Tokusatsu and Other Stuff

Tokusatsu and stuff

I’ve decided to expand what I review to include Tokusatsu. Tokusatsu is Japanese live action special effects stuff. Different series like Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Ultraman, and movies like anything from the Godzilla franchise and any other type of big monster film are considered tokusatsu.  Tokusatsu is usually characterized by men in rubber suits that look like monsters, and big explosions. Almost all of the special effects are done live, as in there is no computer generated effects… at least that was the case years ago. As technology advances and all that tokusatsu series have been able to make more realistic, or in the very least better done, special effects then their classic counterparts. But most of what they had in older series is still true today, men in costumes, stuntmen fighting each other, and explosions whenever anyone poses.

I got into tokusatsu recently, actually. A good friend of mine introduced me to Kamen Rider just last year, and since then I have been eating this stuff up. I’ve watched mostly Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, but I plan on broadening my horizons to other series. In truth, many of us have been watching tokusatsu for years without even realizing it. Other then classic monster movies form the past, there has been one series that has been running close to 20 years now. Power Rangers, the American series that uses footage from Super Sentai, is a classic series that is quintessential American tokusatsu.

That is a lot of rangers. We're boned.

I plan on doing some Kamen Rider reviews in the future, and look forward to my Kamen Rider Ryuki review, coming soon.