My History With Heisei Era Kamen Rider

I just thought I wanted to write yet another farewell letter to the Heisei era. It's time to talk about my relationship with Heisei era Kamen Rider. I admit, I do have some pre-conceived biases that makes me want to say, "Screw it! I'm not watching it!" -- ironic how I only knew about Kamen Rider from sites like Henshin Hall of Fame (which is pretty much a retro site) and back then, I just read summaries and wikis without watching said shows. Then I thought about how often my preference for just anything between old school and new school will always depend on how the show clicks with me -- not whether said show is old school or not!

So I thought about how I was actually on somewhat of a Toku break while I did watch but not regularly (a few) of the crap-dubbing of certain series like Kamen Rider Blade on Cartoon Network Philippines, Kamen Rider Hibiki on TV-5, Kamen Rider Ryuki on ABS-CBN and GMA-7 did air Kamen Rider Kabuto and Kamen Rider Faiz. I also watched both Kamen Rider Den-O (at my own pace before copyright issues with Youtube) and Kamen Rider Decade and I could talk about Kamen Rider Decade which for me will always be the worst of the whole Heisei era. Well, I just had a thought that I didn't care much or was just too busy with school to actually care -- though there was also that time I was more into Chinese entertainment and my tendency to think newer Toku can be too commercialized at times. Yup, I can be resistant to change in certain areas while accepting change in other areas.

I thought about how my preferences started to change when I went beyond TV-N and Over-Time and found Nyaa torrents. I gave a thought about how my mind would change overtime. I admit, I was more of a Super Sentai fan than a Kamen Rider fan. At first, I didn't want to check the new school Super Sentai series out until I saw how pretty the ladies were such as Nanami, Ranru, Jasmine and Sakura before 2008 hit. I was more interested in filling up patches from my childhood which I deemed ruined by Philippine TV networks that kept choosing to air the Americanized version of Japanese shows than the Japanese shows themselves. At the same time, I was thinking about how Kamen Rider usually defeating a monster in two episodes wasn't exactly my type -- though I did enjoy the soap opera elements present though I was too disgusted by Kamen Rider Faiz's being overly dark. It too me time to appreciate it!

Then it happened -- I just felt Super Sentai wasn't as good as I felt it was. Sure, there's still some good ones. The more I read UkiyaSeed's now defunct first blog -- the more I was getting more interested to watch more of the Heisei era. I did watch Kamen Rider Kiva and treated it like any of the Korean horror-action TV drama that I enjoyed. I know Kiva can be that berated but I do have a soft spot for said show. I soon wanted to catch up with Kamen Rider at my own pace while new school Kamen Rider gave some new shows. I thought Kamen Rider Fourze was full of wacky action -- something that I wish Kamen Rider Wizard had more of! Then I thought of Kamen Rider Gaim totally outdid Ryuki all the while thinking Ryuki HAD potential but that stupid event called executive meddling murdered the show. I even wished that Yasuko Kobayashi and Toshiki Inoue wrote a special ending where the executives who ordered it got mauled!

Right now, I even think about it that while I used to like Super Sentai more than Kamen Rider but it depends on my preference right now. What I didn't want to admit is that I had the tendency to ride on the opinions of other bloggers of what's cool and what's not without checking it out myself. I would even admit that I usually like older Super Sentai than the newer Super Sentai -- all the while I admit I prefer mostly new school Kamen Rider over new school Super Sentai. I admit, I end up finding watching most of the Showa era Riders to be a chore -- though I'd still like to ask others on how much of it have they seen. Right now, I even feel like Kamen Rider Skyrider (which I'm watching at a VERY SNAIL RATE) to be getting even more boring. I guess that's why the Showa era Kamen Rider suffered fron a hiatus between Kamen Rider Stronger and Skyrider (four years) and Kamen Rider Super-1 and my true favorite Showa Rider namely Kamen Rider Black (six years). Then Black RX led to an 11 year hiatus presumably due to how it couldn't ride on Black's success -- I only tend to appreciate said show for only being better done than Saban's Mashed Rider.

I remembered how I started disliking the turn of Super Sentai (for the meantime anyway since I realized I just need to take a break from the franchise to appreciate it better) after Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. I thought Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger is "ENOUGH! NO MORE DINOSAURS!" -- then I watched it at my own pace, liked its action but I ended up thinking Kamen Rider Gaim is still better. Then I thought of Shuriken Sentai Ninninger -- another show I treat in a very petty way by joking that it's only "better" than Power Rangers Ninja Steel because both Yuuka and Kasumi are hotter. Then there was Kamen Rider Drive which I got into because "WOAH! A policeman Kamen Rider!" I even think that there are times I want to deny that I think Drive is better than the classic Mobile Cop Jiban or maybe even better than Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger IMHO. Kamen Rider Ghost for me wasn't so good, Kamen Rider EX-AID had potential but sadly got cut and Kamen Rider Build well -- I think it did the whole reset button better than Kamen Rider Ryuki!

Pretty much, it's Kamen Rider Zi-O right now and I'm afraid some people want to say, "Build's been gone in just a week and it's gotten this bad." I know it may not be the best right now but I find it more enjoyable than what Decade did with Alternate Reality worlds. Yet, I still feel that Zi-O's naive character having the potential to become Demon King Zi-O is somewhat still WTF. It's only a matter of time of seeing whether or not Zi-O will actualy wrap up the Heisei era well or not.