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Thread
:
Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Den-O
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07-29-2021, 05:02 AM
#
857
DreadBringer
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,290
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kamen Rider Die
FAREWELL KAMEN RIDER DEN-O: FINAL COUNTDOWN
Like, I’m trying to think of a Kamen Rider I instantly disliked more than Kotaro, and I’m coming up empty. I mean, I’ve hated some characters more
eventually
, but very few have I hated as much on their debut. Having Kotaro show up as the new Den-O and basically go Old Den-O Stuff Sucks for twenty straight minutes
of the goddamn Farewell To Ryotaro movie
… bold choice! Not, uh, not the one
I
would’ve made, but it definitely provides an arc for Kotaro’s character.
He gets there by the end, maybe. It’s a fairly standard arc, where an overly-confident hero is humbled by a loss and works with the people he formerly shunned in order to achieve victory. The actor
tries
, anyway. It’s just too difficult to feel invested in a guy who just showed up, told everyone they suck, ate shit, and then got a pity invite to their big celebration. Kotaro starts as an interloper and ends as an outsider, which is largely a function of the plot, but the character has enough unrealized potential that I’ll try not to hold this introductory story against him.
It’s… that’s sort of the big problem this movie has, and it’s the same one that occasionally held back the series, in my opinion. There’s incredibly fun character stuff happening, and some very charming actors, but there’s always this top-down plot stuff that keeps it from being the fun hang-out story it clearly wants to be.
Kotaro showing up is
plot stuff
, something outside the group that derails (sorry) the real fun of this movie, which is all of the Imagin hanging out and being ridiculous. Kotaro is the Sakurai nonsense that always threatened to put the brakes on the comedy and drama that could develop out of the characters. There’s plenty to build a movie around from just the characters we’re already invested in. Having Kotaro show up and stop the fun dead so we can try and address his mysteries and traumas (spoiler: they are not at all worth the effort), it starts and ends this movie in a zone that devalues the characters and tone we all love from Den-O; it feels like
work
.
So you aren't actually into Kotaro, someone that typically riles up shit by deeming themselves as better and telling everyone that they suck (I guess it's meant to be his comedy like usual of the riling up conflicts like this, or many occassions of this type of bickering is seen as in the franchise). Den-O being something that has Yuichi Nakamura, it's the reason why his previous character was reviled, Kyosuke in Hibiki (or its 2nd half in general), who behaves similarly to show when he appears against the current cast. I know you deem it as Sakurai stuff due to him, also being picked from the future by Owner to solve a problem in the present, and I thought there's an opposite to Sakurai here that Kotaro actually does show off his behavior and a little of his past, too many screentime to Sakurai's lack of? I've seen significantly worse behaviors in the franchise than what Kotaro displayed here to get riled up actually, though I'd think Kotaro's misery isn't highlighted enough from his past other than his name being made fun of, if it's the source of his grudge against Ryotaro, and his resolution seems to be too rushed, just suddenly changing after interacting with Ryotaro, that he's suddenly ok with him being named Kotaro. My other thought is that.. Ryotaro managed to score girls after all then if he can have a descendant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kamen Rider Die
That all made for a movie that ended better than it started, but still not one I ever fully got onboard with conceptually. Some of it was the distracting thought of The Story I Wished They’d Told (like, just make Yuuto the new Den-O, problem solved), but a lot of it was just how weirdly inessential and unnecessary this whole story was. It’s Shiro’s thing with Sora, but as a superhero franchise designed to sell toys to Japanese children. Den-O was fun, and it ended, and now its corpse is trotted out to try to reignite the same devotion it once effortlessly generated. Ryotaro seems checked out, Airi and the Airimirers are there when they don’t need to be (I love how they 100% did not have the Milk Dipper set anymore), and whatever fun there is (and there’s fun!) comes with an echo of how Den-O needs to be put away. Sora’s sadness was never that she wanted to live again. Her sadness was that extending her life devalued it, and she’d rather be honest about that. It’s hard to say goodbye to something you love, but it’s maybe harder to be refused the chance to say goodbye at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kamen Rider Die
-Not that I want to keep shitting on a movie that really doesn’t deserve this level of criticism, but I really like how this movie comes across as almost an indictment of drawing strength from memories,
the core thesis of the TV series
. Sora’s request, at the end, is to be forgotten, since being remembered forever by Shiro is a trap. It’s this movie sort of saying that it’s cool to love Den-O as a TV show, but please stop loving Den-O so much that they aren’t allowed to stop making it. I love this movie’s ambivalence about its own existence!
D̶u̶n̶n̶o̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶u̶s̶,̶ ̶K̶o̶b̶a̶y̶a̶s̶h̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶K̶R̶ ̶v̶a̶l̶u̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶o̶n̶s̶t̶r̶u̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶p̶u̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶o̶d̶d̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶I̶n̶o̶u̶e̶.̶ And I feel true that Ryotaro doesn't appear much in the movie, except as Shiro's prisoner and that he's treated as the resolving force to solve the problem at the end. I guess if Ryotaro does have descendants, his next story should be about him growing out of his loser status that he can settle down with a girl at the end? He does become more confident and assertive in the main series, but it wasn't shown much about how's his state of life after that. But yeah this is what companies can do, for money, to milk out something that is supposed to be done. It's a fun read to associate Shiro with Sora's stuff with the real life state of Den-O, though yeah it's still subjective that the company does milk out Den-O because there will be those who can't get enough of it and keep coming back (I agree on letting what's done be done though, disapproving with company meddling with creative works), and that thing reminds me of something else Kobayashi has done before. For the plot being about keeping the dying beloved alive at the expense of others, the alternate solution being the villain dying with the loved ones together... indicator of Toei dying then (or... Kobayashi wishing for the end of Toei?!)?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kamen Rider Die
THE BAGGAGE CAR
-I’m glad to be back watching Den-O, finding a way to make a crowd-pleasing bit of fan-service sound like a hollowed-out and dispiriting endeavor! I
did
enjoy the middle section of this movie, for what it’s worth. Sieg is an all-star in this movie (there’s a bit where he does his catchphrase, then everyone else does their catchphrase, and then the camera lands back on him to say I Already Did Mine, and it’s the smartest joke in maybe all of the movie), Hana’s great, all of the stuff where the Imagin are roommates was so agreeable that I don’t even care if it’s not pushing the narrative forward. Let me hang out with these dopes forever, even if it’s making them miserable. I will be Shiro in that scenario,
happily
.
I̶n̶d̶e̶c̶i̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶f̶k̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶K̶a̶i̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶p̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶S̶h̶i̶r̶o̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶e̶n̶d̶l̶e̶s̶s̶l̶y̶?̶ There's a comedy that I liked from Kotaro's inclusion though that, Momo wants to insult back, by calling Teddy, Tuffy, but his hostile attempt got turned back against him that he's the one being seen as idiot instead due to others not following Momo by correcting him instead. a show of responding a taunt with another taunt being ineffective (especially against undeserving one in Teddy). Still baffled about the fact that despite Kohana can beat up the Taros Imagins regularly, they'd treat Kohana as something to be protected by other Taros, or the flip-flopping part that she hides or she stands up against enemy Imagins. If you summed up about Shiro and Sora, what'd be the relation for the elephant talk that happens several times in the Edo era though? The part of all the Den-O's Riders gathering (with Ryotaro as other final form Liner Form, so having final form with other base form is better than singular final form!), although a good use of the group's arsenals, however is done less creatively imo than the tag team on the finale of Den-O series, I'd prefer something be made the same rather than be different but less. I didn't think that Sieg, the "supposed star of this movie"'s Wing Form performance had good use of its abilities.
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