Would I be taking my newfound appreciation of Ghost too far if I said the Ganma rate as some of my favourite MOTWs in all of Rider?

It certainly helps that like the W to Wizard stretch, Ghost leans a lot more heavily into MOTW formulas than the more heavy serialisation we've seen almost entirely since Gaim and so we actually do have a lot of MOTWs going on here and in the spotlight, but I just love a lot of these designs. Two things I really like seeing in an enemy faction is advanced mooks and a mirror of the hero's power, and that's exactly what the Ganma do; they're mooks that kinda use their own damashii and they go crazy with it! It's a simple thing but the designs are so fun and outlandish and, while I didn't think so before you said it; I think you nailed it when you said Showa. It brings a lot of weirdness back into this franchise and I appreciate that a lot.

The Roidmude and Ganma are totally just Sentai monsters.

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 10


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https://i.imgur.com/Jmv9jOQ.jpg

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I love Eiji Hino.

He's a man that through all his travels and everything he's seen, and everything he's been through; he tries to be the best person he can and see the best in everyone else too. It's a mindset that in its worst moments leads him to deeply undervaluing himself and being too quick to forgive others, but at its best; can let him reach out to people that others would abandon. It's perhaps this that leads him to be more tolerant of Ankh and the other Greeed -- it seems there's maybe a part of him that understands these are creatures created out of desire that know nothing else, maybe he pities them despite everything they do so he never truly gets angry with them nor gives up on Ankh. He's a kind person that sees that even if someone's doing something awful, if there's something behind that or something holding them back; maybe that's worth trying to understand first. Dr. Maki is a grown man. One who is very smart, who's very in control; who knows the lives involved in his experiments and the risks to them, who lets someone completely under his command run wild with bombs when at any time he could have the guy taken in and arrested -- so even though the data from this will likely be useful, even though this is the guy creating the Medal System he's so reliant on and enamoured by.

It's a strong moment, I think. It lands all the better because the past 9 episodes have portrayed Eiji as unfailingly kind, offering help and advice to any random stranger who needs it, being very understanding to even people who seem selfish and awful and never raising his voice or really scolding -- his conversation with Takeshi a couple episodes ago is a great example. So to see him finally, finally lose his temper; to see something that makes him downright hate someone and come close to assaulting them? It's a good, good, good fucking scene. It shows exactly where his boundaries lie and that he isn't so naive as to truly believe everyone's a good person or something like that, and that there are people you've got to stand up to and sometimes disavow completely. I think it's also a great thing to teach kids about boundaries, and the only person he does this to being the person who develops the technology that lets him fight as effectively as he does? That's very Kamen Rider, isn't it?

This is a fantastic episode elsewhere, by the way. It always impresses me when a masked hero genre show is able to make the part of the show where no-one's being a masked hero exciting -- Eiji's frantic, hurried dash through the amusement park to warn everyone to leave and shut off as many bombs as he can is as exciting as it is genuinely scary; and it's beautifully contrasted with Gotou doing everything he can to open up the lab to let all the scientists free from the Yummy. This is also particularly interesting in its placement as it's the first scene of him truly being a hero in his own right, and is in an episode which started off by having his interest piqued in Maki's mention of a medal system normal humans could use. Hmmm. That sounds like an intriguing concept to explore, doesn't it?


Fantastic episode all around, and I didn't even mention any of the Kamen Riding; which is maybe one of the best things you can say for a Kamen Rider show!





Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 6



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If there's two things I hope I've communicated well enough in this rewatch so far, it's that A) I have a newfound love for Takeru as a character through his lack of confidence; and B) I love when characters are hypocrites with their beliefs.

Takeru so far has spent the series running into people who say that their work is more important than their life -- advances in science, in business, etc - to which he emphatically responds no, no, above all else your life is the most important thing. It is a downright beautiful message to send your audience especially when a lot of aspects of society can feel like they're saying or encouraging quite the opposite at times; I've been vibing so so much with Ghost's insistence that life and people have value in and of themselves, yet here he is; saying what's the point of living if he can't ever see people again. And granted, yes, that is quite a different and quite a larger issue; but that's what makes it all the better -- this episode is insisting that life still has value no matter what, and Takeru is still starting to question if that's true at all.

Which if I might get emotional for a second about symbolic stuff I'm not even sure was intentional? Musashi. The big rule about Eyecon creation is that there must be a person involved with a deep connection to that person -- usually the character of the week, but for Musashi? That was Takeru. So when you've got an episode where he's slowly falling into a frantic mess and unintentionally pushing everyone away, and you have him drop that Musashi Eyecon and abandon it to his enemy; only to have it saved by his best friend, who throws it to him after an encouraging chat, and he uses Musashi to finish off his opponent right after getting a brand new toy, and after every usage of it since the first episode has been a failure? Bit hard not to read into that as important! Everything going on with that is beautiful, especially as they don't have any blatant "Musashi... this is The Most Important One" scene. One thing I have noticed about Ghost so far especially in comparison to OOO (though, uh, hardly an insult if you're not being as elegant as OOO) is that Ghost is extremely blatant about what it's about and saying what it's about? And I don't have too much of an issue with that; especially when you're dealing with subject matter this important on a kid's show, sometimes a bit of bluntness is important! But it also means that it lets subtleties like this land so, so much more.

To bring all that round, I like how this episode recenters the moral around not only saying that life is important above all else; but that it's okay to not pursue lofty achievements too much if it's driving your loved ones away and causing you issues. It's a beautiful beautiful moral that's all about hammering home the inherent importance of life, and it's made all the better by the final moment having the character of the week writing a letter saying that instead of going for performing on the grand stage, right now he's going to refocus on enjoying music and finding what's important to him in that. Kamen Rider is often very good at finding importance in the mundane, but I'm finding that Ghost is specialising in that area, and it's just wonderful to see. This series is slowly turning into something special for me!

Both of these episodes are extremely special ones for me, so I'm not even sure where to start, besides with OOO.

I think I used that exact screencap of Eiji punching that fuse box or whatever it is when I was rewatching OOO, and that's because this is one of those scenes I just kinda saw again on a whim one day, probably while Fourze or Wizard was airing, and... I mean, I only barely remember the context, but I think it might've singlehandedly kickstarted my habit of getting intensely yet fleetingly nostalgic for OOO? Because what I recall for sure is seeing that moment, being shocked I forgot it was a thing that happened, and how dramatic and great of a scene it was, and, ever since then, that simple swing of a fist is burned into my brain so much I don't think I'll ever forget about it again. When I think of Eiji, there are two weirdly specific things that always come to mind for me: one is the words "thank you", which won't be relevant for a while, and the other is that frame from episode 10.

Episode 6 of Ghost was the first one written by Nobuhiro Mouri, and probably the first time I really had an inkling that my enjoyment of this show was going to go beyond simply liking it. Like Kurona said, Ghost is exceptionally direct about what The Message is supposed to be, but episodes like this are the proof that isn't a bad thing. It's telling the kids at home something really, genuinely important, and it wraps that naturally around a great bit of character growth for Takeru; if I wasn't before, this is the point in the show where I really starting feeling invested in his personal journey. One of my absolute favorites of the entire series. I've always had a huge soft spot for Beethoven Damashii because of it, too!

"I can't believe I forgot this happened" is summing up a lot of my experience so far! At this point I'm gonna have to keep a tally...


Beethoven Damashii was a really nice one. Something I really liked but just didn't feel I had room to talk about was the sound design in this episode -- muting all but the Ganma sounds is a simple if effective gimmick, but I like how it ties into Takeru's issues causing him to literally not be heard (or seen) by anyone; culminating in Beethoven's use of music once he finally gets things going. Nice bit of episodic thematics in this one!

Beethoven is the best spirit, I'm glad you're all here to agree.

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 11


https://i.imgur.com/dxC9LAV.jpeg


An episode about a guy trying desperately to be as good as other writers more famous than him and disregarding everything unique about his own writing because the bigwigs say "we only care about writers who are just like this currently popular one"? Well DAMN that strikes a chord!

I mean, c'mon Yonemura, you haven't even written Super Hero Taisen yet! People liked Kabuto! I think! Trust me, dude: you've got a handle on OOO just fine. Along with a VERY funny two-parter later and the movie it leads into, this is Yonemura's only guest credit in OOO, but what has always impressed me is just how naturally he understands this cast. I'm not gonna act like he brings this magic to the characters' developments or that it was critically important these episodes existed (though I don't know how I'd live in a world without the 1000 2-parter), and true enough I don't actually have a lot to talk about this episode mostly because like the last time this happened, this is the set-up portion of a 2-parter; but it's the sort of thing where if you told me Kobayashi had written these episodes I wouldn't have blinked an eye. Eiji feels right, Ankh feels right, Gotou feels right; just the whole vibe is on point and I have to wonder if this is maybe one of this writer's strengths -- maybe that's why he was brought on for Super Hero Taisen in the first place. He watches a few episodes of a show and he just Gets characters.

I'll probably get more into the character of the week and his whole deal next time, but what's really striking me about the episode right now is Gotou. Once again he's got his big whole Tsundere deal going on, stretching to the point of literally just showing up after Eiji gets beat to say "Huh. I'm going to save the whole world". No point to him doing that, at all, and it's so perfect. This man is such a wonderful mess powerless to do anything while his boss goes "Yeah no you actually like Eiji it's written all over your face", and it's a wonderful contrast to our main hero. The man trying to save the world is being outdone at that task by someone just doing his best to help the people in front of him. Simple, wonderful, elegant poetry.



So let's blow him up!!!



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Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 7


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


I love to see a Kamen Rider protagonist decide not to choose and to just do what both benefits themselves and the world around him. I love to see it.

Guess the theme of today is piling on the parallels because our character of the week is worried about his childhood friend acting strange and not responding to their friendship stuff after not seeing each other for years despite them having the closest of bonds as kids. I mean, uh, that's not a parallel at all; that's completely unrelated to Takeru's flashback about his childhood friend and Specter strangely looking at Takeru's father's grave and getting his backstory exposited to him by Saionji! I like that they're not beating around the bush too much with this reveal, by the by; while at the same time not outright saying it. The characters don't know yet and the show doesn't say it to the viewers, but this is the episode practically spelling out to you that yes, Specter is Takeru's childhood friend acting strange and not responding to their friendship stuff after not seeing each other for years despite them having the closest of bonds as kids. I'm a fan of this! I like when a show respects your intelligence enough to both get on with these story arcs so we can get to the juicy emotional beats while also not just saying to your face what's going on. It's perfect timing, too -- Specter's had a good few episodes now of Being The New Badass, and now he's actually starting to lose ground to a Ghost with newfound confidence, they're quite happy to move on with his story.

Talking of his newfound confidence, following on from last episode; I love how quickly Musashi has gone from getting merced every episode to now practically being Takeru's first super form. It's maybe not granting him great power as much as it's a sign that he's about to get real and kick your ass -- and on the flipside, I love that he stopped using an extra eyecon to do a Rider Kick in his base form. There is, like, no upside to that! But he did it just to show he has confidence in what he can do alone! And it works! Sure he needs the new Eyecon to win against probably the best bee woman suit this franchise has ever made (she's so cute), but new toys are new toys and symbolic acts are symbolic acts. I can take them using an american outlaw or two if it means the show can be as fun as it is right now.



https://i.imgur.com/Rg96CLb.jpeg

So I watched a bunch of Stage Shows, and decided I'll briefly give my thoughts on them.

Zero-One Final Stage - Aka Metsubojinrai Final Stage:

I say this because really, I feel like MBJR got the most depth and characterization among all the Riders present. Just the stuff with Ansatsu-Chan returning, the little details with Horobi and Jin, and all four of them at the end, it was really nice stuff. Oh and Zero-One, Vulcan and Valkyrie were cool too, I guess. Also not even 10 minutes in and Thouser immediately jobs, all is well.

Not much to say other than I loved the focus on MBJR in this. Also I kinda found it cute how the yelling in this was replaced with "clap your hands to the beat of the theme song" for obvious reasons.

Kamen Rider Zangetsu - Gaim Gaiden:

This was an interesting thing to sit through, mostly because it felt almost like watching a replay of Gaim. Literally every Proto-Rider and even the dude parading around as Zangetsu for a bit, are literal expy's for their real Rider counterparts. It evokes a weird sense of Deja Vu.

It's an interesting exploration into Takatora's past and shows just how much Yggdrasil screwed things up before all the stuff in Zawame went down. And it basically shows a country that ended up becoming a Failed Zawame city in a sense.

It's a lot more high budget than most Rider Final Stages up to that point, they do some real good things with projectors and screens to do cool transformation effects as well as attacks and stuff. I say up to since Zero-One's final stage ended up doing some similar stuff. And I really dig how well they were able to perform a live toku as a result. One thing that sorta just struck me odd though was all the dancing that ended up happening in the middle of fights. I'll be real when I say I just didn't really see the point to it.

Even in stage play form though, Zangetsu Kachidoki is a beaut.

Kamen Rider Build Special Event

I feel like the first 7 or so minutes is basically a meta commentary on how pathetic Shocker has grown over the years. It's basically them going "Wow we kinda suck and only ever do special events anymore" for a bit. Also three Shocker Scientists are fans of Miitan, more on that later.

So this oddly fits very snug right after Cross-Z Magma's debut, Gentoku is still working for Nanba, or in this case Shocker because Stalk said so. And we've got Sento, Ryuga and Kazumi acting as our heroes.

And man, they really got everyone on point here, and i have to wonder... do we really need Kazumi to suffer more? So after finding out the three shocker scientists love Miitan as much as he does, they end up becoming comrades and they start calling him boss. This all comes to a head when they sacrifice themselves to save Misora who got kidnapped. And thus, Kazumi once again tragically loses three people.

But to get away from that depressive spiral, Ryuga was a riot in this one. I guess only Build is allowed to form change since Ryuga busts out Cross-Z Magma immediately just to punch some Shocker grunts. He ends up being beaten by being tricked to drink Soy Sauce labeled as a protein drink.

Overall a goofy and meta poking stage show with sudden depression towards the climax.

Kamen Rider Den-O Final Stage

You know it's interesting how far we've come in regards to certain Final Stages, while Zero-One's was more lowkey, past ones have been rather insane in certain aspects.

Den-O's is pretty standard honestly, the most I really got out of it was the Time Terminal/King Liner has a Hot Springs Inn with its own Manager. But yeah, it's your usual Imagin Shenanigans, touching moments with Ryotarou, Deneb and Yuuto are fun as well (PS you can send Yuuto New Years cards all throughout January), and overall just the usual stuff, nothing too thought provoking really.

Next time I post I'll probably talk about the Ex-Aid and Build Final Stages, I may even rewatch Gaim's just cause it's been a while.

I finished Super-1.

Before getting into the show itself, I wanna give props to Bereke Scrubs who did a great job at subbing the show. The subs were all very clean and easy to read, and alot of the dialogue felt very natural. I also appreciated their attempt at converting many of the Japanese puns to English ones. I also only ever noticed one typo, so good editing overall too. I'll definitely be using them whenever I get around to watching Stronger and Daimajin Kanon. As for the show itself...

In the end, while I still feel that the second half is way weaker than the first, I will atleast say that it isn't ALL bad.

However, the critiques I gave earlier still stand: The Junior Rider Squad still drags the show way down, Jin Dogma is nowhere near as interesting as Dogma was, and the plot, what little there was to begin with, basically doesn't exist anymore.

It's rather telling that most of the better episodes of the second half are the ones where the Kids are barely in it, and coincidentally many of those episodes are ones where my favorite of the Jin Dogma squad, Doctor Ghost, is the focus bad guy. Amazing name aside, he turned out really well!

For real, Doctor Ghost is the only Jin Dogma goon to get serious results, and the lack of kids in most of his episodes actually allows Kazuya to display some actual agency and be a superhero. You know, the very thing most people would be tuning in to actually see? Ghost's' actor as does a pretty good job at giving him a memorable personality in contrast to everyone else.

Speaking of his plots, while I don't doubt the timeslot change actually happened, thus resulting in the second half, it really does make me wonder what 80s censors were on. Because such new "kid friendly" content includes: A guy being stabbed to death on screen, people getting shoved into a gas chamber, Super-1 ripping a monster's' eyes out, and my personal favorite; People getting melted into bloody flesh-puddles. Black came nowhere close to this stuff.

If there's one thing that remains consistently good throughout the entire series it's the action. No joke, both Kazuya's' actor and Super-1's' suit actor actually learning kung-fu for the role lent alot of authenticity to the fight scenes that wouldn't be seen again until Power Rangers, and ontop of that the choreography and the utter intensity of what goes on makes alot of episodes really fun to watch even if they're super bogged down by the obnoxious Rider Squad. Despite my complaints, I had alot of fun watching this show!

Overall, assuming you're watching it solely in terms of a fun ride and not taking anything in too seriously, I give Super-1 a 4/6. I do definitely prefer the first half, as there was actual effort put in towards character development and story, but if you can get past the kids, the second half isn't out and out horrible. That said, I wouldn't be able to blame anyone who decides to treat episode 23 as the actual finale and decides to just stop there.

I also consider myself lucky in that I watched this right after Fourze, because it's clear that Fourze took alot of inspiration from Super-1. Think about it. A Kamen Rider originally built for space exploration who can swap out body parts to gain different equipment to use in his fight against evil, a Rider Club is prevalent in the plot, and there's a secondary focus on kung-fu.

Yeah, that added a whole new layer to watching this, and I'm overall glad I saw it when I did.

You know, in retrospect, maybe the episode ending with something as absurdly extreme as a supporting character firing a bazooka at the hero does make it pretty clear who wrote this one. :lol

So, I completely forgot to mention that I never considered the significance of it being the Musashi Eyecon that Akari protects from Specter until you mentioned it talking about the last episode, and I'm really sorry about that because it's doing a huge disservice to what a great observation that is. When I think of how big a deal Musashi is to this show, I think of that first episode, and all the obvious stuff from the end of the first arc onwards, so it's sort of crazy to think they were also making a point of it throughout the first quarter on top of all that.

All of which is to say, yeah, it's pretty great Ghost goes out of his way to use Ore anyway when he and Specter Rider Kick each other here, which serves as a great parallel to the last time Takeru tried that and nearly lost yet another Eyecon for the trouble. Even beyond the story significance of all these things, I've always really appreciated how much Ghost as a series makes it a point to get as many appearances in for forms as possible, even once they're old news. It obviously still starts dropping off after a point anyway, but it's nowhere near to the extent of some other shows, and I can't think of many Riders in the years right before or after Ghost who ever did just their base form Rider Kick as often as Takeru did.

Also, Insect Ganma might be Best Ganma? Or at least Best Ganma That Isn't Into Art? I've always thought that design really popped, is the point; it's probably the color scheme.

Really curious where you're watching these? I wish I had more to say but I've never been able to find any way to watch them; and in particular a 01 special with focus on Naki and Raiden and a Build special about how pathetic Shocker is sound very up my alley!

Given what I've recently been doing in this thread, I really had to laugh when you said you were finding enjoyment in the villainy of Doctor Ghost, and him being the only competent one. That aside, I'm glad you enjoyed it! While I don't have the same personal connection as this example, it's the same sort of reason I enjoyed seeing Die's Hibiki thread get past 29 -- it's fun to see people find something in a section of the show that is held in pretty low regard, even if you come out not liking it overall regardless.

It's one of those things that you can very easily go without noticing since the show never really points it out and this is the segment of a modern Rider show that focuses on using as many gimmick items as possible so it probably does get lost in there pretty easily; but the moment I did notice what was going on with Musashi I adored it! I think it stuck out so much because of a scene in Episode 2 I didn't mention -- the initial fight scene, where Takeru tries to fight the electricity Ganma with Musashi... only to immediately get curbstomped as his swords act as lightningrods.

It stuck in my point, is the point; that the most important Damashii to Takeru got so easily defeated without even putting up a fight -- and its performance in Episode 3, while not as hilariously memorable, wasn't much better of a showing. Not only that, but Episode 2 is where I really started to appreciate Takeru's character and his issues; so the two coinciding like that and both getting turned around at the same time in Episode 6? I'm starting to see why SHF released this form!

https://nyaa.si/user/ERankedLuck

https://mthigbee.wixsite.com/triples

These two guys have been subbing for Rider and Sentai and have been checking off a bunch of previously unsubbed content

Bless ERankedLuck and TripleS

The only one's that had really been subbed up to this point were one's for Ex-Aid, Gaim and Build. But now those two have opened the flood gates for a ton of fun stage show content that is never really appreciated until now.

Yeah, it is pretty funny timing, ain't it? Maybe Doctor Ghost reincarnated into Kamen Rider Ghost, lol.

And yeah, Die's' Hibiki thread was definitely an interesting read for that reason. Definitely gonna have to reread it once I go through Hibiki myself again.

BTW, sorry for the lack of commenting on your OOO watch, it's just that, well, I really don't have anything to add as of yet. You've been doing a good job covering all the bases, pretty much!

Oh wow, that's actually super exciting! I'm definitely gonna be checking out some of those Final Stages. It's great to see some of the more obscure side-content getting translated.

Also I really hope someone subs Document of Kuuga one of these days...

Well, the second part of Project:Thouser came out. It was certainly interesting with some of its reveals, like how Yotogaki wasn’t onboard with Thouser until Gai suggested letting the Ark awaken and transfer its malice into a single host that could then be destroyed, with Thouser being used to clear up the remnants afterwards.

We also learn that Naki was the one who suggested reviving Jin in a new body not connected to either satellite, so that Humans and Humagears could live in peace one day. And that they requested being rebooted to remove any memory of this, explaining why it never comes up in the show.

Overall, a pretty good explanation of some elements that weren’t really covered in show and giving us a chance to see Fuwa fall under Naki’s (and by extension, Gai’s) control for the first time. (The show kind of glossed over everything other than when Naki was uploaded).

Huh, kinda makes his insistence on reviving the Ark during those seem slightly more benevolent. But kinda makes it weird since his goals during the show doesn't feel like it had the "single host then we destroy it" vibe. Unless MCH was his entry to it, and he thought he could hit two birds with one stone. Eliminating the Ark through MCH, but also taking Aruto out of the picture so he could take HIDEN.

Definitely sounds like an attempt to justify the character after he stopped making sense.

Thouser episode 2 was actually really really good for all the character building it done with Naki, but all I can focus on is Humagear memories being connected by USB and it's driving me insane

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Kamen Rider Ghost HBV 1


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Y'want me to talk about this one? Because it's not that big on character; it's really just kinda cute! The first third really nails a lot of the good will and intention behind the show's concept - a history lesson for kids; using fun costumes to teach them about historical figures and also robin hood - and the rest is just pure comedy. Comedy that was a little hard to land with me given the reliance on wordplay in a language I don't understand, unfortunately! It's one of those barriers when you're watching and are attached to something from a completely different continent and culture; it's hard to get a lot of things. The subs also strangely went back and forth between localising puns and "Keikaku Means Plan"ing them?

Still, creepy Onari aside, this was just overall cute. And didn't even have new forms! Wow! Imagine that, HBVs that don't have new stuff to buy and are just fun in their own right!

This isn't yet the one where Makoto meditates on the nature of a triangle, is it?

Okay, watched quite a few Rider things today between Saber, suddenly finding out a bunch of the more notable stage shows are getting subbed, and TV-N doing the back half of Project Thouser, so let me just get some thoughts down of them:

- I really didn't like Project Thouser at all, but just in a neutral, feeling nothing kind of way, rather than any kind of active disappointment. It does everything it sets out to do in terms of filling in blanks and whatnot, but I found it largely uninteresting in its execution, and I honestly feel more confused about how certain plot elements connect after watching it than I did before. It's not a bad time by any stretch, but it feels very much like something produced entirely out of obligation ("Blu-ray extras are a thing; Zero-One needs a thing!") rather than a true desire to tell this story.

- I can sum up Kamen Rider Zangetsu in two words – holy s***. This thing was outstanding. The exact opposite of what I just said about Project Thouser at the end there. Every facet of this starting with its mere existence so long after Gaim ended just screams of people who were passionate about getting it made. The production quality seems quite good as far as I can tell as someone not really into theatre, first of all; certainly several cuts above the typical toku stage show in terms of how special effects are integrated, and well, the literal staging.

At any rate, I quickly felt absorbed into the world being portrayed, but that's even more so down to what I felt was a story so good it's a shame to think this play will probably never have the same level of recognition as the other Gaim Gaiden projects. With Nobuhiro Mouri writing, and some level of assistance from the show's other two writers, the whole thing is essentially this condensed version of Gaim as a whole, encapsulating all of the more mature elements and themes from it. It's a story about stunt double versions of the Beat Riders (seriously; some of them have an almost freakish resemblance; whoever cast this thing deserves a medal) locked in all too familiar struggle that raises questions about the inevitability of oppression by those with power, and the vicious cycles that creates.

It's a touch macabre, but it's delivered in a way I didn't find overbearing at all. The sort of heightened nature of this being a play contributes a lot to that, I think; there's a sense of... unreality, I guess, to a production where fight choreography can involve large amounts of synchronized dancing (and before you ask, no, not from Takatora himself) that keeps the tone a little more fun and makes the weirdly coincidental level of deja vu going on feel more palatable than it might've been in a straight V-Cinema or something. It's all thematic, you know? You don't have to take it all 100% literally if you don't want to. I thought the pacing was fantastic as well, always moving from turn to turn at a real clip, which further kept me engrossed in the plot.

Bottom line is that this is amazing; mandatory viewing for Gaim fans, as far as I'm concerned. I hope I'm not overhyping it, but speaking as someone who has a melodramatic love-hate relationship with Gaim, it reminded me of everything I liked about it without so much as a hint of what I didn't. I'm now very happy Kachidoki Zangetsu has wormed its way into official Rider canon to the extent it has, because it deserves it for way more reasons than just looking cool.

- Kamen Rider Ghost Final Stage just put the biggest smile on my face.

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The wonderful thing about being largely ignorant of this side of tokusatsu is that, four-ish years after the show ended, I got to watch a "new" Ghost thing today. Something I knew basically nothing about prior. Just that alone makes me happy, and the simple fun vibe of this one certainly got some mileage out of that feeling. I mean, all the Ghost characters teaming up to hold a goofy tournament to decide the strongest Hero? Like, yes, I am ALL over that. I've been joking about my (not entirely joking) desire to see a Kamen Rider Onari spin-off for years, and little did I know, he had already received the honor of teaming up with his main man Goemon thanks to this stage show.

It's a whole lot of lightweight fun that ends with Takeru saying the audience were the real Heroes the whole time, a level of heartwarming sugary goodness that is so thoroughly Ghost it actually got me genuinely choking up a tiny bit thinking about how much this show has meant to me over these past few years. I was going to end that last sentence with some dumb joke or something at first, but, yeah, I don't know, this silly little thing honestly got me feeling emotions. That's definitely not going to happen to everybody, but if you meet the criteria of "is a fan of Ghost", I think you'll definitely get some fun of your own out of this too.

Yeah the stage shows are really fun. And honestly Takeru in Mugen hugging his dad in Boost all the while feathers starts pouring down the stage is just heartwarming. But my favaorite one probably has to be Zi-O Final Stage the tone of the show and it metabreaking nature just works so well as a Stage Show.

I'm not reading it quite yet because I actually plan to watch it myself after I've finished Ghost (so, uh, in about a year?) but I'm glad to hear it made you happy! It's great to discover something new like that; it's why I'm looking forward to OOO's net movies!

Yeah, the Ghost Stageshow is the perfect kind of stageshow by just being a lot of fun but also keeping in mind the best bits of the series. Also by reminding you of Siscon Makoto. Never forget.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO MENTION THE FEATHERS!!!

That's probably what started getting me legitimately emotional. That motif was something I loved in the show and I was super impressed to see them remember to bring it in there too. It's something I'd consider iconic of Ghost, but it's not something that would feel like it's missing if it weren't there, either. It was great attention to detail, and a really pleasant surprise.

Random aside, but I really related to this bit. I have a habit of dodging people's posts about series I'm interested in like the cowardly spoilerphobe I am, and I always feel sort of bad about it. :lol

Anyway, yeah, OOO has some great Net Movies to look forward to. It'll be really fun seeing your reaction to them. (So, uh, in about half a year, then?)

Maaaaybe? As my Ikkyu post probably shows, I really don't know how to make posts on stuff that's mostly comedic; boiling it down mostly to "this happened!" and "this was funny!". At best it'd just become a very long post of screenshots!

Hey, that seems to work fine for Die whenever the Wizard Net Movies come up in one of his threads, are you sure that'd be such a bad thing? :p

Completely seriously, though, if you don't want to skip out on talking about it entirely when you get there (which is also fine!), I wouldn't complain if you just did some impromptu Top 10 list of out-of-context moments or something. If OOO is taking a break from the usual format, you can too!

I just beat Memory of Heroez and decided to finally start W. Really liked the suits and the dynamic between the duo. Pretty excited for it.

I didn't realise until binging a ton of the older Final Stages that so many of them do "all the title rider's various forms come together at once", and yet despite just seeing that get done like four or five times in a row, it got me hyped every time! Yes, even the OOO one despite him having already done it once in his movie.

Although... binging a bunch of these stage shows had the down side of highlighting just how much lower energy the Zero One has compared to all the others, from both the cast and the audience, no doubt due to the present circumstances. I don't know if I even saw a single child in the seats... It's kinda depressing, but not surprising!

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 12


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One of the things I was really looking forward to about this rewatch was rediscovering moments that made me smile.

And that scene right there? It's one that stood out to me a lot in my original watch despite being such a small moment, and even if it was just for structural reasons. It was just really nice to see a small scene dedicated to Eiji being very, very willing to hand over the OOO driver if he came across someone who was more suited with more skill and resources -- he's just doing it because he's who's available after all, and despite the martial arts skills and swordsmanship Toku heroes magically seem to pick up once receiving their henshin device; he's clearly not that fit for battle. It's well-timed, too; as from the last half a dozen episodes you'll easily have gleaned by now that Eiji is very very very far from a selfish person, so you can't possibly read him passing on his driver as a self-motivated move. Rewatching now? Yeah, I think much the same! It's a little more interesting in retrospect realising how all of this fits into Eiji's psyche and state of mind (he and Takeru should probably share notes at therapy, come to think of it) and how this is something OOO is really good at; setting aside small little scenes and lines of dialogue that build details on both the characters and the world around them. It's a great way to let everyone breath and everything feel so much more natural and grounded.

Moral in this episode's a bit more basic than I'm used to with this season (you gotta put in the work to reach your goal), though I... kinda get it. It certainly helps that both our character of the week and Gotou are being pushed by something else and beyond the Greeed's influence aren't portrayed as selfish or anything; Tsukuba mentions a fair bit of goading and bullying in his past while Gotou is literally trying to save the world. I like Gotou a lot in this episode, by the way -- "I've just been acting like I'm saving the world, but I wasn't doing anything!" might not work that well for me within the confines of the episode itself, but it's a pretty perfect way to demonstrate the difference between him and Eiji and finally make him come around and start respecting him. Seeing that happen and he and Eiji finally teaming up is one of those "Yes yes YES FINALLY!!!" moments that you often get from two rival riders; so it's impressive to me just how well it's pulled off with a single Rider and a guy who's got nothing but a lot of determination (and a bazooka). Man, I REALLY hope he gets that medal system they're hyping up; I'm rooting for him!


(Sagohzo was also in this btw)


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Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 8


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I think this one could very easily have been one episode.

Just, strictly speaking, not a lot actually happens in it that didn't happen in the previous episode beyond a bit of exposition. What we get is the same -- character of the week runs in and says his friend's missing, the gang all looks for him, he's found Doing Some Ganma Stuff, Takeru arrives and beats an adorable bee kaijin with Billy the Kid. Not an awful lot to talk about, here!

What it DOES do differently is have Makoto learn a thing or two about Takeru's father that does not paint him in the best light, before promptly confronting Takeru in a very emotional fight. And it hits, honestly! They really made me feel something when Makoto just assumes his henshin pose right after Takeru asks him if he's his childhood friend, and the whole fight is a desperate plea from Takeru as it seems like his world is once again about to fall apart. The poor kid's been through revelation after revelation that leads him to depression after depression; it's no wonder this is getting to him this much! It doesn't clearly affect him right until the end, but... damn it's a good fight.


Really think it could have been in the last episode, though. I dunno, really felt like the writer accidentally made 26 minutes of content and had to double most of it to pad it out.

... wooo. Well, between work and procrastination and my own self-imposed rules and other Toku (I started up Tiga the other night; I'll have to talk about that at some point), it took me a bit; but I've finally done it! Until this weekend, that's me finally, FINALLY caught up with every episode of OOO and Ghost as per my release date watch order. These episodes aired on the 28th and 29th of November respectively, so from here on out I can actually watch episodes as I wanted to.

Looking forward to it, honestly! Think I done a pretty decent at job at spacing these episodes out, unintentional as some of it might have been; and it'll be nice to actually watch a past show in a weekly format (that isn't Gridman). So far? I've been LOVING both of these shows! At the point they're at, OOO has been living up to the hype and I'm finding a lot more value in Ghost than I had before. Will I make a thread? Maybe? I dunno; I actually didn't think I'd get this far with regular blogging, but it's turned out to be pretty fun especially in how it's forced me to think about all these episodes. It'd be quite the year ahead, but hey; Die's already watched both of them so I definitely wouldn't have to worry about conflicting threads!


... oh good god the movies are soon

Is this the Ghost episode where Takeru just goes Newton and bails on the fight while throwing barrels at Makoto (I haven't seen Ghost since it aired, Rider vs Rider fights tend to blur together)? Because that's definitely something I still remember vividly. Makoto, angry and full of rage, daring Takeru to take him on after all these years, and Takeru, numb to the core, doing the bare minimum and walking away.

It was cars, but yup! I loved the end of the scene where there's so much body language going on; Takeru just sitting on the ground, defeated, lazily aiming a gravity arm Makoto's way so he can escape.

Probably another sign Kobayashi wasn't handling the script, but even so, yeah, these are great episodes for Gotou. And as you pointed out, a great one for Eiji, by extension. Actually, despite that remark I just made about Yonemura's writing, I really do love the whole turning point being that Eiji is completely willing to basically let some guy steal his whole life story because he thinks it'll serve a greater good.

It really is the perfect thing to illustrate the key difference that's been preventing him and Gotou from getting along, which is that Eiji has no particular sense of pride, and Gotou seems to be legitimately incapable of understanding the concept that someone might not share the same values as him, hence why he thinks he's being mocked after Eiji says that line in your first screencap – the idea of someone not craving that kind of power the way he does goes against his entire worldview, which makes him feel belittled, which is extra bad, because his entire worldview revolves around pride. It's quite the cycle this guy's trapped in!

So uh, yeah... it's not a Kobayashi episode, but the characterization really is still there, at the end of the day. I didn't even start this post thinking I'd end up with anything significant to say...

Your intuition might be serving you well here, because there's actually a bit on Ghost's Wikipedia page that I think mentions something about the original plan for the show using a standalone episode format changing after the 6th episode due to budgeting and scheduling concerns, which might explain exactly why this first two-parter is the way it is – maybe it wasn't supposed to be.

I specify "I think" because I honestly have a tiny bit of trouble parsing that particular section; it seems almost like it stops mid-sentence, and is followed by a huge block of "citation-needed" text describing other bits of the formatting like the narration and use/non-use of cold opens.Still better maintained than the average Rider Wiki page, no doubt...

At any rate, this episode does have my favorite Ghost/Specter fight, and that alone makes it all worth it. Good characterization to get me invested, AND great choreography that managed to convince me the Gan Gun Hand is actually super cool? Sign me right up!

Congratulations! I doubt I've been making much of a secret out of this, but just for good measure: I've really been enjoying reading your thoughts on both these shows; I'm glad you've managed to keep this up so far. :thumb:

Also nobody will blame you if you "forget" to watch Movie War Core...

It also says on the Japanese wiki that Ghost overall atmosphere was "lighten" which makes me a bit sad because the Ghost fighting style in Surprise Future was really cool and would've love to see more of that.

That's the thing that gets me about this writer, like I said last time -- he just gets any characters he's given to work with to the extent it really doesn't feel like he's a different writer half the time. This even shows in the SHT movies -- the Imagin are as goofy as ever, the Gokaiger are darlings, he gets Diend more than I could ever imagine anyone getting Diend. Dude's great at this!


Thank you!! I've been trying my best


Suits with duller tones characterised as physically very powerful do seem to be your jam, huh?


I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the potential that Surprise Future scene showed, but if there's one thing Ghost isn't lacking in; it's a superb sense of choreography and a fighting style that's all its own. Even on my first watch when I wasn't enjoying it I was absolutely suckered into its fight scenes, and it really stands out for me when the latter part of Heisei 2 was getting very generic and full with its fight scene choreography.

...Huh, I actually didn't notice that common theme until you pointed it out.

Well now it makes sense why most of my favorite Toku suits are my favorites. :lol