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Thread
:
Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Hibiki
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09-24-2020, 11:20 PM
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10
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Switchblade
So I may have mentioned this before, but Hibiki is my favorite Rider series. In fact, it goes beyond that and is one of my favorite TV series in general. It is like comfort food for me; if I've had a bad day I can pop on an episode of Hibiki and just feel
happy.
It is a world and a set of characters that I just delight in revisiting (this will be my fourth time through). There's just this great cozy vibe to it that I love.
"Cozy"! Another word that feels incongruent to a show about superheroes immolating monsters, but, yeah! It's a very cozy episode!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Switchblade
Again, I love this show's characters. Hibiki and Asumu are very much at the heart of it and they're both very well-realized and believable. I can't say that every character is fully three-dimensional, but the cast is great and the interpersonal dynamics are one of the show's greatest delights.
The thing about Asumu that I really enjoyed is that the show didn't belabor his love of music or his frustration with not being a musician yet. They just let it thread through a couple scenes (him getting SO MAD at the dude who messed up the cymbal, the way he needed to check out of the family's interrogation of his musical progress) and let you put it together. There's no big Statement scene (I'm sure there will be, though), which kept the episode humming along nicely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Switchblade
Speaking of cast, though, one bummer to point out. The younger sister, Hinaka (aka Hair Pin), was played by an actress named Miyuki Kanbe. Sadly, she passed away from sudden heart failure just a few years after the show ended. It's a real tragedy, especially given how full of life she was on this show.
Hinaka! Got it! And, yeah, that's sad to hear.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Switchblade
I am so glad to read this. Hibiki is one of those shows that can definitely be an acquired taste. I've seen a lot of people who watched the opening music scene and noped out right away. It's a very cool and unique show that is both strange and wonderful at the same time.
I'm a pretty easy mark for Kamen Rider shows. I like all different kinds. This couldn't feel more different from the shows that preceded it (despite having the humanity of Agito, the weird humor of Faiz, the grandiose scope of Kuuga, the in-media-res of Blade, and the I Can't Think Of A Ryuki Thing of Ryuki), but I like it just the same. I just like Kamen Rider shows, I guess. I ain't that complicated!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Switchblade
And now for the thing that I tell everyone when they start watching Hibiki:
This show is fantastic. Don't finish it.
The show's production is famously troubled. I'll avoid any plot details, but ratings weren't great and the show went well over budget due to a lot of location filming and CGI. The show was a pet project of its producer, Shigenori Takatera, who refused to make any changes when Toei demanded some budget trimming. Maybe if the toy sales were really good they could counteract the low ratings and high costs, but they weren't. Takatera and the show's writers were sacked after episode 29 and replaced with a new creative staff including our old pal Toshiki Inoue. The show changes a lot at that point, much more closely resembling a normal Kamen Rider series. It's not
objectively terrible
, but it loses a lot of its unique character (it turned out to be a big PR disaster for Toei, too, as some of the cast publicly complained about the change).
I know you work in comics, so think about it like this: Hibiki is Grant Morrison's X-Men run. It's weird and unconventional, it does a lot of things very differently, and it had a real "love it or hate it" reputation. Now imagine that Morrison's sales weren't great and Marvel fired him about 2/3s of the way into the run and replaces him with Scott Lobdell.* Lobdell's a fine writer and has a solid history with the brand, but this isn't Lobdell getting any actual control, this is just him keeping the lights on until the next creative team is ready. So no more Scott and Emma, no Xorn reveal, no Fantomex; just a bunch of issues of the X-Men fighting the Acolytes of Magneto or something until Joss Whedon's schedule freed up. It wouldn't be
bad
, per say, but it would be a massive step down from what we got. That's basically what happened with Hibiki: the wonderful and unique show got replaced with something on par with filler episodes of Blade or Ryuki.
I really recommend stopping after episode 29. It's not a series finale, but it's a decent enough stopping point that won't leave a bad taste in your mouth.
That said, I know you'll ignore this like everyone else but Matrixbeast. I still need to try, though.
*I know that they would've just used Chuck Austen in real life, but I'm not going to compare Inoue to Chuck Austen. That would just be mean.
Hard pass, but I appreciate your insight and the X-Men analogy. (Although, Inoue is 1000% Chris Claremont, for better and worse.)
What I'll probably end up doing is a Series Wrap-Up post at 29, and another at 48. Basically treat them like two separate series. With all of the controversy and animosity the production switchover created, I wouldn't feel super great about trying to assess this as one series that's trying to say one thing. I'm okay looking at it as a run, followed by another run.
Like, to make a comics analogy, creative teams come and go. I've read a hundred different people tell stories about The Batman Of Gotham City. I don't think, no matter how much I dislike a specific take, that I could be done with the character. I may not like it as much, but I hope that there's something in it I'll appreciate. Seeing different people try to say something with a character, I honestly don't have a problem with that. I know it's not necessarily the done thing in tokusatsu, but from my corner of the world it's business as usual.
(And, like, I'm specifically talking about corporate superhero product, like Kamen Rider is. Characters like Batman and Hibiki... it's not ever just one person's vision. There're people above the writer who have to approve it and shape it, and there're people below the writer who have to interpret and execute it. There are pieces of art in this world that are one person's vision, but superhero comics and TV shows ain't one, for me at least.)
I don't... I'm not a fan of potentially missing out on art. I like being able to experience it, even if it's not an all-time great. Like, people had some pretty harsh things to say about Faiz, and I love that show. If I'd listened to the folks who got heated about that show, I'd've missed out on something that I ended up caring deeply about. I don't know. I'm honestly thrilled to find out why the show's change is so devastating to you. I want to see why the show was so treasured, and what change could make you feel so betrayed.
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