A Blast into the Past with Amazon

As much as I hate to say it, Amazon was pretty bad. So much potential with such a cool suit, just wasted

Forever Knight said:

http://www.thai-toku.com/cgi-bin/Y1Gold/tcsyabb/index.pl?board=general&action=display&num=1127618250

Anyone here a fan of KR Amazon?.

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BLOODY HECK!! He's changed alot!! From a teenager with no clothes on to an old man with clothes on!!!

I've only seen Kamen Rider Amazon: Episode 1, and the Movie on HK DVD. Personally, I think Kamen Rider Amazon wasn't too bad at all. It had a very interesting and unique storyline. Very Tarzan influenced.

ryu dairenjaa said:

where can you download subbed???

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Nowhere!! But it is possible to watch the Amazon movie subtitled on HK DVD.

I have episode 1 (subbed) and if you want to I can upload it for you.

Shougo Kuroiwa said:

Then again, Amazon was an all-around mess in suit quality, because after 31 years, people still aren't sure what the hell Amazon himself is supposed to be...

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That's usually because they can't read Japanese. Every book I've seen says he's an "Ootokage" or a Monitor Lizard.

Of course "the books are all lies!" according to some people, so I guess it'll never be settled.

Igadevil said:

That's usually because they can't read Japanese. Every book I've seen says he's an "Ootokage" or a Monitor Lizard.

Of course "the books are all lies!" according to some people, so I guess it'll never be settled.

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I always figured he was a lizard because he has that...fin thingamajigger on his back.

I can't speak for anyone else, but the "books are all lies" only holds true to me when it's a book that comes out a bit after the series and embarrassingly tries to fix up plot holes the series had. Most noticeably the Ryuki Complete Works Encyclopedia which tried to cover their ass by saying, "Shiro was supposed to be time-traveling, so the special and movie's canon, don't discount 'em!" Just as there were books that tried to explain that Ashihara/Gils got his powers from the Mysterious Youth -- huh? If it's not in your series, or at least clear in your series, I don't think it's canon. So, be good writers, kids, and cover your plot holes as you write 'em.

Rising Sun Ranger said:

I've only seen Kamen Rider Amazon: Episode 1, and the Movie on HK DVD. Personally, I think Kamen Rider Amazon wasn't too bad at all. It had a very interesting and unique storyline. Very Tarzan influenced.

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Not to mention Godzilla influenced (not only is Amazon a reptile, but is also just as savagely violent and destructive as Godzilla was even in the 70s).

Igadevil said:

That's usually because they can't read Japanese. Every book I've seen says he's an "Ootokage" or a Monitor Lizard.

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That's what I thought, too! That, or a chameleon (same head structure). This made Amazon a standout for me. He has an awesome costume, and was the first mutant Masked Rider (also one of the few mutant superheroes in 70s tokusatsu superhero TV besides Inazuman)!

Hell, it took time for me to find out that cute lovable teddy-bear monster Booska is an IGUANA! But that's another story.

Of course "the books are all lies!" according to some people, so I guess it'll never be settled.

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Exactly!!! They don't even try! And even if they do understand Japanese, a lot of them would rather not read, and prefer to translate only by ear (an Italian site, for example, had some very badly translated lyrics to Super Robot Anime songs). That is not an acceptable or definite approach to translating Japanese.

Although I can't hide that my Japanese is limited, I can still read a lot of it (I first learned katakana, then hiragana, then some kanji), becuase I forced myself to learn Japanese to read the boxes and packages of some Godzilla and Ultraman toys I got many years ago! A Japanese word processor (yes, you can download one for free) definitely comes in handy, especially since I don't know all kanji or terms, and can try to decipher them. It's also very helpful when you have books, or even Japanese websites that have all this info also, but people don't bother to look it up. Because, after all, they're Japanese.

It's called research, people!

The past is fun so here's some more
http://www.thai-toku.com/cgi-bin/Y1Gold/tcsyabb/index.pl?board=general&action=display&num=1128439854

Forever Knight said:

The past is fun so here's some more

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One cool thing about the guy who played Shin Kamen Rider -- he changed his name from Kohisa Ishikawa to Shin Ishikawa. Meaning he was the only other person besides myself that liked that movie...(AFAIC, without that movie, we wouldn't have the new Rider shows).

Haha, is that a Kurata vs. Tsubaki cook-off?

I don't think that SHIN KAMEN RIDER had anything to do with the production of KAMEN RIDER KUUGA. In fact, SHIN was supposed to be the start of a whole series of direct-to-video films with that character, but was an complete flop from the outset. It was tremendously unpopular with fans and was quickly forgotten. KAMEN RIDER ZO and KAMEN RIDER J were more successful with reviving the franchise, but not enough for a television series. It was the passing of Shotaro Ishimori, the increasing sales of Kamen Rider merchandise and the revival of the Ultra Series, starting with ULTRAMAN TIGA, which started the ball rolling on KUUGA. Any other theory is just delusional (no offense to anyone).

As for AMAZON... it's brilliant. It was a complete departure from the format established with KR through KR X, and also returns the series to its original "Horror" format (seen in the first 13 episodes of the original KR). I can't see anyone complaining about the monster suits, soley based on retrospect. 31 years ago, these were pretty damned good monster suits for television -- better than anything in the entire catalogue of DR. WHO creatures just in terms of aesthetics -- of course, they were stylized, because that's what they were intended to be, and not subscribing to Western sensibilities of "realism". These creatures are abberations and are supposed to be abstract, exaggerated. Judging these shows negatively by Western standards is unfair, because these shows were made in Japan for Japanese audiences.

KAMEN RIDER SUPER-1, the first 23 episodes, are pretty good, actually. This is before the introduction of Jin-Dogma, the silly kaijin, and the dreaded Junior Riders! Lots of great action, focusing on Shaolin Kung Fu -- and a kick-ass ending theme song (was never hot on the opening theme, even though its tremendously catchy!). Don't dis a show if you haven't seen the whole show. That's like basing a movie review on the first, middle or ending of a film, without seeing it from start to finish.

While I think the Heisei series is okay (with high points and low points) to me, the real Kamen Riders are those created by Shotaro Ishimori and Creative Producer Tohru Hirayama. BTW, a massive amount of the success of the original Kamen Rider Series (KR through ZX) can be attributed to Hirayama's wonderful ideas, unlimited imagination and boundless energy.

August said:

I don't think that SHIN KAMEN RIDER had anything to do with the production of KAMEN RIDER KUUGA.

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I wasn't referring to production -- I was referring to its style. Shin was the first Rider to cater to an adults only audience; it was the first that asked for the material to be taken seriously, taking place in a realistic setting filled with gloom and doom. Melodrama and senseless deaths abound; not paragraph long speeches of "Protecting the peace of the world!" or cheesy Junior Riders.

So, I think Shin very much paved the way for how they approached doing
a Rider series for the new millennium. Without it, we'd most likely be stuck in the same old Rider pattern, much like Tsuburaya's stuck in the same old rut. Instead, with Rider, they decided to try something fresh, tell it on a more mature level, be more "realistic."