[GuardianAngel87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

If you want, then why not taste?

Admittedly, from what little I have seen of Gavv so far (already up to episode 3), I am already liking Shouma as the show's lead hero. I am also enjoying what I am seeing so far on Kamen Rider Revice on which I am already up to episode 5 especially the dynamic between Ikki and Vice.

[Kiwami]

"Kamen Rider The Winter Movie: Gotchard & Geats Strongest Chemy★Great Gotcha Operation"

I randomly remembered I hadn’t seen this movie yet, but kind of wanted to just for the Fubuki VA gig. And I do like Geats, so there's that, but...

Man, I really, really can't stand the Gotchard cast, even almost 2 years later. They are so irritatingly annoying. The ever present dumb antics, the constant screaming of "Gotcha-Boy" - dear lord. I feel like I lost more brain cells watching this than were used to write and direct these characters.

Anyways, the story is super basic, like these two sets of shows just exist in the same world no questions asked? Yup, here we are. There’s enemies, fight them! Here’s a quest for you to solve. Quest’s over, well done, goodbye!

I know they want to have pre-school kids in the cinema, I know that’s the target audience to begin with, but neither Geats’ nor, and I can’t believe I’m saying this; Gotchard’s main shows are so bluntly simple.

Action wasn’t anything to write home about either, especially given how awesome Geats was in that regard, in fact I noticed one scene, were a Rider was shooting their weapon into a general direction, but there was neither an enemy there nor did they bother to animate a shot coming out of the weapon, It looked quite weird.

The highlight was Valvarad acting like a slasher movie villain for a second, unexpected but surprisingly fitting.

The one saving grace of this movie, or two depending on how you want to look at it, are the Rider Chemies. They are so dumb, I love them. They use little puppet plushies for most of their scenes, except the Geats Chemy ("Hi Friends!") which has a 3D model sometimes, although I prefer the puppet. There are scenes were they just have these toys sitting around idle, they do nothing, just sit around chilling. That is so Toku, they trick your simple brain into believing these little critters can move so when they are just there doing nothing you don’t even question it anymore.

And yeah, the Geats Chemy rules. Not only because of the voice work, but also because, well – how the heck did I never get spoiled on its backstory? Ace had a cute dog in the past, Constantine, nicknamed "Con" (heh) who died in a car accident, but couldn’t leave Ace behind to move into afterlife so their soul followed him around, the freak situation which turned the other Geats Riders into Chemies also hit that soul so it became a VTuber, I mean a Chemy, of course.

Heck, the story starts with the scene of the dog dying, I forgot all about it because the movie was a drag to sit through so when this plot came back at the very end I was genuinely surprised. And well, I’m a big old softie when animals are involved so this got me good.

This winter movie also marks the first appearance of Kamen Rider Majade, who should’ve been the main Rider of the season anyhow, I will never let go of that thought. It was cool. Like, I’m not a fan of doing this kind of debut when the show has to essentially repeat it to not confuse viewers, but seeing her kick ass again was neat.

Overall the film was quite boring and not very well done, could’ve done without watching it to be honest, I did love seeing the weird Rider Chemies however. But now Houtaro is in my head once more and I can hear him scream "Gotcha!" again, please no, make it stop.

[GuardianAngel87]

After weeks, if not months, of being stalled, I have finally continued right where I left off on the original Kamen Rider series and I am already about to be five episodes away from reaching the show's halfway point. Getting through this series unfortunately really does take forever.

[Locke]

Almost finished my watch through of Gavv, might post longer thoughts when I get to the end. My overall thoughts some five episodes away from the end is Gavv at it’s best is some of the best Rider around, genuinely, but I just think the show is overall just kind of a mess.

And maybe not in the way other Rider shows are a mess. I just think the show lacks a clear focus and a driving engine, but is able to convince you for like half the show that it actually does have a focus and an engine, right up until the point where it needs to actually start paying things off and the reality that the show has kinda been going nowhere the whole time becomes suddenly super apparent.

There are far worse offenders in this regard in other shows, but it almost hurts more here cause I really loved Gavv during the first half, and even during its messiest moments in the back half I still think the show is pretty wonderful, I just maybe wish they gave the writing room a few more draft attempts before shooting.

The main reason for checking in though is I finished watching the Gavv Summer Movie and I thought it was super fun. Kinda felt like a bit of a filler episode rather than like a proper movie, but it was fun to get all the cast back together (they are really what make Gavv for me, such a loveable bunch of characters with such tangible chemistry, they manage to put that on full display here, if only briefly) and play through a what if scenario, while retaining so much of the wonderful queer-coding of the main show and introducing us to Zeztz.

While it doesn't have really any higher production values than a standard episode really in terms of pure production quality (and it seems like all the new Riders / forms are just reused parts of existing suits from the main series), it balances that out in the scope and scale of the action scenes.

Honestly, just as an aside, and I know this has a lot more like filmic language and choreography baked into it compared to a standard episode. But even like taking a standard episode of Gavv, I have also gone back and started watching Drive again which I am pretty sure was one of the final shows for me before my Toku candle went out and I kinda fell off actively following every series. And like maybe from a pure production quality standpoint things haven't moved as much as you would have maybe wanted, but shows like Gavv and Zeztz show we really have come a long way when it comes to the superhero stuff in a Rider show.

I’m still early into Drive, so it might change, but right now, every fight scene is just dudes standing still cranking plastic crap, while their Drivers shout Engrish and fire CG bullshit at each other. Like I am so close to falling off of Drive again because I think the actual Rider stuff is the worst part of the show, it is just so boring.

I feel like shows like Gavv and Zeztz have done such great work in fleshing out action scenes and making them interesting in the moment to moment, not just flashy poorly disguised toy commercials (even though I know that is what they are all in cases, you don’t have to be blatant about it).

The scene of the Stomach Family all fighting shoulder to shoulder had to get the biggest pop from me though. Even if it was only brief, I still feel like this movie uses them better than the actual show does!

I also liked how it leaned into the body horror stuff from Gavv, one of the many meander to nowhere storylines in Gavv is the body horror stuff, and I do think it was a shame they never really committed to it fully. But it comes back in full force here, and is pretty gruesome as well.

If I were to have any real complaints over the film, it is probably running time. I think the film is fine as is, but I couldn’t help but wonder how special this might have been had we had more breathing room to play out more of the what-if scenarios, to spend more time on the relationship between Shouma and Taorin and to give the villains proper motivations. Again, I don’t think it ultimately matters because I think the film is pretty great as is, but that doesn’t mean I can’t want it to have been even better.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

I?m still early into Drive, so it might change, but right now, every fight scene is just dudes standing still cranking plastic crap, while their Drivers shout Engrish and fire CG bullshit at each other. Like I am so close to falling off of Drive again because I think the actual Rider stuff is the worst part of the show, it is just so boring.

I feel like shows like Gavv and Zeztz have done such great work in fleshing out action scenes and making them interesting in the moment to moment, not just flashy poorly disguised toy commercials (even though I know that is what they are all in cases, you don?t have to be blatant about it).

Well, I understand that Heisei shows are largely viewed more positively due to nostalgia, and there's certainly something to criticize about them. But still, there was Wizard, with its absolutely stunning fight choreography. Although, as for Drive, I remember its action scenes mostly for the emotional intensity, not the spectacular fights. And, well, for the inventive effects, like Jackpot.

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Well, I understand that Heisei shows are largely viewed more positively due to nostalgia, and there's certainly something to criticize about them. But still, there was Wizard, with its absolutely stunning fight choreography. Although, as for Drive, I remember its action scenes mostly for the emotional intensity, not the spectacular fights. And, well, for the inventive effects, like Jackpot.

Wizard was one of my favourite shows back in the day, and I recognise sentiment had shifted in my time away, but back in those days Wizard was not looked upon kindly.