Honestly? I don't think there's that much to explain. Kuuga came back from the dead and now he's supercharged. There ends up being a few more details than that after the fact, but that's really all you need to know, and it genuinely is easy to figure out. I'm not anywhere near as upset about that part of the episode as I think you were, even if it could still be a better.

Everything else, though? It really should've been better. It's all just unavoidably bland and uninteresting, and you know me. If I could find a way to try and pump these episodes up, I would!

To me, it's a slightly frustrating question of misapplied effort. (I mean, now it's "slightly frustrating". I'm pretty sure at the time I was damn near unhinged.) Monsters who kill humans is basically an every-episode thing at this point in Kuuga, and there are so many unnecessary investigative scenes in this story. Rising Titan is a brand-new form and there's not a lot of dialogue giving context to it. Like you said, yeah, Lightning Room Make Kuuga Strong is an easy leap to make, but it's not like this episode was so stuffed with plot that they needed to leave it up to the audience's imagination. Like, one scene! Less than a minute of dialogue! It wouldn't have taken a lot for them to tie that plot thread up nice and tight.

It -is- a bit of weird scene, that moment of him 'unleashing' his power and all exhausted from the effort, but I think when I first saw it, I assumed 'I guess he turned into Rising Titan for the first time in there and it winded him'.

Anyhow, if they really wanted to sell that Rising Titan was stronger than regular Titan, they should have let the Grongi swing down her sword right at Kuuga, and have it have no effect before Kuuga does the usual stab.

EPISODE 25: "Wandering"

These episodes have a shot that I remember more than any other shot in Kuuga. But we'll get there.

Lately, Kuuga's been maybe a bit uneven. A few episode sets here and there just haven't exactly been killing it, you know? We're overdue for a reminder of how incredible this show is, and that's what we get here. If the last story was the kind of sequel that just repeats the beats of the original with no new spin, this one is the kind that elevates the material to new heights. What we have here is a two-parter that combines the amazing drama with Kanzaki from episodes 11 and 12, with the emphasis on Pegasus Form taking on a flying opponent and Yuusuke cheering up a child in the way only he can from 7 and 8. It's two of this show's absolute best stories coming together to make one that's arguably even better, and that is one high bar to clear!

One other strength these episodes inherit from 7 and 8? Hidenori Ishida's direction. I gush about him every time, and it's because every time, he's always trying to do some new creative experiment with how to make the episodes he works on more interesting. Just shooting things prettily is rarely enough for him. There's always something unique to talk about with the visuals in his Kuuga episodes. Case in point: he's still finding new ways to shoot the Grongi that make them feel alien and unknowable.

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

His main thing here is motion, though, which is obviously hard to convey just through a screencap. There's a lot of emphasis on keeping the shots moving whenever possible. It can result in the camera getting a bit on the shaky side at times, but the effect is largely appreciated, and used to especially great effect for the shots that follow Hiraku around in a way that seems to emphasize the isolation and disconnect he feels from the world. Oh wait, that's right, I haven't even introduced you to Hiraku yet. Man, so much to talk about with these ones!

This is a story about disillusioned youth. Kanzaki mentioned back in his first episodes how he was concerned with the way children these days seemed not to expect much from the future, and that's what the show digs into here. He had his class write essays about the future, and at the end of Hiraku's, written in pencil strokes that are almost completely erased, is one very concerning sentence -- "I don't know where I belong." Kanzaki is naturally worried, and when Hiraku skips school to run off on his own to the Grongi-infested Tokyo, he reaches out to Yuusuke.

As well as he should, because the Grongi aren't exactly sitting around that day. In the past few episodes, the fact that the Grongi have an explicit ranking system has finally become apparent, with the "Zu" from early on being beneath the "Me", who are themselves below the "Go". With Garima's death in the previous episode, all that's left are the Go, and that means Kuuga and the police have their work cut out for them with all the new faces that have shown up recently. The one in the spotlight this episode is Go-Buuro-Gu, an owl who's flying around with a blowpipe, killing people at a significantly faster rate than Badjisu was all those episodes ago, and he's harder for the police to track, on top of that.

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

While it's once again apparent Yuusuke would much rather be looking for Hiraku on Kanzaki's behalf, there's kinda no avoiding getting involved with a case this pressing, and he heads out to help Ichijou put an end to it. Some trivia regarding their respective rides: Ichijou is back in a helicopter for the first time since the premiere (unless I'm forgetting something), and this is the first time we see Kuuga on the Try Chaser in one of his other forms, in this case going straight to Dragon Form so he can hop up onto the skyscraper Buuro is hanging around. That's only to get up there though. Yuusuke and Ichijou have been around the block when it comes to cases like this, so Ichijou's immediate plan was to toss Yuusuke his gun and have him use Pegasus Form's sharp senses to take Buuro down. And better yet, Yuusuke can use Rising Pegasus now.

https://i.imgur.com/PhQfD92l.png

Power like that is sure to be able to stack up to Buuro... although it might be a little tricky aiming once Yuusuke gets shot through the arm. Once again, folks: it's not easy being Yuusuke.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Another episode that saves on the thumbs budget.

Total thumbs up count: 43+0 = 43

EPISODE 26: "Myself"

Yuusuke displays some serious determination by fighting back the pain long enough to make a hit on one of Buuro's wings, but Buuro shows determination of his own by ripping the entire wing off his own body before it can cause him to blow up. Instead, he merely comes crashing down onto a very unlucky car, that thankfully at least didn't have anyone in it. Kuuga himself obviously isn't doing too hot, having reverted to Growing Form again, because that suit is too cool to not keep getting cameos. This also once again means Yuusuke can't transform for a few hours, and that can only mean one thing -- time to help out a kid who really needs it!

And Hiraku most certainly isn't doing too great. He's wandering around the neighborhood where his grandmother used to live before she passed away a few years prior, and he's finding out the hard way that you really can't go home again. The place just isn't the way it used to be a few years back, when he would have carefree fun playing around there. His grandmother's old house has been turned into a parking lot, which is about as disheartening as you can get, and it seems everywhere he looks is just one more reminder things aren't the same. A particularly big kick to the teeth is seeing an old model shop he presumably used to frequent turned into a dry cleaning place, which is obviously way less cool.

https://i.imgur.com/CSiEZP2l.png

Or maybe I just wanted to mention that one because of the cameos from no less than both Victory Gundams. Yeah, that could be it. Uh, by the way, the V1 is lying awkwardly on its back off to the side, if you can't see it. The perfect metaphor for how dejected Hiraku is feeling right now, I suppose. Cheer up, kid! You should take comfort in knowing your childhood can't possibly be as depressing as Uso's is!

Kanzaki arrives at Pole Pole, where Sakurako and Minori are, to wait for Yuusuke's return, while Yuusuke himself finally sits down with Hiraku for a chat. Of course, there's a whole monster plot here with a cool fight scene that features Pegasus Form on the Try Chaser (meaning that counting Titan on the Try Gouram in 24, we've seen all of Kuuga's main forms on the bike), but you know, just like episode 8, all of that is like, whatever right now. The real hero action this episode happens sitting down on some steps.

https://i.imgur.com/WJKQvO6l.png

Yuusuke's conversation overlaps with Kanzaki and the others at Pole Pole. It's essentially two halves of a single discussion, and once these scenes start after the commercial break, they alternate, completely uninterrupted by anything involving the Grongi and the police, for nine straight minutes. The episode knows how important this stuff is. On Kanzaki's end, he expands on what he was talking about back in his first appearance, giving the outside perspective on Hiraku, lamenting a little his inability to truly understand children and be there for them, and how the world seems to drive children to just obidiendently go along with life without giving it any real thought. How they're told not to waste time worrying and just have fun. This episode tackles a pretty uncommon subject for the kind of show it is, and takes an even more unusual stance, which is made readily apparent when Kanzaki outright says taking time to worry is important.

On Yuusuke's end, he's able to get the inside story from Hiraku, directly empathizing with him in ways Kanzaki can't. As always, he makes sure to break the ice instead of launching straight into a lecture, explaining he used to be Kanzaki's student, and even relating a story to Hiraku about a time he himself ran away from home when he was close to Hiraku's age. One moment I really like is how when he asks if Kanzaki still gives thumbs up, and Hiraku says it's pointless, Yuusuke explains the point using Kanzaki's own words about the history of the gesture. It's easy to take for granted, but Yuusuke wasn't there to hear that again back in episode 12, which means this scene proves that Kanzaki's words genuinely did stick with him that much. He can still recite them flawlessly years later. Yuusuke's as cool as they come, and he has an uncanny gift for understanding, which is why when Hiraku says he knows it was bad of him to ditch school to come sulk in Tokyo, his advice is both simple, and the most impactful thing a child in this position could possibly hear: it's okay to sulk.

To really prepare myself for this rewatch, I took a look at any behind the scenes information I could find on Kuuga. One particularly helpful source when it came to understanding the creator intent behind the show was a documentary included on the Blu-ray release of the show called "Inspection ~Document of Kuuga~", which is obviously awesome to begin with, because they even gave it its own two kanji, one word title. It's also full of great insights into the thought process behind creative choices, one of which is why Yuusuke's personality was so laid-back, especially in comparison to the stereotypical tokusatsu hero. Naruhisa Arakawa was, as anyone who's seen his Sentai work knows, a huge fan of tokusatsu heroes growing up, and he never lost that love. Which is why it made a lot of sense to me when I watched that documentary, and saw him talking about how, as a kid, he would see shows with fiery protagonists who speak with great intensity about how you've gotta become stronger! And, as a kid, sometimes he would feel a bit wimpy, and hearing that would just make him think "the whole reason I'm having problems is because I can't do that!" As Kuuga's main writer, he figured there were plenty of kids out there who felt the same way he did, and sought to create a hero who could handle these things in a more calm way, asking himself what he would've wanted to hear at times like that to feel some relief.

This one little thing explains so much about Yuusuke as a character, and goes to show why Kuuga is so great. This is not advice you give to kids when just writing by the rules. But Yuusuke, he doesn't care about rules. He cares about making sure people know how much their lives mean, and that's what makes him so reassuring. He won't criticize a child in pain, not even indirectly, and no matter how well-meaning it might be. It's okay for Hiraku to take time moping, even if it won't bring him the answers he's looking for. It's also okay to be worried about the future, as long as you spend the present trying to be the version of yourself you want to be. All of this, I don't think it's an understatement to call it a daring moral for a kids' show. There's a sort of.. expectation in society, and certainly in Japan, that children don't have "real" problems, you know? Politely telling them to suck it up when they complain is generally considered an acceptable solution. So to have Yuusuke, to have Kamen Rider, telling children instead that their anxiety is not only okay, but something of value, something that's an important part of growing up? That is huge.

I have to imagine a lot of children watching this in 2000 were not used to being approached on their own level this way, and that's why these are some of the series' best episodes, exceptionally genuine and heartfelt. Which is why it's a bit surprising I didn't remember too much about the plot here. But I remembered one thing, that I will never, ever forget. It's a moment that defines Kuuga to me, and, having finally seen what these episodes were about again, I now know why. What was that shot I mentioned at the beginning? What else could it be?

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

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Featuring Yuusuke really wanting to cheer Hiraku up, and also the exact same screenshot I just used up above.

https://i.imgur.com/4j8MWjfm.png
https://i.imgur.com/l5Mgnihm.png
https://i.imgur.com/tSO4pwXm.png
https://i.imgur.com/gUBtsKBm.png
https://i.imgur.com/brWCyzdm.png
https://i.imgur.com/AbCP14ym.png

Total thumbs up count: 43+6 = 49

My favorite Kuuga episode? Probably?

I think A Kamen Rider Consoles A Child is maybe my favorite Kamen Rider trope, so I guess it's appropriate that this episode would really land with me. (The one in Agito with Gills and the runaway was also a series highlight.) There's something so perfect about that kind of story, how it's all about gentleness and empathy in a franchise that has all the trappings of violent entertainment. That juxtaposition, of small quiet scenes instead of big flashy fights, it's something this franchise excels at. I feel like these scenes, not the big fight ones, stretch the actors, the crew, the writers in ways they really enjoy.

I really, really loved this episode. Godai Tells Kids It's Okay To Feel Feelings forever.

Awww, man, I missed my chance!

I've been trying to say something on every 2-parter; one post for every big watch post you make. And at the same time I've been saying to myself, obviously, I'm probably not gonna have something to say about every single story, and I shouldn't feel bad if I just don't say something sometimes. But now I have missed one! After being so diligent! Dammit!


So I'll say this about the previous 2-parter, first of all: I adore how low-key Rising Titan's introduction is. It's something Kuuga does a lot but I like that there's no fanfare to this new power, no telling and all showing. It just lets the form speak for itself with a minor bit of necessary exposition, lets you work out the obvious, and just lets Rising Titan be goddamn cool. Love that.

... I also find it kind of funny that if it wasn't for random Mushroom Grongi, Godai wouldn't be any more powerful and he might even have died in this episode. The Grongi have gotta hate that mushroom dude now. Or maybe they love him for making The Game more interesting! Who knows!

And to add on to the humour...

Build, Fourze and Faiz get more powerful from increasingly improving technology.

W and Den-O get more powerful from embracing their bonds with their allies and truly fighting alongside each other.

Gaim and Ryuki get more powerful by using the weapons handed to them in a death game as a force for good and their own ideals.

Kuuga gets more powerful from standard hospital equipment.

Just. Perfect.



And moving swiftly on because I GODDAMN LOVE THIS 2-PARTER!

Everything I said before about Episode 12 gets the perfect follow-up here. I love how seriously it takes kids' issues. I love how frank and honest and ultimately true it is. I love how it dedicates so much effort to what is, at its core, addressing mental health.

It's... almost strange to think about it this way, but the speeches in this and episode 12? Mika's entire story? How Godai always, always makes time for everyone? The more I think about it, and frankly in no small part to this thread going over everything again; the more I realise that Kuuga really feels like a show about mental health, and maybe one of the biggest reasons I resonated it with it so much. I don't know if the people working on it had degrees in psychology or psychiatry or anything of the like; or if they talked to experts; or if it's just coming straight from the heart. But whatever the answer is, it's just so pure and so real. Once again, Kuuga gets these feelings so many children and even teenagers and young adults have, and doesn't talk down to them or feel the need to give easy answers. It's a simple showing of validation, solidarity and trust; and sometimes that's what you need most. Sometimes you don't need direct advice or help; sometimes you just need to be told it's okay to feel these things, be able to vent them, and from there be able to move on.

And as you said, Fish: it's so wonderful for Kamen Rider to say this.






... there's no possible way to smoothly segue that into more Kuuga Gun screenshots, but here you go!

It's certainly pretty funny how often these big emotional two-parters also happen to be the ones where Kuuga is running around with a handgun!

Also, not to ruin the fun, but Gouram wasn't in these ones...

Good thing there were no Gouram pics then :)

This is my favorite.. nay, this might be the only "Kamen Rider Helps A Kid" sub-plot that I like. Probably because just how grounded and relatable the kid's issue is, and d the feeling that he's really a flesh and blood human being instead of some wooden prop/plot device to convey a broader theme or just to show how awesome and caring our main Rider is (*Godai is awesome and caring, but that sure isn't the only takeaway I got from this).

I never noticed the Victory Gundam reference there, man, that show was something else :lol

So actually, just want to go back to this for a second; because while we joked about it, I was talking about these episodes and Kuuga's episodes that -super- focus on mental health elements like this and... I realised something.

Why is it that these episodes feature Kuuga holding a gun?

Well. Because that's the weapon Pegasus and Pegasus Rising use.

You know. The form whose power is heightened senses and being acutely aware of one's surroundings, to the point that before honing that power; that well of information coming at you so suddenly is just utterly overwhelming, an absolute sensory overload that cripples you to your weakest point?

WHAAAAAATTTT.

Holy shit. A+.

So what you're telling me, is that you think episodes like this like to feature Pegasus Form... because it makes Kuuga a good listener?

Huh.

Okay, obviously the point you're making is a little more complex than that. This is seriously really interesting! If probably unintentional!

I imagine that Pegasus' power being that in general was intentional; I feel like all of Kuuga's forms and their powers represent something about Godai in general.

But while it's probably unintentional which episodes they landed on, I think it's extremely poetic that Pegasus debuted with Mika and Pegasus Rising debuted with Hiraku.

...

!

This is seriously the most interesting thing that's ever happened in this thread. Please continue to go on about this!

To barge in here my thoughts on Kuuga other forms. Mighty form is fire it represents Yusuke passion to protect others. The firey soul of hero if you will.

Dragon Form is water and like a stream being blocked it can still seep through. I feel like it represent Yusuke skills and the variety. Just like the episode about Dragon form Yusuke needs to learn the pros and cons of it and when to use it.

And Titan form represents Yusuke sturdy nature both with Minori getting worried that Yusuke becoming a different person and Yusuke easing her worries by reassuring her that he still the same. And its tied to it debut as a unflinching powerhouse never changing and never stopping.

Well, I've gotta admit; it's not exactly something I've thought about a lot and more just "yeah, I could generally see all these aspects representing parts of him", especially when Kuuga is just kind of that smart a show.

Buuut, if you want me to get into it...


Pegasus I'll get out the way quickly because, well, I just went over it. He's initially overwhelmed with sensitivity to his surroundings around him, but while he needs help; he's pretty quick to overcome it. I think that alone speaks volumes, especially when Pegasus does debut in the episode he's taking on a LOT of another person's trauma.

The Rising forms I'll also pretty quickly brush over because that's mostly pretty simple and in the context of this thread and its spoiler warnings, we haven't... quite seen everything yet. Including something pretty damn significant. But as I said, it's simple: it's in the name. He's rising, his new powerful forms are basically just better versions of what he had before. He's kept intact everything great about him and he's gotten better at it.

And just to make this a trio, I don't think there's too much to go into about Growing either; which like the Rising forms is what it says on the tin. It's Godai at his weakest -- he can still do something, and Episode 1 as well as the recent Triple Rider Kick lays out just how much he can do when he puts in the effort even when he really doesn't have much of anything to go on. Maybe it'd be more apt to call it his 'Trying' form, but that probably wouldn't look as nice on the toy box.

Mighty Form I think is pretty interesting because even compared to other main Rider forms, most of which have some sort of weapon (admittedly, I think before Kuuga it was only really Black RX and X that had significant signature weapons? I guess Super-1 had his power glove), but he relies purely on his punches and kicks. Like him, it's very simple... but it's very good at that simplicity and you get a lot more out of it than you might expect when the other aspects on the surface look like they have a lot more going for them. Yet it's what he goes with the most, and it always works out. You just spent a good few paragraphs going over how Godai helped Hiraku -- which I would say looks pretty simple and basic, yet is in fact probably the most sophisticated and smartest way of helping someone like Hiraku. Need I say more with how that parallels Mighty's effectiveness?

Titan Form I'm going to say is a restrained ruthlessness. Once again because of the spoiler embargo I'm going to hold back on the particulars of a certain later episode in the mid 30s, but if you know you know. It's even the form Godai ends up taking in the latter part of that episode's fight, which I think says a lot. It's maybe a bit kitschy, but Titan Form is Godai when Godai is not happy in the slightest. It's Godai when he's acknowledging the pain and suffering his enemies have wrought; it's Godai when he's rightfully angered at everything that's been going on; it's Godai when he's gritting his teeth. ... but it's Godai. So he doesn't show it. He doesn't have an outburst. He doesn't go mad. He just takes all his power, he takes one slow step at a time, and ends it with one stab. Titan Form is honestly pretty heavy, and not just because of all the armour.

Dragon Form... is a really big hole in my theory, or at least the one I haven't thought about in earnest yet. I'd have to give this a bit more thought; I could maybe say something about him giving up his go-to (his incredible strength) to go for a completely different method he doesn't usually employ (his agility and his staff movements), and... I think I'm on the right track there honestly, but I can't lie, this isn't a completely developed thought. Call back in a week, I guess!

I also have thoughts about his last two forms, but I think they're pretty predictable and obvious and I'd rather wait until we get to them honestly.

I'll also say that his ease of switching between his forms speaks volumes as well -- he's the man of 2000 skills, and so switching between very different forms of not just fighting, but also quite explicitly different ways of thinking? I think it goes to show just how well-adjusted and balanced he is, and how that feeds into how he's very good at acting the psychiatrist. Of course he's able to help with your problems, of course you can trust him to be there for you -- he's probably been somewhere similar with how multi-faceted he is! This comes across a lot in his different forms to me, and while it's not exactly unique to him; the actual movements and attributes of each suit you physically see and how they're used make it a lot easier for me to buy into, say, Pegasus' awareness than... Drive Technic being 'cool'.

(disclaimer: I like Drive Technic, but I swear Shinnosuke only had a 'cool head' in its debut. The different states of mind for Drive's forms really felt shoehorned in and really quickly dropped and I kinda feel like they shouldn't have bothered with it.)


So, yeah! A lot of this is probably obvious, but like I said towards the end; even if it's not something you think too deeply on, each form of Kuuga moves and acts and is used so differently that it's very very easy to read into these different forms representing different parts of Godai. Even if you don't agree with my specific interpretations typed up at 3AM when I should really be getting to bed for work tomorrow (though I mean, my shift starts at 4:30PM so, eh?), I think it's undeniable that there's some complexity and variance to Godai's state of mind in his different forms.

Wow, that is more detailed than I could've possibly hoped for and we are definitely going to have to pick this back up when I'm done with the show again.

Also, thank you for respecting my desire not to talk about "future" events in the show! I don't think I explicitly said that's a no-no like for other shows in the introduction, but I do kind of prefer to basically pretend it's 2000, if I can. I think having that state of mind makes it easier to appreciate a lot of Kuuga's twists and turns, so many of which become very, very easy to take for granted 20 shows and years later.

Again, it's not a hard rule; there's already been pictures of those other forms in here, for example, and that's fine! But I don't want to start accidentally talking about episodes I'm not to yet and realize I've basically used up all my material? Totally selfish of me, but that's just kind of the "rhythm" I'm in right now, if that's okay with everyone.

This was all super smart, but the way Godai's swiss-army-knife of talents informs the way he innately conjures up new forms, it's something that immediately came to mind and I'm glad you touched on it.

Great analysis! Get some sleep!

No problem! I felt I needed to allude at least a little to that to explain my thoughts on Titan, but... there's no need to spell it all out here. I expect your paragraphs on that particular episode will be worth the wait.

Episode 26 contains really good commentary about society in general, to be frank. Without getting to personal, it actually hit me in a really hard spot and had me reflecting on my own childhood; Constantly being ignored and told my feelings weren't valid solely because I was a child. So having an episode of a show go "Hey, kids have problems too, and they can infact be really important?" Yeah, it's something I wish I had had growing up.

"It's okay to feel sad."

I now see the forms in a different light because of you, Kurona. I love the thought of them representing Godai's flexibility in his way of thinking, perfect for a hero who faces all manner of conflict whether monster-related or a troubled stranger.

Aww, thanks! I'm glad my interpretations are having such an effect :D



Talking of which: got a couple more thoughts!

First of all, to follow up on Dragon Form; this is Godai in a calmer state of mind. But wait, you might ask. Isn't that just kind of Pegasus? And fair enough! In fact, I've always seen Dragon and Pegasus as very similar forms -- the lither, more agile powersets that rely on smarter, more cunning ways to defeat their enemies than just raw strength. In much the same way, I'd argue Mighty and Titan form are two sides of the same coin -- both incredibly strong and simple in their methods, but Mighty is Godai when you think of who Godai is, and Titan is Godai a little more under the surface.
With that description you might see where I'm going with what differentiates Dragon from Pegasus. Pegasus is when Godai is considering everything around him. Every sound, every sight, every feeling and every thought. It's what makes Pegasus so good at what it does. But Dragon Form? Dragon Form is when Godai's in a more zen-like state of mind and emptying his mind of all thoughts. And that's certainly not something that comes naturally to him at first, given its first appearance is getting beaten to hell and back. But after that everything in its combat suggests a warrior who's put things out of his mind to focus only on the battle in front of him, freed from worry and doubt.



I also want to talk about Gouram for a second because, yes, yes I'm really going this far; I'm sure soon enough I'll be talking about the psychological merits of the police bike. But in all seriousness, I find it quite interesting that when it's not being horse armour, Gouram's most significant use is with Pegasus. Pegasus is, as I keep talking about, a form that has a lot of symbolism and relation to mental health. It's constantly featured in episodes taking on issues of feeling out of place and alone in the world, issues of doubt and feeling like you should just deal with it. Pegasus is the form most associated with taking on so much information and processing so much that unless it's isolated and alone, it's downright impossible to do anything.
So I think it's pretty interesting that in those situations, Pegasus is the form that gets a friend.

A++

Didn't you remark that this is only to show fear via Grongi's attacks before?

It must weigh on Yusuke if he's a pure hero, no matter if he has a carefree attitude. Well, probably the police talks about the leader but do they think that taking out the leader will finish off the entire Grongi, the kind of "every goons cannot leave without the leader" part? Or at least they thought that the leader forms all the other Grongis?

Because Tsubaki has been shown before to have a crush on her, where he asked Yusuke or Ichijou if Sakurako's single.... Tsubaki's comments are rather tame... he only asks that she visits him, and just asking for a lunch. I feel like Sakurako doesn't even realize that he was flirting with her.
T̶e̶c̶h̶n̶i̶c̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶J̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶,̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶e̶-̶w̶a̶n̶n̶a̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶w̶a̶y̶. Hilarously Sakurako eats lunch with... Ichijou instead. Good thing that they both realize that Yusuke is truly needed for Grongis, otherwise they can't ever fight them back. I wonder why Sakurako took the lights, what purpose does the tool have on her? I do wonder how does everyone knows that Yusuke has an electrical sensation.

Not only to Sakurako, Tsubaki's also messing up with Yusuke here! Including claiming that electrical sensations come due to the defibrillator he used to him. If the victims don't look back when Garima slashes them, would they truly survive? And Yusuke should've transformed before he came across Garima! (he did pose while riding his motorcycle!), instead of stopping in front of her and transformed there. Also kudos to gain upper hand by splitting her sword in 2 and using it as Titan weapon (I wonder though if Kuuga Titan changing her sword into Titan one makes it stronger or not). I also wonder if Titan form can also take his TryChaser's handle to transform it into second sword. I know that Rising Titan has 2 swords, but still wonder. How many limits of items Kuuga can transform?

Yeah this is the bonkers moment of Kuuga I've seen for a while. I won't expect a better result if it's performed to Grongi compared to an ordinary Isuzu truck (though it did kill the Grongi driving it...), as it seems that Kuuga and Grongi are levels above cars (Kuuga Growing pushes a van without problem!). Why Sakurako felt low all this time? Tsubaki already explained before of the first risk of becoming Kuuga with it injecting to his nerves and brains and potentially turning Yusuke into a killer like them.

PWtf Yusuke... why did you say that she finally smiled? It's been done multiple times before, especially obvious when meeting with Kanzaki. Or Yusuke means that she's finally not depressed and worried over him again? Also why did Sakurako buy the McDonald anyway not to eat it? Too depressed to eat? It's clearly advertising; they didn't even hide the McDonalds logo!

Inoue's take on investigation aside, how did the Grongis get the store to sell the lighters? An offscreen show of Grongis learning to speak Japanese and blend to the society?

Yeah a safe space, but if the power is loose, wouldn't he destroy the room and break free? Unless the room are made very tough to even withstand the powers of Kuuga/Grongis. Sakurako is victimized here. I̶ ̶w̶o̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶r̶n̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶G̶r̶o̶n̶g̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶l̶a̶n̶g̶u̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶a̶l̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶G̶u̶r̶i̶m̶a̶.̶

It's cool when he punches away Garima while they both lock swords. Shows that you have to make use of everything you have and not rely on your weapon. Titan is strong in defense, but are his punches/kicks also stronger than Mighty Form too? And with all being worried, they didn't respond back to Yusuke's thumbs up! Bleh... Also this time Sakurako's translations doesn't play a part in gaining a new form does it? It only serves to ease her up.

The most memorable visual of Grongi to me so far for sure.

Oh yeah, the academic problem of only giving theories in lessons, with not enough life lesson to face them. Should Kanzaki make a counseling on the students for future topics? Oh well he did it a bit with Hiraku. Also here, a wish-fulfillment moment, someone skipping school isn't met solely by a scorn from the teacher.... Hiraku also is unafraid to be honest regarding the future to say "My place is gone"... w̶h̶o̶ ̶t̶a̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶l̶e̶a̶r̶l̶y̶?̶

Also want to ask from a reply I neglected before, regarding "has anyone had a teacher like Kanzaki", what are your criteria for a teacher like him?

Well, Kanzaki already warned everyone not to go to Tokyo but Hiraku though... And yeah Buuro definitely reminds me of Badjisu with killing people from above and flying to be hard to track. Oh wait, this 2 parter like you said above is practically a remake of ep. 7-8. So do Grongis purposely send the weaker member first until they're wiped out to send the stronger tribes?

If Kanzaki also warns Yusuke about Grongis in Tokyo, then he's actually still doing something on Kanzaki's behalf. Kuuga with another form on TryChaser won't change TryChaser to the current color...So Rising Forms don't need another help from Sakurako again... well it cut the time short to achieve those.

Why he's pained like that though? Tsubaki explained that it was about overloading the nerves for the senses, but does Kuuga need to overexert himself to sense Buuro? Well, the police did say that they cannot detect Buuro normally so does that also apply to Kuuga Rising Pegasus to overexert and detect Buuro? Also yeah this is the first time, Kuuga's main weakness is shown, his attacks, which leave stamps, only works on the spot of the body with the stamps, you can remove a part of your body with the stamps to prevent being affected by the attack. Kuuga should always aim for the main body part like head or torso... oh but he's struggling this time so yeah...

Did Hiraku become... (I admit, not really a serious question) homeless after his grandma died? Or all his family lives there (and if it's turned into parking lot, they moved?). Well yeah admittedly old houses is also a something you cherish. Did the parking lot used to be a playground for him to play in that place? I guess that shop must've something no other shops (or other around there) have to give Hiraku no options.

Oh right, the encounter I wanted to happen, for both teachers and both as close person to Yusuke. Was Minori Kanzaki's student too that he says nothing changed about her. And why did Sakurako also go there before Kanzaki arrived? Just to have a drink?

Oh the toxic positivity mentality, where it's thought that feelings don't matter (and only weigh you down) and it's easy and necessary to let go of them. The worse one even sees those who are unable to do so as mentally weak. It seems that Minori has a slight advantage to Kanzaki, that she teaches the kids from their roots (kindergarten), that she knows how a child is like before world ruins them. If a problem is never resolved like by sulking they'll grow cold. And usually from what I hear, parents are obliged to be starn to the kids, but Minori thinks otherwise here (but it also has a risk of spoiling the child).

I wonder why Yusuke left house though... he doesn't seem to be that kind of child judging from his adult self. Yusuke was copying Kanzaki's words and teachings though. Oh and Yusuke does the totally right thing to handle the problem, not to give hollow solution like some motivators do, but to assure them it's fine to like, sulk.

Yeah he doesn't care about the rules... like him defying the cops before (although to do the right thing). And not only a child, adults are also expected just to get over their problems and suck it up.

EPISODE 27: "Ripple"

History repeats a little here, because after a fantastic, emotional two-parter featuring Kanzaki so good the normally ominous music in the preview was replaced with the theme song, the opening changes yet again. The first version is still the best, but I think I like this one more than the second. Say goodbye to Negative Ichijou, and hello to this shot of Rising Titan Form posing with suave style.

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

Considering the show is still just in the middle of introducing the Rising forms (which kinda makes the new opening a spoiler!), this isn't quite the start of a new chapter like the last time this happened, but it is another two-parter written by Inoue that will feature Dragon Form fighting a monster by the water for its climax. Things in Kuuga have a way of looping back around, huh?

Well, uh, yeah, they kind of do, since first thing after the cold open, Yuusuke is telling Sakurako about Tsubaki's "joke" theory about the electrical shocks that led to Kuuga gaining the Rising power being caused by the time he used a defibrillator on Yuusuke. The show essentially takes a second here to put two and two together for the audience, and clarifies that, joke or not, Tsubaki was probably right on the mark, which would also explain why Sakurako hasn't found any ancient text that actually mentions any of this. Because this didn't happen to the ancient Kuuga.

The conversation then turns to Pops' vacation plans, where it becomes apparent he's cheaped out on heading to the coast in favor of hitting up a nearby water park. Yuusuke brings up that with people less willing to travel while the Grongi are around, the park has lost a lot of its regular customers. What we can take away from this is that Pops supports local businesses. Or I suppose we could take away that these episodes are about the effects the Grongi are having on society. The ripples, if you will. That might be more important. These episodes may have some surface-level similarities to episodes 13 and 14, but unlike them, they get to the point a lot quicker. Right after this scene, the episode moves over to the water park in question, where Pops, Nana, Minori, and Minori's friend from work, Keiko, are having fun in the sun.

Keiko is actually the major guest character here. She's been around the preschool in a few episodes before this, if you're keeping track. I don't know if Kuuga just had a super easy time getting actors back for some reason, but it's surprising how rare it actually is for someone entirely new to show up. It seems like any possible prior connection between characters gets used, to the point even an extra like Keiko can become a huge part of a story at some point. It's like once you've been introduced in Kuuga, the show never really forgets about you. Even Kameyama, Ichijou's old partner from Nagano, manages to keep squeezing in appearances every now and then. Anyway, Keiko's whole dilemma here is that she's pregnant, which she's very happy about because having a child is a wonderful thing, and she can't wait to see her child grow up to live a happy, fulfilling life in a world that's so... full of monsters. Oh, right. That might be a problem. A lot of Keiko's optimism ends up pretty crushed when it turns out the latest Unidentified Lifeform stopped by the pool they were at only a little bit after they left, which would certainly make things feel a lot closer to home.

Thankfully, the police are still working as hard as ever to sort this mess out. I mean, they've still barely got a clue what's going on, but they are trying. All the progress they've made up to this point has been significantly undermined by the fact that they're dealing with the Go level Grongi now. They're tougher, smarter, they have weapons, yeah, but that matters more to Kuuga. For the police, what's the most worrying right now is that the patterns they're using to kill people are more complex, and thus harder to predict, ruining what was pretty much the only thing the cops were consistently on top of. They managed to get Buuro taken down last time, but as Ichijou points out here, they never did manage to figure out why he was flying to the areas he was. Another problem they've yet to solve is finding equipment that's of any use against them. Although Enokida is shown looking at a screen with designs of a bike that doesn't quite look like the Try Chaser, and she mentions a mysterious "BTCS" to Ichijou at the end of their scene together. Huh.

As for the Grongi themselves, they're hanging out as usual -- in weird rooms with poor lighting. It's Katsuya Watanabe's turn in the director rotation again, and while I still don't have much to say about his style overall, I will note he's kind of become Ishida Jr. when it comes to Grongi scenes. He plays it a bit safer, but has the basics down, like the mostly monochromatic colors, and the shots that aren't focused on the thing you're actually supposed to be looking at.

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

Yuusuke ends up leaving a very busy Pole Pole in the hands of Sakurako to go help out Ichijou. Sakurako keeps busy by dealing with Tsubaki asking her out to lunch again, Tsubaki trying to score a date apparently being how you know it's an Inoue episode. Yuusuke keeps busy, because, despite heading out to help with the pool murders, he ends up distracted by Go-Badaa-Ba, the bike guy, who it turns out is also another grasshopper one. I guess somebody realized that idea was too good to only last two episodes, so they go all out with Badaa. He's tougher than Badzuu, and as we find out here, on top of having his own transforming bike, he even does his own transformation pose, taking the Rider inspiration to the next level. And speaking of transformations, Yuusuke's has a weird little easter egg of sorts.

https://i.imgur.com/EGC2CKNl.png

There's like a straight up sci-fi earpiece that appears before the helmet forms around him. You might think this means someone didn't get the memo that Kuuga's powers are more fantastic, but then, the Pegasus Bowgun has some high tech detail on it, and Kuuga also has a pet beetle robot, so I don't know. What I do know is that this episode ends with some sweet, sweet bike action, followed by Kuuga getting caught in a fiery explosion. Uh oh.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

I guess it's only fair an episode that ends with Kuuga getting blown up skips out on the thumb action.

Total thumbs up count: 49+0 = 49

EPISODE 28: "Clarification"

Of course, that explosion turns out to not be a huge deal, with Kuuga shaking it off, and managing to get back on his bike, still ready for action. This seems to impress Badaa enough that he calls it a day, and rides off. This whole fight sequence is insanely cool, by the way. There's a nice gradual escalation the show does with Kuuga's encounters with Badaa. The first time he showed up, it was just to say hello. This time, he's clearly just testing Kuuga's skills more than anything. Badaa is great rival material, and the way the show decides to build that rivalry is smart. There's an anticipation for what comes next. When is Badaa going to take off the training wheels and really go after Kuuga? Is Yuusuke going to be ready? Making it so Badaa isn't taking things seriously at first means there's still a mystery to him whenever he shows up, because we haven't seen him giving his all yet. And if this is him not trying, then when he finally is, it's bound to be the kind of bad day for Kuuga that makes for great television.

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

After the opening, Ichijou heads to the scene of the latest pool murder, where he briefly takes note of a woman nearby playing a piano. He doesn't quite suspect it yet, but this is in fact Go-Bemiu-Gi, the sea snake responsible for all these deaths. Her patterns are proving difficult for the police to crack, but they're starting to put the pieces together, noting that the number of victims at each scene seems to vary too much to simply be random. Yuusuke points Ichijou in the right direction when he suggests looking for some kind of sequence in the locations, which leads to him finally cracking both Buuro and Bemiu's logic. Buuro was targeting Tokyo's different wards in the order of the gojuuon (alphabetically, basically), while Bemiu's killings are based on a piece of classical music, with the number of people killed representing the type of note, and the name of each location representing its place on a musical scale. Thankfully Ichijou, being a class act himself, knows the composition in question is a piece by Chopin just from the tiny bit of it he heard Bemiu playing earlier, and just like that, the police have their edge back, able to make preparations for the next set of murders. Bemiu isn't too happy when she realizes nobody is at the pool she was going to next.

While all this is going down, there's of course plenty happening with the supporting cast. This episode sees Nana also learning her and the others from Pole Pole could've been attacked by an Unidentified Lifeform if they had merely happened to stay at that pool a while longer, and this scene, I really like. There's a mention of her teacher being killed again, and overall it really works to start putting some value into her plotline by suggesting that these things do weigh down on her, even if she doesn't always show it on the surface. Keiko sits down for a discussion with Minori where she admits she's worried bringing a child into such a chaotic world is a mistake. It's pretty weighty stuff handled quite well. One thing I really like is that the Godai Speech this time is coming from Minori Godai. Again, Inoue's take on Yuusuke often ends up feeling a little different in moments like these, so to just not have him be the one lifting people's spirits ends up being a point in the story's favor. And, also like I've said before, I like Minori's characterization and the similarities she has with her brother a lot, so this feels like a natural progression. It's a very Kuuga kind of outlook being presented, with Minori telling Keiko than even if life is full of suffering and hardship, it's also full of things that will make you glad you're alive. It's not the most complex moral in the world, I guess, but it's a good scene. I have to confess, though, I'm even more fond of the scene in here between Enokida and my main man Jean, who gives her a gift for her son: a book of papercraft projects he wants her and Sayuru to work on together. This is the kind of sweet gesture you'd never get out of a guy like Tsubaki, you know? Not only was Jean paying attention to what that phone call was about, he even makes sure to tell Enokida he thinks it's wonderful how much she enjoys her job while giving the book to her, just so there's no misunderstanding his motive here. Jean's just out here bringing families closer together, because that's how he rolls.

At the episode's climax, Bemiu has decided a beach is an acceptable substitute for a pool, and has resumed doing her thing there, because of course summer vacation in the world of Kuuga means a high chance of getting whipped by a snake monster. Kuuga's there to deal with it, using Dragon Form in a fight that has a super interesting progression to it. He actually gets one end of the Dragon Rod broken clean off, and then loses it entirely, shortly after getting thrown into a shack, but then lucks out when the tide brings in a random stick for him to use as a new weapon, leading to Rising Dragon's debut, which is strictly business, going straight to the finishing move, with Kuuga ramming Bemiu through, and then tossing her into the sea, where she creates an explosion that's notably more huge than usual, something also true of Buuro last time. Hm.

https://i.imgur.com/5qIMS6hl.png

And that about wraps these episodes up! I still have a soft spot for Chouno, but this is definitely Inoue's most solid work on Kuuga to this point. The detective drama is legitimately compelling, really having the cops think their way through the current case, and even the last one, which is extra impressive. The heartfelt human part has a great angle, and lands well. And the two fight scenes are both really frenetic and fun. Any way you look at it, I think this is a winner of a two-parter.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Still light on the thumb action, but Minori is making her brother proud here.

https://i.imgur.com/gCvg1ujm.png
https://i.imgur.com/kPHSlhVm.png

Total thumbs up count: 49+2 = 51

It's weird. While of the "base" forms, Titan is my favorite, when it comes to Rising, I give it to Dragon. Its debut, as well as how much the Rising variant fills out the design, it just does it for me.

Yaaay, the iconic Rising Dragon Gif Thumbs Up! I knew it was coming, but it's always nice to see.

I have to agree that this is probably Inoue's best, at least so far. While the last episode sticks out in my mind for its character work, this one sticks in my mind for its investigative and mystery work. I have many... many criticisms of Inoue, but one thing I really have to give him is that he knows how to make something stick in your memory. This killing pattern is so unique and something I don't believe I've seen done in literally any other show; and the investigation towards it is so natural that I can still very easily visualise it in my head. Just, yeah, super solid television!

There's a completeness to this story that I really remember enjoying, at least in how it feels less like the cops get whipped until the finale and then Kuuga kills the monster. There's a nice sense in this one that Kuuga's great at detonating monsters, but the police are trained investigators, and if they both do their part then the day can be saved. A solid partnership, you know? I really liked this one.

I remember a 2018 article regarding Kuuga's conception, as well as Agito and Ryuki, that might be pertinent due to the renewed interest in the series thanks to SHOUT!

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2018/08...ction-to-9-11/

I don't remember if this actually happens in the show, but I'd love for Rising Dragon to chuck that spear at a Grongi like a javelin.

If that is true, that would mean Tsubaki using defibrillator is an indirect help to Kuuga, not to revive him but to get him go Rising!

With people refusing to travel within a disaster (Grongi here)... that reminds me of certain something happened in real world.... Also what if Grongi notices this and started to break into houses/apartments (especially if they utilize Japanese language to communicate).... How did Nana actually follow without Yusuke coming? Keiko and Minori didn't really join the swimming pool right...

So they purposely kill with the patterns, the patterns are the part of the game right? And previously like the bee one it's not that hard to figure out. Well yeah, the equipment is the hard one as the human weaponry is rarely enough against the Grongi. But tracking down location of them for Yusuke to beat is helpful too.

Honestly, Sakurako should just ask Tsubaki to eat, right at Pole Pole, the place she's in. To be fair Tsubaki is focused enough to still talk about helping out (even if Pole Pole is, a restaurant), and leaving again if he got a call (though he leaves a flower to Sakurako). Now this is real problem if there are Grongis being in action at once.... there can't be 2 Kuugas to fight them off, and the cops for now can only track their locations, but can't fight them off. Are there any reasons there's only 1 Grongi each taking part into action before? Kuuga may can beat Grongi, but if there's 2 or more on killing spree, the public is screwed, Kuuga can't fight them all at once, especially if they're scattered in different locations.

I don't know if Badaa doesn't know Kuuga enough to shrug off something humanly like that. And yeah Badaa is the one Grongi that feels very Kamen Rider, he completely mirrors Kuuga. That one moment when Kuuga jumps and misses Badaa's head by an inch with his bike wheels tho... I wish Kuuga actually hit Badaa (head) that time. There's a lack of head on crashes too (which I'd like to see), with them mostly just scraping off each other.

Yeah, this is a smart sequence on both ends. Bemiu using piano music as a pattern to kill... with the unfortunate thing for her leaving marks on the piano and the aura that sets Ichijou off. And good thing for the cops to comprehensively list the number of victims and complete location. Usually it's assumed that monsters kill by random and what they can in random place, but not for Grongi case.

What should be realized for Keiko is that there are other chaos than Grongis though in the world. Avoiding yourself from Grongi is like avoiding terrorists (even if guns are far weaker than Grongis, it's still enough to kill) or something. Minori is an idealist right? Lesson from the Jean moment; don't instantly chastise those who is eavesdropping you! Sometimes they can help and surprise you!

I guess the beach should start with "So" for her to go there. How do they figure out that a beach is going to be her substitute though? And so if Kuuga's weapon is affected, it reverts to it's original shape, but the original shape is not damaged too or something? I want to know if Kuuga Mighty can enhance the finisher by training to give flying side kick, how about the other forms? How to distinguish the way do you a finisher attack or an ordinary attack in a non-Mighty form? (like how you talk about Mighty Form leaving Kuuga trail in his attacks at earlier part)

Okay, I've been really bad at replying to things lately, so let's see how many of these I can cover in one go.

I don't think I said it was or should *only* be that, and that's why the timing that plot point with Nana is introduced... it maybe ends up feeling a little too buried by everything else happening in those episodes? And that's why it seems even weirder the way it immediately goes out of focus in the very next episode? I don't know. One of the first things I said in this thread was that I'm not very critical of Kamen Rider. I'm not upset about it or anything, but it seemed incongruous enough to be worth commenting on.

A lot of it is about context? Sakurako came to Tsubaki because she was in the middle of freaking out about the potential life-threatening danger she thinks Yuusuke is in. It's not really a great time to ask her out!

This isn't very scientific, but he only has two hands, so I'm going to go with two things at once. :p

Unless I'm misunderstanding something in the plot, the lighters are completely unrelated to the Grongi. The purpose of that plot point is just to throw the police (and the audience) off the trail by making them assume they must be important.

If you go by the official stats every Rider form always gets, Titan Form's punches are in fact a bit stronger than Mighty Form's! Although I never put too much stock in those things myself. They tend not to matter that much.

I guess I don't really know? Kanzaki's portrayal just seems pretty exaggerated in a lot of ways, but I guess (hope?) it might not be all that unrealistic for a teacher to be that invested in the development and well-being of their students beyond merely teaching them whatever rote academic material they're required to. This could probably lead to a whole, kind of off-topic discussion in its own right!

Bingo.

Oh I know, that's part of why I wrote that! It's actually a legitimately consistent trait of Yuusuke that his sense of right and wrong doesn't have much to do with the law. It's a lot more about having a good reason to him, and that's why he's okay with taking a police bike without permission (he needs it now, and can give it back later), as well as implicitly encouraging a child to skip school (Hiraku needs this time now, and can go back later). The show does a great job giving him a fleshed-out mentality.

Bingo.

Another rule of the "game". Everyone gets their turn, and interfering with that is frowned upon. It's about as close as they get to being civil. On a meta level, it's also how Kuuga provided a logical reason to do the "monster of the week" concept.

It's just the next most logical place where crowds of people would be hanging out in the water, I'd presume.

I think Mighty is kind of an exception specifically because it doesn't rely on a tool. With Pegasus, for example, it's only attack IS its finisher, and beyond not missing, I don't think there's anything to really be trained. Same deal with Dragon and Titan, whose finishing moves are just to poke the Grongi with the ends of their weapons.

Rising Dragon is really cool! I love the blades on the Dragon Rod, and the extra blue on the shoulders, but then, I also appreciate the normal Dragon's simplicity, with its black shoulders and basic stick. The point being, I still refuse to say any one form of Kuuga's is better than another. :p

I think that's always been the strength of how "wild" Inoue likes to get, that tends to get lost in the discussion with how often he's criticized for relying on a familiar set of tropes. His stuff can be extremely creative, and while it's not always a good thing, when it works, it *works*.

Yeah, that's a really good way to put it. These episodes feel filled out really nicely.

I wouldn't mind seeing that myself!

Oh... I thought you had forsaken us all. W̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶t̶r̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶e̶.̶

Actually, my point was, Kuuga Titan keeping Garima's sword and also his motorcycle handle so he can use 2 swords at once. Though I was also thinking if Kuuga holds 2 weapons in 1 hand at once (like as Titan holding handles of 2 swords in 1 hand at once for a double weapon).

N̶o̶t̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶i̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶s̶?̶?̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶K̶u̶u̶g̶a̶ ̶U̶l̶t̶i̶m̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶?̶!̶

That would mean probably I do have at least one. The one that would check out my condition at my house after I was released from the hospital.

Oh yeah.. so the lesson is don't judge any rule breaker (breaking simple rule, not catastrophically like crimes) as bad before knowing the reasons. Though doing like Godai does by stealing a police bike is a huge risk.

Yeah, I won't judge first before knowing the reasons for the bizzare path characters took (unlike most people, which is why I find hating something without fully knowing it can be as stupid as liking something without fully knowing it - aka "questionable taste"), so I opt to ask here and not I get the answer.

WTF?! Pegasus' attack is only a finisher?!! (and Dragon and Titan aren't? where there are ordinary slashes) That's bonkers to me. So it's not a coincidence that Pegasus always one shots the enemies from what I see. Would that make it the strongest form Kuuga has between the 4 main ones? It's got long range, it's attack are all one-hit-kills, and it's got no actual weakness (or does the nerve overload count? probably that can be handled if Kuuga just doesn't overexert too much, which I guess what he did on Buuro before after gaining rising?).

EPISODE 29: "Crossroads"

This one starts with an absolutely killer cold open. This will be another fairly busy episode, so I don't know if you can say it establishes the central concept, but it is under a minute, and has no dialogue whatsoever. Central or not, it tells you one of the most important things to know about this story, and it announces it with some real impact.

https://i.imgur.com/NGeB5aql.png

That's right, Chouno's back! And he's being written by Arakawa this time! I told you this show doesn't forget about characters. Although we'll have to wait a bit to really find out what he's been up to lately, as after the opening, the other big plot thread for this one is established, as Pops admires the latest additions to his Unidentified Lifeform #4 scrapbook, featuring his fancy new gold versions. The purple one, the green one, the blue one, all looking shinier than ever! No red yet, though. This is another bit of structure the series did I really love. If you'll notice, the introductions of the Rising forms have gone in reverse order, gradually working their way back to Kuuga's main form, and I think that's super smart. It's like a countdown. Rising Mighty is a big deal. It has to be, and the show knows it. Oh, and while we're on the subject of that scrapbook, I do find the pictures in the articles about #4 kind of funny. This is obviously not something you're meant to read into, and the show gets points for making the pictures extra blurry and washed out for that guerilla photography look, but it's still blatantly just screencaps from the episodes, which means oddities like a photo of Rising Pegasus from a rooftop nobody but Kuuga was on, and a shot of Rising Titan about to stab Garima from her perspective. Pretty sure she wasn't holding a camera in that scene!

Over at the university, Sakurako is still racking her brain over that whole "the sun will be swallowed by darkness" thing, but that's quickly interrupted by the arrival of Jean, who also happens to be bringing along another returning character. Turns out Mika's back for these ones too! She's in Tokyo to see Gouram, and of course Jean is all too happy to oblige, because he's cool that way. There's also confirmation here that Jean is aware that Yuusuke is Kuuga, having been told by Enokida offscreen at some point, continuing a trend of #4's identity being the very definition of an open secret. Jean apparently also hasn't been stopping by to see Gouram as much lately as he normally does, a subject he seems pretty uncomfortable having brought up. Yet another plot point that'll take a second to wrap back around to, but for now I'll just say Gouram probably wasn't the real reason he was going to that lab every day. Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, Enokida is keeping busy as usual, working on a variety of ways to deal with the threat of the Unidentified Lifeforms, one of which is that mysterious new bike, glimpsed here only in shadow. Yeah, Rising Mighty wasn't the only thing the show knew how to build hype for.

https://i.imgur.com/OR6D2zal.png

The latest Grongi to get in on the game seems to be more into the concept then usual, as his shtick in human form is dressing like some kind of gambling gangster, choosing the locations for his murders by playing roulette. You might expect a slick guy like that to have a pretty subdued monster form, but it's quite the opposite. Go-Gamego-Re is a beefy armored turtle whose weapon of choice is a huge supply of heavy stone ball-and-chains, that he lobs huge distances from the tops of buildings onto the unsuspecting people below. I'd like to say this is the most brutal we've seen the Grongi get, but honestly, I'm not sure this guy would even crack a top 5 list. Not that he isn't begging for Kuuga to put a stop to his killing spree all the same.

Before we get there, though, Yuusuke discusses the status of the Amadam inside him with Tsubaki and Ichijou. Tsubaki confirms once and for all here that, even though he meant it as a joke, him using the defibrillator on Yuusuke was the thing that lead to the Amadam being able to harness electrical power, and thus the Rising forms. This might sound like redundant information, but this scene goes much, much deeper into the subject, with a key point of concern being how thoroughly the Amadam is making itself a part of Yuusuke's body. Tsubaki even warns him the strain on his right leg will be particularly bad if he uses the new power with his red form, but Yuusuke is all smiles as usual. Because after all, he doesn't have a care in the world, right? He never worries about becoming nothing more than a living weapon with no control over himself, right? He certainly doesn't let any of that get him down if he does. At least, he doesn't in public. But once he gets outside, in another great minimalist moment where the show lets the silence speak for itself (there's not even music), the look on Yuusuke's face, so far removed from his usual bright expression, tells us everything we need to know about just how seriously he does take things.

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

From there, Kuuga ends up in the usual intense fight with the monster, which ends up being huge trouble for Chouno. It turns out, in the time since we've seen him, he's been moving in a positive direction, pursuing an interest in art, with plans to apply with his latest piece for a chance to be used in a commercial. Right away, I love what this story does with Chouno. It's a direct result of the growth he had in his debut, so credit where credit is due, but it's easier to sympathize with him, and understand his deal, because this time, we see him trying to put the work in. He's making a very obvious and sincere attempt to move forward, and the specific choice to center that around art is the perfect way to convey all of this to the audience precisely because it's a little stereotypical. You see a guy pouring his heart into a drawing, and you kinda don't need any dialogue at that point. There's a beautiful visual metaphor in there too, that might even be one of my new favorite shots in this whole series. Remember how Chouno was flashing his switchblade in the cold open? He could've just been doing that for no reason other than to alert the audience that he's in the episode, but there actually is a reason for it. He's using the knife to sharpen his pencils.

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

It's absolutely brilliant. That knife is the symbol of the darkness that's been consuming Chouno, so to have him take the knife, and make it into a tool that serves a constructive purpose, something that builds and creates instead of harming and destroying, making the darkness into light, I mean... I said Inoue didn't quite get Kuuga's storytelling style back when he wrote those first episodes of his, and this kind of stuff from Arakawa is what I'm talking about. This is two scenes, each under a minute, both without any dialogue at all, and they're getting this much across. It's amazing. It also totally gets me rooting for Chouno, which is why it's probably not a good thing the Unidentified Lifeform rampaging through the city is blocking the way to where he needs to go to submit his drawing in less than half an hour.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Hidden internal angst or no, you can't stop Yuusuke from doing what he does best, and Tsubaki certainly believes in him.

https://i.imgur.com/gs2UF93m.png
https://i.imgur.com/orz9pgSm.png

Total thumbs up count: 51+2 = 53

EPISODE 30: "Fate"

Kuuga's fight with Gamego isn't going great at the start of this one. He switches to Titan Form and tries the usual power walking thing, but not only are the hits Gamego lands on the armor strong enough to make him flinch, Gamego is smart enough to exploit what seems to be Titan Form's biggest weakness, with Kuuga taking balls to his entirely unarmored stomach, and face, in quick succession, totally knocking him off balance. This is another super intense bout, with two opponents throwing everything they have at each other. Kuuga gets back up and attempts to turn the tables with Rising Titan, but Gamego barely cares about what would normally be a fatal stab wound for a Grongi, and when Kuuga is unable to maintain the Rising power any longer, he gets thrown back so hard, he ends up in Growing Form yet again. Ichijou finds Yuusuke unconscious, and has him taken to Tsubaki. Meanwhile, Chouno is desperately running to make it before his deadline, but any hope he has of getting there in time is pretty thoroughly dashed when Gamego knocks him out just as cold as Yuusuke.

Ichijou, determined to carry as much of the burden as he can, asks Enokida to get him some of the fancy new bullets being developed for use against the Unidentified Lifeforms. They're not meant to work without equally fancy new guns to handle the recoil, but Ichijou probably doesn't care about a sprained shoulder or two if it means repaying Yuusuke for even a portion of what he's done for them. This is another episode that really focuses on the impact Yuusuke has had on the people around him, with Tsubaki getting to do a lot of the heavy lifting on that front. Despite his eccentricities, Tsubaki takes his work seriously, and as such, he has a more direct understanding of what kind of suffering Yuusuke goes through than arguably anyone else in the cast, maybe even including Yuusuke. In a conversation with Sakurako, he stresses that Yuusuke's ability to recover from injuries unnaturally fast puts a huge strain on his body, and that those healing abilities have only gotten more potent over time. Meaning, just like back in episode 6, Yuusuke is probably holding back a lot of pain getting back up like nothing happened. Sakurako simply takes this to mean they all have to give their all too, which shows some growth from how she used to feel about him risking his life as Kuuga.

Just about the only scenes that don't contribute directly to the main plot here are the two with Jean and Mika, which I can't think of a good way to work in anywhere else, so they get their own paragraph. It's just two short bits, the latter of which has them going to Pole Pole hoping to see Yuusuke, but since he's preoccupied, it doesn't amount to much. The former is a lot more juicy, with it becoming apparent Enokida and Jean are a little awkward around each other right now, not helped by Mika innocently bringing up how she was looking forward to meeting her based on Jean's glowing descriptions. That's as far as that goes this episode, though, so as much as I love talking about Jean, there's the whole rest of the episode to get back to.

Chouno's been brought into the hospital himself, waking up to realize, to his horror, that he missed his window. Instead of having him go straight to throwing a fit, he immediately tries to get on the phone with the company running the contest to see if he can still sort this out, but he gets hung up on before he can even try the old "a horrifying monster was blocking traffic" excuse. It's another great moment to build some more sympathy for Chouno, showing him still trying even once things have already gone wrong, but he still has his limits, and this breaks him a little. Yuusuke has already run off to go deal with Gamego, meaning this time it's entirely up to Tsubaki to try keeping him looking forward. He starts out friendlier than last time, sincerely happy to see Chouno making progress, having found out he's been getting his illness treated in the time since they last saw each other. It starts getting a little ugly when Chouno accuses Yuusuke of just smiling his way through life without any trouble, compared to how much he's been struggling. Again, Tsubaki's one of the few people who truly gets what Yuusuke is going through, so that remark gets under his skin a bit. Chouno insists that anyone would be as happy as Yuusuke if things always went as right for them as they do for him. Which, of course, shows how little Chouno is aware of what he's even talking about. Yuusuke's been battered, bruised, beaten, bitten, blown up, shot, thrown off of skyscrapers, poisoned, dead... you name an injury, and chances are he's had it at some point or another. Being #4 has been far from fun and games for Yuusuke. But his suffering goes beyond even that, and Chouno's about to learn why. His conversation with Tsubaki reaches its most tense point when he says he would've been better off letting Biran kill him back in episode 14, which makes Tsubaki lose what patience he has left, snapping at Chouno for his defeatist attitude. This causes Chouno to punch Tsubaki in the face. After this, Tsubaki has just one question -- how did it feel?

https://i.imgur.com/V4MCvOdl.png

And of course, it felt bad. Chouno doesn't feel any happier having hit Tsubaki. He doesn't feel relief, or satisfaction. He lost control, and he lashed out, and the look on his face makes his regret clear. All of that is just from one punch. Yuusuke, though, this is what he deals with almost every day. It doesn't always show on the surface, but it's there, no matter how justified using violence to stop the Grongi is. He hates it, and Tsubaki knows this. He knows that Yuusuke really is scared of what he might become because of the Amadam, and he knows the reason he doesn't complain about it, even the tiniest bit, is because he puts other people's smiles first, no matter what. How much of an impact hearing all this has on Chouno is left up in the air for now, as Tsubaki leaves him with one other piece of information about Yuusuke to chew on. He really liked Chouno's drawing.

In his fight with Gamego, Kuuga is doing better than last time, especially thanks to help from Ichijou, who uses that new ammunition to disarm the Grongi. He succumbs to the recoil just like Enokida warned him about, but this action provides Kuuga the opportunity to load Gamego onto the Try Gouram's horns, and take him off to a slightly more remote location. You see, this time, Yuusuke is planning to use the gold version of his red form, and he's got a very bad feeling about what all that extra power might do. As such, he's had Ichijou evacuate the nearby area in case it might result in people getting hurt. Very, very good thinking on Yuusuke's part, because Rising Mighty's Rider Kick turns out to have exactly the kind of effect he was afraid of.

https://i.imgur.com/4H0GEgMl.png

Yeah, now you realize why this show didn't want to do monster explosions practically. Kind of makes it harder to gradually up the scale over time. This is an insanely memorable form debut, obviously. It's ominous and intense, and a great way to end a very strong pair of episodes. The story here builds off of everything the series has established up to this point super well, and is packed with great moments. Using Chouno as a vehicle to remind us of Yuusuke's inner conflict was especially inspired, as it perfectly ties in to Rising Mighty's reminder that Kuuga's growing power isn't necessarily a good thing.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Despite it all, Yuusuke is still keeping his spirits up here.

https://i.imgur.com/lJ4hPRPm.png
https://i.imgur.com/rbKgvDWm.png

Total thumbs up count: 53+2 = 55

Oh, and I definitely want to mention this: That last post was actually my 2000th on this forum. Nowhere near as impressive as having 2000 skills, but a milestone nonetheless.

I mentioned right in the introduction that the stars lined up to make this thread happen, but I don't think I realized at the time just how true that would turn out to be. This year marks Kuuga's 20th anniversary, and I don't know how much better a birthday present it could've gotten for that occasion than an official western release with extremely high-quality English subtitles. I would've never guessed in a million years we'd get here, but it happened, and I am just... beyond happy about it.

Indeed, I failed to see this coming so hard, I actually had an entire post written I was going to put up between episodes 26 and 27 about the absurdly huge amount of errors I had found from Midnight Crew Subs' releases just in the first half of the show. The number by episode 24 was over a hundred individual lines that were messed up in some way. This is why you haven't seen dialogue on any of the screencaps I've used. I was literally keeping track of this stuff the entire time, and then, not long after I finished putting together that post, that consisted largely of me walking through some of the "greatest" hits I'd come across in an effort to vent my frustrations, it all became completely irrelevant. The last paragraph had a line, that, no joke, read "it's my sincere hope this post becomes obsolete one day. Whether that be due to a newer, more thorough fansub, or even, dare I dream, an official English release that meets a professional standard, it doesn't matter that much."

But that dream came true, and now, that post is so obsolete, I never even posted it. And that's awesome. While I've yet to watch a full episode, I've went and checked dozens and dozens of bad lines from MCS' translation to find, nearly every single time, they're fixed up perfectly. And as an even more pleasant surprise, the dialogue just plain reads great. Very natural and smooth without losing the meaning. Plus, the theme songs are translated to that same standard, so it's even better. There's basically no downside to this situation. Just like Shout's Sentai stuff, it's streaming for free on several different services, too, so it's just as cheap as piracy! The only thing to even consider being bummed about is that the Grongi language is rendered in English, but, as much I'm *firmly* on the side that believes it shouldn't be by default, there are legitimate arguments to be made in favor of handling it that way, and, I'm telling you, it's a total non-issue in the face of how good a job was done. Just think about the implications of complaining about it for a second. The biggest problem with the official Kuuga release is that they did too much work. Well, that, and being in a region where you still can't watch it officially, admittedly. Still! There has never, ever been a better time to watch Kuuga, whether you're new to the show or not, and if you doubt the people making this stuff happen have a real passion for what they're doing, just take a look at what clip TokuSHOUTsu's YouTube page chose to sell people on the show. You don't pick this one by accident!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS12kX29QvI

Often I don't like trying to do responses to every little bit of a post, because it really ends up resulting in me trying to find things to say when I either just don't or it was already said for me. Fun fact: that's been my experience in a LOT of this thread; a scene you're describing in a post reminds me of thoughts and emotions I had in response to it... and then you lay out those thoughts and emotions for me! It's kind of wild seeing other people have such similar experiences to me; there's something kind of nice about it?

And aside from that, this site's infrastructure unfortunately just doesn't make it easy to do long-form replies. But as it turns out I've got a surprising amount of things to say here, so here we go!


I've said far too many times how I'm not a fan of Inoue's writing, and especially on this show I think he wrote some of the weaker ones. And my feelings on his writing in general aside, I think there's a big reason for 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. That doesn't stop drama and emotional moments from coming through - in fact, at his best, Inoue really knows how to make those work for each other - but it's really not a good fit for a series as minimalist and grounded as Kuuga. And he certainly seems to understand this, because he tries to reel in his normal tropes and style and nail what Kuuga's all about. But while there's times he comes close - there was a pretty damn good one last time - it's often just not the best outings Kuuga has.

And Chouno here is just the supreme example. His more subdued nature here can largely be attributed to his actual efforts in progressing, sure; with that resulting in his having a fair bit more tolerance before he reaches his breaking point. But the way this episode has his emotions communicated through actions and shots and body language; and at that smaller, more relatable motions... which style of storytelling here works best is up to the individual, of course, but in terms of what works as a Kuuga story, this is a vast improvement over Suspicion/Omen. Everything about how he's portrayed hews much closer to how we often see our main cast act out their own characters, and it's to the extent I actually wouldn't mind seeing him a lot more often! After this he makes a single other appearance in the series, but it would have been nice to check in on him a little more often every now and then to see how he's doing. He's an excellent example not just of the type of person Godai wants to help; not just of a different type of victim than Hiraku and Mika are; but also in my opinion... the type of person Godai easily could have become. It's just my personal reading into it, but the parallel between his realisations this episode and Rising Mighty's power are too vast to ignore for me.


This is ultimately a small thing, and one that the end of the episode shows there's clearly a much bigger reason for; but I SUPER miss this in Kamen Rider. Often when there's some sort of all-forms-upgrade thing like with Wizard's Dragon Styles or Build's Hazard Forms, it's the main form that gets the treatment first (here, Flame and Rabbit/Tank). And I get why of course because it's the most effective way to show an upgrade, but the Rising forms making such a clearly big deal of Rising Mighty in building it up not just makes it exciting to get to what's obviously the most important one, but also makes it feel like a much bigger event -- and one that might have a few secrets waiting in store.

Like, you know it's obviously not gonna stop at Rising Titan being his only upgraded form that he constantly uses... not that I'd terribly mind when it's that beautiful. So that little extra bit of anticipation is super nice.




So I have this really close friend who, when we were growing up, was absolutely convinced he HATED romance as a genre. He just despised it, couldn't stand to see it, and resolved to just have it as little as possible in his own stories he was writing.
Fast forward to as of late, me and him both write quite a LOT of romance actually, and just can't get enough of it in stories like these between two characters that are just close.

So, why is that? ... because the vast majority of romances me and him were coming across in fiction were ones that were incredibly forced.

I'm sure anyone here could come up with a dozen examples. You're watching a cool action movie or an interesting series, and near the end, suddenly The Main Boy Character and The Main Girl Character suddenly kiss. They don't really have the best chemistry at all, it wasn't exactly led up to, but they're just kind of a couple now because I guess that's a prerequisite. It's a pretty common trope, for sloppy romances to be there just because people think there should be a romance with no real actual purpose behind it.

Might seem a bit of a random thing to bring up in a Kuuga thread, but I bring it up because if romance was what they were going for between Enokida and Jean? If the two ended up as a couple? I really, really wouldn't mind! Their scenes together and the fact they talk to each other at all come completely out of circumstance, but in that wonderful Kuuga way where it's absolutely believable and doesn't feel contrived in the slightest. There's no real romantic implications at first, no character going "oh you two look so cute together!!!"; they just naturally develop and find out more about each other as any two characters would. It's maybe a bit early to start talking about this given it's hardly reached its apex, but Kuuga handles character chemistry in such a way where any two characters that are close would feel completely natural being either platonic or romantic! It just helps make it feel that much more legitimate and that much more grounded, and it's a lovely element of the season. There's no "two characters set up to be a couple", or "two characters set up to be friends". There's just two characters.


The Decade-W-OOO-Fourze stretch is what I've absolutely committed to in terms of Rider rewatches. It's too perfect -- I've now watched all the Heisei Riders so I'll understand the context behind Decade more, Decade leads into W; and W-OOO-Fourze is not just one of my favourite stretch of shows but it's been a while since I've seen them and would love to re-evaluate how I feel about them a couple years later. ... jesus, it's really been that long...

But given how good a job Tokushoutsu's done and given your glowing review of it, I'm now VERY interested in a Kuuga rewatch too! I don't think now's quite the time since it hasn't been that long since I finished Kuuga. After all, I finished it while Zi-O was just ending, and that was only...
...
Only... 8 months ago...?! HUH????




Either way, you've really piqued my curiosity with your post here about bad translations and how much of a better job Shout's done. As a non-Japanese speaker who's only really picked up what Iwae means, your posts about translations and how different sub teams handled certain scenes are always a very interesting look to me into the translation process. Are you sure there's nothing you'd still want to post from that abandoned project? It'd be really interesting for me to see, especially if compared to Shout's work!

Wow, Kurona, you went as all out as I do on that one. Kudos!

If the stuff I'm saying about Kuuga is in any way doing a good job representing what other fans like about it, I'm very happy to hear that. I'm just speaking from the heart, so like, for you to tell me you had a similar experience, that's kind of nice for me too.

I'm not sure if I really stressed enough just how much I love that part. Kuuga basically gets to have that big new form impact twice because of the way it decided to dole them out, and even if you argue Rising Titan's episodes were underbaked, it becomes a simple matter of "well, that wasn't the main event anyway". I don't think it needs to be applied to every show (episode 9 of Wizard is one of my favorites for a reason!), but for Kuuga, at least, I just can't imagine it being as satisfying any other way.

Tacked-on romance subplots can be a real problem! I don't want to pretend I'm good at giving writing advice, but I think the more and more my tastes have developed over time, the more I realize I think building relationships between characters is like, the absolute most important part of most stories. Regardless of what kind of relationship it is. Friends, enemies, lovers, whatever, that kind of stuff is what drives conflict, and if you fail to establish identifiable motivations for your characters, you end up with things like buddy cop style stories about people who are best friends for no reason, or, indeed, minimal effort, last-second romance plotlines put in to give the illusion of some added emotion.

And this! This is just one of the best summations of why Kuuga works I've ever heard.

The "compared to Shout's work" thing is actually part of why, if I did want to do that, I'd sort of want to rework it into something more extensive. Like, literally just bring this thread back to life at some point way off in the future when I rewatch Kuuga in its entirety again with the new subs (and that is definitely going to happen at some point). Probably not something to count on, though. As it is, I feel like there's only so much point to saying what I was going to now, but since you asked, I can give some digest highlights:

- So, first of all, extra context for that "over a hundred" statement. The exact number of errors was 123, and that's actually only from 13-24. For the Blu-Ray releases, MCS had completely brand new translations done by one of the people from Over-Time for 1-12, and as a result, those were pretty beautiful in their own right. And while I'm at praising what MCS was doing right with their newest versions, I honestly think the cypher for the Grongi language is the ideal way to handle it. That way it's mysterious without just looking unfinished, but also, for some reason, I feel like doing that would be considered "unprofessional" or something and I kind of get why Shout didn't go that route.

- One of the errors I was going to single out, from episode 22, was the most upset I got at a single mistake. It's Enokida's mom talking to her over the phone about her broken promise to Sayuru. Enokida was supposed to help him make a little papercraft project thingy that came with some book. These are known as furoku in Japan, which loosely basically means a bonus thing included, but more literally means "appendix". Despite it being shown on screen right after, and the word itself referring very specifically to the appendices of things like books, and not the body part, MCS had this line as "He said you'd take him to get his appendix checked", which is both a weirdly mature thing for a small child to worry about, and also makes Enokida look ABSURDLY neglectful. Not to mention it goes on to be a plot point in its own right, with Jean buying that book, so screwing it up has long-term consequences. Shout's subs have the line in question as "You promised him you'd help him put together his little project", which more than adequately gets the point across, especially with furoku being a hard word to find a 1:1 equivalent for.

- The runner up is from episode 26, where Sugita explains to Ichijou that they found objects resembling an owl's pellets in the victims got mangled by what I presume was the team at MCS not knowing what "pellet" meant in this context. Or at least I didn't know. Which is why it's helpful that Ichijou's response is a common trick for exposition on a term, where he gives the definition in the form of a question, asking if Sugita means the indigestible parts of food birds cough up. MCS just ran wild with that exchange, with Sugita saying nonsense about finding feathers in the victims (despite Buuro using a blowgun), and Ichijou asking if that's like when cholesterol clogs your arteries, which is just... ???

- The cop scenes in general were prone to errors like that due to the highly technical nature of the dialogue, which is one of the things I tried to stress in that post. When I single out moments like this, it probably makes it look like MCS was just awful at what they did, but on top of the huge chunks of episodes that are fine, I think Kuuga's dialogue is WAY more complex than the average tokusatsu series, so I also really feel for how much trouble it must've been. The thing to remember while I say all this from my armchair is that I'm a total amateur myself. Heck, I've literally never even studied Japanese in any formal manner, which is why I always feel super guilty picking on translations as though I have any authority on the subject. It takes a lot of dedication to try bringing a series to your fellow fans like that. In 20 years, they were literally the only group who stepped up to do Kuuga in its entirety, and as glad as I am we have something better now, they do deserve credit for that.

I think that actually covers pretty much everything of value I would've said? There were like a half dozen other random errors I would've talked about, but it was mostly just poking fun at how dumb the police end up looking in their investigations, and that doesn't paint much more of a picture than I already have. Basically all the mistakes are the result of one problem, which is making assumptions. I'm mostly just still super happy none of this is worth worrying about anymore.

That's simultaneously awesome to hear and kind of strange reading about some of those errors! I think I vaguely remember something about the appendix one, in fact -- or at least I recall one of the things Enokida's son getting upset over being very weird for a little kid. Maybe that was multiple sub groups, or this is the sub that others scrubbed?

It's been very encouraging reading what you've had to say about Shout's work on Kuuga in general, especially as I recall reading that their Sentai work was not particularly good. If Kuuga's dialogue is as complex as you say and they've hit a home run with this one, I can only imagine how they'll do with other seasons! Hopefully by the time they reach my country, Shout'll have amassed a pretty nicely-sized library :D

Now, how would they handle Gaim's Overlords...

Congrats! These Kuuga posts have been worth five of any other post (and ten of any of mine), so make sure you recalculate that total when you have some time.

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