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Showing posts from December, 2013

The Douchebag Protagonists of Yasuko Kobayashi and Toshiki Inoue in Kamen Rider

From the many points in common between Toshiki Inoue and Yasuko Kobayashi, they do have a habit of putting douchebag protagonists in their shows whether it's the depressing seasons (Ryuki and Faiz) or the lighter seasons like OOO and Kiva.  Moving on... here's a collection of them as they appeared: When it comes to douchebag protagonists, Shinji, Kamen Rider Ryuki's main character is definitely one. How can I say that?  He can get pretty inconsiderate and can annoy you a lot though he does want to stop the Rider War so I can let him slide since he's not that bad of a douchebag.   Ren from Kamen Rider Ryuki is another.  Well we know how sad you are with your fiance's life at stake but you DO NOT mess up others (that's why he became Kamen Rider Knight) just to get your fiance to be better.  I was thinking he might not be as annoying as Masato but he does get annoying nonetheless.  Considering Kobayashi and Inoue were both working on Ryuki, he does...

Movie Review: Little Lark

Well after doing some reviews on the 90s, last decade from 2000-2010 and up to present, I thought I would do a review on the movie "Little Lark" which stars the late Peter Chen (who died from liver cancer) and the former actress Koo Mei who is now selling artwork (Thanks to Durian Dave for that information).  This film was in the 1960s (1964 to be precise) and I really thought I'd never see this with subs but I did.  So what's the plot?  It's entirely a musicale that may remind you of the likes of classic MGM movies like that of the late Elizabeth Taylor or the late Marilyn Monroe.  Now what's the plot? The plot is pretty silly as it features reporter known as Shitai who must get a story from the leading lady that is Xiaoyun (who is called the Little Lark in English) acted by Koo Mei.  It's hilarious to how many misadventures Shitai gets especially when he has an unscrupulous boss and when he takes the late Lydia Shum's picture by mistake.  For Shit...

My View on Kamen Rider of the Heisei Era and Toy Sales

It would be important to analyze the toy sales area of Kamen Rider for me especially I graduated in the field of commerce.  Now for my analysis: Kamen Rider Kuuga was basically one season that really was taking the whole new definition of multiple forms, each one was pretty cool.  So we have the Rising Form, Pegasus Form, Titan Form and Dragon Form which were all experimented on and did well.  It went beyond Black RX's having two extra forms and the format for riders with multiple forms was already a norm ever since.  Hmmm maybe I should credit Kuuga's weapons for adding to toy sales as well. Another strategy was the multiple riders.  I really thought that during the Ryuki series, I didn't immediately like the idea of having multiple riders in a rider but I grew to like it.  For Ryuki, it was Kobayashi's first work.  This show was produced by Shinichiro Shirakura and Naomi Takabe who I might actually credit for being money magnets in terms of toy...

Kamen Rider Being Lighter and Softer: Good or Bad?

Let me mention to you that I really don't really critique a show to be good or bad based on lighter and softer, it's more about execution-wise.  You can have lighter and softer and have a very good series while you can have darker and edgier and have a really bad series. Things started with lighter and softer with Kamen Rider Kiva which its head writer was Toshiki Inoue who had just finished Kamen Rider Faiz, his darkest work and this was where he attempted comedy.  Maybe I don't like Naomi Takabe when it comes to Gobusters but I appreciate the fact she was behind Kiva and OOO.  For Kiva, I guess some people were pretty mixed on it but I guess the designs brought in a lot of toys which again, we should remember Kamen Rider's top target are children.  I would credit this show for its aesthetic designs, action scenes and perhaps a lot of what kids really love.  Faiz was Inoue's darkest series and it was for me pretty much a hgue mess.  Kiva was messy but i...

The Possible Way Toshiki Inoue Would Write Gatchaman

Looking at how disappointing the reviews of the Gatchaman movie are and at Toshiki Inoue's bad habit of recycling or basically, he undid what he did in the Tokusatsu franchise. Now here's how I think the movie will be: The movie will most likely start with Dr. Nambu and Sylvie Pandora who are staring the Gatchaman project to have the peace of the world.  Meanwhile the threat of the Egobossler Government in Europe begins when Count Egobossler starts orienting his troops and we see Mechandol and General Kempler, he makes his speech and then starts a broadcast.  It might be like Radiguet's "We are your gods..." speech in Jetman and he might first to demonstrate his power blows up some important research facilities causing panic.  Ken Washio is the first Gatchaman volunteer.  As Egobossler blows up the space research facility, the energy hits four other individuals namely Joe, Ryu, Jun and Jinpei. Dr. Nambu may fall into the vastness of space only to be kidnapped b...