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05-16-2020, 12:00 PM | #221 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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EPISODE 42: "Battlefield"
These two episodes are directed by Osamu Kaneda again, and as soon as this one starts, it's obvious why. Kuuga can be a very relaxed show, but here, it's nothing but action right out of the gate. Everyone is hot on the trail of Go-Baberu-Da, a brutal buffalo with a surprisingly cowardly approach to killing Linto. He makes a point to block off all routes of escape in crowded structures, leaving him free to to do his thing with the added benefit of making it harder for anyone who could stop him to get in. I gotta say, I think these last few Go guys are starting to get lazy. I mean, Jaaza basically outright said on her blog or whatever that the actual "game" part of the "game" they're playing is completely trivial to them, and they just want to hurry up and move on. Makes sense for the guys with the highest rank, I guess, but still. You could at least put some creativity into how you slaughter people. Or, well, you could also not kill people. That's a pretty good option too! The way the plot here is structured is pretty interesting. Not only does it start at what would be the climax of any other episode, but the police have explicitly been dealing with Baberu for a few days already. It completely skips over most of the setup almost any other episode of the show would do to get us right to all that glorious action, and man is it exciting. First, Kuuga catches up to Baberu on the Beat Chaser, which means a small but welcome taste of trial action before he dismounts the bike. From there, it's an intense battle that puts Yuusuke on the ropes in more ways than one. There's a great little character moment that continues to build on his recent struggles, where Baberu takes a second to compliment Kuuga's strength, saying his fists would probably be able to kill a ton of prey. Yuusuke is visibly shaken by this, and is about to charge at Baberu in a moment of anger, but he holds himself back for a second and lets Baberu come to him. It's a nice reminder of the conflicting emotions he's dealing with in-between all the exciting action. And the action is really exciting! Kuuga gets a nice Mighty Kick in there, but it doesn't even work to annoy Baberu, who brushes it off, and unveils an ability to change forms just like Jaaza last time. His comes with a big hammer that he starts smacking up Yuusuke with, leaving visible dents in even Titan Form's armor. This far in the series, I have to say I really love how brutally and how often Kuuga gets beaten up. How do I put it? It's fun how fun it isn't? Like, Yuusuke sustains these massive injuries, and spends a lot of time rolling around on the ground having trouble even drawing breath properly, and all of that does a great job to reinforce how serious the stakes of the fight are. If Yuusuke messes up too much in any one of these fights, he's going to die, and you really feel that watching some of these scenes. The only thing that saves Kuuga here is Ichijou shooting Baberu with another special new type of bullet that serves to stun him long enough for Kuuga to do the now standard trick of loading the Grongi onto the Beat Gouram's horns to drive off to somewhere safe. Once he gets to a nice big open quarry, Yuusuke decides to try out, for seemingly no particular reason, something Enokida suggested to him. He transforms to Rising Mighty while on the Beat Gouram, allowing Gouram itself to be imbued with the golden power, which... gives Bandai one more thing to sell toys of! Obviously it also gives Gouram the extra power to be able to finish off a monster again, but three random extra pieces of gold slapped on an already busy bike design honestly isn't that exciting, and the show seems to know that, because it treats the whole thing with a bit of a wink and a nudge. Yuusuke tells Ichijou over the radio after Baberu is destroyed that the "Gold Gouram Beat Chaser Combo Ramming Attack" worked great, and all Ichijou can say in response is that's a really long name. This show obviously has things against both announcing attack names and shilling merchandise in forced ways, so I think Yuusuke doing (a terrible job of) the former is a subtle indicator they kind of felt like they were being made to do the latter in this one. No deep origin, or great buildup. It's just... Rising Beat Gouram, there it is! And there it goes, too, because this is its only appearance! Combined with Ichijou's smile, it's a cute, tongue-in-cheek way to wrap up half an entire episode that was pretty much all adrenaline, all the time. Yeah, that's right, we're at the commercial break already. That's how long that went. Everything's like totally backwards right now, it's nuts. Things start feeling a lot more normal from this point on, though. Nothing reminds me I'm watching Kuuga quite like a long scene of characters in a room talking to each other about things. And this particular scene of characters in a room is like an all-star gathering of the main cast. Yuusuke, Ichijou, Enokida, Tsubaki, Sakurako, and my main man Jean have all gotten together to share their latest updates on Kuuga and the Grongi with each other, and it's pretty great. The only way it could be better is if Pops was there serving tea and completely misinterpreting everything everyone was saying as being a reference to some song or something. The main topic of discussion ends up being Tsubaki's work analyzing the corpses of Gooma, and all of the other Grongi killed by Daguva. Because they weren't blown to pieces like the ones Kuuga takes out, it was actually possible to analyze them thoroughly. The good news is that means the police might finally get some useful countermeasures against them out of this. The bad news is that, without any remaining doubt at all, the Grongi are functionally identical to Kuuga. They aren't monsters with human forms, like you might've assumed. They're basically just regular people who have magic stones in their stomachs enabling them to turn into immensely powerful, animal-themed forms... exactly like Yuusuke. There's a lot I really love about this. Some of it is thematic, and it's probably best to get into it later. Some of it just how very Kamen Rider the whole idea is. Having the monsters and the heroes both come from the same place is a franchise tradition, and the ways Kuuga works stuff like this in while still having a completely original spin is awesome. Not so awesome is how much credence this lends to the theory that Yuusuke is going to become like Daguva. Tsubaki's been worried about this, in a way, since episode 5, and this only makes him more so, but Yuusuke tries to reassure him, and the others all join in. The whole scene started off as a serious meeting, but by the end, everyone is laughing at Ichijou making puns. Again, I love what the show is doing here. It's inching ever closer to an inevitable darkest hour, but the worse things get, the more emphasis there is on these basic moments of human warmth and camaraderie. They become more important. The other thing to mention here is that Mika is back in Tokyo yet again, this time for a flute competition, which is being held at a building owned by some big corporate CEO dude who seems to have made a lot of enemies. When a guy sits in a poorly lit room chucking darts at a picture of you, it's probably not a good sign. And when that same person shows up to your building at the same time Mika arrives, and starts inching closer towards her while menacing music plays, it's another kind of sign entirely. The sign of a cliffhanger! THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER Some pretty reckless use of the thumbs budget again this time. Take special of note the fact that, like in episode 40, Yuusuke even uses both hands at one point. Total thumbs up count: 81+8 = 89 EPISODE 43: "Reality" The resolution to the cliffhanger from last episode is another one where it basically just turns out it was no big deal at all. Masahiko, the guy with the grudge against the building's owner, was just giving Mika back the necklace of shells she got from her father before heading in himself. I really, really love that subversion, actually, and we'll come back around to why in the end. There are many super interesting choices this episode makes, and one of them is in what it focuses the plot on. There's a token Grongi talking scene, and a brief bit in the middle where Yuusuke turns into Kuuga when he feels Daguva's presence again, but that's pretty much it for supernatural elements in this story. All the climactic battles, all the impossible murder mysteries, that all happened last time. It's taken care of already. This is a story about reality. With things having calmed down so much now that Baberu is gone, everyone is enjoying the free time. Yuusuke is off to the preschool again to help Minori out and generally be a cool guy who's good with kids. Happy times all around in these scenes. There's genuinely no other location in the series where Yuusuke in more in his element. Some great attention to detail, too, with a goodbye note on the whiteboard from Keiko, since she's off to go have a child. It's a great little bit of continuity to include, and it further emphasizes the sort of celebratory mood of the first part of the episode. Yuusuke eventually leaves to go attend Mika's concert, but not before Minori expresses her hope that hearing Mika's performance will put a smile on the face of Ichijou, who's also going to be there. After all, Ichijou's a stern guy who doesn't smile that much, right? Admittedly, he's not doing a whole lot to dispel that image as he gets ready. He's carrying out the task of cheering Mika on in his typically formal manner, buying a nice bouquet for the occasion, and generally being a little stiff in social scenarios. Such as when he gets to the building and happens to meet up with an old coworker of his who's currently acting as security for the event. He's makes some casual cracks with Ichijou about him finally getting a girlfriend and whatnot, but of course Ichijou just responds completely seriously to everything he says. He's equally quite serious talking to Mika before she goes on, filling her in on the latest news about #0 completely honestly and openly. I love how thoughtful you can tell Ichijou is being by thinking to give her a status update on that, and I equally love the whole idea of Mika kind of gradually finding herself. She basically says she gave up on helping out the research team in Nagano because she realized she just didn't have anything to really contribute, and this sudden interest in playing the flute is her new way of doing something that would make her father proud, since it was something he encouraged her to do. With only a few major appearances, there's this real sense of Mika growing up, and something really sweet about the sort of "it takes a village" attitude we see the main cast applying now that her father is gone. Ichijou's not as good at expressing it as Yuusuke, but you can tell he cares a lot about seeing to it she's happy. No one made him come here, after all. What's more, Mika manages to get Ichijou to lighten up when they bond over their preferred method of eating manjuu, getting him to crack such an earnest smile that Mika is surprised to see it. Right after this, Ichijou has to run off, however. That guy from earlier, Masahiko, was indeed coming to the building to get his revenge on the CEO. Masahiko is currently holding him hostage on a rooftop with a gun to his head, and the situation is looking tense. Turns out Masahiko was a longtime employee for the company who lost his job after some corporate downsizing happened. Clearly he didn't take that too well, and Ichijou isn't going to sit by and let this play out. It's as cop show as things have ever gotten as Ichijou pursues him all the way down from the rooftop to the ground below, heading outside the building's entrance, where Masahiko takes another hostage, having had to ditch the CEO, in an attempt to get Ichijou to back off. It seems like a standoff for a moment, but Ichijou waits for the perfect opportunity, and shoots the gun right out of Masahiko's hand for maximum TV cop style. Having disarmed the criminal, he rushes over and restrains him by force as civilians run by in panic. Truly an action-packed, gritty ordeal. One that happened in full view of Mika, on her way out from her performance. All of this was pretty traumatizing for her. She can't even look Ichijou in the eye when he comes over to ask if she's alright. Ichijou leaves her in the hands of Yuusuke, who just now got there after getting held up searching for Daguva. Ichijou says it's because he has to write a report on what just happened, but I think it's obvious part of it is him reading the room. Yuusuke sees Mika back to the train station, and she explains why she was so scared. It wasn't even really about a criminal being there. It was because of how frightening Ichijou was going after the criminal. Only a little bit before that, Ichijou was so jovial talking to her. He was friendly, and kind, and all kinds of words that seem so impossible to reconcile with the man in the street violently subduing that criminal. Yuusuke, who has been having this exact problem with himself lately, tells Mika something that's clearly informed by his own internal struggle. That side of Ichijou exists. It's real. No matter how unpleasant or scary it is, it's there, and there's no helping that. But Ichijou's smile is real too, and there's no getting rid of that either. This is a story about reality, and this is one of the boldest, most poignant morals this show ever delivered. Kuuga is a show with very clearly defined sides of good and evil, but it's also a show with a lot of nuance. To do this story that says we all have parts of ourselves we don't like, ones we wish we could ignore, because of what we think they say about us as a whole, that's pretty daring. To then further say that, in spite of all of this, we can't deny those things, and that acknowledging them doesn't mean we should stop acknowledging the things about us that are good? Well, that just shows why this series is so beloved all these years later. This is a very complicated lesson to give to children, but it's also an important one, and that's why I respect this episode so much for tackling that head on. Framing it around the actual child of the cast was a smart move to that end, and I appreciate details like Masahiko's characterization, which further plays into that central theme. An ordinary human is the main antagonist, even given the same ominous music cues as the Grongi. He's the villain, but he's not a monster. He's not much of a stone cold criminal, either. He held a gun to a man's head, and even shot another one in the leg, but the whole time, there's nothing on his face but pure fear. He doesn't necessarily want any of this. He convinced himself to carry out this plan for revenge, but before all of this, he was just a regular old employee, and we see from that gesture of returning Mika's necklace that he's not without compassion. The world is complex sometimes, and that's what this episode captures so well by pushing all the actual Kamen Rider material off to one side. It's another beautifully done drama that stands among Kuuga's best episodes, in my opinion. THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER Sure enough, the show needs a break after that last one. Total thumbs up count: 89+0 = 89
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Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 04-06-2023 at 06:16 PM.. |
05-16-2020, 12:16 PM | #222 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,399
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I think it's been noted by you guys alot in this thread before, but yeah, a handful of Kuuga's' episodes have alot of surprisingly adult lessons for kids, and it really does do alot to help the show stand out. And Episode 43 is yet another big point to my man Ichijo, and helping show both his growth and multiple sides of his character. Great stuff.
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05-16-2020, 12:40 PM | #223 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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I still think about this episode a lot because it really reflects how Godai and Ichijou are simultaneously opposites of each other, yet the same person. I adore how this show decided to posit its main characters as a peaceful man who has to engage in violence and then we look at his struggles with that; and a man all too used to engaging in violence being able to indulge in peace around that former man.
It's a bit difficult and complicated to get across without getting you to watch the series too, because I wouldn't say Ichijou exactly... learns anything from Godai, and I don't mean that in a bad way either. I think it's clear that he's pretty well-adjusted and knows how important it is to have these different aspects of himself, and to be able to smile and be happy when he's able to. I don't think of him as a character that needs Godai to come in and help him grow as a person. Rather... I think it's more accurate to say that Godai is someone that lets him be his best self a lot more. Someone he's much more able to be that person around; someone that draws out his best characteristics like that. It's hard for me to not see Godai and Ichijou as each other's other half, because to me they're just the best examples of opposites attracting. They're both extremely well developed as people before the series starts, and don't exactly have anything they need to grow on; but more just... this constant life stuff they need to work through. And they help each other immensely on that. It's a very different angle to come from on a show like this, and I think it works heavily to its credit. This episode was called Reality, and it's a very fitting name... but to mirror something that'll happen in not long from now, I think it would have been just as apt to call it Ichijou. It's a very specific and complex character piece on the man and I think it's fantastic that this was done so close to the end. It's a real bookend on what makes Ichijou Ichijou.
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05-16-2020, 03:52 PM | #224 |
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This one starts with a scene I really like. It's just Pops and Yuusuke having a little chat at Pole Pole, which ordinarily would be of little consequence, but it builds on the developments of the previous few episodes in a nice way, with Pops telling Yuusuke it's okay if he leaves on an adventure whenever he wants to.
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All in all, not his best fight! Once things have settled down, Yuusuke makes it clear to Ichijou (and the audience) that the presence he felt reminded him of #0 back in the forest, meaning we just got our first glimpse at Daguva's human form, who can manage to ruin Kuuga's day just by standing in place. That's pretty impressive!
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Sugita drives up with some new info, which includes a hint as to what's next, deliberately given to the police by Jaaza, as well as the fact that the victims on the plane she attacked consisted largely of the elderly. She's taking this "easy game" thing very seriously, evidently.
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He gets off to a fantastic start by thinking to look for Nana at a place he remembers her saying she used to practice with her teacher at, before the whole incident with Garume. It's less directly relevant to solving her problems than it was with Mika, but I can't get enough of Yuusuke demonstrating how much he cares about people to figure out where the sentimental places they'd go when feeling down are. It'd be so simple to just have the scene start with Yuusuke driving along on his bike until he turns to the side and says "huh?", having randomly found who he's looking for, but that's not good enough for this show. And of course, the reason she's so upset does come back to her teacher. Turns out one of the prompts at her audition was to act like someone you care about is being killed by an Unidentified Lifeform in front of you, which, uh... kinda seems like an oddly specific and insensitive thing to ask of somebody! You know, in case exactly what happened happened? Amazingly, this cruel reminder of what happened to the person who trained her to this point was not the reason she's talking about wanting to kill someone. No, that got her upset, but what tipped her over the edge was one of the other girls at the audition casually saying the fact her teacher actually died would come in handy for the performance. Which, like, yeah, pretty freakin' devastating. Even Yuusuke can understand why Nana would want to beat the crap out of her. He knows it's only human, but he also knows how painful it really is to solve your problems with violence. He asks Nana to take a deep breath, and gives her a spiel about how it's more important to make sure you've let the other person know they've done something wrong in a way that lets them understand, and how trying to do it with your fists doesn't really accomplish that.
Nana isn't having any of this right now. She's Yuusuke's number one fan, sure, but none of this is how the "real world" works, right? Nana thinks everything Yuusuke is spouting right now is naive idealism. Yuusuke has a pretty simple retort to this. Of course it is, and that's exactly why it's something you'd want to make real. Things being bad is just all the more reason to try making them better. Because a world where people only know how to solve things by fighting is far too sad. Summarizing it doesn't do justice to the usual great minimalist touch of Kuuga's dialogue, either. I don't know how adequately I can convey this, but the way that instead of saying "with your fists", he just says "like this" while gesturing with his fists, it's so much more powerful for some reason. And that's what I think this whole scene is. Powerful. It's probably more than evident at this point how much I love the themes that take center stage during the last stretch of the show, and these episodes do an absolutely fantastic job of taking everything that was implied back in 34/35 and just running with it. We get a much deeper look into Yuusuke's psyche here, and what makes his advice to Nana click so well, is that we know where it's coming from. These aren't just hollow suggestions. Yuusuke is starting to feel the pressure of being Kuuga more than ever. All the pain of that lifestyle. All the tragedy. All the anger. It's not hypothetical to him. The Grongi are people who truly can't be reasoned with, and it's precisely because he deals with them the way he does that he's all the more dedicated to making sure us regular humans realize we can talk things out. Joe Odagiri's acting here is also pretty excellent, continuing a trend he's developed in these recent episodes where there are the briefest little pauses in Yuusuke's smile. Occasionally, just for a moment, all that confidence completely leaves his face, and all the weight he's carrying underneath is plain to see. Like when the BeatChaser's radio starts beeping and he realizes he has to leave, even though he clearly doesn't want to, and he struggles for a second to actually tell Nana he needs to go. Quote:
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There's obviously the whole rest of the fight I could talk about. Cool stuff like paying off Enokida's earlier talk by having Jaaza changes forms, or Kuuga turning from Dragon to Titan and seemingly changing the rod straight into a sword, or, heck, Rising Titan with two swords.
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05-17-2020, 12:28 AM | #225 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
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Rising BeatGouram is just a little too tacky for my tastes, so I think it was for the best it only had one appearance. What would have really solidified this as the ultimate Ichijou episode is if he got to ride the big beetle-cycle mount for a bit!
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05-17-2020, 05:39 AM | #226 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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I still think about this episode a lot because it really reflects how Godai and Ichijou are simultaneously opposites of each other, yet the same person. I adore how this show decided to posit its main characters as a peaceful man who has to engage in violence and then we look at his struggles with that; and a man all too used to engaging in violence being able to indulge in peace around that former man.
It's a bit difficult and complicated to get across without getting you to watch the series too, because I wouldn't say Ichijou exactly... learns anything from Godai, and I don't mean that in a bad way either. I think it's clear that he's pretty well-adjusted and knows how important it is to have these different aspects of himself, and to be able to smile and be happy when he's able to. I don't think of him as a character that needs Godai to come in and help him grow as a person. Rather... I think it's more accurate to say that Godai is someone that lets him be his best self a lot more. Someone he's much more able to be that person around; someone that draws out his best characteristics like that. It's hard for me to not see Godai and Ichijou as each other's other half, because to me they're just the best examples of opposites attracting. They're both extremely well developed as people before the series starts, and don't exactly have anything they need to grow on; but more just... this constant life stuff they need to work through. And they help each other immensely on that. It's a very different angle to come from on a show like this, and I think it works heavily to its credit. This episode was called Reality, and it's a very fitting name... but to mirror something that'll happen in not long from now, I think it would have been just as apt to call it Ichijou. It's a very specific and complex character piece on the man and I think it's fantastic that this was done so close to the end. It's a real bookend on what makes Ichijou Ichijou. Quote:
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It makes sense that, to solve a problem you need to talk it out rather than fighting it out, though, I also think that the kind of heartless person Nana interacts at the audition, may not be able to be reasoned with and just revels over others misery like this (probably even a psychological manipulation to take out the competition).
Okay, I know I just got done praising episode 43 for its emphasis on realism, but in the alternate reality where the episode is called "Ichijou", it totally ends with him ramming that criminal with the BeatGouram.
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05-17-2020, 04:56 PM | #227 |
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There's a great little character moment that continues to build on his recent struggles, where Baberu takes a second to compliment Kuuga's strength, saying his fists would probably be able to kill a ton of prey. Yuusuke is visibly shaken by this, and is about to charge at Baberu in a moment of anger, but he holds himself back for a second and lets Baberu come to him. It's a nice reminder of the conflicting emotions he's dealing with in-between all the exciting action.
When Baberu changes form, is that a balanced multiform like Dragon, Pegasus, and Titan to Mighty, or the stronger one like Rising to base forms? And can he changes his tools into something other than hammer? Oh yeah, this is the part where Yusuke gets beaten up a lot to the point that it's horrific. This really gives a feeling of hopelessness in Yusuke. One of the moments where the Kuuga armor was visibly damaged with all the marks from the hammers. The police now have caught up with Kuuga I guess with the bullet affecting Go Grongis. And.... "If Yuusuke messes up too much in any one of these fights, he's going to die".... lol... "go die".... "Godai". Quote:
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The main topic of discussion ends up being Tsubaki's work analyzing the corpses of Gooma, and all of the other Grongi killed by Daguva. Because they weren't blown to pieces like the ones Kuuga takes out, it was actually possible to analyze them thoroughly. The good news is that means the police might finally get some useful countermeasures against them out of this. The bad news is that, without any remaining doubt at all, the Grongi are functionally identical to Kuuga. They aren't monsters with human forms, like you might've assumed. They're basically just regular people who have magic stones in their stomachs enabling them to turn into immensely powerful, animal-themed forms... exactly like Yuusuke.
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Admittedly, he's not doing a whole lot to dispel that image as he gets ready. He's carrying out the task of cheering Mika on in his typically formal manner, buying a nice bouquet for the occasion, and generally being a little stiff in social scenarios. Such as when he gets to the building and happens to meet up with an old coworker of his who's currently acting as security for the event.
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Only a little bit before that, Ichijou was so jovial talking to her. He was friendly, and kind, and all kinds of words that seem so impossible to reconcile with the man in the street violently subduing that criminal. Yuusuke, who has been having this exact problem with himself lately, tells Mika something that's clearly informed by his own internal struggle. That side of Ichijou exists. It's real. No matter how unpleasant or scary it is, it's there, and there's no helping that. But Ichijou's smile is real too, and there's no getting rid of that either.
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Only later the characteristics of Masahiko would be implemented in more aspects of Kamen Rider, now even Riders can possess that characterizations. |
05-17-2020, 06:09 PM | #228 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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And can't Grongis just get off of Try/BeatGouram when they are carried by it? Like just jump out of them.
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I mean what do you expect of the attack name if everyone just refers to Kuuga's forms with their colors and refered to Grongi in numbers?
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And talking about Ichijou smiling, he had attempts before for a small smile that he blatanly tries to hold off, and those doesn't count to the likes of Godai siblings?
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05-17-2020, 06:39 PM | #229 |
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To be fair, all Minori says is that Ichijou rarely smiles, not that he never does at all, which I'd argue is true enough. Keep in mind that we the viewers also get to see those smiles he hides, or does without anyone around, a luxury the other characters in the show don't have.
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05-18-2020, 04:55 PM | #230 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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EPISODE 44: "Crisis"
Ichijou and Yuusuke start this one out discussing how much the Grongi have been increasing in power, and Yuusuke says he's determined to become even stronger to stop them. Sounds like pretty serious stuff, right? But the thing is, this opening scene is actually just them going for a casual morning jog while relaxing music plays. Once again, I find this a very interesting way to handle things. There's nothing at all dour about the mood here. In fact, it's the exact opposite, to the point that Yuusuke is even comically tripping on the ground. You could have these characters be so beaten down by this point, but they just refuse to break, and that's really the spirit of the whole show right there. Things are going less swell for Enokida, however. She's staying up all night again, and getting chewed out over the phone by her mother about not being home right now, because it's one of the days of the school year parents get to accompany their children, and Enokida promised she'd make it. She insists she still will... right after this meeting she has to go to first. She gets there just in time to miss Yuusuke introducing himself to chief Matsukura, complete with presenting him one of his business cards, which are now properly updated to reflect his status as the man with 2000 skills. The meeting begins pretty seriously. Dim lighting and blurry projector photos of monsters. Talk of the ultimate darkness and #0's incredible power. All that, plus Enokida clinically explaining the new types of bullets they've created based on Tsubaki's research on #0's victims, one of which acts as a tracking device, and the other of which will be able to prevent the Grongi from using their regenerative abilities, the latter of which are still being tested. Basically, your typical police scene in this show, except for the part at the end where an overly enthusiastic Yuusuke gets everybody to start laughing. Even here, things aren't without their moments of levity. Out in the city, a big screen on the side of a building is playing a news report about the mysterious string of power shortages that have been going on over the past month. This is observed by the woman with the rose tattoo, who remarks to another Grongi that it seems he's obtained a new power. This is Go-Gadoru-Ba, who's clearly marked as another rival sort of character to Kuuga, given his rhinoceros beetle motif. In fact, he's so dedicated to mirroring Kuuga, that, in case you've missed the implication here, he apparently really was going around juicing up on electricity for a month before starting his "game" to beat Kuuga at his own shtick. It's really, really hard for that not to seem silly when I try to picture it. Gadoru has been around for a while now, and it seems he has a stronger sense of, uh, let's go with "fair play", than the usual Grongi. He has the air of a dignified hunter, keeping his composure at all times, and making it a point to only use his new power against the Linto's warriors, rather than picking on random civilians. I put "fair play" in quotes because it's obvious he mostly just wants the excitement of a good fight more than anything. He plans to make it all the way to the top of the food chain, after all. From the distance, a voice that sounds both youthful and innocent simply replies "I'll be waiting." This is Daguva's first proper line in the show, and the contrast between that downright playful inflection and his horrific actions will only become more pronounced from here. At the university, Jean is making a mess of things gathering up research materials to take to Enokida, which leads to Sakurako stumbling upon the business card Yuusuke gave to Jean when they met, back when he was merely the man with 1964 skills. That number is actually handwritten above a crossed-out 1900, much the same way Yuusuke gave Enokida one with 1999 replaced with 2000 back when they met in episode 7. That's a really small touch I love kind of disproportionately. I mean, it's beyond minor, but the attention to detail to say that Yuusuke didn't always have the luxury of printing new sets of cards evey single time he acquired a new skill, and would hastily adjust whatever his current stock was is super neat to me for some reason? It's not even the point of this scene. It's about emphasizing how long Yuusuke has been on his quest to make people smile, and it does a great job of that. Yuusuke enters the room, and when Sakurako shows him the card, he immediately remembers it's the one he gave to Jean based on the number alone. Naturally, he also remembers Sakurako's perfectly. You know, between this and the body count thing, maybe memorizing numbers is one of his skills? This actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. At any rate, it's more than obvious at this point how deeply Yuusuke cares about other people, and that's why he's asked Sakurako to see if she can find him any hints as to how to become stronger, like a new form for Kuuga. The only ones mentioned in the inscriptions are his basic four, and the "fearsome warrior", which is probably out of the question. He does have the Rising forms, that are real tough, but then, he can only hold those for 30 seconds at a time. In true Kuuga fashion, that last bit is only outright stated for the first time here. Jean pitches the idea that simply finding a way to make free use of the golden power would do the trick, an idea Yuusuke takes to immediately. Like, to the point he's legitimately planning to just go have Tsubaki bust out the defibrillator again. Sakurako finds this distressing, and Jean even apologizes for his bad habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time (at least he's self-aware!), but Yuusuke is unwavering. His plan may be overdoing it, but if it means protecting smiles, he's ready to overdo things as much as he can, the same way his friends do. Speaking of, Enokida ends up having to turn around on her way to Sayuru's school on account of the police needing those new nerve-disruptor bullets finished ASAP. Gadoru is out on the town, and his search for Linto warriors has lead him to start slaughtering cops, who turn out not to be the challenge he was really looking for. Not that this stops him from killing them, of course. Kuuga is on the case too, making a sweet entrance where he quickly assesses the situation, leaping off his bike, grabbing the gun of a fallen officer from the ground, and then leaping onto a nearby cop car to get a vantage point from which to shoot Gadoru with Pegasus Form in an attempt to prevent him from finishing off the surviving cops. It's a seriously awesome little sequence to end the episode on. THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER No crazy group photos this time, and yet there's still an insane amount of thumb action. Total thumbs up count: 89+6 = 95 EPISODE 45: "Archenemy" Kuuga's efforts manage to draw Gadoru's attention away from the police, but not much more. His old finishing moves are thoroughly useless at this point, and Gadoru is all too happy to show him how it's really done. His eyes turn a green color, and he gets himself a big crossbow that pretty much immediately has Kuuga on the ropes. After evasion with Dragon Form proves unhelpful, Yuusuke grabs a random beam of wood to use as a sword, and goes after him with Titan Form. Gadoru is barely fazed by this. When Kuuga manages to knock the bow out of his hands, Gadoru reveals the next of his knockoff forms, grabbing the Titan Sword out of his own guts to turn it into his own. There's really nothing Yuusuke can do to touch the guy at this point, and he once again takes a beating straight through Titan Form's armor, which gets huge gashes on the torso and part of one of the shoulders sliced right off. Just when it seems like Kuuga will finally manage to turn things around with a Rising Mighty Kick, the hopelessness of the battle becomes truly apparent. Gadoru not only completely absorbs the attack without flinching, he reveals his forms also include an off-brand Rising mode, which leads to Kuuga basically being on the receiving end of a Rider Kick. Or more like a Grongi Kick, in this case, I guess. Kuuga winds up knocked back to Growing Form, where he actually looks ready to still fight for a second! He definitely isn't! This is another excellent fight when it comes to building the threat of the antagonist. I mean, I've seen the series once already, and I don't even think Kuuga can bounce back from this one. He tried all his favorite strategies in a row, and none of them did a thing! There does manage to be some good news in all of this. Yuusuke got trounced so thoroughly that Gadoru doesn't even care to finish the job and walks off, giving Yuusuke a chance to recover at the hospital. Ichijou also managed to get a shot with the marking bullets in on Ra-Dorudo-Gu, who reveals his condor-based monster form for the first time here after the bullet shatters the abacus he uses to count the kills of each Grongi during their "games". He too leaves the scene after assuming getting shoved over a ledge will be enough to deal with Ichijou, but of course a super-cop like him climbs right back up. With Kuuga out of commission for the time being, it's now more crucial than ever to get those nerve-disruptor bullets working, which means Enokida has some explaining to do to her family again. Her mother throws how little she's there for Sayuru in her face, and tells her that thanks to this latest broken promise, he's skipped school entirely, and locked himself in Enokida's room. Enokida's obviously in an unenviable position here, because there really isn't anything she can say beyond the usual. She'll be there as soon as she can, but making sure the mass murdering monsters get stopped kinda has to take priority, and that means she needs to be there to do her job. No matter how much frustrating that is for Sayuru, or for herself. In the meantime, Ichijou is tracking down Dorudo's signal to the sports arena he's currently hanging out at with the rose-tattooed woman and Gadoru. Gadoru gets the bad news that with the abacus broken, he has to restart his "game" from scratch. He takes the news well. You know, keeps an even temper, doesn't raise his voice. Even says he's fine with doing it all again. Yes, indeed, he's even very, very calm when telling Dorudo he has to die now. This means more Grongi infighting, which is always such a treat. Right out of the gate, my money's on Gadoru though. Dorudo's hilariously saggy bird face kinda makes him look like the Grongi all the other Grongi steal lunch money from. I mean, his whole job was to do math. He's obviously the nerd of the group. Of course, looks can be deceiving, so who knows? His skills with his tonfa might turn out to be a good match for Gadoru's imitation Dragon Rod. Although Ichijou is already at the arena without them, Enokida manages to get the new bullets good to go. Her initial elation gets cut short the second she remembers she had to let down her son to make this happen. She's later seen moping outside the research institute, clearly unsure of how to even face Sayuru. Hopefully Jean can do something to cheer her up now that he's there too. While I'm mentioning side characters, I also want to bring up the Pole Pole scenes for this episode. There's not really anything in them to really take time digesting, but a very pregnant Keiko makes an appearance, and it's still so cool to me how all these characters keep coming back, so I wanted to mention that. Sakurako comes to the hospital where Yuusuke is recovering to ask on Yuusuke's behalf for Tsubaki to give him a good shock or two again. Even though she's not totally on board with the idea herself, she has a lot of faith in Yuusuke, and if he thinks that becoming stronger is something he needs to be happy, she's all for that. Tsubaki seems to be considering overdoing what he can for a moment, but regardless of what he would've decided, the issue gets forced when Yuusuke's heart flatlines. Again. THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER Things are kept much more reasonable here. Total thumbs up count: 95+2 = 97 EPISODE 46: "Indomitable" Yuusuke isn't dead! The show doesn't waste any time pretending this isn't the case, either. The very first shot of this episode is dedicated to showing you Yuusuke's very much beating heart after Tsubaki fixed him up, mostly offscreen. Even during the cliffhanger last time, it was treated like more of a moderate inconvenience than anything. In fact, Tsubaki goes as far as to suggest that Yuusuke somehow forced his own heart to stop, just so Tsubaki would hit him with some more of that sweet, sweet electricity. Which seems like a weirdly chessmaster kind of move for Yuusuke, so I assume Tsubaki means this was some sort of subconscious thing. Or he just doesn't know what he's talking about. Take your pick, I guess, but I'm pretty sure it's the former. Tsubaki is generally really good at his job, after all. On the subject of people who are good at their jobs, we can't forget about Enokida, who's starting to break under the pressure of her life. She opens up to Jean about what's been going on with Sayuru, and admits she's still sitting around at the institute because at this point she honestly doesn't know what to do anymore. She keeps trying to find time for everything to avoid hurting anyone, but that keeps failing to work, and now she's sitting around being sad about it instead of going to see Sayuru now that she's free. It's goes into straight up self-loathing territory, with Enokida dismissing herself as a failure of a mother. Jean has been lending an ear this whole time without saying much, because that's always been his nature. Just two episodes ago, he basically apologized for accidentally contributing to a discussion. He's always preferred to stay in the background, be friendly, and not rock the boat too much. That's why he's never pushed Enokida too hard about her parenting, even though he cares so much. Until now. Hearing Enokida talk about herself like this prompts Jean to finally stand up (like, he literally stands up) and say the most forceful thing he's ever said: has Sayuru ever told Enokida she's a bad mother? Because, as it turns out, Jean's parents were never around when he was a kid, and no matter how lonely he felt, he never thought any less of them for it. This explains why Jean has always had such a vested interest in Enokida's situation, and some of his dialogue in those first episodes where it came up makes so much more sense with this knowledge. Jean's really intent on getting Enokida to realize she isn't the problem. Her life may be hectic and hard to manage, but in his opinion, all Enokida needs to do is what she can. As long as she can stay smiling, and keep pushing herself to work hard for the benefit of all mankind the way she does, then that'll lead to Sayuru smiling too in the end. Jean's impassioned defense completely reinvigorates Enokida, who goes to grab a certain something before getting a ride home from Jean. Yuusuke is feeling pretty invigorated himself, after waking up in the hospital. Tsubaki's surprised when Yuusuke knows right away he had the defibrillator busted out on him again (Tsubaki not expecting that confirming he didn't mean Yuusuke literally willed himself to death on purpose, I guess), but Yuusuke's just so full of energy he knows it couldn't have been anything else. He's pretty confident that with all the energy he's loaded with now, he should be able to sustain the golden power for a lot longer, which will be a big help, since Yuusuke wants to work hard for the sake of everyone else who's working hard. The scene at Pole Pole this time kind of blends this drama with the Enokida drama by having Minori talk about how their father, when he was alive, was also never around, a natural result of being a war photographer. There aren't any deep revelations here, but I like how the show caught how Yuusuke's existing backstory could kind of fit in here thematically, with Minori pointing out how they'd always get letters from him that would always end with him wishing for the day when everyone can smile. It's obvious, especially from Minori's tone, that both of them really looked up to their dad, despite barely seeing him, and that reinforces what Jean is saying, as well as how deeply baked into Yuusuke the idea of protecting other people's happiness is. Ichijou has headed inside the arena just in time to catch the night's main event. Gadoru and Dorudo are continuing to throw down on surprisingly even footing, with Dorudo managing to get way more good hits in then I would've ever expected from the guy. Ichijou's smart enough not to stick around watching long enough to get caught though, and retreats to a nice safe distance, meeting up with Sugita and Sakurai, and picking up the completed nerve-disruptor bullets when they get delivered. That means it's time to take the fight back inside, but Dorudo flying off means splitting into two teams. Sugita and Sakurai head off to catch Dorudo, while Ichijou is the one to head back inside to go after Gadoru. When he finds him again, he fires a few of the bullets off, and Gadoru... falls flat on the ground. The bullets don't just work, they work great. Sakurai and Sugita even manage to outright kill Dorudo, winning the police their first ever proper victory against a Grongi. It took them 46 episodes to do it, but they did it, no Rider belts required! The woman with the rose tattoo is, once again, mostly just impressed, cryptically remarking this time that the Linto as a whole will become like the Grongi. Kinda kills the mood a bit. As does Gadoru turning out to have been playing dead, which is a cheap move. It just goes to show you, these competitive types only care about fairness as long as they still win. Yuusuke arrives to finish up the job, transforming straight to Rising Mighty, able to freely use its power exactly like he was hoping for. The fight heads to a nearby forest Ichijou has made sure is cleared out for the explosion (I choose to believe all the squirrels and birds were evacuated too), where Yuusuke unlocks a brand new power. Now, keep in mind, Bandai at this point was already selling merchandise of that four-horned version of Kuuga I'm feigning ignorance of for a couple months at this point. Ever since around its first hallucinatory appearance during the fight with Jaraji, pretty much. And I have to imagine it was a little frustrating for them those visions were the only appearances it was making. What was definitely frustrating for them, was tuning into this very episode, and seeing a brand new form for Kuuga they'd never heard of before. This is the debut of Kuuga's Amazing Mighty Form, a black and gold spin on the default form with doubled up Rising anklets. You think it'd be a cheap repaint deal Bandai forced on the show, right? As a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite. The show's staff thought this whole idea up and executed it all on their own without ever thinking to mention it to Bandai, and as such, no merchandise of this form was actually available while the show was on the air. How could it be? They only found out about the dang thing when there was like a month left to go. Making toys takes time! When Yuusuke finishes Gadoru off, and takes a second to observe himself, he realizes the implications of the color, and in a cruel twist on Dragon and Pegausus' debuts, remarks with trepidation that he's turned black. It's a cool, solemn moment, that I don't want to undercut, but just be aware that for Bandai, it was probably more like "he turned black?!" After this twist, things pick back up with Jean driving Enokida back to her home on his motorcycle, because of course Jean has a motorcycle. With his encouragement, she heads in to straighten things out with Sayuru. The decision she comes to here is really interesting. The whole purpose of this plotline feels almost like a rebuke of how similar ones in other stories can often be handled. Enokida isn't a bad parent. She's a talented, hard worker with an important job, and she absolutely cares about her child on top of that. She keeps making these promises to Sayuru because she genuinely would like to be able to keep them. But that's what she realizes here her problem is. She can't keep them, and the solution isn't to stop working to go be a "real" mother. It's just to be straight with Sayuru. To tell him that with the Unidentified Lifeforms around, she has to work harder than ever, and while there's no getting around that, she's every bit as dedicated to being his mother. It's a really touching scene, with the kind of drama that, again, you really just do not find in a tokusatsu show that isn't Kuuga, and their following reconciliation, finally bonding over that book Jean gave Enokida all those episodes ago, it's such a great payoff. It's a really uplifting ending for the most part, but then, there's only a few episodes left, and with all the Grongi that were participating in the "game" dead, the final scene reminds us that this means Daguva is done waiting around. It's the final stretch now, the storm is coming, and it won't be pretty. THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER And with only a few episodes left, the count finally hits the triple digits! Total thumbs up count: 97+4 = 101
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Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 04-06-2023 at 06:21 PM.. |
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