[Kurona]

Best New Show of 2019

Yeah, gonna go with Zero-One as well. Very strong start; it's nailed the pacing; and it really gets how to do character-of-the-week within a heavily serialised format. It unfortunately doesn't handle the massive deluge of new toys to sell, but at this point no series could. Aside from that and Shining Hopper being a categorically awful design, Zero-One's just been killing it so far.

Best New-to-You Show of 2019

Not too long ago I would have struggled with this because I watched a fair few good things this year... but I also watched Kuuga. Which managed to break its way into my Top 3 Riders because of how different it is yet how well it nails what Kamen Rider is all about. Goddamn, it made me cry during the last credits sequence. Absolute cracker.

Best Rewatch of 2019

Heisei vs. Showa. I made this part of my Faiz watch and I wasn't expecting to like it given my awful memories, but there's a surprising amount to love here. The core emotional story of a dead kid wanting to say goodbye to his parents and the drama that results for that is extremely mature even for this series and it nails it so well. The Faiz and X stuff is in my opinion the best Faiz thing there's ever been (except the HBV, of course) and is so good I wish it got its own movie. Tsukasa is always a complete joy to watch, but he might just be at his best in this movie as he eats an ice cream of his own face and swagger-walks into a bunch of projectiles. The ending fight is stupid, pointless and ruins what could have been a wonderful ending and is really why I think we look back at this movie badly; it was truly awful and regressive. Otherwise there's so much in this movie to like I think I will actually call it the best SHT from now on. Really good stuff.

Best Movie of 2019

This is a tricky one. Due to the situation we're in with DVD releases all the movies we got this year were ones from last year, and all the ones that came out this year aren't out except Grease; which I also haven't seen.

Just gonna say Heisei Generations Forever. Just a huge amount of fun.

Best Male Lead Character

AND THAT'S A SHOW... BY ARUTO!!!!

My other picks are Sougo and the Sentai guys who aren't terribly inspiring, but that doesn't mean Aruto's just winning by default. If anything he's done a really good job at setting himself apart, and the bad jokes are a really fun indulgence for me. Super interested to see where this dude goes!

Best Female Lead Character

Does Asuna count? If not I'll pick Izu; but I've really liked Asuna's energy and what she brings to the team. I'm frustrated she hasn't gotten much in the way of development but she's just a fun, quirky, food-gobbling strongwoman and I'm here for that!

Best Male Supporting Character

We've been spoiled on secondary riders this year, so can I just say all of those? Geiz, Woz and Fuwa all have so much going for them -- our actual secondaries here have a real chip on their shoulder with the main rider which makes seeing their developing friendships really entertaining, and Woz is just a complete treat. Really liked all these boys!

Best Female Supporting Character

Alright, I admit we haven't seen that much of her; but I'm digging Yua Yaiba right now. Maybe I'm just caught up in the whole "finally a main rider who's actually a girl", but she's showing a lot of promise and I like her struggle between being loyal to Zaia and being the good person she clearly actually is. Stuff like going out of her way to protect kids in the school episode stand out to me as little details I really like; I'm excited to see her become a true Kamen Rider.

Best Villain

Ryusoulger's sort of been knocking this category out the park. Kreon is a terrible little bastard and I love him; Wyzul is extremely entertaining and energetic; and then Pricious comes in to be one of the coolest (probably final) villains I've ever seen. Thank god I don't have to pick something like Schwartz for this; Ryusoulger knows what it's doing!

Best Returning Past Character

Is there any question of it being Tsukasa Kadoya? This role's just perfected at this point and it's always a joy to see him swagger in, fuck things up and steal croissants in the background. What an absolute character.

Best Actor

Keisuke Watanabe -- ie Kamen Rider Woz. His performance and energy is one I can't forget any time soon; from his facial expressions to his body language to his pronunciations... it's just something so his own. And this is apparently his first non-stage role? Bloody hell he owned this.

Best Actress

Noa Tsurushima, ie Izu. She nails Izu's role completely with all her little quirks and mannerisms and warmed me up to the character so easily!

Best Writer

Oh hey, the Ex-Aid dude came back to write Zero-One! Awesome! I'm picking him.

Best Director

Uhm. Hm. Who directed that first Ryusoulger mech fight? That was really good. Whoever did that

Best Suit Design

LIGHTNING HORNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Piercing Needle With Incredible Force.

Best Weapon/Vehicle/Mecha

Hei, SEI! Hei, SEI! Hei, SEI! Hey, Kameeen Riders! ULTIMATE TIME BREAKK!!!!!!


Tyramigo was also pretty cool.

Best Fight/Dramatic/Comedy/WTF Scene

Gonna skip on this one because I'm really bad at picking these specifically. This year was great all around for these!

Best Song

Zero-One's theme song has 404 Not Found in its lyrics. Winner.

Best Piece of Merchandise

SHF Build RabbitRabbit! I also got Seihou OOO and by god it was hard to choose between the two, but RabbitRabbit just hits it out the park. Stunning figure.

Biggest Surprise of 2019

AQUAAAAAA!! Aqua Aqua Aqua Aqua <3 <3 <3 I can't believe they decided to bring back Michal Minato of all characters but I am so here for it. The best movie rider, and he got an arc in this, and we will definitely not talk about what happened in his last Zi-O scene because he definitely went back home and lived a happy life!




Biggest Disappointment of 2019

Yeah, I'm gonna go with Lupinranger vs. Patranger too. Such a cool concept that outside of a few moments, just never realised itself and just fell into the usual Sentai pattern. 'Disappointing' is a perfect way to put it, actually -- I'm not angry about it; I don't even think it's a terrible show; it's just disappointing.

The Onari Memorial Award for Single Worst Thing in 2019 Tokusatsu

I really don't want to say Zi-O's final stretch... but aaaaagh. The Another Zi-O II stuff was painful and pointless; Grand Zi-O as an awesome powerup got so wasted and shafted; and all the absolute nonsense technobabble about the worlds joining and Decade "only putting half his power in the watch" was just stupid. There were some standout moments for sure -- Tsukasa and Daiki are great as ever; I liked that last scene of Sougo with his uncle; and Oma Zi-O's transformation was a hell of a thing. He punched Dragblacker in the face once and made him fucking explode! DUDE!!!!

But all in all, it was a travesty of a finale. I really, really wanted more from it.