[Switchblade]

Favorite New Show of 2024
This one goes to Kamen Rider Gavv. There are definitely some aspects of the show that I find very silly, but the tone and pacing of the story give me a real "early '00s" vibe that has been really working for me. If every episode of Ultraman Arc was as good as the best episodes of Arc it would be here instead, but I find that show a little too inconsistent.

Favorite New-to-You Show of 2024
Feel a little bad about this one, but Mega Monster Battles. I started watching it and was really enjoying it, then got distracted and completely forgot about it. It's especially embarrassing as the main reason I was watching it was for Mayu Gamou and I never even got up to her debut.

Favorite Movie, Miniseries, or Special of 2024
I've watched a lot more of these than normal (ie, more than two), but Faiz Paradise Regained is still the easy winner. As a relatively recent Faiz re-appraiser I was really looking forward to this movie and it didn't disappoint. I'd have liked another 15-20 minutes to flesh some things out, but it was a lot of fun and surprisingly more upbeat than I expected.

Favorite Rewatch of 2024
So I'm sure some of you are thinking "Switchblade, there has to some diminishing returns with Hibiki, right? You can't possibly still enjoy it as much after seeing it so many times?" Wrong. Kamen Rider Hibiki, fifth time through. Still. Holds. Up.

Favorite Male Lead Character
Trickier one because I'm not absolutely blown away by any of the options. I'm going to cheat and go with Ryuga from Garo because it was kind of fun to see a more respected, elder statesman Ryuga given where the character stated. It's a huge pity that Rian wasn't back, too, but at least we didn't have to deal with another return of Jinga.

Favorite Female Lead Character
King-Ohger aired a few episodes this year so this prize automatically goes to Rita. Next.

Favorite Male Supporting Character
This absolutely does not go to Shu from Ultraman Arc, who I feel the show is constantly trying to ram down my throat. I'm going with Hanto, aka Kamen Rider Valens. Very fun character, even if some elements of his story feel a little predicatable/cliche.

Favorite Female Supporting Character
Rin from Ultraman Arc. By far my favorite of Arc's small cast of characters. Several of my favorite episodes or moments tend to center around her.

Favorite Villain
I've said it several times already over the last year, but I want a Clotho V-Cinema. Just give me 60-75 minutes of her yelling and punching things and I will be very happy. Runner-up goes to Geryon, who was actually a terrible villain but who had possibly the most hilariously stupid master plan in the entire history of Kamen Rider.

Favorite Returning Past Character
This one is a little tougher and I'm going to have to call it a tie. I always love seeing Takumi again and the bonus murder mystery webseries had some fantastic Takkun moments. But we also got some new Dekaranger this year and that means more Umeko and I can't just not vote for the best team leader in Sentai history.

Favorite Actor
On Nakano, who played Souma in Garo Heir to Steel Armor. I'm not sure I would call his performance "good," but I found his perpetual pouting to be really, really funny.

Favorite Actress
Going with Itono Okita, who played Atropos on Gotchard. Child actors are, as a rule, generally pretty goddamn terrible. That is something that absolutely transcends nationality and language. The fact that Okita was able to pull off playing her role so well is really impressive.

Favorite Writer
Tako Nakano was behind what ended up being probably my single favorite episode of tokusatsu for this entire year, The Dream Bird episode of Ultraman Arc. He also wrote the return of Zangill, which gives him bonus points he didn't even need.

Favorite Director
Naoyuki Uchida, for the exact same episode of Arc I just mentioned. You will see The Dream Bird mentioned again on this list.

Favorite Suit Design
Not a single character, but I'm going with the Hagane armor from Garo. I was really disappointed when we first saw the generic Makai Knight armors back in Makai Senki, but this show managed to revisit the concept and make a suit that looks really cool and feels like it has its own flavor, even as the Makai version of basic Stormtrooper armor.

Favorite Weapon/Vehicle/Mecha
The Arc Eye Sword from... I mean, the word "Arc" is right there in the name. Major props to Tsubaraya for continuing the trend from Blazar and giving Ultraman a weapon that's actually scaled to be held by an adult. Add in the Ultraseven homage on top of that and this thing is a winner.

Favorite Fight Scene
There have been some amazing fights in Gavv, I do not want to let this pass without giving that show some props. There was only one fight scene this year, though, that made me go onto Discord and tell friends who don't even watch tokusatsu "holy shit, you guys have to see this!" and that was Ultraman Arc and Givas vs. King of Mons from the aforementioned Dream Bird episode.

Favorite Dramatic Scene AND Favorite Comedic Scene
I'm overlapping this because both are going to the tragic betrayal and death of Hopper-1 from Gotchard. It's a moment that hit surprisingly hard and was very emotional... if you could get past the fact that we were seeing someone get emotionally shredded by the "death" of a plastic grasshopper. There's a level of suspension of disbelief you have to put into watching all of these shows and Hopper-1 really rode the line between "I believe this is a character" and "that's literally just a prop that Houtaro's actor is shaking around" tighter than anything I've seen since Ginga.

Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment
So there's this moment in the "this feels like a movie that was recut into three episodes" Kamen Rider Legend storyline on Gotchard where some dude just shows up out of nowhere with a belt that shreds Ganbaride cards. He burns through a couple of Rider powers and then immediately fucks off. He is never properly introduced, interacts with none of the regular cast, and never fucking appears again. I still have no idea what the hell was going on with that and yes, I know it's a reference to Outsiders but I haven't watched Outsiders and this whole scene was complete gibberish to me.

Favorite Song
The ending theme to Heir to Steel Armor. It has a name that is a fairly long string of Japanese words that I am not going to try to copy down because I will just get it wrong. You can always count on a new Garo show to bring out at least one absolute banger.

Favorite Piece of Merchandise
I got stuff this year that wasn't just blu-ray boxsets! This absolutely goes to the Lucky Cat Megazord, an incredibly fun toy that has been living on my desk for over six months now and will not be leaving any time soon.

Biggest Surprise of 2024
Obi surviving to the end of the series in Heir to Steel Armor. That guy was waving multiple death flags even before taking into account his actor used to be Kamen Rider Ghost. I was absolutely convinced he would be tragically buying it at some point during the series but nope! Made it to the end without even being seriously injured.

Biggest Disappointment of 2024
There were a few things I was thinking of putting here, but the Ultrasmen Arc and Blazar crossover completely blew everything else out of the water. Blazar was as fun as ever, but the fact that they didn't bring a single cast member back and just stuck Arc's regulars into SKARD uniforms was both incredibly lazy and a total smack in the face to last year's show.

The Onari Memorial Award for Single Worst Thing in Tokusatsu, 2024 Edition:
Everything about Kamen Rider Legend. He is such a bafflingly awful character: annoying personality, terrible catchphrase, weird behavior, powers that really highlight how badly the old suits have fallen into disrepair. I cannot stand this guy and it was such a colossal waste to spend three whole episodes of Gotchard trying to hype him up as the next big thing. I am extremely unexcited about the rumors that he'll be pulling the same shit on Gavv next year.

Most Anticipated Tokusatsu Project and/or Merch of 2025
Next year is the 20th anniversary of my beloved Kamen Rider Hibiki and I'm sure that Toei and Bandai have already come up with a number of ways to do absolutely nothing to celebrate it in any way, shape, or form. That'll be fun. I'm going to instead toss out a provisional vote for Lucky Cat's Dragonzord figure, even though I have to acknowledge that it's literally just a vague tease so far and they have several other classic robot toys that they've announced and never actually produced. Will it happen? Maybe. Is it more likely to happen than a CSM Anything Hibiki-related? Yes.