TFW2005
Hisstank
Thundercats
TokuNation
Toyark
Home
News
Garo
Godzilla
Kamen Rider
Metal Heroes
Power Rangers
Super Sentai
Ultraman
All News Categories
Forum
News & Rumors
Power Rangers
Kamen Rider
Super Sentai
Other Toku Series
Toys and Collectables
Marketplace
Creative
Galleries
Companies
Bandai Japan
Tamashii Nations
Saban Brands
Bandai America
Toei
Characters
Kamen Rider Ghost
Kamen Rider Specter
Kamen Rider Necrom
Mighty Morphin Green Ranger
Dino Charge Red Ranger
Toylines
S.H. Figuarts
S.H. MonsterArts
DX Mecha
Megazords
Legacy
Shows
Kamen Rider Ghost
Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger
Power Rangers Dino Supercharge
Power Rangers Movie 2017
TokuNation.com
>
TokuNation
Integration
User Name
Remember Me?
Password
Rules
Register
Community
Today's Posts
Search
Community Links
Members List
Search Forums
Show Threads
Show Posts
Advanced Search
Go to Page...
Thread
:
Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Den-O
View Single Post
07-22-2021, 03:57 PM
#
839
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
FAREWELL KAMEN RIDER DEN-O: FINAL COUNTDOWN
Hey, kids! Meet the brand-new Den-O in this film about how prolonging something past its natural end is at best exhausting, and at worst a kind of living death!
Weird movie!
Weird movie
. It's trying to do three different things, all at various levels of effectiveness. It's trying to send off Ryotaro, introduce Kotaro, and provide a template for an infinitely flexible/refreshable Den-O franchise. I don't think there's any part it explicitly
fails
at, but the tension of those three objectives make for some rough sledding, especially in the first half hour.
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
.
But the middle section of this movie is the
best
.
It's exactly what I'd've hoped for in a new Den-O movie. As soon as the Imagin get to Edo period Japan, this thing found its rhythm. It's all about friction and teamwork and excitable monsters and bad planning and a weird but hard-fought belief that if they all work together, anything is possible. There's a bit where Momo enters their hideout, sees Sieg, and
immediately
goes Nope that killed me. When these characters and their richly-defined relationships get to just sprawl out, it's perfect. This was a series that always succeeded when it focused on character, so a middle section that's just about the Den-Liner crew (plus Deneb and Sieg, because Kobayashi loves us) working together to free Ryotaro from the villain's grasp while also saving all of time from destruction? That part is so good, and so
right
, that it's weird how much of this film
isn't
that.
It all just comes back to the plot, and how it feels something that's being done
to
the characters, not anything growing out of them. There's a monster, and that monster wants to use Ryotaro to destroy Ryotaro's ancestors (which would invert the singularity point for reasons that just killing his ancestors wouldn't Because, so that's why Ryotaro has to get possessed), and Kotaro gets brought to the present to help Because, and it's all just things the characters react to without being terribly invested in.
Well, Momo's invested in freeing Ryotaro, and that... I think it's a story that works better
thematically
than it does narratively. Like, Ryotaro being possessed for more than half of his final story
sucks
. That's a frustrating choice, no matter how cathartic it is to see that Ore Sanjou moment eventually. It's a story that doesn't really have any room to end Ryotaro's story, so it mostly just doesn't? I honest-to-god had to double-check the wiki to make sure this was Ryotaro's last Den-O story (before his Heisei Generations return), because nothing in this story really feels like Ryotaro's story is done. There's no reason for him not to be in future Den-O stories, other than it would be creatively bankrupt and utterly mercenary. Ryotaro's story is over, and we just need to be okay with that, I guess.
I liked that part of this movie the best, how the villain's plot is to force someone he loves to live forever because of his selfishness and inability to accept an ending. I like that Kobayashi wrote a Den-O story that's both a roadmap for how to do Den-O stories without Ryotaro - focus on the Imagin and just plug some bland new handsome dude into the hero role - while also critiquing the need to extend Den-O indefinitely. There's an ambivalence about this movie that's both depressing and exhilarating, a bummed-out feeling that the creators would rather acknowledge and confront than ignore and forget. I get the feeling that no one involved in replacing Ryotaro was convinced it was a good idea, but they're trying it anyway.
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.
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
.
-I like the new Den-O suit, too. I've seen it before, in the OOO movie. I like the blue and silver, the way the wings look like scaffolding. It comes across as a suit that's literally building on its predecessor, you know?
-Not as crazy about the villain suit! (Super glad for that ol' Heisei Phase 1 thing of Oops We Forgot To Ever Say The Evil Rider Name Out Loud, incidentally.) It's just a Gaoh repaint, and I don't get the thing with the tops? I always figure stuff like that is some cultural thing I don't have a reference for. Either way, not that memorable.
-This was just a quick check-in on Den-O! I'll be PMing Decade contributors over the next few days to get that train rolling (not sorry), and then I'll be back in this thread after Decade's done to see if the further adventures of Kotaro feel any more vital or necessary. I hope so! I always hope so!
-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!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on
KamenRiderDie.com
!
Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-19-2023 at
10:24 PM
..
Kamen Rider Die
View Public Profile
Send a private message to Kamen Rider Die
Find More Posts by Kamen Rider Die
TokuNation News & Rumors
Hasbro Licenses Power Rangers Toys to Playmates Toys
Discotek Media Licenses Mobile Cop Jiban
What's going on with CSM?
Ultraman Arc Trailer
2024 Kamen Rider after Gotchard Rumor
More New Posts
Super Sentai minipla appreciation thread!
How is Everyone Today- New
Kamen Rider Gotchard Episode 32- "The Great King Appears! The Doll's Dilemma!"
The Official Toku Subs List
Kamen rider SHF for sale
S.H. Figuarts (Toku Related) Thread
Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider W (and watches Fuuto P.I.)
What are you watching? (Kamen Rider Edition)
What are you watching? Other Toku Series Edition
Kamen Rider Gotchard Episode 31- "Two People In The Dark, Trusting Each Other"
Current Poll
How Would You Rate This Episode?
Excellent!
Good
Average
OK
Poor...
»
View Poll Results
»
Comment On This Poll
»
This Poll Has 0 Replies
Search Forums
»
Advanced Search
All times are GMT -5. The time now is
05:19 AM
.
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Powered by
vBadvanced
CMPS