Masked Rider Den-O The Movie: Ore, Tanjo! Review

Ahhh, Masked Rider Den-O, the show that got me hooked to the series. More popularly(though not officially) known as Kamen Rider Den-O, it was the 2007 entry in the Kamen Rider Series(formerly the Masked Rider Series prior to the 2010 entry, W), but if you're a fan today, you know about Den-O. Why? Because its popularity lasted longer than just the run of its TV series, spawning 2 post-series movies to use the original title, as well as the currently-running Cho Den-O Series Movies. While many long-time fans complained about it being vastly different from other Kamen Rider shows, I was not among them. I loved the show from start to finish, and every new movie pleases me even more than the last, so today, I'll be reviewing Den-O's original movie, "Ore, Tanjo!"(I'm Born)

Set between Episodes 27 and 28,(A rarity for Kamen Rider Movies, that usually take place in an Alternate Universe, or AU) it starts with something seemingly typical of a movie: a Jewelery Store robbery. However, the thiefe in no ordinary robber; he's possessed by an Imagin, one of the monsters of Den-O, a genie-like being from the future who can make a contract with a person to grant one wish, and in return, the Imagin has access to any point in that person's past, but they specifically go to a treasured moment of the contract holder. He steals a necklace, but as he's about to grab it, it's snatched away by a young man with vibrant blue eyes, glasses, and smooth, stylish hair with a streak of blue in it.

This is our hero, Ryotaro Nogami(Played by Takeru Sato), who, besides being possibly the unluckiest person in Japan, is also a Singularity Point(a person who can resist Imagin control and is unaffected by changes to the flow of time), and has 4 Imagin partners, as opposed to the one that most people get.

He appears here possessed by Urataros, a suave, lying, and perverted blue turtle Imagin, and U-Ryotaro proceeds to run away with the necklace. When the robber catches, Ryotaro is possessed by the gold bear Imagin Kintaros, taking away the glasses and giving him a ponytail with a gold streak and golden eyes. K-Ryotaro uses his Imagin-inherited strength to push him back, and then he switches out with Ryutaros, a child-like purple dragon Imagin, giving him a cap and purple-streaked tangly hair and matching purple eyes(the pattern is obvious by now of how possession works for him). R-Ryotaro then begins to breakdance, and some rockette-style tap dancers, hypnotized thanks to one of Ryutaros' special powers, follow suit(Trivia: Takeru Sato does all his own breakdancing). This is all a distraction, as R-Ryotaro gets away. The robber follows him and finds an unpossessed Ryotaro. The Imagin takes control of the robber and asks who the multi-faceted person he's chasing is, and Ryotaro then gets possessed by Momotaros, the first Imagin to join him in the shows chronology(Urataros being 2nd, Kintaros 3rd, and Ryutaros 4th), giving spiky red-straked hair, and of course matching eyes. Then after a snarky remark, the robber faints as the Molech Imagin jumps out of his body. M-Ryotaro then takes and straps on the Den-O Belt and transforms into Masked Rider Den-O Sword Form with the call of "Henshin!" and a swipe of his Rider Pass(a special train case pass). He then does his signature pose along with his catchphrase for which the movie's subtitle is a play off of, "Ore, Sanjo!"(I have Arrived!).

Because of the posing, Den-O dropped the necklace, allowing the Imagin to complete his contract and flee into the past. After a berating from his comrade Hana(Played by Yuriko Shiratori), Den-O uses a Rider Ticket to follow the Imagin into the past on the DenLiner, a time-traveling battle train. Den-O Sword Form makes quick work of him using the DenGasher Sword Mode's "Full Charge" finisher attack Extreme Slash. After that, the two head back, and Ryotaro reminisces about he used to live nearby. This moment is interupted when the DenLiner zooms by, having been hijacked by a bandit named Gaoh(Played by Hiroyuki Watanabe) and his gang of Imagin lackies, thanks to the Molech, who was among the gang, luring Den-O to that point in time.

With nowhere to go for the time being, Ryotaro and Hana go the the Milk Dipper, a cafe where his sister worked at in the present time. There they meet Ryotaro's 12-year-old self(Played by Takuya Mizoguchi), as well as the stuck-up white swan Imagin Sieg, who had previously appeared a few episodes before the movie's placement, and possesses Ryotaro and acts like a prince as usual, being snobby and bossy. To break up the crazness, Yuto Sakurai(Played by Yuichi Nakamura), Ryotaro's ally/rival Masked Rider Zeronos, and his Imagin partner Deneb, comes and takes them with him on his own time train, the ZeroLiner, to follow Gaoh, who in the meantime has stolen the Owner(Played by Kenjiro Ishimaru) of the DenLiner's golden Master Pass that can control any time train, as well trapping the other 3 Taros and holding Owner and the DenLiner's coffee-server Naomi(Played by Rina Akiyama, who had previously played Mana Kazaya in Masked Rider Agito), and uses his own Infinity Ticket, to enter God's Line that can take him to any point in time, and he plans to use it to obtain God's Train and use it to erase time.

After they catch up and Zeronos has a brief battle with ther bandit who transforms into Masked Rider Gaoh, the gang are balsted into the world between time, and it then becomes a frantic time traveling world tour as Den-O and Zeronos try to stop Gaoh from completing his villainous plan.

This movie, like the series, is funny, exciting, touching, and overall awesome. Besides the Movie-exclusive Gaoh, it also features an appearance by the Sieg-possesed Den-O Wing Form, which only had a momentary appearance in the show, and the younger Ryotaro, nicknamed Kotaro, gets to transform into Den-O Mini Sword Form, complete with a higher-pitched version of Sword Form's BGM, and has a few more firsts for the series, such as the debut of the Taros Imagins' personal weapon, and an exciting final battle featuring multiple Ryotaro's transformed into 4 Den-Os, each taking one of his four main forms, Sword, Rod, Ax, and Gun, as well as a train battle between the combined DenLiner and ZeroLiner against the God's Train, the GaohLiner.

Ryotaro really does well to show how even though he forgot everything about being a hero, that it won't stop him from doing the right thing. He shows exceptional bravery when it's truly needed, and does what it takes to set things straight. Hana here is very supportive, and really helps Ryotaro cope with his troubling situation like always. Yuto shows a lot of guts and actually has a big part in setting up the climax for the film, with Deneb there to always support him in his fatherly way. The Taros shine a lot in how they can be exciting, humorous, and just never boring. Owner and Naomi aren't too influential at any point, but there presence does keep things interesting as well. As for Kotaro, he does a great job of showing how Ryotaro was as a kid, what ways he has and hasn't changed, and the person they picked to play that role really did seem like a young Ryotaro.

Getting to the main featured characters, Sieg and Gaoh. Sieg is an interesting character on his own. Princely and arrogant, he works in mysertious ways yet has truly noble intentions. He seems to always be on a high horse, yet has surprising charisma and poise that keeps you enthralled with him. Den-O Wing Form is quite similar to Sword Form, yet the blue wing-like eyes, golden bodysuit, and the way the armor blends together white and silver seamlessly along with some variation to the shoulderpads, makes it very interesting, as well as the way he can switch from calm parry attacks to swift strikes makes him enjoyable to see in combat.

Gaoh has to be my favorite Den-O villain ever. He's gruff, strong, and gives off this aura of power. He's just about always intimedating, makes big boasts, and can really back them up. Another thing tolike is that he's just evil, no backstory, no reason to be sympathetic for him; He's just pure, unbridled evil. His Rider form also impresses. The golden bronze armor with tons of teeth and spikes really give him a jagged and menacing look, making it unmistakable that he's the villain. He shows his power in combat, where he's cocky and truly gives Den-O and Zeronos a really tough time. The GaohLiner Is well designed and absolutely bestial, like a wild animal as opposed to a train, and really seems like a truly destructive force that hould never have been unleashed

The acting is superb, featuring several guest stars, inlcluding Aki Hoshino as the princess Senhime, Tomonori Jinnai as the samurai Sanada Yukimura, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi as famous ninja Kirigakure Saizo, and Shingo Kawaguchi(who had previously played Masked Rider Todoroki in Masked Rider Hibiki) as Saizo's arch-rival Sarutobi Sasuke. It also feateures some guest voices from Tokusatsu alumni: Hidenori Tokuyama(Masked Rider KickHopper from Masked Rider Kabuto) as the Molech Imagin, Takashi Hagino(Masked Rider Ohja from Masked Rider Ryuki, a series that was recently adapted into the american Kamen Rider Dragon Knight) as the Cobra Imagin, Yasuka Saitoh(Bouken Black from GoGo Sentai Boukenger) as the Newt Imagin, and Masato Uchiyama(Masked Rider PunchHopper from Masked Rider Kabuto) as the Salamander Imagin. The guest stars all perform really well, and the main cast is at their finest, bringing out the emotions of their characters and keeping things enjoyable.

The action and special effects are dazzling and exciting, with top-notch CGI for not only the time trains, but also other things like dinosaurs that appear in one scene. The fights scenes are smooth and never boring, with charcacters chatting while they're going at it. Although it is unfortunate that we don't ever get a battle between Den-O Wing Form and Gaoh, as was advertised on the theatrical movie poster, what we do get of these those two is unique and really stands out.

The Final Cut of the movie adds a few new scenes, Gives Gaoh a more thorough transformation, and adds Double-Action Gaoh Form to Gaoh's first fight scene along with Double-Action Wing Form for Den-O Wing Form's fight scene, giving it a better experience. I suggest watching the Final Cut, which has been suntitled by the people at fansub group TV-Nihon, for the best way to view it. If you love Den-O, you'll love the movie, and it's also a good watch for action movie fans too. As Momotaros would say, "From Beginning to End, it's at a Climax!"

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Akira Review

Alright, beginning with this, I'm going to try to start avoiding spoiling the whole movie in my reviews while still getting down to the meat and bones of it all.

This time, I'll be reviewing the 1988 cult classic "Akira", which was written and directed by Kaysuhiro Otomo, the Manga-Ka behind the films source material. Set in Neo-Tokyo, 2019, 30 years after a nuclear explosion decimated the original Tokyo, and follows the paths of two members of a bosozoku biker gang called the Capsule Gang, Shotaro Kaneda(Voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch) and Tetsuo Shima(Voiced by Joshua Seth). It starts one night, when the Bosozoku Gang is doing battle against their rivals, the Clown Gang, and on the same night, people are rioting in the streets against the Government, whilst a disguised man is leading a wrinkled blue boy to a woman named Kei(Voiced by Wendee Lee). The two conflicts collide in more ways than one, as Tetsuo strays from the others and the fleeing man is gunned down, leaving the boy to fend for himself, and leading to Tetsuo crashing into the boy, only to have his bike explode, the strange boy totally unharmed. As Kaneda and the others arrive, a military transport helicopter arrives, and a group of soldiers led by Colonel Shikishima(Voiced by Jamieson Price), who take the boy, named Takashi, as well as Tetsuo, despite the pleas of his friends. The Colonel takes him to one of his head doctors, Onishi, who examines and experiments on him, stating that his brainwaves are sililar to that of the unseen yet eponymous Akira. Later, as Kaneda and the gang are being interrogated, he eyes Kei, and convinces the officers tolet her free with them, only to begin to hit on her. Meanwhile, Tetsuo escapes the hospital to meet with his girlfriend Kaori(Voiced by Michelle Ruff), and he steals Kaneda's bike to go for a joyride. The two are confronted by the Clown Gang, who try to rape Kaori as payback for injuring one of their members. Kaneda shows up, only to find Tetsuo beating up the Clowns, saying that he doesn't want to be saved to Kaneda. He then starts having strange delusions and visions, and the military recaptures Tetsuo. Soon after, whilst Kaneda meets again and follows around Kei, he discovers that she's part of an Anti-Government Guerilla group, who plan to break into the military's main base. That night, Tetsuo wakes up, appearing to have developed telekinetic powers, as he is haunted by giant, monstrous toys, who are soon revealed to be Takashi, along with two other kids, Masaru and Kiyoko. While Kei's Guerillas, with Kaneda in tow, sneak nto the building in diguise, Tetsuo follows the three Espers to their playroom, where Kaneda and Kei also arrive to in time. After reading Kiyoko's mind, he finds that Akira is the cause of his delusions, as well as his location, do he breaks out and heads to find Akira, but as the Colonel reveals, if Akira is uncovered, it could mean disaster for Neo-Tokyo. So while Tetsuo is after Akira, it's up to Kaneda and Kei to stop him.

Akira, in its time, was extremely well recieved by Americans, and for good reason. The story delves into the realms of nuclear holocaust, human experimentation, and psychic powers, amongst other things, but it never feels forced. The art and animation are smooth and colorful, as well as greatly-done. Its bike chases and other action scenes really grab you and pull you in, and though the climax features one of the most horrific things you'll ever see in an anime, it still turns out great. The characters are fun, intrigueing, and exciting, and the relationship between Kaneda and Tetsuo truly illustrates the tension and conflict between the two, yet in the end, they're still the best of friends. The voice acting is very well done, with many well-known voices that outshine the original english dubbing, which was infamously bad if you ask just about anybody. The soundtrack is extremely unique, with strange, almost tribal composures with a lot of ominous chanting, which somehow just fits the futuristic cyberpunk setting. It should be mentioned that this movie definitely earns its R rating, with vast amounts of language, violence, gore, and disturbing imagery, and isn't for the faint of heart. If you can handle all that, though, definitely check it out. All in all, Akira is a masterpiece like no other.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Sherlock Holmes Review

While this is not the first film adaptation of the classic character, this film doesn't quite seem to be what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have imagined his works to be like.

The films starts as Sherlock Holmes(Robert Downey Jr.) and his trusted partner, Dr. John Watson(Jude Law) are in the final steps of rescueing a girl who's about to be killed in some ritual sacrifice, and also arrest one Lord Henry Blackwood(Mark Strong), who is later executed for practice of black magic. During this time, we see that Holmes is a rather proficient fighter and can tell a lot about a person just by looking at them(though he has no sense of tact), and has some strange habits like shooting the wall of his study when he's bored. He is soon approached by an apparent old flame, Irene Adler(Rachel McAdams), who comes to him with only a letter, which he and Watson later find to be a case for a missing person, Luke Reordan, whom Holmes insensitively refers to as a "ginger midget". Not long after, Holmes is called up to be told that Lord Blackwood has risen from the grave, and also discovers the dead body of Reordan at the cemetery where Blackwood was buried. And so, Sherlock Holmes is on the case. The duo get into several fights along the way, as well as many sticky situations, Holmes always pulls through. In the meantime, Lord Blackwood two more deaths occur, though we see that both of these are casued by Blackwood. The first is his own father, Sir Thomas, who drowns in his own bathtub, and the other is an American ambassodor or something of the like who instantaneously combusts when he is shot by Blackwood. Soon after one incident in which Irene is captured, and Holmes and Watson free her from a meat processing factory that explodes soon after they escape, she meets with a mysterious man who hired her to manipulate Holmes' affections for her. Nearing the climax, Holmes puts the pieces together and concludes that Blackwood plans to kill the members of Parliament, so Watson, Irene, and he stage a daring operation to sneak into the parliament building, where we get more action scenes, leading up to the climactic battle between Holmes and Lord Blackwood, ending with Blackwood truly dead hanging by the neck from metal chains over the river Thames. So in the end, Holmes wraps up how Blackwood survived his initial hanging and we discover the identity of Irene's previously unknown benefactor, setting up for a sequel.

I actually have mixed feeling on this movie, and I'll get the bad points out of the way first.

The films plot was confusing and hard to follow, and I feel the beginning could have used a narrator, and keep in mind, I saw this movie just today, but I didn't get into too much detail because I couldn't remeber a lot of it. This leads to why I couldn't remember a lot besides the first reason: aside from some of the action scenes, the film was rather boring. Robert Downey Jr. may get down the British accent pretty darn well, but the amount of emotion he puts into the character pales in comparison to Jude Law's Watson. The plot of having Holmes go after something equivalent to a Satanist really didn't interest me, and my mind would wander off while watching. The villain was portrayed well enough, but I didn't get much of an impression of him, since we didn't learn much about his motives aside from wanting to peform some sort of ritual, though I probably missed that if it was there. Another problem, and this one really does matter, is the was Sherlock Holmes was written. Everyone knows he was an amazing detective, but this Holmes seemed too perfect. During a couple of his early fights, he would actually do a play-by-play of how he'd hit his opponent and what effect it would have on the opponent, and both times went perfectly. Not only that, but besides his ability to deduct just about everything about a person just by looking at them, whenever there were clues lain about, he would solve them in a few seconds, give or take a minute or two, and that got to me. The movie just made him seem too good, and it seems like the movie would have been a lot shorter if not for the fights and other action sequences.

With mention of that, I can now segue into the good parts that kept it from being awful. The first being the action. The fights were all well choreagraphed with bits of humor thrown in, and you could see how much of an effect the fights had, even when Holmes didn't give a rundown. The action and special effects made for a lot of exciting and dramatic chases, escapes, and other such things. Also, while I did criticize Holmes for figuring things out too fast, he would do it cleverly and with humor to make it somewhat enjoyable, and he managed to leave no plot threads lying around. The story was well thought out, even if the subject wasn't my cup of tea, and it was somewhat amusing seeing Holmes explain to Blackwood how he figured out his scheme while Blackwood was being dragged down by a beam on a rope that had been caught on his leg.

The DVD was rather disappointing since it was even less then barebones, only having the options to play the movie and go to the language/subtitles menu, without even a scene select menu. Overall, while the movie had a lot of things that either made it boring and tried to get to the action as fast as it could, said action did save the movie from being downright awful. Personally, I hope the planned sequel makes up for the shortcomings of this film, and if you really liked it, buy it, but if you're only mildly interested like I was, just rent it.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars