|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
06-08-2021, 05:33 PM | #491 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
Castle Doran's theme is used in this episode as Nago first takes in the scenery of 1986, and it fits so perfectly it gave me an appreciation for this one I didn't really have at first. It's a super chill track and yet has this sense of mystery to it, like some big discovery is jjjjjjjust around the corner or something.
Moving on to the episode, I'd like to thank Die for practically giftwrapping another opportunity to defend dumb things in Kamen Rider. Even if Kiva is the one with the actual golden power this series, Rising Ixa is still a cool upgrade form in its own right. I mean, Ixa puking out a cellphone will never not be hilarious, but there's a lot of legitimate thought that went into this design – including right there, as they wanted to emphasize Ixa's technological nature by having his power up not be something that's just summoned into existence like magic, so instead they did a weird homage to Kamen Rider X. The emphasis on mechanical detail is also because the color palette is actually completely unchanged (it's just laid out differently), since it already had an emphasis on typical power-up colors like gold and silver. I mean, he already had the dramatically transforming helmet; why not complete the Kabuto homage and have him Cast Off while you're at it? (That choker was also always there, by the way.) It's really a pretty straightforward progression, taking Ixa's sun theming to the next level by having the "cloudy" white replaced by the blue of a clear sky as the sun on his chest shines with its full might. So you can sit here and say the 80's design was way better and more iconic, Die, but 2008 is a different time, and just because an aesthetic is busier doesn't mean it's inherently worse, and I don't even see why it's a big deal that Optimus Prime has flames now why are you even saying that! ...Wait, what were we talking about again? Oh, right, Ixa! Ixa! Yeah, I'm actually not a huge fan of Rising Ixa either. But really, I think it's strictly a case of Ixa already being so perfect more than anything actually wrong with the new one. (And while I'm clearing things up, the "193" code is meant to be read as "I-ku-sa" here, because wordplay.) Another reason I'm inclined to be soft on Rising Ixa is because I genuinely appreciate how it's integrated into the story, with Nago getting it right away and that actually being a problem, as he fails to grasp how to use it. Come to think of it, that's pretty much a Kuuga form introduction right there, so... yeah, no wonder I like it. Still as fun a subversion as ever. Everything else about the story... I think my argument in favor of it is literally the same as yours against it? I guess we'll see if the second part of the story raises your opinion on what it's doing with that arbitrary premise any, but like Sh Ranger said, I think a cheap plot device or two can be in service of other, more legitimately interesting parts of the story. I honestly love a lot about the idea of Nago being the guy to get this quest in the past where he's there simply to prove he can do someone's job from 22 years ago better than them. He's the guy in the show with some of the least connection to '86, and probably the least investment in connections in general. The contrast between the backstory with his dad and the relationship between Wataru and Otoya highlights this. He's all about himself and his code, so the concept of him tearing through the show's entire backstory with zero appreciation for the significance of anything around him (the last frame of this one is him about to punch Otoya), entirely focused on The Mission, while getting a chance to bounce off of those characters? Definitely potential enough to be worth a sudden Time Door, if you ask me.
__________________
Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 06-08-2021 at 05:52 PM.. |
06-08-2021, 05:41 PM | #492 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
FINALLY, another 80 design liker!! I know a lot of people find it pretty strange and weird but that's what I like about it; it's very alien as an Ultraman should be and it manages to strike the balance between emphasising that while also being cute in its own way. Not my favourite in the franchise or anything, but it's pretty great! Even works for him looking like a bit of a dorky teacher, as he should!
(Optimus having flames is pretty decent by the by, but I'm a Cybertron kid; I'm inherently biased towards him being a fire engine and having a sick super form)
__________________
|
06-08-2021, 08:47 PM | #493 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
So this episode and the next set up my favorite personal head canon for Kiva. A corrupt cop goes after the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization and goes after all of its members: Shima, Megumi, and Nago. Just them; nobody else. I don't think there is a WBSO. I think it's legitimately just some weird dude and whoever else he can convince to fight Fangires for him.
Quote:
SOne thing I like is that we get to see the new upgrade in the first fight of the storyline rather than the last (the only other cases of this I can think of are Grand Zi-O and Geiz Majesty). And instead of some personal journey, heroic willpower of friendship, or being invented because the last fight had no conclusion, they’re just “you have a phone now. Use it”. If it had defeated a monster in its first fight, my happiness would’ve been completed.
Quote:
First of all, Nago accepts an offer from one of his arch enemy Kiva's friends. This shows that his development from the previous episode, feigning humility to be deemed worthy of IXA, continues here with him being willing to use the enemy's resource to accomplish a better long-term outcome, even if it makes his soul feel unclean for having to resort to that.
I just didn't feel like the enormity of all of this was something the show was paying off. I think the only thing Nago even says to Jiro is "The Door of Time?", so it's not like there's a ton of energy expended on the weirdness of this pairing. Quote:
Secondly, Nago's adventure in 1986 allows him to have interaction with Otoya, similar to how Megumi met him in 2008 through Wataru as a medium, so this will be a chance for Otoya to tell Nago how much he sucks and what he needs to do to get better. Nago is here on his quest to fix the past, but again, that's just the story of this arc providing an admittedly lazy plot device to further the overall plot of the show. I think the best we can do here is work with the plot on its own terms and enjoy what happens between the characters. Cause if there's anything that Inoue excels at, it's character interactions.
Quote:
I'd wanna ask regarding Otoya being viewed as generally decent or even worse... "champion of justice". I thought before it's agreed that it's undebatable that everyone in this thread has pointed out that Otoya is awful, that we're all on the same page there.... and btw, those people who point out Otoya's nasty stuff are generally those who have watched Kiva in its entirety.
Quote:
Quote:
Everything else about the story... I think my argument in favor of it is literally the same as yours against it? I guess we'll see if the second part of the story raises your opinion on what it's doing with that arbitrary premise any, but like Sh Ranger said, I think a cheap plot device or two can be in service of other, more legitimately interesting parts of the story. I honestly love a lot about the idea of Nago being the guy to get this quest in the past where he's there simply to prove he can do someone's job from 22 years ago better than them. He's the guy in the show with some of the least connection to '86, and probably the least investment in connections in general. The contrast between the backstory with his dad and the relationship between Wataru and Otoya highlights this. He's all about himself and his code, so the concept of him tearing through the show's entire backstory with zero appreciation for the significance of anything around him (the last frame of this one is him about to punch Otoya), entirely focused on The Mission, while getting a chance to bounce off of those characters? Definitely potential enough to be worth a sudden Time Door, if you ask me.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
06-08-2021, 09:26 PM | #494 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
It’s my night off from Kamen Rider Kiva, so let’s talk Kamen Rider Decade.
One of the best things about doing these Watch threads is getting to share the experience with all of you. Beyond the need to clear my brain of Kamen Rider thoughts so it can function at a manageable level, the chance to talk about these shows with knowledgeable, passionate fans is the main reason I’m here. Writing an episode post, and then getting to spend a day talking about it? I can’t see how it could get better than that. Well, there’s one way. What if you all helped write the episode posts for Decade? I try not to ask for much, but I’ve been wanting to do this since I thought of it, like, a year ago. Nothing would make me happier than to work with you all on TOKUNATION WATCHES KAMEN RIDER DECADE. I hope you’ll be willing to give me a hand with it! I’m open to tweaking the following process (please give a shout in this thread or via PM if you’ve got a suggestion!), but here’s how I’m thinking this will work. The only requirements are a little bit of time (maybe a couple non-consecutive hours), a passion for something from Heisei Phase 1, the ability to watch a couple episodes of Decade, and the willingness to jump on Discord to chat a bit about Kamen Rider with me. Sound good? Let’s talk specifics. First, make a list of the three shows from Phase 1 Heisei, including Decade, that you’re most passionate about. All ten shows, pick the three you feel strongly about, love or hate. Rank ‘em from The Show You’d Most Want To Cover on down. Second, PM that list to me. You’ve got until the end of the Kiva thread (early July?) to decide if you want to pitch in and get me your picks. After that, I’m going to start breaking down the bids and figuring out how best to cover all of Phase 1. I’ll try to give people something they’re excited for, but I’m going to be weighing the assignments towards previous participation. If someone was super active in the Hibiki thread and wants to cover Hibiki, that’s going to make a difference. Third, have some way that we can chat online. My preference is Discord, but I’m open to alternatives if anyone would prefer. Whatever the platform, it needs to be a chat room-style interface (something with immediate text responses) and I need to be able to copy and paste the chat log. I don’t want to exclude anyone who’s interested, so I’m willing to make changes if necessary. (To be clear! This is all going to be done via text, not audio recording. If you're comfortable typing things out on a message board, I hope you'll feel comfortable typing things out in a chat room. I know some folks don't love how their voice sounds, or don't want to participate in a non-typed discussion. I got you covered!) Fourth, sometime in the month after the Kiva thread closes, we’ll figure out an hour where we can both get online to chat. It’s going to be a pretty brief overview of your Kamen Rider journey: how’d you get into it, what have you found in the fandom, why this one Heisei show, that sort of thing. I know everyone’s got different levels of sharing that they’re comfortable with, so my intention is to keep things Kamen Rider focused. Nothing you wouldn’t normally feel comfortable discussing here on TokuNation. If you feel like sharing more? I mean, I have massively overshared on these boards; you do you. Fifth… so, here’s where things get tricky, and the stage where I am most looking for some help with logistics. Since I don’t like looking ahead, I can’t really schedule this part. My plan is to watch two episodes of Decade at a time. Once I know what show they’re celebrating/homaging/stripmining (by watching those two episodes), I’ll shoot a message to the appropriate volunteer. (Like, if I watch Episodes 7 and 8, and they’re The Blade Episodes, I’ll shoot a message to the Blade volunteer.) After that, we’ll figure out a good period of time in the next couple days where we can both get online to talk about those episodes of Decade. How did they work as Decade episodes, how did they work as a celebration of the relevant Heisei show, that sort of thing. Basically the kind of thing I do here, just with two people typing back and forth. Sixth, I dump the chat logs from our initial conversation, as well as the episode coverage, and format everything into a post for everyone on TokuNation to enjoy. I think that’s it? My hope is to make everything as simple and stress-free for the folks helping out as possible. I know that Step 5 is pretty last-minute, but hopefully 48 hours notice is good enough? And if you look at the episode guide, you can have a pretty good idea of when you’ll be called up. The plan is to do two groups of two episodes each week, and those posts’ll drop whenever they’re ready. So, if your Heisei show gets covered in Decade 15-16, you’ll probably need to be ready in the second half of Week 4. I really hope you’ll feel like taking part. Decade is a celebration of the first ten years of Heisei, and I’d love for the Decade thread to be a celebration of the last year or so of TokuNation fandom. Thanks so much for reading this over, and I hope we'll be able to watch some Kamen Rider Decade together!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 06-08-2021 at 09:39 PM.. |
06-08-2021, 09:35 PM | #495 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,393
|
I'm down! I look forward to my top 3 faves getting taken by people way more qualified than I am.
__________________
|
06-08-2021, 09:41 PM | #496 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,570
|
Oh interesting.
Hello there, just little old me, lurking. I've been peaking in and out of threads ever since the end of Den-O and I was actually planning on jumping in full time on these once you started watching Decade. Mostly because I want to rewatch some of the older stuff starting with Decade. Admittedly it's been so long since I've seen the few Phase 1 shows I've actually completed that I doubt I'd be qualified to really talk about them more than others ha ha. So I'll probably just sit back and let others do their own thing. But totally expect me to be more active in these whenever you start the Decade thread. |
06-08-2021, 09:43 PM | #497 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
I can't really do live talk stuff like that, so instead I'll chip in by saying this ahead of time: the first episode of Decade is a standalone episode setting up the show and its characters not connected to any specific past show, with the tributes instead starting on episode 2. So the tribute 2-parters are 2-3, 6-7, 12-13 etc. And there's no breaks between them either! They go through the Heisei tributes one by one once they get started. I won't spoil which is which (it's probably obvious which ones are the first two though, right?), but that should give you a good idea of how to format the thread!
__________________
|
06-08-2021, 09:43 PM | #498 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
Also! Not related to DreamSword's comment, but I did want to clarify something in case there was any confusion. All of the chatting that'll happen to construct the Decade posts will be done via text/typing, not via audio recording. I've updated the original post, just in case. This project is, in my mind, just a lateral move from what we all do on these boards. It's something you're already great at! All of you!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
06-08-2021, 09:48 PM | #499 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
Hello there, just little old me, lurking. I've been peaking in and out of threads ever since the end of Den-O and I was actually planning on jumping in full time on these once you started watching Decade. Mostly because I want to rewatch some of the older stuff starting with Decade. Admittedly it's been so long since I've seen the few Phase 1 shows I've actually completed that I doubt I'd be qualified to really talk about them more than others ha ha.
So I'll probably just sit back and let others do their own thing. But totally expect me to be more active in these whenever you start the Decade thread. Quote:
I can't really do live talk stuff like that, so instead I'll chip in by saying this ahead of time: the first episode of Decade is a standalone episode setting up the show and its characters not connected to any specific past show, with the tributes instead starting on episode 2. So the tribute 2-parters are 2-3, 6-7, 12-13 etc. And there's no breaks between them either! They go through the Heisei tributes one by one once they get started. I won't spoil which is which (it's probably obvious which ones are the first two though, right?), but that should give you a good idea of how to format the thread!
I also am pretty scared that I will not get many people to feel like playing along, and the whole thread is basically not going to happen in the way I've been hoping for! So that's also a thing!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
06-08-2021, 10:14 PM | #500 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,570
|
Quote:
Don't feel like you can't contribute just because you don't remember much of those shows, because I will definitely not remember much of those shows. I'm looking for enthusiasm, not encyclopedias. If you like Kamen Rider and have seen any other Phase 1 show, you've got all the qualifications I'm looking for!
Well in that case consider it a maybe, I'll need to think on it some more. But I do enjoy bouncing off people so I might join in. Admittedly as I think on it, yeah I'm a weird guy at least in terms of watching Rider. Watched W, OOO, then Decade. And Decade basically decided the three Phase 1 Rider's I watched on the basis of "This looked cool" and that's that. Like I saw Decade, heard it was an anniversary type deal and am like "Sure let's hop in and have some fun" without any care in the world. That might've helped most of my perception on it at the time to where I never got a lot of the hate. |
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
SH Figuarts BoonBoomger Red |
Hasbro Licenses Power Rangers Toys to Playmates Toys |
Discotek Media Licenses Mobile Cop Jiban |
What's going on with CSM? |
Ultraman Arc Trailer |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:08 AM.
|