Yeah, it definitely felt like they wanted to push the limits of what they would be allowed to create without ever stopping to think about if they should really go this far. The saying "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" kept coming to mind as I watched it. I don't think I've even seen such dissonance between two entries is a series that shared most of the same creative staff.

...Been hitting the tokusatsu kinda hard this weekend. No, don't stage an intervention! I'm having fun!

I gave Zeiram a watch. Pure Keita Amemiya goodness right there. I feel like Amemiya's nightmarish alien imagery combined with a cool female bounty hunter and the two lamest electricians in the world all came together to create something quite magical. Freaky, funny, and hands down just COOL.

Zeiram is cool in all sences! I especially remember the umbrella flight from the second part.

I watched at Armor Hero XT and was very pleasantly surprised. I liked the first show in this franchise, but I privately called it an amateur tokusatsu with a professional budget. But XT is a qualitative improvement in all parameters by several levels. Especially the plot. I know that there are those who dream of a show similar to Faiz and I can confidently say that this is the most similar to 555 tokusatsu that I have seen. There is even a street haircut here. Personally, I liked the XT even more than Faiz because of its greater dynamism. True, this dynamism also entailed a lot of problems. Characters radically change their opinions several times, heroes are forced to act like idiots in order for the show to continue, and the battles become too monotonous over time. So, as a result, the show turned out to be overly long, which spoiled my impression from admiration to grudging approval.
By the way, if XT was inspired by Faiz, then at least Gaim’s designers were inspired by him. Because three types of kaijins associated with colors and motifs with the main characters, in my opinion, are too many for mere coincidence. Yes, and time travel without the right to change coincides. Even the silhouettes of these Armor Heroes are slightly similar to armored riders (another coincidence).
I also want to note that what I appreciate in principle in the entire Armor Hero franchise is the lack of gimmicks to keep the viewer engaged. There are no cliffhangers or mini-finals, the plot is simply cut into episodes of equal duration. The main characters may be absent for a long time, and the center of attention may be completely insignificant, at first glance, characters. They just show us the story without flirting, and such directness is captivating.
Now about what I didn't like:
- Armor Hero dubbing is the best argument in favor of subtitles. Here it is even worse than in the first show, because some phrases are left untranslated.
- We were initially told that monsters of different types have different abilities, but later they, regardless of theirs, demonstrated all three types of abilities. I realized that having received armor, they became stronger, but this was somehow too much;
- transformation devices are disguised as a camera, mp3 player and joystick. At the same time, the camera allows you to recognize kaijin in human form, but the scriptwriters did not come up with two other useful functions. Probably to compensate for this, their owners communicate using musical and gaming metaphors, respectively;
- the gloomy and unsociable character of Li You'er/ Yozhi is caused by the Kula living in her. But after being freed from obsession, she remains the same. It is logical to assume that this is her real character, because the girl was born with a kaijin inside and has never been different. But why then are we shown her more joyful and active for an episode, and then return to the previous version again?
But these are all minor quibbles, otherwise I really like this franchise and don’t want to say goodbye to it due to the lack of translation. I saw that there are about 20 translated episodes of Lava on Dailymotion, but approaching an unfinished show is somehow intimidating. So I hope that someday Armor Hero will still receive a translation not only for Indonesia.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...pg_UX1000_.jpg

Just out of curiosity, are you considering doing a Tier List for the Metal Heroes franchise like the ones you're doing/done for the Toku Big 3? Speaking of Metal Heroes, I am finally back to watching B-Fighter Kabuto and I am now officially at the show's halfway point. It really has been quite a while.

Hmm, I wasn't going to do it since it isn't an active series anymore, but it might be fun to make later on! I think at the very least I should watch a show in the series I really like first, because everything I've seen has been really middling so far. An entire tier list of Cs and Ds wouldn't be very exciting. :p

Ah, yes. The show where Seiji Takaiwa was an archeologist from Peru named Julio, Geki Chopper's real life brother was Kuwaga, and Reuben Langdon was the cool kid from America who transformed into a dragonfly superhero with a crossbow. Fun fact, Reuben's Japanese dialogue was voiced by Koichi Tochika who most of us know as En/Dag Fire from Dagwon and Daigoyou from Shinkenger. Tochika was also Dangoron in B-Robo Kabutack it seems.

Speaking of Metal Hero shows and their eternal aspiration to leave me with no strong opinions, I watched Shaider. It... It was just Sharivan but worse, what am I even supposed to say?! To be fair, it did have a few things that stood out. Annie is a much more impactful heroine than Lily was in Sharivan and the visuals try to play up the surrealness factor. And is that... a male actor who spends the entire show dressed in glamorous women's clothes? Pretty wild for the 80s. But overall the show is just not particularly compelling, with very standard episodes for the genre, to the point I could barely maintain my focus on it as I watched. Meh stuff!

I have watched some more B-Fighter Kabuto. 38 episodes down, 12 to go.

I watched Tomica Hero Rescue Fire. I liked that it was like a crossover of the ideas of Rescue Force (the concept of a rescue team, the general style, the emphasis on cool vehicles, and in general it is a direct sequel with the appearance of characters from there) and Ryukendo (swords, dragons and demons as antagonists instead of cars from Rescue Force). Overall, it's not the best kids' show out there, but it's one of the best kids' shows. I really appreciate that the authors decided to teach what they themselves understand and this is tokusatsu, which really looks designed for the stated age audience, and not adult viewers. And as an adult viewer myself, I could complain about some stupidity, too easy solutions to conflicts and the fact that Kenji, Hikaru and Tatsuya are the same person going through the same path, the flurry of emotions in the second half of the show easily compensates for these shortcomings.
I would especially like to thank you for the episodes in Nagoya. I really like the traveling episodes in old shows, even despite the flair of advertising in them, and it’s a shame that modern tokusatsu prefer to stay in Tokyo, occasionally going out to Kyoto and the suburbs. But the Nagoya episodes do more than introduce you to a lesser-known part of Japan.
This is not only a display of the sights (and something for every taste) of the city, but also an acquaintance with the work of real firefighters and rescuers. And done in the most exciting form possible. Just great, I wish they did this more often. To sum up, I am absolutely delighted and recommend it to everyone who has not watched it yet. Although, of course, it is best to go in chronological order: Ryukendo - Rescue Force - Rescue Fire.
https://i.namu.wiki/i/cJrpACZVrSJV3A...N8I8jXdsg.webp