My Ever-Shifting Personal Opinions With Newer Super Sentai VS. Newer Kamen Rider

It's no secret that I think that Super Sentai and Kamen Rider aren't created equally. Back then, I didn't really think too much of Kamen Rider because I usually preferred group superhero shows. It's like I prefer X-Men over Spiderman. In the 90s, I did like both Saban's Marvel adaptation of X-Men and Spiderman but the former for me was more appealing. I like the Spiderman animated series but never as much as the X-Men. It seems to be like that with my past liking of Kamen Rider. Things do happen a lot and I'd dare admit that my preferences change. It's like how I used to like Power Rangers in the early 2000s but started disliking it (at a personal level) the more I watched the Super Sentai counterparts. One's a serving of sushi (Super Sentai) and the other is a serving of gyoza (Kamen Rider) or one can consider them as two different types of ramen.

A lot changed for me since Gokaiger ended. While I do like Gokaiger but I don't like the bandwagon associated with it. Super Sentai still felt it wanted to go on and another era started. We had Go-Busters, Kyoryuger, ToQGer, Ninninger, Zyuohger, Kyuranger, Lupiranger vs. Patranger, and recently Ryusoulger. I'm somewhat still irritated at having a fourth dinosaur Super Sentai. I think Toei's love affair for dinosaurs may not be a good thing - that is unless it'll create the first dinosaur-themed Kamen Rider! I would also say that I'd still prefer Abaranger over Kyuranger, Hurricanger over Ninninger, and I'd say now that it would be Gokaiger over Zyuohger for better anniversary season for the reason of story-telling. I'd even dare say that 2015-2018 had two beautifully pointless Super Sentai seasons followed by two beautifully innovative ones.

I was already suffering that generation gap feeling since the 2000s. I didn't even want to really check out newer Super Sentai back when I was in college due to other stuff. I felt I was too old to enjoy it then I found some rather stupid reasons to get invested in it again. It was all because I started seeing how hot the newer Super Sentai girls were such as Nanami, Ranru, Jasmine and Sakura when I was in college. Boukenger's Sakura kinda looked like Taiwanese actress Esther Liu. Jasmine was really that gorgeous that I ended up dropping Power Rangers SPD for dull reasons. But I still felt, "Am I too old to enjoy Super Sentai? What will my peers think of me that I still watch it?" Though in their heads - it's still "Power Rangers" and they acknowledge that the source is from Japan.

I also originally didn't want to check newer Kamen Rider during the 2000s. I found that stupid because the only Showa-era Riders I've watched before were Kamen Rider Black and its flop sequel Kamen Rider Black RX. Black RX only got vindicated by history because Saban's Mashed Rider is so bad - it still ends up as an Old Shame even for Saban Entertainment! I just keep hearing, "The Heisei Riders is not the same thing Ishinomori wanted!" from a site called Classic Henshin. While I do agree that newer doesn't always mean better BUT what's new can be better. How can I say what's new will work or not unless I check it out? I checked out Kamen Rider Den-O and some of Kamen Rider Decade. Den-O was okay but Decade was yeesh that bad. The only good thing about Decade IMHO is that it dirty-fingered the Mighty Morphin' crossover with Mashed Rider at several levels of badass. I also thought Kamen Rider Ryuki was a mess back when it was aired on ABS-CBN. I also tried watching Kamen Rider Blade but there were some good Taiwanese series on air that I just lost interest in Kamen Rider. Stupid huh?

I never thought the day would come I'd actually get an overdose of Super Sentai. I wished the franchise would end by 2012 after Gokaiger. However, Go-Busters felt interesting though I was so carried away by fandom opinion. I admit that I tend to rely too much on the opinion of others such as Sentai Bandicoot and Shogo B'Stard. I need to have mine, too! Go-Busters was good but I started checking a lot of Heisei era Riders. I'd like to ask the question of how many Heisei era Riders have you watched before it ended? I finally watched all of the entries from Kuuga up to Kamen Rider Zi-O at my own pace. I really felt Kyoryuger's hyperactive characters didn't appeal to me. I did watch Kamen Rider Wizard only because I found Medusa cute but it was a dull season. Kamen Rider Fourze didn't have so many hot ladies but I enjoyed it for what it is. Kamen Rider Gaim managed to correct a lot of mistakes done with the mess that's Kamen Rider Ryuki. Speaking of dull, I also found Kamen Rider Hibiki rather boring. Hopefully, Toei will fix Hibiki into better levels and I'm confident that they can still do it.

My own self can get more critical about the changes made with new school Super Sentai than with the new school Kamen Rider. I think it's weird but it's true. I think one thing that I didn't like about Super Sentai since the 2000s is having less serious stories - as if Carranger wasn't a comedic mess that didn't do much to raise ratings! While I'd still watch Carranger over the mess that's Power Rangers Turbo but I don't want to deny that it's still a mess of a comedy for me now. There are times I want to focus more on old school because there's a lot from that era that I wanted to see more. Then it happens that I end up wanting to see more new school seasons. It's like what happened in the 2000s - I saw too much old school that new school seasons became more welcome eventually. As for Kamen Rider, you can consider that the show itself can have a more mature tone even for those that are lighthearted like Fourze. Fourze somehow addresses the issues of adolescence way better than Super Sentai can IMHO. Sure, Turboranger and Megaranger teach lessons about adolescence but I feel Fourze's approach is a little more mature than both shows. It's almost like why I still feel like the Rescue Police tetralogy from Winspector up to Janperson are rare finds. GoGoFive may be a good series on its own but I think Winspector up to Exceedraft have a more grown-up feel to them.

So how did things go for me from 2017 up to 2019? I'm a fan of Kyuranger and Lupinranger vs. Patranger. However, I found myself sucked into the medical drama of Kamen Rider EX-AID and the build of Kamen Rider Build. I still felt like "Build was gone for only a week and it's gotten that bad." with Kamen Rider Zi-O at first - that was until I find it has its charm. I still think Kento Shimoyama still did a better job with Zi-O than he ever did with Ninninger. Right now, I feel like Kamen Rider 01 is giving me more reasons to watch it than Ryusoulger for the plot. I also feel some rather weird shifts towards Ryusoulger. Maybe, it's because the show isn't as appealing as it should be or I'm into other new school stuff. Sometimes, I do feel some people unfairly malign the Heisei era Kamen Riders. For me, I prefer mostly new school Kamen Rider and I don't care too much about the Showa Riders so there! But I'd probably still watch some old school Kamen Rider IF nothing new or old ever distracts me from it! I wanted to check out more of it BUT Netflix has got a lot of new and old stuff to offer!

As said, just don't let my opinions or other people's opinions affect yours. That's been a lesson I had to learn the hard way for the past few years. I can still enjoy newer stuff but not everything new will be automatically better. I just need to keep an open mind, be ready to be disappointed along the way, and be ready to learn when disappointments hit. Then again, one day the day may come I will eventually drop Tokusatsu as a whole in favor of other things new.