I guess it's all a matter of perspective, but...

I thought the opening sequence was pretty horrific and violent, with that science team being essentially slaughtered and kid's dad getting wrapped up in those gross tentacles. The monster fights are so much more destructive and violent than those in sentai, and it's especially disturbing because they start to address the ramifications of Mikazuki's and the Watermelon Idom's urban rampage.

The Mikazuki cockpit has the kid in lotus position framed by all sorts of Buddhist imagery. Even if the content is not overtly religious, the design certainly invokes Eastern religious iconography.

I think psychedelia suffuses Amemiya's entire design aesthetic. Generalissimo's weird shared consciousness mission control center is pretty psychedelic. Eastern religious imagery often overlaps with psychedelia, so the Mikazuki cockpit reminds me of that. All the CGI imagery that happens when Mikazuki catches the kid as he's falling. The psychedelia is definitely the most subjective of all of this, but I think it's a pretty clear influence on Amemiya's style.

I guess it's testament to just how desensitized to violence I am, as I found that tentacle scene hilarious. It was so rubbery and silly. And come on, you can't say the fights are worse than sentai. Even as a kid I often questioned why the Mighty Morphin Rangers seemed to have no regard for human life, as their robot regularly fell backwards and levelled whole city blocks. Sure they never drew attention to that, but the fact that Mikazuki does, is a GOOD thing in my eyes.

I never even really noticed the religious imagery. So I dunno on this one. I'd still rather them being influenced by religious imagery, and that is where it stops, as opposed to when Japan uses religious iconography as a cheap way of trying to appear more meaningful than they actually are.

And that psychedelia thing, erm, okay on that one. I got nothing, never seen someone have that kind of reaction.

Totally. I think addressing the ramifications of the death and destruction instead of just glossing over it is a really good thing. It's... wait for it... sophisticated.

I didn't say Mikazuki episode one failed at everything. Just more often than it succeeded.

Agreed. I'm actually surprised when you say that this never got foregrounded. I thought for sure they were gonna go for some on-the-nose religious allegory later on.

Like I said, this is subjective, but it's pretty clear to me. Setting aside my own experiences, look at the art and imagery most commonly associated with hallucinogenics. It shares a lot of similarities with Amemiya's aesthetic -- they are pretty inescapable, to my eye.

So I just watched the first episode of Zubat.

Man this show is GOOD, it blitzes along at a ridiculously fast pace which is at times to its detriment, but this was obviously the inspiration for W and it feels years ahead of its time because of that. This is basically Begin's Night at a fraction of the length, and involves Shotaro dying rather than the Chief.

The violence is extreme, badassary is dailed up to the eleven, it has more melodrama than your average Eastenders episode and it's gloriously silly.

Intriguing I was thinking of watching this myself.

Zubat 02. So it's basically exactly the same episode again, they've just redressed the scenes? Hell Hayakawa even POINTS OUT the similarities.

Hayakawa is the embodiment of badass, in such a gloriously tongue in cheek fashion and is basically my main reason for watching. He's an arrogant, cocky shit who plays his own theme song on a guitar, has no issues with murdering the villains and rides a fucking horse. Zu-BAT!

Finally finished watching Uchuu Keiji Sharivan. It continues the exact same formula set in last third of Uchuu Keiji Gavan, with better FX (in the fisrt 2/3 of Gavan they were testing stuff: sometimes the MOTW went giant, sometimes the soundtracks felt out of context, the laser blade became a neon, etc.).

It's a very formulaic show, but it's got a nice arc covering 8~10 episodes dispatched here and there about Den origins and the Iga crystal.

On some occasions, regulars from Gavan are special guests, which is nice, except from Kojiro who is still a regular for comedic purpose, which is...often creepy, as he's a 35~40 old single dude spending most of his time hanging out with the kids of Den's boss. The final episode is really badass as Gavan come to give a hand to Sharivan. It works very well, I think they should have spent more episodes working as a duo.

As opposed to the end of Gavan where Sharivan was introduced as Gavan replacement, there is no introduction of Shaider in the end. Den leave the Earth to go revive the Iga planet with the Iga crystal, bringing with him the Iga descendants - some commandos and a harem of battling high school girls - leaving Lili alone on Earth. Jerkass.

So for Locke, GARO Episode 1: I enjoyed it so far, I liked the action that was really awesome, and I like that there is an actual suit for the Armor not just CGI. It felt a bit slow to me so I'm hoping it picks up the pace. Kouga is pretty badass, reminds me of Ryou/Gills from Kamen Rider Agito. I'm going to give it another episode to see if I'm going to watch it now or watch another series. Though I want to see the actor I like from Faiz who is in this.

I love GARO's out of suit action, I'm so so on the in suit action. There are suited fights which are just so grandiose you can't help but adore them but early in the series they feel really tacked on like Megazord fights and then later in the show the use of CGI over practical effects is so gratuitous it's almost unbearable. As the show goes along though, the out of suit action just gets more and more epic even if the use of plastic props, and wires/green screens only becomes more noticeable as the quality of the rips gets better and better.

GARO's pacing isn't perfect either, admittedly. There is more filler than you'd really want from a series so short, and the climax of the season is a visual treat but pretty much shits on the rest of the season storywise for the sake of pseudo sequel baiting for the much more action packed, but incredibly dumb sequel series.

But when an episode is good in GARO, it's GOOD. I've personally not seen a toku show with better character focus than what you get in GARO, Kouga's arc across the series especially is wonderful. He's easily my favourite toku protagonist, aside from characters like Haruto from Wizard and Alata from Goseiger.

The show starts becoming a little more original soon enough. Five is my favorite of the early episodes due to its historical context (huge drug problem in Japan at the time) and Shotaro Ishinomori himself plays a character in episode 9.

Definitely plan to come back once I've finished Kyoryuger and Faiz. Never thought I'd be in a position where Kyoryuger is the show I'm watching and enjoying the most! But the revised episode list I'm working from does the show a lot of favours, like a greatest hits album.

I'm glad you are enjoying those shows. Two of my favorite Toku shows there.

Faiz is not a particularly good show, in my humble opinion, but pretty much every action scene is so ahead of its time I pretty much find the show impossible to hate. First and foremost toku should provide superhero thrills and for pretty much the last four minutes of every Faiz episode, it provides superhero thrills in droves.

Ah okay well I'll give it another episode, I do want to see his development.

My favorites are probably Souji from Kyoryuger, the Agito Riders, OOO, Kuuga, Faiz, Chalice and Gatack etc... so far.

However I absolutely love characters and seeing them develop is what I love.

I can agree that Faiz has its problems but everything it does right just outweighs the bad to me.

Faiz was my first tokusatsu show way back in 2004 and while I'm not into it as I once was, I guess getting older makes it easier to realize faults in stuff, it was addictive when I first saw it. When I was just getting into tokusatsu, I tried to grab batch torrents of Sentai but could only find them for this "weird Kamen Rider thing" at the time, so I grabbed all of Faiz and blew through it in something like three days. It's not high art, but it's got that pop mentality that makes it an easily devourable show due to the admittedly shallow drama in it.

If you love watching characters grow, GARO is for you. It's all about the characters, even more than Rider.

Ah okay well I'll give it another episode tonight.

GARO Episode 2: Much better than the first one, it went by really fast to me which was good. I'm liking the developing relationship of Kouga and Kaoru. This feels more action based to me while Kamen Rider felt more story than action. I'm going to keep going with this for the time being.

GARO Episode 3: If there are more episodes like this, I'll like this series a whole lot. More character quirks about Kouga this episode, and I love he believes it's his duty to protect humans. I love Knights and super heroes so this is awesome. I also love Kouga in his own world personality because that's how I am a lot of times too. Since it's a short series I am going to continue with it while I decide on my next Kamen Rider.

Kouga is a really fascinating character, especially as the series progresses. It would be spoiler territory to really explain why, but there is an interesting twist on the things he holds as truths later in the series, which permeates through the show. That never really changes how you see him, exactly, but it adds a lot of depth to the way his kind of character is usually played.

What's the first season of Garo called, exactly? There's a lot of Garo's on Youtube...

The first season is just called Garo.

Ah cool, I can't wait to see it then.

GARO Episode 4: Well the first episode I was like eh, the next it got better, the third even better. With this I am hooked. Very intriguing seeing more about Kouga past with something happening to his father. Loved his emotion put into at the end too. Also loved the adult language too. It reminds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer merged with a Kamen Rider.

GARO Episode 5: I still love learning more about Kouga he is such a fascinating character, and I love Zaruba too. I want the Ring lol, I wear two already so I could use another. It feels like watching a Video Game honestly.

GARO Episode 6: Still my description of Buffy merged with Kamen Rider highly fits this show which is good. Rei/Zero seems very fun after first impression. The Dragon Orphnoch looks badass in this show and I can't wait to see more with his story with Kouga. If I wasn't super sold on this show already I am now. I can't wait to see Rei's armored form.

Zero is made of pure epic win! Although I do like Kouga more overall.

Ah well I can't wait to see more of both. Zero made a big impression but I've seen more of Kouga. I love their jackets too.

You wait until you see the two armours clash, it might be a little dated now, but conceptually it gives big budget movies a run for their money.

Hey I loved Kuuga's, Agito's, Faiz's, and Blade's fights so I'm sure I'll love this too.

It's better than all those shows in terms of fighting, and in terms of everything else honestly.

Well I honestly enjoyed the fighting in those shows and the story in them too. Still I am loving this too.

GARO Episode 7: Locke if you can believe it I think undersold that fight. That was one of the best fight scenes I've seen. Garo vs Zero was totally fantastic, I can't wait for more. I'm glad this picked up the pace, I think I really start falling in love with shows around episode 6 and this just furthered that getting better afterwards.

You know it's going to suck trying to fit that Armor into my signature lol.

I told you man! Gives big budget superhero movies a run for their money.

That's for sure. Personally I think movies don't give you the chance to develop the characters well, and that it's more about making money. That's why I like TV shows like this better.

GARO Episode 8: This was a really boring episode with the psychopath finger taking person and the horror. Her story was most of the episode which was more time then it needed to be. I liked the parts with Kaoru and why she wants to draw. Rei was intriguing and Kouga was cool, still want to know more about them. The next episode looks much better.

GARO Episode 9: Now that's what I'm talking about. This episode was brilliant and I loved how both Kouga and Kaoru were going through ordeals dealing with different challenges that their fathers went through. Also the Horse and Giant Sword were totally awesome.

I've decided to watch the dubbed Armor Hero on youtube and attempt to survive the experience. I'd subscribed to the channel a while back and every time they'd post a video it looked like SOMETHING interesting was going on at the time. But man...this dub is awful.

One of the two biggest offenses is the theme song really terrible. I heard the original was better so maybe I'll look it up sometime. The other is the fact that this translation...is sketchy at best. It had one character ordering a hamburger, as the waitress gives him a cold cut ham sandwich.

And I dunno, maybe that's a minor thing, but did whoever translated this really not know the difference?! Or maybe the words for ham sandwich and hamburger are similar in Chinese, but still whoever translated it should at least look at the footage and know the difference....

Also the tone of the scenes with the main characters being completely serious really clashed with the complete cartoonishness of the main villains.

I watched the opening episode of that show in Chinese and between the atrocious special effects and lack of anything happening I was bored out of my skull.

Even Bima, some toku show from Indonesia of all places, managed to provide better thrills - and is totally worth checking out for any Other Toku junky.

Yeah, I don't even think there was more than five minutes worth of in-suit action in the first episode. And what there was was basically all in a dream sequence. Wow...it's the anti-Megaforce.

I might stick around for a couple of episodes, but if they're anything like this first one...I mean there wasn't' anything even LAUGHABLY bad in it.

I think I've heard of Bima. Is that the dude with the bird armor?

Agreed. Garo has shown me some of the best fight scenes I've seen in all my life.

Ah, episode 9, the first appearance of Savior in the Dark.

Yeah I watched the first couple episodes of it, it's made by the people who produce Kamen Rider. It's pretty good.

I'm guessing I will see it again?

It replaces the instrumental opening at around episode 13. On the downside, we sadly lose the original ending theme.

Ah that sucks, I love opening theme right now. I haven't really listened to the end theme. I just skip to the preview.

You are fixing that now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RIwH_69cxo

Oh yeah and the only fight on that opening Armor Hero episode is also entirely CGI and like CGI so disgustingly bad it makes all other toku CGI seem somehow believable by proxy.

But yeah Bima's not the most wonderful show ever, but just you go in thinking 'Indonesian toku like hah! I haven't even seen an Indonesian movie, so how fucking bad is this gonna be?!' and then suddenly there's this utterly badass suit and all these crazy effects and beautifully done action sequences and you're just like....DAMN.

If you're like me where you believe action is of utmost importance (it IS a superhero show after all) then you'll dig Bima a lot.

GARO Episode 10: Interesting episode with Kaoru and Kouga having some sort of connected past with their fathers. Rei was pretty cool in this episode too and I love the two of them fighting against the Horror. Very interesting with the picture book from her past too.