Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

  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 ...

Make no mistake that I'm a fan of Kamen Rider Drive but I never consider anything perfect. Nothing's perfect and no franchise gets better all the time. Next year may get better or worse depending on who's in charge. Here's what I call quite a huge step backwards for female sidekicks. In the past, we've got a lot of cool female sidekicks who either served as the brains behind the guy or those that fought on field. Junko in Winspector had no power suit but she's a badass gunner. Reiko in Solbrain served to help Daiki in rescuing civilians. Mimi in Gavan could pretty much hold on her own and served as Retsu's guide. I wonder did Oomori forget all that? Oh, I wonder if he intended Amy in Kyoryuger to be weak? I guess protests saved Amy from that fate but not Kiriko. What's so sad is that Kiriko had a very strong introduction. You can't be part of the police force if you're just a person who kept needing to be rescued. She progressively suffered fr...

Last year's Tokusatsu year wasn't so good for me with Super Sentai so I really decided to stick through some Kamen Rider. So I'd like to discuss about my road trip with Kamen Rider Drive and how it really affected me as a just flying through Tokusatsu fan. Hearing that Riku Sanjo would do Kamen Rider AFTER Kyoryuger triggered me the panic button. I felt like that "Oh no! It's going to be a disaster." I've always had some biases towards Kyoryuger and no matter how much its fans think that, "It's the best dinosaur Super Sentai ever." I'd pick Abaranger or Zyuranger anyday. While Kyoryuger was horrid but there was some Kamen Rider Gaim to keep me occupied and entertained so I don't go completely backwards with Toku watching. Then it came, Kamen Rider Drive was one show I wanted to give a chance even after Kyoryuger left a bad taste in my mouth.

During the time of Kamen Rider Drive's broadcast, I always thought that somehow both characters would get married. While I'm watching Kamen Rider Ghost, I'm seeing clips of both of them getting married and I am pretty much excited for that wedding to be shown. So how will the Kamen Rider Drive and Kamen Rider Ghost crossover fare? I'll just have to wait and find out. 

While watching Kamen Rider Drive, I remembered the first hint that the Roidmudes were created by Dr. Banno who is none other than the father of Kiriko and Gou (with his unwed relationship with Sumiko Shijima explaining why they carried their mother's surname). I always felt that Drive also explored the science theme similar to Hirohisa Soda's science trilogy . The whole opposition of ideas in Drive occurred in the form of both Professor Krim Steinbelt and his former friend Professor Banno. Professor Banno was involved in the creation of the Roidmudes. At first, they just felt like rebellious creations but as he resurfaced, he had willfully cast off his humanity. It felt like Doctor Man's rivalry with his former friend Dr. Shinichiro Gou. Banno wanted personal glory while Krim wanted to help mankind. Krim became the Rider Belt responsible for Drive while later, Banno who had become digitized would later become the final villain of the series. While he appeared to be will...

Well Shinnosuke, good job, now it's time to make way for Kamen Rider Ghost! So it's the end of Kamen Rider Drive with a special episode, I know some people may have gone "HUH?!" with Kamen Rider Drive, perhaps it didn't meet their expectations but I'll proudly say that I love the series and I think it's a must watch. The Kamen Rider Drive crossover with Ninninger was pretty good in itself. Now it's time to tackle on the upcoming Kamen Rider just in time for the Halloween Month: Not what I had in mind but I hope it will be better than Kamen Rider Kiva... The next Kamen Rider will be known as Kamen Rider Ghost. I'll admit that I enjoyed Kamen Rider Kiva and as of late, I am more excited for the next Kamen Rider than the next Super Sentai season. Now I'm still watching Ninninger, it's somewhat entertaining but Kamen Rider Drive had given me more entertainment value than Ninninger. So, that's my freaking opinion and I have no righ...

Well as said, yesterday concluded Kamen Rider Drive in a very atypical way. So Banno (the big bad) is finished off by his own son Gou, while the Global Freeze is about to happen. A lot of events in the show are pretty atypical which is either a good thing or not especially with how the final episode was written. After both Kamen Rider Drive and Heart destroy the program that Banno created to cause the Global Freeze, they have their struggle under the rain. Medic is gone, yes, sad to say and so is Chase (but their templates are still alive). Granted, Riku Sanjo wrote Kamen Rider W and a good portion of Kamen Rider Fourze, I felt like a elements were all there. While Chase does not come back to life, we meet the Roidmude that he was based on as the series ended. I thought the whole epilogue also showed how the team would cope up.

While watching Kamen Rider Drive, I am tempted to keep on saying, "Oh boy who will be the final villain?" with some villains dropping like flies.  Nira has been arrested and the actor has left the set and Freeze was destroyed prior to that... now we have Heart, Brain and Medic.  As of late, we have Banno (the father of both Kiriko and Gou), the secret of Krim Steinbelt (a Japanese speaking Wester scientist who looks like... Tony Stark of Marvel Comics) and how the Roidmudes were even created in the first place.  The latest episode features this "goddess" who might be Medic, a girl whom Medic is based from and I am really excited to think where the show is going through, I have to admit this is another situation where the father is a villain, the son is a hero and the reverse also happens.  I thought it's a tough situation to have your own parent or offspring go against you.  Banno might be the show's final villain based on this episode guide from Orends ...

I got the news from Orends Range that Kamen Rider Drive's cast now has the show's finale script. Well, I can't wait to see how it will end which we will have our following details from Orends.  Kamen Rider Ghost will end around in September which will be followed by crossover specials. So looking at it, I was wrong that Kamen Rider Drive will end this month or next month. From JEFusion, here's a sketch of what Kamen Rider Ghost may look like.  Now I am honestly getting a lot of Danny Phantom vibes. So it will premiere on October 4, 2015 which happens to be Halloween month.  In terms of supernatural enemies for the Heisei era we've have Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Kiva and Faiz. I feel we may have another Kiva-like show but hopefully it will be a better done horror comedy. Here's a funny artwork that I found of Danny Phantom and I felt like uploading it (he's wearing the Kiva belt) for laughs. Hehehehehehe! XD

When I started looking at the progress of Kamen Rider Drive (which currently has 37 aired episodes, episode 38 is going to air next week on July 19, 2015), the show looks like it's going to end rather than undergoing a retool. There's a Kamen Rider Drive movie, there's already leakage of Kamen Rider Ghost (no image yet), I am seeing the bad guys drop like flies so what's the deal? Looking at the possible August 2015 premiere date of Kamen Rider Ghost then it looks like Drive is almost over Some old Japanese Tokusatsu shows in the 80s to the 90s had below 40 episodes. Kamen Rider Amazon only had 24 episodes, Kamen Rider Stronger had 39 episodes, Changerion had 39 episodes and Metalder had 39 episodes. Looking at it, Kamen Rider Drive may only have up to 39 episodes which I wonder why the show is now cut short compared to Kamen Rider Gaim? I think Drive couldn't combat Gaim's popularity or two, executives might have thought it best to cut the series short to 39...

After the destruction of Freeze or 001 (the leader of the Roidmudes), there was the dangler that said that who killed Eisuke Tomari? I started to suspect that Mitsuhide Nira was actually the killer. I mean that guy is mean and obnoxious to the core, I wanted to smash the guy's head. So he is always angry with everyone, especially Shinnosuke Tomari, he's power hungry but at the same time he is a coward. So what was all in the past? Looking at the latest episode of Kamen Rider Drive, Mitsuhide is actually an incompetent cop who was jealous of Eisuke. His reasons for killing Eisuke was based on jealousy... which the Roidmudes actually took advantage of him. It's really a petty reason to kill someone in a fit of jealousy, isn't it? But he did it, he killed his own partner out of jealousy so he could get the spotlight. Right now, he's even experimented on by Brain, Heart and Medic which made me think... it his guy also going to bite the dust soon like 001? The...

While I feel I am losing interest with Ninninger but Kamen Rider Drive is where I usually cope up with what I currently feel about Tokusatsu. While I felt Riku Sanjo wasn't good with Kyoryuger (no thanks to a lousy sexist producer) but for me, he's still fit to write Kamen Rider. Moving on... I think Kamen Rider Drive is really interesting me. What I find funny is how Tomori's secret is out with the department and well, Chief Jun knew all the time? Wow, I wonder why the Asian culture has a habit of keeping secrets and slowly revealing it? With Tomori himself, I feel like the whole was shocked to discover that Chief Jun was in charge of the whole Drive. Later, the identity of Tomori is exposed though why am I now having the feeling that Tomori might be a Jiban 2.0.?! I'm just guessing but I'm having a feeling Tomori may not be human anymore. Again, it's just me SPECULATING... considering this show has a lighter feel than Jiban. So there's the question o...

I was hesitant to watch Kamen Rider Drive because of Gen Urobuchi's masterpiece for Tokusatsu, Kamen Rider Gaim. Meanwhile, I'll admit that Riku Sanjo for me had miserably failed with Kyoryuger (which is a Sentai season I dislike) but Kamen Rider Drive itself presents a light-hearted police drama. While Kamen Rider W's main hero Shotaro was a protagonist, the hero Shinnosuke in this show is a police officer. I feel a bit of shades of Jiban except unlike Jiban, he is not a police officer revived as a cyborg. The whole start is Shinnosuke seems incompetent but he does have intuitive abilities while he is accompanied by his possible love interest Kiriko. The Drive belt was once formerly human called Krein Steinbelt but through some quack Toku science, the mind of the Drive belt is inside a machine. The Special Investigation Unit does not know of Shinnosuke's secret identity (shades of Jiban) nor Kiriko's involvement, or that of Rinna Sawagani being more than just yo...