In this post, I'll talk about how to write tokusatsu, Toshiki Inoue style. Inoue is best known to most fans because of his love for hard R sex scenes in the novels he has written based on Japanese kid's shows. Oh, and rivers.
Toshiki Inoue is one of those tokusatsu writers that is good during his earlier years and gets worse in his later years. His writing in his early years, especially with Choujin Sentai Jetman that caused fans during that time to bash Zyuranger for being too kid-friendly compared to the darker and edgier Jetman. What fans that can consider his magnum opus in tokusatsu is Kamen Rider Agito. Aside that it carried the same tone from the previous series, he added his own flair that made the series a fan favorite and after this, Inoue's writing started to become worse.
Toshiki Inoue's cameo in Kamen Rider 555
Shows like Kamen Rider 555 and Kamen Rider Kiva belong to the love or hate category. Same goes with the shows that he is part as a secondary head writer like Kamen Rider Hibiki and Kamen Rider Kabuto. Fans became bored with his style of writing because he keeps on repeating some of themes and water down some of his previous stories instead of improving it. Even if that is the case, the only thing good with Inoue right now is the single episode stories that he write. A perfect example is the Jetman tribute in Gokaiger. Now that I am done with a short introduction about Toshiki Inoue, it's time to talk about how to write tokusatsu... Toshiki Inoue style!
1. Bodies of Water, To Be More Specific, Rivers
Toshiki Inoue likes his heroes on bodies of water, an early example is that one of Ryu and Gai's fights in Jetman happened on some swamp. Though it made the scene cheesy and dramatic, it gets a bit ridiculous in later shows that he wrote. For some reason, every time our heroes fight a monster on a bridge or a place near a body of water, the hero gets thrown in a river by the enemy and will go adrift till someone notice that he is missing.
Toshiki Inoue likes his heroes on bodies of water, an early example is that one of Ryu and Gai's fights in Jetman happened on some swamp. Though it made the scene cheesy and dramatic, it gets a bit ridiculous in later shows that he wrote. For some reason, every time our heroes fight a monster on a bridge or a place near a body of water, the hero gets thrown in a river by the enemy and will go adrift till someone notice that he is missing.
Not a perfect example, but still.
2. Transformation Devices Passed Around
If a series doesn't feature any restriction on the transformation device like Kamen Rider Kiva, chances are, you will see a transformation device passed around. If there is one thing one fan realized when he was watching Kamen Rider 555, it would be you can make a drinking game once the Faiz Belt, the Kaixa Belt or the Delta Belt is passed around from one guy to another guy! Same goes with IXA System, though its case is a bit better compared to the belts from Kamen Rider 555, it was used by at least 6 people in Kamen Rider Kiva.
If a series doesn't feature any restriction on the transformation device like Kamen Rider Kiva, chances are, you will see a transformation device passed around. If there is one thing one fan realized when he was watching Kamen Rider 555, it would be you can make a drinking game once the Faiz Belt, the Kaixa Belt or the Delta Belt is passed around from one guy to another guy! Same goes with IXA System, though its case is a bit better compared to the belts from Kamen Rider 555, it was used by at least 6 people in Kamen Rider Kiva.
This toy actually existed?!
3. Forgetting the New Toys
As we all know, Kamen Rider is a series that is heavy in terms of merchandising, which includes the toys. Unlike most writers that remembers that this hero has this cool new weapon and try as much as possible to use it, in Inoue's case, he will use the new toy for like, 2 or 3 times then stick with the current arsenal the Rider had. A good example is that the Machine Tornador's Glider Mode was used only once, Delta's Jet Slinger was used trice, IXA's new crane vehicle weapon thing, Kiva's Buron Booster was used once and my personal favorite, the Riot Troopers that appeared in two episodes of Kamen Rider 555's final story arc.
As we all know, Kamen Rider is a series that is heavy in terms of merchandising, which includes the toys. Unlike most writers that remembers that this hero has this cool new weapon and try as much as possible to use it, in Inoue's case, he will use the new toy for like, 2 or 3 times then stick with the current arsenal the Rider had. A good example is that the Machine Tornador's Glider Mode was used only once, Delta's Jet Slinger was used trice, IXA's new crane vehicle weapon thing, Kiva's Buron Booster was used once and my personal favorite, the Riot Troopers that appeared in two episodes of Kamen Rider 555's final story arc.
Not the best example but you get the point.
4. MISUNDERSTANDINGS
Okay, how to start with this one, Inoue loves misunderstandings in his stories. Most of these misunderstandings stem to a scene that feature this X hero holding the girl the Y hero likes in a manner that you might think that X hero killed the girl. Before X hero can explain it, Y hero attacks X hero! This will run for weeks before X and Y hero finally had a scene where they can settle their score and finally realize that this is just one big misunderstanding. The biggest victim of Inoue's love for misunderstandings is Kamen Rider 555.
Look, there is nothing wrong with a little misunderstanding in the story as it creates drama, but if this said misunderstanding can be resolved with just the two parties actually talking to settle the issue, and the writer decides to have this plot ran for more than one story arc, what we get is just bad storytelling.
Okay, how to start with this one, Inoue loves misunderstandings in his stories. Most of these misunderstandings stem to a scene that feature this X hero holding the girl the Y hero likes in a manner that you might think that X hero killed the girl. Before X hero can explain it, Y hero attacks X hero! This will run for weeks before X and Y hero finally had a scene where they can settle their score and finally realize that this is just one big misunderstanding. The biggest victim of Inoue's love for misunderstandings is Kamen Rider 555.
Look, there is nothing wrong with a little misunderstanding in the story as it creates drama, but if this said misunderstanding can be resolved with just the two parties actually talking to settle the issue, and the writer decides to have this plot ran for more than one story arc, what we get is just bad storytelling.
...and the current Fangire Queen is the center of this love triangle!
5. Love Triangles
Inoue seriously loves love triangles in his stories, some of them work while some of them are just plain stupid. Kamen Rider Kiva is one of Toshiki Inoue's worse attempts in putting a love story in a kid's show. I mean, it is Twilight levels of bad, especially the love story portions in 2008 that I am not sure if I am watching a show about guys in hero suits fighting stain glass vampires or Japanese Twilight. At least the 1986 love story portions are less retarded compared to the ones from 2008.
Inoue seriously loves love triangles in his stories, some of them work while some of them are just plain stupid. Kamen Rider Kiva is one of Toshiki Inoue's worse attempts in putting a love story in a kid's show. I mean, it is Twilight levels of bad, especially the love story portions in 2008 that I am not sure if I am watching a show about guys in hero suits fighting stain glass vampires or Japanese Twilight. At least the 1986 love story portions are less retarded compared to the ones from 2008.
Dang it.
6. Badly Executed Finale Arc
According to Shougo B'Stard, Toshiki Inoue sucks with wrapping up a TV series but I guess some of his badly executed finale arcs are caused because of executive meddling. A perfect example of it is Kamen Rider 555, the final battle was anti-climactic, there was no proper build-up for the final boss, the Orphenoch King because his true identity is something that I feel Inoue picked on in the last minute when he decided to write the final episode arc.
According to Shougo B'Stard, Toshiki Inoue sucks with wrapping up a TV series but I guess some of his badly executed finale arcs are caused because of executive meddling. A perfect example of it is Kamen Rider 555, the final battle was anti-climactic, there was no proper build-up for the final boss, the Orphenoch King because his true identity is something that I feel Inoue picked on in the last minute when he decided to write the final episode arc.
7. Jerks
There are two kinds of jerks in a Toshiki Inoue story, type A is the jerk with a heart of gold and type B is the despicable jerk. A perfect example of type A is Choujin Sentai Jetman's Gai Yuki, who is a bit of a jerk at first but as the show progressed, he ended up become a likable and lovable jerk. A perfect example of type B is Kamen Rider 555's Masato Kusaka, even though his intentions in fighting the Orphenochs are reasonable, he tends to backstab what you can consider good Orphenochs and sometimes, his allies just to be on top.
There are two kinds of jerks in a Toshiki Inoue story, type A is the jerk with a heart of gold and type B is the despicable jerk. A perfect example of type A is Choujin Sentai Jetman's Gai Yuki, who is a bit of a jerk at first but as the show progressed, he ended up become a likable and lovable jerk. A perfect example of type B is Kamen Rider 555's Masato Kusaka, even though his intentions in fighting the Orphenochs are reasonable, he tends to backstab what you can consider good Orphenochs and sometimes, his allies just to be on top.
8. Recycling Previous Story Plots
It is understandable that some writers tend to recycle some of their old stories but in the case of Inoue, the way he recycles his previous story plots are sometimes sloppily done. The only good recycled Toshiki Inoue plot that I can think of in my head is the one with Kamen Rider Kiva's Rook where he lost his memories and became a good guy for a while before remembering everything about his past as the merciless Rook. The plot of that arc is something that Choujin Sentai Jetman did years ago with Radiguet thanks to Empress Juza.
It is understandable that some writers tend to recycle some of their old stories but in the case of Inoue, the way he recycles his previous story plots are sometimes sloppily done. The only good recycled Toshiki Inoue plot that I can think of in my head is the one with Kamen Rider Kiva's Rook where he lost his memories and became a good guy for a while before remembering everything about his past as the merciless Rook. The plot of that arc is something that Choujin Sentai Jetman did years ago with Radiguet thanks to Empress Juza.
Being Gills is suffering.
9. Likes Putting "Women in Refrigirators"
A common trope in comic books is the writer killing off the hero's girlfriend to further motivate the hero to do, well, heroic stuff, and this is a common trope in most of Inoue's works. Granted, he can write really great female characters such as Choujin Sentai Jetman's Aya Odagiri and Kamen Rider Agito's Sumiko Ozawa, but this man killed all of Ryo/Kamen Rider Gill's girlfriends! This man can't catch a break and have a happy ending!
Did I miss anything or do I need to be corrected with some of the entries that I made?
Originally posted on Orends: Range back in December 7, 2012. Updated original post and added a new entry.
A common trope in comic books is the writer killing off the hero's girlfriend to further motivate the hero to do, well, heroic stuff, and this is a common trope in most of Inoue's works. Granted, he can write really great female characters such as Choujin Sentai Jetman's Aya Odagiri and Kamen Rider Agito's Sumiko Ozawa, but this man killed all of Ryo/Kamen Rider Gill's girlfriends! This man can't catch a break and have a happy ending!
Did I miss anything or do I need to be corrected with some of the entries that I made?
Originally posted on Orends: Range back in December 7, 2012. Updated original post and added a new entry.
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