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05-22-2020, 06:12 AM | #291 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
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I know I'm late but hush
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05-22-2020, 11:42 AM | #292 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,085
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--1--
Hey, it’s a Yuka spotlight episode! It’s a bit of a mixed bag! Yuka’s a character I’m intrigued by, played by an actor who seems slightly outclassed by the material. Of the three Oprhnochs, she’s maybe the least-talented actor, in so much as Yuuji’s serenity and Kaido’s raw charisma helped them pop even before we knew their whole deal. With Yuka, it’s been fifteen episodes, and while I sort-of get her deal, I’m having trouble investing in her emotionally. Some of it’s the performance (she’s not really finding the core of her character, emotionally; it feels like it lacks an honesty to the portrayal), but some of it is how confusing Yuka’s actions are. And, right up front, I love that they’re confusing. I love that she’s a difficult character to pin down, because it makes her journey so much more fascinating. But it can also keep a viewer at a distance. I’ll admit, I was not expecting this episode to really be about Yuka. Yuuji or Takumi, absolutely. Kusaka or Kaido, probably. But Yuka? Surprising choice, especially in the story they decided to tell. Yuka’s core problem is that she has no real sense of self. She’s never felt comfortable owning her feelings, making demands of the world around her. She’s buffeted by fate, grasping for dear life at any shred of connection. While other characters are deciding how best to navigate a dangerous new world, she’s following everyone else’s lead. Except for when she kills people. Then, and maybe only then, she feels like herself. And it’s killing her. She doesn’t want that life for herself. She judges that life, and tries to change herself back into someone who’d never do those things, couldn’t be that person. Even if it means being miserable. There’s a Closeted feeling to Yuka’s story, as she desperately denies what she needs in order to be what other people expect, or to lose her desires in making someone else happy. It’s, I think, the reason why she throws herself at Kaido. I don’t think she has any real interest in him. Honestly, I don’t think she has any real interest in Keitaro, online or IRL. But those relationships are a safe harbour from thinking about herself, from having to come to terms with who she is and what she needs to feel like herself. The Takumi scenes are the same thing, her caring for him because of what Yuuji would think of her, or how sublimating her needs into being a caregiver (she’s literally faceless for one shot, she’s a role instead of a person) absolves her of any self-interrogation or reflection. She’s always throwing herself into someone else’s arms, because she doesn’t trust what she wants to do with her hands. Huh. Maybe I’m not having any trouble at all investing in Yuka? Maybe her spotlight wasn’t a mixed bag? Maybe this episode was a goddamn home run? That fear of hurting people is now coming back to haunt Takumi. The heroic Faiz isn't just protecting people from Orphenochs, he's killing Orpenochs, bad Orphenochs, bad people. Takumi's sins and Yuka's are actually the same, which is why I think it was a smart move to have these two characters interact. Takumi found his purpose as Faiz and now that purpose is making him question his own morality. Quote:
--3--
I mean, I guess you see it a little at the end, him being a bully, once Takumi picks sides in the Faiz Fight at the end. Yeah, really thought this was going to be a Takumi story, and it’s not really one. His point in the story is to observe Yuka’s struggle and try to make sense of it. His perspective is limited, so he’s maybe viewing her as more of a conflicted soul than she really is. Or, I guess, viewing her conflict as a metaphor, rather than her individual problems. (Well, everyone’s always projecting onto Yuka, so why not our hero?) She saved him back at the river, and he can’t figure out why. She’s an Orphnoch, and they’re monsters, and Faiz kills them. Suddenly, it’s more complicated. The whole episode makes it complicated, with Kamen Rider Kaixa being a grotesque sadist, while the deadliest Orphnoch nurses Takumi back to health. It makes this story less about sides, and more about people, and that’s so rewarding to watch. That choice Takumi makes to defend Yuka, to see a humanity that may actually be killing her and try to protect it, it’s something that I think the show almost entirely earns. I might quibble a bit about it giving Takumi a more empathetic outlook than we’ve seen from him before, but a) dude had a near-death experience and that gives him a pass for at least a day as far as making uncharacteristic choices, and b) it means he’d have to fight Kaixa and I don’t think that’s a tough choice for Takumi to make. Much like previous heroic moments from Takumi, there’s a little bit in the performance where he doesn’t even seem to know why he’s risking this fight for Yuka. It’s a rash, almost selfish decision, to fight Kaixa. He’s got a gut feeling that this is all wrong somehow, that someone who’d save his life doesn’t deserve to be beaten the way Kaixa is beating her, no matter what species she is. (The show does a great/horrifying job of making the Kaixa/Yuka fight entirely one-sided, keeping Kaixa firmly in the role of sadist once again.) He’s saving Yuka, but it’s more that he’s saving the idea of complexity, of a world that isn’t binary. He’s fighting for a world where monsters can save people and Kamen Riders can be assholes. Kusaka is an excellent manipulator and Takumi is more honest, maybe not so much about how he feels intrinsically but definitely about others. He's playing to Kusaka's tune right now, getting beat up by Kaixa as soon as Mari and Keitarou are out of view and scolded for his actions, even when he goes against his nature to attempt to spare Keitarou's feelings. Team Faiz has become Team Kaixa as this point and Takumi is now the outlier. Quote:
--4--
He’s also FIGHTING. That Faiz Fight at the end! Man! It’s a barnburner for sure, with Faiz holding his own against Kaixa in a swordfight (maybe if Takumi could’ve punched a few times during that fencing duel he’d’ve gotten a point or two) before everything escalates to Ride Machines and missiles. I’m not crazy about Kaixa’s ED-209 motorcycle (which came from… where?), at least in its CG mode. The bike itself is cool, though. Love that sidecar! Definitely love the Gundam amount of missiles, too! Yeah! It's those same majestic wings she spans in the OP but now we actually get to see them in action after all her other murders happened offscreen. I love that shot in the OP and after what Takuma said about advanced Orphenochs using their abilities in human form, it looks very foreshadowing.
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05-22-2020, 03:37 PM | #293 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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So, after spending a few weeks reading over Fish Sandwich's (very excellent) Kuuga thread, and really getting to see his approach to the material, I figured out how to compare our styles. I'm Indiana Jones to his Professor Henry Jones Jr. I like diving in head-first, taking risks, making mistakes. I'm all about getting into that deadly labyrinth and trying to figure my way out of it. Sometimes it can get a little dicey. Sometimes it means having to run from a giant boulder! But with my wits and little bit of luck, maybe I'll have something cool to show for it at the end. (Also, people like punching me.) Fish is great at taking the cool thing that came out of a deadly labyrinth and giving it context, explaining why it was even in a deadly labyrinth to begin with. He's got the whole picture, and can explain exciting, specific details about things most people would overlook. (Also, everyone thinks he's dreamy.) I've already got a weekly podcast my business partner and I do on comics retail (not counting the weeks where it's him complaining about a painful injury), but I do love talking about Kamen Rider! More like SERIES highlight! I was completely thinking of this scene when I said Bone, so thank you for posting it. That said, this is maybe my favorite Brooklyn Nine-Nine cold open: Quote:
That's an interesting take you have on Yuka. I partially disagree though. I'm pretty sure Yuka's affection for Kaido and Keitarou (pen pal) are sincere. Like Takumi, she has no self-confidence and is scared of hurting people. Which is justified, considering she actually does kill people, bad people. I don't think it's that she doesn't want to think about herself, rather she's idolizing people like Kiba, Keitarou and even Kaido as an example for what she should be.
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Kusaka may be an awful guy, his hostility towards Kiba was uncalled for, but he didn't instigate the Faiz VS Kaixa fight. He was doing his job, fighting an Orphenoch, who had likewise been doing her job of killing humans albeit remorsefully. Of course, I support Takumi's decision to defend Yuka, she deserves to live and seek redemption, but everything about his rivalry with Kusaka is just making him look bad..
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05-22-2020, 04:54 PM | #294 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Wait, but Indiana Jones is-
You know, I'm just not going to read too hard into this comparison. On the subject of overlooked details, though, I somehow completely forgot there was something I wanted to say about episode 14 still, so let's just pretend it's a day or two ago for a second. Quote:
That suspicion curdles into a big ol’ Takumi pout, and my favorite visual of the episode. As Kusaka is humbly, so humbly, accepting the role of Kamen Rider Kaixa, he’s lauded by Mari and Keitaro, flanking him on the couch. But Takumi isn’t onboard, and the camera takes sooooooo long to pull back and get Takumi into frame, since he’s seated about twelve feet away from the rest of the group, pouting at the dinner table. It’s a beautifully done gag, with Takumi basically in another room, so reluctant to even breathe the same air as Kusaka.
Somebody has to actively think of all those little things for them to happen, and assuming Tasaki is the one doing all that, I mean, I've described him as "workmanlike" before, but just know that is most definitely not an insult.
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05-22-2020, 10:28 PM | #295 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 16
--1-- If Ryuki broadened the idea of what a Rider could be (Zolda 4eva), I think Faiz is doing the same thing for the monsters. For me, someone who came in through Ex-Aid's marvelously complex and occasionally sympathetic monsters, these early Heisei shows have been... a little lacking. There've been fun villains, and some neat antagonists, but the weekly monsters have been little more than uncommunicative beasts or nearly-alien killers. It's been missing something that I'd guess I'd taken for granted, and that's that the monsters should have a point of view. (So, yes, Kuuga, the Grongi, sure. I don't know that more than two or three Grongi really popped for me as characters, though. Other than those two or three, they've all got the exact same motivation, which is mostly what I'm talking about.) The monster of the week this time is emphatically not what I'm referring to, though. That dude comes out of nowhere and is nothing more than a random nuisance. He's a spree killer, an obstacle for Kamen Riders to detonate/immolate. But. But maybe he isn't? Maybe he's been driven to these murders and assaults because of some deep trauma, or because he's been forced to by Smart Brain, or because these people wronged him somehow, or any number of other possible reasons. We don't know his story. When we look at him, we see a monster, and Kamen Riders kill monsters. Open and shut. Except Takumi's seen an Orphnoch with feelings. He's been saved by an Orphnoch. He knows that Orphnochs can have fears, can have dreams. How can he destroy a thing that might have a soul? That dilemma is really fascinating to me. Kamen Riders Fight Monsters is, like, an autonomic process for these stories. It's something that barely needs a justification. So to slow everything down, to cast doubt on the very language of the franchise, super into that. And, god, making Takumi the focal point of that? Yes. Yes. He's someone who sort-of hates slowing down, getting to know people, trying to understand them. Having him be the guy who sees the humanity in the Orphnochs is great because he doesn't even know what he's seeing, let alone how to explain it. He's so lost in this story, so unsure of what to do, and I find that introspection and confusion weirdly heroic. He can't ignore someone's dreams, even if they're the dreams of an Orphnoch. But Orphnochs are responsible for killing people, robbing them of the chance to live out their dreams. It's an impossible situation. Which, y'know, those are the ones I want to see Kamen Riders deal with! --2-- Making Takumi's episode even more stressful is that, uh, all of his friends hate him? Some of it's Takumi's fault, in that he can't really explain himself at all, and I don't blame his friends for turning on him. I mean, they've only known him for a few months, during which he's been varying levels of insufferable. He's always been tough to be friends with, and him rudely declaring Keitaro break up with a girl because Takumi has a bad feeling about it, along with being incredibly aggressive with Kusaka, it's all a pretty bad look on Takumi. I get it, though. This is a guy who in the second episode kept trying to run away from people who wanted to get close to him. The fact that he ran away from their accusations this time and then came back for more is, like, probably the toughest thing he's ever done. He hasn't learned how to fight for what he wants, but he's sure as shit learned how to absorb people's scorn. I think that's the heart of the "miscommunication”, or whatever. It's that Takumi can't talk about what he's feeling, can't express the conflict in his heart. He sees everyone turning against him, and he wishes it wasn't the case, but he doesn't have the tools to defend himself. Worse, his reflex is to lash out, mope, run away, make things worse. He doesn't want to be in this position, but he at least can handle it. So he keeps plugging away, hurting feelings and confusing his friends, letting them get over it, then doing it all again. He's probably his own worst enemy in this one. --3-- Ha ha NOPE it's definitely Kusaka. That dude... I'm pretty sure he's the devil? He's great here, though, for real. Every time he'd trick Takumi into looking like the bad guy, and then Takumi would make himself look even worse than that... I mean, it couldn't've gone better for Kusaka if Takumi had been in on it. Real curious what his endgame is, though. He's got two moves, manipulate or destroy. Keitaro and Mari could be manipulated, so they seem safe. They treat him like a hero, take his side in his rivalry with Takumi. He seems happy with that. But Takumi didn't buy it, so he's got to be forced out, humiliated, reviled, probably killed. But what for? Why all of these machinations? Right now, Kuasaka's all schemes, and I dig it, but I want to see where all of this is going. Like, currently it's Control and Sadism, but, and then what? --4-- Besides the two Riders, we get a bit with Team Orphnoch, each of them doing their own thing. Yuuji, hilariously, inexplicably, is having to team-up with his murdered girlfriend's brother to hunt down her killer... which is still Yuuji! It's totally bizarre for this story to pop up now, out of the clear blue sky, but I do like the position it puts Yuuji in. He's been talking a lot of heavy talk about not harming humans, and now here's a dude reminding him that he definitely murdered a human in cold blood. There's always been a little hypocrisy to Yuuji's pacifism, a feeling that two murders or less is an acceptable number, but more than that is No Thank You. (Or, perhaps, he's okay with sampling murder? He killed a man, he killed a woman, and now he's okay saying it's not for him. He's a very open-minded Orphnoch!) Having this all thrown back in his face by someone he's legitimately wronged, it's got some potential. Yuka's story is mostly her trying to explain her conflict, what she wants out of life, how she kills but doesn't want to be a killer. I talked a ton about this all last time, and here it's mostly for Takumi's benefit, for him to get a better understanding of what could drive an Orphnoch. Kaido only gets a couple moments. The first is a quick little scene where he wants Yuka to stop obsessing over him, while the second is a joyous comedic scene with Mari. All of the Tidying Up With Mari Kaido stuff has been adorable, and this one's no different. Love him smooshing his face against a window to get her attention. Love him fogging the window to draw a little heart. Love her exhaustedly dropping her head out of view. Love him asking if she really likes him. Love her shaking her head No. Love him asking if she likes him. Love her shaking her head No. Love him asking if she likes him even a little. Did not love Kusaka barging in to scare him off. Goddamn you, Kusaka! I was onboard with the torturing of Yuuji and trying to kill Takumi, but this is too monstrous. Keep your nose out of my ship, Kusaka! I'M COMING FOR YOU, KUSAKA! --5-- I really like the journey that Takumi was on in this episode. God, the shots at the end where a contemplative Faiz has to literally sit out a fight, so evocative. I love the show asking if and why the monsters deserve to be detonated/immolated. I hope they come up with a good answer!
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05-23-2020, 04:53 AM | #296 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Yeah, you're starting to get into what makes Faiz such a special show. Or at least, it's really coming to the forefront in these episodes after so long of already following Yuuji, Yuka, and Kaidou around. See, the fact that Faiz went out of its way to try undermining like... the absolute most essential premise of a Kamen Rider show is why I love that the monsters are literally gray.
And Takumi, yeah, it is entirely based in his character for him to be handling this situation the way he is. He's got... he's got a lot going through his head right now, and with the kind of person he is to begin with, you know, of course he doesn't know how to talk about this. Oh, and what you do know, this episode pulls that trick where the insert song cuts out, in this case right after Takumi remembers he maybe doesn't want to "heroically" murder people? Really effective way to emphasize how wrong everything is right now. Faiz just gives up, and so does the music.
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05-23-2020, 12:00 PM | #297 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Yeah, you're starting to get into what makes Faiz such a special show. Or at least, it's really coming to the forefront in these episodes after so long of already following Yuuji, Yuka, and Kaidou around. See, the fact that Faiz went out of its way to try undermining like... the absolute most essential premise of a Kamen Rider show is why I love that the monsters are literally gray.
And Takumi, yeah, it is entirely based in his character for him to be handling this situation the way he is. He's got... he's got a lot going through his head right now, and with the kind of person he is to begin with, you know, of course he doesn't know how to talk about this. Oh, and what you do know, this episode pulls that trick where the insert song cuts out, in this case right after Takumi remembers he maybe doesn't want to "heroically" murder people? Really effective way to emphasize how wrong everything is right now. Faiz just gives up, and so does the music. But, like, that's what makes the story work for me. If Yuka can be worthy of protecting, why not Merderman? Instead of working from All Monsters Must Die, and making exceptions, why not work it from the other direction? Why not ask why any monster deserves to die? The show took the most basic monster and had Takumi unable to ignore the possibility that it didn't deserve to be killed. Huge choice, and I love it.
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05-23-2020, 01:18 PM | #298 |
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Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,546
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If you ever make your way onto Metal Heroes (which, let’s be honest, I don’t see happening within the next few years), they have a few shows where episodes discuss the concept of killing the monster, even if those monsters haven’t done much to earn sympathy.
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05-23-2020, 02:03 PM | #299 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Yeah, boy, pretty booked, but that's good to know! Thanks!
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05-23-2020, 03:20 PM | #300 |
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For Yuji I can only say a reminder that any victims have their close ones. For Yuka she also persistently helps Kaido. For Kaido... just be prepared for the Kusaka stuff. And Mari, your move to Kusaka there, watch out.
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