[Fish Sandwich]

Okay, first of all, I just want to thank Kurona for her post, first of all because it was just super passionate and fun to read, but also because it made me realize I can simplify my own list a bit and still be happy with it, which is a huge relief in a year where I have regularly been swamped by writing about tokusatsu on this forum. Mind you, that's just about the best problem in the world to have, so let's go to it!

Favorite New Show of 2020
Without a doubt, it's Machine Sentai Kiramager. I had a feeling from very early on in its run I'd be saying this, and in all the time in-between, it's only lived up to that faith. Kiramager is brisk and exciting. Kiramager is hilarious and crazy. Kiramager is heartwarming and uplifting. Kiramager is an almost perfect Sentai show for Sentai fans, and an almost perfect entry point for those who aren't. Kiramager has consistently been one of the highlights of any given week for me, and it's a show I suspect I'll consistently be speaking highly of and recommending at any given opportunity in the future.

It's not exactly my favorite Sentai, but it's definitely the one I'd most want to share with people. If you haven't watched it yet, do yourself a favor and give Kiramager a shot; it'll make your day shine that much brighter.

Favorite New-to-You Show of 2020
Akumaizer 3, with equally little doubt. It's one of those shows I've always been meaning to get around to, and in a lot of ways it managed to surpass my realistic expectations of what a 70's toku show is like, with a lot more character-focused drama early on than I would've guessed. And even when it's not doing that, it's always loads of fun. Just an all around solid hero tokusatsu with an absolutely golden premise.

Favorite Rewatch of 2020
It's Kamen Rider Kuuga. I honestly wanted to make that bit from my post last year about this spot going to LuPat again true, but not only did I not find the time to give it a third go-around (I did watch some random episodes here or there however), I'd have to be out of my mind to give it to anything else this year. I made a whole huge thread about it, somehow found the energy to see it through to the end, got a lot of positive responses from other people on the site in the process, and, as much as all that extra sentimental value matters to getting to rediscover an old favorite again, there's also a simple truth to why it gets the award from me this year that I can sum up in two words – it's Kuuga.

Favorite Movie of 2020
While Kamen Rider Zi-O was airing, I constantly made a big deal out of how its two main writers had a notably different approach to the show. Kento Shimoyama tended to focus on finding the down-to-earth character drama within the mad universe, often to great results; while Nobuhiro Mouri seemed to prefer writing exciting adventures that reveled in the madness of the universe first and foremost, often to great results.

Both of them did the pretty much the opposite for their respective Zi-O movies, and in both cases, it was to great results. I rewatched both of them very recently specifically to see if I could narrow it down to one pick for this list, but I very quickly realized I was really just watching them both again to watch them both again, so both Over Quartzer and Geiz, Majesty (which is officially written with a comma?) get the award from me.

Shimoyama is a great writer, and Over Quartzer is straight up genius. Probably not an opinion I'll get much sympathy for, but I don't know how else to put it. It's super esoteric at points, and requires you not take things too literally, but the meta-fictional narrative it has makes for a thrilling and genuinely touching tribute to the inconsistent, wildly uneven tapestry that is Heisei Rider. It was love on first viewing for me, and after three times watching it in one year, I think it's safe to say it's launched itself right up there with other personal favorite summer movies of mine like Paradise Lost and True Ending.

Geiz, Majesty is just a film about a normal high school kid finding his path in life, and I respect the heck out of it for how hard it commits to its small scale. You don't even see Geiz transform once until two thirds of the way into the runtime, and that shows a faith in the story it was telling. Very well-placed faith, as far as I'm concerned, too. Mouri's script does a wonderful job digging into the emotions of Geiz himself, and the result is a straightforward film that's very genuine and relatable. If you hate Over Quartzer, I think there's a good chance you'd conversely love this one, but lucky for me, I'm more than okay with just saying they're both amazing.

(Also, it's not quite winning best song, but for the record, Brand New Day is still super catchy.)

Favorite Character
Kamen Rider Zero-One turned out to be a rather uneven show, but one thing that never changed for even a second was how much I loved its main protagonist, Aruto Hiden. He's an absolutely wonderful hero to start off a "new" era of Rider, with a strong emotional range and a personality that embodies the concept of heart that was one of the show's main themes.

Something I look for in a lead character is some kind of strong drive or belief they hold dear, and Aruto had that in spades. Like any great main Rider in a multi-Rider show, no matter what squabbles went down with everyone else, Aruto was always there to leap towards his dream of a world where humans and AI alike could be free to smile and grow together. And maybe some days that wasn't always so easy for him, but it's the struggle that makes for interesting drama. I think with Fuwa's runaway popularity, this is another lonely opinion for me, but Aruto was a fantastic lead who smoothly combined aspects of some of my favorite Rider leads ever (seriously, any main Rider who fights for smiles is an instant winner for me) into a brand new favorite. It sounds obvious, but Zero-One was one of the best parts of Zero-One, and that's how it oughta be.

Favorite Villain
Horobi was also one of the best parts of Zero-One. First of all, Switchblade hasn't done a "best suit actor" category in years, so let me mention here that Takaiwa's performance as his Kamen Rider form is nothing short of consistently great, showing once again how much he excels at subtlety.

Horobi's actual character ended up proving interesting to me far beyond the novelty of his suit actor though, and that's why he's in this spot. He was far from a spectacularly complex antagonist, but I thought the show's writing did a solid job shading the traits he had in ways that always made him interesting to watch, helped by Shuuya Sunagawa's performance, which also had it's own little subtleties that helped draw me into the character.

Favorite Actors
Fumiya Takahashi and Noa Tsurushima, Zero-One's power duo of Aruto and Izu, respectively. I think both of them had equally demanding roles, and both of them stepped up to the plate big time. Takahashi has great charisma, and the confidence required to mug like nobody's business as a failed comedian turned CEO turned Rider, while also nailing the more serious moments. Tsurushima, meanwhile, had to find the humanity in a character where she also needed to not be too human, and made that work so naturally it's hard to see anything but Izu on the screen. And then she had to play another character on top of that by the end of the year. So that's two great actors, and three killer performances total. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Favorite Writer
Ayumi Shimo! I have utterly fallen in love with her writing over the course of Kiramager, and could not be more psyched to have her as part of Toei's stable of toku writers. Whatever they want to put her on, it's probably going to be better off for it. At the very least, her scripts for Kiramager are always, always of the highest caliber, with super strong emotional cores to build real investment from the audience, and all the wacky gags and fun action grows out of that naturally. I have legitimately clapped after watching some of the episodes she's written, because they just leave me that satisfied.

Favorite Director
Teruaki Sugihara, currently my favorite director working for Toei, even above Kazuya Kamihoriuchi, and that was cemented by his fantastic work on Zero-One both this year and the last. His extreme emphasis on frenetic yet clean motion gels with me something fierce, and has resulted in some of the flashiest, coolest action sequeneces Rider has ever been graced with.

Favorite Suit Design
I still stand by saying I love Zi-O Trinity. However! I will admit that I spent a lot of 2020 realizing what a horrible sin I had committed by not naming Rising Hopper as the best suit design for 2019. Part of me is convinced I'm the entire reason that form got the treatment it did for so much of Zero-One's run. So allow to me atone, even a little, by saying Zero-Two is every bit as great, and pretty much guaranteed to go down as one of the best final forms in Rider history the same way Rising Hopper is for base forms. The restraint it had to not overcomplicate the shapes or silhouette, and indeed, even simplify them in spots, shows a perfected understanding of Zero-One's design aesthetic and why it's so excellent. Zero-Two represents a sort of pinnacle for the show's suits, exactly as it should.

That being said, I learned my lesson about not giving a sweet base form for the main Rider the credit its due, and am also horribly indecisive, so Zero-Two is merely tied with Kamen Rider Saber Brave Dragon, which I've quickly come to appreciate for all the exact opposite reasons.

The thing I love about Rising Hopper is that it's a very easy design to draw correctly, and can be scaled to any level of detail. The actual suit has fairly complicated texturing on the black parts, and little touches like the red lines, but all that was also designed to be ignored in favor of the simple and striking yellow armor on a black body. There's nothing too complicated about the layout, and that makes it easy to reproduce.

Brave Dragon is maddeningly complex in terms of details, but what I realized that made me love it is how it's a design that's easy to draw incorrectly, and still have it be instantly recognizable. The broad strokes of it are easily remembered and very specific. The red/white/black colors being split into thirds down the body; the dragon head on the right shoulder; the cross shape of the eyes; or the blade poking out of the head; they're all great points of focus. The whole reason I'm using this drawing criteria is because I always put Rider base forms in terms of "can a kid draw them?", and Saber nails that in a surprising way. Some small child's crayon drawing of Brave Dragon will be likely be missing a ton of details, and not have the shapes anywhere near correct, but you'll see one or more of those broad strokes and instantly know what you're looking at all the same. It's a busy suit that remembers to have strong iconography, and that makes all the difference.

Favorite Weapon/Vehicle/Mecha
Hey, just in case you weren't all tired enough of my weird picks yet, have I mentioned the Progrise Hopper Blade from Zero-One is my favorite gadget in tokusatsu this year? Yeah, the weird cheese wedge thing! Pretty crazy, I know, but this is all subjective, and a lot of this has less to do with the design (which I do like, mind you), and more to do with how it was implemented in the narrative of the show. A good story can do wonders to build attachment to a piece of merch. It's why these shows aren't literally just advertisements in the first place, and the Hopper Blade really reminded me of that with how much weight I suddenly felt seeing it after its initial debut. It's not just some random new sword; it's a physical symbol of the mutual faith Aruto and the HumaGears have in each other, and that's exactly the kind of cheese that makes me love this genre so much.

Favorite Fight Scene
Metal Cluster Hopper's showdown with Ark-Zero from episode 37 of Zero-One. It's only like a minute or two, but every last aspect of it gives me chills, man. Aruto's heroic declaration that he won't run away from an opponent he knows has him outclassed; the debut of the amazing BGM that's technically Zero-Two's theme giving weight to that determination; the insanely tight fight choreography where each little move actually has meaning and affects the flow of the overall battle; it's such a good moment, and in a story arc I'm not even that hot on!

I'll especially give props to the choreography, which it should be said was so good in Zero-One that any number of scenes from it could easily take the cake here. Zero-One marks Jun Watanabe's first outing as a full-on action director for Kamen Rider, and I'm assuming he's the guy who made all the difference, because Zero-One was leaps and bounds more exciting in terms of raw choreography than the few years of Rider preceeding it.

Favorite Dramatic Scene
I thought about it a lot and couldn't think of any one particular thing that made me go "yes! I've gotta talk about that!", but there were definitely plenty of great, impactful moments. While what I came up with isn't necessarily better than any other, I definitely want to make sure Ultraman Z is somewhere in this post, so I'll give it to the moment in episode 11 of that show where Haruki finds an egg laid by Red King and realizes the implications that holds; utterly brilliant twist, and it marked the point where Z started finding a very strong thematic core that it carried all the way to its excellent finale.

Favorite Comedic Scene
The recreation of the "you should know how to use it" bit from Zi-O's premiere in Geiz, Majesty. Had me close to literally rolling on the floor. I knew as soon as I saw it nothing else would even give it competition the rest of the year, and guess what? Nothing did!

Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment
For better and for worse, darn near the entirety of episode 38 of Zero-One, and all the revelations it gave us about Thouser... and Thouser, for that matter.

Favorite Song
This is another double bill, because I knew right from Zero-One's announcement press conference that whatever that jammin' song playing was would deserve this award, and sure enough, we finally got the soundtrack this year, and "Omae wo Tomerareru no wa Tada Hitori, Ore Da! ~Find a new life" is in fact a major jam! The full version is short but sweet, and I'm honestly not super fond of the borderline gibberish lyrics (I'm sure Shouko Fujibayashi would've come up with something nice if you had just asked, guys! You know, like you did for REALxEYEZ?), which maybe docks it a few points... but the fact that even in spite of that I still have no doubt about its place here tells you just how amazing it really is. It's the definitive motif for the show; an absurdly energetic composition by Gou Sakabe that befits the optimistic hero starting a new era.

I also know ALMIGHTY~Kamen no Yakusoku is on that same level for me, and with lyrics that make sense to boot. As someone who got into Rider with OOO, I have a soft spot for ska as a genre, and Almighty epitomizes why, being in this beautiful balance between getting you pumped and also being super chill and relaxing. I know a lot of jokes have been made about Saber's opening and ending feeling like they're in the wrong order, but truth be told, I think that's all down to how well Almighty could work in either context. It's a very flexible song, and I'm always excited to hear it once a week... and then all the other times that week, too.