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12-19-2020, 04:20 PM | #261 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Kagami's problem seems to be a continuation of his personal development arc from Episode 4 and 10. Tendo wants him to be more independent and make the difficult decisions and now that Kagami is committed to being Tendo's friend over The Bee, he wants to prove himself worthy of that friendship and that he's not just using Tendo as a safety net for his potential failures as a flawed human being.
I never ever want one of these posts to just be me saying This Was A Satisfactory Episode Of Kamen Rider, but, like, sometimes that's all they are? This one in particular, the way it jettisons the usual ZECT bureaucracy (short a cryptic comment from Kagami's dad and Tadokoro getting chewed out) for a story about a small group of friends/"friends" trying to stop a series of monster attacks, I mean... that is a super generic/basic/stock/less-pejorative Kamen Rider setup! They even lay out their strategy in the cafe! The characters make it pop, but the setup could've been in nearly any other show. (Like, this story is already 90% a Faiz story, just switch Kagami with Keitaro and the other Kabuto characters with pretty much exactly who you think.) Without all of those Kabuto specifics, and without Hiyori having a prominent role, it's a very difficult episode to find stuff in.
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12-19-2020, 04:40 PM | #262 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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I know there were other words in that post but these ones kinda seem the most critical to me when it comes to explaining our troubles here. It's like, without her, what's even worth talking about from this show?!
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12-19-2020, 05:06 PM | #263 |
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You probably won’t be too keen on the first few post-movie episodes then. The actress playing Hiyori got sick while making the movie and had to take several episodes off to recover.
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12-19-2020, 09:25 PM | #264 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 16
Do you know how badly I want this post to just be me talking about Hiyori and Gon? And the adventures I have already crafted for them in my head? (They definitely run a bowling alley in one.) There's almost nothing to their scene in this one, but it's a joke that is so perfect that I can't stop thinking about it. It's Hiyori at a produce vendor, trying to buy fruit. But she can't, y'know, communicate, so she's just ineffectually pointing at an orange, while the frustrated vendor tries to get her to enunciate her request. And then Gon walks up, displays the orange, and Hiyori does the Daisuke thing of Yes Yes That That. It killed me. It's such a simple thing, but it's simultaneously adorable (Hiyori!), heartwarming (Gon!), and 100% on-topic for one of this episode's themes: we never really achieve anything alone. As a theme, it's one that filters through this episode without really coming together until the end. Kagami is still looking for the solo success that'll renew his confidence, and it's made elusive by how insane this episode's plot is. (Tendou goes double-undercover, so, yeah, still an Inoue episode.) He gets a hand from Misaki and Daisuke in the beginning, as we recap the details of last time. He gets a hand from Tendou in the middle, as the two of them expose which Drunk Doctor is the Worm. (...which requires Kagami to act as bait, so Tendou's sort of pushing it in this one.) And then at the end, as Kagami finishes off one of the Worms, he gets invisible Clock Up help from Tendou to make sure he gets his victory. Continuing on from last episode's conflict of how best to help a friend, Tendou basically splits the difference between his and Misaki's previous approaches. In the hospital, he goes with Misaki's approach: he makes sure that Kagami is aware of their partnership, and asks for his trust that this will help expose the Worm. It lets Kagami feel like his contribution matters, that he can depend on Tendou to support him. But during the battle with the Worms at the end, Tendou does it his way: a tiny bit of secret help, and letting Kagami feel like he has value. It's a very pleasant view of the specific way Tendou can be a friend to Kagami. The other theme for this episode is one that fits alongside We Never Really Achieve Anything Alone, and it's probably the bigger point in this installment. It's that you should always go into partnerships with your eyes open. Drunk Doctor throws in with a group of Worms, hoping that he can use their mimicry to save more lives, but eventually they just want to kill him. Tendou joins ZECT to help expose the Worms, but is fully aware that they can't be trusted. There's this feeling in both scenarios that partnering up with any organization... like, you can't expect them to care about you. Drunk Doctor thinks these Worms are on his side, believe in what he believes in, but they never did. They worked with him for mutual benefit (he got to save lives, they got to hide and murder), but once that benefit came to an end, he was dead meat. The thing is, though, you can make use of organizational strength. (On a micro level, the team of Tendou, Kagami, Daisuke, and Misaki do a pretty great job this episode!) This isn't a story about how you should never work with anyone. (It's the opposite of that!) But it's suggesting that a lot of the problems of Drunk Doctor and Kagami are that they put their faith in an organization, and the organization took advantage of that faith. Meanwhile, Tendou made sure that he was getting what he needed from ZECT without making himself vulnerable, so he couldn't be taken advantage of. It's a pretty nuanced take on work-for-hire, where it's not cast as good or bad, just as something you should be careful with. So, yeah, fun story about protecting yourself in partnerships, but who cares: HIYORI AND GON HUNG OUT ON A PLAYGROUND A++++++ A QUESTION One of my favorite beats in the episode is, unsurprisingly, from that scene of Hiyori and Gon hanging out on a playground. When Hiyori asks where Daisuke is, Gon says that they both needed some time apart, and the implication is that Daisuke Is Kind Of A Lot. It makes sense that Gon might need some time here and there to go have her own adventures, ones that aren't built around putting women on pedestals or grudgingly fighting monsters. Assuming, like Gon, you lived in a world where you could actually go do things, what's something you regularly do outside to have fun by yourself? I certainly hope one of them is to help socially-awkward strangers get the fruit they need!
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12-20-2020, 03:19 AM | #265 |
I have a problematic type
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Yeah, this one didn't work that well for me. I think the main issue was that it crossed the line with Tendou.
Tendou is a tricky character to work with. Being an arrogant prick is very much central to his nature and that's a hard trait to build your show's main character around. It's really easy to take it too far and make the character turn obnoxious. I think Kabuto generally does a good job of avoiding that, but I feel like this episode took Tendou too far. Strolling into ZECT and getting put in command of Shadow, waltzing into a hospital and get trusted to perform surgery, the whole "I'm the greatest human alive" bit. It went too far. I usually love Tendou when he's being a troll, but this episode just went overboard in a way that I found more annoying than amusing. |
12-20-2020, 03:41 AM | #266 |
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Yeah, it might’ve been this episode I read that comment on.
Anyway, the reason this episode is arguably important in later Rider media? While Not!Goro or as I know him, NotYet!Bando, only turns into TheBee in this episode, the RiderWiki considers him to have been in the suit in every later appearance of the suit after Kabuto, even though all of them are in situations where it could be ANYONE for different reasons Decade: Alternate universes That OOO anniversary movie: An alternate timeline Chou Super Hero Taisen, on a screen as part of Team Insect (with Wild Chalice, Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger’s KuwagaRaiger, Kamen Rider V3 and Mahou Sentai Magiranger’s MagiPink: The game world has multiple versions of the same character appear (OOO is on the Blue Rider, Flying and High Speed teams in different combos), so there’s really no reason it can’t be anyone else. Especially since he doesn’t actually appear on screen. |
12-20-2020, 07:14 AM | #267 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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I feel a lot more comfortable with the concept of a huge stretch of episodes by Inoue after this one. His wild vision for the show hasn't totally been gelling with me yet, but this episode, it felt way more satisfying despite being much the same wacky antics with a somewhat clever yet thin dramatic thrust. Maybe it's just the insane amount of stuff going on. Definitely plenty to talk about this time! I feel like I learned so much this episode. I mean, I learned that ZECT's management is even more questionable than previously thought, and yet I also respect them way more now. Sure, the idea they would make this Soujirou Tendouji guy the leader of their most elite combat team within a week of him signing up is absurd... but are they really wrong about him having the skills for the job? I'm not even going to complain about Tendou's apparent fake identity fooling them, because the way this place is run, I'd believe it if you told me they knew he was lying and just didn't care. That man gets results, and results are all ZECT cares about! Tendou in this one totally worked for me, and I appreciate the show being willing to concede that he wouldn't have been able to pose as a doctor without the backing of ZECT. For whatever reason, it's way harder to believe a hospital being so easily fooled than it is a highly clandestine organization. It doesn't make much sense, I know, but it makes enough sense for Kabuto, and that's what counts. Oh, and speaking of the management, I learned that Mishima would kill it in a slam dunk contest, but settles for merely using those mad hops to metaphorically dunk on Kageyama instead, totally showing him up as TheBee. This episode is one big chain of embarrassment for Kageyama, and every moment of that was one of my favorites from the whole episode. He's completely ineffectual the entire time, and so petty that when he came randomly charging towards Daisuke in the middle of the episode, I honestly expected him to just stick his arm out and clothesline the guy without stopping. But no, instead it's part of a ruse to pit Tendou(ji) against Daisuke, a plan that fails so hard Kageyama is doing dishes two minutes later. And he's bad enough at it that Kagami gets to pile on to the nonstop humiliation. It is, by far, the best use this show has had for Kageyama yet. He's just not intimidating enough to be taken seriously as a threat, so having him be this wannabe schemer with ambitions that far outstrip his abilities, I thought it was a much more natural fit for the guy. Finally, and most importantly, I learned that Inoue can in fact write good scenes with Hiyori! Which I also would've been happy to talk about for the entire post! I wasn't too sure he could pull it off for a bit there, but, simple as it is, Hiyori asking for an orange too quietly, and then getting talked over when she repeats herself even more quietly a millisecond too late for the much more tense person she's talking to, that is everything I love about Hiyori packed into like five seconds. That's all I need, and on top of that, there's the whole scene with Gon. I know Die did the A+ thing as a joke, but man, you would not believe how much a little bit like this can elevate everything around it.
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12-20-2020, 10:58 AM | #268 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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(But, yeah, he's way more controlling and manipulative in this story, which is not what you usually do with a heroic character. Tendou's got that Sherlock Holmes thing, where he's brilliant and reliable, but you wish he didn't have to be such a dick about it.) Quote:
Anyway, the reason this episode is arguably important in later Rider media? While Not!Goro or as I know him, NotYet!Bando, only turns into TheBee in this episode, the RiderWiki considers him to have been in the suit in every later appearance of the suit after Kabuto, even though all of them are in situations where it could be ANYONE for different reasons
Quote:
Anyway, it was so good of a post that it reminded me of two things I wanted to talk about, and sort of forgot to when I was writing. The first was something I was thinking about way back in the first Kabuto episode Inoue wrote. There's a scene where Misaki is asking Tendou to join ZECT, and all I could think was Oh God Misaki No You Do Not Want That. I thought, at the time, that if Tendou joined ZECT, he'd be running that place in a week. Well, he was running Shadow within a day, so maybe that timeline was too long? It's such a Tendou thing, the way all systems bend themselves to his will. It totally tracks that Tendou would be a high-ranking ZECT member basically midway through his initial interview. The other thing was that all of that stuff with Kageyama getting humiliated... it's all a Tendou plan? And it might actually be two Tendou plans? Any time Tendou does anything weird in a Kabuto plot, or anything that looks sloppy or like someone's getting over on him, I think of it like a heist movie. There's a giant plan, and the plan calls for these weird things or apparent failures to happen. So Kageyama's scheme, that's not an accident. It's something, I think, that Tendou designed. He's going out of his way to tease and provoke Kageyama, and I think he knows that Kageyama will eventually try to get Daisuke to bump him off. (Kageyama's a schemer, and he hates getting his hands dirty. Better for his two rivals to take each other out.) So he maneuvers Kageyama into action by humiliating him, and then neutralizes it by acting ashamed and accommodating. (Inoue could not have hung a bigger flashing than having Tendou apologize to Daisuke!) But why provoke Kageyama? Why allow Daisuke to even briefly think Tendou was out to get him? So, the short-term reason was revenge for Kagami. Forcing Kageyama to do Kagami's work, making Kageyama's punishment happen right in front of Kagami, that's not by accident! This is a gift from Tendou, to Kagami. The longer-term reason is that it refocuses Daisuke's animosity away from the reasonable, accommodating Tendou, and onto the duplicitous, untrustworthy ZECT. (Which works great, considering how tight the Kabuto/ShootHopper teamwork is at the end of the episode.) I mean, that's why Tendou left, Daisuke! Those guys couldn't be trusted! Tendou's not your enemy! So, yeah, real fan of how much of a puppet-master Tendou is in this one.
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12-20-2020, 12:07 PM | #269 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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Again, always happy to help! I mean, not having to do things alone was even a theme in these episodes.
Quote:
The other thing was that all of that stuff with Kageyama getting humiliated... it's all a Tendou plan? And it might actually be two Tendou plans?
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12-20-2020, 09:04 PM | #270 |
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KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 16
It’s Hiyori at a produce vendor, trying to buy fruit. But she can’t, y’know, communicate, so she’s just ineffectually pointing at an orange, while the frustrated vendor tries to get her to enunciate her request. And then Gon walks up, displays the orange, and Hiyori does the Daisuke thing of Yes Yes That That. It killed me. It’s such a simple thing, but it’s simultaneously adorable (Hiyori!), heartwarming (Gon!), and 100% on-topic for one of this episode’s themes: we never really achieve anything alone. Quote:
At least, that Kagami is used as a bait, again, if Tendou's someone that berates Kageyama for doing the same and takes pride in it, and also had him in his mercy here by controlling him as his subordinate and forcing him to apologize for his misdeeds, he at least had to show that he's not a hypocrite, by at least giving Kagami credit to make him feel worthy to be alive, even if it's a fake one where it's actually Kabuto killing a Worm yet again. And about the theme, it's more that we never really achieve anything alone... except if you're Tendou. Quote:
The thing is, though, you can make use of organizational strength. (On a micro level, the team of Tendou, Kagami, Daisuke, and Misaki do a pretty great job this episode!) This isn’t a story about how you should never work with anyone. (It’s the opposite of that!) But it’s suggesting that a lot of the problems of Drunk Doctor and Kagami are that they put their faith in an organization, and the organization took advantage of that faith. Meanwhile, Tendou made sure that he was getting what he needed from ZECT without making himself vulnerable, so he couldn’t be taken advantage of. It’s a pretty nuanced take on work-for-hire, where it’s not cast as good or bad, just as something you should be careful with.
Quote:
A QUESTION
One of my favorite beats in the episode is, unsurprisingly, from that scene of Hiyori and Gon hanging out on a playground. When Hiyori asks where Daisuke is, Gon says that they both needed some time apart, and the implication is that Daisuke Is Kind Of A Lot. It makes sense that Gon might need some time here and there to go have her own adventures, ones that aren’t built around putting women on pedestals or grudgingly fighting monsters. Assuming, like Gon, you lived in a world where you could actually go do things, what’s something you regularly do outside to have fun by yourself? I certainly hope one of them is to help socially-awkward strangers get the fruit they need! Quote:
Yeah, this one didn't work that well for me. I think the main issue was that it crossed the line with Tendou.
Tendou is a tricky character to work with. Being an arrogant prick is very much central to his nature and that's a hard trait to build your show's main character around. It's really easy to take it too far and make the character turn obnoxious. I think Kabuto generally does a good job of avoiding that, but I feel like this episode took Tendou too far. Strolling into ZECT and getting put in command of Shadow, waltzing into a hospital and get trusted to perform surgery, the whole "I'm the greatest human alive" bit. It went too far. I usually love Tendou when he's being a troll, but this episode just went overboard in a way that I found more annoying than amusing.
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