Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Kamen Rider might be a show that has possibly hit an identity crisis. A franchise is usually called to reinvent itself. Take Super Sentai having reinvented itself until it could no longer sustain itself. In fact, the period of 2021-2026 was a five-series finale for the series . Kamen Rider was a series that reinvented itself more often than it did -- resulting in a series of good and bad results. I feel the series may have an identity crisis (and funny enough, I'm PROBABLY ENJOYING IT).  The Showa era reviewed  Kamen Rider was a show that had that shaky start (during the Showa Era) . One may notice that the Showa-era Kamen Rider entries were basically not a yearly thing. Just think how Kamen Rider Stronger and Kamen Rider Skyrider had a four-year gap. Kamen Rider Super-1 and Kamen Rider BLACK had a six-year gap. BLACK was supposed to be a reboot, but yeah, Toei got greedy and decided to create Kamen Rider BLACK RX. I believe that BLACK RX was supposed to end an era. BLACK RX ...

I DON'T GIVE UPDATES. Instead, I choose to REACT TO UPDATES. Blogging should just be viewed as a sideline hustle and nothing more. I had updates on Kamen Rider Zeztz some time ago. I didn't know how to process my mind, especially I'm not that big into Tokusatsu (in general) these days. IMHO Kamen Rider Gavv isn't exactly entertaining me as much -- it's almost the same as how Kamen Rider Wizard is also pretty much another low-tier show. Yeah, JUNKO KOMURA, and right now, I feel like Lupinranger vs. Patranger had a lot of lost potential. I might write a terrible review on Gavv's missed potential or I'll probably need to rewatch it. Right now, I feel like I've hit the  Kamen Rider taste fatigue zone for the nth time. The last time it happened was when I took a slowdown from Kamen Rider Zi-O . I was looking at the updates from The Tokusatsu Network . This is also the plot according to UkiyaSeed , one of the many sites where I get updates from. As always, tak...

Writing episode reviews can be tiresome. One may notice that I never gave updates on Kamen Rider Gotchard here. I finally finished the final episode. At first, I felt it was awkward since Gotchard's main cast is all that young. The main hero Junsei Motojima was born in 2005. Reiyo Matsumoto was born in 2008. It's only normal to expect it since the main cast are usually newbie actors. A lot of Super Sentai and Power Rangers main casts are expectedly young.  The show presents the Digimon vibe. I'm neither a fan of Pokemon (by Nintendo) nor Digimon (by Toei). Speaking of which, Saban Entertainment also dubbed Digimon in English. However, it doesn't try to become the second coming of Digimon . People get inspiration from old stuff. Fortunately, Gotchard tries to keep it focused on its intended target audience -- children. The Digimon inspiration is there but it's pretty much NOT Digimon at the same time. It's nice to see Toei try the schoolboy Kamen Rider theme agai...

As Kamen Rider Gotchard is coming to an end (and I'm having a hard time adjusting to its really young cast) -- I decided to react to the updates for  Kamen Rider Gavv . It looks like Toei's starting to shake things up with Gavv . As I was reading through the plot -- this is the synopsis given as of late: A looming threat of monsters, Granute, from another world. The humans don’t know. These monsters have secretly come to the human world. The humans don’t know. These monsters are attacking and kidnapping humans. To protect them, one boy has risen to the challenge! Shouma, a young man who loves to eat, stands up to protect humanity from the Granute! By eating sweets, he produces beings called “Gochizou” and gains the power to transform into Kamen Rider Gavv! First, we need to take a look at the protagonists of the series Kamen Rider has taken  a way more different route since 2000 up to the present. After seeing all the Heisei era entries (but barely on the Showa era, which I fe...

When it comes to crime dramas--I think South Korean and Taiwanese Chinese ones provide the best suspense. This is coming from someone who can't stand realistic torture scenes! I watched Crisis: Special Security Squad and it was good. Vivant was also interesting . I may have not enjoyed this as much as South Korean or Taiwanese Chinese crime dramas--it still deserves some praise.  The drama doesn't take things too far like Copycat Killer  -- the Taiwanese adaptation of a Japanese crime novel . I enjoyed Copycat Killer for balancing gore (and not prolonging torture scenes or not focusing on them) and the GOOD WRITING. Unnatural also goes with a mysterious serial killer who goes by the Goldfish. Finding corpses with a goldfish mark in the mouth hints that it wasn't an accident. Instead, they're on the hunt for a serial killer while working on ongoing cases. The J-Drama goes for 10 episodes -- a tad bit longer than overbudgeted K-Dramas.  The main character Mikoto Misumi (...

The last J-Drama I watched was Crisis: Special Security Squad . This would be my first exposure to Masato Sakai, who's in his late 40s and a family man. There would be some familiar faces here such as Tori Matsuzaka and Ryo Ryusei as sidekicks - both red ranger actors. I'm amazed that Tori still has a life after Samurai Sentai Shinkenger . It was also nice for Rin Takanashi to play a minor but important role as the main protagonist's mother in some flashbacks. There may be some Easter eggs that only Toku viewers can notice but I'm not going to put them in.  Masato plays Yusuke Nogi - a big-time worker at the Energy Development Division. A huge sum of money was laundered and Yusuke gets the blame. It's form there that he must work together with the two red rangers Kotaro Shinjo (Ryo) from the police department and Shun Kurosu from Beppan (Tori) to help clear his name. They also go against a mysterious organization known as "Tent". "Tent" has its o...

  It's no secret that I got critical about Super Sentai last 2013-2016, I was in denial about me being a fan of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters , and that I soon enjoyed Kamen Rider more than Super Sentai . However, I find myself detached from Kamen Rider Gotchard presumably due to the extremely young cast. I could recall a conversation where me and a person compared the newer Kamen Rider to a telenovela. Kamen Rider Drive was something that I'd call sort of a dream come true. The whole series might be compared to Knight Rider or Automan for its inspiration.  Drive isn't exactly the best Kamen Rider series there is. I think the best entries are Kamen Rider Kuuga and  Kamen Rider Agito . I think the worst is still Kamen Rider Decade . Drive started off as a rather campy series. Shinnosuke Tomari is pretty much a comical character but he has a dark secret that gets unveiled midseason. The show featured the dangers of unethical experimentation, parents who you literally need ...

  There are times I feel too embarrassed to admit that I do enjoy some messy shows. For example, I was afraid to admit that I liked the unpopular Kamen Rider BLACK RX . I could agree that BLACK RX is a mess but it still deserves some credit for trying out new stuff - just that it wasn't done properly. Right now, I feel somewhat similar to Kamen Rider Faiz . Heck, there are times I feel that Faiz could've potentially been better than the fan-favorite Kamen Rider BLACK . The show may be full of unlikable characters, Toshiki Inoue trying to get as dark as he could (and he even made a cameo here for a reason), and it was the time when Inoue was also starting to lose charge. Eventually, Inoue hit Burnout Ville during Kamen Rider Kiva - a show I enjoy but I also must acknowledge what other fans say that it's a mess. I find Faiz a mess but it's basically a watchable mess! Faiz has that depressing scenario belonging to the seven nightmare fuel Heisei era riders . It's quite...

Currently, I found myself not so impressed (but still liking) Kamen Rider Geats . If one thinks about it - the Reiwa Era reboot has Kamen Rider Zero-One (signifying a restart), Kamen Rider Saber , Kamen Rider Revice , Kamen Rider Geats (which is an obvious Kamen Rider Ryuki tribute in some way), and we have the fifth installment, Kamen Rider Gotchard . The show is pretty new but I'm getting some old vibes that only soon-to-be old schooler smay get.  The three sisters of fate look rather terrifying. A mysterious man (whose name is Fuga Kudo according to the reports) and is Rinne's father. The quest to find the Chemies is because the Dark Sisters namely Lachesis, Atropos, and Clotho are up to something. I was wondering if the use of Clotho here is because it's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers' anniversary? Clotho was an ally in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger while Gotchard Clotho is a VILLAIN. In Greek mythology, only the Fates are more powerful than the gods and not even Zeus ...