|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
02-22-2021, 10:48 PM | #131 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 5 - "WON'T YOU LET ME REEL YOU IN?”
It's a funny story, but it's not a Ryotaro story, and that just sinks it for me. Like, the main characters for this episode are one of the Airimirers (harrrrrrd passsssssss) and the newest Imagin, Urataros. They're both slimy jerks, and I'm not rooting for either one of them. Ryotaro spends the majority of the episode unconscious, and the team of MomoHana are left cut out of most of the story, playing catch-up. There're fun gags (that Ore Sanjou pose!) but it all feels like filler, and it's happening so early in the series. Just a let-down, this one. It doesn't help that we've got so many unpleasant or half-baked threads to cling to. The soccer kid is a cowering mess for most of the story, and there's nothing about him that's really able to be dug into. He blew a big kick in a previous soccer match, and now he... something? We never get to hear what his wish is, but I'm betting the lesson he needs to learn is that sometimes the best thing you can do on a team is support another player, he says as he gestures towards Momotaros' inability to take down the Crab while the Brand New Imagin waits on the DenLiner. (There is a moment that cracked me up in that kid's story, though. He's in bed at the hospital, and he looks under the covers at his bedsheets and sees something that alarms him, which made me worry Wait Which Coming Of Age For Boys Lesson Is This Story About To Be. Luckily, he only saw a puddle of sentient imagination monster sand, so we were saved from an intensely awkward story.) Meanwhile, there's the thing with the Airimirers trying to get in good with Ryotaro, to get in good with Airi, which just ends up being them getting played by Urataros. But, man, we spend so much time with those doofs, and I don't understand why. They are aggressively unsympathetic, and I could not care less about their agenda. Any episode that spends time with them is going to lose points with me, and this one spends so. much. time with them. Do these guys have fans in the viewership? Am I missing some crucial detail that renders them enjoyable? Fill me in! That leaves the debut of Urataros, and his feud with Momotaros, which... this plot needed some sort of balancing influence between these two self-involved lunatics, and the lack of a Ryotaro or a Hana in their plot makes it too chaotic and broad to feel much connection with. Without Ryotaro involved in the struggle, it's a comedic subplot stretched out to full-length. It's two caricatures in a tug of war, and I don't care enough about Urataros yet for a non-Ryotaro Imagin plot to work. I care about the Imagins because of their relationship with Ryotaro. An Imagin story that Ryotaro is largely absent from just fundamentally doesn't work for me. Without that core, it's just a noisy episode of people I mostly don't care about, doing things I mostly don't care for. There's laughs, but no heart. Pretty weird for an episode with so many declarations of love! THE BAGGAGE CAR -Urataros! He's a non-stop schemer, and I definitely did not warm to him in this episode. Am I supposed to? Momotaros was instantly charming, with his high-energy idiocy, but this new guy is just a creep? Like, he's a worse version of an Airimirer, and I can't think of a more brutal insult than that. Bold choice to make him a central character of this story! -Seriously, though, some quality gags in this episode. The thing with Airi calming an Airimirer by informing him of Ryotaro's thrice-yearly examinations at a hospital, the gag where an on-the-go Hana explodes out of a cupboard, Naomi egging on Urataros and Momotaros to fight, that stellar gag about Momotaros needing more room to get his hero pose off... I mean, I didn't like this story, but it's still a pretty fun episode. -The Crab Imagin had an interesting exchange with Momotaros, where he's confused as to why Momotaros is stopping him from murdering a child. That idea, of how the various Imagins get along... I do like it, and I wish there was a way to tell that story with Ryotaro more in the spotlight. Like, the Crab trying to talk sense into Momotaros is clever, and the feud between Urataros and Momotaros is clever, but it doesn't feel like Ryotaro has skin in the game, even though he literally does.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-11-2023 at 08:30 PM.. |
02-23-2021, 01:10 AM | #132 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,424
|
If there is a dedicated Ozaki and Miura fanbase, they are very quiet about it. There really isn't much to the characters: they're comic relief. Ozaki does the rubber-faced overreactions, Miura plays victim to most of the slapstick. They both want to get into Airi's pants. That's it. Why the creators felt that the show needed more comic relief on top of every character that lives in the Denliner, I'm not sure. They never really get better and they never really do anything important, even when stuff happens that you would think they'd get personally invested in. Personally, I sometimes find Miura amusing but Ozaki's just flat-out terrible.
Urataros can be pretty fun, though. Not my favorite of the show's mainstay Imagin, but he has his moments. He's the character that dumped all of his points into Charisma and that can lead to some pretty fun moments. Honestly, I tend to like him more when he's possessing Ryotaro then when he's doing stuff on his own. |
02-23-2021, 01:20 AM | #133 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
And, it's like, I remember saying almost exactly the same thing about Ryuki, where Shinji had two completely different jobs with two completely different casts. It's too much! Kobayashi was apparently still at the stage where she couldn't self-edit when she was doing Den-O, because I sure as shit don't remember OOO feeling fatty with distractions and douchebags.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
02-23-2021, 01:47 AM | #134 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,424
|
|
02-23-2021, 02:29 AM | #135 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,552
|
Urataros is based off the Japanese folklore Urashima Taro, a story of a fisherman who saved a turtle from a bunch of brats that was being mean to it. Turns out that turtle was Otohime, the daughter of the Ryujin(aka ruler of the Ryugujyo or Dragon Palace) in disguise. Taro went down there and spend the next few days with her. However he got homesick and wished to return to the surface world. Allowing him to go back, Otohime presented him with a box that must never be opened. Upon reaching the surface world, to his surprise what seemed like days were centuries later. Saddened that everyone and everything he knew were gone, he opened the box given by Otohime. The box let out a puff of smoke and Taro became old, the end.
|
02-23-2021, 03:25 AM | #136 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,553
|
Mind if I feel you in with my next round of information about the VAs?
First off, we’ve got our blue button Imagin Urashima Taro Kōji Yusa Notable Anime roles: Shadow the Hedgehog in the Sonic series, Gin Ichimaru in Bleach, Zuo Ci and Xu Huang in Battle Vixens, Eiji Sasazuka in Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro, Kyōsuke Hyobu in Zettai Karen Children, Demolishor and Thrust in Transformers Armada, Demolishor and Wing Saber in Transformers Energon, Atticus Rhodes in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Notable Tokusatsu roles: Evil Agito in Kamen Rider Ryuki Hyper Battle Video, Hades Beastman King of Hell Yeti Zee in Mahou Sentai Magiranger, Kamen Rider Accel in Super Hero Taisen. Notable dubbing roles: Dr. Johnathan Crane in the Dark Knight trilogy, Harvey Dent in Gotham, Drew Lansing/Kamen Rider Torque in Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, Leonardo in Ninja Turtles: the Next Mutation, Elgar, the Phantom Ranger, Psycho Blue and Jayden Shiba/Samurai Red Ranger in Power Rangers, Iceman in X2, Prowl in Transformers Animated. And we’ve got our monster for this week, who totally does not look like KR Scissors as a monster. Kyousei Tsukui Notable Tokusatsu roles: Deputy Zelmoda in Gekisou Sentai Carranger, Trinoid 12: Yatsudenwani in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, Engine Carrigator in Engine Sentai Go-Onger, Mugura-Roid in Ressha Sentai ToQger Vs. Kamen Rider Gaim Spring Vacation Combining Special. Notable dubbing roles: Acer in Cars 2, Inspector Gadget, Donald and Douglas in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Anything else I say about this two parter, I’ll say next time. |
02-23-2021, 07:26 AM | #137 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
As someone who loves this show, yeah, I don't really have many good things to say about Airi's simps. They're there to have some characters at the Milk Dipper so I wouldn't call them extraneous, but man I wish they done something that's not these two.
__________________
|
02-23-2021, 08:29 AM | #138 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,105
|
At least they're marginally more interesting than Useless Monk Apprentice #1 and Useless Monk Apprentice #2 from Kamen Rider Ghost.
__________________
心 と 刃 |
02-23-2021, 08:31 AM | #139 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
Quote:
It is funny you should bring those two up in the Den-O thread, though... but I'll save that part
__________________
|
02-23-2021, 08:45 AM | #140 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,105
|
Quote:
I'm definitely enjoying those two a lot more; they at least fill out the monastery and give Onari someone to play off of when doing investigations. Nothing special, but hey; not every character needs to be.
It is funny you should bring those two up in the Den-O thread, though... but I'll save that part And yeah, I see where you're going there with Den-O.
__________________
心 と 刃 |
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
Kakuranger: 30 Years After |
ToyRise RyuKenDo |
Alternative Cut of "Day Of The Dumpster" Released |
Shodo SUPER Kyoryuger Teaser |
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:02 AM.
|