Angels, according to the Japanese

How would you describe an angel? You probably will think about a holy humanoid creature with wings, a messenger from God, sometimes bearing a halo on top, and wearing basic cloth/medieval style clothing. Angels are sometimes portrayed as having holy powers and weapons.

Well, forget about those. In 2010, angels need cards to henshin and use their powers. They wear helmets and spandex, and each are color coded. The use cards to summon weapons. Oh, did I mention they also have a robot? And who are they fighting? Aliens. Oh course, they appeared in Japan only. LOL. Yeah, that's basically the description of 2010 Super Sentai, GoSeiger. Really, the story is that they're angels (which is somewhat ironic considering GoSei Pink is a gravure idol... LOL).


Well, their henshin sequence is kinda neat, with wings and lights from heaven... LOL.
So what's the story? Well, apparently angels have been protecting earth. But now we have aliens trying to conquer earth. Obviously to minimize any resistance, they damaged the angels' headquarters. Fortunately, there are 5 angels in-training that are on earth for their training. Without access/help from HQ, these 5 young angels are earth's only hope to fight the aliens.

As I suspected, the cards made everything corny. Again, ONORE DIKEIDO!!! Following Kamen Rider's trend of using cards, GoSeiger is the first Sentai that focus on the cards. In fact, they focus too much on the cards. Everything the GoSeigers do require cards, from henshin, summoning weapons, summoning guns, anything. Even in the first episode, it's already shown that this card business can backfire, where they were attacked while trying to put their cards into their changers. LOL. It's unfortunate that this is the decision TOEI made to ensure toys sales. Super Sentai have been great lately, with Go-Onger and Shinkenger. I hope GoSeiger can continue the trend. I don't know if I would get used to the cards though.

Kamen Rider W, My Impression So Far

Kamen Rider W started with a weird premise, where 2 guys henshin into 1 rider. In the beginning, I smell yaoi-ness aplenty. I even made this video:

The Difference Between Kamen Rider Showa Era & Heisei Era

Fast forward, Kamen Rider W is actually a pretty decent show. No yaoi-ness I could see. Even better, it feels really like a detective J-Dorama, with tokusatsu mixed in. I really love the show. Funny and entertaining.

But then guess who showed up. A new Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Accel, Ryu Terui. Not only the design is a stark contrast from W (he looks like a cheap toy design, unlike W's smooth design), he can transform. Yup, another transformrider, the bad trend started by Decade. ONORE DIKEIDO!!! Really, I just hate this Transformers Riders stuff. It's just weird (Kuuga's head being flipped, firing arrow from Kiva's crotch, etc). Kamen Rider is supposed to be "human," not Transformers. Well, Kamen Rider Accel can transform into a motorcycle. Well, okay, the transformation isn't as weird as the other Riders in Decade, but I still think it's fishy. Well, guess what, in episode 22, Accel gets a new weapon, the Gunner A. It's a tank, and Accel in his motorcycle form can combine with it. That sounds fine, until you see how they combined. Watch this video I made:

Kamen Rider Accel + Gunner A - Click here for more free videos

Yeah, you be the judge.
What were the producers and director thinking? That's just bad design. I mean come on, really? I hope they don't do that often in future episodes.

Edit: Youtube suspended my account for unknown reason. If there was a TOS violation, usually they simply disabled/deleted the video and gave me a warning. Now, my account just went poof. I'm uploading the video to metacafe.

Decade Leap (Quantum Leap parody)

I got the idea when stumbling on Quantum Leap's theme song. LOL.

Tsukasa Kadoya, suffering from partial amnesia and awoke in a world that is not his own. Trapped, Tsukasa finds himself leaping from world to world, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home.

Final Attack Ride... De..De..De..Decade!!

Final Attack Ride... Di..Di..Di..DiEnd!!

Decade vs Kuuga: A bunch of fools

LOL. I found these pics in forums. Apparently Masahiro Inoue (Kamen Rider Decade) and Ryouta Murai (Kamen Rider Kuuga: DCD ver) have been fooling around, parodying Decade's transforming into another rider, ...


...and Decade Complete Form's finisher. Hilarious!




Glad to see the actors are having fun! LOL

J-Dorama: Hancho

Yet another detective/mystery dorama. Hancho is like the complete opposite of Boss. The leader (Namikiri from Zettai Kareshi), is a kind and soft-spoken leader, the cases are a bit simpler, and slower pacing. Not as exciting as Boss, but oh well, a nice filler while waiting for other doramas to be fansubbed.

Of course, there's Kamen Rider connection here too, although they're just supporting characters. There's Kamen Rider Hibiki as a patrolman, and in episode 2, Kamen Rider Knight as a guest star (also Kirihara from Keitai Sousakan 7)

Update: LOL. The Kamen Rider connection didn't stop there. Kamen Rider Agito is actually in here too, as one of the main casts. I truly didn't recognize him. I mean come on, short black hair? Definitely not a recognizable trait, right? LOL. (He had long colored hair in Agito, like normal Japanese person... LOL). So, Agito, Hibiki, and 1 episode of Knight.

Futatsu no Spica & BOSS

I just finished watching Akai Ito. Need to watch different doramas with lighter theme. By the way, a lot of the problems in many sad/depressing life doramas could've been prevented with a condom (referring to the teen pregnancy theme in Akai Ito and Koizora). Geez.

Anyway, here's a new one, Futatsu no Spica. Apparently it's from a manga/anime.

Another dorama, another story. This one is about students studying to become astronauts. Doesn't seem like a fun storyline, does it. Well, how about this:
Nakagawa Sara decided to leave her old life & memories (she lost her memories anyway in Akai Ito) and pursue her dream becoming an astronaut. At the National Tokyo Aerospace School, she met Kamen Rider Zeronos who shares the same dream. With their other classmates, they have to face tough challenges provided by Tomine Issei (the wine critic from Kami no Shizuku), a seemingly mean instructor. Oh, then there's the 3rd son from Atashinchi no Danshi playing water rockets (I don't know the story about him yet, still on the 1st episode).

LOL, yeah, after a while, it seems that I'm seeing the same actors/actresses again and again in dorama. Oh, and it seems every dorama now has a Kamen Rider connection.

Speaking of recurring actors, A-kun (from Akai Ito) decided to leave Mei-chan and joined a detective team in BOSS.

A funny mystery dorama. The main lady detective is a profiler, but due to the discrimination against police women, she is given a team of people with questionable qualities. However, they always managed to solve the mysteries. Very fun dorama.

仮面ライダーダークカブト☆ゲッダン☆

Well, I decided to join in the Get Down meme, using a stop motion of Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto action figure. Enjoy:


This is my first attempt in making stop motion animation, and yeah, stop motion is quite tedious. Basically I took a couple pictures of the figure in different poses. At first, I tried iMovie09. Well, the meme requires the stop motion to be pretty fast. iMovie09 doesn't allow picture slideshow to be faster than 1 second per picture. The fast forward effect is not available for slideshows either. Tried iPhoto, no luck. Finally, I decided to dust up the old iMovie HD (iMovie06). Luckily I still keep a copy when Apple offered them for free. iMovie HD allows very short duration for pictures. Perfect. I created the stop motion video using iMovie HD, and did the final editing with everything else in iMovie09.

Kamen Rider Decade Funny Clips

Natsumikan is probably Decade's most powerful enemy.

To be honest, I'm getting disappointed with Decade.
1. In the 1st episode, Seto Koji appeared, reprising his role as Wataru. As a fan, that makes me think they might bring the main casts form the previous series, making Decade like a reunion series, like the annual Super Sentai versus where new casts meet the old casts. Alas, that's not the case. So far, all the other Rider's world are alternate universe, and no cameos at all. Even Kiva's world episodes didn't have Seto Koji in it. Forget about Mizushima Hiro returning as Kabuto then, he's probably too busy with his new marriage and movie. Also, no Takeru Sato in the Super Den-O and Decade movie either. No Kento Handa in the Faiz world either (even though he appeared in Go-Onger).
2. Kamen Rider Decade started with a bang, the Rider War. All the special effects and CG you can think of is in the 1st episode. Fast forward, now they have to use a freakin in-animated toy for Kivala. It was so obvious that it's just a toy with a string. Very embarrassing for a show that have been using CGs heavily, especially for the Final From Ride transformations.
3. Decade can use a Final Form Ride card, and "transform" any of the riders into a weapon or some sort. WTF? It's just weird. This is not Transformers. This is obviously a ploy to sell toys.

The belt is very neat though, but you have to buy the other toys to get more cards.
Good thing that Shinkenger seems to be a better show.

Kanpai Je t'aime

I was browsing youtube for Kamen Rider videos, and found this Pure Boys PV.

2 casts from Kamen Rider Kiva are members of the group {Nago Keisuke (Kamen Rider IXA) and Otoya (Wataru's father/IXA/Dark Kiva)}. It's a PV of one of Pure Boys music, Kanpai Je t'aime. It's actually their first album in 2007.

Well, hmmm, I was thinking. This song sounds so familiar, and I don't think it was Japanese. Hmmm, I think it was... Korean. Yup, this is actually a cover of a Korean song from, guess when, 1999! The original song is "Com' Back" by Sechskies.

Hey, I like J-Pop, but c'mon, covering a Korean song from 8 years ago? And the dance? You think the Pure Boys' dance is good? I don't think they could handle the way Sechskies did it. Here's Sechskies from 1999:

Yeah, a bit more energetic, no? LOL.

BTW, you can get the Pure Boys song "Kanpai Je t'aime" from iTunes, amazing.

Update: Updated the Sechskies video youtube link. the old one was gone.

Kamen Rider Kiva ended, and Kamen Rider Decade starts

Kamen Rider Kiva has ended. The previous 2 episodes before the finale were pretty grim. The final episode definitely tried to turn things around to a happier end, obviously since Kamen Rider is a kids show. Taiga actually didn't kill Maya, he (the scene) faked it. Wataru and Taiga are friends again, and teamed up to defeat the reincarnation of the previous Fangire King. Nago-kun miraculously got his eyesight back, and married Megumi. The last episode brought more closure than previous Kamen Rider series, although there are still a lot of things unexplained (what happened to Sagarc? What's the history of Kivat?). The final episode should've just ended with Nago's wedding. Instead, they have Wataru's son + Kivat 4th(?) and future Fangire attacking, creating an endless ending.

The series started pretty weak. Usually, I find the actors of previous Kamen Rider series to be quite believable that they were the ones under the Kamen Rider costume too (In reality, the person under the Kamen Rider suits are not the actors themselves). Wataru is the first Kamen Rider that is quite obvious that a stunt man is under the Kiva costume. I mean Kouji Seto (the actor playing Wataru), is super skinny, while Kiva is obviously quite muscular. Also, Wataru's shy personality is a complete contrast of Fangire fighting Kiva. The only draw of the show for me in the beginning was the 80s storyline. Otoya is simply hilarious, overshadowing Wataru himself. Nago + IXA seems to be more interesting than Wataru, but of course Nago is only a supporting character, thus the character was dumbed down in the middle, becoming the slapstick humor. Kengo is an unnecessary distraction. He's not even relevant in the last couple episodes. I definitely hated his character when he became emo and stole IXA from Nago. The show got better and more interesting when Taiga was introduced, then Mio becoming a selfish Queen. Bishop is another awesome character, and freaky too! The best and strongest episodes were definitely the 2 episodes before the finale. Overall, it's an okay Kamen Rider series, but definitely underwhelming compared to the likes of Kuuga and Den-O. It's less confusing then 555/Ryuuki/Kabuto, and has a few powerful and funny scenes. Kiva's henshin belt is not as cool as Kabuto's. I think Den-O was definitely more enjoyable since they're simply hilarious, and didn't pretend not to.

The next Kamen Rider Series is Decade. The first episode is already on Youtube, unsubbed. Just on the first episode, Decade already henshin into 3 major Kamen Rider, Kabuto, Faiz, and Hibiki, complete with Kabuto's clock up. They definitely didn't hold back as Decade is the 10th anniversary of the Heisei Kamen Rider series. Below is the henshin scenes in the first episode, and I already want the belt!


Don't forget the OP, sung by Gackt.

I hope they can bring previous Kamen Rider actors as it will excite the fans, especially Hiro Mizushima as Kabuto, Kento Handa as Faiz, the supporting riders like Knight from Ryuuki, Zeronos from Den-O, Blade, and maybe even Shouwa riders or Kamen Rider The First! Alas, we already know that Joe Odagiri won't be Kuuga. Hopefully it will be an exciting show. KAMEN RIDE.... DECADE!!

Kamen Rider Cosplay

Okay, I'm a Kamen Rider fan, but these guys are more than just fans. I found these pics on a forum, some guys cosplaying Kamen Rider IXA, Kuuga, and Hibiki. Their costumes are quite awesome! Anyway, whoever you guys are, those are really cool, especially Rising IXA. LOL

Hanakimi SP

Where can you watch Kamen Rider Kabuto (Mizushima Hiro), Kamen Rider Sasword (Yamamoto Yusuke), Kamen Rider IXA (Kato Keisuke), and Bouken Red (Takahashi Mitsuomi) on a same show? It's Hanakimi (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e). I knew those actors as cool characters on their respective tokusatsu shows, so watching them become goofy characters in hanakimi is hilarious.

Here's the cool Mizushima Hiro as Tendou Souji (Kamen Rider Kabuto):

And in Hanakimi as Nanba senpai, getting a kiss from a guy: LOL


And here's Kato Keisuke as the cool Nago Keisuke (Kamen Rider IXA):

And in Hanakimi, dressed as a ballerina... LOL

Anime & tokusatsu from my childhood

Youtube is a great place to find old anime clips. These ones are some of them that I watched when I was a kid. It's funny when my friends and I here were discussing what we're watching on TV when we were kids. Many of them mentioned Mr. Rogers. As for me, I was like "who is Mr. Rogers? I was watching Goggle V and Kamen Rider Black." LOL.

Gyavan (1982): (my first tokusatsu show. Gyavan is still the coolest! We were always amazed how awesome his dragon robot was)


Goggle V (1982): (my first Super Sentai show. Yup, everybody around my age from my country know what Goggle V is, everybody)


Go-shogun (1981):


God-Sigma (1980): (man, I really loved this anime's songs when I was a kid)


Thunderbid 2086/Technovoyager (1982): (Probably my first exposure to dubbed anime without realizing it. I knew it was Japanese in origin, but didn't realize the dub. I never even watch the original Japanese one. The OP of the dubbed seems cooler, thankfully they still use the Japanese music minus the vocals)
Thunderbird 2086:

Technovoyager:


And of course, my first exposure to Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Black (1987). I didn't even know that it was Kamen Rider. LOL.


Some of my friends always ask why I keep watching those "power rangers" shows, referring to Japanese Super Sentai (no, I swear I won't watch any more crappy Power Rangers crap). Well, looking at the shows above, I can see why I still like tokusatsu shows. Plus, now I'm aware that tokusatsu shows are entertaining all ages, if you know what I mean. :)

Thailand's Sport Ranger

Found it via Youtube, Thailand's local super sentai, 2006.


Aside from seemingly out-of-place CGIs, looks quite corny (reminded me of super sentai series in early 80s), but at least it's original, unlike the stupid Power Rangers.

On the bright side, there is a rumor that Power Rangers is going to be animated, alias a cartoon. That could mean no more super sentai bastardizations! AWESOME! Alas, there is another thorn growing, the Kamen Rider Ryuuki copycat, stupid Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.