[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

And finally, with the debut of Revice, comes the debut of my feature for Revice when you get around to watching it.

Very cute story! And thanks for all the info!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I could go on about this thing endlessly, which is itself one of the reasons I love it so much.

Wow! Thanks so much for the in-depth thoughts! This was a pretty fun film to engage with (the entire Real World sequence in the middle is maybe a Saber-era highlight for me, despite not really unpacking it here, time has been not helpful), and it's fun to see many folks sharing their memories here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

In addition, I note that in this film, Saber becomes the most important hero in the franchise, because it is he who inspires Shotaro to return to creativity, which means that without his intervention there would be no riders, no sentai, not even Zubat. Amazing if you think about it!

Touma Inspired Sentai And Kamen Rider is an incredibly weird thing to think about, but I don't hate the writer Rider having a greater significance than any other hero.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

Also, I get what you're saying, about the final battle being a long string of catchphrases (said by some incrdibly bad sound-alikes, Jesus Toei, was your stock library being cleaned that day?) being Toei boasting about how Kamen Sentai is the best thing ever, but I've been thinking about it - Sure, Rider/Sentai might from one angle be a tool to sell impressionable kids some merch, but also, merchandising franchises come and go. These characters, and indeed those catchphrases, wouldn't mean anything to anyone if the writers and characters and stories were just a vessel to sell toys in the minds of everyone. That probably ties into how nostalgia is used in modern media as a crutch vs as inspiration, which is something equally deep as the intersection between art and selling toys. Idk, I'm no sociologist.

I mean, it's a messy thing to try and untangle, because art and commerce have been intertwined for as long as capitalism has been a thing, and even before that. You're not going to be able to reach an entire nation for decades unless someone's paying for it.

And, yeah, people have been using the power of major companies to stealthily finance personal visions for about as long as patronage has existed, so there's no denying that any (or all) of these tokusatsu shows have high-minded morals and deeply-felt ideologies that are being transmitted alongside a demonstration of the new Q2 toy line.

It's a hard thing to explain, where it starts to tip into feeling like I'm being asked to support a company more than a story, but: the end of that statement, I guess. I love Kamen Rider stories, and I appreciate the franchise, but I don't love Toei or Bandai. There's a transitive property-style thing that it feels like the movie might accidentally wander into during some of the stirring defenses of a pair of world-class tokusatsu franchises, and it makes me a little less excited.