Kamen Rider Amazons (2016)

[Jinzo Ningen]

Just stumbled across some info one this new show. Looks pretty interesting. Amazon was one of my fave of the old guard. Anyone seen this and have any thoughts on whether it's as good as it would appear???

[Jinzo Ningen]

Well... I went ahead and ordered a copy of the show for myself. I'll letcha know my thoughts when I get it, and have a chance to pour through the episodes.

[Dr Kain]

It's supposed to be really good and harkin back to the earlier Heisei series.

I haven't watched it yet because Amazon US is supposed to be airing the show on their site sometime this year.

[Jinzo Ningen]

I've read mostly good things about this new show once I started looking on the web. Edgy, dark & violent. Much like the original Amazon was back in the day. Couldn't wait so I broke down and ordered a 2-disc Malay copy off the 'Bay. A few days later I decided to dig out my old Amazon tapes... but they were sadly unwatchable after sitting in storage for so many years. Then I found KissAsian and their site has the entire 24ep series subbed! Whoop!! I DL'd it all onto a flash drive, so I have the whole show at my fingertips now to pop into my HDTV. (Gotta love technology!) Of course after finding AMAZON, I discovered several other KR shows on that site subbed... including the 2016 AMAZONS show. LOL. Oh, well. At least the great news is that I can now get my Showa fix with complete subbed AMAZON, STRONGER, SUPER-1, BLACK & BLACK RX... all on flash drives to take with me anywhere. Yeah! (Now they just need the original KR and SKY RIDER, too. Maybe eventually.) And now I can start dabbling in the Heisei and Millennial shows as well, if I choose. Very cool, indeed.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Well...

So far I'm 5 episodes in, and I gotta tell you... this is a really great show. (Best description would be "Walking Dead meets Primeval meets Kamen Rider.")

It has lots of nice (though not in-your-face obvious) callbacks to 70's Amazon, and the Showa Riders era. (Love, love LOVE that new Jungler!) The hero designs, while not particularly organic-looking, like they ought to be, are still very slick, clean and impressive. The acting is pretty strong all across the board, with Jin (the smart-ass human form of Alpha) being a standout. The fights are interesting, not the typical stuff I was weaned on, but that's a good thing. Plenty of interesting plot twists & suspense moments so far that keep you coming back for more. Only real 'thumbs down' is the poor choice to wash the color out of most of the cinematography. I assume this is to give it that modern Emo-edgy look & feel, and reinforce the depressing nature that the show is conveying throughout, but it's a shame that they have de-saturated the shots so much. The colorful characters (especially the Riders) really pop in promo shots. On the show, everything & everyone sort of mushes together, identity-wise. Other than that small gripe, I am really digging this show. Cannot wait to see the remaining episodes. Hopefully, this will get picked up for another season so we can explore further adventures.

[Specium Ray]

Still no word of Amazon giving this an international release.... But you can get the bootleg-looking (but likely official) Maylasian copy from Amazon.

[Kaiju_Ultra_Fan]

Amazons was so good. The Walking Dead meets Kamen Rider is a pretty good description for it. It's very dark, very bloody, but very good.

[klen7]

i picked up the Malaysian releases of S1 and S2. If they release them in the US (for a price lower than the expensive V3 set) I will pick them up again to support the franchise. I have watched all of season 1 and the first two episodes of season 2.

Season 1: Overall quality-wise this is a pretty solid release. Good English subtitles, good picture, and aside from some distortion in the audio on episode 10 its surprisingly good with 13 forty minute episodes on two discs. Story-wise the first season is fine. The acting is very good with only a small exception, the cinematography and fight choreography are fun. The series is serious and violent but often there is little consequence to the brutality when the main cast is involved, i thought one of the supporting characters had been brutally murdered after having what appeared to be their skull repeatedly bashed in with a lead pipe, only for them to walk away unscathed 15 minutes later. also more than once a neck was slashed with heavy arterial bleeding to no effect. Overall a decent series with high production values, though it is lacking in the "fun" and since it does not fully commit to the dark and gritty approach, this keeps me from whole-heartedly recommending this to any non-Kamen Rider fans.

Season 2: Only two episodes in, the monster design is better, there are more fights, the extermination team now has weapons that apparently work significantly better than what they had in season one. Otherwise - it seems like a step backwards across the board. In attempts to be dramatic there are a lot of staring in silence which kills the pacing. I am still interested in seeing where this goes, but the new character is pretty mired in all the standard shonen tropes and most of the new supporting characters are annoying. As a side note, this season is already considerably more gory, with much higher quality gore effects.

[klen7]

[klen7]

sounds like this series will be completed with a theatrical film in a few months, Amazons: Final Chapter

https://youtu.be/IYB0v8xwl2o