Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

With the upcoming movie of Showa Riders vs. Heisei Riders, I think there is really the deal of fantard wars even among Kamen Rider fans.  We have Kamen Rider fantards and Super Sentai fantards (who might also have Power Rangers fans who like Super Sentai but hate Kamen Rider) then even among Kamen Rider fans, there are some who really can't accept the changes the Heisei era underwent.   During the Showa era, well you have to admit that some fans were too stuck on the ideas of the late Shotaro Ishinomori and his writers.  For one, the whole Kamen Rider of the Showa had a different formula.  It followed the standard of one monster a week rather than the standard two episode arc, villain organizations that made rather complicated and seldom REALLY STUPID plans to conquer the world like Super Sentai villains and well it just didn't really draw a difference line between Kamen Rider and Super Sentai in terms of differences.  Except here, "One main hero, Sentai ha...

Tokusatsu is defined in the Urban Dictionary as, "literally special effects, a genre of Japanese live action audio-visual entertainment usually but not always involving super heroes/heroines combatting evil monsters whether life sized or gigantic." or shows that use a considerable amount of special effects or "special filming" in Japanese where either science fiction, fantasy or horror are involved in action. Tokusatsu in particular refers to the sounds, special effects, costumes and props used in creating the adventure of the said heroes ." The term was purely Japanese and has been used to categorize the likes of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Ultraman but eventually it also might be applied to the likes of Power Rangers which is the ADAPTATION of Super Sentai, the American originals like Tattooed Teenager Alien Fighters and Saban's own original Knights of Tir Na Gog.  But can we consider Wuxia as Tokusatsu? Let's think about it. Even we hear of Kore...

I was thinking about how Toshiki Inoue wrote stuff.  So maybe he brought conflict to Hibiki but looks like the Shirakura/Inoue tandem isn't that good. Looking at how Hibiki was under Inoue's writing its second half it did suffer some problems like adding that annoying jerk who really irritates everyone.  Well she has more similarities to Inoue than differences but here's where she stands out over Toshiki Inoue are the following: Doucebag protagonists in her shows.  Maybe you saw Kamen Rider Ryuki which came before Kamen Rider Faiz.  You had to face Shinji, Renn and Shuichi but none of them can annoy you like Masato in Faiz.  I don't think that annoying kid Kiriya would be that annoying.  Looking at her writing the douches, they are not all that annoying compared to those in Kamen Rider Faiz. In Super Sentai, most of Yasuko Kobayashi's finale arcs are pretty well-written to passable most of the time compared to Inoue's in the long run. Okay she wrote tha...

After doing one on Kamen Rider OOO, here's one for Kamen Rider Kiva which is for me Toshiki Inoue's hit or miss work.  Now he has placed some Jetman elements like Rook's amnesia but let's focus on Kamen Rider shall we? Like Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider Kiva also had monster allies he could use to aid him in battle.  Den-O had the good Imagins, Kiva had his three monster allies who can become his power-ups. The rivalry between Wataru and Vlad as competitors for the throne as Fangire King is a watered down version of Kamen Rider Black vs. Shadow Moon. In the case of Keisuke Nago, he is pretty much trying to parody them douchebag protagonists in the past... namely he was really shifting between becoming a Masato 2.0 or a Renn 2.0.  I would say I liked him on the second half but the first half was kind of unbearable.  Not surprised at him being a Renn 2.0 at times considering Toshiki Inoue was the co-writer of Kamen Rider Ryuki. The Fangires were well pret...

As far as I can say, Yasuko Kobayashi pretty much likes to recycle previous plots while adding her own, similar to Toshiki Inoue.  Looking at these, here are some of the similarities to previous series: Eiji Hino like Yuusuke Godai later has the possibility of losing his humanity.  When Eiji gets the purple medals to access the Putotyra form, he is at the risk of losing his humanity.  I just thought it was pretty much spice to the show to avoid the show from becoming too light.  So here we have a bit of copying from Kuuga. OOO basically had the Cous Coussier.  Kuuga, Agito and Ryuki also had them. Apparently the designers for Kamen Rider OOO ended up making the Greeed look like the Lords.  The Greeed like the Grongi are ancient enemies of mankind.  The first OOO fought the Greeed while Kuuga fought the Grongi.  The Greeed also like the Imagin in Den-O take advantage of desires to carry out their dirty schemes. Ankh being a douchebag p...

In the case of Chiung Yao, I was thinking should more of her works get remade for a younger audience?  Most of those who were familiar with her work were usually fans of classic oldies like Qin Han, Brigitte Lin, Liu Xue Hua, Joan Lin and Charlie Chin to name a few.  If I'm really familiar with any of the classic Qiong Yao stars, I'd say the most familiar I am with is Liu Xue Hua considering I've seen her in contemporary drama acting as an important elder or parent.  Last decade she had Ruby Lin, Alec Su, Leo Ku, Alex Fong, Fan Bing Bing (who was later paired with Vic Chou for the Qiong Yao type series Last Night of Madame Chin which was written by Pai Hsuen Yung who might have been good friends with Qiong Yao) and my favorite Vicki Zhao to name a few. What was known was that according to an auntie of mine (at least) since he's 67 or something and has watched a lot of those Qin Han dramas where he was frequently paired with Liu Xue Hua as well as seen those films wh...

From the ever-reliable Orends Range, now I'd like to share these few thoughts.  I'm not so familiar with everyone so I can't really react on everything.  Now here they are... some glimpses that make me gusta to see the movie! Well the Shishio Makoto here looks PRETTY impressive.  I just had my thought that he is one of my favorite Rurouni Kenshin villaisn considering he is one cunning, calculating evil mastermind who really knows how to get things done.  In fact, what made the Shishio arc really great was because of the villains having their aim to take over Japan and knowing how to deal with their enemies. Ryosuke Miura who was previously in Kamen Rider OOO as Ankh/Hinata's brother now will play as Cho Sawagejo.  Hmmm... I'd like to see how he'll do.  We have Takeru Sato as Kenshin, we all know him also as Kamen Rdier Den-O. Maryjun Takahashi well is Yu Takahashi's older sister.  Just my thought, I need to see how shell act as Yumi.  Now...