Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
3,803
I like mooks because even though they're supposed to go down in one punch they make the characters appear tough by outnumbering them. It's an appearance thing.

The important fights are always one on one, but mooks are a good way to make superheroes look super. We know the mooks are meant to be a joke in terms of their roles, but it helps when they are dangerous to normal people in the setting.

If someone sent the Dustards into the school to kill everyone and Fourze and Meteor aren't around to stop them, they'd have no problem accomplishing that! They're ninjas! SPACE ninjas! It'd be a bloodbath!

But we know Fourze and Meteor are awesome because they can take them out with a single punch.
Would those be the same space ninjas that got their asses handed to them in last weekend's episode by a tiny highschool girl with no apparent battle experience and a pole she picked up from the ground? Yeah, a real bloodbath. :eyebrow:

Besides don't the usual monsters of the week fullfill the same function? Capable of rampaging through the general population but ultimately destroyed by the superhero?
Now, now. Dude's a dick but dont go hatin on his cooking. That's the one thing I liked about him, regularly preparing what looks to be delicious meals for a sweet little imouto thus starting her day right. I cant hate him for that.
Yeah one thing I never got; what is it with the heisei era shows and cooking? Kuuga works in a cafe, Agito wants to run a restaurant and always cooks for his adopted family, Ryuki lives and helps out in a cafe, Blade makes a restaurant one of their main hangouts, Hibiki is centred around characters who all work in a cafe, Kabuto is obsessed with his cooking skills and hangs out in a restaurant also employing or frequented by the other main characters, Den-O is set in a dining car, Kiva features a cafe/coffee bar as the main hangout and/or second job for the characters, many people in Decade mistake the photography studio for a cafe, and OOO also features main characters who work in a cafe or are obsessed with cake (obligatory HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!). Only Faiz, Double and Fourze aren't obsessed, and Fourze has the foodroids to compensate! Is it just a running gag? One long reference to Black or one of the other Showa shows? Or something else?
 
I liked him when he wasn't a god
Joined
Aug 15, 2009
Messages
10,380
Yeah one thing I never got; what is it with the heisei era shows and cooking? Kuuga works in a cafe, Agito wants to run a restaurant and always cooks for his adopted family, Ryuki lives and helps out in a cafe, Blade makes a restaurant one of their main hangouts, Hibiki is centred around characters who all work in a cafe, Kabuto is obsessed with his cooking skills and hangs out in a restaurant also employing or frequented by the other main characters, Den-O is set in a dining car, Kiva features a cafe/coffee bar as the main hangout and/or second job for the characters, many people in Decade mistake the photography studio for a cafe, and OOO also features main characters who work in a cafe or are obsessed with cake (obligatory HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!). Only Faiz, Double and Fourze aren't obsessed, and Fourze has the foodroids to compensate! Is it just a running gag? One long reference to Black or one of the other Showa shows? Or something else?

It's a cliché of anime/manga that teenagers and young adults are obsessed with food and always hungry. I don't know why ...
 
Active Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
6,410
One long reference to Black or one of the other Showa shows? Or something else?

The first hang out place in the original series, although that only lasted 13 episodes, was a cafe. That's likely why cafe or restaurants kept reappearing once in a while, like in X and Skyrider (though there it was the reverse, popping up after the initial 14 or so episodes). Then, Kuuga did it, and made the basis of the Heisei series alongside Agito, so most Heisei series afterwards tried to follow up on it too.
 
Shyni
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
1,974
Only Faiz, Double and Fourze aren't obsessed, and Fourze has the foodroids to compensate!
Yeah, Faiz instead had a laundry business, of all things. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Also, the Accel V-cinema did sorta give W a hangout cafe like many other Riders had.'Course, a place that was only used in one movie isn't like the obsession in other series. But, W's Hyper Battle vid was actually about food.
 
Henshin a Go-Go!!
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
1,219
[HIDE]
They all did but it makes slightly less sense for Ramon, as apparently the behind the scenes info suggested that there were a few more monster races that never got shown onscreen in the end...including a race of mermaids intended as female counterparts to Ramon's merman race. No need to go after the human ladies just yet, little schoolboy! :redface2:

I can see what you mean about the Sai head; it was much more stylised than the other heads. But that's also kinda why I like it. It stood out as a really different helmet design.

I think with the Ptera head they were trying to give some sense of continuity with the base form, as TaToBa has a winged animal for the head. But yes, it would have made much more sense for Tricera to have been the head. Or to have had other extinct animals. At least it wasn't just a repaint form, where we have the elephant legs in a different colour and called the mammoth medal.

Burakawani really only worked with the kame arms for me. The wani legs didn't scream crocodile to me (which is why they needed to CGI a croc head in for the final attack), and the cobra head just seemed like an excuse to put a CGI snake in (he doesn't even have his own flute to summon it - he just finds it on the ground next to him, tries using it AND IT WORKS! Erm, how did he know to do that? Why does that summon a snake when no other medals summon their animal? And how did he blow into the flute when he's wearing a helmet?). Personally I wished they had done a chameleon head and referenced Amazon with it, in a similar way to how (I've always assumed) ShaUTa's liquid form is a reference to Black RX. And maybe some gecko feet that allowed him to run up walls and across ceilings (I think the tako legs were meant to let him do this, but they got used once to keep him still and not get blown away :eyebrow:)

Mostly on toy packaging where you get the impression it was someone making a 50/50 guess.
[/HIDE]
hahaha oh my god i totally forgot about the snake flute thing i laughed so hard at that, it was like something out of a b movie

[HIDE]
Watch the first episode again and look at his introduction. He's a character so deluded that he will calmly walk past a mugger that nearly slices his throat open, and Kagami, being a goofball but a normal human is just as confused as the audience is.

This introduction automatically cements Tendou as either a god-like Mary Sue, or a nutcase with the insane delusions of invincibility you'd see from an over-pampered child. The only way he wouldn't fit either of those two things if he turned out to be something other than human. But he's not. He's supposed to be a normal human being.

As I said before, it was stuff like this that made me think Arata was the main character and Tendou was just an asshat rival. And because of that,Tendou actually MADE me interested in Kabuto! A show about a normal guy being forced to play second banana to the most unlikeable eponymous Kamen Rider ever with the hopes of surpassing him? That's different! That's interesting! Not every title Rider needs to be a good guy like Kuuga, and they don't even have to be the main character! They SHOULD break the mold to make for interesting stories!

I came in expecting this guy to eventually learn Real Life 101 and either change into a sober and humble human being or end up dying horribly. The former would have been the best way.

But it turned out I had the wrong assumption about his role in the story the entire time. I was seriously supposed to LIKE this guy!?
I think a lot of people who call Tendou arrogant are misspeaking, because the guy really isn't. I think the word people are looking for is "obnoxious." His behavior is the dictionary definition of obnoxious and this is clearly intentional. I believe you're meant to find it intriguing, though obviously many fans just find it galling and unpleasant.
[/HIDE]

I'm sorry but I disagree with all of you, Tendou is an excellent character, not because he's deep or complex, or can be taken really seriously. Tendou is amazing because he is a secondary character, disguised as a main character, and who has the "god mode" password to life. He's hysterical, the man cannot **** up, Tendou is so unbelievably sure of himself and his plan that he hasn't even perceived failure. I find that so interesting and entertaining, i was excited to watch each and every episode one of the reasons being that i loved seeing tendou "out badass" himself over and over again.
I mean the guy gets gets a power up (from the goddamn future might i add) that essentially allows him to travel through time, which he does, only to use that power TO KICK MORE ASS!
ALSO tendou is not a mary sue if anything he's a gary stu, but he's not that either. (Mary Sue/Gary Stu)s are self insertion characters and i think tendou is written far and beyond the point of insertion character, if anything i see him as a parody of those kinds of "god mode gary stu type characters", i think some of you might be trying too hard to view the character as an attempt to be serious, i always felt his "godmode-ness" was rather tongue in cheek. Besides the character you should be empathizing/relating to/connecting with is Kagami, who is still the true main character of the show and I thought he was a brilliant character especially when compared with tendou.
Its sort of like in Megaman X when you (kagami) first meet Zero (tendou) and he makes you look like a total *****, killing that mini boss guy in like one hit! and he becomes this goal so to speak for how strong you (or kagami) want(s) to become. but in this case Zero doesn't even inspire you he just shows up kicking the mini bosses' ass and is like kbyethanks and leaves which i thought was hilarious.
 
nonexistent
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
419
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
hahaha oh my god i totally forgot about the snake flute thing i laughed so hard at that, it was like something out of a b movie

[HIDE]
[/HIDE]

I'm sorry but I disagree with all of you, Tendou is an excellent character, not because he's deep or complex, or can be taken really seriously. Tendou is amazing because he is a secondary character, disguised as a main character, and who has the "god mode" password to life. He's hysterical, the man cannot **** up, Tendou is so unbelievably sure of himself and his plan that he hasn't even perceived failure. I find that so interesting and entertaining, i was excited to watch each and every episode one of the reasons being that i loved seeing tendou "out badass" himself over and over again.
I mean the guy gets gets a power up (from the goddamn future might i add) that essentially allows him to travel through time, which he does, only to use that power TO KICK MORE ASS!
ALSO tendou is not a mary sue if anything he's a gary stu, but he's not that either. (Mary Sue/Gary Stu)s are self insertion characters and i think tendou is written far and beyond the point of insertion character, if anything i see him as a parody of those kinds of "god mode gary stu type characters", i think some of you might be trying too hard to view the character as an attempt to be serious, i always felt his "godmode-ness" was rather tongue in cheek. Besides the character you should be empathizing/relating to/connecting with is Kagami, who is still the true main character of the show and I thought he was a brilliant character especially when compared with tendou.
Its sort of like in Megaman X when you (kagami) first meet Zero (tendou) and he makes you look like a total *****, killing that mini boss guy in like one hit! and he becomes this goal so to speak for how strong you (or kagami) want(s) to become. but in this case Zero doesn't even inspire you he just shows up kicking the mini bosses' ass and is like kbyethanks and leaves which i thought was hilarious.
Sadly, you misunderstood what the meaning of Mary-sue/Gary-sue. Mary-sue are perfect characters with no flaws and overpower as ****. Mary-sue isn't always a self-insert character.
 
Silly Rookie
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
462
There are different types of Mary Sues, but self-inserts are more or less a secondary codifier that can apply to all the many types.

TV Tropes is good for this.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue

Would those be the same space ninjas that got their asses handed to them in last weekend's episode by a tiny highschool girl with no apparent battle experience and a pole she picked up from the ground? Yeah, a real bloodbath. :eyebrow:

You got me there, haha.
 
Last edited:
Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
3,134
<insert joke about girl with no battle experience training since childhood to be the true head of the Shiba clan>
 
Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
3,803
<insert joke about girl with no battle experience training since childhood to be the true head of the Shiba clan>
Yes and as I recall she did fine against the mooks too lol.
It's a cliché of anime/manga that teenagers and young adults are obsessed with food and always hungry. I don't know why ...
The first hang out place in the original series, although that only lasted 13 episodes, was a cafe. That's likely why cafe or restaurants kept reappearing once in a while, like in X and Skyrider (though there it was the reverse, popping up after the initial 14 or so episodes). Then, Kuuga did it, and made the basis of the Heisei series alongside Agito, so most Heisei series afterwards tried to follow up on it too.
I'll guess a little of both then lol. Good to know.
Yeah, Faiz instead had a laundry business, of all things. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Also, the Accel V-cinema did sorta give W a hangout cafe like many other Riders had.'Course, a place that was only used in one movie isn't like the obsession in other series. But, W's Hyper Battle vid was actually about food.
Well, I suppose Lucky Clover had that bar they hung out in. It nearly counts. At least Faiz gave them something more like an actual Japanese house. With land prices being what they are in Japan, you'd have to be a millionaire to own Cous Coussier. I never understood why Lily and her dad/grandad (can't remember which now, and can't be bothered to go look it up lol) suddenly had a cafe. They were magicians?! Well, any excuse to bring her back and show her legs off I guess.
 
Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2008
Messages
1,428
It's a cliché of anime/manga that teenagers and young adults are obsessed with food and always hungry. I don't know why ...

As I've heard it explained in the past, it stems from the belief that a "normal" Japanese person's appetite is supposed to be relatively small (and Japanese food portions do tend to be smaller than most Western equivalents, except for dessert but that's a whole other issue).

Thus, if you have a character who eats a lot and is always hungry, it's something to further showcases their abnormal status.

Alternatively, it could just be exaggerating the fact that most teenagers/young adults ARE always hungry for one reason or another. :laugh:

EDIT:
i think some of you might be trying too hard to view the character as an attempt to be serious, i always felt his "godmode-ness" was rather tongue in cheek

One of the things I'd heard on that end was that Yonemura based Tendou's insufferable arrogance off of his own frustrations of having worked with Inoue in the past.

... And then Inoue became an episode writer for the show and unironically fell in love with the character.
 
Last edited:
Top