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TokuERA 2020/2021 |OT| Masks Required
- Thread starter DioMuller
- Start date
- Entertainment OT
Like as in what the heck was that CG thing at the end Touma was fighting.
Metal Yoshida is going to be on episode 8 of Saber. New character or are they going to find the book of Gaim? Maybe a tie-in to whatever new Gaim content is coming.
For what's worth, this promo for Gaim related products is telling people they can't miss Saber's next episode.
Ok, interesting episode of Saber, I can see why Calibur''s identity is iffy but
God, Mei is so annoying, she ruins every scene she is in. Like when she was gonna die, the tension was gone and the cgi mouth of the monster looked like Courage the Cowardly Dog
And Buster...hmmmm
God, Mei is so annoying, she ruins every scene she is in. Like when she was gonna die, the tension was gone and the cgi mouth of the monster looked like Courage the Cowardly Dog
And Buster...hmmmm
Yeah, it's not like on Ex-Aid or the first few arcs of Zero One, when the pacing was fast because things/premise/arc were progressing constantly. Here it feels like they are cramming as much as they can as fast as they can in the smallest ammount of episodes.
The kaiju was voiced by Domon's VA. Who also voiced the the narration and the Mobirates from Gokaiger, which is why Barossa uses a bootleg Final Wave
One thing that could make Saber really cool is if it's a secret Rider War show. Sword of Logos splinters into multiple factions with their own agendas, Calibur turns out to have some reasonable motive after all, and it's just the main trio left to fend for themselves. That could be what kicks off next week.
Like two episodes behind on Saber atm, but the fact things are moving so fast... well, probably partly because there are so many Riders to introduce in Q1. But it does seem to be moving rapidly with Calibur and some other broader metaplot items that it doesn't necessarily have to (especially with so many damn villains).
Anyway, wound up dropping Gaoranger again. Was up to ep 26 or so. Shirogane's arc was pretty cool and I like the power animals in general, but damn if everything else wasn't so dry. There is an irony to the characters referring to each other by color instead of name because they barely feel like more than that. Even when they got attention in a focus ep, it's like they're back to being cardboard cutouts once the spotlight's off them.
While I have been itching to start Abaranger (since Arakawa + having almost no exposure to the series), the spur of the moment caught up to me (one of the great things about the series that Shout was able to release is just being able to watch on demand on Shout Factory/Tubi instead of whatever PC fiddling + needing that on and PLEX open), and I wound up starting Dairanger. About 10 episodes in now.
I have to ask, since I really haven't seen anything older than Jetman, is the quasi-serialization a Sugimura thing? It's easy to take for granted how much breathing room the extra bit of runtime the move from evenings to Sunday mornings gave the franchise, and early Dairanger and Kakuranger both feel like they're trying to do things different to best leverage the shorter runtime. I'm surprised to find Dairanger doing such even more. Early Kakuranger I found really refreshing how the series just sort of strung itself together without an overarching villain at first, instead with one motw flowing into the next, usually tied together somehow. But even then, Kakuranger was generally fairly episodic aside from any obvious two-parters and the mid-series Kakure Daishogun quest. So I'm surprised to be seeing a lot of serialization in early Dairanger; besides any plot threads, just stuff like instead of rushing through the motions, there was an ep that ended without beating the motw, and the following episode resumed with that, including an early mech battle, before moving on to something different in the back half.
Anyway, wound up dropping Gaoranger again. Was up to ep 26 or so. Shirogane's arc was pretty cool and I like the power animals in general, but damn if everything else wasn't so dry. There is an irony to the characters referring to each other by color instead of name because they barely feel like more than that. Even when they got attention in a focus ep, it's like they're back to being cardboard cutouts once the spotlight's off them.
While I have been itching to start Abaranger (since Arakawa + having almost no exposure to the series), the spur of the moment caught up to me (one of the great things about the series that Shout was able to release is just being able to watch on demand on Shout Factory/Tubi instead of whatever PC fiddling + needing that on and PLEX open), and I wound up starting Dairanger. About 10 episodes in now.
I have to ask, since I really haven't seen anything older than Jetman, is the quasi-serialization a Sugimura thing? It's easy to take for granted how much breathing room the extra bit of runtime the move from evenings to Sunday mornings gave the franchise, and early Dairanger and Kakuranger both feel like they're trying to do things different to best leverage the shorter runtime. I'm surprised to find Dairanger doing such even more. Early Kakuranger I found really refreshing how the series just sort of strung itself together without an overarching villain at first, instead with one motw flowing into the next, usually tied together somehow. But even then, Kakuranger was generally fairly episodic aside from any obvious two-parters and the mid-series Kakure Daishogun quest. So I'm surprised to be seeing a lot of serialization in early Dairanger; besides any plot threads, just stuff like instead of rushing through the motions, there was an ep that ended without beating the motw, and the following episode resumed with that, including an early mech battle, before moving on to something different in the back half.
Finished up with Zero-One
It was alright. Definite signs of being rushed due to the pandemic hiatus. You can tell the last few episodes with Aruto becoming the villain were planned while a lot of the stuff before felt half-baked. Especially Gai's redemption arc. "Robot dog... he's a good guy now". Yeah Thouser was cute but still...
I hoped we'd get a reveal where Aruto learns that Fuwa likes his terrible jokes. Maybe in the movie. Though that won't be for a while as it hasn't even come out in Japanese theaters yet. Thanks pandemic...
I'll get started on Saber tomorrow, then continue working on Kiramager.
It was alright. Definite signs of being rushed due to the pandemic hiatus. You can tell the last few episodes with Aruto becoming the villain were planned while a lot of the stuff before felt half-baked. Especially Gai's redemption arc. "Robot dog... he's a good guy now". Yeah Thouser was cute but still...
I hoped we'd get a reveal where Aruto learns that Fuwa likes his terrible jokes. Maybe in the movie. Though that won't be for a while as it hasn't even come out in Japanese theaters yet. Thanks pandemic...
I'll get started on Saber tomorrow, then continue working on Kiramager.
Oh... interesting.
It felt more well done than Ark jumping from villain to villain.
Mei really ruins it. 8 episodes in and she's easily one of the worst characters in rider ever. All she does is literally yell and scream all her sentences and is so over the top. Like, no one talks like that in real life and she really ruins the mood and tone. Not to mention she is totally useless. Like I thought Akiko, Onari and Shunpei were bad but Mei is another level
"Totally useless"
literally the only reason they were able to save Sora's life
there's a hundred more useless characters in the first five episodes of rider shows
literally the only reason they were able to save Sora's life
there's a hundred more useless characters in the first five episodes of rider shows
Mei is such a stock character I don't understand how you could have strong opinions about her one way or the other. In the list of Saber's problems she is so far down there
Mei is also a better character than Sofia, in which she is at least a character. Honestly, Mei is the least of Saber's problem.
You could replace Sofia with a lamppost that had some lore on it and nothing would be lost. It's maddening.
I think we just barely missed a very cliche Kamen Rider ending where Williamson shows up out of nowhere, becomes Ark-One, shoots a big laser into the sky and reveals that he was pulling the strings behind all the bad stuff for years to take over the world. Then all the remaining Riders would team up to beat him.
Instead we got a really satisfying, emotional finale that focused on the actual conflicts between characters.
The extra time to plan afford to the hiatus paid such dividends, it's wild. The visuals in the last few episode were remarkably effective...and has made Saber's aesthetics look so underwhelming in comparison. =/
Saber 05 - 07
- While this isn't as bad as Ghost (yet), the writting is quite messy. I feel they wanted to do too much at the same time but with no idea on how to develop things.
- Juuzou is back, now as a Evil Dad Rider!
- This series does have some good over-the-top comedic moments. Buster and Rintaro/Mei work well together. I like the Mechanic guy too.
- Super genki Kenzan is also fun, if a bit weird. Second Ninja Rider, in just a couple years, too! I don't know if it's proposital or not, but the actor is a bit... weird, with that smile all the time.
- Slash is a cool guy.
- Can't say the characters aren't unique between themselves at least...
- The one character I feel isn't that well used is Espada. He's like the serious/plot character of the series, but it's not well done, imo.
- Sophie must be one of the most passive mentors (if I can even call her that) ever.
- The villains feel like a discount shop, less interesting version of the Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed with a Rider version of Wolzard thrown in.
- We already know Calibur's face, but it was treated a mistery on Ep. 7... I wonder if there's something here? Could be nothing, coming from this writter.
- They really ramped up the chromatic aberration in those episodes, but the CG isn't that bad, they did some good choices considering their budgets. Feels more like an aesthetic choice, even if it was by necessity.
- Rintaro got a full, "best matched" powerup before Touma? Cool.
Even as a lore Sophia is less useful than the random books Touma read to solve the situation. We just got a literal android whose job is to give explanation to the main character and she managed to be lovable in her first couple of episodes. Sure we can give her benefit of the doubt that she'll be an actual good character but it's running thin in a series that botched so many character introductions already.
Beast Morphers big crossover
... Meh. I know there was multiple episodes of build-up compared to other crossovers but this still felt underbaked. I don't know, I guess a true Power Rangers crossover will never feel complete unless every actor is involved. Even if that wasn't the case for the Sentai original.
There was good stuff at least but yeah...
Caught up on Kamen Rider Saber
This is a weird season so far. Everything feels rushed, and there's way too many characters.
I get why everything feels so distant, they want to prevent COVID spread. But the sacrifices behind it are clear with that weird narrator and the addition of an ED song in what feels like forever. Hopefully they slow things down going forward.
... Meh. I know there was multiple episodes of build-up compared to other crossovers but this still felt underbaked. I don't know, I guess a true Power Rangers crossover will never feel complete unless every actor is involved. Even if that wasn't the case for the Sentai original.
There was good stuff at least but yeah...
Caught up on Kamen Rider Saber
This is a weird season so far. Everything feels rushed, and there's way too many characters.
I get why everything feels so distant, they want to prevent COVID spread. But the sacrifices behind it are clear with that weird narrator and the addition of an ED song in what feels like forever. Hopefully they slow things down going forward.
Reika Kamishiro, a messenger from the Southern Base of Logos, debuts in ep9.
And Sakamoto for episodes 9 and 10.
Edit- aaa too slow lmao
Indeed, honestly it's just so frustrating seeing Riders writers write their Women characters so badly time and time again. It just reeks of sexism where they aren't allow to be a hero, not allowed to be a fully fleshed out character and exist only to either be a damsel in distress, or a vehicle for the hero to info dump to the audience.
It's archaic and is a sign that the writers either don't know how to write women or just straight up misogynistic.
I want to see women written on the same level as the men. Valkyrae was an attempt but even then she was a poor attempt as she very quickly got side lined in favour for the men and it was clear that the writers had zero idea what to do with her character nor was interested in exploring in developing her character.
It's an ad for the new special the series is getting, which includes new form/weapons for him.
I saw the commerical for after the airing. I thought it was out of the blue, but nothing wrong with more Gaim, except for Micchy
Why is Ultraman Z always a delight to watch every week.
Kazuya Kamihoriuchi directed episode 5 and 6 and it doesn't improve much. This show has an editing problem that makes everything feels janky and disconnected and it hurts the already weak script. A telling when shows has this problem is when the story makes sense when you write it down or read it in wiki but you had a hard time following it in the actual episode. I'm -really- looking forward for the show's production notes, if they make one like Zero-One.
Kazuya Kamihoriuchi directed episode 5 and 6 and it doesn't improve much. This show has an editing problem that makes everything feels janky and disconnected and it hurts the already weak script. A telling when shows has this problem is when the story makes sense when you write it down or read it in wiki but you had a hard time following it in the actual episode. I'm -really- looking forward for the show's production notes, if they make one like Zero-One.
Ultraman Z 18
This is a weirder episode. Feels more like an Ultra Q episode than an Ultraman episode. Which makes sense, since apparently this is a sequel of sorts for a specific Ultra Q episode.
This was another pretty unique episode, somewhat unsettling and with a good payoff.
Ultraman Z keeps doing things right while doing different things and it's so great.
This is a weirder episode. Feels more like an Ultra Q episode than an Ultraman episode. Which makes sense, since apparently this is a sequel of sorts for a specific Ultra Q episode.
This was another pretty unique episode, somewhat unsettling and with a good payoff.
Ultraman Z keeps doing things right while doing different things and it's so great.
I think some folks speculate Saber for whatever reason decided to add the dance number at the end last minute (maybe Toei wanted a light-hearted end to otherwise heavy episodes since kids are depressed because of covid?), and that's seen cuts in actual scenes. That seems plausible...
There's apparently spin-off episodes coming starting after next episode which might be their way of building character that they don't have time for in the episode proper.
There's apparently spin-off episodes coming starting after next episode which might be their way of building character that they don't have time for in the episode proper.
Yeah, apparently Saber will have a spin off anime (in the vein of 01?) that will bridge some gaps.