[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The balance of it all feels about right. It's fanservice-y fun to see Gridknight, but the actual plot is basically just the main cast having a sleepover together? Which is exactly the kind of thing I love about this show, for a bunch of different reasons?

Yeah, Knight and Music Note don't take over the story, which they absolutely could have for both narrative reasons (Dynazenon mostly can't get their shit together, and Gauma bristles at an offer of outside help) and meta reasons (returning fan-favorite). The episode keeps them as a kind of vote of confidence, with the team winning them over by being as insular and neurotic as ever. Good use of special guest stars!

(I say "special guest stars", which is how this episode treats them, but them and Gridknight are in the title sequence now, so I look forward to seeing how they'll integrate with the cast long-term.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

So we get our introductions to Knoght and Nidaime, adult incarnations of Anti and Kaiju Girl. You?d think this would clear up some confusion over continuity wih the previous show, but I?m not sure it does.

I gotta say, I have zero interest in litigating or speculating on how Dynazenon and Gridman overlap. Two different shows in my mind, despite me treating them in this thread like they're part of one continuity. (In my defense, I thought they were when I was planning this thread out? Maybe they still will be!) If things become more overtly tied together, that's fine. But I haven't spent a minute of this show wondering if the woman Gauma's referring to is, like, Akane. This show's doing its own thing narratively, and that's kind of all I care about right now.

[DreamSword]

Okay, I absolutely need someone to hyper-analyze this moment for me.



"Real Kaiju Users don't need to sleep."

That line has driven me totally crazy ever since I first heard it. The best I could think to guess is that maybe Shizumu is just being cheeky in the original Japanese? But if so then holy cow did the English dub not portray that in its voice direction like, at all. Dude sounded completely serious when he said it, and ever since my response has basically been "What? Why?" And to this day I've yet to get any sort of direct answer.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

That line has driven me totally crazy ever since I first heard it. The best I could think to guess is that maybe Shizumu is just being cheeky in the original Japanese? But if so then holy cow did the English dub not portray that in its voice direction like, at all. Dude sounded completely serious when he said it, and ever since my response has basically been "What? Why?" And to this day I've yet to get any sort of direct answer.

My read on it in the scene is that he's kind of shitting on Juuga for not being as committed to the project as the other three are. Sizumu came up with the plan for harnessing the kaiju, while Mujina and Onija are working 'round the clock to power it up; meanwhile Juuga's just sort of overseeing things, and I feel like Sizumu's not appreciating that?

[Sunred]

Speaking of Gridknight, I wonder in hindsight if the decision to keep the visor aesthetic from Anti's kaiju form + being the no.2 hero of the show + the decision to give Knight a business suit as his civilian attire was all collectively a nod to Dan Moroboshi/Ultraseven specifically from the 2010s ULTRAMAN manga which received a 3d anime adaptation on Netflix not too long ago.

[Androzani84]

Androzani84 Watches Gridknight Fight, Part 1

Full disclosure, I have no permission to be doing this here, but I felt I’d keep this thread alive during the breaks between posts with something that’s probably not on the docket to watch, since the only subs for it are in Italian (I myself am watching with hose subs turned off, meaning I had to watch on my computer, hence the low quality of these screenshots.



Like the old Ultra Fight series this miniseries homages, this is filmed entirely on location in a quarry, with no attempt to make the fighters look like giants (meaning that this is one huge quarry), and there’s a guy doing wrestling style announcements that describe everything that happens (in this case, Hiroshi Kamiya, the voice of Juuga in Dynazenon proper).



The fight in this part is between Gridknight and Dynazenon, both played by the suits used for their public appearances. And while Knight pulls off looking good in live action quite well, Dynazenon suffers from the lack of budget to use his various guns (not even the Don’t-Know-The-Name Beam) and the fact that since Tsuburaya have less experience making humanoid toy based mecha costumes than Bandai, his hands are in permanent “karate chop action mode” and he’s stuck weakly swinging them to simulate fighting.

But enough griping, let’s look at something this mini does better than its inspiration.



Specifically, we get the illusion of scale thanks to the presence of Nidaime, who is played by an uncredited actress always filmed at angles her full face can never be seen and the VA from the anime can be dubbed over. And reiterating my point that the narrator won’t shut the hell up, he repeats her rating of the apparent training fight 1 second after she says it (I sadly don’t know enough to say anything other than that it was positive feedback).



And pulling from the modern Ultra Galaxy Fight series, there is a thin plot connecting the episodes, as Alexis Kerib makes his appearance. While I applaud them for giving him the Cyberman mouth to indicate him vocalising, the divide between the rubber head and regular looking cape is very distracting.



Knight rushes in to fight him, leaving Dynazenon just standing there (and that’s actually the last time we see the whole robot in this mini). And someone realised that there needed to be some stakes here, so Knight looks to Nidaime for support.



Coming to the conclusion that Kerib has kidnapped her, Knight engages him in battle… and despite being in his non-action form, Kerib still whoops his ass, ending the first part.



I’d cover the rest, since these are only 3 minutes each, but part three has some spoilers for episodes of Dynazenon not covered here, so I’m doing it in segments. To be continued… when I think of doing the next one.