Ten, Eleven, and Counting....the Guys in Bikes and Rider Suits

Ok, by now, you'd be wondering which anime show this picture is from. I'll tell you three things. First, it's not an anime, it's from a long-running live action series (in this case, a tokusatsu, which I will explain later). Second, if you were born somewhere in the 1980s and you have a TV, you can be sure that you'll catch one of the most well-known sempai of these guys (especially if you were born in the Philippines). Lastly, it's my favorite and my current fanaticism so far.

Anyways, I'm talking about Kamen Rider (aka Masked Rider). Thus the reason for this cute picture of all the Heisei Riders (the recent riders starting at around 2000. Masked Rider Black was during the 80s). The usual elements are as follows, a guy, a bike, a fancy belt that changes the guy into a Masked Rider/Kamen Rider, an organizaiton (depends if evil or not), and monsters which are usually humanoid. The new Riders branched off from the continuous flow of having an evil terrorist organization to fight against and being the reason why the heroes are Riders.

It took a turn on the year 2000 with Kamen Rider Kuuga. It was from Kuuga that every series is independent with terms of storyline and universe. That was until Kamen Rider Decade (2009) gave out the twist of crossing each world over. From there, it gained much popularity and still growing.

Honestly, I got hooked with the Heisei Riders due to me coming across the name of Kamen Rider Decade. I was looking through Gackt's discography and found this series (Gackt is a Japanese singer and actor. A favorite one at that). After checking out his song Journey Through the Decade, I looked for the series (and found vids of the show on Youtube). From there, I got hooked with the storyline and fell in love with the series.

I bet many of you would go "It's for kids. It's like Power Rangers." Before you say that, mind you that this is different from Power Rangers. Power Rangers (originally Super Sentai) fight in groups and that title itself refers to the American version (which was re-engineered for kids while using footage from the original Japanese series). Anyways, the plot of Kamen Rider (you can scratch off the two Americanized versions, Dragon Knight and Masked Rider) is also quite mature for kids to understand. It even has heroes who have flaws in themselves. Despite which, it has gained a "superhero" status in Japan and in hearts of other fans.

Right now, I've watched six of them (Decade, Kiva, 555, Blade, Kabuto, Den-O) and I'm watching my seventh series (Hibiki). I'll review them one by one on my later posts. Right now, let's leave it at that.

Well, I'm off to go check out something fun.

P.S. Tokusatsu is what you refer to Japanese live action shows that usually involve special effects.