Kamen Rider Blade Q2

I'll be continuing to give my thoughts here, so my fellow first time Blade watcher Fredbob392 can continue to give theirs in Die's thread without worrying about spoilers.

Kara Miso (I know that's not its actual name but who cares?) is even more humorous in the show. Like, there's that scene with Tachibana taking Black Fang for an epic joyride which just ends with "Kara Miso! Kara Miso!" Yep, definitely my favorite Blade meme and for that reason, I can totally forgive it replacing Kakusei as the insert song. This could seriously compete with the legendary KR memes of Ryukiroll, IWAE and Running Touma. The action scenes are going to be so much more humorous now!

Other than memes, Blade is still shaping up to be a great show in its own right. Although, the staff change I've heard about is looming over it and I have no idea what to expect for the quality of the remainder. Well, maybe a little, I guess. Aikawa has already written a few episodes as a secondary writer and I can see some similarities between the dynamic of Tachibana and Mutsuki and the dynamic of Akashi and Masumi from Boukenger. I'm a Boukenger fan and I definitely prefer the first half of Decade over the second, so right now, I'm inclined to have faith in him that he's not about to screw everything up. I can only hope! But before that, I'm looking forward to seeing how Imai's going to wrap up his tenure on the show.

Episode 15 is the one to beat. I think the rivalry between Tachibana and Isaka deserves its own paragraph, cause it's the perfect transition for Tachibana from a pathetic loser to a surprisingly cool and barely competent hero. He was trying to delude himself that his problems didn't exist and Isaka sought to take advantage of that, by drugging him with almost extinct anti-fear plants. It made him a better Garren, but removed the sensitive Tachibana that Sayoko loved. When Isaka killed Sayoko to destroy the last part of the old Tachibana, he instead made Tachibana stronger. Strong enough to make Garren his own. I was expecting a typical revenge plot filled with hatred and wrath, but it was smarter than that. Tachibana immediately found clarity in the memory of Sayoko and only regretted that he couldn't have came to his senses sooner. The climactic final battle between Garren and Isaka on the beach, it's the moment where I decided, "this show is awesome!"

I've been thinking about the Undead a little more, especially after Eagle Undead's snobbish commentary on humanity's dominance. Can they even be called evil, merely for trying to topple humanity? I mean, to us, the Human Undead is the hero who gave us the Fire of Zeus, figuratively speaking, but to every other Undead, he's the villain who deprived them the same chance. But I guess that's also a very Kamen Rider way of drawing a moral connection between both sides of the conflict. Of course, some Undead are just depraved people who don't deserve to win the Battle Royale, like Isaka. And that Elephant Undead seems too lazy to even try to win.

On the topic of Undead, Chalice, or more specifically Hajime, could hypothetically have access to at least 52 forms! That's a record for his time. It's basically him wearing the skin of other Undead with his Driver, which makes him the Kamen Rider Decade of the Undead world before Decade was even a thing! Chalice is originally the name of the Category Ace of Hearts, which is intriguing since I don't recall the Spider Undead having his own unique name.

Hajime might only be an Undead posing as a human, but with Kenzaki's guidance and faith, he has the potential to eventually inherit the soul of humanity. Kenzaki's position in the show seems to be similar to Shinji, as a moral support for others. Helping people is Kenzaki's main motivation, so it makes sense that he would want to imprint that philosophy on Hajime. This show isn't really about Kenzaki, but he has a profound effect on people just by being an example of heroism.

Tachibana reveals that his Fusion Peacock is basically useless. Hmm.... I already know that Jack Form is a going to be a thing, so I presume there must be some other prerequisite for unlocking that.

Regarding Leangle's user, Mutsuki.... He might be even more of a dysfunctional weirdo than the other Riders. He expressed envy towards Tachibana's and Kenzaki's tragic backstories like, "Tachibana-san, you're so lucky to have a dead girlfriend to avenge!" and "Kenzaki-san, you're so lucky to have dead parents you failed to save!" Sure, having a tragic backstory you can actually confront can be a useful source of motivation, but it's not something you should ever wish for. This seems to be something Mutsuki has a personal problem with, rather than the Spider Undead's corrupt influence. But Tachibana's Akashi-like soft mentoring is helping him become a better person capable of making Leangle his own.

Kotarou has become aware of how useless he is and strives to become more useful. As I'm apparently one of like, maybe three people, who actually think Shunpei is an okay character, I like where his arc seems to be going. Kotarou wants to be more than just the guy who gives Team Blade a roof and I think he hasn't found his niche yet, other than being a good cook and writer. I hope he can figure that out. Hirose hasn't really got any new developments since the previous quarter, so I don't have much more to comment about her for now. She's still great at what she does and I consider her an above average heroine, but I hope she gets more stuff to do.

"All it does is charge the Rouser" is a great line of foreshadowing.

A secondary Rider that has a rivalry with a mad scientist named Isaka, who had killed their loved ones, spurring their vengeance path, ending with a beatdown on Isaka albeit also letting go of their revenge. Is this Blade or W? Otherwise, the Tachibana being less sensitive is exactly why Sayoko was killed, Tachibana was really fucked up and made terrible decisions after decisions. Tachibana is told multiple times by his friends, his boss, and his girlfriend that his problems are psychosomatic, and that if he can just conquer his fear, he'll have no problem fighting. Or Sayoko constantly trying to find and stop him, despite trying to dump her. There are many decisions he could've taken to prevent Sayoko's death, like for starter, listening and trusting Sayoko. Or letting anyone else know what was going on and/or trusted any others (and others aren't really hostile to Tachibana). Or for more harder one, trying to overcome his fear or quitting. The more jarring one for him is that Tachibana is 26 and as a scientist he's already a professional.

Well, it's like humans that there are good and bad apples, but for Undead, it's extremely few. It's probably spoiler, but think of Human Undead as like Yuji (pre-Yuka death) among the Orphnochs in Faiz, the rare good apple among them. And regarding the other Undeads, I personally prefer not to use the perspective argument to determine someone's morals. As there'd be loads of self-righteousness involved, making excuses after excuses for your bad deeds, because it'd be harder for someone to admit responsibility, blaming everyone else for depriving them for their wishes, regardless if it's harmful for others or such (like you said, painting others as villains simply for being their obstacle, ignoring what deeds they've done themselves, and even otherwise, there can be evil vs evil). Like, why the Undeads want to win the Battle Royale? If it's done for evil, then you're a villain that is deserve to be stopped (by Human Undead or such). The best case scenario would be if you beat other Undeads, but have a goal that didn't harm anyone as the winner.

And as usual, Kamen Riders IMO are bad in utilizing the power variation like that... I know Hajime rejects his Undead identity, but at least if Chalice, despite being refered as Kamen Rider, is just as similar to turning into other Undeads. Though still, quantity doesn't necessarily mean quality.

About characters trying to impress upon them the value of more heroic values, when these lessons bounce more often than stick, what'd you think about that (probably related too to "perspective argument" above)? Would it be actually the blame of the moral support like Kenzaki to butt in other's lives, dictating others on how they should live their lives? (I don't agree, but this is what I can receive from other's comments) And that nothing is actually right or wrong like if Hajime wants to be hostile and aggressive or hostile then so be it and that others just have to stick it? (not what I think, but some think like that, using naturalistic fallacy arguments like that)

Oh yeah, about Mutsuki's relentless view on Tachibana and Kenzaki's backstory, even a good number of people in fandom irl also have it and can use that to justify villains. Claiming that the villain's actions that brought misery are done to help the heroes save the day (probably the reason is if there are also other unrelated villains) in their own methods or unintentionally helping the heroes understand what the fuck is happening. Or probably employing social darwinist views (due to natural attraction to power) that you survive and become strong or you perish, it's ok for the strong to test others by mistreating them like that. Aside from that, as I know the most little about Blade before watching, I thought at first, Mutsuki was just a random joe, probably a MOTW victim or such, turns out that he's another major character in the series as being the 4th Rider. Probably they did purposely make him as average and unremarkable to put a bit of a twist that he's the next character the series revolves around. As Tachibana sums it up, Mutsuki thinks the fight is like a collectible card game.

Yeah, as I said, characters tend to be the most useful if they're either most powerful fighters (as Rider typically) or if they're toku scientists (which Hirose does have a part of it too). Kotaro is a normal person with a job unrelated to the fighting, so yeah naturally he'd be the most useless one. Him being self-aware is a nice touch yeah of how being an average person can feel among Riders and scientists, but yeah would be unfair to judge someone for not having special occupation.

Oh for sure, Tachibana spent 14 episodes being a total moron and didn't realize how much he valued Sayoko until it was too late. I really liked how his inner monologue during the beach fight wasn't so much directed towards Isaka, but rather towards himself for failing Sayoko. Tachibana's ignorance was always his true weakness. He tried to reject his fear, but only after accepting it, he found his own strength in Sayoko's message, the courage to fight honestly from the heart and live as both Tachibana and Garren, bringing both parts of his identity in to one. For a brooding red-colored Secondary Rider whose loved one was murdered by a man named Isaka, Tachibana has a very strong redemption arc! Or is this Build, since he's also a 26 year-old scientist?

I guess the Battle Royale might be kind of like a historical Rider War, where a winner is inevitable even if people try and stop it. Maybe the Human Undead only won cause all the others destroyed each other, which would make it the closest to a moral victory by being the only one who refused to play by the evil rules and justifies humanity's dominance by having the human heart. That's just a theory I came up with that might contest any possible moral perspective from the other Undead. After all, humans have the unique ability to defy the will of nature, so it would definitely be symbolic of that. Your Faiz comparison works as well, since Takumi makes no distinction between humans and the few Orphenochs who keep their human hearts and Kenzaki can see that potential in Hajime.

Category Aces are considered the best fighters among Undead, so it makes sense that Hajime wouldn't bother with the weaker form changes unless there was a practical reason, like taking Human Undead's form to blend in with other humans. Yeah, you're right, Chalice looks surprisingly a lot like a Kamen Rider despite really being a monster wearing a Driver. Although in-universe, he was still feared and seen as a monster by that mother he saved, before Jin ended their friendship. Chalice is a very unique type of Rider that I don't see very often.

What's different about Hajime is that he does the right thing but doesn't understand why, since the human culture is a curiosity to him. Kenzaki's approach to him has actually changed a lot since he didn't want anything to do with his antagonistic behavior at the start, then wanted him dead for a while, but now he seems pretty supportive of his moral development. Hajime's rudeness is encouraged by Amane, so of course not all attempt to imprint is good, but I don't see any harm in Kenzaki trying to file the rough edges a little, since that's the same thing I appreciate about Shinji.

Mutsuki's problem is that he doesn't have any problems, so he has to invent problems. He has his parents and his girlfriend Nozomi, who he loves, but he envies the loss of those loved ones, believing it will make him stronger. He's like a more passive Tojo. It's not even that Tachibana's and Kenzaki's loved ones were taken from them, rather they admit they failed their loved ones. Their job is to protect people and their tragic backstories remind them of their failure to do that. Mutsuki shouldn't aspire to fail, he should strive to succeed for his loved ones' sake.

Kamen Rider Zi-O Episode 17 & 18

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IWAE! I promised I would rewatch these episodes on January 1st 2022! On the dawn of a new year, truly the moment has come to keep that promise!

Honestly, the date is just a convenient excuse. These episodes compose my favorite arc of the show for three very important reasons. First is the introduction of Shinobi, who is a ninja and therefore awesome by default. Second is the introduction of Kamen Rider Woz, who has an awesome design and will eventually become even more awesome when the real Woz inherits the title. Third is the prelude to what I consider the most exciting part of the show, the coming of the Day of Oma and the alternate future of Geiz Revive threatening to negate it, which leads to some excellent development for Sougo, Geiz and Woz (and some not-so-excellent development for Tsukuyomi). It also references a certain lyric from Over Quartzer, "Nexus Future", cleverly foreshadowing the outcome of two futures merging in to one.

The moral of the Shinobi arc references another lyric about, "believing in your future self", which in turn is a reference to the EXCITE lyric, "You gotta believe!" It's relevant to 2019 Kagura Rentarou, who has the desire to protect others but feels too weak to accomplish that, but it's also extremely relevant to Sougo's entire character arc, since he understandably doesn't have much incentive to believe in his path of becoming the greatest kindest demon king after seeing his future self being basically the opposite of that. But maybe that's Sougo's strength, his refusal to let the future define him. After hearing White Woz's story, it pretty much confirms what he already decided. If the future is in flux, then the same is true of his destiny. Oma Zi-O may have wiped out all the Riders, but here's the present Sougo, fighting to give his successor to the title of Kamen Rider, Rentarou, a future. The future can be better, you can be better, but only if you believe. I think that's a pretty fitting moral to have for New Year.

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This scene provides some serious meta comedy on a rewatch, considering how Zi-O has like the least amount of bike scenes in the franchise. I mean, isn't that just the story of a modern Rider's life? Sougo finally remembers he has a portable bike in his pocket and then this happens. White Woz is such a troll!

My choice of Rider episode for the New Year was also Zi-O. But I went with the Hibiki episodes (which are more end of an era than end of a year, but I choose not to question the wiki’s choices at this point). I also went with Metalder’s penultimate episode, Gaoranger’s New Years episode and the Christmas episodes for Hurricaneger and Megaranger. It was a busy night.

The episode(s) of Kamen Rider that I watched for New Year's for me, even though it's purely incidental, is finally continuing right where I left off on Ryuki with episodes 25 and 26.

EDIT: I also watched episodes 27 and 28 of the same series.

I've been rewatching Ryuki with the official subs and I have to say the massive boost in translation quality is genuinely increasing my opinion of a show that I previously only thought of as "pretty okay". I've seen 19 episodes with the Shout subs so far, and everything is just CONVEYED so much better than the TV-Nihon subs I used years ago. Characters have distinctive manners of speech! I feel like Ren actually makes *sense* as a character! I can actually decipher the show's overarching themes about human desire! Basically everything comes across better! I don't think they will fix some of the more general issues I have with Ryuki, like the fact that a lot of plot points and character motivations are very stupid when you stop to think about them or the wildly inconsistent writing and characterization that can occur, but if I continue to enjoy my rewatch this much I'll probably start considering Ryuki a must-watch show when suggesting toku to other people.

I'm a little curious if some of the other shows I watched with terrible old TV-Nihon subs are actually secretly awesome. Is the first half of Hibiki more than just "cool in concept, but not for me"? Is Den-O actually funny? Is Kiva... actually no, never mind.

Like I said, it honestly made me glad that I waited on watching Ryuki until it got officially subbed by Shout Factory, at least in retrospect. Would also be great if Shout Factory also subbed the 13 Riders TV special as well as the Episode Final movie and maybe the show's own Hyper Battle Video just for funsies.

To be fair, the writing of the show is pretty much back and forth between Kobayashi and Inoue. Make of it what you will.

Just so everyone knows, Flame is doing Senki subs!

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36 episodes of Ryuki down, 14 to go.

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I've made a habit of commenting on Shout Factory's Rider releases so far, so naturally I've been checking out their subs for Zero-One lately. I kind of expected this much, but unlike the previous three Rider shows that have gotten official subs from them, the legality is maybe the only thing you can really call an upgrade. Which isn't to say these are bad subs, because they're as good as always! It's just that fansubbers have stepped their game up and up over the years, so a series as recent as Zero-One already had at least one good translation.

It's sort of a reversal from how I felt about something like Kuuga. Now the question I'm concerned with is how okay I feel about a translation I do like being supplanted by a new version, and based on the 16 episodes plus bits of later ones I watched, I'm totally fine with this, which is I think is solid praise. I'm going to nitpick some details a bit after this, but I'll reiterate: Shout's Rider subs are good. It's great that we have these shows available this way now, and if they end up making more people fans of Kamen Rider, then all the better. Zero-One in particular, I'm really happy to see get this treatment while it's still relatively fresh.

Still, though, while I don't have anything major to comment on, I do wanna cover some observations I had. There are some fun stylistic choices to note, first of all.

Fuwa's incessant use of the word buttsubusu is consistently translated as variations on him wanting to "smash" things, which is exactly what that word means. I'm mostly bringing it up because A) Over-Time's slightly looser "scrap" had an appropriately dehumanizing tone for Mr. I Hate Robots, which I do miss a bit, and B) "smash" makes Fuwa sound like the Hulk and I keep finding that amusing.

Meanwhile, we have "that was a work of Aruto!" which I adore as wordplay, and sounds great as a comedic catchphrase, but it is worth noting it deviates enough from the actual meaning of "Aruto ja nai to!" enough to render a gag from the end of episode 5 a little... nonexistent? But like, that's inevitable with Aruto. They're trying their best with all the puns, and sometimes it's a little clunky in spots, because it's tricky to balance the need for equivalent gags with the need to still convey actual information. There isn't some easy, best way to handle that, so this isn't a huge deal in my opinion.

If we're talking straight up mistakes, the only super glaring one I caught so far was in episode 9, where a line about Hiden not having any record of building Horobi and Jin is misconstrued as a non sequitur about there being no record of Horobi and Jin ever building HumaGears, which, for the record, both Over-Time and TV-Nihon got correct. (I couldn't help but check.) There's also a great bit of dramatic irony that gets lost in episode 7 when Valkyrie hands Zero-One the Freezing Bear Key, which was a bummer. The subs have it as her saying to "take the advice" of using the Key, which is good character voice for Yua and all, but the literal dialogue is "trust me", which I have to imagine isn't a coincidence in an episode that also highlights how Yua is the absolute least trustworthy character in the entire show at that point.

But like I said about Ryuki, if I have time to worry about these kinds of details, it's only proving the larger truth here. To borrow a phrase, It's High Quality. It's like they're at 999% effort, and I'm Gai asking for that last percent. (Also! Before I move on, Find a New Life is subtitled on-screen, which is cool, but Now is The Right Time isn't, which is less cool.)

Really, a lot of the reason I'm making this post isn't even about the subs. Like I mentioned, I watched the entirety of the show's run from 2019 again, you know, the golden age of Zero-One, as it were, and that's mostly just so much fun in its own right I thought I'd go ahead and say a little something about all the episodes. So!

Zero-One 01 - Still one of the most solid premieres you could ask for from a Rider show. It's a little tricky to even know what to comment on that I haven't said somewhere else on here before. ...And also it's been like a week since I rewatched this one, so it's the hardest to remember fun little details about, which doesn't help. Still! Great episode with utterly glorious action capping it off.

Zero-One 02 - The Rise Hopper is so cool, man! Like, it's yellow and black the way everything Zero-One has is yellow and black, so he looks great on it, and they gave it this whole awesome elaborate action sequence debut, and I'm glad it at least got that much love. Also Vulcan debuts here, of course. I still vividly remember the huge impact of the way Fuwa's initial transformation keeps cutting to Aruto and back. The contrast in their speeches is Takahashi writing at its finest! Vulcan's musical themes are Sakabe at his finest! Everything about the direction is Sugihara at his finest!

Zero-One 03 - Valkyrie's debut fight is so cool! Like, it might honestly be my favorite of any of the Riders in the show. It does a fantastic job at making it clear that Yua is a professional in a way the other characters aren't, and hits me in all the right spots, being the sucker for super fast superheroes that I am. Yua also belittles Aruto for not knowing what she's doing holding her cellphone up to a HumaGear at the start, which comes off a bit a different by the end when it turns out that on top of ordering sushi, she was also hacking it to spy on Hiden Intelligence at that exact moment. So Yua is also kind of a condescending jerk and I don't like her! But she's so cool! And a jerk! But a cool one!

Zero-One 04 - Fuwa gets an early start on being as Showa as possible here by teaching a bullied kid about the value of stubborn resilience above all else in a story that also digs into how he's motivated by a tragic past. I still really love this one! It's like all the different gears of the plot are spinning perfectly in tandem. It's great development for Fuwa's character, critical to the show's world-building, still makes room to develop Aruto, plus his relationship with Fuwa, and seeing that kid's dad get vindicated in the end is genuinely quite heartwarming. It's doing so much at once and making it all work. Even Horobi's cameo debut is super effective in its execution.

Zero-One 05 - Flaming Tiger~! Still might be my favorite Zero-One form for some reason? I think I might just like anything in this show involving cats? Like, just get Fuwa a Jaguar Key and we can have a whole Gekiranger thing going on, it'd be awesome. Anyway, Masaya Kakehi wrote a lot of good episodes of this show, and his first is one of them too.

Zero-One 06 - No, really, Kakehi wrote good stuff! His episodes in this first stretch dive really deep into the interactions between humans and HumaGears, and the results are often very dramatic and very thoughtful. This one in particular is a plot that you simply could not do in any other Rider show, making it not merely a stellar episode of Zero-One, but a stellar Zero-One episode, if you get the distinction. It's pretty heartbreaking watching Jin try and process everything he's Learning about family here, in light of Aruto's remark during their showdown in 16 that they might not have had to fight if Jin had just been brought up differently. Like, you can *see* how true that is right here. Jin almost has this huge breakthrough, only for Horobi to rip it all away. Great stuff, and I especially like the extra weight Aruto's role in this one has due to his own unusual parentage. It really comes across how personal everything happening is to him.

Zero-One 07 - I don't have anything super particular to say about this one, so instead I'll just mention how much the overall format of this stretch of Zero-One appeals to me. I guess it's probably the detail of the setting shining through, but there's just something about the world of this show that really pulls me in. I love seeing Aruto and Izu going around seeing what some HumaGear in some line of work is up to. I love finding out how AIMS will inevitably get wrapped up in things. I love MetsubouJinrai hatching schemes (especially ones involving dodos, like this one.) Like, I remember wanting Zero-One to have the whole faction thing be more drastic than it ended up being, but looking back, it really did spice up the way the scripts play out. Little things like having to give Fuwa a reason to hang out with Aruto each week, or Yua's divided loyalties, they add a lot of texture to the stories while still keeping a nice flow.

Zero-One 08 + 09 - Very solid first two-parter for the show. Vulcan getting completely annihilated by Horobi was a great debut for the latter (he even walks away from the explosion for max cool factor!), and a suitably BIG event for a cliffhanger. After that stretch of character-driven stuff from Kakehi, Takahashi goes for a sort of epic thriller thing here, yet still finds time to give all the characters their little bit of drama. It's a chance for Aruto to harden his resolve; for Izu to show a little humanity; for Fuwa to soften his stance on AI; for Yua to show she really does care, despite it all; for the mystery of MetsubouJinrai to start coming to the forefront... once again, a lot is happening, but it never feels cluttered, because all the elements are in support of each other.

Zero-One 10 + 11 - More great human drama from Kakehi. The Dodo Magia's whole evolution over his all too brief run on the show was always intriguing to follow, and this is very much the height of that. One thing I don't think I originally clocked watching these episodes (because I can be dense this way) was how the dialogue in the show-within-the-show *always* matches up with what's happening in the story, which isn't exactly an original idea, but it's one I find always works. Really punctuates the events of the episodes nicely.

Zero-One 12 + 13 - I read in an interview that Riku Sanjou only ended up writing these ones because Takahashi ended up taking longer on The First Generation than they expected, but man, in that case, I'm glad it worked out the way it did, because the Sanjou fun factor of these ones is amazing. Wazu has a ton of presence for a guy who only lasts two episodes, and Shining Hopper's debut highlights something I love about all three of Zero-One's major upgrades, which is how Aruto's relationship with HumaGears, and Izu in particular, is always at the very center of how he gains power.

Zero-One 14 - The very first episode with all four of MetsubouJinrai's members together! What's that, you only see three? Well, looks can be deceiving. Anyway, Ikazuchi isn't my favorite dodo on this show, but he is fun, and I love Assault Wolf for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the heavy plot significance it ends up having. I also find it amusing that Shining Hopper leaves Aruto exhausted while Vulcan's upgrade has Fuwa puking up blood every time he uses it. I mean, both of them kind of get over it after a while, but like, man, are you guys getting powered up, or down?

Zero-One 15 + 16 - Pretty textbook way to conclude a major arc. The decision to have Jin be the first "final boss" as it were, instead of the more obvious Horobi, was really unexpected, but worked out well partially because of that. Between wrapping up the ongoing drama in a satisfying fashion, and setting up a major turn in the status quo with Gai making himself known, it's hard to argue with what a great position Zero-One left itself in heading into 2020.

...And I'll probably see how it carried that momentum forward all over again, because I think at this point, I'm just going to be working my way back through the whole series when I get the chance to. I mean, I wrote all of this about a show I already talked about when it aired instead of like, finally saying something about Revice again, so evidently I'm quite fond of Zero-One. I'm not sure if I'll be popping in here all the time to talk about it this way, but it'll be neat having this excuse to revisit the series thanks to Shout! I mean, what could go wrong, besides the fact that I'm already struggling to find time to rewatch Fourze, and am now attempting to further divide my attention between that and everybody's least favorite arc of Zero-One?

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I'll make it work, I'm sure.

Hey, not everyone's! But I guess my opinions on this show are always opposite to everyone else's...

Still, nice to hear that SHOUT's subs are keeping up the quality. Crossing my fingers they cover something next that really needs it like OOO, 555 or basically any Showa season

They should do Blade next so that way we can know if hope is acute or not.

Oh, and on the subject of Riders who need authorization to transform with the aid of satellites:

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I just got done rewatching Meteor's debut two-parter in Fourze, and the contrast between the two characters is another thing I feel the need to properly gush about. I've probably mentioned before how much I liked the whole era of shows with just two completely different Riders, and Meteor is a fantastic example of that. Literally everything about him flips Fourze's shticks on their head. A white Rider against a black one. A Rider representing manmade space stuff against one representing the stuff naturally in space. A clumsy Rider who relies on a huge arsenal of tools against a skilled one who needs only his bare hands to fight. A Rider who couldn't hide his emotions if he tried against one actively putting up a front when he isn't transformed.

...And probably some other things I'm not even immediately thinking of. Meteor is so good. This show is so good.

Whoever designed Meteor's' base suit deserves an award.

Meteor Storm not so much.

Cool to see that Shouts subs for Zero-One are high quality, even if good subs already exist for the show. If nothing else, I'm excited to compare it to the Over-Time subs once my Blu-ray comes in and see whose subs I prefer, since I've really enjoyed both styles in the past. That one mistake you mentioned does seem quite unfortunate, but gaffs like that do slip through sometimes.

Anyways, I'm continuing on with my rewatch of Ryuki, and am through 38 episodes now. I said it before, and I'll say it again, the better subs have definitely improved my opinion on the show. I still think Ren is far more coherent a character than I ever realized before this, even if I don't think he is the best or anything. Generally I just get the whole angle of how desperate / psychotic the kinds of people fighting as Riders are way better because the dialogue communicates it so well. However... the show really does get dicier in the second half. I remember reading on Japanese Wikipedia at one point that one of the big appeals of Ryuki in Japan is the sense of "dissonance" in the story. I get where they are coming from, but at the same time after the third of so story tug-o-war between Kobayashi and Inoue plus both writers dropping a few cruddy episodes, I just start to think that the people who worked on the show simply didn't think the story and character arcs through in advance. There are a lot of parts where things simply happen... for no real reason. Asakura isn't feeding humans to his starving contract monsters even though it is briefly mentioned as a possibility in said episode? No real reason given, just there to fuel drama about Asakura possibly being a nice guy deep down. Random girl who wants to marry Kitaoka from an Inoue episode somehow becomes a major character who works at Ore Journal, a fact I completely forgot about because it causes me too much mental damage to process. The show reminds me a lot of Kabuto in that way, where things just happen because it is dramatic/funny, but I feel like Kabuto was a bit more... self-aware about its own absurdity? Ryuki tries to be so dramatic even when it is doing the silliest stuff sometimes, and it only occasionally gives the viewer that knowing wink that they are in on the joke too.

I'm really not sure how much of an improvement from my initial watch I'll find this show in the end, since I know there's some very dumb stuff upcoming that the subs almost certainly can't salvage. I miiiight like Ryuki better than Gaim at least? I'll have to think it over as I go along.

Aaaand they're up on the cat site!

Still love this movie. The subs just make it better.
Highlight scene is still every scene Hongo is in, but also the little moment of Touma in the "reality world".

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...nd_Secchan.png

Wrapped up my Ryuki rewatch! It was... neat I guess. I'd give it a C+ grade, so I definitely liked it more than last time at least. The biggest point of improvement this rewatch?: I think Shinji and Ren are both actually really interesting characters, which is nice since I just thought Shinji was okay before and I absolutely hated Ren the first time I watched. The new subs did a lot better at conveying the kind of people they were, with Shinji being a nosy, loserish guy who means well and talks roughly and Ren acting rude and confrontational as a mask in order to try and seem like a tough guy who could win the fight. I particularly liked how clearly it came across that Shinji and Ren were ultimately not so different deep down, with the primary difference being Shinji was up-front about his conflicted feelings about the battle. Good stuff, I really came around to both of them this time! I also think a lot of the general themes of the show, about people desperately fighting for what they believe in, works very nicely.

In spite of getting a lot more out of the show as a whole this time, it is still ultimately Ryuki, which means that if I ever stop to think too long about the plot I remember how silly it is. I'm sorry guys, but there is absolutely no salvaging things like "abused children drew a monster dimension into existence and when one of them died their mirror counterpart replaced them but will die when she turns 20 for... reasons?" I think Ryuki is a show that has to be approached purely on an emotional level because of all the daft stuff like this, which I can't help but feel undermines the story. Even beyond that, the show's pacing can be very messy, with some parts dragging and others feeling very rushed, and this negatively impacts some characters too. I genuinely couldn't remember anything about Imperer before rewatching since he is THAT forgettable. On top of that, I definitely feel like the whole "wow, this Rider is also completely psychotic" shtick really wears out its welcome as the show goes on.

As a closing note, I decided to pay attention to which episodes Inoue wrote this time, and he wrote almost every single episode where the story spontaneously took a turn for the dumb. I feel like his style of writing was a particularly bad fit for the story, unlike something like Kabuto, which already has an anything goes attitude.

As someone who has never seen Saber nor Zenkaiger, Super Hero Chronicles was AWESOME. Absolutely wonderful movie.

Yeah just got done watching Super Hero Senki. I absolutely adored it.

It um... it may just have two of my all time favorite scenes in like a Tokusatsu Movie now. That last act was certainly incredible.

Just watched Super Hero Senki. I greatly prefer Zenkaiger to Saber, in fact I dropped Saber long before the point this movie takes place, but the movie definitely had a bias towards the Rider side of things, so I think this thread is more appropriate. Zenkai cast getting less focus than the Saber cast aside, I really liked it. Definitely the sort of movie where you shouldn't think to hard about the how or why of anything that's happening, but that's the case for a lot of these big crossovers. The guest stars all got some good scenes, and that part near the end of Hongo talking to Ishinomori one last time nearly made me cry, especially with how clear it was that it Fujioka talking saying it out of character. I'd love to know if he wrote his own lines for it, what he said sounded a lot like things I've seen him say before about his love for Ishinomori's heroes.

The scenes in Super Hero Senki where Touma convinces Shotaro to draw heroes, and later Takeshi Hongo (or more likely just Fujioka!) giving some departing words to Ishinomori were very novel and sweet respectively. Those are scenes that will stick with me for a long time, I'm sure!

Outside of that... This really is just back to the classic brand of Taisen movie nonsense. It's taken a long time but I think I'm truly tired of seeing suits fighting in that quarry.

I'll als say that the big climatic fight was also incredibly funny because it was a long showcase of voicelines that sound nothing like the characters. It just so happened that I rewatched Heisei Generatoins FOREVER a short while ago, and I distinctly remember being really happy at a quick throw-in line of Shouichi saying "we'll protect everyone's homes!". And its a funny contrast how that line shows up here too and my reaction was me rolling my eyes like this :rolleyes .

Anyhow, I wonder if it still too late to hold out hope for that proper 01/Saber crossover? I mean as long as they're just putting out whatever they can come up with to TTFC, after all...

I'll take a TTFC of Zero-One and Saber where Touma just rewrites some stuff here and there onto Zero-One's events.

Got my Zero-One Blu-ray in and watched first disk after work. I've seen the show before with the Over-time subs, so it has been fun to compare the two. Both are high quality and have their own strong points, though I'm quite taken with the style of the official subs so far! I don't know if I will ever adjust to Izu vs Is though.

On the topic of Zero-One itself, I still really like this show. For all of its faults it has equal measures of brilliance, and really felt like a story the writer wanted to tell. I actually rather like these early episodes since they do a very nice job setting up the characters and the kind of world they live in. It is also fun to rewatch knowing some of the later plot beats, like how Fuwa and Yua are being manipulated. Looking forward to enjoying morenover the weekend!

So I just finished Blade and started Hibiki and already love Hibiki a lot more. It still falls victim to what I call Early Kamen Rider syndrome, which is when an episode only has the Kamen Rider suit at the very beginning and end of the episode. I do however think the story and characters are a lot better than in Blade. All the characters in that series were so boring, and don't get me started on Amune. And Blade had a boring story that we've seen before in the first three seasons of that era.

But 15 episodes into Hibiki I am enjoying so much more. Like I said it does suffer from some EKRS, but the story really helps, and some episodes do have fight scenes throughout. It's just really different from any season I've seen.

I think I actually do technically like Hibiki more than Blade but Blade is possibly more of an easy sell and although I wasn't that big on the ending when I first saw it it is at least fun to try and learn the script of that scene!

Just wanted everyone to know I was sent absolutely reeling today watching the Shout subs for Zero-One when I realized the name pun with Is and Was. What kind of Japanese media makes pun names based around English verb tenses? This kind apparently.

Is.
Was.
As.
Satellite There
Satellite We're.

Kamen Rider loves its puns or double/triple meanings. But I honestly prefer going by Izu, Wazu, Azu, and Zea. We're can keep its name. It's easier to read in sentences anyway.

Going to be confusing with sentences like "Is Is alright?" anyway.

The previous series also had Woz

I’m now up to episode 41 of Ryuki. I should be able to get the series finished pretty soon. I’m also planning to watch the 13 Riders TV special and the Episode Final movie in between the remaining episodes of the series. Will be watching them after the Imperer arc and the two-parter that features the final appearance of Tiger respectively and then finally finished Ryuki with its final four episodes that make up the show's own endgame arc.

Alrighty, I wrapped up rewatching Zero-One with the Shout subs! I'll leave the movie for tomorrow, since that will be a new experience for me. First thing I should get out of the way: Shout's Rider subs are as excellent as usual. When the competition also includes Over-time it can feel hard to justify official subs, but the quality actually edged them out this time! I've seen all the Rider Shout has subbed so far, and every time what really impresses me is how good they are at giving each character a very distinctive manner of speech. Fuwa's brash, overly casual, and rude way of talking in particular was excellent, but it was all great!

On to my thoughts about the show itself though! I liked Zero-One a lot the first time, and that still held true even if my opinion of some individual aspects shifted. One thing I definitely enjoyed more the second time was Yua's character arc. When I first watched, I enjoyed it, but found it too drawn out. On rewatch, I found myself appreciating the deliberate pacing and build up of it a good deal more. I also found I really enjoyed a lot of the more down to earth episodes about just random Humagears on rewatch, since they tended to showcase the world of the show and characters so well! On the other hand, rewatching the show definitely made me realize just how sloppy the show was in some areas. I can't really hold a grudge against it on a lot of fronts, what with the whole global pandemic and all, but I can't just ignore all of it! The pacing is all over the place, half of Metsuboujinrai barely count as characters, Gai has his comically rushed redemption arc, and the show seems to make a game of introducing information in the most confusing order possible at times. I feel like a lot of these issues were shared with Ex-Aid, so it may just be a weakness of the writer. That being said, I really do like the show a ton. Most of the cast is dripping with charm and has great nuance, I love the story and how it uses AI learning to convey its themes about how people (and Humagears) are shaped by their experiences, and the fights are usually spectacular! For as many problems as the show may have inherited from Ex-Aid, it also inherited strengths from the show too!

So yeah, definitely an A Tier show in my book. It even makes me want to shed a tier of joy. Aaaaaand that was a work of Aruto!

Managed to finish the Kamen Rider Ryuki Episode Final movie today. Also watched the 13 Riders TV special yesterday and I now have four episodes left in watching in main series. I should be able to finish the series either today, tomorrow, or sometime this weekend at the very latest. Planning to have W as the next Kamen Rider series to watch.

Watched Zero-One: The Movie just now. I hadn't seen the movie before, and I was pleasantly surprised by how fun it was. I've been thinking lately, I feel like Rider films have been really good in the past few years? I find a lot of the older ones mediocre or amusingly weird, but all the ones I've seen lately have been really enjoyable! I liked how the movie let so many characters have good moments, it had lots of fun action, and was a nice extension of the main show without undermining the ending of the main story. I like ignoring V-Cinemas for my own sanity...

It depends what you mean by older ones, my interest probably was waning a bit around earlier on in the 2010s but some of those 2000s ones like all 3 from Episode Final to Missing Ace were very awesome and memorable IMO!

Yeah, I tended not to like them very much, though I did decently enjoy Paradise Lost from that time frame. Even that movies feels like a guilty pleasure to me though! I think something tends to get lost in the transition from TV to feature film for me, but I have a hard time articulating exactly what. Some of my other favorites are the Drive and Build stand-alone films, which are both fairly modern. As far as guilty pleasure movies go, I am a big fan of God Speed Love, which perfectly encapsulates Kabuto's raw chaotic energy. At the very least, I usually get some fun out of the movies even when I think they are kinda bad!

Just finished Ryuki not too long ago and with that, it’s another Kamen Rider series I can now cross out on my KR watchlist. While the show is definitely not without its story hiccups, which I can partially attributed it to the massive back and forth between Kobayashi and Inoue, I really do like the series almost as much as I do Dragon Knight and is, for now, among my top favorite seasons of the franchise and like with Kuuga, if the show ever made an official release on Blu-Ray by Shout Factory somewhere down the line, I would definitely buy it. I'm planning to have W as my next Kamen Rider series to watch followed by OOO. Might watch either Black/Black RX, Zero-One, or Faiz after that.

Well I finished Hibiki. It was okay. It could have been a bit better if they didn't change direction halfway through. Like after the changes made episode 30 on it just felt like they were trying to make it another generic Rider season, especially how pretty much episode 34 and on Hibiki was always Armored. Overall I think it was okay for a Kamen Rider series whose main character isn't even given any powers at all. Yes I view Asumu as the main character in Hibiki

But I am a few episodes into Kabuto and I like how they pulled the "You thought he was the main character but you'd be wrong. Or are you?" Aspect. I don't know if Kagami is gonna henshin but I am rooting for him.

Yeah, this is why I always tell people to stop watching after episode 29.