[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

While it's true that Daido was totally a villain by the point of Gaia Memories of Fate, I think it's fair that Mina would want him to be remembered for all his deeds, not only the evil ones, as well as remember the evil deeds that done to him. Like, Mina is living proof that the world was a little better for having Daido in it, despite his sins.

For sure! That all tracks! (I think I said as much in the main write-up?) My beef is more with how the movie opens with Mina immediately trying to kill Double in a fit of retributive rage, only to later reveal that she wanted Double to know that Daido was more complicated than the villain they were forced to defeat. I'm not sure how trying to murder Double and Akiko accomplishes that?

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I'm not sure how trying to murder Double and Akiko accomplishes that?

Frankly, I'm surprised that more people who've met Akiko haven't tried to kill her, given the genre she lives in. I've grown an attachment to her over the years, but she is not good at first impressions.

[Kamen Rider Die]

FUUTO P.I. EPISODE 1 - “BEWARE OF T - THE MAN WHO LOVED A WITCH”



Sequels in new mediums! How best to judge them?

It’s not a new thing for a comics fan. Any number of franchises have found continuations both canonical and non-canonical as a comic book. Generally movies and TV shows that had a rabid audience that was eager to be monetized, but securing the original talent was cost-prohibitive and/or impossible: Buffy, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. It’s fairly commonplace, and I always found it sort of baffling that it was considered such a natural option for storytelling. The assumption from publishers (and seemingly comic creators) was that the characters mattered in ways the original stories and performances didn’t; Luke Skywalker is more important than whatever Mark Hamill imbued him with. Continuing that character’s journey without the score, the special effects, the cinematography, the acting… it always felt so diminished to me that it could only be judged on the merits of its execution in the new medium, and not as inherently valuable due to the nostalgia of the IP. A Star Wars comic isn’t Star Wars, it’s a comic. It succeeds or fails on its viability in that medium, not with any sort of lowered standard of fan desire making up the difference.

So, Fuuto P.I.

First off, I’m not an anime guy. I watched some stuff in my formative days via A.D. Vision videotapes (I’m old!) and bootlegs from conventions. Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Tenchi Muyo, Escaflowne, some DBZ. I haven’t seriously watched an anime property probably this millennium. I will not be judging this by the standards of the industry as it exists today, but I welcome any actual anime fans to chime in with how this show measures up to the expectations of a modern audience.

For me, I thought this thing worked pretty well?

It’s for sure trying to feel like an episode of Kamen Rider W, with all the accouterments and filigree you’d hope for – the Narumi Agency office, Watcherman, Santa, even Lily’s cafe from the Accel film. It’s as close to a continuation to W as you’d dream of, if you were dreaming of an animated continuation of W. The voices are good, if not 100%. Akiko’s is dead on, Philip’s evokes the character well, the various side characters are in the right range, but Shotaro’s misses some of the weird vulnerability and childishness that I’m used to. It’s a good voice, but it’s a little too generic-sounding for me. But that’s minor! The episode absolutely feels like Fuuto, and that’s half the battle of creating Kamen Rider W in a new medium.

The other thing that helps a lot is taking a similar approach to the live-action version and slowly leading the viewer into the world. We get Shotaro, we get Shotaro and Akiko, then we finally get Shotaro and Philip. (As always, Akiko is the ridiculous glue that holds this premise together!) We even kick things off with an incredibly faithful reenactment of Begins Night, for god’s sake. There’s a real If It Ain’t Broke feeling to this premiere episode, where it somehow feels for all the world like it’s the beginning of a new season Kamen Rider W. We’re still focused on helping weird Fuuto citizens with their problems, we’re still following the adventures of a detective that’s frequently distracted by trying to look cool (now with the ability to obsess over selfies!), we’re still hanging out with Team Double. It’s structured like the show never ended, which was always its selling point.

The meat of this episode… it’s good? It’s good. Tokime is a hilariously designed anime girl to this untrained eye (this show is way more LOOK AT HER BOOBS than I’d care for), but she’s a femme fatale in a noir world, and that’s a solid hook for a Shotaro-led opener. Chuuta’s a fun client, with his slightly horny but still well-meaning need to redeem Tokime. The detecting Shotaro does is all about establishing his connection to the city, which is crucial for caring about his character. The bizarre shadow realm that Tokime’s accessing is a neat Only In Anime visual, and that’s really what I want this show to be: not an animated version of the stuff W did, which is comfortable and no small task, but an animated expansion of W’s aesthetic.

I’m very much looking forward to more of that, if possible. It’s nice to see how easily the makers of this show can make it all feel like Kamen Rider W, but I’m actually more excited to see when and where it really becomes Fuuto P.I. They’re off to a good start so far.

[Enchilada645]

So Futo PI! I'll repeat this later but I really hope we get a Season 2 sometime soon or like someone, anyone (fansubbers/official companies) gets a hold of the rights to give us more than we have translated. There's a lot of cool stuff that I've seen (I won't say a peep) that I want to understand but can't. Here's hoping something happens soon on that front since the Manga is apparently reaching its climax.

Speaking of Manga, this is an anime adaptation of a manga, so of course there are differences and such. To make this experience fresh, I'm also reading the Manga alongside whatever episode I watch for the day. Don't expect me to do it for every single episode (as I'm pretty sure the translated bits are only up to Episode 9) but I will point out some things here and there.

-Most changes are just, them choosing to cut minor pieces of dialogue, mostly extra remarks or certain gags. Certain scenes are different, or toned down, like that shower scene oh my gosh that shower scene in the manga.

-Begins Night? Anime Original, nice touch to give us some Rider action given there's not much in the episode of what this chapter is adapting. I say chapter not chapters because Chapter 1 of Futo PI is 62 pages long so they had a lot of material for this episode.

-There's this really cool and obviously CG room shot of Chuuta making his way up to the detective agency that isn't in the Manga which just focuses on Shotaro and Akiko's conversation.

-Likewise with CG, that cool bike chase in which we get to see the studio show their love of vehicles (I believe they worked on an anime about motor bikes or mopeds before this?) is anime original. Shotaro chases after Tokime and they just end up in the alleyway in the manga.

Other than that I really enjoyed this foray into a more stylized version of Futo, especially since it's helmed by some familiar faces. That being, the cast members who played Shotaro, Philip, Terui, and Akiko in Memory of Heroez reprise their roles here. So there ends up being a familiarity and certainty to their voices since this isn't their first rodeo.

Last thing I'll say is I do enjoy them just deciding to put chibi skit gags at the ends of the episodes. Real fun way to have the VA's and animators mess around a bit.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Last thing I'll say is I do enjoy them just deciding to put chibi skit gags at the ends of the episodes. Real fun way to have the VA's and animators mess around a bit.

Yeah, that egg thing in Episode 1 is real cute. I didn't touch on it since it's maybe a minute long, but I am a sucker for Shotaro/Akiko antagonism, and it's such a good sign that the producers of the anime saw the same value.

And thanks for the manga notes!

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

First off, I?m not an anime guy. I watched some stuff in my formative days via A.D. Vision videotapes (I?m old!) and bootlegs from conventions. Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Tenchi Muyo, Escaflowne, some DBZ. I haven?t seriously watched an anime property probably this millennium.

I'm mostly in the same boat. My knowledge of Japanimation starts with the Sci-Fi Channel's weekly movies and mostly ends with Toonami. I know a bit more about it through cultural osmosis, but it's just not a medium I'm very interested in. Honestly, I can say the same about Western animation; I'm just not really a cartoon guy.

That said, I really like Fuuto PI. It feels like a very natural extension of W, which makes sense because it's based on the comics written by W's head writer, Riku Sanjo. The characters feel maybe a little older but still very true to themselves and there are a lot of nods to recurring and guest characters from the show. It really does feel like a proper continuation, not a spin-off or a reimagining.

Quote:

Tokime is a hilariously designed anime girl to this untrained eye (this show is way more LOOK AT HER BOOBS than I?d care for), but she?s a femme fatale in a noir world, and that?s a solid hook for a Shotaro-led opener.

Fuuto PI is a very horny cartoon. It's one of the few issues I have with it. Now, for a Japanese cartoon made in the 2020s it's not that bad; the horniness level is maybe a 5 out of 10 by that metric. For Kamen Rider, though, it is a very solid 9. There have definitely been some very charge moments in the series and movies (I remember you, Shin), but Fuuto PI is very blatant and persistent with it in a way that feels out of step with the original show and Kamen Rider as a whole. I don't want to come off as prudish, but the show will often go out of its way to add a jiggle factor and that's not what I'm here for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

So Futo PI! I'll repeat this later but I really hope we get a Season 2 sometime soon or like someone, anyone (fansubbers/official companies) gets a hold of the rights to give us more than we have translated. There's a lot of cool stuff that I've seen (I won't say a peep) that I want to understand but can't. Here's hoping something happens soon on that front since the Manga is apparently reaching its climax.

I am disappointed that a second season hasn't been announced yet, but I know that Japanimation doesn't necessarily work in an annual cycle. I'm hoping that we'll get more at some point.

I never really got into the comic book; I liked the character stuff but found the action to be hard to follow. I would definitely like to read more of it now, though. It's a real pity that the only translator to show interest was Genm Corp, who has a track record for finishing projects that reminds me of the old "Kuuga Curse" days.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Fuuto PI is a very horny cartoon. It's one of the few issues I have with it. Now, for a Japanese cartoon made in the 2020s it's not that bad; the horniness level is maybe a 5 out of 10 by that metric. For Kamen Rider, though, it is a very solid 9. There have definitely been some very charge moments in the series and movies (I remember you, Shin), but Fuuto PI is very blatant and persistent with it in a way that feels out of step with the original show and Kamen Rider as a whole. I don't want to come off as prudish, but the show will often go out of its way to add a jiggle factor and that's not what I'm here for.

Yeah, it's... I don't want to act like I was scandalized or whatever (I am a grown adult that consumes art other than that meant to sell toys to Japanese children), and I assume this was pitched at an older crowd than W originally was, but it's still a little weird. Even "adult" Kamen Rider content like Amazons never really got sexual with anything, if I recall correctly; it's always just increased violence and bleakness disguised as moral ambiguity. So, yeah, to see multiple characters be all AWOOGA AWOOGA at an anime girl? Kind of worth noting!

That said, totally fitting that Shotaro is the focal point for a lot of this horniness -- he was pretty horny on the live-action show!

[DreamSword]

Man, what kind of nerd would watch an anime based on a toku show, much less discuss it in depth?

[Androzani84]

So here we are, at the show that people insisted (and in some cases, despite the whole show having aired) you need to watch Double to understand and screamed “bloody murder” at Toei for not licensing the show out.

But anyway. It’s a fairly good first episode. It tells you that we shouldn’t expect Rider action in every episode and that we are gradually introducing the existing elements from Double into this anime for new viewers. And we also get an audience surrogate for said new viewers.

And yes, I will be continuing this feature here, but with some extra categories added because… anime.

Rider-Lert!

To start with, the VAs for the main 4 from the original show all return from Memory of Heroes, with the main duo being Koki Uchiyama and Yoshimasa Hosoya, who have both voiced monsters within Rider proper, Uchiyama being Desast in Saber and Hosoya being the Butterfly Yummy in OOO. And our mob boss guest part is Katsuyuki Konishi, who is currently the “equipment voice” for Kamen Rider Gotchard, in addition to describing who “Gatchanko’d” the previous week. And now onto other categories new to this show.

PreCure-Lert!
So being an anime, it’s only natural that Toei’s pool shares some mutual swimmers with the “imoto” of the Super Hero Time block’s water. Now let’s discuss them before I stretch this metaphor out to sea.

Both Hosoya and Akiko’s actress Mikako Komatsu (so named after an Olympic swimmer who was everywhere on the news when her mother was pregnant. It was an Olympic year) were regulars in Star Twinkler Pretty Cure, the former as the villain Kappard, the latter as the 4th Cure, Kaguya Madoka/Cure Selene.

And for a retroactive example, Akira Sekine, the VA for our Time Princess (my nickname for Tokime) went on to be the lead character Sora Harewataru/Cure Sky in the filling year’s Hirogaru Sky Pretty Cure.

And now for one that’s exclusive to this episode. It won’t appear again.

Yu-Gi-Oh ZEXAL-Ert!

So this is basically an elephant in the room mention, since the three leads introduced so far were all prominent characters in Yu-Gi-Oh ZEXAL. Uchiyama as Kaito Tenjou/Kite Tendo, Hosoya as IV/Quattro (who spends an entire three-parter duelling, and thus throwing mutual insults with, the aforementioned Kite) and Komatsu as Kotori Suzuki/Tori Meadows. Hosoya also had a minor role in the previous show Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds as one-shot villain Dick Pitt/Grady and had an even greater role in ZEXAL’s successor Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V as Reiji Akaba/Declan Akaba.

[Enchilada645]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

So here we are, at the show that people insisted (and in some cases, despite the whole show having aired) you need to watch Double to understand and screamed ?bloody murder? at Toei for not licensing the show out.

While I wouldn't go as far as bloody murder, it's still an absolute missed chance to have some really good synergy. If you want more people to get into Kamen Rider in the US, and managed to hook them via Futo PI somehow you can point and say "Here's the show it was based on and is a sequel to", likewise if someone watches W there can be a show/manga (if they bothered to license the manga) people can point to as well if they want more adventures.

I'd imagine people are mostly (and rightfully) frustrated because it's something that could easily grow the brand but no one is capitalizing on.