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10-04-2019, 05:04 PM | #201 |
Veteran Member
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Quote:
Prime Rogue I did a week or so ago, I think just before Be The One, and it was fun. Not as bizarre or emotional as Kuma Grease, but a lot of funny stuff with Gentoku and Misora. Final Stage is maybe the last Build thing I'll watch, after New World and the other short films. HGF, that's going to wait until Zi-O, which is going to have to wait for the first ten Heisei series, soooo... a year? Maybe?
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10-04-2019, 05:20 PM | #202 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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KAMEN RIDER BUILD MISCELLANY: 7 BEST MATCHES 1 - 3 Typical Build, using a total blow-off special feature to tell an in-continuity story that expands our view of a supporting cast member. I'm not sure why this show needs to work so damn hard, but I'm always glad they do. I was pretty sure this was just going to be a To Sell Toys special, spotlighting some other forms that maybe went underutilized. I was not prepared for two-thirds of it to be set during the darkest period of the show, nor was I prepared to get maybe my best look at what Utsumi's all about. Utsumi is a tough character to pin down, you know? There's almost always an angle, and no matter where you are in the series, you're maybe two episodes at most away from Utsumi betraying or being betrayed. It's sort-of his main thing. Except, as this special points out, his actual main thing is science. That's the one constant. No matter who he's working under, or for what reason, he believes in science. Not like Sento, who believes in science as a redemptive force. No, Utsumi just believes in it as a force. It's knowledge as power, and that's all it needs to be. It's because of that that he's able to see Sento not as Kamen Rider Build, as an obstacle or an enemy, but as a fellow scientist. Utsumi pities Sento a little, seeing his morality as an unfortunate handicap, but he's sincerely in awe of him as a scientist. It's what's unique about him amongst the series antagonists, that feeling that Utsumi and some version of Sento (Takumi, basically) have a ton in common and could be friends under different circumstances. There's no real affection there, not really, so it's not like Utsumi is some Other Man threat to Banjou, but it's nice that Utsumi has this unforced smile when he's doing (mad) science with Sento. It's nice to see. Setting this special mostly during the Darkest Days of Sento, I'm a little iffy on that. Episodes 21 and 22 are so perfect that, something like this, where a new story is wedged in, it can only add imperfections. I'm super glad it didn't become a televised episode, and I'm super, super glad I didn't watch these episodes until the show was done. The pacing of the end of the Hokuto War, I don't think I'd've enjoyed something this merchandise/action-oriented at that point in the show. Nothing from the episodes felt like it was crying out for clarification (never ever wondered what else Sento was up to for that missing week, didn't need to know how exactly he built the failsafe) and a story like this runs the risk of ruining something beautiful with overexplaining, but I guess there's not really a better point in the show to set this story, nor would it mean as much elsewhere. I don't love that they opted to play in this sandbox, but at least it didn't wreck the great work they did on the series. Yeah, honestly, way more meat on this bone than I'd've expected.
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10-04-2019, 06:01 PM | #203 |
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KAMEN RIDER BUILD MISCELLANY: HENSHIN LESSON 1 - 4
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(I mean, these are entirely to sell toys. There's no story here, and the only one worth watching is the Night Rogue one because it's predictably, gratefully insane.)
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10-04-2019, 06:14 PM | #204 |
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Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 2,934
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The funniest part about the 7 Best Match specials is the mismatch between how they were advertised and where they sat in the show. The trailers mainly used that part at the beginning where Sento is pretending to be all excited about checking out all the new toys, so it was made to look like it'd be just a fully wacky fun thing, and we didn't know when it took place or anything. Then episode 21 happened, and they said "by the way, that thing takes place then." At the time it was just like, What? how do you have your hero kill a man and end an episode as a broken man to then go on and shill some toys? Build was some wild times
Well, they still didn't go too dark in the specials themselves, so it feels more like they knew *something* bad was gonna have to have Sento's spirits down, but nothing specific (since they mainly talk about how the general populace is blaming Riders for the war, iirc). But yeah, repeating myself (and you) here but you gotta love Build's dedication for trying to get something out of everything. Utsumi is a character that I wish could have gotten some more focus in the series, since as you say getting his character down through all the changes he goes through is difficult. Having stuff like this definitely helped some. And, while not super character-relevant, bringing the SameBike stuff back for Utsumi's final fight in the show was a nice touch, too, as a sort of capstone moment, to both Build's dedication to continuity and Utsumi existing I guess. |
10-04-2019, 07:00 PM | #205 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
The funniest part about the 7 Best Match specials is the mismatch between how they were advertised and where they sat in the show. The trailers mainly used that part at the beginning where Sento is pretending to be all excited about checking out all the new toys, so it was made to look like it'd be just a fully wacky fun thing, and we didn't know when it took place or anything. Then episode 21 happened, and they said "by the way, that thing takes place then." At the time it was just like, What? how do you have your hero kill a man and end an episode as a broken man to then go on and shill some toys? Build was some wild times
Well, they still didn't go too dark in the specials themselves, so it feels more like they knew *something* bad was gonna have to have Sento's spirits down, but nothing specific (since they mainly talk about how the general populace is blaming Riders for the war, iirc). But yeah, repeating myself (and you) here but you gotta love Build's dedication for trying to get something out of everything. Utsumi is a character that I wish could have gotten some more focus in the series, since as you say getting his character down through all the changes he goes through is difficult. Having stuff like this definitely helped some. Utsumi is a character I generally enjoy, and there's, like, three points in the series where I think he's really pivotal, a way of exploring some concepts that don't map great to other characters, and a way to comment on Sento's story. It's just, he is always switching teams. If he was just an opportunist, hitching onto whatever team is winning, that'd be one thing, but it's hard to say that that's his character. "Survival" is what I think of when it comes to opportunistic characters, and that doesn't feel like Utsumi to me. He intensely believes in Nanba, and he always believes in science, but often those traits are obscured so he can have another inevitable betrayal. He's, yeah, kind-of problematic as a character. OH SHIT, I didn't even notice that! Great catch!
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10-04-2019, 07:07 PM | #206 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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SameBike, in general, is amazing and I'm super mad it isn't one of Build's main Best Matches. It's-- you're a Kamen Rider! You have a bike form! This should be natural!
It even swaps the colours of his main form (the inorganic tank and organic shark are blue; the organic rabbit and inorganic bike are red), so I feel it would have been super cool. Ah well. I'll just enjoy what we get in this special |
10-04-2019, 07:40 PM | #207 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Quote:
SameBike, in general, is amazing and I'm super mad it isn't one of Build's main Best Matches. It's-- you're a Kamen Rider! You have a bike form! This should be natural!
It even swaps the colours of his main form (the inorganic tank and organic shark are blue; the organic rabbit and inorganic bike are red), so I feel it would have been super cool. Ah well. I'll just enjoy what we get in this special
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10-05-2019, 01:52 PM | #208 |
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KAMEN RIDER BUILD MISCELLANY: ROGUE 1 - 3
Rogue was an interesting series, or special, or whatever. Not strictly necessary, there's nothing in it that answers some mystery from the series, I can't think it's anyone's favorite Build thing, but it's worth watching for a few good jokes (entirely in the first episode) and for a comprehensive, if slightly miserabilist and brutal, look at Gentoku's evolution/devolution into Kamen Rider Rogue. I've said before that I like the Tragic Rider archetype. A misguided villain who reforms into a hero, that's always got some juice in it. Why did they decide to pursue villainy? What lengths will they go to? What is their goal? How do they view the Riders? What's a line they won't cross? What makes them team with the heroes? What's the final moment when they turn their back on evil? How do they atone for their villainous past? I love that shit. The Rogue specials don't hit all of those points, but they drill into two for Gentoku: What lengths will he go to, and what is his goal? Through the show and these specials, it's demonstrated that the thing Gentoku always wants, be it when he's deranged because of Pandora's Box or when he's deranged because of what he did because of Pandora's Box, is for Touto to be strong. What's interesting to me from these specials is how his goal doesn't change, but his motivation does. In the first episode, he's motivated by pride. Touto needs to be strong, and he's the one to make it strong. He's the most capable, most prepared, most dedicated. With enough power, he can be the one to unite the nation and Make Touto Great Again. That ends up not working out (understatement!), and he's reduced to a prisoner, getting the shit kicked out of him like clockwork by a filth-encrusted maniac. Here, his motivation changes into, of all things, certainty. He is going to survive this, he is going to become a Kamen Rider, he is going to retake Touto. It's not faith, it's not a belief, it's destiny. Nothing can hurt him, nothing is going to stop him. It's inevitable. And it is! He withstands, he triumphs, he gets his shot at being a Kamen Rider. In the final episode, his motivation crystallizes into determination. He sees the costs of choices, he understands what he's done, and he accepts it. This is who he is, this is what he needs to do. No apologies, just results. This is who Kamen Rider Rogue is. Obviously, the character keeps growing in the show (it's Build, no one stays the same), but these specials end up being a nice snapshot of the first half of Gentoku's story. It's, again, nothing we didn't already know. There's nothing in here that changes our view of Gentoku or his story. It's a lot of dot-connecting and blank-filling. The few new characters who appear are 100% going to die, you know it as soon as you see them. It's still entertaining, if not wildly so. Most of the last two episodes are just wallowing in the abuse of Gentoku, and a little of that goes a long way. The first one has some good gags, all of that karaoke stuff is priceless (he's a really bad singer), the fact that he takes one last spoonful of strawberry parfait before he leaves to stop Takumi's illegal human experimentation, I mean, chef's kiss. It's not the funniest version of Gentoku the series has to offer, but there's at least a few flashes in here. But I respected what these specials were trying to do, in taking some swings at how Gentoku's descent into brutality and rage happened. I'd've liked to have it end on a bit of an up-note, some indication that redemption was possible, but I guess that's not what they were trying to do. On its own terms, I had a fine time with the Rogue specials. Not a home run, but more Gentoku is always welcome.
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10-05-2019, 02:02 PM | #209 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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When I got to these misc extra bits for Build, I watched all three Rogue episodes and then the Hyper Battle DVD right afterwards. It really was like a truncated take of where his character started then ended. Was still incredible to go so quickly from watching a someone get his throat ripped apart by gears, to an alien performing magic tricks.
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10-05-2019, 02:19 PM | #210 |
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Quote:
When I got to these misc extra bits for Build, I watched all three Rogue episodes and then the Hyper Battle DVD right afterwards. It really was like a truncated take of where his character started then ended. Was still incredible to go so quickly from watching a someone get his throat ripped apart by gears, to an alien performing magic tricks.
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