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02-01-2020, 10:36 PM | #161 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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Quote:
Wait, shoot, I totally forgot!
I hope you haven't started 36 yet, because Agito done this really weird thing where they aired a special in between 35 and 36; and it's actually not a throwaway clip show or anything -- it's actually important to the plot, they gain something super important and it's really just another episode of the show. Kamen Rider Agito Special: A New Transformation. Watch that first!
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02-01-2020, 10:41 PM | #162 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Man, but, okay, now I've got a question for the panel. I've got the "Project G4" movie. The Wiki says part of it takes place after episode 35, with the second part taking place after episode 47. But the movie was released to theaters concurrent with episode 35. Can I watch it after the 35.5 Special without ruining anything? I'd assume if it ruined ten weeks of the show, they probably wouldn't have released it to theaters? At what point should I watch the movie for the best result?
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02-01-2020, 11:00 PM | #163 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Quote:
Man, but, okay, now I've got a question for the panel. I've got the "Project G4" movie. The Wiki says part of it takes place after episode 35, with the second part taking place after episode 47. But the movie was released to theaters concurrent with episode 35. Can I watch it after the 35.5 Special without ruining anything? I'd assume if it ruined ten weeks of the show, they probably wouldn't have released it to theaters? At what point should I watch the movie for the best result?
Agito's movie... is actually an exception to this! But it might as well not be because it's really its own self-contained story. There's technically some lead-up to it in the show itself but it doesn't result in any actual consequences for the show, so just watch it whenever and it's fine, really.
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02-01-2020, 11:05 PM | #164 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Okay, but if the first thing they say in the movie is "I can't believe the Unknown were all created by Taiichi to get out of doing homework, I'm sure glad we solved that case last week," I will be speaking to your manager.
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02-01-2020, 11:46 PM | #165 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Quote:
... ah, that should not have sounded as triumphant as it did. But who cares, Shouichi doesn't have a job and he's doing just fine beating up monsters and making weed jokes at cake class!
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02-02-2020, 02:10 AM | #166 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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I love Burning Form mostly because of how vividly I remember its debut. I don't remember there being any sign that a new form was coming, so when Shouichi summoned his belt and it looked different, I was like 'hm?', and then turned into this red, muscular monstrosity with flames seeping out of his veins! That explosive punch he delivers to that mook unknown has an amazing impact. It was just one long string of me losing my mind.
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02-02-2020, 09:18 AM | #167 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 182
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I too love Burning Form, I guess he speaks to the edgelord within.
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02-02-2020, 12:37 PM | #168 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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Quote:
Quote:
I love Burning Form mostly because of how vividly I remember its debut. I don't remember there being any sign that a new form was coming, so when Shouichi summoned his belt and it looked different, I was like 'hm?', and then turned into this red, muscular monstrosity with flames seeping out of his veins! That explosive punch he delivers to that mook unknown has an amazing impact. It was just one long string of me losing my mind.
Which, y'know, as long as you're aware of it. I'm going to eat a bunch of garbage food tonight during the Super Bowl. I'm not going to pretend it's good for me, and I'm okay with it being bad for me. I'm owning my choice, you can own yours.
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02-05-2020, 11:34 PM | #169 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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MASKED RIDER AGITO SPECIAL: A NEW TRANSFORMATION
As movie advertisements go, this one was pretty painless! Getting the G3-X/G3-Mild/G??? stuff out of the way, it's an okay plotline. I like that the basis behind it is that the cops are hilariously/troublingly bad at anticipating or preventing Unknown attacks, nearly nine months into the Unknown rampage. It's good to bring up. Like, "hopefully stall a murderous creature long enough for a superhero to finish it off", this is... is this a status quo that anyone should feel good about? Beyond proving that the Unknown target blood relatives, and that mutant powers might be what they're targeting, the police have zero leads on how to stop the Unknown for good. Having a story built around mass-producing G3 tech to create, uh, more speed bumps (?) for the Unknown, I can see where they're coming from. I don't know that a bunch of weaker G3's, just after you had to drastically upgrade to G3-X, that doesn't feel like a logical progression to me, though. It's a thread without a lot of tension, but it's forgivable in that it gives a small, pathetic spotlight to Omuro, The Other One. Just outright telling him (and bragging to Houjou!) that he's the perfect G3-Mild because he's so relentlessly plain and average, god bless this special. There's heroism to this story, though, and a chance for Omuro to show his quality. It's literally just patting Hikawa on the back (by installing a fresh battery), but it's a nice enough moment. Omuro doesn't get too punked out, which is maybe the best he could hope for in his own spotlight episode. Well, it's maybe Omuro's spotlight, but it's still Shouichi's story. (Gills, in a very Gills way, doesn't show up until halfway through the story, gets one amazing scene of knocking Houjou on his ass, then is basically irrelevant for the remainder of the story.) We're introduced to Shouichi's post-amnesia psychologist, Kunieda, and he allows the story to get some insight into Agito's new Burning Form. (R.I.P. "S.I.C. Agito") Agito's Burning Form, with a little more room to explore it, is a neat idea. Even the suit works a little better for me here, with a larger weight to it than BADASS. I like the idea of all of the rage and anger Shouichi won't let himself express bursting out as this new Agito form, the Hulk to his normal Bruce Banner demeanor. It's not more powerful, it's power untethered from control. Accidentally lashing out at Kunieda after a monster fight, Shouichi runs away (AGAIN) in fear of Agito hurting anyone else. He's unable to see Agito as a force for good, necessitating a deeper analysis of how Shouichi feels about power and his emotions. It's a storyline that I don't think there's a lot of in Kamen Rider that I've seen, an exploration of what these form changes mean to the Rider. We'll see Riders grapple with a lack of power, or the negative physical effects of henshins, but the idea of being afraid of what these powers can do, of this version of themselves that loses their humanity, I think it's really fertile ground, narratively. This special doesn't do a ton with it, largely using Shouichi's trepidation to talk about the need to control your feelings rather than ignore them, but I'm glad they addressed it at all. I'm also glad they used the storyline to make Buring Form into more of a chrysalis for the gorgeous Shining Form. I usually forget to talk about new suits, but since the second-most important reason for this special is a new form (PROJECT G-4, NOW IN THEATERS), let me sing the praises of our shiny new savior. It's so pretty, you guys. I love the silver in the design, the way the engraving on the torso provides some texture without being overpowering, the use of red as an accent color on the shoulders and helmet, it's all so goddamn pretty. It's a pretty suit! And, yeah, I like that it's something Shouichi earns by harnessing his emotions instead of hiding from them or ignoring them. I like how it's a more powerful Agito thanks to a more centered and emotionally honest Shouichi. I like that Shining Form was a reward for his journey, not the goal. It's a good story that resulted in a great suit.
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02-06-2020, 08:32 PM | #170 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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MASKED RIDER AGITO MOVIE: PROJECT G4
This was okay! Shot beautifully, terrific action sequences, an unforgettable death scene, not a great story, and the character motivations are... uh. It's a weird story, for an Agito movie. I get that it needed to feel separate from the main story, to have something that could be a complete story in 70 minutes, but, man. This felt like it came from a completely different show, full of mutant test subjects, government conspiracies, weaponized orphans, and mad scientists. It's not a bad concept, and it's something other Kamen Rider series/movies have handled well, but the scale of it felt both incongruous with the Agito aesthetic, and sort-of baffling for how it would fit into their world. The idea of the military crafting their own response to the Unknown, and how that comes into conflict with Team G3-X, that's a good idea for a movie. It only makes sense that more than one branch of the government would be interested in stopping the Unknown attacks. But the focus of this one on the mutant kids, that they'd be trained in secret to harness their powers, that there's facilities and goon squads and all that, I don't know. It feels less like someone trying to tell a story with and for the Agito cast, and more someone who really wanted to pay homage to Evangelion. Was I the only one getting an Eva vibe from this? First it was the piano piece that Shouichi and Mana were playing (I'm bad at/with music, you probably know the one I mean), but then it was all of the parts about using children to help occasionally-rampaging machines fight better, and how the desire to transcend the limitations of humanity risks losing what makes humanity special, and I swear to God I wouldn't have been surprised if someone shouted GET IN THE EVA MANA. I wouldn't say it's homaging it exactly, but it definitely felt a little influenced by it. I'm probably reading too much into it, though. So, yeah, the story was alright, if a little too military-oriented for what I'd like an Agito movie to be like. Looked phenomenal, though. Like, goddamn. It's the one thing about every Kamen Rider movie that's a given, that the increased budget and better equipment is going to make for a more visually appealing product, but I thought this one exceeded that with an eye for composition and storytelling that was worth noting. Plenty of beautifully staged fights, some great variations on standard Agito stuff (that Gills henshin where the Gills hand blocks a strike on Ryou?!), some great exposition scenes (the cuts between the Ozawa/Fukami talk and the Hikawa/G4 talk!) and this all-time great death scene: Holy shit! A great callback executed in such a cool way. The method of illustrating his second death, it's so awesome. My favorite thing about the character of G4, mostly since I don't really get the character of G4. If there's a weak point in this movie, aside from your feelings about telling a Sci-Fi Military Conspiracy story with the Agito cast, it's that chunks of the character work don't make a lot of sense. Fukami, for one, feels cartoonishly thin. She's just some evil mad scientist? Why is she okay with kidnapping someone to copilot G4 until they die? Why is the government okay with G4 chewing up pilots at a kind-of alarming rate? Like, what is her motivation beyond a maniacal belief in science? I get that this thing needs a villain who can get devoured by ant monsters (!) without anyone getting too uncomfortable, but for a series that made Houjou one of the most entertainingly smug sons-of-bitches to ever bedevil a hero in a Rider show, this lady was just nothing to me. Did not care about her at all. G4, though, I mostly cared about. He's a character that's interesting in so much as he comments on Shouichi (a little) and Hikawa (a lot), but I don't know that I 100% keyed into his character. It's an interesting version of a Rider, someone who thought his death was imminent and now can't move past it, someone who fights to the death since life is for other people. That fatalist, nihilist hero, the selflessness of service becoming suicidal martyrdom, I do think that's a rich theme to explore. (Kamen Rider Snipe what what.) Where this one lost me, though, is that final fight with Hikawa. They're both defending the base from ant monsters, there's a lull in combat, and suddenly G4's like We Settle This Existential Discussion Now With A Fight To The Death. I mean, what?! I don't for even a second understand why they had to have a fight to the death, other than to give G4 a tragic death. But, like, why try to kill Hikawa? G4 bites it any other way, saving another hero or one of the kids or just taking the fight against the Ant Unknowns too far, you've still got the same story but it ends better. It's still about someone who'd rather die fighting than live after fighting. Trying to kill Hikawa, it's just some lunatic? It's not tragic or disappointing, it's baffling. I don't get it, and it made me not get G4's character in retrospect. Weird choice, movie! The other Riders, I don't know. Wasn't really their movie, you know? Shouichi doesn't really have an arc in this one, at least outside the Burning/Shining stuff that was also in A New Transformation and had a lot more meat on the bone. (Still good, but, like, not new!) Gills... this is still at the point where he can't even think of the word Henshin without needing to be hospitalized, so he's not around much. There's a thing that was killing me, though, from his scenes with that mutant kid. The kid brings him food, Ryou's all So You Stole This, and the kid's all Fine, I'll Go Earn Money, Dad, and then gives strangers massages (?!) until he has enough money to buy Ryou the candy he needs to recover. But, like, doesn't Ryou have money? Couldn't he give that kid, like, 2000 yen to get them both food? Also, was Ryou going to leave that mutant kid in that abandoned building? And did that kid run all the way back to Tokyo on foot to get Ryou to come fight monsters? The Ryou parts of this were very confusing to me. Otherwise, it's too well shot to be too put off by. It just looks real good. The G4 death scene I'll remember for a long time, but I don't care if I forget much of the rest of this one. It was okay. (Also, the Takeshi Hongo and Wendy's scenes took me right out of the movie, and Exceed Gills is definitely not for me.)
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