fraf toku thread

kamen rider ooo changed me forever. ily ankh.

I've been meaning to get into toku beyond power rangers for years but i wanted to learn japanese first. and then i didn't. that said, i have seen a solid amount of early kamen rider, so that's nice at least

kamen rider is cool i guess

many apologies for an uninformed response but I've been meaning to get into kr for quite a while and its somewhat intimidating ?! do you have any suggested entry points or really just personal favorites from the franchise :0?

Gavv is the most recent but also very good to start out on. It's pretty feel-good though. I'd recommend Geosubs if you watch it. OOO and Ryuki are two others I'd say are pretty digestible.​ But honestly, watch whatever looks cool to you. There's bound to be a show that has a theme that'll stand out to you.

frost. been there. get in here too.

hi decade. whats good

re: ram. i think the best place to start is whatever season appeals most to u! imo. i would start at the beginning of an "era" (the shorthand for thematic eras of the show, delineated by the current emperor and era of japan. the 3 that rider has gone throw are showa [70s-80s], heisei [2000-2009], "neo-heisei"/heisei phase 2 [2009-2018] {the emperor was going to step down and decided not to, dont worry about this too hard}, and reiwa [2019-current]). this being said, my top entry points would be kamen rider kuuga (heisei 1, legally available in the us), kamen rider w (heisei phase 2, not legally available in the us), kamen rider zero-one (reiwa, legally available in the us), or kamen rider gavv (currently airing and ending next month, not legally available in the us right now).

alternatively, if you wait until september, you can watch kamen rider zeztz as it airs. it's the first time that a rider season is going to get a simultaneous us release, and its all very exciting.

but truly, at the end of the day, every season is someone's first. there are some i would say eh maybe dont do that one, but do whatever you want forever. if you want to start on the anniversary mega crossover season, have fun.

if you need any help finding a specific season, just hit me up in this thread or @saoirse.exe on discord! i looooove toku and want to share with the world.

thank u both for such thoughtful responses OTL i will make good use of this info and (hopefully) join you in the toku trenches soon enough o7

watch faiz first trust me this is a GREAT idea.

oh yeah i should watch garo. that's also in my lisst of toku shit to watch

im gonna throw a large ultraman shaped brick through your window

and then a smaller Rescue Force shaped brick through your microwave

re:arc im making my grand ultraman debut with omega rn. im having a lot of fun. hes silly. ill probably go dig through The Histories when i have time.

now this is the thread for me baby

been watching ryuki and OOO on/off for the first time.... that's all i have to say i'll report back

Guessing this is the right area to talk about it, but god i love local heroes. i like the silly stage shows they put on sometimes. Can't understand a lick of it, but the creative designs for these less talked about heroes (or villains) are such a charm. Unrelated but i think they put crack in Timeranger because why is it so damn good

i need to watch more toku than i currently do

though, i did just start up kr den-o for the first time recently, its very awesome

the kamen rider series i've watched thru has been kuuga, ryuki, and geats (+ a few movies, a couple false starts on some series that i'll get back to one day)

i havent checked out much of the movies/specials for ryuki or geats, i wonder if i should check those out sometime...

oh and i have some ultraman steelbooks i should dig into

and, and i have the gamera trilogy dvd box set, those movies kick ass

i also got the criterion of godzilla recently and its very cool

shoutout to working in a used bookstore and getting cool stuff on big employee discount

Hi toku thread! Coming in to ask about starting out with Ultraman, is the era approach saoirse posted for KR the best bet for Ultraman as well?

my only tokusatsu exposure is watching the first ten or so episodes of ex-aid in college. it’s pretty fun. i’ve been meaning to return to it, but there’s always so much to do. my understanding from reading this thread is that ex-aid is an odd starting point, given that nobody recommended it. what do y’all think of it?

re:rain have fun. ooo is my favorite season of all time. and ryuki is a show i fucking loathed by the end of it the first time i watched it. i gave it a 3/10 i think? but then a friend was watching it and i said ok let me give it another shot. and when watching it with him i was like. what bad things did i ever have to say about this show? this is fucking awesome? what on earth could i dislike about this? and now its one of my favorite seasons of all time. i loooooooooove ryuki. such good characters. seeing ouja and then watching changerion and having to figure out that theyre played by the same man kind of broke my brain. its scary. god ryuki is good. god ooo is So good. ily kamen rider.

re:decade local heroes are so cool. i see some designs on tumblr and i <3 them so much. ive also seen a season and change of dogengers and have been having a blast. ily maid butler id do anything for u. a they of all time for me.

re:emmy have fun with den-o. its a series im so torn on because on the one hand its the final nail in the coffin for "rider as action horror" as it moves us very firmly into "rider as funny little guy comedy action" which we are in now and forever and unable to escape. which is a shame because action horror rider is so awesome and i really miss early heisei blood and gore. but on the other hand. those little guys are Really funny. theres a reason they can just drop momotaros into any crossover and it just works. hes awesome. also zeronos makes me feel insane if i think about him too long. i almost cried when he showed up in a crossover and i genuinely didnt realize that i felt so strongly about him until i saw him again.

re:raffy im sorry i cannot be a beacon of guidance for u on this. all i know about ultraman is that there are some heisei(?) seasons that are direct sequels to previous seasons. im starting with omega bc its going right now (very fun btw) but i have a feeling my sicko instincts will take over one day and i will start from the very beginning and watch chronologically. as i am wont to do. good luck on your journey and i hope there is someone here who understands and can guide us both into a beautiful future.

re:periclase ex-aid is pretty fun i think ive watched it twice now? the characters are by and large very fun and have interesting conflicts (even if i think the women shouldve done more. but its kamen rider why would they allow women to do anything [i am killing john toei with my mind]). the suits are obviously. controversial. im fine with them i think they look neat but i have some friends who haaaaaate them. (zombie gamer is the best suit of the bunch tho hands down). i just personally. think that the main villain is fucking annoying. which is not a generally shared opinion bc he is one of the most popular characters the franchise has ever put out. he fucking eats up that role tho so i have to respect it. feasting on that scenery. takahashi, the head writer, is also the head writer of 01 and geats (and maybe zeztz if the rumors are true?), and has tried to insert a character Like That every time so i kind of hate him even more because of what he wrought upon me (thouser). so. i like it enough to have seen it twice. i think its just kind of overshadowed by build in popularity (and on many other metrics) but i have seen armies of people on twitter go to bat for it as "the one that looks silly but is secretly Fucked Up". house md for gamers is a wild swing as a tv show and i think it really does quite a bit with the premise. its not an abnormal starting place. it has very popular characters and a very strong hook. i hope if u go back to it u have a blast. theres always gold in every season of toku. we live in a beautiful world where we have an excess of good things to have stupid slapfights over on messageboards.

i will reiterate that in my heart of hearts. the best starting season is whatever one interests you most. beginnings of eras are some of the easiest entry points bc thats how theyre designed, but whatever jumps at you is worth starting with. if you get really into it you can watch other seasons later and chase your bliss up and down the release order as you see fit. (also kuuga oh my god kuuga please watch kuuga)

(also tetsuya iwanaga is so beautiful dressed up as a woman it kind of makes me furious. stop being hot i hate your character)

re: good luck on your journey and i hope there is someone here who understands and can guide us both into a beautiful future

Perhaps I will start chronologically and you can go in reverse and we can meet up in the middle and do a high five that would make all the ultramen proud.