Kaigan KR Ghost 03

[takenoko]

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Last week's poll rating: 3.43

So last week it went down. Will it go up this week?

[Lunagel]

So are we not going to address the fact that Robin Hood is a legend and not a real person? No? Okay then, I'll shut up... (and don't give me that "he's based on a real person" stuff, it doesn't count and you know it!) The Robin Hood form is really cool looking though.

Hands up all who saw Mari being Little John from a mile away.

I put a TL note in it, but the name Kanemochi is basically just the Japanese version of "Richie Rich."

The Ganma method of obtaining Eyecons is seriously limited. I mean, how often are you going to have a famous person's focus item (expensive!) just randomly hanging around someone who is really passionately into them? That shit belongs in a museum, yo.

[VerusMaya II]

I knew Mari was Little John because of the hip sway. Hips don't lie.

Robin Hood form is definitely cool, I hope we get to see it in motion so the tassles go flying. Only got a tiny taste of it every time Takeru had to dodge.

Speaking of, Takeru was real super cute in this episode. Please hug me instead ;_;

[Arigomi]

I thought it was cheesy when Takeru shed a tear for Mari. There wasn't enough emotional buildup to justify that level of melodrama. This episode feels like it was originally written to be a 2 episode story that has been standard for previous Kamen Riders.

It will be interesting to see how Akari's investigation into the basement laboratory progresses. There is a lot of potential there to undercover a lot of secrets.

[Yaiba]

Lol Yurusen. Your Navi can't help you with enemy's weakness here, Takeru.

I was half expecting the business man to show up at the end and ask "Where the hell is my bow and arrow?!"

[Phoenix512]

Yurusen is obviously more like Fi with the help. Ghost needed to die multiple times before Yurusen gives help on the enemy.

[XerBlade]

Robin Hood was actually a real person. Rather, he was many real people. Multiple people throughout old English historical records have used the name of Robin Hood to do similar activities. Of course, records are scarce from back then, so we really have no idea how many people have actually used the name.

Note the PSP game Fate/Extra (which also dealt with heroic spirits) also had a spirit summoned of Robin Hood, except it went as far as to specify that he was just one of the many Robin Hoods whose true name had been lost to history, and that the game was not using the legend that all the movies are based on (even though it did also use legendary heroes).

Now, the legend of Robin of Locksley who returned from fighting under King Richard the Lionheart in the Crusades fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and all that? That's not real. Of course, did this episode say it was based on that legend and not just some great archer in Sherwood Forest (which applies to the real ones)? I don't think it did.

[Shipuujin]

I really love the forms of Ghost in this series. The coat motif really does wonders for each of the Luminaries.

Liking how Akari is slowly believing more about ghosts as the series goes on, and even is researching to help Takeru as well!

The episode overall was a bit average though. It seemed a bit odd to me that Takeru cried about Mari, despite only meeting her like once before that moment.
That said, I am liking the series so far. I'm guessing once all the forms are obtained (assuming there's less than 15 forms!), then the antagonist will finally show up.

[Draccy]

89 days and 12 Eyecons left. Hmm.
Well, Specter is going to show up soon, so that's nice.
Overall ok episode, and yea, odd that Takeru had that much emotional attachment to shed the tear.
Though, I guess it was due to the fact that he hugged her and felt all the emotions she had surrounding her father's death and what not.

[wisdomcat]

I'm assuming the story will kick in after episode 4 but I'm excited for the second rider to appear. The episode was average at least but it got a 4 thanks to Robin Hood.

[AkuTenshiiZero]

I feel the need to vent...

I stopped watching Kamen Rider after the first few episodes of Fourze. The reason was that I felt the series was far too childish for my taste, and that the series was straying too far towards a younger audience. Kamen Rider always felt like a teen or young adult show, while Sentai tended to lean more kiddie. And thus far, every new Kamen Rider since then I've watched the first 3-or-so episodes, been disappointed, and shelved it until the next season. It seems like the problems I've had with the franchise don't seem to be improving, they seem to be getting worse.

1) The belt music has officially reached the critical breaking point. The first time I saw this was Den-O, but just a little musical jingle is no big deal. W took this in a clever direction, each memory had it's own jingle and they blended together in a cool way. OOO was where it started losing me, but it was still tolerable enough since the focus was on announcing the form's name. Furze...I just don't talk about Fourze in general, moving on. Wizard was where it got too far over the edge. Ghost is just beyond obnoxious, so much vocal nonsense and the sound design of the show doesn't even work around it. In this episode, the belt is actually drowning out the background music, which in turn is struggling to establish a heroic and uplifting tone. It's like the musical equivalent of some douchenozzle shouting in a theater.

2) The Disney Channel-grade acting. These people are overacting every single line they read. The main character this time, thank Christ, is actually a subdued and natural-sounding person and I like him. But this God damn monk...He is going to break the show for me. Look, I get it, Kamen Rider always has to have a goofy character somewhere to balance things out. But there's a big difference between Momotaros losing his cool and this shrieking idiot. At least Momotaros shifted between manic and subdued, you can't have a character turned up to 11 all the damn time. Not if you want anyone to take your show the slightest bit seriously. Oddly enough, the one character I was ready to hate, the Muppet, is actually better acted than the rest of the supporting cast.

3) This is a new complain for this series in particular, but it's a big one: The fight choreography on display here is some of the worst I have ever seen. I get that the power-of-the-day is a bow and arrow, but was it necessary to stand there impotently shooting arrows while the monster whiffs axes? And what was up with Ghost's extremely leisurely floating going on earlier in the episode? I couldn't even tell if he was attacking because he was just kinda floating around looking bored. Airborne combat is something you don't often see in a Rider's base form, make that shit more exciting. To bring up the season-that-shall-not-be-named, at least in Fourze's favor the choreography was ridiculously good.

In the show's favor, I do really like the design of the suit (except the belt, it completely lacks cohesion with the rest of the costume) and I really like the concept of tapping into famous historical figures as a source of powers (even if the idea that some random Japanese guy would have Edison's lightbulb is just hilariously stupid, and I'm pretty sure Robin Hood never existed). I think I'll give this one a longer trial period than usual.

Thus concludes my semi-annual tokusatsu-related rant. See you again in a few years.

[Mxylv]

I gave this one a four. The addition of a dilemma with Little John was nice, but they didn't seem to do anything with it. Sadly, I think part of what's throwing me out of the emotion is the acting (although I also think shedding a tear for Mari so early was pretty bad storytelling). That said, it was mostly a pretty decent standalone story. I really liked the Robin Hood outfit as well as Akari's invention, and I also like it that they're scrambling up the number of days left vs. the number of Eyecons left.

It's nice to see Onari be useful this episode, but I still feel it's kind of an insult to Buddhism that he's in the show (especially with all the tradition the show draws from and all). That said, both he and Akari are much more competent than they seemed to be at the beginning. High hopes for further character development, even if it's not likely to go very far.

1) The belt music has officially reached the critical breaking point. Ghost is just beyond obnoxious, so much vocal nonsense and the sound design of the show doesn't even work around it. In this episode, the belt is actually drowning out the background music, which in turn is struggling to establish a heroic and uplifting tone.

2) The Disney Channel-grade acting. These people are overacting every single line they read. The main character this time, thank Christ, is actually a subdued and natural-sounding person and I like him. But this God damn monk...He is going to break the show for me.

Those are some of the main problems for me, too. Last week I theorized the Bacchiri Minnaa henshin sequence was going to get old very quickly, and this week proved it unfortunately right for me. I also think pretty much everyone needs a new actor (and a new script), but it is still in the first few episodes. It may be just me, but even with Takeru's refreshing calmness he doesn't seem to convey anger or sadness for me.

Thoughts on the preview:

Spoiler

Glad we'll be getting a second rider. Hopefully this'll lead to a bit more world-building, which I think the show really needs.

[Go-On Macaroni]

Ghost is just beyond obnoxious, so much vocal nonsense and the sound design of the show doesn't even work around it. In this episode, the belt is actually drowning out the background music, which in turn is struggling to establish a heroic and uplifting tone.

That happened in Wizard too; iirc, it evened out after a while.

3) This is a new complain for this series in particular, but it's a big one: The fight choreography on display here is some of the worst I have ever seen. [..] To bring up the season-that-shall-not-be-named, at least in Fourze's favor the choreography was ridiculously good.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Koichi Sakamoto's works so I feel the opposite.

[ViRGE]

1) Ghost is just beyond obnoxious, so much vocal nonsense and the sound design of the show doesn't even work around it. In this episode, the belt is actually drowning out the background music, which in turn is struggling to establish a heroic and uplifting tone. It's like the musical equivalent of some douchenozzle shouting in a theater.

2) But this God damn monk...He is going to break the show for me. Look, I get it, Kamen Rider always has to have a goofy character somewhere to balance things out. But there's a big difference between Momotaros losing his cool and this shrieking idiot. At least Momotaros shifted between manic and subdued, you can't have a character turned up to 11 all the damn time.

3) And what was up with Ghost's extremely leisurely floating going on earlier in the episode? I couldn't even tell if he was attacking because he was just kinda floating around looking bored. Airborne combat is something you don't often see in a Rider's base form, make that shit more exciting. To bring up the season-that-shall-not-be-named, at least in Fourze's favor the choreography was ridiculously good.

I don't agree with every point you made, but you do hit what I feel are the core issues right now. There's so much yelling. The belt yells. The monk yells. Nerd girl yells (she's a bit better this episode). It's really, really grating.

As for the action choreography, I'm guessing someone thought that a flying battle would work since ghosts can typically float? Clearly whoever was doing this was trying to channel Sakamoto's wire-fu, however they failed hard. It had none of his style, so it was just a guy in a suit being held up in the air and kicking. And he was hunched forward half the time as well, which was just really odd.

[TokuCasual]

I noticed a lot of complaints for Ghost floating, but I don't see it as poor wire-work stunt, I take it that it's suppose to look that way. I don't know, maybe if they add a trail of shadow after him in midair it might look better. When he first appear in the Drive movie, he hover and float with golden trail, I thought that was neat. Strange they're not doing that here.

I give this episode a 4. As I actually thought this episode improve from the previous. Akari and Onari are still a bit weird, but they actually want to help, and does prove to be helpful. I like that while Takeru is on the Robin Hood case, Akari and Onari is following their own lead. Akari with the ghost potion thing, Onari with keen eyes. He spotted the hole in the Ganma defense. As for Takeru, he's a good kid. I don't think the tear he shed was simply because of Mari though, but rather his own feelings because he understood what she went through, with the whole father thing. And how they both lost their dads before their eyes at such a young age.

The problem I have with the show so far is that it's too busy. Too much form, one after another, too much happening, but not enough world building, or much plot to grab a hold to. Next episode looks good, but also very busy. New form for Ghost, new Rider appear, and another new form floating about.

Too much stuff but not enough substance makes this a stumble.