I only saw the movie for the upgrade's backstory.

So the Hibiki movie was something I only watched the one time, which is pretty uncommon for me and Rider summer movies. When I say I don't remember much specific about Hibiki, this film epitomizes that. It left pretty much no impact on me whatsoever, and it seemed weird to me that as the first ever Inoue Hibiki thing, I was seeing people who are otherwise not fond of his work on the series say it was a fun flick. I figured there's no better time than now to give it another go, and...

I mean, yes it's fun, but I also feel obligated to resent everything it represents?

Like, the very first thing in the movie is Hibiki riding a motorcycle into an action scene with Asumu in tow. It's basically declaring war on Hibiki as a concept from the first frame, and it never really lets up. All these big characters are amusing, but when I see the Oni from Hibiki posing in front of a f***ing napalm explosion, it's just like "which Sakamoto directed this again?"

https://i.imgur.com/goEVI1k.png

But to be fair, how else are you supposed to make The Big Movie Version of a series that based its entire identity on going as small as possible? Leaning into how paradoxical the whole concept is may very well have been the best option, and, again, crucially, it's something it's easy to imagine enjoying in a theater on a nice summer afternoon without thinking about it too much. Definitely far from my favorite Rider movie, but after watching it again, I totally get what people see in it.

Don't worry, Fish, I totally agree that this movie is pretty lame. It's the second worst summer movie of Rider that I've watched.

And as promised, now I'll explain why I think that!

Hibiki's big summer movie focuses on a bunch of lookalikes while the actual characters from the show are moved to the background. That's a flawed premise! Even the movie itself seems to acknowledge how expendable these characters are by killing Akira at the start. If I'm not supposed to care about her, then why does the movie expect me to care about past Shounen or even past Mochida, when I only care a little about present Mochida?

It's the same mistake with Aguilar in the Assassin's Creed movie, compared to the games which actually develop the historical characters. I need a reason to invest in these characters emotionally or it's not going to work.

How does a Todoroki even exist in the past? I thought that name was only recently created after declining to inherit Zanki's name. This isn't a serious problem but it does sound like a plot hole.

The Hibiki novel also focuses on a different Hibiki from the past and I think maybe that kind of premise works better as a novel, when you don't have visuals and faces attached to them so that I'm not constantly comparing to the show and a different set of characters who I'm inclined to care about. The movie is fine for expanding the lore but that's not enough from a summer movie. Telling a good story without the main characters isn't a story worth telling in that kind of theatrical medium.

Furthermore, the novel is written by Kida, who probably understands and cares about the characters he's writing better than Inoue who just came in out nowhere and killed Akira. No offense to Inoue, he's a great writer responsible for my favorite Rider show, but I think the movie is an example of the worst parts of what's to come for Hibiki and I feel like Switchblade was referring to one of those parts in Episode 36 and 37.

Of course, I'm glad there are people who enjoyed it. This is just how I feel.

So these two complaints kind of combine for me into why I like the Hibiki movie?

Because a movie like this inherently has to be big and exciting and bombastic and everything that Hibiki isn't. ... so I think it's a pretty smart decision to not make it about the Hibiki characters and setting, but instead make it about the backstory.

And that backstory is really quite nice! I'm able to buy the backstory of this series being a lot more explosive and action-packed because the backstory essentially is about how things became better, about how through the strife and tribulations those in the past went through; they were able to make things much better for their successors through creating Takeshi. This is something I want to get more into at some point, but...
...
Okay, actually, no! We're at the end of this stretch so I'm getting into this now, screw it!


Something very wonderful about the setting of Hibiki that stands out from the superhero genre is Takeshi and the support network it creates. It essentially codifies and brings together all these Oni, gives them all the support they need and has a system whereupon they can quickly back each other up and rely on each other as needed. Something about the superhero genre - that you'll well know, Die - is that there's an element to it where only this hero has this power to save the world; there's something only the main character is capable of and must do it or else we're all doomed, and while unstated a lot of the time, that's a hell of a lot of responsibility. If Ultraman Rosso and Blu have an off-day, the city's getting stomped by a monster. If Kamen Rider Wizard's having a bout of depression, it doesn't matter, he has to fight or someone's going to die. Superman can't ever be sick or the villains win.

So like, that leads to a lot of problematic things about the genre that don't reflect the real situations and the realities of life they're to reflect -- just about any life path that involves life-or-death situations whether it be the fire service, or the army, or medical professions will at any time have a countless number of co-workers who are able to not just back you up, but are able to fill in for you and do exactly what you are capable of. This applies to any corner of life as well, and while of course all of these do have -immense- responsibility, the point I'm making here is that they're not situations whereby the existence and success of it all doesn't rely on a single person with specific unique skills being on standby 24/7. No matter what your potential anxiety and depression says - because, to hell with it, I can fit in a moral lesson here - you not being there during a bad situation does not mean you were responsible or that you were the only one capable of stopping it. There is never, ever a situation like this where you are the only one -- there will always be others like you who can do the same job, and despite all the responsibility you have it is still possible for you to have days off and your troubles and needs met and be able to live like a normal person.

And I want to quickly say here that that doesn't mean this is an issue with the superhero genre so bad it causes it to crumble or that messages and stories can't succeed because of it -- I mean, if I believed that, I probably wouldn't be on this board watching and discussing superhero stuff all the time! I love shows like Kamen Rider Kuuga and Ultraman Orb where the title hero is the only hero around and doesn't have so much as a secondary to back him up! It's something that the genre is able to succeed in spite of, and in my opinion it's a problem that gets mitigated the more non-literal and metaphorical the story is, which is very often the case with Tokusatsu.


And the reason I bring this whole college lecture up is that this is exactly why Takeshi is such, such a triumph of Hibiki for me and why I fell in love with this show and keep loving more the time goes on. Like those real-life professions, Oni do not have to be on-hand all the time, and they can actually have time off and while this specifically isn't gone into, the framing of Takeshi is as such that I could easily see the likes of sick days and mental health issues being covered for. It's an organisation which lets these superheroes live lives that allows them to be the confident comfortable characters they are -- like, fun fact; you know those oni notes you sometimes see throughout the show? We at one point see Eiki's, and among his other notes it states his active days on February: 1st - 2nd and 10th - 22nd. This is a superhero who got TWO WEEKS OFF IN FEBRUARY. That's just utterly mind-boggling and something that I can't imagine happening in any other piece of media in the genre!

Like, even Hibiki, right? Compared to the likes of Agito or W, is he special or unique in his powers and abilities in any way that there's something only he'd be able to do? Well, he definitely appears to be one of the more adept Oni, at least within his region. He's one that the other Oni feel they can rely on a lot more, who is a teacher to many around him, and constant training has allowed him to gain a seasonal power-up. ... So, basically the thing that's special about Hibiki in all this is that he's a duty manager! He's got more responsibilities and abilities than his average co-worker and will take the lead in multiple situations, but ultimately if he were to be unavailable one day; it's not like they'd truly be in danger and it's clear there's other Oni that could be relied on. I just really like that this is a show where it feels like Todoroki could phone in and say he wouldn't be able to work next week, so Takeshi just checks their schedules and asks Sabaki or Danki to cover his workload and Todoroki could make up for it another time. It's a huge part of what makes this show so cosy and laidback compared to most other superhero shows.


And this is why I like the movie, too -- because it shows how it got to that point. It shows what the Oni of the past struggled with; how their lone wolf natures constantly worked against them, how ostracization from the people hurt them, how a lack of support led to the evils of the world gaining so much power and even turning one of their own against them because the world brought so many tragedies upon him he had nothing left. I could go into so much detail about Kabuki alone at some point by the by, he's easily one of my favourite movie riders and in a franchise that hands out redemption like candy, this is one of the few characters I could believably see being redeemed and it amazingly never happens. Regardless, this is why it's such a good movie to me -- it's about overcoming evil by banding together and essentially creating a support network for each other; winning each other's trust and allyship in a way that leads to a new era where Oni don't have to be afraid of the world or each other or of anything, really. And there's a thousand stories like that in Toku, it's part of why I love the genre; but what makes this one truly special and what makes it stand out to me is that we see that beautiful new era, that shining future where everything's better in every single episode of Kamen Rider Hibiki. As backstory movies go, thematically this one is simply phenomenal. Helps that it's pretty fun, too!

That's certainly not true. A real hero like Orb Dark will save the day!

No, but I really like that take on the Hibiki movie. I've never put any thought into how it connects to the TV show before, but seeing it as the triumphant beginning of the present day's Oni's system of teamwork really puts a much more heartwarming light on all of it. In the world of today (or at least, 2005), an oni like Kabuki would have turned out alright...

That's definitely a supremely compelling take in favor of the movie.

For the record, I actually do really like the whole twist that we're watching the foundations of Takeshi being built, and how it perfectly gels with what we told in the not-Inoue (i.e. authentic) chunk of the series – that it's a group started by people who were grateful to the Oni and wanted to help take the load off them.

He really would've!! Like... every time I think of this guy, the big scene that comes to mind is him giving food to that kid. It's one of the prominent focus scenes he gets and it creates a surprisingly complex character for a turncoat movie rider: sure, he says something along the lines of doing it for power; but it's clear that despite him having made this decision for a while, at this point in his life he still believes in kindness and protecting children as a Kamen Rider would from how he acts at the start of the movie. So it feels less like he's fighting for power, or glory, or for anything, really: he's instead someone who's completely given up on everything after his ideals were crushed under the weight of a world that rejects all he is and all the help he offers at great expense to himself. It's such an interesting idea to go with for a character focused around betrayal as it's a decision he's come to after a longer life where he's just become worn down and tired, and all the weight of his betrayal is at the feet of the world. It's not a decision born out of anything he gets out of it, it's completely "screw it, I'm done, all of this can burn". It's a very stark parallel to the rest of the Oni managing to overcome evil and create a better world out of it through Takeshi.

I'm maybe reading into him more than is intended but I felt for Kabuki so, so much; and as you say it's pretty clear he would have turned out great in a better world -- that's the tragedy of his story.

Did you all watch the Director's Cut, when Kabuki gets an extra after his fight with Hibiki, when he tries to tell the big bad Makamou not to go after Asumu, and just gets told that he could never have become a Makamou before getting eaten by her? Honestly might be the only reason I'd recommend that version of the movie.

Amazing. Thanks for the info!

I think some of the modern-day inconsistencies (X Didn't Exist Back Then) can just be chalked up to Asumu's imagination. The story he's reading probably refers to a string-playing Oni, and he just slotted Todoroki and his guitar into that role. The reality was probably something more like a lute?

I can sort-of forgive this? We don't know what happened before the movie started, so it could've been a situation where Hibiki was taking Asumu somewhere, and then got the Hibiki! Makamou! call that starts every Hibiki story. (...Right?) At that point, he might've had no choice but to take Asumu with, in the same way we've seen Ibuki need to drag Kasumi somewhere.

It's possible, is all I'm saying! I am significantly less inclined to provide cover for Hibiki in the modern day calling Asumu by his name, though. That was my first big Uh No for this movie.

Of all the problems this movie has, and how thematically it does nothing for the modern-day characters (this is not a small problem!), I never felt like the flashback stuff lacked compelling characters or emotional weight. It's a very Inoue scene, but when Hitomi In The Past asks Asumu In The Past to not watch her die? Big emotions! I cared about this girl who'd already been dead for centuries! It's why I feel like Inoue's the right guy to tell this story. He's able to, very quickly, lay out the (overheated, possibly insane) emotional stakes of a new group of characters.

I don't know. Worked for me!

This requires the same amount of audience buy-in that the premise of There Was A Kid Named Asumu Centuries Ago requires. Could there have also been someone named Todoroki? Sure, maybe!

someone got their laaaaaaaptop fiiiiiixed

Well, first of all, holy shit, thank you for that insight. Very, very smart take on something I honestly hadn't considered, that the point/theme is the world-building, not the character drama. You're absolutely right that there's some great stuff in the movie about how structures bring people together, how society is meant to disperse obligation to make things manageable. Yep, yep, yep. Great points, well made.

I guess my problem is that... I still don't think that makes it a Hibiki story? In the ways Hibiki tells stories? Hibiki as a show was never that interested in the mechanics of its world, it was interested in the people within it. It used this group (the branch of Takeshi) as a metaphor for society (parents need structures and support to raise children). The movie fills in the motivations, but it treats the structure itself as the good, rather than leveraging it to say something about growing up.

Like, the show was about the people who worked in a building, while the movie told us how the building got built. I'm not sure that's as compelling a story to tell? Or one that adds anything to the modern-day characters?

It's my favorite touch to him, as a villain, that he's specifically disappointed in human adults, not humans as a species. He comes off as someone who had a child-like appreciation of the world, and has had it ground out of him every time he gets chased out of a village. He's a tragic villain, for sure.

All this love for Kabuki is making me so happy to see. This dude has been a total blind spot of mine for years and suddenly I'm seeing all this new depth to his character. This is the kind of thing that makes these threads magic.

Similarly, I'm also going to hold onto that idea that all the weird things about the past story are due to it being Asumu's personal interpretation of the events. Would explain things like why Kabuki uses English in his dialogue almost immediately after showing up.

...which, after a cursory glance at the film's Wikipedia page, it seems was a deliberate decision specifically to tell people not to worry too much about things like "authenticity". That was something watching the film that jumped out at me immediately in a good way, so mission accomplished there!

Yeah, I can't really argue with that! For me personally I'm fine with it because, well, it's a movie -- in my mind at least that's a separate thing that's allowed to do whatever it wants. It's not as if this is Inoue taking control of the season itself and turning it into something it's not where despite his hard work, his style of writing mixes about as well with Hibiki as oil and water; that would be silly. If the movie decides to tell stories very differently from how Hibiki usually tells em, I'm all for it! This is also why I'm pretty good with how the Decade and Zi-O tributes tell their stories but obviously we'll get there.

I guess this is my weird hypocrisy, because I feel like I'm going to be more lenient for different interpretations -slash- thematic divergences once Inoue takes over the show than I am for his movie? The show... as of 30, it's his show, it's what he wants it to be. I've read enough comics where one creative team completely rebuilds a narrative into their own interests that I'm ready for big changes. But the movie? Inoue was making this thing concurrent with the show, right? With the expectation that it would need to at least vaguely appeal to fans of the weekly TV show? (Please let me know if I'm getting this wrong!) So for him to take a show about a boy growing into a man and being like Nope This One's About Worldbuilding... I don't know, I think it's maybe too dismissive of what the then-current Hibiki fanbase rightly expected to see in a movie? Not even the flashback stuff, I don't think that's a dealbreaker, but the completely different approach to themes.

Anyway, tl;dr - I am more forgiving for a new creative team on a show than I am for the creative team for a spin-off movie.

I’ll be honest, the presence of the anachronisms didn’t really bother me. I mean, other Tokusatsu shows have had wooden cellphones, spandex suits, a crossbow that uses batteries instead of arrows a robot that transforms into UFO, a time-travelling robot that turns into a giant moped and a Nobunaga with access to time travel and a monster army… all around the time period of the Sengoku Era. I just wanted to see what other people thought.

The only thing in that sense that really stood out to me was Todoroki's existence given that's an identity Todayama crafted for himself. But it's Todoroki's face on all the guitar merch, not Zanki's; so I understand.

Oh yeah, Hibiki referring to Shounen as Asumu just sounds weird. Like, it's his thing! Even the patrons at "Team Hibiki Bar and Grill" agree it's so Hibiki. There's a song named after it!

Inoue is the right guy to tell this story, but I don't think these characters are right for the story. Hibiki has a music motif, right? The story is a melody, it's fine, but the instruments are wrong. I'm being figurative, I'm not talking about the anachronistic instruments used by the past Oni, that's a different kind of problem.

Like did it have to be Akira specifically who gets killed, instead of some random girl we've never seen before? Is there anyone in the audience who can say "Akira is my favorite character from the Hibiki movie!"? That role could've been given to anybody for how little time she has onscreen. By giving demoting a main character to a lesser role, it encourages apathy towards the other main characters by setting a low standard for their importance.

These characters aren't able to stand on their own, cause the movie requires the audience to superimpose their existing opinions of the present characters on to the past characters. It's like you say, this movie isn't a Hibiki story. It's a story that just happens to involve a guy called Hibiki, who looks and acts like Hibiki. I don't feel a strong difference between these two Hibikis other than the latter is more likely to get killed off due to the apparent expendability of everybody in this setting. It breaks the suspense by making the stakes more predictable.

As another comparison, Wizard of Oz does the opposite by adding more depth to the lookalikes than the original characters they're based on. The lookalikes felt more original that way. I didn't get that from the Hibiki movie.

I'm glad it worked for you though.

Asumu is a given name though, not inherited like Oni. I guess it's possible that there was a Todoroki lineage that went extinct and Zanki chose that name for his apprentice to revive it. Without a successor to his name, the Zanki lineage will probably go extinct as well until someone in the future decides to make it their own.

I mean, I called it "uncanny valley Hibiki", so I'm not immune to this feeling.

I think the presence of Kabuki as a strong central villain (With an arc! And a twist! And a motivation!) helps make the story compelling in its own right. I'd argue that you honestly don't need to have an investment in the TV cast to enjoy this movie? Nothing's that core to the TV characters, and what's here is fairly easy to invest in: village under siege, boy wants to save his friend, maligned heroes, etc. It's a sturdy story.

It's... yeah, it's not really a Hibiki story, though.

I was mostly just thinking that, with how hand-wavey the Asumu thing is, that it's just as likely that there coincidentally was a one-off Oni named Todoroki back then, and the newer Todoroki never even heard of him.

Which I agree with since it seems like my investment in the TV cast is actually a detriment to my ability to enjoy this movie.

Maybe. I think I like my new headcanon better though.

Ha ha, yeah, basically!

As someone who was super invested in Hibiki's cast... I don't know, it wasn't an issue for me? It's just that these people in the past happened to look the same and have the same names.

Just popping in real quick to say I'm still very behind on this show, and that I've always been drawn to Kabuki's design since I first found out about Kamen Rider around when Decade was airing. I never really figured out why he was a bad guy, so knowing now that it's nuanced and interesting is great.

Yeah, he's pretty great! For a series that hasn't really had a compelling villain (not that they were necessarily looking for one), Kabuki is a great hook for the Hibiki movie. He's this guy who clearly cared once about being a hero, but the world only saw him as a villain, so he just gave up and embraced it. He's conflicted in a way where he's tried to substitute insults for praise, and longs to be the sort of unfeeling monster that doesn't wish for kindness.

As Kurona said, he's the sort of emotionally damaged former hero that, if they got introduced early in a show's run, you could expect them to have a full redemption arc by Episode 30.

Plus the complexity of his character is directly reflected in the asymmetrical design with the notably more angry looking red side of his face and spike jutting out of his shoulder!

And as someone who thinks Kikaider is one of the best character designs ever, I'm always more than happy to see asymmetry that's both fashionable and functional. I said it once already, but I legitimately think "a newfound appreciation for Kabuki" is going to be one of my big takeaways from this thread.

I've always loved him; I've just never had a chance to talk about it!

Crosses fingers for SHODO-O Kabuki

oh man kiriya

you guys

why didn't you tell me to just start watching at 30

there will be a lot of discussion about kiriya tonight

still only my second favorite kiriya in kamen rider but it is close

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 30 - "PREMONITION OF TRAINING"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../hibiki30a.png

"And like good songs, they can always be sung
To the tune of another song"

-Roddy Woomble, "A New Day Has Begun"

I don't know what it is I'm supposed to dislike about this era. Is it in this episode? Is it yet to come? Because I thought this was pretty fantastic.

I love how the opening of this episode reimagines the opening of the first episode. Where that was Asumu on his bike, happy for another day, embraced by the world; this one is him on his bike, but in conflict, uncertain. The world has left him alone, and he's forced to defend his place in the narrative from an interloper.

Kiriya, though, right? Holy shit, I didn't expect Inoue to sign his work so quickly. Of course the brand-new character is this hilariously condescending prick, eager to show off and still let you know how bored he is at showing off. It's such a stupidly broad character, with him being the best musician/francophone/gamesman/mangaka/poolshark, as well as a rich dilettante and a spoiled brat and an abandoned child and a snotty jerk. He's a lot, and he definitely represents the volume on this show getting turned the eff up.

And, y'know, I'm okay with it. There's a subtle (and occasionally unsubtle) critique of the previous era of Hibiki here, asking through the lens of Asumu's character if things were maybe a little too nice before. Asumu sees the awesomeness of Kiriya, and the ways his horrible personality makes him interesting, and wonders if he's too bland and boring.

I really like that the show opts to ask that question at the start of its new era. I was afraid that an Inoue era of this show would suddenly pivot to All Oni All The Time, and that's just not what's here. What's here is a story about a teenage boy being challenged, and trying to understand himself better.

Kiriya massively helps flesh out Asumu's side of the story by putting some meat on the bone. Asumu's a very sweet kid, who has very sweet mentors and guardians. But what if there were some Pretty Well-Trained person his own age who sucked? Just was the worst? What would that inspire Asumu to do? What lessons would he learn from that kid?

I love how Kiriya becomes, like, Dark Hibiki, the devil on Asumu's shoulder. It's not exactly leading him down a dark path, but it's more... if Hibiki's the paragon of What Is Best In Man, Kiriya exists to question all that, to make being selfish and dismissive seem rewarding.

I'm just really into the ways Kiriya brings (hilarious) conflict into Asumu's tranquil, potentially boring existence. I get that it's a change from how nice the series was previously, but there's newfound tension to Asumu's journey that I'm very into.

And, y'know, there's still plenty of Oni action if you're into that! Well, not plenty. About as much as is normal in the first part of a Hibiki two-parter. We've dispensed (for good?) with the normal slow build-up of research and camping and lieutenants, with a new Monster Suit Makamou just showing up and murdering people. There's no feeding, or incubation, or any of the normal Makamou storytelling. What's here is your typical Kamen Rider storytelling of Rider Rolls Up On Monster, for better or worse.

Honestly, I didn't mind it. I thought this was more high-octane (Akira DIVES off of a moving motorcycle, Ibuki LAUNCHES his bike into the air to attack the Makamou), and while that's not how grounded the show usually treats the fighting, I thought it was pretty exciting. It's different, for sure, and maybe even wrong... but also fun?

And that was this whole episode to me: fun. There's a whole plotline where Hibiki has to work in the restaurant! And he pitches his new movie to patrons! How am I supposed to be mad at that?

Yeah, I... I'm sorry if you were expecting me to bemoan the many ways this series lost its insightfulness, or discarded its uniqueness. There are aesthetic changes (a few) and tonal changes (a bunch), but it still felt like a show where a teenage boy is trying to become a man, and also there are monsters. I still felt like I was watching Kamen Rider Hibiki, and I had a good time doing so.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../hibiki30b.png

I agree that I didn't find the second part of Hibiki bad in any way. A bit different, but it didn't seem the dramatically different show that fans of either half seem to think it is. There are changed sure, and the original course of the show, whatever that would have been never did happen, but the results don't feel that bad to me? I don't know. I've never understood the people who hated either half.

Yeah, what's here is obviously Different, but I don't think it's bad? If the other version of the show was a nice walk through the park, this is a bit more like a street festival. You're still outside, you're still having a good time, but everything's just a bit More now.

This was a really pleasant surprise, for the first Inoue episode!

OK the 2nd half where finally here. And I think it's time to lay my feelings about it bare in an analogy that hopefully works.
I go down to Ricobene's to get my usual deep dish sasuage pizza. When I noticed that they changed the flour they used for the dough goes from a wheat to corn strach and the sasuage wasn't from the local farms but from another state. And then they added an extra ingrediant chili peppers into the pizza. Not only that but the pizza dough was still a bit raw from not being cooked enough.

That's the best way I can describe the 2nd half of Hibiki. It was always going to be a challenge for me to accept the show going forward but the ideas the 2nd half brought weren't bad and I could've excepted the replaced ideas with time but that's just it the production was rushed and it never felt like they worked out kinks at the end.

I know this alot of negatives amd I don't wanna make it seem like your wrong for having a postive first impression of the 2nd half this is just how I feel and I'm going to see how your opinions changed as we get more into the controversial stuff. And don't worry I won't be all negative despite the rushed productions there still things that I want to praise the 2nd half for. Cuz this is still a pizza even a bit raw and different still has some parts tthat I enjoy!

Don't feel like you've got to tip-toe around not liking some of these episodes! If they're not working for you, I'd honestly love to hear why, especially if they're working for me. I'm looking for discussion, not consensus. It's totally cool if you disagree with me!

(That said, deep dish pizza? I'm probably as angry at that as Switchblade is at these episodes.)

I do get what you're saying, though. As someone who felt like Agito took a minute to stop feeling like The New Season Of Kuuga, I can see how the late-stage changes that a new team is bound to implement... I mean, they had to hit the ground and immediately come out swinging, not unlike young Akira in this episode. That's tough to do! Akira's a hard bar to clear! Replacing another creative team two-thirds of the way through a season is bound to be a bumpy ride. I am not surprised that it proved too bumpy for some.

In 1991, Toei began airing Chojin Sentai Jetman, the 13th (later adjusted to 15th) show in the Super Sentai series. It would go on to be one of the most widely loved and praised shows in the entire franchise, with older fans of the show praising its darker and more serious tone. The show's head writer was Toshiki Inoue and its breakout character was Gai Yuuki, aka Black Condor. Gai was the team's rebel, an arrogant and brash womanizer who often butted heads with the team's leader, Ryu, and made aggressive advances on one of his female teammates, Kaori. I've always considered Gai to be the origin of one of Inoue's core concepts: great storytelling arises from interpersonal drama and a show needs a character to create that drama.

Inoue's work is replete with characters whose primary function is to be an "ally," in the loosest sense of the term, but to also be an ongoing source of antagonism. Agito had Houjou. Faiz had the peak example of this in Kusaka. And within three minutes of taking over the show, Hibiki gains Kiriya. Kiriya isn't a gaslighting sociopath on par with Kusaka, but he fills very much the same role in the show's cast: he is a force of disruption.

I've talked several times now about how much I love the cohesiveness of Hibiki's cast. These characters are all friends; they care for and support each other. The entire theme of the show is the positive effect that they have on Asumu and his development into an adult. Kiriya shows up and throws a live grenade right into the middle of all that. He's a liar, a manipulator, and someone whose primary motivation seems to be centered around constantly making Asumu feel bad about himself. He's a character that never would have fit into the original show and he is the number one thing that I hate about this era of the series. I know your stance on spoilers, but I'm not surprised if you haven't guessed this part already: Kiriya isn't going away. He's here for the rest of the show and I'll leave it to you to decide if you think he ever gets better.

(I'll also point out here that I am not alone in this opinion. Kiriya is one of the most hated characters in the entirety of Kamen Rider. There were a lot of upset fans when the character's actor, Yuichi Nakamura, came back in a couple years for a role on Den-O. It's very much to Nakamura's credit that this character went on to be well-loved.)

So get used to this asshole passive aggressively and aggressive aggressively insulting Asumu, because that's the Asumu portion of the show from here on out.

I also hate the new Makamou that appears here, but I'll save that rant for tomorrow.

I'll just leave you with this for now: Hibiki doesn't change completely right away. Some of the dismantling of the show's identity plays out more gradually. It will happen, though.

Kiriya is IMO the least likable character in the franchise because I can not see how in ANY Way shape or form you can argue he's a likable character and 90% of the second halfs problems can be traced back to him (the thing is Kusaka from Faiz or Micchy from Gaim after the 1st third Banno from Drive or Masarume from Ex-Aid you aren't SUPPOSED TO like or at least the later 3 since Faiz can't make up it's mind on what it wants half the cast to be half the goddamn time) (SPOILERS FOR GAIM TBF Micchy is like Kusaka where it's his own compulsive selfish desire to be a hero as well as jealousy that make him be evil and it ACTUALLY WORKS since the writers knew what they wanted to do unlike Kusaka and we see EVERYTHING He tried do go HORRIBLY Wrong and he actually becomes a hero again at the 11th hour seeing it as the only way he can atone for everything he did ) like all those characters I mentioned you are NOT Supposed to like Kiriya you are

get comffy is all I say

to quote something I said in the Blade thread

I feel like Innoue tries to copy Jetman WAY TOO MUCH to everything he's done after 1995's detrement (Agito's the only show he primarily wrote after that that I don't notice any his usual stuff) like how Sentai has spent the past decade copying Kyoryuger(which is a terrible show) and Rider has been copying Gaim since 2016 to each of their own detrments. but on Innoue it sucks because he wrote Gosei Sentai Dairanger in 1993 and almost NONE of his usual tropes are there (other than a darker tone but he doesn't go over the top dark and depressing like Jetman/Faiz and there's enough goofy moments to balance it out) and it sucks because it's IMO THE BEST Sentai show of all time so it pains me to see him do crap like this knowing what he's capable of when he wants to tell a story and not rehash stuff he's been doing for nearly 30 years as for Jetman it's good but not as good as you would think like it's the PERFECT SHOW for a 13/14 year old who likes the idea of Tokusatsu but is dissillusioned with Power Rangers with how dark/edgy it is and how much forced drama there is but as you get older you realize how many problems it has (That being said Gai IS A MILLION TIMES Better than Kusaka/Kyriya since he actually is shown to be capable of not being an asshole 24/7 and actually has character development)

Yeah, you basically summed up a lot of my opinions on these episodes. I myself can’t bring myself to hate Kiriya, mostly because I love just how blunt he is compared to everybody else, which makes him feel actually refreshing. And I particularly love the scene where he calls out the English teacher on his bad pronunciation, since that basically establishes that while he may be a jerk, he’s a jerk with a good reason: he thinks other people are flawed and see himself as the saviour (plus it’s reminiscent of the last time Inoue wrote a dedicated school scene in a classroom, with a kid upstaging the teacher. He must’ve had some issues as a kid).

And the new monster. Annoying noise aside, I love that it’s an active threat, as opposed to a passive one. And as if to show that the Kuuga guy is no longer steering the ship, his method of killing is totally imitation-free (what part of setting yourself on fire and jumping at people’s throats can be tried at home?) and yet it manages to be terrifying.

And my song lyrics for next time:

I am the god of hellfire. And I bring you:
Fire! I need you to burn.
Fire! I need you to learn.

- The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fire.

The one thing I'll say is that more than Kiriya, I think the thing that most memorably sticks out to me that states "Inoue is here now" is by taking the show that was very low-key and laidback and had all its fights in natural forest-y areas... and then throwing a screaming burning dog wheel at a businessman.

I remember very distinctly wondering if I wouldn't notice the change in creative team, if maybe it was much more subtle how it changed and if people were overblowing it; but then the first few seconds of the episode had that and I was like "Oh. Hi Inoue."

But it's so American!

Oh for sure, it feels a lot more like Hibiki Season 2 than a natural continuation from the previous episode. I think that if some of these plot points were planned in advance and integrated more effectively, it would be more of a whole story. But of course, the staff change was very turbulent and not a lot of effort was made to connect the 2 halves of the show. Similar to how I feel about EX-Aid after the Genm X arc.

Hmm? I recall you said the derailment of a certain character starting with Episode 36 and 37 is the number one thing you hate about Hibiki's second half, which means Kiriya, who I presume you meant by "that character", is only number two?

Ouch, I think I found a new unpopular opinion then, since Nakamura's second character is one of my least favorite things about Den-O.

Inoue writing about how terrible high school can be is definitely an experience that I can relate to. Yuka's tragic backstory in Faiz was especially memorable and made a lasting impression on me. I appreciate how he's not afraid to show how real and awful those problems can be and exaggerate them for dramatic effect. Even in Fourze, where high school is more chaotic and exciting rather than lonely and depressing, a**holes still exist. Shounen meeting Kiriya, this overachieving but terrible person, seems like fate challenging his belief about himself.

Valid point. It was late and I was on a bit of a rant. I guess Kiriya is something that I hate because of the way he disrupts the character dynamic and some of the characters' established arcs. He's awful and he does not fit into this show at all. What happens to nope, not going to say - I remember from last time is something that I personally find more offensive because it fits into a larger bad trend from this era and one of Inoue's particular... I don't know, either "blind spot" or "prejudice" based on what you think the ideas behind it are. Suffice to say, I will have a lot of comments as we get to the end of that particular character arc.