[Fish Sandwich]

Okay, watched quite a few Rider things today between Saber, suddenly finding out a bunch of the more notable stage shows are getting subbed, and TV-N doing the back half of Project Thouser, so let me just get some thoughts down of them:

- I really didn't like Project Thouser at all, but just in a neutral, feeling nothing kind of way, rather than any kind of active disappointment. It does everything it sets out to do in terms of filling in blanks and whatnot, but I found it largely uninteresting in its execution, and I honestly feel more confused about how certain plot elements connect after watching it than I did before. It's not a bad time by any stretch, but it feels very much like something produced entirely out of obligation ("Blu-ray extras are a thing; Zero-One needs a thing!") rather than a true desire to tell this story.

- I can sum up Kamen Rider Zangetsu in two words – holy s***. This thing was outstanding. The exact opposite of what I just said about Project Thouser at the end there. Every facet of this starting with its mere existence so long after Gaim ended just screams of people who were passionate about getting it made. The production quality seems quite good as far as I can tell as someone not really into theatre, first of all; certainly several cuts above the typical toku stage show in terms of how special effects are integrated, and well, the literal staging.

At any rate, I quickly felt absorbed into the world being portrayed, but that's even more so down to what I felt was a story so good it's a shame to think this play will probably never have the same level of recognition as the other Gaim Gaiden projects. With Nobuhiro Mouri writing, and some level of assistance from the show's other two writers, the whole thing is essentially this condensed version of Gaim as a whole, encapsulating all of the more mature elements and themes from it. It's a story about stunt double versions of the Beat Riders (seriously; some of them have an almost freakish resemblance; whoever cast this thing deserves a medal) locked in all too familiar struggle that raises questions about the inevitability of oppression by those with power, and the vicious cycles that creates.

It's a touch macabre, but it's delivered in a way I didn't find overbearing at all. The sort of heightened nature of this being a play contributes a lot to that, I think; there's a sense of... unreality, I guess, to a production where fight choreography can involve large amounts of synchronized dancing (and before you ask, no, not from Takatora himself) that keeps the tone a little more fun and makes the weirdly coincidental level of deja vu going on feel more palatable than it might've been in a straight V-Cinema or something. It's all thematic, you know? You don't have to take it all 100% literally if you don't want to. I thought the pacing was fantastic as well, always moving from turn to turn at a real clip, which further kept me engrossed in the plot.

Bottom line is that this is amazing; mandatory viewing for Gaim fans, as far as I'm concerned. I hope I'm not overhyping it, but speaking as someone who has a melodramatic love-hate relationship with Gaim, it reminded me of everything I liked about it without so much as a hint of what I didn't. I'm now very happy Kachidoki Zangetsu has wormed its way into official Rider canon to the extent it has, because it deserves it for way more reasons than just looking cool.

- Kamen Rider Ghost Final Stage just put the biggest smile on my face.



The wonderful thing about being largely ignorant of this side of tokusatsu is that, four-ish years after the show ended, I got to watch a "new" Ghost thing today. Something I knew basically nothing about prior. Just that alone makes me happy, and the simple fun vibe of this one certainly got some mileage out of that feeling. I mean, all the Ghost characters teaming up to hold a goofy tournament to decide the strongest Hero? Like, yes, I am ALL over that. I've been joking about my (not entirely joking) desire to see a Kamen Rider Onari spin-off for years, and little did I know, he had already received the honor of teaming up with his main man Goemon thanks to this stage show.

It's a whole lot of lightweight fun that ends with Takeru saying the audience were the real Heroes the whole time, a level of heartwarming sugary goodness that is so thoroughly Ghost it actually got me genuinely choking up a tiny bit thinking about how much this show has meant to me over these past few years. I was going to end that last sentence with some dumb joke or something at first, but, yeah, I don't know, this silly little thing honestly got me feeling emotions. That's definitely not going to happen to everybody, but if you meet the criteria of "is a fan of Ghost", I think you'll definitely get some fun of your own out of this too.