|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
02-15-2022, 10:32 PM | #491 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
weird to mention tsurugi, since he only went back to france and didn't die on screen ever
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
02-15-2022, 11:14 PM | #492 |
Reiei
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 3,691
|
Quote:
M-Masaka...! It's... glorious! Huh. Is it the one where it looks partially orange? Damn I actually thought that was part of the suit. |
02-16-2022, 12:57 AM | #493 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,410
|
|
02-17-2022, 02:36 PM | #494 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
KAMEN SENTAI GORIDER - MAZE 2: ESCAPE
This is pretty much what I want every Legend Riders thing to be. There’s a larger story being told - mysterious masterminds and unexplained resurrections and shocking but inevitable betrayals - but this episode slows itself down to allow for smaller performances and stillness; the weight of the space between fights. (Although, the fights are so good in this episode! The camerawork is exceptional throughout, finding clever places to frame a group of heroes during massive brawls. There’s a Henshin for Ex-Aid in here that’s one of my favorite Henshins of all time: So fun! So much fun in this episode’s action scenes!) There’s a lot of respect for the various character arcs to which this series acts as a coda. The fact that Marika, Baron and Another Agito died means something. We’re not in some mode where everyone just keeps going through with their weird obsessions or their personal manias. There’s a slow realization that the purgatory they inhabit is, maybe, just. They all went crazy in pursuit of their goals, and it got them killed. That was the result, and it’s undeniable. So it’s very sweet to see three flawed Riders gain a bit of perspective in their digital afterlife, and get to watch them walking back their deranged final days to the earliest moments of their motivations: the ends that they assumed would justify the means. Having Marika create a hero rather than be shackled to a lunatic; having Another Agito sacrifice for others rather than sacrificing others; having Baron become a leader by protecting the weak rather than dominating followers… it’s such a great final chapter for all of these characters. It honors the hard road they walked, while providing a strange redemption. It gets what made each of these characters worth revisiting, which is so rare in Legend Rider projects. Even the Kenzaki/Emu scene hits on what made Blade such a fun show, and it’s not even the real Kenzaki! The speech “Kenzaki” gives to Emu is, honestly, pretty much the type of speech Kenzaki would give, thematically. It’s a speech that’s about how defeat can be learned from, and how the defeated should be allowed the dignity to learn from their mistakes. That’s about 110% a Blade speech? This was all… god, it was so good. It got at everyone’s story (even Kiriya’s addiction to mysteries and pride in Emu’s hard-fought optimism!) and it continued the Celebrity Ex-Aid thing of arcing everyone from We Should Probably Murder Emu For Reasons to Y’Know Emu’s Okay to I Would Die To Protect Emu. His indefatigable helpfulness even got Kaito to open up for a fraction of a second! That is like playing the Ex-Aid themes on Insane Mode! And, hey, speaking of games! We get the reveal in this episode that this is all taking place inside a horrifyingly unfair game! I don’t usually care much for these sorts of mysteries, but I liked how things were broken down for the audience in this one. The conclusions Emu comes to are sensible, and he’s the exact right character to pick up on the clues. It’s part of how perfectly paced this episode is, to have just the right amount of exposition to get us to start connecting the dots ourselves, instead of the usual bizarre leaps in logic and obvious plotholes. I really enjoyed this episode. The characterization was spot-on, the action was gorgeous, and the mystery was compelling without being frustrating. Just a top-shelf Kamen Rider episode.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 02-24-2022 at 09:20 PM.. |
02-17-2022, 04:01 PM | #495 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,547
|
You are going to love Zi-O then, since that has a lot of the same “writing for the guest stars” mentality (mostly because it has the same writer, but I digress).
And I love the subtle hint as to the mastermind’s identity, in that the Rider who turns out to be evil is the one based on a card GAME, who has become an all-powerful being, akin to a GOD. And talking of Zi-O, I’ll reveal here that I’ve already decided what my regular feature for the upcoming thread will be. And I can tell you, it’s not something you’d expect (aside from being marginally similar to my secondary gimmick/Fish’s main gimmick from the Kiva thread) |
02-17-2022, 04:07 PM | #496 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
Quote:
And talking of Zi-O, I?ll reveal here that I?ve already decided what my regular feature for the upcoming thread will be. And I can tell you, it?s not something you?d expect (aside from being marginally similar to my secondary gimmick/Fish?s main gimmick from the Kiva thread)
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
02-18-2022, 11:11 PM | #497 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
KAMEN SENTAI GORIDER - MAZE 3: GORIDER FOREVER
The thing I remember most about this mini-series is how clever the mystery’s resolution felt. It’s multi-phased, and it plays fair; two attributes that most Legend Rider stories do not exactly have in abundance. There’s Emu’s solution to the mystery at the heart of this supernatural roguelike, where he scrawls codes to himself to circumvent the memory wipe he endures each time the game resets. It’s all based on the Japanese language, so I absolutely didn’t get it until the translators jumped in for Emu’s big reveal, but it’s exactly the sort of thing Emu would try. Kiriya’s the detective of Team Ex-Aid, but Emu knows how to find the weak points in game design. But using Kenzaki to dismantle Kuroto’s world? Perfect. I loved it even before I watched Blade, if you can believe it. The slow, deliberate pacing of the exposition helps novice Rider fans get the significance of what’s happening, but the dawning realization on Kuroto’s face elicits just the most decadent joy at him figuring out that he accidentally built the trap that is now closing around him. It is so, so good. (Having now watched Blade, the obvious problem with Kenzaki going into the game world to shut down Kuroto is Wait That Means There’s Only One Undead On Earth Now. Technically correct, but Earth has previously needed a lot more than fifteen minutes to get apocalypsed by Darkroaches, so it’s probably okay for Kenzaki to pitch in real quick and help out Team Ex-Aid. Not great for him to almost sacrifice himself, maybe, but he’s always been a little impetuous.) (I also love the mental image of the Sealing Stone being like GOD FINALLY, floating up there for twelve years waiting for the last two dudes to finish the fight, only to get a cup of coffee into its apocalypse before Kenzaki calls it off. Again. Let it do its job, you selfish jerk!) After that reveal, though, it’s all a little messy. It’s a fight at Kamen Rider Quarry. There are a bunch of old monster suits and henchmen to humiliate. There’s the final deployment of the series’ ostensible raison d'?tre: getting five people into Kamen Sentai outfits. (It’s as random and pointless as in the Super Duper Hero Wars movie.) As immaculate as the pacing was in the first two episodes, the back half of the third episode was a slog. The series as a whole peaked with the mystery’s solution, and the heroes’ strategy for ending Kuroto’s Wizard-inspired take on Hades. The gigantic fight afterwards feels poorly motivated and obligatory. Well, there’s a final moment for the resurrected Riders to tell Emu that he’s a sweet boy whose dedication helped them become better people, and that’s just the best. That’s worth sitting through another Kamen Sentai fight at Kamen Rider Quarry. It feels earned, like the best parts of Episode 2. To have weird psychopaths like Kino and Kaito wonder if they always should’ve been more caring and selfless… how can you not respect Emu more after a moment like that? How can you not look at this random movie tie-in special as one of the best pieces of Ex-Aid media? I massively enjoyed getting to re-experience this story, now with the added (but not wholly necessary!) benefit of knowing who all the characters are. To see some fantastic actors return, to see them get beautiful codas to their characters’ stories, and to have it all resolve with a declaration that Emu’s ability to make people better than they thought they could be is more important than the power he wields as Ex-Aid… man. Gorider Forever indeed.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 02-24-2022 at 09:20 PM.. |
02-19-2022, 12:28 AM | #498 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: World of Ataru
Posts: 857
|
I agree that the actual Goriders is totally both inconsequential and also kinda out of place with the rest of the special in terms of tone and style. But I can't help but love it? After all the delibrate slow pacing and despair and especially what comes after as Emu scream at the top of his lungs as 4 Riders scarficed themselves. I just think goofy random Sentai Power Up feels not necessarily earned(because Emu liteerally pulled it out of his ass) but rewarding
__________________
|
02-19-2022, 12:34 AM | #499 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
I agree that the actual Goriders is totally both inconsequential and also kinda out of place with the rest of the special in terms of tone and style. But I can't help but love it? After all the delibrate slow pacing and despair and especially what comes after as Emu scream at the top of his lungs as 4 Riders scarficed themselves. I just think goofy random Sentai Power Up feels not necessarily earned(because Emu liteerally pulled it out of his ass) but rewarding
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
02-19-2022, 12:50 AM | #500 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,570
|
So now that we're done, I can say that Go-Rider is definitely a favorite special of mine. There's just some fun things it does, and getting to see people like Kaito and Minato again was a treat.
Also man, was like Spring the big old "Let's tease Kiriya's fate some more" by having the dude appear in as many spin-offs as possible. I think it was this, his short cameo in Super Duper Hero Taisen, and then there's the Lazer HBV too? Really trying to get the most out of him before his inevitable return. I think my favorite part (Despite not having watched Blade, I know the context of Blades ending for a multitude of reasons) so seeing the true Kenzaki's reveal here and what he does by only existing is just, beautiful. That being said I'm reminded of the super weird angelic monstrous armor that Genm Wore in this. Mostly the conversations surrounding it. To the point where people wondered if it caused a lasting back injury due to them switching out suit actors for Genm after this point I believe. I don't think it actually went anywhere and the suit actors done a lot of other things, but yeah. |
|
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 06:16 AM.
|