Kamen Rider DCD #31 Review (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS...for the 12/12/09]

TRUFAX.

Asking if I liked DCD #31 isn’t the right question here. What should be asked is, did I like a 24 minute trailer for a forthcoming Kamen Rider W film in December? That is the question.

The answer, by the way, is no. Points out of ten have to be awarded however for the fact that Toei managed to offer up such a inconclusive and lacklustre episode. It’s difficult to highlight the ways in which this episode failed but, for starters, let’s begin with canon!Blade and his utter irrelevance and, whilst we’ve got you on that note, that’s level a similar accusation at the return of canon!Kiva and predict that the same arbitrary logic was responsible for selecting canon!Agito for the All Rider film.

Then let’s talk about Apollo Geist and how it is now impossible to count how many seconds, minutes, hours or days by which he has outstayed his welcome. A character that proved an interesting choice for the Black arc and served as an awesome suggestion of what lay in store for the upcoming movie has now become an irritating and petty character who turns up, achieves nothing and then runs away. His use of Fangrie ‘magic’ to prolong his life would have been interesting if it weren’t for the fact that Toei’s Kiva bias is already very much evident in countless other DCD subplots. The same results, I wish to point out, could have been achieved by Geist becoming an Orphenoch.

Moving on, let’s touch on the actual ‘Rider War’ established in episode #1. Towards the end of this episode, the story begins to take root and for the briefest of moments, I was convinced that we might see some kind of conclusion regarding the long running themes of this series. I feel like an idiot for even hoping for such a thing, and the prospect of this entire storyline being wrapped in a Kamen Rider W film scheduled for December does nothing for me.

So, what did I like about episode #31? Well…in all honesty, I liked Yuusuke’s determination, I liked the fact that Kaito finally seemed to be acting like he was on the same team as the rest of the main cast, and I liked the roles of kid!Wataru and kid!Asumu, even if their presence was abruptly terminated by a desperation to try and tie in the episode with the vague idea of what happened during the series’ opening.

Other than that, there was nothing here to recommend the episode at all, which is damn shame as it promised so much but managed to deliver so little. Even the famed ‘Rider War’ wasn’t really present in the actual ‘conclusion’, save for possibly one scene.

During the course of the original Kuuga, Godai Yuusuke was offered one seemingly insignificant but very important piece of advice: ‘Don’t do a half-arsed job‘. I can’t help but wish Toei had followed that advice when producing Kamen Rider DCD.

All in all episode #31 is a dissapointing end to what could have been the best Hesei series in a long time…but wasn’t.

Kamen Rider DCD #30 Review (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS... for Bride of Dai-Shocker!]

I can’t say I was really taken with this episode. In my heart, regardless of whoever wrote this part of the series, I was always aware that it probably wasn’t going to work for on the same level that the reconstruction of the Heisei Rider shows worked. There’s just too much pointlessness going on and not enough character.

Having said that, I was really pleased to see both young!Wataru from the Kiva arc and new!Asumu appear in this episode. That kind of, for me at least, meant that watching this episode wasn’t a complete bust. I’m not sure if I ‘believe’ in the all-but-off-screen deaths of Akira and Todoroki during this episode (in that, I don’t doubt they happened according to the show, but that there was no reason for them) but what the hell, personal continuity for the win, yeah?

As an aside, have I mentioned how awesome young!Wataru’s eyebrows are? ^^

"Illogical, captain."

So anyway, this episode seems to be mostly about Apollo Geist getting married to not!Mari, getting an out-of-the-blue Fangrie upgrade in order to extend his life…and then wasting our time with pointless battles.

That’s it.

Honestly, nothing else happens.

Perhaps fans of Blade will have a different opinion and will be excited to see canon!Blade returning and almost being in the same scene as his counterpart, but for me I was kind of indifferent. Really it was only the presence of the two younger heroes that really made an impact on me.

I’ll fully admit that there are a lot of nuisances I probably missed and whatnot, but overall the late addition of Apollo Geist as the series’ ‘big bad’ and the determination by Toei to work whatever loose ends or vague ideas they had around this point seems to let the show down. This seems to be a continuing trend for these shows though and I’m beginning to wonder if, in order to judge a Heisei Rider show, it’s not the beginning or the end episodes you need to watch but roughly around episodes #19 – 25 as this seems to be the point where shows often change direction.

Whatever the case, episode #29, lacklustre as it was, has now passed and we’re on course for the final episode.

I wish I was more excited about it. It seems a shame for a show that had such a promising start to end on such a bland note.

Kamen Rider DCD #9 (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS!!

Seriously, this whole commentary will make you unhappy if you're following the fansubbed versions only, so...]

Guys! It’s okay! I don’t think Todoroki is a bad guy!

I know you’ve been on tender-hooks all week about this, but I really think that Todoroki isn’t a bad guy or, at least working from the same page as lesser ‘Riders’ such as Kaixa…even if it turns out their all reading from the same book. It’s hard to tell exactly *what* Todoroki is up to but basically it seems to amount to playing guitar and blowing stuff up…and then not being there anymore. What he doesn’t do, during any of this, is directly confront DCD…and neither does our blue coloured second Rider character, who I believe is somehow in charge of both Hat Man and the secondary Riders (unless this new character is the secondary Riders, ala DCD’s assumption of primary Rider forms…however that wouldn’t explain the change in voices).

"For those about to rock..."

Confrontation looks like it is on the cards but not for another episode or so which, by the seems of it, will also debut our ‘Niigo’ Rider’s hideous armour…and it is hideous, make no mistake about that.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Before we deal with episode #10′s inevitable Rider vs. Rider showdown (and I want to complain about how this is a common trope of Heisei Rider shows, but there’s just no point in trying to argue it here as the whole show is about Rider vs. Rider showdowns), episode #9 presents us with what may possibly be an alternate Tsukasa.

Don’t quote me on this, but I could have sworn that ‘Niigo’ identified himself as Tsukasa and, if this is the case, then it adds a whole new level of complexity to the way in which the show’s storyline is unfolding.

"...we salute you!"

In regards to changes to opinions regarding the arc’s opening, Mutsuki proves that just having awesome jumpers doesn’t make you a nice guy (in fact he turns out to be the biggest arse of all three of Blade‘s initial Riders) and Shijo Hajime/Kamen Rider Chalice reveals his plan to become not only the strongest Rider but also the strongest Undead. Apparently this is related to the set up in the original series, but once again, I’m afraid I can’t comment on such aspects.

Blade’s Final Form Ride is, like Ryuki’s transformation, somewhat uninspiring – in fact both Ryuki and Blade’s new forms could almost be referred to as derivative versions of the forms assumed by Kuuga and Kiva respectively.

After a somewhat short and disappointing confrontation, a fight that was by far the least convincing confrontation of any of the arcs thus far, everything is put right and the scene is set for a visit to ‘Faizu’s World’.

I really have never been a big fan of Faizu as a show, finding it boring at best and mind-numbingly tedious at worst. Inui Takumi has got to be one of the most uncharismatic of characters in the history of the whole franchise.

Having said that, Paradise Lost was a genuinely good film and seeing as DCD has done a good job thus far of reinterpreting weaker material, I think there’s at least a fair chance that the next arc will have something worthwhile to offer.It will also be interesting to see if this arc, being naitive territory for Kaixa, offers some kind of closure to his sudden appearance in earlier episodes.

Whilst I can’t say that the series is without faults it is proving to be consistently better than the material it’s drawn from (in most cases) and that in itself will keep me watching.

Kamen Rider DCD #8 (SPOILERS)

[I'm sort of running out of new ways to say there are SPOILERS in this post]

The opening of this made me realise how many of the Heisei Rider shows involve corporations or organisations of a sort – even my beloved not-really-a-Rider-show Hibiki has a secret society set up. In response to this, the villains seem to have become even more erratic and disorganised. Gone are the days of Shocker and Destron when a rogue individual is forced to take justice into his own hands; now society is threatened by random violence from anti-social elements who seem to posses little reasoning in the way they commit crimes…Toei, is this some social commentary you’ve got going on here?

As mentioned in my previous review and conversation with Arrow, I know nothing of Blade or its universe, having never seen an episode of the show despite cajoling back in the day, so everything presented in DCD episode #8 was completely new to me.

Within the context of DCD, the world of Kamen Rider Blade seems focused on a set of characters who are but one step away from establishing their own host bar, thus it comes with great satisfaction, especially after my wife professed interest in at least two of the three Riders present at the episode’s opening, to see the natives get thoroughly trounced by Tsukasa. It’s a satisfying feeling seeing new characters with more hair product than you get shown up by a character that you have, for better or worse, decided to support.

But I digress…

"LOL, these guys can't even spell JAKQ!" (j/k!)

Of the four new Riders featured in ‘Blade’s World’, I think the most likeable is probably Kuroba Mutsuki/Kamen Rider Leangle, if only for his Anthony Wong/Michael Caine-style glasses and his awful jumpers. Strangely enough he was also the only one of the three initial characters that my wife didn’t care for, something that might have caused him to be awarded a higher level of esteem than he might otherwise have garnered.

Other things that need to be addressed about this episode are a.) what the hell is going on with Eijiro and Kivala? Seriously. Actually, the quality of Kivala’s CG seems to have, er, how shall we say, ‘dipped’ in this episode – by dipped, I mean that she was portrayed on a string for most shots rather than being animated as she has been in a lot of earlier episodes. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon‘s Luna and Artemis seemed convincing by comparison – b.) I have to admit a fondness for Mi of the kitchen staff, although at first I thought she might have been played by Akihabara@DEEP‘s Kosaka Yuka. Perhaps next week’s Fandom Friday should be an attempt to pair up Mi and Natsumi?

…

No? Sadly I didn’t think so either.

Other than that, there’s not much else for me to say. I really enjoyed the episode and it was somewhat refreshing having an entire world unfold that I knew nothing about and, like the Ryuki arc, prove that sometimes Toei’s creative staff can rise above poor suit design and fashion characters that are generally interesting despite toy sales.

My main concern is to do with next week’s episode which features not only the return of the somewhat dull secondary-Rider-filler-fight plot but also what looks to be Todoroki as the opponent. I was hoping all the Hibiki ‘Riders’ might stay together but I guess that was too much to ask for.

Ho hum.

Hopefully it won’t be complete character assassination.