[DreamSword]

Haven't seen Zi-O yet, but count me in for the camp that doesn't like Decade. It'd be kinda hard for Zi-O to be worse, IMO.

[Waverider]

I've been out of the game for a few years on Toku stuff and just binge watched Zi-O.

I always said when Decade is involved you can throw continuity out of the window. And I was right. Just like Decade, someone took the plot of Zi-O and used a drill multiple time on it.

And whats up with the writers on the show? So someone thought it's a awesome idea for Decade to have a Zi-O card and Zi-O Have a Decade Watch? That's like writing one of the most powerful Kamen Riders ever!

Like Decade, I'll make Zi-O separate from the rest of the series and be it's own thing. I did enjoy the show though with all it's faults.

[Powerman293]

Why does Tskuyomi wear such ugly outfits? No seriously, most of them just look terrible.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Powerman293

Why does Tskuyomi wear such ugly outfits? No seriously, most of them just look terrible.

To try and distract people from Geiz's awful tactical dickey.

[Powerman293]

My personal headcanon is that Tsukyomi wears all these outfits because in 2068, humanity doesn't have a lot of the luxuries they have in 2018. One of those things is nice clothing. So when Tsukyomi travels back in time, she takes full advantage of the past's luxuries.

[Fish Sandwich]

Me, half a month ago:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

to be perfectly frank, there's no way I'm making a hard commitment to listening to like 8 hours of Wakana's Healing Princess and then explaining my thoughts on it.

Me, shortly thereafter:



So, uh, it turns out I actually really loved listening to Wakana's Healing Princess. Emphasis on listening, though. This is one of the joys of going back to stuff I watched really early on after getting into toku. At the time, I probably just took a glance at the first episode of it in TV-N's batch, went "I don't get it" and then moved on. But now that I'm actually in more of a position to enjoy these things directly, I had so much fun, I'm now convinced episode 49 of Double is the real tragic ending. Philip's cool and all, but he never had a radio show, let alone one with 130% enthusiasm.

Not like that even matters, though, when it was already ended to match up with the point Wakana switched careers in Double itself. Which is a shame! I joked like the amount we got was overkill, but right now I don't feel like I could ever get enough of Rin Asuka constantly tripping over her words in the most adorable manner possible while occasionally playing an insert song or two. Did you know Finger on the Trigger had a sweet acoustic version? Because I don't think I did all these years, and that's just one more thing it turns out I was really missing in life.

One other thing I've been watching since finishing the series proper that I want to talk about is the Delusion Diaries. Not the actual skits, though. Don't get me wrong, they're the usual amount of extremely funny for W, but the actual meat of them, which I don't think has been subbed, is the talk show bits in the middle where the main cast sit down and chat for around 15 minutes at a time about the episodes. I've always had a fairly strong interest in behind the scenes content like this, and between these and the straightforward making of documentaries for Movie War 2010 and the W Returns movies, there are a lot of fun tidbits of information to be found.

Something about knowing Ren Kiriyama wore a blue shirt in episodes 5 and 6 because it was Trigger's debut and that was his favorite of Double's Memories (being the man of culture he is) really enhances my enjoyment of the show. As does knowing he's the one who came up with the choreography for the goofy little dance Shoutarou and Philip do in their seats at the start of episode 13, which I think really goes to prove my point about how good he is at being expressive. There's also things you actually could gleam from the show itself, but are unlikely to, such as the fact that Philip and Kirihiko were apparently never onscreen together right up until a single brief scene after Nasca's fight with FangJoker at the start of 18. Or how Koichi Sakamoto feels the need to make everything so intense that, when Akiko hits Makura with her usual slipper in 21, she does a full 360 degree spin in the process.

Speaking of directors, that's actually my big takeaway from the whole thing. I really have a newfound appreciation for just what a collaborative process making a series is. I have a tendency to just assume everything is in the script if it doesn't involve an explosion or a clever bit of camerawork, but the impression I got is that all these guys do a lot of work, even when it doesn't have the immediate impact or style a guy like Sakamoto brings to the table. Did you know the big scene in episode 48 was originally written so that it would just be Double in the suit talking to himself? Because it blew my mind to find out that masterpiece of a scene was in large part thanks to Hidenori Ishida deciding it simply made more sense to have Shoutarou and Philip properly onscreen. Mind you, with how talented Seiji Takaiwa is, I don't doubt he would've made the original idea work, but I think the results here speak for themselves. Apparently quite a few people were crying on the set, too, up to and including Kazu's actor, Gong Teyu, allowing Kiriyama to succintly sum up the emotional impact of that scene by remarking that even the final boss was tearing up.

Ishida is so dedicated to getting the most out of his actors, that when filming episode 25, he imitated a little girl throwing a tantrum on the floor to give an idea of what sort of performance he was looking for. It just goes to show how much thought can go into even the most minor seeming things. There was also a bit in the making-of for Movie War 2010 that stuck out to me, where Ryuuta Tasaki specifically directs Kiriyama to run his finger along the spot on his hat where the hole in Soukichi's would be when talking with Philip about people allegedly coming back from the dead. I can only assume that's something he came up with himself, but regardless, it adds a lot of extra punch to a simple, early scene that can get away without having any.