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Tokusatsu

Den-O ep 1: Ryotaro and Shinji, Momo and…?

So, starting with the Den-O (re)watch.

Personally, I didn’t realize before the link between Den-O and Ryuki, but now I do, and Ryuki being my favorite it’s inevitable that I’m going to be drawing conclusions, the first of which involves Ryotaro himself and the ways in which he is like Shinji, and the ways in which he’s not. Obviously, they’re both “Fail!Riders”, but their attitudes are very different. Ryotaro is resigned to be bullied, both by other people and by the universe itself, really, while Shinji kind of… just creates his own shenanigans, but meets everything with what can only be called feistiness. But really, even in this first episode, the real similarity between them is their drive to do the right thing. Shinji gets involved in things that are not his business out of his sense of justice, and Ryotaro, even when kicked to the curve, is always all about doing the right thing… to the point protecting those that have wronged him. And there’s kind of an innocence, I think, in that, in their overpowering goodness.

Read more “Den-O ep 1: Ryotaro and Shinji, Momo and…?” →

ORE SANJOU!!
Tokusatsu

Super Hero Time! Den-O (re)watch?

So Kate (greatfountain at LJ/ @yanasoro) and I have been thinking about doing a Kamen Rider Den-O rewatch (rewatch for her, half rewatch for me, since I actually have not finished the series). In light of the fact that Ozu debuts September 5th and that the writer is Kobayashi, who also wrote Den-O (and Ryuki!), it might be fun to do it before then.

Mostly we’re just going to be watching a certain number of eps per week, and talking amongst ourselves, but we thought that Den-O being Den-O there might be others interested in watching along, so we’re testing the waters and asking if there’s interest (in other words: if you might be into it, comment and say so… we’re not going to hold you to it or anything, we just want to know if others might like to try it :D).

Anyway, we’d be watching 8 episodes every week starting next week, with the exception of the 6th week (August 28 to September 5th), when we’d watch 9 eps. If others are into it, we’ll see about setting up weekly discussion posts somewhere (I’m thinking separate spoilery and spoiler-free versions?).

So once again, comment if you’re interested~ \:D/
(Here on my blog, or on the crossposted entry at my LJ)

Tokusatsu

The thing about Double

I haven’t really kept up with Kamen Rider Double since very early on in its run; since October, I think it was. My excuse has been that it didn’t quite grab me, and that in general I have to be really into something to actually put in the time and effort to follow it week by week. That it’s not that I don’t like Double, I just don’t love it that much, and I’d just catch up at some point.

Read more “The thing about Double” →

Tokusatsu

Kamen Rider Os

So they’ve done the press conference announcing the next Kamen Rider series, in this case OOO or Ozu (yes, like Faiz).

I kind of bailed early on in Double due to lack of interest and just not really getting into the story at the time, and I never did get caught up, but now I’m… let’s say cautiously excited for the new installment. The main reason is that the main writer is Kobayashi Yasuko, who is responsible for Ryuki (my favorite Rider series), Den-O, Shinkenger (which I love), and Timeranger (which I haven’t seen but have heard great things about).

I’m not crazy about the suit design, but it looks better than the initial magazine scans led us to believe, so we’ll see.

And obviously, the cast was announced, the characters introduced, etc, and here I’m intrigued by a couple of things. Read more “Kamen Rider Os” →

Tokusatsu

Fighting Guys in Keitai Sousakan 7

I really meant to make a more in-depth post about this, but the past week has been really hectic.

In any case, Keitai Sousakan 7 is a tokusatsu series by Miike Takashi, and it’s about a boy named Keita and his walking, talking cellphone. Together, they fight crime!

…Except it’s not really his cellphone, because it’s actually a partnership (they’re actually “buddies”). I’ve watched 3 eps, and I’m all over the silly premise just on principle, and 7 (that’s the phone) is actually is quite… endearing, in a dry, dead-pan machine-y sort of way.

But I’ll be honest and admit that a big draw to check this out is that Matsuda Satoshi, Kamen Rider Ryuki‘s Ren, is in it, playing a character that is basically Ren with flatter hair and a white coat instead of black duster, but apparently still being a badass and punching people in the face, so that’s awesome. Ren is not my favorite Ryuki guy (that would be Super Lawyer Kitaoka Shuichi), but I do like him an awful lot.

Also in Keitai Sousakan 7 is Takano Hassei, although he hasn’t appeared yet. But as it turns out, Ryuki‘s Editor-in-chief is 7’s original buddy, and either I never knew or I forgot about this, but I was really happy to see him show up in episode 1. I do love me some Editor-in-chief.

In any case, I’ll post more about it when I’m not on the brink of falling asleep, and hopefully it will be more about the show itself (which is fun on its own merits) and not about the actors in it.