Seeing yourself in toku
 

I just think it could be fun to have a thread to talk about moments in toku that made you go "hey, that's me!" I was inspired by Pride month and thinking about queer representation in media, but I wanted to define it more broadly than that so we have more to talk about and everyone can join in.

Two moments immediately come to mind that did that for me. First, when Chase asked Shinnosuke and Kiriko to explain romantic love. I'm asexual (mostly, it's complicated) and while I sometimes get annoyed by us being stereotyped as not understanding love, there have been times I genuinely was mystified by the whole dating thing and wished my friends would explain it to me.

The second has nothing to do with gender or sexuality, and that's Touma's struggle of having too many ideas for stories and not being able to decide which one to write first. As a writer and aspiring author myself, I felt that pain in my soul! I have a feeling the scriptwriter for that episode was speaking from experience with that line.

A lot of Wataru’s struggles to talk to people.

Honestly just Touma in general whenever he talks about writing, whether it be him suddenly getting inspiration, being stuck in a rut, having too much information... that's basically my "That's me!" moment.

Purely because of me taking up Fanfic writing again, I can relate hard with him in those cases.

All of Ryotaro, and I doubt I'm alone in this.

Oh, FairyKing, this whole thread is wonderful, I love it, thank you for making this and for sharing your thoughts too.

Obviously, no surprise to anyone that I should mention this, but the profound impact for me of Hurricanger episode #30 is just undeniable. I can't begin to properly find words for how much this meant to me without writing an essay, and I am aware that there are a lot of problems, that the episode walks back what it is suggesting by the end in order to preserve the status quo, that it could always be argued that I am interpreting it against the wishes of the creators of a Japanese children's television show, that I am taking the traditions and mores of a genre like Class S and considering them within the context of my own very Western upbringing, but for me, the central relationship of Nanami/Furabijou in this episode meant so, so much, and I will forever wilfully construe it as a relationship because... Death of the Author.

Also, more recently, I strongly related to Rita's motives in Super Sentai Strongest Battle; girl is let down by people around her, girl summons Satan, wrecks havoc. Yeah, that would have made a lot of sense to me as a kid.

Eiji's constant need to help others and martyr himself hit really close to home for me.

In a more postive way Cam from Ninja storm was the first time I felt truly represented by a tv series.

Touma for the same reason others have mentioned.

Ryuuga wanting people to accept him for who he is, instead of seeing him as another Evolt, is a problem I definitely relate to, due to certain people IRL thinking my identity is invalid and that I should be the same as everybody else. That's why watching Ryuuga fight for his right to exist in the world and not be defined by his past was very inspiring to me.

I don't know if "seen" is the right word, but not long after I realized (or RealxEyes-ed) that I was non-binary, Naki showed up in Zero-One as the first non-binary Kamen Rider.

I think it might be impossible to not relate to Shinji from Ryuki on SOME level. No one respects him and he is constantly trying to duct tape the situation back into some semblance of sanity. I think everyone has been there at some point, probably at their job, hahaha...

I also kind of resonate with Takumi from Faiz. It sounds bad to say I resonate with a Faiz character, but I could definitely relate to Takumi’s difficulty in connecting with people and his inability to communicate effectively at times.

If there's anything 555 does exceed at, it's the very visceral portrayal of what a lack of communication can do to people and how that lack of communication is brought on from societal nature. I've come to respect it a lot for that

Yeah, same here, in a way. Although mine's more like, I don't have time to work on my projects since I lead a very hectic life, I know what I want to work on, but then I never get around to them.

For me, personally, the most "me" character I have seen in Toku is Banjou Ryuuga from Kamen Rider Build. The way he acts is almost identical of me, and his musclebrain moments are very similar to how I sometimes brute-force things. The only thing I don't really have of him is being exactly fit, I like to think I'm pretty strong and fit, but only recently learned I'm weak as heck.

Another Character I relate to would be Hidari Shotaro from W. I try to do things by myself, but ultimately end up needing the help of others on things, of how I sometimes get annoyed with things in a comical way like him.

Perhaps I also have a bit in common with Tokiwa Sougo from Zi-O, as I enjoy reading about history and historical figures, and often people stain many of them as people who should be forgotten because of one bad thing they did in life, but I always see them as the people who brought us to this day, and can see the good in their achievements and remember them for that, after all, nobody's perfect.

I also have a bit of Momotaros in me (Haven't seen Den-O the series, but from what I've seen of him in other media, I can already tell), with his flamboyant, gung-ho attitude.

Other's I have a connection to would be: Asakura Riku form Ultraman Geed, Shin from Ultraman Orb, Katsumi from Ultraman R/B (Who left quite an impact on me), and I can't think of anyone else from the top of my head, so maybe I'll explore more on this at a later date.

Decade. I relate to Decade’s arrogance,flippancy and want to find his own world...

I suppose the main one was Wataru in Kiva, especially considering I was technically in my last full year of school the year it came out and funnily enough the protagonist of the anime Shugo Chara! probably spoke to me for similar reasons being on the spectrum, despite the fact I'm obviously not a girl in an anime lol

Uh I saw too much of myself in Nakamura from Tokusatsu Gagaga. Just an aging adult who society and family thinks should grow out of childhood fiction.

On the other hand, all my friends think I'm most like Geiz- A grumpy tsundere type bitter about an inevitable future but at the end of the day will come through for friends.

The two characters I found myself relating to the most in terms of Toku stuff is Eiji from Kamen Rider OOO and most especially Jiro from Android Kikaider. Their difficulties in dealing with their emotions and the world around them was something that hit really close to home.

Definitely Banjou. Passionate, dumb and bi

I remember hitting an early point in Kamen Rider Garren's story, where it's about this guy whose life is ruled by fear and anxiety, so he just sort of lies down in it and becomes okay with this weakened, compromised version of his best self... I remember hitting that part and being like Yeah Sounds Familiar. The better part was watching him resolve to overcome his failings, to give up on giving up, and I could remember what it felt like to choose to fix yourself rather than shrugging at your self-imposed limitations. Definitely an arc I could relate to, excluding the occasional totemic significance of puzzle pieces and pacts with monsters from eternity.

The other one from toku that resonated with me? Cubi, from Ghost. A monster who is built to hurt people, but instead opts for the creation of art? Yes, 100%, it me.

This is genuinely a lovely idea for a thread and I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone on this forum for their persistent defiance of stereotypically grumpy internet behavior. It's wonderful being around y'all.

As for the topic, man, I mean, I can see parts of myself in so many of the characters in these shows – I think relating to characters is a lot of how we enjoy fiction in general – but while I could pick from an almost infinite number of people in tokusatsu to talk about, there are definitely two that jump to mind.

One is my homeboy Hiromu from Go-Busters, who I latched onto immensely when first watching the show. It's tough to describe; the kind of thing I would seriously need an entire Go-Busters-centric thread to rave about, because it genuinely is a case where almost every weird quirk of his personality was something I connected to fiercely. Like, him in that Go-Buster Oh debut is literally just me in any group project ever, for example. I love Red Buster so freakin' much that he has genuinely given me greater perspective on the entire idea of representation in media as a whole, because when I stop to think about why Hiromu makes me so happy, it becomes so much easier to understand why anybody would want to feel the same way – whatever that means to each particular person. I'm only scratching the surface here, but, suffice it to say, just one of many, many, many reasons Go-Busters will forever be in my heart the way it is.

The other is my homegirl Hiyori from Kamen Rider Kabuto, which probably won't be surprising to anyone who read my posts in Die's thread about the show. What's unique to her though, is that it was only really after going back to Kabuto for that thread, way more conscious of my own personality so many years down the line (Go-Busters helped there, 'natch), that I truly appreciated just how much of myself I do see in her. Like, I don't know how oblique I was being about it in there, because I often hesitate to share anything even slightly personal, but when I'm calling out all those very particular details in Yui Satonaka's performance, those are things I recognize, to a level that almost did feel like looking into a mirror at points. I praised her acting so highly because it comes off so much more genuine and specific than the standardized sort of performance you'd expect for a character like that.

I lost something far more precious that day...

https://i.imgur.com/3zpTMXA.png

I'm... so confused by those last three posts.

Anyway it's been lovely reading all of these <3

Thanks for giving us a space to be weird! You've created a very fun thread.

He might be German. Given that character in Kiva is German and the topic of the threat. With the button being a Kiva gag regarding the Secondary and the third picture being a joke on losing his sausages. I think.

If yes, can relate. Every time either Rider or Sentai pulls out the German, I just get a huge grin.

Touma is me when I come up with plot points and ideas for my card game. I always feel like I'm planning too far ahead that I'm gonna burn myself out.

Juuru is me with art. Motivation is hard. Posing is hard. But it's fun all the same.

Aruto loves bad puns. I make terrible puns that aren't funny. But when a pun-derbolt strikes, its no joke. Hai, Aruto ja naito.

Lucky, Gentarou, Emu, Riku, and Takeru are me in a nutshell. I try to err on the positive side of things and... yeah.

No, I just generally associate my personality with gangsters. German gangsters. That eat sausages.

I'm just kidding, I don’t really feel kinship with fictional character traits, I don’t know why, it never happens to me. I like certain characters for what they are but I can’t remember ever saying "Hey, that person is like me!".

But sometimes random German characters pop up in Toku and that's funny to me.

Yeah, I can sometimes like the odd bit involving Britain in toku too even if it is just your typical kind of London/southeast England-centric image that our media tends to portray, like in PGSM when Mamoru stays in that hotel place or that bit at the end of Agito lol

I can actually totally understand that, I enjoy the characters but find myself rarely identifying myself with them.

Someone did mention the Tokusatsu Gagaga protagonist here though and given that everyone here is obsessed enough with tokusatsu to be chatting on a forum about it she might be the quintessential "that's me" character for every last member here.