Kamen Rider DCD #12 (SPOILERS)

[S-P-O-I-L-E-R-S AHEAD!]

Much like Ryuki, I didn’t get on with Agito’s character first time around. There’s a certain kind of ‘happy go lucky chump’ that Toei have idolised in tokusatsu over the past nine or ten years of which the original Tsugami Shoichi/Kamen Rider Agito is a good example. It’s the enthusiasm of Godai Yuusuke taken to absurd extremes. I can’t help but think that the majority of sentai Reds and Heisei Riders were popping Es and prozac since the close of Kuuga. There’s optimism, and then there’s methylenedioxymethamphetamine.

It’s nice then to report that Ashihara Shoichi is not a total write off and may in fact be one of the most interesting revisions made to original series continuity and theme thus far.

"My father was a beekeeper before me, his father was a beekeeper before him; I wanna walk in their footsteps … and their footsteps were like this: I'M COVERED IN BEES!!"

Episode #12 opens with Me-Bajisu-Ba, previously seen in Kuuga #7, providing the kind of solid link between Kuuga and Agito that has long been speculated on and assumed by fans of both series. It also but does away with a lot of Agito chief hack writer Inoue Toshiki’s plodding narrative. Sadly, such comendable reconstruction isn’t without a cost as Kamen Rider G3 – now G3-X – is reduced to a mere suit of armour with no Hikawa Makoto in sight.

Less of a loss to the set up is the absence of angsty-poster-boy-for-all-that’s-wrong-with-Heisei-Rider-shows,  Ashihara Ryo, the original Kamen Rider Gills. This is to do with the contraction of Ashihara and Tsugami’s character into a more satisfying whole, with Gills and Agito seemingly functioning as different stages of Ashihara Shoichi’s transformation – both God and the devil, if you like, without putting too fine a Manichaean point on the matter.

Seeing both Daiki and Yuusuke use the G3 suit – which was apparently modelled after Kuuga, according to speculative connexions between shows – is a highlight of the episode as is the reunion of Ai and Yuusuke and the farewell between Yuusuke and Natsumi.

"Alas poor G3..." etc. etc.

The only real disappointment with the episode comes with the lack of Kuuga action.

It would have been nice to have seen Yuusuke taking down the Grongi for old time’s sake and matching his skill with the Unknown but I’ll settle for him taking up the G3-X role again in #13 whilst Daiki continues to swan around in his charmingly enigmatic manner.

Altogether a solid episode and an interesting direction to take both the stories of the two original shows and the opening arc of DCD itself. My secret wish is that, with a mention of G4 in the trailer for #13, we still might be in for a chance to see Another Agito make a cameo. It’s a long-shot, but I’ve definitely got my fingers crossed.

Kamen Rider DCD #11 (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS...and you know this]

There seems like a lot to talk about in this episode…and I honestly don’t know where to begin so, let’s start off with Daiki. Hat Man still seems capable of summoning secondary Riders, hence the presence of Ryuga (I think? Arrow?) but Daiki also appears to have the ability to summon canonical primary Riders – although, seeing as he was in possession of DCD’s card deck at the time, I’m not entirely certain if this was due to the original cards Tsukasa gained in ‘Kiva’s World’ or if he has his own Kiva related cards. Whatever the case, the end of the episode sees him very enthusiastic about finding what I believe to be Orga‘s belt.

There’s a lot between Daiki and Tsukasa and Daiki and Hat Man that I just didn’t catch, although it all seemed very meaningful and deep. I make no qualms about my lack of understanding here and fully wait for clarification from neighbours, friends…and the release of fansubs from either of the two groups currently working on this (and here, just for the hell of it, is some publicity for the much under-represented Order of Zeronos).

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

There is likewise some nice scenes addressing the relationship between man and monster and human nature in general, as well as the return of Natsumi’s new zettai ryouiki trend. During all this delving into the human soul and, having had the mixed blessing of revisiting Faizu episode #1 this morning, it strikes me how much more preferable Oogami is to Inui. In the two episodes of this arc, actor Seino Syunsuke brings a humanity to the character that is hard to find amidst all the awkwardness renowned hack Inoue Toshiki weighed the original series down with.

"... and I'll take the truth at any cost."

The final confrontation is suitably dramatic, with three Riders against the Lucky Clover clique. Faizu’s Final Form Ride is again kind of meh, but you can’t win them all and, for the price of this episode, it’s an okay forfeit. I don’t think it will be long before Daiki travels alongside our heroes but for now it’s nice to see him doing the right thing…even if it does further his own agenda. It’s interesting that, at the conclusion of the episode, the Hikari Studio seems cut off from moving through the nine worlds, however the trailer for the next episode proves that to be something of a red herring with a shift into Agito territory and the return of Sato Hiroko.

I’m happy about this because a.) I think Sato is to be respected as a gravure idol, b.) I like the character of Ai in ‘Kuuga’s World’ and b.) Yuusuke gets a seemingly big role in this which further underlines the connexions between Kuuga and Agito.

My one concern is that if this is the world where Yuusuke will find Ai again…does this mean he’ll be leaving the Hikari Studio to stay in ‘Agito’s World’?

I guess we’ll find out next week!

Kamen Rider DCD #3 Review (SPOILERS)

Once again, apologies for those of you only watching the subbed releases of this show. Please look away now if you wish to avoid SPOILERS.

Episode #3 concludes the ‘Kuuga’s World’ arc in an admirably dramatic fashion. At the episode’s opening we witness the somewhat ill-placed fight against Kamen Rider Kabuto‘s Punch Hopper and Kick Hopper, who turned up at the whim of evil!canvas hat!man and disappeared behind a wall overlaid by what looked to be demonic versions of Kabuto or Ryuki characters.

"Brotherly Love"

I could be wrong with that but the Ryuki were so far out of left-field that every time some shadowy version of a character turns up like this I assume it’s related to them.

The alternative of course is that they are entirely new evil Rider characters…or that maybe Ichigo is travelling forward from 1971 in order to take down DCD whilst projecting really weird shadows on the walls of the Fifth Dimension as he moves closer towards 2009.

Yeah, that’s right, *I* can write fanfic too.

Anyhow, judging from the glimpse of Kaixa in the preview for episode #4, I’m assuming that the secondary Riders from each series will be turning up in this sort of fashion a lot more as the series progresses. It’s not the best fate for some of these characters but, again, it should stop the show from getting bogged down too much by the myriad characters of Ryuki.

After the padding of this fight sequence, the storyline really begins to pick up with the unleashing of some ultimate Grongi who seemed markedly different from the original series’ N-Daguba-Zeba and, in fact, appeared to be more like Boukenger‘s pre-Quester Gai and Rei (I really wouldn’t be surprised if his suit was hashed together from these earlier characters). There are similarities in the design, although not enough for me to completely say that this *is* Daguba. Perhaps Kuuga fans can however correct my suspicious mind and identify this character.

Unidentified Life Form #X?

This new Grongi unleashes the ultimate darkness upon the world, raising hordes of Grongi footsoldiers and transforming humans into Grongi themselves. Along the way, we also learn that Onodera Yuusuke’s origins differ again from Godai’s in that evil!canvas hat!man appears to have given him a prior warning about DCD.

After which, the episode hits a high note, showing all the chaos usually reserved only for the last few episodes of a Rider series and presenting a brilliant fight sequence as Kuuga and DCD at last join forces to save the world.

I can’t stress how powerful some of the scenes in this episode are and, at several points, I found the show genuinely surprising me with the bold way in which it made such changes to the established status quo of the previous episode. The deaths of both Suwa Taro’s character and Detective Yashiro were genuinely surprising and saddening.

Other surprises include Kuuga’s new transformed mode. Yes, you read that right. Kuuga transforms…into a giant Insecticon-like beetle stead for DCD during the final battle…and surprisingly it works. It’s all CGI gloss but the mass of zombie-like-Grongi suit actors and the sight of Kuuga sprinting down the side of a building to execute a Rider Kick from above is well worth the price of admission.

Tsukasa also really comes into his own during this fight, proving that he’s not just another arsehole with a henshin device but is really up to the task of confronting such monstrous injustice as the Grongi represent.

I can’t remember the last time I had so many good things to say about an episode of a Heisei Rider series.

…

Oh yes I can. It was Hibiki.

The next episode looks to be set in ‘Kiva’s World’ with some, ah, interesting changes.

Regardless of which, DCD has earnt its pocket money this month. The only thing missing from this episode was a kaizo ningen, everything else was perfect.

Kamen Rider DCD #2 Review (SPOILERS)

First off, apologies for those of you in LJ land only watching the subbed version of this. You will hate me but, whilst doing so, take a moment to also hate my RSS feed which doesn’t seem to translate WordPress’ page cuts when it re-posts content…not that I’m actually using cuts much on this journal.

Regardless, look away now if you want to avoid spoilers for DCD‘s second episode.

In this episode…an X-Man dies!!

First off, we need to talk about Suwa Taro!

"It was a shared love of Dino Curry that eventually brought them together."

The man is a living legend so it’s great to see him here as the chief in ‘Kuuga’s World’. Hopefully both he and Sato Hiroko will continue to make semi-regular appearances although I’m guessing there’s less chance of Suwa cropping up again after this arc than Sato.

The other, and most significant character in ‘Kuuga’s World’ is of course Kamen Rider Kuuga himself, Godai Onodera Yuusuke.

Yuusuke himself is a much more likeable character than Tsukasa, who displays an increasing level of arrogance in this episode and is downright condescending towards Yuusuke. I am interested in the inversion of the original Kuuga friendship between Godai and Ichijo Kaoru’s relationship in regards to Yuusuke and Tsukasa, as well as this series parallel between Ichijo and Sato Hiroko’s character, Yashiro Ai.

I must admit that part of the reason why I seem to like Yuusuke more is that he comes across as a more confident GaoBlue.

"Ne, GaoBlack?"

One problem I do have is that follwing the episode title and, based on information from pre-release material and the footage in episode #1, I was expecting ‘Kuuga’s World’ to be a little more like the world seen in Kamen Rider Kuuga…but it’s not. The background and the set-up have similarities to what I vaguely recall from the original series but there’s a lot here that’s been restructured for the new storyline.

I realise now that this isn’t a case of crossovers but rather retcons. I don’t know if that changes my opinion on the show but it’s one of those things that I can see either being a good ‘get out clause’ or just a poor excuse for why things haven’t been done right.

Initially I signed up for this for the vague Crisis of Infinite Riders concept because of the promise of a Hibiki episode…now I’m pertrified about how they’re going to portray Takeshi company. This could be a great chance to address previous wrongs perpetuated by Toei, wrongs that even the cast of Hibiki have spoken about, but I get the feeling that Toei, in its usual manner, will simply steamroller over any discussion and transform Hibiki into another generic character in a story arc that amounts to little more than a pale shadow of the original series.

In an ideal world, Toei would be commissioning Takadera Shigenori as the producer of this upcoming arc and Kida Tsuyoshi and Ooishi Shinji would be writing it.

There is of course the chance that Decade‘s ‘damage control’ approach to past continuity might actually work in favour of Hibiki – at least we won’t have to see a direct continuation of the atrocious plotlines Shirakura Shinichiro, Inoue Toshiki and Yonemura Shouji conceived for the second half of the series…and that should at least ensure that the pointlessness of characters such as Kiriya Kyosuke do not infringe on this story. If there is a God, then Decade will hopefully pretend this character never existed.

But back to Decade and, by default, Kuuga.

Accepting the retcons and changes endemic in this story arc, one of the neat moments was seeing Tsukasa speaking Gegeru, the Grongi language (and I will confess that I never knew it was called this until I looked it up on wikipedia). Other points of interest were the suggestion that the Decade armour has a ‘Plat Form’ prior to the addition of the ten cards representing the main Heisei Riders (including Decade himself) and the fight between Kuuga and Decade.

"What do you mean there aren't any raccoons here?"

There is a sense from Tsukasa’s arrogance and smugness that he could be the destructive force highlighted in episode #1′s preview – a man destined to destroy all Metal Heroes Heisei Riders. Although, all props to him, the future flashback to the ‘Riderless World’ showing Kuuga’s Ultimate Form is enough to give me faith that *someone* might be enough of a hero to at least give him a run for his money.

Of particular note is Kuuga’s transformation from Mighty Form to Ultimate Form, lifting up the ruin and the felled form of Faizu and one another Rider as he prepares to take down Decade.

Scenes like that are the kind of thing that epics are made of…and high sales.

Unlike the disappointing action of the first episode, Decade also uses his own signature attacks here as well. It should be noted that I was indeed very pleased to see that, whilst very different from like the original cyborg Riders, he at least still has a ‘Rider Kick‘ move in his arsenal.

What isn’t as impressive is the main threat of the next few episodes seems to be an older gentleman in a canvas hat…which isn’t really the most sinister of evil archetypes.

Nonetheless Decade #2 is a nice episode full of good action sequences and, for the most part, is significantly more sensible than the previous episode.