what were they thinking with the sengoku driver?

[Murphy]

Well, I know they probably weren't thinking "Oh god, what if kamen rider sol doesn't like this."

 

[Henshinger]

Honestly that really doesn't bother me at all. The only complaint I have about Gaim is the whole "You Got Serve" motif they have going on. It's pretty useless later on and only served the purpose of setting up the whole series.

 

[Green Mario]

I wonder if the kids even know where the phrases come from.

 

[rising7]

I actually think the tiny sword-chopping motion that is done to activate finishers is pretty cool-looking.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

Honestly that really doesn't bother me at all. The only complaint I have about Gaim is the whole "You Got Serve" motif they have going on. It's pretty useless later on and only served the purpose of setting up the whole series.

I think it serves a bit more than that, with the themes of freedom and being yourself in dancing to your own beat or whatever in there. In the end though, yeah, it was just to set things up, but I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[Henshinger]

I think it serves a bit more than that, with the themes of freedom and being yourself in dancing to your own beat or whatever in there. In the end though, yeah, it was just to set things up, but I don't see anything wrong with that.

I just didn't care for it but even with it, it's still a great show. I see what you mean about the expression of freedom though.

The only real issue with the show's first arc is that the dancing isn't particularly good, which makes a lot of the dance-related ideas you have to buy into for the sake of the narrative rather hard to swallow. And you can't just write off that part of the show, since it introduces too many important characters and concepts that the show keeps referencing. But Gaim's first quarter is a real albatross around the show's neck, and the dancing is only one of its many problems.

This pretty much sums up my feelings on the first arc.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

I actually think the dancing segments can now be used as a great way of looking back as well, which is another great part of having "setting the stage" pieces of a show. Comparing Micchy's situation to his current one provides a lot more insight than you might expect - he danced to escape his responsibilities, to be with his friends, but because he pursued all of that instead of doing what his brother wanted, instead of following his responsibilities and focusing on them... ironically, now he's

Spoiler

now trying to push what even Yggdrasil has and his brother had given up on.

Kaito, who put so much into the dancing, came to realize he just wanted the feeling of power being on top gave him (or maybe he knew all along and it was simply the only venue at the time), and has now become a formidable leader and character in general when he was formerly just a "street rat" like the rest, and a particularly cocky one to boot.

Personally, I like having such points in a show because it provides a pretty easy way to look back and see just how far the characters have come and gone, how much the story has progressed, and more. When a show is mostly the same from start to finish, it's not as easy to see things like this (though if you paid attention, it shouldn't be that hard either, admittedly).

Though as far as the dancing goes... Yeah, I can't comment. :laugh: It served its purpose and that's about it. Maybe... they were that "skilled" on purpose, to show off the "kids playing around" theme the show had early on...?!

... Prolly not, haha.