Post by Igadevil on Jul 27, 2004 0:44:25 GMT -8
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday I went down to Mie-Ken for the annual "Suzuka 8 Hours" racing event held at the Suzuka Circuit, a sort of race track/amusement park combo. It's basically like a big 4-day motorcycle show/race & festival, but Sunday is extra special because that's the day of the actual 8-hour race thing. It was also extra special because the weekend featured Kamen Rider-themed events and activities!
Prior to the main events at the track (which starts at 11:30 am), around 10:15, there was an "opening ceremony" of sorts, the "Kamen Rider Parade". Blade on Blue Spader, Faiz on Autovajin, Kaixa on Sidebasher, Ryuki Survive on Dragranzer and Knight Survive on Darkraider all made a lap around the course (it's that HUGE) followed by 50 kids enrolled in the Suzuka Junior Racing School (with cute little Blade-themed costumes!) and who I guess were their accompanying instructors. Prior to this the Blade theme song was blasted over the large sound system a couple times along with commentary and sound bytes from the Blade commercials, as well as a preview for the upcoming Missing Ace movie. As the Rider Machines made their way around, Blade did a couple wheelies, which was cool. I was also surprised at just how fast Dragranzer and Darkraider really are (and they were still going slow enough so people could get pictures.) Of course the Riders were all suited up and waving to the crowd, which was pretty cool since it was ridiculously hot and I can imagine wearing one of those costumes must have not been pleasant. As soon as this was over I headed back to the "Grand Prix Square" where most of the other merchandise booths, displays and other events were being held (the place was beginning to fill up fast by this point, with families and racing enthusiasts staking out good seats or hillside vantage points). For casual motorcycle fans there's a lot to see here, kind of like a car show except bikes instead of cars. Also plenty of freebies (pamphlets, hats, fans, stickers, etc.) and lots of pretty girls plastered head-to-toe (that is, on however little it is they're wearing
) with whatever company's logo they were working for.
The "Kamen Rider Village" was a little tent-covered area set up in the center of all this where a couple of things were located. These included:
-All the bikes previously mentioned were on display here, along with the actual Black Fang recently featured on Kamen Rider Blade! It's worth noting that considerable parts of those two episodes of Blade featuring the Black Fang (and Wolf Undead) were filmed at Suzuka, and as I'll get to later the day's theme heavily revolved around them. It was cool seeing the motorcylces up close; Blue Spader even had the really detailed controls (including Mobile Rouzer) and of course Black Fang just looked awesome, with its Undead Logos!
-Merchandise Shop! Items special only to this event where here, and I snapped up a couple Honda/Blade T-Shirts and a towel (hey, why not?) Also premiering here was the Bandai Rider Hero Series Kamen Rider Blade Jack Form figure, and I also got some Popy Chalice toys and the new Popynica diecast Cyclone. What was especially cool was that you also get extra free stuff with the purchase, I got some Blade fans, stickers, and a large bagged figure. Nice!
-This was also the center for the "Stamp Rally: Find the Undead!" an interesting (albeit near-impossible) scavenger hunt of sorts. You get a stamp book, and go around to various parts of the park/circuit to the stamp centers to fill out the pages of the book. After you get them all you can take it back here and exchange it for a prize. Unfortunately I just didn't have the time to do this along with all the other things I wanted to do, but it's okay because the prize was just an exclusive Suzuka Circuit Rouze Card. (and I already got the king of all exclusive Rouze Cards- the "Kamen Rider Blade Sausages" Chalice, baby! LOL) There was one little catch to all this that I wish I had known about earlier, but I'll get to that in a minute.
A little ways away from all this there was a special Blade stage show being held at 12:30 and 4:00, I caught the first one (I understand it that on Saturday the show was Faiz-themed). This was a ton of fun, despite the fact that it was really just a bunch of stunt guys in costumes running around on a near-barren stage, with no real special effects. But the costumes, for attraction versions, were very cool-looking, and the authentic voices, music and sound effects were used. All the signature weapons and attacks of the Riders were featured. There was even a storyline, which involves this dude in sunglasses (and wearing an upside-down Grongi Belt Buckle, which I found funny) showing up to harass the requisite cute announcer (who started off the show by asking everyone to raise their hand when she named their favorite Blade-era Rider) and of course Blade shows up to fight him. The evil dude said he was an Upper Level Undead and then proceeds to beat the stuffing out of Blade, and steal the BlayRouzer! Later some original Undead henchmen (!) appear to menace the audience (although they were really being pretty comical) and sure enough Garren and Leangle come out of nowhere to fight them! Leangle of course gets upset with Garren for not letting him go after the main bad guy. This was followed by a very funny halftime segment of sorts where some kids were picked from the audience and interviewed by the Undead (!) about how they got to the event and who in their family came with them, in exchange for special exclusive gifts of course. After this the Upper Undead returns to show his true form. In a puff of smoke (this is a stage show, and probably less sophisticated than the Dekaranger one I saw before, but no less fun) he turns into the Wolf Undead! Yes, Wolf himself is back, and he looked awesome- I'd be shocked if that wasn't the original costume they were using, because it looked spot-on. Wolf announces that he's back (despite being sealed by Blade on TV) and he's not happy! Garren and Leangle show up, and it's two against one. But Wolf Undead has the BlayRouzer, and uses it against out heroes! Interestingly, he uses the Metal card, which I don't recall having seen get used on TV yet. He aslo uses Locust Kick, but Blade appears by this point (having already have gotten smacked around enough during this show!) Wolf appears to KO him, but he gets right back up and takes back his weapon, and starts kicking butt in true Rider style. Of course by now everyone has been wondering where a certain other Rider is, and he makes his grand entrance by blasting everyone with the Hawk Tornado and walking in from the audience! Yes, it's Chalice and he's not pleased that his signature guitar riff theme already got used in the beginning of the show (well that's not really why he's upset, but I like to think that) but Blade manages to convince him to put the usual theatrics on hold for the remainder of this show. So it's the four Riders vs. Wolf Undead and his goons. You can probably figure out what happens next. I took a lot of pictures during this show since it was all outside, and like I said despite the simple stage and limited space it was a lot of fun just to see the guys up-close and in person doing what up until now I've only seen on TV!
Following this it was back to the Rider Village, where Kenzaki/Kamen Rider Blade himself, Tsubaki Takayuki appeared! He handed out autographs to 50 lucky folks (who had gotten a special random ticket along with the exclusive Rouze Card from the Stamp Rally) and before the crowd of onlookers asked everyone to please go see Missing Ace this September. Luckily I was at the very front of the crowd so I got lots of good pictures, and when I waved he even waved back! So now it's official, I've has met a Kamen Rider, both in and out of costume. I think it will be hard to top that experience, unless I run into Fujioka Hiroshi himself!
As if things couldn't get much better at that point, I turned around on up on the "Coca-Cola Multi Stage" they were interviewing the Honda Blade Racing Team Girls. You know the ones...well, if you don't, I took plenty of pictures of the whole day's events, and I'll have those up when I get back along with all the others I've been taking!
Prior to the main events at the track (which starts at 11:30 am), around 10:15, there was an "opening ceremony" of sorts, the "Kamen Rider Parade". Blade on Blue Spader, Faiz on Autovajin, Kaixa on Sidebasher, Ryuki Survive on Dragranzer and Knight Survive on Darkraider all made a lap around the course (it's that HUGE) followed by 50 kids enrolled in the Suzuka Junior Racing School (with cute little Blade-themed costumes!) and who I guess were their accompanying instructors. Prior to this the Blade theme song was blasted over the large sound system a couple times along with commentary and sound bytes from the Blade commercials, as well as a preview for the upcoming Missing Ace movie. As the Rider Machines made their way around, Blade did a couple wheelies, which was cool. I was also surprised at just how fast Dragranzer and Darkraider really are (and they were still going slow enough so people could get pictures.) Of course the Riders were all suited up and waving to the crowd, which was pretty cool since it was ridiculously hot and I can imagine wearing one of those costumes must have not been pleasant. As soon as this was over I headed back to the "Grand Prix Square" where most of the other merchandise booths, displays and other events were being held (the place was beginning to fill up fast by this point, with families and racing enthusiasts staking out good seats or hillside vantage points). For casual motorcycle fans there's a lot to see here, kind of like a car show except bikes instead of cars. Also plenty of freebies (pamphlets, hats, fans, stickers, etc.) and lots of pretty girls plastered head-to-toe (that is, on however little it is they're wearing
) with whatever company's logo they were working for.The "Kamen Rider Village" was a little tent-covered area set up in the center of all this where a couple of things were located. These included:
-All the bikes previously mentioned were on display here, along with the actual Black Fang recently featured on Kamen Rider Blade! It's worth noting that considerable parts of those two episodes of Blade featuring the Black Fang (and Wolf Undead) were filmed at Suzuka, and as I'll get to later the day's theme heavily revolved around them. It was cool seeing the motorcylces up close; Blue Spader even had the really detailed controls (including Mobile Rouzer) and of course Black Fang just looked awesome, with its Undead Logos!
-Merchandise Shop! Items special only to this event where here, and I snapped up a couple Honda/Blade T-Shirts and a towel (hey, why not?) Also premiering here was the Bandai Rider Hero Series Kamen Rider Blade Jack Form figure, and I also got some Popy Chalice toys and the new Popynica diecast Cyclone. What was especially cool was that you also get extra free stuff with the purchase, I got some Blade fans, stickers, and a large bagged figure. Nice!
-This was also the center for the "Stamp Rally: Find the Undead!" an interesting (albeit near-impossible) scavenger hunt of sorts. You get a stamp book, and go around to various parts of the park/circuit to the stamp centers to fill out the pages of the book. After you get them all you can take it back here and exchange it for a prize. Unfortunately I just didn't have the time to do this along with all the other things I wanted to do, but it's okay because the prize was just an exclusive Suzuka Circuit Rouze Card. (and I already got the king of all exclusive Rouze Cards- the "Kamen Rider Blade Sausages" Chalice, baby! LOL) There was one little catch to all this that I wish I had known about earlier, but I'll get to that in a minute.
A little ways away from all this there was a special Blade stage show being held at 12:30 and 4:00, I caught the first one (I understand it that on Saturday the show was Faiz-themed). This was a ton of fun, despite the fact that it was really just a bunch of stunt guys in costumes running around on a near-barren stage, with no real special effects. But the costumes, for attraction versions, were very cool-looking, and the authentic voices, music and sound effects were used. All the signature weapons and attacks of the Riders were featured. There was even a storyline, which involves this dude in sunglasses (and wearing an upside-down Grongi Belt Buckle, which I found funny) showing up to harass the requisite cute announcer (who started off the show by asking everyone to raise their hand when she named their favorite Blade-era Rider) and of course Blade shows up to fight him. The evil dude said he was an Upper Level Undead and then proceeds to beat the stuffing out of Blade, and steal the BlayRouzer! Later some original Undead henchmen (!) appear to menace the audience (although they were really being pretty comical) and sure enough Garren and Leangle come out of nowhere to fight them! Leangle of course gets upset with Garren for not letting him go after the main bad guy. This was followed by a very funny halftime segment of sorts where some kids were picked from the audience and interviewed by the Undead (!) about how they got to the event and who in their family came with them, in exchange for special exclusive gifts of course. After this the Upper Undead returns to show his true form. In a puff of smoke (this is a stage show, and probably less sophisticated than the Dekaranger one I saw before, but no less fun) he turns into the Wolf Undead! Yes, Wolf himself is back, and he looked awesome- I'd be shocked if that wasn't the original costume they were using, because it looked spot-on. Wolf announces that he's back (despite being sealed by Blade on TV) and he's not happy! Garren and Leangle show up, and it's two against one. But Wolf Undead has the BlayRouzer, and uses it against out heroes! Interestingly, he uses the Metal card, which I don't recall having seen get used on TV yet. He aslo uses Locust Kick, but Blade appears by this point (having already have gotten smacked around enough during this show!) Wolf appears to KO him, but he gets right back up and takes back his weapon, and starts kicking butt in true Rider style. Of course by now everyone has been wondering where a certain other Rider is, and he makes his grand entrance by blasting everyone with the Hawk Tornado and walking in from the audience! Yes, it's Chalice and he's not pleased that his signature guitar riff theme already got used in the beginning of the show (well that's not really why he's upset, but I like to think that) but Blade manages to convince him to put the usual theatrics on hold for the remainder of this show. So it's the four Riders vs. Wolf Undead and his goons. You can probably figure out what happens next. I took a lot of pictures during this show since it was all outside, and like I said despite the simple stage and limited space it was a lot of fun just to see the guys up-close and in person doing what up until now I've only seen on TV!
Following this it was back to the Rider Village, where Kenzaki/Kamen Rider Blade himself, Tsubaki Takayuki appeared! He handed out autographs to 50 lucky folks (who had gotten a special random ticket along with the exclusive Rouze Card from the Stamp Rally) and before the crowd of onlookers asked everyone to please go see Missing Ace this September. Luckily I was at the very front of the crowd so I got lots of good pictures, and when I waved he even waved back! So now it's official, I've has met a Kamen Rider, both in and out of costume. I think it will be hard to top that experience, unless I run into Fujioka Hiroshi himself!
As if things couldn't get much better at that point, I turned around on up on the "Coca-Cola Multi Stage" they were interviewing the Honda Blade Racing Team Girls. You know the ones...well, if you don't, I took plenty of pictures of the whole day's events, and I'll have those up when I get back along with all the others I've been taking!
