[Tokumonkey]

It's many months later, and I finally just finished Hibiki. I slowed down dramatically on Super Hero Time 2005, probably because those first few episodes after the Hibiki production team changed were so rough.

Prior to the final episode, my comment would've been, "Wow, the show eventually became enjoyable again." However, as of a few minutes ago, I watched the final episode and thought, "What the hell was that train wreck?"

I knew the ending wasn't necessarily beloved, but I'd assumed its problems would be due to it failing to gel with what happened before the production team changed. I had no idea that it would be due to the new writers apparently having forgotten what they'd written.

SPOILERS for the ending follow:

The show had gone on at length about how Kiriya was completely unsuited to become an Oni. The show was really explicit about this: he froze up in dangerous situations, he gave up easily, he was portrayed as thin-skinned and physically weak. At the same time, the show had Asumu excel at Oni training. He lacked only a clear desire to become an Oni.

I understand that the writers tried to establish that being an Oni was about surpassing one's self, but the show didn't do this legwork for Kiriya. The series jumped a year ahead for the final episode, and we're clearly supposed to assume that Kiriya overcame his many, many character flaws to become an Oni.

It was frustrating for me to watch. From the introduction of Kiriya onward, it was clear he was supposed to be a character threatening to assume Asumu's future for himself, both at school and in terms of the Oni. He was portrayed as cartoonishly awful: an arrogant jerk with few redeeming qualities. As a viewer, I assumed the Kiriya was an obstacle that Asumu had to overcome in order to come of age.

I really didn't expect him to succeed.

The opening episode of Hibiki goes into what's effectively a musical number that establishes that music is part of who Asumu is. Given that this is the series about music-powered Riders, this seemed to make him a perfect Rider candidate. The new production team appeared to just completely forget this: now, he's putting on plays! No, wait; he actually wanted to be a doctor all along!

While I'm on the topic of stuff that didn't feel thought-through: the "real" Douji and Hime turning out to have been copies of what I guess were Victorian versions.... There's a nugget of a cool idea there, but it leaves us without any resolution about the show's villains or their motivations. They were just mysterious and seemingly-random.

I get what the episode was going for: Asumu didn't have to become a Rider to have a fulfilling future. And that'd make sense on any other show, but this is Kamen Rider, wherein character growth is typically marked by becoming a Rider or getting a power-up. It was tremendously unsatisfying to watch him essentially fail at the point of being a Kamen Rider protagonist. Kiriya becoming a taiko Rider was just kind of salt in the wound. This episode was trying to be a wistful meditation on growing up (with hero battles!), but I think it failed.

I've read the Riderwiki page on Hibiki, so I understand the context of rewrites, etc. I also read Aoi Kurenai's comment above about how the original writer didn't have a firm ending in mind. Clearly, the later writers weren't clear on where they wanted the show to go, either.

It's not like the second half of the series had been relentlessly awful. The first several episodes after the production change were pretty bad, but the arcs about Shuki, Akira, Todoroki, and Zanki were well-done. Until the ending, I thought the show had regained its footing to some extent.

Now that I've seen the final episode, I just feel punked. I'm clearly not alone, given that it sounds like people were really unhappy at the time. Hibiki had been such a great show. As it is, I feel like it's maybe half of a great show.