Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Yasuko Kobayashi, well she's probably still well-loved and hasn't reached the status of "public enemy numero uno". I decided to revisit this post from a few years ago and UPDATE IT. Now, it's time to talk about her finales. Before that, you may want to read this post about Toshiki Inoue and his finales . I guess she's getting too much mention (aside from Judd Lynn  who I believe is just overhyped by the fans ) that some older writers may have been overshadowed. Yeah, I feel like Hirohisa Soda was unintentionally overshadowed as fans seem to prefer to mention her name a lot. Again, I don't blame them if their exposure to Super Sentai was based on anything after Mirai Sentai Timeranger .  Kamen Rider Ryuki We have to hand it over to her that this is her first head writer job for the Kamen Rider franchise. Ryuki was most likely intended to be the most serious series yet but was killed by executive meddling. Maybe, it's unfair to blame her for the finale...

Well it's a convoluted case of Kamen Rider OOO getting into a crossover with Kamen Rider EX-AID because the year 2010 and year 2016 -- six years apart! This was yet another diverse plan that could seriously wreck the timeline of Kamen Rider Zi-O for sure -- that is by turning one of the many evil Kamen Riders into yet another evil Kamen Rider. In this case, Kuroto Dan returns with still the same psychotic tendencies as Another OOO. Hmmm... it's a good thing (for now) that the Time Jackers didn't decide to give the powers to Takeshi Asakura of Kamen Rider Ryuki! I admit, I'm quite a fan of Kamen Rider OOO myself and somehow I'm defensive about the show being "good" from others who think it's bad. It was nice to see both Eiji Hino and Hina Izumi appear in the flesh. So I guess actors Shu Watanabe and Riho Takada haven't hit it all big compared to what happened to Sota Fukushi and Bleach. I mean, check out the 0.5 episode after the end of the Fourz...

While doing some Kamen Rider OOO rewatches, I thought it'd be funny to do this silly comparison between a fictional character (Cake Boss) and a real-life character (Haim Saban). It doesn't help the situation that the actor Takashi Ukaji freaking looks like a younger Haim Saban. The Kougami Foundation is one huge business empire that owns a lot of businesses. Haim Saban owns the Saban Capital Group. Whether or not Kougami Foundation also owns an entertainment company is not known but they certainly own a bakery. The company has been doing some philanthropy work while having a cheapskate boss. That alone reminds me of Saban's questionable behavior with how he handles Power Rangers. But there are some bizarre coincidences (or not) with what really happened. Shintaro Goto is loyal to the cause of Kougami Foundation but ends up questioning Cake Boss' choices like overly relying on Eiji Hino's blind loyalty. I want to make fun that Shintaro is actually Judd "Chip...

With Zyuohger's upcoming 2,000th episode, I'd like to give a review on Kamen Rider OOO's 999th to 1,000th episode. Both of these episodes were written by Shoji "Patrick Star" Yonemura. While I did enjoy Kabuto but let's just say, Yonemura's gotten worse as time passed by. The 999th episode had Kougami plan in making a "reboot" of Kamen Rider OOO. It has a throwback to Kamen Rider 1 (which I am yet to see). It has Eiji cast as Takeshi Hongo. I do find this funny considering that Kamen Rider 1 is that old school. In terms of Showa Riders the only ones I've seen from start to end are Kamen Rider Amazon, Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX. I've seen most Heisei era Kamen Riders so I can't comment too much on the Showa era. 

While watching Kamen Rider OOO, I could not help but actually be amazed at what I failed to see.  Kosei Kougami who appears in Kamen Rider OOO. He was pictured as somebody who loved to collect Core Medals for himself. I always thought that he had an eccentric, business-oriented nature. Just then I realized this funny coincidence... The actor Takashi Ukaji looks like Haim Saban. I just thought that perhaps during the time Kamen Rider OOO aired, Kougami Foundation was probably Toei's tribute to Saban Brands. So my next wishful gimmick would be funny is sending Ukaji to the next Power Morphicon. What is also coincidental (if any) is that Kougami Foundation is a multi-purpose company and in real life, Saban also has various businesses in real life. Maybe it's just a coincidence but who knows?

Knowing that GMA-7 will be airing Kamen Rider OOO, I'll be expecting some reactions from rival networks.  But first, I'll share my thoughts on this.  I think it's just proper that GMA-7 has decided to show something new after Mischievous Kiss which may be the reason why they are airing Kamen Rider OOO.  Then again, it's doubtful that they will air Gokaiger or any Super Sentai in favor of J-Drama (which is more popular) or Heisei Kamen Rider (which feels more of a Toku Drama).  Now for my thoughts. I think airing Kamen Rider OOO (as terrible as the dub is, UGH I don't want to watch another dubbed Sentai) is probably going to pump in some fresh blood for imported shows in GMA.  Back then, GMA-7 also aired Kamen Rider Faiz and Kamen Rider Blade.  Now it made me think that they should STOP re-airing Dragon Ball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho and instead, focus on getting either J-Drama or Heisei Kamen Rider if they want their ratings to go up. At the same time, I tho...

As far as I can say, Yasuko Kobayashi pretty much likes to recycle previous plots while adding her own, similar to Toshiki Inoue.  Looking at these, here are some of the similarities to previous series: Eiji Hino like Yuusuke Godai later has the possibility of losing his humanity.  When Eiji gets the purple medals to access the Putotyra form, he is at the risk of losing his humanity.  I just thought it was pretty much spice to the show to avoid the show from becoming too light.  So here we have a bit of copying from Kuuga. OOO basically had the Cous Coussier.  Kuuga, Agito and Ryuki also had them. Apparently the designers for Kamen Rider OOO ended up making the Greeed look like the Lords.  The Greeed like the Grongi are ancient enemies of mankind.  The first OOO fought the Greeed while Kuuga fought the Grongi.  The Greeed also like the Imagin in Den-O take advantage of desires to carry out their dirty schemes. Ankh being a douchebag p...

From the many points in common between Toshiki Inoue and Yasuko Kobayashi, they do have a habit of putting douchebag protagonists in their shows whether it's the depressing seasons (Ryuki and Faiz) or the lighter seasons like OOO and Kiva.  Moving on... here's a collection of them as they appeared: When it comes to douchebag protagonists, Shinji, Kamen Rider Ryuki's main character is definitely one. How can I say that?  He can get pretty inconsiderate and can annoy you a lot though he does want to stop the Rider War so I can let him slide since he's not that bad of a douchebag.   Ren from Kamen Rider Ryuki is another.  Well we know how sad you are with your fiance's life at stake but you DO NOT mess up others (that's why he became Kamen Rider Knight) just to get your fiance to be better.  I was thinking he might not be as annoying as Masato but he does get annoying nonetheless.  Considering Kobayashi and Inoue were both working on Ryuki, he does...

After watching OOO I thought the Greeed were a decent group but had some wasted potential.  Sure they look as cool as the Lords in Agito or the Grongi in Kuuga but they're nowhere cool.  I enjoyed OOO for its gimmicks, but I wish these guys could have done more in unleashing selfish desires to create mayhem.  They were born from the human desire to create life hence these are coin-based homunculi who are made from medals.  So they want to get the Core Medals to acquire power and one one is based on a theme shown by their appearance.  They birth the Yummies (which first appear as zombies) that become monsters for OOO to fight and are fed by desire, while driving the host mad. Uva is a pretty hot-headed fellow.  While I felt sorry for him once when his own comrades blasted him, however part of me felt he deserved it.  Well he did get regenerated into the last surviving Greeed before Dr. Maki becomes the final villain. Kazari well he's my kind of vi...

So here's another fast of the Naomi Takabe as producer and Yasuko Kobayashi as the writer.  Compared t Gobusters, I felt this was still an enjoyable season despite its flaws.  Hey there's no perfect series, even Kuuga and Agito which are good have their own fair share of flaws.  Now the story of this starts with Eiji Hino who's some kind of naive idiot who is selfless.  At times, he does remind me of Spongebob Squarepants but good thing he doesn't have a best friend like Patrick Star to screw things up in here.  He is met with destiny one way when a disembodied hand known as Ankh of the Greeed appears to give him the three medals that allow him to become Kamen Rider OOO.  The Greeed are some kind of monsters who use the desire of people to produce the Yummy out of them.  The whole series feels like a soap opera in itself, though not as intense as Kamen Rider Ryuki can be.  It's funny, stupid and sometimes I feel like I'm watching an Ilia Salkind ...

So here's an update from me which this time, I'll post some updates on things aside from writing reviews. Just started watching Kamen Rider OOO.  So far, so good and I like the use of human desires themes.  For me, this show beats out Faiz in my opinion and might be even better than Kiva.  But yeah, Yasuko Kobayashi did have a bad job for me with Gobusters but still, she does have some great ideas but this is a taste of Naomi Takabe who Fantasy Leader dislikes.  I just had a thought that this series has its own comedic theme attached to it.  Hmmm why do the Greeeds look like the Lords?  Just made me think though while Kuuga and Agito are for me better plotwise but this one has its own disciplines. We have Kosei Kougami... is it me or is this guy like one of Toei's favorite golden geese,Haim Saban?  Just a thought.  Maybe he is, maybe he isn't but I got to watch before I jump into my conclusion.