FIRSTy's Ichimonji is too complicated...

[Ladymercury]

... then what he really needed to be.

I rewatched FIRSTy a while back and usually, second time through, you'd get more things fleshed out about a character because you notice things you didn't notice the first time through.

... But Ichimonji was as much of an enigma as he was the first time through. Was Kazuyoshi (or whatever his name was) really Ichimonji? Or was Ichimonji someone else? Did Ichimonji knew who he really was and chose to forget or he completely did not realize his other half?

Why was he so enthralled with Midorikawa? Did he have a piece of his old self attached to her or was it just a fling for him?

Also, do you feel they over complicated his character? By the second appearance Ichimonji had I was more focused on how pretty the guy was then whatever was spewing from his lips. His backstory sucked... and I doubt NEXTy is going to flesh him out even further.

 

[Judge Faiz]

Yeah, I didn't get Ichimonji's story either. And evidently, when he came back the second time, he also seemed to be trapped in a 70's timewarp according to his shirt collar :laugh:

 

[JFC]

when he came back the second time, he also seemed to be trapped in a 70's timewarp according to his shirt collar :laugh:

Maybe he just likes "vintage" clothing?

 

[MattComix]

What they did with that charcter in the First was just needless and dumb. It makes no real sense at all. If they wanted to go that route they should have had it that we don't see him until he's assigned to destroying Hongo.

They could have left his basic origin the same minus Hongo rescuing him and filled in that background later on while in the meantime he's mysterious and established both as a advesary and romantic rival until they team up. (Because this being a modern Rider thing no scripter would be allowed to NOT do Rider vs. Rider stuff. But maybe you could at least have them team-up sooner.)

Of course this would have likely needed to be movie to be focused on the *RIDERS* instead of the angsty kids but oh well who would want to see Kamen Riders in a story about Kamen Riders in a Kamen Rider movie right? :shakefist

 

[Ladymercury]

So, Ichimonji is Katsuhiko? I figured it probably was him but the movie never outright said it nor even attempted to make a hint at it. It just frustrates me that you have this guy, this fiance, and then he comes back as this Ichimonji who's also Kamen Rider 2 and no real back story.

Yet, the two look exactly alike.

It was dumb, as you said.

 

[LightningZERO]

No...they're not the same person. He's just looks like him

 

[ShadowRider]

I don't buy the idea of Ichimonji being a completely different person who just "happened" to look exactly like this other guy. I mean this guy dies and all of a sudden his "twin" just appears? No way. The way it seemed to me was that when Katsuhiko died, Shocker claimed his body and reanimated it creating Ichimonji. Kinda gross, but in my mind, they are the same body but not the same personality, at least not entirely. Though I think if this is the case something of Katsuhiko had to still be in there considering Ichimonji's feelings for whatsherfaceIforgethername and why he wanted to save her. Maybe it was just that he was stalking her, but he did show up to that same bar where he proposed to her, I don't know.

It was still a useless storyline ultimately. Maybe they could have better handled it had they not wasted time with the dying kids who were never even important character. Though that like Ichimonji being a shocker rider was from the manga, still which was the more important story? With such a limited time to tell the story, Ichimonji obviously. Wish the staff had realized that.

 

[Ladymercury]

Well, then again, didn't Inoue write the script?