[Kurona]

Favorite New Show of 2021



A lot of these categories are going to leave me very conflicted, but... oh, man. There's just no question in mind here AT ALL that Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger sweeps the year for me!

Not to insult any other series from this year, I have to add - I loved Kiramager, and Revice has been pretty fun and interesting so far - but Zenkaiger is a show that is determined to hit the beat of, like, every single thing I love about Super Sentai and turn it up to 11, and do it so consistently well that every time I think "well this is great, it's amazing; but surely they can't surprise me this time like 30 episodes in", no, they pull it off! It's a show of charming characters, of clever writing, of high energy, of absolutely nuts comedy, of compelling drama, of a group of completely different random people from different worlds (literally!) bonding together into the most heartwarming family written and produced by people who clearly love everything this genre stands for...! I could go on forever. This is a love letter to Sentai, but it might as well be a love letter to me. This show got me damn good!

Favorite New-to-You Show of 2021



Aaaand there's that conflict!

So. Uh. As the thread says, 2021 is the Everything Is An Anniversary year. Kamen Rider, Ultraman AND Super Sentai are all celebrating either significant anniversaries or choosing this year to celebrate it in full force, and I thought... fuck it, why not go all out and hit upon a bunch of significant stuff from these franchises that despite being a superfan of all three I've never truly dug into; particularly the Showa stuff? So that list includes:-

- Kamen Rider
- Following that, V3 through Stronger
- Amazons and The First
- Ultraman
- Ultraseven
- Tiga
- Goranger
- Dynaman
- Liveman
- Timeranger

And... okay, I didn't fully vibe with Kamen Rider X or The Next or Goranger; but there's so much in here I cannot possibly choose, or even narrow down to a top 3! I can certainly say that Kamen Rider, Ultraman and Tiga all immediately made it to the tip top of my list of favourite Toku shows ever; all of them showing a deep imagination or passion for what they're doing and truly going all out to bring something new to the kids watching at home. Dynaman was something I watched on a whim and ended up being a darkhorse favourite, V3 took everything I liked about Kamen Rider and took it to the next level, Timeranger was a great reminder of what I love about Kobayashi's writing (particularly Shinkenger), Amazons Season 2 hit me out of nowhere...

Like, again, you can't make me choose here! I'm just going to cheat and say '2021' for this category, because just about everything I decided to watch ended up being special or significant to me in some way!

i haven't actually watched Kamen Rider vs Ultraman yet

Favorite Movie, Miniseries, or Special of 2021



Ten Gokaiger got me and I'm excited for Senki, but I'm gonna have to keep repping 01hers!

These took a bit to grow on me and for me to really consider what they were saying, but overall I can genuinely say the duology makes one of my favourite Kamen Rider movies and my favourite piece of 01 media. It takes everything I liked about what Zero-One was doing early on with the Humagears and in my mind far more effectively linked that conflict with the character drama and the idea of malice as an overarching throughline. It directly takes the development of characters like Jin and Yaiba where they left off mid-series and sensibly, naturally expands upon them and their role in the story overall; and at the center is my main man Fuwa bursting through it all with his usual bluster and outlook on life. It's a tragic ending, but one that's very fitting and is up there with stuff like BLACK for me as one of the more brutal tellings of Kamen Rider's story. There's low points, but the high points are stratospheric, and they just keep giving me food for thought the more I look back on them. Zero-One at its best!

Favorite Rewatch of 2021



This is a double cheat, right? It's two shows AND it was my answer last year too? But the bulk of it was this year, including when I actually finished both damn shows; so I have to give my all to my weekly rewatches of both OOO and Ghost. This was my big anniversary celebration thing with not just the 50th round the corner, but both series celebrating their 10th and 5th; and the two represented what were at the time my favourite Kamen Rider show and one of my least favourite, despite the two having a lot in common and that I watched them both early. I wanted to mark the occasion by seeing how my views of the two had evolved since I first watched them years ago, and experience them in a way I've never done for anything pre-Build: a watchthrough where I watch each episode weekly as if it were coming up; even going so far as to match exact airdates. So, how'd it go?

Well, OOO is no longer my favourite Kamen Rider show between Kuuga taking up a bunch of space in my brain and finding a lot more flaws in what I had previously considered a perfect show; and Ghost is one I still have quite a few problems with and am ultimately a little mixed on. And yet I love both more than I ever did before! OOO's main draw in Eiji and Ankh's relationship shines through as one of the highlights of Kamen Rider's 50-year history, and while Ghost can be clunky at times in delivering its message Takeru ultimately proves a wonderful protagonist for a show that uniquely looks at the series' ideals through a Buddhist lens. What I used to think was one of the worst Kamen Riders I'd now put among my favourites like W, Amazon and Hibiki; and what used to be my favourite show has still managed to reaffirm its place in my heart.

And this is still ongoing, too! I'm not matching airdates anymore but I'm working my way through a bunch of 'bonus content' in movies and specials and the like; and that included going through a bunch of favourite and/or memorable movies to me like Megamax, Heigen Final, SHT... I even got to discover their excellent Final Stages, and watching through their Zi-O stuff right now is bringing me back to the joys I had with that show, and then a bunch of merch and new media got announced for these shows as I was doing all this?! This is the one that just kept winning for me, basically, and I'm so so glad I went through with it

Favorite Villain



Oh, man, I love this guy?

Much like the movie itself, ZAIA takes everything I liked about Thouser's early showing and turns it up to 11 as he shows himself to be an utter megalomaniac who advances the themes of malice, pushes past them and unearths true fear all to make a profit, and does it all before turning into a supervillain with hilarious body language and dialogue. He's kind of got it all! Thouser's late-game writing was a big disappointment for me in the series itself, so to see this alternate direction for the character was just wonderful.

Favorite Writer

Can we just get back Junko Komura every few years? Pretty please? I liked Zyuohger and Lupat but even those feel like mere drafts for her masterpiece this year and I am so excited to see what she does next at this rate! I know of course it's not all on her and that a lot of the show's overall direction will have been down to Producer Shirakura, but I just can't help the feeling that Komura has truly come into her own now. Great job!

Favorite Suit Design

Hi, hello, you're asking me to choose between winners like Zenkaiser, Twokaiser, Vulcan Lone Wolf, Revice, Century and Jeanne?? You're asking me to yet again look at a category I can't even narrow down to a top 3??? You're cruel! You're too cruel! This year has been IMMENSE for suit design and I'm just gonna have to mass produce trophies to throw at everyone at this rate!


Favorite Comedic Scene/Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment

Zenkaiger Episode All Of Them. I'm not a person that typically laughs or cries physically? I'm the sort of person who has a bunch of trouble expressing their emotions physically even if what I'm feeling inside is very strong, and yet Zenkaiger is a show that had me laughing not once, not twice, but at least a solid 90% of episodes so far! Their brand of wacky bullshit is everything I needed this year, so yes, this is kind of another copout; but it's one a lot of people here have already made and rightfully so! You can't choose a single good funny moment with this show because you'll be crawling through the list for 45 years trying to boil it down!

Favorite Piece of Merchandise



Shinkocchou Seihou S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider OOO Tajador Combo!!

If you're the type of person to drink a lot on New Years, do not try saying that three times in a row. I've been on a mission to pare down my Figuarts collecting this year (I've sold off so much) for a number of reasons, but Tajador is like... c'mon. You can't not have that. It's the Final Form of Final Forms, it's the physical representation of everything I love about OOO and one of the standout moments of the franchise, so I NEEDED this thing so much it goes without saying. And thankfully, holy shit they nailed this design! And yeah sure it's Seihou of course they did but it's an absolutely immaculate beauty that knocks even other Seihous I have or had like Amazon, Kuuga and Tatoba out of the park and he makes a stunning centerpiece to my shelf display. There's really nothing else to it! Tajador is one of the best things ever and this is a perfect rendition of it! Well done Bandai!

Biggest Surprise of 2021



Ultraman Trigger is a show I was tempted to put under 'biggest disappointment' - it's certainly my low point of the current slate of shows as even aside from giving itself tough competition by following up Z and calling itself a Tiga remake/reboot/tribute/whatever, it's a show I'd also say is very much on the blander side of things and bores me to the point I've decided I'll probably skip its sequel next year. But the thing is - I can't really be disappointed because I expected this to not be great! No matter how you try you cannot remake a show like Tiga in the current set-up of Ultraman in a truly satisfying way, and while it's a little surprising it's as dull as it is, the trailers were hardly getting me excited and I'm not too shocked that there's nothing here I really like.

... ALMOST nothing, which is where we get to the surprise of all this -- Ignis!! I really wasn't sure what to make of this guy as from the outset, he's the one element you could say is not derivative of a superficial element of Tiga and so was a bit of a wildcard; never mind the fact I knew the actor as Gokai Red's ex. And, hey, turns out you can do a lot worse than bearing similarities to Basco because a flamboyant treasure hunter with a serious edge to him deep down is exactly what this show needed! From screwing around with GUTS-SELECT to bickering with Barossa to being a Gacha addict out of nowhere he was a joy to watch... and then you dig the knife in with his backstory connection to Hudram with a deep tragedy to it all? Not everything about it works 100% and he's not one of my favourite Ultraman characters or anything, but this is an absolutely solid and entertaining character with a bunch of wonderful moments and I'm glad to say I could get something out of a show I wasn't expecting even a single thing from