KR Zi-O 36 released

It's pronounced Ji Oh. AKA Kamen Rider Double Decade
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Ratings

Poll ended at Mon Jun 03, 2019 12:05 am

☆☆☆☆☆
2
11%
☆☆☆☆
3
17%
☆☆☆
5
28%
☆☆
2
11%
6
33%
 
Total votes: 18
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KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by takenoko »

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Last week's Zi-O rating: 4.11 / 5 (19 votes)

Alt Title: The other shoe fell...

Oh Inoue, you're so predictable that it'd be funny if it weren't so sad. More on this at the end. Let's count up the ways this episode was stupid:
Rant about Inoue's writing
1) Squanders all potential set up in the previous episode. Yuuko had so much potential as a character, but ends up being just completely inconsistent, changing dependent on what the scene needs of her.
2) The intrigue of the mystery? No one solves it. Tsukuyomi just asked a dude and Geiz watched
3) Problematic tropes. Yuuko is literally a crazy ex-girlfriend. Even if we ignore that portraying people as just being crazy is a bad thing, having them be crazy is lazy writing, since you don't have to establish a personality, goals, or reasonable justification for actions. "She's just crazy, just roll with it."
4) What exactly does Inoue think a human relationship is? Sougo ostensibly "loves" Yuuko because he thinks she's his first love. Does she act in ways that makes him love her? Not really, the whole thing becomes less of a character growth for Sougo so much as it becomes his motivation for acting useless and dumb.
5) More problematic tropes, all women are backstabbing, catty, and manipulative. Has Ora killed someone before? Well she has now, and all because she dared to scratch her face, which is the only valuable trait for a woman apparently.
6) Inoue being Inoue. How many people called out that this would end in a dumb tragic way, because that's all Inoue does anymore?
7) What's with the manhole thing? At some point Inoue just decided quirk was all you needed to make a character intriguing.
8) Remember when Sougo had that vision in the previous episode. Did anything come of that?
9) Kivatte Bat's voice actor saying kivatte, but as a different character is dumb
10) Tone. Sougo calling Yuuko Sailor-san when she dies, is funny in a bad way. Also, Woz kills the "woman his king loves" but doesn't understand why Sougo is sad, and promptly steals his pie. Is this proof Inoue is an alien that doesn't understand human emotion?
11) Pie thing and Tsukuyomi liking spicy thing amounted to nothing...

I'll repeat what I said at the end of Rider Time Ryuki. Inoue is genuinely good at setting up a scenario, but never let the guy finish a story. Inoue is a mystery story where the end reveals that the killer was misogyny, misanthropy, and emotional manipulation over understanding how people work.

Also, the revelation that Sougo thinks any woman who touches his chin is his first love makes him seem dumber than even his usual level of dumbness. I'm not sure what the takeaway moral of the story is. Was Sougo really "in love" with a killer or are we supposed to take that Sougo's first love is completely superficial and anyone can step into that role is the barest of minimum requirements are met? On the other hand, it does play into Sougo as being kind of a tragically isolated character as a child. Although that's super inconsistent since he was friends with that Oni kid and he gets along with his classmates...
Inoue, again, get help. Please don't write anymore until you do.

Takahashi Yu is lovely as always. I wish she had a bigger part in this episode. Obviously she can't play Yuri since she's dead before the events of Kiva, but still.

At least the Ginga bullshit was wrapped up relatively quickly. One star episode, which gets another star because Takahashi Yu is such a lovely person.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by TypicalStandUser »

This is a bad episode. Awkward smash cuts after the MOTW is defeated, unnecessary CGI Riders doing 90% of the triple kick sequence.

The truth is revealed. Yuuko is a yandere.

Weak debut of Woz Ginga. I hope to hear the Miridewatch/Beyondriver's standby loop for the form next week or so.

Of course, Inoue executes his usual woman stuffed into a fridge trope.

Sugita, please come back to Gintama.

WAGA TOMO, please save me.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by Lunagel »

The only good thing about this episode is that it was so bad it made me forget the mediocrity of the GoT finale.

What an absolute travesty of a storyline
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by BreadToku »

I must say, I'm pretty impressed with this episode. I went in with very minimal expectations, and it still managed to greatly disappoint me! Quite the feat.

First off, Another Kiva is actually just an evil murderer. It's not great, but whatever, she was a mostly entertaining villain, even if how she went out was incredibly unsatisfying. No, what really aggravates me about this episode is how Sougo is written. It is impossible to sympathise with his 'plight' considering it came from a child's crush, and that he's so torn up over her for this reason is utterly ridiculous. I was pissed off at the end when they had him shedding a tear because I could not believe how shallow an attempt to get the viewer emotional this was. I know the kid can be dim at times, but this episode took it way too far and I am gonna try not to let it affect my view on him too much.

That said, our villain's overuse of manhole covers is hilarious. Like, I laughed out loud when she even showed up to that wedding with one in hand. Clearly I'm not the only one who thought that, since there's a bunch of memes on the Japanese side of the net regarding this bizarrely specific quirk.

Then the stuff with Ginga. Last episode, I wasn't too happy with Ginga showing up because I thought it would take time away from an interesting story. In hindsight, removing him wouldn't have changed any of the big problems with the story (which kinda says a lot about how shoehorned he is). It's still incredible (in a bad way) how he really does just show up for no reason and is gotten rid of just as quickly.

That leads to a new form, which also bugs me for various reasons! It's actually pretty neat that the secondary belt has an upgrade this late in the series, it's been a while since that has happened. And the Ginga Miridewatch is clearly meant to be special, since it's bigger and breaks some patterns from Woz's other forms.

....But how he got the form is such an afterthought that it seriously feels no more special than any of his other forms. For a debut fight, that was kinda garbage! Even the Genm RiderArmour got a better showing than that! I hope later on, some episode focusing on Woz will really let him show off what is clearly meant to be his final form.

So yeah, this is my least favourite episode of Zi-O by far. The really wonky first stretch of episodes at least had the advantage in that I had no expectations back then. But I'll say this much! Between the forced drama, unfulfilling attempts at emotion, and abruptly-introduced power-ups... this arc really did remind me of Kiva, all the worst parts of it. So.... kudos?

Next week looks MUCH more promising.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by ViRGE »

I suppose it's a consolation prize, but we've had worse? The early episodes of the series come to mind, when everything was a cluster-mess of botched tributes. Not that this episode worked well, but it landed in some places.

Plot-wise, Inoue definitely stepped in it. And actually, I wouldn't mind him being so darn fatalistic if it was just handled better. But Yuuko dying at the end was so abrupt and out of place for Zi-O...

Having Ginga smashed into the plot definitely didn't help matters. Not only it it an incredibly unsatisfying debut of a final form, but we never actually learn anything about the guy. That needed to be its own episode, full stop. Maybe it wouldn't have fixed everything, but it couldn't hurt. However I will give the writers credit for at least trying to tie the two plots together here - needing Another Kiva's help with Ginga, opening the door to having someone other than Sougo defeat her - which is more they did than in the previous episode.

Speaking of Kiva, I feel gypped that we don't get to see the watch used at all. Given the whole quest Sougo is on, it's practically Checkov's Watch. Practically speaking, I don't really expect this show to do a dang ride armor for every last Heisei rider. But avoiding the subject in such a ham-fisted manner didn't work.

And while I'm at it, what's up with the girl on the bike at the end? I don't mean the cameo, but why is she calling Sougo a cute boy in the exact same way as Yuuko? Do people just randomly do this to Sougo all the time? I'm confused at what I'm supposed to take from that scene.

On the plus side, there were some good gags in here, especially early on. Woz's enthusiasm for the "demon queen" cracked me up, as did the scene with Schwartz and Sougo/Tsukuyomi forcing their respective teammates to bow.

The background music was also really good. It was essentially Kiva's style forced into Zi-O, so perhaps it wasn't the most organic. But it fit the episode well.

Finally, some of the dialog here... Oh man, I don't know whether to laugh or cringe.

"She's the girl in the sailor uniform who played with me in the past" - Okay, that just sounds dirty. Takenoko, this is one of yours, isn't it?! :P

"We will fill the world with our children" - Given the obvious age discrepancy - as noted last week, she's old enough to be Sougo's mother - this comes off as rather creepy.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by takenoko »

>"She's the girl in the sailor uniform who played with me in the past" - Okay, that just sounds dirty. Takenoko, this is one of yours, isn't it?! :P

Upon consulting with my lawyer I must abstain from answering that on the grounds that it might incriminate me.

>"We will fill the world with our children" - Given the obvious age discrepancy - as noted last week, she's old enough to be Sougo's mother - this comes off as rather creepy.

But she's only 28! Only a 9 year difference!
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by Catastrophe »

Why they decided to give an upgrade episode to Inoue, the man who made the Kaixa pointer fall out of the ceiling, I'll never know. Woz just gets it without any real character arc this episode. The only thing I'll give them is that it looks neat.

What's with the manhole covers? This reminded me of that GARO episode from the second season.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by HowlingSnail »

Really disappointing arc. Had basically nothing to do with Kiva overall. 2 of the returning actors played completely different characters, one of whom appeared for about 5 seconds, and the other barely did anything. Ginga turned up for some reason and became a watch for some reason. Sougo continued being a complete moron who needs to stop thinking with his boner.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by Catastrophe »

You'd figure having one of the two main series that has time travel as an actual plot would utilise it. They had a chance to do the 1986/2008 thing again but squandered it.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by Dengar »

I think this is honestly the worst episode in the entire show. Yes, I mean it.

And the worst part is. The giant space flea from nowhere is like, the least of this episode's issues?

Like I've only been introduced to this "Inoue writes bad" meme recently even though I've apparently consumed a lot of the dude's work, but Ora just randomly killing the woman for no apparent reason was probably the part that really teetered it into garbage territory for me. The fact that I couldn't empathize with Sougo at all didn't help. Like honestly is there anyone who can? Especially since she was obviously lying anyway. And this other character who rode off into the sunset, while it's probably the real one... Is there any proof of this? I mean come on man who writes this kind of crap?
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by takenoko »

Catastrophe wrote: Thu May 23, 2019 4:57 am What's with the manhole covers? This reminded me of that GARO episode from the second season.
Dunno. I know that actor guy who got busted for doing cocaine recently had his manhole image removed. I hate to go "Japan lol so random" but I honestly don't know what the connection is.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by Dengar »

Don't Japanese inviduals who do drugs just get unpersoned? I don't see how that has anything to do with this though.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by resop2 »

Maybe this arc wasn't crap? Maybe they are setting some stuff up (in a really clumsy way).

What if they have another Time Mazine fight and the time mazine's get damaged so the only way that the techinco's can find out what happened in the past is through Sougo's visions?

What if they were setting up Oha to be the final boss since she finally gets to do something a lot worse than a Team Rocket shenanigan (although, in my opinion, Oha offed Sailor-san because Another Kiva didn't obey her orders and even ordered her to bow)?

What if this is the incident (set up in the usually clumsy way) where Sougo starts turning rudo because the world no longer has meaning? He could go the Sailor Uranus route (not random since Takahashi Yu was Sailor Jupiter in the Sailor Moon Musicals) and say that a world without Sailor-San is not a world he wants to save.

Question: Is there some sort of strangeness going on with the watches where Woz just can't give his dear Demon King the Ginga Watch? Don't Sougo and Geiz swap watches?

I still think Ginga was a run-in from the Ultraman universe. All he was missing was a light on his chest that flashed. Also, if they defeated Ginga and he grew to super-size they could assemble their Time Mazine's into a megazord...
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Since the hoppers are coming up, they could have Tsukuyomi's spicy food thing mean something: The hoppers give up their watches and are cured of their decade plus long emo-spell. Sou Yaguruma goes back to cooking and surprises Tendo by making Mapo Tofu that Tsukuyomi likes better than Tendo's.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by HowlingSnail »

Dengar wrote: Thu May 23, 2019 8:53 am I think this is honestly the worst episode in the entire show. Yes, I mean it.

And the worst part is. The giant space flea from nowhere is like, the least of this episode's issues?

Like I've only been introduced to this "Inoue writes bad" meme recently even though I've apparently consumed a lot of the dude's work, but Ora just randomly killing the woman for no apparent reason was probably the part that really teetered it into garbage territory for me. The fact that I couldn't empathize with Sougo at all didn't help. Like honestly is there anyone who can? Especially since she was obviously lying anyway. And this other character who rode off into the sunset, while it's probably the real one... Is there any proof of this? I mean come on man who writes this kind of crap?
Ora killed her because she was angry at her for rebelling against the Time Jackers. This arc was bad, but I'd say it's pretty understandable why she killed her.
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Re: KR Zi-O 36 released

Post by takenoko »

Dengar wrote: Thu May 23, 2019 10:03 am Don't Japanese inviduals who do drugs just get unpersoned? I don't see how that has anything to do with this though.
Yeah, I think it's terrible. I guess the celeb who most recently got unpersoned had a manhole with his name or signature on it or something, so that's why it popped up. Nothing deeper than that.

>Ora killed her because she was angry at her for rebelling against the Timejackers. This arc was bad, but I'd say it's pretty understandable why she killed her.

I don't know if I agree with that reasoning. To me, it just comes off as Inoue misogyny. Women fighting amongst each other. Ora only caring because the other one damaged her face, so she's taking revenge. Doesn't she end up siding with them against Ginga anyway?
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