[DreamSword]

Episode 1

You can very much tell that this is a first for everyone involved.

Don't get me wrong, I liked what I saw, but yeah, this is the first Indonesian Toku and it shows, with pretty much every aspect being very amateurish.

From the acting, to the fight scenes, to the special effects, and most notably the sound design, which is by far the weakest aspect of this episode. For real, was the sound effects guy half asleep during this whole thing?

But that's enough of me sounding like a snob, because man, I still had fun! As far as starting episodes go, this one is pretty basic, but there's nothing wrong with that in my eyes given that it still gets the general idea across. And that OP is actually rather good!

Oh, right, I should probably mention what is actually established here, right? The story follows Ray, whose father was a brilliant scientist that managed to create a portal to a parallel dimension. Unfortunately for the people of Earth, the planet sitting on the other side, Vudo, is lead by a vicious dictator known as Rasputin, who then proceeds to, you guessed it, try and take over Earth.

This all leads into an accident which ends up killing all of Ray's' family(including his kid brother!), leaving Ray alone and to be adopted by a new family, who are only minorly established in the first episode. 21 years later, Ray now works as a mechanic at Satria Motors, and it's while taking some time off to spend the day with his adoptive sister Rena that the Vudo Empire returns, ready to enslave all of mankind.

After saving a mysterious man from Vudo(and linking blood with him), Ray is granted the Red Power Stone, an artifact which allows Ray to transform into Bima, the Garuda Knight. It's now up to Ray, as Bima, to fight against the Vudo Empire and save not just the family he loves, but the entire Earth as well. It's a pretty standard start all around, sure, and while the acting certainly isn't the best, I still think that there was enough present to make me care about what was going on as well as the people involved.

I also really love the Bima suit! The color balance between the red, white, gold, and silver, with the little details to sell him as being Garuda(Great Hawk) themed are pulled together really well into a very sleek yet empowering design. Like, if there was ever an SHF of Bima, I'd be totally down to grab it especially if I end up liking the show by the end.

Overall, yeah, it's a very basic first episode, but it's still fun in its own right and I'm looking forward to seeing what Indonesian Kamen Rider has in store for me.