Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

It's the Year of the Snake. Japan also celebrates the Lunar New Year, which lasts 15 days in China (and Taiwan). It's back to work today. Let's take a look back at memory lane for snake-themed Kamen Riders. Evil Kamen Riders have become a staple -- sometimes even being the final villains such as N-Daguva-Zeba, Evolt, and Kamen Rider Ark One (who keeps reminding me of Venjix from Power Rangers RPM ). Snakes have been a common theme for the MOTW in Kamen Rider . However, Kamen Rider these days have the more serialized storytelling akin to a telenovela. That's why I write about Kamen Rider here but only from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to the present. However, I decided not to do episode reviews and just do random drops of newer stuff and older stuff. Now, for the time when a snake-themed Kamen Rider was created. Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja is a truly terrifying cobra The Cobra is often a popular theme for villains. Who can remember G.I. Joe's main villain organization i...

Yup, this post is guaranteed to contain spoilers so please don't read further unless you're finished watching Kamen Rider Zi-O or you don't mind getting spoiled. The finale arc was pretty much a weird one. So here's my own personal thoughts -- so if you like the ending then I'm fine with it. On the other hand, I do have mixed feelings towards the ending. For one, I really didn't find the whole final battle with Evolt all that interesting. I guess he was already weakened during the second to the last episode. So many sacrifices were already done in the process so is it worth all the sacrifices? Evolt is finally destroyed by Kamen Rider Zi-O and a new world is emerging. This one has a lot of weird consequences since merging two parallel worlds would create a world where Evolt never existed. It also has some very hilarious consequences. So did Toei's executives decide to meddle for the nth time considering the number of tragedies that Build already built...

Is it me or is Kamen Rider really still working well with jumping between more serious and less serious? IMHO I don't really care if a season is darker and edgier or lighter and softer -- I've had lots of crazy fun with Kamen Rider Fourze while I had a harder time trying to enjoy Kamen Rizer Faiz until later on. This time, Kamen Rider Build while it has some occasional comedy (which happens a lot in Tokusatsu) is really having such a dark finale. I thought about how a little child may act and tried to appeal to my inner child -- to at least see how a child could feel even when it's just a guess. I thought about how Kazumin Sawatari (who really had almost no upgrade and only got an upgrade before he DIED) fought one glorious battle, Gentoku Himoru and now Ryoga Banjo sacrificed themselves. It was already bad enough to see Gentoku's father die right in front of him -- but at least they reconciled and Gentoku's true personality as a wise and caring man resurfaced. ...

Last episode seemed to be the end of Evolt but it wasn't. Here's a few things I have ignored. One, Evolt warned that it isn't over and two, isn't it TOO GOOD to be true that Evolt was destroyed that easily? Turned out to be that Professor Katsuragi's plan was a failure. He was planning to destroy Evolt but it turned out that the villain himself is badass. Not only has he used his DNA on Banjo but he's also used it on Kazumin and Utsumi to regenerate himself. Wow, talk about freaking and I just felt like saying, "Phew! Evolt ain't gone and he's going to be the FINAL VILLAIN after all!" The whole scene also includes the tragic death of Professor Katsuragi. He whispers into Sento's ear about some mysterious white panel. Meanwhile, Sento meets his other self Takumi within his subconscious. It's all about Professor Katsuragi. I always find the whole Sento/Takumi problem to be pretty much like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing. After all, ...

Kamen Rider Build has its 44th episode -- this is where the title somewhat says it all, "The End of Evolt". This has me wondering now that Evolt is gone, what's next? He was the main reason behind all the mess but it looks like that there's a much bigger problem now. It turned out that Evolt was double-crossed by Shinobu Katsuragi. Everything is going on as planned? What in the world is Professor Katsuragi talking about? The scene where Professor Katsuragi creates an escape plan for his son to escape was something. But it turns out that heh as other plans. I think he wants to rule the world with Takumi/Sento by his side -- which could be the reason why he planned for Evolt's downfall in the first plac.e This also has me interested in one way. If you remember Go-Busters some five years ago -- the Messiah Virus was the Big Bad that eventually got destroyed also in the 44th episode. Evolt is destroyed in the 44th episode too. So what's it going to be now...

I admit that things have never been the same ever since the Kamen Rider Decade meltdown  -- the show could have lasted up to a year long but I guess lack of popularity was the problem. IMHO, although I'm still watching new school Kamen Rider, I have very little interest with old school Kamen Rider  (though I will watch some whenever I feel like it) but I really wished that the Decade Meltdown never happened and new school Kamen Riders premiered every late January to early February each other. But sigh... anyway I'm already thinking about the scheduled end of Kamen Rider Build to make way for Kamen Rider Zi-O who will be revealed in August -- so stay tuned for possible rants on updates. So why am I "bracing myself"? I guess you've noticed that I've been publishing MUCH LESS Kamen Rider content here and I am devoting myself to K-Drama related posts and I may soon start watching more new school Taiwanese drama soon. But it doesn't mean I'm not going t...

So much for me not giving a new Kamen Rider Build update or opinion post every week, isn't it? I thought about how Gentoku Himoru's "true personality" just feels WTF and weird. So he had a feud with his father but later, his father revealed that he isn't really always that malicious control freak before the show started. So what does that mean? It's revealed that the Pandora Box incident warped the mind of Gentoku from someone who actually cared about the country to someone who's power hungry to the point that he established Faust and later joined with Seito to attain more power -- after his father had no other choice but to exile him out of Touto. It's later revealed that parts of his good personality started to resurface after he joined with Seito. True, he was now Seito's weapon but he soon started showing a more human side when his father was kept prisoner by the Seito government. He even risked to save his father, he reveals his regrets to...

I remembered rambling on the issue of the thickening plot of Evolt as well as Nanba Enterprises. It looks like we've got a lesson to learn. When something that's more powerful than you are offers you his or her services -- he or she may only be using you. This reminds me of how Long in Gekiranger pretended to serve Rio and Mele but he was only after his own interest. The same happened to the greedy Chairman Nanba. He effectively took over as the recurring villain from Faust, he took away Prime Minister Nido's position and this was all allowed by Evolt. Evolt as Blood Stark pretended to serve Chairman Nanba. Chairman Nanba was indeed a fool to believe that he could get the loyalty of someome -- especially if that someone is almost like someone that seemingly sprang out from the Doom video game series! Would you want to even have an alliance with someone like  the Icon of Sin from the second game? I wouldn't dare do it but Chairman Nanba himself foolishly made that de...

It's been some time since I've written a Kamen Rider Build update. I just thought that trying to write a couple of episode reviews for both Super Sentai AND Kamen Rider (or any of the TV series I'm watching here) isn't as easy as I thought. Anyway, I'd like to give a bit of my comment on the latest updates on Evolt after asking the question on who is Evolt ? The latest revelation of Evolt was that he was actually an entity from some unknown planet and that he caused the destruction of Mars. Vernage the Queen of Mars was ready to die to avenge her people. The fight resulted to Evolt's body getting destroyed yet he managed to store his essence inside the Pandora's Box. Somehow, my previous guesses (and maybe others made a similar guess) was that Evolt was part of the Pandora's Box all along! Yes, he did possess Soichi Isorugi's body to unleash the Pandora's Box. Right now, we've got the Pandora's Tower which Vernage reveals has destr...

Well, it's no secret that Kamen Rider Build is well building up on me -- pun intended. So there's much to Soichi Isorugi. First, he turns out to be Stark, he double-crossed Gentoku in more than one occasion and when he's Stark -- he speaks in a different voice. It turns out to be that the actions of who we think is Soichi is not Soichi -- rather it's the mysterious Evolt that's making Soichi do all the bad stuff. The puzzle is somewhat solved in part -- the Soichi that saved the real Soichi Isorugi/Sento Kiryu years ago was really Soichi. The one who touched the Pandora's Box was not Soichi but the still invisible Evolt. What Evolt's role will be may be what I've speculated is coming true -- there could be that greater evil from the Pandora's Box or Mars. It looks like Evolt and not Chairman Nanba or Nanba Enterprises will be the ultimate enemy of the series. I just start to feel bad for Soichi once again -- it turns out that he's still str...

Sorry for not really updating on Kamen Rider Build episode by episode these days -- especially some new passions have caught into me or that it's actually "easier" if I focus on Super Sentai episode reviews (but that may be gone soon depending on my mood and real life situations) but I thought this was pretty interesting. Just right now, we found out from Sawa that Ryuga is NOT human and this is one bizarre flashback... So some unknown life form manned the spacecraft and reached for a human woman. She got pregnant for only two months and delivered a healthy baby boy -- that would be Banjou. I think this is really some nightmare fuel. I really thought of a couple of creepy films like Humanoids from the Deep (which really scared me especially with the mutates impregnating human women) or The Blob. This seems to be a tribute to Hollywood films of the weird 80s. With this in mind, we also discover that Ryuga can somehow influence the Pandora's Box because of his ...

Well, I guess this caught me off-guard and it's been some months since I watched Kamen Rider Stronger (and didn't find it that enjoyable except for the opening song). What I didn't notice was that actor Akira Hamada (who's currently turning 77 years old this year) is freaking Mr. Titan's human form from Kamen Rider Stronger. He plays the role of Juzaburo Nanba of Nanba Heavy Industries but I had no idea he was also part of the struggling Showa era Kamen Riders! What does this mean to me? I don't feel much of a feeling for old school era Kamen Rider  so the cast doesn't mean much to me either (maybe except for Hiroshi Miyauchi because of his involvement in Winspector, Solbrain and Ohranger as a mentor) but it's nice to have some old school actors give their support for new generations. Kamen Rider Stronger was pretty much mid 70s show but it was nice for Hamada to appear in new school Kamen Rider. This also gives me a bit of of my crazy imagination ...

I remembered writing a post on Sawa Takigawa as Seito's spy  but it turns out to be she's sabotaging her supposed side of the fence after all. How is that happening? While she did the data of the Rabbit Form to the side of Seito but it turned out that she was trolling everyone -- whether it'd be the audience or her friends. Oh yeah, Sento himself was also trolling everyone with something that we never expected. She seemed to have betrayed everyone when she sent the data. But it turned out that Sento allowed it to happen. Sento built the Rabbit Form and the Tank Form to defeat Gentoku/Kamen Rider Rogue. At first, Kamen Rider Rogue detected the Rabbit Form's movements but was overridden by the Tank Form when it appeared.   The writers felt like trolling everyone with Sawa's role in the Nanba's Children group. After she was saved, it felt like was still there to work for Nanba. Yet it turns out that she and Sento deceived everyone (including the audience...

As I was watching Kamen Rider Build, I wanted to give a thought on who the spy from Seito. So is it surprising? Not really. Then here's me thinking WTF is Sento thinking of still hanging her around after she was convicted as a spy. Or two, is she some gold digging whore after older men? I can't say but there's some flashbacks that may explain her tendency to switch personalities. It's revealed that she's part of Nanba's Children so her indoctrination is still intact. I guess it's a side effect of being brainwashed that even if she wants to get out -- she still has the tendency to betray people in favor of Nanba. So is this brainwashing still effective for her? It probably is and I wonder why is Sento still keeping her around? Honestly, I even want to imagine her as someone with a split personality. Maybe, she was once a happy go lucky stupid girl. But the years in the Nanba's Children camp gave her another personality which may reveal why she ...

The latest episode of Kamen Rider Build is building (no pun intended) on the Pandora's Box and Misora's role. At first, she was just there to purify the Bottles but now, she reveals on what could be a very strong power. She mentioned the word "Evolt" so what is all that? I was thinking about the 25th episode as of recent. Misora doesn't understand what it's all about yet. Her father Soichi/Stark mentions that the bracelet came from Mars. Later, we're treated to a rather frightful scene. Shades of the Doom game anyone? This scene gives us a bit of CGI nightmare. We see Mars collapsing because of the Pandora's Box. If you do some literature review then we see a connection. Greek mythology states that when Pandora opened the box -- she released all the evils into the world. The Pandora's Box spelled the end of the Martian civilization -- and somehow, some mysterious entity is talking to Misora not wanting Earth to suffer the same fate. I...

As if the whole idea of Hokuto and Touto fighting each other is not enough -- Seito joins in the conflict. The bitch from Hokuto may have been sacked by Blood Stark but it doesn't mean there's not a third wheel to the conflict. Right now, this younger Toshiki Inoue lookalike Midou Masakuni (Seito's Prime Minister) -- is now taking over Touto and is doing lots of despicable acts. Is it me or are things getting worse? What's also very not surprising is the upgrade Gentoku/Night Rogue is gettign. Yup, he's had a new upgrade that will make him a third wheel. He was previously dethroned as Faust's leader -- now he's on the side of Seito. So I don't know how long will this guy bootlick Seito's prime minister since he doesn't seem to be the type of guy who'd take a lower position than leader. He was previously Faust's leader and he attempted to take over his father's seat in Touto. This has me concerned right now. What role in Sei...

Okay, sorry for really SLOWING down on the episode or plot updates of Kamen Rider Build. Right now, I'm just pretty interested in one side of the story that deals with Gentoku's being a bad son to his father the Prime Minister of Touto. This almost reminds me of real life incidents where good kings can sire bad sons or the typical good men have villainous antagonistic offspring plots. Such is the case of Prime Minister Taizen Himoru who discovers his son Gentoku's treachery.  It was nice of Misora to help the prime minister recover and get things straight. Prime Minister Himoru has no choice but to disown his wayward son -- in favor of the lives of millions of innocent Japanese people in the current dystopia they're in. With nothing else to hide -- Gentoku finally reveals to his father that he's Night Rogue and this is really one interesting turning point! So what's going to happen? Night Rogue last escaped saying that he'd get power one way or anot...

Okay, as I said I will be slowing down on Kamen Rider Build so don't expect weekly reviews from now on. Reasons are one, I think I'd focus (again) on Super Sentai, I'm also watching Hwayugi (but don't expect episode reviews like I did with While You Were Sleeping), trying to get a head start on Special Rescue Exceedraft, I'll try to get my Kyuranger posts done. Anyway, I'd like to write on the civil war breaking out. This is where the Prime Minister of Hokuto, Yoshiko shows how much of a bitch she can get. She is allied with the Cafe Owner/Blood Stark as of the moment. Her plans are simple. Seize the Pandora's Box and I dunno what she wants with it. I guess Faust as an organization will sooner or later be gone or somebody could be the puppet master behind this whole conflict. Meme lord Gentoku/Night Rogue (and now Ox Demon King in Hwayugi is competing for his spot) proposes an alliance with our heroes due to the fact that civil war has practically b...

This episode somewhat drags everything to a certain point. So who is Takumi Katsuragi and Sento Kiryu? This almost reminds me of the whole identity swap in Kamen Rider Agito when the protagonist's identity was called Shoichi but his real name was Tatsuya. So what really happened?   We learn that Blood Stark could actually swap faces. It's an ability he got from Mars and he's able to do this one to cause confusion. He's able to do so by his own power. A bit of blast from the past. So don't tell me that the real Sento Kiryu has been long dead? The identities of Takumi got swapped. I guess that's why they say Takumi is actually still alive and may explain why the protagonist was able to do what he's been doing. The deceased Sento gets the face of Takumi and Banjo gets framed. This is getting quite complex if you ask me. This also proves that the Nascita Cafe owner manipulated the real Takumi and give him the identity of the real Sento. Confusin...

This week's episode starts to show some development between Faust's current leader Gentoku/Night Rogue and Kamen Rider Build. So what do we have here? There's a raid to which Gentoku plans to get the Pandora's Box. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get the Pandora's Box. This brings us to another scene... They're hiding somewhere with the Pandora's Box. What really WTFs me (again) for the nth time (guess it) is how Little Miss Stupid Sawa is a waste of Yukari Taki's acting skills. I mean, she's not just eye candy in most of her appearances. She can kick ass. So what happened to her again? I guess you can play a drinking game every time I call Sawa as Little Miss Stupid. This is time for the confrontation. Gentoku already knows that Kiryu is Kamen Rider Build but it's only now that the latter knows the former's secrets. I find this to be a very dramatic confrontation. They even use the trick with a hologram and there's ...