TFW2005
Hisstank
Thundercats
TokuNation
Toyark
Home
News
Garo
Godzilla
Kamen Rider
Metal Heroes
Power Rangers
Super Sentai
Ultraman
All News Categories
Forum
News & Rumors
Power Rangers
Kamen Rider
Super Sentai
Other Toku Series
Toys and Collectables
Marketplace
Creative
Galleries
Companies
Bandai Japan
Tamashii Nations
Saban Brands
Bandai America
Toei
Characters
Kamen Rider Ghost
Kamen Rider Specter
Kamen Rider Necrom
Mighty Morphin Green Ranger
Dino Charge Red Ranger
Toylines
S.H. Figuarts
S.H. MonsterArts
DX Mecha
Megazords
Legacy
Shows
Kamen Rider Ghost
Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger
Power Rangers Dino Supercharge
Power Rangers Movie 2017
TokuNation.com
>
TokuNation
Integration
User Name
Remember Me?
Password
Rules
Register
Community
Today's Posts
Search
Community Links
Members List
Search Forums
Show Threads
Show Posts
Advanced Search
Go to Page...
Thread
:
What are you watching? (Kamen Rider Edition)
View Single Post
01-18-2020, 04:53 PM
#
15716
Kurona
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
I got a little derailed the past month or two between Christmas, and birthdays, and politics, and... alright, it was mostly Pokémon and Fire Emblem. But either way it's been a while since I really continued Blade, and so yesterday and today I ended up binging through almost the entire back half. I'm finally finished Blade.
... It was pretty good! From what I've heard, I imagine my criticisms aren't too contrarian; the show around the middle was a little... uh, middling; and the Mutsuki stuff went on WAY too long. I loved when Tachibana took him under his wing because it was a great dynamic that showed development and the dude's a surprisingly good teacher; and then you mix in Shima who surprised me in how much I liked him and there was promising stuff but then for some reason they decided to just repeat the first part of his development until the last minute and... uh, right, I started this off saying Blade was really good. And that's because it was! Those two things aside, it's not top 5 or anything for me but it's certainly a wonderful series to go out on. Despite the direction change about halfway through, the series still felt very consistent and organic in how it handled all its concepts and like Drive I felt it had a great mix between serialised and motw storytelling; there's always
something
progressing even in the slower episodes and you've got a cast that is so easy to fall in love with. Even when I felt the series was meandering a little with, say, Kenzaki and Hajime; it comes swinging out of left field with huge development for the both of them before centering the entire series around them! It's awesome just how much I came to love the two and how much I came to cheer for them. I'm very much a rambler so I apologise for this not being laid out very well, but overall I hope this conveys the sense that I really, really liked Blade!
But it's not just Blade alone I finished tonight. There's a couple miscellaneous things left; in particular Hidden Ace and the recently-subbed Grease movie, but in terms of the series themselves? It's been a wild ride these past 2 years, but I've finally finished all 20 Heisei Riders. And that was
great.
There's been some lows, absolutely. I can't quite get into Ghost overall, for instance, and Ryuki unfortunately wasn't my thing either. But even for those series that I disliked, there was generally always
something
there -- something about Heisei Rider that just really struck a chord with me. That relentless heroism; the faith in humanity; that overwhelming good will topped off by monsters getting beaten up by dudes in bug suits.
This was just something I absolutely needed. In a lot of media I've seen and read and etc for the past decade or so, a lot of it has just been dredged in pessimism or irony poisoning or being self-referential to such a ridiculous degree that it's difficult to get anything genuine or optimistic out of it. I'm not saying this to drag any one particular piece of fiction (we NEED media that's very pessimistic, for instance; it is important to have shows and books and games that explore the darkest parts of our reality), but just that as a general trend it's been hard to find anything that's both unapologetically fun and which I can connect with. And then I watched Fourze. And as you might guess for watching the other 19 series surrounding it for 2 years,
I kinda jibed with it
. Here was a show that was just so extremely silly at all times and yet was absolutely high on emotion. Here was a show where the main hero is a punk wearing a rocket-shaped helmet that still extolled the virtues of love and compassion over all else. Here was a show with a main character premise so dumb as someone who wants to be friends with literally every single person in school, and yet still managed to slip in questions about the extents of altruism and how far you can go for your friends.
Now not every Heisei Rider has been capable of this for me. There is one in particular that I have just come to hate in its entirety, and I'm sure if you search through my posts long enough you'll find which one that is. But I'm not here to tear that one down. I'm not here to trash a show people might love for no reason when no-one asked; I don't need to when there's so much else to love -- but my point is that even when Kamen Rider has such a huge low for me, just about everything else has been just what I wanted. Maybe I'm reading too much into a show for kids made to sell toy belts that scream if you so much as look at them funny, but I can't ignore what shows like OOO and Kuuga have done for me in making me feel like my faith in humanity in love isn't misplaced even when there's things out there that can utterly destroy you; or how much Den-O and Fourze made me laugh and cry in equal measures; or how Build and Blade made me question things. And I certainly can't end off such a marathon without writing something to say how much I've loved it all.
I just fucking love Kamen Rider.
__________________
Kurona
View Public Profile
Send a private message to Kurona
Find More Posts by Kurona
TokuNation News & Rumors
Alternative Cut of "Day Of The Dumpster" Released
Shodo SUPER Kyoryuger Teaser
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN
SH Figuarts BoonBoomger Red
Hasbro Licenses Power Rangers Toys to Playmates Toys
More New Posts
What are you watching? (Kamen Rider Edition)
S.H. Figuarts (Toku Related) Thread
Kamen Rider Gotchard Episode 34- "Only One! All Roads Lead To Gorgeousness!"
Kamen Rider Gotchard Episode 33- "Legend Rider? 100 Years Too Early!" Discussion
How is Everyone Today- New
DreamSword Watches Unfamiliar Toku: Part 1 - GARO
Super Sentai minipla appreciation thread!
Funny Toku Images thread
DreamSword Rereads the Power Rangers Comics
Recent Purchases: April 2024
Current Poll
How Would You Rate This Episode?
Excellent!
Good
Average
OK
Poor...
»
View Poll Results
»
Comment On This Poll
»
This Poll Has 0 Replies
Search Forums
»
Advanced Search
All times are GMT -5. The time now is
05:49 PM
.
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Powered by
vBadvanced
CMPS