Mr. Kamen Rider
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2005
- Messages
- 4,967
Depends on if it's a limited series or an ongoing.
The finite nature of Tokusatsu shows in general (and Rider shows in particular) is a big part of why I like them. We get a clear beginning, a middle, and an end, and then it's onto the next story. You can bring characters back, but there always has to be a new story pushing ahead somewhere too. Basically every Japanese Kamen Rider comic, regardless of quality, understands this. Despite a rebranding (which basically means zilch) Spirits is still going strong. But it will end eventually; it has to. It's the nature of the story Muraeda, and posthumously, Ishinomori, are telling.
The American/western convention of comics sometimes running for decades on end just doesn't really work with the format, IMHO. I don't want to see Rider 1 and 2 fight Shocker forever with 7 universe-destroying events and a retcon where Taki was a Rider the whole time and we just all forgot because we're dumb and eventually everything gets wiped out after Hongo makes a deal with Satan and gains his THE FIRST costume. I want to see them do it for 98 episodes, beat the big boss and then make way for V3. Rinse, wash, repeat.
For a series with a set lifespan, I could see any of them translating easily. The themes in Kamen Rider are pretty universal and I don't think you need to change a thing about any of them. The only ones I could really see running longer than what we got on TV though are Hibiki and, ironically enough, two that are running longer than what we got on TV: Den-O and W.
Hibiki has the fact that the show is very much just "a day in life of" spread out over a year (plus another at the end.) When the show begins the battle between Oni and Makamou has been raging for centuries, and by the time the show ends it's basically still going. That's actually my biggest problem with the series, though if you want a comic that'll run a long time, there you go. Hibiki basically is a legacy hero, the movie showed us that much.
Den-O, at this point, can pretty much be anything they want it to be. So I could see it working as being a lot of different things under different writers.
And as for W, the nature of the story allows it to keep going even without the old villains. Just come up with some new ones, put the gang on the case, and we're off.
The finite nature of Tokusatsu shows in general (and Rider shows in particular) is a big part of why I like them. We get a clear beginning, a middle, and an end, and then it's onto the next story. You can bring characters back, but there always has to be a new story pushing ahead somewhere too. Basically every Japanese Kamen Rider comic, regardless of quality, understands this. Despite a rebranding (which basically means zilch) Spirits is still going strong. But it will end eventually; it has to. It's the nature of the story Muraeda, and posthumously, Ishinomori, are telling.
The American/western convention of comics sometimes running for decades on end just doesn't really work with the format, IMHO. I don't want to see Rider 1 and 2 fight Shocker forever with 7 universe-destroying events and a retcon where Taki was a Rider the whole time and we just all forgot because we're dumb and eventually everything gets wiped out after Hongo makes a deal with Satan and gains his THE FIRST costume. I want to see them do it for 98 episodes, beat the big boss and then make way for V3. Rinse, wash, repeat.
For a series with a set lifespan, I could see any of them translating easily. The themes in Kamen Rider are pretty universal and I don't think you need to change a thing about any of them. The only ones I could really see running longer than what we got on TV though are Hibiki and, ironically enough, two that are running longer than what we got on TV: Den-O and W.
Hibiki has the fact that the show is very much just "a day in life of" spread out over a year (plus another at the end.) When the show begins the battle between Oni and Makamou has been raging for centuries, and by the time the show ends it's basically still going. That's actually my biggest problem with the series, though if you want a comic that'll run a long time, there you go. Hibiki basically is a legacy hero, the movie showed us that much.
Den-O, at this point, can pretty much be anything they want it to be. So I could see it working as being a lot of different things under different writers.
And as for W, the nature of the story allows it to keep going even without the old villains. Just come up with some new ones, put the gang on the case, and we're off.