Please publish this as a book. Kindle, epub, pdf, whatever. I'll buy one first thing. This thread is too smart to get buried in a forum, lost to the ages. Profoundly insightful work.

Thank you so much for doing all this! Kuuga was... not my bag. I'm not sure if it's the sort of thing that improves on later viewings? There's a lot of stuff that got talked about here that... there's a way that knowing the whole picture makes it easier to see how all of the pieces fit. Knowing what kind of story it is makes watching it easier, better, and I feel like I couldn't get on that wavelength as I watched it for the first time. Or, I don't know. Maybe just wasn't for me!

Anyway, hell of a job. I hope you had fun doing it!

Total sidenote, I was listening to this as I read those last couple posts, and felt it was extraordinarily fitting.

Anyway Fish, I gotta say, your passion really shined through this entire thread. Even with my god awful attention span, I found myself easily being to read through all of your posts no problem. And they even helped reinforce and remind me as to why I love Kuuga as a show so much.

For me personally, Kuuga is a show that I owe alot to. If not for it, I actually would've never even gotten into Kamen Rider or a larger selection of Japanese Toku as a whole. Before it, all I ever watched were the American side of things, and in terms of Kamen Rider the only ones I'd seen were Saban's Masked Rider and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, neither of which I liked very much.

As such, my view on Kamen Rider had been pretty soured. But, a friend who'd been a fan of KR long before I convinced me to give the series one final chance; And by sheer random chance I just kinda chose Kuuga as the show to watch. And holy HELL was it a lucky payoff. Never before had I seen a Toku show like this--hell-a show like this period. Kuuga destroyed my expectations in literally every way.

The story, the style, the music, the direction, the gore, the effects, the characters, and most importantly, the atmosphere, were all things I never expected out of a show like this. And every episode had me totally drawn in. And in alot of ways it reminded me of another of my all time favorite shows: Android Kikaider: The Animation. Perhaps if I somehow am ever able to find my own voice I'll make a thread on that someday. Regardless, no other Rider show has ever managed to match up, and it's definitely one of my all time favorites.

As for the episodes themselves, you said just about everything I could've said and more. But one thing I definitely want to touch on is that final battle. I've heard alot of mixed opinions on it over the years, but, and I hate saying this, I really do, but the people who complain about it not being some bombastic clash of titans are totally missing the entire point of it. There's many reasons both Daguva and Yusuke are reduced down to their human states here. And one of those is showing and calling into question the state of each characters morals and humanity. Even as he's being beaten to death, all Daguva can do is laugh, enjoying every second of it.

And Yusuke? Well, I dunno if anyone will agree with me, but that look on his face wasn't just because he hated having to resort to such an ugly way of ending all of this, but because he outright pitied and felt sorry for Daguva and the type of person he had become. Hell, Yusuke was literally ending someone else's' smile during that entire confrontation, something I imagine he never thought he'd have to do. It's not the most flashy battle in anything by any means, but it's the most emotionally powerful one in Kuuga, and one of the most emotionally driven moments in any show I've seen to date. If the show had ended right there, I still would've said it was a great finale, but then the next episode came and made everything even better. Hell, damn near perfect.

So, that's about all I have to say, I think. Reliving the show and discussing it all with you was alot of great fun!

Now someone please do an OOO thread so I can gush there too, lol.

... wow, this is really the end of the thread.

Like okay, not over over; we're all gonna chip in our thoughts and one day, some lovely day in 2041 we'll be talking about the Super Secret video; but in terms of recapping the series it's finished. And that's actually kind of getting me slightly emotional. I wasn't really watching along exactly; especially since I'd watched it very recently it would feel weird to for me personally, but... obviously while a visual medium can't be replaced like this, this has felt like a rewatch to me; in that it's gotten me to think a lot more about certain scenes and words and actions and has allowed me to get a lot more meaning out of this series even though it was hardly lacking on substance for me to begin with. I mean, hell, it's my third favourite Toku; it'd be pretty worrying if I didn't think highly of it before this!

All that to say, damn, this is just a thread on the internet but you got me feeling things. I can only give this my best whirl.




When I saw Episode 47's opening, I was deeply confused. I could have sworn I missed an episode with everything that was happening and had to double check my numbers and how many times I'd clicked 'next', but, nope -- this is how we were opening.

It's maybe a bit obvious to call it subversive, but I wanna say right away that that's really what makes Amazing Mighty work to me -- the hero's gone and gotten a new upgrade, and the very next episode, it's stomped underfoot effortlessly and never seen again. That sort of throw to your expectations; that kind of disregard for the traditional rules; that mixed in with the sheer sensory overload of everything going on at the start of Decision... it's fantastic. And what's really fantastic to me is how it only really dawned on me while I was watching the rest of the episode -- the constant rain brings dread, sure, but that slow realisation I had of what exactly happened just doubled down on it. I wasn't even watching a premonition of what was to come; I slowly began to realise that I was watching the kindest man in the world putting up a brave front and smiling to everyone knowing fully well that he was marching off to die; whether physically or spiritually. And it's wonderful to see everyone again -- even Kanzaki's back, Yusuke's mentor and teacher who tells him how proud he is of who he's become; and yet... there's this overwhelming sense of dread. I've yet to see anything like these two episodes.



And then Episode 48, Kuuga... it really goes and hits me with that red-eyed Ultimate. Godai turning around after transforming, slowly revealing the colour in his eyes; Ichijou's slow realisation and what I can only read as a glimmer of hope in his expression... this post is getting very gushy very quickly, but it's all I can do.

I've got a slightly different reading, if I might. Reading into Kuuga as being a deeply opposite entity to Yusuke; to being this awful, violent, terrible warrior... I mean, yeah, that's hard to dispute. It is Yusuke at his worst. It is the worst things about him that he uses with a heavy heart.

... but it's also his.

I'm a bit soft and mushy on this sort of thing, and I admit, I'm very quick to read into a Rider or Sentai form as that character's own power. I always like that. But Yusuke's just spent the whole series being called "#4". A very clinical definition by the police, a very detached term, and one that makes him no different to the monsters he's fighting. (And since I have nowhere else to really say it, maaaaybe a clever little nod to how the only numbered Riders in Showa were 1, 2 and 3?) Even his allies continue to call him that well after they get to know him personally and are directly working with him. Even when he's not called #4, ancient texts refer to him as a 'fearsome warrior'. But that's not what Yusuke calls it. He calls it Kuuga.

It's a very... I don't want to say childish thing to do, but it's definitely something that's got a lot more energy to it, a bit more playfulness. Or rather, it's a Superhero name. And I don't want to say Yusuke sees himself as a superhero or someone that swoops in to save the day or even someone that's proud to fight, because I think that goes against the core tenets of his character. Rather, I think he's very optimistic and very driven. He's determined to turn this power into a positive in any way he can; he refuses even at Kuuga's worst points to see it as the ultimate darkness. He refuses to give in to the idea that it's inherently a terrible thing -- he's going to go against everything that's been said and make Kuuga a beacon of hope that shines through the darkness. And then we see Ultimate Form has red eyes.

DreamSword went into a very good speech about how Amazing Mighty's bright red eyes symbolise the light of Yusuke shining through the darkness of Kuuga; never giving up and never giving into his worst emotions. And that's exactly what I see in the Ultimate Form he takes up here -- yes, of course, immediately after he has an ugly, awful, bloody, teary brawl with Daguva. Yes, he has to use terrible, demonic power. Yes, he has to kill. But he's refusing to do more than that.

Kuuga, in the real world, had become a hero and a source of hope and kindness to so many children in Japan. An effect that I still see today -- I'm not sure if anyone on this forum knows him, but there's this guy called KTJ-Taka that runs a shop for Toku toys. He also does quite a few youtube videos, and in one of the more recent ones I've seen; he talks a fair bit about how Kuuga was his first series, and how much he loved it and how new it was. And now he's grown up and it's made him so happy, he went out of his way to make a store specifically to sell Toku items to people outside of Japan who want them but have trouble getting them.

And I just think... I don't know. I think that, like how Kuuga had become something so positive in the real world; I think Yusuke always strived to make it something positive himself. Maybe that's just me.



I think that's a good enough lead-in to say that this last episode, that last scene where it plays the ending while Yusuke's walking through a beach on his travels, entertaining the kids as he goes? I kinda started crying. I think this is where I knew, where I really knew and realised; this was a series I'd loved. It done everything so perfectly, so wonderfully, so beautifully... and I'd fallen in love. Every relationship; every bit of trust; every struggle to put kindness above violence; I don't think I can quite put it into words. Kuuga was a beautiful series and an absolute must-watch in my eyes. I have a hard time expressing how much it meant to me, but it's so, so, so uplifting in everything it does.

And one way I know it was so important to me? ... this is gonna sound beyond corny, but ever since I watched Kuuga, I've been finding myself doing thumbs ups so much more whenever I can. Maybe more than the show itself (133 feels very low; sure you didn't miss any?), maybe a bit too much, but... I think just that little bit of positivity always helps. I've hinted towards it a lot in this thread, but Kuuga to me is about trust in those you care about -- you'll always be there for them, you're always there to support them and lend an ear when you need to, and you'll always protect them. But beyond that, you'll trust them in what they want to do and what their path is. And I think that little bit of affirmation, that little Thumbs Up, it encapsulates all of that.

I think that's everything. Thank you for making this thread, and thank you for being so open and so thoughtful about how you feel about Kuuga. It's been a joy going along with you for the ride, and I've gotten out just about everything I wanted to say on it. This has been fantastic :thumb:






Now I just need to theorycraft that post on how the TryChaser's colour scheme transformation is relevant to telling us something about Yusuke's character

Thank you all so much for the usual kind and generous responses! I'll get right to those in a second, but first, some random thoughts I had a little too late to fit in that I need to get out before I forget:

- Holy crap how cool is it that episode 48, arguably the darkest episode of the series, ended up having the highest thumbs up count I mean really

- On the whole discussion of the significance of Kuuga's eyes, it's probably worth noting Daguva's are black.

- And on that subject, I had the revelation that the whole Linto prophecy about the fearsome warrior doesn't actually refer to a specific fearsome warrior? Daguva's holy spring is as dry as they come, in both episode 1 AND 39, his appearance is accompanied by literal lightning, and he summons an endless rain that blocks out all daylight. The "holy spring" bit might be the only metaphorical part of that entire thing, and that's awesome.

- Also, Die is gonna love this one, but my one word description of Kuuga? You know what else is pretty healthy? Eating your vegetables. :p


Well, as a start, I've at least made that line in my new signature a link to the thread, to make it that little bit easier to find. Oh, and if anyone was wondering, the line in question is this:

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

Just another quote that really stuck with me for some reason.

I think that might be a fundamental difference in how you and I watch things? Kuuga's subtle storytelling can make it hard to get a grasp on what is and isn't significant, and something to pay attention to at first. That's more than fine for someone like me, because I tend to let TV shows just sorta... wash over me, I guess. One of the reasons I'm picky about final episodes is because I often rely on them to be that final puzzle piece that makes everything click into place. Up until that point, I'm generally just along for the ride, to some extent. You're way quicker and snappier at analyzing things, and I get the feeling Kuuga can make that tricky to do in the moment.

Add this to the pile of great observations I never would've made myself!

No, seriously, trust me on this: your best whirl is at least as good as mine. :thumb:

The funny thing is, while I often hear it referred to as a fight that happens "offscreen", that scene actually is the entire fight. We even see Daguva transform from his human self into his hairy caveman monster mode, and then into his proper suit for the first time. The fight legitimately only lasted for as long as you see onscreen. It was that brutal. The only part not shown is how Yuusuke got there, and that's not even the first time the show skimped on doing the setup, thanks to episode 42.

Another super good point, and one that ties pretty strongly into that scene from back in episode 10 where he lays out his motivations to Minori. Yuusuke, you know, he definitely doesn't really like being Kuuga, per se, but if he didn't see the value in what he can (and did) accomplish using that power, how it could be something that makes people's lives better, he never would've done it, and that's something that absolutely carries through to Ultimate Form's appearance.

I'm actually going to take the liberty of just putting that video right here, because it's only four minutes, and very relevant to the topic at hand. Why listen to me tell you about how Japanese kids in 2000 were struck by how fresh and different Kuuga was, and how much their dads who watched Rider growing up thought it was cool, when you can hear it first-hand?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2q-1L-R03U

Thank you for bringing this up!

Oh yeah, phhssst... totally corny, and definitely not exactly the kind of thing I was saying myself in threads four years ago.

I still do it way more than I used to, by the way.

Don't you dare tease me like that. :p

I hereby rescind all previous compliments based on this unprovoked attack. -2 Rider Points, and Yuusuke Godai asks you to consider other people's feelings. Please adjust your TokuNation Scorecard accordingly.

Mods, please delete thread.

Didn't think I will do this here, but can you answer to some of my replies and question above? (If you can't ok, just want to clarify) Really invested into the Gadoru part, before going into the best portrayal of final form in the franchise ever.

Kuuga is actually really cool... I am pretty sure I caught on to the themes and such when I first watched the show sometime in 2013 or whenever it was, but it was only much later with the hindsight of so many series after it that I think I really appreciate it not just as a show but as a vision.

The people working on this show absolutely wanted to create a story that was important and meaningful above all else, setting out to be something special before a product, and they put a lot of care into that craft which I have to admire and respect even if some choices didn't resonate with me.

I don't want to sound like some kind of hipster by implying present-day Kamen Rider doesn't have plenty of pathos still though, and I honestly wouldn't trade away all the in-your-face merchandising. I guess maybe my recent issues with Zero-One are making me wistful towards shows with stronger core themes and a desire to maximise it's potential.

Alright, Fish Sandwich, what this thread really needs is you revealing and showing off how much Kuuga merch you've collected. I'll be disappointed if you don't own at least three different figures.

Well, since you’re at the end, I think I’ll do what I did on kissasian at the end of my watch and share my thoughts for the whole show. In fact, I’ll just quote my post from there.

And as for the final battle, I think MatrixBeast summed that up for me a while ago.

It's a bit of both IMO. Kuuga is definitely a show that's not gonna jive with everyone, and the old subs definitely made certain details hard to follow. Even though "Deconstruction" is a phrase that Fish doesn't really like, Kuuga does do alot of it(as well as a fair amount of Reconstruction). And those types of stories definitely won't jive with alot of people; Especially those who eat the traditional methods of the genre right up and outright expect them to be fulfilled. The super easy example being Evangelion; There are just as many people who hate it as those who love it.

Been slowly rewatching via the Shout Factory subs, and yeah, Fish wasn't exaggerating; It's a HUGE improvement. It's definitely better a second time around if only due to the improved script alone.

Aww, thank you both!

That's actually really cool. I'll be sure to check the guy's' shop out!

I support this. And if you somehow don't have any, well, that can be fixed once Quarantine is over~

I'll always have fond memories of watching Kuuga as a kid (goddamn, it's actually 18 years ago) who didn't even begin to notice all the cool symbolic stuff mentioned here, but had a super fun ride nonetheless. There's something of a 'you just had to be there' feeling at the time, when Kamen Rider finally returns, was really cool and popular, and was totally different and awesome shit back then. When I rewatched Kuuga as an adult about couple of years ago, I may not had the same amount of fun and exhilaration anymore, but at the same time I also gained newfound appreciation for its many idiosyncrasies.

This thread would be an awesome companion piece for my next rewatch with the new and improved sub. Great job to everyone involved :thumb:

In all seriousness, I legitimately found it interesting that we had that little spat about our opinions on vegetables, and, after ALL this writing, the thing I eventually landed on was basically that Kuuga is vegetables. It's okay Die, I understand. Kuuga was just too much of a shift for someone who got into the franchise with the premium layer cake that is Ex-Aid, it can't be helped that you don't want to eat healthier, and I get that now. :p

I will try and get on that right now!

Hey, just because he has superhuman strength doesn't mean he has superhuman balance. :lol

To be fair, cops generally don't have access to stuff like that, and Kuuga liked to be as realistic as possible with them. Playing pretend for a second that they managed to get their hands on heavy explosives, I'm pretty sure it would just end with a Grongi still being perfectly fine, and some civilians filing complaints later about all the chunks of buildings and sidewalks that have been destroyed because Ichijou was firing off a bazooka in a densely populated area.

I think it's better for everyone they stuck with bullets and gas this whole time.

Gosh, I don't think I really can do this? I think there are under a dozen explicitly confirmed skills Yuusuke has, and it's pretty unclear what exactly counts as a "skill". In a promotional event for the Blu-ray release, Arakawa and Takatera even joked that the "look over there!" move he pulled in the first episode might've been one. I'd love it if there were a proper list somewhere myself (if there is, I'm not aware of it). For now, I think we'll have to make due pretending basically everything we see Yuusuke do is a skill.

Both. The idea as the show presents it seems to be that Yuusuke wishing to become stronger caused the Amadam to start using the electricity as extra power, since the stone reacts directly to his will, which is how he does things like transforming to begin with.

Yeah, rolling with the electricity theme, I'd imagine the idea is that Yuusuke runs out of "juice" pretty quickly, and needs time to recharge. I don't think simply trying a different form after he runs out in a fight would work.

What I mean with that part is that I haven't personally seen a lot of tokusatsu that takes the time out for something so... domestic, I guess? There might be one out there, and some of the other early Heisei Riders have a few elements of stuff like this, but the Enokida plotline would feel more at home in a daytime soap opera than a superhero show, and that's exactly why I love it.

Prepare for disappointment then! The number is exactly zero!

I've yet to really get much into Rider merch, for a few different reasons. I've legitimately been eyeballing the Figure-Rise kits quite a bit though. One of the joys of getting into Gundam a few years back was realizing there's affordably priced merch of all this stuff that's just readily available. You can buy a kit of every lead mobile suit in that entire franchise overnight, because kits generally get frequent reissues, and ever since learning that, it's always been a dream of mine to have an equivalent thing... for Sentai robots. But nice figures of Heisei Riders is a darn good second place! The absurd rigmarole of lining up a purchase of a super expensive Figuart for the five seconds those are available is way too much for me (how do you people even touch those things without having a heart attack?), but casually dropping like $30-40 for something on Amazon basically whenever I feel like? They can't make a Ghost kit fast enough!

I was even legitimately thinking about getting myself a Kuuga when I finished this thread, but, uh, I'm not in much of a rush to make that happen right now...

Someday soon, hopefully!

Is that how that came off? I probably should've specified I don't think it's inherently a bad thing either, then? I do think it's a perfectly apt description of Kuuga, which is one of the other things about that term that I think gives it a bad rap sometimes: being applied a little too liberally.

But man, the final showdown being anticlimactic? I just can't buy that. If Yuusuke went up that mountain and had a fight with Daguva as Kuuga where he threw fireballs at him until he won and then walked back to say "I did it!" to Ichijou or something... I mean, that's the anticlimax, in my book. That kind of ending would be so generic and horribly inappropriate for the story, I wouldn't know whether to be angry, or just fall asleep.

Honestly, the reason I think the final fight is anticlimactic isn’t in the buildup, but rather in the execution. The idea sounds solid on paper and writing about it after the fact makes it sound like, the greatest fight ever, but when I saw it, I felt that everything that could go wrong (blurry pictures, poor choreography, shaky camera angles) went wrong. He fact someone thought it was a good idea to film on a snowy mountain doesn’t help that sentiment in my book.

I think complaining the fight wasn't filmed in an aesthetically pleasing manner maybe goes right back to "missing the point" territory, though? If by "shaky camera angles", you mean literally shaky, too, I'd also suggest you go watch that scene again, because the camera is solid like a rock outside of a few deliberate moments. The direction is clear and concise, even through the snow, and the choreography is the best part. Going from the initial act of Kuuga and Daguva lighting each other on fire, and then rapidly devolving from there to what seems like it'll be a standard toku fight, until it ultimately is reduced to just two guys trading repetitive right hooks until they fall down, all that stuff is the core of what makes the scene accomplish its purpose so well. It's all meaningful. Doing anything too fancy would've diminished the point the episode was making. The only real flourish in that whole scene, the only part that does anything to directly tell you how to feel, is the slight slow-motion before Yuusuke throws the final punch, emphasizing his pained expression.

Is a pretty fight scene? Definitely not. Is it a bad fight scene? Far from it in my book, but it's also admittedly not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and I can't blame you if it didn't gel with you the same way it did for me.

Think Gadoru isn't enough? Yeah then, this is the way to build a threat! Like you said all the horrors are really emphasized here, with the series unafraid to cause mass murders and many victims thrown around (oh well, Kuuga already got many victims in various Grongis, but this one's on much bigger scale), in the perceptive of Godai, the person who wants nothing of these, helpless to prevent any of this escalating in front of Daguva himself, with him enjoying every moment of it. But one thing... how didn't the fire extinguish in the middle of rain? The only thing missing was the fight itself though it's maybe pointless to show. Surely, Daguva curbstomps Amazing Mighty, but how severe did Daguva beat Kuuga up? That Yusuke seems to be fine in the next scenes (he can walk, or riding bikes fine), but with damages on Amadam.

So, the translation tips about the sun that we've heard throughout the half-series, was the tips for Ultimate Form that comes up very slowly, at the end here? If Rising was something that is tampered with the modern day technology and thus wasn't included in the translation, so the past reincarnations of Kuuga would instantly jump from 4 main forms into Ultimate? More specifically, if Rising form is gained by willpower and defibrillator, it uses Yusuke's pent up rage to become Utimate form?

I understand the use of rain for the symbolisym, downbeat, and no escape, but this is also... another part of Daguva with him having weather control. I wonder if that can be useful in fights.

Yusuke's that impactful to the cast, that him going back to the adventure is treated like a forever farewell? Just on the outside he seems to have no fear!̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶p̶a̶i̶n̶!̶ or hesitation on his next plan to defeat Daguva, just full on optimism that Daguva will be defeated and everyone will be safe, either that or it's just to reassure others (he does succeed, but still). Though yeah it's implied by this time Yusuke has become a stepford smiler, noticeable in Kanzaki scene, when, seeing more reports of Daguva's carnage, we get a close-up of his fist on his side, clenching in rage.

The cops are the one Yusuke hasn't met up yet here.... or even call them up like he did at episode 40. With Baruba and other Grongis caught up on human culture indicated by encyclopedias, I actually wonder how will they utilize the human culture? Something Jaaza did to a plane? It's fun.... for the audience, not for Kuuga's cast!

I mean Kazari realizes that Yusuke is Kuuga... but he never said anything about Kuuga being #4 to Pops right? So probably Kazari only knows that Yusuke is #4.... but if Yusuke talks about "Kuuga" again Kazari may still misinterpret that as some celebrities because he doesn't know the true name of #4 is Kuuga!

With the nerve-breaking bullets, the encounter becomes the standard police to criminal interrogation! But being used to dominating humans like shrugging off guns, obviously Baruba wouldn't know about her impending doom (shooting Grongis with nerve-breaking bullets being like shooting regular humans with any guns), though she remarked that Linto has changed. And their status as arch-enemies are truly cemented here with Ichijou practically shouting and Baruba recognizing him. So you love that you never see her monster form throughout the series? Because I wonder how strong she is in fight. It's fitting for the second most important antagonist to be killed by the second most important character - the deuteragonist Ichijou, by also building up animosity between them with each encounters, but still wonder. Getting killed by nerve-breaking bullets shouldn't be an anti-feat for Ra-Baruba-De as Dorudo was also killed the same way... though Gadoru survived that, faking the dead.

What if Yusuke visits Sakurako while Jean's still there? Oh and also didn't you mentioned Jean is the only one who brofists with Yusuke? And not only Jean, Yusuke didn't interact with any of the cops except Ichijou too, so he's not alone. For Sakurako, wasn't that her translation of sun in darkness that gives Yusuke his Ultimate form, but only coming to terms now? And as Yusuke rides on TryChaser, why he no longer uses BeatChaser? AFAIK the cops didn't ask to return BeatChaser.

For Yusuke asking Ichijou to shoot him at the dmaged Amadam area if he goes out of control... would that mean... one of the strongest Final Forms in Kamen Rider franchise has a quite ordinary achilles' heel (like worst weakness, tbh) in a specialized bullets due to Yusuke's inherently human body, for all the raw power it provides like destroying whole planets? And so the scene previously in episode 38, the one where Ichijou dreams about possibly Yusuke and talks about it to Tsubaki (who encourages Ichijou to "find his love!") only implies about it, but throughout the series, Ichijou still holds up until now that he still doesn't want Yusuke to put up the cops burden in maintaning safety, just not in hostile way like he did at the first 2 episodes.... even if Yusuke already proclaims that dying Grongi is his way of working towards his goal, that Yusuke really puts others above himself, even if Ichijou insists of Yusuke taking care of himself, and making others smile is his way of taking care of himself.

OK, the time has come, now I want to talk about my favorite portrayal of Final Form in the whole Kamen Rider franchise, ever. That unfortunately the next portrayal of it butchered. Oh well, then again, the games make sure to separate Godai's Kuuga and Onodera's Kuuga. Firstly, Kuuga Ultimate's finisher, the Ulltimate Kick, is said to be able to destroy the whole planet, living up to its position as the Ultimate form. Obviously Yusuke wouldn't want to use the finisher to destroy the planet he loves, or already considered the risks from his weaker form's mass destructive finisher that it once put a distrust in Kuuga and the cops' new job was to ensure the safety of people with Kuuga finishing off their enemies. But that's no big deal, because the huge stats Kuuga Utimate has, which corresponds to his planet-busting powers aren't only for show. Kuuga Ultimate only needed regular punches and kicks to get the job done against even the final boss, no need for finisher or stronger regular attacks! No spectacles? This is Kuuga's Ultimate Form's speciality, at least in his home series, that his ordinary-looking attacks packs much bigger punch than your usual spectacles and fancy colorful abilities, finishers included. And this is the Final Form that retains its full dignity, just in my opinion (because other may measure their dignity based on how many screentime and killcounts the final form has), the Utimate Form fulfills its supposed position as the Final Form, aside from the risks to use it where it may corrupt Yusuke and bring the world to darkness, it's only obtained in the very final part of the series, at the climatic darkest hour (with the risks and burden too), and only used to fight against one foe worth fighting against the final form, Daguva. Ultimate Form's usage is necessary to put an end against otherwise impossible odds. Unlike other Final Forms which is obtained more casually, becomes the main way to fight any foes, essentially turning it into regular Kamen Rider fighter (not having that significant power difference also helps), and the one grates on me the most, if the Final Form struggles a bit against a regular monster of the week or even the grunts. The final fight may not be flashy, short, and seem anticlimatic (the horror and brutality takes the center here), but IMO, it's necessary to have it play out like that with the power the 2 displayed (except Ultimate Kuuga's stated ability to use weapons Dragon, Pegasus, and Titan have, which he may do if he's given any object, and probably Daguva too?), and Godai's character, which leads to the best portayal of Final Form to me, and also my favorite final fight too.

About the glory of fighting and it being ugly and repulsive? That's Daguva's goal, to make the human race as violent as his. And particularly in his battle, no matter what outcome, it seemingly will be in Daguva's favor. If Daguva kills Kuuga, then simply, the villain wins without any obstacle. If Kuuga kills Daguva, Kuuga can potentially become his successor to bring the ultimate darkness with him being corrupted and becoming as evil and violent as Daguva was. And I think, the cancellation of their plan to make Yusuke Godai, uh, go die, serves to emphasize Yusuke's real strength throughout the series as the next episode attests. Also it really hits home with Ichijou being in total anguish, shouting his name in despair seeing the outcome of the battle.

More of explaining the meaning of titles like this! Previously iirc these were only done in first episodes about every title being 1 word, but not for each next sepisodes.

Even if it's counting from #0 to #48, there were something like B0, B1, and B9 right? With everyone having nice things to say, it's a bit of bummer that Yusuke didn't contact them previously. And yeah with the (why short haired now) Sasayama talking about Yusuke, it's evident in previous episode with him staying optimistic about beating Daguva even with all the horrors he had witnessed and the risk of the final form. But as Matsukura pointed out, the cops have worked hard too and even killed Grongis at the end, it's mutual teamwork. If the Kamen Rider universe are interconnected... Matsukura will see a bunch of men like Yusuke.... aka most of the main protagonists.

Yeah noticed that too, this is Ichijou's turn to visit everyone like Godai did before. Was Enokida's workaholic problems established as already there before Grongis attacked? Then how can she be significantly more free without Grongis running around to spend time with Sayuru, she would still do other works right? Or the cops are given special breaks to celebrate the Grongi's defeat. I thought that Jean going to Disneyland is just a coincidence (and would like to see what happened if he met Enokida and Sayuru there), but that's actually him proceeding with Enokida. So that's the reason you actually refer to him as Pops because "Tamasaburou Kazari" is a bit of plot twist for anyone at Pole Pole, where he's the one to give Yusuke the coffee recipe.

The total opposite of Yusuke and Grongis summed up here... Yusuke wants others' smiles, Grongis want their own smiles. So that's actually the point of Chouno... he's a part of Linto Baruba talks about to become like them, and a step for Daguva's goal. But with Yusuke, even the bad side of humanity can be redeemed.

I see your point about everything Yusuke's doing in the series as skills.... because the skills Yusuke has isn't necessarily something special that is very hard to master... where the 1st is simply.... smiling. Though as you pointed out here, to smile like Yusuke does, if that's the criteria to consider that as skill, is another thing.

The world without #4 would mean, the world without any supernatural terror to make living there harder than it already is! #4 wouldn't be needed because there are no superpowered monsters that threaten human lives and almost impossible to stop. Humans can live peacefully and safe, and even if there are evildoers, they will be only regular humans that are much easier to stop, like Ichijou did at episode 44.

And yeah this is what truly defeats Daguva and Grongi from this scene. Sakurako saying that Yusuke did become a fearsome warrior without using hatred as fuel and turning into black-eyed Ultimate Form. Yusuke's real power in the series is his kindness and purity, which allows him to control Kuuga at the first place, and not succumbing into darkness as Kuuga Ultimate. Daguva's plan ultimately fails because he was incapable of understanding that Godai could destroy him and end the bloodshed without becoming just as violent as he is. Anyone other than him, if they don't give up, if he defeats Daguva, will be the next Daguva to carry the ultimate darkness.

Angrily shoving one another? I thought they were only playing, but they're actually fighting....

The fight with Grongi is just one of Yusuke's ways! But it's not the only way as Minori realizing what Yusuke means by becoming Kuuga, she does in her own way. Yusuke can use other ways to make others smile this time.

But hey! Parado, aka Shouma Kai is a massive fanboy for Kuuga, which he made abundantly clear in most of his answers during a post-Ex-Aid cast interview. His own game in Ex-Aid, aka Kamen Rider Chronicle, is inspired by Gegeru! A game where Bugsters (Grongi) kill humans. And in a way, Baruba never showing her monster form is also kinda like Parado (dunno if he has a Bugster form) never showing his too. A̶n̶d̶ ̶G̶o̶o̶m̶a̶/̶G̶r̶a̶p̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶i̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶i̶e̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶b̶o̶s̶s̶'̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶f̶a̶l̶l̶s̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶t̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶b̶o̶s̶s̶.̶

And I guess the realistic approach also applies to the science too right? Because even if they don't have superpowers, if the scientists are as super-genius as the ones in other series, I feel like they will defeat Grongis easily with what they can create in a quick span of time.

I feel like, moments like Ryuki's Kagawa taking care of his son, or Build's Sento enjoying Kyoka's cookings at her house which hits home to Takumi Katsuragi as some that in similar category, domestical moments.... but dunno.

The episode jumps to nine days later after the opening, which gives the impression Yuusuke needed a lot of time to heal... by his standards, anyway.

It's admittedly way more hilarious to imagine Pops still hasn't totally figured things out.

"Why do you think Yuusuke left so soon after beating #0?"
"He needed a break from Kuuga."
"I know he took a break in Cuba, I'm asking why!"

Oh, absolutely. I think that's legitimately a super remarkable thing. There was something of a tradition of "human" antagonists having monster forms they would eventually reveal and/or gain at some point, going back to I think Colonel Zol in the original series. It wasn't a hard rule (RX would be an easy counterpoint to bring up), but it was something fans were probably accustomed to. For Kuuga to make it clear Baruba must have one herself, even giving a brief glimpse of her arm early on, and then pointedly refuse to ever show the whole thing even at the very end is just one of the many, many ways this show broke the mold. She's a cool character with a great sense of presence, and, even though I can understand being curious, I think leaving it such a mystery really enhanced her overall aura.

Yes, and I cherish that moment, but to be honest, Jean and Yuusuke just didn't share much screentime that established any particular connection between them. Yes, they're friends, but that was sort of all they were, and thus I don't think the show could've done much to get real drama out of a final chat between the two of them. Ideally, of course, they could've had those scenes somewhere before that point, but since they didn't, I think leaving him out entirely was probably most dignified thing they could've done for Jean. Having him stand around pointlessly during Yuusuke's conversation with Sakurako would've just been odd, and he still gets his scenes at Pole Pole in the finale, so I really think it all worked out for the best. And I mean, he's going to Disneyland tomorrow!

There's no guarantee shooting at the belt would actually work! All Yuuske is saying is that it's probably Ichijou's best bet if everything goes horribly wrong. A punch from Daguva is enough to crack it, but that's a punch from Daguva. I personally choose to believe even the nerve-breaking bullets wouldn't do a thing, even with the Amadam already damaged, and Yuusuke is just being optimistic. If you can call saying "here's how to best kill me if I turn into an evil harbinger of the apocalypse" optimistic, anyway. Again, lots of complicated feelings in these episodes!

I actually did work explanations directly into the writeups for quite a few episodes ("Creed" and "Reality" come to mind), but in general, the whole reason I made such a big deal about the one-word titles upfront was specifically because I don't think they require much explaining. That's how I know they're doing their job right. You probably don't need my help to figure out why the episode where Gooma's big endgame ends with him dying is called "Gooma", or why the episode where Kuuga and the police work together more closely than ever before to stop Badaa is called "Cooperation". Or why the one where Yuusuke emphasizes the need to control your emotions to Nana is called "Control".

I mean, I could go on like this all day, but there's just no point. This show's episode titles are just that awesome.

Yes, but the Grongi definitely made things even more complicated and busy for her than usual, and, more importantly, she's learned her lesson over the course of the series. I think part of the idea at the end is just that she's gotten better at managing what time she does have to give to each part of her life. Character development will do that for you!

Admittedly it's pretty hard to tell the difference between young children shoving each other around because they're having a good time, and shoving each other around because they aren't (and the facial expressions of those particular kids are a real mixed bag), but the scene just doesn't make much sense if anything else is happening there. I don't think Yuusuke would feel the need to jump to his feet and sprint at a group of happy children just to make them slightly happier, and I certainly don't think that's what they'd end the entire series on. It seems obvious to me it's meant to be one last act of peacekeeping from a guy who just spent 48 episodes fighting so nobody else has to.

Sort of following up on something I mentioned earlier, I figured it'd be fun to do a bit of a bonus post for this thread looking at some the translation differences between Midnight Crew Subs' version, and the recent official subs by Shout! Factory. I've still yet to watch any full episodes with their subs, mind you (as much as I love Kuuga, it's still a little early for me to have that motivation again), but I've been going over plenty of individual scenes, and, like I said, it's consistently impressive work. To my knowledge, MCS' subs were the only complete version of Kuuga that existed in English until Shout's release came along, so it's highly likely that was the version of Kuuga a lot of us saw. If that's the case, hopefully some quick looks at some memorable dialogue from the show will prove to you how much of an upgrade you're getting with the official version. On top of the two different translations, I'll also have the original Japanese dialogue for each scene transcribed to the best of my ability, if that matters to anyone.

First up is one of Yuusuke's simplest, yet greatest speeches, from episode 8, where he tries to tell Mika how much her life matters.

雄介「七連チャン、できると思う？」
実加「無理だよ」
雄介「信じて」
雄介「皆やる時やってくれるよ」
雄介「そして君にもいつか、なんかやる時が来ると思う」
雄介「お父さんもきっと、それを楽しみに見守ってくれてるよ」

MCS:
Yuusuke: "Do you think you could skip something seven times?"
Mika: "That's impossible."
Yuusuke: "You gotta believe."
Yuusuke: "You can do it, if you try."
Yuusuke: "And one day, there'll be something you need to do."
Yuusuke: "When it happens, your dad will be happily watching over you."

SHOUT:
Yuusuke: "You think I can skip a stone seven times?"
Mika: "No one can."
Yuusuke: "Have some faith."
Yuusuke: "When the time comes, people can do what seems impossible."
Yuusuke: "And I think that someday, you'll have a day like that."
Yuusuke: "I bet your dad's watching you and looking forward to that."

Since episode 8 is one of the ones that got a fully new translation for MCS' Blu-ray releases, both of these translations are pretty dang solid. This comparison is less about raw accuracy, and more about how word choice affects the emotional resonance of dialogue. Both of these translations do a more than adequate job at that, but while MCS focused on trying to reflect Kuuga's habit of saying a lot by saying a little, Shout's approach, in my opinion, does a better job conveying how inspirational Yuusuke is really being here. Neither translation is particularly more or less direct than the other, though, and, again, both are doing a great job with Kuuga's very specific and considered lines, so it's all down to personal preference. If I may nitpick for a second here, I wish Shout had Yuusuke's second-to-last line as "And I think that someday, that time will come for you too". It'd be more direct while still sounding great, properly reflecting the deliberate repetition of yaru toki the way MCS did with the "You can do it"/"something you need to do", which I think is a huge part of what makes the original lines so punchy. On the other hand, "people can do what seems impossible" slightly embellishes things in a way I think is to the benefit of the scene. In Japanese, Yuusuke isn't explicitly saying anything that extreme, but it's the clear implication of the conversation. Yuusuke is trying to convince Mika that she's strong enough to get through what she's dealing with, and while Shout's translation loses some of the subtlety, it's done in a way that feels considered, and shows how much attention was being payed to the story as a whole, and not just the individual lines, like a poorer translation might do.

Next we'll be taking a look at two different chunks of the massive conversations from episode 26 regarding Hiraku, and the way society treats the worries of youth. Starting with Kanzaki and the group at Pole Pole. This is where things start to get a little ugly for MCS. Some lines will diverge in glaring ways, so just know upfront that Shout's translation is more accurate unless otherwise noted.

神崎「最近の子供たちはね、昔より分かりにくくなりました」
神崎「以外なぐらい素直で」
神崎「きちんと言うことは聞いてくれる」
神崎「でも、なんというのかな…」
神崎「それぞれの差がなくなって、大人しくなったというか」
みのり「大きい子達って町で見かけると、なんとなく覚めてるみたいな気がします」
みのり「保育園ぐらいのときは、色んな顔があって、それがすごくかわいいんだけど」
桜子「本音を出さないようにしてるってとこあるんじゃないかな」
桜子「なんとなく、そういうとこ分かってるっていうか」
神崎「かもしれませんね」
神崎「もう六年生だからなのか」
神崎「まだ六年生なのに」
神崎「なのかね？」

MCS:
Kanzaki: "Children are harder to understand nowadays than they used to be."
Kanzaki: "It's a surprising fact."
Kanzaki: "They listen to what other people say but..."
Kanzaki: "How should I put it..."
Kanzaki: "They seem to be losing their childhood, and they're becoming more mature."
Minori: "Whenever I see older kids on the street, they always seem so cold."
Minori: "At the preschool, they all have different faces, and they're really cute."
Sakurako: "Maybe it's just something they bring into words."
Sakurako: "We should be able to understand that."
Kanzaki: "I suppose."
Kanzaki: "He may already be a sixth grader..."
Kanzaki: "...but he's still just a sixth grader."
Kanzaki: "Right?"

SHOUT:
Kanzaki: "Kids these days are harder to understand than they used to be."
Kanzaki: "They can be surprisingly honest"
Kanzaki: "and do a good job of listening."
Kanzaki: "But... I don't know how to put it."
Kanzaki: "It feels like there's less individuality... and that they're more docile."
Minori: "When I see older kids in town, they seem kind worn out."
Minori: "When they're in preschool, they're all so different, and cute..."
Sakurako: "Maybe they're afraid of expressing themselves."
Sakurako: "I understand where they're coming from, in that case."
Kanzaki: "That could be it."
Kanzaki: "'I'm supposed to know what to do. I'm in sixth grade already.'"
Kanzaki: "Or, 'I'm only in sixth grade, how would I know?'"
Kanzaki: "Either way."

Despite the typo where it should say "kind OF worn out", I think it's pretty obvious which of these translations is more coherent and easier to follow. Moving on to part of Yuusuke and Hiraku's conversation.

拓「ずっとここで悩んでいれば、答えが出るかな？」
雄介「出ないだろうね？」
雄介「だって、そんな簡単に出ったら、悩むことないじゃない？」
雄介「何年かかったっていいんだよ」
雄介「みんな、悩んで大きくなるんだから」
雄介「君の場所はなくならないんだし」
雄介「君が生きている限りずっと、その時いるそこが君の場所だよ」
雄介「なんてね！」
雄介「これは神崎先生の受け売り」
雄介「その場所でさ…」
雄介「自分が本当に好きだと思える自分を目指せばいいんじゃない？」
雄介「ね？」

MCS:
Hiraku: "Can you get an answer from sulking all the time?"
Yuusuke: "Of course you can't."
Yuusuke: "If the answer was that easy, there'd be no reason to sulk."
Yuusuke: "It doesn't matter how many years it takes."
Yuusuke: "Everyone grows up sulking."
Yuusuke: "Your place won't disappear."
Yuusuke: "As long as you're still alive, that time will always be your place."
Yuusuke: "As if!"
Yuusuke: "I just borrowed Mr. Kanzaki's words."
Yuusuke: "About that place of yours."
Yuusuke: "If you can just find one you really like, isn't that enough?"
Yuusuke: "Right?"

SHOUT:
Hiraku: "If I sit here and keep thinking about it, do you think I'll get an answer?"
Yuusuke: "Probably not."
Yuusuke: "I mean, if it was that easy, you wouldn't have to worry in the first place."
Yuusuke: "It doesn't matter how long it takes."
Yuusuke: "Everyone worries their way into growing up."
Yuusuke: "And you'll always have a place where you belong."
Yuusuke: "As long as you're alive, then wherever you are is where you belong."
Yuusuke: "Or something like that!"
Yuusuke: "That's what Mr. Kanzaki taught me, anyway."
Yuusuke: "And wherever you are..."
Yuusuke: "Just try to become the kind of person you would want to be."
Yuusuke: "Okay?"

The differences in this set of scenes are far less drastic, but a lot of little things come together here to seriously improve the overall way everything is conveyed. More than anything, Shout's subs actually made sure to translate Yuusuke's penultimate line, where he tells Hiraku to try becoming a version of himself he wants to be, in a way that reflects the fact the entire title of the episode, "Myself", is drawn from it. The episode's name is jibun, and that's what Yuusuke is saying there. Hiraku's whole problem is that he's losing his sense of identity. It's not a coincidence, and once again, I appreciate how Shout's subs pay attention to these things. It's both more accurate, and better sounding. There are loads of individual little bits I like that I could single out. How "Everyone worries their way into growing up" gets across much more clearly that Yuusuke is directly implying that worrying is what allows people to grow up, matching the message of the episode. Or even just how he says "probably" not. "Of course you can't" simply doesn't match the specific tone Yuusuke is taking with Hiraku here that makes him such a great guy to give speeches. Yuusuke basically admitting he doesn't know for sure either, he's putting himself on Hiraku's level there. He speaks to him as much like a peer as he does a child he's trying to help, and he also is never needlessly blunt. All around, Shout's translation does a significantly improved job conveying that, and I give them extra props for how they handled Yuusuke's use of nante ne! here. That's one of those stock Japanese phrases that can immediately destroy any attempt at a good translation with how deceptively tricky it is if you aren't careful, and that's exactly what happened to MCS here. The phrase is often used to sarcastically walk a statement back, which is why, like MCS did here, you'll often see it rendered as things like "As if!", or "Just kidding!". The problem with doing that here is that Yuusuke was dead serious about what he just said. The use of the phrase in this scene lacks that sarcasm, and is more about Yuusuke simply clarifying those words aren't his own, a point thankfully still made clear by the line immediately following, but, again, Shout's professionalism shines through with this one.

Now for an exchange between Chouno and Tsubaki about Yuusuke from episode 30 that I feel particularly lost something in MCS' version.

蝶野「あいつだ」
蝶野「4号のあいつがとっとと未確認をやっつけてれば今頃…」
蝶野「どうせあの調子でヘラヘラしてやがったんだ」
椿「本当にそう思うか？」
椿「あいつがただ、ヘラヘラしてる奴だと思うか？」
蝶野「だってそうだろう！」
蝶野「4号とか言われてどんどん強くなって、未確認をやつけて…」
蝶野「何やっても上手く行きゃ、誰だってあんな風に、明るくなれるさ！」
蝶野「俺は何やったって上手く行かない」
蝶野「ずっとそうなんだ」
蝶野「動力だってした」
蝶野「目一杯やった」
蝶野「でも結局こうなんだ」
蝶野「あの時23号に殺されちまえば良かったよな」
椿「いい加減にしろ！」
椿「お前はやっぱり何でも人のせいにして逃げてる最低な奴だ！」
椿「こんな絵捨てちまえよ！」
椿「甘ちゃんなんだよ！」

MCS:
Chouno: "That guy..."
Chouno: "If #4 could just completely get rid of the Unidentified Life Forms, things would be different."
Chouno: "Anyway, what he said about enjoying life was total nonsense."
Tsubaki: "Do you really think so?"
Tsubaki: "Do you think he's just some guy who spouts nonsense?"
Chouno: "But it's true!"
Chouno: "No.4 keeps getting stronger in order to fight the Unidentified Life Forms!"
Chouno: "If everything would go as easy for me as it does for him, I'd be a very happy person!"
Chouno: "It seems like everything I do is wrong."
Chouno: "It's always been this way."
Chouno: "I work hard."
Chouno: "I give it my all."
Chouno: "But it always ends up like this."
Chouno: "It would've been better if #23 had just killed me that time."
Tsubaki: "Stop it already!"
Tsubaki: "You keep blaming everything on other people and you keep running away! You're the worst kind of person!"
Tsubaki: "Just throw this away!"
Tsubaki: "Stop acting like a spoiled brat!"

SHOUT:
Chouno: "It's his fault."
Chouno: "If Number Four had gotten rid of the damned Unidentified faster, maybe I'd..."
Chouno: "I bet he was grinning like a dumbass, as usual."
Tsubaki: "Is that what you really think?"
Tsubaki: "That this is some walk in the park for him?"
Chouno: "Well, isn't it?!"
Chouno: "He gets a nickname like Number Four, gets stronger, kills off the Unidentified..."
Chouno: "Anyone could be as cheery as he is if they had his kind of luck!"
Chouno: "But nothing works out for me, no matter what I do."
Chouno: "It's always been that way."
Chouno: "It's not like I haven't tried."
Chouno: "I've tried as much as I can."
Chouno: "And you see what I get for it?"
Chouno: "I'd be better off if 23 had killed me."
Tsubaki: "I've had enough of you!"
Tsubaki: "You're just a piece of trash who blames everything on other people!"
Tsubaki: "You might as well throw this out!"
Tsubaki: "Because you're nothing but a brat!"

At this point Chouno punches Tsubaki in the face, and after Kuuga begins fighting, the scene cuts back to let Tsubaki make his final statements.

椿「俺を殴ってどんな気がした？」
椿「嫌な気がしただろう」
椿「それをあいつはずっとやってるんだよ」
椿「体が自分のものじゃなくなるかもしれないっていう恐怖の中で」
椿「弱音も吐かず」
椿「皆の笑顔を守るためにな」

MCS:
Tsubaki: "How did hitting me make you feel?"
Tsubaki: "It felt bad, right?"
Tsubaki: "Even so, that guy is always doing the same."
Tsubaki: "Even if he's afraid that his body may turn into something he can't control."
Tsubaki: "He doesn't complain."
Tsubaki: "Because it's to protect everyone's smile."

SHOUT:
Tsubaki: "How did it feel to hit me?"
Tsubaki: "Felt bad, didn't it?"
Tsubaki: "Now think about how much he's been doing it."
Tsubaki: "He has to worry about his own body turning against him..."
Tsubaki: "But he never complains."
Tsubaki: "And he does it all to keep the rest of us smiling."

I think this one largely speaks for itself. The main difference here comes right at the start, where MCS missed the entire point of what Chouno was complaining about, which changes the context for the conversation a fair bit. What he's questioning isn't the validity of Yuusuke's ideals, but how little Chouno believes Yuusuke has to endure hardship. He doesn't make any direct reference to Yuusuke's words from their meeting in episode 14 (hence the awkward and disjointed "anyway"), because what he's talking about is much more broad than that. Chouno's whole line of thought here, which is very revealing of the kind of worldview he has, is that the only way someone could be happy, in his mind, is if they never had to put up with anything bad. It's the mentality that leads to Tsubaki calling him a brat. He doesn't ever stop to consider that the difference between him and Yuusuke might not be in what they've had to deal with, but in how they each chose to respond to it. Thankfully, the majority of the conversation is still more or less on the right subject in both versions, but even then, Shout's take on it is significantly easier to process. I also consider the use of the idiom "walk in the park" here a major indicator of the quality. That's not a phrase that exists in Japanese, and thus is not what Tsubaki is saying (more directly, he's just repeating the thing about grinning), but it's what Tsubaki is saying, you know? It's a very good spot to bust out some figurative language!

Here, we have a quick bit from episode 40 where Yuusuke admits how much he lost it during the battle against Jaraji.

雄介「じゃあやっぱり俺、なりかけたんだ。凄まじき戦士に」
一条「なんだって？」
雄介「４２号の事件の時、」
雄介「あの高校生の子たち、いつ死ぬのか凄く怯えてて、」
雄介「そのために、自殺した子まで出ましたよね」
雄介「それまでにも、助けられなかった人はいっぱいいるけど…」
雄介「なんか、そういうのも重なったのかな？」
雄介「理屈じゃなくもう、なんか凄く４２号が憎くなって、」
雄介「ものすごい力が湧いて、」
雄介「一瞬、赤の金の力まで、使おうか、って思ったんです」
雄介「一条さんや、杉田さんたちが、そばにいるのに」

MCS:
Yuusuke: "Then that means I'll become a fearsome warrior."
Ichijou: "What do you mean by that?"
Yuusuke: "During the No.42 incident,"
Yuusuke: "those high school students were afraid"
Yuusuke: "of their impending deaths and some of them"
Yuusuke: "even tried to commit suicide."
Yuusuke: "Up to now, there have been many people I couldn't save."
Yuusuke: "I felt all that accumulated hatred"
Yuusuke: "rising up inside of me."
Yuusuke: "I hated No.42 so much that"
Yuusuke: "a powerful strength erupted inside of me."
Yuusuke: "For a split second,"
Yuusuke: "I felt like using"
Yuusuke: "red's golden power."
Yuusuke: "But Mr. Ichijou and Mr. Sugita"
Yuusuke: "were with me so I didn't."

SHOUT:
Yuusuke: "In that case, I think I almost became this fearsome warrior."
Ichijou: "Wait, what?"
Yuusuke: "During the case with ULF 42,"
Yuusuke: "those school kids were being terrorized with attacks."
Yuusuke: "One of them even committed suicide."
Yuusuke: "There were people I couldn't save before, but somehow..."
Yuusuke: "Maybe it was just everything stacking up over time?"
Yuusuke: "It stopped being a rational thing. I just started hating ULF 42 so much..."
Yuusuke: "And there was this burst of power."
Yuusuke: "For one second, I considered using the gold power when red."
Yuusuke: "Even though Ichijo, Sugita, and the others would've been caught in the blast."

I should probably mention that since episode 40 is one of the ones MCS never got around to updating before the official release, the lines are all extremely broken up, which I think was something of a recurring issue with their original versions, although I don't remember too well at this point. This obsessive attempt to match partial English lines to partial Japanese lines is probably what resulted in everything sounding so heavily stilted. Shout's translation does a seriously impressive job of making everyone sound more human in general, but in a scene like this, that forms such a major emotional core of the story being told, that quality is truly appreciated. I probably don't need to really say anything about this one either, but, you know, it's the little things too. Getting the tense right on that first line ("almost became" vs. "I'll become"), correctly remembering the specific, single student from episodes 34/35 who really did commit suicide (it wasn't just an attempt), or the addition of specifically saying everyone would've been "caught in the blast" if Yuusuke had went through with using Rising Mighty, which is what he means, but the original dialogue is simply stating that he didn't because they were there, with it being left up to the viewer to fill in the obvious reason why. Once again, it's an embellishment that proves how much care was being taken with the translation, and one that results in a smoother sounding line that more clearly makes its point.

Finally, there's nothing else I could leave off on besides the very exchange from episode 43 that inadvertently led to this thread's creation, thanks to Die getting so confused by it in his thread, he put out an active call for someone to explain what was happening, which led to me rewatching that episode, which led to me rewatching a few more episodes, which led to... well, you get the idea. For context, this is the scene from the end of the episode where Mika explains to Yuusuke how afraid she was seeing Ichijou subdue a criminal at her flute competition.

実加「怖かったんです、凄く」
実加「その前に笑った顔の一条さん見てたから、」
実加「多分余計に」
雄介「そうか」
実加「なんか、同じ人じゃないみたいで」
雄介「でも、本当の一条さんだよ」
雄介「そういう一条さんもいるんだ」
雄介「怖くて嫌だけど、」
雄介「どうしようもなくいっちゃうんだ」
雄介「でもさ、笑った顔も本当の一条さんだから」

MCS:
Mika: "I was afraid. Extremely."
Mika: "I saw Mr. Ichijou's laughing face earlier but"
Mika: "it's probably something he doesn't need."
Yuusuke: "Really?"
Mika: "For some reason, it feels like it's not the same person."
Yuusuke: "But it was the real Mr. Ichijou."
Yuusuke: "If that kind of Mr. Ichijou is here,"
Yuusuke: "even though I'm afraid"
Yuusuke: "I won't ever go."
Yuusuke: "But you know."
Yuusuke: "The real Mr. Ichijou has a laughing face too."

SHOUT:
Mika: "I was so scared."
Mika: "I think... because I saw how he smiled before..."
Mika: "That made it worse."
Yuusuke: "I see."
Mika: "It was like he was a different person."
Yuusuke: "But it really was him."
Yuusuke: "There's a part of him like that, too."
Yuusuke: "It might be scary and unpleasant,"
Yuusuke: "but there are times when that kind of thing happens."
Yuusuke: "But the smiling face you saw? That's him, too."

Yeah suffice it to say, Die probably wouldn't have been having those problems if he had just waited a few months to watch Kuuga! MCS' translation of this scene is not great, to put it mildly. It would take a long time to really get into it, and I'm terrible at explaining these things in detail, but, basically, the parts that strayed competely away from the real meaning were the result of misinterpretations caused by a few problematic words like yokei ("That made it worse"/"something he doesn't need") and icchaun ("that kind of thing happens"/"I won't ever go"). It's a thing that happens a lot in fansubbing done by ear, which is the need to bascially play fill-in-the-blank with bits of sentences you either can't make out or can't understand. In MCS' defense, well, like Yuusuke said: that kind of thing happens. The end results are still unfortunate all the same though, and that's why it was such a breath of fresh air seeing Shout's take on it for the first time. It's clean. It's easy to read. The lines flow and connect. It sounds like normal people just having a conversation, and the underlying meaning of that conversation is easily deduced. It's basically everything a good translation should strive to be.

And that's really the whole story with Shout's subs for Kuuga. They're very clearly a labor of love, and I'm really happy I got to do a post about translation errors in such a chilled out fashion. Instead of getting to bemoan how much better we could have it, I get to revel in the fact that we actually DO have it way better now. So far, the only notable mistake I've found from Shout, which is something MCS did actually get right, is a scene from the finale where their translator(s) misheard a や　as a は, resulting in Pops incorrectly attributing Yuusuke's father's letters to Yuusuke himself. It's a bummer, especially for a scene in the last episode, but man, compared to all the things that have been fixed, I just can't even be upset about it. I showed you a bunch of monologues, but there are so many little individual lines throughout the show that have been cleaned up significantly too. And despite that mistake I mentioned, a lot of the stuff that isn't technically 100% accurate is generally changed in ways that are extremely thoughtful and considered, as I've shown here. Again, it's a labor of love, and just to prove it, TokuSHOUTsu's YouTube page has uploaded yet another clip from Kuuga since the last time I mentioned it. It literally has no dialogue whatsoever, and thus no subs, but like, who needs words when you've got a beetle guy on a motorcycle chasing after a grasshopper guy also on a motorcycle? Yeah, the storytelling is great and everything, which I've talked about plenty already, but this is exactly how you should be selling people on Kuuga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syhh69vloss

I'm about halfway through the Shout Subs right now, and yeah, they're really well done for the most part. Really hoping we get a DVD release with some extras in the near future, especially since they said home releases will depend on how well TokuShoutsu does.

Sorry for the double post but I legit did not see this part until now, having reread the last few pages.

My offer was 100% serious. I actually have some spare Kuuga figuarts of Titan, Dragon, and Pegasus Forms if you want them. Wanna free up some room in my collection. They're actually rather good figures despite their age!

So if you're interested, PM me.

Yo, so, another bump, but I couldn't think of a more appropriate topic to bring this up in. This guy right here? He actually got to be a guest on the latest episode of "Let's Talk Toku."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNdGtgAet0k

And it's honestly a really adorable episode. He gives a little bit more context into how Kuuga inspired him to start his business and expand more into Toku in general. And as the episode goes it basically devolves into two fellow nerds bonding over various aspects of the genre, and really, isn't that part of the reason we're all here?

It further reinforces just how influential Kuuga was when it came out, and the effects it had onto today. Heck, even speaking for myself, if not for Kuuga, I would've given up on the KR franchise a long time ago.

That said, he does note his business is of course struggling due to the current pandemic, and he's opened up the ability to offer donations. I went ahead and sent him some spare cash myself, and I gotta say, since the last time I hecked his store out, he's really expanded his inventory! So by all means, check him out if you want some diverse Toku merch.

Well, there's definitely always a place in this thread for people being very passionate about tokusatsu. Thanks for sharing that video! It's really cute to see two people an ocean apart being brought together by the things they love, if you'll forgive me getting a bit saccharine.

...which anyone who read through this thread has probably done already, so I guess I'm fine. :p

And while we're on the subject of TokuSHOUTsu, I might as well bring this thread totally full circle and share the complete first episode they uploaded to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8evFEHuH-s

It's still really baffling and amazing I'm living in the world where I can say "hey, check out this officially licensed and subtitled YouTube upload of Kuuga", by the way!

Something I've been thinking about today and I'm curious about your opinion on.

So, of course; a big thing about Kuuga is its message of non-violence, which it partly achieves through its framing of Kuuga itself being a terrible curse, especially for someone like Godai. Like, the power of terrible unstoppable violence being 'gifted' to someone who just wants to bring smiles to everyone is... it's obvious what they're going for there! And while it's not like it's driving him insane it's of course having a huge mental effect on the guy.

... yyyet as noted, to Kazari's constant misinterpretation; Godai also has a fixation on how cool Kuuga is and makes light of it while also being proud of it; his names being fun and simple like "purple Kuuga" while he also goes about printing Kuuga's symbol on everything.

You got an opinion on this duality? Because it's hitting me like a ton of bricks right now

I think both of us have actually covered this a bit already!

Basically, the way I see it, he values the good he can do as Kuuga, thus the pride, but that's not the same thing as valuing the experience of being Kuuga, if that makes any sense. It's a tricky balancing act, but I don't think these two things are at odds with each other, especially when, as I also mentioned a few times, the show's message is less about bluntly saying violence is bad, and more about asking people to consider the real weight of making those kinds of decisions.

There's also a bit from Document of Kuuga where Arakawa, talking about these exact themes, sums Yuusuke's attitude up as perfectly as only the show's head writer could:

"I don't believe he ever thinks things like 'why do I have to fight!?' He fights because he believes he should; it's just that he plain feels it's unpleasant, and that feeling is something he holds dear."

It's funny that this comes up right after I finished rewatching SSSS.Gridman, because it has a line I also feels sums it up pretty well.

"It's something only I can do; Something I must do!"

We all have things in life that, even though we might not like it, we have to do it in order to keep life, whether it be ours or others, going forward. And unfortunately for Yusuke, only he can properly deal with the Grongi, so he tries his best to make the most positives out of being Kuuga that he possibly can, despite his distaste for violence.

Hey again, and happy holidays! It's been most of a year since I "finished" up this thread, and while I gather a lot of that year has been about as much fun for people as getting thrown off a building by a grasshopper, poisoned by a mushroom, stabbed by a porcupine, or... well, most of what Yuusuke put up with on a weekly basis, I can only hope it wasn't without its brighter spots as well.

For me, one of the brightest was getting to share my love for Kuuga with everyone in here. It went over far better than I could have ever expected, and I'm still eternally grateful to everybody who felt my passionate ramblings were worth their time, whether you were eagerly contributing your own thoughts, or simply reading along as this little journey unfolded.

And as I mentioned some months ago, it's not exactly done unfolding quite yet. I figure there's no better time than now to do a big blowout of all those odds and ends I haven't yet touched. A perfect way to send off the old year and greet the next with renewed vigor. Oh, and speaking of which, you'll never guess what's up first on the docket!

New Year Special

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

See, one of the reasons I deliberately put this off for a while was because I thought it'd only be fair to give this special the extra context it deserves. Far from simply another clip show, this beast of an event is THE clip show for Kuuga, bridging together reruns of episodes 17 and 31 with short new scenes that lead into the entirely new (well, "new") episode 46.5, "Hatsuyume". That title literally means "first dream", but is more specifically a term in Japanese culture referring to a person's first dream of the new year, which is by tradition thought to signify their luck for that year.

More important than the title right now is that number. At the risk of stating the obvious, this special aired on the 2nd of January, 2001, a few days after episode 46, and a few before 47 would kick off the series' final trilogy. What this means is that, with episode 17 revisiting 1-16, 31 recounting 18-30, and now 46.5 retelling 32-46, the New Year Special summarizes the entirety of Kuuga's run in the year 2000. I know clip shows are inherently unexciting, but put like that, I honestly find this thing sort of awesome. I can easily imagine myself as some kid back in the day, when the home video releases had only barely started, being genuinely psyched to sit down and just bask in all the show's condensed glory for a few hours. I mean, this is so much Kuuga you guys! And all in one convenient package!

Am I making this sound interesting at all? I wouldn't blame you if this still seems on a similar level of fun to filing taxes or something, but that's where the aforementioned extra context comes in for me. Trying to watch this during the middle of a binge-watch of the entire series in the span of one or two months, yeah, that's going to be a little rough, and this isn't something that left an impression on me the first time around because of that. But by giving it some distance, it became to me what it was always meant to be: a neat way to revisit a lot of old memories in a truncated span of time.

Especially trying to put it fully back in the exact context of how it aired, it's actually a shockingly thorough way to catch yourself up on Kuuga before it all ends in a month. Breaking it down, you've got good old "Preparation" kicking things off, which, as I mentioned back when I covered it, does a fantastic job quickly establishing the premise and world of the series in a mostly no-frills manner. I called it a "video encyclopedia" before, and I can't think of any better way to put it. It probably won't make your heart pound, but it's dang good at being informative. Following that is "Retaliation", which I was a tiny bit harder on, but the informative bits are still informative, and, removed from the expectation of meaningfully advancing an overarching plot, the proper new scenes in it are all good glimpses into each of the show's main three corners of Yuusuke, the police, and the Grongi.

One brand new version of the ending sequence later, and we're finally at 46.5 proper, which was written by the always enigmatic Kiyoshi Takenaka like 31, and as a fun piece of trivia here, what little new material there is was directed by Kouichi Kotou, the director for Kuuga's opening and ending sequences. He was a little tricky for me to find information on too, but at least where Kamen Rider is concerned, I can tell you he also directed Blade's second opening, as well as Hibiki's first OP/ED combo. He also seems to occasionally be credited as Kouichi Kotou IV for reasons I'm not clear on (I figure if it was the obvious one, it'd be consistent?), but I'm sure there's a interesting story behind that somewhere out there.

Focusing back on Kuuga, 46.5 has a unique style compared to the other two episodes, being longer in length, and focusing on essentially being true digest versions of the arcs that had happened since 31. The new scenes bridging the recap sections are kept brief, the structure is totally linear, and narration is used sparingly, only when it helps make transitions between clips smoother. Despite this arguably meaning it has even less effort put into the production, I think there's something to be said for how, unlike the other two clip shows, it has room to give you more than simply the cold facts of the events of the series. Scenes like Yuusuke witnessing a news report on Jaraji's victims in 35 and his subsequent vicious beating of him in the climax are in here largely uninterrupted and uncut, which is good, because material this emotionally impactful speaks for itself. Again, if I had only watched those episodes last week, it's like "who cares?", but I hadn't, and it was cool being reminded that the episodes in the last third of Kuuga are all so utterly fantastic.

Despite naturally leaning into a heavier atmosphere as it progresses, things wrap up in a lighthearted fashion, with Yuusuke's series of increasingly odd encounters with some of the show's side characters culminating in no less than the actors for Garima, Gooma, Biran, Zain, and Garume showing up at Pole Pole to get some of Yuusuke's special curry. I uh, trust you all still remember these names. Now, five Grongi showing up for a bite would ordinarily be bad news, most of all when one of them is a piranha, but this is just a silly scene to leave off on, so they honestly are just enthusiastic about getting their curry. Not that it matters when Yuusuke wakes up in the next scene, and suddenly the meaning of the title becomes clear.

Whether this means good luck or bad luck for Yuusuke, I have no clue, but I'm entirely sure that it's a cute way to end a special I'm honestly shocked I managed to go on about this long. I almost feel like I should apologize, much like the jokers who decided to make the sponsor screens of this thing feature Amazing Mighty when there still wasn't any merch of it in sight. It's a very Kuuga move to have the segment of the show dedicated to reminding viewers of its commercial nature feature just about the only thing from it that had yet to be commercialized. You can really tell this was a series on top of the world at that point, and that's probably how an oddball special like this happened in the first place. It's as much a celebration of the show's success as it is the holiday. Who wouldn't want to ring in the new year with the hottest hero on Japanese televisions, right? Heck, I had so much fun with this, I wouldn't mind even more low-budget recapping! And good thing, too...

Super Secret Video

https://i.imgur.com/BGzA8YAl.png

This sure is more low-budget recapping alright! Well, that's not entirely fair. It's about 70% recapping, and 30% a token fight scene. The title hadn't exactly been settled yet, but this is the obligatory Hyper Battle Video distributed by major Japanese kids' magazine Televi-Kun each year. Although it was less obligatory when it came out, seeing as it's the very first of its kind, making this yet another Rider tradition that got its start with Kuuga.

That start was far from ambitious, however. It's so light on story that Kiyoshi Takenaka is credited with "composition" instead of writing, which can't help but sound to me like a subtle insult. This video wasn't written, it was assembled. And on the subject of staff trivia (my favorite part of talking about clip shows, apparently!), the director is Nobuhiro Suzumura, who does a solid job on the big fight, while the music was handled by Kazunori Miyake, who would go on to do Blade's BGM. It's an interesting mix where even though the music patterns itself after Sahashi's work on the series proper, you can hear those little bits of Blade's style poking through at points.

Summarizing the plot will take no time at all: Yuusuke looks through Pops' scrapbook about Unidentified Lifeform #4 and reminisces about his adventures, then gets a phone call and rides off to a warehouse to fight a new Grongi. The clip show aspect is very much focused on what toys were available in stores at the time, and thus there isn't much to say about it. The fight, on the other hand, is pretty cool, for what it is. Go-Jiino-Da is a boar-themed Grongi exclusive to this video, which was naturally a huge selling point. I've heard his suit did later get modified into Baberu's, but while they have similar builds, I don't actually see a lot of obvious identical details, so it must've been a thorough job if that's the case.

Ultimately, though, Jiino is just a big angry guy who fights Kuuga and dies, and that's about all to be said about him. Remember, there's no writer. It's up to the way the fight is shot to make it fun, and it does that adequately with some ominous dramatic lighting and slick camera movements. It's clear Suzumura had the talent to tackle the bigger projects he'd eventually be given. Jiino has the somewhat dubious honor of being the only one of the high-ranking Go to get taken out by a basic Mighty Kick, and afterwards, things wrap up by having Kuuga stand up to reveal Rising Mighty Form, which this whole video essentially exists to promote, being released somewhere around when it was the hot new thing in the series. It's maybe not the best ad, given it's just one shot of it standing in more dramatic lighting? It's downright hilarious if you take it entirely literally, too, and assume Yuusuke decided to break out the golden power after defeating the monster for absolutely no reason whatsoever, rather than taking it as part of the music video of old clips set to the theme song that closes the whole thing out. Overall, it's an amusing glimpse into what Kuuga would look like as a much more shallow toku show, but on the same token, it doesn't exactly capture what makes Kuuga special, you know? But if we wanna talk about special...

Special Edition

https://i.imgur.com/9WKCLrbl.png

Now things are really coming full circle.

The Special Edition of Kuuga was essentially a director's cut style re-edited compilation of the first two episodes of the show, released well into Agito's run, while Kuuga was still in the process of coming out on VHS and DVD. I say it's in the style of a director's cut because the amount of work that went into it was more elaborate than simply inserting new and extended scenes.

One of the absolute most interesting things about it to me is that it's the singular piece of Kuuga media to be in HD. I'm far from the best person to explain all the technical details here, but Kuuga was actually filmed entirely on a then state-of-the-art, prototype HD digital camera, only to be broadcast exclusively in SD, what with it being the year 2000 and everything. The problem here is that Kuuga was filmed in HD, and only filmed. All the post-production work on the raw footage was done in SD too, which means that unfortunately, Toei can't release a high resolution version of the entire show without doing all that work again. This sort of thing is far from uncommon for shows from around this time. (The process of remastering old TV shows is a topic worth looking into from sources more informed than me.) As such, even the Blu-ray releases of Kuuga are merely upscaled from the original SD footage, which people passionate about this topic will tell you is "not ideal", if they're feeling diplomatic. Thanks to the Special Edition deciding to touch up the effects, however, we do at least have this one glorious glimpse into what a slightly crisper Kuuga would look like, and even as someone who doesn't get too hung up on video quality (this paragraph doesn't even mention hard numbers), the difference between before and after is noticeable. For that novelty alone, I'm glad this exists.

The bulk of the real changes, on the other hand, I feel somewhat ambivalent towards. The few new scenes and many extended cuts of existing ones serve mostly to make me appreciate how good the editing for the original episodes actually was. Like many director's cuts, it's insubstantial fluff, wisely removed from the final product, put back in for the sake of hardcore fans looking for that little bit more. It's not meant to improve the cut you saw on TV, because that already was the improved version. Additional dialogue mostly elaborates on unimportant details, such as Sakurako informing us that Yuusuke actually ate a huge steak prior to passing out in that diner at the start of episode 2. The most interesting new bit is definitely the revelation that Ichijou took the rifle he uses in the church without permission, which I'll have more to say about in a while. The different edit naturally means the music is changed around, and while there's nothing wrong with the way the tracks are switched up, I'm definitely partial to the TV version's choices. The ending of episode 1 in particular loses something without that triumphant score, in my opinion.

There are also quite a lot of retroactive changes that I think are serving a few different purposes. The fuzzy static overlay effect from the show's first scene is gone entirely, for instance, perhaps losing some of the mysterious vibe, but gaining the ability to emphasize that sweet new resolution, which is certainly an understandable call to make. All around, it's evident the goal here was to be a supplement, and not a replacement. A lot of the Grongi dialogue is changed up, for instance, which wouldn't even be noticed by most viewers, and the replaced dialogue rarely offers any interesting revelations. It's stuff like Gumun going from observing Growing Form's small horns on TV to noticing its white coloration here. Gumun also has a new voice actor for whatever reason, as does Daguva for a very particular one. Since this was made after the show ended, his eventual human form's actor Kenji Urai dubs over the original growly monster voice from the premiere. This makes sense, but it's more than a bit weird hearing those youthful tones coming out of Daguva's initial hairy caveman form. It doesn't really succeed at making the series more cohesive, but I also don't think that was the mission here. Again, it's all about the novelty factor, and while I won't be going over every last change in detail, it is a lot of fun to spot the differences and see how the versions compare.

More than any of that, though, I think it's just a lot of fun to watch Kuuga again.

https://i.imgur.com/Iuv6sK3l.png

It's funny, because I made this whole thread, have watched the entire series twice, have probably seen these first two episodes in whole at least a half-dozen times between both versions, and yet, the whole time I was watching the Special Edition again to write about it here, I was noticing all these details I never thought about before. All these extra bits of cohesion to the story that go towards proving how thoroughly Kuuga was thought out. And even beyond that, I look back at the post I did about these episodes, and I'm struck by how much more I could've talked about. So you know what? Let's do that right now!

Take the iconic transformation into Mighty Form, for instance. There are so many more layers going on there than I originally covered. Some of that was out of a concern for pacing, but some of it was downright neglectful of me. Like, did I seriously go this entire thread without once mentioning what a bold stylistic choice it was at the time to not use stock footage for Kuuga's transformations? I guess I must've been taking it for granted now that it's standard procedure for Rider, but as laughable as that CG probably looks to modern eyes, I don't think there was a lot of, if any, precedent for making a hero tokusatsu that way in 2000. On top of being easy on the budget, stock footage is legitimately part of the identity of the genre. It's something the viewer wants to see each week, but Kuuga, as was its way, showed everyone a fresh new approach, and that's why the early episodes in particular put so much effort into the way the transformations were integrated into the scene, with the armor forming bit by bit. There are also cool bits of trivia like how the pose was the first in Rider history to deliberately match up with how the DX toy functioned, hence why Yuusuke presses on the side of the belt where the toy's switch is.

There's also one thing about the pose I noticed this time that I'm shocked I never picked up on before. Kuuga was all about realism, right? But then Yuusuke still feels the need to do a dramatic pose when he transforms. Where did he even learn that from? I always figured it was just a concession to toku tradition, but the show does give a very clear justification for this: Yuusuke sees the original Kuuga doing that exact pose to transform in the visions the belt shows him. I don't think I ever registered the significance of that before. It's actually less clear in the Special Edition, too, with that footage being placed before Yuusuke's first transformation. On TV, it happens in episode 2, directly after Ichijou tells him not to get involved if he isn't serious, and directly before Yuusuke tells Sakurako he thinks Kuuga is supposed to be red. Hey, and speaking of the name Kuuga, I always thought it was kind of goofy Yuusuke picks that one word out from Gooma's dialogue to use as his name, too. What if that was some horrible insult or like, a preposition or something? But no, sure enough, there's a clear, plausible explanation presented, which is that the video of Daguva waking up Yuusuke and Sakurako are shown by Ichijou prominently featured him holding the belt in the air and saying "Kuuga", so Yuusuke probably put two and two together after hearing it again that the word relates to the belt and the person using it.

It's airtight, man, and I feel like there's all these things staring me in the face with this show that pass me by. That sci-fi earpiece I called out from Yuusuke's transformation in episode 27? Visible as early as the first episode. That other guy who worked on constructing all the Linto/Grongi culture for the series along with Murayama? None other than Shinji Ooishi, who Takatera would go on to have handle the script writing on Hibiki when he was producing that show later down the line. It boggles my mind how much I can think I know about Kuuga and yet never stop finding out more. And it doesn't just end with the trivia. Take that bit with Ichijou "borrowing" the rifle I mentioned up above, for instance. Totally recontextualized Ichijou's behavior in that second episode for me. It might seem like his character hadn't settled in yet with how aggressive he can be in places, but really, I think it's all as in-character as it gets for him. He bends the rules in episodes after this, he tells people his injuries are nothing serious when they most definitely are, he even continues not wanting Yuusuke to be involved with the fighting. He's just more cranky about all of it here because he's struggling to process the idea there could ever be a threat to the people the police can't handle. So if anything, he's probably more frustrated with himself than Yuusuke. Of course he'd drive right out to that church with the biggest gun he can get his hands on, because he's getting desperate to prove Yuusuke's help isn't necessary, a stance we see him grow out of in the following episodes.

It's one of my favorite things in a story, which is when it's simple, clean, and straightforward on the surface, but has more and more substance the more you dig into it. And the reason that's one of my favorite things is because it means the story only gets better the more times you go back through it. Because you'll pick up on those extra bits of significance. The weight behind each action, or all the layers a single moment can have. A show like Kuuga is endlessly fun to watch and discuss, and I think it's because that's the case that you can be reading this right now. And lucky for me, I even have one last episode to talk about...

EPISODE 50

https://i.imgur.com/InTCq4Kl.png

Just when it seemed like the fighting was over, Ichijou and Yuusuke have both been called back into action after receiving scripts for a fiftieth episode of Kamen Rider Kuuga. Only one problem: the scripts are almost totally blank, because Arakawa is running behind schedule... again. Yuusuke remarks on how inconvenient that is for them, and as he does so, Arakawa's writing credit fades out, only to be replaced by the word "sorry". You might think this is only aimed at our heroes, but I know better; I know that this was Arakawa's way of apologizing to the audience, for having written what may well be the single most esoteric Rider production of all time.

It's hard to even talk about this one, because going into any detail will invariably involve trying to decode all the in-jokes it was loaded up with. I don't even feel comfortable trying to explain the meaning(s) of the title, hence it's absence up above. Episode 50 of Kuuga was a product of pure unbridled passion, put together by the crew on their spare time, simply because they loved working on the show that much. It feels like some dumb amateur film somebody made for their own amusement without any consideration to the idea that there would ever be an audience watching it. Actually, considering the "on their spare time" part meaning nobody got paid for this (I think, anyway), that description might just be 100% accurate.

Going back to this knowing enough about Kuuga to comprehend a decent chunk of it was absurdly delightful. I'll go ahead and describe an easy example to give everyone an idea what I'm talking about. The joke leading into the truncated opening is that the camera starts dramatically spinning around Yuusuke and Ichijou so closely it's practically up their noses, and then once the opening ends, it's still the exact same shot, before abruptly transitioning to one from an extreme distance that makes the duo barely visible, confirming Ichijou's suspicions about who's responsible for this overly intense and unorthodox cinematography. An instant later, "Director: Hidenori Ishida" gently fades onto the screen.

Anyone who's followed along with this thread should have the context to understand why that's hilarious, and the exaggerated parodies of all the directors who worked on the show that make up the bulk of the runtime are similarly on-point. It's great stuff, and even though I had to go looking up explanations for most of the jokes not related to directing, the whole thing is filled with this kind of self-deprecating meta-humor. I'm honestly in awe of how much was packed into a scant nine minutes. There's a brief tease at the end for the Kuuga movie that was never meant to be, which is probably how the staff managed to justify releasing this for public consumption, but it's so obvious that's not why this exists. Episode 50 exists to be a pure celebration of a job well done, and it really feels like a great sendoff for the series in a weird way.

At the very least, it's a great to way to send off this thread, because working my way back here and finding myself able to laugh along at so many of the gags in a way I never would've been able to years ago, it put into focus for me how glad I was to be doing all of this in the first place. How, even if it was just a little, I'd grown in the process. If I said anything about Kuuga that sounded smart or informed or whatever else, I don't think I could've said it before making that decision to dig so deep into the show, not only watching it again, but writing about it and looking a bit into the production history and all these other things. Giving people a greater appreciation and understanding of everything the show did was one of my hopes, but I didn't realize at first that I'd get to be part of that myself. This may be more or less the end of the thread, but at this point, I don't think I'll ever truly be done talking about Kuuga. It's a genuinely exceptional series unlike any other, and when I think of all the great memories it's still going to be making not just for me, but for all the other fans who will either discover or rediscover it in the future?

I have to say, it puts a smile on my face.

https://i.imgur.com/De7iuZr.png

I don't have anything to say about the episodes itself; mostly because the only one I've seen is a hazy recollection of the clip show where I actually just skipped through every clip (which. I NEVER do, actually; why did I do that?), and it took me a few minutes to get that the people at the store were supposed to be the grongi. So I'll just say this -- waking up to see you rambling on about Kuuga again in an interesting meaningful way, with all the love you put into each word the way the show does with each scene; it's a real treat for Christmas Morning. Happy Kuuga :)

Yeah, boy, what a delightful Christmas morning treat! I love getting to read such thoughtful and exhaustive coverage of Kuuga. (Especially Episode 50! I really really really didn't know what was going on in that one, and my previous takeaway was At Least They Had Fun Making It.) I don't see any good reason, based on that look at Special Edition, why this thread can't just segue into Fish Sandwich rerewatches Kamen Rider Kuuga in 2021.

As always, thank you for setting the gold(en power) standard for Kamen Rider discourse on these boards. Merry Christmas!

I can't really think of anything to add that you haven't covered already, so I'll just go with something superfluous like I usually do:

Should Shout Factory ever release a DVD/Blu-Ray set of this show, I can only hope that all of this bonus stuff is included. I feel they're all a really important aspect of the show and it'd be a shame to go without them.

Merry Ridermas!

It has been something that's been weighing on my mind when it comes to other series: how does licensing for those kinds of little things work? I imagine it'd be a simple and typical enough deal to license the series itself and any associated big movies (well, not 'easy', but you know) but for instance... I feel like any release of 555 would be criminally incomplete without the HBV, but how does the licensing and legal rights to that work? Do Toei even still OWN the original reels and footage of a DVD-exclusive half-clip show for a show from 17 years ago? And then of course, you've got this stuff which is even more minor. How do director's cuts figure into all this? Heck, how would OOO's final episode director's cut?

I'd assume that any work produced by Toei, featuring characters they retain the ownership of, would've long since reverted back to their control. Something like a HBV, that's likely under a limited window of exclusivity for Televi-Kun. I doubt there'd be a demand by the company that's promoting/sponsoring it to have that window be more than a few years, especially if they don't have a need to reissue it.

The bigger problem with older content is always, and will always be, music clearances. If you used any music that you don't fully own, get ready to scrub that content or pay through the nose.

(That said: not a lawyer! The rights situations for a Japanese studio and a Japanese magazine could be way more convoluted!)

Thank you guys so much! Trust me when I say it's just as much of a treat to hear such kind responses.

It'd definitely be nice to see a big definitive Kuuga collection, for sure. It was simultaneously a little funny, and a little sad when I realized starting to work on that last post that it's basically the Still Not Officially Licensed Showcase for this series. :lol

The upside here is that I'm pretty sure this is all totally possible. I know for sure Hyper Battle Videos end up on Blu-ray boxes in Japan just fine, so something that extreme shouldn't be an issue at all; it's just a matter of how Toei wants to then license that out for a foreign release, and if those distributors themselves care to go after it. I mean, right now, we've even got a few movies without the accompanying TV shows, so anything's possible, right?

(Oh, and as a quick side-note aimed specifically at Die: TV-Nihon actually just subbed the Agito HBV recently using a raw from the Blu-ray... even though I swear they already subbed it and that's how I watched it back in the day? But whatever, the point is Die can bring back one of his threads from the dead for a bit too now if he feels like it. It's a great HBV, actually! Written by Kobayashi and everything!)

Well I’ve seen it said in a video that in order to get a show out across the world, permission from the broadcaster is required. Not sure if that helps.

Did you just get me work for Christmas?!

(Thank you for the heads-up, though! I wouldn't've even thought to check for that one. I'll probably do that during the break between Kabuto and Den-O, if I can even remember anyone beyond the main character of Houjou. If you see any other pieces of newly-subbed Phase 1 footage - my fondest wish is for more of the stageshows to get covered - please send them my way!)

I’d recommend Kiva’s final stage for when you get to that point, but it’s taken me over a month to download the torrent and it only started a few days ago. For comparison’s sake, I managed to get a Sentai movie and three episodes of Saber downloaded using the same software in two weeks during that period.

Look out for ERankedLuck on Nyaa.si and TripleS Fansubs for more stage show content!

So are you going too do a review on the Kuuga Novel? Personally I thought it was pretty good and had as much nuance as the show. But there one detail revealed that is mixed for me. But overall I think it an engaginig read showing how the world has changed and hey more Ichijou content and the Police from Kuuga is always good in my eyes.

Looking around, it's apparent someone did in fact do a translation for it, which I didn't know until now and is awesome, but I still probably won't be taking a look at it any time soon. It definitely seems like it'd be an interesting read some day though! Especially since it's written by Arakawa himself.

Which reminds me of a fun anecdote from a discussion he did with Takatera at an event to promote the Blu-ray release of the show where, when on the subject of the love people seem to have for it all these years later, he mentions that the publisher eventually stopped getting on his case about him not meeting deadlines with an attitude that was basically "well, it's Kuuga..." Not anything important, but I don't know, it got a chuckle out of me and I'm glad to have an excuse to bring it up.

The novel ended up coming out half a year late, by the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfpEjwNSKnY

I never realized that "Please watch my Henshin" was a callback quote until this video.

Hey, I'm sorry to bump this years later, but I just wanted to comment my appreciation for this thread. Kuuga is my favorite Rider, season, and probably even media of all time. Seeing you guys get into and dissect every aspect of this show gave me an even higher appreciation for this work than I already did, as well as put into words the feelings I had while watching.

I especially love what Kurona said a while back about how each form is symbolic of Godai in their own ways, and the nuanced re-reading of Pegasus' themes put it at the top of my favorite forms.

There's a lot I want to say, but overall I am so, so happy to see what everyone had to say whether it was good or bad. Kuuga feels unique and like no other modern Rider show will be similar to it again.

Don't be! I'm extremely grateful to hear after all this time that there's still somebody out there getting something out of this thread. Especially when the thing you chose to single out was something Kurona said, because I can't begin to tell you how many times things she had to say about Kuuga in here made me wonder why *I* was the one who started it.

I can only hope I was that insightful anywhere in what I wrote myself, because I don't think I really understood just how special Kuuga actually is until I went back through it for this. It is both my pride and my honor to have created this little corner of the internet dedicated to acknwoledging that.

(Also, seeing this thread bumped reminds me I should probably go and fix up all of those random typos I made at some point...)

I found your introduction to discussions very insightful! One of my favorite facts I learned from you was the story of Amazing Mighty's debut and its behind the scenes decision. Another thing was Chouno's knife -- I didn't have much appreciation for the character but the whole thread has changed my opinion on him.

On the topic of forms, while I don't think we ever had a concrete idea on the symbolism of Dragon, I have some half-baked thoughts regarding it.

Kuuga is a lot about change. The change in rebooting Kamen Rider for the Heisei era, the change in society when Grongi commit mass murders, the changes to individuals as their close ones are killed, the change in Godai as he slowly becomes more violent (out of necessity, and he is painfully aware of that), and the last but most obvious is his changing of forms while progressively getting stronger.

Godai's evolution from Growing to Mighty is the start of his acceptance of his role as Kuuga, but I think Dragon solidifies it. He recognizes he needs to change, and unlocks the ability to grow beyond just his hands and feet to fight. He doesn't just get a neat staff, he unlocks his adaptability allowing for room for other forms.

Additionally, I saw it as an extension of his desire to help others in a more tangible way. The way Xu-Vazuu-Ba drops his victims is pretty on the nail -- Godai literally can't get to them in time. His need to physically reach people he wants to save before harm befalls them manifests in Dragon form; he gains heightened agility and a long weapon to extend his effectiveness.

Now this is totally out of left field, but Dragon is heavily associated with water, which itself is harmonious with life as it is simultaneously the softest substance yet erodes even the hardest rock with time. It flows freely, and gives while asking nothing in return.
I feel like Dragon reflects this in some way, with its softness shown in its physical weakness without the Dragon Rod, but also how Godai himself is easygoing yet finds his way into anyone's heart. Rather than breaking them like a rock, it's more about gently wearing down their apprehension allowing people he talks with to open up to him. Of course, this may overlap into the themes of Pegasus and Godai being a good listener, so take that with a grain of salt!