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05-06-2022, 06:50 PM | #971 |
Kaiju or Hero?
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Even I Don't Know Anymore.
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Anyway, the most genius idea here being that the Another Rider here is Another Zi-O II, the monster actually got an upgrade! I strangely enjoy that detail. I also find it interesting how Sougo is now everyone's enemy, even his uncle's in this world, which reminds me of Tsukasa after he accepted his role as the Destroyer of Worlds, which makes him siding with Sougo quite fitting. It really is the bleakest of timelines when all of your friends now view you as an enemy, and never met you in the first place, and your archnemesis is king of the world with your butler in tow, and has your evil future self's statue set memorabilia in his home. Last edited by Daikaijuman54; 05-06-2022 at 06:54 PM.. |
05-06-2022, 07:48 PM | #972 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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I mean, I definitely still find it somewhat silly that we had a plot thread in this show where Oma Zi-O tells Sougo to collect Watches to become Oma Zi-O and Sougo somehow interpreted that as "collect Watches to NOT become Oma Zi-O", but hey, that got us some of the best episodes of the series, so why bother complaining?
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Something I noted at the time that I still agree with is that what specifically disappointed me about Grand here is that in its debut, it was doing something extremely specific -- it wasn't just summoning Riders, it was summoning moments in time, using the full force of a Rider's finisher or what have you when they were beating up a villain. This made it extremely cool and distinguished it from other summoners, was a great visual flair and easter egg hunt, and allowed as well for funny moments like the Momotaros gag. But here... it's just normal summons, which makes Grand just feel like a glorified Diend with nothing more special to him other than that I guess he can also summon their swords. It's not like they don't try to do cool things with the summons, and they do succeed in some places; but it's such a derailment from what Grand initially seemed to be.
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05-06-2022, 10:21 PM | #973 |
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Join Date: Aug 2019
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KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 42 - “2019 - MISSING WORLD”
It’s sort of interesting how small and personal this story ended up being. We’re in a Darkest Timeline story, where the whole world is changed, but this entire story is about how the bond that Sougo formed with his friends is because of their own innate qualities. It can be obscured, or severed, but it can’t be erased. We’ve got a villain who’s taken over the world and vowed to crush our heroes, but this story just wants to focus on the warmth of friendship. I like it, even if there’s a whiff of a missed opportunity in this installment. Hiryuu’s plan is just to destroy/humiliate (it sort of depends on the scene) Sougo, so we never really get a sense of what this new world has to offer. Like, even in the endless supply of films where Shocker took over the world, there’d be some weirdo detail that added to the experience. Cart racing, or whistles, or whatever. Here, it’s barely even implied. I guess the Another Riders are attacking people? And I guess Hiryuu is the king because of that? The specifics of the world lack even the saturated filters that hint at the ecological ruin of the Misery Fields of 2068, lending everything a sort of shrug of menace. It’s the Darkest Timeline because Sougo’s lost his friends, and that’s about it. But that’s a good story to tell? It’s nearly on the level of a clip show, the way it sort of races through the Geiz/Sougo story. It touches on Sougo’s other friendships, but it’s basically dedicated to exploring his friendship with Geiz by recounting their crazy journey from adversaries to uneasy allies to friends. Tsukuyomi’s friendship was always an empathetic pragmatism: befriending Sougo was a way to alter his destiny, help build a lonely boy into a powerful hero. Woz’z friendship was first and foremost a dedication to a regent; as soon as the title of Overlord changed hands, Woz’z loyalty (if not his admiration) went with it. But Geiz’z friendship was like pulling teeth. It was earned through months of fighting, both at each other’s sides and at each other’s throats. Getting Geiz to be Sougo’s friend in just a few scenes is, maybe, the most difficult quest of Sougo’s life. This is one of those episodes that kind of lives or dies by one scene. It’s not a big reveal or huge debut. It’s not a Legend Rider thing. It’s not even a big, melodramatic showcase for an actor. It’s, like this whole episode, resolutely low-key and intimate. We get a nice scene where a perplexed Geiz wants to know what he was like in the previous timeline, and how he ever ended up being friends with a kid who wanted to be a time-conquering overlord. The details are… I mean, they’re just details. Even describing the scene sort of robs of its magic. But if you’ve been watching this show for 41 episodes, it feels like a reward. There’s nothing to it, other than Sougo cheerfully telling Geiz that they were friends, and Geiz slowly coming around to the idea. It’s just a really warm scene, a fun encapsulation of this weird dynamic that’s powered a whole series. I don’t know if this show works without you buying Geiz and Sougo as friends? I feel like that’s a pretty crucial buy-in. This isn’t a series designed by its central pairing, like a Build or a W or an OOO. But the ability for Sougo to win over his own executioner, to instill a sense of optimism and faith in a pessimistic grump, that’s a plot that connects all of these other stories. It asks the viewer to give less weight to a fearful future than a happy present, and that’s such a fun message for a show like this to slowly spin up. So, yeah, the Geiz/Sougo stuff was a big win for me, despite the, like, plot being so threadbare yet cluttered. It’s a lot of things happening, but nothing really moving forward. Nice to see Diend, even if Stopping Time To Swipe A Ridewatch doesn’t seem like the sort of task that would’ve been beyond the Time Jackers more generally. And Decade’s in this, leading to my favorite Zi-O gag in forever: It’s a fun enough episode, even if it’s really just on the back of some funny jokes and a home run of a Sougo/Geiz plot. Two parts in on this story of Team Zi-O’s dynamic being tested and, while I like the concept, it’s not a group of episodes that feel like it’s doing more than an in-series version of fan service. I like Geiz and Sougo! But that’s not new information!
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05-06-2022, 10:28 PM | #974 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,399
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05-06-2022, 10:31 PM | #975 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Tsukasa and Kaitou are both making gigantic messes in this story, which -- as a Kamen Rider Decade fan -- is something I found utterly delightful.
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05-06-2022, 10:38 PM | #976 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
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Rip Kabuto not mentioned in the duo rider series (also den-o)
Edir: also drive
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Last edited by Deepsea; 05-06-2022 at 10:41 PM.. |
05-06-2022, 10:44 PM | #977 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,570
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We're in the middle and really you honestly nailed the most important part of this episode aside from the confirmation at the very end of Tsukuyomi and Swartz' relationship. This is very much a Sougo and Geiz sort of episode.
I also like that scene where the Another Riders are chasing after Tsukuyomi after she rounds a corner, and Another Build clearly trips and fumbles and that was not supposed to happen but manages to keep going. Like even Another Kabuto pauses for a moment. That and the small gags with Tsukasa, what with the Magenta not Pink line, and him just stuffing his army helmet with bread alongside the moment where he just points a real gun at Hiryu. Solid stuff. Next time for BGM Swaps and we've... got the same deal as last time! So not much to go into aside from posting the video. Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 43 Preview: |
05-06-2022, 10:44 PM | #978 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Location: Chicago, IL
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I mean, nearly every Heisei show has a strong central partnership, sure. Godai and Ichijo, Takumi and Yuji, Hajime and Bench. It's just that those shows don't make the partnership as central as other shows that are more explicitly about two characters throughout the show, to the exclusion of other characters. Many shows have good pairings! But most shows aren't front-to-back about just those pairings.
(Den-O... man, maybe, but the Den-Liner crew is so central to the series.)
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05-06-2022, 10:48 PM | #979 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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VERY SOLID STUFF!
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05-06-2022, 11:33 PM | #980 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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Yeah! You happend to pin down exactly what it is that I liked most about this episode, and its that one conversation on that rooftop.
So there's two scenes between the two in this episode. Early in the episode where Sougo is pleading to Geiz Revive instead of fighting back. This one's a little eh to me and I feel bad for saying that, because it is a rather sad scene of Sougo risking getting killed instead of fighting his friend. However, he already had it explained to him that Geiz doesn't remember any of the stuff he's talking about and that there's a villain responsible for affecting everyone's memories. I hate to call a scene 'bad' just because a character is following their heart instead of logic (which is so often the case with Sougo) but I guess this scene's emotion didn't quite manage to land for me. What did definitely land was the later scene, with Geiz asking about how he and Sougo could be friends, and Sougo happily telling him about their bizarre up-and-downs! I really, really liked it. The piano version of Over-Quartzer playing, Sougo happy when Geiz gets grumpy with him in that classic fasion, and Geiz can't help but be charmed as well. (Sorry to rob the scene of its magic...!) It's so good, and it makes me think that this show doesn't have nearly enough scenes of these two, or its main characters in general, just having these low-key conversations without involving plot machinations or whatever stakes are going on. I honestly do believe that, at least in concept if not in execution, that the dynamic of Sougo and Geiz is as central to this show as say Sento and Banjou is to Build, but its just that Zi-O goes about it in a different way. There were like twenty different scenes in Build where Sento and Banjo boost one another up by demonstrating their perfect understanding of each other. And I liked just about all of them! In comparison, Sougo and Geiz's building relation is significantly more gradual and understated, which makes sense since there was/is that looming threat of Sougo becoming Oma Zi-O looming over them. And it was only in the most critical moments where you may doubt whether they're really friends at all, like in episodes 16 and 28, does it all come bursting out in full force. While I might have liked more conventinal scenes between the main duo like you might see in Build, I also really liked how the show, intentionally or not, made this more subtle dynamic between them, and I think made those critical moments all the more powerful. |
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