How were you introduced to Toku?
 

How did you discover Toku shows? I find it interesting because it is such an uncommon niche.

I grew up in Naples Italy in the 80's and that's what was on t.v. for kids, a bunch of Toku. As an american child I had no clue that it was actually Japanese. I always thought it was Italian (it was poorly dubbed). I loved old shows like, Thunderbirds are go, with miniatures and pyrotechnics. Power Rangers came out when I was just getting too old for the cheese ball childish side of it and it never really interested me. But, I did realize that this was the stuff that I watched as a younger child in Italy. Without the internet at the time I never really made a connection. Fast forward 10 years and I was living in Japan and in the internet age. BAM! I discovered Toku and never turned back. I Love the mid 90's and earlier. The bad computer graphics of later stuff just ruins it. Anyway, that's my story. Tell me about yours :)

I looked up Power Rangers or something on Youtube once and I saw Faiz Blaster. I had no clue what was going on and never clicked it again.
TIME SKIP
I was excited for Sonic Colours one day for no reason and accidentally came across a video that pointed similarities to Kamen Rider W. Then I did research and watched some shows

yeah, I basically did the same thing while living in JP. I saw a poster or something,I looked up Kamen rider becauseI remembered the "grasshopper guy" from Italy and just kept clicking.

Well I grew up on the 80s so in my area, I'm from the Midwest, outside of the Godzilla and Gamera movies that aired during the weekend the only real source for tokusatsu was a show called Spectreman, one of the Ultraman-esque show that aired in Japan during the 70s. I also remember seeing the original Ultraman a bit afterwards, although being a dumber, younger me my first thought was it was a Specterman tip off lol, and the comedy dub of Dynaman which for some reason they first four episodes into a two hour movie, which was what I caught. I didn't see any more until I say segments during this show called Night Fright I want to say but I think I'm wrong there. Then the well kinda tried up until Power rangers started airing, and again being an 80s kid and despite being a teenager I was like "A giant robot and giant monster? I'm in" The rest kind of steamed rolled from there once we got the internet and I started looking up Specterman to see if anybody else remembered it.

I grew up on Power Rangers, watched regularly through the end of Time Force, tuned in semi-regularly for Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder and SPD, then dropped out after that. Flash forward to 2009, and I see this thing called Kamen Rider Dragon Knight at my local TRU. It's neat and they're roughly in scale with G.I. Joe (which I'm heavily invested in at the time), but pass and never give another thought.

Flash forward to 2011. One of my favorite Sonic fanartists cuts his art stream short in favor of showing us all an episode of this show called Gokaiger. Specifically, the Megaranger episode. Skip forward another two years and he streams Super Hero Taisen Z, and I am immediately floored by the designs of this character called Kamen Rider Wizard and these Rangers known as the Go-Busters. I decided to give Gokaiger another look. And since then I've been hooked.

As I’ve said elsewhere, I never liked Power Rangers growing up.

I didn’t discover Sentai until 2008―via RandomDCE’s Handy Dandy Guide to Power Rangers―but actually didn’t decide to give it a watch until 2011. I just suddenly had the urge to type “Super Sentai” into Google one evening and decided to check out Goukaiger, as that was the series airing at the time. And I’ve never looked back♪

Power Rangers happened. That's how I was introduced.
There was a TV special that was basically Jason and Zach's actors talking about Zyuranger, and I remember a clip of Bandora singing. That spurred interest in Sentai, but this being before the internet was widely available, I couldn't act much on it.

In the early 2000's, I came across a VHS of Kamen Rider Couga, about 3 unsubbed episodes of Kuuga (Note: It wasn't a bootleg.) My family frequented a Japanese video rental store (Grandmother is Japanese), so after getting sick of browsing anime that I probably shouldn't have been watching, anyway (They had tons of the edgy 90's OVAs), I stumbled upon this not-Power Rangers looking guy and rented it. Didn't understand a damn thing.
While this was technically my first foray into Kamen Rider, I was only about 13 and didn't know what was going on, so I don't really count it...
They also allegedly had B-Fighter Kabuto. I recognized that as Big Bad Beetleborgs, however it was always unavailable so I never got a chance to rent it (I think someone just bought it and the store just never bothered removing it).

Meanwhile, Lost and Found in Translation happened in Dino Thunder. This spurred interest in my brother and I for Sentai, and eventually (Read, years later) we ended up finding Magiranger subbed. I hated it but still, technically my first. I would later try to watch Shinkenger subbed (Alongside KR Decade, which I watched in full) due to Shinkenger's crossover.

So, yeah. Power Rangers, Japanese video store, and an episode of Dino Thunder X-teen years later.

Like a lot of people, I watched Power Rangers for a few years when I was a kid, but it didn't really go beyond that. I was aware of the fact that these shows existed, knew a few people who watched them, but I didn't really think of checking them out myself. It was in 2014 that I really started getting into toku. The summer of that year I got into figmas, and I got into them hard. I bought a number from things I wasn't familiar with but thought looked cool. One of the earliest ones I got was the Kamen Rider Speat figma (big fan of its design). So eventually I got curious about the show the design came from, so I watched and very much enjoyed Ryuki. It took a while for me to start another one after that, but I haven't stopped since.

Power Rangers and Godzilla are responsible for this curse I have of loving tokusatsu.

Oh man, I was only thinking of Henshin Heroes.

I've been a huge Godzilla fan since I was in diapers simply because my mother was a huge Godzilla fan. I rewatched Godzilla vs Megalon and Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla so often.
It's odd how Mothra became my favorite monster :lol

I once heard someone mentioned how vastly different Go onger is too RPM so I had to see it for myself.

Very early 1994, my dad rented me Godzilla: King of the Monsters on VHS because I love Dinosaurs like Jurassic Park and Land Before Time at a very young age. I was two and almost three years old. This is one of oldest memories that I can remember at a very young age.

This was the VHS copy that I remember renting

http://i.imgur.com/TZPUebg.png

I also remember seeing Ultraseven on TNT before I got into Power Rangers and I later saw MMPR before Season 2 started in pre-school when I was three years old back in 1994. I later discover the original Ultraman on TV like a year or two later. I also grew up with other Toku movies on TV like TNT, Sci-Fi, other local TV networks and my local video stores.

In 1998, I saw Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light fan subbed on a VHS copy that my Dad got me for my 7th birthday back in 1998 from a local Japanese collector's shop. That would be the first time I saw anything fully subbed in Japanese (Not counting bits of Guyver OVA I saw subbed back in 1996).

For Kamen Rider, I remember going to a Japanese collector's shop and seeing Kamen Rider stuff there. I saw bits of Five Riders vs. King Dark back in 1996 or 1997. I didn't get into Kamen Rider until 2012, so better late than never. I always knew what Kamen Rider was growing up, but never saw it as a kid outside of Saban's Masked Rider on Fox Kids.

For Super Sentai, I saw Japanese toys of Super Sentai and didn't know the Super Sentai name. I just thought Japan had Power Rangers as well and the show was just dubbed over in the US. In 2002, I saw Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai on a fan subbed VHS tape at my friend's house and I was like "WTF is this?!". I got into Super Sentai in 2012 as well along with Kamen Rider. I mostly grew up with Godzilla, Ultraman and other Japanese non Henshin heroes Toku movies as a kid and teenager.

I was really obsessed with Power Rangers when I was younger (really liked MMPR), and kept watching even when I was older. Every Power Ranger fan deep enough into the community knows about Super Sentai so I gave Kyoryuger a spin and here I am.

I admit that I felt like a bit like James Rolfe with Kamen Rider. If I saw the Showa stuff as a kid in the mid-late 90's, I would love it to death. I always have a nostalgic feel when I watch 60's and 70's Toku because the style of them are similar to the Showa Godzilla movies and the original Ultraman.

Not to mention, I try to watch Kabuto in 2009 and I could not get into it. I use to be a member of the Outskirt Battledome in 2009-2010 and I remember everyone there love Kamen Rider. They told me try out Kabuto first even though I kinda wanted to see the original first.

I never thought I would be watching tokusatsu honestly. Why would I want to watch some cheap kids show about people in dumb looking suits beating each other up. Then one of my friends was like "Hey, you should watch Kamen Rider W, it's about body-fusing, monster-fighting detectives" which was literally the most tempting description in the world for me. There was no going back after I had seen the light, what the hell did I even DO before tokusatsu?!

I loved this comment. I am a huge VG collector and fan of Rolfe.

I agree. I feel like I wanted to get into it as a kid/teenager but didn't. Too busy partying and skating etc.(also lack of subbed series and legit internet) But as an adult with kids I have finally been able to go back and get into all of the things I would have been"beat up" for liking. Funny how we embrace the things we were afraid to admit/like as kids when we become adults.

I love everyones stories! Alot of power rangers and godzilla. I forgot about Guyver! Spawn Guyver reminded me of that one. That was one of the few shows dubbed and released in USA. I rented it on vhs in the 90's. Never really thought about connecting it to Toku.

Like every young boy I'd tune in every Saturday morning for a new episode of Power Rangers. For me it was Time Force. As I got older I drifted in and out of the fanbase every few years. I quit for awhile after Jungle Fury. Ironic considering if I held out for another year I would've seen my favorite season and I would've stayed a fan.

Anyways, cut to X years later and I find out PR is coming back. Wait... they folded to begin with? What the hey? I find out that there will be another season of PR coming but in the meantime I could watch the source material and see what PR might be in store for. I was gonna watch Shinkenger since Samurais seemed cool but Angelic Warriors peaked my interest so I opted instead to watch Goseiger. I did, then I watched Gokaiger and never looked back after that. Then 2014 happened. Sooo much Sentai in such a short timeframe. I managed to watch Goseiger, Gokaiger, Go-Onger, Dekaranger, Magiranger, Boukenger, and Go-Busters all within a 4-5 month time span. I was hooked.

Then one day I realized I should probably try Kamen Rider. It's lasted for quite a while and it's billed with Sentai every Saturday morning so why not?
I played the first Episode of Kamen Rider Fourze and (again) never looked back. Just like with Sentai, I made it through a bunch of seasons. Den-O to Gaim minus Kiva all within the course of 6 months amidst essays and other college related work.

Like a good chunk of us, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Big Bad Beetle Borgs were my intro to Toku. But those weren't my very first, they just got me hooked. My very FIRST Toku was the Ultraman Anime. And the subsequent Video Game. Then there was Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog.

Forgot about that.... Wasn't that %100 made in house? No imported footage?

Power Rangers, albeit I do not remeber which series I watched first. I remember being periphally aware of Wild force when I was younger. Probably Ninja Storm was my first but I remember really liking Dino Thinder.

Although i always watched Power Rangers as a Kid, i was introduced to Toku through the course of my mental health treatment ( I am autistic and suffer from depression)
My Doctor recommended I try and find new hobbies to get involved in as part of my treatment and while i was on the web I stumbled upon a post on a depression support group about someone watching ToQger and i got curious cause of the resemblance to Power Rangers and thought i'd give it a try which led me to watching Ressha Sentai ToQger and Kamen Rider Decade back to back and the rest is history :)
The Time in my life i was at when i first stumbled onto Toku is why both ToQger and Decade will always be special to me because even though they are not targeted at 20 somethings, they helped me alot when i was in a bad place :)

Kamen Rider OOO help me go though some tough times too in 2012.

I've ALWAYS been in bad times and am only recently starting to recover slightly, but KR helped a bit I'd say

I had a Power Rangers phase back when Wild Force began airing, but dropped out around SPD. Even then other than getting the first three zord sets for Wild Force, I was still fairly casual fan-wise at that time.

I actually didn't really get into toku until I started watching Vangelus' toy reviews. The series tidbits he'd sprinkle into the original figuart reviews peeked my interest, so I started with Decade. I dropped out of it about halfway through on my first attempt and didn't try again for like a year or so after. After that, I ended up purchasing Violent Emotion Decade at NYCC and found Shinken Red at TRU not long after. Rest is history.

I remember like it was yesterday. I was visiting my cousin in California for a while. We went to Japantown and I remember visiting one of the stores. I saw what looked to be a Power Rangers Turbo bowl, but with Japanese characters on it. Eventually the shop owner pointed me to a section full of toys, there weren't very expensive, but damn were they cool. I remember getting a Megaranger Figure along with said bowl. Time passed, and I was watching the OP for Ninja Storm on youtube. All of the sudden I saw the logo from the bowl, I was intrigued and amazed, I started watching and the rest is history. I lost the Megaranger figure during moving, but I still have and use the bowl.

Power Rangers happened when I was in, I think, sixth grade; probably "too old" to still be watching Saturday morning cartoons, but whatever. From the second I first heard the name I thought the whole concept was completely stupid. Then I caught the first episode... and I still thought it was completely stupid. Honestly, I watched Power Rangers as a "man, this is so dumb it's hilarious" diversion for most of its pre-Tommy run. It wasn't until Green With Evil aired that I really got legitimately into the show. I generally kept watching it up through the end of Zeo. Turbo lost me, but I unintentionally wandered back into the show for In Space and Lost Galaxy, then I left again and lost track for years. I didn't come back until Dino Thunder, which I watched because I'd heard that Tommy was going to be in it and I was a huge Tommy fan as a kid (he influenced both my wardrobe and hairstyle for years). I kept up with PR through its cancellation following RPM.

I didn't get into the broader tokusatsu scene until 2009. I'd seen some of the other Saban shows back in the day, but it was Vangelus and TJ Omega's video reviews that got me interested in checking out Kamen Rider. I watched the first episode of Decade on YouTube and immediately fell down the rabbit hole, marathoning the entire Heisei era over the course of the last half of the year, then going back to some of the Showa stuff while watching W live. Awhile after that I found Garo and then Sentai pulled me in with Gokaiger (tried Goseiger first and any Tokunation veteran can tell you how that went). By that point I was pretty much fully into tokusatsu and taking active part in TFW's Rider Kick thread then HJU and then here.