So because of the announcement of Kamen Rider X getting official subs, I decided to put that show off and got started on Kabuto instead.

I watched three episodes and I'll be honest, I don't think this show is for me.

Next Level is certainly alot better than Trust Last, I'll give the show that much.

Personally, in my rating, Tendo is objectively the worst rider in the franchise. Because the fastest rider prefers to arrive later, which leads to many excessive casualties. But, after Geats, I began to appreciate that Tendo is funny and cares about his sister.

Watched Kamen Rider Gotchard: The Dark Revelation: Lachesis. Well, this little prequel doesn't add anything new, except that it uses the opportunity of streaming to add more violent scenes. It's a story about an unfortunate girl who finds herself drawn into a showdown between two villains, while good remains in the dark. It's clear that it couldn't end well. And Dupont Dougami is a very banal villain. Nevertheless, it was filmed very spectacularly and the story itself touches the soul, evoking emotions. Even if, for the most part, dark. Also, CRY SIS as an ending is gorgeous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeKdt8DA87Y
https://tokuzilla.net/wp-content/upl...achesis-01.jpg

The good news is that Kabuto gets better. The bad news is that it gets worse after that. If you couldn't even get through Drive, you might struggle with this.

Next Level is awesome for sure!

Tendo and Ace both care about their sisters, but only one of them walks the path of heaven.

Lachesis fans might not enjoy this much, as the title character hardly appears and while her human template Arisugawa Lisa seems like she'd be the protagonist, she's mostly a plot device to make us mad at Dupont and cheer for Lachesis to destroy him in a brutal way only TTFC can provide. Of course, there's going to be some people who only watch for the gore and nude scene, but when it comes to character interactions, it's clear that the title is only for marketability reasons. For Clotho fans like myself and Atropos fans though, there's still some enjoyable content here. The part where Geryon asks them if they'd like to have a new little sister is cute for how Clotho gets excited about that idea, while Atropos reacts indifferently like he's asking about a change of wallpaper or something.

Whoever the lead director was for Kabuto, they were absolutely obsessed with lens flare, good lord. I'm gonna go blind at this rate.

I really like Kabuto but I honestly think the fact that most people have a distaste for it is much more reasonable. :lol

Do they? I've heard basically nothing but praise for the show.

Regarding Kabuto, wdyt about Kagami?

He sure does exist.

Well, maybe I shouldn't say "most", but it is certainly a divisive show. I remember it was on the lower end of that NHK Kamen Rider poll from a few years ago and I've seen plenty of people here complain about it too. It's an acquired taste if nothing else!

Watched Hyper Battle Gavv. A short, funny episode with a great fight scene. It's a shame that Gavv doesn't use nunchucks in the main show. In principle, it demonstrates the theme and strengths of the show well, toning it down with a little more comedy, but without going into the territory of complete absurdity. The costumes of the main characters are emphatically Chinese.
I liked that not only Shouma's eyes glowed, but also his panda head's. Also, the concept of Gochizo from a ramen snack is definitely worth the attention of those who like to figure out what kind of food gives Gavv his strength. Overall, I don't regret the time I spent watching it.
https://tokuzilla.net/wp-content/upl...tle-dvd-01.jpg

Eh, can't be helped considering how ramen originates from China but gained prominence during mid-20th century in Japan much like gyozas. I expected either that or some Fukuoka-related trope to come into play since ramen is huge there.
That said, I'm craving ramen right now tbh after seeing this post. :lolol

With chocolate?

Nope, just plain-old ramen. :lolol

Why is almost everyone in this show completely unlikable?

The concept (not a plot concept, but rather a meta-idea) is that the world of the show is Tendo's world and for Tendo. The other characters are trying to live and thrive in this world, which not everyone can do.

Because to hell with the plot, Kabuto is best enjoyed if you see it for the castoff scenes and clockup battles. :lolol

I'm roughly halfway through Kabuto now and I am absolutely convinced that this show would've been way better if it were played up as a comedy rather than as a drama.

I've seen the opinion that this is a comedy, and the dramatic elements are just a necessary, but not important part. But personally, it seems to me that if this was the original idea, it would have been worth bringing the tragedy to a parodic absurdity. Although Kabuto is one of the shows where the team of creators changed, so this clearly confused the end result.

Oh yeah, and that's apparent from very early on. Because there are so many scenes that, if one simply changes the background score to something more goofy, it'd be comedic. But instead alot of the way the tone is handled throughout the show frames things that are ridiculous as something to be taken seriously, and it takes me out of it.

Heck, Tsurugi is my favorite character so far because he's basically what I felt Tendo should've been presented as in the first place: His perfectionism being outright treated as a joke most of the time rather than as something serious/admirable.

And extending off of that, it's so odd that this is one of the few times I'm rooting for Inoue over the other writer(s) of the show, because it seems like Inoue is the only one who's "in on the joke" so to speak. I tend to like the episodes he wrote more than the others, even if only marginally.

I’m watching Kamen Rider Gaim for the first time. I’m nearly at the end of the series with just 4 episodes to go. Things just got brutal! Unfortunately, the site I was using to watch seems to not be working anymore.

I watched God Speed Love. And while I didn't really like much of anything about it, it did at the very least feature versions of some characters that I found vaguely more interesting than their TV series counterparts. And the premise of "What would Tendo do in a world that doesn't automatically conform to him?" is atleast, well, something, even if the answer to that question ends up being "He'd just make it all about himself anyway."

I liked the ambitiousness of the project: "Kamen Rider in the post-apocalypse". For the 2000s, this was a very difficult task. I also remember the episode with the fish and the ride to music on a motorcycle, brazenly revealing the presence of trees.

Watched Majade Remix. This small special has excellent fights, mostly without costumes. All the characters feel like themselves and no one seemed out of place, including the new characters. Some may be unhappy with Marika's role, but again, it matches her behavior in Gaim. And taking into account the character's peculiarity, I explained to myself the difference between this Yoko and her in Goriders by the "Universal Soldier" syndrome.
Also Rinne as the main character interacted well with everyone and her similarities between her and the other characters didn't seem far-fetched. Even in the area of ​​connections between shows, like the suggestion that Nozomi is the basis for Clotho.
Sachika's role is a cameo and she's not even part of Girl Remix, she just overlaps with them. Which wouldn't be a bad thing if Toei hadn't decided to abandon (or postpone?) the rider crossover this year. And I would have liked the final celebration scene to be longer, but considering the short duration of the special, it wouldn't be justified.
Overall, it's good, but not enough. It feels like a prologue to the main action.I don't know if Sakamoto is planning to continue this story, or is just testing the public's reaction, hoping for support. I think the latter is more likely, otherwise there would definitely be an announcement of the next part at the end. In any case, I liked it.
P.S. And now Girl Remix has its own musical theme instead of Aguilera's song.
https://tokuzilla.net/wp-content/upl...s-remix-01.jpg

I'm curious if Girls Remix will ever include Na-Go. I'm pretty sure people liked her in Geats.
Also Femme. She should come back.

I have a feeling that Sakamoto isn't turned on... hm, inspired by Geats's uniform costumes. Although, Neon may be being saved for the sequel, in case there aren't any female riders in the next shows or staff can't come to an agreement with them.

I want Femme, L?Arc, and Akira.

God Speed Love is one of my favorites. It was awesome how Tendo used Hyper Clock Up to make the world conform to him, by turning ZECT's own plan against them!

I want Kivaala, Mage and Lopo.

Currently 36 episodes into Kabuto, and you know, it's funny. Alot of the common complaints I've heard people make of Reiwa era shows are things that Kabuto is equally guilty of. And yet, atleast in my circles, people tend to give Kabuto a free pass.

I'm still not enjoying this show at all unless Tsurugi is on screen, by the way.

Currently up to episode 29 of my Kamen Rider Kuuga rewatch which also means I am now officially halfway through its Blu-Ray series set as released by Shout Factory. Hopefully, I will be able to finish it in a couple of days.

And I have just finished my Kamen Rider Kuuga rewatch as of today.

https://i.imgur.com/TxnD22h.png

Now 42 episodes into Kabuto, and farther in I get, the more I dislike it.

I just really can't jive with most of these characters. They're all very paper thin ontop of not being endearing at all.

Episodes 38 to 42 served as a prime example of this. The heavy focus on baseball would've been a great time to give Kagami some focus and bring up his brother from the start of the show, but no mention of said brother is ever made.

The Hopper Brothers are characters that I find incredibly annoying on both a character and narrative level, as not only are they very inconsistent(like most characters in this show), but their arcs have been incredibly inorganic. I'd throw my usual shade at Inoue if not for the fact that this is Yonemura.

And as much as I like Daisuke and Tsurugi, Daisuke is barely in the show and I'm not about to pretend that Tsurugi hasn't become more and more flanderized as the show has gone on. It's been such an odd feeling, having Inoue be the best part of a given Rider show, what with my opinions on other works he's been involved in with this franchise.

Unless this last string of episodes ends up being something incredible, I think it's safe to say that Kabuto was a show that was never going to appeal to me.

In the case of Drake, in addition to the different scriptwriters, the fact that the actor was actively involved in other projects also played a role. So yes, he is more of a guest character. Which is a shame, considering that he got very interesting plots that I would have liked to focus on for longer.

Glad to know that someone else thinks these two losers are obnoxious. People seem to love them for some reason. The fact that they show up at the same time that Hiyori goes away makes it even worse.

I love the part where Tsurugi says "Waga Tomo Ka-GAH-mi!"

Like, I'd be alot more open to them if they were meant to be seen as jokes, but like alot of things in Kabuto, it really does more seem like the audience is meant to take them seriously, which does not help.

Haha, yes! He's so charismatic. Love the guy.

Long before I even started Kabuto, I knew about episode 46.

It's one of those things in my particular circle of toku fandom that's kinda hard not to hear about with how infamous it is. And especially after Die's' review of it.

Heck, said review kind of became a running gag around these forums for a while; The whole "Tsurugi goes to France" thing. So many people having such an adverse reaction to this particular episode got me prepped to see the worst.

Which is why I was very disappointed to see that not only was the episode nowhere near as bad as what its reputation lead me to believe, but that Die's' intense hatred of it also made no sense to me; Coming across as confusing at best and hypocritical at worst.

Now, before I keep going, I want to preface everything I'm about to say with this: I am by no means trying to attack Die directly. I'm not saying that he's stupid, not allowed to have his opinion, or anything like that. In my mind, I'm complimenting him more than anything, because I feel as though his past review gives a good springboard for discussing both this episode and Kabuto itself.

If you want the short version of my thoughts on episode 46, it's that just like Ex-Aid, its "death on Christmas" is infact rather forced, but everything else about the episode honestly felt like a step up from the usual Kabuto fare to me. This being any sort of breaking point feels odd when Kabuto has continually let me down for almost the entirety of this run. Like, yeah, Tsurugi is my favorite character in the show, but him being killed kinda felt par for the course.

As for some more detailed thoughts, well, again, using Die's' review as a springboard...

More specifically, Tendo is honoring Tsurugi's' desire to kill all of the Warms.

See, one running theme throughout Kabuto is the idea of honoring legacy and, more specifically, someone's' memory.

The fact of the matter is that the Scorpio Warm isn't the original Tsurugi in a literal sense. And both him and Tendo trying to do right by the boy who died trying to save his sister lines up with past episodes of the show.

Episodes like 40 (which Die found brilliant, by the way) and the Gatack two-parter hit on the same idea with the Warms of the week that they highlight. Kagami still honoring the little boy whom the Warm was imitating via bring forth the moonbow and Daisuke allowing Warm Reina to die on her own terms(don't forget that she specifically asked Daisuke to kill her)...

...And it's not really any different here. Sure, a big part of Warm Tsurugi's' motivation is the awful truth, but the other part is him carrying out the exact mission he, under the influence of the original, has had since his introduction: The extermination of the Scorpio Warm.

The episode is by no means demanding you agree with the philosophy of him or Tendo; merely showing how they decide to deal with the situation at hand. The directing makes it very obvious that despite Tendo's' own proclamations of wanting to exterminate all Warms, he still hesitates when it comes to Tsurugi, and that what he says to Misaki in the end is more the case of him doing his best to try and make sense of it all, rather than showcasing any sort of inherent justice or moral grandstanding.

The third act of Faiz also unironically took the stance that all Orphenoch had to die in order for humans to live, so even taking this episode at its most ugly interpretation wouldn't be that out of left field for Inoue.

It's the show not only what's on Tsurugi's' mind, but also what motivates him to come out of the ocean in the first place. There's a reason he went back for the bracelet afterward.

Between this and the stuff about Tendo, Die really doesn't seem to grasp body language very well. Because all of those other angles he listed? Not only are they prevalent within this episode itself via the way that Kagami acts here, but by the very same way he acts regarding Tsurugi's' real identity throughout the entirety of the show.

It doesn't. His entire act was a ploy. And that is made incredibly obvious.

Tsurugi also has been shown to have no mercy when it comes to Warms. Remember the episode where he liked a girl, only to immediately kill her the moment it turns out she was a Warm? His character is consistent here.

Not the first time.

Yeah, that was part of the point. Tsurugi's' real plan was for the Riders to exterminate all of the Warms in one go. Having the Zectors be gone would kinda ruin that idea.

Between this and [url=https://kamenriderdie.com/index.php/category-style-1/revice/kamen-rider-beyond-generations]his review of Beyond Generations[/quote], I've noticed that Die tends to just check out of something that he doesn't care for. And I'll admit that it's a bit concerning because all it results in is him missing alot of details that, to me atleast, are very obvious and then playing it off as the episode/movie's' fault rather than his media literacy. It's one thing to not like something, it's another to be disingenuous about it. It'd be like if I tried to claim that the entirety of Kamen Rider Geats was some tasteless allegory about slavery, or something. It'd be both out of left field, make no sense, and trying to fault a show for something it never does to begin with.

Again, I'm not sitting here demand that anyone out and out see episode 46 as anything brilliant. Heck, I myself don't like the episode. But being disingenuous never really sits right with me about anything. And it's why I very much hope that I myself don't come across that way whenever I talk about any of the shows/episodes/what have you that I don't like.

Case in point: Kamen Rider Kabuto in its entirety.

There's a quote from a video game called Folklore for the PS3, that I still think about ever since I first read it. It goes: "Memories are what make us who we are. So if someone else had your memories, then they would also be you."

It's a line that sort of comes and goes towards the very beginning of the story, and it very poignantly sums up many of the themes and ideas of the game itself, as Folklore ends up becoming a tale of identity, the importance of our past, and how people are shaped by their own perceptions of reality.

And I mean, I guess if you wanted to be generous, you could call Kabuto all of that. Though I'd personally say that it wasn't executed nearly as well.

I've made it no secret that Kabuto as a whole is just something that didn't connect with me throughout practically the entirety of its run. And while sure, I could go into some hyper-detailed rant about practically any given episode as to why, what it essentially boils down to is that, outside of Tsurugi, who even he himself isn't handled great, I essentially had nothing to look forward to when it came to this show.

I found practically every character to be underdeveloped and unendearing if not outright annoying, the plot makes less and less sense as the show goes on, and I just really couldn't ever get a proper handle on the show's' tone. I've said it before: I genuinely think that Kabuto as a whole would've been way better off had it been written as a comedy rather than a drama.

And I feel like I get it on some level: The very premise of the Warms themselves does make for a great angle when it comes to drama. Secret Invasion was a big event in the past for Marvel, afterall. But I more often than not found that angle to be entirely wasted on these characters that I didn't really care about. The only one coming even remotely close being Tsurugi which ends up a waste by the end.

Meanwhile, the only time I ever found anyone else in the cast even remotely likable was when the show played up certain character traits for comedy. That's not to say the comedy in Kabuto is anything super special, mind you, but it's a step up from the drama that never once hit for me. Heck, episode 45 showcases the only time I was able to stand the Hopper Brothers; which is when Tendo treats their latest gimp gimmick with an eyeroll and just leaves them be. Inoue somehow managed to get Tendo to make me laugh!

Because really, that's the thing. Stuff like the Hopper Brothers' over the top darkness obsession and Tendo's' perfectionism are things that I feel are way better treated ironically, and yet no, the shows presents them as extremely straight-forward for the most part. And to me, none of that is at all endearing. If anything, Yonemura almost seemed determined to make me dislike this entire cast. Which, if that was somehow the case, mission accomplished, I guess? Which begs the question that if the characters aren't anything to center on, does the show have anything else to cling to?

Well, certainly not its plot! I wanna quote one other post from the Kabuto thread, just to drive this point home:

Well I do want an answer; You know why? Because it would not only present any sort of context as to why this war is being fought in the first place, but Kabuto also (un)fortunately had the idea of making many of the Warms important characters. Tsurugi, is a character. Reina, is a character. The little boy in the factory, was a character. Gaining any sort of insight into Warm culture would not only provide some context for the plot, but flesh out the characters that I'm so desperately trying to like. I'm not trying to demand that the plot or the characters be any sort of "deep" but, man, give me something, anything to find enjoyment in at the very least.

If my opening bit on this makes anyone think that I'm doing some sort of unfair comparison between Kabuto and Folklore, then I have another angle for you. Because the farther into Kabuto I got, the more I realized that, while it's not an complete 1:1 comparison, I had already seen a different tokusatsu that had done so many of Kabuto's' ideas alot better. And that show was called Kamen Rider Agito. A main protagonist who's good at everything. A bumbling secondary who can never catch up, yet finds success in his own way. Edgey extra Riders. A plot that makes no sense. All the baseline stuff is there. And yet Agito had one thing that Kabuto didn't: An actually likable cast of characters, which also helped to highlight how the plot basically didn't matter.

I've read some posts that claimed that Kabuto is Yonemura's' best work, and I'm sad to say that I can't agree. To me his best work will forever be his character work on Diend, with that movie the character got being the pinnacle of that effort. And it's such a shame that the great work he did with that character couldn't be reflected here, in his own show that he headlined.

In the end, I give Kabuto a 1/6. Tsurugi and Daisuke aside, I just couldn't get into it at all. And its only saving grace otherwise is that it at the very least isn't boring like I found Geats to be.

This is the first time I learned that this episode has such a negative popularity (probably due to the lack of memes compared to death on Christmas or suffering Garren). I perceived it in the style of: "too much drama with a minimum of action." Plus, I was frankly tired of Tsurugi at that time, so I can say that I was not too sad about his death. Again, such a fate seemed inevitable to me as soon as I learned that he was a Worm.
Regarding Kabuto in general, after the existence of the Natives was revealed and that they actually control ZECT, the idea of ​​a cultural misunderstanding came to my mind. That is, the Worms came to deal with their escaped rebels and/or criminals, but harm the earthlings either because they are unable to clearly explain their motives, or because they simply do not perceive other life forms as living and/or intelligent beings. But there is too much evidence to the contrary in the show, so this is simply an unfounded theory that may come true in something else.

I don't blame you. The twist of Tsurugi being a Warm was revealed way too soon; Evidenced by how it legit seems like Yonemura had no idea what to even do with Tsurugi for the entire second half of the show. It's something that really should've been saved for later on.

I quite liked Kabuto episode 46. It finally brought Tsurugi's competence from his earlier appearances back with his evil villain gambit that only Tendou could catch.
Him learning of his true nature seemingly breaking him, but the real Tsurugi's emotions (Both before his death, as well as the ones Scorpio Worm formed during his amnesia) pushing him to make this grand play was great, and literally rounding up several hundred worms to their deaths? Literally Tsurugi's entire motivation.

I don't think episode 46 has a negative reputation in the fandom, from what I've experienced. Just some people vocally disliked it. Typically the people who vocally disliked Kabuto as a whole.