[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

This is a fun one, though. I really like having Yuuto and Ryotaro hang out with minimal Imagin interference. It means that the Imagin scenes are extra weird to compensate, but it's nice to see our heroes working together as themselves.

One of the best parts of seeing Ryotaro work with Yuuto is that it makes it clear how much Hana carries Ryotaro. It's easy to forget with all of the Henshins and sweetness and principled stands, but Ryotaro is not good at being a Kamen Rider! Him and Airi both have that thing of not really understanding things like stealth and subterfuge! Ryotaro is mostly an empty vessel, and that ain't a great teammate sometimes!

Seeing Ryotaro hit the Imagin beat with Yuuto, it's consistently funny to me that the show is sticking to its Ryotaro Is A Crummy Kamen Rider But He's A Great Den-O thesis statement, and how little that argument sways Yuuto. He's not here to make friends, so a well-meaning Den-O that can't pull his weight is worth about zero Zeronos cards.

Long story short, I still love that Yuuto's basically correct to look down his nose at Ryotaro.

[Androzani84]

So the countdown to the movie begins. I’ll say this now, I am going to be breaking my rule for this thread, as most of the Imagin in the movie have the Tokusatsu equivalent of a celebrity voice actor.

Speaking of voice actors…

Chihiro Suzuki (nicknamed Chi-chan)

Notable Anime roles: Soichiro Arima in Kare Kano, Shun Kazami in Bakugan, Windy in Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS, Kurisu Osaka in Angel’s Feather, Akira Kamio in Prince of Tennis,

Notable Tokusatsu roles: Grand Beast Rei in GoGo Sentai Boukenger, Clown Imagin in Kamen Rider Den-O x Kiva: Climax Deka.

Notable dubbing roles: Golic in Alien 3.

Yeah, this is pretty sparse, so I’ll give you a hint to the guy playing this week’s contractor. You may recognise him if you’ve been following my watch thread, but then you may not, since I’ve only included him in three pictures where you can see his face clearly (and I can tell you, that’s not exactly going to improve within the next week).

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And that's a choice a show can make, but it's a choice that keeps it from being excellent. Doing a story where the only person who goes on a journey is the guest star, that's fun at the expense of insight. I'm invested in this show (ostensibly) because of the journey Ryotaro goes on. If it's a story where he doesn't change, or I don't learn anything new about him, it's a story that's... I was going to say "almost not worth telling", but it's more that it's just inessential. It's a silver medal story. Pretty good, but still short of greatness.

Still subjective about the statement where the choice not making it excellent. I'm just also pointing out about how people talk about realistic, but ironically strays far from it. Also there's probably a story where people would like if there are equal focus on many of the cast members like the main (and I kinda appreciate if they're able to pull it off).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 25 - “DOUBLE CLIMAX JUMP”

The fact that it starts with a disoriented Ryotaro is perfect, because the majority of this episode is perplexing and contextless. There’s a decent enough throughline for the Spider Imagin, where a guy wants his hospitalized little sister to see the stars and it all goes wrong (he made the wish in a nightmare!), but nearly every linking scene feels like the exposition has been edited out. Multiple Yuutos and Denebs appear, Momo and Kin are acting incredibly weird, and most dialogue could be replaced with This Will All Make Sense Later. It’s an episode that’s the setup for a joke, with the punchline still to come.

Never expected you to be excited about a time travel-y premise here, where multiple Yuutos and Denebs would be very time travel to gather them from various timelines into 1 place. Time travel stories, if done not carefully, it can produce several plot holes and some questions, like before where you wouldn't talk much about it in place of the character journey like the victim's states and lessons, not to mention the worldbuilding by Kobayashi with show not tell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The first team-up, and the best one, is between Ryotaro and Yuuto.

Ryotaro not being great? He's developing, like y'know in the ep. 15-16 2 parter Ryotaro singlehandedly solves the Imagin mystery there, albeit centered for IOTW one rather than something more major here. Also, I was laughing my ass off and I was looking forward upon Yuuto's agitation when Deneb possesses him and using him to act friendly to anyone around him like when he promotes Milk Dipper to others. Also man, don't you blame Ryotaro as thinking why Yuuto doesn't want Ryotaro as a friend, Ryotaro gets time-abducted by another Deneb and it wasn't his fault. And well, misunderstanding will ensue here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The second team-up’s a little one, but I like Naomi and Hana taking care of Milk Dipper for a minute. It’s mostly there for an Ozaki thing, but I just like the concept. In my head, any scene of the two of them off of DenLiner is just Hana Teams With Legend Civilian Mana. But, like, Mana got weirdly into vinyl clothing in the last five years or something. Had a real fun time at uni, maybe.

Also never expected this, but you taking an interest for people taking a part in helping out at a restaurant (Rider "headquarters"), even if they're a major cast member. These things iirc was usually treated as an aftertought before, or at worst, disdain, especially for Milk Dipper being a place that gets snark here due to it being seemingly pointless meeting place as DenLiner's there and it being centered regarding... Airimirers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The third team-up is an Airimirers thing, and I’m skipping that.

Airi agrees to bring Ozaki to the hospital after he's injured (and even minor one), that kinda left an impression to me about her, probably due to how she would go that far for being helpful, and also like you said, the Airimirers are simping in disgusting ways, but Airi is being considerate to males like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

One of the greatest character moments in all of Den-O is probably Deneb cursing himself for not making his candy delicious enough to get Hana to believe in Yuuto. The purity of Deneb is both adorable and pathetic in equal measures, a recipe that nourishes my soul. The fact that Momo got a Seihou before Deneb is galling, and easily one of the 800 dumbest things Bandai has done in the last two years.

Yeah, this is a purity for Deneb's part where he would just blame himself if he's not able to please others, and being exaggerated too here for just a simple candy. But dunno about which part that you refer as being pathetic, I hope that it would be the exaggeration, I don't want the part of putting others above yourself (Deneb blaming himself) to be seen as pathetic, and glorify about the opposite of being toxic and selfish as not caring about anyone else except yourself (because of it being strong, assertive, dominant, interesting, etc.).

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Never expected you to be excited about a time travel-y premise here, where multiple Yuutos and Denebs would be very time travel to gather them from various timelines into 1 place.

This story treats it like a madcap romp (Yuuto wakes Ryotaro up just to knock him out again!), so I'm onboard. Honestly, I don't dislike time travel stories as a rule or anything? They can be as good or bad as other types of stories. It's nothing that's a pet peeve of mine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Also never expected this, but you taking an interest for people taking a part in helping out at a restaurant (Rider "headquarters"), even if they're a major cast member. These things iirc was usually treated as an aftertought before, or at worst, disdain, especially for Milk Dipper being a place that gets snark here due to it being seemingly pointless meeting place as DenLiner's there and it being centered regarding... Airimirers.

One of my all-time favorite Faiz plots was when the entire cast got jobs at a diner. I'm historically into folks needing to pitch in on some weird activity for a couple episodes!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

But dunno about which part that you refer as being pathetic, I hope that it would be the exaggeration, I don't want the part of putting others above yourself (Deneb blaming himself) to be seen as pathetic, and glorify about the opposite of being toxic and selfish as not caring about anyone else except yourself (because of it being strong, assertive, dominant, interesting, etc.).

It's a little bit of an exaggeration, but so is Deneb's behavior in this one. He is devastated to think that the crew doesn't unequivocally trust Yuuto, and he blames his own candy for letting Yuuto down. Like, there's Blaming Yourself, and then there's whatever Deneb's doing. It's comedically pathetic.

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 26 - "THE TICKET TO GOD'S LINE”




Hey, let's talk about the Yuuto/Ryotaro plotline in this episode, a.k.a Literally The Only Thing I Can Talk About From This Episode.

(Holy shit, this thing is just one gigantic ad for the film. While I appreciate the change from having the film be some weird-ass AU thing and actually trying to enhance and expand the world of the TV series, a change I'm certain I'll be talking more about once I watch the movie... this is too much! This episode had me longing for the days of the opening credits dropping in some movie footage as the only acknowledgement of there even being a film, so I could avoid the hard-sell of this movie pitch. I'm actually a little less excited to watch the movie now, because I feel like it cost me at least half an episode of Den-O.)

It's nice. It's the inevitable storyline where Yuuto learns that Ryotaro is more heroic than he appears, and Ryotaro learns that Yuuto is more empathetic than he appears. It's them both learning that they've maybe unfairly judged each other. It's sweet.

It's a plot that excels in its specifics, because the overview is such a goddamn template by now. Literally every show with two or more Riders needs to do this story. We even got a version of it earlier this series between Ryotaro and Momo! These two guys don't think much of each other, but then they learn they're more alike than they thought. Tensions have thawed somewhat, roll credits.

It's the little details, though, that make it still somewhat enjoyable. (Somewhat! This is not my favorite episode!) Yuuto getting to see the lengths Ryotaro will go to as Den-O is the less compelling part, since it's a story we've gotten a few times before, but I'm never going to be too down on an episode where Ryotaro honors his commitments and takes down an Imagin. Honestly, it's just nice to see Sword Form get some screentime again? I feel like every other Form has been getting the spotlight, and when Ryutaros cuts the line for the big fight in this one, I was channeling Momo's frustration. But then Ryuta gets bored, Ore Sanjou, and Sword Form gets the climax. Fun fight. Sometimes I'm easy to please!

Yuuto's empathy, though, that was the nicest part. Ryotaro getting to see those flashes of Sakurai in Yuuto, the passion for astronomy, it's a great way to show Yuuto's hidden depths. My favorite part is the... I don't know, the aftercare that Yuuto does, same as Ryotaro would. Yuuto knows the Imagin is defeated, but the job isn't finished until this brother and sister get to have a nice night of watching a meteor shower. (Yuuto is such a giddy nerd about when meteor showers are visible in Japan! It's adorable!) It's the continuation of Ryotaro's victory in that earlier Yuuto Vs Ryotaro two-parter, where the mission and the calling are two different things, and Yuuto feels that same need to help people as Ryotaro does. Which, Ryotaro kind of learned it from Sakurai, so that makes sense.

Time travel! It's a lot to deal with!



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-I'm watching the movie tomorrow. I was going to wait until watching the concluding episode of this tie-in, but I don't think I can do one more barely-sensible Just Go With It episode. This one felt like I was being penalized, so I'm just going to try and get some context for all of this, no matter what it does for my viewing of 27.

-I don't know if this is a plot the show's going to come back to in 27, but that whole Milk Dipper thread went absolutely nowhere? It's just some kids on break? I thought, bare minimum, we'd see the hospitalized sister brought to Milk Dipper to see some stars. The two Riders decorated and everything! The way the show ended up going, the Hope Hill stuff, was probably better, but it's weird how extra-unimportant the Milk Dipper scenes ended up being.

[Sh Ranger]

I second Fish's comment earlier, there's not that much to lose by watching the movie before 27. Anyway, I'm going to watch it as well, like I did with God Speed Love, which I liked and you disliked. Maybe this time we can both agree on the quality of a movie for the first time since Paradise Lost.

[Androzani84]

One thing I remember about this movie is despite being a very key part of Den-O’s (admittedly sparse) continuity, it barely gets referenced again afterwards (aside from the episode immediately following it in continuity order), with none of the characters it introduced making so much as a cameo later on. Conversely, the Gekiranger movie released alongside kept getting indirect references in the form of the exclusive mecha reappearing multiple times in later movies and episodes with Gekiranger, despite the movie it debuted in being utterly forgettable (to the point where every reappearance acts like it’s the first appearance of said movie exclusive Mecha, despite all of them being written by the same guy).

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

One thing I remember about this movie is despite being a very key part of Den-O’s (admittedly sparse) continuity, it barely gets referenced again afterwards (aside from the episode immediately following it in continuity order), with none of the characters it introduced making so much as a cameo later on.

Actually not true. One of the characters introduced here comes back in a big way in the Cho Den-O films in a way that I cannot even hint at because spoilers.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I second Fish's comment earlier, there's not that much to lose by watching the movie before 27. Anyway, I'm going to watch it as well, like I did with God Speed Love, which I liked and you disliked. Maybe this time we can both agree on the quality of a movie for the first time since Paradise Lost.

I hope so! I assume I'll enjoy this one. My main problems with some of the other films were them feeling too off-model from the TV series, and I don't expect that to be an issue here. I'm ready to start the era of The Things You Loved In The Series But With A Bigger Budget!

[Fish Sandwich]

It's definitely a good thing the development with Ryoutarou and Yuuto is as strong in these episodes as it is, because, yeah, it's maybe a ~little~ brazen of Den-O to end 26 with Owner basically outright telling the audience to head to their nearest theater? What Den-O did with the summer movie is interesting as an experiment, and it's one they couldn't have picked a better show to do it with, as it's so character-driven that a lack of a fully coherent plot manages to be a surprisingly minor issue, but it's still pretty strange!

I really do love any time Ryoutarou gets run ragged and just keeps on ticking though, limping along after Yuuto and such. If you're wondering from the Faiz thread why I equate getting constantly injured with heroism, I definitely learned it from watching this guy.