[SengalBoy]

Best New Show of 2019
Oof, this is gonna be a tough one. I'm just gonna list the top three
1) Obviously Kamen Rider Zero-One. They really go all out with this show, which makes sense since this is a new era and they want it to be as good as possible. It could also be that a lot of people hated Zi-O (I'm very sympathetic towards it seeing as how I defended it from VoidinToku in every episode discussion and tries to look at the good things the show did, and there's a lot actually), but Zero-One pretty much wrecked Zi-O. Case in point, Aruto in his first few minutes annoyed me, but won me over than anything Sougo ever did. It does help the fact that Aruto's actor has a better acting than Sougo.

2) Ultra Galaxy Fight New Generation Heroes. That is all.

3) Ultraman Taiga. Ultraman continues to be a beast with Taiga. Yes even if R/B is considered a disappointment to some, it's still better than most of current Sentai. Taiga could have been the number 1 if it weren't for the weird decision that the show made by making it episodic client-of-the-week kind of thing, as well as Hiroyuki being rather bland compared to previous Ultraman hosts, but when it comes to action, and the banter between the Tri-Squad, it is still gold.

4) RyuSoulger. Now I am one of those who are very disappointed that we're not getting a dragon knight Sentai but rather dinosaurs again, and it's a recycled Kyoryuger to boot! And till this day I still loathe Kyoryuger! But honestly, I quite enjoyed RyuSoulger. It has a lot of issues, and its biggest sin is that it's very safe, but you can't deny they did put some effort despite its issues. The new writer in charge shows how slightly different the writing can be, and the most noteworthy thing is that despite suffering from the usual 'Red has the most focus' that Sentai really needs to drop, Ryusoulger at least tried to make other members of the team feel like a team and be useful. Had the characters have more depth, this could have been a great series.

Best New-to-You Show of 2019
2019 was the year I fully get into the Gundam franchise so I don't watch anything old from Tokusatsu. Because all of them are Gundam shows.

Best Rewatch of 2019
2019 marks the year where I am actively questioning if I still love Power Rangers or not, because this past few years made me hate the franchise and Beast Morphers does not cure that at all, and it took a rewatch of Power Rangers in Space to remind me that I still love Power Rangers. Granted it was due to marathoning from Zeo onwards to see if I still love the franchise, and In Space proved to me that the franchise can succeed if they just matured a bit.

Yes, every season after tried to be In Space but couldn't because In Space is basically Avengers Endgame before it ever happened (thank you Sunred!, but they can still took inspiration from it, seeing as how current Power Rangers seems to aim only for preschool kids. Yeah yeah, we're not the target audience bla bla bla, but I would argue otherwise, because In Space was a show that was made for both groups.

Best Movie of 2019
Godzilla King of the Monsters. This movie pretty much shows why Tokusatsu is such a niche genre to general audiences. Yes, the movie is stupid, but it's a different kind of stupid compared to stuff like Bayformers. It has heart. It knows what it is doing and that is what is important. This movie is just a heartfelt love letter to Godzilla movies, and I don't care if it is stupid, it is entertainment at its best.

Plus, it's the very first time a human touches Godzilla and not get killed by him in return! Though he still dies momentarily afterwards.

Best Male Lead Character
I can't believe I'm saying this, and it's kinda cheating because he is not a main protagonist, but I would like to say Steel from Beast Morphers. I HATED him when he debuted mainly due to his voice, but he quickly grew into me as the series progresses and ended up as my favorite character in a show where I have very, very mixed-but-leaning-towards-dislike feelings of.

And it's amazing that just like his Go-Busters counterpart Steel is my favorite of the show, but both of them are different in a good way.

Best Female Lead Character
Izu from Kamen Rider Zero-One. I need a robot waifu.

Best Male Supporting Character
Nada from Ryusoulger. It's saying something when everyone was angry when he was killed so quickly after officially joining the Ryusoulgers.

Best Female Supporting Character
This might be biased because I'm a fan of the actress, but Kana Sasaki from Ultraman Taiga. This boss of EGIS might be hungry for paychecks, but deep down not only she is a good boss, but a good person period, as seen when she's willing to help aliens and even criminals to better themselves. The fact that she would get into action from time to time kinda reminds me of a bite sized Doggie Kruger, if that makes sense.

Best Villain
Ultraman Tregear. Back when he was first revealed, a lot of people are meh with him when Tsuburaya said he will be the new Belial, because we thought he would be exactly like Belial (not helping that he has a feud with M78 is another). But Taiga proved us wrong big time. New Generation Ultraman has a lot of strengths, and the one of the biggest factor is the writing of the villains. Thanks to the writing, Tregear managed to be extremely different. He is a first and foremost a calculating trickster. He just loves to manipulate people and gets the front row of watching the chaos that ensues. He is strong, but he prefers to watch in the background.

Put simply, Belial is like a warmonger, while Tregear is a mad scientist.

Best Returning Past Character
Look, I'm biased. My answer is going to be Tsukasa Kadoya no matter what. I was grateful everytime he appeared in Zi-O, and he appeared in more episodes that I expected! Granted, most of it is just cameo meant to progress Tsukuyomi's arc, but you can't help but to commend Masahiro Inoue for willing to be in a lot of episodes. And thanks to his appearances in Zi-O, Decade now officially has roughly the same amount of appearance to your typical yearly Rider.

And it makes me really sad that Inoue announcing that Zi-O's final episode will be the last time he reprised the role for the time being. Sure, there is a chance he will appear in the future, but it won't be for the next 5 years. Plus it's a good thing. The last thing we want in Kamen Rider is the JDF/Tommy Oliver equivalent.

Best Actor
Nada's actor is just so charismatic, it is the main reason why I like Nada so much. Also as mentioned earlier, Aruto's actor pretty much makes me not dislike Aruto and actually tolerate his joking antics, which is given to another actor, would have been very annoying and would cement Aruto as the worst protagonist Rider. But nope, thanks to the actor, Aruto was saved and becomes a compelling protagonist. Honestly, you can't help but to feel sorry for the guy whenever everyone's bitching on him for the Humagear crisis.

Best Actress
I know I dislike the show, but I can't deny that Zoey's actress in Beast Morphers is just a ray of sunshine. A lot of people said that Devon's actor is good but honestly he's pretty bad when it comes to ADR (kinda like an opposite of Troy Burrows as well as Ravi Shaw!), and Zoey's actress managed to stay consistent on both on camera and ADR.

Another would be Izu's actress. I usually am not a fan of cute-looking characters except Misora from Build, but Izu really won me over with how perfectly her actress was able to make her feel exactly like a robot who is slowly learning to be human. Sadly we all know Izu will ended up dying in the future (it already happened in episode 15 but it will happen again), and it will be heartbreaking to see if that happens, which wouldn't be possible if it weren't for the actress' performance.

Best Writer
Naruhisa Arakawa still proves he is the best writer for Sentai, or rather any crossover period. He didn't wrote those shows, but the Super Sentai Strongest Battle clearly shows that he would do a research on the shows he didn't write and makes sure the characters wouldn't be out of character......... unlike that one guy......

And Arakawa will be writing Kiramaiger gives me hope.

Best Director
Koichi Sakamoto. If it weren't for this guy, Ultraman would have been dead. Instead not only did he revived it, but also evolved the franchise as well as making them even stronger than before! The fact that 2019 marks the 10 anniversary since Sakamoto returned to Japan is just sweet.

Best Suit Design
KishiryuOh, Kishiryu Neptune and YokuRyuOh. Sentai mechas are always blocky, so seeing an actual agile Zord is so breathtaking. Before, the most agile Zord would be GekiTouja and Ryusoulger's Megazords beats the shit out of GekiTouja. Seriously man, I really want a KishiryuOh figure. Why did Super Robot Chogokin stopped making Sentai robos in the first place?

Best Weapon/Vehicle/Mecha
Same as above. I know this should be the actual place to list Kishiryuoh, but the thing that I loved the most about it is the fact that how slim the suits are.

But, I would also like to list the Attache Weapons from Zero-One. Pretty simple, but fits the suitcase theme rather perfectly, and the fact that the weapon form looks like weapons is a huge plus!

Best Fight Scene
So many I have to give up 3 examples. First is Ultraman Taiga's fight scene. It's like porn at this point, seeing how much Tsuburaya flex at their practical works. Seriousluy, one fight scene from an episode alone is more high budget than older Ultraman movie!

Second would be Ryusoulger's mecha fights. Genius move to make KishiryuOh and the others to be as slim as possible. They are clearly influenced by Ultraman and it shows. My only complaint would be the fights are very short, and the abundance of CGI and stock footage finishers. Otherwise if these two are imrpoved, Ryusoulger would be the best fight scenes of 2019.

Third would be Ultraman Ribut's debut fight. Sure it's your standard Ultraman fight, but seeing your homeland-made Ultra fighting, and the fact that they honored him by putting silat moves into his finisher, is AMAZING.

Best Dramatic Scene
Ultraman Taiga's descent into darkness. It was something you never really see before, seeing an Ultraman starting to become violent all of a sudden as a result of being corrupted.

Best Comedic Scene

Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment
LupinRanger VS PatRanger's final episode, especially the scene where the LupinRangers' loved ones become phantom thieves. It's out of nowhere, it's cringey, enough to make me consider a very solid show suffered from a terrible finale. Terrible, terrible finale.

Best Song
REALxEYEZ. Having TM Revolution finally singing a song for Kamen Rider is a dream come true. How I wish Hiroyuki Sawano would compose the next Kamen Rider/Super Sentai/Ultraman.

Best Piece of Merchandise
Like I said 2019 is the year of Gundam to me so I only buy gunpla thus I cannot say anything.

But if you really want a Tokusatsu answer, despite yet to own it, I have to admit Lightning Collection is knocking it out of the park. Sure it's no Figuarts, but it does what Figuarts gave up to do.

Biggest Surprise of 2019
Ultraman Ribut would officially make his debut in the Ultra franchise. He was honored but him appearing in Ultra Galaxy Fight is a whole new level.

Biggest Disappointment of 2019:
Just call me VoidinToku when it comes to Power Rangers, because I kept bitching about the show to no end. Why can't I? Geek stuff are rising yet Power Rangers is still considered a joke, which brings to why I consider Power Rangers Beast Morphers to be the most disappointing thing of this year. Do not get me wrong, I noticed the vast improvement the show made, they clearly made an effort with this. But as it stands, the show still feels like a Neo-Saban season, the tone and everything. It's just a Neo-Saban season but with effort.

I would forgive them because this is a transitionary season, but the cynic in me worry that this might be status quo for the next seasons to come. Oh how I hope the 2021 Power Rangers is different....... IN A GOOD WAY!

The Onari Memorial Award for Single Worst Thing in 2019 Tokusatsu: Shirakura saying Kamen Rider fans does not exist in the west (even if I'm from the east). Yeah he did provide a reasonable explanation, but you can't deny it caused an uproar within the community before he explained himself.