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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Zi-O
Hi. My name’s Kamen Rider Die, and this is a thread where I’ll be watching Kamen Rider Zi-O. More importantly, this is a thread where I’ll get to talk about Kamen Rider Zi-O with all of you.
It’s been a couple weeks since the Legend Riders thread wrapped up, and I’ve been champing at the bit to get started on this show. Some threads, that has not been the case! I was wiped after a bunch, and the thought of jumping into another months-long project was… not super appealing. Really dragged my feet on a couple, made excuses to push things back a week or two. With this one? God, I almost jumped the gun and started it a few days early. Some of it is that, unlike the Legend Rider thread, this is all new material for me. I mostly had fun with the Legend Rider stuff (definitely had a new appreciation for some of those films; also rewatched the Ghost/Drive movie), but it’s all movies and shows I’d watched before. There wasn’t anything new I’d learn, or some different concepts to spin around. It was at best a reconsideration, not a revelation. I love starting a new show. I don’t enjoy travel, but these shows? They’re an adventure for me that’s as good as any excursion. It’s a months-long journey through new terrain (not literally, probably: Kamen Rider Quarry), meeting new people and watching them detonate monsters. Every episode could be the best thing I’ve ever seen. How could you not be excited to start a new Kamen Rider show? Beyond that… I’d spent a little time over my break going through old threads and fixing broken image links. (All of my screencaps migrated to a new site.) The task itself is some incredibly slow going. I’d wanted to be done with all dozen or so threads before starting Zi-O, but I only managed four. (Legend, Decade, Kiva, Kabuto.) The reason it’s taking so long, honestly? It’s because I quickly find myself getting sucked into the discussions. Not my writing, but how the process of me watching the show expands outward, drawing in excited fans with clever ideas. The episode posts aren’t ever the final word from me; they’re the start of a discussion. Getting to see that discussion blossom and bear fruit? Magical. That’s the part of the process I’m most anxious to get back to: tearing into a new show, and hearing your thoughts. Literally nothing in this world makes me happier. Not having that in my life for the last few months has probably been a source of stress, without me even realizing it. All of which is to say: Welcome to Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Zi-O. I don’t really know much about Zi-O, beyond the obvious. Watches. Anniversary. That’s it? It’s one that I’m… probably not going to approach the way everyone else did. I’m not terribly excited about the anniversary parts, if I can be brutally honest. I’m sure I’ll mark out over my favorite Riders or support characters (fingers crossed for a Cubi/Music Note tribute story), but revisiting old characters isn’t as much of a lure for me as it might’ve been a while ago. The Legend Riders project taught me a lesson on indulging in nostalgia (diminishing returns!), and Decade taught me a lesson on the value of an anniversary show’s recurring cast. I liked the Decade cast, a whole lot. I want that experience again. Not to see all of my favorite heroes come back, puffier but stalwart; but to get to encounter the history of Kamen Rider through new heroes. I already care about Heisei, but I’m excited to care about Kamen Rider Zi-O. Before we get started, though, some bits of business: -PLEASE DON’T DISCUSS ANY ZI-O EPISODES BEYOND WHAT I’VE ALREADY POSTED. If I’m on Episode 12, please don’t tease what happens in Episode 15, or hint at where a character ends up in Episode 30. I enjoy watching these shows with as little early knowledge as possible, and it’d mean the world to me if you could refrain from spoiling/teasing anything upcoming. There’ll be plenty of time later to go over all of those fun reveals, but it’s substantially less fun for me if they get revealed in advance. Special bonus: if you let me live in ignorance, you can laugh a lot harder at my inability to guess where the story’s going, or at my flowery description of a deceptive character’s “noble” motivations. Why deprive yourself of that precious gift? -PLEASE DON’T TALK ABOUT ANY OF THE REIWA SHOWS. I’m going to get to them! Slower than I’d’ve thought, but eventually! (Honestly thought I’d be caught up by the time Revice was over, but, nope! Probably won’t even get to Revice until 2023.) If we can hold off on discussing Zero-One, Saber, or Revice until those threads make their way to the boards, you’d be doing me a huge favor. -EVERY OTHER HEISEI RIDER SHOW IS FAIR GAME. It’s an anniversary season! It would be super weird to have, like, Ryuki show up, and then dance around what happened at the end of Kamen Rider Ryuki. Expect, probably, a rude amount of Heisei spoilers, often with no warning. If you are trying to stay spoiler-free on, like, Ex-Aid? I will see you this summer for "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Zero-One", and I hope you have a fun non-Zi-O spring. -I AM SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR *GESTURES AT EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WRITTEN*. It’s weird! I am very weird about Kamen Rider! I care about it in weird ways! I forget to mention new costumes! I will spend a lot of time talking about themes in the series that maybe no one actually put in there! Many sentences in a row will end in exclamation marks! It’s… I just want you to know what you’re in for. It doesn’t get more coherent than this. If you’re already exhausted reading this, I don’t know if you’re going to love this experience. -YOU ARE MY POWER-UP. Like I said above, an episode post is… it’s like the first draft of my thoughts. (Sometimes literally! I don’t edit these posts a ton!) It’s my initial thoughts on an episode. It’s a gut reaction. It becomes something better by all of you interacting with it: sharing your views, pushing back on my analysis, adding jokes, asking questions. All of that post-episode discussion is why I’ve done over a dozen of these threads, and why I’m looking forward so much to this one. You don’t have to participate in the discussion, but choosing to share your perspective will always enhance mine. I’m excited to hear what you all have to say! -WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS ON THE INTERNET. I almost don’t need to say this, since TokuNation has the best fans of anything, anywhere, but: Please be kind to one another, even if you disagree. We’re all here because we love Kamen Rider shows, and that commonality should be in the front of your mind as you interact with each other. Even if someone dislikes a show you love, or champions a character you despise, we’re all Kamen Rider fans who enjoy Kamen Rider shows. Please keep things civil and polite, no matter what. I think that’s it! I think we’re ready to go! New episode posts should go up five or six times each week until we’re done. (I’m also watching that new Sentai show – Avataro Sentai Inoueforever – and I’m not sure if that’ll be on my night off from Zi-O, or take its place for a night. We’ll see what I can handle!) We’ll be doing movies and specials as they released chronologically, as well as the .5 episodes. Stop the countdown! Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Zi-O starts now! https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio0.png |
KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 1 - “KINGDOM: 2068”
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio1a.png It was destiny, probably. Or fate. I wrote a huge thing about how I love the starts of series, how terrific it is to invest in a new Rider and their cast… and then I got this episode. God, basically a complete misfire for me? It starts and stops with Sougo, who I completely don’t get. We’re introduced to him as the future Oma Zi-O, a cruel despot who – say what you will about his genocidal bonafides – at least understands that anniversary Kamen Rider seasons deserve to start with a massive battle at Kamen Rider Quarry. (Our first Legend appearance!) It’s a strong sequence, laying out the stakes for our title character: his destiny is to be a tyrant. That’s a fun story to tell, hypothetically. Plenty of Rider shows have explicitly or implicitly dealt with Power Creep as a pathway to villainy, or how the accrual of power for altruistic reasons can curdle into megalomania. A series about how to avoid becoming a monster while fighting for justice with a monstrous power… that’s just a Kamen Rider series? That’s the template of Kamen Rider. As an anniversary theme, it’s a solid one. But Sougo… I can’t get a handle on him, as a character? Not even as a protagonist or a hero or a lead, but as a character. He wants to be a king, but like, as a career? That’s ludicrous. I’ve seen plenty of ridiculous motivations in Kamen Rider (and I love Tsurugi, who is a preposterous bundle of Bizarre Achievements in an ascot), but this is beyond the pale. You cannot study to become a king. You can’t fill out an application to be a monarch. There isn’t a good school to major in the regency arts. It’s the sort of stupid, stupid motivation that I normally adore, because the thought process behind it is usually so specific and bonkers that I am enthralled. Tsurugi’s quest to be the Best At Besting is drawn from his traumas, his desires, his isolation, his responsibilities, his etc. But Sougo wants to be a king… because it seemed like a good idea? As a defining trait goes, it’s terrible. It’s an absence of definition for his character. It’s generic: I Want This instead of I Want This Because. There’s room in the episode for it to be purposefully generic, certainly. The overriding feeling of the episode is that of inevitability, that Sougo couldn't ever become anything other than the King Of Time(pieces), and that outcome has trickled backward to his present. But it’s never portrayed as a burning drive, or a path he can’t veer away from. It’s portrayed as perfunctory; a concept as necessary for reflection and analysis as blinking. Becoming king – something utterly ridiculous – is treated as an autonomic process. It is a crucial mistake in the introduction of Sougo, and it’s, sadly, only the first crucial mistake this episode makes. The second one is in the way this episode never really pushes back on Sougo’s motivation? His friends and family (an uncle, since it’s Heisei Phase 2 and All Dads Are Dead) shrug it off as some quirk, like Takumi’s dislike of hot foods in Faiz, rather than an absolutely terrifying life choice for a teenager to be making. When someone says that they don’t want to take college entrance exams because they’re going to be a king, that’s bad! That isn’t a life choice! That is them throwing their life away! You don’t follow up that declaration with a cute anecdote about not letting chances pass you by! You follow that up with an intervention! It only gets worse once Tsukuyomi shows up. Which is not because of Tsukuyomi! She’s one of only two characters in this episode I felt invested in! (Her and Gates, that's it. Give them the show!) She’s great. I love the heroism of her mission; the belief that even the worst of us have a moment where we could’ve been good. Her coming back in time to show Sougo that his dream of becoming a king is really a nightmare for the world, in the hopes of dissuading him before it’s too late, that’s awesome. That’s a Kamen Rider hero. That empathy. (Also, her getting him thrown in a river as a test is some great chaotic energy.) But then Sougo again lets me down, responding to her story of genocide and heartbreak with a Cool About Me Being King But I Guess It Sucks For You. It is, even more than the rest of this episode, an insane story choice. It made me unbelievably mad to have the title character blow off his own potential for apocalyptic destruction, while delighting in his dream coming true. It’s… why?! Why would you make your brand-new character this unrelatable? And unlikable? Why have him not show an ounce of sympathy for Tsukuyomi’s hardship, and then still have him get praised for stopping a fight? Why have him not care about being a warlord, and then give him an ending where he rushes in to save an innocent stranger? And it all comes to a frustratingly plotted finale, where Sougo heroically vows to be a Good Tyrant. You– you cannot be a good tyrant, my dude. Good Tyranny is an oxymoron. It’s a colossally stupid thing to say, and the fact that this episode views it as a) something that doesn’t require explanation, and b) a thing a hero says? That makes me enormously worried about this series. Enormously. I can sort of see the edges of where this episode thought it was landing. The mixture of destiny and foreboding in Woz’s appearance helped to frame Sougo’s actions as Maybe Not A Good Thing, but everything in the performance of Sougo undercuts that ambivalence. There’s a massive tonal dissonance throughout the episode, between the things we’re being told, and how the characters respond to them. It’s way more than just How Is This Sweet Dope Going To Become The Personification Of Armageddon, it’s Why Doesn’t This Guy Care About Becoming The Personification Of Armageddon. Sougo’s distracted nature and utter lack of drive makes the events of the episode disjointed and unbelievable; huge stakes are blown away in the face of amiable disinterest. Instead of excited acceptance or terrified rejection, we get this uncompelling middle ground of a lead character, who is vaguely okay with becoming a dictator, then decides to be a Nice Dictator, and the show just doesn’t question it. It’s terrible. Tsukuyomi makes sense, as a character who believes that even devils can become angels if you get to them early. Geiz makes sense, as a character who wants to snuff out evil before it becomes a wildfire. Woz even makes sense, as the kind of historian who loses scale and human cost in favor of Narrative and Myth. But Sougo’s our lead, and I can’t understand him at all. https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio1b.png — KAMEN RIDER ZI-O COMPLEMENTATION PROJECT EPISODE 1.5 - “WHAT’S IN THE NAME?” Oh, it’s cute. It’s a cute little bit. It’s like a Net Movie, where the actors are in-costume but only vaguely in-character. This one’s about the three main heroes’ names, and what they mean. It’s not really my thing (it’s a ton of Japanese wordplay), but it’s a cute presentation. Having Geiz get thrown off by Sougo’s "ad libbing", or Woz being all offended at his co-stars' rude follow-up questions? That’s neat. THAT SAID! I completely don’t understand how you have two characters in a story about where their names come from that are named “Woz” and “Gates” and you don’t even mention the founders of Apple Computers. Like, what is the point of this episode if you’re going to be like Oh Gates Are A Thing That Kings Have (?), like that’s even close to being relevant information. Own the dumb background work of your writing staff, you big babies! https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/ziocp1a.png |
The way I see it, Sougo's going to either grow on you, or not. That's how it happened for me because I remember having a very "..." reaction to the first like set of episodes. So I'm not surprised to see you didn't really find yourself finding the start amazing.
Sougo has a lot of little quirks and intricacies that work. And maybe it's because I just got off of Go! Princess Precure where our lead Heroine's dream is to become a Princess. But over the years, where as I was a bit "eh" at first about Sougo's whole kingly declarations, I've grown to embrace that aspect. Oma Zi-O though, man is he an interesting can of worms that I'll talk about way later on but he's real cool. Anyway, time for my gimmick. You see there was this youtuber who redid the preview clips for the Next Episode bits but did BGM swaps for the preview music. Sometimes doing multiple versions for a singular episode due to varying reasons. So let's start with... Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 2 Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o9LupyqjCM |
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They just needed to either ground his aspirations in something relatable (or make it actually seem like an "aspiration", rather than his Safety Pick), or have someone in the show treat his intentions as more than just Oh You. Instead, it feels like the show has a gaping hole where it's core elements - Theme, Motivation, Goal - should be. I imagine it's something the show will come to in time (!!!), but it really needed to be in the premiere. Like, more than anything else. |
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And I think that's a thing I like about Sougo. He's so adamant at wanting to be a Benevolent Demon King(tm), and as the show goes on, that persistence turns from an oblivious idea to something of earnest-ness (is that a word?) Also on a slight tangent, I think Sougo should honestly show up more often in crossovers Decade style. He has the potential for it, and having him show up once in a while and sometimes comment on where he's at at life and how close he is to his dream would be very neat. C'mon, look at this cute face. A face like that couldn't destroy an entire rebellion would it not? https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxCp_kQxg...06777088_n.jpg |
Well, it’s Rider Time, and we can get this feature going with this…
Ridewatch Playlist: Love and Peace Mix. If the title doesn’t give you any indication, we’re starting off by collating the Ridewatches for Build. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZoyEkxFUrq0 “Best Match! Transforming with Fullbottles, the genius Rider is… Build” And the song for him will be his theme song, Be The One, by Beverly. https://youtube.com/watch?v=tH7NWi7mLOk “Power overflowing with Pandora’s power. Build RabbiTank Sparkling” And since that was the only time it did anything noteworthy, the matched song is Kamen Rider Heisei Generations FINAL Special Medley. https://youtube.com/watch?v=4TMRR66g_AM “Super speed, super jump, Build RabbitRabbit Form” “Super armour, super weight, Build TankTank Form” “Oh no! The pitch black, out-of-control warrior, Build RabbiTank Hazard” For these three, I’m going with Ready Go!, by a load of artists that would be a nightmare for me to list. https://youtube.com/watch?v=bHVcWNRgJ4M “Totally amazing! The bottle wearing super genius Rider is Build Genius Form” And his song is Build Up, by the Kamen Rider Girls. https://youtube.com/watch?v=kMdXDTF_mfM “Golden rabbit, silver dragon, Build RabbitDragon” And for lack of a better choice, I’m going with Everlasting Sky, from the Build movie. https://youtube.com/watch?v=_-uYy4lX6Kg And now, for the supporting players. https://youtube.com/watch?v=KOCW14R9pIw “Fighting with the power of the Dragon, Build’s partner, the burning hot-blooded Rider is Cross-Z” For him, I went with Cross, the theme for his V-Cinema. https://youtube.com/watch?v=uRSVDd22rlE “The Robot Jelly Rider with a burning soul is… Grease” And like Cross-Z, I went with his V-Cinema theme, Perfect Triumph. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pI2raO2d...jxKGrOCdSglk_v “Danger. The Crocodile Rider is Rogue” And with him, I just went with the one song left on the soundtrack, Law of the Victory by Rider Chips feat. Ricky. https://youtube.com/watch?v=62jYb7jOPBw https://youtube.com/watch?v=hOMndLj-ktA “Using the Sclashjelly to transform, Crozz-Z Charge” https://youtube.com/watch?v=BkFa478RTKI “Power is overflowing, my soul is burning, the burning Rider is Cross-Z Magma” For this, I went with his TV theme, Burning My Soul https://youtube.com/watch?v=r3fq7cEJ41I https://youtube.com/watch?v=a7j7wFD-k2c “The frozen passion. Freezing and crushing with zero-degree flames, Grease Blizzard” https://youtube.com/watch?v=0Btn0raq8wc “The invader from Mars targeting Earth, the evil Rider is Evol” https://youtube.com/watch?v=CbgPCQrj6h4 “The strongest Evol unleashing his power, Evol Black Hole” The song for those last two is Evolution, aka, the one where the true meaning of the name “Evol” comes from. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZboeU_mPfPU https://youtube.com/watch?v=ANSKxlVZBjI “Thirsting for vengeance, the bat Rider is Mad Rogue” And because I haven’t padded this out enough, here’s the part where I share what Bandai did plan to make and would’ve made if fans had voted for one of them. (Though Cross-Z Charge was still one of the 10 winners) Kamen Rider Build (GorillaMond Form) Kamen Rider Build (HawkGatling Form) Kamen Rider Build (NinninComic Form) Kamen Rider Build (RocketPanda Form) Kamen Rider Build (LionCleaner Form) Kamen Rider Build (FireHedgehog Form) Kamen Rider Build (KeyDragon Form) Kamen Rider Build (KaizokuRessya Form) Kamen Rider Build (OctopusLight Form) Kamen Rider Build (PhoenixRobo Form) Kamen Rider Build (SmaphoWolf Form) Kamen Rider Build (RoseCopter Form) Kamen Rider Build (ToraUFO Form) Kamen Rider Build (KujiraJet Form) Kamen Rider Build (KirinCyclone Form) Kamen Rider Evol (Rabbit Form) Kamen Rider Evol (Dragon Form) Kamen Rider Blood As for the actual episode, I pretty much didn’t have an issue with Sougo. I was new to this whole “Masked Rider” thing and my only point of reference was a few Gaim and Drive movies, and neither of them came off as well adjusted (though to be fair, would you be well adjusted if alien plants were wrecking the ecosystem, or robots were going around messing with gravity). I knew about Build purely because Kissasian had updated his episodes along with Lupinranger Vs Patranger, and I could tell that the bulky monster was definitely Build themed (Even if, as I said in the Decade thread, I had no idea why he was saying “Best Match” until the next episode). |
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It's... the problem for me is that I can see a way Sougo makes sense if he's going to be a king to fix something. Whether that's a newly-introduced Darkest Timeline, or a general dissatisfaction with the present day, I'm good either way. I just need to feel like his motivation as a character comes from someplace inside of him, rather than just being words he says at random intervals. |
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And thanks for all of that RideWatch info! |
Alright it's my turn to do a thing. It might not be a successful thing, seeing what I have to work with, but I'll try anyway.
So here's the things with these shows and me. The music is great, but there's something about hearing music in a language I don't understand where I don't quite get it. Even if the lyrics are translated, somehow my mind can't put them together with the music I am hearing? Like I can read the translation a million times and still hear the song and have no clue what it's saying. So for Zi-O, I'm going to be looking at the theme songs of the featured shows and try to find a good (or at least decent) English version of it. And hoo boy is that going to be hard to do for some them. I may have to either settled for not entirely terrible for some or leave them out altogether. Fortunately, that is not a choice I need to make with Build. It is one of only two Kamen Rider theme songs I am aware of to have an official English version. In this case, sung by the original artist Beverly, who happens to be fluent in English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G87WJDpNC8Y Wish me luck on the rest of them, because I am going to need it! (I have found a couple of amazing English covers though) |
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(And, boy, I love that English language version of BE THE ONE! I remember it cropping up a while back, and listening to it on a repeat for a medium amount of minutes. Good pick!) |
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