[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

Armed Saber is an anomaly because it's a power-up item that Inoue actually wrote in how and why it shows up, instead of having it appear out of thin air and then never questioned again. (I liked it's movie origins more though, which is more contrived but slightly more thematically fitting. Slightly!)

Yeah, he makes a bigger deal out of Armed Saber here. He's trying, but... ugh, it's still so dumb.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

Oh! Okay! Neat!

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

And as for Armed Hibiki being a radical departure from everything beforehand in every way? I think that’s kind of the point. For hundreds of years, the Oni in Kantō have basically had a strict status quo for dealing with Makamou (a set of parents plant the egg somewhere out in the wilds, the Oni find them, kill the parents and then wipe out the monster as it hatches) but the Makamou’s bosses have changed the rules, by creating Makamou that are born fully grown to directly attack people and having their only oversight coming from the Super Douji and Hime, who have a lot more intelligence that the normal version and the clones who were previously providing oversight (though not by much). You could say “but they already beat one of the new breed once”, but to quote from Toy Story 3 “they got lucky once”. There’s no guarantee they can go on beating a new threat with old methods. It’s kind of a theme in shows with a heavy Japanese influence and a legacy theme that the heroes do better against the bad guys when they try something new or previously thought impossible instead of relying on the ancestors’ methods forever.

So, I like this explanation, but while it could fit metatextually, I'm not sure it's supported in the narrative?

For one, it comes from Kogure, who is specifically called out by Hibiki as being the archetypal Old And Traditional Japanese Man. If the point of Armed Saber was to show Takeshi trying new things or considering different approaches, I'm not sure it works in a story if it comes from a guy who demands things be done the way he did them as an Oni.

Second, Armed Saber shows up at the same time the upgraded Douji and Hime show up, just as the pattern is changing. But we find out in 33 that the Armed Saber was being tested a month ago, which means it must've been in the design phase even earlier... way before the Makamou plot changed, and back when the Oni had things well in hand. There wasn't anything in-story that suggested that the Oni desperately needed some new piece of tech to even the odds.

Third, it's just not how this show ever treated Getting Better as a concept? Hibiki's whole thing is about training yourself to handle problems and challenges. Having do a brief training session and then handing him a super-powerful sword... what is the lesson there? What about that speaks to Hibiki's resilience, or dedication, or drive? Kogure just makes him more powerful.

Finally, it gives the drum guy a sword, and I will never feel like that's a smart idea.

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Originally Posted by catwhowalks

My big issue with that is, if you can get a powerup form just by training hard, why is Hibiki seemingly the only Oni every to have seemingly achieved this? It's not like he's the only Oni that trains hard!

Otherwise, yeah, it's far better thematically than Armed, but still obviously forced in there for toy sales. It just displays the different in writing teams, I think.

Well, a) maybe he trains harder, and b) it's not like we've got a huge data set to definitively say no other Oni changes forms seasonally or due to training. I don't think the show categorically says only Hibiki goes through form changes.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Anyway, yeah, Fuse Akira, the singer of Shounen Yo, is Kogure, as Androzani84 pointed out. If you think he looks familiar, I'm not sure where, since it's his voice that was the major clue to his identity.

I thought he was some Kuuga cop I'd forgotten about. His singing voice honestly didn't click with me!