Why Poppy's Room and Virtual Operations?

[takenoko]

Like, why are Toei making these? I don't think I understand.

Yeah, you can teach the kids how to do the Rider poses and stuff, but surely that can't justify the cost of filming, editing, and uploading all this, right? It's not like this stuff is free, you still have to pay the actors and that comedian guy.

Sure, sometimes the dialogue between Shinomiya and Poppy can be funny. But Virtual Operations seems like it's supposed to be bonus story, but so far it's just another basics on Rider stuff. (And the Rider stuff isn't very interesting!) As it is, it seems superfluous to have both?

Also, if they put actual story in Virtual Operations, they'd be screwing over anyone who only watches the TV series. Plus, that'd mean splitting up story content, making the main TV series even more padded and weak storywise.

Like, I've been watching the after show talk for Mr. Robot this year, and it's great because Mr. Robot is this great story, full of mystery and mind fucks. No one gives a fuck about the mystery of Ex-Aid. Either Graphite and that weirdo gamer kid did it, or it'll be some random twist out of nowhere, which no one will care about since it wasn't built up. So what are Poppy and Shinomiya going to discuss in future episodes once they run out of Rider poses to talk about?

Hopefully, there'll be less of these two corners as the series progresses, because they're mostly filler material at this point. I'm curious if people here generally watch the bonus stuff or if they ignore it.

[Phoenix512]

Maybe it's Toei's attempt to do cross media especially where the series is video gamer focused. I think the Let's Plays in the Virtual Operations is sorta of proof of why I think this way but I could be way off as well.

After the whole Frey/Freyja thing in Ghost, I'm pretty sure people don't watch the bonus stuff but I do especially if I work on it.

[Catastrophe]

The whole thing with the extra stuff in Ghost annoyed me. Like what's the point of having shit that's important to the show if it's not in the actual show but in some extra stuff?

I don't really get it. The funny bonus shit was stuff they used to put into the net movies and that was fun to watch.

[lennyhouston16]

To be honest, I don't care for Poppy's Room or Virtual Operations. After watching the first episode of it and half of the second, I couldn't bare it anymore. They're not very entertaining or informative. I was hoping for something like Yuta Cafe (which was both entertaining and informative for me) but was very disappointed by this. While the Ghost stuff was canon (which I think it shouldn't have been), it did provide some interesting forms and fights so I enjoyed it visually.

If Toei was going to waste money on a side story, then it should be entertaining like when I was really hoping for a "Jyumans adapt to human society" side story but that's a rant for another day. Anyway, since Ex-Aid seems to have an array of characters with their own beliefs and morals then why not have "A day in the life of..." every week for the each character? It's simple, shouldn't cost a lot of money and builds our bond with each character.

[Go-On Macaroni]

After the whole Frey/Freyja thing in Ghost, I'm pretty sure people don't watch the bonus stuff but I do especially if I work on it.

If they didn't watch that, they should at least watch the Hero Alain specials; I've thought those were pretty good so far.

[ViRGE]

I've been asking myself the same question. It's a notably different direction for Toei to take.

Poppy's Room: This is just straight-up a toy commercial. Each episode so far has focused on a different toy, and I'm sort of wondering what they're going to do here in about 10 more episodes when the toy rush dies down. Phoenix makes the point of this being cross-media, and I can't necessarily disagree. But I don't get the vibe from this series that it's meant to promote the show to an audience that may not be watching it. The toy commercial is just too strong. Which is also why I stopped watching it after the start of the 3rd episode (if anyone is wondering whether anyone is watching this).

Virtual Operations is a lot more interesting. We've only had 3 of these so far and they're a bit shorter, so I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Sometimes it seems like a toy commercial, other times it seems like a more detailed instruction manual for how to do the series' various poses. And then there's this very light ongoing story with it that gives it just a little bit of narrative significance. So far it's just been a light spoiler for some major plot revelation that comes next week, e.g. the prototype Gashats, but it maybe, possibly has some potential? But I'm not sure what they're going to do after Lazer, because the whole virtual operation thing seems to require something new to virtually do every week. And as others have pointed out, it seems questionable that this series will have any significant bearing on the plot.

Though I really doubt this is costing Toei all that much. Virtual Operations is pretty blatant about reusing episode footage, so it's been two minutes of the actors reciting lines on the set, and two minutes of fight-posing with the suit actors. Poppy's Room is even simpler; it's just the actress and the comic bantering for 6 minutes or so, with series footage spliced in. They aren't even using Toei's regular RED cameras, so someone is coming in and doing this on the cheap.

If they didn't watch that, they should at least watch the Hero Alain specials; I've thought those were pretty good so far.

Hero Alain? This is the first I've heard of that. I don't think TVN has released it, have you?

[takenoko]

Hero Alain? I think we're working on it?

What's RED cameras?

[ViRGE]

Hero Alain? I think we're working on it?

What's RED cameras?

The pro grade digital cameras that Toei uses (http://www.red.com/). There are little tells that Poppy's Room filmed on something different; color and lighting reproduction don't match Virtual Operations or the series proper.

[Phoenix512]

We are working on the Hero Alain stuff. It's like Type Tokujo in Drive where it's a bonus thing in the BD box sets. Also, it's why we changed Alain's name partway through the series.

[ViRGE]

We are working on the Hero Alain stuff. It's like Type Tokujo in Drive where it's a bonus thing in the BD box sets. Also, it's why we changed Alain's name partway through the series.

Gotcha. Thanks for the info.

[stardrago]

So the raw for the Virtual Operations for Genm has been out now, so how come there is still no translated release yet?

[takenoko]

Oh, I just need to check it off. Just a day late, not a big deal.