Our heroes, everyone.

▶ 【プロ野球セ】始球式に仮面ライダーV3！颯爽と登場するも投球は… 2014/07/21 S-C - YouTube

it's my birthday...!

please stop calling here. i’m not interested in buying anything at the moment

when ye henshin in ye sleep

https://twitter.com/amubut/status/721040003577438208

everyone needs to see this

It's that time of year when Tumblr celebrates Easter by posting pictures of crucified anime characters, and inevitably somebody in the notes will pop up to helpfully explain that crucifixion imagery has no cultural significance in Japanese media because Japan is only about 1% Christian, which bugs me because it's completely wrong.

It's true that in the majority of cases, crucifixion in Japanese cartoons isn't meant to be conveying any specific theological message, but something Western audiences are likely to miss is that a large portion of those random crucifixion scenes are referencing Ultraman.

Ultraman's creator was a devout Roman Catholic who explicitly intended the titular hero to read as a Christ figure, and consequently, various Ultramen have been crucified on multiple unconnected occasions throughout the franchise's history. Crucifixion scenes in Japanese cartoons are often directly name-checking particular crucifixion incidents from Ultraman, right down to emulating the compositions and camera angles of specific shots. It's like an especially morbid version of the Akira slide.

The upshot is that while it's true that the inclusion of gratuitous crucifixion scenes in Japanese cartoons typically has no (intentional) theological message, stating that they have no cultural significance is incorrect. A large chunk of the Japanese viewing audience are going to see them and immediately go "hey, that's an Ultraman reference".

Anyway, as an image tax, have a shot of four crucified Ultramen miraculously resurrecting a fifth Ultraman by shooting laser beams out of their hearts:

ME

Actors with mutliple roles in toku: Furuya Robin.

Storious/Kamen Rider Storious (Kamen Rider Saber, 2020-2021).

Boss of Hundred/Kamen Rider Barlckxs (Kamen Rider Gotchard VS Kamen Rider Legend, 2023).

Source: Eden: It's an Endless World! エデン

by Hiroki Endo

When character customization shows in the cutscenes

Happy 10 years of Gaim dipshits

I made something in commiseration

*trying to remember the alphabet*

g, h uhhh I.... damn how that shit go?

kamen rider J:

As another year of "this sentai looks really fun, alas that there's only one girl in it" rolls around, open question:

If you got to pick a guy to have been gender-flipped at the casting stage in any given one-girl sentai, who would be your ideal choice in each case?

Interpret any way you like-- "it's otherwise exactly the same character"/"it's realistically how that show's writer would've written her", whatever

(inoculating this post with a preemptive "yes king-ohger has one girl but no you can't pick Rita leave their non-biney alone")

everyone needs to see this