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04-05-2021, 07:58 PM | #641 |
New Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 71
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the word you're looking for is Backpfeifengesicht, which is wonderfully descriptive and generally applicable every time Kai asks that question. Tho I do find him pretty fun, so I don't mind it quite so much
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04-05-2021, 08:03 PM | #642 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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I think there's also definitely an element of... it's been a while since our major antagonistic force hasn't been a Rider? With the exception of Hibiki, every season since Ryuki has had another Rider be a major antagonistic force in some sense, so Kai despite his weirdness feels far more 'traditional' than Kaixa or Dark Kabuto.
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04-05-2021, 08:04 PM | #643 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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I'm trying to give Kai a reappraisal this time through, mostly because of Ultraman Orb. In the past I was always put off by his over-bearing goofiness, but it isn't bothering me as much this time. It's possible that some of the more contemporary comic relief has increased my tolerance, but so far I'm getting into him a lot more. The "what does my face look like" thing still gets kinda old, but I'm having more fun with viewing him as more of a puckish villain. I got a big charge out of him just randomly showing up while Ryotaro is just walking around. Also, I have to give him real props for having the cojones to say "Hey, this is a time travel show! Let's just kill Yuuto in the past to prove a point!"
But, yeah, Den-Parado is a dude who feels like a legitimate culmination of this story, even if it's not exactly the direction the show seemed like it was going in. (The idea of someone being in charge of the Imagin literally never comes up once until Kai appears! It's not even really teased except possibly for Ryutaros's debut, if memory serves.) He's saying things about emotional stability, about consequences, about memory, and he's doing it all with a physical presence that can both threaten and be threatened. I like what he's adding to this show! ...unless what he's adding is the new version of the theme song, which I hate.
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04-05-2021, 09:19 PM | #644 |
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KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 40 - “CHANGE IMAGIN WORLD”
Kai! Kai. A serious villain could never work on Den-O, but a Kamen Rider finale needs a serious villain. The contradiction of that, finding a resolution to it… maybe the best idea Kobayashi has ever had. Kai is a hilarious villain who thinks he’s serious, doing horrible things in the most lackadaisical way. He’s ruthless in pursuing his goals, but willing to have a conversation about why he’s pursuing them. He’s cunning in his strategies but generous in allowing opposition. (That look on his face when Deneb scans him for a ticket! And Kai just lets him!) He’s a villain that, on a long enough timeline, you could absolutely see joining the cast as a hero. He’s got the same limitless charisma that Ryotaro’s actor has, but calibrated differently. It’s his weird sense of camaraderie. Kai, Ryotaro, Yuuto, they’re just a group of guys caught up in this weird scenario, no different than someone you’d sit next to on a long train ride, or a co-worker. In fact, Kai totally treats Ryotaro like a co-worker in this episode. Their scenes together, the energy in them, you’ll recognize it if you’ve ever hung out after work with folks, gotten a drink or something to eat. The shittalking, the shared boredom, the gossiping. Kai’s whole pitch to Ryotaro is what every late-night after-work bitch session revolves around: Let’s Laugh At How Stupid Our Job Is. He’s a villain that thinks this is all pointless, all subjective, all irrelevant. The idea of caring about what happened to Yuuto is baffling to him, hilarious. He’s trying to prove a point to Ryotaro that caring about any of this, trying to save people or mourn them or prevent Kai’s plan, it’s stupid. It’s a villain who is attacking self-determination and empathy with moral relativism and apathy. Kai is the absolute best villain this show could have. And Ryotaro rises to the challenge in this incredibly weird episode. Like, the show is not subtle with its thesis statement here. The new timeline is objectively better without Yuuto being in it. Literally everyone is living a happier life. (Well, probably not those two women with Ozaki. I don’t know them, but they can do better!) Every single person is better off… but that would mean giving up on Yuuto, and Ryotaro can’t abide by that. The idea of trading lives is abhorrent to him, inconceivable. Yuuto did exist, he is remembered, and Ryotaro will work to save him. That’s it. It’s an argument grounded entirely in faith, in the belief that no one deserves to be forgotten. The suggestion that the world is better without someone in it has at its core a flaw that Ryotaro can’t overlook: what about the person being forgotten? How would they feel? As long as the argument assumes that’s not worthy of consideration, you’ve lost Ryotaro’s support. He’s meeting Kai’s What Aboutisms with certainty, conviction. Yuuto lived, and he deserves to be remembered. It makes for an episode that’s largely just that dilemma, and Ryotaro’s feelings about it. It’s nothing that needs him to work at solving it. The timeline ends up reasserting itself, putting everything back where it was an episode ago. There are no real consequences to Yuuto getting killed, since Yuuto just pops back up. It’s a weirdly circular episode, for how it’s Kai going Memories Are Dumb and Ryotaro going Memories Are Actually Great and that’s sort of it. Really great performances, and some well-shot action, but it all works more as a thought experiment than a dynamically plotted episode of tokusatsu. Clever, but maybe too clever? I don’t know. Kai’s great in this, Ryotaro is an awesome Den-O, that’s plenty for one episode. THE BAGGAGE CAR -Hey, you’re right, I didn’t talk about Zeronos’s new Cosmic Rust Form! Beautifully designed sequence, and probably a crucial piece of this story’s puzzle… except, AS PER GODDAMN USUAL, I’m not sure exactly what happened in this Yuuto development. He’s burning up a new memory to power up Zeronos, but I can’t tell from this montage if he’s burning up his memory of Airi, Airi’s memory of him, or both of their memories of each other. That matters! It matters a whole lot! I wish this episode nailed it down more, but I feel like it’ll get elaborated on next time. (That is basically how every major Yuuto storyline works.) Meanwhile, I thought it was really pretty? I just don’t know what it means yet. -I cannot even begin to tell you how much I hated this episode’s theme song. I guess it’s the DenLiner Imagin singing parts of it now? It’s horrible. It’s menacing and brash in a way that is antithetical to this show’s vibe, and I hope it was just some one-off goof for this alternate reality. Listening to the theme song was always a delight, and this was like nails on a chalkboard to me. -Deneb on the DenLiner as a cook is fantastic. Deneb as, like, Den-O’s assistant manager is the best. He’s so good at his job in literally every timeline!
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04-05-2021, 09:58 PM | #645 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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I'm happy you're getting so much enjoyment out of Kai, and am also still struck by how apt that fog bank metaphor you used to compare our reactions to the Zeronos stuff was:
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The debut of Zero Form kicks Yuuto's plotline into overdrive, and in the process it's one of the most wonderful and unique debuts for a power-up in Rider history. Mostly because it's more like a downgrade than anything. The whole context and atmosphere of him using it are so far removed from the normal way these kinds of episodes go that it's more comparable to Ultimate Kuuga than anything, and that's some dang high praise. It's more of that melancholy that no other show does like Den-O, and the straightforward, very visually expository scene of Zeronos rusting (even the reason he's red now is depressing) is one of the most striking moments of the entire series to me. Not bad for a show that's usually just known as "the funny one".
But, hey, for once, we're totally on the same page about one thing in Den-O: Quote:
Climax Jump is one of my favorite themes in the whole franchise, and frankly I'm not okay with the version of it that gets used starting with episode 40. It just sounds off, wrong, and nowhere near as upbeat, and the "ii jan, ii jan, sugee jan" part over the title card makes me want to vomit for some reason.
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04-05-2021, 10:06 PM | #646 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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I just don't understand the stakes, and that kneecaps it for me. Someone is being lessened by this, and I don't know who yet! Also, that new theme song is a war crime.
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04-05-2021, 10:19 PM | #647 |
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This is where the Airi scenes sort of let me down, since Airi is treated like an achievement, not an actual person. I can see what the show is going for, maybe, in how Ryuta and Yuuto have to become better if they're going to be worthy of Airi... but, like, that seems to leave Airi's preference out of the equation?
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KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 39 - “THE RIDER DISAPPEARS AS WELL”
Spent a couple minutes trying to figure out why I found this Yuuto episode so dull. I mean, I like Yuuto? I like the idea of Yuuto trying to get on with his life instead of pining over Airi? I like the idea of Yuuto trying to get on with his life instead of pining over Airi by going to a grocery store and wrestling Deneb because Deneb won’t stop putting Mushrooms in Yuuto’s food? That kind of storytelling is all over this episode, tons of little goofy-ass gags: the bit in the beginning where Momotaros is so psyched to get a chance at using Sword Form again to thrash some low-level Imagin that he forgets that he’s supposed to be demonstrating proper swordfighting technique to Ryotaro, so he asks the Imagin and Ryotaro to forget all of Momo’s exuberance and start over with a serious fight; Owner does spoon-flipping tricks, and then misses one, so he runs alongside the DenLiner for exercise; Yuuto kicks an empty bottle that hits Ryotaro in the face ten seconds later, dumping both of them down a hill; just so much fun nonsense in this episode. Quote:
There’s a point the show is making with all of this Yuuto miserablism, which is why I feel like I’ll enjoy the next instalment better. Den-Parado responds to Ryotaro’s angry hero threats with a simple question: why shouldn’t some pasts be changed? What if the changes could be better? The proof of his argument is at the end of the episode, when Ryotaro returns to a Milk Dipper that’s no longer astronomy-themed and Airimirer-infested, but one that’s a flowery library full of women.
And, look, I don’t know if the show’s trying to say Kai Was Right at the end of this one (I feel like Ryotaro’s devastated reaction says Nope), but seeing all the Airimirers swept away and replaced with a more welcoming, more energetic cafe? I will trade Yuuto for that! Den-Parado was right! Give Deneb a good home and do not rescue Yuuto’s past! Quote:
And, yeah, I think the show is giving this new reality the slightest veneer of Better. Airi’s happiness isn’t worth nothing to Ryotaro, so seeing her no longer tortured and conflicted over Sakurai’s variable existence, that’s going to be something he won’t just want to destroy. There’s some obvious surface benefits to Sakurai not ever being in her life, even if the show’ll inevitably come down on the side of Please Get Along With Yuuto’s Existence. I respect the lead-in with things feeling objectively better, though. Fun twist on an altered reality.
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THE BAGGAGE CAR
-I like the implication that the other Imagins never brought Den-Parado up to Ryotaro because Kai’s a dick and they hate him. He’s just some pushy jerk in their brains and they’re like No Thanks? That’s an appropriately character-driven reason for why there was this Big Bad that absolutely no one thought to mention before. He sucks! That’s it! Quote:
-Den-Parado, obviously, does not suck. One of my favorite villain moves is when the villain forces a hero to break off a threat to go save some poor soul that the villain just put in jeopardy. He does it to both Ryotaro and Yuuto in this episode, and it’s great. It’s Den-Parado reminding the heroes of how far ahead of them he is, as well as how almost none of this matters to him. It’s Ryotaro saying that every life should be protected, and Den-Parado answering him with a shrug. He’s such a great adversary for Ryotaro.
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04-05-2021, 10:42 PM | #648 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Well, for you to have this thought of Ryotaro having this view of Airi, to have her no longer tortured, do you accept this in his perceptive or not? Because, not that I like this trope, but the keeping the harsh truth from someone is done for that, to make that someone not feel tortured or conflicted?
But, first, the show is making a point about the steadfastness of Ryotaro's beliefs, not whether he's always right or wrong. Second, this isn't a situation where the truth is being kept from Airi. This is a situation where Ryotaro would be (theoretically) rewriting time to depress Airi. Not a great choice for him to make!
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04-05-2021, 11:32 PM | #649 |
King of the Rolex
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Digital World
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Yeah Climax Jump Denliner form is definitely inferior to original in every way and I hate that it replaces it for pretty much the rest of show I think.
Since we're talking about Climax Jump I should mention their are a couple different variations of the song sung by the different Imagin: Sword Form(Momotaros): Rod Form(Urataros): Axe Form(Kintaros): Gun Form(Ryutaros): Bonus Information Their is a variation of Double Action sung by Naomi and Airi called Double Action Coffee Form: |
04-05-2021, 11:46 PM | #650 |
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(Also, thanks for those other songs! The Airi/Naomi one is maybe my favorite version of Double Action!)
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