The Old School Otaku Lounge

Has anyone seen the new Kamen Rider show? The white and black mask looks stupid. Makes me think of a bowling pin. The main character is a complete punkass. I mean, I'm not an expert, but the older Kamen Riders were cool. This new guy looks like a high school dropout.

This is another reason why I don't care much for modern anime. The male protagonists are either self-absorbed punkasses, spastic retards, or whiny pussies.

The new show is actually pretty entertaining. It's the most "American" Kamen Rider I can think of, it's almost like a parody of 80s/90s high school films. The Rider costume is meant to be evocative of a space shuttle (the whole series has a space theme), but the cast includes: "the queen bee head cheerleader", "the star Quarterback" (yes, an American football QB), "the goth girl" and other common American high school cliches, but they're entertaining in their own way. If you're into "dark" Kamen Rider, then the new one is NOT for you, it is totally light-hearted and fun. (altho I hate the main character's hair style, but he's not a high school dropout, he still goes to school along with all his friends, he's supposed to LOOK like a delinquent, but he's actually a nice guy")

Heero wrote:The Rider costume is meant to be evocative of a space shuttle (the whole series has a space theme),

Really? It makes me think of a grumpy bowling pin.

I guess the main character annoys me because he epitomizes the school delinquent caricature, and it's kids who look like this that I have to deal with on occasion, being a teacher at Japanese schools. But yeah, it also seems rather goofy, and I rather like the more serious tokusatsu shows. The special effects and rubber monster suits are goofy enough as it is.

greg wrote:I guess the main character annoys me because he epitomizes the school delinquent caricature, and it's kids who look like this that I have to deal with on occasion, being a teacher at Japanese schools. But yeah, it also seems rather goofy, and I rather like the more serious tokusatsu shows. The special effects and rubber monster suits are goofy enough as it is.

It is more goofy, but I like that. (AkibaRanger is great also, I assume you prefer Garou?) Altho, to your point about the main character, the ONE thing I dislike about "Kamen Rider Fourze" is the non-Rider style of the main character, I HATE his hair, period (looking at comments, it appears that I'm not alone on that). And the "non-standard" uniform (the fact that he wears a different uniform, not the particular uniform he wears) is lame, but I assume the uniform thing is to distinguish him since the secondary rider also wears a uniform from a different school.

(generally I'm not a huge tokusatsu fan, but I like some of the latest shows: KR Fourze, GoKaiger, & AkibaRanger)

Its hard for me to get into any Kamen Rider series post-Kamen Rider Blade, they all tend to go off into goof mode too often for me. Kabuto was good, but I got put off by the silly shenanigans that became prevalent in the middle of the series. After that Kiva seems interesting I just haven't really gotten far into it because I've been busy with other shows. But the Japanese audience wants to goofy tokusatsu, so I have to concede to what they want. I'll have to be content with the older, darker shows.

Luckily Keita Amemiya has started up Garo again, otherwise I'd be out of luck for modern Toku that suits me.

Isn't that a shame? Tokusatsu shows are a bit goofy by nature due to the budget and special effects, but Japan always took it seriously. Now that Japan doesn't take tokusatsu stuff seriously, it's getting goofy and annoying.

I've always like the costume designs in tokusatsu show's, but not the goofiness. As such, I tend to zone out when watching, then tune back in when the fighting starts.