Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

The final conclusion of my Decade rants. I really have to admit that somehow Shogo B'Stard probably had a stronger stomach to rewatch Kamen Rider Black RX which is a show he dislikes so much. Then I have Kamen Rider Decade which is what I'd call the black sheep of the Heisei era of Kamen Riders. It doesn't mean that I like a franchise that I won't point out what might be called as the lowest points of the franchise! The show itself ended in 31 episodes with a cliffhanger on August 30, 2009. Then fans had to wait for December 12, 2009 -- that would be the Kamen Rider W and Decade movie where the final ending was shown. Once again, bravo to the fact that Shoji Yonemura really has been causing all the decline in the series. I always felt that the World of Amazons is best described as Decade didn't know what to do anymore. Black and Black RX already had the Shocker villains showing up. Well, it's reimagining Amazon but I still bear in mind -- I didn't eve...

If there's another reason why Decade tends to bring up Saban's Mashed Rider to my head involuntarily (and the show isn't at fault) -- it's because it's the first Kamen Rider that got a TV crossover with Super Sentai. The stage shows were the start then you had Saban creating such a disaster. I still remember " A Friend in Need " in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and how it aged badly. We all have our Old Shames. However, Decade as a "successor" and "sequel" of Mashed Rider -- it still has a lot of positives such as better acting AND how it handled its crossover with Shinkenger. The crossover is ten years old. Fortunately, Ninninger VS. Kamen Rider Drive (which was a TV movie) managed to improve on the idea by reversing the situation (Ninningers landed into the world without Super Sentai instead) and adding a giant robot battle scene to top it all - something that's missing in the Decade and Shinkenger crossover. Middle, I sti...

Is it me or does Toei have a bad habit of burning out its writers? One of these writers I like to raise up is Toshiki Inoue who Shogo B'Stard terms as the "Frank Miller of Tokusatsu". He got so good and got so bad and undid himself. Though I seem to want to blame Toei more than Inoue. 2008 was the bad burnout of Inoue with Kamen Rider Kiva -- he's probably not so proud of it! Do you remember when he showed up in Kamen Rider Faiz's ending in a cameo! Kiva was where Inoue had really no idea on what to do. Later, he would later write the Kiva arc in Kamen Rider Zi-O .  Inoue went into four episodes straight. These two arcs involve the trope "Too Good To Be True" trope. The first two episodes involve Natsumi thinking she's arrived at her own world and finds out something else about it. Then we have Daiki where Inoue does something favorable by adding layers to that character who seems to be just an evil version of Herbie from Saban's Mashed Ri...

I remembered watching Kamen Rider Kabuto AFTER seeing Kamen Rider Decade. What's my reaction? I thought about how Kabuto is said to be Shoji "Patrick Star" Yonemura's one-shot wonder. I saw the whole Kabuto series and found it passable and sadly Yonemura is in the levels of Bruce Kalish and Jonathan Tzachor! But the Kabuto arc wasn't written by Patrick but by Kenji Konuta who isn't a major writer. Maybe I need to cut some slack but I still think Gordon Ramsay would probably still be a mad chef if he saw it and had translations to go along with it! I know I've read through Shogo B'Stard calling Souji Tendou an unlikable prick. There are some of my favorite shows full of them. A lot of Timeranger's characters tend to be jerks like Tatsuya or Yuuri. Kamen Rider Agito has Hojo Toru. Kabuto itself does have some kind of Hollywood feel with the Worms as a possible reference to the Harvesters in Independence Day. The series itself had some decent a...

It's known how Kamen Rider Hibiki had its controversial second half. Remember when the producer was changed from Shigenori Takatera to Shinichiro Shirakura and the writer was changed from plain boring Tyuyoshi Kida (who'd handle Kamen Rider Wizard making it another season I dislike) to Toshiki Inoue. Now you might want to brace yourself because Patrick Star is playing the drums. All that's needed is for the cast of Hibiki to play the instrumental of "Twinkle, Twinkle Patrick Star"... Yup, this song would have probably "helped" the World of Hibiki and I'm being sarcastic. Hehe! It turns out that A.R. Asumi is currently Kamen Rider Hibiki. It even has me thinking WTF as if forcing a child version of Kamen Rider Kiva wasn't enough . Is this the second time that we'd get a forced insertion of "Justin Stewart" from Power Rangers Turbo? I guess people know by now I compare Yonemura to Jonathan Tzachor and Bruce Kalish in more...

Well it's time for the first two episodes written by Yasuko Kobayashi who I believe is overrated because of Gingaman, Timeranger (her Magnum Opus IMHO), Shinkenger (which gets tons of praise) and ToQGer (which I think was the lowest point in her career BUT it won the Railroad Day award during its airing). So, how did Yasuko Kobayashi fare in her first two episodes for Decade? Granted, she's the head writer of Kamen Rider Den-O (and maybe she should've been Ryuki arc's head writer and maybe, the A.R. Ryuki characters would have had more personality than Sho Aikawa can offer) so I'd like to give my blunt opinion on the merits and demerits. So what happened to Ryotaro Nogami? He has been de-aged due to some timeline error or did I miss something? Regardless, Takeru Sato didn't reprise his role for a reason. Busy schedule? Too busy getting swordsmanship lessons? What's more interesting is that in the Kamen Rider OOO movie where Shocker took over the worl...

It's no secret that my favorite Heisei era Rider is still Kamen Rider Agito (though Kamen Rider Kuuga tends to fight with it in my head). I was thinking of how disappointing A.R. Agito is. Like really why is this world's Agito of all characters a HOMELESS VAGRANT? I really saw the Agito arc first before seeing the masterpiece that's Agito. Sorry Agito haters but I really can't accept all your over-biases against Agito. The whole Agito arc here is a mess. My whole beef here is just where's the Overlord of Darkness when you need him to reboot the world? In fact, I would gladly invite him over to the World of Agito and have the whole show reboot itself. Start that whole operation reboot and get everyone in that world to have nightmarish deaths like that happened in the finale arc of Agito! The Agito here was the original operator of the G3 operation system but became a vagrant. I really thought the whole loser image was taken way too much. Sure, Kamen Rider Den-O...

I remembered all the biases I had towards the overly depresing Kamen Rider Faiz -- something that was where you love it or you hate it with Toshiki Inoue. But after a second rewatch and I do have changing opinions on said show . Now, I guess this is where teenage Kamen Riders gone wrong. Instead of the now a man Takumi Inui -- why do we have Takumi Ogami who is a teenager defending Smart Brain high? Now it's time to play the opening intro of Saban's Mashed Rider! Yup, it reminds me of almost everything wrong with Saban's Mashed Rider. I guess you know why I purposely mispell Mashed Rider. If any Kamen Rider did teenagers right then the honor goes to Kamen Rider Fourze! Heck, there was even that April Fool's joke that Saban was localizing Kamen Rider Fourze into Power Rider Apollo. Fortunatetly, it was just a joke considering how much of an Adaptation Decay that Saban's Mashed Rider was. Now for a bit of criticism yet again. Do you remember Masato Kusaka in Ka...

This is one area where I'm pretty mixed. Certainly, I still can't get over to WHHHHYYYY did Kamen Rider Ryuki end up having that stupid Reset Button ending that got rid of character development. Also, Shinji Kido is somewhat at the shadow of Shinji Tatsumi but there was something a bit interesting going on. I know Shinji Tatsumi is really quite wimpy in contrast to Shinji Tatsumi but there's an interesting arc in this episode. Natsumi gets wrongfully accused of a crime she didn't commit. The A.R. World has Atashi Journal in place of ORE Journal in the actual continuity of Ryuki. The interesting plot is how Natsumi gets framed by mysterious circumstances. The Atashi Journal knows about the whole Rider War. Worse, the justice system of this Alternate Reality is determined by the Rider War. I'm just reminded of the mock trials held by Cobra-La (G.I. Joe) and the Quintessons (Transformers). So, everything is determined by the Rider War? What kind of justice is that? I ...

I remembered how I often pointed out that perhaps Justin in Power Rangers Turbo is one of the biggest mistakes ever. It's not because he's a kid ranger -- it's because of how randomly placed he is. Kou in Dairanger was given proper development while Justin just ended up as a gimmick where producers hoped to capture more of the younger audience BUT. FAILED. MISERABLY. Sadly, Kamen Rider Decade would commit exactly the same mistake with the Alternate Reality Kiva arc. Yup, I'm writing this not after something after Kamen Rider Kiva had its tribute arc in Kamen Rider Zi-O . The A.R. world is a world where humans and Fangires supposedly called a truce BUT there's the Beetle Fangire. There's a child king Wataru who is in contrast to the older Wataru Kurenai. But can you imagine if ever Justin Stewart or Kou took such a high position for world peace? The whole outcome is just weird. I know there have been boy kings in history but they needed guidance from older one...

Well, after reading through Shogo B'Stard's RX-related posts -- I thought I'd do the same thing to what I love to call as the "sequel" of Saban's Mashed Rider. I remembered watching Saban's Mashed Rider and it's far worse than Black RX IMHO. Black RX is regarded as terrible due to how it capitalized on the success of Black or how it has several inconsistencies (such as Crisis Empire's origins) -- you still can't deny that in the year 2009 (ten years ago) that the Decade was born and NOT in a good way. So, let's get started, shall we? I really want to imagine it where Dex from Saban's Mashed Rider communicates with Tsukasa Kadoya saying, "Well, it's your turn to give such a sh*tty sequel to everyone!" The show takes place after Kamen Rider Kiva as evidenced by the figure of Wataru who is talking to Tsukasa. I know Kiva's not really well-liked but I'm a fan of Kiva myself. Decade? Well, I haven't had a good re...

Kamen Rider Black RX and Kamen Rider Decade -- two shows that I really find to be quite hated or loved with almost no middle ground. It's like I do experience people who love Decade and beat me up for my rather negative opinion about it -- I guess you do realize I love calling it the "sequel" of Saban's Mashed Rider (which is an Old Shame) and defending it to saying, "But Decade has lot of good special effects! Better budget! Shinkenger's crossover with Decade is miles better than MMPR's crossover with Mashed Rider!" and I agree. But I thought of Decade's sudden cancellation at 31 episodes is probably due to bad audience reception. If there's the RX Meltdown then there's also the Decade Meltdown  too. So what's with the RX Meltdown? I'm inspired to write this post because  Shogo B'Stard's latest post is Black RX related . I know he really doesn't like the series and we've had differences such as I'm a Timera...

Well it's time for that every two weeks update on Kamen Rider Zi-O. Personally, I'm having mixed reactions right now with Nobohiro Mouri. I enjoyed Kyuranger (a lot) but this one left me going "?!" more often than not -- as if Yasuko Kobayashi's use of time travel can create such convoluted stories such as Kamen Rider Den-O or Timeranger. This arc actually manages to outdo the Kamen Rider Fourze arc. While Sota Fukushi couldn't show up due to Bleach -- but we've got Masahiro Inoue, Shun Nishime and Ryosuke Yamamoto showing up. So how is this a convoluted case? Well, the Time Jackers are still desperately looking for another king in the place of Zi-O. It has me wondering why are they desperate to do that/ Were they once bidding for world supremacy only for Demon King Zi-O to finally own them? This also creates a whole set of dilemmas especially when one of the Another Riders could die if the process were reversed. At the same time, it also has Sougo dyin...

I decided to read through the Sentai Bandicoot's past post where he asks, " How Much Sentai is Worth Watching? " and it made me think, "How much Kamen Rider is worth watching?" This is one question I just want to ask myself considering that I really don't find myself too open towards the Showa era -- back when Kamen Rider villains operated with the entertaining half-brained yet dangerous plans for world domination (ex. making a necklace that unleashes bees) in contrast to the more dramatic era of Kamen Rider -- where most of the writing feels like that they're focused more on creating many quality dramatic storylines mixed with science fiction fantasy -- which I believe that they may help in unleashing one's inner child for older fans. One could think about watching Kamen Riders from the the Showa era. Personally, I'm not even that interested in that era even if I will give them a shot or two whenever I feel like it. My first Kamen Rider was ...

It's already 2016 and yet I still can't forget why I really don't bother to rewatch most of Kamen Rider Decade except for the crossover with Shinkenger. Decade felt like an interesting concept. It's the tenth entry of the Heisei era of Kamen Rider hence its name. It was going to feature other Riders but instead we have Alternate Reality. The more I watched the show the more I just wanted to think about it, "Well Saban's Masked Rider made its return with a sequel. It's got better acting, special effects, action scenes and it's no cheap flick. On the other hand, the writing is almost as bad if not it's just as bad as Saban's Masked Rider!" That's why I love to call Decade as the pseudo-sequel of Saban's Masked Rider. The only redeeming point the show has had is with its crossover with Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and nothing more. I almost didn't watch it because I thought Mako was going to get sick. Fortunately, she wasn't s...

It's a nice relief that after Kamen Rider Decade, there have been a series of Kamen Rider seasons that were miles better. Kamen Rider W, Kamen Rider OOO and Kamen Rider Fourze were really fun deviations from what Kamen Rider used to be. Kamen Rider Wizard was for me not so good. I can't stop praising Kamen Rider Gaim for succeeding where Kamen Rider Ryuki failed . Kamen Rider Drive helped me cope up with my personal distaste of Ninninger though their crossover was pretty good for me. Plus, I never realized that a lot of Kamen Rider series were doing better than the Super Sentai of that year like I never knew how good Kamen Rider Agito was compared to another of my favorites in Super Sentai namely Gaoranger. Though I'd still watch Boukenger over Kamen Rider Kabuto and Shinkenger over Decade. Why am I bringing Decade up? I say the show had that potential to become a great anniversary season like Gokaiger but it ended up creating a disaster. I guess the whole reason why the...

Kamen Rider Decade (as the name implies) is the TENTH Heisei era series which means it was time for an anniversary season.  It was an interesting concept to have the nine Kamen Rider worlds involved namely Alternate Reality versions of Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O and Kiva.  I personally respect Kamen Rider Decade fans and remember, I am writing on my opinion that I find this series to be poorly executed! The first scene has the original Kiva (Wataru) talking to the hero Tsukasa who must try to save the nine Rider Worlds from colliding unto each other.  On paper, the whole idea was good but a lot of trashy writing really ruined the show.  Now there was a budget for special effects, better acting but writing-wise it's almost as horrid as Saban's Masked Rider.  I personally find this show's Alternate Reality worlds to be horridly done for most of its run especially with how Kamen Rider Agito was treated to be a loser in hiding or Kiv...

Well it's time for me to say something about Decade.  Okay I don't like the series but I thought about it why it was popular to children during its airing even if it really had some issues like messy plots and execution.  Here's my theoretical reasons: 1.) Nostalgia factor.  Decade had the nostalgic factor to where he entered into various Alternate Worlds featuring a different version of the Kamen Riders.  Children would realy like that and it contains some of their favorites like Kiva, Agito, Den-O and Kuuga to name a few.  In fact, it would actually be for them in my view a very great way to honor all their favorites during the Heisei era and some introduction to the Showa. 2.) The concept itself of Alternate Worlds is cool.  Okay I may find all this Alternate Reality worlds to be giving me a headache but little kids may be the type to get infatuated with it.  As a child, I did enjoy that concept though as I grew up, I kind of get "logic headach...

This is possibly my first very bad review.  I dunno why I'm reviewing about it but maybe this should be a form of constructive criticism of sorts and I'm glad that Toei had managed to recover from the lash of this series.  So why do I don't like Decade?  I thought that from start to finish, this series is just so messy with all the "Alternate Worlds" going on and on.  I would say that this series really had marred the good identities of outstanding rider seasons like Agito or Black (I was happy to see Kotaro though!) or even mars Kuuga which is the series that began to relaunch Kamen Rider from its long hiatus.  I would personally dare say that in being a Tokusatsu drama, it really shames the new style of Kamen Rider and even the Shinkenger/Decade crossover might come to mind this series is as horrific as Saban's Mashed Rider.  One episode after the other is a bigger mess than the other, really even the ending is hanging, the special is stupid and I don't...