SHTZ

SHTZ was a massive improvement over SHT. Kyoryuger was badly incorporated, but at least Wizard fared better (even if the hero left halfway through the movie, leaving his secondary to take up the slack). Basically, it was Geki and Gai: The Movie, with Yoko's Major Character Plot. I will say this about the movie franchise: They do more justice to the toku ladies than some of their shows did. I was highly impressed with Hina in the first, and Yoko was awesome in this.

Next one appears to be a Kikaider crossover? That'll be interesting. But eventually, they'll run out of Ishinomori and then Toei heroes and will have to cross with Ultraman or even Power Rangers.

A review will come at a much later time because, well, it's a Go-Busters movie. I still need to finish my prep work for Decade.

Go-Busters YAY

THEY'RE BACK

First thoughts: Blade 1-2

So far...I have to admit, I really don't like Kenzaki. Or Kotaro. They're just... Okay, I harp a lot on "sympathetic backstory vs. sympathetic character," and Kenzaki is so far living up to that. Yes, I feel bad that he lost his parents. Yes, I feel bad that one of his friends apparently betrayed him. But you know what? When you stand around after hearing "The observatory is being attacked by an Undead!" I start to lose respect for you. The woman--I can't remember her name yet--yells at him for just watching people suffer, and I'm going, "Yeah. Totally with you, lady. In fact, you take the damn belt from him and henshin since you've got more heroic spirit than he does." The motivation they use is "I watched my parents die, so I'm not going to let it happen again," and it really doesn't feel as strong. Much as I really hate drawing comparisons, here are some other motivations:

Yusuke Godai: Really didn't have a whole lot of will, just fought because he felt it was his duty. Saw Mika Natsume run away from her father's funeral in tears, and it impressed on him that he wanted to prevent anyone from crying like that again, so he would protect people from the Grongi.

Shinji Kido: Scared of the whole thing, especially when he knows there is a Monster out to eat him and the only things protecting him are a piece of paper and some asshole using him as bait to lure out the Monster so he can destroy it. He finally got over his fears when he was thrown a list of names of victims and realized that he recognized one of the names. He saw a little girl crying--just as Yusuke did--and decided he couldn't stand for it. He talked to Yui, she admitted that yes, her brother had disappeared around the same time the Monsters first started appearing, and he was able to accept that people were hurting because of the Monsters, so he should become a Rider to protect them.

Souji Tendou--yes, fucking Kabuto himself: Destined for it, but he didn't know that. All he knew was that his parents were killed and replaced by Worms Natives and from a young age, he wanted revenge. He had his chance when his parents' killers were trapped in the rubble of Shibuya after the meteorite. But he also overheard their daughter--who would have been his sister in another life--crying out to him not to kill them, and he couldn't do it. He took the Kusakabes' belt and Zecter and dedicated himself to protecting Hiyori.

Sure, the first two are pretty much clones of one another and the last one is pretty damn selfish, but they're much better motivations than Kenzaki has. Hajime, on the other hand--and it's a sign that in the first two episodes, I'm already referring to the Lead by his surname and the Secondary by his given name--has quite a bit of conflict and confusion and seems much more interesting. You know he's not human, and he's genuinely confused as to why he's doing such human things like saving a little girl, the daughter of his landlady. He questions himself on what family is, after he hears her defend him in front of her uncle (Kotaro, who so far is too much of an ass to be likeable, and I generally don't mind the tagalong characters). He thinks everyone is his enemy and attacks Blade because of that, but he lets him go.

So, naturally, which one looks like the more interesting character? The one with a weak motivation they're trying to make look stronger, or the one who has no clue what his motivation is and is questioning himself all the time and has that as the driving point of his character?