Top Ten Creepy Kamen Rider Children

 I've mentioned before that Toei tends to revisit the themes and character types it really likes, and it's pretty obvious that for Toei, and especially Kamen Rider, creepy children rank up there. They rank so high that though this list was originally meant to include both Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, by the time I'd finished counting all the creepy children populating Kamen Rider I'd completely run out of space for, well, Kibaranger.

 "Children", in this sense, means any character under the age of eighteen, albeit with a focus on characters towards the lower age range. With that aside, let's view the nanny's nightmare gallery!

Five Top Kamen Rider Trolls

 Kamen Rider, like any other long-running franchise, has a number of character types that pop up again and again. The asshole who thinks he's right and everybody else is wrong (see: 555's Kusaka, Kiva's Nago). The gentle, sweet-natured hero who wishes we could all just get along (Agito's Shouichi, Ryuki's Shinji). And, in more recent times, another type has become increasingly common: the troll.

 You know that annoying guy who sets up camp on your favourite forum and does nothing but post anime macros in the middle of a serious discussion? Or the one who responds to your nine hundred word essay on why Ultraman is totally underrated with just "u mad?"? Toei loves that guy. He's become a pretty common fixture in Kamen Rider, to varying levels of success. Let's talk about the rise of the Kamen Rider troll and btw, you sound fat.

Five Kamen Riders Who Suck at Their Jobs

 One of this blog's most read posts is Five Reasons Not to Date a Kamen Rider, presumably because there are a lot of people who feel as strongly as I do about the future of their love lives in relation to fictional Japanese guys. But you know, it's not just romance that Kamen Riders generally fail at. They're pretty equal opportunity in their failure, which is why I'm presenting this new list to you.

 Listen, say what you like about Takumi but he did some serious laundry during 555. Agito's Hikawa did very little but his police work. Even the Blade Riders, who are otherwise doing pretty badly in the game of life, managed to convince me that their employment wasn't a total disaster.

 The Riders on this list, however, should never have been hired in the first place.

Five Sentai Heroes I Would (Not) Take Home to Mother

 My mother is a pretty chill, laidback sort of lady. When I told her I spend a significant chunk of my time watching and writing about Japanese kid's shows she basically took it in her stride and shrugged (though she's getting old, so she might not actually have heard me). And she's mellow about who I date too. She'll welcome into her home and family whoever makes me happy, so long as whoever makes me happy is a tall, well-spoken type who makes six figures a year.

 Hot off the heels of my declaration that I'd never date a Kamen Rider, I started wondering if I'd date a nice Sentai hero instead. And maybe I would, but here are the ones I would probably (not) take home to meet my mother.

Five Sentai Teams I Think I Could Take in a Fight

 As I currently lack the ability to spontaneously clad bright coloured spandex armour at will, I probably wouldn't challenge most Super Sentai teams to a match. One small British person who considers writing a stern letter the height of aggression against five or more armoured soldiers with copious combat experience is probably going to turn out pretty badly for me.

 Having said that, I think there's a couple of Sentai teams I'd have a good chance of taking. I'm not saying I'd seek them out for a fight, but if for some reason we were to meet in a dark alley I'd be pretty confident about my chances.

Kamen Rider OOO 23 Review

Kamen Rider OOO
Episode 23: Beauty, the Egg, and the Sleeping Desire
A review

I’ll admit a certain amount of trepidation about this episode set in when the preview started reminding us who Uva, Kazari, Ankh, Date, Gotou and Eiji were. Was this going to be a massively important and groundbreaking episode that warrants this slightly unusual reminder?

Five Reasons Not to Date a Kamen Rider

 Whenever a Kamen Rider I particularly like comes along I'll often gush to my friends that I "would so totally marry him eeee" but actually, when it comes down to it? I wouldn't date any Rider. It would be a supremely bad life decision. Why? Well, I'll tell you.

Why Goseiger Failed

  As another Sentai season ends and we look forward to Kaizoku Sentai Goukaiger, very few of us seem sad to watch Goseiger go. Think back to last year, when we watched the hand-off from ShinkenRed to GoseiRed. So many people spoke about feeling sad as they watched the torch pass hands - I even spotted a couple of fanboys sheepishly admitting to shedding a manly tear. Even a year before that, when ShinkenRed clashed Comically Oversized Swords with Go-onRed, there were people getting misty-eyed at saying goodbye to the Go-ongers (who weren't even that popular with fandom in general).

 But as we say goodbye to Goseiger? Nobody, save for a handful of loyal fans, seems that bothered. This is the series that has aired every weekend for just over a year now, and as it came to a close most of us were dry-eyed and impatient for the Goukaiger preview afterwards - that is, if we even watched the finale.

 Where did Goseiger go wrong?

The Ten Types of Toku Fans

 The tokusatsu fandom is an interesting place to be. We may be small, but we've got plenty of personality and variety to make up for it. But though a fandom is always made up of individuals, you still find that the same opinions and "types" will crop up again and again - and tokusatsu fandom is no different. With the fandom stretching from Japan to America, and crossing all age ranges, I still keep coming across similar views and traits. Let's talk about those then, the ten most common types of tokusatsu fans I've seen in my travels. Get out a bingo card and see how many you've spotted too!


 10. People who think Shioya Shun's acting in Hurricanger was top notch
 Just kidding, nobody thinks this.