Yeah, it definitly feels like something they were either given by the merch department and asked politely to sell, or a holdover from a much earlier draft they could never figure out how to replace for the "We need a big CGI fighter" moments.
... I'm glad I started memeing about the Iguana just so I could read this.

... Ghost has 50 episodes

Also, while I'm on the subject of Ghost trivia, I just found out that Gou Sakabe's composition credits aside from Ghost and Zero-One's BGM include stuff like ToQger's opening and Woz's theme song from Zi-O?

I didn't know I could like this guy even more than I already do, but there ya' go, I guess...

Just started my first ever watch of Decade rounding out my first time through all early Heisei rider series

Sweet! Any favourites in there?

Of those first 9 series I’d say the first 29 Hibiki, Blade and Agito are my favorites but I found something to like about all of the series

Oooh, rare picks! Very good taste as well!

Well I tried not to be swayed by the “consensus”. Like I said, I see good things in every season , the humor in Den-O, the design of the Orphonocs in Faiz, the split story in Kiva, etc.

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 6

https://i.imgur.com/PZ7TUXt.jpeg

Aaaand there goes the show's CGI budget!

I know this story, you all know this story; we've heard it a thousand times -- Gatakiriba's power of multiplying itself necessitated like a billion independently moving characters on screen at once, which meant it cost a LOT of money to do; meaning that spoilers, it only appears one more time in the show before being relegated to movies with their bigger budgets. And while I love this power and I wouldn't go back and change it if I could and Gatakiriba just wouldn't be the same without it, it did make me wonder while watching this episode: why do this, then? They could have gone with a bunch of other super cool impressive powers for the combo that would presumably have been a lot less CGI-intensive and advertised the toys just as well! It's not even like OOO is a show that doesn't have a lot of CGI so they could freely do this with no negatives; there's already been quite a few CGI monsters in addition to your usual rubber suits and we're going to see more as the show progresses. So to turn this around into something positive? ... I'm so glad they decided to do it anyway. They knew what spectacle they wanted, and blast the downsides; they were going to do it. This was probably the once in a lifetime chance so screw it, let's do something absolutely massive.

Talking of Gatakiriba, this is where the gimmick of the combo system really goes full throttle. We've had a bunch of mixing and matching, so what happens when you put together a full same-colour set? Overwhelming goddamn power, but at a lot of cost to the user -- effortlessly tying into Ankh's little subplot about give and take and everything costing something. I've always liked this idea -- in the infamous "what is OOO's final form" arguments, one answer I remember seeing was "all of them". And I can't remember if it was a joke or not, but it's actually a very good answer because this is how the forms are handled -- by episode 6, OOO has already gotten as powerful as he can ever get with one exception. The way OOO's full combos work is that instead of each new form being more powerful than the last in a super boring progression where we're somehow expected to still care about the sparkling can or the genesis slot, each combo is still really important and useful in its own way -- rather than just being an advancement, it's the different skills and abilities of each that grants their worth. We never really had something like this in Kamen Rider before (well, maaaaybe Kuuga and Den-O?) and we unfortunately never would again, so I'm just gonna take this time to bask in the glory of what an actually really cool form system looks like.

Oh, right, and there was a lot of meaningful stuff in this episode too; wasn't there?

https://i.imgur.com/mq5h6Jn.jpg

Oh, Eiji. Eiji Eiji Eiji. Wonderfully optimistic and full of belief in humanity as he is, Eiji defends our character of the week by saying that wanting something in and of itself isn't bad, and that it's what you do with those feelings that's important. It's left for us to fill in the blanks, but given our rich girl ends up working at a bakery at the end of the episode; it's clear the idea here is that it's fine to have wants as long as you're responsible and know your limits. And it's a great moral! It really, really is; and it's that sort of balance that helps makes OOO what it is! But what's so interesting to me here is what he says in my screenshot, especially with my discussion of his guilt from Episode 4: not only is wanting things not a negative, but he's never met anyone in all of his travels who didn't want something, and it was often something really important and integral to the person! That's so interesting, Eiji! You've never met anyone who didn't want something? That right? ... So what's your whole deal about only needing a tiny amount of cash and an extra set of underwear?





Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 2


https://i.imgur.com/pb5ruCT.jpeg


This right here is what I'm thinking - what I'm hoping - I'll be able to take away from Ghost this time around. While OOO is about what you do with it (in a manner of speaking), Ghost is about life itself and its importance. And even though the episode technically has the Nikola Tesla Eyecon as its big A-plot and that's where the structure; it's all the little scenes in-between that's truly doing it for me and this is where Ghost may just win out. The theme of life at the moment is only really starting to sneak it but it's already clearly weighing down on Takeru since he died -- he doesn't only have a blowup at the character of the week here for disregarding his own life, but upon stepping out he ends up seriously breaking down when he sees normal people his age just going about a normal life while he's stuck in some in-between corporeal existence gathering 15 mcdonalds toys in a few months. It's a very sincere scene where it's made clear just how much things suck for him right now, and his yelling to not brush it off isn't judged or met with telling him to calm down; it's a very real moment from a young man who was just getting started in his life and it's already over before it began.

And Akari... Akari is a character I had a lot of problems with when I originally watched, and from the first episode on my rewatch, they're showing again. I really, really really dislike it when a supernatural show makes a scientist character and has their reaction to supernatural phenomena constantly be "that didn't happen! It was a trick! I have no evidence for this but despite all these massive changes around me it's all explainable!", because, and this is something I'm a little passionate about; that's not how science works. Science isn't about a rigid set of rules we decided 200 years ago that can never be broken out of; it's about observing the world around you and reacting to that phenomenon by investigating it and having an open mind to new possibilities, carefully examining them and slowly coming to a conclusion that expands our understanding of the world. I understand this is a kid's show but screw it, Nikola Tesla episode! I'm gonna get passionate about it, and frankly get it out of the way here and now! ... Bbbbut. But but but. One small thing this does help is making her friendship and support with Takeru shine that much brighter. She doesn't believe in Ghosts, or Ganma, or Eyecons or any of the rest of it; she doesn't actually believe Takeru died and he needs this adventure quest to restore him back to life. But despite all that, in that previous scene where Takeru breaks down, she sees how much it's effecting him and comforts him and supports him the best way she can. Especially this early on is so so important for a show about life and connections to establish that even two people with extremely disparate viewpoints about the reality in front of them can still love and support each other and value each other as more important than anything else.

I'm starting to like this show.


https://i.imgur.com/SAaYnKc.jpg

Fun fact about episode 6 of OOO:That was on the time I actually went to Japan! I haven't been able to otherwise go abroad many times and without getting into it, my normal life otherwise wasn't great at the time unfortunately but all I can hope is that I will be able to visit Japan again and more places in the Asia-Pacific and some of Europe relatively soon!

From what I can tell, GataKiriBa is meant as a reference to how insects reproduce incredibly quickly. But yeah, someone got fired for this shot, because it cost the budget of an Ultraman Nexus episode (very specifically) to produce.

I still wonder if such a feat like that would still be viable at this current age what with technology and all. And also made me wonder why they didn't keep the multiplying form but just in smaller numbers now. Limiting it to something like a shadow clone jutsu. Normie comparison, I know.

Most Tokusatsu suits only have two copies made (be for basic filming and one for close ups), and Rider suits are pretty expensive to begin with, compared to say, Super Sentai, so it probably wasn’t worth it.

This is how I've come to look at it, and, again, I could go on for days about how well OOO handles these things, but I always find it funny that the episode title here explicitly calls GataKiriBa the Strongest Combo, especially when the term Strongest Form tends to be used interchangeably with Final Form among Japanese fans. It's easy to assume the title is only trying to say Combos in general are strong, but given that every debut episode will include "___ Combo" in its title too, and only one of the descriptors is equally impressive, part of me thinks the answer to that debate was secretly right there all along. :lol


I wouldn't even call that a small thing. When you put it that way, it was arguably extremely important the show give her that bias to overcome, or otherwise everything she does to support her friends becomes something to take for granted and dramatically inert. I believe I pushed back on this a bit in Die's thread for Ghost (you know, an eternity or two ago), and I feel a little bad about it when I basically completely agree with what you're saying and why you're saying it, but Akari went from being one of my least favorite characters in the show to one of my favorite Rider heroines ever pretty quick, and in retrospect, in execution, I don't think there were any major problems with how she was handled. She gets a lot of development and a lot of great scenes early on, and it'll be interesting seeing how you react to them on another go-around of the show.

Anyway, this is low-key one of my favorite Ghost episodes. You think Rider shows have good premieres and that Ghost nailed that, but I've always believed the second episode is secretly one of the most important, illustrious positions in all of the franchise. It's the show's first real chance to dig into what it wants to do and be about, and Ghost did that pretty much perfectly. I remember not particularly being grabbed by the first episode way back when it aired, but this one grabbed me for sure. I love the elaboration on the themes (Infinite Potential™ gets mentioned! In the second episode!), and some of the slower scenes that there wasn't time for in the lightning fast-paced first outing. Like you said, Takeru's whole breakdown feels super genuine, and always sticks out to me when I think about why I like how this show writes its characters.

...And also, the way Takeru says "KANTAN NI IU NA YO!" always makes me crack up for some reason. Like, it's not even a poor line reading, and I think Shun Nishime did a wonderful job in that role, but it just always puts a smile on my face, the same way the "Kamen Rider Ghost" bit in the premiere does. Huh. I might be starting to understand why this show's opening narration is a meme.

Personally, I actually didn't like how early Full Combos were introduced in OOO. I'd've preferred we see atleast one Core Medal of each color beforehand. I'm a big fan of things starting small and growing bigger over time(whether it be power scale, the stakes of the story, what have you), and introducing Full Combos this early puts and emphasis on getting to those as soon as possible, rather than the early emphasis of gaining multiple tools to use in a variety of ways., which I dug more.

Not an out and out terrible thing by any stretch, but my own personal tastes at work.

Well that is the kicker for me -- I don't remember her actually being confronted over this? She starts believing in ghosts, sure, but my thing is that her bias of "science is a rigid set of rules and not believing what's right in front of you because it contradicts those" never gets challenged, and that's what's frustrating to me. I think it could have been a very clever episode to have in a show that has two famous scientists as ghosts, even! But, alas...

Yeah, but the red, gray, and blue Medal sets weren’t in stores yet.

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 7

https://i.imgur.com/AIyw7bE.jpg


Something really fun about rewatching these shows in a spread-out fashion like this; one episode every few days rather than binging? It really makes you appreciate just how long it took for certain things to actually happen.

Eiji staying and working at Cous Coussier. Absolute status quo. That's just where he stayed and what he did and he has a big secret identity shtick with Chiyoko. Big main part of the show. ... and we're only now getting to it on Episode 7. If you'd asked me before when it happened I would have guessed by the end of episode 2 or 3, but no; Eiji and Ankh have been wandering around for almost 2 months hunting medals and beating yummy! And they still kind of are because Eiji's not actually staying there yet! Chiyoko and a very surprised Hino are trying to convince him, but... wow, y'know? Such a simple thing as a basic setting and OOO completely eschews that. It's great because it allows this to feel so much more natural a development and also allows Chiyoko and Hina to start off as their own characters than as an excuse for Eiji's base of operations. I've had several episodes to enjoy seeing these characters and their interactions play out and especially see Eiji's situation - which is more helpless than he's willing to let on - so it makes you want to see this happen and want to see Eiji accept their offer to move in despite not wanting to impose on them. I really like this style of storytelling where it makes you want to see a certain thing happen rather than make you get used to it as a base part of the show.

There's quite a few firsts in this episode, in fact -- Gamel for the first time is shown in full force and we get introduced to his style of Yummy; we see the rest of the Greeed acting on the same modern technology as Ankh has; and we start to see Gotou develop a bit more. Up until now he's been a largely silent stoic guy just carrying out Kougami's orders, but he's letting his own emotions and opinions and desires show a lot more now as he gets increasingly fed up with both Eiji's seeming ineptitude and Kougami's whims and games. It's an understated part of the show, I feel -- everyone who loves this show will go on and on about Eiji and Ankh, and that's definitely the biggest thing; but I have to show Gotou some love as I adore the relationship he starts having with Eiji as his reluctant helper. It's a fascinating dynamic where someone much more professional is helpless to watch someone far more inexperienced go about it in all the wrong ways.

Most of this is just set-up so I didn't think I'd come away with a lot to say, but this is OOO; of course I found three things to go on about!





Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 3




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

I'm really starting to notice a running theme here of the A-plots not being a big thing of mine, but what they're being used to say about the characters absolutely is.

I mean, I'm not too fond of the lesson being that Sawa here just needs to ignore corruption and go back to her journalism? Kid's show and hardly the main topic, yeah, but if you're gonna do a story literally talking about how corruption in the corporate and political worlds can not just ruin but actually take peoples' lives due to funneling illegal money? I don't know, I think you're gonna have to take that a little bit more seriously than "journalism will save the day!". Maybe Sawa'll get to be in some other masked rider show that more seriously analyses this topic. Perhaps a couple years from now? ... naaah, sounds fake. They'd never do something like that.

So, what can I take away from this episode that insists the legends of Robin Hood are as real as Musashi and Beethoven (which, c'mon, bit silly; we all know England doesn't actually exist)? The steadily growing confidence of Takeru as a person, Akari's dedication to her closest friend, and Onari hiding his desperate need to help under a bluster of comic relief. Seriously, this time around I'm finding a lot to like in these characters' drive to just do something even when it seems out of reach! Sure, it all conveniently worked out for them, but... Akari getting that little push and help from Sennin doesn't delegitimise all the work she's putting into something she doesn't even believe in purely because she wants to help Takeru; Onari getting a boost in popularity from Little John turning herself in doesn't mitigate the hard work he's doing outside his normal skillset to hurry Takeru back to life; and Takeru... man it's hard not to feel bad for Takeru in this one. The "my dad is also dead" bit might have been a bit weak, but the emotion this actor puts behind it certainly isn't; and continuing on from last episode's bout of depression he's clearly slowly learning to deal with it in his own way and it's not stopping him from reaching out. Despite how I feel about the context of the plot surrounding it, that hug he gave to Sawa and that encouragement he attempts to give her is a pretty beautiful moment and one that makes me respect what's going on with this character. It's subtly present in his fighting scenes, too -- his floating's still very shaky but he's got a lot more control over it than before; he's slowly getting his pep back... he's absolutely still relying on others for help and he has no idea how to use his Damashiis, but the kid's getting there. He's doing alright.



also wow the condor phone shows up way earlier than i remember

If people talk about Eiji and Ankh at the expense of Gotou, then that's a huge shame, because he's just as big a key to what makes OOO what it is as anybody else, especially when you consider how much of a recurring archetype Heisei Rider had made out of prideful guys with chips on their shoulders who disapprove of the main protagonist's beliefs and/or methods, and then consider the directions that OOO chooses to take Gotou in compared to them.

...but there'll be plenty of time to talk about that later, so I'll try and restrain myself from raving anymore about him quite yet. I'd say I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on some of those plot developments, but then, I could say that about any random thing in OOO, couldn't I?

Takeru can definitely be a bit naive in his advice at times, but oh man, the Magic Hugs. To this day, one of my absolute favorite things in one of my absolute favorite shows. Ghost places an unreal amount of emphasis on the value of empathy throughout; it's what I feel makes Takeru truly unique, and there are few things that depict it more bluntly than these moments where he simply embraces someone and sheds a tear for their pain. I don't know if it was Fukuda or whoever that came up with the concept and decided to make it a recurring thing, but Ghost as a whole is so much better off for it.

also who is Sawa??? that was clearly Arisa duh

I guess it's less that people never ever talk about them, but it's a general vibe of like...

Okay, actually, and I know this is very specific merch but it's a pattern I REALLY notice whenever OOO comes up in merchandising and how the series gets remembered too.

So, this W statue, right?

https://bbts1.azureedge.net/images/p...e106ea246c.jpg

W's front and center, but beside him you've got an array of Gaia Memories showing the main Dopants of the series; Accel; and even Eternal, all set against the backdrop of Futo City's iconic look. And sure enough all of these aspects are fondly remembered and excitedly talked about and bought up in an instant when it comes to W fans.

OOO's statue in the same series?

https://bbts1.azureedge.net/images/p...0a2b089b88.jpg

Beautiful, but it's just Eiji, Ankh, some medals and a pair of underpants. They didn't even hide the Greeed in their respective core medals despite having one of each type. And again, I love the look of both these statues (and they're very affordable by the way; at 50$ each I really had to talk myself out of getting them), but one's a lot more representative of the large array of characters you can find in the series while the other's concerned with one very specific relationship. And I find this in other merch and fan response, too -- the SODO and Seihou SHFs of OOO, for instance; very instantly went for a Combo Change gimmick and covering all of OOO's forms while also being very sure to sneak in an Ankh or two early on, and then Birth only got a special (premium bandai!!) SODO set later, AFTER the movie combos set; while Seihou Birth is nowhere to be seen despite all main combos except Putotyra being at least confirmed for release -- in media as well whenever they get OOO back in stuff like Heigen Final or Memory of Heroez the big focus is them. And then of course when it comes to fans they'll go on and on about how great Ankh and Eiji were, and might say very good things about the Births and the Greeed and Hina but you'd have to ask them. Man, I wonder if this is why we've never seen Poseidon or Aqua get any love...

This is just my experience though and I could be having tunnel vision here, but it's definitely what I've seen anyway. I also hope this doesn't come across as judgy because, like, you take what you like from the show and frankly I don't blame anyone for putting all their love into Eiji and Ankh when their relationship is the highlight of the show and has so, so many complexities to dig into. It's just... a bit like getting into Takumi and Kiba but never bringing up anyone else from Faiz, y'know? ... wait i do that, i'm that person


MAGIC HUGS. YES. Like okay yeah that's just describing exactly what's on screen but it perfectly gets what I'm liking about Ghost this time around


And hey, don't feel bad about 'spoiling' stuff and talking about things you like in later episodes! Just means I have to pin your quote post for later :lol

I won't lie, I was legitimately taken aback the first few times I saw you geeking out about Aqua specifically because I don't think I had ever once seen someone actually care about that poor guy until then, so you might have a point. :lol

And yeah, now that you mention it, I guess "Eiji and Ankh" is the very specific thing people remember about OOO above all else, probably helped a lot by the strength of the finale. I'd compare it to Blade, but uh, I think that immediately fell apart when I remembered that Blade is also famous for a certain ~other~ thing, too. Tachibana might even be more popular than Kenzaki, for all I know.

The comparison that comes to mind to me is Den-O -- I feel all Ryotarou's Imagin are remembered far far more than Zeronos. Heck, Zeronos also got relegated to a Premium Bandai SODO set! Den-O Wing Form got to be in the retail stuff before he did!

Still, don't wanna get into it too much, because there comes a point where you're trying to boil it down to a science. OOO and Den-O are just the ones that immediately jump out to me.

If I’m honest, Eiji and Ankh are the only characters with any real progression to their arcs. Yeah, Gotou has his arc of becoming a suitable Birth candidate, but that takes over 20 episodes and once he gets the job, he didn’t anything of consequence to the rest of the show, (Yeah, he took down Gamel, but considering that a) it was in a subplot, b) he had help from Date and c) Gamel is basically the harmless villain of the Greeed, it loses much of the awesome factor).

Love this show.

https://i.imgur.com/weVGWPl.jpg

When your mentor takes “being cuckoo” literally.

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 8



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


Man, right when I think OOO is about to lose me it pulls me right back in.

Following on from last episode we've got the set-up of a husband who's pretty greedy and good-for-nothing and a wife who's kinda fed up with that and throws stuff at him for both comedy and, somehow, as Yummy inspiration because Gamel's just like that; and in any other series this'd be a pretty predictable plot where the husband needs to stop being greedy and maybe the wife needs to chill. But in a twist I straight up didn't see coming it instead becomes a great story about how achieving your dreams doesn't necessarily lead to happiness; and how letting success drown you can obscure your dreams and make them feel meaningless. Both Takeshi and Momoka believe Takeshi has just stopped believing in his dream and stopped having passion for and wanting to be a great photographer because of everything that's happened, but it's clearly a huge bout of denial that Eiji's able to pierce through with his belief that someone wouldn't be able to just stop wanting things that easily. Which, again, interesting thing that I'm sure won't have implications for him later...


Lots of neat little things about Ankh in this episode too. He continues to be really goddamn smart - after yet another medal exchange where he loses an extra Tora and his only Kuwagata (huh, they can't use Gatakiriba anymore. Wonder why they went with that decision), he throws his voice with one of the candroids; and you can just feel even if it's never stated just how pissed he is that he only just escaped with his life thanks once again to Kougami's technology. We start seeing how a loss of medals can hurt him - he starts turning to stone?! - and in the most interesting one of the bunch, Ankh doesn't call for help because he remembers and respects just how shrewd Eiji can actually be, and decides he doesn't want to be seen in a weakened state because it might allow Eiji to gain more power over him. It's a fascinating look into his narrow outlook on the world; that he views relationships purely in terms of control and power, and is completely proven wrong near the end of the episode where Eiji realises what's up and goes out of his way to borrow some of Kougami's medals for him. It's reminding me what was so good about this relationship -- if it were any different it'd be so easy for it to be abusive or unhealthy, but the balance is just right with them that Eiji is never really in danger and they've instead got a super fun dynamic going on. And perhaps connected to that, we've got out first glimpse at the past with its previous OOO user -- an ancient king who effortlessly used his powers to run through fully-powered Greeed and makes Eiji's attempts look downright pitiful. Hmmm. Wonder if that's gonna be elaborated on at some point...

Hina made me cry in this episode. It's such a beautiful thing that she sees him going out of his way for her at great loss to himself - his giving up a free home and a guaranteed job just to keep Ankh away from her - while specifically flashing back to his speech about how he's not a good person only to immediate state that she thinks he's nice. Hina is a far far stronger character than I remember, and I'm not just talking about how she can pummel Ankh into next friday; there's so much genuine emotion and care going on that I seriously skipped the first time and makes me so glad I'm doing this rewatch.





Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 4



https://i.imgur.com/7NmnerA.jpeg


Oh hey, a blue one!

This is an episode that seriously got stuck in my mind from my first run for a lot of reasons and is definitely one of the episodes that comes to mind when I think of Ghost, which might be surprising to some given how memorable a certain green-and-white guy is later -- but individual episodes like these can seriously pull their weight! For one thing... kinda superficial, but I like that this is an episode about the Nobunaga eyecon. Every convention would state that after the last few episodes they'd be going after Ghost's next eyecon, but screw it; let's skip straight to number 11 and have Ghost not even get it at the end and be stolen by the mysterious newcomer! I know of course the Nobunaga eyecon was next on the agenda due to said newcomer's toys coming up soon but it's still really neat to see this screw with the order like that. And hey, Takeru still gets a new eyecon! ... or, uh, one he got before from the Drive episode; even though he said he had 12 left to get at the start? Did that all happen during this episode, or...?

Ah whatever, I ADORE this episode's scope! Compared to the more personal stories you've had before you've got a huge chunk of the city being lifted into the sky, quickly turning this into a disaster movie of sorts! A disaster movie they didn't even have the budget for as, ironically, they lifted scenes straight from the OOO movie just to pull it off! This is something I really really appreciate about Kamen Rider; where they don't have the budget to fully realise their vision but they still want to pull off that spectacle, and damn it, they'll do it!

Finally, this episode is also extremely Kamen Rider -- the episode opens with Takeru questioning whether or not he should be chasing after every Ganma case when he should probably be focusing on the Eyecons specifically; and right at the climax he has to choose between saving the people and getting the Nobunaga Eyecon. And of course he chooses saving the people, every time. It's basically not a question for him, when the chips are right down to it and he's actually there, that will always be his choice and that's precisely what's so good about Kamen Rider!
... though then he just summon the Eyecon anyway? It's a bit of a flawed execution where he summons it and then Mysterious Newcomer suddenly pops up and says "hey Nobu dude fight with me". I'm only bringing this up because it's super frustrating when you had the perfect set-up for Mysterious Newcomer to have summoned the eyecon himself while Takeru's saving the city, and Takeru only comes up in time to see him holding the Nobunaga eyecon before speeding off! Oh well. If that's the worst this season has right now I'm sure I'll enjoy what's to come!

Well you see, your first mistake was thinking OOO would lose you. :p

Funnily enough, this is maybe one of the earlier episodes I think about the least, but that's probably just because I feel like all the episodes immediately following it are so strong. I definitely remember the weird continuity woes of the Newton Eyecon and the reused OOO footage plenty, though, and I mean, it's Ghost, so when I say this one sticks in my mind less than others, that's relatively speaking.

To offer a generous reading of Takeru getting to summon the Eyecon at the end, it's probably to make it that much more surprising when Specter shows up to completely rewrite the status quo by sticking to the formula until the very last possible second. The closer Takeru gets to a victory, the more shocking it is when he loses. The fact Specter enters the scene flying suddenly into frame to kick Ghost suggests to me they were shooting for maximum excitement above all else, and I think they hit the mark there; I got a lotta nice things to say about Specter in this part of the show. I do like your idea too, though!

I do understand about Zeronos (technically the secondary rider) being overshadowed. I liked him but I love Deneb - anytime I can see more Deneb I would be happy. I was so happy when I saw that his Figuarts figure comes with a basket and candy.

Zeronos I'm not terribly fond of, but Deneb is wonderful. Any scene he's in being overly kind and playing the overprotective parent I fall in love every time!

I at least liked Yuuto more than Ryotaro, although Takeru Sato did a good job playing all those personalities I just couldn't get behind his character.

holy s***!! There's a ghost in that photo, look!

https://i.imgur.com/Cu7PAb2.png

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 9


https://i.imgur.com/uPoloed.jpg


I don't think I can do this episode justice.

I seriously, seriously don't. Despite being one of the things I like so much about Kamen Rider and was one of the things that drew me into it, I'm always caught so off guard whenever they use the medium of children's television/toy advert to frame such a serious issue -- in this case, intense trauma brought on by our main character's involvement in war and his failure to save the ones he cares about. This is rarely brought up, but even as early as here; Eiji is shown to have easily one of the darkest backstories of a Heisei Riser, in my mind only truly rivaled by Sento -- during his travels he gets caught up in a civil war, makes friends with a young girl; and watches helplessly as she falls to a barrage of missiles sent in a heartless, senseless power struggle. And despite how over the top and loud OOO usually is and how that plays to its strengths, none of that is present here -- when Eiji's talking about it to Hina, everything in the scene is treated so slowly, so seriously because this is not the subject you mess around with, the creative team knows this, and they don't. They go out of their way to make Eiji as real as he can be, and to be frank, so much of that is achieved through Shu Watanabe's phenomenal acting. This is a big part of why I don't feel I can do this episode justice in these little write-ups because if a picture contains a thousand words, a scene contains a billion. He gives so many subtle movements and reactions; and the way he portrays a facade and the way his face shifts when talking to Hina is heartbreaking. There's some fantastic moments in the first few minutes of the episode too where Eiji recognises the sound of an explosion, his face just saying it all as he's recalling something that makes him so afraid, so horrified with everything he's gone through; and when he does get to the scene and recognises what's going on he's trembling with fear. I can't get across to you how good all these scenes are, and in case it wasn't obvious by now, I implore you to rewatch any of these OOO episodes. All of them so far have been complete bangers (oh god that pun was not intentional it really wasn't that's the worst pun I could make), and this one goes above and beyond to very seriously give space to a character who has suffered through unimaginable trauma and show what it's made him into. It's not difficult to make the jump to the conclusion that Eiji is Kamen Rider OOO because he wants to atone for the guilt weighing him down; or that he feels it's his innate responsibility; or that he's just glad to finally has the power to do something. Many parts of this episode have stuck in my mind since I saw it, and seeing the full package again brought me to tears. On these merits alone, Kamen Rider OOO Episode 9 is one of the best episodes of Tokusatsu I've ever seen.

But do the positives stop with that? No, they don't, because this is Kamen Rider OOO and even if the rest of the episode can't reach those highs it can do a hell of a lot to establish and elaborate on details that are so so interesting. Once again -- the Greeed. My favourite villains in all of Kamen Rider, and this episode portrays exactly why: because they're so deeply pathetic. Oh, sure; all of them and especially Uva have put up a great fight against OOO so far. An inexperienced OOO. Barely using a fraction of his power. An OOO that, with mere weeks of experience, once he uses a combo; devastates the Greeed in front of him without moving to such a degree that he gets four core medals out of it. We saw in the last episode a flashback where four fully-restored Greeed are completely curbstomped by King OOO using not just combos but TaToBa to great success and you start seeing shades of it here. This is not a fluctuating power level that does as the plot demands (which for the record, depending on the context; I'm fine with), this is a consistent power struggle which shows our main monsters are hardly adept supervillains; they're helpless creatures caught up in these circumstances using what power they have to do the only thing they know; what both nature and nurture have told them -- get those medals. There's shades of Blade here too where this ritualistic, instinctive nature to them all is being perverted and twisted by the machinations of modern-day corporations and conglomerates for their own needs -- seeing Kazari having his world turned upside down when he starts catching onto there being another player in the medal game is crushing when it's someone like this who's already been shown to be very manipulative and in control. This isn't their world anymore.






Kamen Rider Ghost Episode Golf


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Elpp6w0U...name=4096x4096

https://twitter.com/Reiei8/status/1322526234190835712


Yeah, so, 4 episodes in and Kamen Rider Ghost already gets interrupted by golf, immediately before Specter's true introduction after the heavy teasing and excitement-building last episode. Goddamn tragic. And yes, I could just watch Ghost episode 5 anyway especially since next week OOO suffers the same fate so it would balance out; but I am very serious about keeping to my air date schedule thing no matter how much it's been disrupted for these first couple months. And I have it for a reason -- to simulate how much time people had to sit between each episode to get this experience, so a longer-than-usual wait time between Ghost episode 4 and 5 does fit. I can wait till Sunday.


...






Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 37



https://i.imgur.com/s0fAdB4.jpeg



I don't know why I'm doing this. I don't even like Gaim, this has nothing to do thematically or structurally or has anything in common with OOO Episode 9 or OOO and Ghost as a whole, I just completely out of nowhere last night got struck with the urge: "I wanna watch the gaim football episode again". Frankly it's the best one: it's stupid, it's non-canon, it's Baron mcedgyfuck getting schooled by a bunch of real life football players, and it's the only Gaim episode until the Gridon/Bravo miniseries that Micchy isn't in. Just a home run all around! That, uh, is a football thing, right? Sports.

There's just something so enthralling about a Kamen Rider episode where I do not care about any fight in it and I just want to get it out of the way so that I can get to the other stuff. Die's been having that experience a lot in his Hibiki thread and I'm kinda stunned to feel it happening here -- occasionally Mars' weird flea bugboy thing shows up to fight Baron (and Gaim, who is also here?) and I just am so bored of it because it's not football. If I wanted to see Baron Banana Au Lait some random monster design into next tuesday I'd watch any other episode of Gaim, but I'm here to watch him inexplicitly become a football ace for no reason! The way he tries to kick a football, completely misses, and it turns out he doesn't know how to play football, is one of the funniest moments in this entire franchise and I'm so glad it lived as long as it did to get to this stage. And then they get real life soccer pros in on the action?? I did NOT remember them teaming up to kick a flaming football at flea bugboy which legitimately damages it, but fuck me, this is just a collage of every amazing moment in The Gaim Football Episode at this point!

The inherent modern Kamen Rider-ness of it all, of the whole "let's interrupt the entire plot in its most pivotal dramatic moment to do a funny football AU episode to promote the movie", is so beautiful that it transcends advertisement and becomes art. The way it continues to take all of it so seriously, the way they pretend to have a plot strung all throughout it or that it has anything to do with what's going on or that half of these questions will be answered in the movie or that there's a moral, emotional or complex core to this at all is amazing. What more can I say? This episode is fucking stupid and watching it right now is exactly how you should be celebrating Gaim getting a ton of attention in merch and spin-off media right now. Sports.


https://i.imgur.com/3NMcTva.jpg

His performance really is killer, especially in episodes like this one and the next (I will back up that if you're ever in the mood to rewatch some OOO, these are two to go for), but there's one moment from the arc right before this that I still keep thinking about whenever I think about Eiji, and it's when he tells the Victim of the Week in those episodes that he's on a break when asked about why he's in Japan. I can barely even describe why, but it's just... every little bit of movement on his face is so key, and on a rewatch, knowing exactly what's going on in his head in that scene, it legitimately broke my heart a little. It's been said before, but OOO really is great with subtlety for such a loud show.

Man, now this takes me back. Saying "I don't like Gaim" and that the brainless cross-promotional tie-ins are really the best parts is like, peak 2015~ish me. I mean, I've changed a lot of my opinions on Gaim all over the place with time, but even though I could tell you all about how Kaito's character is this important, serious key to the entire story with an interesting moral dynamic? He's always going to be that goofy loser from Kamen Rider Taisen chasing pets around with Shoutarou in my heart.

Currently halfway through Super-1, and also saw the movie.

First off, the movie was quite the spectacle. It was like this fusion of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Godzilla, and MAN was it a fun ride!

The scene where all the previous Riders jump in to help out of is of course the best part of the whole thing, but special mention to the scene where Super-1 freezes a Zord whole and then drives his bike directly through its head. Awesome.

As for the show itself, I'm still pretty consistently having a blast with is. The last few episodes of the first half I actually felt worked so well as a finale that I honestly wouldn't've minded if the show had ended right then and there. Especially considering episode 22.

I actually rather liked the backstory that they gave General Megaal. He's not exactly sympathetic or anything like that, but the story of one man's ambition ultimately leading him down a path sorrow, and then straight into madness, was rather interesting, and helped me to kinda appreciate this otherwise one-note character a bit more.

Terror Macrow, given the bigger context of everything, also worked pretty solid as the Big Bad, which makes me fear I won't get nearly as much enjoyment out of these new "Jin Dogma" goons that episode 23 introduces almost literally at the last minute. But, I'm remaining optimistic. So far the show's been a good ride, and I hope it keeps it up. Though I think it'll be hard to rival the episode about a phone monster disintegrating people with smoke.

Just really sad to see that Shu's career never really took off. He was an original character for the Attack on titan movie, but the movie bombed and something with his contract probably screwed him big time. Subscribed to his YT "Watanabase" and he look so tired and out of it in his early videos. His mood seems to be getting better over time tho.

Hope he gets back up. Maybe get Toei to put him back and solve the whole Ankh thing.

Also, oh hey, Kurona used my Golf meme. Even tho, it was inaccurate when I made.

I'm actually very disappointed in my write-up for Episode 8 as I absolutely agree -- there's something so incredibly Eiji in his entire conversation with Takeshi, and it's a feeling that was very hard to capture and I was trying to put into words but just kinda flopped. This is one of the reasons I was iffy on the idea of doing a thread, because I just don't think I'm that good at this thing even if I'm trying my best. Either way, yeah, it's just so Kamen Rider that the scene Eiji's talking to someone in just his underwear about photography is as important as the scenes where he's talking about his trauma!


What can I say? It's amazing! I'll probably get a bit more usage out of it in the coming year too if that's okay with you!

Hey, s'long as credit where credit is due, I'm fine!

Hey, I've been in the position of trying to describe what makes episodes of OOO good before myself; it's hard not to feel like you're leaving too much meat on the bone of a show with this much going on. You're doing a great job so far!

I finally wrapped up Zero-One and OH MY GOD IT GOT SO GOOD NEAR THE END. I'm sorry I am about to just incoherently scream about random things, still riding the high from finishing it. Spoilers ahoy!

I have issues with it honestly. The pacing is way too slow early on, and they kind of had to cram a lot of good stuff later on into less episodes than I would have preferred (something only exacerbated by the pandemic). It tries to juggle way too many characters too. However! I thought that was a fantastic start for the Reiwa era. Everything with the cycle of revenge near the end of the show was fantastic, and Ark was an absolutely creepy and awesome villain who was super manipulative. They even wrote a female Rider and didn't totally mangle her character arc! In fact, she was quite good! Aruto choosing to be the bigger man at the end and spare Horobi was just fantastic, even when Aruto had arguably lost more than Horobi had. I even teared up a little at the end with Aruto meeting the new Izu. The budget for the show was also great, things generally looked spectacular barring a few awkward CGI moments. You know a show was good when your major complaint is that you wanted it to be longer!

I'm debating picking up Saber and trying to catch up so I can watch live again, it's been a few years. I get the impression people have no idea what to make of that show so far, haha.

You'll laugh, you'll smile, you'll scratch your head, you'll probably cringe once or twice, you'll turn your brain off and watch the mindless nonsense go on.

Saber has been fun, imo.