I liked him when he wasn't a god
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2009
- Messages
- 10,380
I like Onodera just because I have a crush on Ryouta Murai. As a character though, he wasn't that great :sweat:
Do we know for a fact that Yuichi Nakamura was unavailable?
That's why I said that if you couldn't get the alumni for the show itself (and is it really so hard to bring back actors for only one or two episodes?) there is always the movie.
You could have the show feature Tsukasa traveling the worlds, acting as the Rider of that world (Wouldn't that be a better endorsement of the Ganbaride game anyway? I thought Toei and Bandai love product placement, a Rider who is essentially RP-ing as other Riders would have been perfect), trying to fix things, and then in the movie team-up with the real nine Riders to fight the boss villain.
How? All you'd have to do is replace the AU Riders' roles in those stories with Tsukasa.
Actually, I wonder if they couldn't just bring back one or two supporting characters from the previous shows into each World as they did Hibiki and Den-O. I could easily imagine Tsukasa trying to fill Shinji's shoes in stopping Kanzaki Shiro's Game only to be rebuffed by Ren.
I think that the idea of having a past lead Rider as the back-up/support (or dare I say, secondary Rider) of a new guy is a cool one in theory. In practice though, it needs to be done with total conviction, which is why most of the time they've stuck to the occasional team-up. That builds up the excitement and allows the new character a chance to come into their own.
It's better in the long run that the Double Riders bow out after the opening story of V3 to give him some breathing room before they come back. Had they stuck around, it'd be hard not to think of it as what it was going to be once- Kamen Rider episode #99, 100, etc, as opposed to the V3 show. Sometimes the Riders are at their best when they're just offscreen, but still ever-present in the audience's minds (i.e. New Kamen Rider)
Of course with Onodera it's tricky since he's Kuuga, but he's not the original Kuuga. It's not the same as having Godai wheelie in, juggle some curry plates and give the thumbs up. It's exciting only on one level rather than two. You get Kuuga, but it's not the same man behind the mask. In a way the whole AU business is an even harder sell than in-suit only appearances, because at least there our imagination can fill in the holes. We can believe that stunt guy is really __________, even if the voice is totally off. Here, we know from the get-go that he's not going to be the same one as Odagiri played.
And at first, I thought this was pretty interesting. He's like Kuuga if Kuuga were made now rather than in 2000. There's more confidence in the actual production, but there's less confidence in the characters themselves. Yuusuke's got issues. When things get too big for him to handle, he practically gives up! When he helps save the day, it still ends in tragedy. I kinda liked that.
It's like a deconstruction, but it's almost like its taking apart itself rather than the original. The original Kuuga is great is because he's Godai, that's what the series is all about, culiminating in the you-know-what with you-know-who and the you-know-what-form. In his debut, Onodera's not bad, but he's a far more flawed character. He can barely protect anyone's smiles if he's raging about Decade. Had they continued from there, they could have done a pretty interesting, almost reverse origin story, where the guy who is Kuuga becomes great, rather than it being about a great guy who becomes Kuuga.
Unfortunately I think the writers lost interest in Yuusuke and his capacity to be the show's "secondary Rider" pretty soon after that. He gets the odd good bit here or there, but it's clear they're struggling with him at times and the bits of Kuuga action are a courtesy. Aikawa gets bored with him after a while aside from Agito World, where he doesn't get to do the one big thing he really should've and instead is just G3-X for a while.
Kobayashi just turns him into Momotaros, though in fairness does good with him in the Shinkenger stuff. Inoue has him run from monsters and knocks him out. The Kabuto World guy just like forgot he existed (though he didn't forget about Pegasus Form! Maybe that was the script editor though, if they even have those anymore.) Yonemura had a learning curve, going from "Wait, who is this again?" in Blade World to "Ah yes Kuuga, one of the weaker Riders, right?" in Hibiki World, and finally to "Oh right... that Kuuga." in the last few.
I don't even want to get into the Odagiri thing because at this point, I don't know the whole story. I have read the interview where he expressed trepidation about taking on the role, because it's in one of the Kuuga books, and not a peep since. It all does kind of remind me of Christopher Eccleston and Doctor Who- he played the part well, he had his gripes about the production though he still spoke highly of the program, but he's moved on. He's an actor who played a role, compared to his successors who also happened to be (or quickly became) fans. It's not a perfect comparison, but that's how it sort of strikes me with Odagiri: an actor helps revive a franchise and make it a television mainstay again, then moves on to other things and hasn't looked back since. I'm probably missing a beat here though.
I don't think I could say Onodera's a replacement, because he's playing such a different character in my head. Unfortunately, in another way, he basically has become the replacement. I've got a feeling that if we see Kuuga again, it would either have to be the Onodera version or just guy-in-a-suit-with-a-voice. Who knows though- I could see Odagiri making a big return to the Tokusatsu scene when his career starts to cool down a bit. It's happened before.
Goddamn it would be nice if for once a discussion of Kuuga could go by without this coming up.
They probably could have done that I guess. But, like I've said before, you'd still get people complaining about the "replacement Riders", only this time all the hate would be directed to Tsukasa himself.
I think you need to consider not only Toei's probable cheapness regarding money, but also the series schedule. Those actors would need free time at the right moment of specific arcs in order to allow the recordings. The summer movie is recorded in a schedule similar to the show's, so it basically has the same problem. Then, there are also people who just wouldn't return in any situation...
What? I was trying to say is that if you eliminated the AU Riders (and main Riders), you'd be left with Tsukasa and a bunch of minor secondary characters in the series.
Also, Tsukasa wouldn't be able to replace the AU Riders effectively all the time due to his own character too. You couldn't seriously make him go through 9 phases of character development in 18 episodes without making him just schizophrenic.
His development also would be limited due to his own lack of specific connections with each world. You couldn't apply Decade Asumu's story to Tsukasa, nor Decade Kazuma's (because Tsukasa would have no reason to worry about losing a ranking in some random world) or Decade Shouichi's (The whole G3 -> Gills -> Agito evolution and his connection to Yashiro).
They probably could have done that I guess. But, like I've said before, you'd still get people complaining about the "replacement Riders", only this time all the hate would be directed to Tsukasa himself.
He was a good actor. By all respects, he even suceeded in adding a little emotion than Odagiri. But Odagiri was a better Kuuga. But I treat both as completely different characters, because in continuity, they are.