the first half was great. It got me thinking, "I'm going to see more!!!". Quite surprisingly, the humor flowed more naturally this time. I actually LOLed at one spot, which means... it somehow worked too. The episode did have issues that prevented it from being great, but all in all, it's indeed a better episode than the 1st. The show should've started out with this one instead! Problem is... can the next episode deliver the same wonder?

03 - "A Facefault Parade"

- Wait... Wha.... WHAT ON EARTH JUST HAPPENED?!! Yes, the show caught me completely off guard once again, because its quality stumbled back to the way it was. Scratch that, this was even WORSE than episode 1. Arguably the weakest episode so far, it forced me to spontaneously facefault along the way... both figuratively and literally (that Net-Idol bit... Are you kidding me??!!). - After episode 2 won me over with Sawa and Misora, this one tried so hard to make me hate them. What happened to the cool and smart-talking Sawa? How did she become a bumbling over-excited lady who probably gave journalism a bad name? The same with Misora. Using her alter-ego Mii-tan to gain secret information from the netizens... was like... WAAAY too cheesy if not downright risky. She's obviously not wearing a disguise or a mask to hide her true appearance. The team was dealing with sensitive and dangerous matters, so shouldn't they act more... I don't know, DISCREET about it? No wonder the bad guy would easily set up a trap. The team was practically calling out for them to come. YIKES!!! - Not just them, almost everyone else felt like weird carricatures! Including the female victim Reika Kine (played by Machiko Kochi) and her son Kouta (whose actor CAN'T act!). Neither of their names were mentioned in the episode, that I had to look up wiki for them. Unlike the three Prime Ministers of the different regions. Yep, confirmed to be those bigwigs affected by the Skywall Tragedy, Masakuni Midou of Seito (played by Norimasa Fuke), Yoshiko Tajima of Hokuto (played by Ryouko Gi), and Taizan Himuro of Touto (played by Meikyou Yamada) shared one thing in common: they were all vying for the campy-camp of sinister glares and maniacal laughs! YIKES!!! - This episode reminded me of the major problem I have with the show all over again. The HUMOR! It got amped up to the point of ridiculous this time. And pretty violent too. Misora throwing a laddle to the guys? Ryuuga chaining Misora, in a scene that mimicked an abusive sexual predator? Another sexual harrassment joke right there. And what's with Ryuuga's grandma disquise joke? Dang it Build, you're killing my nerves. Tone the lame jokes down, will ya? They're NOT funny! - Hi there expositions! We got to know a little more about the Full Bottles and their Best Match compatibility system. Apparently, Souichi had a special panel at the secret HQ to check them out (only fit 10 slots), because "something crazy is supposed to happen" if every set is found. Hmmm... didn't this feel, a little TOO convenient? Sentou claimed he built the Build Driver for the same purpose. He had 9 Full Bottles so far: Rabbit, Hedgehog, Gorilla, Tank, Diamond, Dragon, with Vacuum, Gatling, and Hawk debuting in this episode. Only two Best Matches though, Rabbittank, and Gorillamond. Oh wait, make that three! Thanks to Ryuuga's childish simpleton logic. I actually dig this part, because Ryuuga's interaction with Sentou still served as a strong point of the show so far - Extra exposition! Skywall might have divided the land, but the wall has a very convenient opening through the water area. Here I thought all access was completely blocked! With the help of Reika and Kouta, Sawa, and Ryuuga went to Seito to locate Nabeshima's family. Now that I think about it, this meant civillians could always travel airborne between regions too. Even if travel authorization had been pretty difficult to obtain (according to Sawa), Japan would still be open for international visitors, right? So these regions weren't as secluded as episode 1 suggested. LOL to that. - Oh WOW, Sentou could come and go, and ask ANYTHING to Gentoku, just like that? Including sensitive facts about Masahiro Nabeshima (played by Ichi Oomiya) and the murdered 'Devil's Scientist' Takumi Katsuragi (played by Yukiaki Kiyama)? How convenient. Touto Institute of Advanced Matter Physics must be a really NICE workplace! But wouldn't that easily caused Gentoku and Utsumi to be suspicious of him? Hmmmm. This scene teased us again that Gentoku and Utsumi might not be Night Rogue, because they obviously didn't show hostility towards Sentou. Then again, unless you haven't picked up on the hint, Gentoku is the Prime Minister's son... so there's always the possibility that he was playing coy. And would you look at that, he's already holding a mysterious blue-colored Full Bottle! He even namedropped... Blood Stark's name. YIKES! - Soaring Wildman, HAWKGATLING might look cool and winged as Build's flight form, but in the end, the mysterious Cobra-themed Blood Stark stole the spotlight by knocking down Sentou with one single strike. I wonder who this mysterious really is. Is it Gentoku? Hmmm...

Overall: I honestly couldn't fathom the logic behind this episode. The team was basically inviting trouble themselves. So despite Sentou's heroic speech about cracking a smile after saving others, the rest of the episode just felt short and problematic. And once again, the excessive humor totally ruined what could've been good moments. There were unnecessary parts that just made me literally scratch my head. Not saying that the episode in whole was utterly bad, but it's definitely a weak one.

04 - "Lost Memories, and Found Secrets"

- Congratulations Build, you've officially grabbed my attention. Faust was officially namedropped in episode 3, but the dark organization became clearer in this one. Creating the most powerful lifeform using the power of the alien technology that is Pandora's Box... is one of their goals. Blood Stark was definitely working with/under Night Rogue, but he had his own modus operand. The show also succeeded in turning one antagonist into a sympathetic figure. Apparently, being doused by a second dose of Smash essence (this time, in Gas form) would cost the test subject to lose his memory. That's what happened to Nabeshima, and likely a parallel to what Sentou had gone through. - Unlike the entire affair with Reika in episode 3 that screamed 'fake', the drama surrounding Nabeshima's family felt more genuinely heartfelt. The emotion was not exaggerated, and it was able to extract some strong points from the main characters as well. Sawa got to do more sleuthing in a more sophisticated way, and Ryuuga became selfless when he wanted Nabeshima to remember his family instead of clearing out his name. I also loved the way Sentou explained about Nabeshima's amnesia to his daughter. That's a clever way to use science, right there! Sure, that over-the-top exploding car thing didn't make any sense (everyone must have been super powered to have survived that impossible jump!), but the whole emotional angle was more than enough to ignore it. - But the episode got even better. Thanks to Blood Stark's poison, Sentou gained a bit more of his memory, and realized that Faust had a panel that looked... EXACTLY like the Best Match Compatibility checker they had in HQ. What did this imply? Well, it's not even that difficult to figure out. Both of them were clearly... two of a kind, and used to be part of one object. Yep, the Pandora's Box!!! - Ignoring the fact that (once again) Sentou could casually ask this to Gentoku (also, while we're at this, do pay attention to Utsumi's reaction, it might mean something in the future)... the latter confirmed that two Green Layers from the box have been stolen three years prior. One ended up in the hands of Faust, while the other? You got it... it was planted nicely on the walls of Cafe Nascita's basement. - According to Gentoku, an inside-man was working for Faust during the tragedy. He was one of the astronauts, and guess who used to be one? Souichi. HOLY CAMOLY... not only he was among the Martian Expedition crew, it's likely he was also that mysterious man who caused the Skywall Tragedy in the first place. There's no other reason why one of the stolen panel would be in his possession, right? - Meanwhile, we also saw an intriguing scene of Night Rogue placing a Full Bottle to the panel in Faust's HQ. It's definitely not the Ninja Full Bottle that was extracted from Nabeshima's first Smash form. Hold on, was that... the one that Gentoku was toying around in episode 3? After all, Blood Stark's penchant for game? Didn't that sound a bit like... Gentoku? Hmmm....

Overall: Episode 4 proved one thing: this show is GOOD when it's serious, and not trying too hard to be funny. Forced humor was still damaging the show, but this episode has other things that significantly toned them down, and made it really good. I even dare say, it's probably the best episode so far. I'm not even joking, because aside from that great emotional angle with Nabeshima's storyline, I totally didn't expect the truth about Souichi would come to light in just 4 episodes in. Now I'm getting more and more intrigued to see what will happen next. I can only hope the staff behind this show realizes this show's forte, knows what works best and what's not, so they can explore more on getting better in the future. I'm still not fully convinced to follow this show to the end, but let's just say, the possibility to that has gotten significantly higher than before. All thanks to this episode... Next Episode: A Faust Traitor? And a lead to Sentou's past...

Episode 02 Score: 7,4 out of 10 Episode 03 Score: 7 out of 10 Episode 04 Score: 7,5 out of 10

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Kamen Rider Build" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.