If I search this website of how many times I've wrote the word, "nostalgia", it is actually quite often.... it comes up frequently and often.... it seems. I've mentioned it many times and in many different connotations and attributed it in different ways to many different people or characters.
I'm in my middle-age now and remembering older times is something I notice I tend to do often now-a-times... for better or for worse... most likely for worse, I'd say. Holding on to the past is sort of a bad thing, actually.
Yes... I've written about it a surprising amount of times it seems.
Jean Shepherd hates it.
Jello Biafra thinks it doesn't exist.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake made us fight it.
The Residents think it makes old men drunk from it.
South Park seems to think it grows on trees like farmable berries.
Kazuma Kiryu can unlock in-game achievements as he runs around Kamurocho.
This is a word I write about often. It is a word I think about often.
Tonight, let us think again about that powerful concept... called "Nostalgia".....
A well-known and not-so-understood concept. I personally agree with the people who say it is a bad thing... I, too, feel it is a bad thing. People think of the past as a better place and want to go back there somehow even though they can't... but was the past even better to begin with? No, it wasn't... the past actually sucked. It sucked a lot more than people remembering it sucking.
"....and watch old men getting drunk on nostalgia. Reliving their imaginary glory..."
-"The Old Soldier," The Residents
Yeah, I'm midden-aged now, and I too am probably an old solder. Nostalgia to me is also that dreary, honestly... it's a sad thing like a old man getting drunk off of low-class swill... talking about how good Ty Cobb used to be at baseball or how great it was when Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.
"...or are these wholesome memories, really just from re-runs on TV, or ads in old garage-sale magazines?"
-"Nostalgia for an Age which Never Existed, " Jello Biafra (featuring Mojo Nixon)
Haha, oh wow.... so many emotions associated with it... Jello's on to something there, maybe, with his assertion that all our wholesome memories of yore are probably just from commercials and magazine ads. I think he's right.
Jean Shepherd said something like that too... he felt the "real" life of people never existed in the movies or tv shows themselves... but the real-life problems of the times really existed in the commercials ...and one fine day... humanity would feel pure nostalgia for the commercial itself. We'd fondly remember commercials and advertisements. A whole generation would have fond memories of Lady Plumber, he felt.
I am already like this. He's right. I won't lie to you, reader, that I have a deep personal nostalgia for... commercials. I really actually do have this. I heard the 80s and 90s nostalgia-ist Dinosaur Dracula mention something once that gave me a WAVE of memories from my past just from him mentioning an old television advertisement. Do you know what it was? I'll tell you what the ad was if you want to know what the ad was... it was an advertisement starring former tag team champions Demolition... and Demolition wanted to help with the important task of informing children that... it was time to remind their parents... in the case that their parents forgot... that... Tuesday Night is Kids Night at Pizza Hut!
Wow. Ax and Smash were such great guys.
I definitely have fond memories of commercials, there is no doubt about that.... just to think of a few... Wilford Brimley selling oatmeal, Robert Loggia selling orange juice, and Patrick taking out life insurance... are three I remember well.
It puts it in perspective though. Young people, when you hear old people say things like, it was so much better in our day, your generation doesn't know anything and everything was better twenty-five years ago... they are likely talking about television commercials. Our television commercials were better than yours! That is what they are really saying. They think they had better commercials than you do.
It's true though... life wasn't better, really, people weren't better... but the advertising jingles were better!
Your grandparents had BETTER ads for Grape Nuts!
"OH NO! MRS. BURKE!? But, I thought you was Dale!
Young people, when you hear old people tell you everything was better in their times... just remember to keep it in perspective. They are not talking about quality of life, military capabilities, technology, nutrition, or anything like that was better... all that they really had better than your generation was... Grape Nuts commercials. Those were actually better than what we have to today to advertise Grape Nuts.
As for my generation? We didn't have really anything better than your generation has now... except our pizza commercials were way better than yours are now, that's about it... everything else was worse and sucked way more worse than now.
Nostalgia as Power
I like Japanese Cartoons, sometimes, anime, they are called now... I like three of them... Kinnikuman, Dragon Ball Z, and One Piece... which are, I think, produced by the same company... Shonen Jump makes all three of these. They are for males these ones with lots of fighting and stupidities.
Recently I've added a fourth Japanse animation show to the list that I like... and it will be the topic for today's essay as well.
This show is...
Tojima Tanzaburo Wants to Be a Kamen Rider!
He is really into Kamen Rider, his apartment is covered wall-to-wall with Kamen Rider memorabilia. He says to himself one fine day, that he doesn't want to die alone in an apartment filled with Kamen Rider memorabilia... and with a profound sadness sells it all away and renounces his childhood dream of becoming a Kamen Rider and defeating the evil forces of Shocker... which was literally the worst thing he could've done... because... right after he gives up on his lifelong dream of becoming a Kamen Rider... a mysterious evil group emerges to take over the world! Oh no! What terrible luck! The world actually needs a Kamen Rider right now! The world needs a Kamen Rider quite badly right now!
Evil forces are in play and no one has the power to stop this evil group hell-bent on world domination... it's finally Tojima Tanzaburo's time to shine and fulfill his life-long dream of punching and kicking bad guys to save the world from evil!
As a kid... he wanted to be a Kamen Rider.
As a middle-aged man... several evil-forces made him not want but NEED to become a Kamen Rider.
In the end... Tojima Tanzaburo BECAME A KAMEN RIDER!
His character arc is perfect. What a tremendous literary character he is! He really is.
When he fought Dracula at the end of season one... it made me feel so many emotions. I was pumped from the action, brought to tears by the beauty of it, felt nostalgic from the song that played that rendered homage to Kamen Rider as they battled, and laughed heartily when Dracula got punched in the stomach and puked blood all over the floor.
His Nostalgia for Kamen Rider was not a hindrance in his life at all... in fact... his Nostalgia gave him unheard of amounts of strength and power... his love of a 1970s television show... provided him with enough inner-strength and resolve to defeat Dracula and save the world.
I've never seen Nostalgia presented in this fashion... as a source of power... as a source of strength. It is very fascinating to me to think of holding onto something dear as a source of strength.
Are you a seventies kid who grew up loving Star Wars? Let that be a source of strength.
Are you an eighties kid who grew up loving the Ghostbusters? Let that be a source of power.
Are you a nineties kid who grew up loving those Pokemon monsters? Let that love for those Pokemon monsters help you one day defeat Dracula after Shocker tries to take over the world. When you are in a bad place of your life just ask yourself... what would jigglypuff do?
Tojima wants to be a Kamen Rider... what a fun show. Great show.
There's obviously a level of camp to this show but it's not really that campy... the fighting is too cool for it to ever truly be seen as campy.
All in all, I give Tojima Wants to be a Kamen Rider the following review:
Story: A+
Sound Effects: A+
Fighting: A++
Drama: A+
Cinematography: A+
Kaiju: A+
Special Effects: S
Tag Finishers: A
70s Nostalgia for Kamen Rider: S+
Final Boss Fight: S
Overall: S (Super)
...and remember...
...
TO HOLD ON TO PEACE AND PRESERVE IT IN THIS WOOOOORLD!
GO! GO! LET'S GO! YOU EVER SHIMMERING MACHINE!
RIIIIDER! JUMP!
RIIIIIIIIIIDER! KICK!
KAMEN RIDER! KAMEN RIDER!
RIDER! RIDER!
