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05-03-2020, 03:59 AM | #151 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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I don't remember if this actually happens in the show, but I'd love for Rising Dragon to chuck that spear at a Grongi like a javelin.
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05-03-2020, 01:07 PM | #152 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,290
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Thankfully, the police are still working as hard as ever to sort this mess out. I mean, they've still barely got a clue what's going on, but they are trying. All the progress they've made up to this point has been significantly undermined by the fact that they're dealing with the Go level Grongi now.
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I guess the beach should start with "So" for her to go there. How do they figure out that a beach is going to be her substitute though? And so if Kuuga's weapon is affected, it reverts to it's original shape, but the original shape is not damaged too or something? I want to know if Kuuga Mighty can enhance the finisher by training to give flying side kick, how about the other forms? How to distinguish the way do you a finisher attack or an ordinary attack in a non-Mighty form? (like how you talk about Mighty Form leaving Kuuga trail in his attacks at earlier part) |
05-03-2020, 09:02 PM | #153 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Okay, I've been really bad at replying to things lately, so let's see how many of these I can cover in one go.
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Tsubaki's comments are rather tame
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I know that Rising Titan has 2 swords, but still wonder. How many limits of items Kuuga can transform?
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Inoue's take on investigation aside, how did the Grongis get the store to sell the lighters?
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Titan is strong in defense, but are his punches/kicks also stronger than Mighty Form too?
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Also want to ask from a reply I neglected before, regarding "has anyone had a teacher like Kanzaki", what are your criteria for a teacher like him?
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So do Grongis purposely send the weaker member first until they're wiped out to send the stronger tribes?
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Yeah he doesn't care about the rules... like him defying the cops before (although to do the right thing).
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Are there any reasons there's only 1 Grongi each taking part into action before?
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How do they figure out that a beach is going to be her substitute though?
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I want to know if Kuuga Mighty can enhance the finisher by training to give flying side kick, how about the other forms? How to distinguish the way do you a finisher attack or an ordinary attack in a non-Mighty form?
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Yeah, that's a really good way to put it. These episodes feel filled out really nicely. I wouldn't mind seeing that myself!
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05-04-2020, 07:00 AM | #154 |
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I guess I don't really know? Kanzaki's portrayal just seems pretty exaggerated in a lot of ways, but I guess (hope?) it might not be all that unrealistic for a teacher to be that invested in the development and well-being of their students beyond merely teaching them whatever rote academic material they're required to. This could probably lead to a whole, kind of off-topic discussion in its own right!
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I think Mighty is kind of an exception specifically because it doesn't rely on a tool. With Pegasus, for example, it's only attack IS its finisher, and beyond not missing, I don't think there's anything to really be trained. Same deal with Dragon and Titan, whose finishing moves are just to poke the Grongi with the ends of their weapons.
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05-04-2020, 02:00 PM | #155 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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EPISODE 29: "Crossroads"
This one starts with an absolutely killer cold open. This will be another fairly busy episode, so I don't know if you can say it establishes the central concept, but it is under a minute, and has no dialogue whatsoever. Central or not, it tells you one of the most important things to know about this story, and it announces it with some real impact. That's right, Chouno's back! And he's being written by Arakawa this time! I told you this show doesn't forget about characters. Although we'll have to wait a bit to really find out what he's been up to lately, as after the opening, the other big plot thread for this one is established, as Pops admires the latest additions to his Unidentified Lifeform #4 scrapbook, featuring his fancy new gold versions. The purple one, the green one, the blue one, all looking shinier than ever! No red yet, though. This is another bit of structure the series did I really love. If you'll notice, the introductions of the Rising forms have gone in reverse order, gradually working their way back to Kuuga's main form, and I think that's super smart. It's like a countdown. Rising Mighty is a big deal. It has to be, and the show knows it. Oh, and while we're on the subject of that scrapbook, I do find the pictures in the articles about #4 kind of funny. This is obviously not something you're meant to read into, and the show gets points for making the pictures extra blurry and washed out for that guerilla photography look, but it's still blatantly just screencaps from the episodes, which means oddities like a photo of Rising Pegasus from a rooftop nobody but Kuuga was on, and a shot of Rising Titan about to stab Garima from her perspective. Pretty sure she wasn't holding a camera in that scene! Over at the university, Sakurako is still racking her brain over that whole "the sun will be swallowed by darkness" thing, but that's quickly interrupted by the arrival of Jean, who also happens to be bringing along another returning character. Turns out Mika's back for these ones too! She's in Tokyo to see Gouram, and of course Jean is all too happy to oblige, because he's cool that way. There's also confirmation here that Jean is aware that Yuusuke is Kuuga, having been told by Enokida offscreen at some point, continuing a trend of #4's identity being the very definition of an open secret. Jean apparently also hasn't been stopping by to see Gouram as much lately as he normally does, a subject he seems pretty uncomfortable having brought up. Yet another plot point that'll take a second to wrap back around to, but for now I'll just say Gouram probably wasn't the real reason he was going to that lab every day. Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, Enokida is keeping busy as usual, working on a variety of ways to deal with the threat of the Unidentified Lifeforms, one of which is that mysterious new bike, glimpsed here only in shadow. Yeah, Rising Mighty wasn't the only thing the show knew how to build hype for. The latest Grongi to get in on the game seems to be more into the concept then usual, as his shtick in human form is dressing like some kind of gambling gangster, choosing the locations for his murders by playing roulette. You might expect a slick guy like that to have a pretty subdued monster form, but it's quite the opposite. Go-Gamego-Re is a beefy armored turtle whose weapon of choice is a huge supply of heavy stone ball-and-chains, that he lobs huge distances from the tops of buildings onto the unsuspecting people below. I'd like to say this is the most brutal we've seen the Grongi get, but honestly, I'm not sure this guy would even crack a top 5 list. Not that he isn't begging for Kuuga to put a stop to his killing spree all the same. Before we get there, though, Yuusuke discusses the status of the Amadam inside him with Tsubaki and Ichijou. Tsubaki confirms once and for all here that, even though he meant it as a joke, him using the defibrillator on Yuusuke was the thing that lead to the Amadam being able to harness electrical power, and thus the Rising forms. This might sound like redundant information, but this scene goes much, much deeper into the subject, with a key point of concern being how thoroughly the Amadam is making itself a part of Yuusuke's body. Tsubaki even warns him the strain on his right leg will be particularly bad if he uses the new power with his red form, but Yuusuke is all smiles as usual. Because after all, he doesn't have a care in the world, right? He never worries about becoming nothing more than a living weapon with no control over himself, right? He certainly doesn't let any of that get him down if he does. At least, he doesn't in public. But once he gets outside, in another great minimalist moment where the show lets the silence speak for itself (there's not even music), the look on Yuusuke's face, so far removed from his usual bright expression, tells us everything we need to know about just how seriously he does take things. From there, Kuuga ends up in the usual intense fight with the monster, which ends up being huge trouble for Chouno. It turns out, in the time since we've seen him, he's been moving in a positive direction, pursuing an interest in art, with plans to apply with his latest piece for a chance to be used in a commercial. Right away, I love what this story does with Chouno. It's a direct result of the growth he had in his debut, so credit where credit is due, but it's easier to sympathize with him, and understand his deal, because this time, we see him trying to put the work in. He's making a very obvious and sincere attempt to move forward, and the specific choice to center that around art is the perfect way to convey all of this to the audience precisely because it's a little stereotypical. You see a guy pouring his heart into a drawing, and you kinda don't need any dialogue at that point. There's a beautiful visual metaphor in there too, that might even be one of my new favorite shots in this whole series. Remember how Chouno was flashing his switchblade in the cold open? He could've just been doing that for no reason other than to alert the audience that he's in the episode, but there actually is a reason for it. He's using the knife to sharpen his pencils. It's absolutely brilliant. That knife is the symbol of the darkness that's been consuming Chouno, so to have him take the knife, and make it into a tool that serves a constructive purpose, something that builds and creates instead of harming and destroying, making the darkness into light, I mean... I said Inoue didn't quite get Kuuga's storytelling style back when he wrote those first episodes of his, and this kind of stuff from Arakawa is what I'm talking about. This is two scenes, each under a minute, both without any dialogue at all, and they're getting this much across. It's amazing. It also totally gets me rooting for Chouno, which is why it's probably not a good thing the Unidentified Lifeform rampaging through the city is blocking the way to where he needs to go to submit his drawing in less than half an hour. THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER Hidden internal angst or no, you can't stop Yuusuke from doing what he does best, and Tsubaki certainly believes in him. Total thumbs up count: 51+2 = 53 EPISODE 30: "Fate" Kuuga's fight with Gamego isn't going great at the start of this one. He switches to Titan Form and tries the usual power walking thing, but not only are the hits Gamego lands on the armor strong enough to make him flinch, Gamego is smart enough to exploit what seems to be Titan Form's biggest weakness, with Kuuga taking balls to his entirely unarmored stomach, and face, in quick succession, totally knocking him off balance. This is another super intense bout, with two opponents throwing everything they have at each other. Kuuga gets back up and attempts to turn the tables with Rising Titan, but Gamego barely cares about what would normally be a fatal stab wound for a Grongi, and when Kuuga is unable to maintain the Rising power any longer, he gets thrown back so hard, he ends up in Growing Form yet again. Ichijou finds Yuusuke unconscious, and has him taken to Tsubaki. Meanwhile, Chouno is desperately running to make it before his deadline, but any hope he has of getting there in time is pretty thoroughly dashed when Gamego knocks him out just as cold as Yuusuke. Ichijou, determined to carry as much of the burden as he can, asks Enokida to get him some of the fancy new bullets being developed for use against the Unidentified Lifeforms. They're not meant to work without equally fancy new guns to handle the recoil, but Ichijou probably doesn't care about a sprained shoulder or two if it means repaying Yuusuke for even a portion of what he's done for them. This is another episode that really focuses on the impact Yuusuke has had on the people around him, with Tsubaki getting to do a lot of the heavy lifting on that front. Despite his eccentricities, Tsubaki takes his work seriously, and as such, he has a more direct understanding of what kind of suffering Yuusuke goes through than arguably anyone else in the cast, maybe even including Yuusuke. In a conversation with Sakurako, he stresses that Yuusuke's ability to recover from injuries unnaturally fast puts a huge strain on his body, and that those healing abilities have only gotten more potent over time. Meaning, just like back in episode 6, Yuusuke is probably holding back a lot of pain getting back up like nothing happened. Sakurako simply takes this to mean they all have to give their all too, which shows some growth from how she used to feel about him risking his life as Kuuga. Just about the only scenes that don't contribute directly to the main plot here are the two with Jean and Mika, which I can't think of a good way to work in anywhere else, so they get their own paragraph. It's just two short bits, the latter of which has them going to Pole Pole hoping to see Yuusuke, but since he's preoccupied, it doesn't amount to much. The former is a lot more juicy, with it becoming apparent Enokida and Jean are a little awkward around each other right now, not helped by Mika innocently bringing up how she was looking forward to meeting her based on Jean's glowing descriptions. That's as far as that goes this episode, though, so as much as I love talking about Jean, there's the whole rest of the episode to get back to. Chouno's been brought into the hospital himself, waking up to realize, to his horror, that he missed his window. Instead of having him go straight to throwing a fit, he immediately tries to get on the phone with the company running the contest to see if he can still sort this out, but he gets hung up on before he can even try the old "a horrifying monster was blocking traffic" excuse. It's another great moment to build some more sympathy for Chouno, showing him still trying even once things have already gone wrong, but he still has his limits, and this breaks him a little. Yuusuke has already run off to go deal with Gamego, meaning this time it's entirely up to Tsubaki to try keeping him looking forward. He starts out friendlier than last time, sincerely happy to see Chouno making progress, having found out he's been getting his illness treated in the time since they last saw each other. It starts getting a little ugly when Chouno accuses Yuusuke of just smiling his way through life without any trouble, compared to how much he's been struggling. Again, Tsubaki's one of the few people who truly gets what Yuusuke is going through, so that remark gets under his skin a bit. Chouno insists that anyone would be as happy as Yuusuke if things always went as right for them as they do for him. Which, of course, shows how little Chouno is aware of what he's even talking about. Yuusuke's been battered, bruised, beaten, bitten, blown up, shot, thrown off of skyscrapers, poisoned, dead... you name an injury, and chances are he's had it at some point or another. Being #4 has been far from fun and games for Yuusuke. But his suffering goes beyond even that, and Chouno's about to learn why. His conversation with Tsubaki reaches its most tense point when he says he would've been better off letting Biran kill him back in episode 14, which makes Tsubaki lose what patience he has left, snapping at Chouno for his defeatist attitude. This causes Chouno to punch Tsubaki in the face. After this, Tsubaki has just one question -- how did it feel? And of course, it felt bad. Chouno doesn't feel any happier having hit Tsubaki. He doesn't feel relief, or satisfaction. He lost control, and he lashed out, and the look on his face makes his regret clear. All of that is just from one punch. Yuusuke, though, this is what he deals with almost every day. It doesn't always show on the surface, but it's there, no matter how justified using violence to stop the Grongi is. He hates it, and Tsubaki knows this. He knows that Yuusuke really is scared of what he might become because of the Amadam, and he knows the reason he doesn't complain about it, even the tiniest bit, is because he puts other people's smiles first, no matter what. How much of an impact hearing all this has on Chouno is left up in the air for now, as Tsubaki leaves him with one other piece of information about Yuusuke to chew on. He really liked Chouno's drawing. In his fight with Gamego, Kuuga is doing better than last time, especially thanks to help from Ichijou, who uses that new ammunition to disarm the Grongi. He succumbs to the recoil just like Enokida warned him about, but this action provides Kuuga the opportunity to load Gamego onto the Try Gouram's horns, and take him off to a slightly more remote location. You see, this time, Yuusuke is planning to use the gold version of his red form, and he's got a very bad feeling about what all that extra power might do. As such, he's had Ichijou evacuate the nearby area in case it might result in people getting hurt. Very, very good thinking on Yuusuke's part, because Rising Mighty's Rider Kick turns out to have exactly the kind of effect he was afraid of. Yeah, now you realize why this show didn't want to do monster explosions practically. Kind of makes it harder to gradually up the scale over time. This is an insanely memorable form debut, obviously. It's ominous and intense, and a great way to end a very strong pair of episodes. The story here builds off of everything the series has established up to this point super well, and is packed with great moments. Using Chouno as a vehicle to remind us of Yuusuke's inner conflict was especially inspired, as it perfectly ties in to Rising Mighty's reminder that Kuuga's growing power isn't necessarily a good thing. THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER Despite it all, Yuusuke is still keeping his spirits up here. Total thumbs up count: 53+2 = 55
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Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 04-06-2023 at 05:59 PM.. |
05-04-2020, 02:03 PM | #156 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Oh, and I definitely want to mention this: That last post was actually my 2000th on this forum. Nowhere near as impressive as having 2000 skills, but a milestone nonetheless.
I mentioned right in the introduction that the stars lined up to make this thread happen, but I don't think I realized at the time just how true that would turn out to be. This year marks Kuuga's 20th anniversary, and I don't know how much better a birthday present it could've gotten for that occasion than an official western release with extremely high-quality English subtitles. I would've never guessed in a million years we'd get here, but it happened, and I am just... beyond happy about it. Indeed, I failed to see this coming so hard, I actually had an entire post written I was going to put up between episodes 26 and 27 about the absurdly huge amount of errors I had found from Midnight Crew Subs' releases just in the first half of the show. The number by episode 24 was over a hundred individual lines that were messed up in some way. This is why you haven't seen dialogue on any of the screencaps I've used. I was literally keeping track of this stuff the entire time, and then, not long after I finished putting together that post, that consisted largely of me walking through some of the "greatest" hits I'd come across in an effort to vent my frustrations, it all became completely irrelevant. The last paragraph had a line, that, no joke, read "it's my sincere hope this post becomes obsolete one day. Whether that be due to a newer, more thorough fansub, or even, dare I dream, an official English release that meets a professional standard, it doesn't matter that much." But that dream came true, and now, that post is so obsolete, I never even posted it. And that's awesome. While I've yet to watch a full episode, I've went and checked dozens and dozens of bad lines from MCS' translation to find, nearly every single time, they're fixed up perfectly. And as an even more pleasant surprise, the dialogue just plain reads great. Very natural and smooth without losing the meaning. Plus, the theme songs are translated to that same standard, so it's even better. There's basically no downside to this situation. Just like Shout's Sentai stuff, it's streaming for free on several different services, too, so it's just as cheap as piracy! The only thing to even consider being bummed about is that the Grongi language is rendered in English, but, as much I'm *firmly* on the side that believes it shouldn't be by default, there are legitimate arguments to be made in favor of handling it that way, and, I'm telling you, it's a total non-issue in the face of how good a job was done. Just think about the implications of complaining about it for a second. The biggest problem with the official Kuuga release is that they did too much work. Well, that, and being in a region where you still can't watch it officially, admittedly. Still! There has never, ever been a better time to watch Kuuga, whether you're new to the show or not, and if you doubt the people making this stuff happen have a real passion for what they're doing, just take a look at what clip TokuSHOUTsu's YouTube page chose to sell people on the show. You don't pick this one by accident!
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05-04-2020, 03:09 PM | #157 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Often I don't like trying to do responses to every little bit of a post, because it really ends up resulting in me trying to find things to say when I either just don't or it was already said for me. Fun fact: that's been my experience in a LOT of this thread; a scene you're describing in a post reminds me of thoughts and emotions I had in response to it... and then you lay out those thoughts and emotions for me! It's kind of wild seeing other people have such similar experiences to me; there's something kind of nice about it?
And aside from that, this site's infrastructure unfortunately just doesn't make it easy to do long-form replies. But as it turns out I've got a surprising amount of things to say here, so here we go! Quote:
EPISODE 29: "Crossroads"
This one starts with an absolutely killer cold open. This will be another fairly busy episode, so I don't know if you can say it establishes the central concept, but it is under a minute, and has no dialogue whatsoever. Central or not, it tells you one of the most important things to know about this story, and it announces it with some real impact. That's right, Chouno's back! And he's being written by Arakawa this time! I told you this show doesn't forget about characters. ... From there, Kuuga ends up in the usual intense fight with the monster, which ends up being huge trouble for Chouno. It turns out, in the time since we've seen him, he's been moving in a positive direction, pursuing an interest in art, with plans to apply with his latest piece for a chance to be used in a commercial. Right away, I love what this story does with Chouno. It's a direct result of the growth he had in his debut, so credit where credit is due, but it's easier to sympathize with him, and understand his deal, because this time, we see him trying to put the work in. He's making a very obvious and sincere attempt to move forward, and the specific choice of "art" for that is the perfect way to convey all of this to the audience precisely because it's a little stereotypical. You see a guy pouring his heart into a drawing, and you kinda don't need any dialogue at that point. There's a beautiful visual metaphor in there too, that might even be one of my new favorite shots in this whole series. Remember how Chouno was flashing his switchblade in the cold open? He could've just been doing that for no reason other than to alert the audience that he's in the episode, but there actually is a reason for it. He's using the knife to sharpen his pencils. It's absolutely brilliant. That knife is the symbol of the darkness that's been consuming Chouno, so to have him take the knife, and make it into a tool that serves a constructive purpose, something that builds and creates instead of harming and destroying, making the darkness into light, I mean... I said Inoue didn't quite get Kuuga's storytelling style back when he wrote those first episodes of his, and this kind of stuff from Arakawa is what I'm talking about. This is two scenes, each under a minute, both without any dialogue at all, and they're getting this much across. It's amazing. It also totally gets me rooting for Chouno, which is why it's probably not a good thing the Unidentified Lifeform rampaging through the city is blocking the way to where he needs to go to submit his drawing in less than half an hour. EPISODE 30: "Fate" ... Meanwhile, Chouno is desperately running to make it before his deadline, but any hope he has of getting there in time is pretty thoroughly dashed when Gamego knocks him out just as cold as Yuusuke. ... Chouno's been brought into the hospital himself, waking up to realize, to his horror, that he missed his window. Instead of having him go straight to throwing a fit, he immediately tries to get on the phone with the company running the contest to see if he can still sort this out, but he gets hung up on before he can even try the old "a horrifying monster was blocking traffic" excuse. It's another great moment to build some more sympathy for Chouno, showing him still trying even once things have already gone wrong, but he still has his limits, and this breaks him a little. Yuusuke has already run off to go deal with Gamego, meaning this time it's entirely up to Tsubaki to try keeping him looking forward. He starts out friendlier than last time, sincerely happy to see Chouno making progress, having found out he's been getting his illness treated in the time since they last saw each other. It starts getting a little ugly when Chouno accuses Yuusuke of just smiling his way through life without any trouble, compared to how much he's been struggling. Again, Tsubaki's one of the few people who truly gets what Yuusuke is going through, so that remark gets under his skin a bit. Chouno insists that anyone would be as happy as Yuusuke if things always went as right for them as they do for him. Which, of course, shows how little Chouno is aware of what he's even talking about. Yuusuke's been battered, bruised, beaten, bitten, blown up, shot, thrown off of skyscrapers, poisoned, dead... you name an injury, and chances are he's had it at some point or another. Being #4 has been far from fun and games for Yuusuke. But his suffering goes beyond even that, and Chouno's about to learn why. His conversation with Tsubaki reaches its most tense point when he says he would've been better off letting Biran kill him back in episode 14, which makes Tsubaki lose what patience he has left, snapping at Chouno for his defeatist attitude. This causes Chouno to punch Tsubaki in the face. After this, Tsubaki has just one question. How did it feel? And of course, it felt bad. Chouno doesn't feel any happier having hit Tsubaki. He doesn't feel relief, or satisfaction. He lost control, and he lashed out, and the look on his face makes his regret clear. All of that is just from one punch. Yuusuke, though, this is what he deals with almost every day. It doesn't always show on the surface, but it's there, no matter how justified using violence to stop the Grongi is. He hates it, and Tsubaki knows this. He knows that Yuusuke really is scared of what he might become because of the Amadam, and he knows the reason he doesn't complain about it, even the tiniest bit, is because he puts other people's smiles first, no matter what. How much of an impact hearing all this has on Chouno is left up in the air for now, as Tsubaki leaves him with one other piece of information about Yuusuke to chew on. He really liked Chouno's drawing. In his fight with Gamego, Kuuga is doing better than last time, especially thanks to help from Ichijou, who uses that new ammunation to disarm the Grongi. He succumbs to the recoil just like Enokida warned him about, but this action provides Kuuga the opportunity to load Gamego onto the TryGouram's horns, and take him off to a slightly more remote location. You see, this time, Yuusuke is planning to use the gold version of his red form, and he's got a very bad feeling about what all that extra power might do. As such, he's had Ichijou evacuate the nearby area in case it might result in people getting hurt. Very, very good thinking on Yuusuke's part, because Rising Mighty's Rider Kick turns out to have exactly the kind of effect he was afraid of. Yeah, now you realize why this show didn't want to do monster explosions practically. Kind of makes it harder to gradually up the scale over time. This is an insanely memorable form debut, obviously. It's ominous and intense, and a great way to end a very strong pair of episodes. The story here builds off of everything the series has established up to this point super well, and is packed with great moments. Using Chouno as a vehicle to remind us of Yuusuke's inner conflict was especially inspired, as it perfectly ties in to Rising Mighty's reminder that Kuuga's growing power isn't necessarily a good thing. I've said far too many times how I'm not a fan of Inoue's writing, and especially on this show I think he wrote some of the weaker ones. And my feelings on his writing in general aside, I think there's a big reason for that -- his writing is very wild. It's goofy, it's over-the-top, it's larger than life and laugh out loud and in your face and wide-angle lenses. That doesn't stop drama and emotional moments from coming through - in fact, at his best, Inoue really knows how to make those work for each other - but it's really not a good fit for a series as minimalist and grounded as Kuuga. And he certainly seems to understand this, because he tries to reel in his normal tropes and style and nail what Kuuga's all about. But while there's times he comes close - there was a pretty damn good one last time - it's often just not the best outings Kuuga has. And Chouno here is just the supreme example. His more subdued nature here can largely be attributed to his actual efforts in progressing, sure; with that resulting in his having a fair bit more tolerance before he reaches his breaking point. But the way this episode has his emotions communicated through actions and shots and body language; and at that smaller, more relatable motions... which style of storytelling here works best is up to the individual, of course, but in terms of what works as a Kuuga story, this is a vast improvement over Suspicion/Omen. Everything about how he's portrayed hews much closer to how we often see our main cast act out their own characters, and it's to the extent I actually wouldn't mind seeing him a lot more often! After this he makes a single other appearance in the series, but it would have been nice to check in on him a little more often every now and then to see how he's doing. He's an excellent example not just of the type of person Godai wants to help; not just of a different type of victim than Hiraku and Mika are; but also in my opinion... the type of person Godai easily could have become. It's just my personal reading into it, but the parallel between his realisations this episode and Rising Mighty's power are too vast to ignore for me. Quote:
Although we'll have to wait a bit to really find out what he's been up to lately, as after the opening, the other big plot thread for this one is established, as Pops admires the latest additions to his Unidentified Lifeform #4 scrapbook, featuring his fancy new gold versions. The purple one, the green one, the blue one, all looking shinier than ever! No red yet, though. This is another bit of structure the series did I really love. If you'll notice, the introductions of the Rising forms have gone in reverse order, gradually working their way back to Kuuga's main form, and I think that's super smart. It's like a countdown. Rising Mighty is a big deal. It has to be, and the show knows it.
Like, you know it's obviously not gonna stop at Rising Titan being his only upgraded form that he constantly uses... not that I'd terribly mind when it's that beautiful. So that little extra bit of anticipation is super nice. Quote:
Over at the university, Sakurako is still racking her brain over that whole "the sun will be buried in darkness" thing, but that's quickly interrupted by the arrival of Jean, who also happens to be bringing along another returning character. Turns out Mika's back for these ones too! She's in Tokyo to see Gouram, and of course Jean is all too happy to oblige, because he's cool that way. There's also confirmation here that Jean is aware that Yuusuke is Kuuga, having been told by Enokida offscreen at some point, continuing a trend of #4's identity being the very definition of an open secret. Jean also apparently hasn't been stopping by to see Gouram himself much, recently, a subject he seems pretty uncomfortable having brought up. Yet another plot point that'll take a second to wrap back around to, but for now I'll just say he probably wasn't going to that lab every day because he wanted to see Gouram that much.
So I have this really close friend who, when we were growing up, was absolutely convinced he HATED romance as a genre. He just despised it, couldn't stand to see it, and resolved to just have it as little as possible in his own stories he was writing. Fast forward to as of late, me and him both write quite a LOT of romance actually, and just can't get enough of it in stories like these between two characters that are just close. So, why is that? ... because the vast majority of romances me and him were coming across in fiction were ones that were incredibly forced. I'm sure anyone here could come up with a dozen examples. You're watching a cool action movie or an interesting series, and near the end, suddenly The Main Boy Character and The Main Girl Character suddenly kiss. They don't really have the best chemistry at all, it wasn't exactly led up to, but they're just kind of a couple now because I guess that's a prerequisite. It's a pretty common trope, for sloppy romances to be there just because people think there should be a romance with no real actual purpose behind it. Might seem a bit of a random thing to bring up in a Kuuga thread, but I bring it up because if romance was what they were going for between Enokida and Jean? If the two ended up as a couple? I really, really wouldn't mind! Their scenes together and the fact they talk to each other at all come completely out of circumstance, but in that wonderful Kuuga way where it's absolutely believable and doesn't feel contrived in the slightest. There's no real romantic implications at first, no character going "oh you two look so cute together!!!"; they just naturally develop and find out more about each other as any two characters would. It's maybe a bit early to start talking about this given it's hardly reached its apex, but Kuuga handles character chemistry in such a way where any two characters that are close would feel completely natural being either platonic or romantic! It just helps make it feel that much more legitimate and that much more grounded, and it's a lovely element of the season. There's no "two characters set up to be a couple", or "two characters set up to be friends". There's just two characters. Quote:
Oh, and I definitely want to mention this: That last post was actually my 2000th on this forum. Nowhere near as impressive as having 2000 skills, but a milestone nonetheless.
I mentioned right in the introduction that the stars lined up to make this thread happen, but I don't think I realized at the time just how true that would turn out to be. This year marks Kuuga's 20th anniversary, and I don't know how much better a birthday present it could've gotten for that occasion than an official western release with extremely high-quality English subtitles. I would've never guessed in a million years we'd get here, but it happened, and I am just... beyond happy about it. Indeed, I failed to see this coming so hard, I actually had an entire post written I was going to put up between episodes 26 and 27 about the absurdly huge amount of errors I had found from Midnight Crew Subs' releases just in the first half of the show. The number by episode 24 was over a hundred individual lines that were messed up in some way. This is why you haven't seen dialogue on any of the screencaps I've used. I was literally keeping track of this stuff the entire time, and then, not long after I finished putting together that post, that consisted largely of me walking through some of the "greatest" hits I'd come across in an effort to vent my frustrations, it all became completely irrelevant. The last paragraph had a line, that, no joke, read "it's my sincere hope this post becomes obsolete one day. Whether that be due to a newer, more thorough fansub, or even, dare I dream, an official English release that meets a professional standard, it doesn't matter that much." But that dream came true, and now, that post is so obsolete, I never even posted it. And that's awesome. While I've yet to watch a full episode, I've went and checked dozens and dozens of bad lines from MCS' translation to find, nearly every single time, they're fixed up perfectly. And as an even more pleasant surprise, the dialogue just plain reads great. Very natural and smooth without losing the meaning. Plus, the theme songs are translated to that same standard, so it's even better. There's basically no downside to this situation. Just like Shout's Sentai stuff, it's streaming for free on several different services, too, so it's just as cheap as piracy! The only thing to even consider being bummed about is that the Grongi language is rendered in English, but, as much I'm *firmly* on the side that believes it shouldn't be by default, there are legitimate arguments to be made in favor of handling it that way, and, I'm telling you, it's a total non-issue in the face of how good a job was done. Just think about the implications of complaining about it for a second. The biggest problem with the official Kuuga release is that they did too much work. Well, that, and being in a region where you still can't watch it officially, admittedly. Still! There has never, ever been a better time to watch Kuuga, whether you're new to the show or not, and if you doubt the people making this stuff happen have a real passion for what they're doing, just take a look at what clip TokuSHOUTsu's YouTube page chose to sell people on the show. You don't pick this one by accident! But given how good a job Tokushoutsu's done and given your glowing review of it, I'm now VERY interested in a Kuuga rewatch too! I don't think now's quite the time since it hasn't been that long since I finished Kuuga. After all, I finished it while Zi-O was just ending, and that was only... ... Only... 8 months ago...?! HUH???? Either way, you've really piqued my curiosity with your post here about bad translations and how much of a better job Shout's done. As a non-Japanese speaker who's only really picked up what Iwae means, your posts about translations and how different sub teams handled certain scenes are always a very interesting look to me into the translation process. Are you sure there's nothing you'd still want to post from that abandoned project? It'd be really interesting for me to see, especially if compared to Shout's work!
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Last edited by Kurona; 05-04-2020 at 03:13 PM.. |
05-04-2020, 05:02 PM | #158 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Wow, Kurona, you went as all out as I do on that one. Kudos!
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Often when there's some sort of all-forms-upgrade thing like with Wizard's Dragon Styles or Build's Hazard Forms, it's the main form that gets the treatment first (here, Flame and Rabbit/Tank). And I get why of course because it's the most effective way to show an upgrade, but the Rising forms making such a clearly big deal of Rising Mighty in building it up not just makes it exciting to get to what's obviously the most important one, but also makes it feel like a much bigger event -- and one that might have a few secrets waiting in store.
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So, why is that? ... because the vast majority of romances me and him were coming across in fiction were ones that were incredibly forced.
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There's no "two characters set up to be a couple", or "two characters set up to be friends". There's just two characters.
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Are you sure there's nothing you'd still want to post from that abandoned project? It'd be really interesting for me to see, especially if compared to Shout's work!
- So, first of all, extra context for that "over a hundred" statement. The exact number of errors was 123, and that's actually only from 13-24. For the Blu-Ray releases, MCS had completely brand new translations done by one of the people from Over-Time for 1-12, and as a result, those were pretty beautiful in their own right. And while I'm at praising what MCS was doing right with their newest versions, I honestly think the cypher for the Grongi language is the ideal way to handle it. That way it's mysterious without just looking unfinished, but also, for some reason, I feel like doing that would be considered "unprofessional" or something and I kind of get why Shout didn't go that route. - One of the errors I was going to single out, from episode 22, was the most upset I got at a single mistake. It's Enokida's mom talking to her over the phone about her broken promise to Sayuru. Enokida was supposed to help him make a little papercraft project thingy that came with some book. These are known as furoku in Japan, which loosely basically means a bonus thing included, but more literally means "appendix". Despite it being shown on screen right after, and the word itself referring very specifically to the appendices of things like books, and not the body part, MCS had this line as "He said you'd take him to get his appendix checked", which is both a weirdly mature thing for a small child to worry about, and also makes Enokida look ABSURDLY neglectful. Not to mention it goes on to be a plot point in its own right, with Jean buying that book, so screwing it up has long-term consequences. Shout's subs have the line in question as "You promised him you'd help him put together his little project", which more than adequately gets the point across, especially with furoku being a hard word to find a 1:1 equivalent for. - The runner up is from episode 26, where Sugita explains to Ichijou that they found objects resembling an owl's pellets in the victims got mangled by what I presume was the team at MCS not knowing what "pellet" meant in this context. Or at least I didn't know. Which is why it's helpful that Ichijou's response is a common trick for exposition on a term, where he gives the definition in the form of a question, asking if Sugita means the indigestible parts of food birds cough up. MCS just ran wild with that exchange, with Sugita saying nonsense about finding feathers in the victims (despite Buuro using a blowgun), and Ichijou asking if that's like when cholesterol clogs your arteries, which is just... ??? - The cop scenes in general were prone to errors like that due to the highly technical nature of the dialogue, which is one of the things I tried to stress in that post. When I single out moments like this, it probably makes it look like MCS was just awful at what they did, but on top of the huge chunks of episodes that are fine, I think Kuuga's dialogue is WAY more complex than the average tokusatsu series, so I also really feel for how much trouble it must've been. The thing to remember while I say all this from my armchair is that I'm a total amateur myself. Heck, I've literally never even studied Japanese in any formal manner, which is why I always feel super guilty picking on translations as though I have any authority on the subject. It takes a lot of dedication to try bringing a series to your fellow fans like that. In 20 years, they were literally the only group who stepped up to do Kuuga in its entirety, and as glad as I am we have something better now, they do deserve credit for that. I think that actually covers pretty much everything of value I would've said? There were like a half dozen other random errors I would've talked about, but it was mostly just poking fun at how dumb the police end up looking in their investigations, and that doesn't paint much more of a picture than I already have. Basically all the mistakes are the result of one problem, which is making assumptions. I'm mostly just still super happy none of this is worth worrying about anymore.
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05-04-2020, 05:35 PM | #159 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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I think that actually covers pretty much everything of value I would've said? There were like a half dozen other random errors I would've talked about, but it was mostly just poking fun at how dumb the police end up looking in their investigations, and that doesn't paint much more of a picture than I already have. Basically all the mistakes are the result of one problem, which is making assumptions. I'm mostly just still super happy none of this is worth worrying about anymore.
It's been very encouraging reading what you've had to say about Shout's work on Kuuga in general, especially as I recall reading that their Sentai work was not particularly good. If Kuuga's dialogue is as complex as you say and they've hit a home run with this one, I can only imagine how they'll do with other seasons! Hopefully by the time they reach my country, Shout'll have amassed a pretty nicely-sized library Now, how would they handle Gaim's Overlords...
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05-04-2020, 06:13 PM | #160 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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