[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It's just some weird personal thing I can't explain logically, but what I remember the most about watching Kabuto was that I did it during Wizard in a period where I remember legitimately wondering if my recent interest in tokusatsu was starting to wane. Which is hilarious to think about in retrospect, when I later decided Wizard was my favorite Rider show and am still so into this franchise years later I've written tens of thousands of words about why Kuuga is the bomb – but at that moment, coming off of a year of constant excitement with Fourze and the shows I was catching up on then, I just wasn't feeling Rider as much in that weird little window of time, and Kabuto has always stayed a show I don't feel super passionate about one way or the other.

For me and this first episode, I think a lot of it comes down to a split between a thing I'm super into (Tendou is this enigma) and a thing I'll largely tolerate (ZECT). With so much of the setup being about the world, the organizations, the monsters, it both makes the Tendou scenes pop more (his light versus ZECT's darkness), while making me less into Tendou's absence. There's a balance the show could've struck better in its debut, at least to make it more my speed. (sorry)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Also, I love that we only get chonky Kabuto in the premiere; Kabuto's gimmick is one of my favorite things about him, and if the show immediately conditioned us to think of it as just something Tendou needs to skip past to do any real fighting, there'd be no point to it. I think it was an odd choice on the surface, but a very smart one.

And it's not like it's a bad suit! I'm not 100% sure where they're going with it, but I like that there's this gigantic ZECT brand on the shoulder. Everything about Husky Kabuto feels like it's a guy in a suit, something that's operated by a technician. It doesn't say superhero yet, and that makes the design work for me.