Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

With Kamen Rider EX-AID coming out next month, I want to recall how much of the Heisei era of Kamen Rider I've seen (which feels like a J-Drama). I still remember how hesitant I was to watch the newer Kamen Rider because I was "stuck on Showa" and I didn't really see much of Showa. Talk about personal biases there before actually seeing the shows huh?  The Heisei era of Kamen Rider deviated from traditional writing since Kamen Rider Kuuga. If you've seen some Showa era Kamen Riders (I've only seen Black, Black RX, Kamen Rider Amazon and some episodes of the first Kamen Rider) you may notice that they have different writing styles. Showa Riders operated like Super Sentai villains: they always prepared deadly but absurdly stupid plans to achieve world domination. All that went down the drain with Kamen Rider starting from Kuuga up to present.

It's ironic that while I really can't find myself to relate to Qiong Yao's old school series because Liu Xue Hua is old enough to be my mother, I still find the soundtrack nice to listen to. Just because I can't relate to anything that's really that old doesn't mean I couldn't enjoy the soundtrack. What's better is that with the digital age retouching a lot of old school music, you can listen to them in clear digital format than just what I'm showing above. As a person who loves classical music, I don't see any reason why I can't enjoy old school entertainment soundtrack from Qiong Yao's world. True that I usually prefer modern Chinese or Taiwanese television drama but any good quality music is good quality music. Classical music are centuries old but they're still nice to hear. With the wonders of the digital age, one can listen to old school songs with better quality than what people during their era had.

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. 

So here's what Kamen Rider EX-AID's plot is from Toei :  Plot Summary  Computer game viruses have spread in secret around the world. The virus, known as Bugstar, infects a human host before taking over the body and mutating. These Bugstar seek to undermine the world and dominate the human race. To defeat the Bugstar, a gamer Kamen Rider is needed! Humans have developed the Kamen Rider system with the power of video games to combat the Bugstar. With cooperation from the Ministry of Health and other national institutes that manage public health, the Genmu Corporation created the game machine called the Gamer Driver. By inserting the game software known as Rider Gashats into the Gamer Driver belt, the wearer becomes a Kamen Rider! Four doctors have been chosen to become Kamen Riders meant to defeat the Bugstar virus! A never seen before “Bugstar vs. Game Rider!” and “Doctor vs. Doctor!” game battle is about to kick off!!

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...