Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Well, it's confirmed that Kamen Rider Zero-One has indeed done its filming. Right now, I'm even wondering about the future of my episode reviews since I don't intend to do them forever. Also, remember I don't give magazine scans or updates - I REACT to updates like I'm doing to right now. So there are five more episodes of Zero-One left and September 6, 2020,  will be the time for the arrival of the new Kamen Rider Saber . Yes, the second Reiwa era Kamen Rider will be born. The plot and details are given by UkiyaSeed : The series will focus on two worlds colliding due to the actions of the enemy faction named Megiddo. These two worlds are our world, and a world based on fairy tales and fantasy.  Touma Kamiyama (played by Shuichiro Naito) is a novelist and the owner of the Fantastic Kamiyama Bookstore. Passionate about books, he can't stop talking about it once he gets started. He also has a heated side and values a promise above all else. He becomes Kamen Rider...

Well, for some people, the title Pride and Prejudice is a reference to Jane Austen's novel from the 1800s. No, it's not even a direct adaptation or remake or whatever. The novel did make a cameo in early episodes but it's hardly a novel of three daughters. Rather, it's about lawyers and prosecutors who are dealing with two issues that get along in their work - hence the title! Director Kim Jin-Min and writer Lee Hyun Joo try their best to balance serious themes with occasional comedy (hence the first episode) in contrast to the dark world of Orion Cinema Network. Yup, Choi Jin Hyuk appears as prosecutor who runs into his on/off love interest played by Baek Jin Hee. Jin Hee is rather plain-looking but she delivers when she needs too. Also, there are some mysteries from the time the main characters Dong Chi and Yul Moo were children. There's some gray morality when Mr. Moon is hard to classify. Actor Choi Min Soo plays Mr. Moon rather well. You get irritated with M...

Maybe, one of the biggest reasons why I'm not so fond of the old-school Showa Rider era (and ironically, I tend to embrace the Showa era Sentai like it's so good because of Hirohisa Soda) is the presence of the Great Leader. Right now, I just want to call him the Great LOSER because every guest appearance he makes in the Heisei Rider crossover films just has him getting humiliated one after the other. He was a coward at best who ended up abandoning ship or remaining hidden whenever the finale approached. The first Kamen Rider series had Ichigo and Nigo discovering that there was just a decoy with a bomb. Kamen Rider V3 had a skeleton with a tape recorder. He seemed to have sent a lot of decoys. He also claimed responsibility for the existence of Geddon, Garanda Empire, and was last seen in Neo-Shocker. Badan Empire from the movie-only Kamen Rider ZX had that skull imagery taunting the Riders. Kame Rider BLACK RX apparently ended him. Yup, I think BLACK RX's lack of popul...

There's one thing we can't deny that Kamen Rider Zero-One is indeed a reboot. Yet, the title also has a big throwback to the 1971 show called Kamen Rider (which was later renamed as Kamen Rider the First ). The first Kamen Rider was later called Ichigo meaning one. Kamen Rider Zero-One can also be spelled as Kamen Rider 01 and we read 01 by the numbers like how Cyborg 009 (also a creation of Shotaro Ishinomori) is read as Cyborg Double-Nine . This would be quite a bit of a bigger tribute to the classic Big Bad villain the Great Leader (who's but now the Great Buttmonkey for the Heisei crossover movies). I don't think newer school fans of Kamen Rider would be too familiar with how the Showa era works. For starters, the Showa era had one running gag where the Big Bad always escaped one way or another. Kamen Rider the First had Ichigo and Nigo finding out that they were beaten by a decoy. Kamen Rider V3 (starring the ever-iconic Hiroshi Miyauchi) later found a plasti...

It doesn't matter how much I like a show - I'll usually love to nitpick it. You may notice that I've become such a nitpicker, right? Have to admit that I didn't really care too much about storytelling as long as I've had stupid reasons for something. Kamen Rider Zero One is really what I'd call a show that had some interesting stuff going on such as the Ark plot. I was expecting the Ark to finally show up and now it's showed up. But now, it's time to tackle on one part of the show that I thought is becoming a bad turn. Yes, I'm talking about Gai Amatsu/Kamen Rider Thouser who was originally showing signs of becoming a magnificent bastard of a villain - only for him to be suddenly shifted aside in favor of The Ark. I mean, I thought the guy was already becoming more irredeemable with a lot of stuff he did. I mean, he did mess up with Isamu and Yua, right? Then the latest development is just well, I can't decide on it. Writer Yuya Takahashi see...

I was thinking about a bunch of salty weeaboos crying foul over the rise of K-Pop. Not that I'm defending the sasaeng or koreaboo culture either. I decided to do some research about the craze. It's no secret that Modern Japan had a lot to contribute in different areas. Can you imagine life today without rice cookers especially in this day and age? Can you imagine if Philips didn't team up with Toshiba and Sony to make the first DVD technology and other stuff we enjoy in the digital age? Can you imagine what if the Manga comics weren't created? Manhwa from Taiwan and South Korea would've never been born either. It's no secret either that Japanese entertainment has influenced Chinese, South Korea, and Taiwanese entertainment . Why did J-Pop eventually get overshadowed by K-Pop? Why did Japan the country that gave us a lot of innovative concepts like Marie Kondo's tips and the 5S methodology from Japan now get overshadowed by South Korean pop culture? I dec...

I remembered the first time I saw Jin A Nana were in two really serious TV series namely Kill It and Justice . After two serious roles, she's ended up in a lighthearted show where she's anything but like her two previous characters. Instead, she's an unemployed social activist for change named Se-Ra who's at odds with Gong-Myung (Park Sung-Hoon, who also played the main antagonist in Justice ) who knew each other since childhood. The two are reunited in a lighthearted comedy. Se Ra wants to be an activist for change and tries to run for councilor in this current ONGOING TV series.  I have to admit it's really hard to accept Nana is acting as a comedic character as Se Ra (I wonder if dubbing this series will get her named Sarah). Gong Myung is a jerk who presumably had a crush on her since childhood. They do have some tensions. In Se Ra's case, she has a very screwed-up life with an irresponsible mother and she's someone who's overly aggressive in he...