The original series spawned television and film sequels and launched the Second Kaiju Boom (also known as the Henshin Boom) on Japanese television during the early 1970s, impacting the superhero and action-adventure genres in Japan. The franchise began in 1971 with the Kamen Rider television series, which followed college student Takeshi Hongo and his quest to defeat the world-conquering Shocker organization. Kamen Rider media generally features a motorcycle-riding superhero with an insect motif who fights supervillains, often known as kaijin ( 怪人, mystery people). Kamen Rider ( Japanese: 仮面ライダーシリーズ, Hepburn: Kamen Raidā, translated as "Masked Rider"), also known as Masked Rider, is a Japanese media franchise consisting of tokusatsu television programs, films, and manga, created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company (for Oronamin C) MBS/ TBS (1975-1989, from Stronger up to Black RX) You can watch Kamen Rider Kuuga on Shout! Factory TV, tokuSHOUTsu, and Tubi.A statue of Kamen Rider 1 outside of Bandai Corporate Headquarters in Taitō, Tokyo ![]() And hey, “no fear, no pain” is a pretty great motto to live by. Even if it doesn’t quite seem up your alley, Kamen Rider Kuuga feels very akin to modern superhero or sci-fi serials and at 49 episodes, it’s a nice healthy journey that neatly wraps up at the end. Good action, a cool mythos, handsome-as-heck performers, and a story that keeps you watching episode for episode. It’s called the Odagiri Effect it’s real, you can look it up. This led to a change in how producers market and cast TV series. The mothers of the kids watching Kuuga would tune in, just because the lead actor was handsome. The reason, they discovered, was because of how attractive star Joe Odagiri was. Inexplicably, as Kuuga continued, the number of thirtysomething women tuning in continued to climb. As the series went on, the producers noticed two main audiences: one was children and young people, which wasn’t a surprise the second was women in their 30s. One truly innovative aspect of Kamen Rider Kuuga had nothing at all to do with the fighting or the suits. Sometimes the episode will end in the middle of a big fight. While certainly new monsters appear all the time, and Kuuga even develops new forms and powers along the way, the overall story continues every week. Rather than a pure monster-of-the-week type of storytelling with the barest threads of story arcs continuing on, Kuuga ushered in the era of serialized stories for Kamen Rider. And, yes, the CGI doesn’t look all that great today it was 20 years ago, we’ve come a long way. As a result, it has a much glossier and brighter look. This was the first of the series to film in widescreen on DV rather than 16mm film. What sets Kuuga apart from the Kamen Rider series that came before are both in presentation and narrative style. While the Grongi try to spread fear and hatred, Kuuga brings hope to those around him. And he takes that with him into his Kuuga battles. A wandering adventurer prior to the events of the series, his entire goal is to bring smiles to people. He combats any situation with his trademark thumbs-up and grin. Yūsuke is one of the most hopeful and positive characters ever in an action series. Tsubaki (Yoshitaka Otsuka), Ichijo’s friend from childhood and a host of other allies across the show’s 49 episodes. Yūsuke isn’t alone, thankfully helping him are a number of other forthright young people, including police inspector Ichijo (Shingo Katsurayama) graduate student and “Lintonese” expert Sawatari (Kazumi Murata) Minori (Wakana Chizaki), Yūsuke’s school teacher younger sister Dr. He dons it and becomes the new Kuuga, defender of humans against the evil forces of Grongi. They decide to get revenge on the descendants of the Linto…aka, humanity!Įnter Godai Yūsuke (Joe Odagiri), a happy-go-lucky 25-year-old who feels an inexplicable draw toward the belt. ![]() In the present day, archaeologists uncover Kuuga’s mysterious stone belt which also awakens the Grongi, who are monstrous in their true forms. One warrior of the Linto harnessed the power of Kuuga to become the savior of his people. It’s a show very worth your time.Ĭreating a whole new lore and mythology, Kuuga tells of two ancient races the evil Grongi Tribe and the peaceful Linto Tribe. Kamen Rider Kuuga is available to stream in North America on Shout Factory TV, the Pluto TV tokuSHOUTsu channel, and on Tubi. ![]() The first of these new Heisei-era (Jan 1989-April 2019) shows had the subtitle Kuuga. Each season would be an individual new Rider story with new characters, theme, and suit. Kamen Rider, which debuted in 1971 and continued in various forms until 1989, returned to TV screens in the year 2000 in a similar fashion. There was something of a tokusatsu reawakening in the ’90s following the success of Power Rangers the parent series Super Sentai began in 1975 and continues unabated to this day.
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