Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

One of my most nostalgic moments was when I actually took a momentary break from Tokusatsu. It's something to think about that back in my College days, I still think about the moments I wanted to take a short break from Tokusatsu as a whole. There was a time I wanted to see more Tokusatsu even as an adult. Later, I thought that sometimes taking a short break from what you like is necessary when taste fatigue develops. Super Sentai has been there for 40 years and after some time I wanted to focus on nothing but Super Sentai (even I didn't want to check out more Kamen Rider whether it was Showa or Heisei) but the inevitable arrived. It's Super Sentai taste fatigue. Eating too much of one's favorite food can develop taste fatigue you know. The first time I took a rather short break from Tokusatsu was so last decade. The invasion of Taiwanese, Japanese and South Korean TV drama was a huge hit. I remembered watching Meteor Garden and I got magnetized into TV dramas th...

It's already 2016 and yet I still can't forget why I really don't bother to rewatch most of Kamen Rider Decade except for the crossover with Shinkenger. Decade felt like an interesting concept. It's the tenth entry of the Heisei era of Kamen Rider hence its name. It was going to feature other Riders but instead we have Alternate Reality. The more I watched the show the more I just wanted to think about it, "Well Saban's Masked Rider made its return with a sequel. It's got better acting, special effects, action scenes and it's no cheap flick. On the other hand, the writing is almost as bad if not it's just as bad as Saban's Masked Rider!" That's why I love to call Decade as the pseudo-sequel of Saban's Masked Rider. The only redeeming point the show has had is with its crossover with Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and nothing more. I almost didn't watch it because I thought Mako was going to get sick. Fortunately, she wasn't s...

It's no joke that Kamen Rider EX-AID gets me EX-cited (pun intended). I started the first four episodes and it's pretty standard with all the necessary introduction and, "Buy our toys." At the same time, there's this mysterious black version of EX-AID known as Gemn who's aligned with the Bugsters. The show introduced newer concepts with Kamen Rider such as combining video game skills with saving patients while the show's theme is to save patients without using continues. Because in real life, there are NO continues.   The show addresses the medical field. It presents the moral dilemma from cop shows and medical shows. The latest episode features Hoji Emu's being too soft while his rival doctor Hiryu Kagami/Kamen Rider Brave is too focused on getting the job done. I feel that both Hoji and Kiryu are meant to display different principles to why people are in the medical field. Hoji has a lot to learn on what it means to balance one's life as...

I've just finished watching Uncontrollably Fond while waiting for more releases of the weekly Zyuohger, Kamen Rider EX-AID and hopefully more Changeman, Flashman, Timeranger and Janperson subs will be coming out. But I could talk about the 20 episode series with each episode ranging up to one hour. The plot of Uncontrollably Fond involves Kim Woo Bin as Shin Joon Yong who does a pretty good job playing as a stuck up jerk who still has some goodness left within. Joon Yong has brain cancer and he's doing his best to survive. He's estranged from his mother who has some mental issues, trying to keep all her feelings to herself and his biological father has no idea that he exists. Suzy Bae plays Noh Eul a producer who tends to be money hungry just so she could support her younger brother. I admit though letting Suzy play a 28 year old character when she's only 22 feels awkward. It's like as if Samhwa Networks could have phoned Maaya Uchida for a little more age accura...

While watching South Korean drama, I could remember how some Super Sentai seasons were purposely skipped because they were "too Japanese". These shows are Hurricanger and Shinkenger but they're airing Ninninger. Ninninger had a South Korean idol named Shin appeared in one episode of Ninninger. Did any Toku fans who also watch K-Drama notice it? I simply didn't but I thought he was familiar. I thought he was just a Japanese guy who looked like the actor. Just like Taiwanese TV drama, South Korean TV Drama also localizes or adapts Japanese shows. That is where they base the script of the show on an existing Anime or Manga then they produce localized versions of the characters. One example was City Hunter which was based on both an Anime and a Manga. The story got Koreanized for South Koreans with everything filmed from scratch. The setting and just about everything was given for Korean audiences. There's no reliance of a single footage from the Anime or J-Drama as ...

While not all of the Heisei Kamen Riders are that good, some are better and some come out pretty bad for me. As of late, I noticed I don't feel much of a generation gap or any of that gap at all. While post-Go-Busters Super Sentai season may leave me that feeling of having a generation gap, I don't feel it with Kamen Rider. Even if I didn't like ToQGer's crossover with Kamen Rider Gaim but I still feel like the latter fit me more. So what's the issue? From Japan Info , here's what it says about Kamen Rider: With different themes for every installment, Toei made the story line quite dramatic with unexpected events and plot twists to cater to older audiences, while at the same time making the series as educational as possible so that the kids in the audience will learn something after watching the series. Taking latest Kamen Rider GHOST as an example, the theme of Rider power-ups (a Rider’s special abilities) have been based on famous historical beings (eg. N...

As much as I don't like Ninninger for how it turned out but I thought the ideas revolving around the Final Shuriken and the Last Ninja aren't bad ideas. Just that, Super Sentai may have been trying to stay afloat after ratings dropped from Go-Busters up to ToQGer according to  @Wiki . I thought about this one... Naomi Takebe was responsible for some of my favorite Kamen Riders namely Kamen Rider Kiva, Kamen Rider OOO and Kamen Rider Gaim. For Go-Busters, I would think she's got her lackluster performance there and even if I'm among a few who like the series, you can't deny that she's not cut out for Super Sentai. Yamaji Touha/Jiraiya appeared, as a guest star in Ninninger as the main event. Metal Hero had one ninja themed show, Super Sentai had already three ninja themed shows but Kamen Rider had no official ninja themed Kamen Rider. I think it would be good to try and revive the ideas of the Final Shuriken and Last Ninja in another Kamen Rider battle royale ...