Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Kamen Rider Kuuga in itself should be viewed as a very important entry of the Kamen Rider franchise. The 1990s had the problem of trying to revive Kamen Rider but the best it could do were movies but not actual series. Shogo B'Stard's entry on Kamen Rider Shin did inspire me to at least try and check the movie out. Then I remembered way back when I wrote about seven highly nightmare-fueled Heisei era Riders . Kuuga was the ambitious reboot of the franchise and Kuuga means "empty shell". You can tell the show was a reboot that practically gave you no references to Shocker or the Great Leader, a new way of writing which didn't automatically click with me (and back then, the first ones I saw from start to finish were Kamen Rider Den-O and Kamen Rider Decade ), I found Kamen Rider Ryuki to be rather unusual at first or how Kamen Rider Blade was compared to a telenovela in its writing format. Kuuga should also be noted for one thing - it was also Naruhisa Arakawa...

Images were taken from My Shiny Toy Robots My opinions change all the time now, don't they? I remembered not wanting to watch Kamen Rider Kuuga or any new Kamen Rider series back in the 2000s only because of somebody's personal opinion. Like, why am I letting other people's opinions on shows dictate mine? Kuuga is such a show that was in that range. It also took me a long time to return to Toku because there was other newer stuff in the 2000s that I checked out. I was simply taking a break from the Japanese hype in exchange for the Taiwanese hype. I watched some new school Kamen Rider but I was still more into Super Sentai. Now, it's time to do a re-evaluation and I'd say re-review of Kuuga - the highly ambitious reboot of the Kamen Rider franchise. What I failed to notice or remember was that the Showa era of Kamen Rider was a mess. It took four years after Kamen Rider Stronger ended before Kamen Rider Skyrider (which was intended to be a reboot ha...

So it's been some time since I've been calling Kamen Rider Decade as something that's almost as awful if not just as awful as Saban's Masked Rider. I'll try to address this new issue called the controversy of the possible connection between Kamen Rider Kuuga and Kamen Rider Agito. Here's something I thought could be possibly used from The Center of Anime and Toku : You're free to enjoy Agito as a continuation of Kuuga if you so wish, or imagine it takes place in a parallel world, if you so choose. I appreciate this may sound like an asspull , however, so I guess I would say that while Agito takes place '2 years after #4 destroys the Unidentified Lifeforms', it is not a sequel to Kuuga, so take to the show with that in mind.

Kamen Rider Kuuga in itself was a huge ambitious attempt to remodel the Kamen Rider franchise. Back in the late 80s, Kamen Rider had one success followed by a lesser success. Kamen Rider Black was so successful that it had a much less successful sequel in Kamen Rider Black RX which ended in September 24, 1989. After Black RX, the Kamen Rider series somewhat came to a close. Only specials like ZO, J and Shin Kamen Rider came but no Kamen Rider series came in. Kamen Rider came to a close for a time being. On 1998, Shotaro Ishinomori also died. Toei wasn't going to easily rest and Kamen Rider would have a return after 11 years of hiatus. May 1999 was the month and year that a new Kamen Rider would be created. At that time, Shotaro Ishinomori had died. By that time, I guess die-hard Kamen Rider fans would have wanted Kamen Rider back. The project was finished on time and on January 30, 2000 the new Kamen Rider for the new millennium was born... Kamen Rider Kuuga! Kuuga started an en...

Obviously Kamen Rider Kuuga should always be remembered by fans as that experimental show that was a huge success despite some shortcomings and what really triggered a revolution. I find Agito better than this successful experiment but it would be wrong not to give this show its credit. Now for the stuff that was tried on... by Naruhisa Arakawa the head writer (his first headwriting job was here), Toshiki Inoue as a sub-writer (but too bad he later faltered after the success of Agito) and producer Shigenori Takatera as an experiment that was done with utmost care with some mistakes to learn from. Just my thoughts on how the season itself was starting to write, "How should Kamen Rider be written" and can serve as a guide for newbie writers, in fact I feel like I need to rewatch this series: The way the hero handles through ALL of his forms. Unlike Black RX where the hero seems to learn things immediately, here the hero must learn to control the new power. While it's a...

Kamen Rider Kuuga- the triumphal return of Kamen Rider after its long hiatus in 1989, after Toei got the rights to Kamen Rider.  So what are my thoughts?  So I'd like to talk about the plot- we have Yuusuke Godai the main character who starts of as just as a "happy go lucky" guy who one day becomes the hero to save the world from the evil of the civilization called the Grongi.  What happens is that he is known as Unidentified Lifeform No. 4 and he was at first, distrusted but along the way aside from learning about his new powers (which took two episodes each for him to learn them, trying the more realistic approach to the what if you had superpowers situation) he also gets help from the police department and his allies... Kaoru Ichijou- Well he's one professional detective.  Despite not having superpowers, he helps Kuuga in some other way eventually he's managed to kill a few Grongi with new special bullets that were later developed in the series. Sakurako ...

For me, Kuuga did have some life reminders and life changing.  Here are some lessons I learned: 1.) We all make mistakes, even heroes.  This was elaborated when Yuusuke didn't immediately master his new forms which really emphasized that life lesson way more than most Kamen Riders.  Fourze had that one too but it wasn't that well done as Kuuga's though I honestly like Fourze better than Kuuga. 2.) We always need the support of others.  Very much elaborated here and it seemed to become the recurring theme of Kamen Rider and was carried over in Agito. 3.) Being a hero is protecting the smiles of others.  Yup it also helped me to realize a new reason why I blog.  And it seemed Yuusuke actually defined the true meaning of a Kamen Rider though he was the only one who carried that theme the most. 4.) Regualr people can become heroes.  That's what Kamen Rider Kuuga's allies were for. Any more?  Just comment!

While I was at first having a hard time accepting Kuuga or what, I realized I am now able to appreciate it more than the first time.  I just thought I might want to talk about the "realistic approach" to which our hero Yuusuke Godai doesn't immediately learn about his superpowers and new forms, he even needs Sakurako to unlock the powers of Kuuga which does make this one huge positive plus- Naruhisa Arakawa has made the hero more human thus viewers can relate to the person.  In fact, every time he gains a new form, he doesn't immediately beat the monster but rather he tries to learn that new power and then he learns it, then he defeats the monster.  That makes him less superhuman and more human, which might actually symbolize the step by step process to ultimate success where he finally defeated the Grongi after a series of trials he had to encounter.  Kuuga or not, Yuusuke is still the same person he is even with the superpowers he had attained. As I thought, thi...

If there are two series in the Heisei era that started it all, it's Naruhisa Arakawa's first job as a headwriter and how he wrote Kamen Rider Kuuga and Toshiki Inoue's best work Kamen Rider Agito.  Now let's take a look at how these two series managed to create a revolution: First there's Kamen Rider Kuuga.  Kuuga began to define the new seasons, introduced the "realistic approach" to where the hero doesn't immediately master his new forms, removed the silly monster plot of the weeks that we love about Tokusatsu but gave a nice substitute, made most battles a two-parter and began to interweave the characters together.  It's too important a prototype not to be credited even if there were others that I like better but still, Kuuga is the molding of Heisei era that's too important to ignore.  I guess most of the writers or even Toei is ignoring the mold that is Kuuga.  What really I think is a major part of the mold is the "realistic appro...

Racism seems to be the most frequent motive of aliens to invade our world in the world of fiction.  Now I'm going to an analysis of the Grongis and the Fangires on how each author handled their racist villains. The Grongi in Kamen Rider Kuuga executed their racist ways by making games out of humans.  For them, human beings are nothing more than prey for their sick game, I don't know if they even eat people behind our backs.  So there's the game of killing humans depending on the rules like a Grongi can choose to kill pregnant women by eating their unborn or killing old people by throwing them down a cliff, it's pretty disturbing if you ask me. In the case of the Fangires, most of the antagonists have been shown to think they are far superior than other races and two, they view every other race as just source of life energy for them which Taiga stated about humans later in the series.  Despite the fact Kiva is very cartoony, the racism of the Fangires is one int...

Well since I feel like I haven't given Kamen Rider Kuuga enough credit so I'd like to credit it for actually defining the basic styles of how to write Heisei Riders. The way the multiple forms are introduced. Kuuga avoided the being too episodic and decided to focus on introducing these forms in a way that is more "realistic". Yuusuke doesn't immediately learn to use these forms and plus, each form carries a plot tied to the story better done than when it was during the days of Black RX. Each of the forms were handled in a J-Drama fantasy style for me. So pretty much, Arakawa doesn't want the hero to be "high and mighty", rather to be "more human" which I think is good, so pretty much the template left by Black RX with multiple forms was put to good use. The allies are far more involved. Okay we got that introduced in Black RX but it was a rough draft, Kuuga had its time to let the allies become more involved as a better mold to th...

The Grongi in Kamen Rider Kuuga I would say are pretty scary themselves.  While watching them, I thought that these people are quite similar to the mythological Aswang from the Philippines.  Where do they share common points? The Grongi assume human forms from beautiful women to various forms of men while they do become animals and need be, assume their ferocious forms.  They are both also immune to sunlight.  They blend in with the townspeople while having their own secret language as enemies of ancient mankind. They both play a cruel game on human beings with a hunting game.  They treat humans as prey and for sport.   and bite their victims.  For example, an aswang may play a game of killing pregnant women by eating their unborn for sport or the Grongi, kills children for sport. And if that's not enough, they become ferocious monsters that hunt down and kill human beings to add thrill to their dirty lives as ancient enemies of mankind. ...

So you might way WTF Sean Akizuki why are you in the world reviewing Kamen Rider Kuuga in your drama blog?  So first, I really felt Kamen Rider has transformed into a fantasy TV drama while staying true to Toku (compared to how Zaido is SO not good) so DO NOT make comments for me to write on the Showa riders like my favorite Kamen Rider Black or whatever has to come.  Moving on, I'll talk about Naruhisa Arakawa's writing- I may not think this is his top masterpiece but this is STILL a masterpiece worth watching.  So where do I begin?  Okay, I'll probably try to my own version of Nostalgia Critic but I'm a critic on Tokusatsu and TV Drama and hoping this TV Drama blog will go on forward like my Super Sentai blog.  Hmmm what will my fellow Toku critics like Fantasy Leader, Mr. Smith, Chris X and That Chick think of this move? =P  If I get funny comments, I'll post them for all to see. =)  Moving on, let's HENSHIN!!!! The story is pretty much a mix of ...