[Androzani84]

Remember how I mentioned the show’s episodes after 26 got delayed by a week? Well that meant, by lucky coincidence, that this milestone episode with every Rider Mook (or more specifically, Shocker grunts, Destron grunts, Dogma Fighters, Crisis Empire’s Chaps, Makamou Ninjas, Salis Worms, Leo Imagin and Masquerade Dopants) aired exactly 40 years to the day the original episode of Kamen Rider (1971) aired. Sentai tried doing the same thing deliberately 4 years later, but ironically, the episode got delayed by a week, due to having an episode in February pre-emptied by live coverage of a murder.

And the reason we get so many seemingly random cameos (the fangirl who intrudes on the filming and the fat and skinny female grunts who make a Susan Boyle joke) is that their names (or in the case of the latter two, their comedy act’s name) contain the kanji for “thousand”.

And I mentioned that OOO’s action figure gimmick was the circle on his back, well here we see Birth’s. Namely, his armaments combine into a scorpion when not in use. Which honestly, I quite a clever way to avoid losing them.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Probably wouldn't have worked as well with any other show's cast of characters.

It might have taken the franchise another decade, but I think there's a contender for Best In-Season Episode Where The Characters Make A "Kamen Rider" Movie.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

And the reason we get so many seemingly random cameos (the fangirl who intrudes on the filming and the fat and skinny female grunts who make a Susan Boyle joke) is that their names (or in the case of the latter two, their comedy act?s name) contain the kanji for ?thousand?.

Neat! Thanks!

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 27 - “1000, A MOVIE, AND A MOOK”

I think I prefer this type of anniversary celebration, of 1000 episodes -slash- 40 years, for how it takes a different look at the history of Kamen Rider’s success – namely, for how it’s also a history of Shocker et al’s failure. Where another series might point to the legacy of heroic perseverance that’s delivered the world from ruin across multiple generations, a Shocker mook might instead see it as a constant series of humiliating (and escalating) defeats. Hongo’s creation is the original sin of Kamen Rider villainy, the spark that burned down every single evil organization’s dream of global conquest.

So this'd be a place where the term mook (fodder villains) is actually used in-universe. Guess this is the substitute for the recap episodes for other KR series.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Deciding to talk about how one person or group’s constant success could be another person’s constant failure, that’s fun. Doing it all through a bonkers parody of Showa excess, where the main plotline is that Gotou can’t act? That’s amazing. You cannot get me on an OOO story’s side faster than canonically pointing out that Gotou is incredibly boring to watch, and he’s sort of a drag on the fun. (I honest to god can’t tell the difference between Normal Gotou and Bad Actor Gotou, so when the cast started reacting to him like he was a dull obstacle to art, I was like Oh Man They Got My Letter.) There’s a fun running gag to him getting endlessly demoted in the production, where it not only mirrors the last 26 episodes for him, but it also mirrors Shocker’s declining relevance. Much like Gotou, Shocker’s a joke, and this episode is the punchline.

If Goto is wooden then I wonder what'd be the difference between being wooden as in they can't act or being wooden as in it's just their character, like perhaps Maki. They somehow can manage to get the main antagonist of the series to take part normally (even for his initial rejection) in a work about the main cast. Just that Maki's more blunt about Goto and Hina's failure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Shocker Beast! Zero threat, despite the insane Tiger Squid Yummy design. I like that he’s never treated as anything other than a clown, because that’s Shocker. That’s 40 years of being Rider Kicked into cartoonish incompetence. But, like, he keeps showing up. He keeps trying to murder Kamen Riders, even when they’re just Megumi from Ryuki and a tiny friend, who kick his ass for fun. That dedication to doing the work, no matter the outcome… it’s such a fun rebuttal to Maki’s cutting remarks about failure negating intention.

Megumi was a good fighter so.... Probably more suitable if Sendo's Yummy are just literal Shocker mooks where, they'd be killed off easily and Sendo is about quantity over quality that he can constantly produce more so they can show up. But it's likely more unexpected if Sendo's Yummy looks like usual MOTW rather than the disposable mooks.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

If Goto is wooden then I wonder what'd be the difference between being wooden as in they can't act or being wooden as in it's just their character, like perhaps Maki.

I mean, for me, it's if the performance is compelling. Maki isn't emotive, but there's a lot the actor is doing that's fun to watch, and he's clearly interacting with the energy of other people in the scene. Gotou's actor for sure has a different mandate than Maki's actor, in regards to what the producers want them to be doing as performers, but the Gotou stuff to me is always very perfunctory: saying his line, hitting his mark, making eye contact with his scene partners, getting across which of two emotions his character is feeling in a scene... it's just never a compelling take on what his character is supposed to be going through. It's very Tell instead of Show, on an individual performance level. He just doesn't seem to be as good at his job as the rest of the cast?

[GodSpeedLove]

Hello all,

I have recently gotten into Kamen Rider, and I've been lurking these threads for the past 6 months or so as I watch various seasons, and I just have to say, Die, thank you for hosting such interesting discussions about so many Kamen Rider shows! It's insanely difficult to find episode-by-episode discussions for earlier seasons, so your threads (along with everyone else posting) have been a great companion piece as I've been getting more and more into the bugmen. It's probably part of why I've been able to watch so much in such a short time (6 seasons in 6 months, Faiz is my favorite so far btw), and it is 100% why I've just made an account to share in finally keeping up with the discussion as I watch OOO for the first time. Keep up the good work!

Anyway, I LOVED this last 2 parter (27 and 28). It was so wild and crazy, I could barely believe what I was seeing at times. W is my 2nd favorite season (though may be 3rd if OOO continues), and part of why is how unpredictable each episode's tone, setting, and characters could be. This felt like a return to that idea!

Now for some random OOO thoughts/comparisons as a somewhat newbie: I think Eiji/Ankh is like the Shinii/Ren dynamic, but much more interesting. So much of Ryuki is Shinji pleading with Ren not to do a thing, Ren does it anyway, and Shinji shrugs his shoulders (and vice versa). It just got very tiresome and repetitive. Here it's a lot more push and pull, especially with Eiji leveraging his ability as OOO, which is much more fun to watch in my opinion! It feels like they really could break apart at any moment, while Ren and Shinji lacked spice in my opinion (they're supposed to be fighting for their lives! Why does everyone just kinda hang out in Ryuki!) Also, another side note, the counting medals screen at the beginning of each episode is SO helpful. I have no idea why they didn't do something similar with the Build bottles. It was so hard to keep track, everything moves so fast in Build!

Okay, rant over, thanks for reading and I will be certain to join the discussion again soon!

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GodSpeedLove

Keep up the good work!

Aww, you're incredibly sweet for saying all that! And you have excellent taste in great Kamen Riders who are also sort of terrible friends! Or at least terrible to be friends with!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GodSpeedLove

Now for some random OOO thoughts/comparisons as a somewhat newbie: I think Eiji/Ankh is like the Shinii/Ren dynamic, but much more interesting. So much of Ryuki is Shinji pleading with Ren not to do a thing, Ren does it anyway, and Shinji shrugs his shoulders (and vice versa). It just got very tiresome and repetitive. Here it's a lot more push and pull, especially with Eiji leveraging his ability as OOO, which is much more fun to watch in my opinion! It feels like they really could break apart at any moment, while Ren and Shinji lacked spice in my opinion (they're supposed to be fighting for their lives! Why does everyone just kinda hang out in Ryuki!) Also, another side note, the counting medals screen at the beginning of each episode is SO helpful. I have no idea why they didn't do something similar with the Build bottles. It was so hard to keep track, everything moves so fast in Build!

I can definitely see what you're saying about Eiji/Ankh evoking that Shinji/Renenrgy (there's a real sweet and sour thing going on in each pairing) because that's sort of the stuff that Kobayashi likes to talk about, but I mostly enjoyed the dynamic on Ryuki -- even -slash- especially the ways it might feel repetitive -- because so much of Ryuki was about the hard work of understanding another person. Staying in each other's orbit like that speaks to how Shinji is innately trying to understand Ren's intensity, while Ren can't stop wondering why Shinji can be so generous to everyone he meets. I think both those guys fundamentally don't get the other for large chunks of the series, but they're fascinated by the ways each other doesn't make sense.

I genuinely don't know why they all work at a cafe, though, other than the crushing gravity of that setting in this franchise. Not even Gotou could escape it, and he's a former police officer who became part of a private Medal-powered corporate army! Dude still needed to do time in the Cafe Mines to become a real boy!!!

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 28 - “1000, KAMEN RIDER, AND A BIRTHDAY”

It’s insane, this whole thing. Nebulously canonical, despite the presence of Ankh’s subplot. (I love that the entire Medal story amounts to Ankh wondering who has his Core Medals, and Kougami being like Yeah Me Too. That’s it! That’s the new information: That there is no new information!) Everything in here might as well be packed in with a copy of TV-Kun, for how it exists in the larger cultural context of Kamen Rider, rather than the specific world of Kamen Rider OOO.

Ankh really depends on other people like both Eiji and Kougami, so he has to do their biddings, even if they won't always give him what he wanted, like Eiji prioritizing people's lives and killing the Yummy created from his Core, and also Kougami being the one ruling over the Medal Systems so he's the best lead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I’m not mad about it, to be clear. The thousandth episode – and 40th anniversary – kind of deserves something more than just an OOO story with special guests. It’s arguably more appropriate for the OOO story to take a couple weeks off, and just let the vague OOO vibe (and cast) mingle with the ridiculous history of the franchise to create something, if not reverent, than at least celebratory.

Maybe it fits OOO because well, because 1000 has 3 zeroes at the end, fitting OOO's name. And ironically, about what you said of OOO story to take a couple weeks off, during this episode's airing, there were a massive earthquake on March 11, 2011 that spawned a tsunami and led to a Level 7 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, thus all the programming was cancelled that week, including KR, in favor of news coverage, delaying the OOO story a week off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, the whole episode is a crazy goof, those HBV vibes letting everyone act like a more deranged version of themself while also leaning into the stupidest consequences of any action. It definitely loses its thread around the midway point, forgoing any dramatic tension or emotional connection in favor of Showa satire and relentless buffoonery. There’s maybe a story in here about Mook’s desire, but it doesn’t ever really rise above a loose framework for a bunch of reused suits and a light note about Shocker’s importance to the brand.

Goto and Hina coincidentally both use rock to intervene in the fight. Goto being literally hard-headed (as Ankh mocks him) and using it to headbutt the Yummy, and the show actually making use of Hina's super strength in fight. Only for one moment here in comedy setting and Eiji's line of the super strength being useful rather than making full use of said super strength for the rest of the series... Dunno if this stuff would be canon to the actual series, just that I can't see Maki being willing to work normally with the good guy cast.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Maybe it fits OOO because well, because 1000 has 3 zeroes at the end, fitting OOO's name.

That definitely worked out in the production team's favor!

[GodSpeedLove]

So...Date definitely lost his medical license, right? Bro could be making incredible amounts of money as a doctor and instead chooses to don silly costumes and risk his life fighting against ancient monsters

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GodSpeedLove

So...Date definitely lost his medical license, right? Bro could be making incredible amounts of money as a doctor and instead chooses to don silly costumes and risk his life fighting against ancient monsters

I assume that Date's tendency toward Adventure (he was formerly a Doctors Without Borders guy from his flashback, not, like, House) led to him deciding to forgo extra shifts at a local hospital in favor of becoming a Gashapon-themed mercenary. I don't think Date's decision-making matrix values safety and risk in the same way yours does!