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01-26-2020, 06:21 AM | #121 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,551
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Not sure if it’s worth bringing up, but despite only being a one episode thing, V1 actually has a debate surrounding it. Namely, over whether it counts as a Kamen Rider or a Metal Hero (due to the suit being a hybrid of Jiban’s head, Janperson’s body, DraftRedder’s legs and the guns from Solbrain, all painted a lovely shade of silver).
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01-26-2020, 08:12 AM | #122 |
Master Procrastinator
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 367
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It won't be obvious until later, but there's a pretty huge, ginormous hint hidden in these episode as to what is really going on the the overall plot. If you don't notice it, I'll pop back to point it out whenever the proper explanation is made, but that won't be for a bit.
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01-26-2020, 12:26 PM | #123 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Not sure if it’s worth bringing up, but despite only being a one episode thing, V1 actually has a debate surrounding it. Namely, over whether it counts as a Kamen Rider or a Metal Hero (due to the suit being a hybrid of Jiban’s head, Janperson’s body, DraftRedder’s legs and the guns from Solbrain, all painted a lovely shade of silver).
But, yeah, not really a suit that meshes well with the other heroes on the show. It is definitely a very un-Kamen Rider design. And, thinking about it now, I kind-of like that? It looks wrong, and so I instinctively root against it. It figures that Houjou would want to wear a suit that was garish and, like, clearly not G3. I guess I don't like the suit, but I like what the suit does to tell a story. Quote:
It won't be obvious until later, but there's a pretty huge, ginormous hint hidden in these episode as to what is really going on the the overall plot. If you don't notice it, I'll pop back to point it out whenever the proper explanation is made, but that won't be for a bit.
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01-26-2020, 10:08 PM | #124 |
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MASKED RIDER AGITO EPISODES 24 - 25
So good! This whole story, the G3-X thing, was just front-to-back great. There's a constantly shifting landscape as characters take the fall, jockey for position, get reassigned, get (I guess) dereassigned, switch sides, and just generally behave like they're on a reality show version of Masked Rider Agito. There's a speed to this section of the story that I really appreciated. It made each scene unpredictable, even though obviously Hikawa's going to be the G3-X operator/equipper/leash. There's a pleasant amount of twists before that happens, though, making his inevitable "victory" (we'll get to the quotes) feel earned. It's fitting, to start, that Hikawa's inaugural outing as G3-X a) nearly killed him, and b) was a roaring success that he basically was comatose for. That's... I mean, as someone who loves to see Hikawa fail, *chef's kiss*. I could not have asked for a better way for Hikawa to obliterate his competition. So the rest of the story becomes a question of which should be replaced, Hikawa or the G3-X, and I love how nearly every character who gets a vote seems to change their answer several times throughout the story. Ozawa wants to replace the G3-X, leaving Hikawa as the operator of V1. Houjou wants the G3-X replaced, leaving himself to operate V1. Hikawa wants himself to be replaced, OF COURSE, with Shouichi as the G3-X operator. But then, Shouichi kicks ass as G3-X, leaving G3-X as basically the only choice, and then it's a race to see who the pilot's going to be. Houjou tries buttering up Ozawa (hilarious) and picking the brain of Shouichi (priceless), while Hikawa happily lets himself be demoted back to eating ramen with his old partner, and Shouichi pretty much decides that being G3-X is lame. With that variably-motivated group of weirdos, it's not much surprise when Ozawa takes charge and dumbs down the G3-X enough so that Hikawa can both pilot it and not die. Another thrilling victory for Team G3-X! So, yeah, about that choice by Ozawa. It's sweet, it's her belief in Hikawa, it's totally character-driven. I'm not mad about it, really. But, man, the fact that she had to make the suit less-effective in order to give him the victory, I don't know. I suppose a tainted victory, a win with an asterisk, that's pretty much the most Hikawa kind of victory there is, but it still felt... not great. If the compromised nature of the G3-X AI becomes a plot point down the line, then I like the story choice. If it doesn't, ehhhh. But there's somehow still more to talk about from this episode! In keeping with the way the monster plots have been going, they are decidedly not worth discussing, despite how cool the kills look. (Dropping someone through an entire building? Such a great visual!) It's just, the victims have no story. They're a thing to motivate the heroes to go out and fight, but there's no narrative to them right now. The monsters are no better, being completely interchangeable from story to story, to the degree that the episodes now don't even really acknowledge what steps the police are taking to prevent them besides hoping to catch them in the act. I don't really need the monster parts to get better, since there's so much other great stuff happening, but it's still worth noting how not worth noting they are. No, the big non-police things from this story are another brutal Gills/Agito fight, and the cliffhanger. First, the fight. Uh, pretty terrific! In the same way the monster fights have felt lackluster because the monsters don't really have a character or a compelling motivation, this fight was two characters I'm highly invested in emotionally having a fight to the death. There's a great use of the location, with a very vertical staging. Folks are thrown up and over, a big chunk of the fight happens on top of a tall structure, and the way Gills knocks Agito off into the river, yeah, I'd assume that dude was dead, too. It's a hell of a climactic fight. Except, that's not the climax. After pulling himself out of the river, Shouichi's now washed ashore with his memories. All his memories! Everything! ...allegedly. We'll see for sure next episode!
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01-26-2020, 11:54 PM | #125 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 182
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In the 2000's Rider shows, up to maybe Den-O, falling in a decent sized body of water meant the fight is over, wet dude presumed dead. It's a thing.
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01-27-2020, 12:04 AM | #126 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
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Quote:
Also! Speaking of bodies of water! So, probably obviously, it's nice that Shouichi's got his own motif going with bodies of water, how they represent a change state for him, rebirths, that kind of thing. But! There's this other thing going on at the end of this story, where maybe Ryou has a complicated relationship with the water, a place he used to find refuge but now feels separated from, and ending Agito in the river is, like, penance, or an offering. Aki's dead, he thinks it's Agito's fault, let the water have him. I mean, it's a very thin interpretation, there's a couple episodes where Ryou rescues that swimmer so it's not like he's sworn off the sea or anything, but it's a thing that came to mind.
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01-27-2020, 05:32 AM | #127 |
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Join Date: Sep 2015
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Yeah, you definitely did, but it's really only obvious in hindsight, so I'll come back to explain once we get to the appropriate part of the story. You missed the point in a particularly funny way though.
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01-27-2020, 05:49 AM | #128 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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Go easy on the hints of future developments, people!
G3-X's GX-05 or whatever it was called is one of my favourite weapons in Rider ever. What an appropriate finishing attack for Hikawa, riddle your enemies with bullets until they blow up. The bit with Ozawa lowering the AI for the armour so that Hikawa, and in a sense choosing him over the tech, is really nice. Though honestly I can't notice much difference it makes, if any, in this latest episode. He shows up and beats on the Unknown basically the same way as he did when he was 'out of control' anyway. |
01-27-2020, 12:22 PM | #129 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Quote:
Go easy on the hints of future developments, people!
G3-X's GX-05 or whatever it was called is one of my favourite weapons in Rider ever. What an appropriate finishing attack for Hikawa, riddle your enemies with bullets until they blow up. The bit with Ozawa lowering the AI for the armour so that Hikawa, and in a sense choosing him over the tech, is really nice. Though honestly I can't notice much difference it makes, if any, in this latest episode. He shows up and beats on the Unknown basically the same way as he did when he was 'out of control' anyway. For the dumbed-down AI, the only real hint is that it takes Hikawa a few more moves to put away the Unknown than the previous iteration of the AI delivered. It's still pretty powerful, though! I was mostly skeptical about Ozawa's choice, understandable though it was, since we're only at the halfway point of the show. The Unknown are going to get tougher, that's just how it works. What happens in 12 episodes or whatever when G3-X could use a flawless operator, and it's been handicapped so Hikawa can use it? That feels like something that should come up down the line, a consequence of Ozawa's choice. Just, like, dramatically, I want to see there be a sense that there was a real tradeoff they'll all have to compensate for.
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01-27-2020, 01:34 PM | #130 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
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Quote:
A chaingun is a great weapon for G3-X, yeah, since it drives home the human/mechanical type of attack. Gills is raw animal rage, Agito is smooth and precise martial arts, so G3-X needs to be technology. A giant goddamn gun that's maybe better deployed in service of mowing down an army, that's a great thematic statement.
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