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05-14-2020, 08:54 PM | #161 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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My only thoughts about the guitar thing is that I hoped that was a cheap replica and that they didn't destroy a perfectly good instrument for the sake of being artsy!
The climax with the mellow guitar music over two different fights is one of the most memorable scenes of Faiz to me that stuck forever after just the first time I saw it. At some point, Takumi's speech about protecting dreams became just as imprinted in my mind. The guitar music... I liked it a lot the first time because of how unexpected it was, and how the fight choreography was edited to match its rhythm. This time, it felt a little redundant to me? Like, doing it for a second episode, it wasn't fresh anymore. And, sure, there's some symmetry to it being Kaido playing the second time, and it cutting out because his hand couldn't finish the song, but it still wasn't as powerful to me as the first one. I don't know, just didn't resonate as well with me. (I've also got a bit of a headache, so if you think I'm being harsher than this episode deserves, you might be right!)
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05-14-2020, 09:11 PM | #162 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
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And then he throws his guitar away, putting that part of his life to rest. It’s… I don’t know if I’m supposed to feel good about that? There’s a reading where it’s for the best, Kaido flushing out his toxic jealousy in favor of a fresh start. But the destruction in the final shot feels like it’s all a mistake, an abdication of his humanity in favor of a future as an Orphnoch. Thoughts?
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It's mostly centered on Kaidou, since he's the new guy, and the arc he has here, where he gradually starts to get over his trauma after bonding with a student at the university he used to go, culminating in him throwing away his guitar at the end, freed of his "curse", is just aces. A+ material from Inoue and a shining example of why melodrama isn't inherently a bad thing.
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「今ではあのベルトを狙うことは禁止されているんですよ」 This mistake, originally made by TV-Nihon and imported into Agony's scrub almost entirely unchanged, is a fabulous example of a surprisingly standard translation error. The "accidentally backwards statement". Just like the line I complained about last time, the translator either misheard some words, or made some mistaken assumptions about what was being said. It was established right at the start of episode 5 when the gang got to Tokyo that Smart Brain isn't currently going after the Faiz Gear, and Smart Lady is reminding an Orphenoch targeting Mari of this fact. I assume the confusion was a result of the Orphenoch in question completely ignoring this reminder, but regardless of the reason, botching this makes it sound like the bad guys are up to something they currently aren't.
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05-14-2020, 09:25 PM | #163 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Location: Chicago, IL
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Absolutely not, opinions need to be formed immediately and defended until death. I did not come to the internet to be told to wait until all the facts are in!
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05-15-2020, 04:28 AM | #164 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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People always echo Takumi's speech here about how "even if I don't have a dream, I can protect others' dreams", which... is lovely, and definitely a nice bit of framing for Kamen Rider. It's an idea that doesn't get brought up as much as it should be for a motive and it's just as poignant and important as someone having their own dream.
It falls completely flat for me because both up to this point and having watched the series entirely, it feels out of nowhere and out of character for Takumi. Like he suddenly got a shot of Big Hero Speech plugged into his veins because the directors were worried that Faiz wasn't enough of a hero to look up to after the first few episodes. I don't know, it's just... all talk and no action, to me. It rang very hollow.
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05-15-2020, 05:28 AM | #165 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
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It falls completely flat for me because both up to this point and having watched the series entirely, it feels out of nowhere and out of character for Takumi. Like he suddenly got a shot of Big Hero Speech plugged into his veins because the directors were worried that Faiz wasn't enough of a hero to look up to after the first few episodes. I don't know, it's just... all talk and no action, to me. It rang very hollow.
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05-15-2020, 06:49 AM | #166 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 104
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Gotta stick up for my boy Takkun here, and reiterate that he’s a classic case of 'not what he really seems', which is very atypical for a Main Rider. Even without hindsight from future episodes, those little scenes and moments with Keitaro and Mari eventually add up to convince me at the time that there are layers to his personality; that he’s not a plain selfish jerk that I had assumed he was (which might make the series less ‘fun’/more predictable, but also get the audience intrigued on what he’s really about!).
I love the climax for this episode, mainly because how perfectly executed the cross-cutting of scenes was in visual and thematic sense. Mari doubling down on what she wants to be, Takumi discovering who he wants to be, and Kaido letting go of who he used to be in multiple ways…. it just reflects the way both groups contrast each other in terms of their current standings. The pontification was pretty on the nose, yes, but still miles ahead and way more nuanced than your typical tokusatsu fare when tackling similar theme (which is typically just a character narrating the exact reason of their aspiration, e.g. “I adore my former policeman dad!” -> token flashback scene of that policeman dad smiling -> we’ve finished establishing the entire identity of that character!). Incidentally, I love that there’s a whole segment dedicated to Mari’s professional struggle, how they managed to find the time for a side character’s profession/aspiration that you can’t immediately link to the Kamen Rider-ing plot, the way you can with a lot of side characters’ professions as journalists or detectives. Now that they’ve finished introducing and painting a (mostly) full picture of the core six characters, it made me appreciate this early 'arc' even more and how they're not afraid of constantly putting the plot on the backseat to have all these small character-driven moments. (OoT: LAHM looked super terrifying, in a good and intriguing way, in that screencap above) |
05-15-2020, 11:25 AM | #167 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Oh no, I'm not disputing that Takumi cares about people -- I think it'd be hard to make a case for any main Rider not caring about others. But the way this done, it's like... I don't know. It's like if Godai started getting very grungy. Like, yes, we know those character traits are there, but this doesn't feel like the way they'd express them or use them at all.
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05-15-2020, 11:38 AM | #168 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
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Oh no, I'm not disputing that Takumi cares about people -- I think it'd be hard to make a case for any main Rider not caring about others. But the way this done, it's like... I don't know. It's like if Godai started getting very grungy. Like, yes, we know those character traits are there, but this doesn't feel like the way they'd express them or use them at all.
That aspect of it, how he'd never admit it to anyone (that he'd let live afterwards) even though he feels it intensely, I think that's what locked it in for me.
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05-15-2020, 12:04 PM | #169 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,407
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I'm just going to take a second here to point out that this episode also saw the debut of the Faiz Edge, the final major piece of Faiz's arsenal (for now), and the part that identifies the third major influence for Faiz's design: the letter phi, a shark, and a construction worker.
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05-15-2020, 12:22 PM | #170 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,083
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--3--
The main thrust of what Mari’s speech is trying to do is be the counterpoint to Kaido’s take on dreams. For Mari, for Team Faiz, dreams are what motivates us to be better people, what gives our lives meaning. There's struggle, but without that struggle we'd be less as people. For Kaido and Team Orphnoch, dreams are what haunt us, and other humans exist to keep our dreams just out of our reach. The struggle only has value if you can reach your goal, and falling short is a fate worse than death. Collectively, it’s a nice take on how having a goal can provide shape and purpose to life, but being too caught up on achieving a goal can lead to sadness and ruin. It’s way more solid for Team Orphnoch, though, because *gestures at Team Orphnoch*. These three have been ground up in pursuit of their dreams, whether that’s love (Yuuji), art (Kaido), or not being emotionally abused 24/7 (Yuka). Kaido 100% feels robbed by the universe, and it’d be way worse if he found out “the universe” was his old guitar instructor, who is also Owlphnoch. (Something I wish someone didn’t spoil before this episode!) It’s a really cool decision to have Yuuji and Yuka find out about Owlphnoch’s role in Kaido’s injury, but not tell him. It’s got the dual purpose of letting Kaido’s catharsis be his mentorship of the first-year, keeping that plotline nice and clean, while giving Yuuji new reasons to doubt humanity. Keeping Kaido out of those revelations means the Owlphnoch fight is against Horsepower, though, and it’s just not as compelling to me as the Faiz/Owlphnoch fight. They go back to the well of having mournful guitar-playing as the soundtrack, even though the two fights it’s over don’t really match the pace. And then halfway through they’re just like Okay Hard Rock Fight Song and that’s what we get over the monster immolations. It’s a smart sequence (no one on this show does Aggrieved And Confused like Yuuji) right up until it sort-of shrugs through the action. I love the idea of Takumi and Yuuji both protecting people without the people they're protecting even realizing it, but the actual mechanics of the fights were a little lacking. But, still, the Kaido stuff was pretty strong. They’ve made him way more of the Brooding Bad Boy than I was expecting, and he really nails it. He’s got the chops to play psycho killer one episode, and proud mentor the next. There's a great parallel between Kiba and Takumi in the climax where the former recites Kaido's speech as he's about to avenge his dream that was destroyed by Owl, and the latter delcares his intent to protect dreams. I like how smoothly these two plots come together to show that dreams are sacred and not something to be taken lightly. Quote:
--4--
Also, damn, a whole lot of mentorship in this one! It’s Takumi’s declaration, that he’ll fight so others can follow their dreams, that puts the button on the sort-of sub-theme in this episode of the value of mentorship. Both Takumi and Kaido are frustrated by being on the outside and looking in. They see people pursuing dreams, and they hate it. Takumi because he doesn’t understand it, and Kaido because he misses it. But even if they can’t enact their own dreams, maybe they can work to help others achieve their dreams. Takumi doesn’t viscerally understand Mari’s connection to her dream, but he wants to give her the safety to pursue it. Kaido can’t ever play the way he used to, but the first-year can, and maybe with Kaido’s guidance some small part of his dream can live on. Even the guest stars get in on the mentorship thread, with Owlphnoch as the mentor that needs to keep you in your place for their own ego, and Mari’s salon boss as the mentor that pushes you because they know you can take it. They’re not really that thematically linked (the salon lady seems too busy to want to destroy Mari’s hands, for example), but it’s nice to get a couple more examples of ways mentors can be complicated. Speaking of complicated, one thing I’d love to get people’s take on is the ending sequence of Kaido destroying his guitar. It starts with Kaido showing pride in knowing that the first-year is good enough to be the Kaido he never got to be, so that Kaido’s dream can live on through him. And then he throws his guitar away, putting that part of his life to rest. It’s… I don’t know if I’m supposed to feel good about that? There’s a reading where it’s for the best, Kaido flushing out his toxic jealousy in favor of a fresh start. But the destruction in the final shot feels like it’s all a mistake, an abdication of his humanity in favor of a future as an Orphnoch. Thoughts? The guitar is symbolic of Kaido's "curse", the burden he carried from the dream he's unable to fulfill on his own. Having passed the curse on to his protege, he has created a legacy that will ensure his dream will become reality in the future and thus ending the curse for good. That doesn't mean he's going to embrace being a monster. Kaido's arc is interesting since it deals with his backstory after his introduction in the previous arc. Of course, that's cause he's not an Original Orphenoch. Kiba and Yuka are mutants but he's more of a mutate. This means he doesn't possess the mutagen to turn other humans so Smart Brain will need to use his skillset in other ways. Finally, the debut of Faiz Edge which I forgot to mention due to it being separate from the Faiz Gear briefcase. When Faiz diverts Photon Blood to the rod, you can see it light up similar to a Lazer Blade from the Uchuu Keiji series. Although this lighting feature was already revealed in the OP. It looks cool in action nevertheless! Auto Vajin was a protective charm for Mari but it acts recklessly when "helping" Faiz with the friendly fire. In its debut fight, it attacked Faiz deliberately but it was in response to Mari as the Faiz Gear user was Cactus who it recognized as a threat. It's still a little humorous how Takumi, the primary user of the Gear, has to scold it for behaving this way.
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心 と 刃 Last edited by Sh Ranger; 05-15-2020 at 12:52 PM.. |
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