[Kurona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

DREAMCASTEGIRL: I think... I don't want to just blurt out "I LIKE DADS!" or anything, but I think what appealed to me about Hibiki is that it presented an older man who was trying to do the right thing, and that meant a lot to me when I saw the show. I feel like Hibiki is a very surprisingly tender depiction of masculinity that you don't see depicted on television much. Because of his age, because he wasn't a young man trying to find his way in life, because we're introduced to him when he's already been doing what he does for a while, I felt that Hibiki was a character who had a gentleness to him in that he was already very certain of himself, he didn't need to prove anything, and that thoughtfulness appeals to me, I guess.
There's a sort of Murakami protagonist quality in his thinking, his reasoning, the way in which he's just a man who has learnt to accept impossible things.
And yet he still has a very moral code, something that I think evokes the more stern Showa Riders, even though the way in which he expresses his decision making process is far gentler.

YES!! Thank you! This so eloquently gets at, like, 80% (85?) of why I like Hibiki as a character so much, and flowing on from that why I like Hibiki as a show so much. Such a wonderful, natural character to it all.

Also, hi! Haven't seen you on the boards recently! Bit of a surprise!


The Hibiki arc... in my experience, if you ask around; this seems to be the number 1 tribute of the 9 worlds that people like the most from Decade. The really big winner -- and it's probably not hard to convince you why given all the praise just sung of it! Kaitou's characterisation is top-notch, it's a very fitting tribute and there's just so much fun on top. It also seems to be an arc people love for doing what Hibiki Part 2 didn't, and... and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't one of those people? Like, Akira being straight up the next Ibuki without all that stuff from Part 2 being laid on her is the big one for starters; but a lot of it gets at what a bunch of people really wanted from Hibiki.

I remember distinctly rewatching this arc after I had finished Hibiki and it left me very mixed. Going straight from that show to this you really see how off the tone is, and I think at the time that made me feel a bit strange about the arc but... it's Decade, y'know? That's part of it all. I think it still gets what's important about Hibiki even if it's using a very different voice to tell it, and ultimately between this and its other tribute I'm so glad this wonderful show got the wonderful post-show content to match. This is a great one!