Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

It's too early for me to say whether or not I'm about to like a certain season of Kamen Rider over a certain season of Super Sentai. While I don't expect any more darker and edgier Kamen Riders because I don't think it's a feasible idea for the younger audience anymore even if Kamen Rider Kuuga and Kamen Rider Agito were huge hits. Considering 16 years has passed since Kamen Rider Kuuga, the behavior of the Japanese children's market may have considerably changed as much can change within a decade or so.  My current expectations is that we're either going to get a well-balanced Kamen Rider or a comedy Kamen Rider. After Kamen Rider Kabuto, I felt like darker and edgier is already a vanishing trend after Kamen Rider Kabuto ended. By the looks of EX-AID, I'm expecting a comical Kamen Rider or a well-balanced Kamen Rider instead of a serious one. My early impression is that the cartoony designs with Tokusatsu are done on purpose because it sells bett...

I agree there's some Korean drama shows though as of late, I really find myself in the position of utter stupidity for simply wanting to watch "Uncontrollably Fond" because of Suzy Bae. In the past, I remembered how I really stuck through "Autumn in My Heart" and could have gone hospitalized over the tears when Song Hye Kyo's character died. I'll admit there's been a few stuff about Korean culture that I like over Japanese culture. Kimchi, kimbap and a lot of their foods taste better than Japanese food. But I could talk about Korean dramas. Some South Korean shows like "City Hunter" (based on a Japanese Manga of the same name) or "Forbidden Love" do have great action. But before one can ultimately conclude South Koreans are the best with action scenes, one must think have they seen the other East Asian dramas or any Asian drama in general? Japanese have karate, Chinese have kung fu and Koreans have taekwando as their trademark ...

I admit that while I do have my bad habit of watching shows for attractive females but I always had it in mind, "A bad show can't be saved by good eye candy while a good show gets overappreciated due to eye candy." I'd like to talk about Chinese drama (whether it's Taiwanese, Hong Kong or from China itself), Japanese drama and Korean drama to why I'm not having much trouble adjusting to the newer series and why I want to stay updated with it. You may see me writing about Heisei era Kamen Rider here (because it feels more like a J-Drama with Tokusatsu elements than the formula Showa era Kamen Riders had) but I'd like to focus more outside the Henshin phase for Chinese, Japanese and Korean Drama. Why do I have more problems adjusting to newer Super Sentai and maybe to an extension, Kamen Rider? Even if the members of F4 and the cast of Meteor Garden aren't getting any younger, newer faces are already coming out but why is it that I can still enjoy the...

After rewatching some classic Heisei Kamen Rider series and remembering Gaim around two years ago,  I felt like some Kamen Riders were very atypical in some way. What were they? Here they are. Warning there are spoilers ahead so read at your own risk! Kamen Rider Agito  Kamen Rider Agito's entire season first appeared to be typical. The Lords appeared to be a bigger threat than the Grongi but they seemed very selective about who lives and who dies. The Grongi had more indiscriminate killings than the Lords who were simply trying to keep the balance. Long ago, two Lords were involved in the creation of humanity. One was the Overlord of Light and the Overlord of Darkness who both carried the Yin/Yang symbol. Like Prometheus and Epimetheus, they were involved in the creation of mankind but both of them couldn't agree on anything. One day, Light decided to give the Seed of Agito to humanity with Darkness feared would only cause humankind's destruction.

While watching Taiwan dramas, I found out that some of those I'm enjoying were not really originals. Again, how many percent of shows I'm enjoying are actually contemporary remakes of older Taiwanese films or localization of foreign shows. That was really the case when I started watching Meteor Garden. I had no idea it was an adaptation or localization of a Japanese series called Hana Yori Dango. The story got localized for the Chinese audience giving everyone Chinese names that were pretty close to the surnames of the F4 in Japanese. Like Tsukasa Doumyoji was renamed as Dao Ming Si because Doumyoji has the same Chinese characters as Dao Ming Si.  When I found out Meteor Garden was actually an adaptation or localization of Hana Yori Dango, I had mixed feelings about it. Should I still watch it? The more I watched it, the more I thought it was still worth it even if it's not the original source. Meteor Garden had a great cast of actors who really knew how to do their ...

After several shows from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to Kamen Rider Drive, I'm about to write my top ten favorite shows. Here they are from lowest to highest. This list may also surprise how much my opinion has changed in some way. It's time to move on from my personal top ten pics. 10.) Kamen Rider Faiz It may be surprising to why this made it to this list. But I still give it a low number. Sometimes, I feel like I'm better off watching Power Rangers Time Force than Kamen Rider Faiz. This was known to be Toshiki Inoue's darkest work. So darker and edgier it was that this work really works itself to becoming more depressing than interesting. Sure Timeranger was a darker and edgier series but it didn't feel as bad as this one. The plot of the human vs. Orphnoch war was an interesting attempt to do X-Men's plot into Kamen Rider. It's better in the darker and edgier but sometimes, lighter and softer can be done better. That's why I'd watch Time Force over...

In the past, I remembered watching Kamen Rider BLACK and there was a lot of scary stuff in that show. There were the Gorgom monsters which didn't look too much like rubber suit villains. There were a great deal of scary stuff to think about. I can't forget the times I hid under the blanket when there were some scenes that were really generous amounts of nightmare fuel. Its sequel Kamen Rider BLACK RX may have been lighter and softer but some Crisis Empire scenes were still all that scary. Now it's time to explore the Heisei era Kamen Riders. While some of the Heisei era Kamen Riders are on the lighter and softer side, it wasn't always like that. Sure Super Sentai went more on the fun side since Gaoranger but Timeranger was anything but lighter and softer. I could name at least seven series that really had high amounts of nightmare fuel! Warning: Reader's discretion is advised. Some Kamen Rider series aren't as warm as friendly as they are today! Read at y...