Catching up on blogging about OOO. About damn time! (I’ve actually watched beyond this point, but hadn’t goten around to blogging).
So episode 15 was basically set up for the events of 16. Notable (to me, anyway) things from this episode:
Archives
My top 5 Kamen Riders
Kitaoka Shuichi/Kamen Rider Zolda – My favorite Rider character overall. It’s kind of amusing, since in many ways he’s kind of the anti-Kamen Rider. He’s opportunistic, selfish, conceited, not exactly the bravest man ever, and he sucks at close combat (this is why he has those sexy BFGs). So why do I like him? Initially, because that type of douche is a character type I love, and because his antics are mean but really really amusing; later… well, he just gets more and more interesting as the layers are peeled back. And while it doesn’t make him a better human being in the slightest, when you find out why he’s fighting, it does add a certain depth. In the end, I just love morally gray characters, and he’s pretty much the epitome of that; he’s certainly not a hero and neither is he particularly villainous, he’s just an extremely flawed man.
Yaguruma Sou/Kamen Rider KickHopper (formerly Kamen Rider TheBee) – Yaguruma was my first crazy Kamen Rider love, so to speak. That is to say, I was enjoying Kabuto, but it was when Yaguruma dragged his spur across the ground before strutting over to kick Worm ass before an incredulous Kageyama, while declaring himself a loser and renouncing Perfect Harmony, that I really found something to flail over in Kamen Rider. In a way, it’s probably his fault that tokusatsu ate my brain in the first place. All because I do love a good anti-hero, and Yaguruma is an awesome one.
Aikawa Hajime/Kamen Rider Chalice – In many ways, Hajime’s is my favorite character arc in Kamen Rider. It’s just so amazingly complex and touching, the non-human that starts to be human despite himself, who at the same time doesn’t know how to be human. What gets me most is the conflict between the Joker’s nature and his brand new, fledgeling desire to feel, to embrace that new humanity in himself; and ultimately, once he’s made his choice, the struggle to be what he chose; to overcome nature and fate, to prove that he doesn’t have to be what they dictate, that he can choose his own path. It’s so heartbreaking and noble at the same time.
Kagami Arata/Kamen Rider Gatack (also formerly TheBee) – I’m sure I’m not alone in that I actually didn’t particularly like Kagami when the series started. But as Kabuto went on and more was revealed about him, I couldn’t help but respect him and feel for him, because of that need, that drive in him, to be a hero no matter what. Yes, he was destined to be “the God of Battle”, but unlike Tendou, he built himself up from nothing, and in the end, he was twice the man and hero that anyone else in that series was.
Hikawa Makoto/Kamen Rider G3 – If the above is true of Kagami, then it goes double for Hikawa. In a story about a select group of people who are developing special abilities, surrounded by a battle between the Unknown and two Riders who are more than human because a mystical being/deity gave them something of himself, Hikawa is only human (the moment when he screams “Tada no ningen da!” is my single favorite moment in all of Agito). There is nothing inherently special about him, even as a regular human man. But what he is is brave, and even though he knows perfectly well that he’s in over his head, that at any time the suit Ozawa made might malfunction and that he could easily die, he pushes on and keeps fighting, because he may be only human, but he made a choice to protect people, and it is what he will do, the best way he knows how.
Den-O 7-8: My name is Smart Lady
As is probably obvious, my response to Den-O eps 7 and 8 can best be summed up thus: LOL, Smart Lady! Or Shimada Nanako, whichever you prefer!
Also! Urataros comments on the unfortunate length of Momotaros’ pole. And then Momotaros takes offense… when he figures out what Ura means, at any rate. 8D/
(For a kid’s show, they sure get away with Urataros implying an awful of lot really horribly badwrong stuff).
Den-O 5-6: Enter Urataros
Now, if one is identifying common tropes that Kobayashi likes to revisit, wouldn’t it be fair to say that Urataros is probably the closest Den-O has to one Kitaoka Shuichi? :D
Probably, and this would explain why I like Urataros so much. I mean they’re both full of it, they’re both smooth with the ladies (well, Kitaoka supposedly is, we don’t see it work in Ryuki because it’s always directed at Reiko), and they’re so much smoke and mirrors around their motivations that it’s very hard to tell just what there is underneath it all… except for the fact that one suspects they’re really not bad, underneath it all, just selfish, opportunistic and self-serving. But quite charming, really!
Especifically with Urataros, there’s the mystery of why exactly he’s doing what he’s doing, why he’s possessing Ryotaro knowing the limitations of possessing a singularity point (which at this point… haven’t exactly been explained). Read more “Den-O 5-6: Enter Urataros”
Den-O ep 1: Ryotaro and Shinji, Momo and…?
So, starting with the Den-O (re)watch.
Personally, I didn’t realize before the link between Den-O and Ryuki, but now I do, and Ryuki being my favorite it’s inevitable that I’m going to be drawing conclusions, the first of which involves Ryotaro himself and the ways in which he is like Shinji, and the ways in which he’s not. Obviously, they’re both “Fail!Riders”, but their attitudes are very different. Ryotaro is resigned to be bullied, both by other people and by the universe itself, really, while Shinji kind of… just creates his own shenanigans, but meets everything with what can only be called feistiness. But really, even in this first episode, the real similarity between them is their drive to do the right thing. Shinji gets involved in things that are not his business out of his sense of justice, and Ryotaro, even when kicked to the curve, is always all about doing the right thing… to the point protecting those that have wronged him. And there’s kind of an innocence, I think, in that, in their overpowering goodness.
Fighting Guys in Keitai Sousakan 7
I really meant to make a more in-depth post about this, but the past week has been really hectic.
In any case, Keitai Sousakan 7 is a tokusatsu series by Miike Takashi, and it’s about a boy named Keita and his walking, talking cellphone. Together, they fight crime!
…Except it’s not really his cellphone, because it’s actually a partnership (they’re actually “buddies”). I’ve watched 3 eps, and I’m all over the silly premise just on principle, and 7 (that’s the phone) is actually is quite… endearing, in a dry, dead-pan machine-y sort of way.
But I’ll be honest and admit that a big draw to check this out is that Matsuda Satoshi, Kamen Rider Ryuki‘s Ren, is in it, playing a character that is basically Ren with flatter hair and a white coat instead of black duster, but apparently still being a badass and punching people in the face, so that’s awesome. Ren is not my favorite Ryuki guy (that would be Super Lawyer Kitaoka Shuichi), but I do like him an awful lot.
Also in Keitai Sousakan 7 is Takano Hassei, although he hasn’t appeared yet. But as it turns out, Ryuki‘s Editor-in-chief is 7’s original buddy, and either I never knew or I forgot about this, but I was really happy to see him show up in episode 1. I do love me some Editor-in-chief.
In any case, I’ll post more about it when I’m not on the brink of falling asleep, and hopefully it will be more about the show itself (which is fun on its own merits) and not about the actors in it.