Kamen Rider Build, Episode 01: "These Guys Are A Best Match"

[Toku Prime]

Maybe I'm just too spoiled by Western media. It's such a staple in our stories that it seems weird when it's absent in other places.

My exerience is that UK and US shows are just as limited to their own countries. Hollywood movies are rather well-known for saying "the world" and then never showing anywhere outside of the US, or if they do it's just a 30 second montage of the same world landmarks (Westminster Clock Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Sydney Opera House, the Taj Mahal etc). That has changed slightly in recent years, because the most expensive movies have received funding from China and the deal seems to be that you have to include a scene set there, so you get a generic industiral zone or cityscape that could be anywhere in the world but has a caption informing the audience that it's a place in China.

But I guess Rider's always been like this. For example, V3 starts with a nuclear bomb detonating but nobody in Japan seems to notice nevermind elsewhere in the world.

 

[Kivat]

This first episode was cringy, but i'll give the actors a slide assuming they filmed this first. Super rushed as per usual, which isn't a good thing to be getting used to. The girls I'm sure will never be more than 'secretaries' but the rider candy girl (sorry i dont have a clue what anything or anyone is called, I wasn't present for pre-season hype and info like the old days) seems cool enough.

What I dislike the most though? The Henshin and belt mechanics. The mini shake weights are the biggest tension killer thus far as well as the crank mechanic being even slower. They looks goofy, but more accurately they aren't dynamic or have a nice kinetic flow.