[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But, yeah, I sort of like this as maybe the last time we see Gentarou. (Fingers crossed for a 10 Years Later movie, but let's be realistic.) He's an official teacher, he's living a good life, and the Fourze Driver came back to him just like Kengo predicted. (PARTNERSHIP!) It's a great, optimistic ending for that guy, if we never get anything else.

The only mistake the director made was admitting that he made a "mistake". I never once questioned why Gentarou suddenly has the Fourze Driver back, cause like you, I also believed wholeheartedly in Kengo's prediction. It's a miracle and I neither need nor want any further explanation. It's just an awesome payoff for the magic of friendship! Thanks for the "mistake", director!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER BUILD MOVIE: BE THE ONE

As such, I don?t really have a lot new to say about this movie. Almost the only thing in the entire story that works is Sento and Banjou?s bond. The Blood are terrible villains, powered by pointless retconning and nothing else. (Their Best Match bottles are ?Redundant? and ?Why Would You Write This Story?.) All of your favorite characters, except for Banjou and Sento, are sidelined for the majority of the film.

This is actually my third favorite Heisei Phase 2 summer movie after Surprise Future and one you'll watching in a few months. I agree that the villains aren't memorable at all, but the emotional crux of the movie with Sento overcoming his loneliness to reunite with Ryuuga was the thing that sold it to me. Well, there's that and also the awesome climax where Cross-ZBuild fight Blood in a descending pit of hell!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And - not to make this last movie write-up for the thread into a bummer - it?s a show I?ll be tackling solo.

I appreciate the folks who reached out to participate in the possible TokuNation Watches Kamen Rider Zi-O thread, but we just didn?t get enough volunteers to make a go of it. With how long Zi-O is, we?d?ve needed 20 people. (And even then, most folks would?ve needed to pull double-duty.) We got 10, and that?s just too far under the minimum to try and make it a group project.

Yeah, I expected that this wouldn't take off, especially after you removed the counter from your sig. But I volunteered anyway, in case it encouraged anyone else. Oh well. It's still impressive that you tried something so ambitious!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Evol(t) is one of my favorite villains, because his actual feelings are so difficult to pin down. Like, Kuroto is dead easy to understand, because he's VERY LOUD, but Evol(t)? Hipster Dad? There's a lot going on with that dude!

Case in point, one of my favorite Hipster Dad moments:



Ostensibly, this is Evol(t) manipulating Sento even further, taunting him into fulfilling Evol(t)'s villainous scheme. But it's also Hipster Dad, giving a frustrated young man some helpful advice after a difficult patch. It's disingenuous and insulting and sweet and productive and funny and cruel and empathetic and sociopathic. Some of it's in the writing and plotting, but a TON of it is in the actor's choices. Just a great, complex character.

Long story short, I will totally accept that Evol(t) saved Sento to piss off The Blood. (He basically says as much, after they're all killed.) But you could just as easily read it as Hipster Dad being disappointed in Sento's pessimism, when he expects so much more from his main adversary. There's a lot of levels!

Same here. What's entertaining about Evolt is how he manages to be two opposite things simultaneously. He's lovable but also despicable. He's one of the strongest villains ever but makes terrible coffee and has a fear of octopus. He's an arch enemy to both Sento and Ryuuga but often acts like he's their father. He's emotional, despite not having human emotions. He's sentimental, despite wanting to destroy the planet. He's so many things!

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

I don't have much to say about this movie but I do love the Build cast and the chase sequence stuff is good.

How has nobody mentioned the part where Build stops mid-chase to take pictures of cute dogs?

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

I feel a little bad now. I kept thinking about volunteering for the Kiva episodes - which I love on such a deeply ironic level that it swings around to being unironic - but I kept forgetting. Zi-O as a show just isn't one that inspires a lot of passion in me, I'm afraid. I still have opinion - oh boy, do I have opinions - but it's not a show that's anywhere near and dear to me as Decade.

Since the TN Watches project is confirmed to be not going ahead anymore, I guess I may as well reveal now that my second choice after the Shinobi arc was the Kiva arc. Nevertheless, I look forward to laughing about that with you when the time comes.

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Originally Posted by Rei

I really only remember a few things about this movie, and I may have unconsciously tuned out the rest leading me to liking this movie fine.

-The absolute gorgeous suits that were Cross-Z Build and Blood (I don't know wh I don't have the former's SHF yet). The metallic gloss that decorated Cross-Z Build was so cool coupled with the fuuto wind effect. Only a bit disappointed that Sento went for a different "RabbitDragon" for the final episode.

I remember that the Golden Rabbit and Silver Dragon Full Bottles were all the hype at the time. So seeing them merge with Genius to create Cross-ZBuild makes it one of my favorite Extra Final Forms for sure. It looks cool and it's symbolic of Sento's and Ryuuga's unbreakable bond. To paraphrase Sento, it's a winning formula!

As for Build RabbitDragon, which is exclusively CGI, it's definitely less cool by comparison. But it's grown on me after I started to consider what it means to Sento. After a scene where all his friends call him their hero, Sento shows that it's just as much the other way around. They're the people who made Sento who he is, who allowed him to become his own person, who made Build a real Kamen Rider. They're his heroes as well. I feel like it's only fitting that Build defeated Evolt using the power of Cross-Z, since it's a power that Evolt never had or understood.

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Originally Posted by Rei

I do wonder what was the reception on Geiz as a whole, I know ZI-O isn't commonly looked upon positively, but I gotta wonder about the characters since I only ever hear about Woz when it comes favorite ZI-O characters.

Without mentioning any spoilers, I think Geiz got some good development in the 20s episode range. I like him more than Tsukuyomi at least, but not as much as Sougo and definitely not as much as IWAE man Woz.