#also I know someone who watched gaim

[eclipse-song]

It's so painful being someone who knows Gaim sucks but also it was my first Rider but also it was so good but it was so bad but also I'm the only person who understands how to watch it correctly to still enjoy it and have fun with it but also I hate Gen Urobuchi with my whole heart and soul. Anyways I love Kaito Kumon.

[stickers-on-a-laptop]

that post had me curious on what i've made so here are all the rarepairs i was the first on (with a 🙋‍♀️ meaning i'm still the only one)

some of these are. crack. btw.

ozaki/miura den-o 🙋‍♀️ <- i think i'm funny

touma/noel lupat <- still amazed i'm the first one

joe gokaiger/ryuunosuke shinkenger 🙋‍♀️ <- forgot i did this one

takeru/ryuunosuke/genta shinkenger 🙋‍♀️ <- i stand by this one

sosuke/retsutaka go-onger 🙋‍♀️ <- this one isn't wrangled

gen/seiichiro prince of legend 🙋‍♀️<- this is. basically canon

ayumu/nobutora prince of legend 2 🙋‍♀️ <- real rarepair

misuzu/hikaru ginga 🙋‍♀️ <- WHAT. is this right. did someone delete

naoya/kouta mr unlucky <- first one in the fandom baby

anna/miki mr unlucky 🙋‍♀️ <- does this fandom hate girls??

yanase/kaneda senpai this can't be love <- first one in the fandom

ako/kyouko jetman 🙋‍♀️<- someone who likes jetman more...join?

yoshimi/hosomi ikemeshi 🙋‍♀️ <- rare straight couple

donkiller&donkillerkiller 🙋‍♀️ <- okay guys fix this actually

shinichi&don!kaito 🙋‍♀️ <- this was episode related

akemi/rui changerion 🙋‍♀️ <- not yet wrangled

amu zyuohger/ahim gokaiger 🙋‍♀️ <- start of femfebruary2023

luka gokaiger/mako shinkenger 🙋‍♀️ <- luka can be like fanon marv

flint zenkaiger/umika lupat 🙋‍♀️ <- they should interact

rinko wizard/sawa build 🙋‍♀️ <- i just like this one for some reason

shizuka kiva/jyuka kabuto 🙋‍♀️ <- NOW MY CANON LMAO

misaki kabuto/naomi den-o 🙋‍♀️ <- misaki needs a girl to kiss

yuuko kyoryuger/chiyoko ooo 🙋‍♀️ <- women in their 30s...

misora build/nico ex-aid 🙋‍♀️ <- did they interact in outsiders??

amu zyuohger/poppy ex-aid 🙋‍♀️ <- chou taisen war's fault

medic drive/poppy ex-aid 🙋‍♀️ <- internet girls.....

tomoko/nadeshiko fourze 🙋‍♀️ <- because i ship yuuki/miu

luka gokaiger/satonaka ooo 🙋‍♀️ <- IMAGINE....

kiriko drive/rinko wizard 🙋‍♀️ <- end of femfebruary2023

hana/ichika high school heroes 🙋‍♀️ <- disappointed in y'all

akira/midou keitai sousakan 7 🙋‍♀️<- i like when girls

hammie kyuuranger&nico ex-aid 🙋‍♀️<- same year girls!!

don!kaito donbros/marvelous gokaiger 🙋‍♀️<- i know whose fault

akka/mayuta/usuba kingoh 🙋‍♀️ <- why is this just me

georgie/atsuko gaia 🙋‍♀️ <- girls? girls!!

yanma&akka kingoh 🙋‍♀️<- episode related

kijima/yukari main role of a bl <- the side couple

reiko gaia/reiko ryuki 🙋‍♀️<- start of femfebruary2024

chucky/rica gaim 🙋‍♀️ <- wut

lady toqger/sela zyuohger 🙋‍♀️<- WATCH THEIR GL!!!

misuzu/mana ginga <- not sure why i was first

miccot/ricca orbgin 🙋‍♀️<- GUYS COME ON

elegance/cleo kingoh 🙋‍♀️ <- wasn't my idea but i liked it

mayuta/the female guard 🙋‍♀️ <- okay understandable

asami/shirasaki at 25:00 <- first in the fandom

daisaku/kyujuro kimiyuki 🙋‍♀️ <- wild (also not wrangled yet)

haruto/ayako/riku soul exchange 🙋‍♀️ <- ot3 baby!!

hakase/kozkoz akibaranger 🙋‍♀️ <- i will yuri your parody

ayumu/yamashita buy your love from a vending machine 🙋‍♀️

boondorio/byoon d 🙋‍♀️ <- HELLO??? CAR YAOI?? JUST ME??

jack/jean towards the future 🙋‍♀️ <- the ultra isn't wrangled btw

neung/kay hotel stars 🙋‍♀️ <- BEST BEST FRIENDS TO LOVERS

taishin&takara takara no vidro 🙋‍♀️ <- how is this wrangled

ryoutarou den-o/mei mei-chan's butler 🙋‍♀️ <- i can explain

misugi agito/karasuma blade 🙋‍♀️ <- i can also explain

jesus christ

[cowboymantis]

(Spoiler free for the Yakuza amazon series, just vague thoughts! HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT WETHER YOU'VE PLAYED YAKUZA BEFORE OR NOT!!)

I didn't want to finish it yet (because that means it's over), but I have now finished the Yakuza show, and BOY did I already love the first episodes, but it was even more peak in the last ones 😭😭😭😭

I was so excited for it, although the fandom showed its annoying side again, but I didn't let that influence my happiness for it, and I just enjoyed it to the fullest 🙏 Of course I had some worries before watching, but it was just really good. Perfect? No, but let's not act like Yakuza 1 is perfect either (I'm saying this as someone who had Yakuzer brainrot for many years now and is never escaping it), and the fandom now all of a sudden wants to act like Yakuza 1 is the greatest masterpiece ever and how everything that changes it is BAD

Anyywayy...

Definitely really loved the focus being more on the Sunflower kids and how they grew up and eventually got tangled into the Yakuza business! It made one scene in particular WAAY more emotional and sad than in the games ��

And wow. They really bamboozled us with hiding a certain character from us, huh...

Loved how many actors I recognised :'D Some were definitely a surprise, because we didn't know much of the cast beforehand!

I remember when they first showed a photo of Indy, and I thought, huh. He kinda looks like Namioka Kazuki (Sid's actor from Kamen Rider Gaim). But I might imagine things because I've been watching some dramas with him in it (I absolutely love his roles they're so embarrassing but funny but also kinda adorable (like Sid for example 😭)). BUT THEN HE APPEARED AND IT TOTALLY WAS HIM . AND HE WAS WEARING A COWBOY HAT HELLO???

Another thing I enjoyed was the mystery around the demons! Something completely new that leaves you speculating from the start. I was guessing who they might be other than that they're working with a certain character, for the longest time I thought maybe they could be the Jingweon, because of the masks. Of course not saying anything to that, but yeah. I cannot really tell how much I liked the resolution to that, since uh. I have questions left ldjdkf

The finale was just great too, and this one scene that looked a lot like the Yakuza 7 finale...

And so so many beautiful and aesthetic scenes with Nishiki 🥲 He's truly the goat in every version... And a poor little meow meow 😭

At first, I was unsure if I could take him seriously because I knew his actor from the drama Super Salaryman and . Well. Let's just say he's unbearable (in a funny way).. But his actor really did SUCH a perfect job in portraying him, and sometimes his voice reminded me so much of game Nishiki 🥺

Speaking of Nishiki, a Yakuza stageplay Nishiki and Amazon series Kiryu collab would be funny. It would be like a Kamen Rider Gaim X Kamen Rider Drive collab, but Yakuza 💀 Kamen Rider and Yakuzer are always weirdly connected...

Oh!! And another thing, the soundtrack fr sounded like straight out of the games sometimes, it was really cool! And the music during the finale was so hype it probably could be a cool final boss theme in the games :) Or at least a final long battle theme!

Majima was fun too, although I feel like if you know absolutely nothing about Yakuza and Majima, you'd be a bit confused about him. He really feels like you have to know him to be excited about him, if that makes sense?

But then, on the other hand, there's a big "plot twist" at the end of the show, and it almost even feels like a dramatic cliffhanger. But it's something everyone who played the game knew, and I kinda assumed it a bit to be canon to the show too. So yeah, I feel like this is a bit of a problem with this show: It can't decide whether it is purely for fans of the games, or newcomers. Or maybe they just added a mix of game canon and new canon to make it more exiting for both sides? I always try to see criticism I give in another light, aka "why did they do it this way?", so I'm a bit conflicted in certain choices!

[asknarashikari]

Not sure if you remember this old ask of mine,

https://www.tumblr.com/asknarashikari/655323676475031552/gaim-fantasy-au-idea-kouta-and-mai-are-a-pair-of?source=share

But with the recent development of Geats, I thought of a part 2 ft. Geats cast.

Ace and Co are part of a neighboring country next to Gaim and Ace is their main god with Keiwa as his God of War and Tsumuri is their priestess. Sara is like the manager of heaven type deal and works with Tsumuri a lot. Neon is the princess of the kingdom while Michinaga is a reluctant mercenary/guard who always wants to fight with Ace and Keiwa.

Your thoughts?

Ooooh~ Interesting...

Some headcanons I thought of on top of my head:

Keiwa was only recently elevated to godhood, and when he did he insisted on having his sister as part of his retinue because well of course he did. She joked that he did it so he can have someone to annoy for all of eternity lol

While Keiwa is a god of war he also has other domains he oversees on behalf of Ace. He has a particular interest in the welfare of children, especially orphans as he and Sara were orphans as mortals.

Neon, as the princess, had several suitors from other powerful royal families asking for her hand in marriage. This pleased her parents, because they could use the marriage to seal a powerful alliance, but Neon doesn't want to hear any of it.

Tsumuri, as the priestess of the gods, has clout with the royal family and often intercedes on Neon's behalf when her parents insist on marrying her off, saying that the gods will be displeased with how they treat her

Like in canon Neon frequently makes attempts to escape her home, the royal palace. Incidentally, Keiwa likes visiting the mortal realm in disguise and helped her run away from her bodyguards once, which is how they met and became friends.

He knew she was the princess, but she didn't know he was a god until the time came to celebrate Keiwa's festival and he had to visit the royal family in all his godly glory. Needless to say, there was a ruckus when their familiarity was revealed.

Ace watched all this utterly amused, already knowing that Keiwa and Neon were a fated match, and that they and their descendants will lead the kingdom into a golden age that Neon's parents could only dream of.

Azuma is technically an atheist, as he does not believe in the existence of the gods nor care for them. This is in spite of personally witnessing both Ace and Keiwa's great feats of godly power.

Keiwa was actually part of the royal guard along with Azuma, they were even in the same platoon. They didn't get along then, and Azuma was incensed when Keiwa was made a god for a heroic act during an attack on Ace's temple.

Azuma would frequently spit at the feet of the statues of Ace and Keiwa, which horrify anyone who witnesses it. But it just amuses Ace that he's a defiant little prick and Keiwa could care less because he already knew him to be a jerk.

[pulaasul]

Deserve

Hikari Natsumi calls for the Girls Remix to be reactivated to give Beroba her divine retribution.

A/N: As @tokuteasings published their vent fic about Neon’s circumstance in Geats 29, here’s my vent fic. I would like to thank @narashikari @thehistorynut19 @tokuteasings for helping me brainstorm this idea.

credits to @asknarashikari​ as it was her prompt that gave me this idea. 

credits to @flaim-ita because she helped me figure out how to introduce Kamen Rider Decade to Keiwa. I used and modified her answer to the anon ask she responded to, and yes, the anon was my cousin XD

FFN I Ao3 

----------

"Sakura, could you call Narumi-san?" Yukimi called out to her daughter, who was studying by the waiting area.

"Do you want a case to be solved, mama?" Sakura questioned, curious why her mother was asking for a detective.

"Remember the celebrities you kids brought over a while ago?" Yukimi handed her phone to her daughter. "It seems like one of them is a Kamen Rider and I just received this video from someone I don't know."

"Eh, Neon-chan is?"

"What's wrong?" Ikki went out to the waiting area. "You want to speak with Terui-san's wife, Kaa-chan?"

"Ikki-nii, look at this."

Ikki and Sakura watched the video that was on their mother's phone. They're watching an artwork of a chibi woman announcing something about how one Kurama Neon was a product of the Goddess of Creation and how she replaced the deceased Kurama Akari.

"This reminds me of the time when we found out that Tou-chan has Giffu's cells." Ikki commented.

"This is very frustrating!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I'll call Terui-keiji and try to get his wife to come," Ikki volunteered. "I'm leaving this in your care, Sakura."

"Eh?"

"You can do this."

--------

"The Desire Grand Prix is a tournament for Kamen Riders in a bid to wish for their ideal world." A woman in pigtails narrated. "This is the fourth time where a tournament like this was held, the first one was with Kamen Rider Ryuki, The Second Time was with Kamen Rider Gaim, and the third time was with Kamen Rider Ex-Aid."

"Ryuki…" Sakura trailed off. "That seems familiar."

"Kamen Rider Ryuki – Kido Shinji, Kamen Rider Knight – Akiyama Ren, we met them sometime last year." Ikki called out from behind the wall.

"Eh, I don't remember." Sakura blurted out.

"Just don't mind it."

"I thought Kamen Riders are heroes?" Yukimi questioned as she processed the explanation the detective relayed.

"Not all Kamen Riders are heroes, Igarashi-san," Akiko shook her head.

"I also participated in the Desire Grand Prix once." Ikki contributed. "I know some of the Kamen Riders participating there."

"Eh? I don't remember that." Sakura looked at her brother in surprise.

"We met Kido-san and Akiyama-san during that Grand Prix." Ikki offered.

"Really?"

"Part of the Desire Grand Prix's operation is to erase the memories of everyone not involved in the Grand Prix but were caught in a crossfire."

"You won, didn't you, Ikki?" Yukimi looked at her son before she caressed her son's face.

Ikki nodded. "It's how I remember Vice."

"Since we're all involved with Kamen Riders, I don't think I will keep this a secret from you all," Akiko smiled. "I know why you called me here, Sakura-chan, it's about Neon-chan, isn't it?"

"How?"

"Apart from my reputable source, there's someone who takes pride in all-female Kamen Riders and she definitely did not like how Neon-chan was treated currently, she can't confront everyone involved on her own so she contacted everyone who she thought would best deal with the situation.

"Sakura!" Hana got inside the Igarashi's waiting area, out of breath, followed by an equally frazzled Daiji and Tamaki.

"You got a video about Neon-chan too?"

"If Hana-sama wants to help, I wa-"

"Let's leave this to them, Tamaki." Ikki swung his arms around the younger male.

"Sakura and the others can handle this." Daiji affirmed his brother's statement.

---------

Keiwa was sitting in his cell. Due to Ace's previous rampage, Michinaga postponed the third round of the game, which meant he stayed in the cell for the night.

He didn't know why, but Beroba and the others did not take his phone away, which meant he was also able to inform his sister that he won't be able to make it home for the night.

"Keiwa-kun, are you okay?"

"Eh? I-Igarashi-san?" Keiwa was surprised to see the other man outside his cell. "W-what are you doing here?"

"To get you out of here, of course."

"Y-you-"

"I don't know what Ace wrote on my desire card, but I didn't forget about the DGP."

"Neon-chan!"

"Don't worry about Neon-chan," Ikki smiled. "Now I need you to stand back for a bit."

Keiwa nodded as Ikki brandished a neon blue axe and pressed the Rex Vistamp on its stamp pad and hacked on the cell, cutting the cell's bars into pieces and created an opening for him to go through.

"We need to stay here until my sister arrives."

"Third Round of the Bullfighting Game starts." Beroba's voice could be heard in the room as a holographic screen graced Keiwa's and Ikki's presence. "Naa-go Vs. Rook. Fight!"

Neon was seen on the screen entering the battlefield and she was immediately attacked as soon as she stepped foot into the arena.

"Neon-chan."

Before Keiwa could even react two chains suddenly sprouted from the ground and restrained the attacking Jamato as the space behind Neon becomes distorted.

"So as we wait for Daiji and the others, here's a bento, my mom made it for you." Ikki handed Keiwa a bento, to which Keiwa bowed in gratitude.

"Thank you."

"Mom also insisted that we bring you a change of clothes." Ikki handed Keiwa a bag of clothes.

"You really didn't have to, getting me out of the cell was help enough."

"Don't mention it, mom wanted to be prepared in case things weren't favorable to you."

---------

"Chain Now."

"King Cobra."

"Queen Bee."

"Invincible Je-je-jeanne!"

"Aaaah – Aguilera!"

Blue and Orange streaks started attacking the restrained Jamato and none of them let up until the new Blue-Orange entity kicked the Jamato in the air.

A number of golden bees swarmed the Rook Jamato before it was blown away to a nearby wall from the explosion the swarm generated.

"Chain Now."

Another set of ice chains

"What's going on?!" Beroba demanded as the Jamato struggled to get up from the attack it just endured.

But a smirk appeared on the supporter's face.

Unbeknownst to the attackers, there was another enemy, it may have been discovered by Tycoon and Geats, but Beroba doubted that the latter was able to inform Naa-go about it.

Suddenly behind the Blue-Orange, Gold-Blue, and White-Orange attackers, another Jamato phased through the floor in an attempt to wound Neon as she stood behind her saviors.

"Not on my watch!" Another person, this time someone wearing brown with red accents with an orange helmet stepped in front of Neon and placed her hand on her belt.

"Barrier Now!"

An intricately-patterned barrier appeared in front of the warrior and defended both Neon and herself from the Jamato.

The Blue-Orange warrior used the dreadlocks on their helmet and bound the Jamato with it and threw it towards the other Jamato that they just defeated.

"Why yo-"

"Blizzard now." The warrior with the orange helmet froze the two Jamato together, rendering both immobile.

A zipper appeared above Michinaga and Daichi, as they were about to attack the invading force, released vines that bound both men in mid-air.

"Wha-" Beroba immediately retrieved her Laser Raise Riser but another tendril of vine stopped her from equipping her Laser Raise Riser with her Rise Cartridge." Jamato? How?!"

"These are not your Jamatos, these are Helheim's plants."

The grip the vines had on Beroba's hands tightened forcing her to drop her weapon and transformation trinkets as a woman in white with yellow hair descended from the open zipper the vines came from.

"Noroshi Muchuu!"

Smoke enveloped Neon and before anyone could react, she was suddenly in front of Beroba with another warrior wearing brown and gold armor.

"What are you going to do, Kurama Neon-chan?" Beroba taunted. "No, Kurama Akari Nigou-chan?"

A resounding slap echoed through the arena.

Beroba wasn't facing Neon anymore as the force of the slap forced her to look to the side.

"How dare you?" Neon's voice whimpered as she struggled to hold back her tears. "How dare you tell that story on Akari-chan's birthday, on my birthday!" She yelled.

"I live for the people's suffering, bleh." Beroba stuck out her tongue, proud of what she just said.

"Right, We're all just entertainment for you," Neon took a deep breath and turned her back on the woman responsible for everything that had gone wrong. "Berobaa-san."

"How da- How dare you call me that?!" Beroba's lost her composure as she struggled against her restraints. "You, you, you person! You were only created by the goddess's power!"

"The future must be full of dumb people, no offense to the other supporters." Neon continued her spiel ignoring the ballistic woman, struggling against the vines that restrained her.

"Do not ignore me you fake!" Beroba continued to struggle against her bonds.

"How come Neon-chan?" The blonde woman in white asked as she smiled at the youngest woman in the group as flicked her wrists and tightened her hold on the captives.

"If the time they came from is our future then that would mean that destroying our present would erase their time," Neon as she faced the three people in the Jamato faction. "That also means that you both are dumb Michinaga, Isuzu."

"Do not ignore memphfff"

Vines sprouted from Beroba's restraints and gagged the already-restrained woman leaving only aggressive sounds from her.

Michinaga clicked his tongue.

"I'm smarter than you'll ever be, spoilt fake princess." Daichi retorted

"My existence may be a fake, but I still made my life, what about you, Isuzu?" Neon smiled sweetly. "You never figured out that I was the Dezastar."

"What has got that outdated game have to do with this?"

"That you may think you're smart but you're actually dumb," Neon shrugged. "You know who did figure it out? It was the person who you framed in the very first round."

"No, that's impossible!"

"Unlike you, Keiwa observed and worked with every information he got," Neon smiled. "Which means he's a lot smarter than you."

"He got it wrong the first ti-."

"Sae-san was covering for me." Neon cut off Daichi's sentence. "That and he figured it out because he actually knew me, knew Ace and me for him to be confident in his deduction, which you wouldn't have figured out because all you got were superficial information.

"Are you telling me, friendship made him able to figure it out? Don't make me laugh!"

"I didn't really think someone dumb like you could ever understand."

"Du-"

Vines covered Daichi's mouth, muffling his next words.

"Who cares if it's your future, it's still free entertainment." Beroba giggled.

The woman in white raised an eyebrow at the remains of the vines that were used to gag her.

"Looks like I was right, you are indeed dumb, Berobaa-san." Neon smiled.

Beroba glared at Neon but she didn't explode as she did earlier.

"She has a point." The ethereal woman agreed as she chuckled at how humorously dull the woman was. "Well, maybe not as dumb as the scientist who wanted to destroy the universe without thinking that he'd be destroyed alongside it."

"Aah! That's right!" The Blue-Orange and White-Orange warriors pointed at each other as they figured out what Neon was talking about.

"Indeed," The Blue-Gold warrior nodded.

"This has gone on long enough." The brown warrior slammed the hilt of her sword onto each of the enemy's necks, knocking them unconscious.

Well except for one.

"Don't tell me."

"Yes, we are all Kamen Riders here." Everyone de-transformed out of their Rider suits and revealed their identities to everyone present, well revealed their physical appearance to everyone.

"Well not all of us," The ethereal woman chirped in.

"Eh, close enough, Mai-chan." Another woman walked out of the distorted space below. "You are Kouta-kun's equivalent after all and he's Kamen Rider Gaim."

"Why thank you, Natsumi-chan." The woman – Mai – expressed her gratitude for the praise.

"Tch." Michinaga clicked his tongue once more.

"Get this over with," He growled.

"There is still a chance, Michinaga." Neon offered.

Michinaga used all of his strength to roll his sleeve up and show everyone the moss and grass that grew on his hand.

"Whatever chance you're talking about, doesn't exist," Michinaga growled. "I only live solely to destroy every Kamen Rider."

"Good luck with that." The woman who just exited the distorted space before it fizzled out of existence laughed.

"I must agree."

"Tch."

----------

"Enjoying ourselves?"

The space in the hallway distorted and out came a man in Magenta followed by people in blue carrying guns.

"They're clever, installing a barrier to prevent anyone from entering." The man in pink hummed. "How you got here before us, Revi, is a mystery."

"I asked Natsumi-san the entrance to this place and waited for Neon-chan to get inside." Ikki informed." I timed my entrance with Neon-chan's so that I could get in."

"That's why Live mentioned you immediately ran off."

"Thank you for helping us save Keiwa, Kadoya."

"Think nothing of it, Revi." The man – Kadoya shook his head. "It was a favor from Natsumikan." He casually pointed at the woman who exited the distorted space on the screen.

"Mou nii-chan, you didn't have to rush here, we would have gotten here eventually."

"I know, but someone needed my help." Ikki rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well that's how you are nii-chan, I guess it couldn't be helped."

"There's still some time before the ladies will be done with Beroba, Nadge-Sparrow, and Buffa." Kadoya announced. "You can have your men do some routine check-ups on Tycoon, Live."

Daiji merely nodded before gesturing for one of his men to check on Keiwa.

"Ano, what did they mean about 'Good Luck' when Michinaga stated his sole reason to live?" Keiwa couldn't help but ask as he was ordered to remove his shirt, revealing some untreated bruises he got when he fought in the first round and lost to cheaters.

Kadoya scoffed as he watched the girls give Neon some comforting hugs on screen.

"The last time a Rider tried to kill all others was me," He gave wistful smile. "It took months, with far less of us."

Keiwa looked at Kadoya with a look of abject horror, inching slightly backward from the man in pink.

He then stared at Ikki, as if prompting the man to explain himself.

"He got better?" Ikki offered, still not sure of the stories he heard from the other Kamen Riders he had met, least of all Kadoya himself.

"Who are you?" Keiwa couldn't help but ask as he gulped saliva.

"Depends on what you want from me." Kadoya hummed as he snapped a photo of the rescued man's distressed state.

"A name would be nice."

The man looked Keiwa in the eyes.

"Kadoya Tsukasa," The man in magenta – Kadoya Tsukasa, said. "I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider… and destroyer of worlds."

Keiwa could only gulp as he realized how much of a folly Michinaga's wish was.

"Don't worry about it, like nii-chan said, he got better." Daiji offered, even when he shared his brother's feelings about Kadoya.

----------

Natsumi, Akiko, Mai, Mayu, Yaiba, Reika, Sakura, Hana, and Neon were at the lounge area of the Igarashi's bath house, enjoying their time together. They were wearing the bathhouse's yukatas and drinking milk.

"You know had Natsumi-san not contacted me, I wouldn't have known that there's another Rider Battle tournament going on." Mai, who now has black hair and is dressed in a simple shirt and blue hoodie, stated. "Even if I don't really consider what happened in Zawame as a Rider Battle."

"So, Kamen Rider…" Neon trailed off. "They have always existed?"

"Since the 70s," Natsumi answered. "At least in this world."

"In this world?" Sakura asked.

"Parallel Worlds," Akiko offered. "Not that my source really knows a lot about it, every time we are presented with options there is a world where we chose the other option."

"That makes sense, the Gaia Library wouldn't have that much information about other worlds."

"Gaia library?" Reika questioned. "Is that like the libraries we have at the Sword of Logos?"

"Close," Natsumi answered. "However I won't be saying much, people would kill for access to that information."

"Understandable." Reika nodded.

"So there is a world where I was sacrificed for Giff." Hana hummed to herself.

"Or a world where I became like my nee-san." Mayu stated off-handedly.

"I find that not thinking of our parallel selves is beneficial for all of us," Akiko offered. "After all we are living our lives in the present."

"That's why you don't have to pay attention to the words of the people in the future," Natsumi looked Neon in the eyes. "No matter what they say, you are a Kamen Rider, you deserve to be one."

"You've visited that time period, haven't you, Natsumi-san?"

"Yes and it wasn't pretty," Natsumi shook her head. "I would even say it's worse than the world where Sougo-kun was Ohma Zi-O" He sighed. "The reason I was even aware of what was happening in the first place was that I was there when Beroba made the announcement."

"That bad, huh?" Akiko commented.

"Sougo-kun… You mean Tsukuyomi-san's friend?" Sakura asked.

"It's better if we don't think that far away, ourselves," Yukimi stated. "We just focus on the now and live our lives in the present."

"Are you a Kamen Rider too, Igarashi-san?" Neon couldn't help but ask the mother of the group.

"No, I am a proud wife and mother of Kamen Riders, and that's enough for me."

"Don't let her fool you!" Sakura responded almost immediately. "Mama is strong!"

Everyone just laughed at the outburst.

As everyone continued to enjoy their time Kyuun was outside the Igarashi bathhouse, eavesdropping on the conversation that happened as he looked at his Laser Raise Riser before walking away.

[digitalgate02]

I think watching Gaim made me understand a little more of 02 and the Ichijouji brothers, maybe because i do feel Takatora and Micchy are closer to Osamu and Ken (roles) respectively...?

Look, Takatora is someone who would've been like Kouta, but has been broken by the pressure of growing up and taking responsibilities like an adult.

And Osamu definitely feels like Taichi's foil (if Taichi had pressured to grow up early and take responsibilities like an adult)

Because Ken is Daisuke's foil in 02 -- a kid with no friends and forced to hide all his frustration over carrying the "genius boy" title and being the series first villain. A villain Ken created based on his twisted memories of Osamu.

Meanwhile you have Daisuke, who is not famous or that smart, but he's straightforward and "don't think too hard on things" and got a group of friends who like him by who he is. Also, he has Taichi's as his idol and role model. Taichi, who might be Osamu's opposite imo.

"What Gaim have to do with this, Ni?" Takatora and Micchy are basically closer to them. And Micchy also had a twisted view of Takatora, and tried to be what he believed to be Takatora.

I think if you're a 02 fan and then you watch Gaim, you may simply get Micchy and Takatora's roles and character based on what you know about Ken (+ Kaiser persona) and Osamu.

Despite we not having enough concrete information about who the real Ichijouji Osamu was.

[canyouheatmeuponafrozennight]

Watched: Kamen Rider Gaim

Growth (Evolution) and Temptation (The power of words)

Growth (Evolution)

The first evident theme in Gaim, the cast is (i can't see it in most of them but I'll believe what they're telling me) composed of young adults still lost on the limbus between childhood and adulthood; mostly called children by the older cast. They're on the battlefield to try to become someone different, and the expectations around them is that they should become good and proper responsible adults. We either know the feeling or will know eventually, as its a moment everyone grows through (some for longer than others, perhaps).

At some point that theme seems to be forgotten, but one of Helheim's lines made me realize how the theme had been recontextualized. "I want reptiles to become monkeys and monkeys to become humans. There's no reason for it." How different is Helheim's wish from the wish adults place on children? Nobody questions an adult because that is the status quo, once you're 18-20, you're supposed to be an adult and act accordingly, you had enough time to learn how you're supposed to change now (or something). Turning to Inves or Overlords, to Helheim, is the same transition, something that must eventually happen to a species.

Would it be hypocritical to think what Helheim does is wrong, while what we adults do is correct? I would say yes, but accepting something "common" in your culture while refusing what is alien is a natural behavior, so even if there's hypocrisy in it, who can be blamed for being against it? Like a child goes through a rebellious phase when growing and we it is accepted as being "just a phase", humans also have the right to rebel against the forced evolution brought by an alien forest.

What Kaito desired was a world without the status quo (a world where the weak don't need to fear the strong [weak and strong replaceable by children and adults]) and evolved into an Overlord for it, Mitsuzane wished for him and his friends to not have to grow, or at least have a place where they could still be children, and for that he tried to grow into an adult as fast as possible, backfiring more often than not. Kota didn't know if he wanted to grow or how he wanted to grow, but he could always answer that protecting the growth of those around him was the top priority. As he said to Takatora, perhaps what he sought was not rejecting growth or the status quo, but embracing change. He protected those who were still cocoons around him with the intent of seeing them become butterflies, which might now be completely different from a caterpillar, but that doesn't make them no longer who they once were.

Fitting that Mitsuzane couldn't obtain the power the other two did, as his greater goal was to have nothing change, while Kaito and Kota wanted change from different POVs (Kaito wanted the world to change, while Kota wanted people to change; the outside and the inside, environment and individual, they perfectly opposed each other in their ideals.)

Temptation (The power of words)

Another constant theme in Gaim is how often people use their words to drive others, be it to ruin or success; While it is easy to point to Helheim (which while only called Snake, seems to be both god and snake[perhaps an interpretation of god setting up the forbidden fruit and satan as an extension of god tempting even to eat to it to bring a bespoke singularity to mankind]) as the tempter, as he constantly gives Kota gifts to move him forward and groom him into properly being Adam (as Mai's future interference made him aware that Kota is the chosen one), many other cast members also do it.

Mitsuzane, too, attempts to tempt others to get them to do his bidding, which mostly doesn't go as he expects. That is the true essence of his powerlessness, he simply doesn't have the words that drive others into motion, ultimately, the only person he can dedicate words to is himself, through the ghost of Takatora which haunts him (and you could say he wants himself to shut up too, so absolutely 0 hits on this man).

Ryouma was the character that made me notice this temptation theme, he is the properly powerful version of Mitsuzane, both try to manipulate others for mostly selfish reasons, but Ryouma does get his way. Ryouma being the one who gives Micchi a speech on adults and children is probably for this reason, whether he sees it or not aside, they're the same, so his words are the the most relatable to Mitsuzane.

Early in the series, Pierre does some tempting too, mostly to bystanders as he does a campaign against Beat Riders, but his words are most important to Jonouchi. I'm using the word tempt since it's the overall theme, and I'm not sure if it should be used for a positive connotation too, but I mean it in a good way, his words guide a lost Jonouchi and help him grow.

Speaking of good temptations, Kota is the star of this section, as what he constantly does is positively tempt people. Mitsuzane said it, Kota's hope is a disease which infects everyone he talks to. He tempts people with words of hope, to make them believe in the future; not for his personal gain, but because that is his justice. In a way, Mitsuzane's hatred for him stems from that, his words don't reach anyone, while Kota can give hope to anyone. Micchi is ailed by an inferiority complex, it started with his brother and expanded to Kota too, as not only Mai chose Kota, but even Takatora connected with Kota better than he did with Micchi. He wants Mai's love and Kota's praise, but both gave that to Kota instead of him, which drives him over the edge.

Kaito, to me, is the most complex character in this sense, because I think he is immune to temptation and doesn't use it at all, but at the same time, he's already been tempted long before the series started. The words that tempted him were his own, and, at the same time the world's. The world said the weak have no place, he tells himself he can't be weak. And those words are his driving force through and through, he doesn't listen to what anyone else has to say because those are the only words in his mind. He doesn't need to convince anyone with his words, as people naturally flock to him, or distance themselves from him from his way of life alone. He focused so much on the POWER part of "power of words," that he no longer needed words to bring temptation. In the same way he isn't using words, he himself is the manifestation of the word. (My favorite character if you need me to say it)

EXTRAS

Ironic how Faiz had two paradise-titled movies and yet Gaim embodies paradise lost much better than either without having it in its title

Why wasn't Ryugen Yomi a pomegranate? You had one job

My translation of Hajimari no Onna/Otoko would have been Eve and Adam, if someone complained I localized it too much I'd make it First Woman and Man though. Man/Woman of the beginning sure is a mouthful

Very good series, terrible filler, this was roughly a 36 episode series but they signed a contract for 49 episodes didnt they? Since I was batch watching I skipped kikaider and soccer, so I guess it wasn't that bad, but if I watched it as it aired I might have been upset when my reward for a week was a filler episode.

I like MC becomes God storylines and I'll have to say Kota was the best one I've had the pleasure to witness, the slowburn and how much he earned it doesn't compare to how most series do it.

[obstinaterixatrix]

(1) hi! it's me again! thank you for answering! thank you for the gaim assessment! i haven't watched all of it but i Agree(tm) that gaim is Bad. like, i've watched 6 episodes, 40 to the enn and gaim gaiden baron and yeah. beginning, Good. ending, Bad. so ok, y'know at the start where kouta's like "i want to transform (to a good adult)", urobuchi dropped the ball, he dropped the ball HARD. like look at the cast at the beginning, ok?

Ok, before I post the rest of this, I just, I gotta,

Moving on,

(2) main 3 didn't change! kouta's "micchy's strength to fight, gives me strength to fight!" where did that go?! mai's "give me that (driver) kouta, you're too reckless with it" where did that go?! kaito spoke nonsense but his anger at peko's cheating was good! where did that go?! kouta & kaito didn't change, mai changed but for the worse! yoko & ryouma & sid didn't change! micchy & takatora & oren & zack & jounochi & hase changed! if a few supporting cast changed but the main 3 didn't! Bad

(3) gaim gaiden baron was ok! i could finally understand kaito! and shapur (played by kaito's actor), a one-shot character had better character development in 30 minutes than kaito had in the whole series! ??? kouta's coma convo with takatora about changing was so hollow??? like, between them takatora is the one who actually changed? kouta, kaito & mai had a physical transformation but not an emotional, mental, or moral one?

(4) also! kouta thanking sagara was messed up! he called himself "the snake"! kouta! the snake! is! the! enemy! why! are! you! thanking! him! like, if sagara keeps handing kouta power ups, then can we really say kouta & mai's decision to be gods, the ULTIMATE power up, is their choice?! also! haven't watched kr agito but i saw screencap liveblog of it & agito RIDER PUNCHES GOD! IN THE FACE! if god is evil, kamen rider punches them in the face! git gud, urobuchi

(5) also! "Kamen Rider protects the peace of the world" (Kamen Rider 1971 op). GIT GUD, UROBUCHI, so. gaim as tokusatsu series? possibly a 4.5/10, gaim as KAMEN RIDER SERIES? 2/10, GIT FUCKING GUD, UROBUCHI this is my essay, thanks for reading!

I just wanna say, first of all, I love that you cited a quote, mad props.

punching god in the face and rejecting His Way Of Doing Things is absolutely the only ending that could be acceptable. ‘we’re not going to change the world.....! we’ll fuck off and do the whole planet revolution whatever on.... a different world!’ why can’t they stay. why is this so revolutionary. Sagara basically goes like ‘well lol I’m gonna go fuck over another world now byyyeeee’ and they just. Let Him. Bullshit.

(6) wait! i have more! sorry! but like gaim is so Fake Deep(tm)? compare to ooo? ooo can be dark & broody bc it showed the light parts too! ooo charas can be wacky & goofy & emotional & weak! ooo can be philosophical! bc ooo have different philosophies! gaim can't be dark & broody because it doesn't have any light parts! gaim isn't allowed to be wacky & goofy & emotional & weak! gaim can't philosophical bc gaim doesn't have different philosophies! it's just urobuchi tooting his won horn. GIT GUD

ABSOLUTELY AGREE

(7) speaking of "Strength" what if kouta & mai & kaito are foils to each other? kouta gets his strength from others, mai get her strength from herself & others while kaito gets his strength from himself? what if mai is allowed to a leader? that would have been good! or what if kaito gets an *ounce* of ankh's character development, gets strong armed into feelings by tall walnut, pekopeko, tiny orange & beautiful mai?

(8) like, kaito admits kouta's strength but only after they fought, but fighting is kaito's only measure of "strength"? Bad. gOLDEN FRUIT. i forgot abt that! what was UP with that?! like, getting the forbidden fruit doesn't actually give u power?! u have to GIVE IT TO SOMEBODY ELSE to USE it! if your artifact of ultimate power is Like That, GIVE! US! AN! EXPLANATION! make it a plot point! like, redyue & ryouma find out and go "hmmm, i don't like this", that would have been great!

(9) like! WHY IS THE GOLDEN FRUIT LIKE THAT?! if u need to give to someone else to use, it's Useless! EXPLAIN, MADOKA MAN! why do the riders fight for using fruit but no one fights for CARRYING the fruit? like, what if gaim kept it with teams of 2, that would have been great! redyue & micchy! ryouma & sid! kaito & yoko! kouta & mai! zack & peko! jounochi & hase! teams of 2! teams of 2! which pair gets to be The Beginning?!

Honestly? Mai could’ve had such a big role to play in Gaim, and I don’t mean in the ‘suddenly she’s the fruit and everyone’s fighting over her’ way. Mai was set up as a leader, and she had all the insecurities that came from suddenly inheriting the position. And we see a little of it in some of the episodes you passed by, she gets everyone to team up for a group dance event to showcase solidarity between the dancers and to clear their names as ‘origin of inves’, but after that, nothing. She’s kept in isolation, which is unfortunate, because her strength comes from uniting others, and that gets completely tossed aside because gaim has a tough time juggling more than two characters. The only way her treatment could’ve been salvaged is if she actually got to use the fruit powers. Let her do shit madoka man. You coward.

that... got really long didn't it? sorry! thank you for listening!

like, i haven't watch madoka, but i totally get your hate for urobuchi! just looking at gaim, he's horrible. can you imagine being such an awful, terrible, incompetent writer that your godly object is, on closer look, ultimately useless? such a shame that a wonderful cast was wasted on him.

This ask storm was such a joy to receive. Madoka isn’t a terrible series (tho IMO it’s hyped up a lot by folks who don’t know shit abt the magical girl genre) (that is, fake-deep assholes) (also the longer it goes on the more we see urobuchi’s writing fall apart because he can’t write long stuff without someone to keep him in check, apparently) (someone put madoka man on a leash) (this aside got long) (it’s not an aside anymore. Madoka gets overhyped by assholes but boy do I love Kyoko/Sayaka)

I AGREE THAT THE CAST IS GOOD, there’s a lot of fun stuff with them, like, an athletics competition thing? Kaito’s actor is such an uncoordinated weenie. He also took two steps in the forest and twisted both his ankles. like, yea. everything about Gaim is good except the writing. I *strongly* recommend checking out stuffandsundry’s gaim rewrite because it’s Good (also I’m linking the most recent part b/c it has links to the rest) THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS

*~gaim stans dont interact~*

[sailor-cresselia]

I love Riders Reunited... I will admit that some of thr characterization I have for the riders came from the fandom.. I am new to Rider. Currently watching Gaim and have watching drive, ghost, 01, saber, build, w, decade, and thats all.

So yeah XD and I am a writer as well so I might based the characterization of Emu and others on your writing.

First of all, welcome to Rider fandom! It gets pretty involved here sometimes.

Thank you for liking my writing! It's always great to hear that people enjoy it.

The thing is…

I don't write for seasons I haven't seen, and generally recommend that others do the same. Basing how you write a character off of how someone else writes a character tends to result in vastly over-simplifying their personalities, and mischaracterization and misunderstanding of plots as a whole. Using some elements of someone else's touches is one thing, but it's a fine line to tread before you're just writing their version, and not writing either your own or one that's based on canon.

So, you can do that, but I suggest against it. I would say to write for the seasons you've seen and enjoy, and only do like. Cameos or small appearances of other characters from the seasons you haven't seen. That's how my fics tend to be written - when I started 'Try and Re-Build', I hadn't seen Fourze, Wizard, or anything before Double yet, so I just didn't include them. I've seen those seasons now, so I can write for them, but I also generally don't try to put everyone in one situation, because that leads to over-complicating scenes.

Basically… Stick to who you know, and refresh yourself on them periodically. Rewatches are always fun for seasons you enjoy, because you can get more out of them knowing where it's going, and can focus on picking up aspects of characters that might have gone under your radar the first time around.

(Also, please watch Ex-Aid, it's so good)

[washipink]

Madoka 1-4

It’s finally time for us to get to the “Urobuchi” in the Urobuchiverse project. Today we start Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a magical girl series that... fuck it, this show needs no goddamn introduction. If you’ve been on the internet in the past 10 years, you know of Madoka at the very least.

For my Madoka rewatch, I’ve actually brought along a few friends to talk with so I can get some new perspectives I wouldn’t have had otherwise. As such, these posts will be covering a few episodes at a time rather than just one. This also means Madoka should be done by the end of the week and then we can start the Kamen Rider Gaim coverage.

I do want to say right of the bat that this show is still visually stunning. There is a lot of artistic merit in the show from the animation department. Madoka Magica absolutely holds up in that regard and you should assume that I’m thinking this for each future post unless I say otherwise.

There were quite a few small details that I wouldn’t have noticed were I not watching this through the fresh eyes of one @gaycodedvillainy. For example, Right before Homura dumps her weird trauma on Madoka in episode 1, the teacher does the SAME GODDAMN THING. Over EGGS. (Wrathe also mentioned that Kyubey describes Magical Girls... then describes witches as something similar but different that cannot be seen by regular people... and then REFUSES to explain what the fuck he is, which kinda points in the direction of Kyubey BEING a witch...)

There’s an interpretation of Madoka where Kyubey is a metaphor for recruiters of child talent and it is EXCELLENT. It gets to the core of Kyubey’s weird obsession with recruiting Teenage Girls for... reasons. He keeps saying Forge a contract, Forge a contract. But will he ever say what that contract entails? No. Not even once. There are so many details of being a Magical Girl that he will not elaborate on in the slightest.

Episode 3 will probably be the main focus of this post because it bares a STRIKING resemblance to a certain episode of Ryuki... In it, Mami has Sayaka and Madoka shadow her on a few more witch hunts. At first the tone is pretty much the opposite of Ryuki 27, but by the end, it’s wrapped back around to having the exact same message. “Stay far away from this fight.” Gen saw this one episode and thought “I will stretch this as FAR as it can fucking go.” and y’know what? The bastard actually did it. I didn’t notice this as a kid, but Mami’s downfall was genuinely her own need to showboat for the new girls. She laid it on way too thick to try and recruit Madoka and Sayaka. If being a magical girl is a cult then Mami has ABSOLUTELY drank the Kool-Aid by this point. Instead of actually warning these girls about how dangerous this is and telling them NOT to do it, she keeps trying to recruit them day after day. She’s almost as invested in making new Magical Girls as Kyubey is. It makes you think she knows something she really shouldn’t know at this point, honestly.

Even having seen Ryuki this time, it hasn’t impacted my ability to like this show. But then again, this is just the start. And there are a few things that make me feel Not Great, like Kyosuke’s entire arc. Which is very much just someone suffering to make us feel bad. And then he lashes out almost entirely unprompted so that Sayaka can also feel bad. It was just kinda rough to watch and I did not enjoy it.

We should talk more about the Ryuki similarities in these first 4 episodes because that’s kinda the point of this whole tag. To compare the show I’m watching now to the one I watched last. A few obvious ones: They make it clear that a Magical Girl’s number one enemy is not a witch, but other magical girls. Familiars growing into witches makes room for the type of girl who would rather just let a familiar roam, eating people as it goes just to make sure she can get a nice Grief Seed once all is said and done. Kyubey really is just like Shiro if Shiro was an UwU Baby tbh. Where Shiro has Tatakae, Kyubey has Contract. These two characters exist purely to force people to fight each other. Not saying it doesn’t work, but that is the case. The girls fight over Grief Seeds to prolong their own magic energy. Much like in Ryuki, where your contract monster will EAT YOU if you aren’t fighting, there’s some kind of punishment awaiting Magical Girls who do not collect grief seeds.

The inspirations are very much here. You watch an episode of Madoka after watching Ryuki and you can tell this is someone who has seen that show. It manages to take the ideas presented in Ryuki in a new direction, though. I appreciate that it’s not just a straight rehash of existing work from 9 years prior.

Speaking of rehashing existing work, I found out Gen Urobuchi wrote Kamen Rider Gaim only TWO YEARS after Madoka came out, which is insane to me. That the two of his works most often compared didn’t even have a middle school’s length apart? That he delved right back into the Ryuki Inspiration Idea Pool so soon? And I thought *I* fixated on stuff hard.

(Oh there’s also the very shallow but admittedly funny similarity of “Yellow One Dies First”)

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/16616580

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

Hey so now (i think) that you finished Ghost, why do you think so many people hate it?

i have finished the 50-episode series itself plus movies and specials that happened at the time; just its post-series content to go!

i have gone over what i think are potential reasons before -- a lot of the hate seems to come from people who came in through Gaim and had that kind of expectation; in general it's a very episodic series sandwiched between a bunch of serialised ones. There's definitely flaws of it which don't help; I have said multiple times I don't enjoy the last stretch and the lack of a seriously strong hard-hitting ending (before the epilogue) won't have helped. Though I have recently heard that people were hating it even before Mugen's debut as well. It's also a super non-literal series compared to how much Gaim and Drive (and Ex-Aid after it) focused on the mechanics of their plots. There's also the very divisive humour, with Onari being at the center of it and I constantly see his character being said by people who disliked the show as one of the big factors.

I am starting to wonder if maybe one of the reasons is that whole forceful "every parent loves their child" thing, and that was a big thing that dissuaded me from entertaining the series' themes back when I first watched it -- Kamen Rider fans do kinda come from a generation where we're breaking down familial blood bonds and their importance and a lot more of us are coming from broken homes, so it's not something a lot of people would be happy to see. Like this is especially coming off a season which ended with the secondary swinging an axe down on his abusive dad so, y'know, bit of a whiplash!

I think ultimately it's a combination of like. Some legitimate problems; but blown out of proportion considering the expectations given by Gaim and Drive and... and maybe not realising that they're watching a kids' show, with an episodic structure and comedic style built around that. I don't like when people constantly use "well it's for kids" to dismiss any and all criticism but when I see people criticise Ghost for being what it is and Onari being a very loud goofy character I do sometimes wonder if they realise what the target demographic is, y'know? Obviously you can both not enjoy that and recognise it's not for you, but we're talking about the perspective of thinking it's objectively bad vs realising something isn't for them, y'know?

By this point I've seen a bunch of criticisms and a lot of them are to do with surface-level stuff, not enjoying the comedy and just generally not being able to get into the plot. A lot of it's fine and ultimately if you don't like a show then you don't like a show, but what's still a mystery to me is why so many people still feel the need to just immediately say "THIS SHOW SUCKED AND IS AWFUL AND KILLED MY FAMILY" whenever it's so much as mentioned. I get the reasons people would dislike the show but I still don't know why people viscerally hated it. I like to think I'm at least quite up front with the reasons I hate Kiva, and that I have pretty good reasons there; and even I don't go out my way to bring that up whenever a gif or a figure or someone saying they like the show gets posted!

I think maybe it just comes down to needing some show to hate and deride as the lowest point of the franchise. It's a little thing you notice across fandom; every fandom feels the need to hold up something as their Sonic 06 of the franchise somehow and Ghost in this case happened to be it. Before this there was Wizard and I'm sure before Wizard it was like Super-1 or Black RX or Shin or something. Sometimes people need something to hate I suppose

[eclipse-song]

1, 2, 19 on toku ask

How did you get into toku? This is a really long and kind of funny answer. I answered 2 of these questions already so I'll tell you it all in full with images. I did not watch power rangers as a kid because I didn't have cable or satellite tv. I do however remember seeing bits of it around and being like damn that looks fun. too bad i cant watch it. Then in 2014 at an anime con some guy was like "I think you should watch Kamen Rider" and i was like lmao sure ok and proceeded to not do that because I have ADHD. (This would mean I would have watched Gaim live as a 15 year old which could have done something incredibly toxic to my brain chemistry I think so this was for the best). FAST FORWARD TO 8 YEARS LATER. IT IS THE PANDEMIC. WE ARE IN LOCK DOWN. MY FRIENDS ARE ALL ON VOICE CALL ON DISCORD. I AM NOT THERE.

We were all mainly into Ensemble Stars at the time. Enstars for those who don't know has a super sentai themed unit. Someone here linked a tweet commenting in surprise at someone being "ryuseitai purple" a discussion around ranger colours takes off

my friend goes to look up things about ranger colours then on the PR Wiki having some basic knowledge of power rangers. He ends up going through some lists of Sentai shows while there.

this motherfucker is spotted. More interest is had. Friends dive deeper. We find lots of guys of all time. Like Battle Fever J and how it's part of the Marvel universe. Kenji Ohba is there like he is in any important tokusatsu.

Inevitably Hiroshi Miyauchi appears nevertheless

Pretty Cure also makes an appearance

And then we find THIS fucking image.

The image that made my friends go "what the FUCK is this show about and what does this chart mean" and then they proceeded to watch some of ToQger. I joined call the next night and they had more of it on and I was mid- thesis film hell and dying and I was like damn this looks kinda fun. Cue us all getting in on it. We watched the show in about 4 days. During this time we decided to start watching KR Gaim because that was airing alongside ToQger and also it had a lot of recommendations online. We also finished that in about 4 days. And now.....after all that....I'm here and I'm crazy but I'm free. I fulfilled the prophecy of that guy at Anime North in 2014.

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

Micchy and your choice with 6 and/or 10?

6. "Is that all you've got?"

10. "Who did this?"

The black eye is visible almost before the rest of Micchi is, coming up the line at Charmant. Hideyasu raises an eyebrow, but doesn't greet him out of turn, and then doesn't get the chance to when he gets to the counter and opens with, "I don't want to talk about it."

Hideyasu snorts. "You don't want to order? Then why are you here?"

"No, I mean--you were looking at me."

"Yes, I was trying to remember if your brother had any orders in that you might be picking up. He doesn't, by the way. So what can I get you?"

"Uh..." Micchi stares at the various confections on display, looking overwhelmed. "I. Can you. Recommend something?" A beat, and then, hurriedly, "Nothing with oranges."

Hideyasu squints at him, feeling a swell of something like pity, and then glances at the line behind him. Two other customers, no one approaching the door. "Just sit down, I'll bring you something."

"I--wait, what?"

"That wasn't an invitation to argue with me, Mitsuzane. Go sit down. Corner table over there is free."

"O...k?" Looking bewildered, Micchi goes to sit down at the corner table, and Hideyasu turns to the next customer with a stiff customer-service smile.

That customer, the next, and one last-minute arrival later, the line is finally gone and Hideyasu has a moment to grab a serving tray, a plate, and a set of utensils and say to the kitchen staff, "I'm taking fifteen. If Oren asks, tell him it's important. Also, could you get me a pot of tea?"

Micchi looks even more bewildered when Hideyasu sits down at the table across from him. "What...I feel like I missed something here."

"You didn't, I've been on my feet all morning and felt like sitting down for three seconds. Here. Raspberry tart. Eat."

A long, suspicious look, and then Micchi takes a forkful of his half of the raspberry tart and pops it into his mouth.

Hideyasu allows himself a moment of smug satisfaction at Micchi's startled, mouth-full, "This is delicious," before serving himself the other half of the tart and saying, "So. Who did this?"

--

Micchi jumps in the middle of swallowing and very nearly chokes. "Who did what?"

Jounouchi just sort of stares at him and then gestures. "What do you think I'm talking about?"

"...I said I didn't want to talk about it."

"That's nice, but if you don't tell me then I'm going to guess. Actually, you know what, I've already figured it out. What'd you do to Zack to make him punch you?"

Micchi stares at him. "How. How did you know it was Zack."

"Well, you don't hang out with anyone but Beat Riders, and even them only barely, so it's probably a Beat Rider. I mean, I guess it could have been someone mad at your brother, but I feel like you wouldn't be as weird about that. The Raid Wild guys are all too stupid to punch straight, my girls would rather talk mean than fight, Gaim is all saps, and Peko'd just shoot you with that slingshot of his, so I'm guessing it was Zack. Which, he's tough to piss off, I'm impressed."

Glumly, Micchi takes another bite of tart and chews for a moment before saying, "He wasn't pissed off. I asked him to."

"Huh. Kinky. Never figured you for the type."

This time Micchi does choke, and Jounouchi snorts and leans across the table to pound on his back a little. After a moment his airway clears and he croaks, "It's not like that."

"No, obviously not, you did it because you Kureshimas love to beat yourselves up about things you can't fix and you figured it might be nice to get someone else to do it for you." Jounouchi squints at his plate and then takes something else from the serving tray and puts it down among the crumbs of Micchi's tart. "Lemon matcha madeline. Take a sip of tea first, clear your palate."

"...how do you know so much about my brother?" Micchi takes a sip of tea and then bites into the madeline. It is spectacular, which he's weirdly frustrated by.

"Because he has a standing date for tea here with Kazuraba's sister, every two weeks and I love to eavesdrop, and he keeps ordering madelines from me to give to visiting whatevers. Also, Oren talks about him constantly." Jounouchi takes a sip of his own tea. "Speaking of Kazuraba's sister, are they or what?"

"What? No, uh, definitely not. They're just friends." A glance down at his hands, and--he's already finished his madeline. He surreptitiously swipes some crumbs up from his plate with a fingertip, eats them when Jounouchi is looking away, and takes another sip of tea.

"So is he single, then?"

Micchi doesn't choke this time, but only through sheer willpower. "Is he--what? Why?"

"What, you think I don't want a backup plan in case I decide to get out of pastry?" Jounouchi flashes him a brief, unexpected smile and pulls over his empty plate. "I'm teasing you, Mitsuzane, your brother's not my type. Here. Rose and pomegranate mille feuille."

The plate slides back across the table, and Micchi stares at the layered pink confection on it for a long moment before saying, slowly, "Why are you doing this for me? You barely know me. I think this might be the first time we've ever really spoken."

--

It takes a long time for Hideyasu to respond, because he's not entirely sure of what to say. Instead he takes a bite of his own portion of mille feuille, satisfied by the buttery melt of handmade puff pastry on his tongue, the delicacy of the rose flavor coming through behind the pomegranate. Perfecting this recipe took ages; when he finally got a batch to turn out, Oren actually bought a bottle of champagne. Speaking of uncertainty, though, he's also not especially sure of why he feels like showing off his best recipes to Kureshima Takatora's little brother, except maybe that he likes watching people eat what he's made.

Finally he says, "I have a weakness for lost puppies."

Micchi snorts. He looks offended, but he also looks amused, which means Hideyasu's won. "I look like a lost puppy to you?"

"You look like you could stand to have a few more actual friends than you've got. When I see you at Beat Rider events--if I see you at Beat Rider events--you're just hiding in those massive hoodies of yours, not talking to anyone. And since my closest friend died...somehow...during all the. Stuff. I don't exactly have a lot of people to talk to either."

"I...guess I didn't think of that. I'm sorry."

"Don't say you're sorry, that one's not your fault. If you have to be a Kureshima about it and apologize, do it by eating your mille feuille and telling me how brilliant I am."

That gets an eye roll, and if Micchi's relaxing enough to make faces at him then maybe they can have an actually conversation. Pleasingly, this is followed by a bite of mille feuille and then a startled, "Holy shit, this is amazing."

"Yes, it is, thank you."

"...were you always this full of yourself, or did you get it from Oren?"

"All of the great patissiers have god complexes." Hideyasu takes a sip of tea. "That's what makes the créme pat turn out."

Micchi stares at him, obviously disbelieving, and then takes another bite of mille feuille. "Ok, so. Maybe you deserve that, this is really good." A third bite. "You still haven't really answered my question, though. Why me?"

Hideyasu scowls. "I don't know, all right? It just bothers me to see you hanging around at the back of everything like a ghost when you used to be just as obnoxious as everyone else in Gaim."

"I'm not sure what else you expect me to do."

"I'm not sure either, Mitsuzane, but this can't be all you've got. I thought you Kureshimas had more spine."

"Wanna bet?" Micchi mutters, and then blinks, as if he's surprised at himself.

And that's bait that Hideyasu can take easily, so he grins and has another sip of tea and says, "See, I feel like that's more of the attitude I remember you having."

"Surprised you remember me at all, I don't think you and your Mean Girls crew ever even spoke to me." Micchi's phone beeps, and he digs it out of his pocket. "Shit, I actually need to get going, I have to meet with a classmate. Uh...thank you for. Talking to me. What do I owe you for the food?"

"Nothing right now." Hideyasu looks at him sidelong. "Let's say you'll buy me coffee in a month and let me know whether you've started finding your backbone again."

[tsunflowers]

My first impression of you was someone who also watched kamen rider and I found your liveblogging funny. Now I still find you funny but also a bit weird and I think of you as someone who is into characters that eats especially if they are women. I mainly here for the tokusatsu and precure liveblogs but often ends up reading your other posts. Also I think we started getting into kamen rider around the same time but I only found your blog around ex-aid started.

stop bringing up the eating thing!! actually you know I have to live my truth. you’re right that’s true about me. if we both got into kamen rider during gaim then we’re comrades. we share a unique experience there

[spikebhm]

❌ ✔️ 💗 💞 🌓 🧸 🏃‍♀️ 🦸 ↩️

So I asked a few...

👀 Yes. Yes you did. That’s quite the assignment! Are you per chance a teacher that likes to torture kids with loads of homework before the weekend? LOL Ok, let’s get those joints loose, nice cup of lemon tea and here. we. go! ❌ = What feedist related kinks do you not enjoy? A disclaimer: Even though I don’t like a kink doesn’t mean I disagree with you and your feelings towards a certain topic. Everyone is free to do what they want and express themselves but please approach everyone with the same respect as I would do. Thank you. ♥ I tend to dislike most of the ones that have something in common with lack of hygiene, inflation type stuff (atlhough I bloat often times when I overeat on pastries and then chug down a soda), unnatural type of weight gain like through padding (even if it is convincing!) or digestive sounds. A belly gurgling or someone swallowing heavily is one thing (and I do like it) but burps and farting aren’t sexy at all to me! Also health-play is something that makes me scuttle away under a cupboard because I am a bit of a fainter lol. D: Like not being able to see my own blood. My brain is weird. (I know that seeing blood is not part of the thing but anything about body disfunctionality is just kinda eeeeeh to me!) ✔️ = What feedist related kinks (force feeding, vore, inflation, etc) do you enjoy? Ooooh, that is a looong, looong list. Over the years of lurking and exposure, I refined my taste to “almost anything that surrounds feedism.” I love force feeding, belly rubs, STRETCHMARKS, rapid wg, immobility (love me a blob on occasion 😩), being uncomfortably full, public stuffing and teasing, approval and praise, FUNNEL FEEDING ... Fat shaming and exercise + ex-athlete, denial of weight gain, TIGHT CLOTHES, mutual and contrast are both super endearing to me, squashing ... Oh and BELLY BUTTONS. Especially the squished ones. And deep ones. Oh lord, the deep ones! 🥵 💗  = Do you prefer a slender or larger feeder/partner? No preference! Slim, Fit, Average, Chubby, Fat, Obese - All good in my book! 💞  = Do you prefer soft belly worship or rough belly play? I would say I’m 70% on the soft belly worship but if the chemistry is right, the consent is there with lots of trust, I can have my belly played rough with ♥ 🌓  = Do you prefer to be a submissive feedee or a dominant feedee? I prefer to be the submissive type for sure. Although I can be bratty and of course use my body to get what I want, I almost always prefer to be the submissive feedee as I tend to blush quickly, turning myself into a flustered mess of a bear lol. 🧸  = What's your favorite way to soothe a stuffed tummy? Aaah, I developed a lot of techniques over the years to get my tummy soothed and found some helpful things to help the process. Whenever I’m too full to move, I give it my best shot to stand up. Whenver I sit down, my stomach is bunched up and by standing up I feel a lot of relief. I also like to take a shower after a stuffing - the feeling of water on my skin takes my mind away.  If I have an upset stomach, I will take a tea spoon of iberoghast. It helps with digestion and immediately soothes my tummy aches. Also, belly rubs and playing with my hair is a good method I found out to help me a lot. Also makes me more hungry too - truly a vicious cycle from which I know no escape from! 🏃‍♀️ = Is there anything you used to do that is harder now that you've gained weight? Oh wow, yeah. I don’t have a drivers license and whenever I need to do groceries, I have to go out and go to the market by walking. Now that in itself is no problem, I like physical activities. But the problem is, if you are as fat as me, going up a hill to get to the super market is so incredibly ardeous. I feel like carrying bags of groceries up the hill to the market and back lol. So yeah, that became difficult. Also I get out of breath easily now when I do laundry as I live in the topmost part of a very old building and my washing machine and dryer are all the way down in the basement and there is no elevator. 🦸 = Who's your favorite superhero? Why? Oh snap! What a cool question to ask. I will divide the question into two parts, one will be a more western look and the other part will be a more eastern look at a super hero! So, my favourite western hero is probably Captain America. I love to see a struggling hero from a different time, to fight for something that lost its meaning over the time he was frozen. I loved this characters depiction in all the Marvel Movies, Captain America: Winter Soldier is still my favourite superhero movie ever. Just a heads up: I’m a HUGE weeb. Like, incredibly so. I don’t watch that much anime and manga as I did before but my heart is still with all these great animations and amazingly fun stories and characters. My favourite eastern hero is probably a tie between Kouta Kazuraba aka Kamen Rider Gaim and Shinnosuke Tomari aka Kamen Rider Drive. Both of them had some very satisfying arcs in both of their stories in which they played their parts. Kouta had to realize that becoming an adult meant more then taking responsibility for your owns actions. The way he progressed in the story to understand his role in the greater scheme of things was very inspirational. On the other hand, Tomari faced a traumatizing event and had a hard time to find “a drive” to move on with his life. It was interesting to see a superhero with a depression and how he handles his daily “up’s” and “down’s”. ↩️ = If you could have one "do-over" in life, what would it be? I think I would make my parents listen to me what I have to say. Yeah. That would’ve been helpful with a lot of things! Thank you SO so much for the questions! I think I deserve a nice snack break. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

[redroseredemption]

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Review

Since I’m getting closer to the ending of Ghost, I’d thought I’d post my review of Ex-Aid. I know it’s been a while since I finished the show but it took me a while to digest it and get all my thoughts together without raging. This is gonna be a controversial one. I know a lot of people love Ex-Aid, but if you’ve been watching my liveblogs, you probably know how this review is gonna end

Still trying to find a suitable review style so I hope you like the one I came up with. Without further ado, let’s get this over with… What I Liked: -The Opening:  I freakin’ love Excite! It’s one of the best toku theme songs. Every time I’d watch an episode of Ex-Aid, I would sit through the opening just to listen to this song. It’s that good. Too bad for like 10-12 episodes it was more like an ending song but I didn’t mind it too much.

-Kiriya: Kiriya was, without a doubt, the best character in this show. Loved his lying ass personality. Loved his Hawaiian shirts. Had a pretty heartbreaking backstory and every time he was on screen he was a joy to watch. Also his actor’s hot

- The Game Driver and the Gasthats: At first I wasn’t sure about them. They’re so campy looking with their design and the neon bright colors, but over time I grew to really like them. They’re so different compared to other Rider belts. An odd one but I find when the belt says “GASHATO” very satisfying. -Kuroto and Masamune Actors:  I love how much fun they’re having playing their characters. I’ve heard Kuroto’s actor is the one that gave him the crazy personality and Masamune’s actor is a famous musician and carries his gashat to his shows. I think that’s really sweet. 

-Brave and Para-DX design: All his forms are great. He’s the best looking rider in my opinion in this show next to Para-DX who designs is just gorgeous. I’m still not a fan of the eyes on the visor, but they work better on them than the other suits.

-Taiga and Nico: Taiga by himself is an emo asshole who withheld the “treatment” of a patient because he wanted a gashat, but when he’s with Nico he’s tolerable. They’re dynamic made me kind of like him as the show went on. I’ve heard what the brave and snipe movie does to him, however I’m only basing his personality on the show, not the movies. In the show, he did get better. He was still an asshole, but less so in later episodes. And Nico, while annoying and bratty, I enjoyed her overall. Together, they had some of the more memorable moments in the show for me. -The Saki Revival Scene: That one scene when Masamune releases Saki and she keeps saying “Become the world's best doctor” is amazingly well done. How there’s no music when Saki keeps repeating her line and her face is glitching out. The tone of that scene was phenomenal. What I Didn’t Like: -Emu: Despite the fact that I put him in the “Didn’t Like” section, I don’t think Emu is a bad character. It’s his characterization I hae a problem with. He’s super inconsistent. Generally, he’s an empathetic person, but sometimes he uses that empathy in the wrong ways. Both Taiga and Hiiro hate him for a good 3/4ths of the show and multiple times Emu considers them his friends. Then there’s the scene with Kuroto where Emu says “he’s a good person.” That whole speech made me good “What the fuck is wrong with you, Emu?!” considering Kuroto killed Kiriya, Emu’s friend! The whole “M” personality part of him was not handled well. There are times throughout the show where I wasn’t even sure who was who. When you can tell who is who, like the one time Parad possesses Emu, he doesn’t know how Emu talks...even though he’s supposed to be “M” and should know how Emu speaks… I don’t know if that’s Emu’s actor, Hiroki Iijima, not being able to act as “M” or Yuya Takahashi not knowing how to write a character with a split personality. Whatever it was, the split personality part was very hard to follow. There’s also times where Takahashi tries to make Emu a badass and it comes off very awkward and out of character. One scene I wanna bring up is the one where Emu straight-up murders Parad. There’s no build-up to it, no foreshadowing, no indication whatsoever. He brutally beats up Parad and “kills him.” All to teach him a lesson about humanity and death. It’s so out of character and cruel for a character that’s supposed to be empathetic and caring. And all because we needed another “shock death.” It felt like Takahashi wanted to do this scene and he was going to do it no matter how little sense it made.

Hiiro: The hot embarrassing himbo.There’s being tsundere and then there’s being a dick and Hiiro is a massive dick. I got where Takahashi wanted to go with him. Hiiro is a man who lost someone he loved and he is still suffering from it, however, in my opinion it wasn’t executed well. The only scenes we see of Hiiro and his girlfriend, Saki, together before she “dies” are when he’s being a total dick to her and when she succumbs to the virus. That’s it. If we had scenes where they were a loving couple, I could be more sympathetic to Hiiro but he’s no different before Saki died and after. He’s just an asshole and yes, I get that some people are simply assholes, but if you want me to care about your character then don’t make them assholes without subsistence! This whole subplot could have been half the length with how long they dragged it out too. Speaking of which… Saki: Who is Saki? What did she like to do? What dreams did she have that didn’t center around her boyfriend? Saki was a McGuffin. A McGuffin for Hiiro to obtain. Hell, I think even Masamune describes Saki as a princess trapped in a castle at one point. She was an object. I really hate saying that but there’s no better way to describe it. She’s an object in human form for our heroes to obtain. If Saki was given a character at all, I wouldn’t be as pissed as I am with her treatment. Taiga: What is better than a character that’s an asshole for no reason? How about TWO characters that are assholes for no reason! Taiga wasn’t interesting by himself. I didn’t care about him or his “struggles” (which barely got to see in the show proper anyway) The only times he was was when he’s with Nico, but other than that I really didn’t care for him.

Kuroto: The villain of the first half of the show that becomes a meme. I don’t have too much to say about Kuroto, just that it’s clear Takahashi had a set plan for Kuroto that got thrown away once he came back. His character was done better in Build with Gentoku and from what I’m hearing about Zero-One, Gai as well. 

Parad: Creepy gremlin that should not have been "M" “ I didn’t understand life that couldn’t continue.” No you understood, you lying sack a shit. In all seriousness, Parad never felt like he was a “full character” to me. He always felt like nothing more than a lackey like Graphite. Speaking of Graphite…

Graphite: If there was an award for the most wasted character in toku, he’d be it. He was the bugster created from Saki’s death. He was Hiiro’s and Taiga’s antagonist and what did they do with him? Throw him under the bus for half the show, force his ass back and then he dies a few episodes later… what a character The Tone:  This was the worst aspect of this show for me. One moment, there will be a serious scene and then a second later, wack zany shinanigines happenes. Like the whole scene where Hiiro and Emu are talking about Kiriya’s death and Emu trips over himself. Or when a character dies and the voice pops in with cheery fanfair and says “GAME CLEAR” It’s like this show wants to tell this deep dramatic, story but you got clowns running aorund in the background honking. 

Overall Thoughts: This show wasn’t for me. I couldn’t take it as seriously as it wanted me to. I could go on and on about Ex-Aid but I think this sums up my feelings fairly well. I have a lot of Rider shows to get to. Who knows maybe there will be a season worst than this one but for right now Kamen Rider Ex-Aid is the worst season I’ve seen yet. It goes in the “trash” tier. 

(I have watched Kamen Rider Black and Gaim, but it’s been YEARS since I’ve seen them and I don’t feel confident to rank them with how long ago I’ve watched them. Also I’m ranking Amazons season 1. Haven’t watched season 2 yet)