It sure is considering Ichigo and Nigo and V3 were all about using wind energy to transform. Good find.

I’ll just skip to my counter-arguement

https://youtu.be/rlmnPGJAHUA

Very neat! Thank you both!

There's a thing that was said about the success of Star Wars worldbuilding, that George Lucas could've pointed the camera at nearly any character and you could've had an interesting story. That's hard to do! It's hard to create a world that has even minor characters making the audience say What Is That Dude's Deal.

Hibiki kind-of already managed that with Ibuki and Akira? They basically take over this episode from Asumu (a little) and Hibiki (a ton), and the narrative doesn't suffer from it at all. If the next episode would've been the start of 40-odd more episodes of Ibuki and Akira fighting monsters and being instructional for growing up into a responsible adult, I would 100% understand why the production team made that decision.

I really love how rich the world of this show is, how little of it seems to depend on directly supporting Hibiki as a character. It means they can tell stories about anything.

It took me embarrassingly long to connect W’s Cyclone to the Ichigou inspiration...


Either way, Akira! WONDERFUL character! These two episodes really stood out to me for how much they were about introducing the secondary rider and his own supporting cast (supporting cast of, uh, 1). Usually Rider shows will have a focus episode or two of the new hero but it’s often from the main Rider’s perspective and not quite as overtaking as this — it practically becomes the Ibuki & Akira show for a bit and I’m all for it! As already said I really like how it shows a ‘normal’ Oni situation, and how Akira isn’t framed as in the wrong beyond being a little too mean. Often female characters, especially younger ones don’t get that kind of respect— it’s almost like this was worked on by some of the Kuuga guys, or something! Talking of which I do kind of disagree on the ship thing, but mostly semantically — I said on Fish’s Kuuga thread once that the relationships are built so charmingly yet so grounded that I could genuinely read into any given relationship as anything from friends to romantic, and it’s the same here! Asumu and Akira feels very natural and neutral and real that I’m easily able to read into them as pals as much as others could see them as a cute baby couple. Just a great part of what makes Hibiki so nice!

Ibuki is a really stable character and Akira a wonderful apprentice so I’m glad you like them. I’ve got a lot to say coming up so I hope I can get that laptop soon...

Honestly, I'm usually with you on celebrating platonic friendships in a medium where fans frequently rush to pair off characters, buuuuuuuuut Akirasumu makes me feel like someone's pushy relative, peppering them with questions about that Nice Girl or Boy they've been spending so much time with. There's nothing wrong with platonic friendships in these dramatic and allegorical series! But these two are perfect together and I love them.

What I really love about Akira's full introduction into the story here is that we finally get a chance to see Hibiki do a take on the typical Kamen Rider antagonistic new arrival. Akira is the first character on the show to not greet Asumu with enthusiasm and a friendly smile. Instead she insults him to his face. But this isn't a Kusaka kind of situation. She has some legitimate reasons for not being happy that some random kid stumbled into their camp on the shore of monster lake. More importantly, though, she gets called out on her rudeness. So many shows before and after this let characters get away with being jerks, but Ibuki clearly - but gently - chides Akira for being rude. And by the end of the episode the two have made up and started becoming friends. It's a really nice inversion of the way most other shows handle initially hostile relationships.

Ugh, Magiranger de gozarimasu desu. The one black hole of quality in the otherwise stellar year of tokusatsu that brought us Hibiki, Garo, and Ultraman Max.

Now I am no huge fan of Magiranger either, but I don't remember it being that bad. It was delightfully whimsical and was what made the show work. Magiking is actually well thought-out regarding its combination and the Legend Magiranger super modes were quite top notch I must say. And Magi Shine in all his Okamoto suit-acting glory was great. I mean how often do you see a gold ranger with a cat for a genie as a sentai hero? :rock:

It really is! Having Hibiki tell Asumu that he screwed this one up, it's so important. Anyone else could be suspect, but when Kamen Rider Dad tells you that you screwed up but shouldn't feel too bad about it, you screwed up.

Akira's attitude, it feels like it comes from a place of belief, where what she and Ibuki are doing is super-critical and people outside of their group will never know what they're risking to keep people safe. I think her anger towards Asumu is how it feels for her to keep this secret? Some of it's her being an adolescent with The Hormones that are causing her to be a little weirder around Asumu than he maybe deserves (and vice versa), but I think some of it is her having a tougher time living the double-life of a monster fighter. I don't know. I think she (like Asumu!) is a super fascinating way to examine a Kamen Rider story. Very into seeing more of these kids!

So there are at least 3 toku Akira's it seems.
Akira from Hibiki,
Akira Date from OOO
and
Akira Nijino from Toqger
Y'all got any other Toku Akiras?

Only the greatest Akira of all-time, since he's played by the best toku actor of all-time!