Official Toku thread (kamen rider/sentai)

[Estrea]

牙狼 GARO ～闇を照らす者～　第１８話

Did anyone SEE episode 18 of Garo yet? HOLY MOTHERFUCKING GOD. I actually gasped when Ryuga got his eyes stabbed out. NOW I CAN'T WAIT FOR EPISODE 19. orz

[winner]

I hate to say it, I know we've got some perfectly nice people here that use it, but I'm gonna have to be honest and say Henshin Justice is my least favourite toku forum. I avoid them all now anyway, but I find something about the people at Henshin Justice particularly insidious. I just think it's better out in the open.

Thing is, I'm a big Boukenger/Kabuto fan so I was never going to be thrilled by it.

Really. It was the first time I went there, and I haven't checked their forum. So I don't know if they are good or bad. Actually I don't check any toku forums.

Shokotan getting her super hero movie. about time~

[krpsygafan]

Yeah, I think I'm definitely gonna try not to join any more toku forums. I think JPH!P is more than enough. It's only Rangertalk I've liked and then that kept moving all the time so I gave up in the end. Maybe I could make my own!  I doubt I'd know how to do anything like that.

Did anyone SEE episode 18 of Garo yet? HOLY MOTHERFUCKING GOD. I actually gasped when Ryuga got his eyes stabbed out. NOW I CAN'T WAIT FOR EPISODE 19. orz

I don't think I want to. I hate anything like that. Is it his eyes or just his suit's? Or both?

I saw the Shokotan trailer. I wonder if the humour is going to be like Yoshihiko.

[Aioros]

In a toy collecting group I joined in FB, we were wondering while the new golden Garo figure had red eyes instead of green. I guess it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye 

Also, gotta give Takeru a hand though for going toe to toe with Enhou.

[Estrea]

I don't think I want to. I hate anything like that. Is it his eyes or just his suit's? Or both?

Well the blade went into his suit's eyes, when he detransformed...blood trails. Doesn't bode well for him in the previews either...

In a toy collecting group I joined in FB, we were wondering while the new golden Garo figure had red eyes instead of green. I guess it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye 

That's pretty smart (and subtle) of them to change the eye color of the toy. I actually wonder how they're going to fight the final battle now with more than half of their main force crippled in some way (did Aguri get hamstrung by Enhou? It wasn't very obvious, we'll see if it affects him next ep).

Also, gotta give Takeru a hand though for going toe to toe with Enhou.

I see what you did there.

[Aioros]

fruit ninjas

[JFC]

^
Based on preview pics of Gaim's armour, I was actually thinking more like fruit samurai.

Whatever though...be it ninja's or samurai or whatever sort of warrior...it's still based on fruit. 

[winner]

Still looks totally samurai-ish to me.

Hey. There's a Knight too. So he's like a Knight Rider. hahaha {runs}

[winner]

For anyone who forgot to check on Hurricaneger 10 Years After (I totally forgot, hehe), the RAW has been up for nearly a month now:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=search&cats=0_0&filter=0&term=Ninpuu+Sentai+Hurricaneger

[JFC]

Holy jeez...news about something from a foreign country (that does not involve bombs/terrorists or oil/natural resources) in a top-tier American newspaper? 

Rubber-Suit Monsters Fade. Tiny Tokyos Relax.
By MARTIN FACKLER | Published: September 1, 2013

CHOFU, Japan — Daisuke Terai plays one of the best-known characters in the history of science fiction, but few fans have ever seen the actor’s face. That is because Mr. Terai puts on a bright silver and red rubber suit before stepping onto a set made of miniature trees and buildings to do battle as the cosmic superhero Ultraman.

 On a recent afternoon, Mr. Terai’s character was locked in mortal combat to defend the Earth from a giant extraterrestrial dinosaur with glowing eyes and forked spikes called Grand King. When the cameras paused, a sweating Mr. Terai, 36, peeled off the top of his Ultraman suit, while stagehands removed Grand King’s foam spikes to reveal a zipper down the back of the 65-pound costume.

For decades, Japanese studios dazzled, terrified and tickled global audiences with monster movies and television shows featuring actors in rubber suits laying waste to scaled-down Tokyos, or dueling atop miniaturized Mt. Fujis. The genre, known here as “tokusatsu,” or “special filming,” helped take the Japanese film industry global by creating such fabled creatures as Godzilla and Mothra, pioneering the way for other fantasy genres like animé.

But now, in an era when lifelike digital effects have made the use of small models and suited actors look quaint and kitschy, tokusatsu is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The last Godzilla movie shot in this style, the aptly named “Godzilla Final Wars,” was released almost a decade ago, after a half-century span during which the creature appeared in 28 films, sometimes every year.

Only two companies still use tokusatsu effects: Tsuburaya Productions, maker of Ultraman, and Toei, which produces “Kamen Rider” and “Super Sentai” (known in the United States as Power Rangers). All are low-budget television series for children that feature oversize superheroes. Tsuburaya also makes movies, with its newest film, “Ultraman Ginga,” to be released this month in Japan.

Now, when Hollywood makes tokusatsu-inspired films — like this summer’s “Pacific Rim,” with its giant robots, or a coming Godzilla movie — it relies on flashy computer graphics.

“One day, we looked around and realized that almost no one is making tokusatsu anymore,” said Shinji Higuchi, one of a handful of Japanese directors who still have experience in the genre, having directed three movies in the 1990s featuring the giant fire-breathing turtle Gamera. “We don’t want this technique to just quietly disappear without at least recognizing how indebted we are to it.”

In response, Mr. Higuchi is trying to, if not revive tokusatsu, at least chronicle it for younger generations. Last year, he helped organize the Tokusatsu Special Effects Museum, a traveling exhibition that presents the history of tokusatsu, going back to its origins in World War II-era propaganda films with flying model airplanes so realistic that American intelligence officers thought the films were actual combat footage.

The man who shot that footage, Eiji Tsuburaya, went on to create the original Godzilla in the 1954 black-and-white movie that became a worldwide hit and started the tokusatsu genre. The exhibition, which is doing a circuit of art museums in Japan, displays the movie camera of Mr. Tsuburaya, who also created Ultraman, as well as props including an enormous Godzilla foot, used to crush tiny buildings, and models of fanciful spaceships, submarines and ray guns used in dozens of superhero and monster movies.

“We had to improvise, and make it all look real on screen,” said Haruo Nakajima, the actor who played Godzilla in the original movie and in dozens of subsequent Godzilla films.

Now 84, he recalled how the creator of Godzilla, Mr. Tsuburaya, who died in 1970, had to scramble to find enough rubber, latex and cotton to make the costume during the shortages after the war. “You don’t learn this from a textbook,” he said, “but by doing. There is no chance to learn now.”

The central government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs helped pull together the exhibition by gathering the props and models from retired stagehands or studio closets. Tomonori Saiki, who heads research on movies at the agency, says that Japan has only belatedly come to appreciate the cultural significance of tokusatsu, which he calls a product of an era after defeat in the war, when a still-recovering Japan drew from its traditions of craftsmanship and working in miniature, seen in pot-size bonsai trees, to compete with bigger-budget American films.

 “Our hope is that the exhibition will help younger generations find inspiration to take tokusatsu in a new direction,” Mr. Higuchi, 47, said.

Here on the set of “Ultraman Ginga,” the newest television variant of the half-century old hero, most workers were veterans in their 50s and 60s, who arranged tree branches on the set to look like a miniature forest, or placed firecracker-size explosives in Grand King’s foam costume to explode when shot by Ultraman.

The director, Yuichi Abe, said this use of real actors, models and even explosives gave tokusatsu a level of realism that is not possible with computer graphics, or C.G.

“C.G. can only do what the programmer tells them to do, so there are no surprises,” said Mr. Abe, 49, who has directed a half-dozen Ultraman movies and television series. “With tokusatsu, every take is different. You never know how it will turn out, just like in the real world.”

Still, Mr. Abe said he was also relying increasingly on computer effects, mixing them with tokusatsu scenes. One example was flying aircraft, which had previously been miniature models, but were now entirely digital.

One scene, in which Grand King hurls a gigantic robotic companion named Jan Nine into Ultraman, required putting a large mat behind the actors, just out of the camera’s view. As filming was about to begin, Mr. Terai, the actor, donned his silver face mask and struck a dramatic martial arts pose. Stage hands flicked a small switch on his costume to turn on a light on his chest.

“Ready!” yelled Mr. Abe, giving instructions in a mix of Japanese and English. “Start!”

On cue, the actor playing Jan Nine leapt into Mr. Terai, knocking both onto the gym mat.

“Cut!”

“This is one effect that you don’t get from C.G.,” said Mr. Terai afterward, rubbing his shoulder. “Real pain.”

Mr. Terai, who has played Ultraman for 16 years and watched the show as a child, said there was one other benefit from having a real actor: the ability to shake hands with his young fans.

“Children know a C.G. is fake,” he said. “They want a human Ultraman.”

But the lack of young workers on the set, besides the actors, points to a worrisome trend, said Mr. Abe and others. As they retire, there will be no one who has learned the skills of making the sets, miniature models and costumes to take their place.

Shinichi Oka, the president of Tsuburaya Productions, the company that Mr. Tsuburaya founded, said the digital revolution had made change inevitable, though use of models and miniatures would continue in a limited role. The biggest reason was a new generation of audiences, who have come to expect the dazzling digital effects of Hollywood.

“Sure, I would love to keep making tokusatsu, but the reality is that C.G. is now cheaper, faster and can do more,” said Mr. Oka, who worked as cameraman and then director on nine Ultraman movies. “If Eiji Tsuburaya were still alive, he would use C.G. We have no choice.”

Hisako Ueno contributed reporting from Tokyo.

FULL ARTICLE LINK - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/world/asia/japan-films-shed-rubber-suits-godzilla-roars.html?pagewanted=2&smid=pl-share&pagewanted=all

[krpsygafan]

^ I'm half tempted to call that a typical scare story. With the amount of money they get from handshake events and stage shows I doubt they would go fully CG. Whereas with Garo they can get away with it.

Neo Magazine's started talking about toku so I buy that a lot more now.

[Aioros]

So, after Garo ends, there will be a new Keita Amemiya and Toshiki Inoue show: Shogeki Gouraigan



Synopsis:
The story revolves around Gou and Kai Hitomi, the titular hero and heroine of Shougeki Gouraigan. Gou is a Hikaribito, a super being who possesses extraordinary powers and originates from a world called Choushinkai, whereas Hitomi is an ordinary high school who has the ability to see the Magi, a type of evil spirit roaming both the Choushinkai and the Human World.

Notable cast members are:
Shinkawa Yua (Pink Buster)
Yamamoto Shouma (Kamen Rider Saga/Dan the White Knight)
Toshihide Wakamatsu (Black Condor)
Dan Mitsu
Rio

TV Tokyo Official Site

Official Site

More info from Rising Sun Tokusatsu

[JFC]

As much as I like Yamamoto Shouma as Tsubasa/Dan the White Knight, honestly, these three are the main reasons why I'd watch this.

Toshihide Wakamatsu (Black Condor)
Dan Mitsu
Rio

[JFC]

So TV-N just released their sub of Kyouryuuger episode 28, and just gotta say, in their blog post where they announced it's release, they included this pic where I found Konno Ayuri (aka Amy/KyouryuuPink) expression to be EXTREMELY mo~e.




Just sayin'. 

[winner]

After watching Garo: Tougen no Fue. Tsuda Kanji playing Rekka's 'good makai knight' daddy was a little freaky, after watching him in this year's Garo.
The 'good makai knight' him trained Kouga too. This could be some crazy plot if they linked the 2 shows together.

[Aioros]

Garo event in November


After doing some plays with Gaki-san...

[krpsygafan]

It annoyed me that they picked Shiguto as the main man in Tougen no Fue but then I suppose none of the female characters could have been the comic relief. I suppose things aimed at kids are more worth discussing sexism over.

[JFC]

After doing some plays with Gaki-san...

Ray's happy.

[Aioros]

Raw for GARO - Soukoku No Maryu is out

[Aioros]