https://i.imgur.com/4m0YdZt.png

So, just to pull a complete 180 from talking about my inability to truly connect with characters in Kabuto, can I just take some time out to say I really, really love Hiyori?

Back in the Hibiki thread, I mentioned there was one particular moment, in episode 31, one image, that was burned right into my brain as much as anything else in the series despite not being anything grand or important at a glance. That picture above is that for this show. Hiyori just slouching over on the street, ready to pass out from sheer stress, that's something that's always majorly stuck with me from this show.

I could guess at a few reasons why. A character in any show suffering from this level of extreme social anxiety is just not something I've seen a whole lot of, and that would mean this one little moment was more fresh to me than any amount of high-speed bugmen could ever be. Another reason is that, specifically because she has that kind of personality, I have an extraordinarily easy time sympathizing with Hiyori's troubles. Again, this matter would've been more pressing to me than any amount of Kagami being in generic monster danger. (On which note, I'm sort of surprised it wasn't for Tendou, too.)

Hiyori as a character has always kind of fascinated me because she's so utterly unlike any typical type of Rider heroine. She doesn't smile and look pretty, she's not some tough firecracker out there speaking her mind, and she doesn't provide emotional support to anyone, because if anything, she's the one that needs that kind of help. Hiyori, the depressive recluse, obssesively drawing her weird fairy pictures while somehow managing to be even more blunt and uncivil in her speech than Tendou himself.

In a show that was essentially created to play it as safe as possible after Hibiki, Hiyori's characterization strikes me as something unconventional. Like Die, I give a lot of credit to Yui Satonaka for managing to put a lot of the life into the character just through a shocking amount of subtle variations on the same bored facial expression, but to stop beating around the bush for a second, I honestly just like Hiyori because I've been in those shoes at times and it doesn't take any extra work to empathize with that on my part. She is a shining beacon of relatability to me in the sea of much louder eccentrics that is the cast of Kabuto.

...On which note, yeah, all the ZECT stuff in this one had me outright giggling with how transparently dumb it is. At least their plan to capture Kabuto is so absurd you won't think about the implications of the show casually introducing the idea that Kagami has some kind of Worm-identifying thermal goggles?

One much more favorable random thought I had was that a lot of the filming locations seemed different than usual, and rather pleasant to look at? 5 and 6 were directed by Takao Nagaishi, who apparently does have some kind of reputation for putting more thought into that usual, so it might not have been my imagination.

As for Die's question... I mean... I wouldn't be hypothetically opposed to going to a flower expo? Although if there are any sword lilies there, I might start crying about Kenzaki again and have to go sit on a bench to calm down... which would only make things worse...

You know what, let me just drop that question for the one I forgot to answer at first, which is ironically the one Die forgot to ask at first: my favorite sibling relationship in Kamen Rider is... er, one I'm not allowed to talk about yet. Dang, I don't have any good answers right now. :lol

I can't talk about my favourite sibling relationship yet either, and I can't even tell if it's the same one as everyone else!

If Tendou invited me to a flower expo, I'd be interested even if I expect him to spend the whole time showing off his vast knowledge of plants.

I went to a fungus expo once that was a decent time so a flower expo could be interesting. Flowers are cool, and have lots of interesting aspects to them.

Absolutely, because then I can gush about something I didn't really dig into.

You mentioned the closing part as the most memorable aspect of this episode, but for me it's the scene where Hiyori's making her way to Tokyo Tower.

It's (oh man I'm tearing up right now where is this coming from) so difficult for her to be doing this. She's looking at no one, trying to block out the reality of her environment. It's like she's on the surface of the moon. All of her body language is tight, shielding, insular. She's nearly a black hole, pulling herself into the crushing depths of her fear. But she's walking. She's going to this flower show. Purposefully, arduously, she's doing it.

And then she bumps into a stroller that a woman is pushing. The stroller's jostling makes a baby start to cry.

And then she's back in that rubble, crying for her parents to save her. And it's all too much: too loud, too open, too present.

And then she thinks of Tendou. He's waiting for her at Tokyo Tower. It's going to be alright, because Tendou said he'd make it alright. He's so sure of himself. He's honest; horribly so, but never deceptive. It's going to be alright. She just needs to keep going.

So she does. She overcomes every single cell in her body that's telling her to quit. She keeps moving. She makes it to Tokyo Tower.

It doesn't end great for Hiyori, obviously. It's heartbreaking to see her so anxious, so scared. To see her convinced that Tendou's forgotten her, failed her. But, god, that moment when she overcomes everything in her head that wants her to curl into a ball, when instead she soars... it's so great.

So, yeah, you can talk about Hiyori as much as you want.

Everyone's got a pick for a great set of siblings, and I want to hear about them when we talk about those shows! I, for one, am very excited to meet Decade's ne'er-do-well brother Heckade.

See, I don't think he'd be that guy! He'd be more the kind where he'd be smirking in a way where you'd feel dumb expressing your opinion, because he'd be charmingly condescending about it. (He probably uses the word "quaint" a lot, is what I'm getting at.)

I got a friend who keeps wanting to check out a nature museum in the city (which is a no-go right now), and it doesn't sound that bad! Not my first pick for a museum, but I think it could be a nice visit.

Funny enough, I was watching his LAST (as of 2020) appearance in a Rider show the other day. He appears in Kiva as an eccentric artist turned corrupt cop.

And talking of casting, the guy playing Kagami’s dad was recently in the movie Kamen Rider the First, which shared a lot of the crew with this series. And it’s not the last connection the show will draw to that movie and it’s sequel (which is the only Rider project to be labelled a horror show). He later appeared as Strategist Reidar in Super Hero Taisen Z, the one everyone seems to forget. (Seriously, any discussion of those movies never mentions that one)

This reply here is.. something resembling "he's only teasing you because he likes you" category again... happens when someone gets a hard time from other person (like teasing, harassment, or bullying. These aren't about Tendou but he did give Kagami hard time like being bankrupted; Kagami's zero-luck is one of the defining traits of him btw), the phrase pops up seemingly everywhere, including children's literature and movies.

Those words teaches people to normalize unhealthy relationships, that mean or aggressive behavior towards another person is an acceptable way to show affection. BTW, if Tendou's really trying to "make friends" and it's how he acts then, it does happen for those having social problems; and it comes not only in form of those aren't talkative enough.

Wait... so he's not your guy in those 2 shows? I thought he is based on your jumped reactions of him returning to the shows.

Hiyori is Tendou's most beloved person like Jyuka. Tendou's better side will be seen around Hiyori like to Jyuka. And good then to have these kind of performance more recognized, and other than that, while not a sullen one, also Asumu's from previous series for being more tranquil one. I'd actually expect similar reaction of what you did to Saya from Faiz... or Yuka at first, which I want to explain about louder eccentric isn't the sole way of acting (and having only that as your trait is equally one-noted) and those that aren't like that is cited as bad acting, monotone as in unable to emote (I've seen Hiyori's getting that as a flak), and bad acting or "no personality", which is just a lazy and egocentric view of people and a very superficial judgement.

And also, it's clear that Hiyori is seemingly currently blameless in her predicament, it's the type of People Have Bad Shit Happen To Them For No Reason, which you're against in Blade thread? Hiyori's so far is a victim and this shows the consequences for her; the meteor hit Shibuya and killed her family, and by that she seemingly got wreked, with her social anxiety, depression, grumpiness, obsession to her drawing, etc. and so far, by that she seems not to care much about surroundings, as she seemingly sees life as meaningless. And for her potentially feeling safer being miserable; this brings back to the drama article which talked about it in disastrous consequences (this is outside Hiyori or those in Kabuto); where another reason is that they become so accustomed to the negativity that positivity becomes alien.

Being open-ended is usually one of the ways of what showmakers do to try to hook up the audience to make them stay tuned for what's happening next. And I mean, "are they going to keep watching people die indefinitely?" that's probably not an episode flaw, it's intentional in the story, I mean, the goddamn characters are also constantly asking about it, be it Kagami or Misaki. And if I want to make a guess, their "plan" is only keeping an eye of the Worm and wait until Tendou inevitably comes and deals with that Worm. I mean, there's currently only 1 Kamen Rider weapon right which is Kabuto Zecter in Tendou's hand and by this, Kabuto will be very distinct that he's easily identificable, either in looks or activites. And honestly, it's all on Truegami's character, not whole ZECT! I feel like he's morally bankrupt one and doesn't belong in ZECT despite assuming HQ position. Other than that, how would you compare this series' Truegami to usual "monster of the week" characters?

The scene of Kagami's dad reminds me of Jin's in Blade. The character meeting his father and acting hostile towards them, regarding their lost siblings and the father's seemingly apathy or fault. With the father just nonchalantly explain/dismiss about it to their living son's dismay, pointing about their father's career. And what you say here... "no one has a cellphone which would've solved half the problems".... that's like what people complain about Faiz, with the series theme actually being cellphone, but in total ironic fashion, the miscommunication is rampant. It seemingly irks more to people if they have the tool but underutilized, rather that not actually having them (personally I think you can't blame those that doesn't do this thing because of not having the tools). Tendou and Hiyori really does have connective tissue, and probably the scene is more about that rather than Tendou's smugness being benefical for once.

Wut?? Sally?? Name's Yumiko Takemiya. To me, I'd react in similar manner to Hiyori's response to most things in flower expo, being mostly apathetic.

Nah, but it's always fun to see a returning actor. For me, anyway. I like the Everyone's In Everything nature of casting on these shows, how you can't choose an actor at random without them having been in at least four different toku series. I think that's neat!

Everyone's going to have their own reactions to art, but I feel like anyone who'd write off Hiyori at this point just isn't paying attention to her acting? There's a lot of specificity to her performance, where it seems like every time she opens her mouth to talk she's terrified she's just going to start crying and never stop; or how she desperately wants to be reassured, but she's convinced she's got no one looking out for her. It's... she's doing something with this part, and it keeps Hiyori from ever being a character that lacks personality.

Poorly? The thing with a monster-of-the-week plot is that, even if it's random and repetitive (the monster just keeps showing up and murdering people), that's okay because a lot of these monsters are animals. The Worm in this one isn't the problem, because it doesn't need (at this point in the arc) to have a multifaceted goal.

The problem is that Truegami does, but his method for achieving it is nonsensical. The only way it works if ZECT can predict, with 100% accuracy, when and where the Worm is going to strike. That is something they've never ever ever shown an ability to do. Also, it requires the Worm to show up someplace, kill one person, and then leave. In almost all of their previous appearances, the Worm show up in groups, and the potential for mass casualties (if the Worm moved to a large population center) is high. Here, it requires the Worm to have no particular goal or hurry, and for ZECT to be practically prescient. It's a ton of things that have to break Truegami's way for the trap to have any chance of working, and that's not great writing.

Sometimes there are jokes!

ZECT's organization as shown here is, uh. Not the show's best aspect, not by a long shot. This episode, the first time I saw it, made me seriously doubt my much-improved listening skills, because there was no way I was correctly interpreting the plan. (spoiler: 2006 me was not wrong after all) I can't tell, by the way, if this particular Worm's method of mummifying its victims is rather Agito-esque or if I just think that because of Trugami.

Hiyori, though, I loved her the first time I watched Kabuto and I love her now, watching it again so I can follow the discussion posts. Definitely my favorite on this show, and I think a lot of it absolutely is down to the actor giving it depth with her nonverbal communication. She's so good.

re: flower expo - there's an orchid show not far from where I live that I've gone to every spring, and I'm finally hopeful that I won't miss it next time after all, lol A flower expo is a lovely place to go, full of pretty pretty things to look at, and even more fun if you go with someone who will tell you about the flowers. Definitely a thumbs up for the flower expo :D

I love how many rewatches this is inspiring -- if I wasn't taking on so much as is, I probably would too!

There's a... this'll probably (hopefully) get clarified in the conclusion of this two-parter, but there's a point in 05 where I couldn't figure out if I'm supposed to think Truegami's plan is stupid or not. Like, I couldn't tell if what I was watching was either a) satirical; or b) intentionally dumb because it was part of some ZECT scheme. Turns out, uh, nope! Just a dumb plot!

For the mummification, I got more of a Faiz vibe off of it? That whole Turning Grey thing made me think of Faiz, and how the Orphnoch killed people. (Also, I'm pretty sure the last Worm attack in the episode, where Kagami shows up, takes place in Delta Alley, home to major scenes in both Agito and Faiz.)

She's so good! It's this really amazing balance of making her so damaged that you want to save her, while refusing to infantilize her. She's a self-sufficient woman who is doing her best with some debilitating emotional problems, not some helpless baby you have to protect from the world. Real tightrope act to get that across onscreen.

I think I'm going to have figure out somewhere to see some flowers in the spring (Thought that a friend was recommending a flower something-or-other, but it's more of an overall nature museum.) I mean, there's got to be something in Chicago in the spring, right? Gotta be.

This thread'll still be here when you're ready!

(I honestly wonder if anyone's gone back and watched along with these? I sincerely never considered that as a possibility before now. I hope they're useful to some future fan?)

One of the things I love about Hiyori is how she aggressively wants nothing to do with being a character in Kamen Rider Kabuto. She always seems so resentful about having to be involved in the show's plot. I know you thought of Mari from Faiz as Kamen Rider's Aubrey Plaza, but I'd argue that Hiyori has the best claim on that title.

Ooooh, tough. Tough call! I think I'd still hand it to Mari, because she was just so done with so many people. Hiyori, I see it more as her protesting too much? Like, and maybe this is more April from Parks & Rec than I remember, Hiyori is someone who has a tremendous amount of anxiety, and she's cobbled together enough defense mechanisms to skim the surface of interpersonal interaction. She would much rather have healthy relationships and less-stressful experiences than she's currently having. Mari's just frustrated by people and willing to tell them to eff off.

Still... I don't not see Hiyori as having that Aubrey Plaza vibe?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kabuto/goro.png

GORO! ON KABUTO! THIS IS MY GUY!!!

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 06

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto06a.png

There's a thing Hiyori does in this episode that's my favorite piece of acting in a great episode for performances.

(Also, I hope everyone's okay with these posts just completely committing to being me singing Hiyori's praises.)

She's gone to Tendou's home to investigate his absence, and potentially castigate him for letting her down. Tendou calls home to allay his sister's fears, while being held in ZECT's custody. After he talks to Juka, he asks to talk to Hiyori. She berates him for his thoughtlessness, for everything she went through. But he applauds her resolve, and asks her to make pancakes for Juka. (It's Sunday, and he always makes pancakes for Juka on Sunday.) Furious, Hiyori hangs up on him, calling him a liar. Juka sweetly tells Hiyori that Tendou isn't a liar.

And then, after sitting down to collect herself... Hiyori asks Juka if she'd like some pancakes.

It's... there's this look on Hiyori's face, like she cannot fathom why she's doing this for Tendou. It's her being burned by someone... and giving them a second chance. It's so out-of-character for her that it seems like she's viewing this from outside the event, completely separate from her body. This Can't Be What I'm Saying is broadcast across her face. She doesn't believe in people, doesn't give second chances, doesn't stick her neck out. But, right now, for almost no reason other than faith in Tendou, she's doing it. And she can't believe it.

But, hey, this is an episode for people believing in Tendou, and on that level it works pretty great. On every other level... uh.

Like, the charm of this one is all in Tendou's whole I'm Not Trapped In Here With You, You're Trapped In Here With Me smugness; in Kagami's sloppy-ass breakout attempt for a man who he views as a friend; in Juka's unwavering belief in her brother and decision to eat her pancakes without any toppings WHICH IS SO WEIRD; and in Hiyori's ability to start to maybe possibly believe in Tendou, too.

The thing that works in this episode is that Tendou has willingly entered a trap to both protect his friends (he only tells Truegami that Kagami isn't his friend so that Kagami doesn't get used as leverage and threatened) and try to uncover what ZECT is hiding. It's him being a kinder version of the abrasive tool that he often comes off as, a man who can show respect to the people who are assisting him rather than making demands of them.

And that kinder, gentler Tendou... It works? I mean, it totally works on Kagami and Misaki, giving them less reason than ever to support Truegami's sneering villainy. (Is it the hair that always makes him seem up to no good?) A lot of this episode depends on you understanding why they'd both go up against ZECT to protect Tendou, and it feels reasonable to me? He's still funny and self-involved (his whole Do You Ask The Sun Why It Shines thing during Misaki's interrogation!), but he's... it doesn't feel like sees Kagami and Misaki as pawns. It comes off as teamwork in this one, and that makes for a thrilling conclusion.

It's just, the stuff around that sort of doesn't work? Truegami's plan still doesn't make sense, that's for sure. They get the belt from Tendou, and then let Misaki question him? But they mostly just let him sit around for a day? It's a fun scene, and great for establishing how everything has unfolded according to Tendou's design, but it doesn't look great on Misaki or Truegami. She seems to have no gameplan for extracting usable info, and Truegami... I mean, I don't want to write this episode, but it feels real dumb to have a tactician like Truegami (for a poorly-written value of "tactician”) not get a head-to-head interrogation scene with Tendou. Delegating such an important task to Misaki is... there's no juice in that scene, it's just her being petulant and him being catty. It's funny, but it could've been more than that.

Similarly, the action in this one felt tacked on. The Zectroopers are a non-factor, and the Worm battle at the end was brief and forgettable. (I honestly don't remember how the non-Truegami Worm died, and I watched that scene maybe twenty minutes ago.) I don't really understand what the Worm are after, and their planning ability seems to vacillate strongly between Machiavellean and Moronic. (The one from last episode just wandered around killing random people, and this one susses out a temporary ZECT outpost and then knows exactly who to replace.) I'd prefer more consistency as to what the villains are capable of, this early in the series.

Really, though, that doesn't matter too much. (It does matter, though.) It's a sweet episode about people learning to value friendship more than their ideology, and it ends with Tendou putting Hiyori's art in big glowing lights on the Tokyo Tower as an apology. I can't be too mad at an episode that ends that way.

A QUESTION

...or for putting GORO FROM RYUKI in the end! Goro! Back on my TV! After all these many months! Very exciting times. (Also there was a bee-man who I think is called TheBee that I'm sure I'll be talking more about soon.)

Back in Ryuki, Goro had many talents: he was a driver, a bodyguard, and one of the very few people on the planet who admired Kitaoka. (Besides me.) He was also an ace chef, something that goes for a few characters on this show. There's a real love of food in the direction of this one, some very lovely shots of meals, and goddamn did it make me hungry. Not for the first time, a Kamen Rider show has got me hankering for some of its dishes. Have you ever been tempted to try out a prominent dish from a Kamen Rider show? If so, how did you like it in real life? I know what I'm going to have soon, and this episode's partially to blame:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto06b.png

Yep, this is the debut of the misleadingly named TheBee (you’ll see why when he transforms onscreen). So I won’t go into the reference explanation until then. I’ll just say he has the unique distinction of SHARING the title of tertiary rider (an idea that would save us a lot of debates concerning other Rider shows and one Rider-esque Sentai show [and no, before anyone assumes anything, it is not Go-Busters. It’s Kyuranger]) with someone who shows up in a few episodes.

I really enjoyed the whole bit with Tendou being in interrogation. One of the things I always associate with the character is that he can really be a troll sometimes. This isn't the biggest example of that, but it's definitely a case where he's clearly just screwing with Misaki for his own amusement. This is one of those areas where I think the character would be a lot more insufferable with a less charismatic actor.

Anyway, the main thing I wanted to mention about this episode is how much I love Juka. Juka is not a complex character: she's Tendou's sister and she eats food. Unless I've forgotten something, that's her primary contribution to most of her appearances. She's really good at those things and can be a lot of fun, but it always amuses me how much her entire character is centered around breakfast.

As a semi-related side note, while I think that Kabuto has one of the most boring restaurant designs of all the various Kamen Rider restaurants, I have serious envy for our other major recurring location: Tendou's house. Really love the layout of the main room with all of those plants. Looks really comfortable and homey.

I definitely ate a lot of dumplings while watching Ryuki, but the big example for me is actually from Hibiki's spiritual successor, Daimajin Kanon. That show featured jasmine tea as a minor plot point in one episode, which led me to spend a good amount of time tracking some down locally. It also turned out to be one of my favorite kinds of tea, which is saying a lot since I drink a lot of tea.

I'm looking forward to learning more about him! It's a pretty cool suit, at the very least.

It's both a positive and a negative in this episode, how in control of every situation Tendou is. The first scene of him being interrogated, and he's clearly trying to extract info from Misaki as he doesn't even bother to pretend like they've got the upper hand? Fantastic. But then you've got another few scenes and it's like, ZECT Is Embarrassingly Bad At This. It's cool to have an unflappable, ultra-competent hero... but you sort of need to step up the villains to match him? Otherwise, this whole thing plays like a minor diversion for Tendou, and it makes the stakes non-existent. Fun to watch, not great for caring about the story.

Easily the most relatable motivation of any Kamen Rider character.

Yeah, I love how open that living room is. It's so bright and natural.

I think I ended up eating a lot more donuts when Wizard was the show I was watching, but I'd've probably been better off with a show that had a more soothing, healthy food or drink. You made the better choice!

Get used to this, it's going to be a persistent issue.

Just isn't paying attention? Ha this is what I'm telling (about anyone; you aren't free from this either). Non-theatrical performances being overlooked of what it means and written off as bad acting at worst. People thinking that acting must be all about goofy, or over-the-top, or larger than life, or laugh out loud, or in your face and wide-angle lenses, or other kinds of that. And again there's no such thing as "no personality" even if they don't behave in what you or anyone wants. So you (fortunately) view her, just trying to talk as her doing something with this part (though, this would give me tons of question regarding this about various other non-combatant characters)... and this brings back to the part in Hibiki where your reply was "it was like judging Hinaka for working at the restaurant". This do happen in lots of community; especially regarding action show where only fighting (or probably inventing) is seen as the character not "sitting around", and something like Hiyori's thing here can be devalued as that too.

From what's currently shown, Hiyori's misery came from losing her parents in the meteor incident. As someone who relates to not believing in people and not giving second chances part, I wonder what kind of misery she went through that leads to her acting like that; for her socializing part, because from my experience it'll come from repeated mistreatment from others (obviously losing both of your parents are tragic, but meteor is natural disaster) that led to giving up to other people. And you saying that it's OOC for Hiyori to try believing in Tendou... this is something that sometimes I find confusing within community discussions (sometimes to an irrational level); that is a character's change an OOC moment, or them starting to change and develop.

For Juka, while she defends Tendou, she didn't overreact or get mad over someone (Hiyori) badmouthing him. I see sometimes in other case where a someone would fiercely defend their sibling, sometimes disregarding their actual faults; as a show of the sibling love. A̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶j̶o̶k̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶;̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶H̶i̶y̶o̶r̶i̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶T̶e̶n̶d̶o̶u̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶T̶e̶n̶d̶o̶u̶'̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶f̶e̶c̶t̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶w̶o̶m̶e̶n̶ ̶s̶w̶o̶o̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶H̶i̶y̶o̶r̶i̶ ̶d̶e̶n̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶?̶!̶

Well, for "kinder, gentler Tendou", majority of the jerk and mean anti-heroic Riders journey (which mostly are placed as secondary Riders) and development in the franchise are them becoming better person, Tendou is just one of the many. And I feel that, Tendou enforces the "might makes right" mindset here; people believing in him because of him being the one hypercompetent enough to accomplish any task, that he's finally allowed to become Kabuto on merit. And I think Kagami, while bonding with Tendou with his concern for him; he seems to forget his perfectness lol, unlike Juka. I think Misaki interrogating Tendou is important tbh, going back to what I said about ZECT's concern about someone not in their member becoming Kabuto, that the belt wielder's morality is important to know, where if it's someone with lack of moral decency, the power can be abused.

What do you think can be Misaki's plan for extracting usable info? I think her concern is mainly about someone outside of ZECT using Kabuto Zecter, and the only one to ensure safety is to know how's Tendou as a person herself. Tendou's superiority complex does make him unflappable towards anything, so much that Misaki seems like a tryhard for her screaming at his face. I do find it baffling that Higashi's (name of Ogawa's character here) obsession of trying to keep the belt away from outsider and what's the objective for that. Or that... it really was the Worm all along disguising as ZECT upper man. They probably want to steal away the Kabuto Zecter so there aren't anyone strong enough to fight them off. Misaki gets an action by rolling to the asphalt from the Merc Viano (didn't expect that the van inside was the place where ZECT was operated, I thought it was in the HQ, the setting seems too big). The Zectroopers are established as inferior to Tendou, he can just beat them up like a Worm did. Tendou seems to be almost superhuman even as human form.

Yeah, to be clear, I'm saying that Hiyori considers her own generosity to Tendou to be an out-of-character moment. It's a sudden kind of growth that she's totally unprepared for.

Sometimes character growth is slow and incremental; here, it's this snap decision Hiyori makes. I really liked how the show (and the actor) approached it.

In this episode, though, it felt more like a modulation of the writing than part of a character arc. (This doesn't feel like a story about Tendou re-examining his assumptions about characters?) It felt like someone watched the footage of the first few episodes and went Oh Shit This Guy Can Come Off Pretty Terrible. There's more consideration in the script for Tendou at least acknowledging the necessity of other people to achieve his goals and treating them with some baseline respect. It's a recalibration, maybe, of how to portray Tendou's character that has the writing start to match up with the performance.

(I mean, that's usually how it works on shows. The scripts for the first few episodes are written before anything's filmed, and the producers don't know how an actor will approach things. It's written toward the character. Once footage starts to come in, they start writing toward the performer, and that's when things can really get good.)

Yeah, but it doesn't seem like she has any plan for getting info out of him? To paraphrase the Simpsons, she's tried nothing and she's all out of ideas. She folds her arms at Tendou's deflections and demands, but she's not offering any compelling reasons for him to divulge information. There's no promises, no threats, no battle of wills. She just sits there, getting more frustrated at him... not voluntarily explaining his secrets and backstory to the people who kidnapped him off the street?

And, like, I could see her being this bad at her job if she were being forced to do it, but Truegami specifically recruited her because she wanted to find out who Kabuto was and what he was up to. Now she's got him where she wants him and she's got zero plan of attack. And she's supposed to be the smart and capable one! Even Kagami figured out how to use a wind-up baby chick to distract a Zectrooper! Misaki didn't even have that level of cunning!

If you mean Dragon Commander vs Houou Soldier, I agree that they both count as sixth rangers. Twice the rangers, twice the sixth rangers. It's not that hard to figure out and both fit the normal requirements.

I'm not sure I buy TheBee for tertiary status though, shared or otherwise, for reasons I will not go into right now because it would involve me talking spoilers.

Speaking of which, isn't it a spoiler that you basically just confirmed there will be at least four riders? I was very carefully not making comments that hinted at any more than two, because the number of riders does vary and I think it's not fair to spoil anything more than two, but oh well. Spoilers got to spoil, I guess.

https://i.imgur.com/BQOuX6l.png

You know, I think in a weird way, pretending to be a bad guy and pointing a gun at Kagami is one of the biggest signs yet that Tendou legitimately loves having a best friend.

I mean, he's trolling everybody in this episode with the exception of Hiyori and Juka, of course, but something about this particular moment stands out to me a lot more than anything during the interrogation scenes. When he's being obstinate with ZECT, I mean, that's just a Kamen Rider rejecting systems of authority, and I love Tendou for that, but to come up with this elaborate skit while escaping like this, I can only conclude there's this "oh man, I can't wait to see the look on his face...!" sort of joy he must find in it that I don't think he'd get from any random person out there. He's probably more excited to have Kagami in his life than Kagami is to have him... not that I can really blame Kagami when Tendou has such an unusual idea of how... well, how most things work.

I don't have a complaint about this one. Yeah, yeah, the premise is faulty at its core, but whatever; we're having fun here, and I like fun. Tendou is a regular barrel of laughs throughout, and I'm a sucker for any plot in anything that involves the heroes stealing uniforms from bad guy grunts to pull off some kinda daring infiltration/escape. And in this case it's both at once! Love that Tendou and Kagami both come up with the idea completely independently, too, showing just that tiny bit of similarity between the two, despite the vastly different levels of tension they're each feeling. Kagami is a bundle of nerves while Tendou spends the entire runtime in control of everything except when Hiyori hangs up the phone. Which is really saying something about Hiyori when Tendou is the guy so in control of everything he lets his enemies walk into his Rider Kicks for him.

The word I'd use to describe this episode has gotta be "romp". It's pretty much the opposite of profound and deep, but it's having such a great time with itself the attitude is infectious. The uneven aspects of it get drowned out handily by what works, and on top of all that fun you even get the odd bit of genuine emotion or a good thrill.

I loved the sort of in-episode next-episode-previews new Riders got in Ryuki, and it's no less hype in Kabuto. The scene here doesn't even make sense literally and I adore that about it. Just standing around transformed overlooking the city for no reason other than to show off to the audience; a time-honored tradition that would be carried into many a Movie War in future years. I mean, if you had a super suit that cool, wouldn't you want to dramatically stand on rooftops?

The genuine emotion part maybe didn't hit that great with me at the very end with the Tokyo Tower bit, but since Die said I could, I will take the time out to mention more stuff about Hiyori – the way she habitually avoids eye contact is so aggressively real, and it's fantastic. There really is a depth to the performance. It's not as simple as her not looking at people, which would get the point across, it's all these little half-movements and glances that paint such a clear picture of who she is as a person and how she feels at any particular moment. She'll talk to people without ever turning to face them, or look juuust enough away to avoid properly meeting their gaze outside a few rare moments, sometimes done with great effort, and sometimes more accidentally than anything, with her darting her eyes right back.

It's easy to take for granted, but conversations in TV shows and the like are generally staged so that people in a conversation look like they're conversing, so avoiding that so often with Hiyori takes a much appreciated conscious effort on the part of the people making Kabuto.

And hey, to top all this off, I've actually got a good answer to one of Die's questions for once! Back when Gaim was on the air, and everyone including me was all hyped up about it, I genuinely started eating a ton more fruit for a while, including a few I typically avoided. Mind you, it was never some grand experiment to try everything that got made into a Lock Seed or anything, and it didn't result in any serious long-term dietary changes, but it did turn out I enjoy oranges way more than I thought I did, and that's stuck with me to this day.

Oh, and despite being a huge Wizard fan, I didn't go through any similar phase with donuts – probably for the best! If anything, I think the lesson I took away from Haruto was how to aggressively avoid trying new things at all costs. Some people just know what they like already! :lol

I see what you're saying, but I don't think Androzani84 meant any harm? I'd already namechecked TheBee (and I think I can name the other Kabuto Riders, just from toku cultural osmosis), so vaguely defining the amount of Riders... I think it was accidental.

Either way, I appreciate you looking out for me and keeping things safe in your posts!

It's an incredibly fun gag, with Tendou basically making Kagami take a friendship quiz at gunpoint. I guess when the entire world exists for your benefit and by your grace, there's never a bad time to have a laugh!

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODES 07 & 08

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto08a.png

Did not think I'd hit a wall so fast in this thread, but boy I sure just did.

Spent the last twenty minutes picking away at these two episodes, and then just deleted it all. Wasn't... there wasn't any flow to it. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say about these episodes?

I dug watching them, absolutely. Yaguruma is a great new antagonist, and the way these episodes executed their action sequences were pretty fun. There are some great gags (all of the rivalry shit in 07, that bowl measuring joke most of all) and a few scenes building out the Hiyori/Tendou dynamic that are, at a minimum, delightful.

But the core of these episodes, the way Yaguruma comments on and distorts Tendou's character... that's the biggest thing in these episodes, and yet I don't really have as much to say about it as I thought?

Like, the whole gimmick in these two (beyond Yaguruma Is Hiding Something) is that Yaguruma is the opposite of all of Tendou's deficiencies. He values teamwork and compromise. He abhors grandstanding. He views any victory as illegitimate unless his whole team participates. As a character, he exists to critique Tendou.

But what keeps me from being able to analyze that is the show is already doing that, often times in the text. It is so purposeful in the way it's currently contrasting the two characters that it feels like all I can do is just, like, gesture at the episodes. Me breaking down how Yaguruma contrasts Tendou would just be me transcribing the dialogue.

It's not a real deep couple episodes, I thought? It's a lot of setup for what's to come, and that makes it hard to do more than deliver the foundation that's about to be upended. I mean, the story isn't Yaguruma Is Great Forever, because who would want to watch that? The story is in what Yaguruma's hiding, in what Kagami will do as things get worse, in how Tendou will deal with Kagami's Very Strong Feelings. (Tendou is already starting to regret being friends with Kagami and his Very Strong Feelings, so buckle the eff up.)

There's a lot of fun to be had in these episodes, for sure. The way Yaguruma nad Tendou immediately get on each other's nerves to the degree that they need to have an Iron Chef cookoff is... I mean, it's one of those story ideas that's almost too perfect to believe it actually happened. (Hiyori confessing to Sally that the only reason she picked Yaguruma's dish is because she prefers hot food is such a beautiful touch. Perfection is a subjective quality! That's kind of what the theme of these episodes is! Never change, Hiyori! You're the only objectively perfect one on this show!) Seeing Kagami throw the difficult Tendou aside for the new golden boy (literally?) of Yaguruma is, y'know, of course. Of course!

And that's sort of the problem, once we get past the tofu battle: everything goes pretty much how you'd expect? Kagami puts himself deeper in Yaguruma's shadow, by, uh, joining Yaguruma's Shadow. Tendou shakes his head at Kagami's fickleness. Yaguruma's cool facade begins to crumble, Kusaka-style, as Tendou's successes mount. It just keeps ticking away, getting us closer to things falling apart.

That last scene, though! Worth it? Maybe worth an episode and a half of by-the-numbers storytelling. (I mean, that scene of Tendou dressing up like a priest and reciting his own scripture is no slouch, either!) It's a magnificently shot fight, with Kabuto and TheBee (a wasp, not a bee) cast in silhouette against a blazing sunset. Feels appropriately mythic, you know? I just wish what preceded it was more... something.

I don't even know what I'd say was specifically wrong with these episodes for me. They were fun to watch, with some great gags, bold new characters, and exciting action. But the pacing. I think that's it? The second half of 07 and all of 08 just, like, hit their marks and that's it. Once you see Yaguruma start to lose it, everything else feels perfunctory. It's a show biding its time, and while it does it stylishly (Tendou as a priest!), it still feels like a stall.

Maybe I'm being unfair? Maybe! I can certainly see this being a set of episodes that other people are going to rave about, and I don't blame them a bit. (That tofu battle is highlight-reel material.) For me, they felt a little hollow, a little predictable. Not bad, not at all, but very much the prelude to what looks to be a more interesting and unpredictable story.

A QUESTION

Kabuto and TheBee (not a bee) have their highly-anticipated duel at the end of 08, but I'm sure we can all agree that the tofu battle in 07 is more iconic. Indisputable! It makes sense that Tendou would feel so strongly in his ability to prepare tofu that he'd risk disappointing Juka to prove his superiority. If you challenged someone to an honor duel, what skill of yours are you confident enough in to make that the terms of the duel? Like, what skill do you think you're strong enough in to best a stranger at? And do you think you'd perform better or worse if you competed against a blazing sunset?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto08b.png

It's weird. I first watched Kabuto back when I initially got into Kamen Rider in '09 and did my own marathon of the Heisei era. All these years later, though, and I still have the same reaction to the ending of episode 7: "Ugh, not this shit again."

I'm not a huge fan of the Rider vs. Rider dynamic that was really popular in the early '00s. It can lead to some cool fight scenes, but I don't like how often the shows would pit the Riders against each other. One of the big reasons why I like Hibiki is that all of the characters get along and work together. Seeing Yaguruma ready to throw down with Tendou feels like a regression to me.

That said, I do like the character and I love TheBee. I generally like all of the Kabuto suits, but TheBee stands out as easily my favorite. It's a really good design with all the gold, silver, and black. The Masked Form is probably my favorite example of those, too. It's a really great suit all around.

Let's see, what else was in these episodes...

The reveal of Tendou as the priest never fails to amuse me, especially when he starts working his own catchphrase into the sermon. Never change, Tendou.

I am very deeply amused by the tofu vendor. The actor's performance is just so aggressively quirky that I can help but enjoy it while also hating it. He really commits to being so bizarre and annoying and I can respect that.

I guess that's another thing that makes it difficult for me to figure out my misgivings with these episodes, because I don't mind them fighting? At all?

It's completely supported in both the series (ZECT needs Kabuto to join the team or get eliminated) and Yaguruma (Kabuto is a show-off who endangers ZECT by his independence), so having that conflict take place is exactly where the story should go.

...which, yeah, is so obvious and predictable that it's a problem? Like, the predictability of these episodes is so my problem with them. Nothing that happens is wrong, but everything that happens you can see coming a mile away.

It's a great design! I wish the Change Wasp move had something akin to the way Kabuto's beetle horn comes up over the eyes, but the suit itself is gorgeous. I like the little stinger that comes down from the toso armor the best. Great touch!

My headcanon is that the tofu vendor purposefully limits the amount of tofu he offers specifically to cause strangers to duel over it. I'd say he witnesses three to four duels a day.

I’m surprised you went a whole post without mentioning “Kanzen Chowa”, especially since any over discussion of Kabuto (admittedly, not many) can’t go one comment without mentioning the Japanese words for “perfect* harmony”

Anyway, time for something I’ve not done since the first episode: another Kabuto Rider vs Legend Rider comparison.

TheBee/Super-1 (Wasps) https://youtube.com/watch?v=VZHRGVPYCZk

* Both utilise technology provided by a major organisation (ZECT/NASA)
* Both use some form of attack involving their hands (TheBee’s Zecter is arm-mounted, while Super-1’s gimmick is that he swaps out his hands for different abilities)
Both focus on a certain form of fighting (TheBee on punching, Super-1 on Chinese martial arts)



* Not “ultimate”, as some people translate it.

I think Yaguruma is interesting as a concept but poorly executed. Where Tendo represents individual perfection, Yaguruma represents perfection in teamwork, referencing how every bee has a role in the hive. However, he's just a poser, which means everything he says is actually pretentious and he doesn't have the will to keep his principles. A wasp in bee's clothing. Except that wasp's buzz is worse than its sting.

I'll have a lot more to complain about this guy later.

He's portrayed by Tokuyama Hidenori who would later portray a much more likable and heroic character as Hiroto/Go-On Gold in my favorite Super Sentai, Go-Onger.

I'm pretty good at spelling bees (I take full credit for this pun) and board games such as chess and even chu shogi! The sunset definitely would help as long as I'm on the right side of the screen.

I really, really love this. Thank you!

Are you laughing at him?

I think a fun fact is that Hidenori Tokuyama is the one actor who was in both B-Fighter Kabuto and Kamen Rider Kabuto (no, Seiji Taikawa doesn’t count). I don’t know much about the former show (beyond the bad guys being based off extinct species, the big bad is voiced by Calveras from Sailor Moon R, the old B-Fighters make a couple of appearances before losing their powers when their mentor dies, both sides have a Megazord at their disposal and there’s a cadre of supposedly foreign heroes (only one of them is even non-Asian) who show up in the mid season to hand out upgrades).

https://i.imgur.com/EIf2ml8.png

Okay, fine; Die doesn't want to just sit there gesturing at the episodes, I'll do it for him. This is Ishida's next pair of episodes, so of course there's a whole lot to say for the direction, with that sunset showdown in 8 being particularly memorable. However, it's this bit of staging when Tendou and Yaguruma are waiting for Hiyori to try their respective dishes in 7 that impressed me more than anything in the entire duology. Yaguruma took his tie off so it wouldn't get in his way while cooking, so naturally he starts putting it back on once he's done and going to sit down. And for the next minute or so, in one long take, he just keeps working at it, folding it with great care, pulling on everything just the right way, messing with his collar until everything is in the exact alignment it should be...

I mean, don't get me wrong, this isn't worth noting by itself; I'm sure a huge amount of people would consider themselves lucky to only need a minute or two to get a tie on right, even. But it's all in the context. Like I said last time, what you have the actors doing in a given scene in a show is a conscious choice, and Yaguruma's constant activity here, the way he's so concerned with making sure the image he projects to the world has no flaws, it's in stark contrast to the way Tendou sits calmly in place the entire time, and it tells you so much about the two of them as characters, and which one arguably has a better grasp on the whole Perfect Harmony thing.

Sure enough, these are episodes I'd rave about. Some of my favorites from back in the day, and a story arc I immediately think of when I think of parts of Kabuto I actually do feel pretty strongly toward. I see Die's point about them not having anything surprising enough going on, but I've never been the kind to criticize something for nailing the fundamentals this hard. It's an almost definitive early 2000's rival Rider introduction, with the usual great direction I've already talked about, and Yonemura's writing firing on all cylinders, with the show's usual melodrama and surrealist comedy mixed together in a way that could only be described as perfectly harmonious. Of course, going by Tendou's critique of Yaguruma's cooking, being blended so well nothing stands out might explain why Die wasn't impressed...

All the same, I really do love these ones, and especially how they handle Yaguruma's character. I love how legitimately cool and likable the show makes him upfront. His team of gold-striped ZECTroopers (always loved those suits) are shown to actually get results because he bothers to keep them properly organized with real formations and everything, we're shown he genuinely cares about the people working under him, and even once he starts losing his cool, it's less about him secretly being evil or something lame and instead about his inability to deal with failure of any kind. He's his own worst enemy in a way, and the fact that the conflict between Kabuto and TheBee comes down to dramatically clashing personalities is as Heisei Rider as Heisei Rider gets. These episodes are awesome. Predictable, yes, but it's the execution that makes it all work.

Oh, and about the Bee/Wasp situation: I believe it's because the Japanese word hachi refers to them interchangeably.

As for the question this time... beating a stranger in an honor duel? Like just any random normal person off the street who I hypothetically happen to have beef with? Because if that's the case, I figure Kamen Rider Trivia Quiz has gotta be a guaranteed victory for me nine times out of ten, right? Sunset or no, if my opponent has never even heard of the topic of the hour, I'd have to try not to win! :p

So, at first, I was going to point out that this representation of Yaguruma's philosophy sort of falls apart, since he does all that... and then forgets to roll his sleeves back down before putting on his suit jacket.

(As someone who wears a suit to work and frequently needs to remove a jacket and roll up sleeves to do some manual labor, my eye is pretty well-trained for that physicality.)

But, while I think it's an error, I also think it's maybe the cherry on top of that analogy, since Yaguruma is incredibly meticulous, and yet he always seems to miss one key detail. Everything that goes wrong for him in these two episodes is from him getting it 99% right to Tendou's 105% right. Yaguruma would be the hero of any show but Tendou's, and it seems like that's driving him crazy?

I'd bet on you in any Kamen Rider trivia contest, for sure, but I think you'd be more of a shoe-in for a Being Contrary showdown. I envision it a lot like a Name That Tune situation, where a moderator makes a statement and then you and an opponent declare how many topics you could use in a contrary argument. Whoever names the most, and provides them, wins. You would be unstoppable!

You must be the dapperest and most well-dressed comic book store operator in town if you dress that nicely for work!

I'd like to think so! As we always say when people call out our suits and ties, "It's the least we can do." We take our jobs seriously!

Shows how much you love your job from how much you dress up for it. Your customers must love it.

True class, Die. Trust class.

Thanks! That's very kind of you to say. Over the years, I'd say that 75% love it, 5% think it's super weird, and 20% think it's super weird but eventually grow to love it.

(The only downside is running into customers when I'm not at work, and immediately getting Why Aren't You In A Suit, like it's something that can only be removed by eldritch magic or divine judgment. I dress up for work! Like most people! I dress casually when I'm not at work! Like most people! It's not my favorite interaction if I'm being honest.)

you mean you don't walk around dressed as a bird man constantly that's pretty weird bro

Sorry Die, but I just can't agree with this idea at all.