Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

I've just finished watching Kamen Rider Amazons. For some reason, the show tried to look like an old school film while the clarity and cast shows it's new school. I didn't like the color mode used but the writing was so good I didn't mind it that much. It was written by Yasuko Kobayashi who I assume has managed to spring back to a certain extent. This is a mini-series THAT'S NOT FOR CHILDREN compared to the 1975 Kamen Rider season called Kamen Rider Amazon. No, it's not a sequel to Kamen Rider Amazon. I prefer to view it as its own continuity which tries to take the concept from Kamen Rider Amazon to a whole new level of brutality combined with new school special effects. It just isn't your typical Kamen Rider as it deviates so much that it's pretty much its own show.

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...

From UkiyaSeed , here's the news: The official TV-Asahi Kamen Rider Ex-Aid website has unveiled the staff for the upcoming series that celebrates the franchise's 45th anniversary. The series will be produced by Toei's Takahito Ohmori (Kamen Rider Drive, Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger) and TV-Asahi's Sasaki Motoi, who will also serve as the show's chief producer. Writing the series is Yuya Takahashi (Eight Ranger, Lupin III Part 4), making this his first major tokusatsu project. Takahashi previously wrote Kamen Rider Drive's Type Tokujo specials. Finally, serving as the series' head director is Shojiro Nakazawa(Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Kamen Rider Wizard). The series, which is described as a "Battle game with twists happening in the real world" and will revolve around a Rider who fights video game viruses called "Bugstars" that manifest themselves in the real world. Lastly, the show will go all out with its video game theme as it will featu...

It's too early for me to say whether or not I'm about to like a certain season of Kamen Rider over a certain season of Super Sentai. While I don't expect any more darker and edgier Kamen Riders because I don't think it's a feasible idea for the younger audience anymore even if Kamen Rider Kuuga and Kamen Rider Agito were huge hits. Considering 16 years has passed since Kamen Rider Kuuga, the behavior of the Japanese children's market may have considerably changed as much can change within a decade or so.  My current expectations is that we're either going to get a well-balanced Kamen Rider or a comedy Kamen Rider. After Kamen Rider Kabuto, I felt like darker and edgier is already a vanishing trend after Kamen Rider Kabuto ended. By the looks of EX-AID, I'm expecting a comical Kamen Rider or a well-balanced Kamen Rider instead of a serious one. My early impression is that the cartoony designs with Tokusatsu are done on purpose because it sells bett...

I agree there's some Korean drama shows though as of late, I really find myself in the position of utter stupidity for simply wanting to watch "Uncontrollably Fond" because of Suzy Bae. In the past, I remembered how I really stuck through "Autumn in My Heart" and could have gone hospitalized over the tears when Song Hye Kyo's character died. I'll admit there's been a few stuff about Korean culture that I like over Japanese culture. Kimchi, kimbap and a lot of their foods taste better than Japanese food. But I could talk about Korean dramas. Some South Korean shows like "City Hunter" (based on a Japanese Manga of the same name) or "Forbidden Love" do have great action. But before one can ultimately conclude South Koreans are the best with action scenes, one must think have they seen the other East Asian dramas or any Asian drama in general? Japanese have karate, Chinese have kung fu and Koreans have taekwando as their trademark ...

I admit that while I do have my bad habit of watching shows for attractive females but I always had it in mind, "A bad show can't be saved by good eye candy while a good show gets overappreciated due to eye candy." I'd like to talk about Chinese drama (whether it's Taiwanese, Hong Kong or from China itself), Japanese drama and Korean drama to why I'm not having much trouble adjusting to the newer series and why I want to stay updated with it. You may see me writing about Heisei era Kamen Rider here (because it feels more like a J-Drama with Tokusatsu elements than the formula Showa era Kamen Riders had) but I'd like to focus more outside the Henshin phase for Chinese, Japanese and Korean Drama. Why do I have more problems adjusting to newer Super Sentai and maybe to an extension, Kamen Rider? Even if the members of F4 and the cast of Meteor Garden aren't getting any younger, newer faces are already coming out but why is it that I can still enjoy the...

After rewatching some classic Heisei Kamen Rider series and remembering Gaim around two years ago,  I felt like some Kamen Riders were very atypical in some way. What were they? Here they are. Warning there are spoilers ahead so read at your own risk! Kamen Rider Agito  Kamen Rider Agito's entire season first appeared to be typical. The Lords appeared to be a bigger threat than the Grongi but they seemed very selective about who lives and who dies. The Grongi had more indiscriminate killings than the Lords who were simply trying to keep the balance. Long ago, two Lords were involved in the creation of humanity. One was the Overlord of Light and the Overlord of Darkness who both carried the Yin/Yang symbol. Like Prometheus and Epimetheus, they were involved in the creation of mankind but both of them couldn't agree on anything. One day, Light decided to give the Seed of Agito to humanity with Darkness feared would only cause humankind's destruction.