Man, I love tokusatsu's like Kamen Rider, Ultraman, etc. I did watch a few when I was a kid but Transformers toys and cartoons were my main interest then.
About 2 years ago, I stumbled on a shop selling the original Japanese tokusatsu's and bought myself a Kamen Rider 555 DVD which simply blew me away!
I believe that most of us have got a bad impression of tokusatsu's thanks to the americanized versions of the Power Rangers. Dubbing a show and snipping bits and pieces AND adding your own actors to the dang thing is just a recipe for disaster... that's my opinion. Power Rangers contaminated the many years of Japanese tokusatsu history and just destroyed the whole thing altogether with its weak plots and storylines. Thankfully, its slowly getting purged out of many fans' memories with time.
My recommendation is to start watching the original Japanese tokusatsu's that have NOT been dubbed into English or americanized, but get the fan-sub original ones which usually capture the essence of the whole show itself.
Oh, a great magazine to read or just check out the pictures (I can't read Japanese either) is the Hyper Hobby magazine. Its filled with pictures of the latest toy news and even prototypes from Kamen Riders to Transformers and more.
About 2 years ago, I stumbled on a shop selling the original Japanese tokusatsu's and bought myself a Kamen Rider 555 DVD which simply blew me away!
I believe that most of us have got a bad impression of tokusatsu's thanks to the americanized versions of the Power Rangers. Dubbing a show and snipping bits and pieces AND adding your own actors to the dang thing is just a recipe for disaster... that's my opinion. Power Rangers contaminated the many years of Japanese tokusatsu history and just destroyed the whole thing altogether with its weak plots and storylines. Thankfully, its slowly getting purged out of many fans' memories with time.
My recommendation is to start watching the original Japanese tokusatsu's that have NOT been dubbed into English or americanized, but get the fan-sub original ones which usually capture the essence of the whole show itself.
Oh, a great magazine to read or just check out the pictures (I can't read Japanese either) is the Hyper Hobby magazine. Its filled with pictures of the latest toy news and even prototypes from Kamen Riders to Transformers and more.
