The Kamen Rider is Dead. Long Live Kamen Rider: Spoilers, KITAAAAAAAAAAAA
By
Premonitions,
Posted on: 2012-08-28 02:28 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
All of the Fourze's costume design are too much of a turn off for me. Wizard looks pretty neat but I still need to finish Gokaiger first
My favourite rider costume is still Den-O's, although Faiz's was also pretty good. Wizard looks interesting ...
10joy
Every time I see Den-O, I imagine Xzibit's voice talking about spinning rims.
Anyone Who wants to argue about my usual foolishness can find me here.
https://twitter.com/Premmytwit
I'll miss you all.
AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa-
*Ahem*
So for those of us who care, it's that bittersweet time of year again, when we leave behind the faces, rubber masks, helmets, and explosions that we've grown so fond of and begin a new adventure with a new hero.
Kamen Rider Fourze aired it's final episode this past weekend and the upcoming Series, Kamen Rider Wizard, awaits us this Sunday.
No idea what I'm talking about?
Well Educate yourself, you Uncultured Swine!
On to the Geekery!
I have to say, Fourze is an odd duck, indeed. It was definitely flawed, but it had a heart that's hard to deny. The ending with Kengo was the kind of cop-out I had hoped I wouldn't see again since the end of W, and it's no less annoying the second time around. I was honestly touched and not at all surprised at how Gamou met his end. I have to applaud them for not just having the "Power of Friendship" manifest itself in a big destructive Care Bear Stare of Doom. I also appreciate that we never get to see or hear The Presenters. Some things are just better left a mystery.
As for the rest of the series. I felt potential was wasted.
The show introduced the idea that some Zodiarts can evolve into one of the 12 Apostle Horoscopes and that Horoscopes where the most powerful. In the beginning, several episodes were needed to bring down a Horoscopes, with them usually trying to "groom" the weekly Zodiart who was causing all of the problems of the day, into the next Apostle.
Following the end of the Cancer Horoscopes Arc, Libra suddenly gains a plot-device power that lets the show jump straight into the introduction of a new Apostle each time, and even the characters themselves stop using the word "Horoscopes". What was once a big threat becomes just another weekly monster, even before Fourze gets to spend the rest of the season spamming Cosmic States at everything until it explodes.
The villains where pretty great, though, their arcs and how they ended felt satisfying. Especially Cancer. Cancer was just so damn entertaining. I was happy to see him go down in that perfect "Love to hate him" sort of way. I felt that the "threat-level" of each individual Horoscopes was traded for more of an individual emotional investment and that may just have been a better choice in the long run, considering how the show played out. Each new horoscope was essentially a new character-development moment for a different member of the Kamen Rider Club.
I think this might be one of the only times where "more filler" might have been a good thing.
Fourze's whole powers set-up was definitely a waste of potential as well. Coming off OOO(the previous season)'s great use of the idea of a mix-and match Rider, it only seemed worse.
Instead of the interesting and fun idea of combining multiple switches in a certain combination to get a unique form change, we get the standard Gun Form, Sword Form, mid-Season upgrade, and Super form (also a sword >.<) on top of all the silly looking gadgets.
I have an innate aversion to High-school dramas, so that counted against it right off the bat. This is probably a personal gripe, though, and not necessarily a "flaw". I just know that most of the "drama" will be forgotten by these characters in a few years,whereas the "action" wouldn't, because monster fighting and death and all that. It's a kid's show though, so this is really just one of those times where I have to accept how dorky my hobby is anyway and roll with the punches.
The very large cast of ultimately pointless characters got annoying, particularly since each character had two episodes of set-up in the beginning and two more of focus in the later episodes. JK and Tomoko could have probably just been one character, considering their actual contributions to the group where about the same, an informant.
Both Shun and Miu outlived their welcome very quickly, particularly since Miu never really did anything anyway, and, I'm assuming, the budget for the show restricted over-use of the giant CGI Powerdizer, which was Shun's only real function.
All of this would might been tolerable with interesting or funny writing if,THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE GRADUATED FROM HIGH-SCHOOL AND LEFT THE SHOW 20 EPISODES IN. These two college freshman still hanging around their old high-school makes even less sense than a Grown American man watching a Japanese Kids Super-hero show.....
>.>
<.<
*ahem*
Moving on.
There were far too many set-ups to/actual follow-throughs for Supposed "deaths" for me to take any of them seriously(including the "Graduation").
I did kind of appreciate the "Breakfast Club" aspect of the whole thing, though. That was amusing. For a while.
Gentaro, on the other hand. Was just so damn fun. I'd love to watch him go around and make friends with everyone in the world. I can see how such a relentlessly optimistic and cheerful person might attract a lot of people and he was certainly a stronger character than Hino Eiji of OOO. he didn't have much development, but I find myself not bothered by that very much, whereas Eiji's lack of development and character was a major sticking point for me.
Even his stupid haircut grew on me after a time.
Speaking of which:
Fourze's head looks stupid. Yes I know it's supposed to look like a rocket ship. Still Stupid. His gadgets look silly, his belt looks silly.
I actually liked the idea behind Meteor's design more than the execution, I don't know if it's the skinny chicken legs or what, but Meteor's design could have worked with a little more effort. Beyblade Pikachu did not help things. But he was just so damn funky.
I actually loved the monster design this Season. I'm particularly fond of Rider seasons that establish an overall thematic design for the bad guys beyond "It looks like a bat/spider/car" The constellation motif came through very well, and the intricate styling and Tron lines were cool. Leo horoscopes just looks badass
I'm cautiously optimistic about the new season. Feel free to discuss or mock or ask questions!
Anyone Who wants to argue about my usual foolishness can find me here.
https://twitter.com/Premmytwit
I'll miss you all.