I enjoyed 19 and 20 as a whole a lot more than the two previous episodes. There’s quite a forward momentum to the story, and the story touches at one point or another on most of the key players (and someone who has not been a key player gets a great little moment too).
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I’d love it if you left comments over there, although it’s fine here too! :D
I enjoyed 19 and 20 as a whole a lot more than the two previous episodes. There’s quite a forward momentum to the story, and the story touches at one point or another on most of the key players (and someone who has not been a key player gets a great little moment too).
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I'd love it if you left comments over there, although it's fine here too! :D
If Kamen Rider OOO‘s episode 15 was about advancing the plot, episode 16 is about both that and also about advancing the mythology and the ideas behind the story.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I’d love it if you left comments over there, although it’s fine here too! :D
1. Ankh is being pwned by both Hina and Chiyoko, in very different ways. And by Satonaka, actually. So basically by any woman he meets.
2. Like I already posted, Eiji and Hina are adorable together. Him being instinctively protective of her is cute, obviously, but there’s also the way she’s coming to understand him, in particular how she realizes that Eiji is the man he is because of what happened in the village. And because of it, there’s understanding and support growing there… it reminds me a little of Natsumi and Tsukasa before Hibiki world, before Yonemura made her more damsel in distress than supportive friend and partner.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I’d love it if you left comments over there, although it’s fine here too! :D
1. Ankh is being pwned by both Hina and Chiyoko, in very different ways. And by Satonaka, actually. So basically by any woman he meets.
2. Like I already posted, Eiji and Hina are adorable together. Him being instinctively protective of her is cute, obviously, but there’s also the way she’s coming to understand him, in particular how she realizes that Eiji is the man he is because of what happened in the village. And because of it, there’s understanding and support growing there… it reminds me a little of Natsumi and Tsukasa before Hibiki world, before Yonemura made her more damsel in distress than supportive friend and partner.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I'd love it if you left comments over there, although it's fine here too! :D
So I’m thinking I’ve reached the point in OOO in which it hits its stride and characters and dynamics start to get interesting.
I still don’t really OOO‘s various suit designs, I’m not really into the whole props during battle aspect of the action (particularly the mantis appendages/weapons), but the underlying Buddhist theme makes it very interesting, Hino Eiji is quite likable, Ankh is fascinating, and at this point characters I knew I’d like are starting to get more screentime… and characters I didn’t expect to care much about one way or the other have snuck up on me.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I’d love it if you left comments over there, although it’s fine here too! :D
And so, Kamen Rider OOO catch-up begins!
I’d actually already watched episode 4, but never posted about it/kind of forgot, so I rewatched. Very quick thoughts to follow, mostly it basically goes back to what episode 3 had already touched on:
1. Humans beings are consumed by their desires… or are they? Ankh tells Eiji that this is the reason that it’s not worth it to save them. Eiji believes that humans can overcome those desires, but even if they can’t, it’s not his place to judge:
Eiji: I don’t get to decide someone else’s worth.
Ankh: Well, I do.
2. Better the devil you know. Ankh would rather by annoyed than humans (Eiji) than betrayed by Greed (Kazari)… even though Eiji tells him, again, that the first chance he gets he’ll defeat him and save Hina’s brother. I suppose the difference is that Eiji is being upfront about it. Just like he’s told Eiji upfront that the minute he thinks Eiji has become useless, he’ll “get rid” of him.
3. And again, why Eiji does what he does…
I’m not a nice guy at all. (…) I reach out to help because I don’t want to feel (regret). That’s all.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I’d love it if you left comments over there, although it’s fine here too! :D
And so, Kamen Rider OOO catch-up begins!
I’d actually already watched episode 4, but never posted about it/kind of forgot, so I rewatched. Very quick thoughts to follow, mostly it basically goes back to what episode 3 had already touched on:
1. Humans beings are consumed by their desires… or are they? Ankh tells Eiji that this is the reason that it’s not worth it to save them. Eiji believes that humans can overcome those desires, but even if they can’t, it’s not his place to judge:
Eiji: I don’t get to decide someone else’s worth.
Ankh: Well, I do.
2. Better the devil you know. Ankh would rather by annoyed than humans (Eiji) than betrayed by Greed (Kazari)… even though Eiji tells him, again, that the first chance he gets he’ll defeat him and save Hina’s brother. I suppose the difference is that Eiji is being upfront about it. Just like he’s told Eiji upfront that the minute he thinks Eiji has become useless, he’ll “get rid” of him.
3. And again, why Eiji does what he does…
I’m not a nice guy at all. (…) I reach out to help because I don’t want to feel (regret). That’s all.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I'd love it if you left comments over there, although it's fine here too! :D
No computer, can’t watch stuff as often as I’d like, much less blog, yada yada yada. But I did catch up on last week’s Os!
The episode starts off where ep 2 left off, with Ankh encountering Hina, who is the younger sister of the cop whose body he’s taken over. The little encounter serves to drive home, again, just how inhuman Ankh is. He basically coldly considers the situation, accessing the cop’s memories of his sister to figure out why she’s run to hug him, and once he understands their relationship, determines that because she cares for his brother, she will be in the way and the easiest thing will be to kill her and be rid of her. Eiji tries to stop him, and the point is made that without the belt, Eiji doesn’t stand a chance, and would be unable to stop Ankh from doing anything he pleases. So he uses his only leverage, which is to threaten to throw the belt in the river, which effectively stops Ankh from killing Hina.
So once again, the pull and push between Eiji and Ankh is brought to the spotlight, and this conflict is clearly going to be the central focus of the series… at least until Ankh starts developing more of a conscience. Which I am assuming will happen at some point. And again, I really like this dynamic.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I’d love it if you left comments over there, although it’s fine here too! :D
No computer, can’t watch stuff as often as I’d like, much less blog, yada yada yada. But I did catch up on last week’s Os!
The episode starts off where ep 2 left off, with Ankh encountering Hina, who is the younger sister of the cop whose body he’s taken over. The little encounter serves to drive home, again, just how inhuman Ankh is. He basically coldly considers the situation, accessing the cop’s memories of his sister to figure out why she’s run to hug him, and once he understands their relationship, determines that because she cares for his brother, she will be in the way and the easiest thing will be to kill her and be rid of her. Eiji tries to stop him, and the point is made that without the belt, Eiji doesn’t stand a chance, and would be unable to stop Ankh from doing anything he pleases. So he uses his only leverage, which is to threaten to throw the belt in the river, which effectively stops Ankh from killing Hina.
So once again, the pull and push between Eiji and Ankh is brought to the spotlight, and this conflict is clearly going to be the central focus of the series… at least until Ankh starts developing more of a conscience. Which I am assuming will happen at some point. And again, I really like this dynamic.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr. Please leave comments over there! :D
First of all, I am really liking Miura Ryosuke as Ankh. Awesome job. :D
For some reason I didn’t expect Ankh to openly show his true colors to Eiji this quickly, and yet it makes perfect sense. Eiji is perfectly aware, having heard it from his mouth, that Ankh doesn’t care at all for human life, it’s all a game to him, all about collecting medals, and Eiji himself is just a tool to that end. A tool that Ankh can choose to use how he pleases, when he pleases, or so Ankh believes.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr.
I’d love it if you left comments over there, although it’s fine here too! :D
Watched Os 1 with subs. Still don’t like the OP. :D
In general terms, there’s not that much I actually missed when I watched the raw. One thing was that Eiji slept through the chaos at the start because was drugged, not because he’s a flaky slacker. Also, that there will be consequences to using the belt.
As for things that are clearer on a subbed watch: Biggest thing is that through his own words, Ankh made it exceedingly clear that his intention is to use and manipulate Eiji for his own ends… I mean, I assumed, but I didn’t know 100%. I like how he totally lies to Eiji’s face about how he’s impressed with him and that that’s why he’s going to help him.
Things that I forgot to mention on the previous post: The beginning of the episode itself, although much goofier, definitely reminded me of Kuuga and Agito. In fact, now that I’ve rewatched and thought about it, I’ve gotta wonder if, the obvious trappings linking it to Kabuto aside, it might not actually owe a lot more to Agito and especially to Kuuga, at least as far as the hero goes. The more I think about it, the more that Eiji reminds me of Godai. Food for thought, I guess.
One last thing. In light of the fact that our protagonist has no attachments and thus no desires, I find the Greeed’s line about how the Yumy is the embodiment of a human’s desires (and thus their true self) very intriguing.
And finally, if when analyzing a certain type of hero, we talk about “Christ figures”, would it be appropriate to speak about Buddha figures when talking about a certain other type of hero? Ultimately I have to admit Eiji himself, from this angle, was one of the things I found most intriguing from the press release before the series started. :D
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr. Please leave comments over there! :D
And so it begins. Watched episode 1 raw, so obviously I will have missed things. :D
The first episode kind of already confirms the impression I got from the press releases and character descriptions: that many elements of Os are very obvious nods in the direction of past Riders. To be fair, Kamen Rider is a franchise that relies on a specific, limited set of tropes; but what I’m talking about isn’t that exactly. A trope is an archtype basically, something honed down to its basic elements; what I’m talking about is the specific ways in which those archtypes are explored. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if one liked what is referenced, and it’s all revisited in a way that revamps the ideas.
Mirrored from my blog at tl;dr. Please leave comments over there! :D
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}