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As I always say, Kiva has its flaws, but the ending songs are all GOAT
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I also somewhat feel guilt for that crossed out joke and spacing out (especially that I got actually ostracized for it, been dealing with my self-esteem for this place for a while), though the "joke" intended to give tolerance for something wrong. But now I'm going again, sorry if this is to everyone's dismay.
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It's also an ending that's more about emotion than plot, so it can easily coast by on the warmth it generates. Am I giving it a pass? Okay, maybe! Quote:
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Ryotaro may have constant bad luck and was a dropout, but he still had the wish-fulfillment aspect that he's one of the most important person in the show as a Singularity Point and goes on adventures with an ever-increasing group of friends. One thing that I find Ryotaro different from pure hero archetype is that Ryotaro is really against sacrifices, where people usually glorify heroic sacrifices and even going on wrong conclusion that “self sacrifice alone makes one 100% heroic, irrespective of any amoral or unheroic things that one also did”. Quote:
Like you said about KR's appeal being helping people psychologically, society without monsters, like real world, is already full of many ppl who need healing, care, love, compassion and help (doesn't mean you can excuse people's bad action due to having plausible reasons for it!). Claiming saving people as the only thing about heroism is using the definition too broad, and that aspect of heroism Ryotaro has can't be diminished or overlooked, though I feel Ryotaro being overshadowed by Momo or other Taros Imagins speaks about people having that mindset... Quote:
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The two main forms used by Zeronos are called Altair and Vega, and Vega specifically is accessed by cards tied to Sakurai (Yuto's produce Zero Form instead). The names are also the stars associated with "The Weaver and the Cowherd," one of the most famous sets of Star-Crossed Lovers in folklore, and underlines the impossibility of the original Sakurai ever returning. Quote:
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A lot to think about there, DreadBringer! Thanks for the feedback and opinions!
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FAREWELL KAMEN RIDER DEN-O: FINAL COUNTDOWN
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...rewellkdoa.png Hey, kids! Meet the brand-new Den-O in this film about how prolonging something past its natural end is at best exhausting, and at worst a kind of living death! Weird movie! Weird movie. It's trying to do three different things, all at various levels of effectiveness. It's trying to send off Ryotaro, introduce Kotaro, and provide a template for an infinitely flexible/refreshable Den-O franchise. I don't think there's any part it explicitly fails at, but the tension of those three objectives make for some rough sledding, especially in the first half hour. Like, I'm trying to think of a Kamen Rider I instantly disliked more than Kotaro, and I'm coming up empty. I mean, I've hated some characters more eventually, but very few have I hated as much on their debut. Having Kotaro show up as the new Den-O and basically go Old Den-O Stuff Sucks for twenty straight minutes of the goddamn Farewell To Ryotaro movie... bold choice! Not, uh, not the one I would've made, but it definitely provides an arc for Kotaro's character. He gets there by the end, maybe. It's a fairly standard arc, where an overly-confident hero is humbled by a loss and works with the people he formerly shunned in order to achieve victory. The actor tries, anyway. It's just too difficult to feel invested in a guy who just showed up, told everyone they suck, ate shit, and then got a pity invite to their big celebration. Kotaro starts as an interloper and ends as an outsider, which is largely a function of the plot, but the character has enough unrealized potential that I'll try not to hold this introductory story against him. It's... that's sort of the big problem this movie has, and it's the same one that occasionally held back the series, in my opinion. There's incredibly fun character stuff happening, and some very charming actors, but there's always this top-down plot stuff that keeps it from being the fun hang-out story it clearly wants to be. Kotaro showing up is plot stuff, something outside the group that derails (sorry) the real fun of this movie, which is all of the Imagin hanging out and being ridiculous. Kotaro is the Sakurai nonsense that always threatened to put the brakes on the comedy and drama that could develop out of the characters. There's plenty to build a movie around from just the characters we're already invested in. Having Kotaro show up and stop the fun dead so we can try and address his mysteries and traumas (spoiler: they are not at all worth the effort), it starts and ends this movie in a zone that devalues the characters and tone we all love from Den-O; it feels like work. But the middle section of this movie is the best. It's exactly what I'd've hoped for in a new Den-O movie. As soon as the Imagin get to Edo period Japan, this thing found its rhythm. It's all about friction and teamwork and excitable monsters and bad planning and a weird but hard-fought belief that if they all work together, anything is possible. There's a bit where Momo enters their hideout, sees Sieg, and immediately goes Nope that killed me. When these characters and their richly-defined relationships get to just sprawl out, it's perfect. This was a series that always succeeded when it focused on character, so a middle section that's just about the Den-Liner crew (plus Deneb and Sieg, because Kobayashi loves us) working together to free Ryotaro from the villain's grasp while also saving all of time from destruction? That part is so good, and so right, that it's weird how much of this film isn't that. It all just comes back to the plot, and how it feels something that's being done to the characters, not anything growing out of them. There's a monster, and that monster wants to use Ryotaro to destroy Ryotaro's ancestors (which would invert the singularity point for reasons that just killing his ancestors wouldn't Because, so that's why Ryotaro has to get possessed), and Kotaro gets brought to the present to help Because, and it's all just things the characters react to without being terribly invested in. Well, Momo's invested in freeing Ryotaro, and that... I think it's a story that works better thematically than it does narratively. Like, Ryotaro being possessed for more than half of his final story sucks. That's a frustrating choice, no matter how cathartic it is to see that Ore Sanjou moment eventually. It's a story that doesn't really have any room to end Ryotaro's story, so it mostly just doesn't? I honest-to-god had to double-check the wiki to make sure this was Ryotaro's last Den-O story (before his Heisei Generations return), because nothing in this story really feels like Ryotaro's story is done. There's no reason for him not to be in future Den-O stories, other than it would be creatively bankrupt and utterly mercenary. Ryotaro's story is over, and we just need to be okay with that, I guess. I liked that part of this movie the best, how the villain's plot is to force someone he loves to live forever because of his selfishness and inability to accept an ending. I like that Kobayashi wrote a Den-O story that's both a roadmap for how to do Den-O stories without Ryotaro - focus on the Imagin and just plug some bland new handsome dude into the hero role - while also critiquing the need to extend Den-O indefinitely. There's an ambivalence about this movie that's both depressing and exhilarating, a bummed-out feeling that the creators would rather acknowledge and confront than ignore and forget. I get the feeling that no one involved in replacing Ryotaro was convinced it was a good idea, but they're trying it anyway. That all made for a movie that ended better than it started, but still not one I ever fully got onboard with conceptually. Some of it was the distracting thought of The Story I Wished They'd Told (like, just make Yuuto the new Den-O, problem solved), but a lot of it was just how weirdly inessential and unnecessary this whole story was. It's Shiro's thing with Sora, but as a superhero franchise designed to sell toys to Japanese children. Den-O was fun, and it ended, and now its corpse is trotted out to try to reignite the same devotion it once effortlessly generated. Ryotaro seems checked out, Airi and the Airimirers are there when they don't need to be (I love how they 100% did not have the Milk Dipper set anymore), and whatever fun there is (and there's fun!) comes with an echo of how Den-O needs to be put away. Sora's sadness was never that she wanted to live again. Her sadness was that extending her life devalued it, and she'd rather be honest about that. It's hard to say goodbye to something you love, but it's maybe harder to be refused the chance to say goodbye at all. https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...rewellkdob.png THE BAGGAGE CAR -I'm glad to be back watching Den-O, finding a way to make a crowd-pleasing bit of fan-service sound like a hollowed-out and dispiriting endeavor! I did enjoy the middle section of this movie, for what it's worth. Sieg is an all-star in this movie (there's a bit where he does his catchphrase, then everyone else does their catchphrase, and then the camera lands back on him to say I Already Did Mine, and it's the smartest joke in maybe all of the movie), Hana's great, all of the stuff where the Imagin are roommates was so agreeable that I don't even care if it's not pushing the narrative forward. Let me hang out with these dopes forever, even if it's making them miserable. I will be Shiro in that scenario, happily. -I like the new Den-O suit, too. I've seen it before, in the OOO movie. I like the blue and silver, the way the wings look like scaffolding. It comes across as a suit that's literally building on its predecessor, you know? -Not as crazy about the villain suit! (Super glad for that ol' Heisei Phase 1 thing of Oops We Forgot To Ever Say The Evil Rider Name Out Loud, incidentally.) It's just a Gaoh repaint, and I don't get the thing with the tops? I always figure stuff like that is some cultural thing I don't have a reference for. Either way, not that memorable. -This was just a quick check-in on Den-O! I'll be PMing Decade contributors over the next few days to get that train rolling (not sorry), and then I'll be back in this thread after Decade's done to see if the further adventures of Kotaro feel any more vital or necessary. I hope so! I always hope so! -Not that I want to keep shitting on a movie that really doesn't deserve this level of criticism, but I really like how this movie comes across as almost an indictment of drawing strength from memories, the core thesis of the TV series. Sora's request, at the end, is to be forgotten, since being remembered forever by Shiro is a trap. It's this movie sort of saying that it's cool to love Den-O as a TV show, but please stop loving Den-O so much that they aren't allowed to stop making it. I love this movie's ambivalence about its own existence! |
So I didn’t really put together a detailed credits for the Imagin in this movie, but I have seen all of this movie’s new VAs elsewhere.
The one who possesses Ryotaro to make Skull Form is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya, who hosts a radio show with Ryuta’s VA Kenichi Suzumura. His main Toku role is, suitably, another goofy purple dragon, Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger’s Shou Ronpo/Ryu Violet/Ryu Commander. The voice of Teddy is Daisuke Gori, who’s other major credit I know him from is the narrator for Ultraman Taiga (and the singer for the movie theme for that series) And one of our background extras is Tomokazu Sugita, on a break from telling people to “Wake Up”. He also portrayed Demushu on Gaim, the titular character (and his evil counterpart Dark Lugiel) in Ultraman Ginga, Kamen Rider Ginga in Zi-O and the narrator, equipment voice and voice of King/Mashin Oladdin in Kiramager. He’s also a major otaku. In terms of opinions - it was nice to see all the Den-O forms fighting side by side (since that normally only happens in Final Stages that don’t have a lot of Riders in the main show) and the Edo setting makes for a unique backdrop. But yeah, I can totally get this not being a great intro to Kotaro (even though my formal intro was the Den-O/Decade movie). The most I remember about him is a) his countdowns and b) he got a CSM before regular Den-O (which reveals what each of his other three buttons do). |
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