All this love for Kabuki is making me so happy to see. This dude has been a total blind spot of mine for years and suddenly I'm seeing all this new depth to his character. This is the kind of thing that makes these threads magic.

Similarly, I'm also going to hold onto that idea that all the weird things about the past story are due to it being Asumu's personal interpretation of the events. Would explain things like why Kabuki uses English in his dialogue almost immediately after showing up.

...which, after a cursory glance at the film's Wikipedia page, it seems was a deliberate decision specifically to tell people not to worry too much about things like "authenticity". That was something watching the film that jumped out at me immediately in a good way, so mission accomplished there!

Yeah, I can't really argue with that! For me personally I'm fine with it because, well, it's a movie -- in my mind at least that's a separate thing that's allowed to do whatever it wants. It's not as if this is Inoue taking control of the season itself and turning it into something it's not where despite his hard work, his style of writing mixes about as well with Hibiki as oil and water; that would be silly. If the movie decides to tell stories very differently from how Hibiki usually tells em, I'm all for it! This is also why I'm pretty good with how the Decade and Zi-O tributes tell their stories but obviously we'll get there.

I guess this is my weird hypocrisy, because I feel like I'm going to be more lenient for different interpretations -slash- thematic divergences once Inoue takes over the show than I am for his movie? The show... as of 30, it's his show, it's what he wants it to be. I've read enough comics where one creative team completely rebuilds a narrative into their own interests that I'm ready for big changes. But the movie? Inoue was making this thing concurrent with the show, right? With the expectation that it would need to at least vaguely appeal to fans of the weekly TV show? (Please let me know if I'm getting this wrong!) So for him to take a show about a boy growing into a man and being like Nope This One's About Worldbuilding... I don't know, I think it's maybe too dismissive of what the then-current Hibiki fanbase rightly expected to see in a movie? Not even the flashback stuff, I don't think that's a dealbreaker, but the completely different approach to themes.

Anyway, tl;dr - I am more forgiving for a new creative team on a show than I am for the creative team for a spin-off movie.

I’ll be honest, the presence of the anachronisms didn’t really bother me. I mean, other Tokusatsu shows have had wooden cellphones, spandex suits, a crossbow that uses batteries instead of arrows a robot that transforms into UFO, a time-travelling robot that turns into a giant moped and a Nobunaga with access to time travel and a monster army… all around the time period of the Sengoku Era. I just wanted to see what other people thought.

The only thing in that sense that really stood out to me was Todoroki's existence given that's an identity Todayama crafted for himself. But it's Todoroki's face on all the guitar merch, not Zanki's; so I understand.

Oh yeah, Hibiki referring to Shounen as Asumu just sounds weird. Like, it's his thing! Even the patrons at "Team Hibiki Bar and Grill" agree it's so Hibiki. There's a song named after it!

Inoue is the right guy to tell this story, but I don't think these characters are right for the story. Hibiki has a music motif, right? The story is a melody, it's fine, but the instruments are wrong. I'm being figurative, I'm not talking about the anachronistic instruments used by the past Oni, that's a different kind of problem.

Like did it have to be Akira specifically who gets killed, instead of some random girl we've never seen before? Is there anyone in the audience who can say "Akira is my favorite character from the Hibiki movie!"? That role could've been given to anybody for how little time she has onscreen. By giving demoting a main character to a lesser role, it encourages apathy towards the other main characters by setting a low standard for their importance.

These characters aren't able to stand on their own, cause the movie requires the audience to superimpose their existing opinions of the present characters on to the past characters. It's like you say, this movie isn't a Hibiki story. It's a story that just happens to involve a guy called Hibiki, who looks and acts like Hibiki. I don't feel a strong difference between these two Hibikis other than the latter is more likely to get killed off due to the apparent expendability of everybody in this setting. It breaks the suspense by making the stakes more predictable.

As another comparison, Wizard of Oz does the opposite by adding more depth to the lookalikes than the original characters they're based on. The lookalikes felt more original that way. I didn't get that from the Hibiki movie.

I'm glad it worked for you though.

Asumu is a given name though, not inherited like Oni. I guess it's possible that there was a Todoroki lineage that went extinct and Zanki chose that name for his apprentice to revive it. Without a successor to his name, the Zanki lineage will probably go extinct as well until someone in the future decides to make it their own.

I mean, I called it "uncanny valley Hibiki", so I'm not immune to this feeling.

I think the presence of Kabuki as a strong central villain (With an arc! And a twist! And a motivation!) helps make the story compelling in its own right. I'd argue that you honestly don't need to have an investment in the TV cast to enjoy this movie? Nothing's that core to the TV characters, and what's here is fairly easy to invest in: village under siege, boy wants to save his friend, maligned heroes, etc. It's a sturdy story.

It's... yeah, it's not really a Hibiki story, though.

I was mostly just thinking that, with how hand-wavey the Asumu thing is, that it's just as likely that there coincidentally was a one-off Oni named Todoroki back then, and the newer Todoroki never even heard of him.

Which I agree with since it seems like my investment in the TV cast is actually a detriment to my ability to enjoy this movie.

Maybe. I think I like my new headcanon better though.

Ha ha, yeah, basically!

As someone who was super invested in Hibiki's cast... I don't know, it wasn't an issue for me? It's just that these people in the past happened to look the same and have the same names.