|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
03-21-2020, 06:42 PM | #31 |
Tokusatsu Hero
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Maryland
Posts: 6,221
|
I would imagine if we will get a Blu-Ray & DVD release depending on how well the streaming goes. This is a good test in the water.
__________________
She/Her |
07-07-2020, 06:04 AM | #32 |
TokuKnight89
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Central Louisiana (Cenla)
Posts: 2,553
|
Could someone please explain Taki to me? Nothing about this guy makes a whole lot of sense!
First of all, did the American FBI even have operational jurisdiction in early '70s Japan? Were there actually multiple branches scattered around in different countries? Does Japan have its own version of an "FBI"? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have him be Interpol? Second, nothing he actually does aligns with a guy who has authorized police powers! Anytime he goes to investigate Shocker's plans, he goes against any kind of procedure and usually without backup. Lastly, would any police-like organization have let him work with a Rider? The Rider was originally going to be brainwashed, but got away in time and is using the powers Shocker gave him to fight them! Surely the International Community would rather arrest and possibly experiment on the Rider(s) than let any of them run off on their own, much less with an actual cop/agent! |
07-07-2020, 06:14 AM | #33 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,508
|
I guess he is American of Japanese heritage? Other than that he was apparently at first just a guest character while Fujioka was injured during shooting(Fujioka did his own stunts as Ichigo for the pre-accident episodes) and he kinda stuck as another recurring ally as Nigo took over until the show was finished.
__________________
|
07-07-2020, 10:44 AM | #34 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,411
|
Quote:
I guess he is American of Japanese heritage? Other than that he was apparently at first just a guest character while Fujioka was injured during shooting(Fujioka did his own stunts as Ichigo for the pre-accident episodes) and he kinda stuck as another recurring ally as Nigo took over until the show was finished.
|
07-07-2020, 04:32 PM | #35 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,508
|
I see, thank you for that info. Kinda curious now what it would have been like had they decided to make him Sango or at the least Taki Rider like the SPIRITS manga.
__________________
|
07-09-2022, 02:55 PM | #36 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
Sorry to ressurect a thread two years after the last post, but ever since I talked a bit about the first 13 episodes of the original Kamen Rider and the (excellent) translation they were given for the show's unexpected (and very welcome!) official release over here, I've always meant to get back around to the rest of it at some point. ...I *did* explicitly say it was probably going to be a while before I got back to it. A lot of things just kinda, came up, you know? When the episodes were first released, I believe I was already firmly committed to making my Kuuga rewatch thread, which was a huge undertaking. I kinda knew I wanted to write about the show as I was watching it, but after making that thread, I felt the need to recharge before taking on any remotely similar project. But hey, the 50th anniversary was coming right up, so maybe that's the perfect timing! Well, it might've been... but while it was a close decision, I ultimately came to the conclusion that it would be more fun to celebrate the 45th Sentai series instead. And the Zenkai Tour was loads of fun for me... but it also left me a little exhausted by the end, once again. But I'm not throwing in the towel just yet! The 50th anniversary Rider show is still on the air, and if that unsightly Heisei era can refuse to end the way it does, then I don't see why it can't always be time for some Showa love too! I'm not going to have time to do the entire show, mind you, but before Revice ends, I'm squeaking in here to give some thoughts on 13 more episodes of the original series. (Senpai even said it was cool to watch it this way, and there is literally nobody else on the planet whose opinions on classic Kamen Rider I would consider more trustworthy.) So there's still more than plenty of the very first Kamen Rider for me to get around to whenever I'm feeling fired up about it, and I'm okay with that, because that'll probably just make this series more special to me in the long run. (The potentially very, very long run, at this rate.) But however that all plays out, for now, please enjoy this deluxe-sized collection of scattered, uninformed opinions on a milestone in toku history, and better yet, maybe consider enjoying that milestone yourself, if the mood strikes you. 14 - You know, I spent years and years assuming the episode that introduced Rider #2 was like, an origin story? Goes to show just how much of this franchise I've still got left to discover, but that always made so much sense in my brain I could practically picture it. Just have a suspiciously always in-costume Rider #1 discover Shocker's devious plot to get the whole grasshopper thing right this time, only for it to go wrong, pass the torch at the end, and there you go -- it's a whole new show. The reality of episode 14 of the original Kamen Rider, however, is that it just skips straight to being a whole new show. Honestly, it's a heck of a way to bounce back from such an unexpected and major obstacle to producing the series? They took an unfortunate situation and made something positive out of it, which is as true to the Rider spirit as you can get. It's hard to say this with any authority, given both the huge gap I've had between the initial episodes and this, plus my own general inexperience with this show, but Ichimonji's arrival immediately marks a change from the somewhat more moody first stretch. A key part of that is how the man himself gives off the air of being a lot less burdened than Hongou was, helped along by how we're viewing the new lead from an outside perspective here. Following on from the previous few Fujioka-starved episodes, Taki and Tachibana are really the characters we're following, with Ichimonji slotting into the narrative as a somewhat enigmatic and larger-than-life hero who seems totally in control of any situation he's in. It's uh... it's basically Kabuto, 35 years early? Which perhaps demonstrates just how much of Kamen Rider was right there from its infancy. It's weird to even talk about an episode that's so obviously iconic, as though I can say anything unique about the story that gave us concepts as fundamental as the transformation pose. I'm pretty much obligated to worship this one, as a Rider fan, right? And you know, I definitely really dug it! It does a very smooth job shifting the series in a new direction. Presenting the new Kamen Rider as a mysterious figure was a super smart way to get the audience curious about Ichimonji, drawing them into a character that might've pushed them away if they hadn't handled this in the clever way they did. I suppose the immense popularity the show gained during his tenure back in the day says it all. They needed to nail this episode, and they did. 15 - This episode actually gives us a brief glimpse of Ichimonji being remodeled by Shocker... and it leaves it at only that brief glimpse, with Ichimonji promptly waking from the nightmarish memory of his tortured past. Because you know, the show doesn't really want to dwell on that sort of thing at the moment. It'll take some space out to film that scene (they need it for the opening narration!), and it'll use the opportunity to further elaborate that Hongou saved Ichimonji from being brainwashed offscreen, but the character and the episode are both pretty uninterested in bemoaning the cruel fate that created Kamen Rider. For how brief a scene it is, it comes off as a very significant beat in defining Ichimonji's personality. You get to see beyond any doubt that he does still have that anguish inside of him, and you also see how quick he is to tell himself to get over it. It makes for a rather flexible hero going forward, in terms of the kinds of stories you can tell with him, but of course, for all this character analysis I'm doing right now, these last two stories are mostly just about the fun of Rider taking on a cactus man. I kinda feel like that should be one of the great recurring Rider monster motifs, after watching this two-parter? Sabotegron makes for a pretty great initial adversary for Ichimonji. He's got a tactical mind that brings out the espionage flavor of the era in full force. You've gotta love him mailing out giftwrapped bombs to the heroes after his initial defeat. He's got his one gimmick, and he proves it's a good one. He also proves that it's never good to *only* have one gimmick, because the heroes end up using his cactus bombs against him as much as the other way around. That sequence of Taki and Rider tossing explosive cacti into random rooms full of goons is the absolute peak of excitement for this episode. It's already hitting a fever pitch with the thrills of Taki going undercover to infiltrate Shocker's hideout and then getting discovered, but that just takes it to the next level. 16 - Pretty interesting concept for the monster of the week in this one! His initial scene has him gassing a busload of people in a suitably menacing fashion, killing every last one of the helpless civilians... and also himself, because Shocker came up with a design for a monster so powerful that the guy they modified couldn't handle it. This puts us on the road to a showdown that's already pretty neat to begin with -- the new Kamen Rider versus the new Pirasaurus in a battle of the successors -- but the process of getting there turns out to be even more interesting. This episode also introduces Maya and Hurricane Joe, essentially monster coaches who act as the actual antagonists driving the narrative here, which creates space to really focus in on the actual process Shocker goes through of kidnapping some poor pro wrestler, wiping his memories of his precious little brother all for the sake of making the latest goon who's inevitably going to lose to the Rider anyway. It doesn't exactly play out with the tone of some big tragedy (the overall atmosphere is still as light as you'd expect from this era of the series), but I like how much this one gives you pause to think about how horrible Shocker's methods truly are. 17 - In his search for a way to foil Shocker's latest evil scheme, Ichimonji finds himself locked in a deadly struggle against today's opponent, the world-famous wrestler Satan Mask. But exactly what face lies hidden under that sinister mask, and how will a young boy searching for his older brother affect the outcome of the battle? The answers to all of these questions can only be found in one place -- inside the ring! And now! Rider Fight! Ready... Go! ...No wait, I'm thinking of a different show there. But I think you'll understand if I get a little overly excited at the prospect of an episode where the climax has Kamen Rider and the monster literally facing off in a wrestling ring. It's like the whole reason you'd make the wrestler thing a plot point to begin with, but just because it's obvious doesn't mean I don't wanna see it! It's a scene that feels pretty emblematic of the show's new direction, too. Rider making this big heroic entrance into a crowded public place, and getting cheered on by the masses, who also trust him implicitly when he says it's not safe to hang around the area. Again, the tragic aspects of this character are a distant priority right now. That even extends to the ending, where Ichimonji somehow Rider Kicks the monster right out of Pirasaurus, restoring him to his innocent human self, which, again, decades before shows like Double would make that a common thing. Considering the focus on wacky fun wrestling, it's definitely the right choice for this story, tonally, to have things work out for everyone in the end. The only bad guy who dies even does so in that classic indirect karmic sort of way, falling victim to the very gas they were planning on using to slaughter the crowd at the match. Not that the episode is completely toothless, mind you! While the groovy 70's vibes might ruin the impact for modern viewers, the scene where Pirasaurus kills a whole club full of people makes it abundantly clear this show hasn't totally forgotten about its more creepy roots. 18 - This one's a bit slow to start. A lot of the appeal of this show right now is in the chemistry of Ichimonji, Taki, and Tachibana, all working together to stop whatever scheme Shocker has going involving a creative monster of the week, and it takes this episode quite a while to start folding all those elements in. It's around a third of the runtime before Ichimonji and Taki even appear, and a bit longer before any of that power trio are in a scene together. Not helping matters is that this week's fossil starfish monster, Hitodanger, isn't defined that well out of the gate, beyond his hilarious gimmick of always stretching his arms out to look more starfishy. The story does manage to really kick into gear at the halfway mark though, starting with Rider getting tossed off a waterfall. All those things I just complained about quickly stop being issues. Tachibana and Taki meet up to search for Ichimonji, resulting in them getting imprisoned in Shocker's latest hideout, where they discover Ichimonji in the cell too, having deliberately gotten himself caught, and like, that's exactly the kind of fun beat that's key to the show's magic. Ichimonji just totally clowning on the bad guys, lighting their houses on fire, and escaping in the nick of time with his buddies -- it never gets old. Hitodanger's somewhat dull gimmick of being hard (because he's a fossil) also gets a neat enough payoff when his weakness turns out to simply be getting him soggy, which is about the right level of silliness for a pretty silly monster. I can't imagine this one is a favorite for a lot of people, and it certainly isn't for me, but it definitely does a lot to redeem its rather sluggish first act. 19 - Major summer vibes abound as the cast all end up taking a trip out to Hokkaido for one reason or another. With a crab monster spearheading Shocker's plan to set off big undersea explosions that will cause destructive tsunamis, water naturally ends up being the thing that sets this episode apart visually. The stuff is all over the place throughout, and Rider's first big action setpiece is even Ichimonji on his way to Hokkaido, jumping from his own boat to one being operated by some Shocker goons. Later on, he even just drives his motorcycle straight into the water to get to Shocker's obligatory secret base of the week? It's pretty awesome! Kanibubbler is a neat enough monster too, with both deadly foam and a big pinchy claw, giving his power-set just that little bit of extra variety to keep things from getting dull. There's also a fair amount of emphasis placed on how Ichimonji's friends help save the day, culminating in narration from Ichimonji at the end about how he's not doing this alone. ...Again, the dude really didn't get the memo about the whole "tragic hero" thing. But of course, I'm just teasing there; it's a nice way to tie a bow on an all-around solid episode. (I believe this is also the first time Rider #2 takes down the monster with a Rider Punch? I know that's considered a bit of a signature move for the guy, so it seems worth noting.) 20 - Taki is conspicuously absent in this episode! (And looking it up real quick, apparently he'll only have one other absence after this, way toward the end of the series, so this really is an occasion.) Personally, I choose to believe he was deliberately excluded from this story entirely because the dialogue makes frequent references to a waterfall (taki, exactly like the character), and someone was worried viewers would get confused which taki everyone was talking about if he were around. I mean, I'm sure it was just some mundane scheduling thing or whatever, but I think it's more fun to imagine it my way. Putting that anecdote aside, the episode itself still manages to be pretty fun without the guy. There ends up being a pretty great sense of the walls closing in around Ichimonji, especially, with the rest of the show's supporting cast all getting captured and tied up on cheap white crosses. Cross that are also electrified in this case. I can't remember if this is the first time in this show the obligatory Showa crucifixion shtick happened, but it's at least the first time Ichimonji has had to deal with it. And deal with it he does! Just about the most Kamen Rider thing ever happens during this scene, as Rider is watching the torture of his friends play out from behind metal bars. Assured of his victory, the monster of the week demands Rider's surrender, and in response, Rider simply bends the bars open with his bare hands, and steps in to save the day. Absolutely perfect imagery right there for a hero all about freedom. That shot easily deserves to be in basically any montage of clips from the series. 21 - And then Rider just straight up smashes through a concrete wall and then kicks the cell door clean off its hinges to rescue Taki here! Not to mention that he rescues all his friends from getting crucified again. Definitely some familiar elements in this episode, coming off of the last one, but then, it *is* a direct continuation of the previous story. See, the monster from that one, Dokugander, was a caterpillar, and after ending on the threat of his cocoon last time, he emerges here as a monster modeled after his actual namesake, a poison moth. It's a neat gimmick for the bad guy to begin with, but as a way to split a two-parter, it's downright perfect. I mean, cool villains that evolve into newer, more powerful forms would become a massive staple of children's action series in Japan, with Rider itself being no exception, so once again, in some small way, the original Kamen Rider is arguably ahead of its time. Dokugander is pretty rad. You can't go wrong the moth motif, and he makes excellent use of it. Gotta dig his plot to grow a whole bunch more Dokuganders using growth serum developed by some scientist Shocker kidnapped, too. There's also a whole field trip angle to further spice the episode up, with all the action happening in Osaka, complete with the climax playing out around one of its most famous landmarks, Osaka Castle. It's even visible right there in the background when Dokugander explodes, which doesn't manage to be as attention-grabbing as what's happening in the foreground, as Dokugander comes crashing out of the air and into a nearby building... that promptly explodes violently into countless little pieces. I guess the special effects guys were just really fired up to do some miniature work that day, because it kinda seems like overkill! Not that I'm complaining; a literally explosive climax of that caliber only cements how much fun I had with this episode. 22 - More summertime fun as the show puts the spotlight on the water once again. It's a different enough angle from last time, that also maybe goes a bit further with the concept in some ways. Namely, there's lots and lots of swimming going on here. No longer does Rider simply drive his bike into the sea and reach Shocker's base in mere moments; here you get elaborate shots of him swimming under the surface, complete with flippers on his boots. (I'm pretty sure we're supposed to pretend the flippers aren't there.) Instead of just fighting the bad guy on a rocky shoreline during the climax, he's... well, during the climax it's on a rocky shoreline again, but for the fight in the middle, it's Rider and fish monster Amazonha throwing down in waist-deep water, complete with frequent shots from a submerged camera. So as you can maybe gather, the episode is overall a little redundant, and a little not. When all is said and done though, I think it manages to differentiate its setpiece moments more than enough to keep things fresh. There's a pretty standout concept for the underwater base fight in particular, with the villains cutting off the room's oxygen supply, which really ups the stakes in a great way. And hey, even that redundant climax is made less so through having Rider defeat Amazonha by playing possum, which is... oddly cowardly, for a superhero, but still, you don't see that every day! 23 - Hey, and while you're on your summer vacation, perhaps you could visit scenic Sapporo, and take a trip out to the many notable landmarks both within the city, as well as in the surrounding area of Hokkaido! And I mean, this episode really wants you to know how many neat places are in Hokkaido. I honestly feel like I'm missing a ton of context here, between my ignorance of the actual location, and of why Kamen Rider made it a point to film an episode that tries to sell the viewer on that location harder than most Rider shows nowadays try to sell toys. It's all fun and games until a silly kids' show from the 70's has me looking up William S. Clark! There's no denying how distinct it makes the episode visually though. It feels like no more than a scene or two can go by without a new location to take place in, and it all builds up to Rider fighting the monster up in the mountains, with a shot here or there where you can see waaaay out into the distance. Really, if I have any complaint about the episode, it's probably just that Musasabeedle is a tiny bit on the underwhelming side? His flying squirrel powers don't actually get that much use, and Rider makes a chump out of him in the midpoint fight, which really kills a lot of whatever menace he had. (Also, when he explodes, three random kids show up for two shots to celebrate, and promptly exit the episode as abruptly as they appeared. I assume they won a contest to be in the show or something, but again, this episode is quite the mystery to me!) 24 - Kinokomorgue, Kinokomorgue... Oh! I thought I had heard something about this guy in particular lately, and it finally came back to me! When NHK broadcast that special announcing the results of the huge poll they held to celebrate Rider's 50th anniversary, there was a whole tangent the hosts went on prompted by a message they received from someone who said Kinokomorgue scared him so bad as a kid that, to this day, he can't bring himself to eat mushrooms. It was an inexplicably huge amount of time devoted to talking about some random monster from the original show, considering there were 50 years of ground to be covering, so that detour in of itself apparently stuck with me subconsciously. That being said, I can kinda see where that guy was coming from? First of all: Kinokomorgue. Clearly bad news! The first thing in the episode is Shocker busting a vicious criminal out of his darkly lit prison cell and then bathing him in toxic mushroom water for a week straight, which is quite the origin story. His intro makes an excellent first impression, and if you were a kid, watching that guy then go around kidnapping children after paralyzing them with his spores, it's like, yeah, that might cause some trauma! Like most of the monsters that last two episodes, Kinokomorgue is pretty great, and this first part is a ton of fun. I think the biggest highlights for me are the brief bit where Rider fights some goons atop a moving truck, because fighting on moving vehicles is always cool, and the cliffhanger where Ichimonji ends up paralyzed on a table with a buzzsaw slowly closing in on his torso, because classic deathtraps are *also* always cool. (Unless you're that poor guy, in which case leaving on Rider himself falling victim to Kinokomorgue no doubt made the trauma even worse. The wait for the next episode must've been rough.) 25 - Of course, however scary he might be, Kinokomorgue isn't above making the fatal mistake of trying to enjoy the hero's death way too much. You might think the whole buzzsaw shtick was already pushing it, but actively choosing to wake Ichimonji up is just a bad idea, no matter how much you want to hear his screams. Naturally, things backfire horribly for the bad guys, especially with Taki showing up undercover again to free Ichimonji, allowing the two of them to make an exciting escape from a Shocker stronghold, which, again -- never gets old. It's a pretty thrilling way to kick off the second part, with all the action and banter you could ask for. Things slow back down for the middle, as Ichimonji's scientist buddy uses a sample Taki snatched to work out a cure for Kinokomorgue's spores, which have become contagious. With his plans thoroughly crushed, Kinokomorgue refocuses his agenda to the more straightforward goal of defeating Kamen Rider, leading to a climax that largely consists of Kamen Rider running around fighting bad guys with a sword, which is exactly as much swashbuckling fun as it probably sounds like. Even the women of the Tachibana Racing Club get in on the action, and despite the paternalistic grumblings of the other characters, by the end of the episode, they're breaking themselves out of their own restraints to come to the aid of an unconscious Taki and Tachibana. It's not really exceptionally progressive for the era or anything, but still, I commend the episode's effort to make crimefighting a little bit more of an equal opportunity activity. 26 - Colonel Zol! Now we're talking! This guy is one of the most iconic adversaries in Rider history, and even just his debut already shows why. He shows up to whip Shocker's Japanese branch into shape in a way nobody else has, and gets right on putting together a plan to finally take down Rider once and for all. Which, you know, everyone has had a plan for that, but Zol is such an intimidating presence, even without any scary monster costume, that you can almost believe he'll be the one to actually make good on his plans. And as threatening as his own face is, his scheme here involves working his skills as a master of disguise to impersonate Taki in an attempt to destroy Shocker's enemies from within. Pretty exciting stuff! What's potentially a problem there, however, is that this episode also has a regular monster on top of that, Jigoku Thunder, who, in *any* other episode, would be a standout villain. Antlion larvae are pretty dang terrifying in real life, so to have a big dude-sized version of that going around sucking entire cars full of people into huge sandpits? That's an amazing gimmick. The nighttime sequence with him that opens the episode is like something out of a horror movie, even. He's totally great, but his plotline feels almost completely disconnected from the Zol stuff until the very end, where he essentially serves as a mere distraction to allow Zol the chance to escape. So I suppose if I were feeling critical, I could say the episode doesn't quite acheive that feeling of having two great bad guys for the price of one it probably could've, with a tighter narrative. But still, Colonel Zol! It's going to be loads of fun seeing what other dastardly schemes he's going to cook up from here. You know, when I decide to get around to it, anyway!
__________________
|
07-09-2022, 03:45 PM | #37 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,399
|
Not gonna lie, now that Kuuga is coming, I'm hoping that KR1 is the next Rider show that SHOUT releases to blu-ray. Then we'd have the start of each era on home release.
Glad to see you've been having fun with the show, Fish! I still need to get around to watching all of it, one of these days...
__________________
|
07-09-2022, 04:48 PM | #38 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Russia
Posts: 192
|
Quote:
Not gonna lie, now that Kuuga is coming, I'm hoping that KR1 is the next Rider show that SHOUT releases to blu-ray. Then we'd have the start of each era on home release.
Glad to see you've been having fun with the show, Fish! I still need to get around to watching all of it, one of these days... |
07-09-2022, 06:33 PM | #39 |
Stronger Than You
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: nyet
Posts: 25,326
|
I gotta say, I totally understand how Ichimonji saved the show. I was already getting rather bored of the series just 10 episodes in. Nigou brought a new level of energy to the show that really made things exciting again.
__________________
|
04-14-2023, 08:32 PM | #40 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
Hey, it didn't even take me a whole year to do the next one of these! I guess there's not really much preamble to get into this time, either. I'm fairly committed to working my way through watching the original Kamen Rider, I'm weirdly attached to this idea of doing it super slow for some reason, and I'm all too happy to periodically resurrect this thread to keep a sort of log of my progress, especially because it'll help jog my memory when I get back around to this show probably a year from now. But as always, the most important thing is that I just want to talk about these episodes I'm watching to hopefully get someone else excited about going through a classic show like this themselves. So just like last time I did this, I've got thirteen episodes worth of thoughts, all in one big post, this time about the stretch of the show defined by Colonel Zol's presence as a recurring villain. Which makes it sound like a particularly iconic stretch of episodes, but I'm pretty sure at this point I'm going to be able to say that about any of these batches I've watched. 27 - Oh man, what an episode to come back to. This has gotta be a definitive plot for what Shocker is all about as a group of villains. It's almost comically pathetic at the start, where the first thing they do in the story is lure a bunch of small children into their van by telling them they'll get to meet Kamen Rider, but nothing reminds me why I love to hate these fascist goons quite like the scheme this leads into -- brainwashing all those kids into becoming Junior Shocker, their own little youth league of indoctrinated soldiers. That first scene had me expecting a simple stranger danger sort of moral, if anything, but this is so much more true to the kind of stuff that inspired Kamen Rider to begin with. You've got all the typical elements like a neat monster in Mukaderas, but while the hypnotizing centipede baddies and whatnot keep everything as light and adventurous as usual, even as we have literal children being instructed in the proper use of bombs and firearms, it's also even more obvious than normal that there are very, very real ideas behind this show, and I love the balance they struck here. All that, plus just the tiniest bit of character-building with Taki mentioning he doesn't have a family, and the return of two bonus monsters from the initial 13 episodes who I *totally* did not remember before looking them up, because it's kinda been a hot second since I watched that chunk of the series! 28 - This one is definitely more of a base level kinda episode for this show so far. It doesn't outright bungle anything, but none of its many disparate elements manage to truly stand out. I ended up finding myself wishing the story would have a bit more fun with itself at every turn. Mogurungs's expected mole shtick of dragging people into the holes he burrows is fine enough, but neither his weird periscope eyes or his army of mole-people servants end up playing as much of a role in the drama as I'd want. I'd expect those eyes to satisfyingly turn out to be some secret weak point Rider has to exploit or something, and a convenient serum for turning the mole-people back to normal deprives us of seeing Rider having to do anything as cool as facing off with some huge group of mole monsters. (Though granted, I don't expect them to spend the money on more than one suit there.) Kamen Rider rushing onto the course of a motorcycle race to save Taki after Shocker sabotages his bike is a swell concept, but I can't help wanting it to be this more elaborate sequence where Rider would start at the back of the pack and basically accidentally win the race, just to get to his friend, all while the other racers and spectators watch in disbelief. It's like every plot beat in this episode just feels a tiny bit too easily resolved, and it makes what should be the distinguishing features of this story come off somewhat limp. Granted, you do get to see Kamen Rider with a sword -- and then with *two* swords -- during the fight scenes, so I suppose it's got some solid escalation going on there. Can't go wrong with a sword-wielding hero! 29 - This one is no less basic, but a lot more focused, which left me feeling far more enthused than the previous episode. We've got a delightfully cruel Shocker plan, with them pumping lethal amounts of electricity into their latest kidnapping victims, all in order to find someone who can take that kind of voltage and make them into an electric person that'll go destabilize society by electrocuting politicians to death with a mere touch. Utter madness, on so many levels. I love it. The kidnapper in question, Kuragedarl, is also a very fun monster, simply because of the cool alien-looking design, how that meshes with the usual horror style attack scenes, and the charming way it does not at all mesh with the weirdly cute voice. There's also a simple emotional thread that carries all the way throughout the episode, starting with a kid trying to catch photographic evidence of our aforementioned jellyfish monster, and ending with Shocker tying his mother up on the usual cheap white cross so they can blow her up along with Rider when he comes to save the day. In terms of action setpiece moments, it's mostly a greatest hits collection of familiar things like fighting in water and exploding secret bases, so there's nothing all that unique there either, and yet the cohesion of the narrative somehow makes it totally palatable. Not a particularly special episode, but still a fun one. 30 - I understand the practicality of Shocker's plan here even less than usual, which only makes me like this episode that much more. Turns out Colonel Zol has had this whole ridiculous scheme cooking in his back pocket where, provided a scientist researching a way to revive trilobites in the modern age succeeds in his goal, he wants to use that research for evil to create some kind of blood-sucking trilobite monster called Zanbronzo, which will help Shocker conquer the world because... uh, because it's a blood-sucking monster! And they couldn't just do a leech monster or something because... uh... because it's not anywhere near as entertaining as the trilobite plan? While the scheme itself is nothing to take too seriously (and again, I mean that as a good thing!), the way it plays out makes the villains fun to hate on a more personal scale than usual, which I thought was cool. A lot of the narrative focuses in on Zol just stringing along this poor scientist in typical bad guy fashion, constantly making promises he has no intention of keeping, all to ensure his hostage's cooperation in the moment. It's a more intimate dynamic than the usual mass-kidnappings are, and it makes for a satisfying turnaround when the scientist manages to flip the script by the end, revealing he deliberately sabotaged the monster, beating Zol at his own game. Kamen Rider also continues to beat Shocker foot soldiers at their own game by once again borrowing a sword for a significant stretch of the climax. I'd say I'm surprised he doesn't just keep one of those on hand by this point, but then, the bad guys *are* kind enough to keep bringing loads of the things his way whenever he needs a weapon. 31 - You know, at this point, it might be more worth noting when an episode comes along where Kamen Rider isn't grabbing a sword for some swashbuckling action. Ichimonji's so eager to swing a blade around at any opportunity that he even does it before transforming here! Anyway, this episode is pretty great. You've got a mountain climber putting up a fight against an anteater monster right at the start, which I almost thought would be the most memorable thing in this one, but it has so much more to offer than even that. Arigabari brings the show a bit more back to its creepy roots in the first half, being introduced as the danger that awaits at a mountain all the locals are afraid to go near, for fear of never coming back, and he goes on to terrorize people by brainwashing that aforementioned mountain climber to spread his evil bacteria (melodramatically called "the Curse of the Amazon"), which gets us scenes of his little brother wondering why he's acting so weird, and then discovering him going out in the middle of the night to feed on ants. It's great, and so is the nighttime mid-episode fight, which actually sees Kamen Rider defeated, and quite thoroughly, at that. The back half of the episode then has a completely different, but similarly strong appeal, where we get to see Ichimonji bummed out about how he's failed, only to inevitably turn things around in the rematch, having been helped along by some training with Taki, and motivated by his desire to help a child. Again, it's all real great material. The episode hooks you in early, brings things to a suitably tense low point for the heroes, and then gives you that catharsis of them working to achieve that victory in the end anyway. It's everything a story in a show like this should be doing, all done very well. 32 - Shocker's plan is extremely practical for once in this episode, which might actually be a problem I have with the story? They've got their people-eating flower monster Dokudarian kidnapping women to use as their labor force in a plan to create a super deadly poison they're going to make into a mist that can gas a city to death overnight, which is pretty hardcore. Maybe a bit too hardcore! I don't know, it's good to be able to take the bad guys seriously in terms of being able to root for the heroes and all, but I also want there to be some kooky twist in there to make the episode more fun, and there just isn't really anything of the sort here? The villains are too competent to be silly, and the heroes have no room to goof around as a result. They'll come up with a plan like sending in some undercover operatives to Dokudarian's flower shop, only for Shocker to immediately see right through that, and basically all their follow-up plans, until we reach a climax where, inevitably, Ichimonji is tied up on a cross and about to be burned alive. And then the heroic turnaround ends up being Kamen Rider simply throwing Dokudarian on the fire, which, again, very much practical, not so much fun or clever, as a way to dispose of the villain. It's a subtle thing, and I feel bad picking on what is really a totally serviceable episode of Kamen Rider, but this episode just left me with this nagging feeling that the tone's not quite right somehow. Like it doesn't have the chaotic fun plot beats you'd get out of an episode with a ridiculous Shocker plan, obviously, but it also doesn't quite have the added dramatic tension I'd expect from a story that's more serious, either? At any rate, I at least have to respect that this episode has Rider going full on reverse-grip double swords, which is arguably the coolest possible way to use swords. So that's a point in its favor! 33 - This one is cool because armadillos are just kinda cool? Armadillong is another monster who rolled his way into my heart immediately, this time thanks to his signature ability to roll up in a ball and generally wreck up the place, but even better for me, this is another episode that has a few hooks beyond that to keep things from feeling too stale. You've got a woman in a banana yellow jumpsuit running around with a bow and arrow to pursue a vendetta against the monster, which is obviously not something that happens every week on this show. It turns out Armadillong killed her entire family back in Brazil, so there's a whole revenge angle that doesn't ~particularly~ go anywhere, beyond her being happy that Armadillong is defeated at the end, but she's around for the whole narrative and gets to help out Taki doing hero stuff, which is cool! There's also a bit in there where Yuri gets captured by the bad guys, but is able to covertly leave a trail that allows Taki to find the base she's being held at, so once again, for what it's worth, I appreciate the story's attempt to allow the women in it at least some modicum of agency. Despite going out of its way to remind us that Shocker are the kinda guys who will totally slaughter a whole family for no reason without remorse, this episode is exactly the kind of fun story I'm talking about wanting from this show. Rider even takes down Armadillong by just hitting the poor guy in his unarmored tummy, and that's an adorable weakness to give an armadillo monster. 34 - More fun twists on the formula in this plot! The actual toad monster, Gamaguiler, doesn't leave a particularly huge impression, unfortunately (it feels like any random monster could fill his role), but everything going on around the bad guy this time is where things get more interesting. Shocker's latest scheme is to split Japan clean in half using a nuclear bomb, and amazingly, someone besides the heroes have actually caught on to the plot. Right away, you've got a researcher named Origuchi actively bringing Ichimonji into the story, shocking him with the knowledge of not only Shocker, but also his secret identity as Kamen Rider. It sets the stage nicely for Origuchi's whole character, as someone who is surprisingly on top of things throughout. He's not only looking to foil this one particular scheme, but is planning to expose Shocker's existence to the world at large, even managing to find a witness to their crimes who caught a glimpse of the organization's enigmatic leader. Inevitably, by the end, the status quo is preserved, of course, but Origuchi and our usual heroes do a heck of a job hanging in there for the duration of the story. Origuchi's got some pretty thorough security for his building, and even when Shocker goes after both the witness and his daughter, Taki and Rider manage to get them back in safe hands before we've even reached the climax. We get so, so close to seeing that tantalizing reveal of Shocker's leader, even, only for the sci-fi machine Origuchi is using to project the witness' memories to explode, and for Shocker to inevitably bust in his house, wipe his memory, and burn all the incriminating documentation he's gathered. Bummer! But even so, everyone is alive and well by the end, and there's still the victory of Rider stopping that bomb plot by heading Shocker off at the secret airfield where the explosive device is being delivered. That part was also *extra* fun for me, because I realized partway in that it was a scene I'd recently witnessed rewatching Fourze's DVD/Blu-ray quiz segments. So in the spirit of those amazing bonus features, instead of simply saying what happens, I'm going to ask *you*, the reader, what you think the miracle attack Kamen Rider pulls off is. Does he ride the Cyclone atop the plane? Does he use a Rider Jump to charge into the plane, blowing it up in the process? Or does he suddenly pull out a rifle and shoot the plane down? Your hint is that the answer is every bit as amazing to watch even when you know what's coming. 35 - Arichidmedes! Now there's a monster for you. Just a big scary person-sized queen ant going around melting people with acid and commanding her legions of killer regular-sized ants to attack people, which might not sound that intimidating at first, but really think about how freaky it'd be to have that many ants coming at you at once. I'm not just talking a group, or a squad, I'm talking legions of the little pests. This is one of those episodes that succeeds simply by making the bad guy of the week feel sufficiently threatening without needing to do too much else to entertain. The monster's got a clear motif, and abilities drawn from it that are more than enough to make trouble for the heroes for a hair over 20 minutes. The episode's got a lot of that classic creepy atmosphere in the right places, down to Ichimonji bringing a mysterious giant egg from a Shocker base to Tachibana and the gang, which naturally leads to it mysteriously glowing and ants showing up all over the place. But of course, this show is about wacky fun a lot of the time now, so the relief of Kamen Rider putting a stop to all this rising tension comes complete with him doing most of the climactic fight while dealing with the amusing handicap of carrying a big egg in one arm. And you can't go wrong with the extra karmic demise of Arichimedes falling into a pool of her own acid after getting hit with the usual Rider Kick. I liked this episode a lot, for how simple it is. It's probably more effective the more grossed out you are by insects, but this is one of those bad guys I can easily imagine genuinely freaking out some child back in the day, which isn't always the case. 36 - Egyptus! Now there's a monster for, well, maybe more for me, this time, than anyone else? Instead of being threatening and scary, he's more cool, yet also endearingly dorky, which is a contradictory mix that's very much up my alley. Even Shocker's plan with him reflects that dichotomy. They revive a 4000 year old mummified fire-breathing monster from ancient Egypt, and instead of wanting that guy for his immense strength, he's mostly just there so he can tell Shocker where some ancient treasure is, because they want some cash. And then it turns out even a plan that dull hits a snag when it becomes apparent that Egyptus doesn't speak Japanese, on account of being, you know, an ancient Egyptian monster. So the primary dramatic thrust here is that Shocker is looking to kidnap some professor or another to translate, leading to scene after scene of a grumpy bird-faced mummy dude breathing fire while constantly shouting angry gibberish. It's awesome. I don't know if Egyptus could be considered menacing or not, despite his first action in the episode being to burn a random Shocker grunt alive, but he totally steals every scene he's in as far as I'm concerned. It's mostly the angry gibberish, if I'm being honest. The real beats of the plot, they're admittedly nothing too special by this point. Shocker trying to exploit some smart guy by kidnapping his loved ones is nothing new, and Egyptus doesn't even get defeated in any particularly clever way... I guess the big setpiece sort of moment is Rider getting chased down by a car Egyptus is the passenger in, but like, exciting as it may be, that's not even a gimmick that has anything to do with Egyptus' motif. But then I picture Egyptus angrily shouting gibberish and breathing fire at me for daring to complain about the episode he was in, and suddenly I realize, this episode is clearly awesome anyway, simply because Egyptus is in it. 37 - You know, I didn't remember it as vividly, but bits of this episode were also used for one of those Fourze quizzes, which was giving me a weird sense of deja vu for a while before I realized why part of it felt so familiar. It uh, it doesn't help that a lot of other parts of it already feel pretty familiar. It's another episode revolving around a flower monster and Shocker's plan to spread deadly poison gas around, but I thought this one was more enjoyable for whatever reasons. Maybe it's because the tone keeps things a bit lighter, with the crux of the drama being a kid who witnessed Torikabuto killing a guy at the start, and is thus targeted by Shocker to prevent him from blabbing about their plans. So instead of scenes of like, forced labor, you've got a kid trying to get his mom to believe his crazy story about a flower monster, and Shocker luring children in with promises of a monster autograph session. A bunch of old monsters beating up a bunch of literal children is horrible, but it's also such a pathetic act of evil that, combined with the context of a monster autograph session, it loops back around to being that sort of goofy fun I'm after. Plus, if you hate the bad guys that much for picking on kids, rest assured they became the only victims of their own poision gas plan, thanks to Taki's intervention, so the whole karmic demise thing is covered too! Torikabuto himself also gets a delightfully brutal defeat at the hands of Rider, where, after a neat fight on a rooftop, the monster gets the usual Rider Kick, only for him to then immediately get Rider Punched clean off the building, which was amazing. 38 - Apparently Toshihiko Seki got kidnapped by Shocker back in 1971! There's this whole thing about him being a marine biologist who developed a ray-themed monster named Eiking, but like, obviously that can't be the real reason they wanted him. Shocker clearly knew how successful Den-O would be 36 years later and was just looking to take Momotaros out of the picture before then to deal a huge blow to the future popularity of Kamen Rider. Or, you know, it's just some guy with the same name. But then maybe Shocker got them mixed up too and just decided to roll with it, you don't know! Jokes aside, naturally, this is another story putting focus on Shocker being huge jerks to some scientist guy they need for their evil plans, complete with the usual kidnapped daughter and everything. It didn't actually feel too redundant, though? Seki enters into the plot as someone Shocker already got to a couple years ago, having finally found his chance to escape, and even his haggard appearance alone speaks volumes about the cruelty of this show's villains. I point out Shocker is always taking advantage of random scientists like it's just part of the formula, and it is, but it's also another one of those legitimate thematic underpinnings, and that's a huge reason the scripts are always going back to that well. If you're a smart enough person in the world of this show, Shocker will just show up one day, steal your whole life away from you, and treat your intelligence as nothing more than another resource to be used up and disposed of as they please. I maybe take that for granted when I only look at it as a shortcut to a monster plot happening, so I have to give props to this episode for doing a good job of making me actually stop to consider the implications of these things for once. It's a pretty good episode all around. Eiking is another suitably tough baddie, and I appreciate that the script goes out of its way to give Ichimonji something of an arc, with him once again having to deal with a notable failure. 39 - Man is this episode ever a thriller. A legendary episode that lives up to the legend. It's like, okay, I've always known this as the one where Colonel Zol reveals himself as Ookami Otoko and inevitably gets blown up in a climactic fight with Rider, but it's so much more than just that. The entire runtime is stuffed with enough fun and exciting ideas for several episodes, and it's all here in this one amazing package, without a dull moment in sight. You've got a spooky initial nighttime attack by a wolf man. You've got the mystery of what this mysterious wolf plan Shocker has going actually is. You've got Zol busting out his mastery of disguises to throw Ichimonji and Taki off the trail. You've got the heroes pulling one over on the wolf man when he tries to kidnap a little girl who witnessed that initial scene. You've got a cool nighttime fight with the wolf man versus Rider following on from that. You've got Ichimonji getting back on the plan's trail by grappling with one of Shocker's agents, hanging precariously off the side of a helicopter the whole time. You've got Zol throwing a party that Ichimonji and Taki are all too happy to crash. You've got Zol seeing right through them! You've got them seeing right through Zol! You've got Zol revealing that he was the real wolf man in the title the whole time! You've got him getting taken down by an epic Rider Punch! And then, finally, you top it all off with Kamen Rider showing up to the local nursery school to make some children's Christmas wishes come true! Holy crap, this episode rocks. I just tried to list off pretty much every last element that makes it such an entertaining time, and maybe that was a mistake, because just saying what cool things happen took me about as long as any of these episode writeups before I even started digging into the why of any of it. But do I even need to explain why? Is it not obvious that they went all out to make Colonel Zol's last stand as incredible an outing as they could? It's about as great a sendoff as you could possibly have for the show's first big recurring villain, a heck of a present to literally air on Christmas, which means it's also a great sendoff to Kamen Rider's 1971 run, and what's more, it's just a dang nice way to end the next chapter of my leisurely paced journey through this series.
__________________
|
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN |
SH Figuarts BoonBoomger Red |
Hasbro Licenses Power Rangers Toys to Playmates Toys |
Discotek Media Licenses Mobile Cop Jiban |
What's going on with CSM? |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:39 PM.
|