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12-30-2017, 12:06 PM | #1 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,426
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Time again for the annual look back on the previous year and the shows, characters, and moments that stood out to you. So, as I do every year, I've compiled (aka copy and pasted) my list of categories for everybody to look back and reflect on. All in all, I think 2017 was a great year for tokusatsu, provided you aren't a Sentai fan (or at least one with more patience than me), so there should be plenty of good options to pick from.
As always, for releases of this year I'm counting any series that aired any episodes during 2017, including: Zyuohger Kyuranger Power Rangers Ninja Steel Power Rangers Hyper Force (I guess?) Kamen Rider Amazons Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Build Zero: Dragon Blood Ultraman Geed And again, for movies I'm counting anything that came out this year as well as anything that came out last year but wasn't available as a dvd/fansub until this year. If you want to include stuff that hasn't been available for viewing outside of Japan yet but you're pretty sure is going to be really, really awesome, go ahead. Best New Show of 2017 Best New-to-You Show of 2017 Best Rewatch of 2017 Best Movie of 2017 Best Male Lead Character Best Female Lead Character Best Male Supporting Character Best Female Supporting Character Best Villain Best Returning Past Character Best Actor Best Actress Toku Crush of 2017 Best Suit Actor Best Writer Best Director Best Hero Suit Design Best Monster Suit Design Best Weapon Best Vehicle/Mecha Best Fight Scene Best Dramatic Scene Best Comedic Scene Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment Best Song Best Piece of Merchandise Biggest Surprise of 2017 And, because not everything in 2017 was as delightfully glorious as a Dan Kuroto meme: Biggest Disappointment of 2017: The Onari Award for Single Worst Thing in 2017 Tokusatsu: |
12-31-2017, 08:07 AM | #2 |
Dai Shogun
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Germany
Posts: 7,530
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Best New Show of 2017
Ultraman Geed. The setup was so interesting, getting back Belial and Zero in the main TV-show instead of a movie with Belial's son as the hero? Damn. And they exceeded my expectations by delivering on every level and sometimes even going beyond it. I rarely had a Toku-show that resonated so well with me, there were several moments where I thought "They totally should do this!" and exactly that happened seconds later. It was less major plot points and more small touches but them doing it proved to me that they were aware of what they had and how to make it better. Plus, as I said, they totally exceeded my expectations and did certain things even better than I thought they would. It's like the third year in a row now that Ultraman takes me number 1 spot of the year even though I'm mainly a Rider-guy, that's how good these shows are. I really hope they keep on going without losing momentum. Best New-to-You Show of 2017 Kamen Rider Blade. After I suffered through Faiz I finally arrived at another Heisei show with a mostly positive rep and I now understand why. It's a great show with great characters. What I found surprising, however, is that I actually like the first half which is often said to be the weaker part of the show more than the rest. Maybe it's because I could really feel the writing room-change in some aspects, arcs involving Mutsuki sucked the enjoyment of this show right out of me because the character made no sense whatsoever. But I like how they finally tied his story up even though it didn't really work for me either. Honorable mention: Kamen Rider Super-1. I started to watch it very recently without thinking much about it but it's a really fun time so far. Best Rewatch of 2017 Does watching Ultraman Geed episodes more than once because they were so awesome count? Best Movie of 2017 Heisei Generations. I know it's from December last year technically but we only got subs this year so I guess it counts. The Ex-Aid parts were fantastic, the Ghost parts weren't unbearably terrible, and I liked the Pac-Man theme. Also, the Legend Riders worked (even though Gaim was just a soundboard) and now that the next Heisei Generations movie is a thing and actually has all returning actors for the suits I love this movie even more for making that a thing. Best Male Lead Character Even though I like Riku Asakura a lot (and love that his actor appeared as a child way back in an Ultraman Zero-movie) I think its Sento Kiryu from Kamen Rider Build. The role is so surpassingly complex and simple at the same time, it's just great. Best Female Lead Character That one, however, is easily in Geed's favor, it's Chihiro Yamamoto as Laiha Toba. Now you'll say "But Kiwami, she's a support character!". Actually, no, she isn't. You may assume that's the case, but she's so important to the show and always equal as a partner to Geed that partakes in action and story herself that she is a lead character. She is interesting as a person, brings some badass action to the table and her being with Riku throughout major obstacles and standing next to him when a certain character says goodbye to Riku really says it all. And much of the character's success is, of course, thanks to Chihiro Yamamoto being awesome. She brought the serious nature needed in some instances and also made some amazing action scenes work because of her talent in martial arts. Best Male Supporting Character You've entered the "More Geed" territory, I hope you like reading more about Ultraman Geed because well, there's more. Although, let's start with the honorable mention: It's Ryuga Banjou from Kamen Rider Build. This is a secondary Rider done right: Make him relevant to the show ever since the first episode, write him as a great counterpoint to the hero and have him be played by a talented actor. Eiji Akaso already showed us his stuff in the second season of Kamen Rider Amazons so seeing him return for a full year Rider-show was a treat already. And boy, he does a fantastic job. Great stuff from this guy, and easily the best secondary Rider in a long time. But... the trophy has to Leito Igaguri from Ultraman Geed. Having Zero as a "secondary Ultraman" for the season was perfect, simply because of his relation to Ultraman Belial and because he knows daddy issues himself quite well. His host, however, made the thing perfect. A simple, rather unlucky businessman who works his butt off for his family and is not very heroic or brave, but clearly has what it takes to be a hero. Him, his family and Zero could already fill a show themselves, but they are only a part of the greater plot which makes it even better. They play a lot on common superhero-tropes but build it up with some really emotional stuff. The endgame for the character and his family was awesome. Best Female Supporting Character More Geed! It's Moa Aizaki, the ditzy, badass agent lady. On paper, I shouldn't like this character but she was brought to life by Mayu Hasegawa, a great actress, and written beyond just her shortcomings which made everything the character was involved in highly enjoyable. Even her obvious hots for Riku which resulted in more than one cringe-setup was turned into something funny simply because the actress could deliver it without fail and because the other characters bounced off of her so well. It's another great part of Geed, the character I should've hated but fell in love with regardless. Go Moa! Best Villain Not someone from Geed! I mean Belial is awesome (obviously), don't get me wrong, and Kei Fukuide certainly wasn't a bad villain either, but the bad guys of Geed where it's the weakest part, simply because most of the tension came from the main characters who had their history with them and because Jugglus Juggler from Ultraman Orb was such a hard performance to follow up on. I'm really curious to see how they plan to outdo this guy. Anyways, the crown goes to someone who for now appears to be a bad guy at least, its Blood Stalk from Kamen Rider Build. I feel like going into detail as to why he's the best would get too spoiler-y for this post so I just assume you've seen Build and know what I'm talking about. If not, go watch it now! Best Returning Past Character Back into the land of Geed again! It has to be Ultraman Zero and maybe Ultraman Belial too; I think they can share this trophy. Ultraman Zero for reasons I already explained, and Belial because of well... Geed would be quite pointless without him You could certainly choose some Riders from Heisei Generations Final for this category and I probably would if I had seen it already (Gaim!) but I will have to wait some more to see that movie so I guess they'll be featured in next years' best of's. Best Actor That has to be Tetsuya Iwanaga as Kuroto Dan / Kamen Rider Genm. I mean how could it be anyone else? The man has achieved godhood with this role. He was so into it and gave it his all to make this batshit crazy character a reality. Thumbs up for this guy, he didn't really carry the show as Ex-Aid was quite excellent in of itself but it certainly wouldn't have been the same without the divine Kuroto Dan. Best Actress Wow, another Ex-Aid entry! I'd love to nominate something from Geed but Ex-Aid was certainly a thing for most of this year and Ruka Matsuda as Poppy Pipopapo deserves the crown. Another character I should hate but didn't thanks to good writing and a fantastic actress. Her range of emotion was so wide, from the very loud and happy Poppy to the serious and calm Asuna and quite a few sad moments for both personas. She also had a very menacing voice, she only did it a few times but man was that awesome. So yeah, after Kuroto Dan this is certainly the character that stood out the most thanks to a great talent in front of the camera. Toku Crush of 2017 I think I usually skip this category but this year I can't, Moa is too goddamn adorable. And Laiha is pretty awesome too. Riku is one lucky guy I'll tell you that much! Best Suit Actor It has to be the legend, the man, Seiji Takaiwa. I think you legitimately cannot give someone else the title as long as this man is in the business. And I hope that continues to be the case for a lot of shows to come! Best Writer Everyone involved with Geed. Although Rider really has stepped up its game after Ghost, Ex-Aid was great and Build is pretty awesome too. But for this year? It's Geed. I don't think I need to explain why at this point Best Director Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeed. Best Hero Suit Design I like Ex-Aid but I still prefer the more traditional looking suits so I'd go with Build, but... Ultraman Geed Primitive. It's just so good. A more heroic looking Belial, how can you go wrong with that? Sadly none of the other suits aside from Solid Burning wow-ed me. But they were still good. Honorable mention to Build Rabbit/Tank and Cross-Z. Best Monster Suit Design The Belial-fusion monsters from Geed. They were all badass. Skull Gomora is my favorite. Best Weapon The Beat Closer. I like the jingles of this thing a lot. Best Vehicle/Mecha I guess Build's bike? Not a whole lot of good mecha or vehicles this year. Best Fight Scene Oh boy, there's lots of good stuff to choose form but I think Geed's first fight against Skull Gomora is the one I rewatched the most. Fantastic atmosphere, gorgeous shots and miniature work with great action and effects. Just all-around perfection. Best Dramatic Scene Spoilers: The last fight between Geed and Belial when Riku, in his mind, hugs Belial after he saw what happened in his past and just tells him to let go. It's such a powerful moment. Aside from that, there were lots of great moments in the end-parts of Ex-Aid as well. Stuff like a certain character sacrifice and the relation between Emu and Parad comes to mind. Best Comedic Scene The scene from Geed where Moa learns that Rikku and Laiha live together and goes crazy. That's all Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment Something from Kyuranger for sure, but thankfully I forgot already. Best Song Geed's OP is badass, just an all-around fantastic retro Toku song, but I think Build's "Be The One" takes it. I recall that I initially hated it but after seeing the opening and reading the translation I learned to love it, there's a powerful message in that song and it's quite catchy too. Best Piece of Merchandise The S.H.Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider 1. It looked great on the promotional pictures but in-hand it blew me away, such a gorgeous figure. Biggest Surprise of 2017 Kamen Rider Build being as good as it is. Not that I expected it to be terrible but the show did go way beyond what I expected it to be. In an all positive way too. Biggest Disappointment of 2017 Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, all of it. I'm not the biggest Sentai-fan but Zyuohger was such a good time, simple and fun, and then Kyuranger comes around and it's just god-awful all around. That show can just vanish from existence for all I care. The Onari Award for Single Worst Thing in 2017 Tokusatsu Last edited by Kiwami; 12-31-2017 at 08:11 AM.. |
12-31-2017, 12:49 PM | #3 |
Kawaii 5-0
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Cardiff, United Kingdom
Posts: 12,851
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I made sure to leave it to you again this year, after all you always do such a great job of it
Best New Show of 2017: Ultraman Geed, hands down. Between being a standalone show, the continuation of the Ultraman Zero/Belial story and an Ultraseven anniversary tribute this show hit every single note. The characters were fantastic, the suits were incredible and the visuals beautiful. I could gush about this show for days. Best New-to-You Show of 2017: Ultraseven. Holy crap now I know why this is considered one of the greatest tokusatsu shows of all time. It literally doesn't skip a beat. A show that both builds upon and bests the original Ultraman. A must-see for sure. Best Rewatch of 2017: I didn't rewatch all that much year, so I guess I'll say Kikaider REBOOT since I distinctly remember watching that. Best Movie of 2017: A toss up between Heisei Generations and Power Rangers. Both were very good amongst movies that were either just average or a let down. Best Male Lead Character: Riku Asakura. A tokusatsu fanboy who discards his birth to become a hero that never stands down. Just perfect. Best Female Lead Character: I am not deciding between Laiha and Moa. Do not make me choose. Both did more than enough to justify being considered lead characters. Best Male Supporting Character: Leito Igaguri. Hands down my favourite character in Geed that wasn't Belial. The perfect partner for Zero. Those bits with his family in the penultimate episode were so of the best the show had to offer. Best Female Supporting Character: Poppy Pipopapo. She stayed an all-important member of the Ex-Aid cast even if she was totally shafted when it came to Rider-appearances. Hopefully her V-cinema will make up for that. Best Villain: The living legend that is Kuroto Dan. A man that just went further and further off the deep end as time went on but kept getting better. I'm sure I'm in the minority saying that impact was lessened/cheapened when he returned and changed sides but he was still fun and it would have been a waste to see him stay dead. Can't wait to see him in FINAL and the V-Cinemas! Best Returning Past Character: Belial. A true villain through and through, and one of my all-time favourite tokusatsu characters. Best Actor: Tetsuya Iwanaga, just for bringing Kuroto Dan to life the way he did. Best Actress: Ruka Matsuda Toku Crush of 2017: Probably Ruka Matsuda again after seeing some of the pics that were in that recent Poppy book. Best Suit Actor: Yuya Nawata and Yuji Nakata, who were the Dangerous Zombie suit actors. They added so much character through their body language. Best Writer: All of the writers behind Geed. Best Director: Koichi Sakamoto. The man does some questionable things at times but I can't deny the great stuff he did with Geed. Same goes for all the other directors that worked on it. Best Hero Suit Design: Probably Geed Primitive. Solid Burning is nice too but can't really beat the standard version. The little Belial-style flairs add a lot to it. Best Monster Suit Design: Pendanium Zetton. They took Zetton, added in some King Joe and made it even better. Best Weapon: The Koma Ninja sword from Build. It's a fun little idea that came out really well as both a toy and in the show. Best Vehicle/Mecha: KyurenOh. The minipla was an amazing toy so I guess I'll go with that. Best Fight Scene: There are A LOT of fights in Geed that are a contender for this, but I think I'm going to stick with the final battle against Belial where Geed is able to summon all of his different forms. Best Dramatic Scene: The final fight between Geed and Belial where Riku removes Rayblood in his mind and hugs the untainted Belial. I don't think any scene has made me gasp as much as that. Best Comedic Scene: The scene in Geed where Zero is trying to go off to the rescue and Leito needs to stay at his meeting Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment: The Kamen Rider Specter movie. The whole thing was one massive wtf. Still better than the show though. Best Song: People Game. Not quite what I expected to be my most listened to toku song of the year but there we go. Best Piece of Merchandise: S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Genm Level X. Tamashii Nations NAILED it. Biggest Surprise of 2017: The new GARO anime being really good. Biggest Disappointment of 2017: There not being a Kyuranger vs Zyuohger next year. The Onari Award for Single Worst Thing in 2017 Tokusatsu: Power Rangers Ninja Steel. The cast deserve so much better than this.
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Last edited by ZeoRangerV; 12-31-2017 at 03:02 PM.. |
12-31-2017, 03:35 PM | #4 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,426
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Waited a bit to post my own answers because I wanted to watch something I'd forgotten about before the end of the year.
This wasn't a busy year for me on the tokusatsu front. I've been really busy with work and what casual viewing time I have had ended up getting devoted to the backlog of Critical Role. I'm even behind on new shows, with about eight episodes of Geed left to finish. But I haven't completely fallen away, so: Best New Show of 2017: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, continuing from where it left off last year. Ex-Aid was such a fantastic show and it only continued to improve throughout the year. For me it is definitely the best Rider series since W and it's probably one of my all-time favorites. Best New-to-You Show of 2017: Didn't really discover any older shows this year. I did try to start finally watching Kamen Rider Super-1, but I only got three episodes in before getting sidetracked with other stuff. Best Rewatch of 2017: Likewise, didn't really rewatch anything either, even my new Garo blu-rays. Best Movie of 2017: This is what I was doing this morning. I've developed a weird fondness for the new Space Sheriff movies that Toei has been putting out and this year they upped the ante by throwing in my favorite Sentai team. The results were two films that I quite enjoyed, but my favorite was the Gavan vs. Dekaranger movie that I finally remembered to watch today. Lots of good Deka stuff, some good Gavan moments, Kenji Ohba back in action, interesting sequel hooks, Umeko getting several good scenes: this movie did a lot for me. Best Male Lead Character: Joining in on the love for Riku Asakura here. Gai from Orb left some very big shoes to fill, but Riku has done a fine job as the follow-up Ultra by going in very different directions and creating a fun and engaging main character. Best Female Lead Character: Laiha Toba. Very fun character that adds a lot to Geed, including each episodes mandatory tai chi display. Best Male Supporting Character: Kuroto Dan. Yes, I'm counting him as a supporting character and not a villain. He did well as a villain, but I feel that most of his best moments came after he was conscripted into fighting alongside the heroes (and seemingly lost a big chunk of his sanity in the process of turning into a Bugster). Best Female Supporting Character: There are a lot of good options here this year, but I'm going to give my support to Misora from Build. I've been really enjoying her grumpy, dead pan form of humor and the way it gets juxtaposed by her Mii-tan persona. I like all of Build's cast, but she's kind of surprisingly become my favorite. Best Villain: Masamune Dan. A good measure of a successful villain is how much the audience comes to hate him and I despised Masamune. He was cruel, he was heartless, and it was really awful how he saw individuals only as products or consumers. I had a great time hating his guts and waiting for him to finally get defeated. Best Returning Past Character: This one is a tie for me. Obviously, one vote goes to Mika Kikuchi as Umeko because Umeko; that's a given. But I also have to give a shout out to Takanori Kikuchi as Kaoru Kino/Another Agito. Agito holds a special place in my heart as the show that really got me into Kamen Rider and I never, ever, ever thought I would see him come back to the franchise in any way, but there he was in the Gorider specials, slipping back into the role without missing a beat. Gorider had a lot of great return appearances, but nothing tops seeing Kino-san again. Best Actor: Yuta Ozawa as Leito/Ultraman Zero from Geed. He does a fantastic job of pulling off the Clark Kent/Superman trick with his performance and does an excellent job of selling both identities as separate characters. Best Actress: This is going to be an odd one, but Reina Kurosaki as Nico Saiba from Ex-Aid. Nico wasn't the most important or complex character, but her actress was always on. Watch some of the scenes where she's just in the background and she's always doing something interesting. She really made the character a joy to watch. Toku Crush of 2017: Yukari Taki keeps doing tokusatsu and I keep crushing on her. Best Suit Actor: Also going for the Dangerous Zombie actors. Love, love, loved the creepy body language they used. Best Writer: Going with Yuya Takahashi for his fantastic work bringing Ex-Aid to life. Best Director: Between several movies and the Geed series, this was a great year for Koichi Sakamoto. Best Hero Suit Design: Ultraman Geed Solid Burning. I was initially put off by how greebly this suit looked, but in action it really grew on me a lot (as opposed to Royal Mega-Master, which makes my eyeballs hurt). Best Monster Suit Design: Chimeraberos from Geed's midpoint. Very cool fusion of Belial and two other monsters. Best Weapon: Honestly, nothing from the new shoes really did much for me. I mentioned this in another thread recently, but I hate the current tokusatsu trend of every weapon looking like a giant plastic roleplay toy. Even the Gavan vs. Dekaranger movie disappointed me with the side plot about Gavan's sword falling flat when the thing is blatantly made out of foam rubber. Best Vehicle/Mecha: I'm not sure what it's called, but I love that ridiculous walker mode that the Guardians can merge into on Build. It is so adorably stupid. Best Fight Scene: The final fight between Zero and the dragon on Dragon Blood. It's hard to top an awesome final fight from a Garo series. Best Dramatic Scene: The big villain reveal on Dragon Blood. I won't spoil it, but it did a fantastic job of paying off everything that had come before. I thought the character was a little off at first, but as the show went on I forgot about that more and more until WHAM! I really didn't see that coming and it was a major highlight of the series for me. Best Comedic Scene: Kuroto repeatedly working himself to death while working on Hyper Muteki. Kind of horrifying if you stop and think about it, but the over-the-top acting and goofy continue pipe really made it hilarious. Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment: The actual Goriders scene from the Gorider specials. It was weird enough having five Gorenger-colored OG-style Kamen Riders running around, using goofy mid-70s attacks, but then you factor in who the characters in the suits are meant to be and the whole thing gets even more bizarre. Plus it's a complete Big-Lipped Alligator moment with minimal lead-in and absolutely no one talks about what just happened afterwards. WT actual F. Best Song: Dragonflame, the opening theme to Dragon Blood. Just a very nice, old school JAM Project Garo opening. Best Piece of Merchandise: I didn't get much this year, but I'm going to go with the Garo blu-rays because they're Garo blu-rays. Even if I have only watched one episode and the 2005 CGI is starting to fall apart a little when viewed 12 years later in high definition. Biggest Surprise of 2017: Holy crap, Ankh and Eiji are back for this year's Movie War. I hate that I'm going to have to wait until April to see this. Biggest Disappointment of 2017: Amazons season 2. I'll be honest, I never finished this; I still have about five episodes of it sitting on my laptop waiting for me to get around to them. I just could not get into this season. I know he wasn't involved, but so much of this season felt like classic Toshiki Inoue Rider. I wouldn't be surprised if Kobayashi went back and watched The First for inspiration. The show seriously overestimated how much I cared about Chihiro wanting to date the zombie girl and decided to make that the main focus of the series. Add in a lot of underwhelming new characters and some incredibly stiff staging and the show ultimately failed to hold my interest. The Onari Award for Single Worst Thing in 2017 Tokusatsu: Say it with me now (or don't if, like me, you've seen one episode of the show and heard it approximately seven times in 23 minutes): YOSHA RUCKY!!! |
12-31-2017, 04:55 PM | #5 |
Kawaii 5-0
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Cardiff, United Kingdom
Posts: 12,851
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Oh damn I completely forgot about Space Squad! Yeah that was definitely my favourite movie of the year, forget the others
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01-01-2018, 10:18 PM | #6 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Best New Show of 2017:
Geed Geed Geed GEED. Kiwami already said just about everything I wanted to. I'd like to especially stress the "I'm mainly a Rider guy" bit being true for me too though. It's not like Kamen Rider was in a slump this year either (and of course for me it wasn't during Orb too), and yet Ultraman still steals a ton of my attention. They keep pumping out these wonderful shows and I can only hope that if you're a human being alive on this Earth you take the time to watch at least one of them if you haven't already. You won't regret it. Best New-to-You Show of 2017: It feels like forever ago already but I'll have to give this to Geki... er, Mega..., no wait Shinken... One of the Sentai I watched? I'm still rocking this out of context Megaranger screenshot as a signature, so you know that one's my favorite, but Shinkenger was amazing and written by Kobayashi, while Gekiranger is actual perfection, so you can see how I'm torn here. Best Rewatch of 2017: Ultraman Ginga, I guess. I'd prefer to give this to something that caused me to totally rethink my opinion on a second viewing, but I don't have anything like that this year, so revisiting a show I was and am inexplicably fond of will have to do. Best Movie of 2017: Kamen Rider Specter, AKA a gift-wrapped apology to me for Ghost's slacking off toward the end. It had some crazy ideas, but managed to make them work, in the process creating an extremely well done epilogue for the series. Now if only we could get some good subs for it... Best Male Lead Character: Ryuuga from Kamen Rider Build. Yeah that's right, I'm going with the underdog on this one. Sento's cool too, obviously, but I think Ryuuga is the glue holding the whole show together. He struggles, he grows, and by the time the year was over, he was well on his way to becoming a proper hero. He wins this category because frankly it'd be too insulting to call him a supporting character. Best Female Lead Character: Laiha from Ultraman Geed. Again, see Kiwami's post. I have to admit I'm not super enthusiastic about her the way I am about Ryuuga, but she's cool in her own right and much like him, she's hugely important to her show's chemistry. If you removed her the whole thing would probably fall apart. Best Male Supporting Character: Leito from Ultraman Geed. Forgive me for repeating myself, but once again, Kiwami already described why as well as I could. Best Female Supporting Character: Poppy from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, who also gets a "Most Improved from 2016" award that I just made up. It's absolutely shocking how much more I liked her character by the end of the series considering I was pretty firmly neutral on her for the first half of so of the show. She went from fairly straightforward comic relief/emotional support to a surprisingly fleshed out character with her own motivations and goals, and some truly great moments in the later stretches of the show. She was far more important to Ex-Aid than I ever would've guessed and the show is all the better for it. Best Villain: Belial from Ultraman Geed. I generally like my villains straightforward and serious and especially given how Ex-Aid's duo of crazy weirdos never quite clicked with me, it was nice to have someone who was portrayed so menacingly. Rather than being in the show all the time he mostly hangs over everything, making it a big deal when he shows up and preventing him from looking like a wimp after getting beaten up for the umpteenth time. Best Returning Past Character: Ultraman Zero from Ultraman Geed. Have I mentioned that I really like Geed yet? Anyway, the Zero present in it was essentially the ultimate, refined version of his character, building him into a somewhat mentor-esque role to Riku, pairing him with an amazing partner that's already been discussed, and generally showing him to be a more mature, well-rounded take on the boisterous, determined hero we've all come to know and hopefully love. It took me a while to come around to him, but after Geed, I no longer question why they're still putting him in everything almost ten years after his debut. Best Actor: Yuuta Ozawa in Geed. It can be hard to fully appreciate with Mamoru Miyano's voice dubbed over him, but he really does do an amazing job playing two characters in one body. The change in his facial expressions alone is crazy. Best Actress: Ruka Matsuda in Ex-Aid for making all the stuff I just talked about with Poppy possible. She really stepped her game up when the show gave her the chance. Toku Crush of 2017: I don't know about a "crush" but I'm pretty sure Moa from Geed was the result of a lab experiment designed to create the most adorable thing mathematically possible gone horribly right. Best Suit Actor: Seiji Takaiwa, always and forever. Ex-Aid's cocky flair fit the genius gamer well, and managed to feel very fresh. Even after well over a decade, the man is still finding new bits of body language to make his new characters not feel like the old ones. Best Writer: Yuuya Takahashi gets this on endurance alone. Ex-Aid being so good is just icing on the cake. Best Director: Koichi Sakamoto for Space Squad. He's not doing anything particularly fresh there, but why fix what isn't broken, you know? Best Hero Suit Design: Geed Primitive for actually looking as evil as it needs to be for the central message of the series to work. Best Monster Suit Design: Belial Atrocious? There might be a bit of a "new car smell" factor here since it's so recent, but the guy looks like death incarnate. Belial's design was so perfect to begin with the idea of an update is essentially blasphemy, so the fact that I like it at all tells you everything you need to know. Best Weapon: Houou Solider's sweet sword and shield combo. There's nothing particularly fancy about it and that's exactly why it's so cool. It's just a classy set of arms. Best Vehicle/Mecha: Honestly nothing particularly jumps out at me this year but I do like Gigant Houou a fair bit. It's hard to describe but's there's something very old school about the transformation scheme it has that I dig. Best Fight Scene: There's plenty of great choices here, but I'm going to go with the big fight at the end of the Kamen Rider Specter movie for how effectively it's built up to, pumping up a fight that is already very cool on its own merits and turning it into a truly memorable climax. Also I'll give episode 44 of Ex-Aid an honorable mention for ending with a group Rider Kick I was dead certain the show would not be cool enough to do. Best Dramatic Scene: Ouch. There's so many good options here it actually hurts to just pick one. No seriously, between all the great moments in Geed and all the great moments from Ex-Aid I seriously can't narrow it down. It's either one of the times where Emu steps up to show why he's the man or nearly any random episode of Geed. Maybe something from the Specter movie? I'm sorry to cop out on this one but this category is just way too cruel this year. Best Comedic Scene: I called a certain scene involving Leito and his glasses in episode 19 of Geed, and I quote: "the funniest thing I've seen in Toku since that time in Gingaman when Bull Black shot that truck off the road to loot its cargo of tomatoes", which, for those of you who haven't seen Gingaman, is just about the highest praise any comedy could ever receive. Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment: That f***ing purple Mario pipe in Ex-Aid the first time it showed up. Quite possibly the quintessential moment of weirdness from Ex-Aid. No other show could pull something like that and make it work. Best Song: I'd love to give this one to Die Set Down for its emo-tastic title and lyrics, but I just can't get over how good Geed's opening theme is. I knew right away I loved that intro, but I was surprised just how much the rest of it ended up growing on me. Not that I ever disliked the rest, but it was only after listening to the full version a dozen or so times that I really came to love the song as a whole package, and it's since become what I imagine is the Toku song I've listened to the most this year, which is pretty impressive given it's only been around for half of it. I've even listened to it while writing this very post! Best Piece of Merchandise: Amazingly enough I don't really buy much Toku-related merch so the best I can do here is window shopping, and frankly, it just kind of seems like everything is really awesome right now. Sorry to cop out on another category, but between the constant deluge of Figuarts that make Figuarts from a decade ago look like hot garbage, ludicrously overdone CSM releases (that Den-O belt has HOW many sounds???), and steadily chunky and fun mainline figures and role-play items for Kamen Rider, Sentai, and Ultraman, I don't even know how you would narrow this one down. Biggest Surprise of 2017: That I actually really like Ex-Aid. For a show I was worried would be the next Gaim, for better and for worse, it consistently proved those fears to be unfounded by being a remarkably unpretentious show that always put being fun before anything else, and still found the time to have some memorable characters and engaging plotlines. All while embracing its own ridiculous concepts and designs to create a show with a tone and atmosphere unlike anything else I've ever seen. I'm not sure where it'd sit on a list of my favorite Rider shows, but I can't think of any of them I respect as much. Everyone involved with Ex-Aid's production deserves some kind of medal and even months after it's over, me and tons of other people can't stop thinking about it, a fact Toei was quick to take note of. The game truly is forever, people. Biggest Disappointment of 2017: Chou Superhero Taisen for sure. I'm not actually that heated about it since it was obvious from the first synopsis and trailer it was going to be pretty bad, but man, after what are, in my opinion, three VERY solid, Rider-centric movies, despite the usual gaps in logic, I was hoping to see some of the lessons learned applied to the old team-up formula, you know, justify that 超 in the title. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, and what we got was little more than a redux of everything wrong with the first two Superhero Taisen films. An unfocused movie that is simultaneously overwritten AND underwritten, and lacking in action exciting enough to excuse the lack of a solid story. The Onari Award for Single Worst Thing in 2017 Tokusatsu: People's continued distaste for shows I really like?
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01-03-2018, 03:27 AM | #7 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,403
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Best New Show of 2017
Build. A bit ackward pacing at first, but the leads are instantly great. Honorable mention: Garo Vanishing Line is quite good, but not techically toku. Best New-to-You Show of 2017 Ohranger I guess. It's the only past show I watched. Best Rewatch of 2017 Garo with nice Blu-Ray and subs. Best Movie of 2017 I don't know that I've watched any. The Pac Man movie maybe. Best Male Lead Character Both of Build's leads. Best Female Lead Character Best Male Supporting Character Best Female Supporting Character No clue off the top of my head Best Villain Chronus. Best Returning Past Character Jin. He is awesome. Best Actor Best Actress Toku Crush of 2017 Best Suit Actor Best Writer Best Director Couldn't tell you. Best Hero Suit Design Is it cheating to say Amazon Alpha? He has white eyes this time! Best Monster Suit Design I'm very fond of that Kyuranger monster that looks like a Kraang. Best Weapon Nothing really stood out here. Cross-Z's sword is cool. Best Vehicle/Mecha The one with swords they actually set on fire. Best Fight Scene The last Level 1 fight scene comes to mind. Best Dramatic Scene I'm sure it's in Amazons. That show breaths dramatic. Best Comedic Scene Off the top of my head, Build and the keypad lock. Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment The Final Swimsuit. Best Song Amazons' theme. I forget what this one was called. Die Set Down or something. Best Piece of Merchandise ShohoVS and SO-DO is pretty much all I bought and they can be same-y after a while. I'll go with Super-1 as my pick. Biggest Surprise of 2017 I'm sure it was something in Amazons I'm forgetting at the moment. Biggest Disappointment of 2017: Lazer Turbo is the ugliest Rider ever created. Also that was around the time Ex-Aid's plot started losing me. Last edited by Blade Raider; 01-03-2018 at 03:30 AM.. |
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