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Thread
:
Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Zi-O
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05-18-2022, 11:19 PM
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1142
DreamSword
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,416
TL;DR: I end up being very split on Zi-O as a whole. It's got some really major highs, but also some equally bad lows that leave me mixed on the entire thing.
Zi-O is a show that almost feels like it struggled to find its footing for the entire show?
Every act feels like a retool done to try and please everyone, but in the end(based on what fan reception I've come across, atleast), pleased only a select few. As a Power Rangers fan, I am no stranger to this sort of thing.
I think I'm one of the few that really liked Zi-O's' early game? Getting a glimpse of what past Rider's' lives might've been like had they never become Kamen Riders made for some really interesting storytelling, and having our cast essentially grow along side those characters made for some nice moments and developments.
Plus, the natural charisma of the cast shined the brightest there. From Sogo's' constantly getting catchphrases and poses wrong, to Geiz's' constantly staying guarded to the point of literally wearing a collar 24/7, I was having an all around great time with a show that I had up until then really only heard negative things about, even in this very thread!
...And then Decade showed up.
Look, my cheap running gag aside, that really was the point where the natural flow of everything got disrupted for me. Because it was the part where it seemed like the writers felt as though they needed to start adding needless complexity to the narrative, which in turn makes me ask very basic questions that never followed up on, such as: Why does Decade get to keep his powers and memories if his Ridewatch already exists? How did he get a Zi-O card? Why is he allowed to interrupt a coronation? Why is his Ridewatch different from the rest when no other important Rider, like say Kuuga or W, work different? To me these are all very basic things that the show ignores in favor of time traveling rules that are never held consistent.
There's of course still good things along the way. I genuinely enjoyed most of the Future Rider stuff(Kikai especially!), what few character quirks were kept were always enjoyable(Woz being the most obvious), and most of the tribute arcs were, if not enjoyable, atleast miles better than their Decade equivalents. But then of course, for all the good, there is the bad, such as Rider Time Ryuki and the ever (in)famously related arc:
Yeah, out of all the "development" to come out the cast, the bit I most certainly didn't like most was the show deciding that Sogo needed a sort of "edge" when we already had Oma Zi-O looming on the horizon. Him becoming a massive hypocrite due to the overall message that the season decided to go with didn't help matters either. "Hiryu, it's wrong for you to be so focused on your past, instead, focus only on the now so that way you can make a good future. Nevermind the fact that I have a time machine and have fixed multiple people's' pasts and that if given the chance I would rewrite time for my own benefit. Like gosh man, can't you just get over it?"
Whether or not that angle and its execution is bad is of course subjective(as has been discussed with the posts on the Ryuki arc), but for my personal tastes, and what I personally wanted the overarching theme of the show to be? Fell short.
The short of it all is that I felt that the characters really suffered for the plot, and it's always a shame when that happens for me.
And while I did make my bit throughout the thread be dedicated to characters, as I find them the most important aspect of any story, I do feel that every other aspect also should be taken into consideration as well. Yes, how the Anniversary aspects are handled is also important. Yes, the action, the suit design, the music, the direction, everything is a piece of the bigger picture. It's just that I find characters to be the most important.
Heck, I really liked the Armor Time gimmick, and while I get that it's just kinda how modern Kamen Rider works ever since Wizard, I was so sad to see the starting gimmick just get replaced by super modes. I would've gladly sacrificed so many of the suits we got and the Rider Time specials if it meant we got a Ride Armor for every Heisei Rider.
I can't really think of anything else to say that I haven't already said in previous posts, so I suppose I'll just it here by saying that Zi-O is definitely a very polarizing show, and I can see why. Personally, I'd say that I ultimately like it, but there are certainly alot of aspects to it that I'm not exactly gonna rush to defend, and as such I feel like it ended up being a rather even-handed experience for me. Thus, I give the show a final rating of
3/6
.
Oh, and because I do this for every season of Rider I finish, what song did I decide to associate with Zi-O on my Kamen Rider playlist? I ended up going with
"Everybody Wants To Rule The World"
by Tears For Fears, a song that has been interpreted alot of different ways throughout the years, but I'm choosing to take it almost entirely literally here, and I think it fits what I felt was a big motif for the show for alot of its run.
With that, the movie commentaries were alot of fun, and I hope to see you all again soon!
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Last edited by DreamSword; 05-19-2022 at
12:15 AM
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