[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 22 - “TRANSFORMING COCOON”

One of the weirdest things about this show, especially over the last ten or so episodes, is how much of a special event it feels like when the title character shows up to fight a monster. Like, that’s the baseline expectation of a Kamen Rider series, and yet I’m always a little like Gosh How Were They Able To Get Hibiki For This Episode. He feels like a special guest star in his own goddamn show! Between Ibuki’s spotlight and Todoroki’s intro AND spotlight, somehow Hibiki Fights A Monster has become a rare, nay, freak occurrence.

I mean what are you thinking? Like what you want, Asumu is the actual main protagonist of the series, while Hibiki is only the main hero (performs heroic deeds with a heroic motivation). This is probably one of the difference Hibiki has to the franchise, the main protagonist isn't even a Rider or fighter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But, upshot, holy shit is it awesome when Hibiki arrives at the end of this episode. He gets that big ol’ hero frame, ready to lend his strength to the overmatched youngsters. It’s a powerful finale, as all three Oni combine their attacks to bring down the Mutant Makamou, but... I mean, I had a big problem with it.

The gimmick is that they’re synchronizing their attacks to defeat the monster, playing together as a band. Hibiki specifically uses the phrase “harmonize”. But then they… just play their normal solos? It doesn’t sound harmonic at all, it sounds like three people that have completely different rhythms. I was hoping they’d make some song out of their attack, but it’s just them doing what they’d normally do while two other guys did the same. Felt like a missed opportunity for something really special.

Well, I'm critical of finishers, and while tag team finishers are usually just each member of the group doing their attacks individually to a monster, this one's case also got the same criticism from me by that. This part's one of the storytelling flaw, that you should Show, Don't Tell (though Kobayashi had this in spades), means should involve the use of demonstrative techniques, rather than blatant or thinly-veiled narration, to establish narrative elements. Like here, the "music" that comes from their finisher attacks aren't harmonious at all, despite them saying they should harmonize.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s the opening that really wowed me, though. It’s tense and kinetic, with a nice mixture of tight close-ups (to make the fight feel impossible and claustrophobic) and long takes. There’s one long take in particular that showed off how good the choreography was, as Todoroki tries to protect Akira while the Douji and Hime keep making runs at them. A really nice, uninterrupted fight sequence. I dug it!

It's more about Ibuki and Todoroki vs the fodders... tbh. Ibuki and Todoroki decimates them after getting their weapons handed by Akira, though Nanashi (the name of the giant monster) played significant part of the Akira part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I did not dig the Asumu thread which… I mean, I’ll give the show points for tying together the Mutant Makamou’s cocoon with Hitomi noting how much Asumu has transformed since meeting Hibiki. Yes, okay, I approve. But the resolution to the Sayuri plot makes almost no sense to me. Tonally, it’s all over the place.

I probably think Sayuri feels anticlimatic more because of who Sayuri is supposed to be, Hibiki refered to her as master? But she feels like another random civilian who gets treatment from the protagonist here... probably if she's not set up as having important relation it won't feel weird to you? Talking about payoff though, it's only within Asumu, and it means yeah he has developed from "training" with Hibiki. And well, I don't know about you chastising Hibiki having zero reason, I mean Hibiki was kept on check by others and you did say that it's a misdoing that gets blindly approved by the kids in your latest reply?