[EpsilonX]

I believe there's a topic for this elsewhere that I already told my story in, but I'll happily tell it again.

A LOOONG time ago on another forum I was a member of, somebody made a topic about a Japanese version of Power Rangers that's more violent but aimed at an even younger demographic. I was picturing something a lot crazier than what Super Sentai actually was. Anyways, I just wrote it off as something I didn't care about.

Through the years, I always found Godzilla rather interesting, but never actually watched the films. That is, until either HDD or Blu-Ray.com posted a review of the Criterion edition of Godzilla. I also saw the blu-ray 3 pack of Heisei Gamera films at FYE. Between those, an interest had been sparked. I eventually made my way to Barnes and Noble for a Criterion sale and picked up Godzilla on Blu-Ray. I immediately fell in love with the film and the entire series. About a week later we went back to the mall on a whim and I picked up Godzilla Raids Again. I felt like I had discovered an entire new world.

However, a friend of mine who has an unfortunate tendency to absolutely OBSESS over things eventually discovered Godzilla as well. Him and this other kid lived their lives around Godzilla for about a month and it made everybody else kind of sick of it. However, I still needed my rubber suit giant monster fix, so I started looking elsewhere. Around the same time (very convenient timing) my ex bought me a dvd that had a couple of episodes of Ultraman on it, and once again, I immediately fell in love.

Ultraman wasn't enough though, I needed more. A couple of days later, one of my friends posted on facebook saying that he wanted to watch the original Power Rangers. I was reminded of the existence of Super Sentai, so I looked into it more. It seemed like just what I needed, so I tracked down episodes of Zyuranger on Youtube. It was the perfect blend of everything I wanted at the time and it hit the spot in every way imaginable. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and immediately became a toku fan...that is, until I finished the series. From there, I thought "let's watch Dairanger next!"

For those that don't know me well (likely all of you) I have a tendency to form a sentimental bond to things that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed Zyuranger. Grand Theft Auto IV, Evangelion, and Persona 3 are just a couple of examples. So when I finished Zyuranger and moved onto Dairanger, the fact that it wasn't exactly the same pretty much made me hate it. Of course, I knew it'd be different going in, but still. Like I said, I have that tendency. So I drifted from series to series, trying to recapture the nostalgic magic of Zyuranger until I finally landed on Jetman. There were enough similarities between the series that I was able to enjoy it and move from being a rose-tinted Zyuranger fanboy to an actual fan of Super Sentai. After Jetman, I decided to actually give a modern series a try, so I started Ninninger. At first I didn't like it, but I eventually grew attached to it in a way that was different from what I liked about Zyuranger and Jetman. While it wasn't a great series, it was the one that solidified my love for toku tv as a whole, and not just enjoying it because of early Power Rangers nostalgia.

Of course, throughout the course of being a Sentai fan, I had heard about Kamen Rider. The concept never appealed to me - why would I want to watch a show that's like Super Sentai, but with less people fighting and no giant robots? The suit designs were a big reason I liked Sentai, so getting less suits just seemed less interesting. However, I figured I should at least give it a chance, so I decided to watch the original series. I thought that maybe if I watched an early season, I could get to the core of the series and appreciate the differences between each series better, instead of growing attached to the more unique aspects of the series like with Zyuranger, and being mad when no other series had them. (seriously, I was pretty upset that other shows didn't have an episode where they had to gather their weapons and then combine the weapons into the finishing cannon. They just started off with everything and had a pre-assembled cannon. Ugh lol)

Anyways, I started the original series. For a show from 1971, it was surprisingly fun. Watching individual characters fight monsters was actually more enjoyable than an entire team in my opinion, and not having to force a giant mech fight into every episode meant the episodes had a bit more room to breathe. I liked the show enough to cosplay the character at a convention, and started to really develop an interest in Sentai. However, for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to watch every series in order, like I did with the Godzilla movies. Y'know, to see how it evolved.

Except...I grew a bit impatient. I was also watching Zyuohger, and wanted to be able to watch the Ghost/Zyuohger crossover and understand what was going on - I only understood half of the Drive/Ninninger one, and that was a bit disappointing. So I started Ghost....and....absolutely loved it. The first episode didn't do much for me, but from the second episode on, I was completely hooked. The first 10-ish episodes had the perfect balance between overarching story and MOTW episodic stuff. The eyecon gathering reminded me of the adventurous nature of early Dragon Ball, the paranormal investigations tapped into my love of ghosts and horror, and the 99 day limit really raised the stakes. I know that section of the series isn't highly regarded, but I was completely engrossed in it. I kept that momentum going throughout the series until I eventually caught up. Then, through pure enthusiasm for the show, I got a friend watching Ghost as well. Jealous of the fact that she was watching Rider and I wasn't, I decided to start another series. Now I've been watching through Drive and have been loving that even more than Ghost. I'm about halfway through the series now and am showing no signs of slowing down. Next, I think I'm watching Fourze.



TL;DR - I got into Godzilla, then got burnt out on Godzilla, so I turned to Ultraman. From there, I got into Super Sentai, and from there I got into Kamen Rider.