Kamen Rider OOO - Talk Up!

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God, that would be horrible. OOOs is clearly based on Buddhist ideas, a sudden parade of Christian ideas like Pride and Sloth that made no sense in light of the basic concept would be pretty bad. It would take the one really interesting thing OOOs has going for it ("let's base a Rider on Buddhist cosmology!") and flush it right down the toilet.

(Before you wonder what the Greeds have to do with Buddhist cosmology, I'm pretty sure they're supposed to represent how Buddhist demons tend to represent the degrees to which various desires debase and abuse humans. The use of medals is an oblique way of using coins to symbolize the physical form of greed.)

Just because they are called Greeds, doesn't mean they represent actual greed. Lust is Greed for Pleasures of the Flesh, Gluttony is Greed for Food (Neko Yummy is an example), Envy is Greed for attention, etc.
 
How is it heartbreaking? It was boring as hell.

This is that somebody has to dislike it thing, right?

Anyway: Saw OOO's 3 last Friday. Swamped with schoolwork so I haven't yet watched 4.

Interesting Rider Kick, one. Eiji should keep the belt and coins from now on, since Ankh keeps getting all whiny about it.

I predict Eiji eventually beating this first Greed, if only because he's gotta start collecting these medals at a pretty fast rate.
 
Just because they are called Greeds, doesn't mean they represent actual greed.

No, they pretty clearly represent the Buddhist idea of all desire, for basically anything, as intrinsically evil and bad. Did you think all of the dialog from Kougami and Ankh about LOOK AT THESE DISGUSTING HUMANS AND THEIR ENDLESS GREED FOR THINGS was incidental? Especially that one speech by Kougami about how THE FIRST THING A BABY DOES IN THIS WORLD IS START DEMANDING THINGS!!!

These are not Christian attitudes and not Christian characters. These characters are not discussing any Western or Christian understanding of the idea of greed or desire. They aren't even discussing anything like a Christian notion of sin, because nobody in this show has given a damn about any concept of God or the divine yet.

Kobayashi is using OOOs as an excuse to tackle one of the central conceits of Buddhist belief, one that most Japanese pay lip service to most of their lives but don't take seriously until they're old and dying. That's a pretty ballsy thing to do, all things considered, and not just because OOOs is a kid's show meant to sell toys. If you go after Buddhism you're going after something your audience really believes in.

Japanese media about Christian concepts, on the other hand, tends to be kind of... well, dickless. Impotent. I really can't think of a better way to express it. The overwhelming majority of Japanese people are not Christian and do not give a crap about what Christians think. You can make fun of Christian ideas all day and not run the risk of offending anyone, so there's no reason not to treat Christian ideas in cartoonish ways or play 23 skidoo with actual belief (as per Evangelion).

If OOOs brought in the 7 Deadly Sins you'd most like get a goofy and very shallow treatment of the idea, even moreso than what we're getting with Buddhist demons now. I think maybe a grand total of 1-2% of the Japanese population will actually self-identify as Christian. There's no reason to take that stuff seriously, as either creator or audience, so it won't lead to good writing. Especially from someone like Kobayashi, who these days is clearly about examining very Japanese things for her very Japanese audience.
 
Whoa. Now we're getting into religion. :sweat: I'd have to agree and say that it does look Buddhist, so until there's something else that is religious that contradicts that, let's just leave it at that. :thumbs:
 
i knew it Ankh wasn't a bad guy after all. he was just drastic and sadistic too. i love the type guy quite much as Yaguruma-sama! ^.^
 
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Then again I'm no expert on buddhism :p though if we got some aspects of buddhism maybe we'll see other show up...

Like the Mara who tempts humans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(demon)

I am kind of hoping for something like that if they ever move beyond the Greeds as the "main villains". Personally I think you could get a whole show out of the Greeds, but the type of Rider show that OOOs is usually wants something more badass for its last 20 episodes anyways.

I kind of have an easy in with OOOs and the Buddhism and the fthagn. I studied Japanese approaches to religious thought in college as part of my minor. Wrote a couple big term papers on Japanese Buddhism. So a lot of this stuff kicks me in the head where the average Western viewer really has no particular reason to see this stuff.

And while it has not much to do with OOO its interesting to see there is a concept in Buddhism called 'The Three Jewels' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Jewels

I've wondered if this might've given Kobayashi the idea to run with Buddhism as a theme, probably after she saw the toy design and had the toy guys explain the gimmick to her. The toys clearly weren't designed to embody any particular motif beyond "ANIMALS ARE AWESOME," which is why Toei bothers to hire writers to make the shows about the toys more than just 24-minute ads.
 
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