[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

For one, every tokusatsu hero eventually becomes powerful enough to defeat the Final Boss; that's just this genre's storytelling model. Every hero is eventually "OP", at least until the next hero's Winter Movie. It's a weirdly pejorative way of describing the central pillar of toy-driven storytelling.

For another, Tsukasa's problems can't ever be solved by being More Powerful, just like every other Kamen Rider doesn't resolve their central emotional conflicts with a power-up or role-play item. The stuff that Tsukasa has to fix inside himself... that struggle runs parallel to the monsters and supervillains and apocalypses. Him overcoming the things that are broken inside of him, that's the power he needs to defeat some giant CG monster or whatever. The point of all these shows is that the power is pointless without emotional growth.

I guess to be specific, I'm also talking about the opposite, that a villain can cause bigger damage due to their power too, not about how much evil they're - I mean well-intentioned anti-villains can cause bigger damage if they're the most powerful ones, compared to the weaker PoS. For the other toku heroes, I guess the reason why the likes of Tendou and Tsukasa are well-known as the OP one was that they're like that most of the time while the others are eventually becoming said OP (actually in some cases not as they don't outclass the final villains).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

For me, the problem wasn't that he had a sort of obnoxious flaw, but that the show wasn't doing a lot to explain WHY he had that flaw, and it wasn't letting other characters really interrogate the logical errors in Sougo's claims. Taking Sougo to the Misery Fields of 2068 is something the Time Orphans could've done at literally any point in the show, but they can't, because that would resolve the plot too early. So we get a bunch of people acting like I Want To Be A Good Despot is both wacky nonsense, and an unbeatable argument.

Yeah, this is a nice explanation that clears up of character flaw vs delay. I'd guess Geiz too take a part on it by being hellbent to kill Sougo before without considering other solution. Other than that wdyt about this part of my reply (if there's any)?

Quote:

The long term consequence also involves being manipulated by questionable figures, both Woz and Ohma Zi-O himself (who reappeared in the future), of which mostly characters Sougo would choose to deal with short term consequence that he can't ignore something bad happening in front of him, thus he'd still fight as Ohma Zi-O.... as well as other cases of this in KR like in Gaim, Kouta'd still henshin to defend civilians despite Micchy pestering him to throw away the belt as it'd help Yggdrasill's schemes, or Sagara wanting to use him for his own ends. This kind of decision can have those people being deemed as stupid and gullible (those people actually know they're manipulated there but goes along for the benefit), but the opposite case still won't be good either (if they "act smart" for not going along the manipulators), it's in a series that I can't talk about yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I am super into the idea that the menacing, genocidal warlord from the future is also a huge Sougo fan; some weird decades-removed helicopter dad for himself.

I kind of wish Oma Zi-O was the one doing all of the IWAE stuff in the series. Someone make that video!

Speaking of IWAE, I guess Woz fancies it due to how it gave him fabulous hair (for sure Muteki doesn't use this though).


All the other stuff here would be spoiler to talk about though.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

Now, I went into this series thinking it's main story was just going to be collecting the Riders' powers than going up against Oma Zi-O and the Time Jackers, but when episodes like this shows up, that perception was toppled and I began to enjoy the show more. Not to say this show wasn't holding up as anything grand or anything, but this is where Zi-O peaked for me, and while there are points later that made this even better for me, this is where I think it started to be more than just, "so who's showing up this week?"

Looking at anniversary seasons -- and this show specifically -- as mere Nostalgia Delivery Vehicles feels like such a bummer. I'm glad so many people are invested in Kamen Rider Puppy Dog and the Time Orphans!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

I ended up making a highlight reel of my personal favorite moments from the HGF commentary track. YT ended up blocking it in its entirety, and the file size is slightly too big for Vimeo, so anyone curious can instead download it here.

Awesome! I assume it's just Androzani's goodbye, looped a dozen times, but I'm excited to check it out later. Thanks for doing it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I guess to be specific, I'm also talking about the opposite, that a villain can cause bigger damage due to their power too, not about how much evil they're - I mean well-intentioned anti-villains can cause bigger damage if they're the most powerful ones, compared to the weaker PoS. For the other toku heroes, I guess the reason why the likes of Tendou and Tsukasa are well-known as the OP one was that they're like that most of the time while the others are eventually becoming said OP (actually in some cases not as they don't outclass the final villains).

I guess? Power levels aren't really super interesting to me. There's always a point where the hero just obliterates someone due to a power-up, and there's always a point where a new villain throws a planet at someone to indicate that we're in the final storyline. These shows have some narrative templates they just can't break out of.

[GrandComplete]

Sorry I'm late but here we are with the big movie. And one thing I really love is that Sougo gets to have a taste of his own medicine with this movie with him losing memories and his own Uncle and clockshop changing into something else now he know how his seniors feel lol.

Are main bad guy Tid is incredibly weird as he not only a Time Jacker he's a SUPER Time Jacker. Which is never said in the movie and only revealed in supplementary material. Not only that he unconnected with the Time Jackers from the actual show. But a combination of being surprisingly competent with his time powers (seriosuly the amount of times he actually used that to prevent henshin is so great why don't the villains do this more often?), a great performence by the actor, and having enough scenes to give the guy some build up and Iended really liking him as the villian for this movie.

Also Toshihiko Sahashi gets to finally reuse Kuuga BGM after a good 20 years and I canno't be more happy hearing this tune after so long.

And despite how frequent Den-O makes a cameo it also good to hear this theme back ( also so nice to see Takeru Satoh back man)

Speaking of musical choices whoever decided that Sougo putting the story together needed to be a Drive montage needs raise vause that scene was fanservice done without needing returning actors.

The whole thing with obtaining Kuuga power was quite clever using the ancient Kuuga and I wouldn't of minded an actual ZI-O arc like that where the Time Orphans go back to ancient times to meet Riku/Kuuga back then and get to see the history of Kuuga unfold as means to circumvent Joe Odagiri not reprising his role. While using ZI-O Time Travels theme to tell a Kuuga story without fan expectation. Also yeah for an extra effort they got the same guy played the mummified Kuuga in the first episode of Kuuga back to reprise his role as a corpse here lol.
I'd just wished we could've gotten anyone from Kuuga back y'know especially Ichijou but I would of taken anybody Sakurako, the Uncle, Nana, Jean, Minori, Kazari etc too.
Also shame on you Woz for not doing your "Iwae" for Kuuga Armor arguably the most important one anf you dropped the ball man.

And finally the actors for Agito, Ryuki and Decade reprise their roles via voice overs. But I wouldn't be surprised you couldn't tell considering they mostly just grunt and spout catchpharses and memorable quotes like the archvied audio excpet this one line said by Agito.

This is the only new line that not another quote and I automatically reconized it as such because nobody in Agito ever called themselves a Kamen Rider lol.

[gashatfreak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Speaking of IWAE, I guess Woz fancies it due to how it gave him fabulous hair (for sure Muteki doesn't use this though).

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

The whole thing with obtaining Kuuga power was quite clever using the ancient Kuuga and I wouldn't of minded an actual ZI-O arc like that where the Time Orphans go back to ancient times to meet Riku/Kuuga back then and get to see the history of Kuuga unfold as means to circumvent Joe Odagiri not reprising his role. While using ZI-O Time Travels theme to tell a Kuuga story without fan expectation.

That would be pretty neat! There's a whole bunch of Heisei stories you could subvert by having someone in the wrong place at the right time, rendering the future more malleable for the Time Jackers. I could be into that!

[FreshToku]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

This is the only new line that not another quote and I automatically reconized it as such because nobody in Agito ever called themselves a Kamen Rider lol.

That's Ryuki/Shinji saying that, actually, poignant because teaming up with Riders is all he ever hoped for in his own show! Agito's line comes in during the 20 Rider Kicks finisher, when he talks about protecting people's homes.

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 17 - “HAPPY NEW WOZ 2019”



They’re kinda throwing a lot at us this episode, aren’t they?

We get the very fun intro of Kamen Rider Shinobi (he re-uses Ex-Aid’s shoulder pads, so he’s now my favorite suit on this show) in the cold open, which feels like it’s going to be the central mystery for this episode: How is Sougo in 2022? Why is there a brand-new Rider, when Zi-O’s supposed to be the final Rider? What’s this new guy all about? Where are all the floating video screens and rampaging ninjas, now that all of us are in Shinobi’s year?

But then the episode goes PSYCH Dream Sequence, and we’re into a completely different Rider mystery. It’s still about Shinobi; but the 2019 Another Shinobi version, created by the Time Jackers.

Everything with Another Shinobi… it’s fine? It’s a cool monster, but there’s almost nothing to hang onto, narratively. It’s just some mystery for the Team to solve. Beyond Sougo’s prophetic dream, there’s no real emotional stakes to the Another Shinobi plot.

Which is for a good reason! It turns out that the Another Shinobi story is also not the important story for this episode. The important story for this episode is the introduction of Kamen Rider Woz.

There’re a lot of good choices to Hat Woz. (I’m sure he’ll have some other name on the show, but that hat is doing a ton of heavy-lifting as far as He’s A Different Woz is concerned. He’s Hat Woz, probably until summertime episodes start.) Some of it’s in the conception of the character. The idea of him being from a future where Geiz wins is just so goddamn smart. It immediately puts a rift in the Geiz/Sougo partnership, just after they became maybe actual friends in Episode 16. Hat Woz represents a future where Geiz was right. How can Geiz continue to support Sougo’s path to power, when there’s a behatted Geiz fan saying that the world is saved by killing Sougo? Why would Geiz gamble on Sougo’s dream, when Geiz’z dream could come true instead?

There’s also the flip of Hat Woz writing the future, instead of Woz’z chronicling. It’s a fun way to look at history aficionados. Woz was someone who viewed history as a cool story, rather than people’s real lives. Hat Woz takes it one step further, viewing history as actual narrative, a story that he can bend to his uses. It’s sort of saying something about how people bend history to their own purpose (Woz), but sometimes they just rewrite it entirely if it’s more useful (Hat Woz). It’s not an idea that gets 100% fleshed out here, but I like that it exists.

Honestly, it’s an episode where virtually nothing gets fleshed out, and that’s more or less okay. This one’s all about insane curveballs – stuff the show can spend another dozen episodes unpacking and exploring. But it made for a slightly disjointed episode, with at least two Here’s The Real Story reversals in the first 12 minutes. It makes for an episode that sort of feels flabby in the first half, with narrative dead-ends; and then feels overstuffed in the finale, posing a whole bunch of fun questions that I’m interested in, but it’s a cliffhanger. I’m really into the questions this show is posing (and Geiz having his own hype man is, like, chef kiss), but I wish the episode hadn’t saved it all for the very end.

Also, I really like that Kamen Rider Woz is a smartwatch. That’s a brilliant design choice.

[Enchilada645]

Happy New Woz indeed...

And so we start our new arc and with a new narration before the opening kicks in! It's a really cool touch to really signal us moving into a new era of the show. And we get Shinobi! Probably the most overrated Rider I've ever seen tbh. I'll elaborate more later.

Anyway here we have Mr. Silver New Woz. Hat-Woz, since it's his introduction episode, thus a lot of focus falls on him given well... we have a new toy to debut. I like him, he's an interesting dude to bring in to shake things up.

Not much else to say other than well... time for more preview BGM Swaps with the same three from last time. I will continue to say the Ninninger BGM Swap is the best of the three honestly. The reason the BGM Swap person decided Ninninger being that Shinobi's actor played Starninger in that Sentai Season.

Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 18 Preview:

[cosmicrescend0]

Enter the New Year! It's Episode 17!

-Depsite having a one or two ninja-themed Riders, I could never really see KR sticking with it for an entire season as a main Rider's motif? I feel like the acrobatics associated with ninjas could never pair well with Riders and how increasingly bulky the armor can get sometimes. Just seems more of theme suited for Sentai, yknow? (But who knows, maybe Rider Time Shinobi will change my mind.) In any case, Shinobi has a fun design and cool moves, so it's a pretty neat "what if?" scenario.

-A new Woz has arrived, driver in hand! I cannot see this guy's book as anything other than a high-tech password diary! The Time Jackers are just kinda....There, most of the time, so it's exciting to add a brand new threat with even more dangerous powers to mix! I think the reveal of an new future where everything seems ok (at the cost of offing Sougo) is a fun dillema for our characters to face. I remember this Woz being one of my favorites in my inital watch, I hope I still enjoy him on the rewatch.

-I forget if it's been mentioned before, but the Day of Oma! It's a thing now, as a thing our heroes will be forced to confront one day. I have Thoughts about this, but that's for another day.

-All in all, it's a pretty solid opener to a brand new arc! It feels like the Zi-O writers have a much stronger grip on where they're headed with this story, and I'm interested to see where that leads!

[gashatfreak]

I know everyone keeps saying they want Shinobi for 2022, but honestly I'd like it better if they postposned it to 2023 so that Shinobi can be an experienced Rider and swap out that Shinobi Driver for a 'Neo Shinobi Driver' or something to let Shinobi have a proper gimmick instead of a kitbashed Ziku Driver.