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TokuERA 2020/2021 |OT| Masks Required
- Thread starter DioMuller
- Start date
- Entertainment OT
I haven't watched Timeranger myself but the general consensus is that it's really good.
I'm almost done with Timeranger, and I've really enjoyed it. The first quarter or third may seem a little meandering or formulaic, but trust that everyone gets development and the story actually goes somewhere. I mean everyone. And even if it didn't, the villains are fun, there's good action, good comedy, and even some decent drama.
If I had to complain about anything, I'd say they use the full-length "here come the mecha, now they're combining, now they're doing their big attack" footage a LOT in the early eps. So like, that's two to two and a half minutes of each episode if that bothers you. But it's Sentai, so it shouldn't be a surprise.
And it's maybe the only Sentai to not regularly kill the monster of the week! They freeze the criminals instead!
If I had to complain about anything, I'd say they use the full-length "here come the mecha, now they're combining, now they're doing their big attack" footage a LOT in the early eps. So like, that's two to two and a half minutes of each episode if that bothers you. But it's Sentai, so it shouldn't be a surprise.
And it's maybe the only Sentai to not regularly kill the monster of the week! They freeze the criminals instead!
I wonder what the Japanese scene is like. Might be about something completely different, or they might even bleep out the words and censor the text too.
They did that too on the Zi-O webisodes to talk about why the actor from Fourze could not return, so they censored the title of the movie he was working on.
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Fourze's 10th anniversary plans includes interviews by some main cast members and a new remix of Giant Step.
Pretty neat they managed to get Fukushi. Doubt the one cast member currently in a cult is coming back though.
Japan has this gag? where they bleep out references...it happens a ton in Gintama. I'm not sure if it's legit legal issues or a gag at this point, but it's always obvious what they're talking about if you're in the know.
It's weird the dub of NMH doesn't do what the subtitles do though.
It's weird the dub of NMH doesn't do what the subtitles do though.
Ultraman Trigger 06
Ignis is a great frenemy, and Trigger would be worth watching for him alone.
It's also incredible more people don't know his secret identity, seeing the way Kengo acts, lol
Saber Special
Nice episode. The Revice parts were actually the weakest, which is... hm. Well, those things aren't always representative, so I'm still optimistic.
Good closure on the characters. A generally feel good ending where everything was neatly tied together. Not bad, at all. Rintaro was really good this episode, lol, poor guy.
And now, of course...
Kamen Rider Saber, the series
Here's where I would say the series isn't good or something like that, but... I ended up kinda liking it? I mean, it's not an excelent series or anything, but I feel time may be generous with Saber and mellow some of the rougher spots on it, like it did with ToQger for me.
The characters were fun, most of the actors weren't bad, and most of the series I felt they deserved a better series. The writing was messy for most of the series, but when it found itself, it was pretty enjoyable.
It's not a *great* series, and it doesn't come anywhere close to 01, Build or Ex-Aid, but man, it was miles ahead of Zi-O and Ghost for me.
Ignis is a great frenemy, and Trigger would be worth watching for him alone.
It's also incredible more people don't know his secret identity, seeing the way Kengo acts, lol
Saber Special
Nice episode. The Revice parts were actually the weakest, which is... hm. Well, those things aren't always representative, so I'm still optimistic.
Good closure on the characters. A generally feel good ending where everything was neatly tied together. Not bad, at all. Rintaro was really good this episode, lol, poor guy.
And now, of course...
Kamen Rider Saber, the series
Here's where I would say the series isn't good or something like that, but... I ended up kinda liking it? I mean, it's not an excelent series or anything, but I feel time may be generous with Saber and mellow some of the rougher spots on it, like it did with ToQger for me.
The characters were fun, most of the actors weren't bad, and most of the series I felt they deserved a better series. The writing was messy for most of the series, but when it found itself, it was pretty enjoyable.
It's not a *great* series, and it doesn't come anywhere close to 01, Build or Ex-Aid, but man, it was miles ahead of Zi-O and Ghost for me.
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I'm hoping the way Vice was written here was just a quirk of this specific special because it wasn't written by Revice's actual writer. I'm already iffy on the character because of the actor, so I'd really like him not to just be an annoying/gross version of Ankh.
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She is the only one not mentioned as they got everyone else of the KRC back, including Nadeshiko.
In the middle of watching KR Blade at the moment and repeatedly told by some people about how little they remember the first half, and wondering how much of that is reflected here.
Going to watch the last 2 eps of Gaim today. Interested to see how it ends, but feeling lukewarm on the show overall.
I thought the first half of the series was much better than the back half, but the series as a whole was pretty forgettable, imo. The only thing that really stands out in my memory is the early stuff involving Hajime, which I liked quite a bit.
I thought the first half of the series was much better than the back half, but the series as a whole was pretty forgettable, imo. The only thing that really stands out in my memory is the early stuff involving Hajime, which I liked quite a bit.
Huh, that's a new one. But yeah Hajime seems to be the most standout thing so far.
I think the first half of Blade is not good, it's just weirdly told and the acting and tone is very abrupt, (well, more than usual for a toku show). I do like the action on the first half, some cool fights there.
Mutsuki is not only my least favourite Rider character, but one of my least favourite characters in anything.
Finished Gaim and while I enjoyed it, it's firmly in the middle of the pack for me: a fun, ambitious show, whose reach often far exceeded its grasp. The final act was a minor letdown, but I did appreciate how well plotted the whole thing was. Unlike most Rider series, there was very little downtime, and although the story grew less and less compelling as the series wore on, it was excellently paced. Ironically, this was also one of the series' weakest aspects, imo - there was little spontaneity, everything felt very mechanical and I rarely got the feeling that these characters were living breathing, believable people. Kouta, in particular, was barely a character, his actions never drove the story, he never really seemed to evolve, he just spent the series reacting to events. That lack of an emotional connection robbed a lot of big moments of their power - i.e. despite building up to it for so long,
felt like more of a whimper than the big bang I was expecting.
Dialogue and performances were weak across the board, and the characters' words often betrayed their actions. This is most notable with Baron/Kaito, whose role in the story's denouement felt forced and unsatisfying. Sure, it's in keeping with what we know about his character, but it didn't jive with his actions up until that point, and thus it felt really unsatisfying. The less said about how they handled Mariko the better. Also, Kouta becoming
in the penultimate episode was unintentionally hilarious.
Despite this, I still thought the show was an enjoyable ride with lots of cool ideas, nice action and awesome suit designs. An intriguing twist on the Toku formula and well worth watching, but not the revolution I was expecting.
Finished Gaim and while I enjoyed it, it's firmly in the middle of the pack for me: a fun, ambitious show, whose reach often far exceeded its grasp. The final act was a minor letdown, but I did appreciate how well plotted the whole thing was. Unlike most Rider series, there was very little downtime, and although the story grew less and less compelling as the series wore on, it was excellently paced. Ironically, this was also one of the series' weakest aspects, imo - there was little spontaneity, everything felt very mechanical and I rarely got the feeling that these characters were living breathing, believable people. Kouta, in particular, was barely a character, his actions never drove the story, he never really seemed to evolve, he just spent the series reacting to events. That lack of an emotional connection robbed a lot of big moments of their power - i.e. despite building up to it for so long,
Mitchy revealing his betrayal to Kouta
Dialogue and performances were weak across the board, and the characters' words often betrayed their actions. This is most notable with Baron/Kaito, whose role in the story's denouement felt forced and unsatisfying. Sure, it's in keeping with what we know about his character, but it didn't jive with his actions up until that point, and thus it felt really unsatisfying. The less said about how they handled Mariko the better. Also, Kouta becoming
albino space Jesus
Despite this, I still thought the show was an enjoyable ride with lots of cool ideas, nice action and awesome suit designs. An intriguing twist on the Toku formula and well worth watching, but not the revolution I was expecting.
It doesn't help that he was handed his power ups instead of having to earn them in some way.
Finished Digimon Frontier - it was about what I expected, for better or worse. The first half of the show is pretty good, then the second half drags and drags. It definitely feels like the kid sibling trying to emulate the older, more revered Adventure, but with less character development and a weaker balance of drama/action. It was quite remarkable that they managed to gather together arguably the three biggest villain anime actors in the business - Ryusei Nakao, Norio Wakamoto, and Ryuzaburo Ohtomo - and give them forgettable roles. This is the last "core" Digimon show I had yet to watch, so it felt good to get that closure. Cool designs though, solid soundtrack too.
It's been a long time since I watched a Sentai, so let's give Jetman a try.
But hey, it's Gen Urobuchi. Whatever else you can say about him, it's impossible to watch his work and not come away with a strong opinion on his writing, lol.
It's been a long time since I watched a Sentai, so let's give Jetman a try.
I agree wholeheartedly on the last arc and the direction they took Kaito's character in were disappointing. I can see what you mean in that the show lacked spontaneity, which I felt sorta played into some of the story's greater themes, but I actually really enjoyed Kouta as a character and found him plenty engaging. His central pursuit of justice in an injust world resonated plenty with me.
But hey, it's Gen Urobuchi. Whatever else you can say about him, it's impossible to watch his work and not come away with a strong opinion on his writing, lol.
The concept is kinda neat and the forms are cool but it is flawed and it becoming the Takuya and Koji show was lame and repetitive and some stuff with Zoe is super yikes
Having a lot of fun with Jetman so far. I really enjoy the team dynamic - or uh, lack thereof.
Yeah the blatant, for lack of a better word, sexualization of Izumi was really jarring. Both of her forms have fairly sexualized designs, which is bad enough, but even her human form has a few scenes that are just baffling.
A bit sad that Ultraman Trigger isn't as immediately engaging as Z so far, I think it takes itself too seriously with its plot and its characterizations a bit forced. I still appreciate Kengo being energetic and kind, though. This episode was fun tho, and the fight scenes are enjoyable.
Avex threw up the Tv-size Revice opening song.
EDIT: Here's the link because embedding is not working quite right?
www.youtube.com
EDIT: Here's the link because embedding is not working quite right?
Da-iCE feat. 木村昴 / liveDevil（『仮面ライダーリバイス』主題歌）／Lyric Video
『仮面ライダーリバイス』主題歌liveDevil（TV size）／Da-iCE feat. 木村昴リリックビデオ公開！▼各サイトにて配信中！https://avex.lnk.to/KRR_liveDevil_TV▼【Twitter】仮面ライダー音楽アカウントhttps://twitter.com/KR_avex...
www.youtube.com
There's enough there in Revice 1 to keep me watching.
Certainly a stronger first episode than Saber.
Good fights too.
Certainly a stronger first episode than Saber.
Good fights too.
Kamen Rider Saber
This had a really rough start that the show never fully recovered from for me, but damn if they didn't pull do the best they could with that final arc. Almost every character got a chance to shine, and after not caring for him for the most of the show's run, Storious suddenly became a really engaging villain when they cemented him as Touma's opposite. Good on Hasegawa for trying to bring everything all together in the end like that; after liking what he did here and in shows like SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon, I'm actually pretty interested in checking out Ultraman Nexus sooner rather than later.
Saber probably remains the weakest of all the Rider series I've seen, but it still certainly had elements and characters (RIP Desast you beautiful monster) I liked enough to tune in every week. So it did some stuff right!
And now for some impressions of the last couple shows I binged:
Kamen Rider Build
Build probably had the strongest serialized story of all these shows I've watched to date. The setting was something I was immediately into when I started watching; after most of these shows just being set in modern Japan or slightly futuristic Japan, it was refreshing to have this sort of alternate history going on instead. Something else that was refreshing was to have a protagonist with a little bit of a dickish side to him in Sento after the past few protagonists I'd watched were all mostly good boys, and his dynamic with Banjo was great. I've mentioned this before, but several of Build's Rider designs are now my favourites, and I also did like how all of the Riders pretty much stayed relevant to the very end; the non-MC ones felt like they were just kind of standing around in several of the other series after their personal arcs were wrapped up, but here it never felt like they stopped being major players. On the flip side, it would have been nice if some of the supporting cast like Sawa got more to do in the latter half of the show. The ending was also something that I'm still not 100% sold on, but the package as a whole remained amazing all the way through, with a ton of awesome fights that might be some of the best I've seen yet in this franchise. Evolto's certainly my favourite villain now, and it'll be interesting to see if anyone can top him.
Kamen Rider Fourze
Now this was one where I felt the supporting cast were put to good use all throughout, and also had a setting I liked a lot, probably more than I thought I would. I can't say I was expecting a Kamen Rider show to do this almost Mean Girls-style take on high school, but turns out it works pretty well! Gentaro was a nice enough protagonist, even if his schtick did sometimes feel like it got pretty old, but it still allowed for some heart-warming scenes. Fourze's astronaut motif was a fun one, with some cool transformations and power-ups (the paintbrush should have been used more dammit), and a lot of the Zodiarts' designs were memorable as well. Meteor made for a pretty good secondary, with his whole space disco motif being hilariously awesome.
Fourze probably wouldn't be at the top of any ranking list I did for these shows or anything, but it had a lot of heart, and I'm really going to miss the Kamen Rider Club.
I'm currently deep into Kuuga right now, and boy oh boy, the opening alone was enough for me to tell this was going to have a completely different atmosphere than all of the other Kamen Rider shows I've seen. I'm digging it a lot.
This had a really rough start that the show never fully recovered from for me, but damn if they didn't pull do the best they could with that final arc. Almost every character got a chance to shine, and after not caring for him for the most of the show's run, Storious suddenly became a really engaging villain when they cemented him as Touma's opposite. Good on Hasegawa for trying to bring everything all together in the end like that; after liking what he did here and in shows like SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon, I'm actually pretty interested in checking out Ultraman Nexus sooner rather than later.
Saber probably remains the weakest of all the Rider series I've seen, but it still certainly had elements and characters (RIP Desast you beautiful monster) I liked enough to tune in every week. So it did some stuff right!
And now for some impressions of the last couple shows I binged:
Kamen Rider Build
Build probably had the strongest serialized story of all these shows I've watched to date. The setting was something I was immediately into when I started watching; after most of these shows just being set in modern Japan or slightly futuristic Japan, it was refreshing to have this sort of alternate history going on instead. Something else that was refreshing was to have a protagonist with a little bit of a dickish side to him in Sento after the past few protagonists I'd watched were all mostly good boys, and his dynamic with Banjo was great. I've mentioned this before, but several of Build's Rider designs are now my favourites, and I also did like how all of the Riders pretty much stayed relevant to the very end; the non-MC ones felt like they were just kind of standing around in several of the other series after their personal arcs were wrapped up, but here it never felt like they stopped being major players. On the flip side, it would have been nice if some of the supporting cast like Sawa got more to do in the latter half of the show. The ending was also something that I'm still not 100% sold on, but the package as a whole remained amazing all the way through, with a ton of awesome fights that might be some of the best I've seen yet in this franchise. Evolto's certainly my favourite villain now, and it'll be interesting to see if anyone can top him.
Kamen Rider Fourze
Now this was one where I felt the supporting cast were put to good use all throughout, and also had a setting I liked a lot, probably more than I thought I would. I can't say I was expecting a Kamen Rider show to do this almost Mean Girls-style take on high school, but turns out it works pretty well! Gentaro was a nice enough protagonist, even if his schtick did sometimes feel like it got pretty old, but it still allowed for some heart-warming scenes. Fourze's astronaut motif was a fun one, with some cool transformations and power-ups (the paintbrush should have been used more dammit), and a lot of the Zodiarts' designs were memorable as well. Meteor made for a pretty good secondary, with his whole space disco motif being hilariously awesome.
Fourze probably wouldn't be at the top of any ranking list I did for these shows or anything, but it had a lot of heart, and I'm really going to miss the Kamen Rider Club.
I'm currently deep into Kuuga right now, and boy oh boy, the opening alone was enough for me to tell this was going to have a completely different atmosphere than all of the other Kamen Rider shows I've seen. I'm digging it a lot.
Revice 1
That first episode, as expected, was a mess but you can only fit so much premise exposition with a 24 minute runtime. The big action scene not being CG vomit like Saber is a huge step up though.
I didn't listen to the OST preview so getting hit with that surf music motif threw me off but I dig it.
Voice actor aside, I don't see myself ever endearing to Vice. He's just too in-your-face and juvenile compared to other friendly kaijins like the Taros. Is he gonna break the 4th wall all the time? I hope not.
That first episode, as expected, was a mess but you can only fit so much premise exposition with a 24 minute runtime. The big action scene not being CG vomit like Saber is a huge step up though.
I didn't listen to the OST preview so getting hit with that surf music motif threw me off but I dig it.
Voice actor aside, I don't see myself ever endearing to Vice. He's just too in-your-face and juvenile compared to other friendly kaijins like the Taros. Is he gonna break the 4th wall all the time? I hope not.
Revice starting off fun, certainly a better first impression than Saber. Vice is kinda grating, they're clearly trying to just do Momotaros again but he is no Momotaros.
Looks like O-T isn't doing Revice. That's two KR series in a row they're skipping which is a first. End of an era of them being a Rider fansub mainstay but I guess these things can't last forever.
Welp, there's always Izusubs.
Welp, there's always Izusubs.
I wonder who's going to handle the side-content for Revice because Izusubs said they only have time for the main series due to real-life obligations
There's a group called LegendRushScrubs that refines Izu's script if you'd like.
NonActionableSub are another sub group under a new name. I forgot why they changed it but I think it was to avoid Toei ninjas. I have to check my network drive to see their old name but I'm out ATM.
edit: DM me if you want to know their old name.
Anyway the episode was fun, Vice was kind of funnier when I knew what he was saying...and also kind of interesting he did try to eat the mom so there's some tension there.
For some reason skimming the raw I thought the Sam Seder looking dude was the dad, but the actual dad I guess didn't see Revice? Are they gonna only keep him in the dark lol.
For some reason skimming the raw I thought the Sam Seder looking dude was the dad, but the actual dad I guess didn't see Revice? Are they gonna only keep him in the dark lol.
Kamen Rider anime is weird.
On one hand you get to see the Rider abilities shine outside of the limitations of live action...like they can easily showcase forms the live action couldn't as easily and crazy finishers.
On the other hand not being live action loses some of the charm and unique camera work that I enjoy from Toku.
I think something like Fuuto PI is a good middle ground of what a Kamen Rider anime should be. Like I'm not really down on a "normal" Kamen Rider anime even though you can go crazy with the actions--but it's just different pulling off a crazy action in anime vs crazy action in Toku, and anime had a lot of expected crazyness that it became normal. My personal hope is Kamen Rider to embrace the Tatsunoko way of getting wild with anime version of their properties, like Casshern Sins or Gatchaman Crowds, or pull something like Trigger's Gridman/Dynazenon. But I don't think they're going that way.