#Kamen Rider Agito Review

[ianitegal56]

I finished Agito. Pretty strong show all things considered. I watched it more sparingly than Kuuga but I did enjoy it. Definitely won't recommend it as someone's first show but I think the overall theme is pretty positive.

Is it perfect? Nope, not even close. But it was worth it. Tsugami is a perfect bean of a chef and we should all strive to be like him.

AND RYO GOT A PUPPY

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME!!!!

[lowder-the-koopa]

Lowder Reviews: Future Reviews (Heisei Kamen Rider Edition)

This only including the Heisei Rider shows not a part of the first batch.

[boingo-rider]

I reviewed every episode of Kamen Rider Agito

[crimson-ace-reviews]

Crimson Ace Reviews: Kamen Rider Gavv, Episode 1

Hey, it's been a while, hasn't it?

I'll admit, I've been busy with my other blog and a lot of real life stuff to put a lot of time into this one, but I managed to find a little compromise to still post without needing as much time as my other posts: weekly episode reviews. Starting today, I'll be taking a look at the new Kamen Rider series, and gradually include reviews of each episode of the next Super Sentai and Ultraman series as well.

With that being said, let's get into Kamen Rider Gavv's first episode: A Snack Kamen Rider?!

The series opens with our main character, Shoma, running away from some faceless goons. He tries to get out through a door, only to end up in what I can only assume is a rejected room from Labyrinth.

Let's hope none of the villains this season have massive codpieces like Jareth.

After a short scuffle, Shoma falls through one of the doors in the room and into the human world.

Yes, unlike other Kamen Rider protagonists, Shoma is an alien who has just arrived on Earth. This is something that has never happened before in the show's history.

Like I said, NEVER. HAPPENED.

After a boy finds Shoma unconscious at a beach (insert your own Agito joke here), Shoma wakes up and has one thing on his mind.

The boy, named Hajime, helps Shoma get up and takes him to his secret hideout, but not before Shoma has to save him from getting hit by a car. Unfortunately, he can't save the car from getting hit by him.

Look, just say you had an adrenaline rush, and everyone will believe you. Worked for the guy from Twilight.

Meanwhile, a freelance writer named Hanto interviews a woman about her missing husband, claiming the source is a monster.

Now I'm not a reporter, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't smile while talking to a grieving widow about her possibly dead husband.

Hanto's mentor chides him for his behavior and believes it to be her covering up a murder. After all, this is Kamen Rider. We all know monsters don't exist. So anyway, we cut to someone delivering shrunken humans tied up in Fruit by the Foot to another masked goon like the ones who chased Shoma, receiving a cube of some kind as payment.

Like I said, no such thing as monsters.

Shoma is taken to Hajime's hangout spot and is given some candy to eat. As soon as he tries a few gummies, he gives birth to something through a strange red thing on his stomach.

Shockingly, this isn't how Shoma's kind reproduces, and Shoma himself doesn't know what the hell this thing is (while it's not mentioned in the episode, these things will be called Gochizos). After telling Hajime that he's an alien, Shoma explains that the red thing is something his kind has called a “Gavv”.

Hajime goes home for dinner, so he tells Shoma to stay at the hideout and not break any more cars. Meanwhile, the shady man from earlier takes out his “payment” of a strange gummy cube as a large tongue shoots out of his stomach, revealing he's like Shoma.

What the hell, dude?! If you're going to play with your Gavv, at least do it in private!

We get a brief flashback with a young Shoma and his mother, the latter tells Shoma how he absolutely cannot eat human snacks. She doesn't say why because we still need to justify the show's gimmick and because it makes for better drama later on. Afterwards, Hajime is making his way home, only to be stalked by the same creepy dude, who says he wants to steal his happiness for something called a “Dark Treat”, the same cube thing he got earlier. Shoma saves him just as the man transforms into a hound-themed monster.

Shoma calls the monster out, revealing that like him, he's a Granute, the name of the alien race Shoma is a part of.

So after the two compare Gavv sizes, they fight. Shoma has super strength, but the Hound Granute isn't a car, so Shoma gets his ass kicked. This reminds Shoma of how it was impossible for him to save his mom, who was turned into the same Fruit by the Foot thing as the Hound Granute's victims. Right when Shoma gains the resolve to protect Hajime, the Gochizos come to save him, telling Shoma to put one of them, labeled “Poppin Gummy” in his Gavv. This allows him to transform into a Kamen Rider.

Base form's got a pretty decent design. Nice blend of colors here and there, but the bottom half is rather underdesigned.

As Shoma fights in his new form, we see how much his armor kind of sucks. Because it's made of gummies, it's easy for the Hound Granute to punch them off, so Shoma is forced to use more of those snack creatures to recreate his armor. As the two keep fighting, Hajime's mother appears out of nowhere to scream about the two “monsters”.

I'm guessing she went to call her American cousin Jonah afterwards.

After Hajime's mother takes him away to safety, the Granute Hound tries to get under Shoma's skin by calling him a monster. Shoma's response?

Yeah, Shoma may be a monster, but he's the monster who's going to kick your ass.

Shoma tries to break out his new weapon, the Gavvgablade, only for its finisher which shoots a Gochizo at the enemy to fail miserably. And I don't mean like it's not strong enough to kill him right then and there. It harmlessly bounces off the Granute Hound.

Maybe don't portray your new hero's armor and equipment as weak and fragile if you want kids to buy your toys.

Granute Hound escapes in a quadrupedal form, so Shoma gives chase on his new, ATV, created by another Gochizo and clearly CGI.

The next part of the fight is a very obvious CGI fest that's meant to get around Japan's dumb anti-customized vehicle laws and justify calling this show Kamen Rider Gavv. After that, Shoma unleashes the power of a different Gochizo, Kickin Gummy. This gives him a giant foot to use for his Rider Kick, ending the Granute Hound.

The next morning, Shoma leaves Hajime's hideout, eats all his snacks, and leaves a letter explaining why he'll keep his alien identity a secret going forward. Shoma uses the same Gochizo as last time to create a less goofy bike and rides off... only for the episode to end with him unconscious again only someone else finds him like this. I'm guessing the term “food coma” means something different for the Granutes.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts:

Much like SF Debris, I'll be giving awards to certain cliches and recurring themes I've noticed are prevalent in tokusatsu.

Shiny New Toy: For Shoma's Gavv and the Gochizo he created.

No Parents Allowed: For Shoma's mother, who was captured before the series began.

Kenny of the Week: For Hajime, being a small child character who becomes important to the plot. If you watch Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews, you'll get it.

Death by Rider Kick: For the Granute Hound, obviously.

This was a pretty solid first episode, all things considered. It sets up the main conflict, establishes Shoma's character and has good action. Shoma is a very likable protagonist, and he's a fine middle ground from a Rider getting the hang of his powers and a Rider who knows about the conflict of the series. Unlike other seasons where the main character is a rookie who has to figure out how his powers work, Shoma doesn't have a mentor or confidant to help him like Aruto, Touma, Ikki and Houtaro did. He's pretty much winging it as he goes along, but he's still going to fight as a Kamen Rider.

The only real gripe I have is that Hajime is shoved aside at the end despite being set up as a major character. Maybe he'll appear later on, but it's really strange that we spent so much time with him in the pilot only for the episode to end with someone else taking him in, especially since the second episode preview shows this woman serving a similar role as Shoma's confidant.

But putting aside, this was a pretty sweet way to start Kamen Rider Gavv.

Next time on Kamen Rider Gavv: Shoma discovers Pringles. That might not sound interesting, but when you're one of the only superheroes in existence who gets his powers from junk food, it's a big deal.

[pleuvoire]

my short review of each heisei rider season

kuuga: a masterpiece. like nothing the franchise has seen before or since. should be considered one of the great classics of superhero media. invented romance (marriage edition). perfect series no notes

agito: haven’t seen yet. overall impression is that it’s boring and bizarre but the fun cast makes it enjoyable. sasuga inoue.

ryuki: i fucking love ryuki. god i fucking love ryuki. redefined kamen rider. influenced so many other stories. the characters and themes and philosophy... chef kiss. perfect series no notes

faiz: bounces back and forth between extremes of good and bad with shocking dexterity. takumi is one of the best rider protagonists of all time. ending sucks ass. this show inspires in me indescribable emotions and endless complaints

blade: heavily nerfed by the nonsensical writing and bad pacing in the first half, however the second half punts it straight into my top 5 rider seasons. love the soupy murky atmosphere throughout. invented romance (tragic edition)

hibiki: kuuga’s twin flame and mirror opposite. also like nothing the franchise has seen before or since. very soothing “normal things happening to normal people” vibe. watching it makes me stop being a lesbian. criminally underrated

kabuto: complete audacious nonsense from start to finish. generally a fun time seeing what the hell this show will come up with next, except for the parts where you get bored because nothing happening makes sense so who cares. tendou is a very fun protag

den-o: a delightful romp of a show with real deep emotions underpinning it. i don’t think about it as often as i should but it’s really good. very kind and soothing and human. perfect series no notes, just not a personal favorite

kiva: starts out mediocre and gradually devolves into incoherent sexist garbage. the colorful cast of characters almost manage, but ultimately fail, to make it an enjoyable viewing experience. goth aesthetic fucks though. wataru my darling deserves to be in a different show

decade: haven’t seen much of it. watching it makes my brain melt out of my ears (see kabuto) and i don’t think it’s, like, a good show. but there’s emotional substance there. the themes of tsukasa’s character make me ough ough ough

i got tired i’ll do phase 2 tomorrow

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

A little while back I was browsing toy reviews and came across one for Good Smile’s Nendoroid Kirby, and the summation line at the end has always been one that’s stuck in my mind -- that it might not be the best figure he’s had, nor his favourite, but it is the most perfect figure the reviewer had handled.

This is how I’d describe FRS Agito. Certainly, other kits may hold more appeal -- it’s easy to see why Den-O’s armour changing gimmicks or W’s swappable halves or Ryuki’s Dragredder would be a lot more appealing given Agito features no alternate forms or weapons or anything like that. But this Agito kit is a perfect figure. Due to both not having much to come with to begin with - they only needed to do the swappable horns, which they did well, and included a finisher effect part to boot - and being a very simple design, the Figure-Rise designers took the opportunity to make Agito as parts-separated as possible. 

As I stated earlier, Agito features virtually no stickers -- there’s the foil behind his eyes, the blue forehead gem, and beyond that it’s extremely tiny stickers to give a bit more definition to the belt and the area between his eyes and horns. It’s NOTHING, basically, and that means that every detail you’re really looking at on this kit is put together through parts. Further than that, most pieces in the kit are large and there’s a very simple satisfying construction to it all; and further than that they also took the opportunity to make the gold pieces as shining as possible, very fitting of the show suit and the warrior of light.

This is a model kit where I can really find no room to give criticism or to suggest anything more be added. Trinity form parts would be cool, sure; but at that point that’s a lot being added on that would make the kit more expensive and probably come at the expense of features like the quality of gold parts used. For just an Agito Ground Form kit this does everything you want it to and it’s built to such an absurdly high standard that I don’t think anything else FRS Kamen Rider brings out will surpass how perfectly well put-together and stunning this kit is. 

If I were to recommend you a single Kamen Rider kit based on its pure quality it would be Agito. This made for a very pleasant afternoon and an incredibly good outcome. Get this kit

[another-one-bites-the-chipaguasu]

I posted 5,927 times in 2021

52 posts created (1%)

5875 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 113.0 posts.

I added 358 tags in 2021

#kamen rider - 76 posts

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#ooo - 55 posts

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Longest Tag: 139 characters

#and it was 3 am...guests were going to their houses...and he was so angry that i had people come over to my house...my family n friends lol

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

2 a.m. and I'm crying and smiling over the thought of Ankh coming back...when I tell you Kamen rider gave me a reason to live-

33 notes • Posted 2021-11-07 04:56:20 GMT

#4

I have an idea

63 notes • Posted 2021-09-14 12:31:24 GMT

#3

97 notes • Posted 2021-09-18 03:47:31 GMT

#2

217 notes • Posted 2021-06-09 11:43:25 GMT

#1

POV you are the friend who knows nothing about Kamen Rider and I'm explaining to you the homoerotic subtext of the one I'm currently watching

381 notes • Posted 2021-02-12 13:58:29 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[yeonchi]

Kisekae Insights #11: Sea Princesses Part 1 (Introduction and Rider List)

(Art by Rainbow’s Network, formerly Princess Rainbow Channel, source here)

You thought five months of Sea Princesses content wasn’t enough? Why don’t we make it six then? Oh, I’m sorry, you thought this was going to be one part like the other shows we’ve gone through so far? Oh no, the Sea Princesses series has so much significance in my project for a niche (and almost forgotten) series that it’s going to take three instalments to cover everything I want to cover.

I was planning to cover my versions of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and Kamen Rider Decade first, but I’ve been so busy with other stuff that I haven’t had time to prepare those instalments ahead of time. Also, I thought it would be better to cover Sea Princesses while it’s still fresh in my mind. In case you didn’t know, Sea Princesses content has taken up the majority of my Tumblr posts in the last six months under the coronavirus lockdown; from April to June, I reposted my reviews of the cartoon series that I wrote in 2019, then from July to September, I fulfilled an item in my bucket list by translating and reviewing the books that inspired the cartoon series. You can check them out here.

In the next three instalments, I’m going to take a look at the involvement of Sea Princesses in my personal project, as well as share some theories about the series that I’ve implemented in my project and teased in my reviews.

A brief introduction

The first mention of Sea Princesses in my personal project was in 2010, when I assigned them warrior names like I did with the Flowertots. Unlike Lucky Star, however, whose characters were divided into five different clans, the characters of Sea Princesses form only one clan, namely the Uesugi clan. In the Moushouden Series, the Uesugi clan would also be known as the Salacian Army.

After being inspired by the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XI segment Night of the Dolphin, I drafted up some mock battle fixtures for a storyline named Salacia Rebellion. The storyline wouldn’t get made into actual stories until 2017 with Three Kingdoms Series 3.

Sure enough, the Sea Princesses made it into Doctor Who as well, crossing over with two sea-related animes. They had appearances in Series 7 Part 1 (the Salacian Time War arc) and the Next Gen Series (a two-parter in Series 8 and then a minor appearance in the Series 9 finale two-parter). In the Moushouden Series, they became Kamen Riders, which I’ll elaborate on later.

Regarding timelines

Most of this series’ involvement in my project is based on the timeline of the animated series. When I bought the books, I was hoping that I could implement them into the series as well, but I decided to stick to adapting the animated series because the timelines for them and the books are very different.

So what is the series’ timeframe in terms of this project? Officially, I decided that the events of the series would be set in 2004, the release year of the first book, assuming that everything in the series takes place in one year as there is no indication anywhere in the series that the class has moved up a grade. This means that the characters would have been born around 1996-1998. You can calculate for yourself how old they would be during the years my stories are set in.

Original characters

What would any adapted series be without any original element to them? There are four original characters that I’ve made, but one of them isn’t as “original” as you may think.

The Squid Princess: Squid Girl

You thought I couldn’t make an original character for this series with a character from another series? Haha Rider machine go brrrr.

Yes, that’s right, Squid Girl is, in fact, a Salacian. Her father, the Squid King, was killed by Maurice Mouseling at the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima in 2006. He was the first king to suggest an invasion of Dryland to prevent Drylanders from coming into Salacia. Initially, the other kings were not willing to join him, but they eventually warmed to his cause, given the damage the Drylanders were doing to the ocean. Following the Squid King’s death, his daughter went onto Dryland to take revenge, but she ended up in the wrong place and well, you know the rest if you know about her series.

Squid Girl was one of the two who worked behind the scenes with the Master to bring about the Salacian Rebellion of 2010. She is seen fighting Maurice during the final battle as she attempts to take revenge for her dead father. She also served at the catalyst for the group’s backup plan when the Salacians were defeated by the Dryland armies, eventually starting another conflict amongst the Drylanders before returning to her home at the Lemon Beach House.

In 2012, Squid Girl met the Fourth Doctor in an episode of his spinoff series before she became a companion of the Fifth Doctor, alongside Tsukasa Hiiragi in Series 6 Part 2 and Series 7 Part 1, and alongside Clara Oswald and Takeru Aizawa in the 50th Anniversary Series.

In 2018, Squid Girl was part of a faction of princesses who became Amazon Riders thanks to Narutaki and Nozama Pharmaceuticals. She gained the Neo Amazons Driver and fought as Kamen Rider Amazon Neo.

The Squid Girl anime also featured a girl named Kozue Tanabe, who is implied to be an octopus. She is only mentioned once in Three Kingdoms, but I stated that she was related to the Octopus Royal Family.

The Mermaid Prince: Zhuge Shu (and son, Zhuge Sōta)

Originally, I created this character in 2012 out of nowhere and it wasn’t until 2018 that I actually gave him a backstory. Believe it or not, this was going to be my answer to the Barracuda Kingdom saga until I thought better of it and kept it separate by making him the Mermaid Prince. He was also one of Hiroki’s echoes created when he split himself all over his timeline.

A long time ago, the Mermaid Kingdom was notorious for frequently breaking the First Law of Salacia, which stipulates that Salacians are not to be seen by Drylanders. This resulted in the other kingdoms turning on them, forcing the royal family onto Dryland. The Mermaid King transformed into Agito and fought with all his might, but was killed in battle. His daughter, the Mermaid Princess, was saved by a Drylander before they could hunt her down. They eventually got married and had a child named Seretao. When Seretao was still a baby, the Shark King invited the Mermaid Princess and her husband to discuss a treaty, but his real intention was to kill them.

Luckily, Seretao was left in the care of the Wolonggang Academy, the same academy where Parker trained when he was very little. Upon graduating, Seretao became a mercenary for hire and changed his name to Zhuge Shu (courtesy name Hutiao, made from separating the characters in his name – 虎 and 儵, the latter is made up of the characters 條 and 黑).

Sometime in 2005, one of his jobs led him to the city of Hiroki’s primary school army, where he overheard two girls plotting to kill him. He eventually managed to find Hiroki and tell him to escape to Honnōji, which only served to delay the inevitable.

Over the next few years, he became acquainted with Salacia and worked odd jobs both there and on Dryland. At one stage, he took on the name Magoichi Saika and fought for the Date Army, led by Doctor Eggman. He was the other person who worked with the Master to facilitate the Salacian Rebellion and he was also the Shark King’s strategist, supplying him with weapons and strategies.

Later on, after Squid Girl executed the backup plan, Zhuge Shu, now the leader of the Saika Renegades, defected to Parker’s army. Not much was seen of him, even after they disbanded, until the Salacian Time War in November 2012. Zhuge Shu meets Parker again and helps him set up a delta wave generator, which is actually a trigger that would fire the Harmony Signal once it was charged. Following the battle, Zhuge Shu was entrusted with Akeno Shiranui, a woman who Parker accidentally married following events that led him to see her true form as a mermaid. The two got married and had a baby boy named Zhuge Sōta, who was born in October 2013.

Salacian General: Lorah

Lorah is a Salacian general who fights as Kamen Rider TheBee, with his underlings, Hugo and Tata, fighting as Drake and Sasword. He isn’t known to be a part of any royal family (that never came to mind when I created this character), but given who his underlings are, you could argue that he is affiliated with the Turtle Royal Family.

At the end of his debut episode, Lorah would be revealed to be a Roidmude alongside Hugo, Tata and the goddess Salacia; Narutaki had kidnapped their templates and had some Roidmudes copy them so she could trigger the Global Freeze. After Narutaki’s plan was foiled, Lorah and the others were rescued and they continued fighting as Kamen Riders.

Characters and Riders

When I first implemented this series in 2010, I wasn’t able to include all the characters because I was unable to find or keep records of them at the time. All I had was the characters that had descriptions on the official website at the time, including Agostinha and Dinho, even though the former had no lines and the latter had no appearances (I thought he did at one point, but after watching both series, I was proven wrong). Naimo was also added as I did remember watching The Babysitters back then.

Jaune, Goldina, Flourison, Matilda, Veto, Caton and Caramelo, the “forgotten characters” (who had no descriptions), were implemented in 2017. The speculations I had for them weren’t added onto the wiki until 2019 for the sake of completeness.

The great thing about Sea Princesses having so many characters is that I can make armies of Riders out of them. The characters’ Rider designations are derived from Ryuki, Hibiki, Kabuto, Agito and Amazons. Most of the Riders were featured in Kamen Rider Decade, while some additional Riders were added in Soulbound Series 3 and 4 because god, I can’t stop thinking about Rider War storylines with them. The Salacian Riders are split up into factions typically consisting of Riders from one series.

Ryuki Riders (led by the Shark King):

Kamen Rider Ryuki – Daniel Camielez

Kamen Rider Knight – Kelvin Galvarro

Kamen Rider Scissors – Sirilo

Kamen Rider Zolda – Elektra

Kamen Rider Raia – Soraia

Kamen Rider Gai – Marcello

Kamen Rider Ouja – Tubarina

Kamen Rider Odin – Shark King

Kamen Rider Tiger – Ester

Kamen Rider Imperer – Leia

Kamen Rider Femme – Polvina

Kamen Rider Verde – Vivi

Kamen Rider Abyss – Bia

Daniel and Kelvin are Drylanders; additionally, Daniel is the Dryland boy from The Boy and The Secret Admirer. He will be elaborated on in Part 3. Kamen Rider Ryuga has not been implemented into Decade or Soulbound, but he will be implemented in Zi-O.

Hibiki Riders – Ibuki Faction (led by Marli):

Kamen Rider Ibuki – Marli

Kamen Rider Todoroki – Caramelo

Kamen Rider Zanki – Delfi

Kamen Rider Danki – Naimo

Kamen Rider Sabaki – Matilda

Kamen Rider Eiki – Dinho

Kamen Rider Shuki – Socita

Hibiki Riders – Kabuki Faction (led by Maurico):

Kamen Rider Kabuki – Maurico

Kamen Rider Tohki – Isa

Kamen Rider Nishiki – Lia

Kamen Rider Habataki – Camarina

Kamen Rider Kirameki – Angelica

Kamen Rider Amaki – Jaune

Kamen Rider Kyoki – Goldina

Kabuto Riders – TheBee Faction (led by Lorah):

Kamen Rider TheBee – Lorah

Kamen Rider Drake – Hugo

Kamen Rider Sasword – Tata

Amazon Riders (no leader):

Kamen Rider Amazon Omega – Juli

Kamen Rider Amazon Alpha – Jessi

Kamen Rider Amazon Sigma – Agostinha

Kamen Rider Amazon Neo – Squid Girl

Unaffiliated Riders:

Kamen Rider Agito – Zhuge Sōta

Kamen Rider Gills → Chalice – Zhuge Shu

Kamen Rider Hibiki – Marcela

Kamen Rider Saga – Salacia

Soulbound Series 3 additions (2019):

Kamen Rider Amazon New Omega – Akeno Shiranui

Kamen Rider Amazon New Alpha – Miss Marla

Kamen Rider Gouki – Caton

Kamen Rider Touki – Veto

Kamen Rider Shouki – Flourison

Kamen Rider Banki – Serena

Soulbound Series 4 additions (2021):

Kamen Rider Aqua – Duante

Kamen Rider Poseidon – Windy Adams

Duante is the mysterious boy featured in The Healer while Windy is the name of the Drylander girl in The New Princess, not to mention that she is named after the Drylander girl featured in the third Sea Princesses main series book, The Windy Letters.

I’ll start covering the history of Sea Princesses’ involvement in the project from the next instalment.

[tsunflowers]

Cruel Angel’s subs for Agito is something I haven’t heard in a long time. Well, I might have seen them discussed recently, but I haven’t seen anyone go “track down Cruel Angel’s subs” in a long time. I guess part of it was because they were basically a fan translation group that was putting their releases on DVD and not directly on the internet. Also look at their overview of Agito. It’s just kinda neat seeing people talk about Kamen Rider in the early 00s.

oh my god on geocities

TRUE!!

FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT!!!!!

[ridersinreview]

Kamen Rider Agito

Hello to my two followers and anybody who finds this in the Agito tag. Since my Stronger review went so well I’ve decided to review what is maybe my favorite Kamen Rider Series Agito!

Agito is the father of most modern Kamen Rider tropes and I can’t wait to dissect them. Now we’re going to dive into the first episode of Toshiki Inoue’s first Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Agito Episode 1: The Warrior’s Awakening under the cut!

We start off with a commemoration of Kamen Rider’s 30th anniversary followed by the lovely scene of a bunch of scrap scattered around a beach. Apparently a large storm has just passed causing some damage to the Nagoya area. We follow a young boy picking up scrap when he see’s something peculiar in the sand

A strange metal cross! Not only that but those little dials start moving around ominous! But we have no time for that because we’re now heading off to the city, in particular the under ground police training facility for the Squad Against Unidentified Lifeforms, or S.A.U.L. for short.

(Ignore the discrepancy with the text on the screen, it’s a mistranslation) And we that figure in blue, our hero of the show Kamen Rider G3. Kind of weird that he isn’t called Agito but this is a pretty weird series. G3, or Makoto Hikawa, is showing off the suit to his superiors by dodging, blocking, and shooting freaking cannon balls shot at him at high speeds! The long and short of it is that G3 is an Unidentified Lifeform killer, and he’s being directed by Sumiko Ozawa the best character in the entire show.

She is the creator of the G3 armor and as the testing ends we get to see the face of the suits operator.

And wow he is like a pretty puppy. Anyways he, Ozawa and Ozawa’s assistant Takahiro Omuro

(wow that picture sums up his character doesn’t it) are the team in charge of the G3 system and  S.A.U.L.’s first line of defense. After the training/showing off for the higher ups Hikawa decides to visit his friend in the O Parts research center for the police. Sure that seems like the kind of thing a police department would have.

Okay time for some real talk. Some people might be confused at why the police have an organization called S.A.U.L. or what Unidentified Lifeforms are. The answer is that Agito is a sort of sequel to Kamen Rider Kuuga. In that series the police relied on Unidentified Lifeform Number 4, what they called Kuuga, to fight and defeat the Unidentified Lifeforms, until the end of series when they developed their ultimate Nerve Breaking Bullet. Now two years later in universe S.A.U.L. seems to essentially be a response to not wanting to rely on Kuuga anymore.

So anyways Hikawa meet’s up with his friend in the O-Parts division Sakiko Mikumo

And she explains the purpose of the O-Parts Division, to examine strange technology from ancient civilizations(like the ones that gave Kuuga his powers) she shows him their latest acquisition, the metal cross from earlier. She tells Hikawa that it’s essentially a giant puzzle left by a long lost civilization and she wants to find out what’s hidden inside and he agrees.

The change locations though to a local Middle School where some girls are playing soccer. Their fun is ended however when while chasing an out of bounds ball one of the girls sees the impossible.

A young boy has been stuck into a tree far to small for him to fit in. Let’s not get too hung up on child death though because we now make our way to Johuko University where a professor is speaking to his students about their graduate thesis.

He is Professor Yoshihiko Misugi and he starts talking about how the chosen topic of one of his students, psychic powers, is not suitable for a thesis. Before the argument can get too far though they are interrupted by a young man here to give the professor the books he had left at home.

(Yep, this picture sums him up very nicely.) This is Shouichi Tsugami who the professor describes to his students as a young man living with him due to special circumstances. Shouichi leaves after saying he will be cooking dinner for everybody, prompting the professor to decide he will be eating before he gets home. Not caring about the sick diss to his coking skills Shouichi starts to head back home, but on his way back to his bike he crosses paths with another man and feels…something.

The music stops, an eerie sound is heard as both men stop moving for a second. You can feel the tension rise, building and building to an explosive climax! And then the moment ends and they go on their ways not knowing what just happened, or the significance. I mean we don’t either but we know that these two are connected somehow.

So now Shouichi is walking his bike home having run out of gas and is met by Mana Kazaya, the professor’s niece and Shouichi’s housemate.

She asks him is he remembers anything and reveals to us that Shouichi has amnesia! Shouichi however doesn’t really want to get his memories back in that big of a hurry, after all having amnesia seems pretty normal to him so why does he have to remember. Mana and him banter for a bit showing their friendship and Mana tells Shouichi that if he remembers that he’s actually really rich he should marry her and rides off much to Shouichi’s dismay.

Another cut, man this show does not like focusing on a scene for to long does it, and we are with the mysterious man who crossed Shouichi’s path earlier reenacting the opening to the first Percy Jackson movie. He surfaces when called up by the school’s swim coach and we’re given his name, Ryou Ashihara, as well as the fact that he is a member of the college’s swim team.

Apparently Ryou has only just recovered from getting hit by a freaking truck and is now ready to swim again in today’s big race!

Back in the G-Trailer Hikawa has just finished another round of testing the G3 armor but his mind seems to be on something else. Ozawa confronts him on this and asks if he’s thinking about the O-Parts group, but that isn’t the only thing that’s on his mind. You see Hikawa has heard of the murder at the Middle School and thinks that it’s something that us normally impossible.

We change locations to a home where a wife is saying goodbye to her husband as he leaves for work, but the entire scene is so tense. The mother looks frightened and lost while the husband is cold and distant. As the husband leaves for work he is being followed by a strange furry humanoid who makes a strange gesture

That’s when so many things start happening at once. A one of the many locks on the cross is opened, Shouichi has a seizure while vacuuming, Ryou has a seizure in the middle of his race, and this odd leopard creature kills the husband. So yeah, shit went down. The wife realized that her husband had forgotten some papers and goes to get them to him, but when she looks around she only finds

So of course the police are called in to investigate the scene. Not only that but we find out that the boy that was killed earlier was the child of the couple we saw earlier. Hikawa is there thinking that an impossible crime like this could only be done by Unidentified Lifeforms, unfortunately he needles the wife a little too hard on if there was anything unusual about her family and she goes off crying. Hikawa tries to follow but is stopped by fellow cop Toru Hojo

who tells Hikawa that S.A.U.L. has no jurisdiction over the murder because the Unidentified Lifeforms are all gone. When Hikawa tries to counter with the fact they were shoved into trees in a way that is literally impossible to do Hojo claims that the murderer only used a trick and that even if he doesn’t know what the trick is finding out is his job.

The scene ends with Hojo letting Hikawa investigate the scene as long as he stays out of his way. So we switch over to the hospital where Ryou is in some sort of coma. Apparently his muscles are convulsing and producing high levels of heat. The doctor suggests it could be the result of intense training but the coach tells him that Ryou is too good a swimmer to do dangerous training that close to a race.

Back at the professors house Shouichi is working on a garden he has in the front yard with the professors son Taichi Misugi.

Apparently Shouichi is really amazing at farming as shown by the fact that he has a freaking gigantic vegetables. Mana shows up and wonders if Shouichi was maybe a farmer before he lost his memory, which finds “Udderly Ridiculous”.

So yeah Shouichi makes puns. It’s pretty fitting and nobody likes them. The police don’t have time for jokes as the wife calls Hikawa to show him something about her family. She says to meet him in the middle of the park at night and that will obviously end very well. As she waits in the park our monster is waiting in the bushes.

We get some shots of Shouichi washing dishes and Ryou laying in a hospital bed as a glowing halo appears above the Jaguars head as he makes his odd gesture before going in for the kill. As the Jaguar is chocking the life out of the wife Shouichi and Ryou start convulsing and hearing a strange ringing. Hikawa arrives at the park but he’s to late and find nothing except for the wife’s purse and a photo of her son.

Yeah we’ll be looking at that in the analysis. Hikawa figures out what happened real quick and scans the tree’s and finds to his horror, like son and husband like wife. He looks for the killer and he sees the jaguar monster. Hikawa tries to fight the monster but the Unidentified Lifeform(?) literally stops the bullets mid air and vaporizes them. The Jaguar’s halo glows, he grabs Hikawa up with no effort at all, and he… throws him away and continues to walk away, not even runing. Hikawa calls the G-trailer and chases after the Jaguar and like anybody would do in the situation he fires his gun at it.

The monster can freeze bullets midair though and turns them to dust. Now the Jaguar begins to run, thankfully before he can lose it the G-trailer appears and Hikawa goes in to suit up into Kamen Rider G3.

He gives chase on his specialized Guardchaser motorcycle and is ready to kick monster ass. Hikawa catches up to the monster at an abandoned warehouse and pulls out the GM-01 Scorpion, the gun he used to obliterate cannon balls earlier in the episode, only for it to have no effect. Okay it’s immune to bullets but that’s not that bad, maybe G3 will have it’s time to shine in close combat. So the Jaguar charges and G3 loses the gun and is slammed into a car without landing a single hit.

After trying and failing to do any damage to the creature Hikawa is given the order to retreat after his helmet cam was damaged and the rest of the suit is mangled, but he can’t even stand up at this point. Before the monster can continue the assault though someone arrives.

(The light is from a car exploding by the way. It was awesome if you haven’t seen the episode) This mysterious figure attacks the jaguar and unlike G3 he doesn’t get his ass handed too him. In fact he manages to not take a single hit before he throws the monster away and prepares his final attack

The rider kick. Agito leaps into the air after getting energy from that symbol on the ground and strikes the monster with one final strike. Then without even looking the Jaguar's halo appears and he explodes

gloriously.

The episode ends with two more Jaguars looking on from the distance and uttering a single word, “Agito”

Next time on Kamen Rider Agito: Who is Agito? Ryou is getting worse! Mana thinks Shouichi might be better of with amnesia! These new monsters, unknown!

Characters:

Makoto Hikawa/Kamen Rider G3- So far it looks like this is our main character. He is the operator of the G3 armor and despite looking adept the armor itself is not up to snuff. Hikawa himself is a very nice character. He is very respectful to everybody around him and despite being a little dense in his questioning of the wife he is immediately sorry. What is a pretty good about him though is his courage. Despite being faced with an insane looking murderous Jaguar creature he still chased after it without his armor. Even when the G3 armor was failing he wasn’t running away and was ready to die to avenge that murdered family. I am looking forward to examine his character moving forward.

Shouichi Tsugami- Shouichi is very interesting. He has amnesia but doesn’t seem to even care about finding out who he is. He doesn’t seem to have any desires, just happy to be in his garden and doing housework. His connection to Ryou though is interesting and as one of the candidates for Agito he is a character I want to see more off.

Ryou Ashihara- Ryou has the least amount of screen time of the three leads but his accident, recovery, and relapse make a good mystery for the show. From his interaction with his coach he seems to be very relaxed around people he cares for, but the fact that the only person in the hospital is his coach makes you wonder where his family is. He is a candidate for the identity of Agito.

Mana Kazaya- The friendly niece of the professor and Shouichi’s friend. She seems to have a crush on him and cares more about finding out his past then Shouichi is. She doesn’t have much to do but she is important to the story later so I’ll be documenting her character progression along with he three leads.

Sumiko Ozawa- The best character in the show. Ozawa is the creator of the G3 armor and a very harsh person. Something I didn’t really note in the recap proper is that when Hikawa called for the trailer Omuro said that they don’t have permission to dispatch the trailer, but Ozawa says who cares and goes anyways.

Toru Hojo- Hojo is presented here as the Scully to Hikawa’s Mulder. He claims that there has to be a rational explanation and refuses to believe that the Unidentified Lifeforms could be back.

Sakiko Mikumo- The head researcher of the O-Parts division for the police and a close friend of Hikawa. She really want to figure out what the Cross Puzzle has inside and this curiosity seems to stem from a need for answers. She seems to essentially be a mixture of several different characters from Kuuga.

Professor Yoshihiko Misugi- Shouichi’s host and a college professor. He seems to be a sceptic when it comes to psychic powers and that was given a fair amount of focus so that implies that this will be a focus of the show.

Final Thoughts:

I love Agito. I love it so much. This is without a doubt one of my favorite rider series and maybe even one of my favorite shows period. Now that that’s out of the way time to focus on what I think was done really well. The music in Agito is top notch, from creepy ambiance when the Lords(the names of the monsters that is never mentioned on show) are attacking to Agito’s battle theme Believe Yourself which always pumps me up. The Lords themselves are well designed. The Panther lord looks very nice with a horrific mouth and eyes that just pierce into your soul.

This show is also very different from the other show I’m reviewing right now Kamen Rider Stronger. While Stronger was focused on just Jo and Yuriko with a little bit of villain screen time Agito spreads it’s time between three protagonists. Another thing Agito has done is set up a mystery. There are so many unanswered questions and little hints that we are starting to get, like the photo the wife left Hikawa. I’m guessing most of you noticed the oddness of the picture. Agito is as much a mystery at times as it is a Kamen Rider show with small questions that act as arcs like the picture and longer ones like Shouichi’s amnesia.

Despite having already watching this show I’ll do my best to keep spoilers past what I’ve already covered a minimum and act like a first time watcher when it comes to analysis.

Special thanks to Tv-Nihon who’s subs were used for some of the pictures and the Kamen Rider wiki who provided the rest.

[des-shinta]

Have you seen the trailer for Heisei Generations FOREVER? I have no desire to watch Zi-oh, but the trailer got me confused and since I have a poor understanding of Japanese I was wondering if you had some insight into what nonsense is going on in the trailer.

Basically the movie is yet another Meta-narrative movie (which Shinichiro Shirakura likes doing for some reason), where something that may or may not have happened in the REAL world is somehow an Influence and rewrites a FICTIONAL Reality which it has no place in to then include it, no matter how stupid it is to do so.For some examples of previous Meta-narratives kamen Rider’s had injected into it unnecessarily (read as almost all of them) Super Hero Taisen was based entirely off of one; the Meta-narrative was that Super sentai got Kamen Rider shoved from it’s place (I.E. it’s 1974 station and Timeslot) and resultantly Cancelled that caused a sudden inexplicable animosity between them in their fictional universe where timeslot and cultural impact should have no influence.  In reality, that was all one massive lie, Kamen Rider Changing broadcast networks from MBS to TBS in 1974 was set in stone when Kamen Rider Amazon was in Pre-production, so had nothing to do with the lagging reception to Stronger during it’s run when Goranger premiered alongside it or Goranger’s production in any way shape or form.  TBS at the time when you look at the records regularly had lower ratings than MBS did across the board back then, so there was literally no relation.In Kamen Rider Taisen, the meta-narrative critique was that bullcrap about showa riders not being influenced by the dead in their lives (they were) and Condemning the Heisei riders for actually feeling HUMAN Emotions…when I’ve long showcased the divide between the heroes and villains in this franchise is the ability to feel empathy towards other people; to actually give a damn about them.  Thus the lie being that Showa riders don’t, and would side with their villains over ones that do and would’ve stopped the entire event cold had the showa Riders not screwed everyone over for such petty character-assassinating reasons.SHT GP and Chou SHT both had the same Meta-Narrative to them, introducing discarded hero concepts (Sangou and the Goranger Edit: Gorider, apologies) as unjustly shunned creations of Shotaro Ishinomori finally getting their chance in the limelight…when the Former was something NEVER Touched by him and it was one of his assistants who did Created sangou after Ishinomori already announced V3, and the Latter was recycled in Full into Goranger because Ishinomori didn’t feel Kamen Riders should be a Superhero Team as their Solo hero or partner hero cred had been long established by that point so didn’t want to screw that up, but still wanted to make a hero team series like his Beloved Cyborg 009 series so made Goranger.  with SHT GP in turn just recycling heavily the previous Spring movie Let’s go kamen Rider with it inexplicably retconning everyone after the original riders to be influenced solely by what happened to them when the logic that should follow from such an event (I.e who shouldn’t exist anymore with them gone like V3 versus who’d be unaffected such as every Character who has ‘Mucking with Time’ immunity like Black/RX and Shadow Moon, Den-O and Gaim) doesn’t end up happening.But again, that’s part of why the super hero taisen Films eventually got cancelled, their premises were all literally built on Lies and idiot Plots.Heisei generations Forever’s Meta narrative in turn is ‘Stop Kuuga from occurring, and no other Kamen Rider series after would exist’.  Which while True in the Real world sense Goes back what Let’s go Kamen Rider And SHT did, causing massive reality warping without regard to all the stories that have NO CONNECTION Within the fictional world to what is being changed.  Stop Kuuga’s events from happening IN UNIVERSE by no-one ever unsealing Riku, Daguva or the Grongi, and the only changes are that The G3 Gears seen in kamen Rider Agito would never be created, and someone else other than Yuusuke Onodera would end up being Decades Buttmonkey.  That’s it.  IN UNIVERSE there would be no other impact, it wouldn’t wipe away every other Heisei Rider from existing or cause them to forget their own history in every Incarnation.  Because in universe their existence is independent of Kuuga’s story.  Kuuga’s story is important to the characters of Kuuga, and those who care about them.Which is consistently the problem with these movies, you can’t shove in something from the real world in that way to play that kind of reality-rewriting influence, it just doesn’t work as there is Literally no grounding for it to happen that way.  Yeah, Zi-O’s doing the dumb catch-all of the timejackers and Sougo screwing up history in ways that have no rules of explaining it work because their idiocy Broke time (this straight from Shirakura as his excuse against actually explaining the rules of how it works), but you can’t use Real-world Logic to justify what happens or is influencing a fictional narrative.Even when you see social commentary in a series, it’s addressing the issue within it’s internal context in a way where it could be part of that fictional universe, not by intruding something that happned in real life into a place where it has no purpose.  Case in Point, the whole ’monster parents’ social commentary episode I talked about when Reviewing Kyoryuger (IIRC Epsiode 19 of that series?).  that is something that happens in the real world, but is something that could easily also exist and translate into that fictional one, as how characters are depicted and act and have personal problems is supposed to be grounded in reality to forge a connection between them and the audience.  Bringing something in from the real world isn’t intrusive in that instance as it doesn’t break the setting to do so.But Television production backstory and behind-the-scenes details then used as the building block behind how an entire event is built and recontextualizing the series involved to conform to that is not social commentary, they’re rewriting the fictional reality to make that be so.  I.E. one of many reasons I’m still pissed off About neo-Saban power rangers Retconning RPM out of mainline continuity just because a Real-world producer didn’t like the Disney years.  A Behind-the-scenes Episode that works off of Breaking the fourth wall to bring the viewers backstage?  That is also different as they’re showing you everything up front that it’s divorced itself from the normal narrative flow.  What all the content I keep citing does is take that backstage stuff and bringing it into canon, no matter how much it is in conflict and makes no sense within canon to do so.

Of Course, this is all also forgetting the little white lie (Edit: or Rather more accurately, the elephant in the room) of…Well, Shinichiro Shirakura’s one of the people at Toei who objected to Kuuga even getting made, and is the one responsible for getting the Producer who did get it made fired; thus by proxy the reason why Yusuke godai’s Actor Jo Odagiri has not yet to date come back to cameo as him in any Live-action role.  I Think they’re trying to Tease the Idea they did get Odagiri back for this, but there is a ridiculously high likelihood it’s one gigantic fakeout, as Shirakura’s done that before.So if the Movie is all about celebrating The importance of kamen Rider Kuuga…There’s already a High likelihood they’ve Screwed it up by doing this Asinine meta-Narrative that screwed up their movies and events before.

[gameridernews]

Ex-Aid review: Kamen Sentai Gorider

I was originally lumping this in with the other spinoff material, but then I realized the Gorider stuff was basically movie length, so it makes sense to talk about it on its own. Since this is a crossover... spoilers for Gaim, Blade and Agito! That's completely unavoidable due to one key aspect of this crossover. Let's begin.

Kamen Sentai Gorider is a weird crossover, billed as a sequel to Choh Superhero Taisen, that features 5 returning Riders who... at some point transform into the Goriders, a combination of the original Sentai and the original Rider. I really don't understand the logic of even making these suits, but it's certainly a conversation piece.

This one is currently only available with TV-Nihon's subs but Excite was talking about working on it. It's an interesting one because it was originally released via the au streaming service called Video Pass, and thankfully received a DVD release later. These were released in 3 parts, called Mazes, each being about 30 minutes long and equating to a movie overall. Let's see if it was all worth it.

Maze 1: Emu died?

Well, with a title like that, who could resist checking this out?

The story is entirely set within an amusement park that's just in the middle of nothingness. Emu wakes up here and finds a small hut with a fancy candlelit table. Poppy is here in a kimono, calmly serving drinks in a robotic fashion, then walks away. Then a figure enters the room - an older man that Emu immediately recognizes as a guy named Kino. He transforms into Another Agito, which is another Agito from Kamen Rider Agito.

... Okay, lemme just explain that a bit better - they don’t really explain it. Basically, the term "Agito" in that series is used to refer to someone who’s been gifted with special powers, more or less. The titular hero and this guy are both classified as Agitos, and since Kino appeared later as another Agito, it makes sense that his name in later promotional material was... Another Agito. It's easy for that to be a "IS this a Kamen Rider?" debate, but with the current Buttobasoul games, he actually got the full title "Kamen Rider Another Agito". Very cool he actually got picked for this crossover, out of all the green Riders.

Since Kino is suspicious about basically being summoned from death, he transforms into Another Agito and tries fighting Ex-Aid outside, only for another introduction from a man named Kenzaki; Kamen Rider Blade.

So, the ending of Kamen Rider Blade is interesting and I am gonna have trouble shucking and jiving my way around it since this crossover heavily makes use of this. Kenzaki explains how he's technically dead because he allowed himself to become an Undead, the monsters of Kamen Rider Blade's series. It... makes sense in toku terms, but as we learn later, we don't need to think too much about that logic. Until now, I never had strong feelings about the main character one way or the other, outside of my lukewarm feelings on the show itself. But that will change once we get to the third part of this.

Despite Emu having this unexplainable feeling that there's no way out, Kino and Kenzaki decide that the best course of action is to simply leave the amusement park, but they find themselves coming back to the same spot everytime. Meanwhile, we get a couple lovely returning people from Gaim! Minato (Kamen Rider Malika) appears, putting Emu into a tight grip as Kaito (Kamen Rider Baron) stands before him with judging eyes.

Let's talk about Gaim. Gaim is still my top favorite show, but the more I hear other people share their thoughts on it, the more I'm realizing Kaito is... a problematic anti-hero/villain. I think he had a good character at the start but it's once he becomes a villain that his motivations become one-dimensional, and in some ways, confusing. Minato likewise is a pretty great badass character, but there's a section of fandom that believes she has some lousy gender representation to her, which I feel is probably just what happens when you interpret her motivations as romantic when they really don’t seem to be. But that’s as much as I’m gonna humor that discussion. In any case, Minato died to protect Kaito, and in the final battle with Gaim, the titular hero obviously needed to win. So out of the Riders so far, these are certainly the furthest from heroic deaths.

Despite that introduction, Kaito and Minato sit at the table with drinks, just in time for Kino and Kenzaki to come back from their endless walk. With all these people in a room together, they try to figure out what they must have in common in order to be gathered in one spot by some omnipotent force, and make one conclusion so far: All of them are Riders.

However, Kaito is never one to play nice, so he tries finding an escape. Minato follows and we get some nice banter, which is interrupted by the appearance of Shocker monsters... and it's here I also notice Kino specifically identifies these as Shocker, which gives me wonderful headcanons about Another Agito having dealt with them in the past. Must’ve mistaken him for Hongo.

Everyone gets a piece of the action, and finally... Kiriya appears, who transforms into Kamen Rider Lazer and finishes off the last monster. Meanwhile, back at the ranch hut, Emu questions how Kiriya is here after he died, which makes everyone realize the other connection they have: They all died in some way, which means Emu must’ve died as well.

Kino, however, is not convinced. He talks about how suspicious Emu has been up to this point, experiencing an inexplicable case of deja vu this entire time, and the clencher is the fact that there's a large mirror in the room that only Emu can see himself in. He seems to be the only one that stands out, which is reason enough for returning characters in a crossover to beat him up.

Maze 2: Escape

Everyone gangs up on Ex-Aid outside, until Lazer gives him the chance to escape and calm everyone down. They have some discussion, with Kaito criticizing Kiriya's trust in others, while Kenzaki finds Emu and encourages him. As they take on more of Shocker's disposables, the others talk and develop reasons to stop targeting Emu, and eventually show up to help him. Finally, directly at the halfway point, everyone is on the same page.

At the hut, Emu pieces some things together. They can't leave. Poppy in the hut repeats the same greeting everytime they enter. This, along with other things in the room that have reset themselves, reads like an RPG of some sort.

With that realization, Poppy enters the room again and transforms into a monster, which we learn is the final boss of this game. As they fight it outside it proves to be formidable against 6 Riders. While the others are distracted, Blade stabs Ex-Aid in the gut, giving him a nearly fatal wound. When questioned about it after Kenzaki trusted in him, Kenzaki reveals he's actually someone else in disguise - someone whose true identity is cropped off screen, but we can tell he's a crazy man in skinny jeans, so that narrows it down. Honestly though, I kinda expected Emu to be the actual fake, so kudos to them on that!

Emu is told that this game is designed to be unbeatable, and that everytime he plays it, he forgets all he learned, so he's doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Emu tries to hide, but the final boss tracks him down, delivering the final blow.

That's when we get a twist I actually didn't know about. Emu wakes up in CR, with Asuna being concerned about the current situation. We learn that Bugsters have suddenly been reviving all over the place, and Brave and Snipe can only hold them off for so long. Emu has to enter this game, represented in the real world by Genm Corp's console with a monster claw growing out of it. However, Emu recognizes the game is unbeatable... so do they even have a chance?

Maze 3: Forever Gorider

Emu tries playing through this game once more, while Asuna and a weakened Hiro are unsure about what to do. Just then, a mysterious person enters CR...

It's when Emu enters the hut, for the first time in his experience, he finds a mirror shard with some numbers written in blood - he saw this previously, but it was very unclear what these meant. I... think the idea is that time has resumed where he died before, because once he realizes what the numbers mean, the other Riders enter the room after being beaten up by the final boss. Initially, Emu has forgotten who they are, but one by one, they get him to remember. Once Kenzaki tries, however, Emu remembers who he really is and calls him out as a fake.

This is confirmed once a differently dressed Kenzaki walks into the room - the same person who came to CR just moments ago! It's revealed that he has a reflection like Emu, meaning he's very much alive, and the fake Kenzaki is (according to Emu's complex number code) none other than... Kuroto Dan.

Kuroto laughs maniacally and puts away this facade, revealing his true face. Emu knew that his actions were different than the others, so he left a clue for himself that would remain even if the room reset. Kuroto is impressed, but questions just how the real Kenzaki got here.

It's at this point I learned that this writer, Kento Shimoyama, must be the hugest fan of Kamen Rider Blade, because what happens next is Kenzaki appreciation fanfiction. Hell, this makes ME wanna use Kenzaki in some fanfiction.

Even though this is just a game world, Kuroto still used Undead abilities as a fake Blade. Undead are drawn to other Undead, so Kenzaki sensed this and came to the source in CR and had them send him into the game world. Clever stuff.

Kuroto reveals that he prepared this game in the event he dies, and that he intended to gather the despair of all these dead Riders and turn that into the power needed to resurrect himself - sure! That sounds like Shocker talk to me. Of course, since Kiriya was here, he had to disguise himself as Kenzaki-- Now, remember how I said it makes sense in a toku way that Kamen Rider Blade was considered "dead" because he was no longer human? Kuroto reveals here that he was taking on the form of Kenzaki, a Kamen Rider whose whereabouts were unknown - so that whole "technically I'm dead" stuff was Kuroto spouting bullshit. Took what I would disregard as toku logic and used it against me! I can respect that.

Kuroto thinks he's won, so he absorbs the life out of these Riders, but... then parts of the room get destroyed, causing cards to rain from the sky for some more brilliant Kenzaki dialogue.

Kenzaki tells Kuroto that he fucked up by taking on Kenzaki's likeness. Not only is Kenzaki an Undead, he's also a Joker specifically. The logic behind Undead dictates that once only one Joker remains, the world comes to an end. Since Kuroto revealed himself to be a fake, Kenzaki is now the only Undead left in this game world, therefore it is doomed to destruction. FUCKING. BRILLIANT. WRITING. Kenzaki is a badass.

The Bugster threat leaves the real world, and the amusement park in the game world has been reduced to a wasteland. Kuroto isn't done yet, however, as he transforms into his classic Zombie Gamer form, summons the final boss and more Shocker minions, then a big fight takes place. This ultimately culminates in Genm absorbing the power of the final boss, donning some crazy armor on top of his Rider suit.

Once it seems they've been cornered, Ex-Aid throws the Riders some cards from the events of Choh Superhero Taisen - using these, they transform into the Goriders, which was wholly unnecessary but at least they get more use here than in the movie. In the last fight. Of a three part special. Named after them.

The Goriders do three very Showa finishers, finally finishing off all of the enemies. However, Genm still won't stay down, and he attempts threaten them by warning that they won't be able to come back to life if they destroy him. Unfortunately for him, this whole experience has given them all acceptance in their deaths. So, Genm decides he wants to destroy the rest of this game world, along with all of them.

However, in one last noble sacrifice, Another Agito, Baron, Malika and Lazer hold Genm back and allow themselves to die with him, giving Ex-Aid and Blade the chance to escape and live on.

And so... we cut to later. Emu is back in the real world, and after telling Hiro and Asuna about what happened, he concludes that the Riders sacrificed themselves willingly and they shouldn't be too upset over it. We get a happy stroll downtown, bringing Gorider to an end.

So... how was it? Well, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it works.

I mean, okay. Okay-okay-okay. Let me be clear about this: Crossovers in Rider are not on the same level of writing as the shows, so I’m a little less critical of them. They’ve gotta do a lot and you can’t expect the person writing this to fully GET the personalities of the characters they’re working with. Not to mention, you gotta do some weird shit to create higher stakes and justify a huge gathering of heroes. 

What I think saves it for me is just how... fanfic-y it is, out of all the crossovers. They all have this certain vibe to them but this one is different. 

Like, Gaim characters, sure they were popular so they make sense. Lazer’s from the current show and he’s dead, so bring him in. When you start working things in like Another Agito and the fucking brilliant use of Blade, it feels more like someone with a passion was involved and wanted to give their favorites a chance in the spotlight. Which is even cooler when you realize these actors weren’t even in the movie this special is a sequel to, so they were brought back just for this.

Also the Gorider stuff is a total “I wonder how this gets used!” gimmick that has very little relevance. I’m not gonna disagree on that. It really has no reason to exist, other than probably to give this an extra push. 

Despite all that, it feels like fanfiction I can get behind, and I gotta say again, the stuff they did with Blade might be the most meaningful thing I’ve seen from these crossovers since Kamen Rider Taisen’s use of Faiz - and that’s going several years back to when they started really getting actors to come back.

I enjoyed this. It's got this odd somber atmosphere and it has some cool twists to it that don't usually happen with crossover material. They not only picked some interesting returning Riders, but also, Blade technically exists in the world of Ex-Aid and it kinda actually works!

At the end of the day, it's a crossover that has very little impact on anything and is completely optional, just like the Choh Superhero Taisen movie it's an indirect sequel to, but it’s enjoyable if you just want a little crossover action. I'm gonna miss the spring crossover movies since they've been getting lots of actors to come back and make the stories a little more meaningful - it makes a huge difference when you're seeing actual Kenzaki and actual Kino on screen instead of having them be in Rider suits the whole time with a soundalike.

So... now that I've finished going through the bonus material for Ex-Aid, it's time we have a look at the next thing on the list to review.

That review will be on @buildridernews and will be linked here. 

See you Next Build.

[lowder-the-koopa]

Lowder Reviews: What's Next 3: Kamen Rider Edition

More future proofing

[dragonoffantasyandreality]

I love this review and I think you highlighted the problems that I kinda noticed myself with Kamen Rider. As much as I love this franchise to death, these problems was slightly the reasons I was having trouble rewatching the shows (with some exceptions of course).

Kamen Rider Agito has a special place in my heart because how unique the show is. And while I agree the ending felt kinda shoved in, I think this is what Kamen Rider is all about. About finding yourself through connections you made and changing destiny for your's and everyone's sake.

Oh, and Shouichi is my #1 favorite character in all fandoms, hands down. I say no more. :3

This Week on Triple Thoughts!

How often do you think about Kamen Rider? I think about it a lot, for better or for worse. The people that kind of know me here don't know about my relationship with the franchise, but this new piece I made will make that clear. In addition to that, it serves as a piece about me gushing about Kamen Rider Agito, well gushing about it 70% of the time! Come check it out!

[super-zero-time-blog]

Super Light Warrior Changéríon: Episodes 1-3 Review

The year is 1996. Toei Co. Ltd., the penny pinching and merchandise driven imaginative studio that graced the world with anime adaptations of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball and tokusatsu hero franchises like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, have found themselves paired up with massive entertainment force Sega (yes, the Sonic the Hedgehog guys) to release a brand new superhero show on the world.  The first idea, a planned follow up to the 1995 Keita Amemiya film Mechanical Violator Hakaider (itself a reimagining of the villain from the 70′s Shotaro Ishinomori classic Android Kikaider) falls through.  A new idea suddenly comes about from Toei producet Yoshikawa Susumu and suit manufacturer Rainbow Co. Ltd: Create a hero suit made primarily out of transparent parts. With that in mind, a cast and crew are soon brought on to create one of the weirdest tokusatsu series of the 1990′s.

So here we are and here I am and it’s Changéríon (yes the accents are how it’s officially written, it’s meant to be French, I don’t know why) time. Sorry for that long build up! Just figured it’d be what all the cool kids do. Super Light Warrior Changéríon is a doozy of a series, one that has held a cult following in Japan for 20 years after its abrupt end in December of 1996. The show featured a staff of producers (such as Shinichiro Shirakura), directors (such as Takao Nagaishi)  and writers (namely head writer Toshiki Inoue) who would go on 4 years later to help revive Kamen Rider for the Heisei era, and in general went on to be remembered for its quirky and surreal nature. Even the show’s star, Takashi Hagino, would go on to be in Kamen Rider (in a very different role as infamous serial killer Takeshi Asakura, a.k.a. Kamen Rider Ouja, in 2002′s Kamen Rider Ryuki) I decided to plunge into this series finally now that English fansubs were out, and I’ve been contemplating how to go about this. For the first installment I figure I’m just going to write up my thoughts briefly on the first three episodes of this 39 episodes series, and I may then expand upon that later and switch the format around a bit at any given time, so here goes!! 

A few things to note ahead of time

1. The head writer of this series (and, to my knowledge, the writer of the first four episodes here) is Toshiki Inoue. Inoue is a man known for his love of drama, strange humor, and plots heavily focused on miscommunication. His best known shows include Chojin Sentai Jetman (1991), Kamen Rider Agito (2001), Kamen Rider 555 (2003) some mess called Kamen Rider Kiva (2008) and oh yeah he’s written for anime, included the Death Note anime in 2005. You have likely seen something he has written if you’ve touched an anime. Or maybe not, I don’t know.

2. The suits in this. They are absolutely gorgeous, but they were infamously dangerous. 

The Changéríon suit alone had two versions, a 100 kg (~ 200 lb) version for close up shots and a 40kg (~ 80 lb) suit for action scenes. Both were terrifying to those in it. Veteran suit actor Jiro Okamoto commented on the suit being absurdly heavy and fearing he would break it, not to mention that it was so heavy that it hurt his neck. This thing supposedly nearly sent suit actors to the hospital! And yet the action is generally decent despite the struggle in these beasts of a set of suits.

3. The opening, “OVER THE TIMES ~ Beyond The Present~” by MISA. It’s just awesome. It’s really awesome. I mean listen to it. It’s super awesome. 

Aww yeah....

SO! Now that I’ve gotten all of that out of the way, on to the reviews! The format is simple. A summary of the plot first, then my thoughts on it. I’ll see how this works and just go from there.

EPISODE 1: “A Hero!! Me?”

Air Date: April 3, 1996

Bumbling detective Akira Suzumura is hired to investigate a series of missing student reports from a local elementary school. After a night of staking the grounds out, he soon finds himself on a new path after a freak accident and an attack by a monster from the inter-dimensional invaders known as the Darkzeid lead him to unwittingly become the warrior of light: Changéríon! But as he struggles to master his new powers and deal with the mysterious SAIDOC organization, the full threat of Darkzeid begins to awaken.

Changéríon starts out about as weird as you can expect a show like this to with a massive hoop spiralling down a flight of stairs to a narrow Tokyo tunnel and having a creepy 90′s CG entity force its soulless face out towards the camera. It only escalates by going to a dramatic sequence of Akira and his assistant Akemi seemingly armed and ready for a shootout....only for the sequence to be a harmless rescue of a local puppy. This is Inoue at his peak weirdness, something which can really be hit or miss, but it’s strangely all a bunch of baffling moments which click oddly well. Akira isn’t much of a hero in many ways: He’s clumsy, he’s a bit lecherous, selfish and lazy. He doesn’t have much cash and doesn’t even pay part-timers like Akemi well. And yet despite all of this he has his heart in the right place and it’s fun to watch him fumble around in the suit at the episode’s end. It even made me chuckle seeing him “free up” time on a completely empty schedule to help the school find their students. While some scenes do feel disjointed and a bit uncomfortable (including a very uncomfortable joke about pedophilia which struck me as more than a little uncalled for in a show aimed at children), everything is really bonkers and pretty exciting here! It all ends with the main villains being awakened and a budding rivalry between Akira and the former, intended Changéríon candidate, Hayami, as the good folks at SAIDOC quietly wonder “What on earth have we gotten ourselves into with this nut?” 

It’s also worth mentioning that this show is a definite turning point for Toei’s production, having been one of their first shows recorded on digital video rather than film, and it’s chock full of now dated CGI and strange, minimalist dark rooms for otherworldy realms. It’s kinda creepy and very uncanny, but I’d say it oddly works in the show’s favor at this point. It’s got an unintentional charm to it. There’s a borderline David Lynch feel to the Darkzeid realm bits, in all honesty. Considering how big of a hit Twin Peaks was during the mid 90′s in Japan, it wouldn’t surprise me if the set designers took at least a smidge of inspiration from the Black Lodge sequences during seasons 1 and 2 of the series. It’s not as traumatic as something you’d see Lynch do, but there’s a similarly sinister atmosphere to it all here with countless bodies wrapped in plastic...like...bags, much like Laura Palmer was.

 The combat itself is a bit strangely edited too. Lots of sped up footage and Changéríon seldom kicks (more often getting kicked around instead), which I will assume is due to that hulking suit. But it also gives us one of the most ridiculou(sly satisfying) attacks ever with the Shining Attack. Which...uh...well...

....okay it’s pretty rad, I won’t lie. That’s pretty great. It is. It’ll get used to death in future episodes, but it’s still cool here.

First impression is a good one. It’s like this episode sets the tone for what is to come quite well.

Episode 2: “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Brain”

Air Date: April 10, 1996

The three generals of Darkzeid awaken and enter the human world, with plans to consume humans to satisfy their ravenous appetites. Meanwhile, SAIDOC Chief Munakata explains to Akira about the threat of Darkzeid and their need for his help, only for him to swiftly turn them down and celebrate his newfound superpowers with an unlimited shopping spree. But in the process he not only angers operatives Hayami and Eri, but finds himself in yet another Darkzeid plot as Akemi and Eri are kidnapped by an otherworld monster using posessed shoes. It’s up to Changéríon to save the missing women before they end up on Darkzeid’s lunch menu!

It’s here that we see Inoue throw in another one of his big tropes with character writing: The reluctant hero. This isn’t the first time he’d written that character archetype (another great example of this is Gai Yuki/Black Condor in Jetman) but it’s something he loves to write quite often. In this case, Akira decides to just go hog wild with loans he can’t afford, and it’s actually pretty funny. Buying out restaurants for the day, loading up on shoes for Akemi, and just being a total snot and a cocky jerk until he’s forced to realize that he put his own employee in danger and team up with Hayami....after a bizarre sequence of both of them sneaking into the same Darkzeid shoe store. In drag. And not recognizing each other. In drag. Before fighting it out in front of onlookers. In drag. This is after a scene with the store owner, the monster of the week (with a literal face full of shoes in his monster form, no less) attempts to feed his kidnapped victims with mysterious goop in high heel shoes. There’s no shortage of surreal visuals here and it does get disjointed at points, yet I feel like the story comes to a more coherent point from here. 

Despite the goofier antics, there’s still that underlying sinister aura to the Darkzeid generals. Their designs are legitimately creepy and their hushed meetings in dimly lit rooms, murmuring about their need to consume humans and how darkness will consume their own world could easily give a kid nightmares. Even I was amazed at how well the monster suits were pulled off in this show. The villains look like villains, and they’re fittingly mysterious.

In terms of action, Changéríon gets his aptly named Gun Laser, a really nifty weapon with a gimmick I love! Y’see, it runs on disks that he summons from his chest. And the discs spin. Go figure that Sega would manufacture all these toys with a disc gimmick. Not only was it the peak of the CD boom, it also made me chuckle thinking about how they had moved into CDs with the Sega Saturn at around the same time. (Plus the Gun Laser just looks really dang cool!)

 We’re getting places now that the initial stage has been set! Slowly but surely, we’re getting places! 

Episode 3: “A Bunch of Brides”

Air Date: April 17, 1996

Brides are mysterious disappearing at the altar! Darkzeid is behind this! Akira plans to counter these objections to holy matrimony with the help of Hayami and Akemi...but time and again things keep going south! Can he save the day and stop these foul occurrences? Meanwhile, in a basement lab, Chief Munakata struggles to develop the sidekicks Akira needs in his battle...

If you haven’t figured out that this series is meant to be goofy at this point, I don’t know what to tell you. This is a pretty fluffy and light episode with some good gags strewn throughout. Perhaps the funniest is Akira’s futile attempt at teaching Hayami how to flirt with women. It’s done with the most 90′s montage imaginable and it killed me with how good it was. The follow up is the sequence in the above shot, which I won’t spoil the full context for, but it also got a laugh out of me. There’s slapstick, there’s snark, there’s a simple but weird vibe to this whole episode and it’s totally fine. We’ve gotten into the groove of the show at this point it feels like, and I look forward to where it goes from here. The most interesting element plotwise is seeing Munakata’s struggle to get a set of mysterious robots up and working for Akira to use. It’s made clear that he and his research are mocked by his superiors, who don’t even think that Darkzeid is real, let alone a threat. Poor guy needs more respect! But we’ll see where things go with these machines in the next episode.

With 36 episodes left to go, Super Light Warrior Changéríon is certainly an odd, yet familiar show to me. I can see the early elements of Heisei Kamen Rider at play here with how it’s shot, the eerier villain designs, the quick cuts and kinetic feel to the action and the quirky humor and characters. It’s like seeing a mix of Metal Hero aesthetics with Super Sentai pacing making something of a hybrid that will have a lingering impact. Next time I’ll cover episodes 4-7, or perhaps change up the pace a bit. Expect some cool new robot buddies next time, but other than that I’m as in the dark as everyone else!

Hopefully my rambling didn’t scare you away by now, and we’ll be ready for more adventures to come, soon!

And remember! SOMEBODY LOVES you. And SOMEBODY NEEDS you. 

[henshin1shot]

Kamen Rider Ghost Review

Pros: the suits and power ups.

Cons: the story and the plain interest of the show. I felt like the show dragged at times and the show got lost within the plot. The first 15 episodes felt like there was a purpose but afterwards it goes down hill. If I can relate this to a previous kamen rider it gives me Agito and Kiva vibes.

Overall Grade a C