My Shiny Toy Robots

With the success of both the Kamen Rider W Returns movies and the more recent Kamen Rider Gaim: Gaiden releases, Toei seem to have confirmed to both themselves that direct to DVD/Blu-ray V-cinema releases starring the shows' secondary and tertiary Riders are both popular and profitable. Just as current series Kamen Rider Ghost has jumped on this early with its The Legend of Hero Alain blu-ray bonus miniseries, previous show  Kamen Rider Drive is refuses to stay down with a number of feature-length V-cinema entries. The first of these is Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser , naturally starring Chase - the prototype Roidmude whose appeared as both Proto-Drive and Mashin Chaser before joining Drive as Kamen Rider Chaser.

The Big O is a 26 episode noir-style mecha series that possibly received just as much praise in the West as it did in Japan. The setting is Paradigm City, 40 years after a mysterious occurrence known as ‘The Event’ led to its citizens, both human and robotic, losing all of their memories. The protagonist is Roger Smith, an ex-military cop now turned negotiator. Aided by his faithful butler Norman Burg and later the gynoid R. Dorothy Wayneright, Roger provides the city with this ‘much needed service’. When it is needed, Roger is able to call upon the colossal ‘megadeus’ Big O, a robot that is a relic from the city’s past and may also be the key to its future. The first season (13 episodes) provides fairly stand-alone stories, but overall work toward to larger story that is explored in far more detail in the second series. As stated earlier, the series is very much in the style of 1940s film noir – with Roger filling the role of the private detective type character and the mysterio...