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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Build
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09-13-2019, 06:35 PM
#
11
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
KAMEN RIDER BUILD EPISODES 5 - 8
It's interesting to me that Build would dive so quickly into clearing up some of its initial mysteries, or at the very least, confirm viewers' suspicions. That's not what I expected! I thought we'd get the usual Just Show Off The Gimmicks early-season plots, along with some fun character moments, but
nope
: we are all in on Sento's mysterious origin, the nature of Sento and Banjou's abilities, where Hipster Dad got the Pandora panel, even some clues to who Sento was before he was Sento. That's a lot!
Maybe too much too fast!
It's not such a bad thing, at least in episodes 5 and 6. It helps that, first off, the revelations about various mysteries are there to reaffirm some of the growth and introspection we saw in the last few episodes. The show does an excellent job feeding these answers (or, possibly, "answers") to Sento and Banjou as not just exposition and Plot, but to test the characters' beliefs and give the audience a clear sense of who each character is. Sento is, we're told, a character who worries about others, who tries to help people because he wants to
think
of himself as someone who helps others. Banjou is, we're shown, someone who can be ruthless about clearing his name and getting answers for why his life is a nightmare. So, the smartest thing to do as a story is to force the two of them into
opposite roles
. Sento is driven into a myopic rage by Blood Stalk, ignoring victims to get to the truth about his missing memories. Banjou has to abandon the one person so far who seems to know what's going on to save a bunch of strangers and help Build see that getting revenge isn't the answer. It's smart, you guys. It's
so, so smart
.
The other, maybe bigger reason I don't mind so much Revelation this early in the show is that I'm sure there's bigger bombshells to come, plus I don't know how much I beleive a lot of what we're being told. Hipster Dad in particular,
man
. I feel like
a lot
is being left out. I don't think it's lies
per se
, but there is clearly More To Come with that dude.
Oh, one other thing about this two-parter I loved is the noir-ish moral complexity to the characters and mysteries. (There's that W influence again...) The few victims that Build has rescued are, one mom aside, kind-of unknowingly/reluctantly complicit in kidnapping, assault, and framing someone for murder. No one's a saint in this show, is what I'm getting at. Even Banjou setting Nightmare Teeth loose to track down the Faust base is something that is sort-of defensible, and the show doesn't treat it like anything more than a dick move. It's
a lot
more mature than I'm used to from a franchise that exists to get children to ask their parents to buy them toys.
So, uh, I didn't
love
how episodes 7 and 8 turned out? I still liked them, there's fun stuff in there, but,
yeah
, maybe this story is the downside of having a lot of mysteries bubbling in the series.
It's a lot of people telling us things that I don't totally trust. On any other Rider show, a villain saying Here's What Happened, you can
usually
trust them. I don't think the producers want to confuse kids that much, so any reveal can be taken at face value. With Build, it's a smart enough show that, short of actual proof, you're smart to be skeptical of who's saying something, and why. The downside, narratively, is that you can eat up a lot of time dropping plot bombs that provoke a reaction roughly along the lines of
"jerk-off motion"
. That is maybe not the desired reaction?
The thing that keeps those plot decisions from doing any real damage is that the show doesn't assume viewers are morons. It's a very tough line to put forward information that
seems
true, but has the ability to be expanded later into something different. Not
lies
, but, like, stuff that's true
from a certain point of view
. You don't want to cheat an audience, but you need to give them a plausible enough answer that they maybe won't ask so many questions for a few episodes. Build does an admirable job having every character act like they aren't suffering from a concussion, and can think clearly. (Well, except Banjou, who may
actually
be suffering from one or more concussions.) No one really thinks Sento killed Takumi. Like, Banjou's
super
suspicious, but he doesn't actually have any proof, so he's willing to just investigate until they know more. Sento's concerned, but he's not, like, turning himself in. In general, when presented with information that could rock them to their core, everybody in Team Build is like, "Let's take a step back and really consider not just the information, but the source of that information. Maybe there's more going on here." That is some smart plotting! It gives the characters something, but keeps them from feeling like they can stop working. Similarly, the audience gets to see a part of the puzzle, without the show trying to tell them they've seen the whole picture. I never felt like the show was wasting my time or dragging things out, so
that's
appreciated.
I just didn't feel like the actual story was as engaging as they'd been previously. The villains and their conflicts are great, but the supporting cast was basically nowhere for this story, and too much information was just someone telling us a long story. Just, you know,
not that kinetic for a superhero program!
Oh, and so you can mock my inevitable wrongness, here's a couple theories: Sento is Takumi's knowledge/brain in Punk Rocker's body (Build is all about combinations! It's a motif!), and Hipster Dad is Blood Stalk. Please laugh at these in private. Thanks!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on
KamenRiderDie.com
!
Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 10-13-2023 at
10:03 PM
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