I'm just impressed by how awesome...and how very Toku, the show can make things that are otherwise rather uninteresting. The show has no real right to be as awesome as it is but it's just so ludicrously over the top, I just love it.

What are the other two, the sequel to Rescue Force and the spiritual prequel?

I wouldn't call the other two sequels and prequels, really. I don't understand why everyone calls RyuKenDo a spiritual prequel to Rescue Force, the only real similarities they have are that they're both made by Takara. Although there is some established continuity between the two, since RyuKenDo's main characters appear in Rescue Force's movie.

As for Rescue Fire, I guess it's more of a sequel than RyuKenDo is a prequel, but that's not saying much. It has more similar themes, as well as some returning characters(the Director of the UFDA/the guy in charge of all the good things is actually played by the original Kamen Rider), but I still won't call it a sequel on the pure fact that it's not a continuation of a plot.

And, for what it's worth, the toys of Gridman, aka Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, were designed by Takara. But not the show.

I'll definitely check out RyuKenDo then! And I'm really enjoying Rescue Force, so I'll just check out Fire afterwards.

So I checked out the opening episode of RyuKenDo and I really wasn't impressed.

Whereas Rescue Force is huge and epic and tries to make every moment awesome with what seems to be a surprisingly big budget, RyuKenDo just felt like a cheap Kamen Rider knockoff.

And like when the guy finally morphed and fought the demon, there were some extremely cool moments but it was undermined, at least for me, by the majority of the fight being CGI and CGI that wouldn't have looked out of place on an early PS2 game cutscene.

I understand your reasons. Like I said, RyuKenDo is much a different beast than Rescue Force. And you're right about it seeming cheap. This was more experimental than the Tomica Hero shows, and it was kinda in production hell(the times in which some scenes were shot ranged from a couple years).

At least I have the awesomeness of Rescue Force to enjoy still!

But yeah a troubled production really does show in RyuKenDo, which is a shame because it had some good ideas.

Still watching, and loving, Rescue Force. I don't want this to be misconstrued as shipping because that isn't what I mean, but I love the chemistry between Kyosuke and Hikaru.

Usually in Toku the rookie is placed with a harsh male team member who treats the rookie like shit, makes the rookie feel worthless and the rookie basically has to land himself in a hospital bed to prove himself, you know the cliché, it's tiresome.

However rightly so Hikaru proves himself very quickly and Kyosuke quickly develops a respect for him, even with his hot headed nature and so I like the friendship that forms between them.

And I dunno, I appreciate a series that doesn't think goofball comedy and feel good is the same thing.

So I've started watching the Gransazer series. It's interesting, definitely. I'm worried, because they're throwing so much stuff into the beginning of the series(there were nine Gransazers by episode 6!), that it's all gonna slow to a crawl by the time all 12 are introduced. Which will probably happen by the 15th episode, tops.

I don't understand the Wind Tribe. They say they're supposed to be peaceful, and that the Fire Tribe are warmongers, but, there's none of that at all. It's the Wind Tribe that are the cause of the conflict between the other Gransazers, and they destroyed a dam and burned a forest! Not very peaceful if you ask me...

The Fire Tribe is pretty standard. Hot head hero, quieter soft-spoken hero, and the tsundere. SazerLion(quieter soft-spoken hero) is my favorite so far.

And then the Earth Tribe. I quite like the leader guy of the Earth Tribe(don't remember his name(s)), but the other two are... eh? There's a policeman and a hip hop dancer. The most notable thing I can say about either is that the name of the hip hop dancer's weapon is, I'm not making this up, the Lady Claw. From the fathers of Tokusatsu, ladies and gents!

But I still like this show. Obviously characters aren't gonna be the best since there has to be 12 of them + a few others, but I enjoy what I've seen so far, and the plot is something I want to see fully evolve.

I'm so glad you're here to indirectly introduce me to these shows I'd never have heard of, I'm gonna go away and check out this series as well.

I love the other Toku shows. That's why I made this thread. :D

Did I mention Gransazer and it's two sequels are made by Toho? You know, Godzilla and stuff.

OMG wow really? Is the mecha stuff awesome then?

I like it. They're all big robot animals(bird, beetle, cat, and a shark or maybe dolphin) that transform into varying kinds of humanoid robots. Unfortunately you don't see a good robot battle until episode 6. The beetle only transforms after episode 2, and we don't see the bird or the cat's robot modes(or for the cat, any mode) until episode 6. I haven't seen the swimmy thing yet.

There's also apparently a big buff robot down the line that combines all of them into a great big dragon, so I look forward to that. They're also mostly physical models instead of CGI, which is nice(there's some CGI for transformation and stuff, but I can live with it).