Hi guys, Sharp-O back on the model kit BS with a return to the LBX line of 1/1 scale buildable robot kits from Bandai Spirits! We’re taking a look at Ban Yamano’s prototype LBX; AX-00!

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that talking tokusatsu is all well and good but what would be the best places to start for the uninitiated? Granted, I’m sure everyone has seen a Godzilla movie but the likes of Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Garo and Ultraman are completely different beasts. Except maybe Ultraman… That’s pretty close to Godzilla.

So what kind of toku is suitable for newbies? Naturally, it depends on individual taste and thanks to nearly all of them being around for around 50 years, most franchises have more than one series that should appeal to you but for the sake of an article, here are my personal choices on the easiest toku to get into for noobs.

Kicking off with one of my top five Kamen Rider series; Kamen Rider Fourze. If you remember the article I previously wrote, you’ll remember that while its mostly presented as a kids show, it actually has a lot of valuable morals and stories to tell, especially for a young teenage audience. It has that fantastic distinction of being a fun kids show at heart but is unafraid to play with morality tropes and tell the kind of high school redemption stories we all love.

The enthusiastic protagonist is also such an endearing goof that you’ll love him in no time, much like the rest of the cast who are equally great to watch. If you want a space-fuelled adventure that dips its toes into adult themes, then this is the series for you!

On the other end of the spectrum, with a newer show that I covered earlier this year and another of my Top 5 Rider shows… Kamen Rider Amazons. This is a deeply flawed show, sadly, that was an exclusive to Amazon Prime Japan. This choice is more based on people maybe remembering the Guyver movies of the early 90’s or who have a fondness of Marvel’s Netflix shows. It’s a darker tale that is a nice contrast to the positivity of Fourze and is a much shorter watch at just 13 episodes.

When it comes to Super Sentai, there’s a common misconception that it will be of the same ‘quality’ as its adaptation, Power Rangers, and while there are cases like that, there are twice as many that aren’t and to showcase the best Super Sentai has to offer I recommend watching Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger!

Gokaiger is the 35th Anniversary series and is an unabashed celebration of the franchise up to that point and the best part about it? The Gokaigers aren’t even good guys! They are literally pirates who steal the powers of previous Sentai in pursuit of a grand treasure. It’s an absolute blast and a loving tribute to the franchise’s long history.

Now, since I’ve little to no experience with the two other big TV toku franchises, I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of Josh from CollectionDX and Alex from My Shiny Toy Robots. Take it away, boys!

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Ultraman X is a really solid place to start in terms of the Ultraman franchise. It carries the spirit of the original, easy to follow on its own and has some cameos from other Ultras should you feel like checking more out afterward. It’s definitely worth mentioning that Ultraman is pretty much the godfather of henshin heroes. He might not be the first or the most prominent any more, but I’d definitely go as far to say he’s probably the most iconic in Japan. The show really puts an emphasis on craft, with both the miniatures and suits a cut above what you see in other toku shows.

Personally, I’d say the real best place to start is definitely the original series (and with it so cheap on Amazon, there’s really no reason not to), but with a pretty sizeable back-catalogue on Crunchyroll now newcomers will be perfectly fine jumping in on any that take their fancy. Some will have crossovers with older Ultras, but it’s never done in a way that requires background knowledge beforehand so you can effectively jump in anywhere.

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“Where there is light, shadows lurk and fear reigns. Yet by the blade of Knights mankind was given hope.”

If the above quote sounds super weird and/or interesting, then you might be into Garo. Garo is the story of a bunch of dudes called Makai Knights who fight monsters called Horrors. In a nutshell, Horrors are from another dimension called the Makai, and can be born in our world from the malevolence of humans. At this point, there are three distinct timelines for Garo: the original, the anime, and Ryuga’s timeline.

The original, main timeline consists of the three series (1, 2 & 4), two movies and several TV specials. If that seems convoluted, don’t worry. After a single season of the show every single one of those things will make sense. This timeline is all about Kouga, the Golden Knight Garo. Well, at least in seasons 1 and 2. And two of the movies. In season 4, the story shifts and follows his son, Raiga, who has inherited the title of Garo. Season 4 is amazing.

The anime timeline is stupid and garbage. Don’t watch.

The Ryuga timeline consists of two more seasons (3 & 5) as well as the Goldstorm movie. The entire existence of the Ryuga timeline is confusing and incredibly offputting for some people. However, if you are well-versed in the lore already, the deviations make sense and the shows and movie are ridiculously fun. Just watch Ryuga’s transformation from the first episode of Season 3. You’ll get what I’m saying.

If any of what I said interests you, you should watch Garo. If nothing that I said interests you, you should definitely watch Garo. Now’s the best time, too, since the first season is being broadcast in an HD Remastered version (since the original came out in 2005 and is a bit dated).

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A massive, massive thank you to both Alex and Josh for the opinions of Ultraman and Garo, respectively, and for contributing to this article since I don’t know dick about those shows so this is a learning experience for me too! Please go check out their respective sites and follow them! If any of these shows have peaked your interest, there are certain avenues you can find to watch them subbed if you look so I’ll leave the choice to you and I’ll see you all next Toku Tuesday!

Last time I covered Japan’s attempt to adapt a western property but for most of the 90’s, the reverse was much more prevalent. Haim Saban’s adaptation of Super Sentai into the long-lasting Power Rangers franchise but, being the media mogul that he was, he didn’t stop there and others even attempted to steal the formula for themselves. This is going to be a brief history of the rise and fall of tokusatsu adaptations in the west.

Naturally, emboldened by the success of Power Rangers, Saban was quick to rush another series into production. Capitalising on the early 90’s fascination with the emerging VR technology (oh, how times have changed), Saban created a team of teenagers using footage from three separate Metal Hero shows to create VR Troopers.

The show proved successful at the time but pulling footage from Space Sheriff Shaider, Superhuman Machine Metalder and Dimensional Warrior Spielban proved exhaustive and soon they ran out of footage to use. VR Troopers ran for 92 episodes before going offline.

All was not lost on the toku-hero-in-cyberspace front though as Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was in development at the same time, a venture between Tsuburaya Productions (the studio behind Ultraman), Playmates Toys and DIC Entertainment to adapt Denkou Choujin Gridman for western audiences.

I’ll be honest; I never even heard of this show growing up, as my entire world was dominated by Saban’s shows, but from finding clips on YouTube I can see that this was a quick and cheap production. Clearly it was born out of the rapidly exploding toku adaptation genre and it only lasted 53 episodes.

The next show to appear spun directly out of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and was the truly atrocious Masked Rider. Masked Ri-DURR, an adaptation of Kamen Rider Black RX, appeared in the three-part MMPR Season 3 opener, ‘A Friend in Need’.

As soon as Arnold Rimmer look-a-like Prince Dex made the jump to his own show, however, no further mention of the Rangers are ever made and the show became a bumbling ‘comedic’ mess. Masked Rider ran for 40 episodes and left a legacy that is both depressing and uplifting as no one would attempt bringing another Kamen Rider show to our screens for another 14 years but most of Masked Rider’s background music was later used in Digimon Season 1-3 and Digimon: The Movie.

Once Masked Rider was done, Saban didn’t rest on his laurels for long and put out Big Bad Beetleborgs. Adapted from the Metal Hero series Juukou B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto, Beetleborgs was focused on a younger audience and was heavily merchandise-driven thanks to plot being about kids who becoming popular comic book characters.

Much like VR Troopers, Beetleborgs suffered thanks to a lack of footage and ended after 88 episodes. Out of all the non-PR shows Saban did, I think Beetleborgs was my favourite growing up, even if it was the silliest of the bunch — often having Batman ‘66 comic book effects to cover more violent scenes or having the Jay Leno-esque Flabber as the source of their powers.

After Beetleborgs had ended and with Power Rangers still the juggernaut franchise, Saban went a different route and produced a wholly original tokusatsu for the west based on Irish mythology but that’s a story for another time as it’s not an adaptation.

Earlier I said it would take 14 years for someone other than Saban to bring Kamen Rider to the west but in 2009, Adness Entertainmint adapted Kamen Rider Ryuki for the CW Network as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.

The reason why the team chose Ryuki was that the series had 13 Riders in total (one of which was the first female Kamen Rider in the franchise’s history) and had lots of marketability. However, due to the Bandai toyline’s failure and flagging ratings, the show was pulled before the final two episodes could air, though CW was nice enough to air them online.

Even though the show had critical success (even winning a Daytime Emmy in 2010) and seeing DVD releases in Europe, South America, Mexico and East Asia (even a Japanese Dub!); Adness did not release it in the US and the plans for a feature length movie, a second season or even an adaptation of another Kamen Rider series have not come to pass.

Hell, 7 years have passed since and Adness Entertainment are more interested in Kpop and Korean fashion if their website is any indication so more Kamen Rider from them is highly unlikely.

As of 2016, Power Rangers is still going strong after 22 years while all the others I’ve talked about above have faded into obscurity and nostalgia so what does that mean for tokusatsu adaptation in the west? Regrettably, it seems that we’re unlikely to see more adaptations in the future and that’s just sad in this humble reviewers opinion. Personally, I have a ton of ideas how some of the newer Heisei-era Kamen Rider shows could be adapted but in the current climate of television production; would they succeed?

A question for the comments, perhaps but for now, thank you for reading this little retrospective and I’ll catch you all next Toku Tuesday!

We also talk about Dr. D’s crippling fear of death and our love of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (I wish there was a font for sarcasm…).

I think I’ve established previously that the two big tokusatsu mainstays — Super Sentai and Kamen Rider — have a 52 episode run every year but, as way to celebrate Kamen Rider’s 45th anniversary, Toei Company not only produced their regular TV offerings for TV Asahi but also a Amazon Prime exclsuive mini-series.

Why mention this? Because I’m going to be looking at both of them and highlighting why one sucks and one is awesome. Let’s start with the basic premises:

When his life is tragically cut short, Takeru Tenkuji enters a Faustian bargain to regain his life by gathering 15 souls of historical figures. Along the way, he must contend with malevolent spirits intent on annexing the human world as well as his childhood friend who is attempting to gather the very same souls to restore his sister to life.

Sickly shut-in, Haruka Mizusawa, is thrust into a secret war against an army of beasts with a thirst for human flesh and is torn between two worlds when he discovers he is one of them. He strives to find his humanity as part of the creature-hunting Extermination Team while the mysterious Jin Takayama hunts the monsters for his own reasons. They’re two side of the same coin; the Alpha and the Omega.

Both sound pretty awesome, right? Unfortunately, the reality is much more black and white.

Kamen Rider Ghost is the TV Asahi series and while the ghost-hunting premise and suit are both great, the writing is sub-par at best and fucking atrocious at worst. Head writer for the show, Takuro Fukuda, has previously worked as secondary writer for Ultraman Max and Ultraseven X. The fact that I’ve never even heard of those series tells me his work isn’t note-worthy and the fact that I gave up on Ghost after 16 episodes speaks volumes. I haven’t given up on a Kamen Rider series since Wizard (and I’m constantly told I should give it another shot because it’s better than I initially gave it credit for).

I would say that part of the problem is the time-slot and the primary audience. Airing at 8:00am on a Sunday, naturally the audience is children and Bandai is a major sponsor of the show, therefore pushing merchandise is priority but does this mean that the show should be nothing more than a half-hour toy commercial with paper thin characters and awful slapstick? Short answer: no.

Long answer: Fuuuuuuuck no!

Kamen Rider Fourze, which I covered before, was written by the head writer of Kill La Kill and the series composer of Gurren Lagann, making it an emotional tour-de-force about friendship, acceptance and parental abandonment. Kamen Rider Gaim was written by Gen ‘Urobutcher’ Urobuchi; a man known for the critically-acclaimed Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the dystopian crime thriller Psycho-Pass and he made a series about fruit-themed samurai into an interesting dark story of betrayal, futility and acceptable losses.

That’s just two examples; aired in the exact same time-slot with the exact same sponsors for the exact same demographic and they did not talk down to their audience like Ghost does. It’s a narrative mess, every character is comic relief and there is no real threat at any point. Light fluff is good but you can only really appreciate it if you equal it out with a harder edge.

Speaking of the harder edge, we have Kamen Rider Amazons, an Amazon Prime exclusive mini-series for Amazon Japan. Yes, that’s a lot of Amazon but you can’t deny it’s a cute marketing gimmick.

As a quasi-reboot of the original 70’s series of the similar name, Amazons takes a leaf out of Marvel’s playbook by offering a darker, more compelling miniseries that stands apart from it’s mainstream fare on a streaming platform. It worked for Daredevil and it works for Amazons!

Now who could they get to write such a show? Something Kamen Rider but with a much darker edge? Hmmm. Oh! How about veteran writer Yasuko Kobayashi? Head writer for Kamen Rider Ryuki, Den-O, OOO, a half dozen Super Sentai shows and Attack on Titan. Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger!

While the first episode could be considered a 45 minute slog, it at least sets up the world pretty effectively and establishes the tone of the series. This is a show for adults, not the kiddies. The darker vibe even extends to the look of the show as not only are people and monsters eviscerated on a regular basis but the entire show seems to be shot day-for-night. Is there no sun in this accursed country?

Also — Amazons shits all over Ghost in the theme song department. The use of Armor Zone by Taro Kobayashi at the end of every episode has shades of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Roundabout to it. Which Yasuko Kobayashi was also head writer of. Seriously, this series just exudes pedigree.

So what is my point? Is this just another toku weeaboo complaining that a children’s show isn’t made for him? Partly, yes, but not in the way you think. I wrote this article to highlight the difference between two shows that belong to the same franchise airing concurrently.

It’s not about the disparate audience demographic, it’s about the actual quality of the product. While Ghost has some of my favourite suit designs of all time; that’s all it’s got as the effects are cheap, the characters bland and the product pushing is egregious while Amazons is content to let the engaging story play out with characters you can easily get attached to.

You can currently find both Kamen Rider Ghost and Kamen Rider Amazons subbed for free by Overtime Subs.

What are your thoughts on either Ghost, Amazons or both? Any suggestions for the next Toku Tuesday? Leave your comments below and I’ll see you all soon!

Hey guys, Sharp-O back once again with more toys from glorious Nippon and today we’re looking at my first figure from Kamen Rider Gaim! Kamen Rider Gaim is the 24^th entry into the franchise and features humanity coming face to face with the reality of an infestation from another dimension called Helheim. A chosen few use lockseeds to transform into Armoured Riders and defend–Actually, they spend most of the series stabbing each other in the back and trying to save their own skin because this is a series written by Gen “The Butcher” Urobuchi, a man who takes great delight in putting his characters (and the audience) through the ringer.

Today, the spotlight is on Arms Change 011: Kachidoki Arms. The beauty of the Arms Change toy line is that, much like the show, the various lockseed armours are interchangeable between Riders, meaning you can mix-and-match your figures! Gaim’s Triumphant Arms debuts about half way through the show and despite getting another upgrade after this one, I consider this to be the orange samurai’s true final form.

AC011 comes in a lovely window box, showing the figure and accessories while having a half image of the figure in full regalia. The box is uniquely designed for this figure, with all the images relating to Kachidoki Arms. The reverse of the packaging shows the figure in some dynamic poses as well as showcasing the Arms Change gimmick.

This set consists of a Gaim figure, his armour in fruit form and helmet, two variations of the DJ Gun, a Musou Saber and two sashimono.

The base figure is a variant of the standard Gaim Pre-Arms for, with the Kachidoki lockseed affixed to his Sengoku Driver and this Arms’ unique head crest already in place. Paint is used sparingly but to good effect, picking out important features. Articulation-wise, this is a huge step down from the S.H. Figuarts I’ve reviewed before, mainly sticking with swivel or universal joints rather than an abundance of ball joints, the only ball joint being on the neck and feet. It may be less articulated but you can still get plenty of posing out of this base form but let’s get to the main event: LOCK ON!

Another fun feature of this line is the intricate transformation of the lockseeds from Fruit to Armour forms. They unfold and lock into place exactly as you’d expect them to. That said, Kachidoki is especially hard to return to Fruit form once unfolded, the various tabs have to be in EXACTLY the right position and even then need a healthy amount of force to tab them. Running through the process a number of times can help but it can still be a bear.

Once donned in his zesty shogun attire, Gaim truly does look every bit the valiant defender of Zawame City. The helmet’s orange shows through the magnifying visor but not nearly as much as I like, leaving the visor to look rather drab in comparison to the other vibrant colours that make up Gaim’s triumphant form. Again, paint apps are used sparingly and there’s some really nice metallic silver and gold paint in amongst the reds and oranges. Unfortunately, this bulky armour does hinder his articulation somewhat, it’s mostly confined to his legs.

Gaim’s arsenal of triumphant, Invess-destroying armaments starts with the DJ Gun. I can’t stand this thing. As a weapon for a shogun, it could work (Shogun with a Shotgun is a movie I’d watch!) but adding the turntable and sound gimmicks makes this easily the most annoying weapon in the show for me and, unfortunately, this really only compounds that. Now, it’s not the fault of the sculpt, it’s perfectly adequate (if missing a lot of paint) but the problem comes from the hands. They have hinged fingers, unlike the various sculpted hands of S.H. Figuarts, and they’re too weak to hold the front heavy DJ Gun. The somewhat limited arm articulation also leads to a somewhat unnatural pose when holding the weapon with two hands. The Musou Saber (a default sword/gun sidearm to some Riders) is a fantastic little sculpt but is sadly lacking the paint apps present on previous releases. Finally, we come to the sashimono banners that can detach from his back and become dual-wielded melee weapons. They have the Gaim emblem printed on one side and are the weapons I think suit Triumphant Arms the best. Though they are smaller than I’d like, I can live with their size.

The Arms Change line is definitely a cheaper and more toyetic alternative to the more collector oriented S.H. Figuarts but you can’t discount their inherent charm because while they’re not as shiny or articulated as their Figuart counterparts, the AC line is embracing the gimmick of the show and incorporating it into a vast number of figures. This is the 11^th release of this line and it’s fantastic and I will definitely be picking more up soon!

One thing I neglected to mention last time is the box. Each LBX is packaged in boxes that emulate how they look on the show, even down to Frame-type (Knight) and the fake manufacturer logo in the bottom left, in this case Cyber Lance.

Triton starts life on a multi-coloured sprue and it’s brilliant to see multiple colours of plastic on a single sprue, something that very few model kits do! The instruction booklet is full colour, making it very easy to follow despite being in Japanese and even features a quirky little comic strip on the back with modelling ideas.

Unlike most spurekits you may have dealt with, these pieces are designed to pop right off the sprue with little-to-no residue (which you can always clean up with a hobby knife).

The head (as well as much of the body) is built quite simply by layering plastic parts and adding stickers to the eyes, the underside of the “hat” and the back of the head plate.

The body, limbs and the joints that connect them all follow the same process, the joints being the fiddliest pieces to deal with. The inner chest has a little Core Box piece to show the CPU, internal mechanisms and other such tech-gubbins. Triton’s leg assembly, despite being quite bulky, reminds me more of the kinf of feet that Strider frames have (Strider frames tending to be more feminine).

Unlike Ikaros Force, Triton comes with a printed cape and you have to actually cut it out of the instruction manual, adding stickers either side to create an attachment point. It’s an ingenious use of the materials at hand.

The completed Triton is a fantastic poseable action figure. Equipped with his Seahorse Anchor and his alternate hand, he’s got a great aesthetic to it. The one problem I have with it is that the plastic (and some of the stickers) for the blue and red are a couple shades darker than they ought to be, coming off as more of a navy and crimson, respectively.

Now that I have two model kits, I can now show off the customisation options for this line, thanks to a series of universal joints and connection points. You can mix and match body parts and even weapons!

Triton is one of my favourite LBX and I’m happy to finally have him in physical form. Barring some colour issues, this is a fantastic release and I highly recommend him for the model-maker both young and old!

JJ and his amazing friend Scott C. from NeedCoffee.com sit for a second chat. After the two get past the usual small talk, they begin a conversation that starts with theater and ends with the singularity. It’s a no holds barred look into why the education system fails and why we should all have an easy secret place to take that special someone. The countdown to 100 is upon us folks, and we are racing there!

Thanks to NeedCoffee.com for loaning us Scott C.

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