[Fish Sandwich]

I always say I'm bad at picking favorites, but man, I'm doing an extra awful job of that this year!

Favorite New Show of 2021
Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger is the best toku show of 2021, without a doubt. Fortunately for me, though, Switchblade no longer asks what the "best" is, so I get to say this instead:



Kamen Rider Saber is my favorite toku show of 2021, without a doubt. Actually, if I said it was my favorite toku show ever, I might even believe myself for a second before remembering Go-Busters still exists. So does that at least make Saber my favorite Kamen Rider, then? I don't know anymore! For about five years, I've managed to keep a simple and consistent stance that Ghost took over as #1 from Wizard, which became #2, but now Saber comes along combining all these things I like about both those shows and all these other things I like and I just don't even know what numbers are for anymore alright. Maybe I'll sort that out someday, but for now, the important thing is that Saber, a show so appealing to me at every turn I made a running gag out of saying Toei must *actually* have made it for me, ended up being just as much of a winner this year as the last. More of a winner, even. Saber is the show that just wouldn't stop winning for me. There aren't many Rider shows I was this absorbed in during their run, and I'm always going to look back fondly on all those weeks and months of fun... especially when I'm inevitably rewatching Saber, or even just obsessively thinking about it for no particular reason at all. This one is real special to me.

Favorite New-to-You Show of 2021
I finally watched the original Ultraman early this year! ...I think that might actually be the only old show I got around to watching this year, but it's not like this show wouldn't still be likely to take this award anyway. I'm still utterly astonished by the completeness of Ultraman right out of the gate. This is a series that has held up unbelievably well for something over half a century old at this point. The storytelling and the effects alike consistently kept me legitimately entertained, and the beauty of that anthology format is that it's like watching a ton of small, individual masterpieces, rather than just one. As soon as you think "man, that episode was amazing!", there's probably another one like that right around the corner.

Favorite Movie, Miniseries, or Special of 2021
Oh man, these are all lumped into one category...? I give up! There's no way I can even remotely narrow this down. We got a Saber and Ghost crossover – twice – and if we're talking movies? We got the home release of the Zero-One movie, which was breathtaking; the Saber short film, which was just as impressive in its own way and also Saber; Super Hero Senki, a heartfelt tribute which I adored, even if it's too early to say how my feelings will settle; that Zenkai Red miniseries was rather delightful; and hey, there was even Ten Gokaiger, which ended up being pretty great, as should be expected of Arakawa. It's too much! It's too good! I refuse to make a choice here!

Favorite Rewatch of 2021
Only about half of it actually happened this year, but I definitely want to acknowledge my rewatch of Kamen Rider Kabuto. It was extremely fun just to be writing about the show alongside Die the way I did in his thread, first of all, but like, it actually changed my opinion on Kamen Rider Kabuto. It's specifically because it's been so long already since that rewatch that I can say for certain what an effect it had. I keep finding myself thinking of Tendou quotes and stuff now and just going "wait, when did I become a fan of Kabuto?" When I rewatched it! Duh! It's just hard to internalize that, because it's rare for me to reevaluate a toku show to this degree. (Plus, you know, it reunited me with Hiyori, which makes it even more worth it.)

Favorite Male Lead Character
I mean, it's gotta be Touma, you know? I mean, he really likes stories and writing stories... I really like stories and occasionally writing about stories... pretty relatable lead for me! I adore everybody in Kamen Rider Saber, but the man himself stands ~just~ above the rest. His constant heroic determination made him as awesome as can be, with countless epic moments to his name, but it's the way he wears his emotions on his sleeve that I truly adore about him. The show makes it a point that all that strength comes directly from those strong feelings, and that's my kind of hero right there. I'm sure the constant heroic speeches wore some viewers out, but I'm going to be remembering quotes from this guy for life.

Favorite Female Lead Character
It's Magine. It was never going to be anyone but Magine. I keep making jokes out of my obsession with her in the episode threads for Zenkaiger, but sometimes I myself don't know if I'm playing the bit up, or playing it down. I also don't care either way? No, all I care about is Magine. Zenkaiger probably wouldn't even be any good without her. Is that an exaggeration, or not? Again, it doesn't matter; the point is that I really really like Magine.

Favorite Supporting Characters
Look, if you won't give me categories I can pick a winner in, I'm not going to try! Do you know how many swordsmen from Kamen Rider Saber alone could all fit here? It's a lot! The closest I can get to narrowing this down is to just pick of all them as a single group entity. My pick is every character in Saber with a holy sword that isn't Saber. There's no way I'm deciding between Rintarou and Yuri, and I'd inevitably feel bad about not giving Kento and the rest their due. So this is what you get. Have I mentioned how much I liked Saber yet?

Favorite Villain
I'm tempted to bring up Storious from Saber (and I am bringing him up), who really came into his own by the end of that series... but, even though he's less of a straightforward *villain*, Stacey from Zenkaiger is probably the one who belongs here. Really great conflicted antagonist with a great throwback suit design. What's not to love? He's the only character in his show that even comes close to competing with Magine for my attention, and I think that says it all.

Favorite Returning Past Character
Yup, still not trying! I got Kamen Rider Ghost back this year, and he brought Specter with him, as well as Kanon Specter, one of the unexpected coolest parts about that whole crossover with Saber. But then, like, Hiroshi Fujioka made his one scene in Super Hero Senki count for a ton, and it becomes this question of whether the fun the Ghost cast was having can beat out the weight Fujioka lends his role after fifty years. And that's a question I'm not looking to answer! (Aruto was great in Senki too, by the way!)

Favorite Actor
Shuuichirou Naitou as Touma Kamiyama. There's a moment in Saber's Final Stage, right at the end, that I hope I never forget. Touma's directly addressing the audience to give the usual heroic speech, talking about how you've got to live out your own story no matter how hard it gets and all that, and Naitou is very clearly fighting back tears while he's saying the words. You can even hear the sniffling being picked up by his mic. Seeing that cemented for me beyond all doubt that the earnestness I love so much about Touma is also Naitou's own earnestness, and I'm grateful for what he brought to the role, because it truly is something only he could've brought to it.

Favorite Actress
I wouldn't have thought to do this until somebody else in the thread did, but yeah, I think I'll also take this opportunity to give credit to Yume Miyamoto and Ayumi Shimozono for being two halves of my favorite Zenkaiger character. I like to think of Miyamoto's excellent and extremely natural vocal performance for Magine as her flexing all that experience from SSSS.Gridman's very precise yet loose direction, and Magine also made me appreciate how emotive Shimozono actually is as a suit actor. In spite of my theory about good suit actors using their necks, she's using her arms, mostly, and it's insane how much she can get across that way. If Switchblade didn't ditch the category for suit actors a few years back, rest assured she'd be right there.

Favorite Writer
It's tough not to give this to one or more of Saber's writers... but not *that* tough, when Junko Koumura is an option again. I said back when I gave her this same award in 2019 for Lupinranger VS Patranger that I've been a huge fan of her since I realized how much of Kamen Rider Wizard was her work, and how great it was seeing her really come into her own in the intervening time, and a few years later, she's still doing that. Zenkaiger is all the nerdiness of an Arakawa show, all the heart of a Kobayashi series, just enough of Inoue's insanity to be helpful, mixed with the bohemian touch the three of them have been known to have, along with the admirable refusal to rely on guest writers (that you mostly get from the latter two). She's basically some sort of super robot combination of all Toei's best and most prolific writers at this point, and I am so darn proud of her for it.

Favorite Director
Hm. This one is also just a bit too hard to decide for me. I saw the Zero-One movie this year, and that alone is a pretty staggering achievement for Teruaki Sugihara, who also did some great work on Saber... but then, Kazuya Kamihoriuchi, despite not having a killer movie this year, probably did even more memorable work on Saber, and then they've also both done great stuff on Revice to boot, so... I mean, really, these two are very much the twin kings of Rider direction at the moment. They've each got their unique strengths, and I'm always happy to see their names pop up in the credits for an episode. That's all that matters here.

Favorite Suit Design
The simple thing to do here is give this one to Zenkaiser, which is maybe like, the definitive Super Sentai suit, and just a plain appealing design in its own right. Yes, it's simple to do it that way, because I can say that's one suit I like, versus trying to decide which of Saber's forms is my favorite, which is not going to get anywhere. You might think it'd be Super Hero Senki, the one made from a Ghost suit for the purpose of making Touma look like Zenkaiser, but like, all of Saber's suits are so good. I sort of want to be cheeky and say Almighty Saber as an excuse to give the award to Brave Dragon again, but at that point, why not Xross Saber? It's Brave Dragon, but in a neat blue color! What about Primitive Dragon? It's got the cool bone thing going for it! Elemental Primitive? With a handshake for armor, it'd be Fourze's favorite suit, at least! Dragon TV-Kun??? Sure, I'm that crazy!

I guess my pick is Zenkaiser, because I've wanted it to be since I saw it, but like, look at what I ended up actually writing; these categories are too tough for me.

Favorite Weapon/Vehicle/Mecha
Amazingly, in spite of everything I've been saying so far, this one easily goes to the GUTS Sparklence from Ultraman Trigger. The original from Tiga has always been the definitive Ultra transformation item in my mind, so the second I saw a super slick modern version of it that's also a gun that loads collectible items like magazines, I was completely in love. Look at what show that had tons of cool weapons this year I'm not directly mentioning on this list for once; that's how I know I really do adore this thing.

Favorite Fight Scene/Favorite Dramatic Scene
Both of these would be something from Saber, but it's not like I can make any particular choice. I guess some easy highlights are Saber and Slash's fight from episode 21, which could qualify for both of these categories at once, any number of extremely well done fight scenes such as the debuts for Tategami Hyoujuu Senki and Xross Saber, not to mention pretty much everything from the final few episodes, and then for dramatic scenes? Touma getting through to Primitive Dragon in 27 and the use of those viewer-submitted clips in 47 are pretty monumental moments for the series – scenes that demonstrate more than any others what makes Saber so unique as a Rider show – but still... just saying those are my favorites feels like a disservice to countless moments over the past year that left an impact on me.

Favorite Comedic Scene
Zenkaiger. Like, as a whole. If I can't even pick a favorite scene from Saber, how the heck am I expected to pick a favorite gag from this show?

Biggest "WTF did I just watch?" Moment
When the final boss of the Yodonna miniseries turned out to be Hideo Ishiguro going Super Saiyan. I laughed harder and longer at that than anything else I saw in anything toku-related this year, but because of the pronounced tonal issues this series had, I don't actually know if I was supposed to find it funny, and thus it goes here. (In spite of the problems, I did like the miniseries overall, by the way.)

Favorite Song
Ultraman Trigger may not be on my list much, but when it is, it's there without question! I have a feeling it wouldn't be most people's first choice, but Nanairo no Tane, the show's first ending theme, *seriously* struck a chord with me. New Generation Ultraman EDs are, as a rule, amazing, so when I watched Trigger's first episode, I mostly thought it was "just" another good one. Then right after that, I watched the music video for the full version and realized it hits literally all the points that make for a great song in my book. Which is only like two things, but they're important things! The lyrics are telling a very clear story, and the composition has a really considered escalation in service of that same story. I still remember hearing for the first time that bit at the end, where it sounds like it's going to stop for a second before continuing with an instrumental part, and being like "oh man, I think I love this?" And I do! Absolutely beautiful song that's always soothing to listen to, which I'll probably still be doing long after Trigger is done airing.

Biggest Surprise of 2021
A crossover between Kamen Rider Saber and Kamen Rider Ghost!!! Twice!!! Of all the crossovers out there Rider fans probably dream of, the one only I would care about became a reality out of nowhere, and I still don't know what I did to deserve that kind of present. (And then those specials actually turned out to be good, too!)

The Onari Memorial Award for Single Worst Thing in 2021 Tokusatsu:
Now, ordinarily I'm not one for negativity, but somebody needs to speak the 100% honest truth here. To have the cast of Kamen Rider Ghost returning without Onari, objectively the single greatest tokusatsu character of all time, is nothing short of an insult to his countless adoring fans. Toei had an obligation, a duty, to showcase the further adventures of this legendary figure, and my friends, Toei let us down. What will humanity do without more Onari? I can't even begin to imagine what kind of monster could ever be content living in a world where we aren't constantly being reminded of Onari's greatness at every opportunity. This ruined my entire year, and I have no doubts it ruined everyone else's too.

...

...Okay, I had my fun at the end there, but it feels weird leaving on a joke, so let me do a bit of a wrap-up and say that, yeah, in terms of tokusatsu, this was a great year in my book. There really was just so much stuff on the air I enjoyed immensely, and that probably comes across in how many of my picks here are me trying to pick everything at once. Saber gave me a new one of my favorite Rider shows ever, Zenkaiger was fantastic, and even though I haven't made the time to talk about them here, I've very much been enjoying Revice and Trigger week after week as well. Here's looking forward to the next year!