Jess♥

I'm gonna say ryuki, but there's probably more recent. ryuki wasn't even based on who is getting more powerful. in some ways, getting more powerful was viewed as a bad thing in Ryuki. 'becoming a hero' was certainly the worst thing! i mean, it turned toujou into a total psycho. so in the end, defeating the enemy, came about through sacrifice. and of course, gaining more power came with dire consequences. Asakura gained more monster but in turn, had to feed them more to prevent them attacking HIM.

yeah there are a lot of them and there is so much to be said!

i know that there's no argument about wataru, but something crossed my mind while reading that nobody mentioned and i wish to voice it. As I'm watching Ryuki again, i notice the very strong characters in it, a particular character, toujou sticks out quite prominently. he is seem to represent an Otaku, but he represents how a lot of japanese actually see an otaku, as a dangerous, untrustworthy person. Even when considering Asakura, I feel that Toujou is a far more dangerous person. (quite similar to ichi the killer) Wataru seems to be a counter for what they did with that character. I think this is quite powerful.. even if they did not do a good job of showing the character, i think their choice was noble because they painted all otaku with a bad light. in wataru, there was redemption and understanding for those kind of shut-in. okay, now I got that off my chest, I can concentrate on looking at your discussion about teh way they put across the story. I think toku warrior has laid out a good overview of how the characters have developed. thiking back, i do not have a lot of love for the kiva series. i haven't really analyzed it too much, but it could well be because of weak story telling. oh, toku warrior, when tales said the weapons come from the sky, I think he was using it as a metaphor. I believe tales is referring to the writers using a sort of deus ex machina.

but think about it, wataru is a representation of a real person. perhaps a represetation of what a lot of the target audience could be. sometimes the heroism of past riders could be considered unrealistic.. and people can't relate to it. but wataru not being able to cope with the loss of this person, i would say is showing a bit of reality as opposed to a altruistic and yet fake character. would you agree? along with a lot of tv nowadays, it's no longer about fantasy and escapism, it's also about combatting everyday issues and to help the viewer view their own life in a different perspective. so they simply can't make the tv like they used to. people wouldn't watch it. wataru was a very interesting character IMO. he wasn't 2 dimensional, he actually had depth and wasn't totally predictable. not like 2 dimensional fake characters like tsukasa and tendou. whilst entertaining, they just aren't believeable. that's why in kabuto, I think the main protagonist was actually kagami, and in DCD I think the main protagonist is actually yuusuke. even in masked rider kiva, you have some questioning over who is actually the main character. all the characters are pretty interesting, you even have your masculine character taking up a very dominant role in Jirou.

it was said that this series wasn't very good a while back. is it good now? would you say it started weak and become strong? it looks pretty good from that video. I love Masked Rider Ryuki so I am always interested.

wow that site is very amazing! I like it a lot! I just had a little look at some super sentai pages. good stuff.

i understand this.. the riders are reflecting upon the youth rather than on the men. do you think this is possibly a result of the changes in japanese culture though? because i remember a episode in keitai sousakan 7 where keita's dad is complaining about politics and how japan is changing. it may be difficult for us to judge since the majority of us are not within japanese society and do not know how it is behaving.

this is interesting actually.. in the past, in japanese society, the men were in a much more powerful role. it's almost like our western society, men used to be more macho, but these days, men are losing their masculinity. in some ways this may be good or in some ways bad. one thing i have noticed is... i have to be careful what i say... let us say that the women seem to be more submissive in some certain japanese media. i find it very degrading to see women behave/treated this way. i think that as time is going on, this is going to change too, but this is an area where it is more apparent to me. the point is, the men are more powerful in this respect and that i think perhaps japan is going through hte same revolution that the west went through in terms of women becoming stronger and men becoming weaker in other areas such as kamen rider. perhaps in time we will see the balance change and men will regain their masculinity in these roles.

oh dear, well would screenshots be better?

I got a reply from Lycanthrope. I thought a couple of parts are a little unclear so I asked him to write in japanese. also, I asked him if he could provide a link of where japanese fans are discussing this.

much appreciated Durendal. I will send this message to lycanthrope.

Oh Nasubi is in it! he is such a cool guy! but his face looks very odd do you think? is he of a different ethnicity? perhaps okinawan ethnicity? BTW I think double is looking VERY COOL!!!

heh heh, they are leaving it a bit problematic aren't they? I get the impression we are going to be left with a lot of unanswered questions. and maybe new questions to boot.

ok but you need to write down exactly what you want me to ask and then we'll have to see if durendal would be so kind as to translate it for us.

very nice work dude!! I really like the skin tone.

oh dear. that's not nice well the joys of healing are on you now I love it when something heals. of course the pain of getting injured is not desirable, but then at least i can go through that wonderful process of healing! i have a problem with my big toe for a while. it takes a bit of maintainance to get it to heal properly because it's right by where the nail grows from. so I have to get it to a place where my nail doesn't open the wound again.

do you see why i asked you not to get a spoiler?

i think there's a lot of misunderstanding about the behaviour of machines. machines at the very core are tools. their purpose from the very beginning is different from ours. they are made to satisfy a purpose. human beings with free will and human behaviour is a result of survival. creatures of our sort were never intended as tools in any way shape or form. machines will be able to mimic human nature for sure. but ti have a machine that is truly free? it's not possible, even humans are not truly free. we are all products of our programming and so are machines. to have a machine that does not do what a human commands would mean that the machine has desires that are contrary to a human beings desire. and no human in their right mind would create something like that. for what purpose would a human do that? it wouldn't make any sense. to think that a machine might break its programming? yeah you might get cases similar to industrial accidents, but full autonomy? i doubt it very much.

of course this is all considering that we base it off current energy production technology. realise that energy production is going to change, there are many technology in development. the most promising technology i have had my eye on involves an advanced electromagnetic coil configuration that intends to not only boost output by an insane amount but also the possibility to draw from zero point energy. but oif course these kind of things go unsupported because then the companies would not have anything to sell. they would lose profit and of course that's not in their favour. in that case it'll just take longer to get these kind of technology off the ground... but the oil's gonna run out at some point.

well i have said before, I talk to lycanthrope-bata sometimes on deviant art. but his english is not that good. if i were to ask him about kamen rider, I would probably be better off asking durendal to write it in japanese. that way we can get a definite answer. but i don't want to bug durendal about it. if he reads this thread and offers to help out in this respect, I would be happy to act as an intermediary. just so you know, lycanthrope-bata does like old kamen rider, he has done a few art pieces with kamen rider black, zo, amazon, etc. http://lycanthrope-bata.deviantart.com/art/kamenriders-109229624

I get the strong feeling that W will change this franchise in a very definite way. I don't know if it will be in the way you hope, but i look forward to it anyway. it will certainly be exciting to see something different.

you know when it get's really dangerous though? it's when it seems like perhaps ronaldo, beckham and the others are gonna be out of a job.... watch this, it's really scary!

oh damn, yeah V3 was in that wasn't he? what was i think ing of then... was it kamen rider X ? is he due for a movie? I don't know about these things...

well yes of course you are right. we aren't exactly paying to watch these shows.. they aren't available to us. do you know anybody in japan?

I wouldn't say they are ignored, gone or forgotten. have you neglected to consider the movies, " the first" and "the next"? also, I am sure they are continuing with this movie thing and bringing out V3 sometime soon? also, remember the fact that the BEST episode of kamen rider decade was the episode with black RX in it... the old riders are not forgotten by anybody. they are celebrated as they should be, as relics of a bygone age. they are like the treasured antiques that some people collect. the people who made those series back then are no longer making the shows. dekared was telling me about this the other day.. how they found it so difficult to do amazon, because the creators were no longer available. they don't have the same people so if they try really really hard to make something very much like teholder series, they may totally mess it up. perhaps it is best that they just stick with what they are good at?