1/31/2007 - 電王
Recently I asked a friend about the response to
Kamen Rider Den-o thus far. She told me that, so far, people had been
really enthusiastic about the new show. She then went on to say how a recently
opened doughnut shop in Shinjuku had attracted a line of people so big that she
hadn't been able to get doughnuts on the day of the opening.
I think that sums up the situation quite neatly. I
don't have to look at places like Japan Hero and Rangerboard to know that the
show is already getting a kicking from 'outraged' American and European fans who
feel that a children's franchise they never grew up has strayed away from its
roots. I can imagine the rage and fury with which names are being called and
views are being denounced and I can imagine how this will continue till
somewhere just past New Year 2008.
I can also live without it.
So far Den-o is nothing at all like a
Kamen Rider series. I don't think, in this case, that's necessarily a
*bad* thing. I can't say an enormous amount about the first episode because I
honestly don't yet know what I feel about it however I do feel that I'm going to
stand any chance of actually enjoying the series then I have to stay away from
message boards full of bickering sophists.
Therefore my new year's resolution is to make this
journal slightly more intelligible this year and not so punctuated by explosions
of bitter vindictiveness.
Being in Japan really changed my ideas about how
tokusatsu is perceived. I'm going to try and learn from that experience and stay
clear of some of the ugly behaviour exhibited by certain Western tokusatsu
fansites.
...
Which means that I might at least make it to the
end of the week before lashing out at Bouken fangirls.
Maybe.
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1/17/2007 - Drinn-Wong
Ah, Toei, what better way to prop your ailing CGI-riddled children's
franchises than by importing Akiyama Rina into each one of them thus
ensuring that I have to watch at least one episode of what I have no
doubt will be utterly mindless pap.
Bastards.
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12/23/2006 - LOVELY COSTUME
Ignore  luijivillasana's
highly detailed and informative posts about the nature of 2007's incarnation of
Toei's sentai franchise. Whilst in Tokyo Hands last month I was struck, like
Saint Paul upon the road to Damascus, by the revelation of the true nature of
2007's sentai. Oh yes.
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12/5/2006 - Complete Lies
"A recently leaked document from Toei surfaced on
2chan yesterday confirming rumour of an agreement between Disney and Toei to
adapt Kamen Rider Hibiki for the 2008 instalment of its popular Power Rangers
franchise. The document apparently contains specific references to suits and
footage during the entire run of the Hibiki series and the licensing of props,
confirming that new footage for the series will begin filming in New Zealand in January of next year.
It is as yet unknown whether Disney will license the concurrent instalment of
Toei's sentai franchise and run the Hibiki-based show back to back with a more
conventional Power Rangers series.
More news as it becomes available."
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11/25/2006 - Dream Team
Following mariko_azrael's
example I thought I'd post *my* 'Dream Team' for the anniversary Super
Sentai 'special':
- 椎名鷹介 Shīna Yōsuke / 空忍ハリケンレッド Soranin Harikenreddo
- 野乃七海 Nono Nanami / 水忍ハリケンブルー Mizunin Harikenburū
- 尾藤吼太 Bitō Kōta / 陸忍ハリケンイエロー Okanin Harikenierō
- 霞一甲 Kasumi Ikkō / 角忍カブトライジャー Tsunonin Kabutoraijā
- 霞一鍬 Kasumi Isshū / 牙忍クワガライジャー Kibanin Kuwagaraijā
What do you mean I'm not playing properly? ^_^;
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11/20/2006 - Project Ultraman-最新版奥特曼的预告片
anita3858 recently posted the 'internal' trailer for Chaiyo's Project Ultraman on youtube
(thanks to baltaned of 'lah for the heads up). Not entirely sure what
to make of it, although somewhat dissapointed that the main spoken
language of the trailer was in Mandarin...not that I've got anything
against Mandarin media but I was hoping for Cantonese version.
Hopefully a dub will appear for audiences in Hong Kong.
The
actual dynamic of the trailer isn't that bad, just standard action film
fare. UltraMother fits in quite well, a couple of the newly designed seijin looked
interesting at least but where the trailer really falls down is the
brief footage of the Ultras. The suits still look badly designed and
the editing necessary to keep both them and human actors in the same
frame looked shoddy and badly spliced together, which doesn't bode well
for the main selling point of the series/film/whatever it is this week.
I'm
still not entirely convinced Ekin Cheng as Ultraman is a good choice,
even if it is a fun idea...I don't really expect to be proved wrong but
I'm really interested in seeing the actual result of this 'project' and
how audiences respond to it. I can't help but feel that half the battle
has already been lost by Chaiyo's lack of understanding in making the
Ultras look decent.
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11/20/2006 - Kabuto in Shinjuku
Quite why there are ZECT operatives delivering letters in the outer
areas of Shinjuku is beyond me. None the less, that's what they're
doing. In
fact, Kamen Rider Kabuto himself, dressed in a blue boiler suit, his
hair grey beneath a white helmet decorated with ZECT markings and a
logo identifying him as the aforementioned Kabuto, seems to be doing
the rounds. I wanted to take ask
Kabuto-san if I could take a photograph of his somewhat
identity-revealing helmet but by the time I'd decided to do so he'd
disappeared inside a building clutching a handful of white envelopes. So there you have it. Kamen Rider Kabuto, making Shinjuku-ku a safer place for people wishing to send letters. Wow.
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10/30/2006 - A New Challenger
Variety
and Ain't it Cool News seem
to reporting on the possible revival of the Street Fighter II film
franchise. Allegedly, according to reporter Kei from the awfully named theOtaku.com
the film will follow the story of Chun-Li something that would be fantastic,
from my point of view, if only it's handled in the right way.
A
good step in this direction, in my humble opinion, would be the casting of
Mainland actress, Fan
Bing-Bing.
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10/7/2006 - Infernal Affairs English Remix
Chapman To = Dexter Fletcher
Anthony Wong = Timothy Spall
Andy Lau = Gary Oldman
Tony Leung = David Thewlis
Demandage.
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8/26/2006 - The Sex Situation of Seventeen Year-Olds ~ EPISODE #4 SPOILERS
This might well be come across as the
feverish delusions of someone with slightly too much time to kill but, during
the process of watching the first half of Stand Up!!, I've
become stupidly fond of the idea of putting together some of the female
characters in order to tell a slightly different sort of story. It's not that I
don't like the central storyline of the series because it is, by and large, one
of the best dramas I've seen to date, but certain events during episode #4
really make the possibility of other relationships not exactly plausible
but at least an interesting distraction.
The series is really solid in
the way that it presents the characters and the various different significances
of the way in which they interact, which makes the show truly enjoyable to watch
(especially seeing as it also manages to hit the right balance of drama and
comedy which so many Japanese dramas fail to get right) and, whilst I wasn't
planning on going out of my way to look for girlslash couples, episode #4 has
kind of lodged in the back of my mind.
EPISODE #4 SPOILERS FOLLOW:
If there's a character to blame
for this then it's Sonoko.The nature of Sonoko's fall from grace and the part
Ellen plays in it makes the possibility of Sonoko/Ellen almost palpable. I'm not
saying it's a good idea...but it would make an interesting story. I've just got
to work out whether I can actually write it or not.
Of course whilst
we're talking of couples I shouldn't write, Sonoko/Chie would also be an
interesting story, as would Isuzu/Chie and Shiho/Chie. There's a couple of other
couples in there as well, mostly focused around characters with names that are
never mentioned in any of the English language cast lists due to the brevity of
their roles, suffice to say though, that Chie, Sonoko and/or any combination of
those two characters seem to feature quite strongly.
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About Me
[tokusatsu & sentai rah]
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