[Tokumonkey]

Lately, I've been watching SuperHero Time 2005 for the first time. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, although my plan to watch the shows in pairs is being jeopardized by Hibiki being really good.

So far, I'm on episode 18 or so. We've been introduced to four Riders (and we've seen a fifth), and none of them have a forced rivalry. ZERO pointless battles between them. I'm floored by how different this is from every Rider series I've seen so far.

The notion of Douji and Hime shepherding giant Makamou is great, as is reversing their voices. (It also occurs to me that this must've been great for the budget; there have been only a few distinct humanoid monsters so far. I'm not wholly clear on how the Makamou are rendered.) The nature of the threat, too, is very different. Most Rider shows I've seen have been about a temporary but finite threat, but the Oni in Hibiki have been operating for generations, and will apparently continue to do so, as the demons they fight appear limitless.

Wow, there's a lot more death here than in any of the more recent Sentai or Rider shows I've seen since Kiva. Bystanders are killed right and left. (Hibiki shares this with Magiranger, on which something dreadful regularly happens to an innocent bystander just before the show cuts to its sugary-happy opening theme.)

I'm fascinated by how much better the toys are integrated into this show than most Rider series I've seen. The disc animals are an essential element of how the Oni operate. I'm used to seeing ring animals, foodroids, etc. mostly forgotten within a few episodes.

What impresses me most about Hibiki is its dedication to small moments and complex feelings. So far, the story has been as much about Asumu as it's been about our titular hero, and although Asumu is starting to integrate into the rest of the cast, it's been a slow process. I just watched an episode in which an Oni puts himself at great personal risk apparently mostly to impress a woman who's just not into him. (I assume they're building very slowly to the possibility of Asumu eventually becoming an Oni. With Zanki and Todorokei, they've established that the Oni's seconds sometimes become Oni as well, and we've established why Hibiki might someday retire relatively young.) What other shows focus a couple of episodes on appendicitis?

All of this is meant in the way of praise. I love a lot of these elements. (The constantly-changing opening theme is just neat.) What I don't love is that Hibiki doesn't look good. It's often blurry; I mean like RuPaul's-Drag-Race-Season-1 blurry. I assume it's a stylistic choice, but it's one of the riskiest things the show does, and I'm not sure it works. I watched Ryuki last year, and Hibiki looks like an older series than Ryuki. My suspicion is that it's about setting a context in which the giant Makamou work better on-screen. The show sounds older, too; is that a xylophone I'm hearing?

What other Kamen Rider shows largely ignore the main Rider for weeks at a time? I really like this idea that certain Oni are better-suited to battling certain Makamou, and I'm just a little surprised that the show actually runs with it, centering the action of whole episodes around secondary Riders rather than Hibiki.

I'd read a lot about how different Hibiki is, and I get it, now. I do miss our riders saying "henshin" when they transform. It's harder to discern nods to Kamen Rider 1 in the design. The antennae abstracted as horns? The oni face instead of a jewel? Are there any nods at all, and I'm making it up?

I'm also aware that I should prepare to have my heart mostly-broken later in the series, as I read that it gets pretty seriously derailed and rendered generic. I'm sure I'll likely watch the rest anyway, but I'm prepping myself for a partial train wreck. I mean, when a show's actors are willing to go on the record as being incensed...

(Meanwhile, I'm enjoying Magiranger more as it goes. It's a lot of good things, but so far, it's not daring, and daring is certainly what defines Hibiki.)