So this anime season I'm watching Penguindrum and Kamen Rider. I'm sure there are other things to watch, but I'm pretty satisfied.
I don't often watch live-action superhero stuff, even though I really like it in theory. (I have Ultraman and Iron King and Red Baron sitting on the shelf, after all.) I just very rarely have it in me to really sit through one of these shows. Last time I tried to watch Kamen Rider it was Agito, and it was so mopey that I only gave it two episodes before stopping. You have to be really careful if you're going to do something like this and take yourself seriously at the same time: I'm not saying it's impossible, but there's a line to toe.
Mopey is the last thing in the world you could call Kamen Rider Fourze. The director is a veteran of the US Power Rangers shows (mostly the stunt work), and that shows through. The writer is Gurren-Lagann's Kazuki Nakashima, who was absolutely the secret of that show's success. I probably wouldn't be watching the show if hadn't heard he was on board.
So these guys have made a very different Kamen Rider. For one thing, the Rider himself has an astronaut gimmick going, complete with space suit and rocket bike. For another thing, this show is actually an extremely campy high school comedy.
One day, Amanogawa High School (AGHS, Angel Grove High School?!) recieves the best transfer student ever. "I'm Gentarou Kisaragi and my dream is to be friends with everybody in this school!" The first thing he does is jump into a stream from twenty feet above to retrieve a discarded love letter because you can't treat a girl like that, man! Gentarou is a nice delinquent. I suddenly really want a pair of Chucks with fire on the sides.
So he meets his best friend from elementary school, and she and her buddy happen to have a secret base-- well, I'll let you find out about the secret base. I'm going to stop here for a second and note the screenshot. Look at it. It's not a pose that human beings take. Yuki is not mid-motion, here, they stay in this position. It's a "hey, we gotta go!" pose that you'd only see in a still frame in a manga, or as a two-frame loop in an anime.
The characters in this show are extremely cartoonish, the performances play to that hard, and the direction pushes that further with really weird choices. Like, for example, the football captain here is fond of saluting, and there is always a Mario Brothers coin sound when he does so. Also, the fact that this Japanese school has an American football team and a cheerleading squad. The "here are the cliques in this school" scene is one of the best early gags.
JK is spelled JK, but you pronounce it "Jake." JK is fabulous, and both of these guys are clearly well trained in the use of the hand gun. The show is always like this. I haven't even gotten to the Kamen Rider stuff.
The suit is an astronaut suit. The bike is a space shuttle with a rocket exhaust. The catchphrase is "it's space time!" This rider's gimmick is that he's got an arsenal of 40 switches (not CCG cards, thank god) that he can stick into the belt to make weapons appear. The Rider Kick being used is a combination of a rocket on one arm and a drill on one leg, and much stranger weapons (a pogo stick, a UFO catcher hand) have already shown up. The fights are a lot of fun, and they come up with crazy new stuff every week.
I'm going to go ahead and name Kamen Rider Fourze the honorary best kids' cartoon of the season. Who else is doin' it like this? Who else has combined Saved by the Bell with chainsaw spin kicks? I'm pretty sure the answer is "nobody". If you like having fun, set your worries aside, get your bowl of cereal and watch Fourze.
Also, I have to give the fansubbers extra credit on this one for not being TV-Nihon, doing none of that kisama yatsu shit, and actually translating rather than transliterating. Good work.
>honorary best kids' show
Every episode has succeeded in topping itself with regards to sheer eroticism. Episodes 1 and 2 introduced the gaggle of incredibly hot cheerleaders. Episode 3 featured those incredibly hot cheerleaders in bikinis, lounging around a pool that has made an appearance in virtually every JAV that features a pool. The latest, Episode 4, features a running plot line of one of the female cheerleaders continually propositioning a fellow cheerleader to become her "sidekick" while physically cornering her and embracing her, as well as an extremely anime-esque shot where the main cheerleader and Gentaro have a conversation while the camera is positioned pretty much right behind the cheerleader's ass.
I am okay with this.
Posted by: Tallergeese | September 29, 2011 at 11:21 AM
You know, if you want a not-very-serious Kamen Rider, you should probably also try Den-O. It's filled with time-traveling trains and climaxing.
Posted by: David Criscione | October 20, 2011 at 06:39 AM