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10-06-2021, 06:13 PM | #451 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,490
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Upon my first viewing of this episode, I had no knowledge on Sentai. When I was first getting into Tokusatsu, I too, was given the shade from people when I said "It's those Power Rangers guys."
Now I actually want to watch Sentai and enjoying it. Anyway, I really enjoyed this episode. Initially, I did think this was a joke, but setting this up as a World without Riders, and spotlighting Tsukasa's lack of a home after failing to find one, made this one of my favorite episodes (It certainly makes me want to watch Shinkenger). The dynamic of Rider and Sentai just works here, I don't know how else to describe it. It had just the right balance of humor, drama, and action to keep it interesting rather than peter out before kicking off again like a few of the past arcs. There's just something hilarious about the Decade cast watching the Shinkengers appear with their reactions ranging from: "What?" to "Really?" And Decade being a Kabuki, who has to serve under Red shows how little he matters to a world's "true hero." That and AR Kuuga trying to infiltrate their base, only to get chastised by Tsukasa was amusing. And then for Decade's Final Form Ride, which was so cool, and Decade and Red's bit at the end, showing that they're not as hostile towards Decade despite how much of a heckler Narutaki is. Overall, really good episode. Next world is the last and what is considered by many (or at least when I was starting out) to be the greatest Kamen Rider Season. Kamen Rider Black!
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10-08-2021, 08:42 PM | #452 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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There’s no avoiding it. We are now at the Showa point in Decade, even if I tried not to think about it. I am completely adrift, but luckily Switchblade is back to help me figure out what the hell is going on in these episodes of Kamen Rider Decade!
--- KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 26 - "RX! GREAT SHOCKER INVASION” Team Decade lands in the World of RX, and Tsukasa has decided to push away all of his friends for poorly explained reasons. (Onodera lands on "mopey”, which is fairly accurate.) It's just as Tsukasa is telling Natsumi, his good friend and confidant, that he would rather be alone forever than call her a friend, that she's attacked by Dai Shocker villain Apollo Geist. As Tsukasa follows Apollo Geist in order to save Natsumi, he ends up trapped in a new world and threatened by a new hero: Kamen Rider Black! KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 27 - "BLACKxBLACK RX” It's Diend to the… rescue? With Kaitou's help/”help”, Tsukasa obtains Apollo Geist's Perfecter, and with it the means to revive Natsumi. A sacrifice of unknown nature (I guess it was some of Tsukasa's life force?) reunites all of Team Decade, and Tsukasa has decided to stop being a giant baby about the fact that he has friends and teammates. You'd've thought that had been covered in the last two-parter, or more gradually over the last twenty-five episodes, but you would be incorrect. With a pointless lesson relearned, our heroes have triumphed! --- KAMEN RIDER DIE: Look at them! Look at our shiny old heroes! I... Man, Showa. I don't even understand what I'm looking at. Was this guy Black and Black RX? Is this the original actor? I assume it is, because he's pretty Not Young. SWITCHBLADE: Those are indeed Tetsuo Kurata, the original Kamen Rider Black/Black RX. This was a huge moment back in '09. KAMEN RIDER DIE: I can imagine! This felt, even for a dude who has zero knowledge of -slash- investment in Showa, like a pretty big deal. I've got a whole bunch of problems with this story, but the one thing it still manages is to feel Big. SWITCHBLADE: You've done Doctor Who comparisons before and this is basically the equivalent of having Tom Baker show up. KAMEN RIDER DIE: This guy's in way better shape than Tom Baker was when he returned, though. SWITCHBLADE: Kamen Rider Black is probably the most popular and beloved series of the Showa era for anyone in Japan born after the 70s. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Beyond Black showing back up, was there much else that got homaged from those two (?) series? We see a bunch of Dai Shocker in this story, but I'm pretty sure Apollo Geist is specifically referenced as an X villain. Did Decade grab anything else from Black/RX? Stories or callbacks or anything? Was it just the one actor and Tsukasa getting mistaken for Joe the Haze? Also, who the hell is Joe the Haze? SWITCHBLADE: It was a weird hodge podge of stuff. Obviously we got a lot of Black RX stuff in the first episode, including a brand new Crisis robot designed by original series monster creator Keita Amemiya (citation needed). The rhino monster was an original Black suit, I'm pretty sure. Black's monsters were very much biological monster people, RX had multiple divisions of enemies with their own unified aesthetics, which was fantastic. The theme of companions and Tsukasa fighting to save Natsumi is very much on point for a Kotaro homage. How much do you care about spoilers? KAMEN RIDER DIE: For Showa? Zero. I zero percent care about Showa spoilers. SWITCHBLADE: I assumed, but I just wanted to make sure since the Black remake is coming out next year (with the really good action director from Ultraman; I am very excited). KAMEN RIDER DIE: That, I'll probably watch. I mean, I watched Amazonz! SWITCHBLADE: So the core premise of Black is that a cult captures Kotaro and his brother, Nobuhiko, to turn them into a pair of cyborgs - Black Sun and Shadow Moon - who will fight to the death in order to become the next leader. Kotaro escapes in what is, for my money, the best opening scene of any Rider series ever (dude running through the nighttime streets of Tokyo from ghostly pursuers). Nobuhiko does not. The show's main plot, when not interspersed with standalone episodes, is about Kotaro trying to save his brother. Long story short, he completely fails. Kamen Rider Black ends with the hero sitting alone in a cafe having flashbacks to better times with the brother he killed and the friends who fled to America to escape the cult. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Fleeing to America to escape cults? Interesting choice! SWITCHBLADE: Golgom had kind of conquered all of Japan at that point. Black RX - which was not intended as a sequel until Black proved to be an enormous hit - followed up on Kotaro some time later. One of the main themes of that show was him getting a new found family: a girlfriend, an adoptive aunt and uncle, adoptive younger siblings, and a few dedicated allies in his fight. It ended his story on a much happier and positive note, even with the aunt and uncle being killed by Crisis. Joe the Haze, whose importance is weirdly inflated here, was one of those allies. And yes, he did dress like that. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Was there any significance to Joe the Haze traveling between stories? It sounds like he was only in the sequel, so why would he now be in Black's world? I'm assuming they couldn't get the actor back for some reason (hopefully nothing too sad), and that character switching worlds allowed for him to be both present and not around. But, like, they kept mentioning him and then he never showed up! That was... why would you write a story like that? SWITCHBLADE: The relationship was very much an aniki/aibo thing: like a healthy version of Yagaruma and Kageyama. I think the idea was to put Joe in Black's world to give him an ally again. The idea of having someone to help you fight and to be worth fighting for was a big part of these episodes and it helped tie in the stuff with Tsukasa having to fight to save Natsumi. As for who Joe was "Sir Not Appearing in this Film," I have no idea. The actor is alive and well; he did some voices on later shows, most notably as Ohma Zi-O in that show you haven't seen. I wonder if he was meant to appear but had to cancel last minute. It is weird that the show built him up so much when he's entirely off-screen. KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's bizarre. It's a distracting choice, and it smacks of the weird storytelling choices that are all over this story for me. I don't know that this tribute did a great job illuminating what made Black/RX special? I mostly just bounced off the non-Decade parts of this story. Black/RX mostly just read as SHOWA to me, all masculine nobility and regrettable chivalry (he won't fight Femme, which, UGH), and the show doesn't really spend enough time defining his character. The early RX scenes spend more time setting up the new threat of Dai Shocker, and then the early Black scenes are just riffing on the similarities of the two Kotaros. There's a big RX scene at the end of the first part where Kotaro acts like he's been around for the entire episode, when he has not, and so his heartfelt speech to Tsukasa plays like a parody of the kind of speeches Tsukasa gives to outsiders. This whole story uses its tribute characters as things you're already assumed to care about, which is a mistake that I don't feel like this show has made before? It felt way more insider-y to me than I recall feeling. Even the Sentai one made a pretty good case for caring about the Sentai cast! SWITCHBLADE: I think part of it is that the show was banking on the "holy crap, it's Tetsuo Kurata" factor, definitely. Not only the first actual past headlining Kamen Rider to appear on the show in that capacity, but it was again one of the most popular characters that they could have brought in. The other thing is that, as you may have guessed from the clips after the credits, we are in full-on movie set up mode. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yep! SWITCHBLADE: Apollo Geist and Dai Shocker are Decade's version of Yuuto repeatedly kidnapping Ryotaro. Only no one's entirely sure if this movie is canon or not. KAMEN RIDER DIE: I definitely recall Dai Shocker being a big thing in the Decade/W winter movie, so their appearance this late in the series was not a huge surprise. I guess I was just let down by how little this story made a case for Black/RX specifically, rather than an overall SHOWA atmosphere/reverence. I don't know. The guest stars didn't really do a lot for me. Did this story do justice to Black/RX in your eyes? SWITCHBLADE: Not really, but I don't think it was supposed to. Black has such a huge legacy to it that even RX is usually considered a letdown (personally, I view it like Drive and a show you haven't seen yet: rough start, but fantastic after it finds its voice). As a chance to see Kotaro again and have fun stuff like the double henshin, it was pretty neat. It is a shift towards the homages feeling more like fanservice, though, to be fair. And that is not going to get any better going forward. I don't know if you watched all of Decade/W yet, but there's a whole thing in there with Stronger's sidekick Tackle. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Electro-Wave Human Tackle? Of course! SWITCHBLADE: We're getting into the era of Decade that made the blueprint for all of Yonemura's Sentai/Rider team-up movies of the '10s. KAMEN RIDER DIE: OH NO YIKES SWITCHBLADE: Oh yes. There will be costumed crowds and seeming betrayals. And a good amount of "wait, why is that monster a mook? That's Chalice!" KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, this one treated its guest-stars like some reward, and I don't feel like the storytelling earned it. Especially the Team Decade storytelling! KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's such a disappointment to have a clever, cathartic Kobayashi story -- one with evocative subtext -- and then follow it with a ham-fisted version of a very similar emotional arc. WE JUST DID A STORY WHERE TSUKASA FINDS STRENGTH AND SUPPORT IN HIS FRIENDS. LITERALLY JUST DID IT. NATSUMI WAS THE LYNCHPIN FOR THAT STORY, TOO! This one was a huge bummer for me. SWITCHBLADE: But this one has Showa references. I mean look, it's Apollo Geist. From Kamen Rider X. You remember Kamen Rider X, right, children born in the late 90s? KAMEN RIDER DIE: I hated how this one started with Tsukasa not just ignoring the lesson he learned last time (which he clearly remembers in flashbacks), but openly disdaining it, all so he can then spend three-quarters of the story trying to atone for it. It's the laziest writing, man. He hates his friends so much now that, when RX tries to suggest that fighting for your friends is actually cool, Tsukasa rips on him so hard that RX almost gives up on friendship! SWITCHBLADE: If you wanted someone to argue that no, this is totally earned and actually a well-written step in Tsukasa's very clear and consistent narrative arc, you came to the wrong person. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Like, I could maybe see an argument that Tsukasa feels weird about his newfound support and is pushing back against his own growth, but a) that unfairly minimizes the sterling quality of his arc in the last story, and b) he doesn't just regress, he becomes KAITOU. They do the same I Hate The Word Friend line across two different episodes! TSUKASA WAS NEVER THAT BAD! It's a choice that only exists to manufacture the regret that powers the rest of the story. SWITCHBLADE: So from what I've heard, the original writer quit the show because he didn't want to do all of this stuff with Dai Shocker and/or the Showa era. The new writer was brought in and it often feels like he didn't really know what Tsukasa's deal was meant to be or just didn't care. It's part of why he ends up feeling like a really inconsistent character from story to story. I'm not sure when it sets in, but there definitely feels like there was a point where a lot of people involved just threw up their hands and gave up on ever trying to put all of these disparate pieces together into something cohesive. (The "oh fuck it, just do something" point is very obvious, but I feel like there was a middle ground in between) KAMEN RIDER DIE: I mean, it feels like it happens HERE. There've been bum beats and weird modulations before, but this was the first story I can recall feeling upset from the jump. It's ridiculously forced drama, and it felt especially weirdly applied after the last goddamn story. I'm not sure you can/should do two stories in a row where Tsukasa learns that the home he's been looking for can be found in the people who've been supporting him? SWITCHBLADE: Apparently you can. For what it's worth, I forgot that this Natsumi stuff happened here. I thought that all of this was in the next world. But that's Amazon, wherein Tsukasa maybe learns that the real home is the friends he made along the way. KAMEN RIDER DIE: I'm pretty sure Amazon is the series that's least about friendship, which is why Fourze never crossed over with it for an HBV. And the Narutaki scene... MAN. I was coming around on that guy, thematically, but I got nothing for a scene where he shows up to tell Tsukasa that Apollo Geist murdering Natsumi is Tsukasa's fault for being in a park on a world he was forced to visit. How in the hell is anyone supposed to take this character seriously? And the episode plays it like a knife in Tsukasa's back! SWITCHBLADE: That actually did remind me a little bit of Black. It's kind of a minor meme, but Black had this recurring thing where Kotaro would stumble across some aspect of the current plot and immediately assume that it was Golgom's fault. Put Narutaki on a motorcycle and we're basically at that level. Although I guess Kotaro was invariably right and Narutaki is just a dick. KAMEN RIDER DIE: I would be way more into Narutaki if this show realized he was a joke, but this story very specifically does not do that. It's a story all about how terrible Tsukasa is for his friends' safety and emotional well-being, something it dealt with more thoughtfully last goddamn week. SWITCHBLADE: Again, there was a point where the show just completely gave up on Narutaki as a concept and we are definitely well past that mark. He literally exists just to show up for his scene, blame Decade, and collect his pay check. KAMEN RIDER DIE: I'll say this, though. As repetitive as this story was, and as much of a step down as it was from the last arc, there was one smart thing it did. It was even a smart thing with Kaitou, the one character ill-served by the last story. KAMEN RIDER DIE: There's this whole story here about needing companions, and about friendship, and then eventually the story just goes Kaitou Tho, and I loved that. SWITCHBLADE: It's not like he even likes Tsukasa that much, baka. This is basically Kaitou going full tsundere on Tsukasa and I am 100% here for it. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Oh, agreed. The only parts of this story that worked for me were the Tsukasa/Kaitou scenes. Kaitou's so pissy whenever Tsukasa brings up his other relationships! Like he doesn't know which one Natsumi is! It's cute and funny, that whole thread, but it's also proving the story's thesis that everyone needs someone in their lives, or life isn't worth protecting/living. Kaitou needs Tsukasa, even if it's just to infuriate. (It is NOT just to infuriate.) SWITCHBLADE: There is a definite romantic subtext between the two in later appearances. That first Super Hero Taisen movie as a strong example. I'm not sure if it started in these episodes, but I know that it was both very intentional on the part of Kaitou's actor and that it is definitely very apparent here. The whole "here, I saved your girlfriend. Maybe pay attention to me now" is very, very them. KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a little more subtle in previous stories, but it's there. It's subtext, previous to this story. This time, it's just Kaitou moping about them only ever fighting when Kaitou initiates it, and Tsukasa will only do a form change on special occasions. They used to fight all the time! Where did the passion go? SWITCHBLADE: I tend to read them as characters who do care about each other, but they don't always make that their top priority if they have something else they need to do. It's not healthy, but it seems to work for them. They're that couple who are only together when they happen to be in the same place at the same time. KAMEN RIDER DIE: The only part of this story I appreciated was when it was about Kaitou trying to get Tsukasa to take their hideously dysfunctional relationship seriously. SWITCHBLADE: I got more out of it, personally, but that's because I really like Black and Black RX so it was hard not to watch all of those scenes with a big smile on my face (even when the show forgot to do the lightsaber effects on RX's sword). KAMEN RIDER DIE: The Revolcane? Was that his weapon? SWITCHBLADE: Yep. Supposed to glow blue. KAMEN RIDER DIE: I KNOW A SHOWA THING NOW! SWITCHBLADE: I am very proud of you. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Anything else from this story you wanted to mention? We got to at least see RX's bike, even if he never rode it. SWITCHBLADE: I do wish we got to see Black's bike, too. Forget Joe the Haze and Nobuhiko, Battle Hopper will always be Kotaro's truest bro. Other than that, though, not really. Like I said, we're kind of in the phase of the show where it's just killing time until W starts. I have about as much enthusiasm left as the writer. Or, tease for next time, as the actor they hired to play Amazon. KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a little funny how often we keep seeing Fangires and Imagins rather than the other shows' monsters, but I guess the newer suits are just closer to the front of the trailer. SWITCHBLADE: Hadn't thought of that, but that's a fair point. Honestly, I wasn't sure what the non-Fangire was. KAMEN RIDER DIE: They called it out as an Imagin, but I wouldn't've gotten it either. SWITCHBLADE: Could've been a Worm. Could've been an Undead. KAMEN RIDER DIE: Unfortunately, it wasn't. We are stuck with the last two years worth of monster suits, just like I'm stuck in Showa. NEXT TIME! We move to the World of Amazon, where I'll hopefully learn about friendship a little more than I learn about deforestation. Who knows! We'll find out soon as we continue our Journey through Decade!
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10-08-2021, 09:02 PM | #453 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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This is pretty good timing to post this; today - October 9th - is the 33rd anniversary of Kamen Rider Black's final episode. Which... okay, 33 isn't a huge deal; but matching the last episode date! That's something!
Black is an awesome awesome show that I hope to revisit some day and that I hope Black Sun can do justice. Sometimes I'm not sure it got its themes down completely and other times I feel it got it better than any Kamen Rider show before or after. Everything in the final stretch a beautiful crescendo of life and tragedy. I don't know if it came across here! Frankly though I, again, was just having way too much fun to care. Black and RX team up, Apollo Geist shows up for no reason and Diend's gun somehow summons the actual guy now, huh?! Decade is a party and sometimes that's all I care about. Talking of the Black/RX double henshin scene, uh. Fun fact. That's stock music playing during it! Bit of a choice and it's one that'll unfortunately also show up about 12 years down the line, but hey; can't deny it's a good track
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10-08-2021, 09:09 PM | #454 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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I don't know if it came across here! Frankly though I, again, was just having way too much fun to care. Black and RX team up, Apollo Geist shows up for no reason and Diend's gun somehow summons the actual guy now, huh?! Decade is a party and sometimes that's all I care about.
It just... man, that wasn't what this show used to be. It used to be something that evoked the original in a way that made you appreciate it, even if you never experienced it. Here, it's just Hey It's That Guy, and that's less than what I used to get. I wasn't really given a taste of Black's world or themes or troubles, even if there's an overall sense of the show trying to play up a found-family theme (probably) and a frenemy rivalry (maybe). It's hard to come out of this episode feeling like Black/RX were distinctly anything. It's awesome that people who love Black/RX are able to see an old hero come back for a victory lap. I would not dream of taking that away from people. I just sort of wish there was something for the rest of us.
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10-08-2021, 09:17 PM | #455 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Thing is, though; I watched Decade before Black! Way before Black! I had a general sense of what happened in it, you can't go long in this fandom without hearing about Shadow Moon; but I hadn't a clue as to its specifics (and meanwhile RX remains one of the few Rider shows I've yet to watch). So for me it very much was a mystery what was going on here and I still had a great time with it
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10-08-2021, 09:19 PM | #456 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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Thing is, though; I watched Decade before Black! Way before Black! I had a general sense of what happened in it, you can't go long in this fandom without hearing about Shadow Moon; but I hadn't a clue as to its specifics (and meanwhile RX remains one of the few Rider shows I've yet to watch). So for me it very much was a mystery what was going on here and I still had a great time with it
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10-08-2021, 10:07 PM | #457 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,404
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Quote:
Thing is, though; I watched Decade before Black! Way before Black! I had a general sense of what happened in it, you can't go long in this fandom without hearing about Shadow Moon; but I hadn't a clue as to its specifics (and meanwhile RX remains one of the few Rider shows I've yet to watch). So for me it very much was a mystery what was going on here and I still had a great time with it
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10-08-2021, 10:14 PM | #458 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,563
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This was a fun bit of episodes.
Also to me, honestly, I figured this was just continuing off of Shinkenger's stuff. Like the Shinkenger stuff was more about Tsukasa deciding even if the world doesn't need a Kamen Rider, he as Tsukasa will still help out with his powers with the friends part slowly worming it's way into the stuff in this part. He was a bit exaggerated I'll admit, but that's what I felt they were trying to go for. That being said I had a lot of fun, I had ended up watching this before Black/Black RX but seeing Kotaro with his original actor made me want to start up Black/Black RX. And they are thus far the only Showa Series I've seen! Okay I lied I've seen basically the starting 2 episodes of every Showa series but that's besides the point. The real meat here was the Tsukasa stuff, and I did enjoy Daiki and his little "contest" with Tsukasa in this one. I also found it hilarious how much of in a rush Tsukasa was in the first part, how he rapidly taps the K-Touch is funny to me. Not much else to say but in hindsight it makes sense as to why they made Black and RX separate worlds. Because they wanted to do that cool team up scene at the end, which I really liked. Next set of episodes though, I recall the particular monster here and he's probably my favorite of the ones that show up in Decade. We'll get to that and Amazon's lackluster acting, next time though. |
10-08-2021, 10:28 PM | #459 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Oh I fully intend to -- I've certainly heard the reputation is mixed, but I want to watch every Kamen Rider show eventually and RX seems like one I'd have a good time with
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10-08-2021, 10:49 PM | #460 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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Keeping Black and RX as discrete characters also allowed them to do a little bit of symmetry between Kaitou and Natsumi, as both of them save Tsukasa from a Rider. It's just that Natsumi does it in an affirming way, while Kaitou... maybe less affirming.
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