All posts tagged: Kamen Rider

We Are All Team Rider! – Interview With TokuChris – Waxing Inquisitive

Published by Luke Halliday

Hot off the heels of the successful Team Rider meet up in New York City and ahead of the upcoming C2E2 event in Chicago, I had the opportunity to correspond with Chris Boothroy of TokuNation (known in the toku community as “TokuChris”) regarding all things tokusatsu and Kamen Rider. Here’s what he had to say: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. To start off could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your involvement in the tokusatsu community? Thanks for reaching out to speak with me! My name is Chris – known more as TokuChris on social media. I’m a husband and a father first and foremost. I’ve been a fan of tokusatsu for roughly 30 years and have really gotten in to the greater community of it in the last 10 years. I started TokuNation back in 2012 because aside from a blog or a Facebook group here or there it was hard to find streamlined news and information for toys, collectibles, and the shows. I’ve also started PwrRngr.com …

Interview with Hideo Ishikawa (石川 英郎) the voice of Itachi from Naruto

Published by Luke Halliday

Recently at SMASH! Con 2016 at the Rose Hill Gardens, we were lucky enough to get a chance to sit down with legendary Japanese voice actor Hideo Ishikawa for an interview. Ishikawa is famous for his role as Sasuke’s brother Itachi on the Naruto anime series and has performed countless other iconic roles in series like Bleach and Slam Dunk. He even has some live action credits to his name having worked on tokusatsu series like Kamen Rider. In our interview we talked all things Naruto, Bleach and even explored his secret basketball obsession. Read on for our full interview with Hideo Ishikawa. At the time of the character Itachi’s introduction, the Naruto series was already a hit in Japan. It has of course since gone on to become popular around the world. Did you ever expect the series to become a global hit like it has when you first signed on to do the role of Itachi? I must say that it may be because Naruto is quite the same as Japanese culture. We …

The Original Kamen Rider Returns for ‘Superhero Year’, Takeshi Hongo Rides Again In New Movie!

Published by Luke Halliday

It has been 45 years since Takeshi Hongo first became a cyborg after an experiement gone wrong, he then set out in order to combat the evil organization known as Shocker that made him the Kamen Rider. The iconic motorcycle riding cyborg hero in a grasshopper suit ‘rider kicked’ his way into fans hearts and remains ingrained in the Japanese Pop Culture all these years later. This year marks the 45th anniversary of Kamen Rider and the 40th anniversary of Super Sentai, in order to celebrate Toei is releasing a new Kamen Rider film which will see the return of Takeshi Hongo as Kamen Rider 1 for the first time in roughly 40 years! The film is titled Kamen Rider 1 – Go and will be the first of many anniversary celebrations throughout the year. There will be more news posted on those when they come to light. You can check out the trailer for the upcoming 45th anniversary special below. I for one am absolutely stoked to see Kamen Rider 1 ride again and …

Exploring The History of Kamen Rider – Showa Era (1971-1989)

Published by Luke Halliday

Kamen Rider is one of the most popular tokusatsu series in history. It goes without saying that Kamer Rider 1 is undoubtedly one of the most iconic characters in Japanese pop culture in general, with his distinctive grasshopper-like costume. However the series has never really made a dent in the Western world, with Saban attempting to cash in on the success of Power Rangers in the 90’s with the cheap imitation of the real deal, a series they called Masked Rider failing to capture an audience and quickly getting cancelled. That said the recent adaptation Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight did fair far better in the West, even winning an Emmy award for its stunt work, but it still failed to capture audience’s imaginations in the way that the series did in Japan. Looking in from the outside, Kamen Rider can be a difficult series to get into for a number of reasons. First and foremost there is no real legal channels in which the series is available however there are those dedicated fan groups who …

Kamen Rider Drive D-Solid Heroes Figure Unboxing and Review [Rare Figure]

Published by Luke Halliday

During my stay in Japan I became pretty fascinated with this wild TV series called Kamen Rider Drive. It is basically about this guy ‘Kamen Rider’ who drives a motor bike and a car and a flying motor bike car and just generally kicks all kind of ass. While I didn’t exactly understand the show I developed a love for it. Now back home in Australia I’ve got my hands on a rare Kamen Rider Drive model (D-Solid Heroes Series Type Speed) that was released exclusively in arcades across Japan in Crane Games. How did I get my hands on this rare model you ask? 20 bucks and a stop in at my local Hobbyco, of course! I decided to film my unboxing of this rare Kamen Rider Drive model and give it a good ole’ SnapThirty review for your viewing pleasure. Check out the video below and if you can please explain how to put on the plastic bit that would be greatly appreciated, thanks! -30-

Bandai Namco Releases The Very First “Super Hero Generation” Trailer

Published by Frank Inglese

It’s been a little over a month since we first heard about Bandai Namco’s upcoming crossover PlayStation Vita/PlayStation 3 title ‘Super Hero Generation’ and up until now the Japanese publisher/developer has provided the pop culture world with a great deal of screenshots but no actual video footage, that is…until today! The very first trailer for “Super Hero Generation” – a JRPG that brings together the ‘Gundam’, ‘Kamen Rider’ and ‘Ultraman’ franchises – has just been released and I think it has been well worth the wait seeing as the video not only goes for a whopping four and a half minutes but also shows us so much of the game in motion! From battle systems to character super movies, this trailer has it all! It’s definitely one that will build hype and put fans of the featured series’ in a state of immense anticipation. ‘Super Hero Generation’ hits Japan on the 23rd of October with no word on a Western release as of yet. Hopes are that the game does make it’s way to local …

“Super Hero Generation” Gets A Bunch More Screenshots and A Confirmed Character List

Published by Frank Inglese

Bandai Namco, you’re magnificent! A few weeks ago Bandai Namco announced a brand-new crossover title called ‘Super Hero Generation’ that came alongside a couple of screenshots just to whet our appetite (Click Here). This game brings together the universes of ‘Kamen Rider’, ‘Gundam’ and ‘Ultraman’ into one action-packed tactical RPG the likes of which we haven’t seen since ‘Project X Zone’ which, in my personal opinion, was an extremely under-appreciated game but I’m not here to talk about ‘Project X Zone’, I’m here to deliver you a whole bunch of new screenshots for the upcoming superhero-centric title and that’s exactly what I’ll do! Below you’ll be able to see a gallery of all the newly-released screenshots courtesy of Bandai Namco Games but before you head down there I urge you to keep reading as the game’s publisher has also revealed a list of confirmed characters so far and they are as follows: Gundam: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Mobile Suit Gundam AGE: Memory of Eden Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Mobile Suit Gundam …