#and now that sentai and kr are both out of the way - which of the remaining 3 days is my pr vid?

[jenndubya]

Week of Toku Ladies - Day 4: 1989

「girlboss day!」

Blank Space → Escape Tokumei Sentai Go-busters Music by Taylor Swift She is pretty good. But are you good enough for her?

[fortunefavorsthebrave-dude]

Who is that in your icon?

OUGH. my friend. i am gently putting my hands on your shoulders and looking directly in the eyes and saying THANK YOU for the opportunity to gush about my boyyyyy my favorite boy

okay! so! that's gentarou kisaragi, the protagonist of kamen rider fourze! kamen rider, if you're not familiar, is a japanese action drama series where each season has a different set of characters, powers, suits, and stories, but they're all generally about guys who transform into masked heroes to protect people from monsters and villains. y'know how power rangers uses japanese footage (from super sentai) that's redubbed and has english scenes spliced in? kamen rider is made by the same company that does sentai! just to give you an idea of the Vibes.

now, onto gentarou! fourze aired in 2011-2012, and is my favorite of every kamen rider season i've watched for a number of reasons! gentarou is a new transfer student to amanogawa high school. he dresses like a delinquent, but his goal is to befriend everyone in the school, which makes fourze a very very sweet power of friendship story by the end. he finds that students are being turned into monsters called zodiarts (themed after constellations), and turns into the space-themed kamen rider fourze to save them! along the way, he gains a tight-knit circle of friends, many of whom started off as enemies but were won over by his kindness and support.

the series is both really full of heart and action-packed with excellent fights and creature designs. i'm gonna add a few images below to hopefully really seal the deal but you also may recognize my boy gentarou from a few big tumblr posts like jumping off a bridge for a love letter and this video and this one like my boy goes viral everyone so often just no one knows him.

anyway! i am on my hands and knees now begging you that if you're even a little bit interested in superhero stories, themes of friendship, space, and/or shonen action, you give fourze a shot because it's SO good and i would love for more people to get into kamen rider because it RULES. you can check out the opening here (as well as other kr openings, if you're interested)! okay picture time then this long post is done <3

above: the kamen rider club!! fourze/gentarou is in the middle, with friends tomoko, miu, yuki, kengo, jk, and shun from left to right behind him

above: the only image in my brain at all times. created by fullbottles.

above: the krc again, with the addition of ryuusei (tan uniform), the secondary kamen rider for the series!

above: the monsters of the series! one of my favorite things about kamen rider is how much they use practical effects, especially for the suits! created by PlayWithKOR on deviantart. (it was the only non-webp image i could find)

[katsuragitakumi]

Quick thoughts about ep 2 (+the opening)

tldr; i wuv rintarou

RINTAROU!! God, I love him. He’s even better than I imagined. I really like how chill and composed he is compared to other secondary riders. He’s... so polite, so considerate, so kind, so calm, so supportive. He’s an ally from the beginning. And I love how awkward he is. God. He’s perfect. I wonder what his character arc will be like?

Mei and Touma are simply adorable, too. I loved the way they interacted with Rintarou, too. Kento has only said “hey, whazzup” so far, but he also seems awfully nice and non-confrontational. I think Saber will be more like Hibiki in the sense that there are many riders but most of them are amiable with one another because they work for the same cause (although I’m sure there’ll be some exceptions down the road).

I like how Touma can apply his outside-the-box thinking into the fights. It’s so cool.

Y’know, I wasn’t really bothered by Tassle or the CGI and the long transformation sequences in the last ep, but this time around I found them kinda annoying. But at least the CGI is doomed to disappear -even if not completely- sooner than later. It must be expensive.

I loved Mei noticing Rintarou has a sweet tooth. I hope we’ll see moments where she shows how sharp she can be.

Mei, the homo sapiens, barged in with her bike and joined Touma and Rintarou in their lil adventure. God, I LOVE HER.

Still thinking about Rintarou. Will he become my fave? Only time will tell. I liked how he wanted to be addressed as “Rintarou-san”, but both Mei and Touma just call him with no honorifics at all. I think their more laidback personalities will be a good influence on him.

The ending was slightly different in this ep! Cute.

BUSTER IN THE NEXT EP! I wonder if we’ll see Espada’s debut as a rider too? I like his suit the most.

Now, the opening:

I love the song and the visuals are cute for the most part, but after a certain point it kinda looks like the visuals and the song don’t match anymore? 

I think this opening will be updated often. For starters, I doubt Kento won’t show up as an adult and out of suit given how important he seems to be (I mean, it wouldn’t be unheard of not to add him, but it’s not the normal thing in KR). I think he’ll be included in the part where the trio walks on a book. It looks like there’s room for one more character. Also, Tassle’s little dance looks like something that will be replaced sooner than later lol I think the scenes where the three riders are fighting will be replaced, too.

Some parts really look Sentai-ish, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I absolutely LOVE the first seconds. Saber really feels like an adventure!

I wonder if we’ll see Mei at work and interacting with her coworkers. I think we could get some fun scenes out of it, and I love to get non-rider supporting characters.

“Faces covered beneath the mask streaming with invisible tears”. Fuck, this sounds so tragic. It looks like some riders will have very sad backstories.

The song makes me really happy!