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04-22-2022, 07:42 PM | #771 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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So I?ll start off by saying that I actually liked Rider Time:Ryuki. But that shouldn?t be too surprising, since I was always pretty vocal about how I never liked Ryuki as a series, and preferred the spin offs. In this case, the spin off not only delivered on the two characters I actually care about (Asakura and Ryuga), but it got rid of some elements that turned me off the main show (The theme song is better, Ren is a lot more likeable, Shinji actually comes off as comically lovable, Odin isn?t grossly overpowered and most of all, the monsters and Yuri are next to non-existent)
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Mutsuki being overlooked is an incredibly successful tribute to Kamen Rider Blade. Quote:
Yeah, I figured you'd love this two-parter. It's obvious that the writers paid very close attention to both the lore and ending of Blade.
They did, however, completely ignore any of Blade crossover appearances. They never happened as far as this show is concerned. This kinda makes sense, for reasons I won't talk about. Quote:
Kaitou's actions caused further problems for the Zi-O main cast, leaving them with limited options to fight against actual threats. While it does probably forge a bond between Geiz and Woz, probably it can be done via other events too, doesn't mean a 'good' outcome makes that deed good at the end (like... if there's an actual villain forging a bond between Geiz and Woz by attacking them both won't mean they're not bad!).
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Hajime and Amane's bond is quite shown with a negative outcome here, as Hajime specifically is playing more favorite in Amane, here he'd protect her from attackers even after she became a monster and attacked others, which'd kinda show that Hajime is someone who is less concerned of others who aren't someone he likes (likely he grew out of this in the original series, but he was definitely like this for most of hte series).
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As far as tribute's go, this episode and the next are Zi-O's high point. Not to say that the show goes downhill from here - my favorite single moment in the show is still to come - but the Blade episodes represent probably the strongest use of legacy characters, for my money. I cannot express how much I love that Amane is Another Blade. It's such a good use of the pre-existing characters and lore to set up a story that really feels like a continuation of the original show. Amane searching for Hajime, Hajime trying to protect Amane, the two Jokers being drawn to fight each other: there is so much good content here for Blade fans.
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04-22-2022, 08:32 PM | #772 |
Kaiju or Hero?
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Even I Don't Know Anymore.
Posts: 1,397
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Kaito stealing Zi-O and Geiz's Ridewatches is spot-on for him, even casually doing so after infiltrating the Time House without even trying to sneak out!
Now I've only seen the first two episodes of Blade (The meme-iest Rider debut), but I have been slightly spoiled on Blade's ending (Unless I'm completely wrong, don't correct me), so I was slightly prepared for what Blade's tribute would entail, but Zi-O's mixing of the formula making Blade centered on the present and having Blade's cast lead the show (sort of) made this a fun arc. As for some side notes, I strangely love the insane idea of having the Blade Armor Time have a hand of cards for the shoulder guards, partly because, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, it really sells how Zi-O uses his predecessors' powers by using their gimmicks that form their powers, and also because I adore outrageous design schemes like that. And it's funny how Another Blade has buzzsaws on her design (which I was fooled into thinking was a guy), and the Joker influences throughout the design. I've also never noticed the Blade suit's weathering, but looking at it now, it almost feels perfect for him? As if it's lost the luster it once shone as a hero, like he no longer has that radiance. |
04-22-2022, 08:50 PM | #773 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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That's a good read! I also like how it implies that Kenzaki is horrible about taking care of himself, which is a solid Blade callback.
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04-22-2022, 10:22 PM | #774 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 30 - “2019 - WE’VE BECOME A TRINITY!”
So, obviously, I have to comment on the monumental failure of this episode. How – in the name of God and Seiji Takaiwa – do you introduce Zi-O Trinity in a Blade tribute, instead of properly, in the Den-O tribute?! It’s a Den-O gimmick, you morons! You do it in the episode with Momotaros, at the very least! F MINUS. That aside, this was a solid episode of Zi-O that maybe bit off more than it could chew. I liked how this story managed to send Hajime and Kenzaki off happier than when they started. There’s the obvious emotional catharsis of Hajime and Amane navigating their relationship better as adults (I totally believe Amane depended on Hajime a little too much; I totally believe Hajime ran away without actually discussing things with Amane), but there’s also the resolution to the TV show’s Sword of Darkroaches that was hanging over our heroes. Locking the Joker powers up in two Ridewatches gives Team Zi-O the power of Legend Riders, and it also lets those Riders finally get a little bit of peace. It’s the exact opposite of the way the early episodes cut down heroes in their prime and just sort of shrugged at it. I like this new phase of storytelling for the Legend Riders! I’m a little conflicted about Zi-O Trinity, though. I don’t know that it fits great in a story about exactly two Legend Riders, but that’s not a deal-breaker. (But: BLADE WAS EXPLICITLY A FOUR RIDER SHOW.) It’s more that… the Geiz and Woz stuff felt a little rushed to me? I can see how the show might mean this quick resolution to the Geiz/Woz conflict. Geiz still doesn’t like or forgive Woz, but he’s willing to put aside his animosity for the greater good; specifically, Sougo’s vision of the future. Sougo’s built such a massive amount of trust in Geiz that Geiz wants to live up to Sougo’s example. Grudges are toxic. Why shackle yourself to recriminations about the past when you could be working together to build a better future? Nowhere is that clearer than in the absolute best, most definitive moment in the show: Sougo’s pep talk to his enemy, Hat Woz. It’s the perfect note for this episode, and the way it sets up the third act of the series. Sougo wants to make a future for everyone, and he can’t stand the idea of anyone giving up on their dreams for the future. That heroic attitude even extends to a guy who summoned the Sealing Stone to obliterate all life on Earth, and is actively working against Team Zi-O on a weekly basis. Sougo doesn’t really see it that way, though. He’d rather fight against weekly Another Rider schemes forever, than watch Hat Woz give up on himself. Schemes can always be defeated, but giving up on yourself? That’s not something Sougo can allow to happen. It’s a view of the future that I really like, how the best one makes room for everyone. Sougo wouldn’t want a future that excludes people, so he needs Hat Woz to find the strength to keep reaching for a future he wants to live in, even if it means getting roughed up by Team Zi-O a lot. Because just like in Blade, defeats can be how we learn to be better. All of that was really great! I just… I’m not sure that it felt We’ve Become A Trinity good, you know? They all finally get along, Sougo and Geiz and Woz, but them literally unifying to defeat Another Blade… I don’t know. It feels like a powerup that’s maybe overstating what they’ve achieved. (After the fight, Geiz did not at all care where Woz wandered off to!) I like them being able to work together, and I like them figuratively being of one mind about their mission, but I felt iffy about them literally being of one mind. I’m sure I’ll come around on it, though. I like thinking about it already. I like how this show is extra-inclusive in its empathy, even for visitors from vanishing timelines that try to force Geiz to kill Sougo. (Really loved the Hat Woz death scene. Both actors did great! Wait–) To get that kind of warmth and humanity in a story that also acts as a well-earned happy ending for Kenzaki and Hajime? This is the future I was hoping Kamen Rider Zi-O would create.
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04-22-2022, 10:27 PM | #775 |
New Member
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Evanston IL.
Posts: 95
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Here come rest of past tributes.
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04-22-2022, 10:37 PM | #776 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,570
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Sorry, Den-O wouldn't be appropriate for this point at the story. So Blade's the best you've got, especially given what we see at the very end of the episode. I enjoy Trinity as like a concept and while things seem a bit rushed, it's probably one of my favorite upgrades. Because you can just tell, the gags around it are going to be good. But there's some fun stuff they do with it too.
Also I know a lot of people who like, disliked this set of episodes purely because of the resolution it gave to Kenzaki and Hajime. I'm of the mind that they deserved at least something after like what? 15 years or so? I enjoyed it though. I also enjoy Oma Zi-O laying out what exactly we're going to be doing these next several sets of episodes. So next time on Legend Rider Tributes we've got two particular ones this time despite only having a singular Rider to focus on. The first is the usual BGM Swap while the next is well, the one Insert Song of the main cast we don't hear in the series, Tsukuyomi's insert. Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 31 Preview: |
04-22-2022, 10:57 PM | #777 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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I recall seeing some people back then bring up that if doing an episode like this possibly diminshes Blade's ending, but me personally, I kinda... don't care at all? I don't think there's anything after-show specials, and especially not Zi-O, could do to affect my feelings on the original stories, and what I took from them. But as a tribute and nostalgic sort of epilogue, the Blade stuff in this episode is a great lot of fun. A neat little extra episode from a show from over a decade ago, which I enjoyed because I watched it, but I wonder if it wasn't a bit too much for anyone who doesn't have that prior context. Anyone one else watch that superhero cartoon Young Justice? Because it just so happened I have very similar thoughts about the latest episode of that show from just a few days ago!
And would you believe that the very first time I saw Zi-O Trinity, I immediately declared it the ugliest suit I've ever seen in this franchise? It is a lot to take in, but I can gladly say I'm very fond of it these days! I genuinely think it looks pretty cool with its mix of black and gold, the way it corporates the three different watches, and the three faces it wears on its body is very novel, and funny! This form is the main reason why I wished the words on Woz's face were a different format from Zi-O, because the 'Rider' on Geiz's face on the right shoulder is the only one of the four faces that don't match! I want to mention the transformation and Woz's speech afterwards, and how I watched the scene with both Over-Time and TV-Nihon's subs because I found it odd. I think neither sub group managed to really get across the joke of Woz's speech, which was that he was so clearly making it up as he went along and trying to cover it up with extra aplomb. Like, the subs should have his sentences broke up with obvious standalone declarations of "Probably!" and "I think!", and Sougo's comment at the end is pointing out how Woz doesn't sound very sure at all. But anyway, beyond all that, I do also love the idea that on this cursed date with the constellation in the sky, this is the day that Zi-O supposedly rises to power or becomes evil or something to that effect, but instead thanks to presumably the presence of Geiz and Woz, not just in this episode but just the fact they've been in Sougo's life, history has changed and so we get this new power that's a symbol of Sougo's friendship with these weirdos from the future. Really like that! ....What I don't like is anything else that happens afterwards, unforunately. I mentioned back in episode 28 how the show had instilled a lot of faith in me, so I was actually letting myself be optimistic and looking forward to whatever plot machinations they had with White Woz and the Time Jackers. They just did a whole lot of teasing about how he's got some kind of ulterior motivations beyond wanting to 'save the future'. And just one two-parter later, they erase the guy. Wow. It's almost hilarious how quickly the show changed it's mind on that. Wasn't he kind of major character too, for how long he was around? And now we just nonchalantly shuffle him off into nonexistence now that we don't need him... Not pleased with that! And after that we have Oma Zi-O open a zoom call to tell our heroes (and the audience) that we are absolutely going back to the collecting the remaining Ridewatches and doing tribute episodes for all of them. And I am probably the only person who watched this scene, who was not happy about that. It was probably really foolish of me in hindsight to think this, but I had figured the show was done with the episodes dedicated to legacy riders, or at least done with the very strict format it had in the first fourteen episodes, and that the Ryuki and Blade stuff was just fun little extra diversions mixed in because they just happened to be available. I only really started getting invested in Zi-O when it stopped doing all that, so for the show to explicitly declare that they're going right back? I'm not exaggerating when I say all the excitement that had been built up in me over the last several weeks worth of episodes just deflated in an instant. But like, obviously I didn't just immediately dropped the show or anything! Even if I was a little (or a lot) disheartened by what I was seeing, there's really no way to know what the future holds. For example, I'm looking forward to whatever the future of this thread and your write-ups will be. |
04-22-2022, 11:14 PM | #778 |
Precure enthusiast
Join Date: Dec 2021
Location: Amongst the Cosmos
Posts: 304
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Change! It's Episode 30!
-Sougo giving White Woz a pep talk of all things, it's such a Sougo thing to do? -Trinity's so ugly, but it's such a delightfully fun concept that I can put that aside. (I love in "Inside Trinity" POV, it's so good) -I remember not liking this arc, purely because I thought sticking something like a proper ending to Hajime and Kenzaki's deal in-between trying to do Geiz/Woz character stuff, Kaito's appearance, and "Please go out and buy the Trinity Ridewatch!" felt a little....Weird, to say to least. Felt like they should've been more involved in changing their own fate, or something like that, was my sentiment. On my rewatch, I'm still not sure how to feel about it, but I do know that I'm glad they can live peacefully now. (And just like how Zi-O treats Kenzaki's former appearances, I can ignore this ending if I change my mind and loop back to disliking it in the future.) -With White Woz's death, the Day of Oma occuring, and obtaining Trinity, we've reached the end of the 2nd arc! With Oma-Zio oh-so-nicely displaying our final 6 Ridewatches the gang has yet to encounter, we're on the road to a full set of Ridewatches! Is the future awaiting us a bright one, or is it all downhill from here?! -So excited for the next arc, hope it's as good as I remember it being. |
04-22-2022, 11:29 PM | #779 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,396
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Gonna be that guy and say that I didn't like this two-parter much at all.
Remember how I felt that the four-parter was trying to juggle way too much as once, and thus the focus really suffered? Same deal here. There are so many things going on in this two episodes: Geiz and Woz coming to terms, Kenzaki and Hajime's' reunion, White Woz's' whole... thing, Zi-O Trinity, Diend's' return; And none of it feels properly fleshed out and feels very rushed. Two or three of these aspects I could see working out, but them all at the same time made the whole thing feel really disjointed to me. Heck, alot of it doesn't even make any sense. For example, if the actions of White Woz cause him to poof out of existence, then so too shouldn't the Time Note and the BeyonDriver? Heck, even ignoring that, why does he even get erased to begin with, considering it was already established that he came from an alternate timeline anyway? This is starting to become less and less "the rules have changed" and more of Decade's' "there are no rules" and for me, that's not a good sign! Especially if I'm not having fun! And then there's my biggest point of contention: All of the stuff relating to Blade. I already talked about how I don't like that they got rid of the "erased show" aspect of the plot, as I felt they lead to really interesting stories, but there's a budget to contend with, I get it. Doesn't mean I can't dislike all the other changes that shouldn't really be concerned with that though. For example, as interesting a concept as Amane as Another Blade is, she doesn't at all inhibit being the opposite of Kenzaki like the other Anothers did. Finally, there's the way this all ends up really undermining Blade's' ending. Not only does Kenzaki somehow make it right to where he needs to be in an impossible amount of time for this conflict to happen(and in a very out of character way, mind you), but again, it's all really rushed for what should otherwise be an incredibly huge moment for both characters. Then there's the fact that Hajime wasn't a human originally, and yet he gets "cured" the exact same way as Kenzaki, which makes no sense. And last in all of this is how easily the Sealing Stone gets erased, which was established as being impossible in Blade proper. Everything here just felt incredibly phoned in to me, and I was having basically none of it. Know what I never felt was phoned in though? The arc of my favorite character from Blade. Kazuma Kenzaki, one of my favorite protagonists in Kamen Rider. Kenzaki had everything I needed to love him. A great arc, plenty of charisma, a cool fighting style, and, atleast the way I read him, he presented a lesson that I wish alot of other protagonists I've experienced did, which is: "Be kind, but don't be a pushover." Dude was never afraid to stand up for himself and to push back against those he felt was trying to take advantage of him. And what can I say, that ending was absolute perfection, which made it double sting that it was handled so lightly in these episodes. Wonderful protagonist all around.
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04-23-2022, 01:23 AM | #780 |
New Member
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Evanston IL.
Posts: 95
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....What I don't like is anything else that happens afterwards, unforunately.
I mentioned back in episode 28 how the show had instilled a lot of faith in me, so I was actually letting myself be optimistic and looking forward to whatever plot machinations they had with White Woz and the Time Jackers. They just did a whole lot of teasing about how he's got some kind of ulterior motivations beyond wanting to 'save the future'. And just one two-parter later, they erase the guy. Wow. It's almost hilarious how quickly the show changed it's mind on that. Wasn't he kind of major character too, for how long he was around? And now we just nonchalantly shuffle him off into nonexistence now that we don't need him... Not pleased with that! And after that we have Oma Zi-O open a zoom call to tell our heroes (and the audience) that we are absolutely going back to the collecting the remaining Ridewatches and doing tribute episodes for all of them. And I am probably the only person who watched this scene, who was not happy about that. It was probably really foolish of me in hindsight to think this, but I had figured the show was done with the episodes dedicated to legacy riders, or at least done with the very strict format it had in the first fourteen episodes, and that the Ryuki and Blade stuff was just fun little extra diversions mixed in because they just happened to be available. I only really started getting invested in Zi-O when it stopped doing all that, so for the show to explicitly declare that they're going right back? I'm not exaggerating when I say all the excitement that had been built up in me over the last several weeks worth of episodes just deflated in an instant. But like, obviously I didn't just immediately dropped the show or anything! Even if I was a little (or a lot) disheartened by what I was seeing, there's really no way to know what the future holds. For example, I'm looking forward to whatever the future of this thread and your write-ups will be. |
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