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Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

A bit of clarification from TokuSHOUTsu:

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Still sounds overcomplicated compared to just having it on demand.
 
Kosuke Asai has been diagnosed with a chronic illness. He is going to retire from suit acting. His last role was to be Daybreak before joining Gozyuger as a favor


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A bit of clarification from TokuSHOUTsu:

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Still sounds overcomplicated compared to just having it on demand.
Yeah, that is a weird way of doing this, usually with this kind of stuff once it's posted it pretty much stays on there.
 
Things are evolving quickly:

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Now each new episode will stream continuously from Saturday through Monday -- I guess that means it starts over every half-hour on a loop. (They say "24/7," but if it's only through Monday, that's more like 24/2, assuming it ends at the same time of day that it starts.) Seems it would be simpler just to archive it for on-demand viewing, but it's a step in the right direction. And later on there will be 5-episode VOD "mini-marathons."
 
We’re in new frontiers here. Tokusatsu world channel uploaded an edited and subbed version of the Zeztz press conference.

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We’re in new frontiers here. Tokusatsu world channel uploaded an edited and subbed version of the Zeztz press conference.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Rina Onuki mentioning that we should pay attention to her character's kicks certainly seemed like a hint that she's going to be a Rider again, hopefully more permanently this time. Hopefully she'll be the Secondary Rider, which would make her only the second female one, after Majade in Gotchard (though that's ambiguous, since Valvarad was active as an armored hero well before her, despite not being upgraded to full Kamen Rider status until later).

I'm surprised the subs didn't translate Oyasumi gozaimasu, which is just a very formal/polite way of saying "good night" or "sleep well." Anyway, that contributes to my suspicion that there's more to Nem's role than just "celebrity who shows up in people's dreams." I bet that will turn out to be a cover for the real reason everyone dreams about her.

I'm amused that the male detective character is basically cosplaying Lt. Columbo.
 
Ooh, nice detailed subtitles, even translating the titles on bookshelves and the text of reports. That's an advantage of burned-in subtitles over the YouTube-generated subs for Ultraman, although the advantage there is that they have multiple language options.

They faked us out in the lead-up publicity, selling the idea of Baku as this cool secret agent, when that's really the dream persona of a struggling nobody whose bad luck rivals Ryotarou Nogami's from Kamen Rider Den-O. By analogy with Yuya Takahashi's previous series, it's like he's Keiwa (Tycoon) dreaming of being Ace (Geats) -- although Ryutaro Imai says he based Baku's dream persona on Lupin III, whose 2015 Part IV series was written by Takahashi.

Although it looks like the idea is that Baku's dreams have been tapping into a higher reality all along, or something, and he'll become that hero in the real world. Well, maybe. I suspect his "bad luck" when he tries to help people is actually the Nightmares trying to kill him because they know what he has the potential to become. Clearly the driverless car hitting him was an assassination attempt, or at least an attempt to stop him from saving that abducted girl (who I hope gets rescued in episode 2).

KR's tendency to spread out the introductory storyline over two episodes is more palatable when binge-watching an older show. There are so many questions we have to wait a week to get answers for.

Anyway, this was a solid, stylish premiere, well-made and visually striking, particularly in the surreal dream sequences. They pulled out all the stops for their international debut. The Zeztz costume really does look great. This is the first time in at least 16 years* that we've had a henshin sequence that was just the suit materializing on the body without some kind of midair CGI construct forming around the Rider to generate the armor. I guess they decided to go back to basics for the new audience.

*I checked, and Kiva had CGI chains appear around the waist to form the belt, but otherwise the armor just appeared. Before that, Den-O's base Plat Form materialized without surrounding animation, but CGI railroad tracks formed around him to deliver the armor pieces for the main forms. Kabuto was the last one with no animation beyond the armor's own materialization -- not counting the Zecters, which were the actual henshin devices whose arrival preceded the henshin.

Baku's name, by the way, is a homophone for a nightmare-devouring yokai/demon from Japanese mythology, though his name kanji by itself (which is part of the kanji for the yokai) means "late" or "end," perhaps referring to late night. His surname Yorozu means "myriad," in both the literal sense of exactly 10,000 and the figurative sense of a vast multitude.
 
TokuSHOUTsu is going through a learning curve. There were fan complaints that the livestream loop was being interrupted by YouTube ads that didn't pause the stream, so you'd miss parts of the episode, so TokuSHOUTsu adjusted the stream to allow rewinding -- which is also handy if you miss the start of a replay of the episode. It helps, but it would be so much simpler if they just had the episode on demand. I wonder if Toei isn't allowing that for some reason.

I freeze-framed on my second watch to read the translated small print, and Baku's shelves were filled with self-help books, nonfiction about the CIA, and videos of various spy series including the Agent Seven movies that inspired his dream character. (Also something called Sengoku Spy with installments in various historical eras, which sounds interesting.) Fujimi's report on the Nightmares said that people who see them are provoked to commit violent acts.
 
I love it when they subtitle everything, or nearly everything, although it requires a lot of freeze-framing to read.

Zeztz has an unusual Rider Kick. Charge up, then run up to the monster, do a couple of spin kicks, and then do a traditional Rider jump kick for the final blow. Not a lot of Rider Kicks are from a standing position; I think Faiz's was, though he had a jump-kick version too. And the monster's "death" is unusual -- not the traditional fireball, but bursting into a cloud of purple specks that get sucked up into a butterfly of light. I wonder what that's about.
 
Zeztz has an unusual Rider Kick. Charge up, then run up to the monster, do a couple of spin kicks, and then do a traditional Rider jump kick for the final blow. Not a lot of Rider Kicks are from a standing position; I think Faiz's was, though he had a jump-kick version too. And the monster's "death" is unusual -- not the traditional fireball, but bursting into a cloud of purple specks that get sucked up into a butterfly of light. I wonder what that's about.
Faiz was special in that his Rider Kick had a Setup Portion that Locked the Enemy in place to take the Finisher, no chance of escaping.
 
Zeztz has an unusual Rider Kick. Charge up, then run up to the monster, do a couple of spin kicks, and then do a traditional Rider jump kick for the final blow. Not a lot of Rider Kicks are from a standing position; I think Faiz's was, though he had a jump-kick version too. And the monster's "death" is unusual -- not the traditional fireball, but bursting into a cloud of purple specks that get sucked up into a butterfly of light. I wonder what that's about.


They couldn’t pass up the chance to also hit you over the head that Zeztz is the 7th Reiwa rider when his kicks finish it makes a

“777”

like he hit the jackpot

Also the way Zeztz suit forms by expanding the muscles reminds me of old riders and how it conveyed it was a biological change



Also there's Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club (TTFC content) out already. Minami apparently is a part time actress

Kamen Rider Zeztz - Series of Sister's Substory Agent Minami


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This was an interesting episode. Not amazing, but interesting.

I liked that Baku actually managed to save the little girl even though he got hit by the truck. The kidnapper turned to watch and mom was able to rush in and rescue her in the chaos at the edge of the screen. A nice touch.

Zeztz feels kind of old school, design wise. But is still stylistically very modern. It's probably the simplest Rider design we've had in a while, but then it lights up in all those different places and really doesn't feel that simple at all.

The Rider Kick felt a little bit Kabuto and a little bit Faiz all at the same time. I'm intrigued that the driver appears to have kept Baku alive. Can he take it off now, or does he need to wear it all the time? I guess we'll find out next week.
 
I liked that Baku actually managed to save the little girl even though he got hit by the truck. The kidnapper turned to watch and mom was able to rush in and rescue her in the chaos at the edge of the screen. A nice touch.

Oh, I missed that. Good to know.

Zeztz feels kind of old school, design wise. But is still stylistically very modern. It's probably the simplest Rider design we've had in a while, but then it lights up in all those different places and really doesn't feel that simple at all.

I love it. It's a clean, efficient design, a nice change from the usual clutter of modern Rider designs. It feels almost like a Sentai or Ultraman design in being body-hugging, but it has enough subtle armoring on the chest and limbs to feel Rider-ish, plus of course there are the Ichigo homage elements in its design.


I'm intrigued that the driver appears to have kept Baku alive. Can he take it off now, or does he need to wear it all the time? I guess we'll find out next week.

I didn't interpret it that way. It seemed more like his choice to claim the driver in his dream was a choice to fight for life rather than give up. So it was his own rallying willpower that saved his life, or broke him free of the influence of the Nightmare trying to kill him.

The promotional videos have stressed the move of slapping the driver to his chest as the first step of the transformation, so I expect that will continue to be standard.
 
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