My Introduction to Kamen Rider: Kamen Rider Kabuto (Final Thoughts)

So, lately I've take an interest in Kamen Rider. For the uninitiated, Kamen Rider is a Japanese tokusatsu show (special effects show) in the same vein as Super Sentai (the show from which Power Rangers was spawned), and is about, basically, bug men on motorcycles. I'd say this is a weird concept, but this is pretty tame by Japan's standards. Okay, to be more specific, it's about people who use special belts transform into Kamen Riders, martial art using and motorcycle riding super heroes wearing special armor (usually with a bug motif) who fight against evil. There are a ton of different series and movies stretching back to the early 70s.

I got interested in it after seeing a review of a couple of Kamen Rider toys (this review to be exact). I saw it and thought "Hey, that looks kinda cool. And I keep hearing about it, might as well check it out." So, I grabbed the nearest Kamen Rider fan (that being Sedraxis) and got some information out of him. Learned what some of the series were about and got some suggestions on where to start. From what he told me, Kabuto seems like a good place to start. And, now that I have a personal forum, I figured I would catalog this journey I'm taking into unknown. So, join me in the wild (I want to say "ride", but that would be a horrible pun) into the world of Kamen Rider.

I will be back later to post my initial thoughts.

So, 5 episodes in, here are my first impressions.

First off, let me start by saying that these episodes are fucking hard to find (I can swear now? Yay!). That's no fault of the show, but it's irritating.

Okay, first thing I notice is that the director loves blindingly bright shots of the sun. Loves it. I think it's supposed to be a thematic thing, but it is far from well done.

Now, for story. There was this meteor, and it brought these monster that eat people, and there's this shady organization that fights them, and they develop this suit, that this one other guy is able to steal for some unexplained reason, and then he uses the suit to fight the worms while the organization tries to capture him. And that' all we know. Things in this show go tragically under explained. Some exposition would be nice. And the plots for the individual episodes are extremely predictable. I know this is still a kids show, but come on.

As for the characters, so we far we have three major characters; Arata Kagami, who is your typical bumbling nice guy, Hiyori Kusakabe a quiet and introverted girl who was apparently present during the meteor strike, but still, we know nothing, and Souji Tendou, who is... interesting. Souji Tendou is a strange character. He's extremely cocky and self assured, condescending, and talks about conquering heaven and such, but is still a really nice guy. And I don't just mean has two sides to him, they're the same side and it's... weird.

But anyway, let's get to the action. Unlike what you may have previously experienced with Power Rangers, there's no team of heroes plowing through waves of minions to get to the monster. You've got one Rider vs 1 monster and sometimes a few slightly smaller monsters (there are occasionally a few organization grunts, but they never last long). When confronting a monster, Souji Tendou summons a mechanical beetle out of thin air... somehow, then sticks it on his belt and transforms into Kamen Rider Kabuto. He starts off his "Masked Form" which... I don't like. It just looks like generic power armor, and the fights are weak to, mostly just him shooting. But fortunately, he's able to "Cast Off" his armor and change into his "Rider Mode" which a lot cooler, and involves more martial arts. In this mode the fights are cool, and they have a gimmick called "Clocking Up" wherein Kabuto and the monster of the week eventually freeze time for their fight, which leads to some cool effects.

So, overall, I'm too impressed. The show hasn't hooked me in yet, but hey, I'm only five episodes into a 49 episode series. It can still come back and impress me.

Okay, just finished another 5 episodes, and this show now kicks major amounts of ass. The story took some interesting turns for a change, and it had a nice little arc going. We find out a little more about the meteor strike and Kagami becomes a much stronger character.

But by far the biggest improvement was the introduction of a new Rider TheBee (yes, all one word). And he looks really fucking cool. His design is just awesome, and I like his fighting style. It's a lot more active than Kabuto's more laid back style.

I'm now really interested to see what happens next.

Five more episodes, and here are my thoughts.

Things just got weird. Seriously funny, but weird.

We're introduced to another new Rider named Daisuke Kazama, who transforms into Kamen Rider Drake, and dragonfly themed bug-man. He's a make-up artist who is obsessed with women and beauty. His fighting style much just shooting (when he actually fights hand-to-hand he sucks) and it's pretty weak. He makes up for it, however, by bringing some serious funny to the show. It's like everything TheBee touches turns to awesome, and everything Drake touches turns to funny.

Anyway, we're slowly but surly unraveling the plot. Very, very slowly. I know they have to stretch this out to 49 episodes, but Jesus fuck, could you just answer something?

I'm again.

Not much to go over again.

We get a heart wrenching little arc involving Drake (so much for the funny), and we get a new rider once again.

Kamen Rider Sasword, the Scorpion rider. His personality is that he's like the main character, but douchier. His masked form just looks awful, covered in wires. His rider form looks cool, except for the ridiculous scorpion tail thing on his helmet that just ruins it. And he uses a sword.

See ya in five more episodes.

Again? So quickly? Man, I'm just burning through them now.

The plot is thickening. Nothing is for certain, and more questions have been raised. I can't wait to find out the answers.

And, you'll never guess this, a new rider shows up! Are you surprised? Anyway, this new rider is called Gatak, the stag beetle rider. He looks really cool, but has two major problems. Namely, his left shoulder and his right shoulder. In masked mode he has huge cannons on each shoulder, and it just looks ridiculous when hes fighting. In rider mode, he has two curved swords that combine into pincers, and when he's not using them he carries them on his shoulders. I have no idea why they thought this was a good idea.

Well, I'll do another 5 episodes and then it's movie time. I'll review the Kamen Rider Kabuto movie, God Speed Love. Look forward to it.

Back again.

now, this is part where you'd expect me to talk about the new rider, right? Well, I can't. He on;y appeared for a grand total of 10 seconds over the course of three episodes. All we know is that he looks a lot like Kabuto and has an ability called "hyper Clock Up".

What can talk about more, however, are the villains. Up until now the worms, the monsters the riders have been fighting, were little more than just that, monsters. No personality or character, just monster who take other people's shape. But now, they've gotten crafty. A new leader has shown up with personality and character, that can hatch down right devious plans. Definitely a step up.

One other thing to note, episodes 29 and 30 are really fucking weird.

Next time: Rotten goes to the movies.

Movie time! Here's my thoughts on the Kamen Rider Kabuto movie God Speed Love (no, I don't understand the title either).

In the year 1999 a meteor crashed into the earth and dried up all the oceans...somehow, and brought with it an alien race known as the Worm. And organization know as ZECT was founded to stop the Worm. They developed the Rider System, which would allow certain people to become Kamen Riders. Several members split off from the main group and formed Neo-ZECT for... some reason, and try to... uh... stop ZECT I guess. Then Tendou shows up, and can turn into Kamen Rider Kabuto for reasons never explained, and works for ZECT as a double agent- Ah screw it.

If I had to sum up God Speed Love in five words it would be "Feels like a fan fiction."

The movie's story is (as I believe all Kamen Rider movies are) totally separate from the show. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. On the one hand, you don't have to worry about the problem of choosing whether to have the movie be either totally pointless or to alienate fans of the show who didn't see the movie. Plus, it allows you to tell stories you otherwise couldn't in the show. On the other hand, things won't be the same as they are in the show. The characters, the story, and mood set by the show is different, so you run risk of making it so different the fans can't enjoy it.

One of the first thing I noticed about this is that it's short. Really short. Only 66 minutes lone (there's apparently an 80 minute director's cut 9which I can't find) but even it's not feature length). And they try to cram a lot into those sixty minutes. The results are less than spectacular. The story is rushed and makes no sense whatsoever. Plus the worms hardly appear in it at all.

The biggest change is in the tone. God Speed Love goes for a more dramatic tone... and it fails spectacularly. In addition to the rushed and convoluted story, the actors, quite frankly can't pull this kind of dramatic acting. It feels so forced it's just plain sad.

Might as well talk about the new riders in this. There are three of them, and they're all pretty much the same except for different colors and helmets. That's it.

Overall, this movie fails on multiple levels. If you're looking to try Kamen Rider Kabuto, skip this.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled review.

So, a lot of plot happens in these five episodes, and I can't talk about it due to spoilers. But I am very interested in it.

What I can talk about, however, are the Riders. So we find out who that mysterious rider was. Turns out it was Kabuto in his brand new Hyper Mode (which looks really cool by the way). He apparently time traveled some how. And three have no been effectively "de-ridered". So, no more Drake, no more Sasword, and no more TheBee. They will be missed (well, one of them will).

But worry not, as they have been replaced by two new riders; Kickhopper and Punchhopper, two grasshopper riders. Kickhopper looks awesome, but then I'm a sucker for metallic green. His fighting style involves a lot of, you guessed it, kicking. In fact, that's his entire style. Plus his sanity is somewhat questionable. Punchhopper only appeared for a few seconds at the end of 35, but he seems to be a brown version of Kickhopper, and will most likely be doing a lot of punching.

Okay, I'm gonna make this quick since I really want to get back to watching it.

De-Ridered riders came back, except for TheBee, so I really don't care. Kabuto somehow got a sword that looks cool (in a cheesy plastic kind of way). Dark Kabuto showed up and looks awesome.

We're in the home stretch. Only nine more episodes. I may forgo giving thoughts on 41-45 and just save my next post for my final thoughts. We'll see.

And lo, I am done. Time for me to give my final thoughts.

For my first toku outside of Power Rangers, I must say I'm impressed. The plot, characters, action and effects are all really good.

The suit designs were all cool, though a few of them had some rather stupid flaws.

The directing was "okay". The battles tend have too many quick cuts for my liking and the director seemed to have fetish for blinding sunlight in the beginning (though they eventually get over that).

This series biggest weakness lies in the villains. Kabuto lacks a lasting central antagonist. Whenever it seems like were getting one they don't last too long and often get little development.

All in all, I'd say it's a pretty good show, and worth a look if you're interested in getting into Kamen Rider and tokusatsu in general.

Now, I'm moving on to Kamen Rider W. Let's see how well it goes.