Past Rider Actors Expressed Their Thoughts About Shigeru Araki’s Passing.
It’s very sad to be typing this entry, so I’m going to keep it short.
Araki Shigeru, most known amongst tokusatsu circles as having played Jou Shigeru/Kamen Rider Stronger passed away on the 13th April.
As I said in my comment on orend’s blog, the world is much poorer for his loss.
Well… 46 minutes into OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let’s Go Kamen Riders, and if this is the reason why the authorities at Toei wanted to cut back on using previous Riders in Fourze and successive shows, then I can’t say I blame them.
So far it’s not a patch on All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker.
I suppose I should award points for the fact that General Shadow from Stronger appears… but seeing as I’d completely forgotten who he was as he’s such a last-minute-head-villain, I don’t think I really can.
(via seiji982)
Apparently I need to look at my LJ friends list more often…
Again, NSFW, but おぷりんす has recently posted two variants of a portrait of Tackle and it’s pretty awesome/suggestive stuff:
[SPOILERS, again, for Chou Den-o...and a bit of DCD and speculation on one aspect of the August DCD movie]
Kiva is the first item on the agenda. That’s what, three, four times outside of his arc now? Again, I have to wonder how much Kiva merchandise Bandai have left over from last year that they hope to shift. I was also surprised to find out that two characters from Kiva are turning up in the new Chou Den-o franchise – it’s really beginning to feel like Kamen Rider has become the testing ground for elements Toei hope to include in their spin-off franchise.
But enough of the complaints, let’s talk about this episode and let’s talk about what was good about it: for starters it was an improvement on the first part of the Den-o arc, secondly, I’m firmly of the opinion that the inclusion of Momotaros as an actual character improves anything. Even if part of the way in which he was used seemed somewhat random to me, I will fully admit that he was one of my favourite things about the original series and, quite possibly, one of my favourite things regarding the entire Heisei era. Kintaros comes a close second but as far as I’m concerned, Momo is the Imajin man.
People who aren’t the man are, obviously, girls and, speaking of which, it’s hard not to see that the actress who plays Kohana has grown a lot since I last saw her in the abysmal Climax Deka. She’s still not a patch on the original Hana but, considering she was a quick-fix for Shiratori Yuriko‘s absence, I wonder what Toei will do when they finally realise that their new girl is now a teenager and unable to play the same Kohana they originally foisted upon the series.
The other girls who primarily do nothing during this story are sadly, Natsumi and Naomi. The latter I didn’t expect much storyline for but I was hoping that the former might get a bit more, especially considering the whole End of the World sequence in the last episode. Perhaps, however, this was asking too much as the second part of Rider World arcs are always crammed with the majority of the action so there was never really much room for her here.
I won’t pretend to understand the whole DenLiner Form card vs. Momotaros Form card in this episode, but I am pleased to see Yuusuke as Kuuga once more and even more pleased to see Kuuga and Momo as a team – even if the Final Attack Ride card for this episode was a bit weird even by DCD‘s standards.
"Don't cross the streams!"
Undeniably though, my favourite aspect of the episode was Diend’s use of the RiotTroopers from Faizu. Mass-produced armour characters are one of my favourite aspects of this kind of show (quick, spot the Gundam fan!) and so it was great to them here – plus, their inclusion amongst Diend’s deck and the appearance of RiderMan in the trailer for All Riders vs. Daishocker (or whatever it’s called), gives me faith that maybe, just maybe, we might get to see an AU version of Tackle in that film.
"I Predict a Riot."
To wrap up, despite being an improvement on the previous episode, I still felt there was a lot lacking in #15. This wasn’t helped by the ‘two-ending’ phenomenon – i.e., having to have an ending for the arc and then having to bolt on a continuation point for the rest of the Onigashima Battleship movie and the necessary DCD cameos in that. I could have done without that.
I am however, believing that things will be back on track next week. I couldn’t stomach the Stronger!lite stylings of the Hibiki killing team of Inoue Toshiki and Yonemura Shoji scripted Kabuto and avoided watching even the opening episode for so long due to feelings of resentment towards Toei. In the opening episode of that series, I found little to convince me to follow the show – I’m hoping that Aikawa Sho (the writer, not *the* actor) will be able to bring the source material alive for me.
If anything though, I’m just pleased to be back in the realms of a storyline without tie-in considerations.
"Tackle lays down on the job"
Super Hero Retsuden keeps getting better and better. Whilst I still think that it’s too much to expect cameos from Skull Man or Suipadaman (especially the latter!) the fact that Tackle makes an appearance and is a playable character is several hundred kinds of awesomeness.
"What? Lifetime membership to Tachibana Racing Club you say?"
Meanwhile, speaking of Skull Man, I updated 日々冒険 not five minutes ago with brief comments about the first episode of the 2007 Skull Man anime and the 2006 adaptation of Ishinomori’s 009-1 featuring idol, actress and Godzilla movie franchise veteran Shaku Yumiko.
In other news, this morning I have spent most of time re-watching Kuuga, the original Kamen Rider and Faizu…I’ve warmed a lot to Kuuga simply because of Yuusuke the 2nd in DCD; the original Rider series is still a classic, like a cross between The Man from UNCLE and Godzilla – pure genius, especially with Hong Kong subs; Faizu is still just a boring as ever. It’s like everything Andrew Cartmel tried to do with the last series of Seventh Doctor era Doctor Who…but wrong. My wife gave it a more favourable review due to its pacing being so much like that of a standard drama. I, however, disliked it immensely due to its pacing being so much like that of a standard drama.
And now I’m off to watch DCD!
Having got the game as a freebie in Akiba last November, I finally sat down, removed the Capcom vs. SNK disc from my beloved Dreamcast and fired up Super Hero Retsuden. Having done thus, I have to say there really isn’t much to say.
The game covers high-points in the runs of several Ishinomori helmed tokusatsu series, the most significant (and arguably well known) being Kamen Rider and Himitsu Sentai GoRanger. The game doesn’t really have massive amounts of playability. If, like me, you have cobbled together some understanding of Japanese from tokusatsu/anime/very patient Japanese friends and Chinese study then you sit there reading on screen dialogue and then face down a series of famous villains plus goons on a grid until they are dead, after which point you save and progress.
60hz + blurry camera = WTF
What recommends this game is the crossover potential. Like DCD, the premise is flimsy and elicits a squee when it pans out on screen, even in the Super Deformed art style of the game.
For this reason – and the promise of unlocking Stronger – I’m going to continue to play through the game because, let’s face it, who doesn’t want to see a Henshin Ninja Arashi and Kamen Rider Stronger team up?
My only disappointment is the fact that neither Skull Man or Tackle appear to be in it…and even though he isn’t an Ishinomori character, I would have loved to have seen Spider-Man turn up in this.
Speaking of whom: Watch the Japanese Spider-Man TV Series on Marvel.com.
Title: Dress Code
Era/Series: Kamen Rider DCD, elements of Kamen Rider Stronger
Pairing/Characters: Hikari Natsumi, Kadoya Tsukasa
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Length: 386 words
Disclaimer: All characters created and owned by Ishinomori Pro, Toei and Bandai
Summary: Natsumi finds her wardrobe on a certain world outside of the canonical nine is far from her liking.
note: Blame tallforadwarf for this.
Pimp: If you like this, you might want to consider buying Sophistry. (^_^);
Read it here.
