|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
05-07-2020, 05:09 AM | #15871 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,551
|
Yep. It was the 30th anniversary and they wanted to do something for it, but they weren’t confident enough in nostalgia for the Showa Riders to do a reunion movie ala Gaoranger’s. They did do a video game, but it’s more of a crossover with other Tokusatsu franchises of yesteryear.
|
05-07-2020, 06:42 AM | #15872 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Wait, you dont know either?
Posts: 5,826
|
I have reached Blade Episode 29. I knew it would be odd. I did not expect Romeo and Juliet / Prince and the Pauper / Memento crossover levels of odd. Especially coming off the arc that we just had.
__________________
Check out my occasional ramblings! https://akibamusings.blogspot.com/
|
05-07-2020, 12:43 PM | #15873 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 104
|
Three episodes left with Hibiki. Despite my most recent rant, I actually didn't think it's all bad. I kinda like the new concept of using the same pair of maturing Douji/Hime .... the heightened melodrama and comedy with Zanki and Todoroki occasionally entertained me ... and there's a few decent scenes in-between, such as Asumu being proactive in Makamou battle and helping out Hibiki in realistic and in-character fashion.
The rest has been damn bad, though. Show's pretty much lost all the flair it once had; that gentle intimate vibe, and the sense of teamwork among the Oni and non-transforming cast. Every scene has to be functionally BIG and drives the plot forward now, while Kiriya continues to be The Worst by stealing so much screen time from characters I care about. They really did Akira dirty, by the way, especially after her genuinely awesome transformation moment. Got me excited for nothing I tend to enjoy these kind of customary mid-season comedic filler... this one is, uh, an exception, to say the least. |
05-07-2020, 02:36 PM | #15874 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,420
|
The Shuki arc is probably my least favorite part of the already awful part of Hibiki. The entire premise is just an excuse to enforce the "girls can't be Kamen Riders" ideology that was a recurring theme through the early Heisei era. The only good thing to come out of it was that at least Akira wasn't killed off like Femme or L'Arc.
|
05-07-2020, 06:09 PM | #15875 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 104
|
Quote:
The Shuki arc is probably my least favorite part of the already awful part of Hibiki. The entire premise is just an excuse to enforce the "girls can't be Kamen Riders" ideology that was a recurring theme through the early Heisei era. The only good thing to come out of it was that at least Akira wasn't killed off like Femme or L'Arc.
|
05-08-2020, 03:05 PM | #15876 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,420
|
Fourze 47-48
Not technically the end of my rewatch - still have a movie and a cameo to go - but the end of the main series, at least. For all that they feel like a last minute addition of some backstory, I do like the idea behind the Presenters: a highly evolved alien intelligence that reaches out to other lifeforms via gaudy plastic doodads in order to learn more about the universe. It's a neat concept and it's generally execute well, although I wish it had been brought up at least a little earlier. The show ends with two major emotional story beats. One of them works for me, other one not so much. I like how Gentarou defeats Gamou. I'm not sure if I did so much at the time, but going back there's nothing more fitting than for Gentarou to defeat the villain by befriending him. The mini graduation ceremony/beatdown was a good scene that worked so well that even the Rider Girls couldn't ruin it with their bland ballad from the prom episode. I really did feel for Gamou at the end, realizing that he was misguided and that he had inadvertently created a much stronger legacy. It was touching and the show didn't try to oversell it. I used to hate a lot on this ending, but I actually liked it a lot more on a repeat viewing. Now on the topic of overselling, we get to the other emotional aspect: the death of Kengo. Pretty much everything about Kengo's arc has never worked for me. Obviously it's not going to work now, already knowing how it's going to end, but it didn't work on the first watch either. Sota Fukushi can ugly cry with the best of them, but the show went way too hard into overplaying Kengo's departure and it just fell flat for me as a result. And then the death itself, that part never really affected me. Kengo, Fourze's non-human friend and main support partner, died just a year after the death of Ankh, OOO's non-human friend and main support partner. And Ankh's death, in turn, came a year after the death of Philip, W's non-human friend and main support partner. Philip's death hit me really hard; I actively cried at that scene. Ankh's death hit me hard, especially since there was no immediate reversal. By the time we got to Kengo, all the show got out of me was a "seriously, are we really doing this again?" Hell, if you want a blast from the past, I posted this in the discussion thread for episode 5 of Wizard: Quote:
I do like the ending overall, though. It's not the strongest in the franchise's history, but it ends in a way that's very uniquely Fourze (when it's not straight ripping off W). Oh, and before I forget, there is some very Koichi Sakamoto motorcycle jumping in slow motion in front of explosions in episode 48. I got some very bad Kalish-era Power Rangers flashbacks during that scene. Up next, we jump ahead a few months to five years in the future. |
05-09-2020, 06:54 AM | #15877 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Wait, you dont know either?
Posts: 5,826
|
This is the most powerful Rider on the show, change my mind. Blade 30 continues the weirdness of 29, and is also for some reason where Garren Jack is introduced. People talk about upgrades now feeling meaningless, but this one was just perfunctory.
__________________
Check out my occasional ramblings! https://akibamusings.blogspot.com/
|
05-09-2020, 10:57 AM | #15878 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,580
|
So given I don't think we have a thread specifically for Stage Shows, and recently there's been a lot more subbing of Rider Final Stages (Including a Stage Show for LupinVSPat alongside the Zangetsu Stage Play). A new group even subbed a Kamen Rider W special event one, which is basically a remixed Movie Wars 2010 that tells you to go watch Movie Wars 2010.
I thought I'd share my brief thoughts on all of the ones I've watched recently. So let's start with. Zi-O Final Stage: This one is specifically set after Over Quartzer and basically confirms that Over Quartzer is just an alternate timeline deal with a single line towards the end. Lot's of fun on this one, and I always enjoy the clever ways they get around special effects for Henshin's and stuff. Special mention goes to how they handled Another Kuuga here which was cute. Also probably the best decision they made was turning the villain into a gigantic Showa Boomer who wants to erase the Heisei Era so we're instead in Showa Year 93. Special shout outs to the The Reboot Ichigo, Nigo and V3 alongside Amazon Alpha and Omega showing up. Especially with Alpha yelling out, "Cheer 'Do your best' or I'll kill you!" Drive Final Stage: Some post show fun stuff, not too much to really say on this aside from us getting the Car Sentai Driveranger. Also it's kind of hilarious given Paradox is the villain but he spends most of his time in a cloaked Roidmude Form, except it's clearly a low budget stage show variant since he shows up near a bunch of the high quality grunt Roidmude suits. So that's kinda hilarious. Ghost Final Stage: This one is probably my favorite next to Zi-O's, mostly for the set up that's used to involve basically every single Ghost Parka suit. By turning an innocent "Which one of you is the strongest" question into "We're making this a big battle royal wrestling style tournament." The Onpu Ganma that became a bit of a reoccurring character in the show ended up showing up and partnering with Beethoven. Plus he finally got a name like Cubi. Gyro decides to name him Roman because Romance is involved when thinking of Beethoven. Also the new stageshow exclusive form they had with Shinsengumi Damashii was really cool. I like how loose it looks and the light blue is a nice coloration. Kinda clever how they decided to tie the object that was used to create the eyecon into the katana we see Ryu Tenkuji always use. Finally the one that got released like not even 2 hours ago... W Final Stage: Of all the things I expected, I didn't expect an alternate Weather in the form of Isaka Shinkurou (Not Shinkuro, Shinkurou). Who is basically an Isaka from an alternate world who stole a Foundation X Memory named the Fuuto Memory. Hijinks ensue where Akiko ends up running into him and accidentally gets the memory plugged into her, turning her into Fuuto-Kun. And basically the way they bring back a bunch of old characters who are quite understandably dead, is through that memories power. The Fuuto Memory basically calling upon Isaka's memories to bring back old Dopants and even Eternal of all people. Special mentions go to Kirihiko who tries his hardest but was sadly stuck as a Maquerade Dopant and thus, terribly weak and easily killed. And also they brought out Skull and he got to fight Eternal and it was pretty cool. Always love to see more Skull. Overall, Rider Final Stage Shows are fun little desert courses after the series concludes and I'm amazed people are only now starting to sub them because they are just genuinely fun experiences that everyone needs to watch. |
05-09-2020, 03:53 PM | #15879 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,420
|
Movie War Ultimatum
So here we are at last, the end of Kamen Rider Fourze. Yes, there's the Ex-Aid/Build movie, but that's more of a cameo and it's just Gentarou and JK; this is the last time we'll ever see most of these characters and the last time that Gentarou is the main focus of a story (poor guy doesn't even get his own Zi-O arc; he has to share it with Faiz). As far as grand finales go it's both good and a little disappointing. I do like seeing where all of the characters end up; we even get to see some of the other supporting characters again like Nao Nagasawa, Sweaty Inga Brink, and Principal Alternative Zero. The big focus on the Inazuman stuff leaves a lot of the KRC feeling sidelined, though. Yuuki barely gets any screen time in the entire film and the others don't fare much better. It's a good epilogue, but for a show that was based so much on the hero and his friends, the latter really don't contribute much. I skipped the Wizard part (this wasn't a Wizard rewatch, after all), but I did watch the team-up portion. I remember this movie being kind of a letdown when I first watched it and that opinion holds firm. There's some things that work well - I like the redesigned Akumaizers, even if it does suck that another group of classic Toei heroes were reused as villains. The story and action, though, didn't do much for me. It was seeing Wizard in action again; I'd forgotten just how stylish his fight scenes could be (and the regular Haruto parts I watched reminded me why he's still one of my favorite Riders). I wish I could say the same for W, OOO, Accel, and Birth, but I really can't. We did get a small Eiji cameo, but this was the first time that most of these characters showed up as just ghost suits instead of having the actors reprise their roles. I hate it when Toei does this and it really cheapened most of the final sequence. The truck chase was also pretty underwhelming in concept, and I say this as a huge fan of the Mad Max films that obviously inspired it. It was just a bunch of shots of guys punching a truck interspersed with more of Sakamoto's beloved slow motion motorcycle jumps in front of explosions. Oh, and speaking of Sakamoto... When I rewatched the Fourze summer movie I said that it was the definitive Koichi Sakamoto film. I stand by that, but this movie is a great example of what happens when he cuts loose and does whatever he wants. There. Are. So. Many. Slow. Motion. Close-ups. Of. Twirling. Skirts. Set. To. Harp. Music. It's incredibly distracting and that's with skipping the entire Poitrine section, which I know had even more of them. Between that and someone deciding that Mikie Hara should be hosed down before most of her scenes this film definitely crossed over into fetish territory. I'm not kink-shaming here, but sometimes you need to reign it in on what is ostensibly a fucking children's movie. Anyway, it's still a pretty enjoyable film. A big step down from the OOO/Fourze movie, but reasonably enjoyable. From what little I remember, it's also a big step up from the Wizard/Gaim movie that followed it, too. So that's it, then. Took a lot longer than I'd anticipated, but I made it all the way through Fourze. Does it hold up? Yeah, I'd definitely say it does. It's probably not the best Rider show ever made, but it is incredibly fun, has a great cast of characters, and I really did enjoy the vast majority of it. |
05-09-2020, 05:14 PM | #15880 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
Quote:
Anyway, I just wanted to say it's been real fun reading your posts about Fourze over the past not-quite-a-year.
__________________
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:31 PM.
|