2018-2019 Kamen Rider

[Kamen Rider IXA]

I think people usually mean "dark for sake of being dark with little thought put into it" by "edgy".
I have fond memories of early Heisei Riders, but after rewatching Jetman and all Inoue movies recently, a few of them probably won't hold up when I finally sit down and revisit them. Inoue coloured a lot of Phase 1 Riders' approach with Agito, and one of the problems is how one-note he can be with his ideas, often not really exploring them all that well. Even at the height of my love for series like Kiva the way Inoue treats his characters bothered me. It's like he doesn't really know what to with half of his cast, preferring to focus on a few that he actually seems to be interested in (if that's really his deal, why does Inoue keep making such big casts in the first place?). Maybe that's where his tendencies to repeat plot elements come from? Say what you want about Ex-Aid problems, but that show managed to make every main character revelant and get every Kamen Rider in the show a clear and understandable character arc. I think Nico overstayed her welcome and maybe should have left the show after the midpoint, but I still never wondered "why is that character here again?" like in 555 with Mihara.

But Den-O and Den-O inspirired series are still much worse than even weakest Inoue ones, because Inoue at least TRIES to have tension and actual stakes in the story. Den-O world-building was simply awful like @Japaneseseriesfan explained in the post above. Despite being "edgy", early Kamen Riders still could give you a good gutpunch, because while often inconsistent, story WAS there and it was ABOUT main characters. In contrast Den-O most of the time was about some random person you're supposed to care for two weeks and then they're gone, never to be seen or heard again, all while "our guys" we're rooting for in battle against (poorly defined) villians are mostly engage in same-y gags and jokes which get old really fast.

The worst thing is that Takebe and Kobayashi went to create an even worse version of Den-O with even weaker characters, even lower stakes, even worse world-building, even less funny gags - all while having even less of a story - in the form of Kamen Rider OOO, which is in my opinion the absolute weakest and dullest Kamen Rider series in the franchise, leaving behind even trainwrecks like Skyrider and Super-1 (though from what I've seen from Zi-O, it has a crack at finally surpassing OOO in sheer badness, but I won't judge the whole show untill I've seen it)

 

[Japaneseseriesfan]

^ I guess that makes sense, but recently, I feel like it's been more of another case when it comes to using "edgy". Like, there are actual times when "being dark to be dark" doesn't actually bother me, because somehow, even characters that are just one note play that one note completely masterfully, so sometimes, I give it a pass. I think "edgy" is applicable primarily when it comes to this case though "dark for being dark for being dark". Like, it's another layer, in the sense that this is the age of technology, so heavy media consumption is a thing that's almost encouraged and validated with this generation as opposed to the previous generations of geeks, nerds, gamers, etc. They will just reference stuff (first ones usually come out of love for the material they reference), for the sake of referencing it (second times is a wink at the audience to go "get it?"), for the sake of referencing it (third times the effect, and it's basically "HEY WE KNOW YOU LIKE REFERENCES, AND WE KNOW THE PUBLIC EATS ALL OF IT UP, SO WE'LL REFERENCE IT BECAUSE WE THINK WE LOVE IT, AND WE THINK WE KNOW FROM THE PAST THAT YOU GUYS LOVE IT, BUT REALLY WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIT IT IN ACTUALLY BUT WE'RE THROWING THEM IN ANYWAY BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE POPULAR AND CATER TO TRYING TO BECOME A NEW POP CULTURE ICON"). Like, it's almost a triple effect. Not sure if anyone is going to follow what I'm saying, but like that's as best as I can word it.

I agree with Ex-Aid being better than some of Inoue's material, but I also think sometimes Inoue, like I said above, plays certain one notes masterfully. It's more of the problem of his placements in those notes and beats in his story and his nature of using the same recurring themes in his works (which isn't necessarily a bad thing when it comes to writing. I usually use the same archetypes sometimes, and some lines I used to write for other characters are similar to works I've written before, but I take my time to flesh out the differences ex: I might be writing an Ubermench archetype with a heart of gold, but flawed ideology, and the next one I might write about an Ubermench with a firm ideology but no heart of gold, and my next story might involved using both those types I've used before and pit them against each other). Like, honestly, Inoue could craft a pretty compelling scene that is pretty one note, but in that one note, somehow there are complexities you can ponder about as well, despite how simple it is, like the ups and downs of said note. But honestly speaking, there are also times where I feel like Kamen Rider IXA mentioned above. I kept wanting Mihara to do more in Faiz honestly, but ah well... I feel like his problem as a writer is that he didn't know which notes he was playing masterfully, or rather, the fact that he thinks he could play all one notes masterfully, when really he's pretty selective.

Like the thing is, Den-O is far from great. I think people often have this mistaken idea of success/greatness = financial success. Like, you can see that with Hollywood and how many people will defend bad movies just because it made over a billion dollars (and not factoring in inflation). Usually, the first ones of the batch get a pass, like with Den-O. No one criticizes it as much as they should and lets it slide because it did something new, but validating their financial success is only going to cause the symptoms of it's series to grow and seep into other series in the future, since money is Toei and Bandai's prime motivation.

I don't know how I feel about OOO. There were points where I did like it, and others where I felt like I had no idea what's going on and why anymore. I did like Ankh and Eiji, but that might be because the actors had pretty good chemistry instead of the writing itself, and honestly, they were the only two characters whose relationship as friends was what I wanted to see more of. I wasn't interested in Gotou after awhile, and Date turned into a joke when needed and I just felt like they screwed his arc up. I like Eiji as a hero, and the scene where Date ran away because he said as a doctor, he needed to save himself or he can't save others as compared to Eiji who recklessly runs into a fight was a pretty good scene for me. The Lost Ankh arc was completely wasted, and the only Greed I was heavily invested in was Kazari due to how fun and interesting he is, which was something I thought Uva was going to offer, but it turns out they butchered the poor bastard as well.

I think OOO only works if like, there was more focus on **** that matters rather than "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" every 5 seconds...

 

[Kamen Rider IXA]

I can give OOO that it had a few good/decent actors (not Shu Watanabe though. He seems like a cool guy in real life, but I can't stand him in OOO and I never felt he had a good chemistlry with anyone there). I think the scene that for me really solidified how crappy that series was when heroes stormed mansion with Greeed near the end. It made villains look so pathetic, unthreatening and (worst of all) was played mostly for laughs. Imagine if in Agito Shoichi and co. decided to just go and wreck Overlord of Darkness place and wiped ass with Lords using freaking nets.
Why?
Why would anyone think it was a good idea?
Why would anyone take anything happening in the series afterwards remotely serious?
Not even comedic series like W and Fourze went as far as to make bad guys into literal joke. But OOO did. Really says a lot about this show.

 

[Black Fang]

I always thought OOO was better than Den-O, at least as far as plot and characters went. But the Greeds were just watered-down Grongi (the way they were filmed seemed reminiscent of the Grongi, at least), and Kougami turned into a complete laughingstock instead of a dubious man in the shadows.

Do we know how many episodes Zi-O will have yet?

 

[Kamen Rider IXA]

^I could countinue with OOO bashing, but it would probably annoy some people here.

Do we know how many episodes Zi-O will have yet?

It seems like summer movie is going to be another "true ending", so I give Zi-O 45/46 episodes.

 

[Japaneseseriesfan]

^I could countinue with OOO bashing, but it would probably annoy some people here.

I wouldn't call it bashing. You're calling it as you see it. I'd love to hear more.

 

[Kamen Rider IXA]

I'll make a thread for that in a couple of days then.

 

[Toku Prime]

Do we know how many episodes Zi-O will have yet?

There has been no official announcement. However, Build and Zi-O both started on the first Sunday in September. Let's assume that the same thing will happen this year, and take a guess that Zero-One will begin on Sunday September 1st. There are nine more Sundays before then, so Zi-O can have a maximum of 49 episodes. Of course, it's the summer, so the chances of a sporting event pre-empting it again are increased.

 

[Toku Prime]

Well this was unexpected!

​

Kamen Rider Aqua is returning! For those that don't remember, Aqua was a Rider that only previously appeared in the OOO portion of Movie War Mega Max. In that movie he came from the future of 2050, and in his upcoming appearance he reportedly comes back from the same year in order to make Tsukuyomi and Geiz return to their own time. He is due to appear in episode 44, airing on July 21st.

 

[Black Fang]

They should have made a Rider Time special about people like Aqua and other past characters, not future Riders created just for Zi-O who probably shouldn't have existed at all, at least not in as gimmicky a manner as they did.