That behave identically to the previous one and (most often) have no character of their own. The better episodes are the ones that break that particular mold.
I really have to disagree with this. What made the MOTW more unique back then in comparison to the 00's Heisei Era are their big mouths and how much personality each of them had through their talking. Many times (specifically Ryuki, Hibiki and Kabuto) you would find a lot of monsters that were completely silent and only went about their destruction like wild beasts, without showing much intelligence. I'm not saying this is bad, but it shows how they really have no character of their own.
The monsters back then talked so much that they showed a lot of character.
But even the main Rider and major supporting cast behave like robotic justice-dispensers most weeks. Character development of even the most basic kind happens in maybe 10% of episodes and even then feels
mostly like an afterthought.
I think there was much development and differences between the characters. It's true that across all of those series pretty much all of the supporting cast had a generic desire for justice, but the way they went about it was much different. Every main Rider had a very unique personality and got to develop a lot during the show, becoming a completely different person than they first were. As for the support cast, try to pay closer attention to the stuff they went through and how it affected them, I'm not talking about Tachibana Tobei, who was in 5 series and evolved throughout them, not even Taki Kazuya, who grew up from one degree of badassery to the other, I'm talking about the rest of supports. Specfically, it's those that are the closest to the main Rider and are often love-interests like Tama Junko in V3 and Harumi in Super-1.
A lot of the time the new growth is treated more like a powerup than an insight.
If you're talking about the times they came up with new finishers, it really is no different than what happens nowadays, only it doesn't include a new gadget.
Seriously, take another look at the present! Most character growth nowadays involves a new form! This is always how the ultimate forms are achieved.
I love Kuuga as much as I do very much in part because Godai is so delightfully introspective. We delve into the motivations of our hero beyond a shallow desire for justice. Which is NOT to say that a simple desire for justice is inadequate or that the Showa Riders aren't oozing charisma (I've already said as much before). Just that their motivations are not interesting.
Almost all of them did not start on a path to justice. They had very different purposes and the things they had to go through changed them into the very selfless justice-bringers they are remembered as. Kazami Shiro would have gladly snapped a hundred necks early on in his series, and later on he saw a little bit of his old self in Riderman. Had Minami Kotaro had a choice he would not have continued to be BLACK, but would have spent happy days of his life with the only 2 people he had left, maybe Nobuhiko if possible... as a matter of fact, he did just that, restarting a new normal life from scratch and running away from all that sorrow until BLACK RX.
Jin Keisuke was seeking answers as to why his life had become complete hell and why everyone around him was connected to and died because of G.O.D., that last arc you debated so much about it was the epitome of this answer-seeking.
I can go on.
And really, who gives a flying **** about why one man dislikes something? I find it so much more interesting to hear why somebody likes something. It's easier to see the positive that way. I know why *I* dislike it, after all.
It's so much better to see people explaining themselves, that way we can understand their true reasoning and this truly becomes into an argument that brings benefit to everyone IMO. Rather than an endless game of saying ''I like blue'', ''I like red'', ''The rainbow's where it's at'' and so on. This is a discussion forum, after all. It's nice to see people elaborate opinions, be it about their likes or dislikes.
What I was fishing for here was some insight into what others found appealing about the Showa serieses (not a word I know). I didn't plan to just bash them in 5000 words or more. Yet somehow it turned into a pseudo-debate....I really wasn't going for that, but I guess I can't escape inserting my own opinions into the conversation.
And others wanted your insight as to why you didn't. Same thing I wrote above. Debates are good! As long as they don't turn into flame wars, in which case they're really not debates anymore.
It was when we we're watching the original Ultraman show. They made references to thee proton beams when the characters were shooting the leaser beams. I hope if we do another Toku theme week for next year that we will show the more modern stuff. I love the classics, but I don't the Showa stuff is the right way to introduced people into Toku.
Depends on what they might be used to as has been said before. I have many friends who are up to date with the handling of current special effects in many shows, and their memories of Power Rangers sometimes don't date back a lot. Whenever I show people around here japanese live-action superheroes they tend to be more interested in the old stuff, their reasoning as they told me:
''The lack of cgi makes it look less cheap, even though they're using miniature figures.''
''The explosions are real.'' (see the above reason)
''This stuff existed in the 60's/70's/80's! That's incredible!''
We almost watch the 1954 Godzilla movie, but everyone voted for the Rurouni Kenshin live action movie instead.
The actor that plays the lead in that movie makes this ironic. Kamen Rider Den-O would like them to know they're welcome.
