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04-16-2020, 05:46 AM | #15811 |
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Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,546
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Well thanks to someone on kissasian deciding to branch out (and a random video in my recommended selection on YouTube) I’ve been on a final stage kick lately.
Drive: The plot in this is fairly straightforward, with a few great gags, such as Shinnosuke bridal-carrying Gou and Otta doing Stronger’s speech. But it gets bogged down slightly by a painfully obvious mystery (hmm, who could this Roidmude who mentions time a lot and sounds like Black RX’s bestie possibly be?) Zi-O: This one I got more of a kick out of. The idea of Another Ohma Zi-O being created from Showa Ridewatches is just inspired. And the Another Riders that hold the watches are smart choices (except for the bizarre decision to use Drive instead of Faiz, especially since there’s nothing that necessitates it has to be Drive and the other 6 are the numerical equivalents to the watches they hold [eg: Hibiki has Amazon]). And really you could probably remove Zonjis and Zamonas without changing much. But still, a pretty good show. And the idea of the alternate Tsukuyomi and Red Woz is a good one, even if it’s just part of Hiryuu’s manipulations. Ghost: I’m not going to lie, his is probably the best of the here I’ve seen. The gags, such as Makoto’s crush on his sister and Onari getting victimised by a knee to the nuts are just on point. And since it’s technically a new villain, nothing that happened at the end of the show need be undone. And then there’s the idea that Takeru is going to get married, or at least father a child. Boy, that rubbed someone I follow on Twitter the wrong way. |
04-16-2020, 07:18 PM | #15812 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
Posts: 25,326
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Well, I've made it to Ghost, episode 33 and my first glimpse of Mugen.
Sometimes I like to be a contrarian. Other times, I'm not afraid to follow the pack. Despite my initial distaste of Ghost when it first aired, dropping it 6 episodes in, on my rewatch, I was finding myself saying "This isn't as bad as I heard." Going in knowing how obnoxious Onari is and basically just tune him out, I should be able to enjoy myself! That's what I was thinking. It's just been so slow. Even a series like Drive, which started slow, I still had enough intrigue in to hard marathon it, plowing through about 10 episodes a day and even pulling all nighters (Thanks, quarantine). Ghost I just can't. I'm finding myself so uninterested that TVN's April Fools episode is probably the best thing about it so far. I'm not here to say Ghost is godawful, but I'm finding it so bland it makes Drive's first half look like a non stop adventure. I think my big issue is Takeru. I'm all for main characters that can find a way to smile through the toughest of times, it's why Eiji is one of my favs. But he's just so one note it hurts. At least Eiji tried to work so hard for others he risked his losing own humanity, creating an interesting extreme. I don't think Takeru has undergone any major changes in 2/3 of the show so far, which is a large problem, since it makes it feel like he's not a big part of the plot, rather that the plot is happening, and he's just along for the ride.
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04-20-2020, 01:30 AM | #15813 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,404
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Fourze 41-42
Coming in to the home stretch now as we finally uncover the mysteries of who Virgo is, who Tachibana is, and what's up with Professor Emoto. And in a move that may or may not have surprised me back in 2012, the answer is that they're all the same dude, he betrayed and murdered Kengo's dad, and now he's dead. So that's cool. Honestly, there was a lot of good stuff in this arc as Tachibana reaches out to the KRC and promptly tells Gentarou to cut ties with all of his friends. He even threatens them all as Virgo to drive home his point. There was a lot more naked Shun in this section than I remembered. Obviously, Gentarou proceeds to teach Tachibana the value of friendship instead. It's a nice arc, even if it does feel a little predictable given the show's main theme and some of the stories we've already had. There are some nice moments where Gentarou touches base with his friends after they leave the KRC, though, and a really nice moment where Kengo establishes how far he's will to go for Gentarou. Also, Yuuki's barely in this arc and that's always nice. We get the debut of the Sagittarius Zodiart in this arc, too. As the show's final boss he immediately comes off as unbeatable, but that will change in about six episodes' time. I was never a huge fan of the design; I think it's the visor, it makes him look really silly to me for some reason. His bullet hell power is okay, but not that exciting. Rocket States also made it's one and only TV appearance here. I'm not sure why they didn't use it more, but at the same time I'm also surprised it made an appearance outside of the initial movie. You'd think they would either ignore it completely or do something with it. I guess Gentarou is still bummed that it was briefly his girlfriend. I'm going to take a pause from the series next and watch the Fourze summer movie. I've really been looking forward to that, so it hopefully won't take two weeks to get around to it. |
04-20-2020, 01:51 AM | #15814 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
Posts: 25,326
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Finished Ghost.
Going in with tempered expectations, it's not the house fire I was anticipating, but it was by no means good. I felt it was just bland, with uninteresting characters that just go on and on about hearts and dreams. Believing in one's self and your friends to forge a greater power is standard stuff, but the way it's just constantly shouted out each episode just got tedious. Like, when one of the morals of an episode is "Get angry, damn it!", you know you spew out the hope speeches too damn much. Onari is annoying and actively hindered the plot because he wanted to be a Rider in one episode. Honestly, that was the peak of "Did this man seriously just..." for me. However, tuning him out wasn't too difficult, until he decides to spontaneously yell for no reason. Onari aside, though, the show was just bland. Takeru takes too much in stride, and felt too flat. We've had flat main characters before, but the story is usually framed so that it's really the side character that evolves (See the Tendou and Kagami dynamic). Makoto was text book secondary. Kind of a dick at the start, warms up, then just becomes fodder to help against mobs. Alain had an interesting story with a nice resolution...Then he was just left to be...Part of the gang. His familial ties to Adel didn't play into things as much as they should have. I've watched Kamen Rider series that were bad because they were just awful all around, such as Decade. I've seen some that were bad because they just flubbed up the execution, like Kiva. And I've seen some that were bad solely due to being boring and forgettable, like Wizard. This is a series that gets cozy up beside Wizard, ultimately. Some interesting bits, some annoying parts, but ultimately, it's just an underwhelming series. I did like the fact that Ghost got the chance to pull a Gaim and be a god, but said "Nawh" though. At least Takeru doesn't have his head up his own ass, Kouta...
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04-20-2020, 03:58 PM | #15815 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,404
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Kamen Rider Fourze: The Movie: Everyone Translates The Catchphrase Differently!
In which Gentaro does the friendship handshake with a space station. So, complete honesty time here. This movie is one of the main reasons I wanted to rewatch Fourze. I first saw it months after the show ended and it really drove home for me how much I liked all of the characters (which, considering I watched it while Wizard was airing, hit extra hard). I haven't watched it again since then and there are a lot of details from it that I kinda halfway remembered. I knew that a bunch of characters threw Astro Switches for Gentarou, for example, but I couldn't remember if that happened here or on the show proper. Ditto for seeing a lot of the other teachers again (Nao Nagasawa, Alternative Zero, etc.). Other parts, like the fight that uses all 40 switches, I do remember clearly. Seeing the movie again, the first thing that struck me is how this is pretty much the textbook Koichi Sakamoto film. If I ever wanted to teach a class on his style, I could just show off this film: crazy action scenes, lots of wire work, vehicle chases, swooping cameras, Nao Nagasawa and/or Ayumi Kinoshita, and at least one sexy lady doing martial arts (in this case the film's two biggest guest stars: Mikie Hara). That's not a critique, necessarily, especially since he was already Fourze's main action director and the movie gave him a bigger budget to blow up CGI with. At the same time, though, it does feel a little familiar given how much Sakamoto has worked on tokusatsu shows in the last couple decades. As for the story, this is where I find myself a little conflicted. The movie is a lot shorter than I remember it being - only a little over an hour - and the pacing is pretty weird. Parts of it rush by really fast - I was surprised to find that we were already up to the Wizard cameo after just 25 minutes (the early Rider cameos always surprise me, even when I know they're coming - they always feel so random and forced). Other parts of the film just crawl, though. The returning character/Switch montage was really cool but it felt like it dragged on forever (as a side note, I swear there was at least one totally random new character in there that I do not remember from the series). The overall story was relatively straightforward, though, with a pretty decent plot twist going into the third act. The villains were a little flat as characters, but they still bear a specific mention. There's this thing that Fourze did with this and the Wizard Movie War that's both pretty cool and really weird at the same time. This film's villains are reimagined versions of the heroes from an old Ishinomori tokusatsu called Kyodain. Other Kyodain designs are used for the good aligned robot and the little security drones inside the space station (I think the station is also from something, but I'm not 100% sure). Toei would pull a similar trick with Inazuman and Akumaizer 3 in the Movie War. I still think it's a neat use of older concepts from shows that will never get a follow-up, although it's a shame that most were used as villains. We also got the Fusion States suit, which is both incredibly ugly yet not as bad as I remembered. At least it didn't have skis. Your drinking game for this movie is any time Miu says "Oops" or Shun's twinkle sound effect plays. Back to the series proper after this as the show makes up for the last arc not having much Yuuki and the movie generally using her well. I'm not looking forward to this. |
04-22-2020, 01:30 AM | #15816 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
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Trying to get better at the writing about the episodes I'm watching, so here's some unorganized thoughts on Episode 6 of Ex-aid.
I only just realized but Graphite has a killer design (as do lots of the bugsters TBH) they just get so little fanfare in and out of show that you kind of forget. I like how Hiiro seems legit confused during the flashback to his fight with Saki, it's different then like an angry or annoyed reaction that you might typically get, and makes Hiiro more sympathetic in the situation (still women in refrigerators). On an upturn from that Hiiro legit sees he was an awful partner and wants revenge probably mostly to prove to himself he’s not just strong, but that he can be forgiven. Also gotta love toku rain shots, they always look so good. Not sure how I feel about this, “ a woman puts her stress and worries to the side so her boyfriend can be successful” plot, because it feels like they’re ignoring that a woman can have dreams of her own, we learn very little about the patient this week, and it kind of sucks. I love Taiga’s little telescope I also love how the bugsters get different costumes depending on the The whole sequence with Hiiro knocking out the Doremifa Beat Bugester and then beating up Graphite is great. The super speed slide under graphite, is a wonderful show of growth with Hiiro, and him learning how to use the game to his advantage. Then Hiiro using CPR rhythm to beat the crap out of graphite is fantastic from just a coolness perspective. The gag with Hiiro cutting the creampuff is funny. I do wonder how they actually did cut it so cleanly. Edit: feel free to leave criticism on how I can organize and add to this.
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Last edited by Deepsea; 04-22-2020 at 01:33 AM.. |
04-22-2020, 02:03 PM | #15817 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 104
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Finished Faiz some time ago, and my feelings on it were super mixed. I posted in this thread about how the first dozen of episodes really got me into the show and characters, and I still stand by that. I was really invested in the pair of trios and enjoyed many of their interaction together. I even like Kusaka as a character; there's something in the idea of an unapologetic anti-villain character, and whom a show has no interest in redeeming, that appeals to me. He's often terribly used though, and that's one of the many frustrating aspects about Faiz's writing: poor utilization of characters with great potential.
I love Mari and Keitaro as characters, but I could swear they didn't actually do anything functionally useful in the story beyond screaming "TAKKUN, HELP! ORPHNOCH!" at their phones. The antagonists are just a bunch of perplexing douches who wander around getting into each other's way; Smart Brain, more like No Brain, amirite. Smart Brain Lady was actually the only one I found interesting, and that's mostly because of a single awesome acting moment when she momentarily discarded her faux happy-go-lucky persona and made a genuinely scary face as she threatened Kiba (*then of course she was barely featured for the rest of the show). I couldn't care less about Orphnoch King and that obligatory 'problem child' character with one of the most wooden child actor in the not so glorious history of KR child actors, too. What else? Lots of repetitive defeat-and-retreat scenes at conspicuously empty streets and dark tunnels. Over-reliance on coincidence and silly misunderstandings to move the plot forward. Groan-worthy attempts at rom-com sub-plot. A fairly underwhelming ending when all is said and done. And yet, there are genuinely great moments and ideas. Just when I thought the show's beyond saving, there's the mid-show game-changing twist that I totally didn't see coming. The Rider belts being treated like a used condom was initially hilarious to see, but also very interesting, eventually bringing to the fore the major theme of identity fluidity that the show's all about. So, yeah, Faiz is a deeply flawed one that I personally rate above many other KR shows that might be objectively better or could be recommended to others without as much caveats, simply because its emotional highs (e.g. The Hug) moved me in a way that many other Rider shows couldn't come close to touching. There's just something with the core characters and the general bittersweet vibe that really got me. (Paradise Lost: cool movie without many of the issues from the series! Much more interesting setting, two new Riders with awesome design, terrific battle scenes, and a concise plot that's both coherent and propulsive. Kaido not being an annoying creep and Keitaro finally given the opportunity to henshin were also major pluses. The downsides: still relying on characters being gullible idiot to manufacture the climactic conflict, and crummy treatment of its main two female characters. All in all, still one of the finer KR movies I've ever seen, and I definitely prefer the AU approach of early Heisei Phase I when it comes to movie narrative; it makes for a way more unpredictable, anything-can-happen, spectacle.) Last edited by Magnugiga; 04-22-2020 at 02:07 PM.. |
04-25-2020, 12:03 AM | #15818 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Port Perry, Ont, Can
Posts: 100
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Just got back into KR, missed everything after Wizard. I'm Starting with Zi-O
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04-25-2020, 07:11 PM | #15819 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 104
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I'm about two-thirds through Blade and Hibiki, liking them both (especially Hibiki) so far.
Blade This is actually my second viewing of Blade; I watched some episodes a few years back, but dropped it because I just couldn't get into it. I dunno, I'm not inherently against main rider already being one from the beginning (i.e. we don't get to see their origin story), but that may contributed to how difficult it was for me to connect to the characters and the situation. Lots of action and plot happened in the first few episodes, and lots of characters were introduced, but it all kinda felt bland to me. I still don't like the beginning this time around, but things started to pick up episode teen-ish, when they surprisingly get rid of a certain character that I thought would hang around much longer. From there, the nature of conflict shifts from a fight against external recurring antagonist into something that's much more of an internal struggle among the Core Four of main characters; and I dig that approach. That's something I wished Faiz would've done (speaking of, I like the implementation of GPS to track the Undeads, so it no longer feels the Riders has inexplicably supernatural awareness of where the monsters are). Things I don't like: several side characters (Amane-chan, Tachibana's gf, Mutsuki's gf) clearly only exist for the development of the Core Four. Overall, the 'filler' parts and side characters in this are really weak, I feel. Also, this might just be me being slow, but the concept of this show felt so vague and confusing at first I had to look up external source to learn about the whole categorization & card mechanic thing. But yeah, it eventually become a pretty solid character-driven ride. I heard it ends with a bang too, so really looking forward to the rest of this. Hibiki It sure is different, and at first, not necessarily in a good way! The first episode was super jarring to me, what's with the wacky musical number to open and all the visual effects, as well as the apparent fact that they seem to turn one of those obligatory child/pre-teen sub-plot (usually one of my least favorite part in a given KR show) into a major plotline that this show revolves around. I soon get used to it, and once I did, I love it. It's such a refreshing change of pace from your usual KR vibe with its complete lack of angsty characters/backstories (not that I always hate this), and a more naturalistic setting that enables more exciting and expansive battle scenes instead of the same ol' boring fights in empty urban streets and tunnels. There's a chill atmosphere and chemistry among the cast, too; they're just so relaxed and matter-of-fact about the whole Makamou-slaying thing, it almost feels like they're just doing a daily routine job, but the show still manages to convey the stakes effectively and highlight the teamwork aspect between Riders and non-transforming characters in a way that I haven't seen since Kuuga. Little things like bits and pieces of the lore, every scene when the 'mechanical origami hunters' (I forgot what they're actually called ) is deployed, the ending song, and the signature flashing kanji thing (it's so much more effective when it's started to be used more sparingly) also really grew on me. Asumu can be hit-and-miss, and it does feel odd at times when they juxtapose scenes like the Onis having a life-or-death battle against makamou with Asumu's having problems with something like ... stomachache. But, I think I get what they're trying to do, and it's a genuinely poignant thing. By grounding the main character as a sort of Audience's Avatar and putting his very relatable conflicts side-by-side with the superhero action (which are still framed in a way that's not much different with normal adult job/responsibility), it shows his character growth in a way that's completely organic and less trope-y than what I'm accustomed to. You won't ever become a Kamen Rider/Oni, but I like to believe there's some kid watching this who would be inspired to ... give a seat to the granny on the train, for instance. That said, I do believe the show could've benefited from a bit more tension (Akira warmed up a bit too fast toward Asumu, for instance). Not something too outrageous that would ruin the show's vibe, but just occasional thing that could prevent this from feeling stagnant at times. Even then, what I watched of Hibiki so far would easily rank among the upper tier of KR shows I've seen, that's how good (and refreshingly unique) it is. But now, I've actually passed episode 29, supposedly where the show jumped the shark Ah well, I'll keep on watching, and maybe the dramatically reduced expectation could be a god thing. |
04-25-2020, 10:23 PM | #15820 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
Posts: 25,326
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The low key vibe Hibiki had in it's first half was part of the charm, in my opinion. The lack of massive internal conflict really helped the cast feel like an actual group of friends, and not just a group of people who are together solely because they need to be for the sake of justice.
Like, just looking at everyone enjoying themselves together in Hibiki vs Gaim, for example. Gaim was a group allied against a common enemy, and would likely stray apart once that enemy was gone. Hibiki was just a group of people, mentors and students, together as actual friends.
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