Zizai No 4 review

Review by Effraim.

ZiZai No 4 comes in 12 chapters and sections flow back and forth between park/street/flat riding, which reflects Akira’s riding style at the moment, at the recent Rebel Jam Akira was the only rider to enter all three disciplines! BMX!…This review would be over 5000 words if i described all the park/street moves, but what interested me about the street, was that as technical as the flatland is, the street goes down a more burly route, its seems like an escape, pedalling around fast, big drops (Akira throws the bars down 5 stairs hop 3’s etc) , gaps, grinds, not as you might expect w/ flat tech related moves, although they are some. It actually makes for a nice contrast in riding styles and breaks up the dvd nicely. For the purposes of this review I will only talk about the flat in any length though…

Morichi kicks things off flatland wise with a killer back wheel flow in what looks like a loading dock type of spot, spinning lawnmower with hand crossed round back turbined and pivoted to upside down wheelie pivot to mega spin to spinning dump truck caboose to multiple body varial one kick to junkyard to lawns to mega spin out, so much style and power! They move into a shopping mall and drop a nice multiple line before getting kicked out by security, with no editing back to back, the way this move is shot gives you a real idea of how fast Morichi is carving into his tricks, inside switch ft dump truck to inside two footed dump truck on pedals drop down to caboose to two footed dump truck pivot to gliding junkyard and out, then he drops a really nice inside switch ft dump truck opposite side 360 flip to time machine,ump truck pivot to gliding junkyard and out…This back to back line was sick, a short opener, but really well shot, and had me wanting more!!! His riding seems more refined, powerful and smoother than the last time I saw him ride.

The next flat section is huge! It covers a lil’ KOG action, plus features underground riders such as Kyoro killing it on the front wheel, really nice opening combo, turbine cyborg to fire hydrant barflip to hitch juggle to steam flips to fire hydrant bar flip to x bar pumping cyborg to spinning cliff and out, the next combo flows so well, one handed karl turbine balancing foot on the pedal pivot to xft pumping steam ala Alex Jumelin to yammer xft spin back to steam flips fire hydrant whips turbine to one handed karl turbine walkaround ride out, he follows with a short but killer whiplash variation, xft ankledeath whiplash hop over the frame to hang five regular foot whiplash out, his riding buddy Ryouhei drops a hammer back wheel combo! Winds up an xft mega spin inside circles right into backwards spinning g-roll flip to caboose body varial to junkyard to time machine, we are only a short way into this dvd, and my thoughts were about the variety of riding styles in japan, so good to see, you see dudes killing with brakes or without, taking old tricks and making them new! Not afraid to scuff, or bring back an old classic…
Takuma Kawamura kicks in with a really nice rollback to spinning walkaround pedal decade to open, the DVD flows rider to rider very quickly, Tanman and Inga follow with a few clips each, Inga has a few Degroot type of lines, whist Tanman flows around the bike, flapjack style, its impossible to mention all here.

Taikou Kaneda has only a few clips, but oh my god! So killer, style for miles, his back wheel finesse is groundbreaking I would say! Mega spin bikeflip to xft backwards carving two dump truck no scuff body varial backwards spinning caboose ala Raphael Chiquet and out, the next link blew my mind, I have hit the rewind so many times, and it gets better each time! Xft backwards spinning lawn pivot to backwards spinning two footed upside down on the opposite side flip to spinning greater to two footed backyard pivot out..Amazing, definitely one of the most cutting edge riders on the planet right now!

A short clip of Jigechan follows, so steezy!!! Multiple xft karl pivot backwards steam back to xft karl, never seen that before! Kappa drops some nice multiple inside hang 5 turbines, as well really nice walkaround steams pivot to xft steam walkaround again, dope! Theres a lil’ old school flav dropped by a guy named Robo, megaspin to spinning hopping pedal picker, and forward side glide to quick spin!, that made me smile, and further gave me the thought about diversity in riding styles you see coming out of Japan is one of the best things about their scene!
A guy called Hinagotti drops a new move I haven’t seen before (there are quite a few on this DVD!), X-ft one handed hangfive to inside one handed xft steam turbines! so nice! Im sure this one will get copied very fast, but for now, it seemed so fresh, how he held the long slow turbine x-fted and one handed, skills!
Couple of really nice clips from Takumi, My favourite was an Inside carving opposite side dump truck bikeflip to two footed caboose turbine come out of the turbine xft upside down wheelie pivot to time machine, I screamed at the screen when I saw how good this was!!! Not only because this was dope, but i had been trying part of this move….
Morichi returns with a hammer combo! Xft spinning lawnmower pivot to opposite side rope-a-roni turbine to regular side spinning g-roll to gerator to two footed backyard and out!

A couple of clips follow from none other than Martti Kuoppa, pedal 5 full bar flip out, and a few from the KOG practise session, stem whiplashes, 180 skid to footjam decade, the boss looks like he’s having fun, plenty of smiles, and a nice surprise to see him on this dvd! This section is going and going, Russia follows with his infamous flapjack style, then flows right back to more underground riders, Manabe and Takuji, xft opposite side pedal 5 stood on the stem jump to steam jump round to regular steam hang five round xft jump over to xft steam full flip round rideout, most of these clips are shot at night, giving a real feel of the flatland culture in japan, riding after work!

Takuji Kasahara follows in the pitch black, with camera flash looking like the only light! Takuji drops a really nice inside spinning hang 5 with so much tweak, such a good style! I cant get over how dark the footage on his small section, no idea how he is riding like that! Most riders seem to be getting two clips, then the next rider, it flows really nice you get used to a riders style and it’s onto a totally different riding style, and the next rider is Hiroya Morisaki, and the trick is what have already seen blowing up online! Now when I saw this for the first time, I screamed outloud, you know the move, Mega spin full whopper (no scuff) mega spin decade, so much power and recision, Hiro is dope as fuck! Different level! The section ends… And I need a tea break……Heavy stuff!!

The next flat section, is shot at a local jam, with some short clips of Akira and Moto before going right into a big section with Akihiro Takahasi, this years groundtactics winner, fresh on Junglerider, the section opens with a few slams, then a ton of backwards whiplashes, so controlled! I really like where Aki is taking his riding,his backwards pumping technique has no increased the possibilities and flow of all his combos, take this following combo as an example, backwards crackpacker pivot to backwards guillotine to xft forkwheelie bar flip regular fork wheelie flip to backwards whiplashes to backwards forkwheelie back into backwards whiplashes to backwards xft peddle 5 jump to backwards guillotine and out, Aki’s riding as whole seems so much smoother as a result of the execution of his backwards pumping, the section builds up with a ton of guillotine whiplashes, jumping back and forth between them, and finishes with an amazing ender, downside carving inside backwards whiplashes to backwards karl to backwards halfpacker step over backwards crack bar flip to backwards crack and out, Akira is stoked! Aki is stoked, banger section!

The next flat section falls to style cat Ikko! Wow! The lowest seat in flat im sure, so steezie! This section I found one of the most exciting to watch, I had no idea what would come next, the section opens with fast jumplashes to fire hydrant turbines, whipping back and forth, front scuff pinkies brakeless ala Osicka (uses this style a lot in the section), but he uses them to go back into whiplashes and keep the move flowing like that, incredible. Forwards and backwards and xft jumplashes follow, I got the feeling this guy freestyles, combos are not planned! Perhaps one of the tricks of the dvd and somes up the japanese scene well I thought, he does pinky squeaks like a jumplash technique, they so fast they are almost rolling even tho he’s touching the tyre, just beautiful! An old trick became new! So so fresh! Really stoked on Ikko’s riding!!

The next section features the riding of Keisuke Tanigawa, one of my favourite riders right now, all shot at a flatland contest, there so much to take in, the first main combo, xft spinning hiker pivot to right arm halfpacker pivot as if to go to opposite xft hitch to steam but misses the xft hiker, direct to spin, complicated, but executed so well, the combo continues stepping back into hang 5 to halfpacker in xft inside steam pivot to steam and front scuff out, it could be the fact he does so much xft stuff as to why i like his riding so much! Xft carving juggler pivot to halfpacker whip to xft hitch xft boomerang xft hang 5 jump to spinning crack to steam to x bar mccircle step over crack steam so quick and effortless and out, perfect aesthetics to his riding, unreal! Jimalog follows, in front of bars coasting frontyard drags his foot in this position as if to go into infront of bars whiplashes but delays it, and coasts round a cycle in front of bar one foot front yard then lets it go into in front of bars whiplashes to left arm halfpacker boomerang to right arm halfpacker jump to crackpacker and out, shame there wasn’t more Jimalog footage, short and sweet, Zizai style!

Akira’s section follows next, and is a collection as you’d expect of street/park/flatclips, his street clips are so raw, his flat stuff is short and quick, coasting dump truck had round the back stubble duck out, and a banger, xft carving wheelie, full 360 stubbleduck and out, so nice! Simple idea, never seen before! Street wise stand out for me are bump up 5 stairs 180, 180 bunnyhop over rail to backwards manual, Decade airs on ramp! Akira’s riding is incredible, one unique rider!

The last section goes to the one and only Hotoke! The section opens with a loose hop to curb ride down a mellow curb at a really scenic location, quick time lapse of some clouds and boom straight into the real action! Xft pedal whiplashes xft whiplash to xft steam, flowing back to pedal 5 and out. The camera work is spot on in this section, following and flowing with Hotoke’s riding. Whiplash to side pedal 5 xft steam boomerang jump to mccircle to fire hydrant frontyard walkaround to steam varial xft rideout, incredible control. He follows with xft inside karl jump over the frame to halfpacker pivot to opposite hitch pivot to steam fire turbine out.
Hotoke’s classic xft ankledeath inside karl 360 stubbleduck to halfpacker pivot xft hitch steam and out follows, he follows this with the same combo till the halfpacker, where he adds xft inside jump over steam so quick and out, Hotoke rides like he has brakes, so many big jumps! You don’t see this kind of stuff from brakeless riders! he rides a really tight stage area, then drops a really nice rolling combo, long fast multiple whiplashes to side pedal 5 and coast thru a tiny gap that cant be much than a wheel wide, this section kind of made me see Hotoke a lil’ differently, you could see he had fun making this section with Akira, theres fun stuff as well as intense combos, a really nice mix I thought! Hotoke continues, with a really nice ankledeath whiplash step over xft whiplash to xft karl turbine pivot to spinning crack to steam and out, The ender is a opposite xft carved long turbine whiplashes into xft ankledeath inside karl 360 pivot to halfpacker inside steam quick jump regulate steam and out! Hotoke’s riding is incredible, Akira did a great job documenting his riding, a real treat to see!

In summary, Akira’s filming and editing skills have progressed a lot, I really liked how he shot a lot of the riding moving, you got a real perspective how fast the riders were going into their tricks, the dvd is worth it for the extensive middle flat section, the action flows so quickly, Aki’s and Hotokes sections stand out of course, but theres so much more as I have mentioned! Besides the riding, the dvd stands out in my mind, because its not trying to be anything it is not, 90 percent japanese soundtrack, Akira’s friends having fun doing what they do on the daily, it seems really natural and fun!

If your into the japanese scene, and fancy watching a DVD with a lot of diversity, that is lacking in modern day flatland, then this dvd is for you!

To order contact:

Price is 24 euros + 1.90 shipping flat rate worldwide!

And a new bundle offer for 35 Euros you can choose two of the four Zai DVD: http://distancecycles.bigcartel.com/product/dvd-zai-ultra-zai-bundle Same shipping cost.

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