Good to see you guys! Taking care of you is also part of my job. Henshin!
https://media.giphy.com/media/GntLGV...facebook_s.jpg

It was a pretty fun movie! I probably made it sound like I found a lot flaws with it, but I genuinely had a good time watching it.

I think, structurally, I wasn't able to find a lot in it to connect with emotionally because of the AU take on it. Creating a setting so distinct from the main series while still doing all of the same character relationships, it created this schism in my brain, where I could have fun watching it while still being like Not My Faiz. It's definitely entertaining, but beyond the joy of seeing Team Orphnoch be their charming selves, it didn't really get me in the emotions.

Thanks for the suggestion! Deepsea gave me a similar heads-up, so it sounds like Excite is what I'll be going with. I usually don't bother grabbing anything until right before I watch it, so this came in at just the right time!

Well... change of plans? I didn't know that all I had left in my folder was a couple dozen 15 second commercials and one live performance of Justifaiz. I'll watch those commercials at some point (I mean, it'll only take a few minutes), but I don't think I'm going to try to talk about them. I don't think I'd have any fun doing that. (That said! If one of them is culturally distinct/insane enough to comment on, maybe I put something up as post-thread bonus.)

So, yeah, tonight'll be a thread wrapup.

THEY THREW THE BIKE OUT WHEN THEY LOST TAKUMI.

Just, man, RUDE.

It really is great that they zeroed in on what Mari and Takumi mean to each other. Could've gone with some grandiose villain plot, but they kept it about characters. It's a huge point in the movie's favor!

Thanks! I'll try to keep this in mind!

That's the thing about Orphenochs. Any human can become one if they have the right genetics. So I guess it's reasonable to presume that Takumi has the means but only becomes one in the movie which makes sense with him being part of the human resistance before getting captured and maybe executed by Smart Brain leading to his revival as an Orphenoch. That's a way of looking at it for sure. Or maybe he already died a long time ago like in the show. Either way, you could have easily dismissed it as only happening in this alternate continuity due to events happening offscreen but it would have been a shame if you risked learning such an unpredictable plot twist too early.

Since you expressed surprised at Murakami, the Head of Smart Brain, I guess you didn't read the prequel I linked? This is one of those weirder parts that get explained.

I agree with your thoughts on Kiba's turn. His reaction is more justified but it's also a diabolus ex machina. Misunderstandings happen but creating misunderstandings is supposed to be a Kusaka thing. Takumi's showdown with Kiba lacks their emotional rivalry since Takumi didn't even know Kiba joined the bad guys until they started fighting. His redemption doesn't require a speech or show of mercy, it just kind of happens. At least he gets to have a dying speech to Takumi entrusting him to take over his ideals so he still believed in doing the right thing. It's a good scene but how they got there is a little contrived.

While I'll defend Kusaka's status as an antihero in the show, the Kusaka in this movie is a very different Kusaka. You can't even call him a protector of humanity anymore due to his actions in the prequel and Mari coldly calls him by his given name "Masato" instead of the more affectionate "Kusaka-kun". For her to call him like that, it's clear even without reading the prequel that their relationship is in a very different place.

I'm glad that the emotional center of the movie was the friendship between Takumi and Mari since they're the first two main characters to meet in the show and they become very fond of each other. That's what made me invested in the movie, despite the problem with Kiba. Keitarou having his big heroic moment as Kaixa was cool as well and I prefer him as Kaixa to the Kusaka in this continuity. Keitarou deserved to be a Kamen Rider at least once.

Orga is the only Smart Brain Rider whose design doesn't really work for me. The reason why I love the aesthetics of Faiz and Kaixa is how utilitarian they are like they were designed to move fast and deal damage as effectively as possible without any excess, like the whole body becomes a weapon. I don't have anything against capes but putting one on a Rider in Kamen Rider Faiz doesn't make a lot of sense. It just looks too regal for such a heavy sci-fi high tech setting.

Thanks for the vision of Tim Allen as a Kamen Rider. Psyga is my favorite of the two movie Riders as well. Purple though? His Photon Blood is blue and resemble veins. Are you referring to his visor? You could call that a shade of purple I guess but it's lighter and redder than Kaixa's so I call it pink. It's a cool color combo though with the white suit in contrast to the usual black. Very Necrom. I thought his jetpack guns were awesome! His quirk of speaking only in fluent English made his character very distinct.

The gif you posted was a great comedic scene. Isn't Smart Lady the best evil mascot ever? Anyway, I surprised myself on rewatching that I think her black suit only appeared in Episode 6. I wonder if that's supposed to be significant.

It looks like Yuka/Kaido is canon in this continuity and Kaido reciprocates her feelings. Keitarou and Yuka barely interact. I still favor Keitarou/Yuka in the show but I feel sad for Yuka/Kaido when Kaido confesses his feelings to a fatally wounded Yuka, only to die immediately after to the same awesome CGI Elasmotherium Orphenoch.

P.S. How fortuitous that I should reach my 100th post around the same time as the thread's 100th page!

Yeah, I think everyone was right to suggest saving the movie until the end of the show. Seeing it in the middle wouldn't've gained me anything (it's so outside the normal status quo and stakes), and, yeah, I might've ended up seeing Takkun Orphnoch coming.

I didn't, I'm sorry! I appreciate the link, and I want to get to it soon, but there just wasn't time before watching the movie.

As it is, though, I think I like approaching the movie as its own discrete unit of entertainment? I'm not a fan of supplementary entertainment filling in gaps in the narrative. Like, Murakami's a head in a jar, it is never addressed, the end. There's something so pure about that idea, the commitment to an absurd visual.

I'm probably reading too much into it (my new catchphrase?), but I think the movie sort-of tries to establish why Yuuji had a change of heart and sacrificed himself at the end.

I think him seeing Mari and Takumi cheering each other on got to him, reminded him of why he had previously sacrificed so much. Stepping in front of Mari... she symbolized all of humanity at that point, the ones who'd accept Orphnochs. It's clouded substantially by his (I'd assume) belief that Mari had betrayed him, but maybe Yuuji's belief in Takumi overcame that apprehension?

I don't know. It's not really explicated, but I think you could maybe infer enough about those three characters to pull Yuuji's decision into focus. It's still not great, though!

He's such a pushy creep in this movie! This definitely feels like their mid-series relationship, where Kusaka can't stop being super inappropriate and Mari is tired of trying to spare his feelings. It's my favorite version of their relationship by far.

Yeah, they found some space to give Keitaro a little heroism, a chance to show his worth. I don't know that I'd be into it in the main continuity (Keitaro shouldn't be a fighter!), but it's definitely a fun fan-service moment, him getting a Rider Kick in.

Is it blue? It looked purple to me. Maybe the coloring of the visor overpowered the other colors in my memory? Dunno!

Also, yeah, it is a bit Necrom, isn't it? All the white, that round eye... Good catch!

I was mostly okay with them putting Kaido and Yuka together here, mostly because Yuka has a lot more confidence in this one. The TV series makes it more of an unrequited crush, and she's so fawning with Kaido that it felt forced, performative. The movie lets her call him on his shit early and often, leading to the reveal that they'd always been in love, but Kaido was too dense to notice it. I like that take!

Congrats! And thanks for all of your thoughts on Faiz!

Man, of all the weird decisions TV-Nihon made with this series, I think the weirdest was providing English subtitles for Psyga, the character who only speaks in perfect English.

Oh man, I totally forgot about Kazumin's casual xenophobia in the Grease V-Cinema. That movie really goes places, doesn't it?

New headcanon: They actually entrusted Auto Vajin to Kusaka so he could use it as Kaixa, but he just immediately tossed it in the dump to celebrate Inui finally being out of the picture.

Will put on hold for Paradise Lost review, because it's a movie (longer).

You did, at episode 5 for Faiz here, and previously regarding Ren in Ryuki. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you on those, especially Ren's, just asking why you tolerate those ones here (to me feels like giving a vibe of Faiz leeway in general). Also what do you think about my thoughts of the reverse (not wanting the inverse too, turning everyone into assholes even if "Charismatic Yet Insufferable Assholes"), or the types of character flaws?

And how about the response for Inoue?

MARI (distraught): Masato, please keep the Faiz Gear and Auto Vajin safe. I'm sure Takumi will return to us when we need him most, and we'll have to make sure he'll be able to transform into Faiz.

KUSAKA (unable to stop smirking): Yes... I will keep it... so safe for when Takumi returns. His bike as well, of course. Of course.

KUSAKA LEAVES

MARI (to Keitaro): He's absolutely putting it in the garbage. Just look there when Takumi gets back.

Sure! I like a lot of different types of characters, and you need a variety to tell a good story. I'm not a fan of any version of Everyone Needs To Be X.

I mean, he's definitely got his flaws, but a lack of sense of humor isn't one of them. If folks got other problems, I'd be interested in hearing what they don't like, same as always.

That's okay. The movie still works great as a standalone story even with a few anomalies. Knowing the reasons is useful but doesn't really add much to the enjoyment.

Yeah, it deceived me once as well. It could be the visor since purple/pink does contain blue light but I think the white suit takes a lot of the focus. With the black suits, it helps the Photon Blood look more prominent whereas the blue kind of gets drowned in the bright white.

Thanks! And no problem, dude. I'm glad that you enjoyed Faiz and you made a lot of good points that I hadn't considered. Maybe I'll check in the Hibiki thread in a few months.

Orga suit design is stunning. Head always reminds me of the Amadeus movie poster. :lolol

Awesome! I hope so!

Yeah, it really does. I think it just says Emperor Belt really well. Black and gold, for sure, but just how ornate it is? How it looks impractical in combat, which makes its dominance seem even more daunting?

Look, I'm just surprised they didn't give him Japanese subtitles to be actively unhelpful, at least English subs could help if, like, you're hard of hearing.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faizbye1.jpg

--5--

Well, that's it. We did it, everybody. We watched all of Faiz, we talked about it for months, and I finally opened my celebratory Figuart. (That's him up there.)

I said before (I think?) that getting near the end of a Kamen Rider series feels a bit like leaving high school. There's a melancholy aspect to it, where the time you'll get to spend with these characters, in this particular world, it's about to end. There's less road ahead of you than behind you.

Actually getting to the end, though, it's like graduating. It's more bittersweet than melancholy. It's sad to never get to see new episodes of Faiz, sure. But there's also the pride in completing the series, knowing that you reached a goal you set for yourself. (There's also a little bit of relief that you can move on. I didn't have a million more things to say about Faiz!) Mostly, though, there's excitement about starting a new series, getting to learn more about another cast, another story.

It's a good feeling, really.

--4--

This one, the Faiz thread, real happy with how it went. Didn't feel like this one got as much away from me as other series. (Ryuki, not crazy about that one!) Felt good about being able to communicate what in this was entertaining, or disappointing, or clever, or funny. I felt like this series clicked for me a lot more than the earlier Heisei series. There's a complexity to the themes, but also a willingness to have less likeable protagonists and more sympathetic antagonists. There was an ambiguity I really enjoyed.

And, god, real fun show to talk about. It went hard on wacky hijinks just as often as it did devastating melodrama, so I'm thankful for that. Nice mix of big ideas and dumb jokes, kind-of the sweet spot for me.

For those interested in statistics, the Google Doc for these writeups (not responses on the boards, just episode posts and stuff like this) ran 134 pages. Ryuki was about 86. And this was the one I was trying to be succinct on by using this five point structure. Obviously, a huge miscalculation, but a fun experiment nonetheless. I'll probably do a Faiz word cloud, pulled from the Google Doc, in the next little bit.

--3--

I'm unbelievably thankful to everyone who showed up to this thread to share their thoughts on Faiz. Did not think there'd be a huge turnout, but folks were very active and it's incredibly kind of them. Big big thank yous to everyone who stopped by, whether it was for one episode or the whole run. I've said before that when I do a post on an episode, it's not meant to be the final word, it's meant to be a conversation-starter. Well, you all delivered some of the best Kamen Rider conversation I've been lucky enough to be a part of. More than once I was happy to just sit back and watch smarter fans than me give their takes on this show, and that's such a gracious gift for them to give to other fans.

To quote Owen Ashworth from a Casiotone For The Painfully Alone live show, "Thanks thanks, and thanks thanks.”

--2--

This is very sad to type! I'm getting a little choked up here.

I'm seriously going to miss this thread. I've said other times that doing these isn't, like, performative, it's self-care. Watching Kamen Rider, I need to talk about it, and posting about it here helps get my brain right.

Well, man, these last couple months of life outside Kamen Rider have been unbelievably stressful, and this thread has brought some stability to crazy times. (Nothing exceptional for me personally, just the same insanity everyone's dealing with.) Being able to watch a Faiz one night, then spend the next day getting to talk about it, then repeating the process, it was a lifeline. It was comforting. You all... I will be grateful to TokuNation forever for giving me a space to do this stuff, and grateful to everyone on this board who participated. You helped make the last couple months a little bit less awful. To paraphrase Soeno, you've protected a small amount of happiness. You're my heroes.

--1--

Doing these, especially over a two month period, it can take it out of me. I'm at low-ebb right now, for being able to talk cogently (or coherently!) about Kamen Rider. I'm going to be on a little break for the next two weeks, give or take. I'll still be around the boards for sure, but I'm not watching anything for a little bit. Need to recharge that part of my brain, let that excitement build for superheroes having allegorical fights.

I should be back with Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Blade somewhere between the 13th and the 17th of July. Hopefully a few of you will want to talk about it. This thread, like all of the older ones, will stay open, so feel free to drop in if you've got more thoughts you want to share about Faiz. I never get sick of hearing what people think about Kamen Rider.

Thanks to Faiz for being so much better than I'd feared. Thanks to TokuNation for having an outstanding fandom. Thanks to every single person reading this for being a true delight and a genuine human. If I've made you happy, that's made me happy.

Go Meteors!

TIME OUT

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faizbye2.png

And to further the hype for the next show...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkOF1H2SnH4

So do you have a figure for every Rider tucked away in their boxes somewhere?

Some of those 134 pages and a good chunk of this thread's very own 100 pages is probably because we all kept responding to your essays with essay, and then demanding you further responded to the essays in response to essays... Anyhow, good job again on another nice thread.

It is always nice to see you dig deep into Kamen Rider like this and then write it out, and I hope you keep it up only for as long as you continue to enjoy doing it! I, and I'm sure others, would hate for you to ever feel like you were obliged to do these write-ups just for other people. As long as you're still up for it, looking forward to you Opening Your Eyes For The Next... Blade (Blaiz!?).

I'm so excited to see it! I've been looking forward to The Train One for a while, and, y'know, not seeing a ton of trains, but I imagine they'll factor in once the show gets going. No spoilers, though!

I was lucky to grab the Zi-O Rider Kicks SHF releases when one of our wholesalers offered them. I've got a Blade and Den-O ready to go for future threads. (Den-O is the 10th anniversary one, I'm pretty sure.)

Unfortunately, that means that I might have to decide if I want to pay difficult-to-swallow aftermarket prices for some figures I missed out on, like Hibiki and Kiva. (The vampire one and the drumming one, respectively.)

I don't know. Maybe? We'll see what reissues maybe get announced, and where my disposable income is around then. It'll be awhile before I have to make any decisions, thankfully.

The 134-page Google Doc is zero pages of responses. All internally generated! Responses were done straight to the boards!

Thanks for the kind words. Honestly, I feel less like I'm obligated to do these and more that I'm lucky y'all let me. It... I sort-of just showed up here and was like Hey I'm Going To Talk About Ghost As Someone Who's Watched Kamen Rider For A Few Months and you all let me. Folks actually encouraged me, which, unbelievable. I only do this to get to talk about these shows, so people regularly responding is... I mean, amazing. So nice.

I am looking forward to Blade! I don't love the helmet, but he's in an Ex-Aid special that I think is one of the smartest pieces of plotting I've ever seen.

So you remember how after you got done with Agito, I said that was my favorite thread you've done so far? Apparently you and Inoue turned out to be a Best Match, because this blows that out of the water.

Faiz went over astonishingly well with you, and I think that sort of enthusiasm rubs off on everyone else. If we had a lot to say about Faiz, it's only because you had a lot to say about Faiz. Your thoughts on it were consistently super insightful and interesting. The fact that you've had people saying you've opened their eyes to the things about the show that maybe worked great after all is really all the proof you should need that you did a fantastic job with this one. You took an extremely divisive series, and made a compelling argument why, even with its flaws, there's more in there worth loving than people often give it credit for. I'm downright proud of you.

I have a feeling Faiz will maybe be a hard show to top for you? It sort of seems like this is going to go down as one of your favorites of this era of Rider. Or, I don't know, maybe this is a general trend, and by Zi-O, these threads are going to average 500 pages each, and you'll be writing an entire essay for each individual segment of an episode between commercial breaks, but it's totally fine if they get smaller instead of bigger, too! Enjoy your break! It's important not to wear yourself out with this stuff! Whether Blade ends up being another hit with you, or just a moderately enjoyable good time, I'll be sure to Turn Up for it, when you're ready.

Congrats on the thread completion! Man, you write so much faster than I can keep up :lol

The Orphnoch King nonsense and the way they badly fumbled (IMO) Yuji's arc almost had me soured on the show as a whole after the highs of Takumi's reveal and Yuka's arc, not unlike how the mid-series Ryusei sub-plot significantly offset the show's stellar first quarter. I always had a sense that the endgame would be Yuuji vs. Takumi ever since the first couple of episodes, and it's something I was really excited about for its immense dramatic potential, but yeah... I really wish it could happen in a more organic and deliberate manner.

That said, the highs of Faiz are just as good as any toku shows I've seen, and it's likely I'd appreciate it even more on eventual rewatch. As I said earlier in the thread, I really do adore this band of jerks and losers. I don't think I can ever ignore the many missteps it made along the way, but reading through this thread and others' opinion, it also dawned on me that the core of the show is even more clever and thematically interesting than I first thought.

It's a (pleasant) surprise that you like the series this much, and that so many people have strong opinion on Faiz! As someone who's always been more partial to the Phase I Heisei, this thread has been really delightful. Also, I don't know if this has been mentioned here, but while opinion on Faiz is seemingly very mixed among the Western fandom, it's actually the most popular KR show in Japan according to recent-ish poll. A combination of peak J-drama + high toyetic value + flip phone (*they really do love their flippers), perhaps? Whatever it is, I got the feeling the show has successfully tapped into the cultural zeitgeist in the country at the time. Faiz is also quite popular in my country; the series ranked third and the movie ranked second most favorite in last year's poll across all the Heisei shows/movies.

Weeell, Hibiki's Figure-Rise should be out by the time you finish that! The real one I'd worry about is Kabuto...

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!

For sure. When they flash the big Omega symbol... it's hard to see how you put an R in there? I get Actar's explanation (which, thank you!), but I'm still just thinking It's Omega And They Dropped The M And E. It's messy, trying to enjoy a franchise that doesn't necessarily have my language in mind when they're naming things.

Also, maybe disagree on Deathsaurus not being the worst example of fighting over a name in Transformers? Like, Death-Saurus. It's clearly what the name of the giant evil monster is supposed to be. Decades of What If It Was This Random Assortment Of Consonants Instead, all fighting against the most reasonable interpretation in order to prop up a dumb dumb dumb alternative... It's just so pointless, you know?

I remember reading an article a while back, about how Apple Store employees are trained. One of the things they're told is not to correct a customer if they pronounce a feature or product wrong. The employee's intent may be to educate, but it creates a negative association in the customer's mind, an embarrassment. The employee knows what the customer means, and should just move on.

I think about that sometimes, when it comes to these character names or item names. They're constructed by people who probably don't care what a native English speaker might make of these names, and yet we treat somewhat-broken-translations as stone tablets, ammunition in battles.

I'm not saying that feelings are being hurt over discussions (not even arguments!) about these names. I mean, I hope they aren't? But, like, Oga or Orga or Ohga... I think we all mean the same guy? It's weird. It's a weird thing to feel like people are right or wrong about.

For the record, it's definitely Deathsaurus

Ironically, it seems we're having a semantics issue here. I was not aware we were talking about how unjustified having any kind of argument about these things were. I agree it's not hard to figure out where they got the name for the giant evil space chicken.

You have a good point about it not at all being a priority how these things actually get written in English, though. The only truly accurate way of spelling Ohga is オーガ. Which, again, is not simply dropping the "me" from オメガ, but mixing it with オー. I stand by my choice of romanization being choice that best represents that, but, yes, at the end of the day, it's really not anything to lose sleep over.

Just, please, nobody ever, *ever*, say Gord Drive. EVER.

That is... really? I don't want to open old wounds (I ain't ever asking about "number theory"), but there're things I never got to experience first-hand in this fandom. Was that really a thing? There being a debate over Gold Drive, the gold version of Drive?

Hahaha, 'debate'.

It's fact, Die.


https://news.tokunation.com/wp-conte...-Drive-002.jpg

I wouldn't use Ohma Form as an example considering they would later correct it when the actual product came out.

Astonishing. Astonishing. I picked the goddamn right franchise to be a fan of. It... they are trying so hard, you guys. I love it. I unironically love it.

Seeing this image made me remember that the "O" in Oma Zi-O is written オー　while the "O" in Zi-O is written オウ and then I realized I'm not even sure what you were trying to prove by posting that image, but it's definitely had the effect of making me uncertain of everything I've ever believed in. What even is language? Who are any of us to say it's wrong to spell Gold Drive as Gord Drive? Besides sensible, I mean?

EDIT: Oh wait, holy s***, "From"!? I was so on this ou train I didn't even notice! That's great!

I haven't even watched that show, but I think you're all being a little unfair about this. That's a character charm featuring OHMA, FROM KAMEN RIDER ZI-O. Everyone's favorite original character, Ohma! From the show Kamen Rider Zi-O! It's exactly what they wrote!