|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
01-29-2021, 03:46 PM | #841 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,490
|
Congrats. To commemorate your run of Kabuto and to build up hype for your impending ride to Den-O listen to Crazy Train by Ozzy on loop.
Last edited by Sunred; 01-29-2021 at 03:48 PM.. |
01-29-2021, 03:49 PM | #842 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
No watch of Kabuto is complete, imo, without fully watching this video. Glad you had an... okay time? "Absolutely loved most of it, really stumbled at the end" was not what I expected from this!
__________________
|
01-29-2021, 04:20 PM | #843 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
|
Quote:
Quote:
This is something I'll dig into more with tomorrow's Series Wrap-Up post, but I found Kabuto to be a show where the characters and performances (especially the performances) rescued a series arc that is maybe my least-favorite one of all time. Just a ton of bad plotting decisions that all came home to roost in a mediocre finale.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-29-2021, 04:39 PM | #844 |
Kaiju or Hero?
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Even I Don't Know Anymore.
Posts: 1,397
|
Funny, I was thinking about watching Kabuto and Den-o after recently finishing Ryuki, however, I'm afraid I won't have time to join in your little watch-a-long.
|
01-29-2021, 04:44 PM | #845 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
|
These threads don't go anywhere, so feel free to read along with them when you end up watching those shows. No one gets to tell you how to walk your path! That is a thing that'll make more sense after you watch 49 episodes of Kabuto!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-29-2021, 05:23 PM | #846 |
New Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 71
|
I remember thinking the idea that the necklaces turning everyone who wore them into Natives was a very fun Evil Plan, and also the Hoppers' final scene, and then I remembered that the series spent time following up on giving all of the characters a happy ending (except the Hoppers, haha). The happy ending bit is what I think I enjoyed the most about Kabuto. It's nice to see characters that I mostly like get a positive resolution.
The Actual Endgame has occupied no headspace here and still doesn't really. Though I did kind of love Tendo's Very Dramatic entrance to the big fight with his catchphrase over the loudspeakers. The plot and the themes from 47-9 are still a mess but somehow I cared less while Tendo was deciding to be melodrama personified |
01-29-2021, 05:37 PM | #847 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
|
Quote:
The Actual Endgame has occupied no headspace here and still doesn't really. Though I did kind of love Tendo's Very Dramatic entrance to the big fight with his catchphrase over the loudspeakers. The plot and the themes from 47-9 are still a mess but somehow I cared less while Tendo was deciding to be melodrama personified
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-29-2021, 07:14 PM | #848 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
This has gotta be the most Showa finale Heisei Rider ever had. Just breathe this all in for a second. We've got some villanious mad science scheme taking place in a cheap looking dark room, complete with an uwilling test subject lying unconscious on a table; we've got Negishi dropping his previous casual speech shtick for a stereotypical 70's dictator vibe; we've got two Riders teaming up to fight a big monster guy who has basically no character beyond "is not nice"; and then it all ends with a Double Rider Kick and the evil secret lair being exploded. It's absolutely textbook. Plus, all the things exploding meant Ishida got to light that many more fires before the show ended! There's basically no way I could hate this episode. It's real thin on plot, but as heavy as can be on the style. Ishida makes that cheap broadcast station room work. Honestly, he does! The final showdown is against a monster so uninteresting that, you guessed it, I never even remembered Mishima was literally the show's last boss. It's got issues narratively, but the cool blue palette contrasted against occasional spots of bright lighting, that's an image that kinda sticks with me a little more. Fitting the big theatrical flavor of an episode where Tendou makes his entrance jumping off a radio tower, there's a lot of God Speed Love in this one's style. Not surprising from the same director, but, heck, Yamato and Oda even make cameos as two civilians being affected by the Natives' plan going into action. It's like a party everybody but Sasword and the Hoppers were invited to! I really do like it. Not a ton, and I was probably totally disengaged by this point in my first run through of the show, but still – there's a lot to enjoy here. It's a finale that starts with Kagami heroically riding off on his bike to save the day, and ends with the cast chilling out and soaking in a well-earned peace. Again, textbook. While it struggles with the same deeply rooted problems with this arc Die and I have mentioned more than enough by this point, it really is trying a lot harder to make those questionable decisions come together. The end result is serviceable at worst, and quite enjoyable at its best. Tendou has always had a way with words, and his speechifying here is the big highlight for me as well. I loved his verbal dismantling of the Natives' goals. It gets to the core of why I legitimately think Tendou is an admirable hero. One of the big assertions he makes to Negishi is that humans are able to change themselves for the sake of others, and not only is that the start to just a nice, broadly positive message, it's also Tendou's very own life story. I didn't mention it last time, but the cliffhanger at 48 draws a parallel between him being trapped under some rubble after being defeated by Gatack, and him reaching out to Hiyori all those years ago. It's rather on the nose, with him telling the viewer via internal monologue that really, Hiyori was the one who gave him the courage to keep living that fateful day, but I honestly thought it was a great moment, and it feels particularly relevant to Tendou's final speech here. It's easy to forget, but Tendou trained himself to become the guy we met in the premiere. That connection Tendou made with Hiyori, it's everything to this series. We've been shown them grabbing hands 48 times just thanks to the opening alone. It's what I said about 44, too, about how personal and humble it all is. Tendou didn't become the strongest for his own ego, despite what it looks like, nor did he do it out of some vague, arrogant notion of saving the world. He did it because he wanted to be by the side of a single girl who needed help. Kamen Rider Kabuto only exists because of one small act of selflessness that lead to something far greater. Tendou isn't just making up something schmaltzy out of nowhere, everything about the narrative of the series supports what he's talking about – Tendou is his own proof that he's right. Maybe he really was justice, after all, huh? So yeah, everything about that speech worked great for me. Die tackled why it's good from a completely different angle, too, and that's all the more reason I loved it. You can look at it from so many different directions and they all tie together and make sense to Kabuto as a whole. It's the kind of thematic weight and relevance this final arc could've used more of, but I'm glad they got it in where it counted the most. It leaves you with a good feeling, at the end of the day. I don't know where Die's opinion will settle, but, personally, I don't get done watching this one and bemoan what could've been. It's not Kabuto's finest hour, sure, but when the finale ends with Tendou going to France to grab some tofu, I mean... like, are you not going to smile at least a little? This final trilogy suffered from an inability to find exciting new directions to go in, but on the flipside, it benefits from not doing anything crazy enough to risk sabotaging what came before. It's a final episode when Tendou and Kagami beat up a monster to save people. It's Kamen Rider, and it's hard to go wrong with that.
__________________
|
01-29-2021, 07:48 PM | #849 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,490
|
|
01-29-2021, 07:56 PM | #850 |
I got nothing
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 148
|
One detail in the final fight I lkke is that when the Perfect Zecter fails and is destroyed you can see the broken parts of the TheBee Drake and Sesword Zecters in the wreckage, and it allows Gattack to live up to his hype of being the strongest rider.
|
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
What's going on with CSM? |
Ultraman Arc Trailer |
2024 Kamen Rider after Gotchard Rumor |
King-Ohger VS Dekaranger |
Shodo SUPER JAKQ |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:47 PM.
|