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10-03-2020, 10:06 PM | #161 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,410
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Quote:
Fun fact about Tachibana and Ibuki. The former was Tuxedo Mask for the Sailor Moon Musical prior to Blade and the latter was Tuxedo Mask for the live action adaptation TV show by Toei a year prior to Hibiki circa 2004 when Blade and Dekaranger was airing. N Daguba Zeba from Kuuga and Tyrannoranger Geki from Zyuranger were also Tuxedo Mask at one time for the Sailor Moon musical.
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10-03-2020, 10:40 PM | #162 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 10 - "ONI ALIGNED"
"There's a black light glowing At the center of the world And I'm losing my sight There's a black balloon imploding At the center of the world Full of nothing tonight" -Portastatic, "Center Of The World" I think I see what they were going for in the Asumu storyline? Asumu lives a pretty sheltered life, notwithstanding being involved in the battle against mythic monsters. (He's a teenaged boy in Tokyo! It's assumed that he'll be involved in some amount of monster battling!) He's loved by his mother, included by his friends, and mentored by Hibiki. Things are pretty smooth for him. But then there's shoplifters, and anger, and violence, and the world seems to be a much darker place. Monsters are scary, but their terror has a context. People being awful, being cruel... that's just something Asumu can't comprehend. He's suddenly in a world that seems too dark to interact with. It comes to a head after he tries to escape. He bikes out to a field, and watches a soccer game. The players bicker and fight, letting minor disagreements explode into raised fists. It's everything he feared, confirmed. The world is awful, and the people in it are all capable of cruelty. But then Hitomi calls. She bikes out to him, bringing him a snack. She's not mad at him for missing the movie. Truthfully, she slept through it. She'll go see it again with Asumu, some time. It's the flipside of Ichiro's lesson that, yeah, everyone has the capacity for darkness. But they also have the capacity for goodness. The soccer players brawl on the field during the game, but they shake hands and laugh at the end. Some asshole almost punched Asumu in the face, but Hitomi cared enough to bike out and cheer him up. The world is complicated, and so are the people in it. It's a nice story, honestly. It's very sweet. It's also bizarrely applied and completely disconnected from the Kamen Rider stuff this episode. (I mean, yeah, the moral of "there are both good and evil in the world" could be applied to the Rider storyline here, but it could also be applied to every Rider storyline on every Rider show forever, so I'm going to fall back on saying it's disconnected.) The Rider stuff here is about Hibiki and Ibuki teaming up to defeat... Gamera, basically, and if there's a theme in there, I'm not really seeing it. Even for Asumu's story... I'll more or less give it a pass, since it's shot so well. (A whole lot of shooting in ways that box Asumu in! It's a very cool motif!) There's a sequence of Asumu racing away on his bike that's so poignant and beautiful that I'm not sure I even care if the rest of the story makes sense. And, I'm not sure it really does. Asumu having, like, an existential crisis after witnessing two teenagers shoplift, I don't know. It's a lot. If this plot had stayed on Asumu feeling self-loathing or anger over his inability to stand up for himself and/or call out wrongdoing, I can see where that fits into his character. What's here feels like a storyline for a much younger character, not a 15-year old who I would think has less naivete about man's capacity for evil. (If this teenage boy has never dealt with bullies or jerks at any time in his life, I think he needed to go through this story.) It's a very well-done version of an idea that doesn't feel nuanced enough to be worth two episodes of this show. The Kamen Rider part, though! God DAMN! First, they're hitting that nostalgia button hard by having Ibuki and Hibiki meet up outside the decommissioned BOARD base from Blade, before transitioning to what looks like the big bike locale from that early Kuuga episode where Kuuga motorcycles all over a building, and then finishing at Kamen Rider Dam. It's a very cool group of sets, more surprising for being on a show that's largely eschewed old locations. The team-up itself is a blast. It's fun to dig into the themes and metaphors of these shows, but I am not immune to the charms of two superheroes working together to detonate monsters. I got those interests, too! And this episode doesn't disappoint in that regard, with great teamwork leading to a rousing finale. Ibuki's able to use his ranged attacks to bring down and stun Off-Brand Gamera, giving Hibiki the opportunity to finish it off with Blazing Dance Chain Style. (It's the standard Hibiki finisher, despite the cool name.) There's honestly not a lot to talk about with their team-up, since they immediately start working together and have zero friction, outside of Hibiki forgetting to tell Ibuki that he can drive a bike, but he can't stop a bike. It's a very cute moment! The rest of it is very awesome, though. Simple pleasures, sometimes. This was maybe not the best two-parter Hibiki's done to date. The Asumu stuff is a long way to go for a plot that needed to be more complicated to be worth its time, while the Rider stuff is competently (occasionally thrillingly) executed action that isn't really saying anything. It's an Asumu plot that needed to be more visceral, and a Rider plot that needed to be more thoughtful. Maybe if they'd bothered to link them up, this wouldn't've been a problem!
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10-04-2020, 12:32 AM | #163 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,508
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Yes, thank you for the reminder. It seems that another actor succeeded Amano while she was Sailor Moon and then when she left Kenji Urai who was N Daguba Zeba in Kuuga took over as Tuexdo Mask.
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10-04-2020, 05:20 AM | #164 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Quote:
Hibiki and Ibuki teaming up to fight a flying tortoise, though, that I understood. Obviously this is the best episode of Hibiki ever because he pulls a Wizard and comes flying in from offscreen to drop kick a monster attacking Ibuki – the BEST way to make an entrance in a Rider show. He also drives a bike in a way that playfully taunts the audience expecting Kamen Rider, which is one of the few moments of Hibiki I very clearly remembered. I'm usually the one clamoring for bike action, but I can't help but love how upfront they are here about that not being one of the things Hibiki is well-trained for.
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10-04-2020, 08:40 AM | #165 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,091
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Quote:
The Kamen Rider part, though! God DAMN!
First, they’re hitting that nostalgia button hard by having Ibuki and Hibiki meet up outside the decommissioned BOARD base from Blade, before transitioning to what looks like the big bike locale from that early Kuuga episode where Kuuga motorcycles all over a building, and then finishing at Kamen Rider Dam. It’s a very cool group of sets, more surprising for being on a show that’s largely eschewed old locations. The team-up itself is a blast. It’s fun to dig into the themes and metaphors of these shows, but I am not immune to the charms of two superheroes working together to detonate monsters. I got those interests, too! And this episode doesn’t disappoint in that regard, with great teamwork leading to a rousing finale. Ibuki’s able to use his ranged attacks to bring down and stun Off-Brand Gamera, giving Hibiki the opportunity to finish it off with Blazing Dance Chain Style. (It’s the standard Hibiki finisher, despite the cool name.) There’s honestly not a lot to talk about with their team-up, since they immediately start working together and have zero friction, outside of Hibiki forgetting to tell Ibuki that he can drive a bike, but he can’t stop a bike. It’s a very cute moment! The rest of it is very awesome, though. Simple pleasures, sometimes. This was maybe not the best two-parter Hibiki’s done to date. The Asumu stuff is a long way to go for a plot that needed to be more complicated to be worth its time, while the Rider stuff is competently (occasionally thrillingly) executed action that isn’t really saying anything. It’s an Asumu plot that needed to be more visceral, and a Rider plot that needed to be more thoughtful. Maybe if they’d bothered to link them up, this wouldn’t’ve been a problem! After defeating the Otoroshi, Hibiki attempts a high touch and the look on Ibuki's face when he leaves Hibiki hanging to immediately check on Tatsumaki like it's his wounded child is a very comedic way to end the arc! Although I pity Tatsumaki a little as well, good thing Takeshi offer financial support for accidents like that. Ibuki treats his bike a lot better than Takumi treats Auto Vajin at least. It's also the first time we see how Hibiki and Ibuki work together in a fight with Ibuki stepping back from his solo focus in the previous arc to shoot down the Otoroshi for Hibiki to finish with his subtly different technique. Fortunately, Ibuki is still an independent Oni in his own right and you can look forward to seeing more of his solo fights later. Regarding what fantastic monster the Otoroshi resembles, I thought it looked like some kind of flying Adamantoise, which would be terrifying!
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10-04-2020, 12:14 PM | #166 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
You're doing better than I am then! I mean, I love a story that uses a light touch, but this whole episode just made me feel like I missing... everything? There's a story about Asumu here that's really hard to get a grip on, and there's a story about Oni aligning that just kinda doesn't seem to even loosely parallel the Asumu story the way Hibiki's plots are supposed to be structured? A lot of the individual moments are done rather poignantly, but I wasn't getting a strong sense of cohesion here.
And, yeah, baffling that they never try to tie it all in with the Hibiki/Ibuki plot. If ever a story needed that parallel to surface the themes, it was this one! Quote:
I think Hibiki crashing Tatsumaki is the best part of this episode. It's humorous how subversive the show is about what Hibiki, as a Kamen Rider, can actually do and operating a vehicle isn't a talent he automatically has. This was foreshadowed in Episode 2 when he stalled the car all the way to the place where Shounen and his cousin were staying. Even Shinnosuke who doesn't have a bike can still drive a car competently. How did Hibiki even get his driving license like that?!
Quote:
It's also the first time we see how Hibiki and Ibuki work together in a fight with Ibuki stepping back from his solo focus in the previous arc to shoot down the Otoroshi for Hibiki to finish with his subtly different technique. Fortunately, Ibuki is still an independent Oni in his own right and you can look forward to seeing more of his solo fights later. Regarding what fantastic monster the Otoroshi resembles, I thought it looked like some kind of flying Adamantoise, which would be terrifying!
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10-04-2020, 12:54 PM | #167 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,547
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Sorry I’ve had nothing to say this time (mostly because I said most of it by accident the last time). But I do have one interesting fact.
This is the last episode to be co-written by Tsuyoshi Kida (who left Taketera’s production posse after Hibiki) and Shinji Oishi (who joined said posse with Hibiki), the show’s two head writers. From here on out, every episode will have one writer per episode. (Plus the first 29 episodes had some ghost rewrites by the guy playing Hibiki, but that’s neither here nor there). |
10-04-2020, 12:57 PM | #168 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Sorry I’ve had nothing to say this time (mostly because I said most of it by accident the last time). But I do have one interesting fact.
This is the last episode to be co-written by Tsuyoshi Kida (who left Taketera’s production posse after Hibiki) and Shinji Oishi (who joined said posse with Hibiki), the show’s two head writers. From here on out, every episode will have one writer per episode. (Plus the first 29 episodes had some ghost rewrites by the guy playing Hibiki, but that’s neither here nor there). Thanks for the info!
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10-04-2020, 01:27 PM | #169 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,091
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Quote:
Kamen Rider is an earned title and Hibiki has yet to earn the Rider part. Training is one of the show's morals after all so it's important to teach viewers that you can't just take the driver's seat of a vehicle and immediately know how to operate it.
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10-04-2020, 02:09 PM | #170 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,290
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Quote:
KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 10 - “ONI ALIGNED”
It’s the flipside of Ichiro’s lesson that, yeah, everyone has the capacity for darkness. But they also have the capacity for goodness. The soccer players brawl on the field during the game, but they shake hands and laugh at the end. Some asshole almost punched Asumu in the face, but Hitomi cared enough to bike out and cheer him up. The world is complicated, and so are the people in it. From a world stage picture one could argue the world has (in general) seemingly never been more peaceful. While there are still conflicts and wars, many disputes overall are solved through negotiation, as opposed to outright elimination of the opposing side. The number of wars fought between countries that are going on as opposed to internal conflicts can be counted on the fingers of one's hand. On the other side, it could be argued that weapons technology that's reached today's level of destruction and control is what really keeps the peace. Powerful nations simply can't afford the ramifications of armed conflict, so it's the threat of wholesale destruction that keeps conflicts limited in scope. Quote:
There’s honestly not a lot to talk about with their team-up, since they immediately start working together and have zero friction, outside of Hibiki forgetting to tell Ibuki that he can drive a bike, but he can’t stop a bike. It’s a very cute moment! The rest of it is very awesome, though. Simple pleasures, sometimes.
Quote:
Which is how they could've done it. I don't want to write the show for them, but there's any number of ways Akira and Asumu could've crossed paths in an episode. They're the same age, living in the same area, going to (soon) the same school, and they both frequent Team Hibiki Bar and Grill. (I can't call it Tachibana's, I spent two months typing that name, I need a goddamn break.) They have a half-dozen ways to meet up in a story.
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