That... wow. Wow! Thank you. That is a beyond generous thing to write. I'm not sure my brain is built to break down and process that much positivity directed at me, so I think I'm going to tear off little chunks (a couple sentences) to absorb over the next week. I want to portion it out.

Yeah, Inoue, right? I remember not liking his Kuuga's pretty much at all, and folks were like Oh No You Got Way More Inoue To Go, and I made a joke about him being my nemesis. Then Agito's actually really good? And his Ryuki fill-ins were mind-blowingly funny (Yui knocking over a bookcase, Kitaoka's silent Henshin)? And now Faiz? I'm not sure "nemesis" is appropriate, you know? Feels like a different connection he and I have.

I'm not sure how I want to approach Blade yet. I've got a tiny framework, something to give the episodes a little more context for people who haven't watched them in a while. I don't know. Part of me wants to make the posts shorter, punchier, but... that was what I wanted to do with Faiz, and that show was like Cool Cool Cool Here's Deep Themes And Fascinating Characters. We make plans and Kamen Rider shows laugh, is I think the expression.

(I do have a larger thing I want to do for Decade, a special project. We'll see how/if things line up for that. Probably something I won't talk about until Kiva.)

I think they just, at the core of the premise, created the right characters (the main seven kids) and cast the perfect actors for the roles. There's a lot of great thematic stuff going on, but none of that would matter if you weren't invested in Yuuji's morality, Kaido's theatricality, Yuka's loneliness, Keitaro's hopes, Kusaka's monstrousness, Mari's dedication, and Takumi's growth. And that's the stuff I think the show nailed. Everything else is gravy.

And I'm definitely going to get that Hibiki! But the Figuarts are my little trophies. The Figure-Rise kits I get all of, 'cause they're fun to build and pose. The Figuarts... they symbolize something to me? I don't know. It's probably dumb. I'm still an adult with a realistic budget, so some of these guys are going to be out of my reach. (Still haven't dropped the cash for Seihou Wizard, despite that being my favorite suit and a show I finished a year ago.)

Thanks so much for the amazing thread! To commemorate the end of this amazing journey, here are some funny Psyga bloopers! Pro-Rider Tip: Don't throw your henshin device as part of your henshin pose!

https://i.imgur.com/Ztja7MT.gif

https://i.imgur.com/nh0u9j1.gif

Really looking forward to Blade too! From what I remember, it starts off gratingly slow for the first 7 (?) or so episodes, but gets really good! Definitely one of my personal favorites as well!

Those are awesome! Thank you! I can't believe I've got a folder full of commercials, but not one blooper. Cancel TV-Nihon!

There must be a million regular Henshin bloopers, though. These actors have to do a series of precise motions, ending with locking a plastic prop into a specific holster, all without looking at it. That's tough! I have to think that, like, Shotaro's success rate for getting his Gaia Memory into his Driver on the first go was maybe 25%. Throwing it into the air increases the difficulty, but Henshins are hard!

I'm really looking forward to it! I think I've heard people mention the slow start before, but hopefully I won't feel it as much. Hopefully people'll have fun talking about it!

How about the difference of what's accepted and reviled character's flaws I talk about?

I prefer Inoue not working with any other writer, because there's a chance that he can (and already did) fuck up what's already established with his style. I forgot to talk about this, but the Faiz novel is something where Inoue goes unrestrained, and there's a moment too depraved, far more than Kusaka slapping Mari. And for humors (not only Inoue), I don't know if humor should be those assholes shamelessly putting others down? That jerk behaviour is considered funny so long as it's happening to someone else (and partly because you aren't affected; not putting themselves in their shoes); comedic sociopathy. As Mel Brooks put it: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die". And because of this there's a potential of people letting others do evil things to others for their amusement (comedy); I dislike jerks or villains shamelessly get away from their deeds, either from fandom or in-universe.

This movie, actually shows, if the bad guys actually win at the end. The reason why majority of species are all Orphnochs now. There are thousands of humans left, they're on verge of extinction. The reason why this wasn't in main series is obviosly, The Good Guys Always Win, while in this movie, The Bad Guy Wins, Smart Brain is nowhere near as successful in this movie.

Lol yeah, despite you liking the series, now you got a taste of the feelings of some fans about Faiz. The Yuji plot here yeah, the misunderstanding part that's got infuriating to others. Yuji was tricked and lied, just like what happened to him regarding Takumi in the main series. Though what makes it not Yuji's decision here? Both times Smart Brain had a hand in his turn, where in the series, Hanagata assigned him as a leader of Smart Brain, and here, Smart Lady tricked him. Turning evil is always a decision? Because if not, Yuji can not turning evil and probably tries to process the situation (Mari was publicly arrested and going to be executed! Contrary to a moment before where Mari was standing aside Murakami!). Other than that, yeah Orga (O"R"GA!) is my favorite suit for Faiz, though I'm not a fan of the circle in the head, I do know that it means to accompany the emperor feel of him (The emperor feel is the reason it's my favorite).

The fight is what I liked too for the movie, full on showdown with Orga overwhelming Faiz, then their Orphnoch form's scuffle (Yuji permanently being in Centaur mode, also no one noticed that Wolf Orphnoch here just knocked out Orga from transformation quickly?!), and finally Takumi turning it around with Blaster form. And as this is Faiz Blaster's debut, his showings are much more elaborate in this movie, where you got a full display of his kick, where (this reminds me of Knight's finishers in both form) it's the inverse of the base form's kick; in base form, the drill is created for Faiz to kick on, while in Blaster form, the kick itself creates spreading drills/shockwaves, which is useful as AoE too to drive away Elasmotherium Orphnoch from Mari. There's also a full sequence of his backpack transforming into Bloody Cannons. Orga's Exceed Charge is what I liked better than usual sword finishers including Sparkle Cut (the very one that finishes off Psyga), where it's actually different using huge sword (like Wizard Infinity), but with the way it done, the sword doesn't seem to be fully solid to me? A bit bummer of a nice idea. So the one that took the Orphnoch King role is Elasmotherium Orphnoch (killed Auto Vajin too)? He took 3 Exceed Charges to go down (Orga's, Faiz Blaster's Photon Cannon, and I guess the drills/shockwaves from Faiz Blaster's Super Strengthened Crimson Smash too?). Otherwise, for Takumi being an Orphnoch, reminding again that's the reason why Kamen Rider Faiz exists! Only Orphnochs can turn into one, in Faiz, Riders and monsters are mutual.

I wouldn't say "super fast" though, because there are a lengthy amount of time of their rocky start in the show, in inverse, a bit of a slow one to me.... And the ugly fact that for the show, The Ryusei School members are the closest to each other, including Mari (and Kusaka?) to them. Kusaka is used as a worf effect, a victim of Psyga, his death is just a show of power compared to the karmic retribution his series got. This is an actionized movie... other than Mari, there's also Keitaro, especially when he becomes Kaixa (like I said, normal humans can't be a Rider, obviously Takumi has to be something else like an Orphnoch, and Keitaro was made super too), and Yuji/YuKaido donning an action gear from others. I mean, everyone's on one group now of Human Liberation Army, due to Orphnochs/Smart Brain winning. Human Liberation Army however has 1 villain which is Mizuhara, which unfortinately costs the group when Yuji kills him, and made for another bad ending (the group left Mari). Psyga is the speedy one to fight Faiz Axel. While Orga is a mighty glacier, he has the best defensive and offense output of all the five Rider gears and even Faiz Axel, but it is extremely slow, being unable to keep up with any of Faiz's forms, it's much slower than Kaixa and it's powerful armor is more weighted than the rest. Other than that, Leo is a much more mature Kitazaki, having the same depravity being one of the most rotten people in the series, but without the childish/teen-ish enthusiasm of Kitazaki. He's better at hiding his impulses than Kitazaki. Also Leo's actor Peter Ho isn't a Japanese, he's an American born raised in Taiwan and Canada, by that the movie made him stick to English, the only Rider who speaks primarily English.

So here I got to see Kaido's reaction to a dying Yuka, which iirc, he never got to know in the main series. I don't ever understand why Orphnochs choose to turn into Riotroopers, fodder Riders. They probably could've fared better in their Orphnoch form. Also the old lady pictured above is Sanako Kanzaki. And Mina is also a girl in ep. 49 of Ryuki.

I don't know why Inoue got a flak then, 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. Those are things that are memorable on internet especially as memes.

I don't know that I completely caught that? Sorry!

In general, folks are going to want different things out of stories they follow. A trait that I hate might be one they love, and vice versa. Like, I think Takumi's early standoffishness is both funny and worth exploring, but for other people it might be a reason to quit watching. It's art It's all very subjective!

Yeah, I think that's a fair line to draw? It's not a version of humor I've really seen on Kamen Rider, to my knowledge. Most humor is of the gentle-ribbing type (think Sento and Banjou in Build), but sometimes a show will push it farther. You might get a villain whose cruelty is so unreal that it becomes ludicrous, but that's maybe not intentional so much as it's a failing in storytelling. I don't think Kamen Rider is a franchise that wants to tell stories where truly bad people make fun of truly good people?

What I really liked it about was the specific way the villains won. We've seen (or will see, rather) movies where Shocker takes over the world, and it's a misery for everyone. It's fascism as its own reward; a boot stepping on a human face, forever.

In this one, it's more a loss of cultural primacy, a loss of wielding control over society. Things seem pretty great for the average Orphnoch? They don't seem to want more than to enjoy each other's company, maybe have an iced coffee in the afternoon. There's a... banality to it that I thought was very unique.

It's that in the series, his decision was grounded in reality, where in the movie, his decision was grounded in a lie.

In the show, the humans betrayed Yuuji and murdered Yuka. That shit happened, and Yuuji dealt with it badly. He bears some blame for what happened next. In the movie, it's all a misunderstanding, so it doesn't feel like Yuuji's at fault. He's a victim, and that makes his actions feel less impactful.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/oga.png

Take it up with TV-Nihon! I'm just a guy watching a TV show!

Yeah... that's one of their translation/romanization choices that I don't agree with. From what I remember from a thread I posted in in 2012, they decided to go with Oga as it shares the katakana with Ogre, "オーガ".

However, English words that corresponded to the katakana "オーガ" (that began with an o) also include organize (and derivatives like organization and organizer), orgasm, organic, etc...

It's interesting to note that almost all the English words that "オーガ" romanize to are words that are spelled with an 'r' to represent the long vowel in English.

Technically, while Oga isn't an incorrect romanization, officially, the English name for the character is Kamen Rider Orga. Whoever was in charge just took the most common spelling representation of the long vowel 'オー' in English, this being 'or', hence Orga.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...702_163245.jpg

So I found this video a couple days ago, and please direct your attention to Kaxia.

I think older TV-N releases of Paradise Lost actually did have it as Orga.

I think both that and "Oga" are wrong, although the latter is better.

The name is almost certainly derived from the word 王 (ou), meaning "ruler", and of course, Omega, which, in my book, would make "Ohga" the most logical choice, given that "Oh" is how we typically write Sentai robo names that use the "____-Oh" format. Toei can spell it with an "r" if they want, but as long as they're still spelling the gold in Gold Drive with one too, I don't have to listen to them.

I come from a fandom that spent decades trying to figure out the English name of one of the major Japanese-only villains, so this debate is both frustrating and familiar. Fandoms! We do it to ourselves!

Ha ha ha CRUEL.

That's not even the worst example from that franchise! At least Ohga has a clear etymology, is what I'm saying!