(Cross-Up
is on hiatus, sort of, but not really!
I’m going to try and take it easy over the next few weeks, because it’s
the winter holiday season and I half-expect nobody to be around on the
internet. Things will get back in gear
sometime in January, but until then? If
you ARE here, then enjoy a handful of high-quality filler posts. It’ll be fun, presumably!)
Oh man, please tell me I’m the first person on the
internet to make this
joke. It would make me so very, very
happy.
Well, if nothing else, I’m the first person to
ever make the joke on this blog. THAT
MEANS I’VE WON!
All right, I’m about to unload a fruit basket’s worth of
SPOILERS on you guys, so if you want a no-spoiler version of what I think about
this show (and by extension, a trim primer on Gaim), then you’d better go read
this post instead…or first. Or you
can read this one if you have no interest in ever watching it.
That would kind of make this post a moot point -- if not for
the stuff I’m about to discuss. Are you
ready? Here we
gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before, but
I’ll go ahead and say it again for posterity’s sake. Part of the reason why I like the Kamen Rider franchise so much is because
it resonates with one of my core tenets; that is, each installment from
year-to-year manages to define itself not just by the new merchandise that
needs to be shilled, but by the leading characters who inevitably don those
flamboyant suits and dive-kick bad guys.
Those leads make each installment what it is -- and make it better,
without question.
That’s not to say that every installment of the
show is perfect, of course. Kamen Rider OOO may be the first series
I watched from start to finish, but circumstantially my first REAL experience
with the franchise was Kamen Rider Den-O. You’d think that I’d be pretty fond of it as
a result -- and while I am glad I watched it (dem henshin sounds), I don’t have any problems admitting it’s the weakest
entry I’ve seen to date. Conversely, OOO is my favorite by a country mile, to
the point where I’m surprised I haven’t done a post on that. Still, every KR series I’ve watched since OOO
has been done with a question in mind: “Is this better than OOO?”
To wit: is Gaim better than OOO?
Don’t get me wrong. Gaim is
still good…ish. Plenty good. Good enough.
As good as it could have been.
It’s just that, well, I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I’m glad I watched it. On the other hand, it’s personally in the
bottom half of my informal KR rankings;
I’d put it in the fifth slot out of seven, at best. On the phantom hand, there are some things I
really like about it -- which ends up getting counterbalanced by some things I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally hate about
it. So I guess that’s why this post is
coming in before one on OOO -- not
just so you guys can take something away from it, but so I can finally sort out
my feelings. Maybe.
But enough about that. You’re not here for one of my
characteristically-endless introductions.
You’re here for…uh…I don’t know.
The off-chance that I’ll post more pictures of Christina Hendricks? That’d be my best guess. But I’ll deny you of improbably buxom
actresses for now and move on to the meat of the discussion. That’s right -- it’s time to focus on the
main character of Gaim, Kouta
Kazuraba.
Who is he?
Well, I think I’ll let him introduce himself.
I’ve heard that there are people who consider
everything before episodes 12-14 of Gaim (i.e.
everything before the mood-making “reveal” of sorts) to be rough around the
edges. I can’t say I agree with
that. See, people knew going in that Gaim -- thanks to lead writer Gen
Urobuchi of Madoka fame -- would be a
pretty dark story, and were pretty much waiting for things to go into maximum
despair overdrive. They got their wish,
by and large, but I’m not about to devalue those early episodes just because
they contain the bulk of the series’ humor and lightheartedness.
I’m not just saying that because of my bias
against “dark and gritty” fare, and here’s why.
First of all, I wouldn’t have even touched Gaim if I was so repulsed by the promise of a darker story, much
less finish it. Second, for the most
part I don’t have a problem with the way Gaim
progressed; its darkness isn’t so crippling that it becomes an
apathy-inducing slog, which is more than I can say about something like The Walking Dead. No, the issue that I have is tied into Kouta.
But I’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s start with the good.
Pared down to basics, you can describe Kouta
solely as “a good guy”. He just wants to
do the right thing, and help as many people as he can. That’s cool.
I don’t have a problem with that.
In fact, the thing I like about Gaim
is that it takes Kouta’s good guy characterization as something serious and legitimate -- that for all the doom
and gloom that encroaches before series’ end, his goodness is allowed to shine
on a regular basis. He’s a hero that
fights for hope, no matter how bad things get.
But just because he’s a good guy doesn’t mean he
doesn’t have an arc. Kouta has to put in
some serious work to try and resolve situations both small and large (as one
would), but in order to make the world a better place, he has to make himself a
better person. There are a lot of
questions that he needs to answer over the course of the show, and his
struggles to answer each one are what make him worth watching. How do you prove you’re an adult? How do you be responsible for others? How do you make your friends happy? How do you use the power you’re given? How do you stand up to adversity? How do you choose what to sacrifice? All those things and more play a part in his
transformation.
It’s very true that you can think of Kouta as the
typical hero archetype -- a rookie, no ace student, wants to do the right
thing, passionate, etc. But the thing
about Kouta is that even if he’s not the show’s smartest character, he’s still
no idiot hero. He proves that pretty
consistently; if he doesn’t know the answer to something, he’ll ask people who might.
He’ll consult with others and try and figure out
what to do -- and critically, he understands the weight of his actions even
before the show’s halfway point.
(Probably as early as the fourth or fifth episode, given a near-death
experience with another Armored Rider.)
There’s a point later in the show where he recognizes and admits that
the road ahead is going to be long and hard, but he’ll put in that effort
regardless. That’s good. It shows that
he doesn’t just have blind faith, or trying to brute-force a solution. He’s trying to do the right thing. The responsible thing.
Paradoxically, this makes him technically smarter
than all the villains put together. But
I’ll get into them another day.
There are some interesting things about Kouta,
even beyond his changes throughout the story (including physical ones; his hair
and wardrobe at the start =/= his hair and wardrobe at the end). It’s subtle, but the thing that sticks out to
me is that for all his goodwill and efforts, Kouta’s got a glaring flaw: he can
only superficially fix problems. That
is, he can make the monsters go away, but he can’t put a smile on even his
closest friends’ faces -- so in a way, you can think of him as an emotional
klutz. I don’t think I’m reaching on
this one, because in a way it becomes a plot point and a part of his character.
Kouta spends so much his time running around
trying to fix everything that he ends up losing a part of himself -- becoming
more distant with his fellow dancers (the Beat Riders, and more specifically
Team Gaim), and unable to take some time out to give them something to laugh
about. He was already willing to drop
out of Team Gaim to support his sister, and because of that put their pure
happiness -- their very esteem -- in jeopardy.
Once the plot gets in gear, that inability to raise the innocents’
esteem gets applied on a much bigger scale.
Again, it actually becomes a plot point for a chunk of the story, and
resurfaces (via implication) at the very end.
That is to say, Kouta ends up becoming Super
Saiyan Jesus Nobunaga and leaving Earth, meaning that it’s up to everyone else
to clean up the mess left by an invasive alien plant he’s taking with him to
another planet.
I didn’t make a word of that up. This is what he becomes at the end.
I kid you not, I can’t even think about that
without forcing back a laugh.
That…thing
that happened up there highlights a serious problem with Gaim.
At first I was willing to say that it’s “Gaim isn’t dark enough”, which is true -- but that’s not the
underlying issue. No, the underlying
issue, and the real core of all of the show’s problems, is that it tries to do
WAAAAAAAAAAAY too much at one time. It
can barely stick to anything cohesively, and the overall show suffers as a
result. This is independent from the
aggravating fact that there were filler episodes for 1) a Super Sentai
crossover special, 2) a Kikaider movie, and 3) a Gaim movie that jettisoned the plot so that some of its cast could
play soccer…despite being right in the middle of the most important story
sequence yet.
But let’s back up a bit. As I said before, Gaim is a show that features not just your usual Riders, but Riders
who don fruit-themed armor and wield fruit-themed weapons, and that’s on top of
the typical motorcycle shenanigans. But
things get more complicated almost immediately.
For starters, the show can’t even commit to the fruit theme, and has
some of its earliest-appearing Riders don pinecone and acorn-themed armor. It doesn’t say good things when you’re
running out of fruits that early on (seriously, no pear-based Rider? No lime Rider?) But it goes further than that. The show would have you believe that there
would be a Sengoku warfare theme throughout -- and while that’s sort of the case if you squint your
eyes, the riders that follow after Gaim are themed on such different geographic
areas you’d swear they just threw darts at a map. So what, were there Vikings versus samurai?
That’s a minor point, admittedly, but it goes
further still. They could have ridden
the Sengoku train from start to finish, but the mythology and symbolism here is
so scattershot it makes me have an OCD flare-up. So the big dumb evil corporation du jour is
Yggdrasil, the giant tree of Norse mythology, and the invasive plant alien
comes from (and constructs) a forest called Helheim, the Norse underworld. But then you’ve got Judeo-Christian themes
via an apple that promises incredible knowledge/power, an Adam and Even
allegory that I swear to God was crammed into the last three or four episodes,
and one of the baddies is a snake or some such symbolic nonsense. And for nigh-incomprehensible reasons, the
portals (such as they are) to Helheim are represented by giant zippers.
It doesn’t exactly mesh, is what I’m trying to say
here.
The worst part about it is that it’s not just
confined to symbolism or ideas. The plot
keeps jumping around, and while sometimes it helps -- it keeps things fresh,
and you can’t exactly accuse the show of dragging -- the fact that it won’t
calm the hell down can be a major detriment.
There’s a good-ass story in Gaim just
by following the Beat Riders’ struggle to take over the dance venues in their
home of Zawame City. The show was moving
toward that at the outset -- slowly escalating the struggle between the Beat
Riders as their members became Armored Riders.
Kouta gets his suit first (which may as well be a gun), which drives his
rival to get his gun, which drives other Beat Riders to get their guns. And before long it becomes less about dancing
and more about getting their guns out -- be it by having Armored Riders to
their name, or by deploying the best evil Pokémon they can get their hands on.
To Gaim’s credit,
they don’t drop the Beat Rider aspect instantly -- but it does get phased out
over the course of the show’s run, to the point where you’d be forgiven for
thinking the dancing ever mattered. Or
existed. That’s a shame, because like I
said, there’s a story in there that keeps things relatively personal. Having the story focused on the interactions
and clashes between the Beat Riders could have made for something truly
impactful -- a story that shows what happens when people use guns power
irresponsibly (only with a supernatural twist).
Instead, the story decides to focus on sticking it to a big dumb evil
corporation…and then puts emphasis
back on the monsters of the installment despite dropping the
monster-of-the-week format so readily.
It doesn’t
exactly mesh, is what I’m trying to say here.
But the weird thing about it -- itself caused by
the weird thing about Kouta -- is that Gaim
actually hits a peak. See, the thing
you have to understand about KR is
that even if it IS merchandise-driven, what happens in the show can still have
an impact. What happens in the story
creates the context and drive needed to rush out and grab the latest action
figure, or toy, or whatever. There’s no
greater proof of that than the time-honored tradition of giving each Rider a
super mode of sorts; in-universe, it’s a way to signal a big turning point in
their arc, if not the highest point.
It’s a reward for the struggles endured, and offers a HUGE amount of
catharsis for viewers.
So let’s use this clip from Kamen Rider Wizard as an example to start us off. It should have most of the context you need. And, you know, spoilers.
Now then.
Let’s move on to Gaim. Here’s a conversation that happens when Kouta is at his lowest, as per his discovery
that he unknowingly killed his friend (after said friend turned into a
monster):
And here’s what comes of that conversation.
I’m not even going to try to hide how much I like Kachidoki (Triumphant) Arms. I like the design. I like the skill set. And a lot of that comes from the weight given
to it via the story; by that point, Kouta and friends have been pushed around
and jerked around by Yggdrasil’s goons, and our hero getting a super mode to
thoroughly wreck their shit is one of the best moments in the entire
series. Granted other KR installments have, in my opinion,
better looking super modes (like W)
or have them more integral to the story/ideas (like OOO), but I’m satisfied with Kachidoki Arms as-is.
It’s just a shame that there are two
problems. The first is that Kachidoki is
the second of ostensibly three super modes Kouta gets throughout
the story, all three of which -- despite his character and strides -- are
handed to him. (His third form might be
the strongest, but IMO it’s also the lamest, and contextually limp-wristed.) But the bigger problem? Right after getting Kachidoki -- barely the
halfway point of Gaim -- Kouta’s arc
hits its peak. It’s done. There’s not really anywhere else for him to
go; sure, he struggles with the problems that come his way, but he doesn’t
particularly change. Hell, he might
actually get worse; his resolve’s
maxed out, and as a result he becomes relatively static as a hero. To put it a different way? He’s like Thor going from the start of the
first movie to the end of the second -- both generally heroic, good-hearted
characters, but in learning a lesson they lose integral parts of their essence.
Given that Zawame City turns into a ghost town vis
a vis the person-mutating plants all around, it’s understandable why Kouta
would stop being such a clown. But damn,
do I miss that clown.
If it seems like I’m being too down on/critical of
Gaim, then let me make something
clear: the problems I’ve voiced up to this point aren’t enough for me to say
“This installment is terrible, and you should avoid it at all costs.” These are just issues I have with the show,
that’s all, and not even big ones. Given
the choice, there are plenty of things I would change about Gaim; still, the final product is
something that I like, even if I don’t like it as much as other final
products. (You could probably take that
as a signal of just how high-quality the other KR installments are; OOO, W,
Wizard, and Fourze really are
something else, for their own distinct reasons.)
THAT.
ALL. SAID. There’s one thing that takes Gaim up several notches, and the one
element that I absolutely love about it -- easily the best-executed part of the
show, if you ask me. It’s one of the few
things that stays consistent throughout, and remains consistently entertaining
from start to finish. As I’ve said, the
main character is one of the most important parts of a story -- BUT if there’s
one thing that gets me revved up, it’s a foil that’s as good as or even better
than the MC. And believe it or not,
that’s in Gaim in spades.
So. Let’s
talk about Armored Rider Ryugen -- better known as Mitsuzane Kureshima.
Better known as Micchy.
Better known as the best character.
Micchy starts off as a character so far in the
background that you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s an extra. But when Kouta practically goes catatonic after
a near-death experience (incidentally via a run-in with Micchy’s older brother
Takatora), Micchy steps in to defend Team Gaim against the steadily-arming Beat
Riders encroaching on their turf/rank.
After that, he establishes himself as a vital member of the team -- the
strategist behind Kouta every step of the way, all for the sake of Team Gaim’s
right to dance and be happy…though one wonders why they need special venues if
they’re street dancers, but whatever.
It’s established early on that Micchy’s at his
happiest when he’s dancing alongside or merely hanging out with his friends in
Team Gaim, especially the show’s
leading lady Mai. At the same time, it’s
shown that everything beyond that -- being a high-ranking student at a
prestigious school, and in line to take a high-ranking position in the
Yggdrasil Corporation -- is unfulfilling at best to him. That in mind, there’s nothing stopping him
from using his smarts and prestige to get himself and his team what he
wants. The shady arms dealer Lock
Seed provider gun-giver even says that Micchy can be (and is) a real devil.
It’s at this point I have to mention that, while
reading an unrelated KR thread on
Reddit -- one asking about fans’ favorite villains -- somebody tossed Micchy’s
name up there without context. I hadn’t
started watching the show at that point, but the name stuck out enough for me
to remember it when I did. And my
thought at the outset was, “Wait, Micchy?
A villain? Nah, there’s no way
that could ever happen! I must’ve misread
it!”
Let’s see how fast I can sum this up. Ready?
*deep breath*
Micchy is one of the first of the good guys to
discover the secret of Helheim -- namely that it’s an invasive species that
already claimed an entire civilization and is encroaching on Earth, though it’s
localized in Zawame City. As such, he
decides to join up with big brother Takatora and Yggdrasil, believing it’s the
only way to save the world -- BUT he also sticks close with the Beat Riders in
the hopes that he can A) maintain their happiness and B) keep them from
learning the truth, while also keeping them under (ostensibly his)
control. But Kouta constantly tries to
screw everything up and finds out what’s going on regardless, jeopardizing
Micchy’s efforts and putting Mai at risk of breaking emotionally. Kouta tells Mai as much as he can despite
Micchy’s FURIOUS strides, which leads to a confrontation where Mai slaps Micchy
across the face.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s pretty much the exact
point where Micchy snaps.
With Zawame City’s state slowly deteriorating and
everyone gathering around good guy Kouta instead of the big dumb evil
corporation (even Takatora, of all people), Micchy decides to wrest control by
staging an ambush on his big brother, and seizes his super-suit as his own so
he can con Kouta into thinking that Takatora isn’t willing to cooperate with
him anymore.
Believing that what he’s doing is right/will save
the world, Micchy decides to work with some super-evolved plant-men to gain full
control of the people and Helheim, even if it means sacrificing some of its
people to save the majority of them. It
reaches a point where Micchy A) tries to take Mai as his princess, B) starts
spewing berserker rage in Kouta’s general direction, and C) hits his
Rider-suited brother so damn hard he busts up Takatora’s mask and leaves him
for dead in a harbor.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s pretty much the exact
point where Micchy snaps even harder.
Micchy starts seeing the ghost of Takatora, who
proceeds to shit-talk his little brother every chance he gets…which to be fair
is relatively viable given that Micchy has dropped onto the floor and laughed
maniacally on occasion. In any case, for
fear that Mai might be taken from him, Micchy entrusts one of the plant-men to
take care of her…only for one of them to put the series’ game-winning MacGuffin
inside her, which threatens to kill her.
For…some reason, I guess.
Out of sheer desperation, Micchy entrusts her to a
scumbag scientist, who pushes him to kill Kouta while giving him a suit
gun which pretty much guarantees Micchy’s death. Except it doesn’t, because Kouta destroys it
while willingly taking what’s very close to a mortal blow; with Kouta apparently
dead, Micchy heads back to see if Mai’s been saved via the deed…only for him to
discover first-hand that trusting a scumbag scientist wasn’t his smartest
move. With the weight of his failures --
his dead friends and family, his broken home, his inability to ever dance with
the Beat Riders again -- Micchy breaks into so many pieces you’d have more luck
trying to recreate the Mona Lisa with specks of dust.
He gets better, though -- in the last half of the
very last episode.
I’ll be frank.
If Micchy was the main character and Kouta was put in the background (or
removed entirely), then Gaim would
easily be my favorite KR series. For what it’s worth, though, I appreciate the
character we got and the series we got. Micchy
forces Kouta -- and the audience, even more so -- to answer some heady
questions precisely because he isn’t the
main character. Example: it’s pretty
much a given that Kouta and Mai are going to get together (and I mean get together, if
you believe fan theories/subtext) because “LOL, protagonist powers!” Isn’t that unfair to Micchy, who showed three
times more interest/concern than Kouta ever did? Isn’t Micchy kind of justified in being
desperate to protect Team Gaim, in the sense that A) it’s the only thing he’s
got in his life and B) he can’t count on Kouta to offer that emotional
support? Or any support, really?
Of course, there’s a serious elephant in the room
we can’t discount: was what Micchy did throughout the series right? I mean, think about it; Micchy was willing to
sacrifice some people, but up to a certain point it was my understanding that
it would definitely save the
survivors. Comparatively, Kouta’s plan
-- with no guarantee of working, mind -- seems totally irresponsible, and based
solely on the grounds that he could maybe
save everyone. Who’s in the
right? That’s debatable; Kouta pulls
through because -- again -- “LOL, protagonist powers!”, but in a situation
where that isn’t possible? Who knows?
Still, who’s right and who’s wrong is kind of a
moot point. You can argue about the
right thing to do on plenty of internet forums, but what matters most is
Micchy’s execution. He’s almost
singlehandedly responsible for the darkness that weaves through Gaim -- and he does so in a meaningful
way, not superficially. He does good guy
things. He does bad guy things. He has desires. He struggles.
Not once did I feel like he did things just because the plot said so; in
being willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted -- be it righteous
or selfish -- he did what every character should strive to do. He took on a life of his own; the audience
just had to sit there and watch. And
enjoy, ideally, but you get the idea.
I guess it just goes to show you what happens when
you let a character be free to do whatever they want (or at least create the
illusion of freedom). Micchy is damn
near Shakespearian in execution, and we get to see every savory bit of his
transformation from silent supporter to suicidal shell. I don’t think I need to tell you how awesome
that is; as such, I have no problems declaring the grape-themed Rider the true
villain of Gaim.
It’s just too bad the show didn’t agree with me.
WELP. There
goes all my goodwill. But I’ll get into
that next time. See you next week -- and
happy holidays.
Oh, right. Here’s
your present.
There’s no one better than Alyson Hannigan. No one.
DON’T
EVEN TRY TO DENY IT.
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