A holiday gift for all of our fellow Friends of Justice!
Ah, Christmas specials. No matter what holidays you celebrate, there's always something fun about a good Christmas episode. And this one has all of the classic tropes. Teamwork, heroes saving an orphanage, granting the wish of a child, a toxic virus that turns people into wolves, and the death of a major character.
Oh, wait...
That's right. For a special out-of-order Holiday Celebration release, we're bringing you Kamen Rider episode 39. Also known as the Christmas Episode! And it sure packs a punch for a Christmas episode... but be warned, there are spoilers abound! If you're set on watching the series in order, then consider this fair warning. Everything after the cut will discuss spoilers. But if you're in the Christmas spirit, and you want a good old fashion superhero Holiday special, then feel free to proceed!
In this week's episode, Shocker has a visitor from Brazil. He stopped by to catch up, get some much needed rest, check out the local attractions... and blow up all of Japan's gas tanks. Sure, why not! And while he's there, he figures he might as well finish that little project he started a while back: Brutally murdering an entire family!
A family from Brazil, that looks suspiciously Japanese... hmmm...
Anyway, his plans get cut short when a little turbulence comes his way, in the form of a few Rider Kicks. How is a multicolored Armadillo-about-town supposed to relax like this?!
There is some top notch directing and action choreography in this episode. The plot... eh. Let's just assume it was sacrificed in order for that awesome final battle on the bridge to happen.
And coming to you from one of our favorite fans, whom we are a fan of, and he himself is also a fan of voice actors: Jeff Burns trivia time!
This
week has an interesting voice actor portraying Armadilong, Michihiro
Ikemizu. We've heard him before as Zanbronze, Scorpion Man and Hitodenja
and will continue to hear him more throughout the series up to Super-1.
The interesting part is that years
later he will go on to be one of the many voice doubles of Kamen Rider 1
and he can heard several times in Skyrider (and also Kamen Rider
Stronger when Shigeru Araki was unavailable during his initial
appearance). Other Toku Credits (as listed on wikipedia) include
Fireman, Jumborg Ace, Chojin Bibyun, Barom-1, Battle Hawk and Ultraman
Ace (filling in as UltraSeven). Another well known Toku related role he
played is Moonlight Mask in the 1973 Anime adaption.
Awesome stuff, as always. You know how much we love trivia here!
Anyway, sorry for the delays lately. Like I've mentioned a few times elsewhere, I'm working on a side project with a few friends from some other groups. It's not a tokusatsu series, and for various obfuscated reasons that even I don't understand, I'd like to keep it kind-of-a-secret on here. Anyway, that project is a weekly. So it takes up a lot of my time, and it's released on a time scale I'm not quite used to yet. The good news is that it's teaching me a lot more about the technical aspects of subbing, and getting me much more comfortable with editing our already-amazingly-translated scripts. And as we release more episodes, I'll get more comfortable with doing more than one release a week.
And with that said, I'm going to try to make sure that episode 34 comes out a lot faster than this one did. So we hope to see you again, soon!
Shocker's new warrior is a mutant man-eating plant from New Guinea, and she's here to kill the Rider and chew Animal Proteins. And she's all out of Animal Proteins.
Hayato, Taki, and Tachibana will don the most hilariously 70s disguises ever in order to track down ToxicDahlia. And they'll finally come face to face with Colonel Zol. It's another awesome episode, with one of the most subtly violent finales in the series!
Be sure to check out the script for some cool episode trivia.
Also note that during the eyecatch, there's no trivia. It just has the KITsubs tag twice. However, there IS trivia in the script! So download that, load up aegisub (or a related program) and check out those notes!
Kamen Rider episode 31:
[MKV] [Script] [AVI] [MKV Torrent] [AVI Torrent]
When Goro is injured, Hayato loses the will to fight...
But Taki and Tachibana won't let him give up that easily, and in the efforts to boost his spirits, they may have helped Hayato unlock a new special attack to help him in his battle against Shocker!
This is actually a pretty dark episode, for a story about overcoming an emotional and physical hurdle. There are some pretty gruesome scenes, and some really creepy moments between Takeo and his brother. On the other hand, there's a really great scene between Tachibana and Hayato that will show both characters at their strongest. It might seem out of character for Hayato, but it doesn't feel out of place. And we get yet another scene in the franchise where Tachibana is the emotional focal point for the story. It's a great scene, and it almost completely overshadows Taki's "pep-talk" with Hayato.
Also: Here's some episode trivia, thanks to our friend JEFFBM -
IchirÅ
Murakoshi's first stint as a Monster voice, we'll hear him again later
in Episode 76 and other Rider shows like V3, Skyrider (two of which have
appeared in the episodes subbed so far) and Super-1 in addition to
serving as the Narrator of Inazuman and Bioman. His Japanese Wiki page
lists even more Toku credits than the ones I've listed.
He also voiced characters in Brave Raideen, Great Mazinger, Lupin III, Chojin Bibyun, Barom 1, and Ultraseven!
This is the beginning of our Kamen Rider marathon, getting us to some fan-favorite episodes, and a very special milestone that we've been waiting a long time for! You don't want to miss it.
We were offline for a bit due to hurricane Sandy related issues. Power outages, lack of internet access, and all of the mess you've probably heard about on the news now. But we're back online, and getting things organized for our regular releases. Check out twitter and facebook page for more information.
Anyone else on the east coast, stay safe! Hope all is well. We'll be back soon with Kamen Rider episode 31.
This is a bit of a truncated release, so please forgive me. I'm at NYCC this weekend, so if anyone else is attending, please feel free to come say hello! But that means I have, like, two seconds to update things. Ooops!
So, this is a fun episode. Fun being the key word here... it's the first half of a two-parter, and has a very different tone than we've seen before. It's hard to pinpoint, but there almost something tongue in cheek about this episode. But on the other hand, there's a lot of cool stuff. Great location shots, the appearance of Golden Jaguar, a battle on horseback... and the appearance of a very cool cameo.
It was especially fun for us, because this cameo just so happens to come from KITsubs very first project together!
Before I go, have a fun fact: The villain this episode is called "Torikabutoron"
As you can see above, I went with "WolfsbaneTron" for the translated name. Torikabuto is the Japanese name for Wolf's Bane, a particularly toxic plant that our monster of the week just so happens to look like?
But what else does he look like...
Tori Kabuto can also be translated as "Bird" and "Helmet."
What fun!
And speaking of which, have fun with this episode! We'll see you next week. And if you're in New York for the convention, I hope to see you there!
Let's get the formalities out of the way first.
So, this is a first. Links to a Stronger release posted directly to KITsubs? Well, things are changing a little (very little) with Stronger. Basically, we realized that we're REALLY close to finishing the series along with Midnight Crew Subs. So we decided to make our little joint project official, and kick it into high gear. So none of the technical aspects of the releases are changing. Just expect to see them properly linked, with v2s of older releases coming in the future.
Now, for the episodes... These are BIG episodes. Like, milestone episodes for the entire Kamen Rider franchise, let alone for the series. As Stronger continues to fight his way through the ranks of the Delza Army's officers, their warriors grow more and more desperate. After Wild Eagle's defeat, Staff Officer Steel has taken charge in the assault on Stronger. But lurking in the shadows, the demonic witch Doctor Kate sees an opportunity to gain the upper hand.
The rest... well, we'll discuss that after the cut. Only read this AFTER you've watched the episodes. Spoilers abound. You've been warned:
Episode 30 brings us the final appearance of Tackle. She loses her life in the battle with Doctor Kate, in a desperate final attack. Sounds familiar. But when you see it in action, you realize just how different the episode feels. not just for Stronger, or for Kamen Rider, but for death scenes in general. This episode had weight. It had impact, an emotional connection that we rarely see in death scenes. this wasn't rushed, or brushed over in an attempt to revitalize a flailing series. They brought a top notch director, great photography, their best stunts, acting, soundtrack... and they blended it all together for one of the best episodes in the entire series. And the final shot, with Shigeru holding Yuriko's lifeless body, is one that has resonated with fans for decades.
A lot of the impact from this scene comes from the fact that Tachibana is the emotional center of the final moment. Shigeru is kept in the dark about Tackle's condition, so we see the scene through Tachibana's eyes. As an audience, we're connected to him already. He's the human, the outsider looking in. but he's also the heart of the original Showa series (pre-Skyrider.) He's been there since the beginning, and if anybody knows the weight of the Rider's sorrowful battle, it's him. Seeing his reaction to Tackle's death is heart wrenching in a way that only a fictional geek-centric character death can be. It has a weight to it that you didn't expect. It sneaks up on you, and it makes you realize how much you liked this character.
Yuriko herself was an immensely likeable character. She was a strong female hero, something we're not used to in a Kamen Rider series. And for the time, she was a lot more powerful and effective than we were used to seeing from our female heroes. Very rarely was her gender at the forefront of her character. She was a loyal sidekick, and a companion. But she was a fighter in her own right, and she was never treated as a weaker half of a team. Only through her near-death state was she worried about dragging Stronger down.
This was a time before toy sales dictated characters in these shows. We'll never see another character like Tackle in a Rider series. I'm sure of that. A strong female presence in the show that can keep pace with the main character, that can create a team that almost outshines the character who shares his name with the title of the show. It says a lot that the ending theme of Stronger didn't change after Tackle's death. She's as much a part of "Kamen Rider Stronger" as Shigeru. She is half of a team that makes the show what it is. It's yet another aspect of Stronger that sets it apart from the rest of the franchise, and one of the most appealing aspects of the show.
It saddens me, as a long time fan of Kamen Rider, that all we've taken from these episodes is "female Riders put up a decent fight and then die." It's the character trope that has developed from these episodes. The notion that a female Rider should be such a rare treat is a preposterous one, but it's one that we have unfortunately had to accept. Tackle was a character before she was a woman, and she was a hero. That alone makes her unique.
And finally, we have Shigeru's place in this story. A Kamen Rider's battle is one of loneliness, and sorrow. This is what defines the original Riders. A hero who loses everything, even his own humanity, yet still he presses on. His battle is to prevent this sorrow from consuming any more lives. And they bare that burden. No longer able to connect with their humanity, but wanting nothing more than to protect it.
But Shigeru was different. He had a companion. Someone at his same level that he could confide in, depend on, and relate to. And to have her die for the sake of the same battle that he fought was almost more sorrowful than if he'd never had her before. Instead of playing like a cheap character-development for Stronger, Tackle's death was a tragedy for these characters. Stronger took that sorrow, and he consumed it. He lets it become a part of his battle, not a reason to give up.
These are things that one should take for granted in a good story. Unfortunately, it has become so rare in this day and age that we look back on these episodes with a fondness and a tear in our eye. It's one thing to cry for the loss of a fictional character, but my tears are more brought about by the loss of stories with impact. Characters that I care about, and heroes that make us feel like we can do anything.
I've saved a special place at the end of this (very long) rumination on the impact of Tackle's death to talk about her portrayal by Kyoko Okada. More so than any of the Riders, she embodied Tackle. She didn't have the benefit of a suit actor to play her in-costume persona. She was Yuriko, and she was Tackle. And her portrayal of the character was one of a kind. She was strong, she was cocky, she was dependable, and she was heroic. She was everything a hero should be. And the fact that she is no longer with us only makes her death scene in the series all the more poignant. She was a rare talent in the Tokusatsu world, and she has been sorely missed.
KITsubs started with a simple mission: Bring classic tokusatsu series to a whole new audience. If you're a long time fan, or new to the genre, we're happy to help you see these classic shows! We're focused on classic Shotaro Ishinomori series. We strive to treat their translations with the care and respect that we feel they deserve.
Kamen Rider Stronger Releases Next Release - V2 Batch
Kamen Rider Skyrider Releases Next Episode - 34 Akumaizer-3 Releases Next Episode - 09
If you find a dead link, please let us know. Remember, torrents are more reliable than direct downloads. You can also find some of our releases on KRDL.info
_001_8125.png)
_001_30311.png)
_001_27235.png)
_001_23140.png)
_001_24019.png)
