I feel like I’m revisting my childhood moments when I glued to the TV from 4pm till late 6pm watching cartoons/anime and tokusatsu aired in the local TV channels (RTM2 and TV3 ruled those days). Notice the emphasis on the past tense.

I love tokusatsu TV shows, let it be Sentai or Kamen or Ultraman.They offer simple plot yet deep, no catch, no dramas and a satisfying weekly action.Readapting the original Kamen Rider saga would be like re-living the good old days back in the 80s and 90s, this time with more special effects and *ahem* better, cuter chicks in show.

I watched the prequel (Kamen Rider The First, official website) and it was pretty good. The Shocker cyborg ‘monsters’ are more down to earth and glad they took away the annoying screams from the died-from-one-punch soldiers. The story became more dramatic than the simple ‘bad-guys-invade-and-heroes-save-the day’ plot and the costumes are looking way nicer and armoured compared to the days when they used foams and lycra/spandex. With the upcoming sequel Kamen Rider The Next (the title is so obvious nowadays, no more Kamen II or Kamen III) airing during this Fall, they are going to introduce another classic Kamen, the V3.

As usually, fansubbing won’t happen till they release the DVDs, unless you wanna watch cam-rips. I’m predicting that it will be released in the torrents by early April or so next year (read: 2008).

(Obvious title: Kamen Rider The First sequel, The Next!)