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08-26-2018, 06:20 PM | #15261 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Okay Kiwami, but I would give it at least two just to make sure it's really dead.
Oh man, I haven't seen Core in since more or less when it first got subbed but I remember the OOO's portion of it just being THE most nonsensical, ridiculous plot, and the whole thing barely resembled the style or tone of the show. It's like even just from the obvious, yet bizarre and convoluted premise you can tell Inoue was totally phoning it in.
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08-26-2018, 06:42 PM | #15262 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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The OOO portion always felt like it was working off of an unfinished draft of OOO, before they know what they were doing. At least for me that gives me a fun insight into what the best Kamen Rider show would have been like had they followed previous plans.
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08-26-2018, 08:10 PM | #15263 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,427
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Having finished W and with Build now being over, I have finished every Rider series now except for Fourze. I kind of really wish I could have avoided having the last four shows I watch right after another be structured around two-parters and votw shit, because I'm just about at the end of my rope here, but I'll get though it.
Definitely. OOO changed a lot during production and even by the time Core rolled around it felt like the show had diverged a lot from the original plans. Also it was written by a complete hack, which doesn't help. |
09-05-2018, 12:02 PM | #15264 |
Dr. Salt NEO
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 727
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After a long hiatus I finally got around to finishing Kabuto and it was, well…not very good. It wasn’t the worst I’ve seen, certainly not as bad as Faiz or Hibiki’s second half, but it was just kind of bland and mediocre. It had really cool suits and an interesting premise, but that’s about it. It was just so uninteresting, with characters I didn’t care about and a story that felt like it went nowhere most of the time. Ultimately, I just thought it was dull and unremarkable in about every aspect possible.
Tendou himself was a major contributor to my feelings on this show. He is the epitome of the flawless Gary Stu character type. Good at everything, has no weaknesses, and worst of all is aware of this fact and lords it over everyone else constantly. He has virtually no character growth across the series and is obnoxious most of the time, he is easily among my least favorite main Riders. This does get a little better towards the end when they give him some material to work with in terms of emotional vulnerability and motivations, but it’s too little too late. Kagami honestly would have made a better protagonist, his storyline more closely follows the path of the main Rider in most other Rider shows. I definitely preferred him to Tendou, but even then he still wasn’t terribly interesting. It takes a long time before he even becomes a Rider which I thought was kind of unique, it makes it feel earned by the time he does get that power. But despite that I never felt that invested in him as a character. Tsurugi had a really interesting story but it got mostly shafted until the end. I did think the conclusion to his story was good and liked the plotline of him actually being the Scorpius Worm and in denial of his own identity, but it took way too long to get to any real meaningful development of that and when it did get there it ended almost immediately. Instead he spent most of the series as a kind of annoying comic relief character and all of his good material was barely touched on until the end. Daisuke was probably my overall favorite of the four major Riders. His relationship with Gon felt like the only effective characterization in the show, their connection felt genuine and believable. I actually didn’t like Daisuke during his debut, but as he continued to appear I think his interactions with Gon and the other Riders made him more likable and the only one of them I ever really cared about. It’s just too bad he wasn’t as regular as the others. And then we get to the Hoppers, and oh boy were these guys something. I don’t even know where to begin, everything about them was so bizarre and comically stupid. Even before they gained their Hopper suits (Which came completely out of nowhere and are never given any kind of explanation) both of these guys sucked. Kageyama might actually be the single biggest loser in the entire Kamen Rider franchise, the guy is hopelessly inept at literally everything he does. Every other character treats him like a total joke and he does nothing to prove them wrong, constantly getting beat up and outsmarted by everyone else to an absurd degree. He was actually one of my favorite characters in the end just because he was so lame that it was hilarious, I knew as soon as he showed up in a scene that I would be amused by whatever stupid thing he tries and inevitably fails terribly at. Yaguruma isn’t much better, he barely does anything successful and his whole “I’m so dark and edgy” shtick after his inexplicable reappearance as KickHopper is completely ridiculous, I laughed every time he appeared on screen in his silly leather outfit. So I guess in a weird way these two were kind of my favorite thing about the show, everything else was so boring to me that the unintentional hilarity these two brought was a welcome relief to the normally plodding story and dull characters. To build on that last point, the pacing and just general slowness of the plot was one of my major issues. It felt like the show was going in circles most of the time and making no real progress until things finally kicked in during the last few episodes. Those last episodes were probably the best, I actually felt kind of interested in where it was going, in contrast to how I felt throughout everything up to it. But it took way too long to get to that point, and on top of that the writing slipped into a common issue both Faiz and Ryuki had where characters will just seemingly teleport where they need to be at any given time, and intense fights that inexplicably come to a dead stop before reaching any kind of climax and the characters just walk away for no reason. It didn’t happen as often here as it did in those other two, but it was still jarring and annoying when it did happen. Overall, my feelings on Kabuto can probably be summed up by using a food example, which is fitting considering the show’s bizarre fixation on food. Basically, it was like a saltine cracker. I don’t particularly enjoy saltine crackers, but by no means do I dislike them either. They are so bland, tasteless, and forgettable that I just don’t really think anything of them at all. That perfectly describes my feelings towards Kabuto. At its worst it was still nowhere near as bad as some other Rider shows, but at its best it was not particularly good either. Kabuto was utterly unremarkable in about every aspect possible. Now it’s time to move on to Den-O, which I’m much more hopeful for.
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09-05-2018, 02:13 PM | #15265 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,427
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That really resembles my own thoughts on Kabuto. Of all the Rider shows, it’s the one that I most frequently tend to forget exists.
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09-14-2018, 04:50 AM | #15266 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
Posts: 25,327
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Started rewatching Den-O because I honestly, cannot for the life of me, remember how it ends.
And my god, I know Ryoutaro's actor has to basically play 5 different characters, swapping between them at any given notice, but I forgot just how bad his acting is for "Normal" Ryoutaro. His whispery tone is too forced and he really comes off like he just doesn't get how to act wimpy. At least he does a good job when acting while possessed.
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09-15-2018, 01:45 PM | #15267 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 260
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Really, I think there was an unfortunate and sizeable drop of quality and the blatant lack of purpose shot up to eleven as soon as the Heisei AR worlds stopped. And some really weird moves. Like, you can't make such a big deal out of Kasumi no Joe and then not even have his actor come back to voice someone. He's a pretty prolific va so there was nothing stopping them, it's just weird.
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And that ending...Definitely not the best ending a series has had.
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09-17-2018, 05:04 PM | #15268 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Wait, you dont know either?
Posts: 5,826
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I watched Kamen Rider The First. It's alright, I'll be honest. The stuff with Hongo never quite feels like it's going anywhere, and the movie could have used a little more of an arc to it. Ichimonji comes off as an ass, but it's nice how he turns it around at the end. The highligh is easily the doomed romance between The two Kaijin , and that might be up there in the Top 10 Sadest Rider moments. Overall, I'd give it an "eh" out of 10.
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10-17-2018, 01:03 PM | #15269 |
Dai Shogun
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Germany
Posts: 7,531
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A rampaging fat German guy speaking actual German, subtitled by TV Nihon? This alone makes Kiva a must-watch.
Oh boy. Anyways, Kiva Episode 3 (yes I'm actually watching this). Gotta say, knowing Kouhei Takeda from Build makes this a lot more fun. Just to see him screwing around. Telling the story through two time periods is quite ambitious, but that's the best I can say about this show so far. It's weird. Suits look good though, but that's about the only enjoyable part so far. |
10-18-2018, 02:39 PM | #15270 |
Dr. Salt NEO
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 727
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Finished Den-O last night, one I’d really been anticipating considering how ubiquitous it is throughout the franchise and fanbase. I wasn’t completely sure what to expect going into it, I knew that it’s widely liked but was a bit hesitant because, while I typically prefer shows with a lighter tone, the emphasis on humor worried me. The humor in Kamen Rider is usually really not my thing, and so I was a bit worried Den-O would end up being the same kind of grating, annoying humor that characterizes a lot of the later Heisei stuff. I am glad to say my fears were proven wrong very early on, and Den-O was a fun, enjoyable time from start to finish (Or I guess I should say from start to climax).
My favorite thing about Den-O was definitely the characters, the Imagin specifically. They were just so much fun, with a lot of character and personality and they played off each other very well. It didn’t rely on the kind of obnoxiously loud slapstick comedy that I hate from later Heisei, the humor all came from the interactions between the characters and felt very natural and came from a place of genuine characterization. As the star of the group, Momotaros certainly got a bit more depth than the others, especially at the end as he finally becomes willing to acknowledge how much he cares about Ryotaro and the other Imagin as friends. None of the others really go through much in terms of character development or growth, though they do all have their moments. But considering that Den-O isn’t a show that’s really trying to go for serious character drama, that’s not a criticism of it since it succeeds greatly at its goal of creating a fun, humorous atmosphere based on all these over-the-top characters. I didn’t care for the human characters quite as much as I did the Imagin, I certainly liked them but they didn’t steal the show the way the Imagin did. Ryotaro is a fine protagonist, but really not that interesting a character for most of the show. He does get some good material at the end that lets him come into his own, but for a lot of the series he didn’t interest me that much honestly. I was more interested in Yuto, whose storyline had more interesting developments for the most part and who got stronger characterization overall. I especially liked his interactions with Deneb, they were an amazing comedic pair and the clash of their polar opposite personalities made for so many great moments. Their scenes together were some of my favorite in the show. Besides the characters, the other thing I really liked about Den-O was the tone. The lighter, fun-centric style was such a refreshing change after having to endure the grim, self-serious slog of shows like Faiz or Kabuto. That was getting quite tiresome, and it was a very welcome change to see Den-O come along and focus on just having a good time. Even the villains were fun, the villainous Imagin are some of my favorite kaijin in the series now. Each one had a clear and distinct personality, and they were often a great source of humor too. I really liked that since the kaijin are usually my least favorite part of a KR series, they’re usually only mindless monsters who exist just to facilitate fight scenes. The livelier, more well-realized Imagin were a great break from that and infused even intense fight scenes with a sense of lighter fun. If I had to come up with any criticisms of Den-O, it’s that the two-part format did get a bit too formulaic at times and the plot often didn’t go anywhere or took a long time to do anything. There were some plot holes around the time travel stuff (As there always is in time travel stories) and most of all, Kai was not an effective villain to me at all. It never addresses key points such as who he even really is or his motivations. He was definitely the weakest part of the show and the only thing in it I didn’t really care for. Other than those minor things though, I thought Den-O was fantastic and I had such a great time with it. There’s so much more I want to say about all the characters, the story, the tone, but the length of this would just become completely unreasonable if I wrote out all the things I want to say. Ultimately, Den-O ended up as some of the most fun I’ve had with Kamen Rider and I will miss these characters greatly as I move on to Kiva.
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