[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I freakin' love the Specter movie sooo much. The amount of guts it had to try and tie together so many of Ghost's sloppier bits into something more worthwhile is commendable, and while the end result still isn't entirely airtight, it really feels like a present for everyone who stuck with Ghost to the bitter end. Just look at how they handled Takeru in it. Everybody else gets their wish granted because it's a story where Alain and Makoto are firmly the main characters, and yet I still get to be happy too because he made sure to do some speechifying in what little screentime he has. It's the definition of a win-win scenario.

And that climax is honestly one of the single most hype moments I've ever seen in Kamen Rider. Especially that Rider Kick. I still vividly remember my mind being totally blown watching it for the first time and realizing after a second or two the significance of the fireworks that were suddenly going off behind Specter. It's this absolutely perfectly timed moment where the literal plot bleeds into the visual symbolism in a way that's just... I mean, wow is it good.

Yeah, the camerawork in the finale of RE:BIRTH is really top-notch. There's a balance between spectacle and clarity that I think is really tricky in Rider fights, so I'm always thrilled when someone comes up with clever angles and gimmicks that feel like they help tell a story.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

And thank you for making this thread, by the way. I'm not gonna lie, my initial reaction to seeing it was "oh f***, here we go again", so it was a pleasant surprise to see you consistently giving the show such a fair shake and really approaching it on its own terms rather than simply dismissing everything you didn't like about it without a further thought. This is easily some of the most level-headed analysis of this show I've seen, and it was cool to see how unique your particular perspective was. I've certainly never seen someone say Ghost is at its best in the back half before. Even I tend to agree the show was strongest around either side of the middle, so it was something of a shock to see you having so much fun with some of those later episodes.

I feel like Ghost hit me in the end the same way Wizard did, where once they landed on an ending I was able to clear away in my head the stuff I didn't like, and see this clear, bright thread of what they were trying to do (plotwise with Wizard, emotionally with Ghost). When the show would get out of its own way, I think Ghost is really, really solid. They would just occasionally make dumb mistakes that handicapped them for huge chunks of story.

And, y'know, people really rag on the last string of Ghost episodes, and it just feels a little disproportionate. Like, the way some people talk about it, you'd think it was a swirling morass of disappointment. I mean, it's not like the show forgot to do fight scenes and form changes and explosions and Omega Drives and sacrifices and escapes and all. That stuff is still there! It's in practically every episode! I don't know if it's folks feeling let down after the heights of Drive (fair) or the online tendency to regard a lack of perfection as The Worst (less fair), but I didn't think the end of Ghost was nearly the catastrophe folks made it out to be.

That beginning, though. Eesh. Eeeeeeeeesssssshhhhh.