Randomness for Gaim(u)
 

Yes, it's Gaim. But I'm still calling it Gaimu. Cause I can :lol

First off, I'm looking forward to this series. But some thoughts came to me. We know from an interveiw that the writer, Gen Urobuchi, That this will be a more serious Rider. Like Faiz, Kuuga, or (I hope) Hibiki. But the designs of nearly everything are off the wall on a near Fourze and Wizard level. I'm worried about how that might mesh. You're going to have a serious Rider, with dark and engaging storylines, that Henshin's with a giant piece of fruit smashing into his melon?
I have faith in Gen. And I have hopes for this series. Just.. a little confused :lol

It's possible. Design cues and themes don't determine the quality or seriousness of the writing.

Besides. They got toys to sell.

Very true. And I think I'm worried over nothing. I just really want Gaim(u) to work.

There is something that you have to worry about, and that's the series taking itself too seriously.
There's nothing wrong with Kamen Rider being serious, dark, and mature, but there does have to be a certain level of give you need, considering the main theme is still "Pretty boy transforms into masked superhero through dramatic posing." If Gaim forces its darker themes rather than letting them naturally occur, then it runs risk of taking itself too seriously.

Which could actually happen. If they try and go to far to counter-act transorming fruits.

That's what I'm afraid of most, actually.

We can only hope, Matrix. Gen seems like he's pretty on the ball.

I suspect that the show is basically going to be like "Shabadoobie" but dialed up to eleven. You know, how Wizard will get really serious and dramatic, then the belt starts singing "shabadoobie touch to henshin!" over the dramatic score. I think we're going to look back on that and fondly remember it as a time when Rider blurred dramatic storytelling and goofy marketing with relative smoothness.

I don't think it'll be that bad. This belt doesn't talk, just makes a swoosh noise when the lock is sliced open.

But it still results in a giant banana fall from the sky and turning into a dude's shoulder-pads. There's very little chance that's not going to look ridiculous.

It's rather funny that Wizard has been trying to cut back on Shabadoobies and Lupacchis :p
Perhaps the same will occur with Gaim, and rather than show a banana falling from the sky, it'll just do that *Cut away, flash of light, transformed off screen* thing.

I hope not. But probally.. OOO did that alot, and so did Fourze.

That's because they both had lengthy transformations. I don't think Wizard has resorted to it, but it has skipped Shabadoobie on some occasions.

I kinda assumed that the goofiness of the heroes was on purpose. In my personal, humble opinion, serious 'mature, gritty' Rider doesn't work. It doesn't work because toku in its inherent cheapness, is silly as fuck, and you play all that rubber, spandex and posing straight and what you get is something laugh out loud hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

In my opinion, about the only way to make it work, is to both have your edgy dark story but also embrace this genre for all of its warts and problems at the same time. I actually think if Gaim wants to succeed in making Rider 'for adults again' cranking up the toku clichés to eleven was the single best decision they ever made.

This, and what Matrixbeast said, are basically my feelings on this.

One of the reasons I can't stand Agito is because of how ridiculously straight-faced it it despite the giant freaking zipper on his back. I liked Ryuki better because it was serious, but rarely the "can you tell we're trying to be ARTISTIC!" levels of Agito.

Maturity cannot be forced. It comes naturally. That's why the best rider shows start of kinda shaky. You can't play the serious card too early or you risk making an even bigger fool of yourself. There's little of Gaim, from what we've seen, that I don't like. Granted we've seen little, but it doesn't look too goofy or serious. I'm really hoping the years of rider shows have Toei savvy to the formula. I don't want goofball and "my parents are dead" clashing in the same scene.

I'm actually rather afraid of Agito, now. I hate a series that takes things way too seriously...

As for Gaim, as long as it doesn't have a cast as ridiculous as Den-O but forces it's stories to be Ryuki levels of serious, then it should be fine.

It does have alot in Common with Ryuki already.

It's written by Gen Urobuchi so I think we'll be fine.

I'm pretty sure that's what a lot of people said about Frank Miller when it was announced that he'd be writing All-Star Batman and Robin.

... Why you gotta go there?

The difference is that Frank Miller never knew how to write Batman. His popularity during his first run stemmed from how different his approach was compared to previous writers.

Cause he's the goddamn KRX!

I'm sorry... I need to take a shower...

Because this fruit platter needed a healthy dosage of salt.

:lolol

I thought The Dark Knight Returns was okay. I only saw the movies, but they were fine. I think "Chill of the Night!" captured the character of Batman a lot better, though.

The difference is that Frank Miller is fucking insane.

I'm pretty sure that is a really, really weak comparrison, as you could also apply that saying to any writer who does understand Batman and consistently writes him well and gets people excited when they return to the character.

I love you./Patrick

Give this man a cigar.

It gets terrifying when you realise Batman is the charatcer Frank Miller writes best. When he gets his hands on Superman, Robin, Black Canary, or God forbid, Wonder Woman, the results are even worse.

Frank Miller is an atrocious writer, and has been for a while.

I think you get the point I was trying to make. That was just the first comparison that popped into my head.

Without delving into the politics of it, I already knew that. But I have heard good things about his run on Daredevil.

Really though, the main thing to take away from all this, is we have so far about thirty seconds of Gaim footage and lots of images of their costumes and that is as much as we have of the show.

For all we know a child could die in the opening ten seconds, or in the opening ten seconds an orange samurai teaches us our abcs, trying to make any opinion on this show at all right now on the nothing we have is worthless exercise.

That's probably because Marvel restrains him.

That's fair enough, but speculation is still fun.

That came off harsher than intended, I apologise.

I just mean like, look at this thread, we had like five on topic posts and have been talking about Frank Miller for the last twelve hours. That shows how much nothing we really have to discuss so far.

To be fair, the Frank Miller discussion was initially just used as a grain of salt.

But that's what I'm saying. You can say that about tons of writers that are still good at what they write. Hell, people lost their shit in excitement when news hit that James Roberts would do an ongoing, and sure enough his ongoing is spectacular.

You're mistaking speculation and observation for opinions.

Saying "it looks good so far" is not the same as saying "this show WILL be awesome and STAY awesome for all time." You keep trying to make it out like everyone's going to eat crow if the show isn't good, but nobody is making claims or forming opinions yet, just guessing.

It's just casual observation and saying "oh hey the head writer has done really good stuff before" or "the suits look great."

Wonder how Gen Orobuchi originally had in mind for Gaim, since the rider's design was never really planned by him.

Imagine Den-O as the main character of Kamen Rider Ryuki....that......is......

Yeah opinion was the wrong word, I meant speculation, my bad. Long shift, it was late.