For this God-tier theme article, let’s look at two television shows that put the holy in “holy cow” and are, in my opinion, God-tier for their genres. The first show is VeggieTales, a Christian children’s show about vegetables that sing songs, tell stories from the Bible in their own goofy twist, and learn some meaningful lessons along the way. They also believe in God for some reason. The other show is Kamen Rider Gaim, a one season tokusatsu (live action) show about a boy who saves the world from monsters and other Riders using the power of some fruit, a belt, and samurai armor. The show both has god-like beings and two main characters who become gods themselves.
VeggieTales
Created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki and originally direct to video releases, the show stars Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber with other various vegetable characters as they live their lives in the kitchen.
Bob will usually tell a story that has the VeggieTales cast in place of the characters in that particular story. The stories of each episode have a lot of variety and usually have some silly twist that makes the story more of a parody. Despite the fact that this is a Christian show with references to god and Christian morals, there isn’t a lot of episodes that have Bible-based stories and a lot of them are more based on pop culture. You have episodes like “Rack, Shack and Benny” and “Dave and the Giant Pickle” that are based on biblical stories. Then their’s episodes such as “Beauty and the Beet”, “Celery Night Fever” and “Veggies in Space: The Fennel Frontier” that are based on existing television or movies. They’re also original story episodes like “Where’s God When I’m S-Scared” which are just episodes to teach a moral and then you have the Larry-Boy episodes like “Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space!” that star Larry as the title superhero with toilet plungers on the sides of his mask duking it out with the episode’s antagonist.
Each episode contains a segment called Silly Songs with Larry, in which Larry the Cucumber will sing a silly song. Pretty explanatory. These usually happen in the middle of the episode. Each episode ends with the moral of the story. Usually its something surface level like don’t lie, have faith, or God is always watching so you should never be afraid of Frankencelery.
Outside the show, there have been two movies, and three spin-offs including an animated Larry-Boy show and two recent Netflix shows. The theme song is just called “The VeggieTales theme song”. It’s catchy. VeggieTales as a whole is a better Christian cartoon than most as it has different stories, songs, and jokes that anybody could get into.
Kamen Rider Gaim
Based on the long-running television series and manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori, Kamen Rider Gaim is the 24th entry in the series franchise and the 15th series in the Heisei era lineup. The show stars our protagonist Kouta Kazuraba, a young man who recently quit his dance team, becoming the hero Kamen Rider Gaim after wandering into a portal into the “Helheim forest” and mysteriously finding a Sengoku Driver (a belt) and an Orange Lockseed (the shows collectible toy) which are used to transform into the said hero. Kamen Rider Gaim or, Armored Rider Gaim’s, motif is that of a mix between an orange and a samurai. During the series run, Kouta would help his former dance team deal with rival teams, but also fight different villain groups. This includes the other Armored Riders in the show who also share in fruit/warrior themed costumes. The Inves, the monsters of the show. Yggdrasill Corporation, a corporation that runs the city and is secretly investigating the monsters. The Over Lord Inves, god-like monsters that live in the forest. Lastly, the Helheim forest itself, the main force behind the monsters and conflict throughout.
Kamen Rider Gaim will make allies, fight enemies, and along the way collect more toys and learn what it means to grow up and be an adult. So where does God fit in? Besides some small nods to Christian and Norse religion, Kouta himself towards the end of the show ends up becoming a God-like being similar to the Over Lord Inves due to “help” from the puzzling Sagara, a “man” who is actually the Helheim forest itself. He would be the one to start the conflict of the series and have the other Riders fight for The Forbidden Fruit, an object from the forest itself that could grant the winner of the fight with the other riders the power to become a God-like being that could change the world in his or her image. The main character himself would gain the nickname “Fruit Jesus” because of his ensuing transformation. This battle royale is a fairly dark series and has many twists and surprises along the way, but you still have a bunch of colorful men in costumes, rubber suit monsters, explosions, and lots of obvious advertisement (toys).
Besides the show, there are eight movies (3 main to the series and 5 crossover flicks), and two specials. There are twenty Riders throughout each media and Two riders who will fight out to change the world. Who will get the Forbidden Fruit? The theme song “JUST LIVE MORE” is amazing. Especially the first two lines “Don’t say no, just live more”. Compared to other Rider shows, this one if definitely one of the best, it is simply, god-tier.
