[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I kind of want to walk back some of this Inoue bashing, because it's not like he wrote, directed, edited, scored, produced, and acted in these episodes all by himself. A bunch of people contributed to how dumb this project ended up being, up to and including whoever commissioned this project. I don't know if Inoue came in with this pitch, or Toei CEO Thomas Toei asked for this tone/approach specifically, but it's not like this was delivered fully-formed and Toei was helpless to stand against it. An entire company thought this thing was a good idea!

Sorry, to be specific, I refer to the true Inoue as him doing something more independently regarding his works like Ryuki or Faiz novel, not the TV episodes. I just felt that what's done in those work seems to surface more in RT Ryuki here, TV episodes, like Tezuka here. As you said there are other roles in the episode productions, and Inoue is a writer that is frequently put in a leash by the production team but I thought that the leash is loosened or something on this miniseries to have something like Tezuka happened.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It's been a minute, but I seem to recall Asakura being similarly unstoppable in the TV series. My problem with his and Goro's fight isn't that ASakura survives, it's that Goro eats shit for two and a half episodes and STILL can't get over on Asakura. I'm not sure why Goro waited this long in the show to make such a pointless move, other than the show was about to end.

I think I'd pick one of my replies at Ryuki for this one regarding Asakura: Episode 24. For that matter, Shinji (someone that some mistakenly view as weak) did similarly as well later. For non-Survive Riders Ryuga handed him his ass in the movie. T̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶R̶y̶u̶g̶a̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶m̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶f̶o̶r̶m̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶K̶n̶i̶g̶h̶t̶.̶

Though for Final Vents in general, the Riders are given more room to breathe (literally) in this miniseries, while in Ryuki they instantly exploded, making them truer one hit kills to any Riders including to Odin, except for some like Verde's (and Knight can strike back by that albeit he too died afterwards).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Man, this all sounds incredibly speculative to me. For one, I don't think any Kamen Rider writer is doing a ninety-minute special to intentionally ruin/refute someone else's project. Do I think Inoue and Kobayashi might not get along? Sure, maybe. I've disagreed with people I've worked with, and we haven't always been friends. But I've never spent months of my life, at the same company, creating something horrible so it would reflect poorly on them. That level of antagonism and disrespect... like, again, an entire company thought this thing was a good idea. To suggest this whole thing was an Inoue-driven hit-job... man, that is some personal bias and a ton of theorizing. I don't think there's any proof to any of that.

To balance a bit, I also have to say that Kobayashi also can have hit-or-miss trait in her writing as well partly due to that forced view, with her habit to throw in elements and concepts never/rarely used before which conflict with not only expectations but the very foundations of the franchises she writes for. This can be something negative to Kobayashi as well. Admittedly I for now has not found a proof yet for this speculation (though for other example, I've seen a Japanese company doing really spiteful things to others, like Konami to Kojima), but some other stuff here are also can be speculations, like there are no proof about the company thinking it's a good idea, or that it's unknown what counts as good for a company, if it's actual coherent writing or just more platform to promote merchandises, and it's actually unknown too how many supervision a company does to one of their work fields. Just to give an example (not that everything is like this but to give more picture), albeit non-KR related, for "they approved it!" arguments that had happened in either my or other's experience, there are JP companies that has shoddy translation (or even something that can make someone look bad) overseas, and it was revealed by staff that the translation team were not actually watched or that supervision was extremely lackadaisical.

Though sorry if there's a wrong take there. But it seems with how much derailing Ryuki is to the franchise (while it does have some inspiration for KR in the future, this is the talk of it at release), it seems that the company also places a a degree of freedom in Kobayashi to write like that, something that almost killed the franchise (Kobayashi has never watched KR show before at that time!), with the only pressure was her writing a reset ending.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 29 - ?BLADE JOKER 2019?

It?s exceptionally funny, which helps a lot. A delightful 20-odd minutes of tokusatsu. Some of it?s fun physical gags, like Sougo and Geiz realizing five seconds into their Henshin sequences that Kaitou has stolen all of their Ridewatches. Some of it?s the thinly-disguised passive-aggression bubbling up in the expanded Team Zi-O, like when Woz gently suggests that Sougo not attempt to puzzle out the proper temporal conjugation for Geiz and Woz?z backstory. But a lot of it is the almost Blade-like energy of this collection of well-meaning idiots, and how success is never that far from failure.

Kaitou stealing their Ridewatches was funny and also had him still in character as well as showing off his skills. But comedy acts doesn't mean they can be handwaved especially if it's a terrible one. Kaitou's actions caused further problems for the Zi-O main cast, leaving them with limited options to fight against actual threats. While it does probably forge a bond between Geiz and Woz, probably it can be done via other events too, doesn't mean a 'good' outcome makes that deed good at the end (like... if there's an actual villain forging a bond between Geiz and Woz by attacking them both won't mean they're not bad!).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The other big part of Blade is how proximity can forge bonds, even if you?d prefer they didn?t, and that?s where Team Zi-O finds itself in this episode. Woz and Geiz are already at each other?s throats, and it?s been maybe twelve hours. There?s plenty of history there (even if I?m certain we?ll discover that Woz didn?t purposefully get dozens of people murdered), and it?s hard for Geiz to let his anger go, because: Geiz. But there?s a point where Geiz brushes aside Diend?s claim that Geiz and Woz are friends by saying that, No, they?re roommates. It?s a tiny detail, and a funny comeback, but I think it gets to the weird sense of found family the best Kamen Rider shows have. It can sometimes be happenstance that puts people into each other?s orbits, and good things can develop from that. Weirdly, even found families sometimes don?t get to pick who?s in them.

Proximity can forge bonds, but it's not always the case. Sougo's method of bringing Woz and Geiz closer was some bad experience, ngl, it's frequently pulled in school in any conflict against the students (like the bullying things) with them always deliberately making those together which'd just add up more hell, and they never paid any mind to this and keep doing this. But I mean, Geiz is quite justified in his anger here, as revealed here, if his previous appearences except likely now isn't enough to show that he's a villain (who happens to be helping the main protagonist, Woz has done more dirty work, he was the one who got Geiz and Tsukuyomi's resistance team killed as an undercover for Ohma Zi-O, and he's responsible for those 2 going back in time to avert Ohma Zi-O's rise. Like both sides are to blame with Geiz's anger but I'd put much bigger blame to Woz here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This was a great episode for fleshing out the new dynamic of Team Zi-O, as well as Hat Woz?z more direct villainy, but it sure didn?t skimp on the Legend Rider requirements. Amane?s return, and how this episode centered its story on her connection with Hajime, is maybe my favorite Legend Rider decision this show has ever made. (I love her little Heart Playing Card necklace!) It?s sort of the flipside of how we can create bonds unknowingly: what happens when we have to leave those circumstances? Exploring what happened between Hajime and Amane in the years after Blade ended is, seriously, right up my alley.

Less up my alley is Kenzaki?s return, if only for how absolutely bonkers Kenzaki?s various post-Blade appearances have been.

Hajime and Amane's bond is quite shown with a negative outcome here, as Hajime specifically is playing more favorite in Amane, here he'd protect her from attackers even after she became a monster and attacked others, which'd kinda show that Hajime is someone who is less concerned of others who aren't someone he likes (likely he grew out of this in the original series, but he was definitely like this for most of hte series). Though this is still a setup, but at first glance the outcome isn't a pretty one with him participating. And this is Kamen Rider though! While Kenzaki's Blade suit has appeared, iirc it's not stated who was using it, in Kamen Rider the belt isn't one with the user. And iirc it's also not fully known which one of those projects are actually canon, and I felt that many of the stuff there are played for a fan service (all previous Rider appearence). Sometimes the portrayal can regress all developments someone had in the original series, they're portrayed with the version audience is used to. Amane seems to be an adult with even-temper here, and though someone can grow up better when adult, it's usually done when they're actually being given lessons when smaller as leaving a brat's behavior unchecked (of which they do, and in the movie Amane as a teen was a delinquent) usually/often makes them worse growing up.