[Locke]

Faiz 20.

Probably the best episode in a while, this episode reflected that this show has a pretty personal understanding of its characters and used them accordingly for great results. I'll be interested to see what this cold thing is all about, if anything.

Plus - most importantly - it feels like the villains are finally making some kind of move. Mr J may have been entirely worthless, but it seems with him out of the way the others have really picked up the slack.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Plus - most importantly - it feels like the villains are finally making some kind of move. Mr J may have been entirely worthless, but it seems with him out of the way the others have really picked up the slack.

His replacement is a much better villain, too.

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

His replacement is a much better villain, too.

I don't really know how the chick killed the dude with Champagne, especially as her Orphenoch form uses a fencing sword but that shit was awesome.

Also Poem Whip kinda sucked when he was first introduced - even if he did beat the shit out of Yuji - so it was nice to see him really boss Takumi before turning into Faiz this episode.

[Locke]

Faiz 21. - Holy hell is this show getting good.

It's nice to see Takumi actually have an emotional response to the Faiz stuff. For about the first time in the whole series, the Faiz stuff doesn't feel like a completely disconnected sub narrative about a man in a rubber suit fighting monsters.

Secondly I like how this episode finally made the middle section of the episode worthwhile. Faiz has a tendency to bookend the important things during the cold open and the wrap up of each episode, leaving the middle to be almost entirely filler but with the twist with the pizza shop owner, that I probably should have seen coming but didn't, it was probably the first episode worth watching from start to finish.

Not to mention that the action was great, I'm a sucker for seeing Riders - and in this shows case, monsters - fight out of suit as it really adds to the believability of it all.

Also holy form change Batman, it is like a combination of Kabuto and Trial...before either of them existed! After Kuuga and Blade I was really ready to write of Heisei Rider in terms of action, so it blows my mind just how great this show is on a pure visual level. God Mr J's so called replacement didn't last long, though, did he?

Not to mention that I love Yuuji and Takumi's budding friendship, especially as an audience we're more knowledgeable of the two characters than the characters themselves are. Can't wait for them to find out the truth.

[Suzu]

Hibiki 1&2
Wow. Just wow. The show starts out really fascinating and unusual and I love it already. The atmosphere is both magical and scary, the imagery is breathtaking and the designs look amazing. The characters seem fun so far (though I still don't get over the fact that Kanbe Miyuki has been dead for almost 6 years now. It's a bit saddening to watch her on the show, being as happy and joyful as she always was...).
It's really, really different from anything I've seen in tokusatsu so far, but the style reminds me a bit of the Fatal Frame series for PS2 and Xbox, having the same creepy atmosphere around Japanese Folklore. And those are some of the best games I ever played.

It's heartbreaking to think that this series will be changed to another style and direction at some point... :/

[Locke]

How is the quality of the episodes you've watched? I'm really interested in Hibiki but I heard it's some of the worst quality ever.

[ElConvoy]

The quality on the Hibiki encodes is not the best to be honest. It doesnt really bug me all that much but especially during some of the more "artsy" scenes it can get a little too blurry and hard to follow some times.

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElConvoy

The quality on the Hibiki encodes is not the best to be honest. It doesnt really bug me all that much but especially during some of the more "artsy" scenes it can get a little too blurry and hard to follow some times.

Yeah that is what I heard before, oh dear. Hopefully some better scrubs end up happening at some point.

[Suzu]

It never bugged me personally. The picture is okay for old TV-N codecs, it does seem somewhat clearer then Magiranger (which was my first Sentai, so I'm kinda used to it). Of course it's not as beautiful in the blurry scenes (mainly the fights), but the filters in that scenes probably wouldn't even allow a much clearer picture in HD quality.

[Locke]

Maybe I'll give it a go once I've done with Faiz!