garfield15
Kamen Rider Meta
What about inserting things into the belt and having a cool pose? 
Rewatching Kuuga: What Kamen Rider has lost
- Thread starter Black Fang
- Start date
Vitor
When The Fruit Of Life Corrupts Men
What about inserting things into the belt and having a cool pose?
Belt Insertions- I'm not for it, but I'm not against it either. When it's thought out properly and makes sense to use it like in Double, I like it. The fussels in Kiva on the other hand...........they were hardly explained and I never even knew what they were called until I saw one of TJ Omega's reviews.
Cool Poses- Sure, why not? :laugh:
musashi03
HEROW
What about inserting things into the belt and having a cool pose?
It's ok, but I got used to the simple gimmicks of KR belts way back during the Showa until Agito. You have to understand that the "insertion method" seems alien to many people who are used to the old ways. I'm not saying it's bad, but we really just find the simpler methods more pleasing because that's what we grew up with.
This is coming from a guy who just had a Decade pictorial, taking on the image of Tsukasa inserting a Ganbaride card into the Decadriver... :sweat:
Vitor
When The Fruit Of Life Corrupts Men
Would you consider Ryuki's Advent Decks a "Belt Insertion"?
musashi03
HEROW
I actually edited that out of my post since I thought it didn't need to be talked about.
Anyway...
Well, there are 2 types of "insertion" methods for me when it comes to henshin belts:
Type A: Ryuki (Advent Deck), Faiz (Faiz Phone), Kabuto (Kabuto Zecter), Kiva (Kivat)
Type B: Decade (Ganbaride Card), Double (Gaia Memories), OOO (Core Medals)
Type A is easily acceptable because a huge portion of the belt is the one being inserted. Type B is still acceptable, but you get the feel that it really is a merchandising technique because of the flexibility of the system (you can insert different Gaia Memories / Medals / Cards / etc.). Flexibility is good, though in some cases it kinda makes the image of the hero lost among all of the forms if you get what I mean. You might say that Kuuga had a lot of forms too, yet he had a simple henshin belt gimmick, well I'm factoring in the merchandising aspect so this is in the viewpoint of a consumer. The belt is easily the representation of the "Rider", so the flexibility by having a lot of possible external objects to insert to the belt does have an effect on the image of the belt. It's a very complicated topic, and I really don't want to dwell on it too much since those Type B belts aren't really that big of an issue. :sweat:
Again, I'm not saying it's bad, but we could sure use a traditional (simpler) henshin method every now-and-then. I'm just sayin~
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Vitor
When The Fruit Of Life Corrupts Men
No problem, it's understandable
Igadevil
Mr. Kamen Rider
Add me to the "rewatching Kuuga" pile.
It'll be interesting to get to some of the later episodes. I generally feel early Kuuga is very strong in part because it's atypical of what comes later, when the cast is smaller and everybody's a little bit more on edge. The rules are still being written. I just finished 5 & 6 the other day and the show really is at its best when it centers on the big 3 and the more interesting supporting cast (Godai's sister, Jean, Ichijo's cop buddies.) The stakes go up as the series progresses, but I always felt the Kuuga-vs.-Grongi action side of the show often begins to struggle for screen time with developing the side characters, and not just the immediate, interesting ones like Ichijo, but seemingly everybody. Even the demented little preschool kiddies! But who knows, I might like that stuff better 10 years on.
It'll be interesting to get to some of the later episodes. I generally feel early Kuuga is very strong in part because it's atypical of what comes later, when the cast is smaller and everybody's a little bit more on edge. The rules are still being written. I just finished 5 & 6 the other day and the show really is at its best when it centers on the big 3 and the more interesting supporting cast (Godai's sister, Jean, Ichijo's cop buddies.) The stakes go up as the series progresses, but I always felt the Kuuga-vs.-Grongi action side of the show often begins to struggle for screen time with developing the side characters, and not just the immediate, interesting ones like Ichijo, but seemingly everybody. Even the demented little preschool kiddies! But who knows, I might like that stuff better 10 years on.
Orichalcon
Member
Holy crap, are you psychic?
Anyway, I am watching Kuuga for the first time, and I'm glad I am. Decade almost ruined the series for me, but I loved Agito, and since that's an in-universe sequel to Kuuga, I had to check it out. I have not been disappointed. The fights seem like real fights, unlike more recent shows where it was either a curb stomp or the hero just had to learn some lesson to win. In Kuuga, they were fighting. No gimmicks, no Aesops, just power and tactics vs. power and tactics.
Black Fang
Active Member
Maybe so. But regarding the comedy, for example, it still tried to be more over-the-top and "cartoony" than needed. Shougo and some others mentioned once in a thread that the "detective world" atmosphere was somewhat lost on W because of the insistence on extra light-heartedness.
Kuuga's humor is, as I said, less in-your-face and more subtle.
They're less "busy" or "eccentric" than the Fangire or Dopant designs, and give off a tribal appearance that adds to their savageness. While I like the Fangire designs, the Grongi seem to have more of that "dreaded monster" feel than any of the Fangires (who were actually supposed to be horror-based) did.
One thing I'm glad Rider has still retained is that the villains have human forms. Excluding Agito, Ryuki and Den-O (where only the bosses had actors) they still use real actors to play them, instead of using costumes for almost everyone like Sentai has done.
Godai or Shouichi's simple form switching is a much better image than Kiva-onward's constant fidgeting with their belts and extra gadgets.
For me personally, Ryuki was actually my first Rider, and I saw it back in 2004. I didn't grow up with the simpler methods, but I acquired a preference to it the more shows I watched.
