Tokusatsu

[madhair60]

damn, the one I was recommended above has no seeds. I'll try to get into a tracker. thanks.

[Spiteface]

is there anywhere to download this stuff? like a dedicated site, tracker?

krdl.moe

You need to register before you can download anything, but a LOT of stuff is there.

Sentai, Kamen Rider, Ultraman and stuff outside of those like Metal Hero shows. Even stuff that got "licensed" (a godsend if you're a UK fan)

As far as new stuff, most of the groups doing the current "Super Hero Time"* shows (King-Ohger, Kamen Rider Geats) tend to have their torrents on nyaa.si.

* - Super Hero Time being the name of the Sunday morning programming block that Super Sentai and Kamen Rider run in.

[madhair60]

well this rules! cheers spitey.

[letsgobrian]

Only just realised that Kamen Rider Ziin in Kamen Rider Geats is played by the lead kid in Yuichi Fukuda's bonkers Kid's Police project (it's like Detective Conan except it's an entire police department that's turned into children)

[madhair60]

perfection. no notes.

also I laughed out loud at the blue one dropping his weapon in the big first appearance of the team.

[Spiteface]

I keep meaning to give Kyoryuger a go some day.

I'm in the middle of watching something else, but for me the next toku thing I plan to watch is probably gonna be a Metal Hero show. Either Sharivan for Space Sheriff stuff, or Jiraiya, because Ninjas.

[Spiteface]

Thought I should let you all know Tsuburaya has been running an English dub of the excellent Ultraman Z on their YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwDaeL3aOb-yEMwaPyQe0EJ2fkp5fORPQ

One of my favourite "New Generation" Ultraman shows. They're also uploading Ultraman Taro on there, but I just got that on Bluray.

I've just got myself a multiregional bluray player, too, so I'm going to pick up the Kamen Rider Kuuga, Ryuki and even the Zero-One sets.

[Spiteface]

First of all, a reminder of what today is:

Second, new Ultraman in July, Ultraman Blazar:

Getting a somewhat darker vibe from this. I'd bloody love a show like Ultraman Nexus again.

Slightly older actor as the Ultraman host this time. I didn't recognise him at first, but he was Heart in Kamen Rider Drive.

The team in this series, SKaRD, also have giant robots. One of the coolest things in Ultraman Z was that STORAGE had mechs they used to combat kaiju alongside Ultraman Z.

It's also remarkable how this one doesn't go hard on legacy gimmicks, forms and kaiju for Ultraman this time. That's refreshing to see.

I'm already liking this more than Trigger or Decker.

[Spiteface]

New Ultraman Blazar trailer:

I want this to be good, because Sentai and Rider haven't really been cutting it for me lately.

Hearing rumblings about a new Garo, though. Some trademark got filed recently. Hopefully it's a new show/movie rather than a bloody pachinko machine or something.

[Urinal Cake]

Geats is alright- well good enough to me to see the Endgame through. I think having Keiwa as the pseudo-protagonist was a smart move. In fact most of the secondary riders are good value maybe only Buffa is a bit shit. Shows you even for it's high-concept stuff Kamen Rider really is just about the riders.

I half-watched the Revice x Geats movie and was like yeah now I remember why I didn't finish Revice.

From what I glean it does sound like Anno has fucked up Shin Kamen Rider a bit. But it should still be good.

New Garo sounds good.

Hopefully New Black Sun is planned, can't wait for Aoi to start a kaijin-communist revolution.

[Spiteface]

Episode 1 of Ultraman Blazar is up:

Hopefully this is indicative of how the rest of the show is, because I really like what I'm seeing here, and it's not just another "New Generation" show.

Been catching up on Geats and I really hope they don't drop the ball on the ending because the most recent episodes have been a vast improvement for me.

King-Ohger, I'm still well behind on, but I am thus far unconvinced. Also, that weird LCD screen technology they're apparently using for backgrounds makes the whole thing look kinda cheap to me, more than green screen ever did.

I'm sure people are lapping it up, because wanting insect Sentai is one of those fucking random things the toku fandom fixates on for reasons that elude me.

[Moj]

If I wanted to get into this, where should I start? Should I just start at the first season of Kamen Rider/Ultraman/Super Sentai and go from there? Or are there certain series that would be particularly good as an introduction?

[Spiteface]

If I wanted to get into this, where should I start? Should I just start at the first season of Kamen Rider/Ultraman/Super Sentai and go from there? Or are there certain series that would be particularly good as an introduction?

No need to start from the beginning. Most series are very much standalone outside of crossover movies and anniversary shows. Even the anniversary shows, things like Ultraman Mebius or Gokaiger, work well enough on their own.

I did post lists of my personal recommmendations on the previous page but it's a good time to start about now.

Ultraman Blazar has just started, with official uploads to YouTube straight after the episodes air in Japan, and a choice of subtitles or an English dub. I posted the video in my last post here. Tsuburaya uploads a ton of Ultraman content to youtube, full seasons and such. Ultraman Z is up there in full, too. That's a pretty solid entry point. Ultraman does tend to lean on legacy in its gimmicks and the Ultramen and kaiju in each show, but again, they work in isolation.

Kamen Rider Geats is in its final arc right now, but the new show will be starting in a couple of months. The name has come out, Kamen Rider Gotchard and one or two photos have leaked, but the proper reveal of plots, motifs and so on will likely come out in a few weeks. As for other starters, a lot of fans point to Kamen Rider W as a good starting point.

If you want a darker, more adult take on Kamen Rider, there are two shows on Amazon Prime to check out, Kamen Rider Amazons (bafflingly retitled "Amazon Riders" outside of Japan), a reimagining of the 70s series Kamen Rider Amazon, and Kamen Rider Black Sun, a darker, more political, reboot of the classic Kamen Rider Black.

Sentai, OhSama Sentai King-Ohger isn't quite at the halfway point. With Sentai I like to suggest to newcomers if they have a favourite series of Power Rangers, then start with the source Sentai for that. For example if you're into the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, then watch Kyoryuu Sentai Zyuranger. Separate from that, I do like 1991's Choujin Sentai Jetman which was just before that, for something more recent, last year's Avataro Sentai DonBrothers was a fun show, and did some things differently from the normal Sentai formula.

Like I say, I talked a bit about my personal reccomendations a while ago. But if you see anything that looks cool, just dive in.

[MoreauVasz]

Back in the late 1970s, French TV decided that it needed to start doing a lot more children's TV but lacking a budget they weren't able to make their own stuff or buy and translate anglo-phonic stuff so they went to Japan and bought shitloads of anime and Tokustasu shows that were then quite crudely dubbed.

A big success in the early days was Uchu Keiji Gyaban, known locally as X-or - The Sherif of Space. Gyaban was a Japanese take on the name of Jean Gabin, a powerhouse mid-century tough guy actor who specialised in procedurals.

French TV bought the rights, renamed it, and recut a lot of episodes. The director of the children's TV division got someone named Paul Pervason to record this absolute banger of a theme tune. Paul Pervason was in fact this woman's son and he is now better known as Antoine de Caunes, the presenter of Eurotrash.

https://youtu.be/rV2yjpuPjaU

[Urinal Cake]

If I wanted to get into this, where should I start? Should I just start at the first season of Kamen Rider/Ultraman/Super Sentai and go from there? Or are there certain series that would be particularly good as an introduction?

This really depends on how childish and silly you want to get. Also for things like Kamen Rider every season is like a new thing into itself. It's not like different versions of Spiderman but like Spiderman vs Batman vs Iron Man etc. Kamen Rider is like a synonym for masked superhero.

The long series apart from Amazons are for kids. Doesn't mean they're not all bad but some versions of Kamen Rider are more kiddy or teenage boy focused than others. I think W, Agito, Gaim are all very good. Gaim would be my pick since it's also a not too subtle meta commentary of Kamen Rider and it's older fans itself.

The series Spiteface highlighted are geared towards older fans. I think Amazons is okay but Black Sun is where it's at. It is based on the lore of a 80s Kamen Rider Black which by today's standards is remarkable for it's high concept but not great narativetly or character wise. But you ask any motherfucker over the age of 30- Kamen Rider Black is the the Kamen Rider.

On second thought I think I would start with Garo instead. It's short, punchy knows it's audience is teenage boys and has a somewhat consistent lore.

[Spiteface]

Garo is excellent. That's also the only one where you'd need to start from the beginning, even as it darts between two different continuities.

One reason I recommended Black Sun is because right now, it's one of the easiest to get hold of, being available on Amazon Prime.

I would say anything that isn't an anniversary season is a good starting point, but I think a show like Decade would probably frustrate more if you actually did watch the preceding nine Heisei shows beforehand.

On the Sentai side, even Gokaiger works in it's own right. Some of the tribute episodes will spoil those older shows (the Jetman tribute in particular is all about what happened in the finale) and the guest appearances by former Sentai characters ane homages might be lost on a newcomer, but I just love the Gokaigers as a team.

Also, the Legendary War is pretty spectacular. I remember when Power Rangers fans saw that and got excited at it being adapted for Power Rangers. Then we all saw Super Megaforce...

[Spiteface]

Blazar episode 2 is up.

You have about 5 days left to catch up with episode 1, too. I highly recommend it.

Earth Garon's debut next week. I do like a good Mecha Godzilla knockoff!

[Spiteface]

Bumping again to alert anyone interested that Hideaki Anno's Shin Kamen Rider is now on Amazon Prime, under the name "Shin Masked Rider"

I shall be watching this tomorrow.

[Rodan]

Wicked, cheers.

[Urinal Cake]

Half-baked. Fucking Anno stay away from Kamen Rider

[Urinal Cake]

I'm still upset about this.

[Spiteface]

I thought it was fine. Very "Anno" though.

I'm still probably gonna get a figure of Ichogo from the film, is it's a really good take on the suit, and it's the Sakurajima colours, too. My favourite iteration of Hongo's clobber.

Last few years with Kamen Rider, my favourite stuff has been the Amazon Prime stuff. Amazons and Black Sun. This isn't on that level, though. As far as Anno "Shin" stuff goes it's also the weakest of the bunch because I liked his Godzilla and Ultraman movies more. Hearing about the Bluray release really put me off actually spending money on Shin Ultraman though. It's a pretty crap job. A shame as I've liked the Mill Creek sets of the Showa shows I've watched so far, Ace is my next watch.

King-Ohger has finally clicked for me. I think it's because the gang has actually come together as a Sentai and that's made the show more enjoyable to me.

[Urinal Cake]

I think it's harder to evaluate Shin since it's a movie and it's operating on the principle your a newbie. That being said it's pretty shit Kamen Rider standalone movie. I would rather watch Kamen Rider Next or even First again.

Geats is pretty great though. It's a spiritual successor to Gaim. It plays around with the character archetypes. What happens to Kouta\Gaim if you break him? What happens to Baron if he gets a redemptive arc? What happens to God Gaim and God chick if they stick around and sees shit through instead of acting like some deist cunts. Fantastic stuff.

[Spiteface]

Yeah, enjoying Geats' latter episodes a lot.

It took ages for me to realise where I'd seen Tsumuri before - her actress was Alice in ZERO: Dragonblood.

I love it when Garo cast members turn up in Toei stuff and Vice Versa. Like when Yukijiro Hotaro (Gonza) was "Santa" in Donbrothers last year.

[Spiteface]

I went a bit mad yesterday and today.

I'm currently still in London after attending AEW All In at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Going home tomorrow.

Anyway, I knew a Bandai Namco Cross Store had opened in Camden Market. I also saw they had Gachapon machines, some of which were Kamen Rider ones. Two for Black/Black Sun figures and two for Shin Kamen Rider ones.

I spent a stupid amount of money trying to get the full set of the former. Got Ichigou in his long coat (that initial image that was the first reveal) and both shocker soliders. Decided I'd spent enough for one set that I chose not to try and get the Nigou figure.

I now have eleven capsules on a table in my hotel room of all the bloody duplicates... I'll work out what to do with those when I get home tomorrow...

[Urinal Cake]

I'm sorta jealous. Geats had really awful suits. Like Buffa and Dark Warload were good but otherwise bleh.

[Spiteface]

Should have posted this at least a week ago, ah well.

New Garo season, The One Who Inherits the Steel, in January.

https://news.tokunation.com/2023/10/11/new-garo-series-announced-premieres-january-2024-76563

It's in the Ryuga, Yami Wo Terasu Mono/Gold Storm part of the universe. Which I'm okay with, I really liked those shows. Plus, the Gold Storm suit is bloody gorgeous. More than the Versus Road one. I know what they were going for with that, but it wasn't as cool as the classic one or the Gold Storm upgrade.

[Spiteface]

New trailer for The One Who Inherits the Steel.

[Spiteface]

Bumping this because the offical Garo YouTube page has uploaded episode 1 "Heir to Steel Armor" with subs in multiple languages:

They're not unwatchable, but they're funky. I gather they're basically AI-generated. There's some oddness like names are all-caps, and the use of "Karma" is also bugging me as someone who follows this series.

The term used in-show is "inga" and refers to negative karma, emotion and vice that allows Horrors (the monsters of Garo) to enter the human world through gates (objects tainted by said "inga" and posess humans.

But they're not impenetrable and you can get a grasp of what's going on. This doesn't really require much prior knowledge of the show at all - only Garo himself, Ryuga Dougai returns with his talking skull-ring Zaruba (voiced by Hironobu Kageyama - legendary singer of many anime & tokusatsu themes and founding member of JAM Project, who do the theme songs for Garo along with so many others, you've almost certainly heard their work elsewhere), as far as I can tell, no other cast members from Ryuga's previous seasons are set to return, so a fairly clean slate here.

[Spiteface]

Episodes 2 & 3 of Garo are up, same official channel as the above video. Same AI subs.

Anyway, in the meantime, I've ditched Kamen Rider Gotchard and opted to revisit a Heisei classic: Kamen Rider Kuuga.

I'm about 2/3 of the way and now it's getting really interesting.

Kuuga lays groundwork for the shows that follow it, with a move away from the "cyborg" origins of Riders of yore with Kuuga being an ancient power revived in the present day to fight a similarly-revived race of monsters - the Grongi.

About halfway through, our hero and friend to all children, Yusuke Godai, is sort-of killed in battle. While it is thought the defibrilator failed to revive him, a day or two later he wakes up again and has somehow gained new, more powerful "rising" versions of his existing forms, denoted by additional gold and bigger weapons. Another side effect of this is the resulting explosions are bigger and more destructive, which REALLY becomes an issue when Godai does his Rider kick using the "Rising Mighty" form for the first time. While he has an inkling it might be bad and warns the police (some of whom know his identity and the Police work with him in bringing down the Grongi), the aftermath is a 3km blast that causes the public to question if he can be trusted anymore. The doctors examining the effects the Arcle belt is having on him are also worried it's essentially going to turn Godai into a biological weapon. There's no fundamental change in his personality, and he's still the same guy, still shows up at the preschool wheee his sister works to play with the kids and show off one of his 1999 skills.

Then the Grongi known as Go-Jaraji-Da takes his turn in the Gegeru - the Grongi's game consisting of killing humans within a set amount of time, often under stipulations and with their own methods of killing. Jaraji's kills consist of him stabbing high school kids with needles (his monster form has porcupine-like quills), and telling them they have four days left. Even worse is he will often be seen by them in the distance at funerals of of kids he's already killed. If this wasn't bad enough some start killing themselves, driven insane with fear, if it's not the excruciating pain.

This culminates in them finally able to pin him down and for Kuuga to fight him, and it's something else.

Given the particular nastiness of this fucker, this should be the most cathartic moment in the show to date. What we get, isn't. Godai just fucking UNLEASHES on Jaraji to the point that at one point he tries to run away, and then Godai finishes him off using the Rising Titan form, and HUGE EXPLOSION ensues, and we also get a hint at where this is heading, in the flames, a we see Kuuga, but not in any form seen in the show to date. This is the first indication of Ultimate Kuuga.

Also, the "music" soundtracking it, reminds me of Hans Zimmer's score in "The Dark Knight" where Joker's "theme" is just a droning note. Really unsettling stuff. Works reallty well here rather than some triumphant kickass rock tune.

What isn't seen in the above video is that when the smoke clears and he's reverted to being Godai again, he ain't smiling. He isn't giving everyone the usual thumbs-up he always does. He just... stands there.

What I love about the show up to this point is something modern Rider just doesn't do these days - a new upgrade form debuts in the show (BUY OUR TOYS!!!!!11111) and curb stomps the monster of the week and there's much rejoicing. The fact that Kuuga's first significant upgrade came out of him technically dying and how destructive he's becoming, scares everyone around him.

That's before you even get to the fact that the main leader of the Grongi, N-Daguva-Zeba, has yet to appear, and he's already started killing off some of his own henchmen off-screen. I know where this is heading, but I'm excited for it all over again.

There is genuinely nothing else like this show in the mainline Kamen Rider shows of the 2000s. Even Agito immediately after it, felt toned-down significantly.

To get a show like this again? You'd have to have it on Amazon Prime alongside Amazons and Black Sun. You're not getting this on a Sunday morning.


I apologise profusely for this gushing, but this decision to rewatch Kuuga has been one of the best ones I made in a long time. I think this might be my favourite Rider show now.