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Why I Consider Heisei Era Kamen Rider to Be a J-Drama

Some people may find it awkward or weird for me to write down Kamen Rider Heisei era in here as a drama. review.  Now here's my reasons:


Not too standard!  When I first saw Kuuga, I pretty much had a difficult time accepting it but Arakawa's starting point though I've grown to like other series better than this, should be credited for its writing styles.  In fact here's what seems to be the norm of the Heisei era Rider compared to the classic Showa Rider which both should be respected to their own merits:


1.) How the episodes are written differ greatly from the Showa era.  Maybe Agito quite defines it better, Kuuga was the essential mold but whatever both series are great in their own respects but Agito got Arakawa's brilliant writing defined more and without Kuuga, it just can't freaking happen so kudos to Arakawa's first job as a head writer and to Inoue for writing Agito (his best work with a good finale in contrast to Kiva's wacky finale).  Ryuki is probably the most J-Dramaish of all Riders.  So episode one doesn't start with a premiere like it did with the Showa era, instead we even have the hero at times struggling to learn new powers and not learning immediately, most monsters appear for a good two parter arc and most endings are pretty hanging (ending with hinting something is about to happen next episode or maybe ending with a part like one character is about to slap another or worse kill another leaving a suspense thought on the viewer) until the finale- which is like how a J-Drama is written whether it's just purely slice of life or action-based drama.  This also has greatly affected the introduction of new forms and additional Kamen Riders, good or evil.  Just made me thought that what if Toshiki Inoue, Yasuko Kobayashi, Naruhisa Arakawa and Riku Sanjo decided to also try on J-Drama too? =)


2.) The way the monsters of the week or should I say monster that you'll see for two weeks operate.  No more of those typical Tokusatsu plots that I love like for example the Gorgom's plans to grow fruits on humans or the like, or just that stuff most children enjoy about Tokusatsu.  Instead, most of the monsters of the week are sent to do some kind of mysterious task that pretty much defines a mystery.  For example in Kuuga, the Grongi are out there to destroy humanity in their own lethal game of killing with a pattern and in Agito, the mission of the Lords is to kill those who bear the seed of Agito which becomes a recurring plot (but that plot wasn't discovered UNTIL later).


3.) Character involvement on the part of the hero's personal friends seems to be a lot more defined.  The Rider himself doesn't just have friends who hardly do anything (that's what I soon figured out in Black, his friends as much as they contributed to plot were too standard but that was later changed).  Ever since the dawn of Black RX and the hiatus of Kamen Rider (before writing styles changed), the idea of "Hey let's get the friends more involved." happened with for example even Kotaro's girlfriend and Kyoko showed women can fight even without henshin!  Pretty much, Kuuga was able to define that aspect of how Kuuga has a lot of human allies who manage to help him get more time before he gets to fight the Grongi and in Agito, the police station really participates in the fight against the genocide the Lords have been causing against who were later figured out to be Agito Seed bearers.


4.) Slice of life stories are very much present despite it existing with events that can't happen in real life.  For example, Ryuki as fictitious as it is presents people who are in real life, pretty much suckers for power or are forced to moral dilemma choices as well as different types of people, just spiced up with henshin powers.  The Riders are pretty much like that- Ouja shows the psychotic killer, Renn shows stuck up people, Shinji shows people who want to fight because they want to help others, Shuichi shows the jerks who can be nice, Gai shows people who can be very annoying you want to kill them and Satoru shows last minute redemption.  I might also think of it that even the comedic worlds of Kiva (which also feels like a parody of Forbidden Love meeting Kamen Rider!) and Fourze aren't exempt from defining real life elements.

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