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03-16-2021, 09:26 PM | #411 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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I do not!
I think it's just the likeability of Team Den-O wearing him down. It's hard to dislike them when they're so goofy! Yuuto just watched the same two-parter we all did, and it probably melted his heart just a little bit.
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03-16-2021, 09:35 PM | #412 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Hey, everybody. I know this is normally my day off (and I'm actually writing all of this late Monday night), but I wanted to do a quick post for my 3rd Riderversary.
Three years ago, on March 16th of 2018, I watched my first Kamen Rider episodes. I actually did the first eight episodes of Ex-Aid, which is a pace that seems gratuitous and wasteful to me now. (I've matured...?) Last year, my first Riderversary on the TokuNation boards, I celebrated by rewatching the first episode of Ex-Aid. Unfortunately, that was a rewatch of a show about heroic doctors trying to save innocent people from a rampaging plague, which felt weird to watch at the start of a global pandemic. Well, said pandemic is still going on, so I'd rather not tempt fate by watching anything that could trigger another real-world disaster. Also, day off. So! Here's a look at what three years of being a Kamen Rider fan looks like when you have something broken inside of you that you're now too old to fix so it's really more about mitigating disaster: 843 episodes 46 movies probably a billion HBVs, Net Movies, commercials, music videos, and ephemera Rough guess, we're looking at over 300 hours of Kamen Rider, or nearly two full weeks. It's a lot! Even spread across three years, that is a lot of Kamen Rider. I don't regret it, though. How could I? Setting aside the enjoyment these shows have brought me (even the ones with Shunpei/Jean/Hiiro's dad in them), which is a considerable amount of joy, it introduced me to a fandom that is more rewarding than any 50-year franchise ever could be. Kamen Rider's great, but Kamen Rider fans are the best. Here's to many more Riderversaries! -- So, I wrote all that, and it's midnight, and it's officially my day off, but I'm like Man I Need To Write More. I don't know why! None of this is that interesting, and it's needlessly indulgent. But, I don't know. Felt like writing more. I wanted to spend a little time shouting out an article here on TokuNation that was... I mean, I don't think it was the first thing I ever looked at for Kamen Rider (I want to say I'd heard about the Dark Knight Returns-esque Ichigo from the Ghost movie), but it was the thing that pushed me into finally watching these shows. I've mentioned my toku origin story before, but to recap: Transformers fan, went to TFW2005 to lurk, tabbed over to TokuNation, eventually started watching shows. The specifics, though... I don't know if I've talked about them? The one post I can remember being so bizarre, so inexplicable, that I was like I Gotta See What This Show Is, it was this review for S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Snipe Simulation Gamer Level 50. That's the one I can recall as the final push I needed to investigate Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. The joke to me now is how random that gallery should be, considering a) Snipe ain't my guy from that show, and b) that suit is terrible. It is, aesthetically, the opposite of what I like in suit designs. It's cumbersome and ridiculous and garish even for Ex-Aid. It's a neon yellow man wearing half a boat. It's a stupid design. But, shit, it is memorably stupid. It is the kind of stupid that stops traffic. It is a design that has you asking a million questions, about the world it comes from and the kind of man who'd wear half a boat. It is wrong in every conceivable way something can be wrong, and that's maybe better than being just a little right. It is the ship that launched a thousand hours of me watching Kamen Rider. It's not a great meet-cute, maybe. It's not a story where I saw something sublime and followed it to happiness. It's not a story with smart decision-making or taste. But it's, I think, a very Kamen Rider origin story. It's this design that shouldn't work, that's laughable in its More Is More aesthetic (like all Ex-Aid), but it somehow triumphs through its mediocrity. It is earnest, playful, genuine. It is asking you to meet it on its own terms, and rewarding you by letting you enter a world of misfits and mistakes; a world of electric pink superheroes and megalomaniacal villains and helpful nurses who are also colorful mascots and sentient diseases that need love and three men with messiah complexes who sometimes remember to stop fighting each other long enough to save the world. It... I wanted to make a dumb Simpsons joke, a quote by a temporarily non-evil Mr Burns: But, god, maybe that's the point of this dope wearing half a boat. I've made friends because of this hideous design. I've discovered a fanbase that is earnest, playful, genuine. It's not a great suit, but it's worth a damn to me, thanks to these friendships. Happy Riderversary, everybody.
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-17-2023 at 08:52 PM.. |
03-17-2021, 05:20 AM | #413 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,397
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Happy Riderversary!
Now then, I must stop everything to tell you that Shunpei is the best part of Wizard and that because you disagree with me on this I have no choice but to put a ring on your finger and have you touch my belt buckle. CLEARLY only a Phantom would think otherwise!
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03-17-2021, 09:53 AM | #414 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Happy Riderversary!
Now then, I must stop everything to tell you that Shunpei is the best part of Wizard and that because you disagree with me on this I have no choice but to put a ring on your finger and have you touch my belt buckle. CLEARLY only a Phantom would think otherwise! you're as bad as shunpei
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 03-17-2021 at 11:45 AM.. |
03-17-2021, 11:16 AM | #415 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,546
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I’ll admit I don’t remember the exact date I started watching Rider regularly. I’d seen some crossovers with Super Sentai and when I saw hat one of them led into a movie (Super Hero Taisen GP), I decided to check it out. I got hooked, watched the crossover and movie from the previous year, and then I spent two weeks catching up on Zi-O, before I started watching the ongoing show regularly from the Kikai two-parter, and then watched another series whenever it took my fancy and I could fit it in to my watch schedule.
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03-17-2021, 06:20 PM | #416 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Quote:
Being more serious, I think I've mentioned somewhere before that I don't actually have a proper date for when I watched that first episode of OOO, but I do know it was somewhere in spring (like April or May maybe?), which means, at some point or another this year, I'll have been watching Kamen Rider for an entire decade, which is insane to think about, but also, just like, really cool? Also, as a special Riderversary present, please allow me to do my usual thing and say that Simulation Gamer is kinda awesome? Like, I'm pretty sure the initial catalogue scans and everything meant we saw both Brave and Snipe's new forms around the same time before they debuted, and like, obviously Fantasy Gamer looked way cooler. But then, come their appearances on the show, I feel like Snipe ended up getting the way cooler focus episode out of the deal (and Hiiro's was pretty good in its own right), and then from that point on, he's constantly making strategic use of that doofy ship armor, even as everyone around him gets more powerful upgrades, and somewhere along the way, I ended up super endeared to that design. It's not a kind of overly busy garish I'd defend as legitimately smart and thoroughly considered the way I would a lot of Ex-Aid's suits, but I mean, on the other hand, his little sailor hat is SO adorable.
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03-17-2021, 06:25 PM | #417 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,397
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Listen.
I originally saw this post during my break at work, when it had its original typo. As such you have only yourself to blame for the following image. I regret nothing.
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03-17-2021, 10:52 PM | #418 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 24 - "THE PRINCE'S GOODBYE LULLABY”
This is probably the definition of a B+ Den-O episode. It's fun when it needs to be (tiny Deneb!), utilizes a big chunk of the DenLiner Imagin (that interrogation scene!), has a compelling guest star (Sieg!), a good set of stakes (he's dying!), and a fantastic action sequence (Ax Form!!!!). It even throws in a brand-new Form Change! It's just, it's not really saying anything about our core cast, and that's where it misses the mark for me. This isn't a story that asks Hana, Ryotaro, or Yuuto to do more than witness Sieg's story. It's a good story, no complaints about that, but this story could've basically happened to any cast. You could tell this same story in Ghost, in Ex-Aid, in Wizard. Sieg's story doesn't reflect the story of a main cast member, and no human really learns anything because of this story. No one changes or grows on account of Sieg's survival. It's just, like, some adventure they go on. It's a good adventure! It just doesn't connect with any of the cast emotionally or thematically. And it seemed like it was going to? For a second? When I saw Airi, I was like Oh Sure Protecting Your Sibling. And then Airi never shows up again? And she never shares a scene with Ryotaro? It's the easiest way to use Sieg's story to say something about Ryotaro's relationships, about how it feels to protect a sibling or be protected by a sibling. But the story never really moves its lens off of Sieg. That's useful, inasmuch as the finale of this story desperately needs you to care about Sieg. The more we spend time with Sieg in this episode, the more invested we are in him sticking around (or at least not dying). But by keeping the stakes all on Sieg, and reducing the rest of the cast to grieving onlookers, it keeps this episode from being more than an entertaining adventure. That said! Very fun episode with some real pathos. All of the Ryotaro Arrested stuff was terrific, with each of our OG DenLiner Imagins working together to keep Ryotaro from going away for a long time. Ryotaro is a very sweet Kamen Rider, but the real hero of this part of the episode was Urataros. If you need a plausible alibi concocted at a moment's notice from thin air, you tag in the turtle. I love that Ura not only lied his way to nearly being released, he basically filibustered his way to freedom? Asking Urataros to explain his side of things is basically signing your death warrant, and it goes as well for the cops as you'd think. Bonus points for Ura's masterstroke: subbing in a sleeping Kin to avoid any follow-up questions. This team is coming together! Speaking of Kin, I loved that Ax Form fight scene. (The Wing Form scene was nice, but it's mostly just a Henshin and one move and that's it.) It's just Den-O taking hit after hit after hit as he stalks towards the Imagin. Those shots of Kin shrugging off these spark-inducing blows, so heroic, and then a palm strike into Dynamic Chop. Just the kind of badassery you cheer for. It's a really nice moment, that fight. I'm not sure this is a two-parter I'm going to rank highly, despite its many pleasures. (Deneb gets his head stuck in a gate because he forgot he got big again!) It's too disconnected from the cast, too much just them rescuing someone without it feeling relevant to their stories. It'd be like if they saved people from a burning building, or fixed a flat tire. It can be a fun story, but it doesn't feel like a Ryotaro (or Hana, or Yuuto) story. THE BAGGAGE CAR -I hope Sieg returns! I feel like he will. A character with a nice arc over these two episodes, and a smug nobility that works well in the show's dynamic. The very fact that he pisses Momo off makes me root for him a little bit!
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-17-2023 at 08:55 PM.. |
03-18-2021, 01:03 AM | #419 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,410
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So one of the things that Den-O did that was really unique for the era but that would become common in Phase 2 is the set-up for the movie. In earlier shows, the movies are really divorced from the series. You might get some promo shorts at the end of an episode or a throwaway gag about Hibiki wanting to see a samurai movie, but that was it. Den-O is the first series to not only have the movie be fully canon to the show, but to also spend time setting it up in the series proper.
Nowadays it's not uncommon to have the movie get set up in advance. Drive, for instance, had a couple episodes where the Movie Rider showed up. Den-O did that first and it started here (and will continue right up to the movie's release date). For now, the big feature is Sieg and Wing Form. Wing Form is another future staple: the movie form. Good parallels to think of here would be OOO BuraKaWani or Fourze's Rocket States: forms that exist primarily, if not solely, for the movie. Wing Form is a bit more like the latter than the former in that it does have a bit of presence in the show, but it mostly shows up in the films. |
03-18-2021, 02:49 AM | #420 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
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By random coincidence this post was uploaded on the birthday of the actor voicing Sieg (he’s 53).
Also, to borrow something from your Kabuto watch thread… A QUESTION: What do you think would’ve happened if Sieg had stayed on? |
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