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07-06-2019, 09:27 AM | #21 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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It's easily above Gaim level. Not sure if it's particularly great, but I'll wait till the finale to cast judgement.
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07-06-2019, 09:24 PM | #22 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,607
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Okay really liked this episode, for the start of one of the end arcs of the series, this was pretty good.
They clearly address Drive, we get to see glimpses of Another Drive and Another Decade. We're continuing with Hiryu's story and I'm glad to see that he really is still bitter about what happened, even more so thanks to his defeat by Sougo and Geiz. Like I was wondering if he was really just going to quit with Swartz just using Another Zi-O's reconstructed Ridewatch later in some scheme. Glad to see that even if Sougo tried to get him to move on, he can't. Really feels good that we don't have a villain that ends up resolving their issues and leaving good. Also I just like the idea of "Our hero gets to his highest point only to have it all ripped out from underneath him to truly test him." Like Sougo lost everything, his friendships, the only family he had, even if he has a powerful final form, that mental state is not good for anyone. So it makes sense that Grand Zi-O isn't performing in top gear. A lot of people only think of power levels, when mental states are also an important part of fights. And let's not forget that Another Zi-O was matching Zi-O II back in the mid to late 20's, it took both Zi-O II and Geiz Revive to put him down temporarily. So Another Zi-O II having big rewriting abilities and being a match for Grand alongside being Grand's first opponent after a debut makes sense. So yeah pretty good episode overall, can't wait to see where we go from here. |
07-07-2019, 08:27 PM | #23 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Hey everyone, guess what time it is!
Okay, I've been holding back for a good month or two now to see how it played out, but it's time for me to talk about Sougo. More specifically, how he seems to have taken all his advice on fighting fate from Kouta Kazuraba despite having also met Kazuma Kenzaki. The second Sougo decided his goal was to collect the remaining Ride Watches after the Blade arc, I got extremely worried, but I held out faith that Sougo, a character constantly shown to be way smarter than he looks, was not genuinely planning to beat Oma Zi-O by doing exactly what he wants and then trying to fistfight him in the future after he's already done the things Sougo wants to prevent. But no, that's seriously what he tried, like a complete doofus, and it really bothers me because this feels like a huge regression for Sougo. All his character development so far has been about him accepting that becoming Oma Zi-O is a real possibility, but given his dialogue late in this episode where he theorizes about why history has been rewritten, he seems to be back to blissfully assuming they're two completely different people again. I have to say, I was let down a bit by this episode. After the bombastic fun of the Den-O arc, I was expecting from the premise here a very character-driven story that would really get to the meat of Sougo's motivations and the growth he's had by putting him in the worst position he's been in the entire series. Thankfully, that is more or less what we're getting here, so it's far from a bad episode, and is in fact, quite good in a lot of ways. The idea of pulling the rug out from Sougo like this is a very necessary plot to do, because Hiryuu is absolutely right that he's had it easy. Sougo has never been any sort of underdog. He's literally destined for greatness and has power handed out to him like candy. So showing him having all that torn away, and presumably showing how he has learn and grow as a person to work his way up from nothing back to where he was, it's wonderful. But I thought Kento Shimoyama was Zi-O's head writer. I've gone into detail before about the differences I feel Nobuhiro Mouri's episodes have in style, and after his last set of episodes came to a literal Grand Climax, I was expecting Shimoyama to step back in for the final stretch and give us the more intimate character development he was doing in the middle of the show, especially since Another Zi-O is back. The upside of this still being Mouri is that the high concept stuff in this episode is great, with some serious Paradise Lost vibes in the setting and the way Geiz straight up tries to kill Sougo for real and these other cool moments, but outside of episodes 15 and 16, I just don't think his grasp on the characters is quite as strong or nuanced as Shimoyama's became after an admittedly rough start. Granted, as we've seen with Tsukuyomi, it's entirely possible I'm wasting my breath talking about something that will make more sense in retrospect (since we don't totally get into Sougo's head here), but something about this episode gave me a bad feeling even though I otherwise loved it the same way I've been loving Zi-O since the start. Just to end on a positive note, I'll also single out that Hiryuu not having forgiven Sougo at all actually totally matches up with his reaction to that speech at the time and is far more interesting than if he did. The Another Zi-O arc is still the pinnacle of this show to me, and Hiryuu and Sougo were such great foils I'm happy to see the show taking advantage of the potential their dynamic has.
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07-09-2019, 04:17 AM | #24 |
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 345
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Honestly, a really interesting episode.
Loved the brief Oma Zi-O vs Grand fight, and they acknowledge the Drive RideWatch conundrum. Though it makes sense, it does seem kind of pathetic that Grand Zi-O would be defeated by Drive in Type Speed, but alas that is Grand's weakness for now. With this much emphasis on Drive's power, I'm starting to doubt his involvement will be movie-only. The actual plot of the episode had me intrigued. Seeing the war-torn Japan made for a change in tone (at least for Zi-O, Build was pretty much this all last year lol) and bringing back Hiryu as a villain was a good move considering his relation to Sougo (what a petty guy though, holy). While I know a lot of people are bugged that this reset kind of retreads familiar ground with both Geiz and Tsukuyomi, I'm kind of okay with it because it's giving Geiz importance again after being relegated to the sidelines for the last few months. Another Zi-O II is seriously OP, being able to rewrite history. It's kind of sad to see Grand getting his ass beat so fast, but the last fight made up for it, especially with the dual-wield sword finisher and Agito kick. Tsukasa's involvement is interesting, it almost feels like he stepped into an AR world like in his own series based on his first appearance this episode. And him saving Sougo using a rifle is gold. Of course, he's the one who has to talk the sense back into Sougo, and of course he has to be a dick about it as well. But that's why we love him. And yeah, I caught that glimpse of Another Drive and Decade. Fingers crossed that we'll see them before the show's run is through. |
07-12-2019, 08:21 AM | #25 |
Most-hated user. Kill him
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Imaginationland
Posts: 1,813
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Quote:
More onto the episode itself (I watched it late since I was planning to binge it till 43 but decided not to), this episode made me loathe Hiryu. Granted he is the designated villain, but for him to do this just because he thought he was further humiliated by Sougo makes him such a terrible person.
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07-12-2019, 08:31 AM | #26 |
Avi by @CSarracenian
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 4,186
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Quote:
The Urobucchi ending or final episode with Kamen Rider Jam ending?
More onto the episode itself (I watched it late since I was planning to binge it till 43 but decided not to), this episode made me loathe Hiryu. Granted he is the designated villain, but for him to do this just because he thought he was further humiliated by Sougo makes him such a terrible person. Hiryu's biggest problem is how underdeveloped he is. When this was his third episode then of course he's not going to impress anyone
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07-12-2019, 09:16 PM | #27 |
Most-hated user. Kill him
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Imaginationland
Posts: 1,813
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It's amazing how even with a backstory and motivation a character will still be terrible if they're underdeveloped.
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