|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
08-10-2012, 12:23 PM | #1 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,421
|
I have recently discovered/fallen in love with this show and, since it seems to be pretty obscure, I thought I'd whip up a little thread here to give it some local exposure.
What is it? Daimajin Kanon is a 26-episode tokusatsu series that aired in 2010. It aired late at night like Garo and Akibaranger, although it's not as "adult" as those two shows. It's basically a modern retelling/loose sequel to the Daimajin trilogy, a series of three daikaiju films from the 1960s. The show's notable for its large budget, being one of the most expensive tokus of its time. Who made it? Daimajin Kanon is made by Kadokawa Pictures, but the names attached to it that mean the most are its head writers: Shinji Oishi and Naruhisa Arakawa. Oishi was the original head writer on Kamen Rider Hibiki and Arakawa is my favorite tokusatsu writer of all time, being the main guy behind Abaranger, Dekaranger, Kamen Rider Kuuga, Kamen Rider W, and Akibaranger. Who's in it? Mostly people I don't recognize. There is one popular tokusatsu actress who plays a supporting role, however. Nao Nagasawa is in this as Ikechiyo, one of the main Onbake and the primary source of fanservice. It's a little hard to recognize her with all the make-up and teased hair she sports here, but if you're a fan of Nao and/or boobs and/or legs, you won't be disappointed. I've also heard that Joe Odagiri has an appearance near the end of the show. Okay, so its got some familiar faces behind and in front of the camera. So what's it about? Daimajin Kanon is the story of Kanon Misaki, a young girl from the country who moves to Tokyo to go to college. An avid lover of music, Kanon falls in love with a guy and joins his band. Then he cheats on her and steals a song that she learned from her grandmother, changing the lyrics and making it into a pop hit. This sends Kanon into a spiral of depression and mistrust that causes her to more or less shut herself off from the world, just kind of coasting by at work and school. The main arc of the show seems to be about Kanon getting drawn back out of her shell. What the hell, man? I thought you said this was a tokusatsu, not a J-drama. And it is. Kanon's story is the main plot, but it's not all that's happening. You know Kanon's asshole ex-boyfriend? At the start of the show he gets possessed by an evil spirit called an Ipadada, which takes over his body when he's asleep so it can go out and devour the souls of living creatures. This Ipadada, and others like it, are hunted by a group of what are called Onbake. The Onbake are animals or objects that were reincarnated into human form to serve as protectors and guardians of humanity. There are several Onbake on the show, but the main one is Taihei, a helmet Onbake whose main mission is to find Kanon. You see, the song that Kanon learned from her grandmother can be used to awaken Bujin, a giant stone samurai that can fight the largest and strongest Ipadadas. Taihei needs Kanon to wake up Bujin, but she's too caught up in being mopey to do... well, much of anything. So it's a giant hero vs. giant monsters kind of show? Not really. From what I've heard, Bujin doesn't actually wake up until near the end of the show. Most of the action is the various Onbake fighting monsters spawned by the Ipadada. These are usually large, albino animals with human heads. They're kinda freaky, but in a cool way. So how's the action? It's... okay. It's not Garo; don't go into this expecting tons of crazy wirework and dynamic set pieces. The fights so far (I'm only six episodes in) are pretty basic; not bad, but nothing to write home about. I'm honestly not a huge fan of the Onbake designs, either. They're mostly just people with their skin painted a different color and funky masks designed to resemble what they were in their past life. Some of these look pretty cool, like Taihei's armored form. Some of them look kind of silly, like Tomosuke, the dog Onbake. One thing to note is that, due to the way the show is paced, the action scenes only crop up about once every other episode. The main story is about Kanon. The fight scenes - so far, at least - are not the main focus. Some of this feels awfully familiar... I won't mince words: this show is Kamen Rider Hibiki with the brakes taken off. If Oishi and crew hadn't had to deal with Toei, Bandai, or the demands of being a Kamen Rider series, this is pretty much exactly what Hibiki would have been. The life of the non-transforming civilian character is the prime focus of the story. The fighting is a secondary, sometimes even tertiary concern. Music is one of the dominant themes of the show. The main character is a mopey young adult and the hero is kind of a goofy slob.There are even some small little helper creatures that they can use to deliver messages or scout locations. They're kind of like the disc animals from Hibiki in purpose, but they mostly look like tiny little doll bodies with giant ornamental heads (one of them likes to camp out in Nao Nagasawa's cleavage. I'm fairly certain most of the members of this board would willingly swap places with him). So yeah, it is incredibly similar to Hibiki in all respects, minus the corporate meddling. So would I like it? Did you like Hibiki before Toshiki Inoue ruined it? If so, then yes. Yes, you would. I can't say it's as great as Hibiki - not yet, at least - but it uses all the same ingredients to whip up something that is really similar in flavor. Just keep in mind that a lot of it is Hibiki dialed up to eleven, including the slower pace and the mopey protagonist. Daimajin Kanon is a lot more slowly paced than Hibiki and Kanon can out-mope Asumu any day of the week. On the other hand, if you didn't like Hibiki then you can go right straight to he... I mean, you probably won't like Daimajin Kanon. Actually, scratch that. You definitely won't like Daimajin Kanon. Where do I get it? TV-Nihon has the first 14 episodes subbed, but it's on their backburner and anyone who follows TVN knows how long that means it may take to get the full series. A now-defunct group called Bad Wolf did 1-13, also, and then Over-Time picked it up and finished 14-26. The O-T episodes are sadly only SD so far, but I believe that we'll be getting HD versions at some point. Anything else? Here, have a trailer: Closing thoughts? I do feel I should point out that Kanon has a freaking amazing opening theme which, sadly, I cannot find a full version of on YouTube. All I can come up with is a 90-second clip of some dude playing bass along with it. It keeps freezing up around the 1:00 mark, too. But here it is anyway: Last edited by Switchblade; 08-10-2012 at 12:29 PM.. |
08-19-2012, 03:54 PM | #2 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,421
|
Think clean thoughts... think clean thoughts... So yeah, I finished this show today by marathoning the last six episodes. It's been a long time since a tokusatsu inspired me to do something like that. In the end, this was an amazing show. It was never a crazy action-fest, although a lot of the short fight scenes we got in the last third got pretty cool (there's a great fight scene with Yumonji, the tea kettle Onbake, and every fight Kaenji, the stove Onbake, is in is always cool). The emotional core of the ending is fantastic, though, and the show is definitely worth watching. I have to rank it up there as one of my all-time favorite tokusatsu shows now. Watch this. Now. |
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:18 PM.
|