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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Revice
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06-23-2023, 10:16 PM
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Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,713
KAMEN RIDER JEANNE & KAMEN RIDER AGUILERA WITH GIRLS REMIX - EPISODE 1
I have been waiting for this day since Girls Remix was announced.
My favorite thing in any Kamen Rider series tends to be the stories they tell about women, because they’re so
rare
. Stories about sons, fathers, brothers, male friendships… that shit’s as common to the franchise as amnesia is in Revice. You can’t turn on a random Heisei episode without seeing a father trying to reconcile things with a son he neglected, or seeing two skinny boys who probably won modeling awards battling over a shattered friendship. It’s the meat of this franchise, for better or worse.
But
women?
God, the number of the stories that center a female perspective, or value a woman’s story? Minuscule in comparison, and that’s counting the ones that are so misguided as to make me shout an Ikki-esque I’M BOILING OVER at whatever stupidly patronizing resolution is put forward. This franchise has carved out some great female characters, and memorable arcs for them, but they exist in such weird, siloed isolation. Pathos and passion, floating in a sea of testosterone.
So to learn that there’d be a TTFC series that starred Akiko from W, Poppy from Ex-Aid, guest-starred Rinko from Wizard, and co-starred a bunch of new women I was sure to love – spoiler, I absolutely did – was an incredibly exciting development. Yeah, it’s a TTFC thing, instead of an actual TV series; and yeah, it was bound to disappoint my fevered imaginings of high production values and insightful commentary about how a woman’s narrative has to conform to a man’s perspective; but just the fact that it
existed
was enough to have me waiting for the day I’d get to experience it. And we did it, gang. We got to the point where I’d get to watch Girls Remix.
It’s okay.
Best bit, by far, was watching all the energy of Poppy, Sakura, Izu, and Reika play off of each other. Them talking about how they came up with their Henshins?
Glorious
. Worth the wait, if I only got that. I knew Rinko was a cameo, and that Valkyrie was voice-only, so I’m not disappointed that they weren’t in the rest of the episode. (God, how I wish they were! Akiko's fun, but can you imagine Akiko playing off of
Yua?!
) But that little scene of female friendship, where it’s these characters from shows where they never had another woman to talk to, let alone talk to them about Kamen Rider stuff? That’s… I just feel like that’s too unique to squander in the middle of an episode, and then surround it with a mystery procedural about trying to get Hana inducted into her third cult.
And, like, I get it: This is a Jeanne and Aguilera series, with Legend Riders. It’s The Mystery, but the Ladies Night edition. We’re not really here to tell a story about Akiko or Reika or Poppy, we’re here to explore Hana’s thoughts on family, and Sakura’s inability to patch things up with a pissed-off girlfriend. (Most relatable moment: A perplexed Sakura trying way too hard to be upbeat to defuse the tension, and her girlfriend getting more pissed-off at how fake it is.
I have been there, Sakura!
) It’s all sort of dumb, the mysterious sister/family that Hana never mentioned before, or why/how that sister found her in the first place, but it’s easy to forgive those plot concerns when you’ve only got 15 minutes or so to kick off your story. (In the same boat is How Did Akiko Find These Women And Why.) The special foregrounds the Hana/Sakura relationship at the expense of its Legend Riders, but at least I
like
the Hana/Sakura relationship. This special could’ve been about way worse things than that.
It’s not, though. It’s built around good characters, and I want to applaud that. It’s not what I was hoping for, but almost nothing Toei made would’ve been. What I got was a stylishly directed episode (I assume Sakamoto held Toei management at gunpoint, filmed from a low and tilted angle, until he was allowed to direct this) that gave little moments to a half-dozen of my all-time favorite characters, and also Akiko from W. It’s not especially deep or insightful, but it’s at least warm and enjoyable. It’s a start!
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