[Androzani84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I was going to mention this earlier, but kinda forgot, so here we go:

Toshiki Inoue's first big hit was Chojin Sentai Jetman, the Sentai series that aired right before some obscure, largely forgotten series with dinosaur robots. Jetman is often ranked as one of the best shows in the entire franchise and its breakaway character was Gai Yuki/Black Condor. He was the dude who spent most of the series butting heads with the team leader and aggressively creeping one of his female teammates. He was kind of an asshole but he was incredibly popular. I can't say that what happened next is Gai's fault or a pre-existing inclination, but all of Inoue's shows since then have featured a character who works with the heroes but who also stirs up loads of interpersonal drama while doing so. Houjou was a relatively low-key version of this and you'll see another example when you ignore my warning and watch the Inoue era of Hibiki. Kusaka is probably the peak version of this trope, though. Trust me when I tell you that we have only seen the tip of the doucheberg that is Masato Kusaka.


I'm going to mention this now because it's one of the more notorious things Kusaka is known for and its sometimes mis-attributed to the series. Toshiki Inoue wrote a novel version of Faiz that retells the story in an even darker form. Kusaka's attitude towards Mari on the show gets pretty creepy, but in the book he infamously straight up sexually assaults her. It obviously doesn't happen on the version that kids were watching, but there's a lot of overlap in how Kusaka views Mari in both versions.


Another thing I forgot to mention before now: the Kaixa blaygun (the X-shaped gun/lightsaber) is my all-time favorite Rider weapon. I love that damned thing so much.

Yeah, 2003’s SHT shows are the only ones where the topic of sexual assault is likely to come up in a discussion. And that’s all I’ll say on the topic.