[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I remember that someone gets mad over someone/something not related to Riders/monsters being one of the focus on the story in a KR series and had a passionate hatred for it, so I think normally people like it when a toku is even formulaic as long as it's all about Riders/monsters. But nah I can never be like that, instead formulaic toku doesn't interest me. I think it's unfair to hate the non-toku stuff/characters just because they are more mundane.

I think a lot of it is about balance. I love Kamen Rider for its colorful action AND what it's saying about the people involved in the colorful action. Showing me people living their lives, having non-monster problems, it gives context and scope and scale to the monster problems. When it's All Monster Problems All The Time, it can wear thin, feel boring. You need to spend some time with the people in the suits for the suits to feel special.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

This is also part of the reason why I check the story/character in KR primarily, because many of the fights or form performance (fighting style, finisher, etc.) disappoints me. The many devices collected are actually to sell more things to kids tbh. But I also want for those powers to be used beautifully and maximized.

The fights and finishers, it's... this goes back to the need for balance, it's like punctuation when it's used correctly. If they've told their story well, with recognizable emotions and coherent themes, if they're saying something worth listening to, when they HENSHIN and brawl and detonate a monster, it feels like the exclamation mark on the sentence. When the villains get the upper hand, when the heroes get the floor wiped with their faces, that beating becomes an ellipsis, the story holding its breath or teasing out a pause.

For the collectibles, I got mad at Ghost for doing them badly, not for doing them at all. Like, I love that shit. I unironically love Gashats and Eyecons and Shift Cars and all of that. It's totally for kids, but, y'know, so is Kamen Rider? What keeps me coming back to Kamen Rider, what keeps me watching series and falling in love all over again, it's how it's a franchise designed to sell toys to children AND a vehicle for exploring the need for empathy, the horrors of war, the value of cooperation, and a limitless number of other themes. I wouldn't want a Kamen Rider show to sacrifice either one of those ingredients to add more of the other.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Probably the lesson here is that first part doesn't sum up anything. Especially that many journeys are about developments of people.

I mean, yes and no? There's value to sticking things out, to seeing them through. I can't quit even the most aggravating Kamen Rider shows, because I know there'll be something special at some point. (The Phoenix spotlight episodes of Wizard! I'll bring them up forever!) Being too quick to judge can keep you from discovering some really great art. Patience is a virtue, and all that.

But, like, I think it's fair to point out when a show is making it unnecessarily difficult on its viewers. I totally get why folks bailed on Ghost, and I can't say they made the wrong decision for their own happiness. If you're hating watching a show, it's okay to quit! You don't owe that show more than the time you've already given it. If the arc of a character starts Horrible and ends Great, it's hard to say that it's always worth the effort. I don't know. It's easy, I think, if you've seen the arc of a character to feel like it was time well-spent. It's a lot less easy to feel like you're on a good trajectory when you're having a bad time at the start.