Kamen Rider DCD #19 Review (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS...for an episode you've already seen]

My friend Mister Mo really likes Agito. He often claims that Agito has this level of depth and meaning (it doesn’t, by the way, Mister Mo) that other entries in the Kamen Rider franchise just don’t have. Recently, he’s stopped watching DCD because he felt that the Agito’s World arc didn’t capture the true spirit of his favourite series. I can certainly understand where he’s coming from but I’ve also been determined to give Hibiki’s World a fair chance hence why I’ve only just got round to watching DCD #19.

Over the past couple of arcs, it’s felt like the series has been winding down – well, perhaps that’s not as accurate a statement as it should be. Since Den-o’s World, it’s felt like the series has been winding down. I’m not trying to heap the blame solely on the shoulders of episodes #14 – 15 but it does feel like those episodes were a noticeable watershed in how the series has developed and how it will develop now we’ve reached the point where we’re back we started.

To begin at the end, one of my concerns about tomorrow’s episode is that, now we’re back in Natsumi’s World, we’re going to find ourselves with nothing but cameos from less significant secondary Riders in an unchanging world. The clip of the Kiva-esque Rider running amok in the next episode trailer did nothing to disuade my opinion that a.) this might be a possibility and b.) Toei really do have a shedload of Kiva merchandise left to sell. I really hope #20 picks up in some way as such a decision would really kill the momentum of the series.

But let’s not worry about the future, for now let’s live in the present – and speaking of the present, #19 is one of those episodes that, perhaps like Mister Mo when watching Agito’s World, I began to watch whilst doubting the ability of the new medium to interpret the story I loved. Having watched both episodes of Hibiki’s World, I have to say that I don’t think that they fully explored the story of the original series…but they did however take what was at the heart of that series (the relationship between Asumu and Hibiki) and do something new and interesting with it, therefore I can’t complain.

Whilst I was pleased to see the return of some familiar faces and familiar characters, I did find that, just as Asumu had become more expressive, Akira seemed to have become quieter. There’s still determination in the way she carries herself but she’s a lot less abrasive.

I also had a hard time excepting Ito David as ‘a Hibiki’. Even though I knew Hosokawa wasn’t going to return, Ito just didn’t seem like ‘a Hibiki’. There was the suggestion of Hidaka Hitoshi in the way that he acted at times and certainly in the nobility with which he faced death but for the rest of it, I was a lot more comfortable with the new!Asumu assuming the Hibiki role.

"My spirit sleeping somewhere cold."

Daiki’s role in this seemed a bit all over the place – for a while I was convinced he was about to become the villain it was half-suggested he might be upon his arrival in the show.

One of the big problems with this approach is that the franchise keeps throwing out these villainous Riders but still has to make sure there’s a Double Rider sequence in each episode thus the bad guys always seem to resign their morals (or lack thereof) during the final reel before the status quo is once more resumed (‘Don’t think this makes us friends, Rider X,’ growled Rider Y with a flick of his hair from his eyes. Rider X grunted, tightening his hand into a fist, ‘But I know you’re not really bad, Rider Y, one day your heart will turn to the light…even if you have to spend the next 40 episodes fighting me and then teaming up with me at the end of each one!’). Yet, during the course of this episode, it seemed like Daiki become one of the good guys instead. I don’t really have a problem with that.

The final two fights – the first being Asumu!Hibiki vs. Gyuki and the second being multiple Riders vs. Bakegani – were both done well, the former being heartfelt and the latter being suitably epic. I was pleased to see the return of the giant Makamou, even if it took another Ryuki character to bring about their role in the story. It was also nice to see Zanki, Todoroki, Ibuki and Akira all working alongside Diend and DCD to bring about the defeat of the giant crab…

"I said, 'Who's Michael?' 'Who is Michael Jackson?' he said, 'The Michael Jackson - the real Michael Jackson'"

…however, I can’t help but feel that this scene could have been made even better had Danki been included in it.

(joking – although if the next set of episodes are just random secondary Riders there’s always a chance he’ll turn up in Natsumi’s World!)

Now let’s wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Kamen Rider DCD #7 (SPOILERS)

[SPOILER (spoilr) n.

1. One who seizes spoils or booty.

2. Something that causes spoilage.

3. The contents of this post.]

First off, is it just me or has Gackt’s opening theme beefed up from its previous incarnation? From episode #6 onward it seems a bit more guitar driven in the chorus.

This episode was a bit slower in pace than previous episodes, which comes as something of a surprise to me considering how many Riders are present in Ryuki and how many fights there are. The actual cast of Ryuki – or at least Shinji and Ren – reveal some interesting dynamics in terms of this world’s variance but, for the most part, it is Yuusuke and new ‘Ryuki World’ character, Kamen Rider Abyss who drive forward the story.

The final fight between Abyss and DCD and Ryuki is something of a disappointment, Ryuki’s Final Form Ride being far too much like the pet dragon he summons in the series for it to really make any kind of impact. Fair enough, it’s important to keep the style of the original in the manifestations of these forms, but this one made it seem a bit like they were stuck for ideas.

Abyss, who looks startling like The Rock Musical BLEACH‘s Tsuchiya Yuichi (sans Ichimaru Gin wig) is the real star though and, through a series of manipulations and unexpected twists reveals himself to be the arc’s villain, which we were aware of, but more importantly, also reveals that he is a not a native of ‘Ryuki’s World’. It’s kind of interesting that, whilst this is obviously true of the source material, it should come as such a big surprise within the narrative.

"fox-face"

Despite abstaining from spoilers myself, I gather he has some connection to the next arc/world based around Kamen Rider Blade but, having never seen an episode of that series, I can’t really comment.

And that about sums it up really. In many ways, this episode is a set up the following arc, I’m guessing, but I really feel I should again reiterate how Yuusuke drives this story forward. It’s through his sense of justice, even when the odds are against him (and poor Natsumi!), that Decade manages to resolve the situation that Abyss has engineered. There’s a nice comparison between Shinji and Ren as a team and Tsukasa and Yuusuke that really works and goes a long way to rehabilitating Kamen Rider Ryuki not as a Rider show but at least as a tokusatsu show, in my eyes at least – you can’t really ask for more than that, I feel.

"this picture will be the icon of a thousand LJ users by this time tomorrow"

Meanwhile in Super Hero Retsuden…

"YOU! I wanna take you to a gay bar!"

Kamen Rider DCD #6 (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS blah-blah-blah watching it raw blah-blah-blah still no good at Japanese blah-blah-blah]

I will admit that I was dreading this episode. I’m not a fan of Ryuki, in fact out of all the Heisei Rider shows, Ryuki has always been my least favourite. The straw that broke the camel’s back was probably the godawful Ryuki vs. Agito special but the main complaint is that, for all the armoured characters that appear in Ryuki, there don’t actually appear to be any Kamen Riders. It is thus something of a surprise when DCD episode #6 throws around the term ‘Kamen Rider’ every other word, especially as the aforementioned previous crossover was the only episode to use the term on screen in relation to Ryuki (IIRC).

"If you can do the Bart, you're bad like Michael Jackson."

Some of that bad atmosphere carries over from the source material, with a lot of the ‘Kamen Riders’ being characters that it is not only difficult to like, but difficult to care about. Fortunately here, the multiple Riders of the lower tier are used as fodder in much the same way that sentai throws about  returning monsters. A fitting fate for such characters, IMHO, and one that saves us the ‘secondary Rider from another world’ fight/subplot (albeit by supplementing a ‘secondary Rider from the source material world’ fight/subplot).

This bad atmosphere was so well done that it took me at least five minutes of searching through links before I discovered that Kamen Rider Abyss is a unique ‘Ryuki‘s World’ character only appearing in DCD. I was fooled.

Haguro Ren/Kamen Rider Knight however is a part of the original series and, as such, still comes across as an arse. I was surprised though that Tatsumi Shinji, despite looking a bit like a cross between Isaka Tatsuya and Michael Jackson, is a far more sympathetic character than Kido Shinji. Even though I still hate the Ryuki suit, I feel that I could come to like Tatsumi as a character.

Other than that, highlights of the episode were the continuing friendship between Tsukasa and Yuusuke and DCD handing it to below average villains. It’s satisfying to see a character that I do like beating down characters that I don’t. This is the true joy of crossovers, I feel – they’re like an evolved form of the playground ‘my dad’s better than your dad’ argument.

The only disappointment is that Yuusuke didn’t get his hands dirty as Kuuga. With a Kuuga vs. lower tier Ryuki Riders fight, this episode would have been a high point for me, a near miracle when you consider my distaste for the source material.

So, all in all, a damn good episode. Much, much better than I expected.

Next episode looks like it could be just as exciting…now if only Natsumi would stop wearing those depressing prison clothes and get back to the cute outfits!