![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alchemicinkThis week: a new sleepy Kamen Rider, a (hopefully temporary) goodbye to a Gozyuger, more 10 Things angst, and petty bickering with Ultraman Omega ðŸ¤
Some spoilers as always, but especially for Gozyuger this time
Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 1)
An interesting first episode! I liked it better upon a second watch, mostly because I felt it was a bit confusing the first time.
We're introduced to our protagonist, Baku Yorozu, who is a guy who has terrible luck in real life but also has lucid dreams where he's an invincible secret agent. I do like the disconnect between his real self and his dream self! That ought to be fun to explore.
The plot kicks off when Baku runs into a Nightmare. He gets hit by a car trying to save a kid (how very Yu Yu Hakusho of him 😂) and ends up in the hospital. While fighting off the Nightmare in his dreams, he gets his rider belt and becomes Zeztz. This was the bit I was rather confused about, but I'm assuming upcoming episodes will start explaining everything a bit more. Probably the investigator guy will be helpful in that regard? (I'll learn his name eventually)
Things I liked: the dream sequences were really well shot. They had the perfect dream-like vibes. I also liked the transformation sequence (but anything would be an improvement over how off-putting I found the transformations in Gavv 😅)
Things I didn't like: this YouTube streaming nonsense where I can't pause the episode without missing stuff or queue it up to watch again whenever I want 😒 It's all just so needlessly complicated. Why would they do it like this? Tsuburaya remains the superior company, tbh.
Anyway, looking forward to the next episode!
Gozyuger (episode 29)
Well I'm not thrilled with this turn of events!
(<--understatement)
They sent away my favorite character, Ryuugi, and I have no idea if the show plans to bring him back or not. (Well, he's probably coming back but how long will I have to wait?!) Anyway, Ryuugi's having a crisis sparked by the events of the summer movie... which I haven't seen obviously, but apparently Ryuugi is very bothered by learning that Tegasword isn't invincible. The fear spurs him into challenging Hoeru at the end of the episode in an attempt to speed up all the ring collecting. But he loses and then leaves. (Kanda gave a fantastic acting performance, but I'm still mad about all of it because he's my favorite and I'll miss him!!)
I may have been more willing to forgive this turn of events if there had been more focus on Ryuugi beforehand, but I'm increasingly frustrated with how much they keep trying to pack into one 23-minute episode. Along with Ryuugi's plot, there's also the No One monster causing trouble, Rikuo and Kumade are on a side quest dealing with Rei, and briefly we get Bouquet starting to figure out her idol is her enemy. It's A LOT. This was my complaint about the previous two episodes as well. I understand wanting to ramp up the plot, but let the audience breathe! Other people really liked this episode though, so maybe this is just my personal preference about story pacing.
Maybe this is all building to some nice (offscreen?) character development for Ryuugi and he'll be back soon. And then maybe my opinion on this episode will change. But for now... ðŸ˜
I'm kinda not looking forward to the next episode...(but I am inspired to write fic... lmao)
10 Things... (episode 11)
The aaaaaangst 😠(I continue to really enjoy this actually, but I'm sad the next episode is the last, because we won't get nearly as much time to see them fixing the relationship as we had on this arc)
Continuing from last week, Tojo and Keishi are still on a break. What I liked about this episode was the stark contrast between how the two of them spend this time apart. Keishi has a few meals with Tanaka and plays squash with his old college volleyball friends. Tojo... hangs out alone at home and does pretty much nothing but eat and mope. It just goes to show how isolated Tojo is. While Keishi is coming to understand that the two of them need to have a serious conversation thanks to his interactions with others, Tojo is wrestling with everything on his own. Like he always has. It's such a hard habit to break.
Another thing I liked is that their age gap (10 years) felt more obvious here than ever before. Tojo is worried what dating means for Keishi's future, while Keishi just wants to focus on the present. They have different perspectives on the matter, and I think that boils down to life experience. It's definitely something I've still been thinking about even after the episode ended.
Overall, I really like this series for the way it portrays their relationship. Their cute dates (even if they didn't call them that) at the beginning were lovely. You can tell they like each other. But if you want a long-term relationship, it's going to go deeper than superficial fun dates eventually. So they hit this rocky patch because they have such different life experiences and perspectives. It feels realistic to me to see them figure out how to work things out. It's been slow-paced but I've personally enjoyed it. (It's also why I wish we had just a few more episodes to devote to building their relationship back up once they do reconcile. But it's okay... I may just end up writing fanfic instead 😅)
So, yeah, another good episode for me. Also, on a sidenote, it's hysterical to me that Tanaka was dating a lesbian. This just feels exactly like something that would happen to him. (He handled the situation pretty well, all things considered.)
Ultraman Omega (episode 10)
I feel like this series has finally found its stride. At least for me, who wasn't quite enjoying the earlier episodes.
This week, a lady wants to interview Sorato and Kosei about themselves and their kaiju knowledge. The first part is Kosei struggling to keep Sorato from revealing his secret (which feels a bit overdone for humor at this point) and then the two of them having a spat over keeping that secret (actually really funny to watch their petty bickering!) As I said last week, their relationship really carries the show for me.
In the end, they make up to defeat the kaiju, but the journalist lady has decided she's no longer interested in interviewing them. So problem solved for the boys. (As an aside, I really appreciated the part of the episode where she explained that she wanted to make a documentary about the effects of kaiju so more people will understand their impact. I was nodding like "yes, this is what journalists do! We share important information!!" And then I was disappointed at the end when she just started fangirling over Omega instead. So it all ended with a joke, which I felt undercut the earlier message. Sigh.)
Anyway, I'm actually excited for next week's episode! And I still think they should tell Ayu-nee everything as soon as possible!!
Some spoilers as always, but especially for Gozyuger this time
Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 1)
An interesting first episode! I liked it better upon a second watch, mostly because I felt it was a bit confusing the first time.
We're introduced to our protagonist, Baku Yorozu, who is a guy who has terrible luck in real life but also has lucid dreams where he's an invincible secret agent. I do like the disconnect between his real self and his dream self! That ought to be fun to explore.
The plot kicks off when Baku runs into a Nightmare. He gets hit by a car trying to save a kid (how very Yu Yu Hakusho of him 😂) and ends up in the hospital. While fighting off the Nightmare in his dreams, he gets his rider belt and becomes Zeztz. This was the bit I was rather confused about, but I'm assuming upcoming episodes will start explaining everything a bit more. Probably the investigator guy will be helpful in that regard? (I'll learn his name eventually)
Things I liked: the dream sequences were really well shot. They had the perfect dream-like vibes. I also liked the transformation sequence (but anything would be an improvement over how off-putting I found the transformations in Gavv 😅)
Things I didn't like: this YouTube streaming nonsense where I can't pause the episode without missing stuff or queue it up to watch again whenever I want 😒 It's all just so needlessly complicated. Why would they do it like this? Tsuburaya remains the superior company, tbh.
Anyway, looking forward to the next episode!
Gozyuger (episode 29)
Well I'm not thrilled with this turn of events!
(<--understatement)
They sent away my favorite character, Ryuugi, and I have no idea if the show plans to bring him back or not. (Well, he's probably coming back but how long will I have to wait?!) Anyway, Ryuugi's having a crisis sparked by the events of the summer movie... which I haven't seen obviously, but apparently Ryuugi is very bothered by learning that Tegasword isn't invincible. The fear spurs him into challenging Hoeru at the end of the episode in an attempt to speed up all the ring collecting. But he loses and then leaves. (Kanda gave a fantastic acting performance, but I'm still mad about all of it because he's my favorite and I'll miss him!!)
I may have been more willing to forgive this turn of events if there had been more focus on Ryuugi beforehand, but I'm increasingly frustrated with how much they keep trying to pack into one 23-minute episode. Along with Ryuugi's plot, there's also the No One monster causing trouble, Rikuo and Kumade are on a side quest dealing with Rei, and briefly we get Bouquet starting to figure out her idol is her enemy. It's A LOT. This was my complaint about the previous two episodes as well. I understand wanting to ramp up the plot, but let the audience breathe! Other people really liked this episode though, so maybe this is just my personal preference about story pacing.
Maybe this is all building to some nice (offscreen?) character development for Ryuugi and he'll be back soon. And then maybe my opinion on this episode will change. But for now... ðŸ˜
I'm kinda not looking forward to the next episode...(but I am inspired to write fic... lmao)
10 Things... (episode 11)
The aaaaaangst 😠(I continue to really enjoy this actually, but I'm sad the next episode is the last, because we won't get nearly as much time to see them fixing the relationship as we had on this arc)
Continuing from last week, Tojo and Keishi are still on a break. What I liked about this episode was the stark contrast between how the two of them spend this time apart. Keishi has a few meals with Tanaka and plays squash with his old college volleyball friends. Tojo... hangs out alone at home and does pretty much nothing but eat and mope. It just goes to show how isolated Tojo is. While Keishi is coming to understand that the two of them need to have a serious conversation thanks to his interactions with others, Tojo is wrestling with everything on his own. Like he always has. It's such a hard habit to break.
Another thing I liked is that their age gap (10 years) felt more obvious here than ever before. Tojo is worried what dating means for Keishi's future, while Keishi just wants to focus on the present. They have different perspectives on the matter, and I think that boils down to life experience. It's definitely something I've still been thinking about even after the episode ended.
Overall, I really like this series for the way it portrays their relationship. Their cute dates (even if they didn't call them that) at the beginning were lovely. You can tell they like each other. But if you want a long-term relationship, it's going to go deeper than superficial fun dates eventually. So they hit this rocky patch because they have such different life experiences and perspectives. It feels realistic to me to see them figure out how to work things out. It's been slow-paced but I've personally enjoyed it. (It's also why I wish we had just a few more episodes to devote to building their relationship back up once they do reconcile. But it's okay... I may just end up writing fanfic instead 😅)
So, yeah, another good episode for me. Also, on a sidenote, it's hysterical to me that Tanaka was dating a lesbian. This just feels exactly like something that would happen to him. (He handled the situation pretty well, all things considered.)
Ultraman Omega (episode 10)
I feel like this series has finally found its stride. At least for me, who wasn't quite enjoying the earlier episodes.
This week, a lady wants to interview Sorato and Kosei about themselves and their kaiju knowledge. The first part is Kosei struggling to keep Sorato from revealing his secret (which feels a bit overdone for humor at this point) and then the two of them having a spat over keeping that secret (actually really funny to watch their petty bickering!) As I said last week, their relationship really carries the show for me.
In the end, they make up to defeat the kaiju, but the journalist lady has decided she's no longer interested in interviewing them. So problem solved for the boys. (As an aside, I really appreciated the part of the episode where she explained that she wanted to make a documentary about the effects of kaiju so more people will understand their impact. I was nodding like "yes, this is what journalists do! We share important information!!" And then I was disappointed at the end when she just started fangirling over Omega instead. So it all ended with a joke, which I felt undercut the earlier message. Sigh.)
Anyway, I'm actually excited for next week's episode! And I still think they should tell Ayu-nee everything as soon as possible!!
