[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshToku

Please do not leave your windows open for strangers.

Anyhow, I'm in the same boat of liking Kuuga but I like better the ways the franchise built on what it started. Kuuga's definitely a unique beast in of itself and I wouldn't mind if another series followed it in certain stylistic choices or story beats.

I personally also saw the themes about how gaining more and greater power is actually a burden and curse the first time I watched the show, buuuut I also thought the show didn't successfully convey or carry that theme as well as it could have. I know there's such a thing as reading between the lines, but there were times I felt like I had to fill in the lines myself (especially like how Daguva first appearing to Kuuga happened off-screen!?!)

I appreciate it, though it'll always be a strange in-between of the Showa era of shows and before the more modern style I know today. I consider Agito to be the real start of the kind of Rider I know today, so I look forward to you getting to that!

Yeah, it... I think it's a show that has plenty of space to bring your own ideas into it. Like, for better or worse. It's a show where the conversations tend (at least in my experience) to be very blunt, very informational. There's not a lot of emotional outbursts, rending garments and two-person acting clinics. It's a stoic character talking to a taciturn character, and they are setting up the beats of the current monster plot. That's a deficit, maybe, to a fan like me, who wants to watch a storyteller tell a story I can get lost in, but it's an advantage if you want to reinterpret or expand on what's on screen.

I don't know, it's weird. I feel real weird about it. For a lot of the thematic stuff for Kuuga, I'm kind-of at the stage of Okay But. Like, yes, I think those themes are there. They are completely what the finale of the show is about. Several characters explicitly state it before and after the Daguva fight. But, I don't know if I thought those themes were utilized thoroughly enough, or consistently applied to the series. I can't argue they weren't there, but I can argue they weren't prominent enough to be considered a success.

As always, though, that's just my reaction. If it hardcore clicked with someone else, I think that's awesome. There's nothing, like bad to me about Kuuga, just stuff that didn't work for me. (Okay, well, Jean. Jean is bad. If you think Jean is good, you are bad and should feel bad.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

Kuuga imo is 1 of my favorite rider shows and it all goes back to the intent of the producer. Producer Shigenori Takatera convinced Joe Odagiri to play the role Godai that he wanted Kuuga to “destroy the image that Kamen Rider had until then”. For context Toei believed at the time that Rider was a relic of the past that the kids of the new milenium just wouldn't get with Kamen Rider it had been away from television for 11 years. Takatera wanted Kuuga to be a show that not only show Rider still being relevent but also to bring those older fans something new for the new milenium.

If I were to give a analogy there a old run down house(Showa) vacant for 11 years, and there these construction workers(Kuuga) coming in to clear away debries for the architects(Agito) to create and build new foundation for a new house(the rest of Heisei).

I hope that makes sense. Your right as fan that got into the newer rider shows that it a little jarring for everything that you expect from rider to be frustratingly new and slow but it in this simplistic way of storytelling that I fell in love. Altough I feel Agito maybe more to your speed as it imo has more of Heisei Tropes that were innovated here. But it written by Toshiki Inoue and generally you don't seem to be all that fond of his work.LOL

Ha ha, yeah, that dude. I don't know how Agito's gonna go. I liked at least one of his stories (27 and 28, I think) but holy shit did I not like some of his other ones. It's going to be an interesting winter for me and Kamen Rider Agito!

I like that house analogy. It's weird, looking at Kuuga. I thought I'd find more of the Heisei stuff I know, but it was weirdly crammed with the Showa stuff that I don't care for. As it moved to the end, though, I definitely felt like I was seeing more Heisei Rider than how it started.

Also, hey, welcome aboard TokuNation!