Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

Toei's bizarre experimentations with Western ideas give birth to weird villains. Professor Monster from Supaida-Man was practically inspired by Doctor Doom. Toei also took ideas from Knight Rider creating Tokkei Winspector and Kamen Rider Drive . Robocop was given two shows that gave tribute to him namely Kidou Keiji Jiban (which is getting a licensed sub release) and inspired the look for the otherwise fully mechanical titular hero of Tokosou Robo Janperson . I never bothered to write this "insignificant detail" from Kamen Rider BLACK RX .  Anybody familiar with G.I. Joe may notice that General Jark may resemble Destro. Destro later wore a gold mask and a cape and it's his Iron Grenadier uniform. I guess Toei really liked Destro's alternate outfit and created General Jark. Unlike Destro, General Jark wasn't the type to answer back to his superior Grand Lord Crisis and hated the way General Dasmader (who's actually Grand Lord Crisis' host body) treated...

  I could remember watching Kamen Rider BLACK (back when it was called Masked Rider Black in the dub and international release). I was around nine years old (and it was an IRREGULAR schedule) when it happened. Yeah, it was a child's show, alright. There was also Hikari Sentai Maskman which Takeru was dubbed as Michael Joe - a name I no longer recall fondly. The same went for Kotaro Minami's dub name Robert Akizuki - the very source of a nickname that I dubbed myself. This is one scary series that managed to be so successful that the less popular sequel, Kamen Rider BLACK RX , was born. The series was said to be meant to be a reboot. It's too obvious, right? Having watched some older Showa-era entries of Kamen Rider made that claim make sense to me. Nothing was said about Gorgom being part of Shocker. Nothing about the Great Leader barking orders as the Gorgom priests. Instead, we have the plot of the Century Kings. The two candidates are both Black Sun (hence the spin off w...

Yeah, BLACK will always be preferred over the failed sequel, right? I remembered writing about what I dislike about most Showa-era Kamen Rider entries . One of my biggest issues was the appearance of the Not-So-Great Leader who has been fortunately demoted to non-canon crossover movies. I decided to do some re-research on the Internet to find the timeline of the Showa era.  We had a Kamen Rider series as follows: The First Kamen Rider was in 1971 Kamen Rider V3 was in 1973 Kamen Rider X and Kamen Rider Amazon  were in 1974 Kamen Rider Stronger was in 1975 Kamen Rider Skyrider  was in 1979 Kamen Rider Super-1 was in 1980 In between, we had the MOVIE ONLY Kamen Rider ZX in 1981 Kamen Rider BLACK was in 1987 Kamen Rider Black RX was in 1988 One can observe the significant time lapses between certain seasons. Skyrider was a name given since it was just called The New Kamen Rider . It was meant to be a reboot but you had Neo-Shocker and the other Kamen Riders SHOWING UP. Yet, ...

I guess one can say that most of the Showa-era Kamen Rider series didn't know what to do yet. Just think of the hiatuses in-between such as when Kamen Rider Stronger and Kamen Rider Skyrider had a four-year gap. Kamen Rider Super-1 and Kamen Rider Black had a significant six-year gap after it ended. Before that, we had Kamen Rider ZX which was released on January 3, 1984, all before it was forgottten and shelved into nothing more than just a movie. It was a waste IMHO since we had Badan Empire appear, we had the Great Leader speaking, and yet all was that forgotten with how Black got introduced. Heck, I heard that Black was supposed to be its own continuity until its failed (but vindicated sequel) Kamen Rider Black RX . ZX introduced us to Shun Sugata who seldom resumed his role for a reason.  If you've watched Black RX  - you may notice the ten Kamen Riders returned. Though, we never saw Sugata in the flesh. Heck, one of the Kamen Rider actors Takehisa Yamaguchi died TWO...

  As much as I still enjoy  Kamen Rider Black RX  (and yes, it's still MILES better than that idiotic Saban's  Mashed Rider  which is best considered an Adaptation Decay) -- I still feel like criticizing it for having too many loose ends with  Kamen Rider Black . I just thought of how the series itself could have tried to tie some of its loose ends from the last pure Showa Rider to the transitional Kamen Rider which sadly didn't get a new series out after it. It's only 11 years later did Kamer Rider get a really good reboot! So how would loose ends be tied? Remember,  Black RX  was tying back to the Showa era while  Black  was intended to be its own continuity for some reason. I thought about how to tie the loose ends, especially with how  Black  ended. Here's a bit of a start that could have been done. I could start with Kyoko and Kasumi sending a letter to Kotaro telling him to fight on. He still remembers them while he works...

  It's no secret that I'm among the MINORITY who thinks that  Kamen Rider BLACK RX was watchable . Sure, I still think Kamen Rider BLACK is the better series and it was a groundbreaking one. Though fans ended up preferring BLACK over BLACK RX . The decision was to create two versions of Kotaro Minami - one version never became BLACK RX (much to the pleasure of fans) and the other that did (which is more likely canon). BLACK was supposed to be an entirely new Kamen Rider with a reimagining of Shocker (as Gorgom), the Creation King as a separate entity from the Great Leader  (who has been reduced to a butt monkey now), and the introduction of the first official evil Kamen Rider in Shadow Moon. Shadow Moon proved popular among fans that he does make a few occasional returns, an A.R. version of Shadow Moon exists, and he's practically the godfather of the evil Kamen Rider trend.  Granted, this year is the 35th anniversary of Kamen Rider BLACK . I felt that BLACK deserve...

  Some time ago, I wrote about why I don't like most of the Showa-era Kamen Rider series . Sure, I could still say that Kamen Rider BLACK RX is still more watchable than the "spiritual successor" of Saban's Mashed Rider  - Kamen Rider Decade . Right now, I could talk about what I dislike about most of the Showa era Kamen Rider entries. Most of these series rely too much on previous seasons - pretty much like how most Power Rangers series are guilty of doing so. Hmmm... not too surprising since both are properties of Toei Ltd., right? The running gag called the Great Leader got too old too quickly I remembered a complaint I had against Power Rangers Beast Morphers was how the whole show threw back to everything back to 1993 and 2009. It wasn't all too surprising that Evox was actually Venjix under another identity. Now, I could talk about the Showa-era Kamen Rider series and their tendency to be overly connected to each other. Sure, a few series aren't directly...

  What I missed was that  The First Kamen Rider  celebrated its 50th anniversary last April 3, 2021. Yup, the show first premiered in 1971 and became a hit that lasted for two years. Like  Himitsu Sentai Goranger  in 1975 - it was a monster hit that Toei Ltd. didn't want to end immediately until they decided that having a yearly change was for the best. However, the Kamen Rider franchise wasn't exactly on a better road during the Showa era. A history of the show's run will tell us how the show was in a constant struggle during the Showa era. The popularity of  The First Kamen Rider  created  Kamen Rider V3  as a sequel. Unlike  The First Kamen Rider  -  V3  would be just a year-long.  V3  was quickly followed up by  Kamen Rider X  (which lasted for 35 episodes),  Kamen Rider Amazon  (which lasted for only 24 episodes), and  Kamen Rider Stronger  (which lasted for only 39 episodes). A...

Toku has a lot of weird logic going on. While trying to enjoy the rather boring (at least for me) Showa era Riders - I do end up thinking of some badass scenes. Kamen Rider Stronger and later Kamen Rider Skyrider featured both Megazord-sized foes in the form of the Great Leader's two decoys. The Great Leader used a rock giant in Stronger and a dragon form in Skyrider which both could've easily been defeated by a giant Megazord driven by either a Super Sentai team or a Power Rangers team but would have easily crushed the Kamen Riders. What's so badass about it? I really think about it that Kamen Rider wasn't a show meant to fight giant monsters. The monsters are all human-sized yet there's the occasion when they are given problems too big for them to handle and emerge victorious in the end. I really find it funny (or stupid) to why we had these scenes. Are they trying to show off how great the Kamen Riders have become at the end to handle a Megazord-sized problem t...

My preferences for old school and new school stuff will always be a mixed bag. It's known that I usually prefer old school Super Sentai over the new school Super Sentai. All the while, I end up preferring the new school Kamen Rider series over the new school Super Sentai. The more I watch the Heisei era Kamen Riders -- I realized that's probably the only old-school Kamen Rider that I'd watch! Then I'd like to write a flashback of sorts with old-school Kamen Rider . Yup, that was the 90s when Kamen Rider was on an indefinite hiatus until I'd turn 15 years old! I remembered those toys being spread there all the while the only Kamen Rider series I got familiar with was Kamen Rider Black followed up by its rather underperforming sequel Kamen Rider Black RX . I always looked at the toys in the toy store and I wanted them all. Not all of them had really cool features. Some of them were probably old stock such as the Kamen Rider vinyl figures. I remembered co...