[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

SWITCHBLADE: So the core premise of Black is that a cult captures Kotaro and his brother, Nobuhiko, to turn them into a pair of cyborgs - Black Sun and Shadow Moon - who will fight to the death in order to become the next leader.
Kotaro escapes in what is, for my money, the best opening scene of any Rider series ever (dude running through the nighttime streets of Tokyo from ghostly pursuers). Nobuhiko does not.
The show's main plot, when not interspersed with standalone episodes, is about Kotaro trying to save his brother. Long story short, he completely fails.
Kamen Rider Black ends with the hero sitting alone in a cafe having flashbacks to better times with the brother he killed and the friends who fled to America to escape the cult.

Black is currently re-aired on my TV, and perhaps I should give a Showa era a taste, for the part of escaping to America, would like to see on how they filmed the location, as mostly from the Heisei part I watched, the location filming is rather limited for KR, like multiple similar location is re-used and many of them are quite locked in Japan. I do feel that Kuuga got several Showa feelings in the fights or special effects, and other phase 1 IMO, probably except Den-O, also does have more of Showa feel in the recording tone or such.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's bizarre. It's a distracting choice, and it smacks of the weird storytelling choices that are all over this story for me.
I don't know that this tribute did a great job illuminating what made Black/RX special? I mostly just bounced off the non-Decade parts of this story. Black/RX mostly just read as SHOWA to me, all masculine nobility and regrettable chivalry (he won't fight Femme, which, UGH), and the show doesn't really spend enough time defining his character. The early RX scenes spend more time setting up the new threat of Dai Shocker, and then the early Black scenes are just riffing on the similarities of the two Kotaros. There's a big RX scene at the end of the first part where Kotaro acts like he's been around for the entire episode, when he has not, and so his heartfelt speech to Tsukasa plays like a parody of the kind of speeches Tsukasa gives to outsiders.
This whole story uses its tribute characters as things you're already assumed to care about, which is a mistake that I don't feel like this show has made before?
It felt way more insider-y to me than I recall feeling. Even the Sentai one made a pretty good case for caring about the Sentai cast!

SWITCHBLADE: I think part of it is that the show was banking on the "holy crap, it's Tetsuo Kurata" factor, definitely. Not only the first actual past headlining Kamen Rider to appear on the show in that capacity, but it was again one of the most popular characters that they could have brought in.
The other thing is that, as you may have guessed from the clips after the credits, we are in full-on movie set up mode.

Even Shinji would claim that Rider War is too much for a girl in Episode Final movie. Though yeah, I'm never a fan of 'regrettable chivalry' like that too, though I'd be more repulsed if it's showing that only female are worth caring, while males are expendable, like.... Kabuto's Daisuke (it's 1 character though instead of a theme). I'd like for the 'masculine nobility' more though as in to make the cast relatively more grounded that not every cast somehow having pretty-looks or such.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's such a disappointment to have a clever, cathartic Kobayashi story -- one with evocative subtext -- and then follow it with a ham-fisted version of a very similar emotional arc.
WE JUST DID A STORY WHERE TSUKASA FINDS STRENGTH AND SUPPORT IN HIS FRIENDS.
LITERALLY JUST DID IT.
NATSUMI WAS THE LYNCHPIN FOR THAT STORY, TOO!
This one was a huge bummer for me.

SWITCHBLADE: So from what I've heard, the original writer quit the show because he didn't want to do all of this stuff with Dai Shocker and/or the Showa era. The new writer was brought in and it often feels like he didn't really know what Tsukasa's deal was meant to be or just didn't care. It's part of why he ends up feeling like a really inconsistent character from story to story.
I'm not sure when it sets in, but there definitely feels like there was a point where a lot of people involved just threw up their hands and gave up on ever trying to put all of these disparate pieces together into something cohesive.
(The "oh fuck it, just do something" point is very obvious, but I feel like there was a middle ground in between)

I don't know if this is about the Tsukasa forgetting his lessons being too old now and that it grates on you know where you tolerate it more before, but yeah that's something DreamSword did brought up before about Tsukasa having memory loss, which I agreed too. I do feel weird too about hating the word friend, but personally think though, Tsukasa's declaration of being unable to feel other's pain is worse than declaring that he hates companionship. I do think however, Kotaro is one of the people that Tsukasa genuinely fully respect of, he's the most courteous when interacting with him, with little to no talking down or such. Though still, as Switchblade talks about the changing writer, that'd be the reason if you'd ask why it's inconsistent and feels lazy, changing writer does can eff some stuff up in a series.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I would be way more into Narutaki if this show realized he was a joke, but this story very specifically does not do that. It's a story all about how terrible Tsukasa is for his friends' safety and emotional well-being, something it dealt with more thoughtfully last goddamn week.

SWITCHBLADE: Again, there was a point where the show just completely gave up on Narutaki as a concept and we are definitely well past that mark. He literally exists just to show up for his scene, blame Decade, and collect his pay check.

Probably yeah, Narutaki is an example of someone who should be treated as a joke in-universe, or like the memes people make about him, for his ridiculous hate on Decade to improve, probably that way he can keep his radical personality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Oh, agreed. The only parts of this story that worked for me were the Tsukasa/Kaitou scenes. Kaitou's so pissy whenever Tsukasa brings up his other relationships!
Like he doesn't know which one Natsumi is!
It's cute and funny, that whole thread, but it's also proving the story's thesis that everyone needs someone in their lives, or life isn't worth protecting/living.
Kaitou needs Tsukasa, even if it's just to infuriate.
(It is NOT just to infuriate.)

Like you, I do think that as much of a douchebag Tsukasa is, I do think that Kaitou is clearly worse. Not on Faiz level, but when a show has a jerk main protagonist where the secondary one is made worse just like usual.... and Kaitou's action in this episode is one of the worse one coming from him to just put Natsumi's life in danger for his own selfish treasure-seeking desires. Albeit there's a redeeming quality in his fairness which leads for Natsumi's life to be saved. Still that'd be similar to "push you to the cliff then pull them back up" kind of thing.