Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider
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TheReticent
Posts: 56 |
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While I am curious to see where the story is going after the ep. 2 twist, I'm a little ambivalent about it. Part of me just wanted a main cast full of Cid Kagenou's going through increasingly deranged LARPing to fulfill their childhood dreams of being Kamen Rider/Shocker. That would've been a lot of fun.
Still looks like a fun ride, though. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5389 |
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I figured something was up when one of the store robbers confesses that he put on the mask and the urge to get into character overcame him.
It's still interesting, but it would have been fun if maybe the situation was more like it turned out that lots of people have been harboring urges to play out their fantasy, whether good or bad, until it hit some boiling point with a person like Tojima playing out his Shocker fantasy. After all, those villains somehow manage to have a bunch of goons, so convincing people to join would be part of the bit. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2568 Location: Online Terminal |
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If that picture of Yuriko drowning in her own tears doesn't become a meme, I feel like we've all failed as anime fans.
Samurai Flamenco came out about a dozen years ago and had its rug pull about a third of the way through. Granted, that show had a different tone and so it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I do think it's better to get the twist out of the way sooner rather than later. That being said, I do like the more "grounded" pre-twist premise more. We already have plenty of examples of people rising to comic book heroism when there's a national or global threat. What happens when the threat isn't that big? |
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meiam
Posts: 3689 |
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Twist killed the show for me (that and the pointless fan service), if they were going this route they could have at least have it in the first episode, or hinted at it.
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MFrontier
Posts: 20109 |
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I can't tell you how much this show hits me as a longtime fan of Kamen Rider, that it simply gets the franchise and the passion behind it (especially for the Showa era) and how that is embodied in the protagonists.
Justice for Tackle! Yuriko really embodies what it means to be a Heroine and keep up with the boys even if she should probably stop changing into her suit in public. Also Kenjiro Tsuda as a Shocker fan...Fairouz Ai as a yandere Shocker Girl...the remix of Let's Go Rider Kick...it's so peak...
I don't think it was an in-your-face hint but the fact that Tojima has superhuman strength and can actually beat up a bunch of people even when he was a teen and even defeat a bear to me was the first sign that this was never going for a grounded story and that it was closer to an actual Rider level story than at first glance. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 5389 |
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I do wonder if maybe Shocker is filling a role here by leaving child witnesses. The villains exists to be defeated by the hero, so if a fictional villain found itself in world where the hero did not exist, there might be a compulsion to make one.
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bluebaron
Posts: 175 |
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Im happy they are dubbing this series into English after Fuuto PI was skipped
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MFrontier
Posts: 20109 |
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Episodes without Yuriko stripping: 0.
The battle of the super strong busty women. Yukarisu may have the enhanced physique of a Shocker Combatant, but Yuriko has better skill to apply her strength to. Dang, Ichiyo was Rider Kicking fools even back when he was a kid! Yuriko's dad was a Stronger fanboy and clearly the siblings' mom was a V3 fan with that apron. I love how the tussle between Tojima and Ichiyo basically amounted to "my Rider is stronger than your Rider" like true fanboys. I'm surprised Yuriko didn't chime in with Stronger, though she probably cares more about Tackle than Stronger. I applaud Mitsuba being true to his love for Yukarisu, and that clearly meant a lot to her...but she's still too loyal to Shocker. |
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Joe Mello
Posts: 2568 Location: Online Terminal |
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Daniel Dockery put up a Tojima article on Crunchyroll today that sort of crystallizes what I think this show is doing. I don't think the show is about the things that are happening on-screen, rather it's about how the characters feel about Kamen Rider. There was already an example of this earlier in the winter with Zenshuu, which had this wild, theoretically epic narrative but it ended up truly being about a person's devotion to the medium of anime and the art of drawing and trying to convey that devotion to others. I think Tojima is basically a reverse-isekai variant of that, which could be why there's so many tonal swings; it doesn't matter what the heroes or villains are actually doing "on the page," the important part is that Shocker exists and Kamen Rider doesn't because that more accurately describes reality, and how the characters embraced that reality is what really matters.
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MFrontier
Posts: 20109 |
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I love how training just became an excuse to do an impromptu tournament arc because why the heck not?
I guess Yukarisu was foreshadowing that love really is the one thing that break the hold Shocker have on their Combantants. At least for as long as they still live. I feel bad for that girlfriend the family who will probably never know what really happened to their BF/husband/dad, or the idol fans who lost their friend. (But I approve of another thicc muscle mommy Female Combatant) So has the real Shocker recreated all of the OG Kaijin? Are we going to see Cobra Man and Wasp Woman? Actually, was that Hiroyuki Yoshino as Bat Man? Didn't he also voice the one who killed Mitsuba and Ichiyo's parents? I never expected someone to appreciate Riderman because he's the easier Rider to kiss but it would explain why Yukarisu kisses Mitsuba almost every episode. Calling it now, Tojima beats Yukarisu, Yuriko beats Tojima with her new move, but I'm not sure who wins between Ichiyo and Mitsuba at this point. I want Mitsuba to get a win though. |
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IronWish
 Posts: 253 Location: Ukraine |
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I'm pleasantly surprised by the outcome of this fight. I was 100% expecting much more tropey "Mitsuba dominates the entire fight but in the end Ichiyo pulls out some bullshit move/powerup and wins then finally acknowledges his brother as an equal". And for a second it did look this way, since power system here is "one who larps the hardest wins", but they gave Mitsuba a W through both technique and larp.
Really no sure now how whole thing will conclude, since neither Mitsuba vs Tojima nor Mitsuba vs Yuriko has particularly compelling personal conflict or personality clash to write the fight around. So maybe their party will be crashed by Thunder Raiko. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 20109 |
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Okay, so the mangaka is clearly a massive Tackle fan + fan of strong women and I'm not going to complain about that.
Tojima doesn't have a lot of finesse/technique, he basically coasts on his inhuman body and fighting like a typical Showa Rider...but he's still a beast who can take an inhuman amount of punishment and keep fighting even when he's apparently been knocked unconscious so long as he's still got the mask on. He's powerful, but he's not invincible. I feel like Yuriko had been holding in her resentment towards Stronger out of respect for her father, but it's not like she accused him of anything he didn't already feel. When OG!Tackle showed up to spur Yuriko on...I teared up a little. It's funny to me how it feels like right now the cast more driven to beat each other up/validate their fandoms than they are actually fighting Shocker. Best of luck Mitsuba. You'll need it. |
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bluebaron
Posts: 175 |
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I hope Crunchyroll will go back to dubbing Fuuto PI.
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tintor2
 Posts: 2727 |
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This is a crazy year for Kenjiro Tsuda and Kamen Rider. In Fuuto PI, he was Kamen Rider Skull and now he is a Shocker.
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Amuro1X
Posts: 279 |
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I believe the word you're looking for is "acquainted." If it makes you feel better, I also had to spell check it. |
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