[SideswipePrime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Decade 24. Oh man that monster DiEnd looks sweet.

Ironically Decade tributes Shinkenger better than Gokaiger did. From Genta's oddly fat suit actor to Suzuka Morita I forgot about the wonders of Shinkenger. Oh how I missed the utter boredom.

Tsukasa is a really odd character, especially so for a protagonist. His heart is in the right place, and when it comes to his friends especially he really does appear to care a lot but he's such a total buffoon but not really in an endearing way as he's also a bit of a dick.

I honestly wish they'd just pick a personality for him, and stick to it...he switches from honorable hero, to total jerk at the drop of a hat, and it's the one thing that really bothers me about him both as a main hero and a character, because the concept of his character is pretty interesting.

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SideswipePrime

I honestly wish they'd just pick a personality for him, and stick to it...he switches from honorable hero, to total jerk at the drop of a hat, and it's the one thing that really bothers me about him both as a main hero and a character, because the concept of his character is pretty interesting.

Like most things in Decade, Tsukasa is an interesting premise rather than anything fleshed out and realised.

[2ndSndWve]

So I gave in and watched the 1st ep. of Dragon Knight. Ignoring the abysmal resolution and whisper quiet audio, it was surprisingly good for a US adaptation.

[MrHerofan]

Well I watched Hibiki 11-14 and they were a pretty nice bunch of episodes. Now Danki has a cool suit but from what I read he's only in two more episodes,,like most of these Oni's right? So the Hibiki suit is just gorgeous and the disc animals are pretty fun. So now Asumu got surgery and that's it he lived.

Oh and seeing the basement of the building was sorta cool, seeing the trumpet/trombone hybrid, more weapons and seeing some more Oni! Now they mentioned HQ, do we get to see HQ? Are there more Oni there or just a lot of scientists?

[KyoryuGreen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Yep. Stronger had one near the end, too, with all the Delza Army generals and their internal power struggles.

Ah cool, I want to watch Stronger but the last episodes aren't finished from KitSubs and the HK Subs won't finish downloading.

[Powerman293]

Kamen Rider the First

Could this this movie be re-titled as "Toshiki Inoue and Heisei rider tropes with an original Kamen Rider skin: the movie"?

This movie was okay. The plot was filled with lots of Inoue tropes and the story itself wasn't that interesting. Character communication issues? Check. A nice guy character who connects with an equal scarred girl but turns evil at the end for no reason? Check. Boring villains? Check. Shitloads of angst? Check. Throw in some shit about dreams and protecting people's similes and hey! We have a Heiseification of Rider 1!

No Inoue, that's not how it works. Modernizing a story does not mean using new cliches to update the story. This movie felt like the lovechild of Faiz and Blade except not as masterfully done. Granted, I like those series, and I appreciate them for thier time, but this movie feels like the epitome of what the term "Early Heisei" Rider meant in a lot of its mediocre and bad ways. The reason why the tropes that make up those earlier series work is that the writers put passion into making it unique to their style and the show they're crafting. This is extremely ironic considering how one of my examples above was a reference to Faiz, an Inoue show, who also wrote this movie. Honestly, if you wanted to go watch Faiz, go watch Faiz. This movie wastes less of your time, but its a lot of same the bullshit without any of the unique charm that Faiz had.

I thought the hospitalized kids were pointless. I like their designs as the cobra dudes but they felt forced in there. They're like Yuji Kiba and Yuka, both scarred people that found each other. Except imagine that if they never interacted with the Faiz Riders until the very end but only in monster form.

Now that I'm done with the negatives, let's talk positives

I like the fact it touched on how Hongo once he became a Hopper, that he initially hurt everyone around him and lost his purpose. Ichimonji had a reason to fight, but I like his change a lot more then Hongo's. One of this movie's strengths was the character relationships, from the love triangle between the two riders and Asuno and the two sick kids.

The rider and monster suits are some the best Rider suits ever put on screen. The combination of leather with technological and bug detailing is just so beautiful. The monsters look like they are wearing held together metal armor. Cobra and Snake look like cyborg Oujas excepted pumped up to 11. If you liked some of the detailing of the Trial Undead from Blade, this will appeal to you. Spider,and the Shocker grunts were great as well. The only one I think falls flat was bat.

Fight scenes were great as well. Not only was the fist fighting interesting and great but the motorcycles felt like they had a purpose. The movie had the riders use the motorcycles to their advantage, unlike Riders of the era which this movie came out which felt limited by them. Also, I will never get tired of seeing the First's Rider kicks.

Visually, this movie looks beautiful. Not just the suits, but also the way they film. The film is filled with tons of blues and grays during the darker sections. If you loved Blade's darker visuals, this movie defintley will have you fall in love with its cinematography.

[SideswipePrime]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Like most things in Decade, Tsukasa is an interesting premise rather than anything fleshed out and realised.

Yup!

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2ndSndWve

So I gave in and watched the 1st ep. of Dragon Knight. Ignoring the abysmal resolution and whisper quiet audio, it was surprisingly good for a US adaptation.

Dragon Knight and Decade are very similar structuring wise. They are both series made up entirely of concepts rather than realised devices, and although the concepts are always interesting and exciting both series focus more on chucking everything they've got at the wall, rather than focusing on any part and building on it. It creates an entertaining ride, which is addictive in the moment, but then you look back you realise how meaningless and nonsensical it all was.

[Locke]

Decade 25. Kaijin Rider is such an awesome concept.

Minus two very pretty girls, this episode really did no favours for the Shinkenger. I mean Takeru came across as badass sure, but the team as a unit really came across as quite pathetic. I didn't really watch this and immediately want to watch Shinkenger.

Ah now that meme finally makes sense. I dunno whether I find it amusing or annoying that Narutaki literally just wanders from dimension to dimension spreading shit for unclear motivations running on an even more muddled logic system. Especially considering now we have enough evidence to clearly say that everything Narutaki says is pure shit, Decade has saved every world he's been too, he hasn't destroyed a single one and none of them have rejected him either. Like what is Narutaki still on? It's like he never left puberty and thinks this is still normal.

Honestly this trip to Shinkenger's world has been one of the better arcs for a while now, as it's one of the first times Decade has felt genuinely character driven while still keeping all the spectacle of Decade's high production values. Even Kuuga got to join in.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Powerman293

Kamen Rider the First

Could this this movie be re-titled as "Toshiki Inoue and Heisei rider tropes with an original Kamen Rider skin: the movie"?

Pretty much, yeah.

Quote:

The rider and monster suits are some the best Rider suits ever put on screen. The combination of leather with technological and bug detailing is just so beautiful. The monsters look like they are wearing held together metal armor. Cobra and Snake look like cyborg Oujas excepted pumped up to 11. If you liked some of the detailing of the Trial Undead from Blade, this will appeal to you. Spider,and the Shocker grunts were great as well. The only one I think falls flat was bat.

Fight scenes were great as well. Not only was the fist fighting interesting and great but the motorcycles felt like they had a purpose. The movie had the riders use the motorcycles to their advantage, unlike Riders of the era which this movie came out which felt limited by them. Also, I will never get tired of seeing the First's Rider kicks.

Visually, this movie looks beautiful. Not just the suits, but also the way they film. The film is filled with tons of blues and grays during the darker sections. If you loved Blade's darker visuals, this movie defintley will have you fall in love with its cinematography.

Yeah, when the movie remembers it's about Kamen Rider it can be really, really cool. The suits are awesome and the action scenes are really good. The problem is that the writer obviously cared more about making a love story than he did about making an action movie and all of the Rider stuff got shunted over to the side. And if you think it's bad here, the Rider:Other Shit ration is even worse in The Next.