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12-31-2020, 11:34 PM | #421 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
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I have no idea what's happening but I know I must be sentimental.
I think you're all great, and honestly I love reading these threads, they're so thoughtful and fun. At some point I have to condense one into like a rider series bible/analysis thing.
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01-01-2021, 12:19 AM | #422 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Quote:
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-01-2021, 12:26 AM | #423 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Sometimes when I see you and Fish telling each other you're better I'm reminded of how Spielberg and Kubrick had a great friendship, yet also a deep envy of each other; Spielberg wishing he could make movies with as much symbolic depth as Kubrick while Kubrick wishing he could match up to the spectacle and awe that Spielberg was able to pull off -- despite both styles of course being amazing in their own way and doing things the other could not, ultimately leaving us better off for it.
Not quite the same thing, but I'm reminded of it! Happy new year! My new years resolution for Toku is to try and branch out to stuff outside 'the big three' -- I want to watch Tiga, Cosmos, Black RX and a handful of 2000s Sentai; but after that I wanna have a look at a few things outside of Rider, Sentai and Ultra such as Metal Heroes.
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01-01-2021, 12:34 AM | #424 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Sometimes when I see you and Fish telling each other you're better I'm reminded of how Spielberg and Kubrick had a great friendship, yet also a deep envy of each other; Spielberg wishing he could make movies with as much symbolic depth as Kubrick while Kubrick wishing he could match up to the spectacle and awe that Spielberg was able to pull off -- despite both styles of course being amazing in their own way and doing things the other could not, ultimately leaving us better off for it.
I'm going to use this very small window of sentimentality to mention how much I admire your nearly encyclopedic knowledge of your passions (I wish I remembered half as much about the shows I loved as you do for yours), as well as your ability to snipe into threads with just gaudy insight and analysis, saying in a couple sentences what the rest of the thread has been grasping at for pages. Do not think that Fish is the only person on these boards I envy!
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-01-2021, 02:40 AM | #425 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 26
I think Hiyori's face in those screencaps really says it all. I was making that same face for most of this one, as well. It's a massive, welcome course-correction from the previous episode, acting as a chilling indictment of the previous pivot away from respecting Hiyori's needs. Maybe I gotta learn from Hiyori? She opts to trust Tendou, pushing aside her doubts because he's proven once again that he cares about her, wants her to be happy. Me and this show, it's sort of similar. They had a bad episode, but I should've trusted it was all going somewhere special. I really loved this episode, since it's retroactively as critical of the characters' action in 25 as I was. Everyone's screwed in this one, all of our heroes. Tendou has bluffed his way to a face-to-face with Kagami's dad, Kagami Outrageous, and it's netted him nothing but smirking dismissals and vague threats against those closest to him. Tendou thought he could drop some bombshell on Outrageous, but he's informed that he is actually seven or eight bombshells late. Meanwhile, Kagami thinks he's going to get some answers at ZECT HQ, and Goro literally laughs at his naivete. This is an episode where the two heroes are laughed at by the villains, behind every conceivable eight ball, and I love it. I love it because it's mostly of their own doing. 24 ended with our cast teaming up to support one another, and 25 has them immediately forgetting those lessons. Tendou launches his own investigation, while Kagami and Misaki cut out Tadokoro with their subterfuge. Simultaneously, Hiyori is left to twist in the wind, abandoned by her friends. The whole previous episode is reframed from proactive heroism into Everyone Screwed Up. What's even better about 26 is that no one really says that? There's never a point where Kagami or Tendou state how much they dropped the ball last time. But you can see it, in each of their stories. Kagami's has him hitting bottom when Tadokoro shows up to his bungled break-in (ZECT never even brought him to their HQ!), making Tadokoro so furious he punches Gatack's helmet. That visual of Tadokoro's bruised knuckles, it's as painful for Kagami as if he'd really been punched in the face. Here's someone he respected, and he's let him down by pursuing answers on his own. Worse, Tadokoro feels like he can't work for an organization he can't understand, or lead people who don't respect him. He's ready to cash it in. But Kagami knows he won't get anywhere on his own. Him and Misaki, they need Tadokoro. There's strength in numbers. If Kagami can get across to Tadokoro how much they still need him, they might actually have a chance of defeating the Worms and discovering the truth behind the Masked Rider Project. All of that was great, and I loved how much the episode hinged on Kagami rediscovering the merits of teamwork, how key the whole ZECT In A Van team was to defeating the Worms this time. (Dude was a Kamen Rider for, like, one day and he forgot that. Kagami! You are as constant as the northern star.) After last episode's superhero-y momentum, it's so much more pleasing to see everyone remember that you don't succeed alone. You need to let people in, remind them of their value, be just that small amount vulnerable. So let's talk about Tendou and Hiyori. It's as strong a resolution to their plot as I'd've dared wish for. It only needed to emotionally challenge Tendou to get where I was happy with it. The part where I knew this was all going to work out for me was when Tendou's chased the Misaki Worm into that stairwell. The Worm's hiding, but her bracelet gives her away to Tendou. Normally, this is where he'd do his My Grandmother Always Said thing, some cute phrase to let the Worm know he wasn't rattled. But he doesn't do that, because he is rattled. It's not even just the Worm going after Juka; it's Outrageous having him totally outflanked, it's his whole infiltration amounting to nothing, it's Hiyori calling him out on his bullshit... it's everything. It's the walls closing in. Tendou yells at the Worm that nobody gets away with threatening Juka. It's personal to Tendou then. This isn't some game, and he can't keep his emotions locked away. It all boils over when Tendou tries to talk to Hiyori again, tries to regain her trust, but it doesn't work. He's giving her nothing but evasions and gaslighting, while demanding her trust. He's trying to keep her close, keep her safe, but every word out of his mouth pushes her further away. And then the Worms attack, because of course they do; and Tendou gets his ass kicked, because he's all alone against a monster with minions, with support, with allies. So he hides behind a crate with Hiyori, ready for the end... and he just tells her the truth. All of his schemes have failed him, every trick he's tried has blown up in his face. So he just tells her the truth. Yes, he was The Boy In The Belt. But no, he can't tell her what happened seven years ago. Thinking it's another evasion, Hiyori demands to know why, and Tendou, frustrated, pleads with her to leave it at that. He's hiding something from her, yes, but now he's admitting it, demonstrating how much it's hurting him, and begging her to let it lie for now. It's not transparency, but it's honesty, and it means something to her. Because Hiyori gets not being able to explain things to people, gets being unable to handle your feelings. Before, Tendou's smirking lies were an insult. Here, his pained, exhausted need to keep something hidden feels relatable, universal. He needs her to trust him, or he won't be able to get through this moment. And, god, what a moment. That look up there, on Hiyori's face. A raw, emotional Tendou, screaming that he'll protect her from everything that'd hurt her, forever. She's stunned, same as the audience is. We've never seen this side of Tendou, never witnessed him this vulnerable, this exposed. He's not the master-puppeteer, the pretentious master of the universe. He's her friend, and he's never going to stop being that. After that, there's a Kamen Rider team-up and some fun action, but... I can't pretend that the episode didn't hit its climax way before that. A QUESTION Hey, 2021. First thing I did in this new year (after catching up with a few friends across the internet) was watch this episode of Kabuto, and it was a smart choice. Felt real good. What's the first toku thing you did or are going to do for this year? (Besides reading or posting on TokuNation. That's a given!)
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 08-29-2023 at 07:41 PM.. |
01-01-2021, 07:14 AM | #426 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Quote:
That is a lovely analogy, and deeply flattering. You are... god, that's just incredibly thoughtful and nice. This is a very emotional New Year's Eve!
I'm going to use this very small window of sentimentality to mention how much I admire your nearly encyclopedic knowledge of your passions (I wish I remembered half as much about the shows I loved as you do for yours), as well as your ability to snipe into threads with just gaudy insight and analysis, saying in a couple sentences what the rest of the thread has been grasping at for pages. Do not think that Fish is the only person on these boards I envy! My first Toku thing of the year? Turns out it was watching OOO Episode 16 and Ghost Episode 12 and having a lot to say about them! I feel I've been stumbling to say stuff on this rewatch but I'm pretty happy with what I got down here.
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01-01-2021, 07:16 AM | #427 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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This was easily one of the best episodes of the series yet. I cannot even begin to describe how smart it was of Kabuto to let us see Tendou pushed to the edge like this right around the halfway mark. To see him get so frustrated by people who know more than he does; to see him so off-balance he gets forcibly knocked out of his transformation. Tendou gets hit hard enough to be forced out of a transformation! It's an episode that works wonders for both humanizing Tendou, and reaffirming that, despite his usual attitude, he is, at his heart, a person whose heroism is entirely genuine. Thankfully, Die already told you all this. The thing is, that's not even half of what makes this episode so spectacular. This is an especially killer one on a rewatch. Much like Tendou, I'm sworn to secrecy about the things I know, so for Die's sake I can't go into too much detail, but everything this episode chooses to be about is massively relevant to later developments not only in terms of the literal hints it drops, but just emotionally and thematically, as well. It's some of the most considered writing I've seen yet on Kabuto. A lot of this comes from how Sasword's brief little subplot plays out, with the Worm who mimics Misaki genuinely developing feelings for him, evidently having picked up some genuine humanity, which ends with Tsurugi cutting her down, reasserting his desire for vengeance against Worms as a whole. There's the continued obvious dramatic irony there of what Tsurugi's true nature is (though that goes unmentioned here), but there's a little more at play, broadly speaking, that keeps it very roped in to what the rest of the plot is about. Kagami's end of things is maybe the most straightforward segment of the episode, but it's no less well put together and important. Admittedly, I'm a little unclear on what exactly Tadokoro's little analysis of the Worm towards the endaccomplished, since the game plan after that seems to just be "hit it really hard with your sweet hoverboard", but— Well, no, you know what? I don't even care to complain about the details, because sweet hoverboard. The whole action climax here is just great. It's one of those ones where it's essentially a big party celebrating the properly emotional narrative climax that happens just beforehand, and it's glorious. The perfect timing of Full Force starting up as Kagami asks Tendou to join back in on the fun; them just going nuts on their respective stupid gimmicky bikes; Kagami making like Wizard would years down the line and using his gimmicky bike as a big foot to kick the monster with; it could only be any cooler if Gatack's bike was also part of a huge dragon instead of merely being shaped like a beetle. And also if they had actually managed to defeat the monster, but still, that's all fine! It's good that Rena wants to stick around, and surviving that like it's barely a problem helps build her up as a threat. And the episode doesn't even leave you hanging when it comes to seeing a monster blow up, as Gatack and Kabuto make sure to at least get the Worm that helped save Rena, which is the next best thing! Again, utterly spectacular episode of Kabuto. I feel like there's a ton I haven't even gone into. Like, I didn't even mention Hiyori until just now! Oh man, what I am even doing? Let me just wrap back around to that main plot thread real quick to say that, yes, Hiyori is also great in this one, because she's always great. I'm starting to sort of take for granted all the usual excellent body language and inflections and everything I've already mentioned on several occasions, but rest assured that even when I'm not directly calling attention to it, it's still there. There are also some fantastic bits of writing in this particular episode though. One thing I'm kind of shocked Die didn't call attention to is how, directly after that big declaration from Tendou's that he's going to protect Hiyori, he gets knocked aside, and Hiyori immediately puts herself between him and Rena in an effort to protect him right back, demonstrating more through action rather than just words how much she cares too. A+ plus showing from Hiyori in an A+ episode. Glad I trusted this two-parter was going somewhere special!
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01-01-2021, 07:49 AM | #428 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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Happy new Kabuto! My personal resolution is to become a Kamen Rider myself (hey, might as well aim high. It's nice that the first episode of Rider you watched this year ended on such a strong note.
Anyhow as a total tangent, it's too bad you have to rely on the mess that is RiderWiki a lot of the time, especially when the official Japanese rider info site has such helpful pages like this one. |
01-01-2021, 08:03 AM | #429 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,551
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My first Toku thing this year was Goseiger’s vs movie.
Not got a lot to say about the episode itself, but I will have something to say about the movie. |
01-01-2021, 08:43 AM | #430 |
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Join Date: May 2020
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,473
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The first toku thing I did in the year was watch Kabuto episodes 31-34
It was a trip, let me tell you |
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