[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeviathanBlossom

Please do the descriptive version of thumbnail sketches of characters forever. It has been a v dull day full of rain and this made me laugh out loud, mostly because I feel quite strongly that all of it is accurate. Except possibly Yaguruma being a kind person, what with his need for regular external affirmations of his self-worth. I have a lot of sympathy for his running up against Tendo and his Protagonist Syndrome, because it seems very frustrating to keep bouncing off of plot armor, but less for him after watching him fall apart at the seams. Fun to watch, definitely, but I think less fun to interact with.

tl;dr - I think I would avoid any sort of social gathering with these four people like the metaphorical plague. It hasn't gone well so far, no reason to think that would change now, lol

Ha ha, happy to help! These are some barely-functional people that I can't stop thinking about!

For Yaguruma... I mean, he's obviously got some weird ideas about validation and he's troublingly particular about process, but I think he's generally pretty chill to be around? Even when he's seething with rage for Tendou, he's able to be cordial and respectful to others, at the every least. TheBee, however...

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 09

Funnily enough, I think this is the one where I'm hitting a wall when it comes to what I even want to talk about, so I'm just going to start somewhere random and see where this goes. (Don't expect anything too deep this time.)

First off, totally superficially, isn't that just a cool knife? The Kabuto Kunai Gun is low-key one of the coolest toku hero weapons out there, and I'm more than happy to take this chance to make sure I give it a proper shout-out in here. It's a design that compliments Kabuto's so well it's almost better than the suit itself. It's no less elegant, at least as straightforward, and manages to pack in its own Cast Off gimmick for three total toyetic modes, all without looking even remotely encumbered by the need to stuff in toyetic gimmicks. The phrase "simple is best" definitely comes to mind here.

Now let's talk about why it's jammed into the side of this bridge. For anyone who needs the context, this is because Kabuto had to chuck it at some debris that was going to fall on Kagami, a distraction which allegedly causes him to lose his fight with TheBee. I'd like to emphasize that part: allegedly. Tendou seems to be operating on a higher level of himself than usual in this one, and I'm honestly struggling to wrap my head around the details when I try and think about them.

I sort of fail to believe Tendou would have any real trouble saving Kagami and fending off Yaguruma at the same time, and that'd definitely line up with him getting up fine moments later and declaring that he was playing dead to get TheBee off his back... but then as soon as Kagami starts realizing how he was saved, Tendou is right back on the ground, which leads to him being in the hospital. But wait! Tendou plays dead again when Kagami realizes Tendou went out of his way to help him. Is he melodramatically avoiding the shame of admitting he slipped up? Or just the shame of admitting he helped Kagami? It's probably not because he was actually injured, because he's once again right back up on his feet at the hospital. No, hang on, did he just actively want to go to the hospital because he knew Yaguruma would probably come there to check in on that subordinate of his Kagami mentioned, and this whole thing was one elaborate troll job? Was it a devious scheme to destroy his Perfect Harmony even further? Did Tendou just not feel like walking home that night? Am I missing something obvious or otherwise massively overthinking the plot of this quite good episode?

I'd be totally cool if it was just the last one! And yeah, this is a great episode for all the reasons Die covered so well. I'd even maybe agree it's an improvement on the last two, but whatever Bandai suit came in and demanded the cliffhanger be five seconds of the Kabuto Extender finally showing off its gimmick instead of the perfect stopping point of Kagami's transformation into TheBee docks it just those few points. Only a few though!

And I mean, the question for this episode?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

a party with Hiyori

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

doesn’t feel like a blast to attend

...pick one!

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

First off, totally superficially, isn't that just a cool knife? The Kabuto Kunai Gun is low-key one of the coolest toku hero weapons out there, and I'm more than happy to take this chance to make sure I give it a proper shout-out in here. It's a design that compliments Kabuto's so well it's almost better than the suit itself. It's no less elegant, at least as straightforward, and manages to pack in its own Cast Off gimmick for three total toyetic modes, all without looking even remotely encumbered by the need to stuff in toyetic gimmicks. The phrase "simple is best" definitely comes to mind here.

If this thread was still doing song lyrics, I'd probably toss in something from the recent Mountain Goats album "Getting Into Knives". If only!

(I'm also in the middle of writing up 10 - SPOILER: weird ending that I need to unpack and repack - so this is a nice break.)

I do like that knife! I wish I could talk more about it, but they've sort of barely showed it off? The gun gets a lot of play, and that's cool, but that three-second-ish still might be the most screentime the actual knife has gotten? I've seen a smaller version of it in action figure shots, but I'm really hoping to see it used more on the show. I'm glad to know it has fans!

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 10



Let's work back to front on this one, so I can start with the part that didn't land for me.

I honestly don't know what the show is trying to say about the relationship of Tendou and Kagami in this one. The ending is a statement from Kagami that he won't be TheBee if it means abandoning his friendship with Tendou, just after his attempted murder of Tendou earned Tendou's respect.

It... there is a lot going on there, and it's all pretty unusual for a protagonist combo. I can unpack individual parts of that climax (and I will!), but taken as a whole, it... I don't think it comes together how the show wants?

Like, Tendou is aggressively judgmental with Kagami here, and I can sort of see where he's coming from. As we're reminded, obliquely, in two different scenes, the biggest crime in Tendou's eyes is unrealized potential. That drives him crazy, and it's the thing that makes him get correctional with people.

The serious version is in the beginning, with Yaguruma attempting to swallow his ego and live with his failure. He unconvincingly tries to be a booster for Kagami's role as TheBee. He makes Tendou that tofu dish that's, like, his only move. (It is adorable how he tries to smooth over every problem with this one tofu dish.) But this time he makes it Tendou's way, an acknowledgement that Tendou was right and he was wrong. It's Yaguruma admitting, in one signature dish, that he doesn't know how to live his life, so he'll live it the way Tendou told him.

Except, that's not what Tendou wants. He doesn't want this dude, who has so much potential, to just slouch his shoulders and follow someone else's path. He wants Yaguruma to stop worrying about other people and excel for the sake of excellence. Yaguruma's tofu dish isn't the way Tendou would make it, but it's Yaguruma's tofu dish. Stop worrying about how you measure up to others and just be great.

The joke version is how Tendou says loudly, constantly, that Kagami should be fired for doing his restaurant job poorly. And, he's not joking! Kagami half-assing his job is offensive to Tendou. Tendou genuinely cares for Kagami, and it hurts his feelings to see Kagami be so sloppy and inattentive. It's super funny that the hero of the show is telling people that his friend should definitely lose his job for being a slacker, but it's a joke that's both completely true to Tendou's personal philosophy, and sort of key to the main Kagami/Tendou plot of this episode.

The thing is, Tendou really doesn't give a shit if Kagami has been ordered by ZECT to eliminate Kabuto. He cannot muster up even a second of trepidation to make Kagami feel qualified as TheBee. It's both a little frustrating (I'm not sure Perfect And Unflappable Hero is the best way to construct your series, but time will tell) and sort of liberating, since the show doesn't have to make the conflict some fraught battle. We know that Kagami doesn't have a chance of defeating (let alone killing) Tendou, but that's not the question. The question is, what is Kagami going to do?

Because, man, dude is living his dream for the first half of this episode, give or take a disturbing TheBee brand on his chest. (??? Feels like this will be important later!) He's a Kamen Rider, he's a full-time ZECT employee, he's got a team supporting him, and he's aware enough of Yaguruma's failings to not let it go to his head. He's just so happy.

It's not a story about Kagami becoming a different person, which was a nice surprise. It's not about him becoming egotistical, or cruel, or awful to his friends. It's not even about him being shit at his job, although he sort of is. (Luckily, Kageyama is there to pick up the slack. That kid has a future in this militarized organization of nebulous authority!) It's that he has to decide between being TheBee, or being Tendou's friend. And he won't choose.

Kagami tries, briefly, to have Tendou choose for him. He tells Tendou that he's his friend, and fishes for Tendou to reciprocate. If Tendou declared his own feelings for Kagami, then Kagami could use that to ditch TheBee. But that'd be Kagami using Tendou as an excuse, so Tendou keeps his mouth shut. Then Kagami tells Tendou to never show up as Kabuto, to spare Kagami having to fight him. But that's still Kagami trying to avoid making a decision, so Tendou tells him Oh Hell No, and is absolutely at Shadow's next deployment.

The fight between Kagami and Tendou, it's great... because it's between Kagami and Tendou. The show quickly abandons the superhero suits so we can see how much Tendou is pushing Kagami to make up his mind, and how much Kagami is trying to avoid that. Tendou doesn't even care if the decision Kagami makes it that he'll try to kill Tendou, because then at least Kagami would be making a choice, walking his path. Seeing Kagami avoid who he is and what he wants, it's the same as Yaguruma giving up at the beginning of the episode. It's people who want to have it both ways, who won't risk failure and would rather try to please everyone. That's an unforgivable sin, in Tendou's eyes. Better to be honest and flawed than perfect and a liar.

So we get that ending, where Tendou is thrilled at Kagami's willingness to try to kill him, and Kagami quits after realizing how much of a friend Tendou is, to believe in Kagami enough to take that injury. It's an ending where I can absolutely see what each character is going through, and why they made their decisions, but it's maybe not an ending that works onscreen, in the moment.

Like, I've just spent forty minutes trying to take this thing apart to see how it works, but I don't know if anyone should have to? Because what's onscreen is Tendou sort of forcing Kagami to give up being a hero?

I mean, it's not, that's not what the show's saying, but what it is saying could maybe have been said clearer. It's difficult to pull out all the threads, and it makes Tendou seem a little callous, while Kagami seems a little indecisive. (The opposite of what's really happening!) Tendou's cruelty and antagonism is all about him forcing Kagami to be honest and make a choice; and Kagami's turn at the end is him admitting that he doesn't want to be a Kamen Rider if it means having to fight his friends. It's just, man, that is a complicated ending, and they tried to execute it a little too quickly?

It's an episode that I like two or three times as much now, after writing about it, as I did when I watched it. But that shouldn't be something I have to do to enjoy it? It's a good one, but, man, needed some work on that climax. Could've nailed down some of those ideas a little better.

A QUESTION

When Yaguruma is happy, he makes mabou tofu. When he needs to apologize, he makes mabou tofu. I assume he makes mabou tofu when he's cleaning up after making mabou tofu. He's clearly proud of his mabou tofu, a thing I will never get tired of typing. I am nothing close to a cook, however. I can, at best, reheat a piece of pizza in a style many have called Barely Edible. But what about you? Do you have a signature dish that you like to prepare?

[VoidinToku]

The series's had trouble balancing comedy and serious topics. Years later, people might see it as a series poking fun of its own tropes with many writers hopping on board this anniversary series each with their own interpretation of the characters. A lot of breaking characters and tone shift after thebee arc until the endgame. Still one of the coolest suits and ty gadgets that doesn't feel like toys toys. Made along with kamen rider the first to modernize the 70s bug theme along with boukenger subtle tribute to past mecha designs.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoidinToku

The series's had trouble balancing comedy and serious topics.

I'm not sure that's been my experience? I think the mix of comedy and drama has worked out pretty well, in the sense that humor feels drawn from character. Like, Tendou is never just Some Dick, he's someone who manipulates, tests, challenges. Even him saying Kagami should lose his job is rooted in established character traits.

The few episodes that've had really serious climaxes... I'm not sure I'd say that the reasons they may or may not work have anything to do with humor?

[VoidinToku]

Haven't updated his channel in half a year, but his most fav series is his 3/4 parts reunion with sato yuki aka Kagami arata. They briefly touch on their "series" along with zio guest appearances. Hiro was on a rise after kabuto, but retired early. He could of became as successful as deno's ryotaro, w's phllip, and shinkenred. Meanwhile, yuki fell in to a slump for not reaching success.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoidinToku

Haven't updated his channel in half a year, but his most fav series is his 3/4 parts reunion with sato yuki aka Kagami arata. They briefly touch on their "series" along with zio guest appearances. Hiro was on a rise after kabuto, but retired early. He could of became as successful as deno's ryotaro, w's phllip, and shinkenred. Meanwhile, yuki fell in to a slump for not reaching success.

Very cool! I'll be sure to check that out when I'm done with Kabuto.

[Androzani84]

Yeah, I’m not sure I expected Kagami to remain as TheBee for a significant length of time, but I can say I was not expecting it to be one episode.

Next time, you will enter a realm that a certain seafood-on-two slices of bread once dubbed “The Inoue Zone”. I can already predict your reaction.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 10

I think what I like most about this episode is how strongly it affirms that Kamen Rider Kabuto isn't really about Kabuto. He's important to the story, of course; when Tendou likens himself to the sun, it's hardly inaccurate. The entire world of the show legitimately does revolve around him, but that isn't where the heart of the story is most of the time. When you get down to it, Kabuto is a show all about Kagami trying to grow into some kind of superhero, and what better way to underscore that than by having Kagami become a superhero less than a quarter of the way in?

Giving him this brief stint as TheBee, it's a super interesting choice – giving Kagami that small taste of the life he longs for only for it to be inevitably torn away. I love that kind of thing in a story. The strength of a character's writing often stems from the strength of whatever desire they have, and Kagami has desire for days in this one. Right out of the gate, he's taking his newfound Rider status as a certainty. He's got everything he's ever wanted, and the thought of living out his days being a cool hero who saves people with the help of his loyal teammates in Shadow and his best buddy Kabuto fills him with barely contained glee.

But then, if Kagami is the protagonist of this story, it goes without saying he can't have that for long with dozens of episodes left to go, doesn't it? It's hard to speak from personal experience here, since I went into Kabuto knowing plenty about Kagami's overall trajectory, including that he got to be TheBee early on, but I think even without that foreknowledge, any slightly savvy viewer could figure out where this episode was going to end up, and I think that's yet another point in its favor. The fun is in that looming sense of collapse; it's in seeing what exactly is going to be the thing that forces Kagami to give up what he was lusting after back in the premiere, which naturally ends up being friction with Mr. Sun himself, Tendou.

I don't have anywhere near as much of a hard time getting behind the climax here as it seems Die did. Kagami having to choose between his friend and his power, it's a pretty obvious (if effective) note to land the story on, so I really appreciated the way the show gets a bit more clever with it. If this is an episode that makes you sit there afterwards and think intently about the meaning behind it, that kinda sounds like the exact opposite of a problem to me? Especially when it's a plot beat that's wrapped up in Tendou's own alien decision-making process, which is supposed to be enigmatic by nature.

How exactly Kagami's run as TheBee ended was one of the things I've completely forgotten over the years, so it was actually a really pleasant surprise to me how many little layers end up being at work here. It's weird I didn't recall it better when it's a confrontation that seems rather memorable, both in how its filmed (their Rider forms being reflected in the flames! So neat!) and the emotions at play. I guess I just liked Yaguruma too much or something. At any rate, this one is definitely another example of Kabuto making its melodrama work in its favor. A really good conclusion to a really good arc.

Oh, and my answer to Die's question this time is a blunt "not particularly" so uninteresting I might as well not even bother responding. Evidently the both of us could stand to take a little more inspiration from this show's obsession with preparing nice food.