Kamen Rider: Too many skinny jeans?
 

For the longest time, one of the greatest barriers for me and Kamen Rider's successful illusion is the sheer amount of pretty people. We've had good examples, Hibiki and Wizard both present proactive Riders despite appearances and Date looked a little rougher, a little older and a little more built but for every Hibiki is a Daiki Kaito - where badass is skinny jeans and hair braids and for every Date, there is a Kenzaki, who'd look at home in a slightly edgy popband but looks less convincing as a trained soldier.

Does no one else find it problematic that so few Riders look like they'd actually be able to hold themselves in a fight? Or even look like they'd last an hour in a gym? When a Rider is supposed to be a soldier, I believe looking the part is as important as having the story too. American shows have pretty people too, but they also have people who work out for their role and if the age isn't appropriate they create the illusion of that age.

Other than Oren, I can't even think of a single Rider with a military background AND an actual trained physique, despite countless Riders supposedly in military or at least enforcement organisations.

Appearances aren't everything. A person can be strong without being ripped to the trim with muscles or looking like they've been through thousands of battles. People's body shapes and forms are different and grow differently. Somebody can be strong and look like Sylvester Stallone in his heyday, and another can be equally as strong but not be as toned and muscular. It all just comes down to the person's body shape/form.

There is still a hardening that happens to the body when trained to a military standard. Most Riders are impossibly soft and skinny given the kind of training and violence we're supposed to believe they endure.

That's just how their bodies are. They have muscles and a hardened body, it just isn't in the way a lot of media portrays that type of soldier body as. It as I said just comes down to how a person's body frame is. Not everybody will have the quote on quote "look" that you're speaking of.

Well... Kouta...
http://i57.tinypic.com/2z686wx.jpg

Haruto isn't that trained though... At least not much more than any other Heisei-Rider before him.
http://i61.tinypic.com/2yphklv.jpg

Besides, they're casted for looking good. ALL of the Main Rider actors (and also the other riders) in Heisei are models IRL...

Kouta and Haruto are both ordinary people and proactive Riders though, I don't put the same expectations upon them as I might on a Rider from say...ZECT.

(will say though, DAMN Kouta)

How many of these "skinny jeans" Riders turn out aren't even human?

Oh, you mean like TheBee/ Kickhopper?
https://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l...bpyfo1_400.jpg

Here is another pic of him

https://36.media.tumblr.com/3c4c8f04...bpyfo1_500.jpg

He looks hilariously skinny to me :lol But he clearly works out - dunno how obvious that is in the show, my only instance of The Bee involved some dude in an eyepatch.

Oh yeah, because the muscles that are clearly visible hear are just in our imagination, huh ;)

He's got a toned stomach from working out, but what are these muscles you claim to see?

Well, you talked about Riders that look like they'd last an hour in a gym and hold themselves in a fight- here you go. A toned stomach meas he's got visible muscles there so.... yeah, they can be seen.

Fair shout. He's still pretty skinny looking for a superhero in my opinion, though.

But looks shouldn't be a trait you should judge the quality of a hero by. It's more about what they do than what they appear like.

If we go by who can last in a fight then one of the most recent would be Ryo Matsuda the guy who plays Gridon. I dont have any pics of him but he was the Karate Champion of West Japan not that long ago.

And when they're supposed to be average joes I'd agree, but I believe soldier Riders should look the part.

This a problem? No seriously, people find this a problem? Does it affect the quality of the show, story, fight scenes?

Also for Kenzaki, here

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...u/Scan0010.jpg

And they do. They're in shape and can quite obviously hold themselves in a fight. Now if they were quite overweight or anorexic, then yes they wouldn't be right for the job. But they are neither of those. They look well built, toned, and muscular, just not in the Hollywood style that a lot of people are use to.

This thread is just going to devolve into a beefcake showcase, I just know it... :lol

Also, I had no idea Mutsuki's actor was so well defined.:lol

Damn my true motivations revealed! :lol

You just proved how ill fittingly skinny they are.

And yes, I do find it a problem, and it does effect the quality of the show for me. Shows are an illusion, and I find stuff like this a not very convincing one. People can shrug off stuff like this, or bad effects, or whatever but I can't. And surely I can't be the only one.

Sorry, but it just called for some of those awesome shots of Gaku Sano xD

Honestly it doesn't bug me, the 'military' Kamen Riders are all expected to fight in their Henshined forms so there is no reason to be marine level buff(hell my brother is a marine and he looked just as buff as Dante)

I wouldn't even call Kenzaki military anyway, he was hired by a non government organization because he could tap into Blades powers to the fullest, and that was after they made one of their own scientist become a Kamen Rider. Obviously looking like a military solider wasn't one of BOARD's priorities when hiring.

EDIT
Now if they were suppose to have a military background like Oren but looked like Wataru(not bashing him, love him to death) I would probably have a problem.
Thanks for my new sig :p

The thing with Kamen Rider is that many Riders aren't chosen because they are the best combatants, but for other reasons, or in many cases, they just so happen to come across the power by accident (like Shinji) or because they were the only ones close by who could use it at the time of their first henshin and they just ran with it (W, Faiz). Very few Riders are recruited for their combat experience, at least of the series I've seen.

I'd like to point out that Daiki Kaitou/Diend isn't the best choice for 'Riders who should look tough and muscular but don't'. The guy was an administrative cop before he became a Rider, and as Diend he fights mainly with his gun, trickery and summoning other Riders to do the fighting for him. He's not a stand up and trade punches kind of fighter, so it makes sense that he doesn't look like one.

THANKS. Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

Yup, yup. And most people who could be accused to fall in that category were not soldiers before, but usually cops of some sorts.



Oh god, are you trying to kill me? xDDDDD


For most riders, it's also a thing that they don't have fighting experience and are supported by their transformation, like Fourze or OOO. They are both fit and are trained like an average, sporty person, but not like a fighter and you see that when they battle. So to me, it was always absolutely believable...

In Eiji's case, he's became a hermit after that little girl died At most, he's at least self-trained to survive in different environments, as evident with his location in the last episode, seeing as all he had on him was his pantsu and his phone.

Sounds like enough exercise to survive a fight to me ;)

Walking deserts? Leg muscles! Climbing rocks? Leg muscles and arm muscles! Not as big as Oren's but remember, looks can be deceiving! :D

But, they don't really need to be buff at times, remember that episode of Wizard when he used that Buff as shit ring? Insta-Muscles. It worked for MagiGreen too.

I'm glad they never used it that often xD I think the ring was called Excite or something.

Right? But more on topic, I myself have never really noticed most Riders as weaklings or unfit physique. Usually Asians have a different muscular tone and not to mention the fact that the femenine look sells like hot sex in Japan. I also think a person's physique and muscle tone should match their occupation. In western forms of entertainment, I'm picky with it, like I don't like incredibly buff guys to portray Spider-Man and I don't want scrawny looking Topher Grace weakling portraying Venom cuz that's how the character is portrayed in the comics. In Toku shows, that reasoning with me flies out the window cuz with me, I kinda see it like the suit they wear gives them the strength that they somewhat lack when they're in their civvies. Same thing for Sentai to me, even though it's just spandex, once the uniform is on I find it believable that they can withstand blows that would kill an average guy. Like that little kid who stole Marvelous' ShinkenRed key and henshin'd, only to get knocked into a building, or even before that in Gekiranger when Jan was turned into a small boy and (picked his nose till it bled) he henshins into Gekired to run past explosives that'd probably leave him hurt. So any type of physique would work out in a Toku show.

http://i58.tinypic.com/24uymth.gif

This sums it up really well.

>-> <-<....now where would you get a silly Idea like that from...:lol

I... err... nevermind xDDD

You REALLY want them to stop wearing skinny jeans?

Then I suggest you try to get these fine gentlemen to Japan and have them convince Japanese male celebs to live that Snipe life.

http://37.media.tumblr.com/98d0a5c1c...1116o2_500.jpg

Or else just blindly wish that men's fashion trends in Japan ditch the skinny jeans but we all know that won't happen unless someone went full-on neoclassicism and declared parachute pants are a thing again.

Oh, HELL NO. x,DDDD

"Henshin" is often translated to mean "transform," but it more literally means "change body."

This is why the often extreme difference between henshined and un-henshined forms doesn't really bother me--the characters' original, untrained bodies literally morph into powerful, heroic bodies. It's more like what happens to Billy Batson when he shouts "Shazam!" than it is like Bruce Wayne donning the bat-suit.

A large part of the Japanese super hero myth involves ordinary people transforming themselves into heroes who can do amazing things. That's represented in Kamen Rider by a literal change in physical stature.

As for attractiveness... Aren't most lead actors in TV and Movies disproportionately attractive, regardless of country or genre?

awwh man I was so ready to talk about Henshin and transforming bodies but scythe and luchha pretty much covered all the bases already haha.

Personally I really don't have a problem with main leads being pretty boys or whatever. It's not like they're fighting entirely under their own power, they're either transformed into gods or using powered armour and them having good looks and having some fashion sense doesn't really undermine that.

Going on Kaito...all he does is run around and shoot shit, he doesn't have to be super buff to do that and anywho they might just be super lean. Also why is this something that comes up now? Does Kouta look weak to you? How many flips does a man have to do to become worthy? HOW MANY FLIPS?!