Igadevil's Japan Trip 2005/06~Super Chara Dome 2006

My second stay in Japn got off to a rather slow start. Despite a couple cool excursions (getting to see the Hibiki movie and
Kamen Rider THE FIRST, as reviewed elsewhere on the site) and buying a lot of stuff (wouldn't you?), the last part of 2005 was
mostly work, work, work, and a lot of the excess drama that comes with going to school in another country for a year. In other
words, compared to the Rider odyssey that was the 2004 trip, it was pretty mellow.

Fortunately, that all changed come January, about the time of the year when we prepare to bid farewell to the current Kamen
Rider & Super Sentai series, and get ready for the new guys. And that means big events like the "Super Chara Dome 2006"
event, held at Osaka Dome on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th (the day I went) & 8th of January. Being a stadium, the 'Dome is perfect for
housing all kinds of events, be they concerts or Super Chara thingies. As you probably guessed by now, "Chara" is short for
"Character". You did guess that, right? Right? Yeah, I thought you did.

So what exactly is "Super Chara Dome 2006"? It's basically everything. Most of the current kids' show characters are
represented in some form, with the big three (Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai) taking top billing, but with a lot of anime
characters such as Pokemon & Doraemon thrown in. The event consists of stage shows, games, meet-&-greet sessions, costume
displays, a mind-numbing merchandise section, and more. Obviously, it's mainly to appeal to kids, but there's enough going on to
keep the many adults who have to bring the kids along happy (and there were also plenty of people without kids.) I guess you
could basically say it's sort of like a World Expo, but with Kamen Rider & other Tokusatsu, and if that description doesn't get you
excited, wait until you see the pictures.

Osaka Dome is a couple minutes away from the JR Taishô station, and the it is HUGE! I cannot emphasize enough how big the
thing is. The actual Super Chara event was mostly on the main floor (or what would be the field), and that still leaves the seats
(which eventually filled up in sections for some shows or just people taking a break to eat) plus the rest of the complex, which
consists of restaurants, gift shops, and whatever else you'd expect to find in a stadium. Navigating the main floor required a
map/event guide, simply because of the sheer amount of stuff happening at once, and they were being handed out all over the
place. The order of events was pretty standard: everything that required a stage was repeated three times a day, and everything
else pretty much ran constantly until closing time (the Dome is open for operation from 10 AM to around 5 PM.) Throughout the
day, this jumbo TV screen high above the main stage showed everything from close-ups of the stage shows to ads for the
channels airing all these programs, and even kids who had gotten lost and were waiting for their parents back at the information
booths outside. That's how nutty this thing was.

Before entering the event proper, just beyond the ticket/information counters there was the thing I was most eager to see (and
apparently someone knew that, because it was highly advertised in the promotional materials in the weeks before the event took
place): the real Cyclone & Cyclone 2 from Kamen Rider THE FIRST, along with costumes of the Double Riders as seen in the
film as well as their original version counterparts. The Double Double Riders were joined by V3, X-Rider, Amazon, & Stronger.
So where's Riderman? I dunno, but I suppose that since having both the original Rider 1 & 2 as well as their 2005 versions in the
same place at the same time AND the other original Riders presents a level of awesomeness great enough to cause the platform to
just outright explode into flames, somebody had to sit out.

It was a real treat to see some Shôwa Rider costumes (and of course all the familiar themes were being blasted from nearby
speakers) as well as the stars of the recent movie. But I really need to talk to whoever posed the statues wearing the original Rider
1 & 2 costumes, cuz they look like they're supposed to be holding wheel barrows or something!

Once inside the main part of the stadium itself, there's plenty to look at (as the photos up near the top show.) Similar to the Rider
one at the entrance, there was a Super Sentai gallery showcasing all the various Reds from the original Akaranger all the way up
to 2004's Deka Red, with all the accompanying theme songs playing in an endless loop, which is pretty much a constant factor at
all the various sections of the event. Since I'm guessing they're probably remade attraction suits and not the originals, I was still
impressed with the level of detail on some of these costumes, especially all the electronics in Denji/Denzi Red's helmet and the little
golden "Changeman" emblems on Change Dragon's gloves. There were also several of the ever-essential giant robots, and I will
now attempt to refrain from making any "they're not really that tall" jokes.

Opposite Blade & friends: Kuuga, Agito, Faiz, and virtually everybody from Ryuki's show were on display in front of a nifty
sparkly "mirror" background. Kuuga & Agito were both in their Ultimate & Shining Forms respectively, and Faiz was just regular
old Faiz, but Auto Vajin (in bike mode) was there to keep him company. Ryuki & Knight were both Survived out and backed up
by Dragranzer & Dark Raider. Of course for me the real excitement was with the other 11 Riders (as well as Alternative Zero),
especially the more obscure ones who rarely make the displays unless the other 12 are all present. As with the original Rider 1 &
2 costumes, some of them were posed rather oddly (I don't know about you, but I swear Odin looks like he's dancing) but a
couple of them were spot-on, especially Scissors, who came armed with one of his giant Scissors Pinch claws. Poses aside, the
detailing on all these costumes was great, as you can see just looking at Ryuki's V-Buckle (it even has an Advent Card back
mock-up!) The one exception, which I found highly amusing, was poor Kamen Rider Femme, who looked fantastic except for her
feet, as she apparently traded in the real costume's high heels for regular flat boots like her male counterparts, and if you look
closely you can see her upper boot armor seems to be coming off. Oops. Blame Ouja, he's still upset about Episode Final.

As I already mentioned, the event has nearly everybody who's anybody on children's TV programs there, so it's fairly easy to get
overwhelmed at everything. Of course, being one of the aforementioned older fans, it's a little easier to not get completely
overwhelmed, as a lot of the stuff is kids-only (I don't think they'd let me in the giant inflatable Baltan/Eleking/Ultraman bouncy
thing, so this picture will have to suffice.) In addition to the Rider & Sentai sections, there was a whole "Ultraman Playland", which
was primarily games and such. No costume displays, although live costumed characters were milling about. I saw Ultraman
Nexus, Max, Zearth, and a couple of various aliens (Magma, Babaru & Hook if you're keeping score) running around. There was
also the requisite "gianormous Ultra statue" of Max, towering above all and keeping an eye on things.

Additionally, props and merchandise from another recent Tokusatsu series, Ryukendo, were at a special booth, and apparently
Ryukendo himself was supposed to drop by every so often. While the main stage (which I'll get to soon) was ground zero for
Kamen Rider & Sentai, a smaller sub stage featured various anime character shows, including one for Pretty Cure Max Heart,
the show that comes on right after Hibiki at 8:30 on Sundays, and a direct sequel to the original Pretty Cure from last year. The
short stage show was very cute, and like the TV series featured a lot of hand-to-hand combat and mass destruction. Yeah, yeah, I
know...why was I watching it in the first place? Hey, you would too if you were me!

Along with the Ultra-characters, other heroes were supposedly doing meet-&-greet duty throughout the day as part of the "Hero
Patrol". Oddly, I didn't see any Riders aside from Hibiki at his two designated spots (more on that later) but I did see...that yellow
guy with the octopus on his head. I think he's like "Takoyaki Man" or something. (Osaka is well-known for its Takoyaki.)

A kids' TV show character-themed event wouldn't be complete without a place to buy stuff, and that's exactly what the Omocha
Festa (Toy Festival) was! There was a TON of stuff here, mostly of the recently-released variety (virtually any toy from the
Hibiki line and a number of the recent Sôchaku-Henshin Riders, for example) as well as a couple surprising finds: I bought a few
packs of the legendary Kamen Rider vs. Amabassador Hell TCG cards. I say legendary because prior to that point, I didn't
know if they had ever even been released or not. There were also a couple exclusive figures normally only available at the Bandai
Museum in Tokyo, including giant-sized versions of Akaranger & Barom-1, and a bunch of highly-detailed obscure Toho monster
figures. There was also a cool model of the White Base from the original Gundam series, and Gashapon machines with pretty
much every capsule toy set from the past 3~4 years. As if that wasn't enough, they lugged in a ton of UFO Catcher/crane game
machines, all armed with the newest prizes and ready to suck your wallet dry. Wooo!

The arguable centerpiece of the entire event was the massive Magiranger vs. Hibiki stage show, which ran three times a day. It
pretty much blows away all the other stage shows I've seen, or at least matches Kamen Rider Super Live 2004 in terms of
production values and entertainment factor. And for this one, they actually let you take pictures! I saw all three showings, although
due to the incredible crowds had to settle for standing at the back of the seating area each time. Hence why some of these
pictures might look a little blurry. Amazingly, the show was problem-free every time, despite the complexity of some stunts.

The plot was...well, the title just about sums it up (keeping in mind that "vs." usually means "teams up with" in this sort of situation.)
There were stage show-original villains, who looked like they were probably redressed somebodies, and of course a veritable
army of henchmen (both the Magirangers' and stage show-only Rider ones.) The Super Hime & Super Dôji from Hibiki were
also on hand, teaming up with the bad guys and bringing along some giant crabs (well, stunt guys in crab suits) to help out. As for
the heroes, in addition to the Magirangers and Hibiki, the show also featured Kamen Rider Ibuki, Todoroki, Magi Shine, surprise
guest appearances by Kamen Rider Blade & Deka Red, and super-special appearances by Wolzard & Kamen Rider Zanki. The
finale sees Blade & Deka Red getting to power-up to their Jack Form and SWAT Mode versions, and Hibiki gets all Armed up
while Magi Red advances to his own upgraded form. There were also plenty of cool effects: wire stunts, live explosions,
fire, smoke effects, trampoline stunts, a giant inflatable jellyfish thing for Hibiki & company to tear into, one of the Magirangers'
jet-powered broom bike things, and INSANE motorcycle action. The latter in particular had the crowd audibly gasp a couple
times, and I got a real kick out of hearing the old sound effects used as far back as the original Kamen Rider show up. Overall it
was quite a blast, and I was especially glad I could photograph this one to share it with all my readers out there.

I'm sure someone out there will be wondering what's up with the pic with all the Deka Reds. The story was the original guy has his
own squad now, and they're pretty clearly new recruits, as they get killed off in about 2 minutes. Nice work, Ban!

After the show was over, those who purchased that exclusive calender could go up and shake hands with the 'Rangers and
Armed Hibiki. I mentioned earlier two places where you could greet Hibiki in person; this being one and the other being a
separate (and very long) line outside the main area to get a bottle of Oranamin C from Hibiki himself, much like the deal with
Blade at the 2004 show I went to.

While the festival ran for 5 days, only the 4th & 7th featured extra-special appearances by actors & actresses from Magiranger
and Hibiki, so naturally going on the day I did was a good idea. The guests of honor were Shibue Jôji (Ibuki), & Matsuda Kenji
(Zanki), as well as an extra-special surprise guest, Kawaguchi Shingo (Todoroki) whose appearance remained unannounced until
the first Talk Show/Q&A session at noon that day. Technically, you weren't supposed to take photographs or video if you were
sitting in the first couple of rows (for contractual reasons or something I think) but since I was in the waaay back and everybody
else was doing it anyway (the person next to me was videotaping the whole thing!) I don't think it'll hurt anyone (besides, all my
photos came out blurry enough that you can just barely tell who they are. The guy with the hat is Matsuda, the guy in the grey is
Shibue, and Kawaguchi's in the last picture. Not exactly incriminating photos or anything.)

The three sessions were all different, featuring questions from kids in the audience (Shibue got a "Can you marry my mom?"), a
very goofy Hibiki triva game (again, for the kids, with two obviously false answers and one real one), and a couple tender
moments as the three actors shared their thoughts on working on the show for the past year and then recreating some of their key
scenes (of course, all three were asked to perform their Henshin moves, and Matsuda and Kawaguchi added a funny spin on
theirs by collapsing at the end.) There was also a great little moment after the first session ended, before the second Magiranger
vs. Hibiki performance, where all three were shown backstage on the giant screen, having a conversation completely
in-character. I have to say, regardless of how the show hit or missed the mark, I have a lot of respect for all three actors, because
they clearly enjoyed their roles and thought very highly of the whole production, which is always cool to see.

So that's 3 more Riders to add to the list of Rider actors I've seen in person, bringing the total up to...4!

One last thing I have to mention: every so often, that giant screen would show real-time footage from around the main floor, and at
one point it actually passed over me in one of the Rider displays! I now proudly have this historic moment (?) captured on film.
Not that you can really tell, since my face is covered with the camera as I was taking a picture of myself...taking a picture of
myself. Right...

Overall, "Super Chara Dome 2006" was a ton of fun, and I'm hoping I'll be able to attend similar events in the near future. My
description and the pictures really don't do it justice; it's the sort of thing that really has to be experienced first hand. Seeing as
how it is an annual event, hopefully, someday you'll get to do just that.

Oh yes, I almost forgot: some short videos of the Magiranger vs. Hibiki show!