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08-17-2019, 10:05 AM | #31 |
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 345
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A good episode, less balanced than the week before but still solid. Honestly, it just felt too busy? It was trying to be a tribute to Drive while also ramping up the endgame stakes and also answering long-standing questions quick-fire style. It didn't quite work out in its favor but props for trying. It feels like this arc could have benefited from one more episode.
I really enjoyed a lot though. For one, Sougo's seriousness set the mood. We don't often see him in that state and it says a lot about what Schwarz did to him emotionally. It was cool to see some old landmarks, from the Skywall to the Futo and Zawame Towers, and the assortment of returning enemy suits was a pleasure to see too. Especially Chase. Now this was a special one. I love the character and I'm glad he is back as Mashin Chaser since I've always loved that suit. The only issue with Chase's role is that there isn't enough time to give him anything substantial and what we got was contrived. Geiz knowing Krim and Gou might clarify the placement of "Over-Quartzer" but the writing is on-the-nose. Cool to see the flashbacks to Drive though and since Chase is having an identity crisis, I hope we get to see Kamen Rider Chaser next episode. Besides that, this whole sideplot was fun even if just to see Geiz and Woz's growing camaraderie. The Sougo and Tsukuyomi stuff was okay. I like that we got solid confirmation of Schwarz's plan (that he wants to destroy all words to prevent the erasure of his - more on this later) and Sougo talking about Tsukuyomi being stronger seems to hint that she may be the key to solving the issue of Sougo's three paths. Tsukasa kept dipping in and out, which was rather odd. However, the Decade stuff in this episode was stand-out. At this point, Diend is kind of a wild-card so it made sense from him to show up last minute with the Zi-O II RideWatch, though I hoped him playing the villain episodes ago would have more of a pay-off. Instead it's just "oh, I didn't want to use my treasure, but... Oh and it has a side-effect too. Whoop-de-doo"; doesn't really stack up. But as far as what we got from Tsukasa, I'm happy. Basically he dies and comes back, and then he has his showdown with Kaito. Turns out he stored half his Rider power into the Decade RideWatch, which is why he was able to still transform despite handing it to Sougo. Also this must mean Decade is OP as heck at full power. And his goddamn theme finally played! This is what I waited all season for. And then he goes and turns into Decade Zi-O form! Where did that come from? I dunno but it was sure badass. Grand Zi-O never measured up to what was promised in his debut before vanishing. And Kaito and Tsukasa are finally reunited. Yay! Looks like a team-up next week as Decade vows to destroy the world, cause lets face it, the state of that world is fucked. The last scene circling around the city overrun by monsters gave me Decade ep 1 vibes. Oh, and Schwarz's plan; What the hell happened? How can there be time-travel if every world is separate from the other? What happened to the shared continuity established by shows like Fourze, Double and Drive? What about Build's finale last year? Someone didn't pay attention and this physically made me wince when I saw it. Oh well. Trying to reconcile Rider continuity is a lost cause at this point. I'll just treat it like a Decade reference and leave it at that. But fuck. |
08-17-2019, 06:27 PM | #32 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Hey everyone, guess what time it is!
Time for everyone in the thread to lighten up a little bit. Some of you guys are acting like it's the end of the world! For real though, if 47 episodes in you're still expecting Zi-O to have an easily digestible and consistent portrayal of how time works, I think you've got the wrong show. And if you want a portrayal of a multiverse that makes any sense at all, you've had the wrong franchise since about 2009. Kamen Rider and continuity don't mix! The best you can hope for at this point is that each individual show stays consistent with itself, and Zi-O has mostly done that. You know, with some flubs here and there, but still. Honestly I'm kind of numb to confusing throwaway dialogue after Ex-Aid and Build both tossed this kind of thing out there left and right. What I'm more concerned about here is how all this nonsense serves the story being told. Even though there's plenty of room to question the logic of how it all works, I really loved the callback to Decade's old rules and how Swartz's plan ties into them. It's a very full circle thing to do, especially since from early on Zi-O has embraced its status as something of a do-over for Decade by bringing Tsukasa back in a recurring role. This episode more than any other so far feels like it belonged to him. There's talk of everything from destroying worlds to sea cucumber, and he even brought along some more of his soundtrack. Of course, there's also a ton of other stuff going on, and it's all solid if a little unfocused. Scattered bits like Geiz and Woz paling around again are all great, but if I'm being honest, Swartz's motivations, now that they're revealed, don't excite me all that much? I've been holding off on mentioning it for a few weeks but the show's almost over and I'm still going back and forth on him and the Time Jackers. I definitely appreciate having a straightforward main villain around from the start of a Rider show to the end for the first time since... Wizard? Maybe? Even that feels like a technicality given how prominent Gremlin ended up being. And obviously you could even argue Build on a similar technicality, but my point is I really like that Swartz hasn't had any particular twist to him. He never got upstaged by anyone, Another Decade is more of a monster form than anything, so he's broken the recent trend of stuff like Cronus and Evol where the main villain arbitrarily has to be a Kamen Rider for some reason. That's all really cool. I wish Rider villains still defaulted to being some evil guy who either is a monster or becomes one in time for the final battle. But the lack of a spin on his character is less appreciated when his entire goal and reasoning for it become kind of... pedestrian? I think giving him a more fleshed out backstory would've done wonders to make this all click into place, because while I don't exactly have any problems with the way his scheme is playing out, I can't look at him and do anything but politely nod in detached agreement. Like "yes, these actions will indeed lead to the fulfillment of your objective". He's lacking in underlying emotion. I don't get enough of a sense of hatred, or greed, or love, or whatever else from Swartz to properly invest me in what he's doing. I'm rooting for Sougo, but I'm not truly rooting against Swartz. Right now he seems like exactly what Sougo was back in the first episode. Just some random dude who wants to be king because he does.
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