Gaim and the screw-ups

[Lockon]

Except all those instances where the myriad of different characters make a filibuster about how bad humanity is, and just few episodes ago the characters "prove" how terrible humanity is because they want to destroy Zawame City for its infestation.

You have this real bad habit of missing the forest for the trees, you know that?

 

[Thunder025]

Firstly, what the hell is up with the crossover episodes we've been getting, that were all just petty promotions for some movies? There was a Gaim/ToQger crossover for Kamen Rider Taisen, then Kikaider sides with Gaim for the 30th episode and last week's episode promoting the movie. I see no point on doing that, because to me it shattered my mood on keeping up with Gaim's pace even when I never cared for Super Sentai and, I have stayed away from all these episodes. And, I'm not interested in Kamen Rider Taisen either. Crossovers give me agonising nightmares from Decade.

Unfortunately Kamen Rider is not made exclusively to you. This is an industry that makes money, they are having a new movie coming out so they might as well promote it.

Next, are screw-ups with the Riders. I remembered people weren't so happy of Baron acquiring Lemon Energy Arms until they got used to it, and then we see very lazy things done for the movie's Riders. Kurokage Shin is basically the same Rider but with a Genesis Driver, Energy Lockseed and a different Kagematsu. You would've thought it'd be given the same treatment Zangetsu Shin got which people adored but, nope. And, Kamuro is pretty much a slight modification to Gaim but with a large spiky thing stuck to his forehead and a recoloured Arms from Mars who looked much better. Oh, and Kiwami Arms is a fucking eyesore and everyone can agree with that. So in my opinion, these things should've been fixed up.

Maybe you're new to this franchise but that's how movie Riders work, they are lazy repaints.

[HIDE]Both Kamuro and Kurokage Shin appear for a total of 1 minute each.[/HIDE]

Mars is a repaint of Baron and no one is complaining (even though, story wise Kamuro looking like Gaim makes a hell of more sense).

Also, I disagree, I think Kiwami is a much prettier form than, say, Kira Kira Infinity.

On the subject of the movie, I can't believe how stupid it looks solely by the soccer routines and I can't seem to figure out how the hell is that part of that movie's plot. Very suitable for a net movie I should say but not for this. Guess I'll be avoiding the movie also when that surfaces on the net later in the year, even though I'd be fun to see Mars kick arse.

[HIDE]The soccer world takes 5 minutes of the movie before they start killing each other and become an all out war. The soccer setting is JUST like the dance part of the series but with a soccer ball, I seriously don't see your point.

The point on the movie plot is that Kouta tells Lapis right in the beginning that soccer is a fight that is fought not to kill your opponent but for fun. Lapis, who wants to avoid having the humans fight each other to death for the Golden Fruit creates a Soccer World on top of the original world.

I'm sorry if this is will sound offensive but avoiding a movie because of soccer is very stupid.[/HIDE]

 

[CannibalS]

You have this real bad habit of missing the forest for the trees, you know that?

I don't know whether the forest you speak of even exists. The show does a lackluster job in this whole "Humanty is baaad but actually wait they aren't hope is the best!" theme, which is the exact same plot Urobuchi has written for three goddamn times now, by using shock value and a lazily written retort.

"NOW SEE how IRREDEEMABLE Humanity IS", the villains proves using underwhelming evidence of pointing out the existence of human struggle that has no proper narrative buildup.
"NO because I AM HOPE", Kouta retorts, by using Mega-Fruit Lockseed Supermax upgrade given by DJ Plot-Convenience, of which without he literally can't do anything actually substantial
"This show was still about Warring States and growing up and dancing, right?" Mai asks, while getting further pushed into irrelevancy to wait for her inevitable MacGuffin status.

 

[NeonZ]

I don't know whether the forest you speak of even exists.

Are you somehow missing the point that Kouta's hope for humanity is clearly pushed forward by Gaim as the correct point of view, and the ones pushing "humanity is doomed" are portrayed as completely evil or just people who let themselves be engulfed by despair and can't think rationally? It's really not subtle. Did you miss Roshuo's scene last episode? I could understand some of your past complaints about Gaim, even if I disagreed but this is just completely off mark.

 

[CannibalS]

I answered to that in the post.

Its badly written. Literally one of the biggest struggles Kouta's had is that he had to move a few inches to get a new upgrade.

 

[kuroihikari]

I answered to that in the post.

Its badly written. Literally one of the biggest struggles Kouta's had is that he had to move a few inches to get a new upgrade.

I'd agree with you, but for a good time before Kachidoki we actually see Kouta improving. For the most part before Kachidoki it was a race between Kouta and Kaito for improving, with Kaito actively searching stronger enemies, while Kouta had enemies constantly thrown at him in his struggle to do what's right.

 

[TheLastBlade]

Is this a thing now? We're gonna actively compare every single KR show to Gaim and say how they're better than Gaim?

 

[Lynxara]

The show does a lackluster job in this whole "Humanty is baaad but actually wait they aren't hope is the best!" theme, which is the exact same plot Urobuchi has written for three goddamn times now, by using shock value and a lazily written retort.

Yeah, this is something people defending Gaim need to realize. Is Gaim's writing impressive if you compare it strictly to other Rider shows? Sure, but this is also the franchise that has produced flaming train wrecks like Decade's second half, The Next, and the first half of Blade. Compared to that stuff, Urobuchi's ability to plot coherently has to be blowing people's goddamn minds. Heisei Rider just isn't a franchise with very high writing standards, outside of a handful of exceptional shows (or in some cases, episodes).

But if you're really familiar with Urobuchi's prior work, and if you're comparing it primarily to that? Gaim is the same thing with a lot of the edges worn off to make it safe for the kiddies, and with certain inevitable plot arcs really drawn out to help fill out the year-long episode count. Given that Urobuchi otherwise writes VNs or much shorter TV series, Gaim's pacing in comparison feels glacial. Yeah, stuff is always happening (crossovers mostly excepted), but if it's stuff you've seen before, it feels like it's happening v e r y s l o w l y.

This is not to say I think Gaim is a bad Rider show, personally. Rider's target audience is children ages 3-5 these days, so there's no reason for Toei to object to Urobuchi doing his usual thing. It's literally impossible for the target audience to have seen it before! That said, it is a little weird to be making an "end of adolescence, beginning of adulthood" type of story for that age bracket, but maybe Toei's hoping this show will be something they can profitably go back to on its 10th and 20th anniversaries.

Sometimes I think Gaim is meant as a final good-bye to the themes of the early Heisei Rider stuff, when the target audience was a bit older and general audiences would reliably tune in. It's becoming pretty apparent that Rider and Sentai's target age is now so young that shows need to be pretty simple and relatively light on story to be comprehensible to the kids. (And this need may, in fact, be affecting the way Gaim's story unfolds.) So if you hate Gaim, don't worry about it too much. I don't think Toei will be making more shows like this one anytime soon. And if you love Gaim, appreciate it while it's here.

 

[NeonZ]

I answered to that in the post.

Its badly written. Literally one of the biggest struggles Kouta's had is that he had to move a few inches to get a new upgrade.

The hope that Kouta represents isn't about him being able to achieve greater power though, it's about him receiving greater power and not using it to crush the people weaker than him, differently from what Roshuo's race did.

 

[Ryousha]

I like Gaim as a whole. The series is absolutely wonderful, but does anybody feel that the focus shift from Yggdrasill to the Over Lords made the show slower in pace and basically added that MoTW element into the show?