|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
01-30-2021, 01:08 PM | #861 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
I already figured out the mystery of why Kabuto didn't stick with me a while back. It was pretty obvious in retrospect, even. As I subtly foreshadowed with my screencap for episode 45, nearly everything I like and dislike about this show ultimately comes back to Hiyori. I've made it into something of a bit, and I'm sure Die is grinning at the predictability of her being the thing I'm immediately talking about, but having watched the show again, it's so clear to me now how critical her character was to it. She speaks the very first lines of the very first episode. The initial sequence of shots in that gorgeous opening I could talk about all day, it's her drawings draped over Kamen Rider Kabuto – her hanging over the entire series. Not only was this a character who I deeply empathized with, and loved to watch, but from the outset, it was as much her story as it was Tendou's or Kagami's. I praised that over and over again. The writing gives her feelings and her wants and her needs and everything else as much weight and depth as anyone else. Going back to the opening one more time, the three of them make their entrance as a trio given equal amounts of focus, because that's exactly what they were. There was so much genuinely smart stuff the show was doing with these three, and it was wrapping it all up in utterly glorious action sequences featuring some of the coolest designs in Rider history. Then Hiyori has to leave for reasons beyond the writers' control, and to be blunt, I think Kabuto loses a ton of footing it never quite gets back. Honestly, in its own way, I might seriously argue that it's as devastating a blow to the story as Hibiki's infamous production shakeup was, despite never getting the same level of attention from fans, as far as I've seen. Heck, I'm part of the problem, there. This will seem crazy after these past two months of posts, but in all these years on this forum talking about Kamen Rider, I'm not sure I've ever once so much as mentioned Hiyori before this thread. I never stopped liking her; she was always in the back of my mind as one of my favorite things about Kabuto. It's just that, as the memories got more and more distant, I stopped being able to think of why. One thing I've definitely mentioned on multiple occasions is how important finales are to locking in my long-term feelings on a series. Because it's the last thing you see, and thus the thing that's most fresh in your recollection. Hiyori was never a part of that recollection, because even when she comes back, she's never truly a part of the show again, at least not in the same way. As soon as she leaves in episode 32, Kabuto tries its best to make her presence felt as part of the plot, to varying degrees of success. Many of the show's best episodes come from this Hiyori-less era, to be sure, but on the whole, the writing becomes noticeably more uneven, clearly racing to adjust to changes it hadn't intended to deal with. The plots lose a lot of the connective tissue they previously had with Hiyori, and combined with what I assume were budget issues meaning the show loses most of what made its action distinctive on top of this, the impact the early show had on me ended up dulled. Instead of all those wonderful, character focused plots, some of my most prominent memories of Kabuto ended up being bored at a fence, and angry at some necklaces. My brain decided to pick out some of the lowest points of the series for preservation, and frankly, that is a shame. Something I'm thrilled I was able to correct thanks to this thread. Kabuto is a good show. Sometimes it's even a great one, and when it is, it's on fire, something I hopefully conveyed well, and that Die definitely did if I didn't. I've gained an enormous amount of respect for Shouji Yonemura as a writer after this rewatch. I had gotten it into my head this show was nothing but easily agitated weird people fighting over melodramatic grudges and dumb sci-fi plot devices, and while there's certainly a fair bit of that throughout, there's far more genuine heart and thematic purpose to the scripts than I was giving them credit for. My assumption going in was that Kabuto left me cold because it was simply a cold show, give or take an episode about Tsurugi leaving for France I recalled as being rather emotional, but, man, that was so far from the truth. Some of the stories this show tells are as poignant and/or touching as any other Rider show. This rewatch was worth doing for the (four part, eight episode) Drake Trilogy alone, which comes highly recommended to anyone who wants a nice, relatively manageable chunk of the series to bring back those memories of it firing on all cylinders. It's no surprise Daisuke and Gon also stuck in my head as characters I vaguely remembered loving, when their appearances tend to bring along such enjoyable storytelling with them. There's a lot to love about Kabuto, despite its many missteps, especially later on. At the very start of the thread, before I even committed to going all out the way I have, I called it my Least Favorite Heisei Rider Show By Default, and here at the end, I have to say I'm considering revising that statement. I certainly have a much greater respect for Hibiki, which even now gives it a bit of an edge, but I rewatched most/all of that show (depending on who you ask) with Die as well, and I don't think I had as much fun with it as I did with Kabuto. Maybe part of that is just how much more surprise and rediscovery was involved here, versus a show like Hibiki that was pretty much exactly how I remembered it, but this really was a good time, even when I hit an episode I wasn't all that fond of. Die, as always, has summed it up at least as well as I could. It's a lot of strange plotting decisions that end up overshadowed by the much stronger work the show is doing elsewhere. I'd be lying if I said the question of what the Worms even want never popped into my head, but I'd also be lying if I said I cared that much about getting an answer. It was a delight to spend time with all these crazy people once more. I may not have magically turned my opinion around on every aspect of the show I recall disliking, but even though I think that, for example, the Hoppers are still pretty lame, it was nice to see them. To try and appreciate them more all these years later, watching the series with much less apathy and with a greater ability to pick through translation errors where needed. That's the whole story here, really. I came back to Kabuto hoping I could see it with fresh eyes, and that's exactly what happened. It's not leaping up the ladder of my favorite Rider shows, especially when that list barely exists (it's like Ghost and Wizard followed by a nebulous cloud of deep affection surrounding the franchise), but I've found an appreciation for it that I didn't have before. If you go back through my posts here, you can probably even see how much more enthusiastic I became with each passing episode. So yeah, in the end, Kagami is happy, Die is happy, and I'm happy too.
__________________
|
01-30-2021, 01:24 PM | #862 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,553
|
I said I’d be gone until the next thread, but I realised that this is the first time since the Ryuki thread we haven’t mentioned the novel for the series. And that’s not on.
Basically, my knowledge of the novel comes down to three things: Tendou is established to be in Paris to destroy the last of the Worms on Earth Kagami tries to get into Hiyori’s pants. It was the first Rider series to get a novel (it would’ve been W, but there were delays with that one) |
01-30-2021, 01:26 PM | #863 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
As I subtly foreshadowed with my screencap for episode 45, nearly everything I like and dislike about this show ultimately comes back to Hiyori. I've made it into something of a bit, and I'm sure Die is grinning at the predictability of her being the thing I'm immediately talking about, but having watched the show again, it's so clear to me now how critical her character was to it.
Yeah, Hiyori. There's this brief window, after she disappears, where the character still feels as vital as ever, as present as ever. But the longer she's gone, and the more the show starts telling other stories... it's like she becomes a lost cause, like the show is fighting to recapture something that's already gone. And if that was how it felt for me, a viewer who only had to deal with her absence for a couple weeks, I can only imagine how much the weekly viewers in 2006 had moved on. There are times when I wonder what the show could've done differently. I don't really bring them up here, because I think How I Would Change Things misses the point of art. It's not about how I'd've told a story, it's about how the story was told. I can like or dislike things, but I don't want to spend a ton of time trying to fix something that ended over a decade ago. But with this, I wonder if the show would've been better recasting (tough, but possible) or just eliminating Hiyori entirely. I imagine both of those choices would've been distracting for fans (and potentially incredibly divisive), but it would've kept the show from feeling tethered to a plot it couldn't really progress. Regardless, I'm glad you were able to find more in this show than last time. It's not my favorite, for sure, but I found it to be a real enjoyable watch. There're shows I've done threads on here where, at times, it can feel arduous to draw out something interesting, or frustrating to figure out what the show's trying to say. With Kabuto, I found the overall experience to be really pleasant. A fun show to watch and talk about, even if it's not one I'd feel the need to gush about in the future.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 01-30-2021 at 01:29 PM.. |
01-30-2021, 01:28 PM | #864 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Glad to hear the novel resurrected one of my least-favorite things from God Speed Love! Ugh.
Thanks for the info, as always!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-30-2021, 04:05 PM | #865 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,108
|
My most memorable part of the finale is Dark Kabuto's heroic sacrifice as he pulls Negishi in to the explosion, finally getting his revenge on the Natives for ruining his life!
__________________
心 と 刃 |
01-30-2021, 04:07 PM | #866 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Now he just needs to get revenge on Kagami for leaving him behind in that flaming studio!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-30-2021, 04:19 PM | #867 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - THREAD WRAP-UP
And that's it for "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Kabuto”! Thank you to everyone who stopped by to share your thoughts on Kabuto, or even just your thoughts on my thoughts on Kabuto. This was a really enjoyable thread. Pretty smooth sailing, with only a couple patches of choppy water, and a nice way to kick off a new year. Y'all are consistently the best, and I'll never get tired of telling you that. You are the Tendou to my Kagami, providing an ideal to live up to and an excellence to strive for. A few bits of business before the Captain goes on vacation again for a few weeks: -I still don't have a SHF Kabuto (prioritized Seihou Hibiki, do not regret it), so please enjoy this photo of my Figure-Rise Kabuto kicking a newly-opened SHODO Dark Kabuto entirely in the junk as a way of commemorating another series completion. -Here's the Word Art for my episode posts on Kabuto. (As always, this doesn't include my responses or your responses. This is generated off of my Google Doc for the series.) Tendou being dead-center seems unbelievably appropriate, but what jumps out to you? -This thread will obviously stay open for everyone's further thoughts on Kabuto, and I'll try and respond as best I can, but I'm happy to just sit back and let folks get their final words in on Kabuto. My work is mostly done on this thread, and I'm going to be taking a slight break for a few weeks. Definitely a few life things I've let slide that I need to address. Let's just say that A Deep Apartment Cleaning is another end-of-thread tradition... -Otherwise, I'll be back with "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Den-O” on February 18th. Very excited to finally get to this series, and very very excited to share the experience with all of you. Until then, keep walking your path to heaven, don't be afraid to feel your Very Big Feelings, remember to act with noblesse oblige, and never forget that you're... you're, uh... (beautiful?) Yes, yes! That, that!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-02-2023 at 11:42 AM.. |
01-30-2021, 04:52 PM | #868 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,426
|
So, Kabuto.
Going into this - as I may have mentioned once or twice - Kabuto was a show that refused to commit itself to my longterm memory. I knew I had watched it and I knew that I had generally liked it, but it really didn't have much that stood out. Coming out of the rewatch? It's fine. It's a perfectly fine show. Not great. Not awful. It's fine. The show's main strength is its characters. Tendou works off of the strength of his actor's charisma helping to pull off what could otherwise be a really insufferable lead. Kagami and pre-departure Hiyori are both great. Tsurugi is possibly the best comic relief character in Kamen Rider history and I love how enthusiastically unnecessary Juka is. Really, everyone who isn't Kageyama is pretty great. There are some truly excellent two-parters, but the overall plot never really gels. Part of that is having to deal with Yui Satonaka leaving for most of the last twenty episodes. But honestly, it really feels like neither the Worms nor the Natives have much character or present much of a coherent threat. Even ZECT, which is presented as a nebulously shady threat for much of the series, doesn't really have much of an agenda. It leaves the whole show feeling a bit aimless in the end. Anyway, it's been fun and hopefully more of it will stick in my memory this time. Definitely looking forward to slipping on my banana new shoes and ore sanjou by bike-ing into the Den-O thread in a couple weeks! |
01-30-2021, 04:57 PM | #869 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
There are some truly excellent two-parters, but the overall plot never really gels. Part of that is having to deal with Yui Satonaka leaving for most of the last twenty episodes. But honestly, it really feels like neither the Worms nor the Natives have much character or present much of a coherent threat. Even ZECT, which is presented as a nebulously shady threat for much of the series, doesn't really have much of an agenda. It leaves the whole show feeling a bit aimless in the end.
It's funny, remembering how much potential I thought the Worms had the beginning. And then, 40-odd episodes later, it's just, like, what were they even for?
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
01-30-2021, 04:58 PM | #870 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
__________________
|
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
Kakuranger: 30 Years After |
ToyRise RyuKenDo |
Alternative Cut of "Day Of The Dumpster" Released |
Shodo SUPER Kyoryuger Teaser |
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:41 AM.
|