Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Sometimes, I do feel that some episodes in Tokusatsu tend to be a commentary on something. This episode features a Manga artist named Choichiro Ishizumi -- a Manga artist whom Aruto is a fan of. This episode seems to show that while technology and innovation are indeed wonderful, the digital age makes things easier yet it can also spiral out of control when people forget their human emotions and passion. It's the problem I tend to have with  some  modern entertainment when cash grabs have become more of the aim than making customers feel they're getting their money's worth. The Manga artist Choichiro has ordered some HumaGears to help him produce several new Manga. Aruto does express his dislike for this one. Aruto prefers Choichiro's passionate Manga way before the HumaGears started taking over with automation. It also turns out that Aruto's paternal grandfather was still focused on human passion -- seeing HumaGears far beyond them as artificial intelligence. A...

The episode here seems to be a whole drunken scenario (which has scenes of people drinking their problems away such as Ki Tae Woong (the head of national defense) and Go Hae Ri has one funny scene where she kisses the latter while drunk. I still think it's fortunate that a drunken Hae Ri didn't decide to rape Tae Woong on the spot -- that could just be very wrong! Hae Ri looking a lot like Hiroyo Hakase from Akibaranger Season 1 Episode 3 comes to mind -- except here it's way more dangerous. So really, where's Mitsuki Aoyagi when you need her? Wait, this isn't Akibaranger! Worse, Hae Ri tends to be Hiroyo reimagined as an intelligence agent in ALMOST. EVERY. SCENE. such as when she panics during that gunshot or when she cheers on presumably trying to mask her sadness. The whole episode is full of dangerous car stunt drive scenes that make it look like he was drunk. I really have to laugh at how Dal Gun is acting like he's drunk at times. The scene at the air...

Well, it's time for another Vagabond review. It looks like these are the final shots in Morocco where the killers are in. I would have to envy the cast if they were eating delicious Moroccan food themselves. Anyway, the conspiracy continues. It turns that while Dal Gun is an idiot -- he does have instincts that you can trust. Do you remember that reckless decision he had with a cleaner last week? It turns out that the cleaner was an accomplice. The janitor was tasked to remove the laptop containing the video that contained incriminating information -- something that could put John & Mark Company in danger if it were leaked out. It had to look like it was just an accident when it isn't. There's a lot of cool gun scenes and action scenes. I do admit it's kind of stupid to how Hae Ri gets easily overpowered by Dal Gun but she could apprehend an assassin. I guess it's because she hasn't expected Dal Gun to have some basic raw skill so she was caught unprepar...

I would never dare call myself a diehard Toku fan. The same can be said about K-Drama because you'd realize how much I don't know much about directors, producers, and stunt doubles! I wanted to take yet another Toku break like I did with college -- something that actually kept me open-minded later was to take a break from something I haven't taken a break from. Now, Vagabond somewhat still gives me thoughts stuck on Tokusatsu again! While Akibaranger was definitely in the 2010s which is soon to end this year -- there's some 90s Toku vibes. Lee Seung Gi looks too much like old school actor Hidenori Iura who became a regular in Solbrain. Suzy Bae's similarity to Maaya Uchida isn't too hard to notice too!  Then, there's another possible antagonist that really gives me the creeps just watching her... Jessica Lee's actress Moon Jung Hee looks very similar to Japanese actress Atsuko Takahata. Maybe, you remembered her as Witch Gilza in Jaspio...

It does look like there are some changes with the Kamen Rider TV drama formula. Apparently, there hasn't been that formula of major cliffhangers in almost every episode (which may happen soon). The newest episode has a travel agency robot named Anna and a young boy named Gou Sakurai. I admit, there's some Terminator-type nightmare fuel to a lesser extent. I don't think Toei would allow that level of violence these days. I still can't help but sympathize with the idiot hero Isamu over the whole Daybreak Town incident. This is where people are heading -- the very site where the Daybreak Incident happened. Gou's late father Satoshi was accused of causing the incident. But what is the truth of the matter? Isamu does sympathize with Gou. Twelve years ago did traumatize Isamu in school. The malfunctioning HumaGears was caused by Metsubojinrai.Net. Isamu is still critical about the use of HumaGears because they might wind up berserk. You can think about how the Roidmu...

Well, it looks like I'm just going to do some compromise such as maybe, write a review based on two episodes per week (so I can watch two in one and SAVE TIME) in one in the following reviews. At this time, I think about the latest plot material involved. I might be wrong Hae Ri did the shooting and maybe, somebody else with a black cloak was out there. Hae Ri is a member of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) who may be in pursuit of the same case. I dunno are the producers behind Vagabond watching Tokusatsu with a few Toku lookalikes? They also cast Moon Jong Hee as Jessica Lee, the president of the Asian branch of John and Mark company -- she does freaking look like Atsuko Takahata! Dae Gun barges in and reveals that one of the members of the crash SURVIVED. How that survival happened still baffles me as much as Durant surviving the helicopter crash in the first Darkman movie. Did he have some special parachute or teleportation? Granted, this has sci-fi elements going ...

Well, it's the long-awaited premiere of the series Vagabond  and fortunately -- it's a worldwide premiere. I just checked on Netflix and I'd like to give my thoughts on the first episode itself. I don't know how I'd do my updates here which would be considering that it's a Friday to Saturday late-night show. I might consider slowing down OR temporarily taking a break from Ryusoulger (then catching up on it later) as planned. This also has me thinking I might consider making Kamen Rider Zero-One posts every two to three weeks. Now, moving on. Whoever says K-Pop guys are fags (and a certain someone has been vilifying them) need to consider that they pass through South Korea's MANDATORY military training. The results of Lee Seung Gi's military training has been VERY IMPRESSIVE. His role as Cha Dal Gun starts out as a failed action director wannabe then ends up in a taxi driver job. However, for a failed director why does he exhibit that many dangerous s...

I did mention that I'm pretty much the shipper of Ye Xiu X Tang Rou . Now, you may consider that in spite of the lack of obvious romance (unlike O2O Romance which is well, meant to be one) -- this is more about sports. You can imagine how there's not one but two potential love interests for the protagonist Ye Xiu. If it's not just Tang Rou (which I ship due to their friendly rivalry) then you may consider the shipping of Ye Xiu with his former teammate Su Mucheng. I decided to read through some spoilers (for the Manga) and found out that there was the promise to reunite between Mucheng and Ye Xiu. Sometimes, not having a romance can be good for your story and let people have their headcanons. The whole idea that they would reunite after Mucheng retires isn't exactly a hint that they'd be lovey-dovey. But it seems that Mucheng herself has established her status as Carly while Tang Rou may have established her status as Sam. Hopefully, Tang Rou doesn't get s...

At first, I thought Yang Yang had a twin brother though it turned out that Yang Yang is playing both characters namely Ye Xiu (the main hero) and Ye Qiu (the businessman twin brother). It does create some comedy when Chen Guo mistakes one for the other. Yang Xiu was too silent about his twin brother who arrives in episodes 19-20. This also shows some issues between the twin brothers. The main character is into eSports while the other is a successful businessman. It's revealed that Ye Qiu's identity was used by Ye Xiu. Ye Qiu isn't interested in video games at all. Ye Qiu tried to run away but it was Ye Xiu who ran away instead. Ye Qiu may be a nag but he's well-intended, still concerned about his older twin brother. Talk about it that one is the president of a company while the other ends up in professional eSports. Both of them do have one thing in common -- they still have a very low-level tolerance of alcohol as evidenced in the Chinese New Year episode. Success...

This week's episode of Kamen Rider Zero-One explores yet another touchy theme. For one, I don't like the idea of people playing God with science -- it might be the potential hazard that Kamen Rider Zero-One may be showing in its later episodes. I'm for innovation but there's always a limit to where humans should go such as how Dr. Kubota does his science in the 1990s Super Sentai series Denji Sentai Megaranger . I don't even believe in letting robots replace humans. At the same time, I think of the science behind the Megaman X series which has the Reploids as a new generation of androids that can learn and think like humans do. I'm also thinking about the craziness that's Dragon Ball Z when both Cell (a bio-cyborg) and Android 19 were seen in Hell due to their free will. So, by Toei's rather weird logic -- androids do possess souls if they can think like human beings. This episode does get me hungry due to the sushi plot. The guest star is Kenta Uchi...

King's Avatar doesn't apparently have the romantic subtext of Love O2O but what's the harm in having a shipping or lovey-dovey in one's headcanon, right? I still admit that even if most Super Sentai entries have no official coupling but I do love to make up couplings myself cracky as it may be. It doesn't seem that the show has a shipping but I thought of a potential crack between Ye Xiu and the rather tough female chick Tang Rou. The basis of this shipping is just C-R-A-C-K just like if you've got fans of Super Sentai having a preferred couple even when no coupling happens. I kind of want to compare Tang Rou to Carranger 's tough chick Natsumi (who I also find attractive) -- both have short hair, pretty boyish, and they are both very attractive females. Tang Rou does have that weird aura where her natural beauty stands out even if she's not too feminine. Her match against Ye Xiu has them pit against each other. Ye Xiu considers Tang Rou a worthy riv...

It may be the end of the Heisei Rider era already but I still can't help but be nostalgic. I've seen everything from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to Kamen Rider Zi-O but not exactly in their proper order. It's no secret that I still really hate Kamen Rider Decade where I consider it to be one of the stupidest entries in an otherwise stable franchise. Kamen Rider Zi-O entered the Reiwa era midway during the second half of the Hibiki Arc. Then, something always entered my head because of yet another throwback -- remember the Space Sheriff Trilogy movies that featured the successors of the original Gavan, Sharivan, and Shaider during the 2010s which is soon to be over in a matter of months? I always had a nagging question as to why Metal Hero has been defunct after January 4, 1999 , which is the final episode of any official series. I even hear Robotack is such a bad series it killed Metal Hero. But there seems to be more than meets the eye since the spirit of Metal Hero still man...

I remembered the first time I saw Lee Seung Gi was in the TV series Brilliant Legacy where was a wimpy brat that matured into a changed man. Then I saw Gu Family Book (which was probably based on the Japanese Manga Inuyasha )   which starred both Lee Seung Gi and Suzy Bae for the first time. Okay, it does get some flak now that K-Dramas are superior to Filipino TV dramas because the latter tends to promote love teams -- nothing is wrong with a love team if it's not done too often. I would have actually wanted Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu-Wang to have another project beyond Meteor Garden and Meteor Garden II because they had chemistry similar to Chin Han and Leanne Liu. I did like the chemistry of Seung Gi and Suzy in Gu Family Book where the crazy ending suggested that we'd get a sequel but we never did. In fact, Vagabond has totally different characters when Seung Gi and Suzy are having a second project together six years later. There's a press conference next Monday and the...

Well, this is fast, isn't it? I may decide to either use Rider-Time or Over-Time subs (depending on who comes first) as I'm no Japanese speaker! I'm going to for a bit of this week's episode. I thought about it that I may use minimal pictures in my Kamen Rider Zero-One related posts (and maybe the same for the upcoming Vagabond -related posts). Hmmm... I may need to study the way Sentai Bandicoot does his reviews and mix my own touch. Maybe, I might do the same for the Ryusoulger-related posts soon too for a change. Now, it's on for an episode review with some images taken from Nihon Hero . I admit, that I tend to side with angry sidekick characters  a lot . It's no secret that  my favorite character in  Lupinranger vs. Patranger  is Keiichiro  or that  my favorite  Dragon Ball Z  character is Vegeta . Now, I think I'm really liking the other rider named Isamu. Isamu reminds me of myself as someone who'd be too determined to do anything per...

I admit, that I've grown stranger with newbie Chinese actors and actresses because of my obsession with Japanese Tokusatsu and Korean drama. Then again, I'm just that casual fan of that stuff. Test my knowledge with the producers, authors, stuntmen, etc. and you will realize that I'm just a guy who had to Google stuff in order to find out who's who behind the scenes. I did give a similar series known as  Love O2O  a shot and it was just too focused on the romantic side. Yup, it was more on the romantic side than the whole competitive side. Sure, you had people meeting but TV dramas do get boring when they get too focused on the romantic side of things. It seems The King's Avatar will have both what I want -- action and romance. The series itself has the Anime feel. It's a live adaptation or remake of the Donghua animation of the same name. I haven't been so familiar with Chinese animation and I'm outdated with Anime. The series may be Chinese-made bu...

It's the first of September 2019 and the first episode of the first Reiwa Rider has begun! I just found the fansubbers Rider Time Fansubs  working on it so I may no longer be using Over-Time for my Kamen Rider Zero-One reviews. So, before anything, I decided to get inspiration from Sentai Bandicoot Rambles  (formerly Fantasy Leader) with his Gingaman posts. Maybe not but I was partly inspired by him in writing down my Secretary Kim reviews and perhaps my future Vagabond reviews (where I may lump two episodes into one post due to the twice-a-week broadcast). Now going on to my initial impressions on the series. The hero Aruto Hiden dreams of becoming a comedian and making people smile. Wait, making people smile? Didn't we get that last 2000 wth Kamen Rider Kuuga? Is the show making a nod that Kuuga was the first successful Kamen Rider reboot for the Heisei era? Aruto is a failed comedian and he's hesitant to accept his paternal grandfather's mantle as the presi...