Familiar Toku Faces on 24 Japan
 

I'm watching 24 Japan, I'm 2 episodes in, and I'm pleased to see a number of toku alums on the cast. Zyuoh Shark plays a party girl while Dr. Maki plays her dad and Kamen Rider Build plays her shady hook up.

Episode 2 features new Gavan as a CTU agent while Bouken Silver plays a security agent.

I like the show so far. It maintains the tension that 24 is known for. And I like that they started at 12 midnight as it ramps up the excitement level more than if they started at daytime.

So, hoping for a few more toku alums to pop up in the next epidodes. There is already a couple of faces that look familiar to me though I can't place what show I've seen them from. One of them I think was in LuPat but I'm not too sure. But I'm just glad to see them in what I believe is a major show in Japan.

What's the show about?

It's an adaptation of 24, the Kieffer Sutherland action series. Basically it's 24 episodes of 1 day. Episode 1 was 12 AM to 1 Am. Epsode 2 is 1 AM to 2 AM. and so on. It follows a CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) agent trying to stop an assasination plot against a Prime Minister candidate on election day while his daughter is also kidnapped in what could be a related plot.

The original 24 series was pretty good. High intensity, great tension and a lot of action. So far from the 2 episodes I've seen of 24 Japan it is living up to its name.

Fun fact, Toshiaki Karasawa who plays the Jack Bauer of the show, was the Riderman suit actor for the ZX one-shot. He is also Kenji in the live action 20th Century Boy movies that co-stars toku alumni Hirofumi Araki aka Leo from Gekiranger and Masato Irie aka Kamata/Abyss from Kamen Rider Decade.

I'm at episode 14 now and another toku face has popped up: Otoya Kurenai has now joined the fray. And it looks like he will have a big role to play in the second half as he plays an assassin. Sad though that he wouldn't have a scene with Build, would have been nice to see them here together.

I would not be surprised if they later met in private and talked about it over beer and snacks. :lolol

It would be funny if Banjo pops up here too. :lol

Sometimes coincidences can be great. I just watched the Vulcan-Valkyrie v-cinext before I watched episode 16 and seeing Raiden in v-cinext and seeing him in this episode I was like how did I not recognize him? He even have the same blonde hair and he was featured quite often. Oh well there you go another toku face on the show. Oh and the other one who I was trying to remember where I saw him from I believe was Dr. Pacman in the Ex-Aid movie. It just dawned on me when I saw this episode.

I'm at episode 20 now and another toku face has shown up. Tadokoro from Kabuto appears as the leader of a mercenary group hired by the villains.

Just 4 more episodes. I wonder if there will still be toku alums to appear. I'm just happy to watch and go "hey it's ______ from _____!". I'm positively delighted.

hehe.

Episode 22. Banba from Build has made an appearance as a crime boss who gets double crossed by the villains.

Man, they love Build. He's already the 3rd one from the show. Build must have been popular in Japan.

Finished the series now. It was good. It maintained the action, excitement and intensity all through out. It wasn't perfect but what show is really?

When you're following Shido, the main character, the story flows very well but the problem is the secondary story of Asakura the PM candidate. When the episode focuses on her and her family the story slows down quite a bit. I just didn't care much about her family problems especially her power hungry husband who wants to bask on the reflected glory of being the husband of the PM. Their side of the story just doesn't compare to the main plot.

Another thing is that a few characters disappeared in the show particularly on the side of the villains. A couple of assassins that were prominent in the early episodes just vanished without explanation. The female assassin who started the chain of events by blowing up a passenger airplane was told to do something in episode 3 and never seen again. Same with the assassin that made the first attempt at Asakura. After the attempt failed he was told to go to plan b but whatever plan b was we never know because he disappeared as well.

And the big twist in the penultimate episode, I saw coming by episode 2. I wouldn't say it's the show's fault but more of me being genre savvy. I've seen the US version and other shows of similar genre and I know that when betrayals happen in this shows usually the biggest traitor is the main characters biggest ally. It just always is. I'll give them credit for trying to hide that in the middle episodes but it never tricked me one bit.

As far as our toku friends go, the show was not very kind to them. Only Bouken Silver and Dr. Pacman survive the end of the series. Everybody else gets killed. A lot of toku on toku violence too. Build broke Zyuoh Shark's arm. Dr. Maki kills Zyuoh Shark. Otoya kills Dr. Maki. But hey at least they get to appear on the show.

I don't know if there will be a season 2 of the show. The finale showed that there is an organization behind the main villain who's pulling the strings so there is room for further story lines. I'll be interested for more since the quality of this one was pretty good. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes action and intrigue.