[Tokumonkey]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

He's giving a dramatic speech about trusting his friends while one of those friends is trying to murder him. What Kouta says isn't wrong, and given the framing of the scene, what with the insert song and everything, he's clearly supposed to be right, but that's hugely undermined by the obvious irony at play. Confused moments like that are a dime a dozen in Gaim, and it really hurts the show's ability to convey what it wants to say.

Not confusing, but confused, and that's a fine distinction. The majority of Gaim's Riders are frequently confused, suffering from a lack of information, proceeding on false assumptions, and missing one another's points. They make bad decisions. This serves to maintain dramatic tension. Gaim is mostly a tragedy, and this is one of a series of moments in which the tragedy is ratcheted up. In this specific scene, Micchi is aware of the irony, and it's part of why he's not listening or connecting to Kouta. Kouta's words would just seem hollow. This scene won't pay out until their final battle, when Kouta finally knows who he's fighting, and can make good on his values.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

So at the climax of episode 46, Kouta kills Kaito. There's a whole lot I wanna mention about that episode and everything around it, but for now I'll just say this. For so long I held Kouta responsible for copping out on his beliefs by doing this, but now I get what they were doing.

In addition to the good points you already observed, it's worth noting that one of Gaim's primary themes is moral compromise, which often manifests in characters forced to make horrible choices. We see this most clearly with Zangetsu, but Kouta is presented with his own share.

Some of this is baked into the premise of the show, which felt to me like an attempt to make a better version of Ryuki. (I watched the shows in reverse order, so I only observed this after the fact.) Riders are going to fight, and Riders are going to die.

Moral compromise is a tricky theme for a kids show to tackle, so it's no surprise that Fourze was more consistently able to riff off its theme.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This is what I mean about this stuff. It's so hard to remember what a fun ride this show was when my freshest memories of it are s*** like this. This is why I forgot so much of the love I had for the show up to that point. Being dark and dramatic is fine, but there's something wrong when I find the entirety of Amazons to be less stressful to sit through.

It's stressful, though, because we're led to care about the characters more than I usually do in Rider shows. Amazons is grittier, I guess, but it doesn't register so much with me because I care dramatically less about its characters. (I'm also not finished with it; I haven't been that motivated.)

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I swear I don't usually complain about stuff like this but something about these episodes is just so wrong to me. They almost feel like a completely different show.

I clearly enjoyed it more than you did, but I'm very surprised that Toei let them get away with it.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I like that too but we're watching a guy try to assassinate his friend(?) by planting a bomb right under his nose. Holy crap! Isn't that a little heavy for a kids show?

No arguments from me. Then again, I'm not a kid, and these episodes felt like they were aimed more at an older audience.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

So imagine my surprise when Kouta proceeds to take the broken tip of Kaito's sword and shank him in the chest with it. Not just some half-a**ed stab either. He drives the thing into his stomach for 10 whole seconds (I counted) while both of them scream, Kaito in pain, and Kouta in a mix of emotions I can't describe but man Gaku Sano is a great actor. This completely melted my brain. Not in a good way, either.

I think part of why you disliked it may have been because it feels distinctly unlike modern Kamen Rider. This is part of why I loved it - Gaim was daring - but I sympathize with people who didn't enjoy it. This isn't what any of us signed up for, and although I loved it, hating it is valid.

It was also a key moral compromise situation for Kouta. He couldn't just disarm Kaito. Kaito had transformed himself into a supernatural weapon, and Kaito's express intention was to destroy the world and start anew. It's excruciating for Kouta and for us, since we're invested.

In terms of Gaim being a rehabilitated Ryuki, it corrects the most glaring flaw of that series, which its unwillingness to tarnish its hero, even though the series was about a Rider battle to the death. I don't actually seek out grittiness for grittiness' sake, which is part of why I'm not loving Amazons, but I do want a series to follow through on its premise.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Episode 47
- I was horribly wrong about thinking this was a great epilogue. It's actually a perfect one. Every single element of it is perfectly set up to bring closure to the show.

I utterly hated it at the time, I but I think my feelings were also colored by knowing that 46 was Gen Urobuchi's last episode. The closing scene in 46 was, to me, a perfect ending to the series, so 47 struck me as totally unnecessary. Getting closure for some of the minor characters was nice, but after I finished 47, I chose to pretend that 46 was the last episode.

You've clearly thought a great deal about the show, and I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it. Although Gaim is far and away my favorite Rider show, I agree with several of your criticisms. The time travel foreshadowing was poorly-thought-out, both the huge Rider battle tableau and Mai's attempts to intervene. I was a little surprised that the show did that, since I thought Decade sufficiently proved that it's a bad idea to write a end-of-series set piece into the first episode when you don't have a plan to make that pay off.

I think Gaim's a terrific show, but also a messy one. Heck, if I were to recommend it to someone, it's be with caveats to skip the Hikaider and ToQger crossovers. I'm surprised it managed to carry off as much long-term planning as it did, but it absolutely stumbled over some of the things the first episode committed it to.