Kabuto 08 + etc + I love Arashi a whole hell of a lot.
So, I may have taken some more time off to watch Kiva and Den-O and... wow, I love those shows because Den-O is kind of not taking itself seriously at all and I would totally, totally ship Yuuto/Ryoutarou for a quarter. Also, I don't know if anyone's noticed, but Kiva is kind of gay. .__. ....I kind of want to ship Noga/Wataru like a lot.
Anyway, SPOILERS for the episode listed at the very least (and very likely into the 30s and possibly the whole series), I don't plan these things in advance, we'll see from there.
Kamen Rider Kabuto episode 08: So, this episode starts off with a rather lengthy flashback to TheBee's fight against the Worm while Kabuto watches, and I don't mind because it's been awhile since I was watching and it's a good memory refresher. I'm still not sure what to make of Tendou making it obvious who he was, I don't think he told Yaguruma his name? But he obviously did his pose and... well, Yaguruma says, "Aha, I knew it, it is you." so maybe Tendou just thought, eh, he probably has already figured it out, so no use hiding it?
And Tendou continues to be really kinda extra pissy during this arc, I swear it's not just my imagination. Not that he's ever very friendly to ZECT, but when Tendou comes screaming after him to yell at him for hurting Kageyama and for not staying out of the whole thing like Kagami told him to, Tendou just has this attitude about him, this polite aura that's covering him that he's really kinda in a bad mood. He says to Kagami, "Tell him this. If you meddle with me, you will pay for it." To which Kagami is like, "....meddle with you? Huh?" before Tendou distracts him with pointing out that Yaguruma let a Worm get away.
I... I realize that Tendou is saying that TheBee meddled with him as Kabuto, that the line was referring to their half-started fight because Yaguruma's orders were to bring Kabuto in and it's not like Tendou was going to let that happen. But the tone of the scene reads as being about Kagami/Tendou so strongly to me, because of the way the actors said the lines, because of Kagami's obvious confusion about it. I suppose Kagami didn't really see the beginning of the fight, he just walked in when Kabuto and TheBee were fighting, just saw Kabuto injure Kageyama. (Interesting, btw, that Kabuto kind of just stands there when Kagami rides up and yells at him.) So he doesn't really get that TheBee is after Kabuto.
It's just. It's part of that shoujo manga effect. Where the main character doesn't get the extra level to the conversation, they miss the underlying implications that aren't really about what the surface says. That's what this scene reads like to me, that it's about Kabuto vs TheBee on the surface, but about Kagami/Tendou underneath that, even if I know it probably wasn't meant to come off that way. It doesn't help that it's set right in the middle of the arc where Tendou's so pissy because Kagami is all *__* over Yaguruma.
Same for how Kagami's next scene is of him asking Tadokoro-san to let him join Shadow, which just further plays into that whole subtext between them. He's angry at Tendou for not listening, for seemingly picking a fight with TheBee, so he asks to join Shadow because it's obvious that he feels like this is the right thing to do and that there's more going on with his motivation than just admiring Yaguruma.
So, Yaguruma lets Kagami join Shadow and then goes to visit Kageyama in the hospital and it's interesting to watch these scenes again, knowing what's going to happen and what kind of people they both really are. I do like to think that at least some part of Kageyama's lighting up around Yaguruma was real, even if part of it was jealousy (or something like that), too. Yaguruma leaves Kagami and Kageyama alone in the hospital room while Kageyama talks about "perfect harmony" and how Shadow doesn't allow grandstanding, where instead they help each other out. You can just see it written all over Kagami's face how much that frustrates him about Tendou, which is obvious, but still telling.
Mishima then calls Yaguruma and says there really is another Worm with the same MO as before, that Kabuto was right when he said one got away. Yaguruma is shocked, practically destroying his phone with the deathgrip he has on it until Kagami snaps him out of it. Then a scene with the Worm attacking more wedding-goes and, you know, the series never really explained why that was. Why the Worm attacked in certain patterns like that.
Anyway. Yaguruma and Kagami go to buy tofu, but that "guy who walks the path of the heavens" already bought it all up and Yaguruma seems smug when he says, jeez, how petty is that guy, that's revenge for the last time I beat him? The tofu seller laughs and says, nah, he seemed really happy! He said he was going to have a tofu party! And Yaguruma's expression turns tense and hard, like he's struggling to keep it together, and I'm... not sure how to parse that, precisely. I assume it's part of his whole fracturing world, where everything is starting to come undone and things aren't falling into the neat little places like they're supposed to be doing, that Kabuto is messing everything up, that he can't predict/read Kabuto as well as he thought he could.
It just. Kind of reads like, oh, that guy is still being petty over the last time I beat him? and then gets wound up when the tofu seller tells him, nope, it's not about you at all. Which isn't precisely shippy so much as it is... about Yaguruma having no effect on Kabuto (that he realizes) and how that's not the way it's supposed to be.
After that, Kagami runs up to Tendou, ready to yell at him over the tofu thing, and once again I notice that Kagami puts his hand on Tendou's shoulder to stop him and... Tendou lets it happen. Also, when Tendou asks, oh, did you want tofu en masse? and Kagami snaps, no, Yaguruma does!, the look on Tendou's face is beautiful. Especially when he sais that Yaguruma wouldn't give him any tofu (which is a lie) and Kagami repeats his, "Yaguruma-san, unlike you, is an amazing man." and says that the tofu is for his subordinates. Tendou is STARING at Kagami and he says, "Chummy as always, huh?" to which Kagami goes, "What?" and Tendou tries to leave when Kagami gets a phone call and then he runs back over to Tendou and says he'll never forgive him if Tendou hurts his comrades again and it's just.
Seriously.
After awhile how else do you interpret that kind of tone to the text? When Tendou is staring intently at him with those final lines between them for that scene, there's no smugness like you would expect. His tone when he says he can't do anything with Kagami isn't dismissive in the usual way, either. At this point in the series, there's really not a whole lot of reasons for Tendou to react like that to Kagami, someone who really can't even provide him with much ZECT information. There has to be another reason that Tendou treats Kagami the way he does and, time and again, I keep coming back to... well.
Especially when, a couple of scenes later, Tendou has shown up at the church and, admittedly, there was a Worm there that he was going to defeat, but. He certainly made a point of making sure that Kagami and Yaguruma knew he was there and that he had spotted the Worm when Yaguruma hadn't. He says, "How is this perfect security?" (after Yaguruma said that Shadow had perfect security around the church, so I'm assuming that Tendou heard him say that) and makes a big show of pointing out the Worm was in the choir the whole time. He could have easily just taken care of the Worm himself, then gone home and left the peons to do whatever they would, but no.
No, Tendou makes sure that Yaguruma and Kagami are there to see the reveal. He makes sure they can't miss how much more awesome he is than Yaguruma. He leaves Hiyori and the tofu party to go make sure that Kagami knows how awesome he is, in the most dramatic and awesome way possible. Because Tendou is kind of a giant drama queen (which will never not be hilarious) and Kagami said that he respected Yaguruma more than Tendou and that was not to be tolerated.
Afterwards, Yaguruma continues to kind of lose it because things are not going as they should, so he shows up at La Salle and... Tendou tries to give him a bowl of tofu, which. Okay, I know that they probably didn't really mean it that way, but given that Kagami yelled at him about that earlier, it still strikes me as kind of. Suspiciously gay. >_>
Yaguruma knocks over the bowl of tofu and they decide to take it outside. You know Yaguruma is doomed from the moment Tendou says that no matter how brightly the stars shine they're no match for the sun and Yaguruma tries to say that he's the sun. The first time through with these scenes, a lot of what was going on with Yaguruma kind of went over my head, largely because I wasn't really paying attention to his character. But the second time through, I think I picked up a lot more, especially about how stable he was not. He was kind of clearly putting everything into TheBee and his role as a Rider, so when Kabuto came along and messed that up and did things more perfectly than him, it sent him into a downward spiral.
The episode ends with Kagami riding up and yelling at them and TheBee about to hit Kabuto with a Rider Sting and I rub my hands together gleefully because the next episode is also one of my favorites of the early episodes. It's right around these episodes where I wasn't just watching because I felt I owed it to Meg and more because I was starting to actually really like it/the series really picked up a lot. ♥
I'm also up to episode 30 of Kamen Rider Den-O (which includes the movie!) so SPOILERS up to that point. Though, it's not like I'm really talking in very specific details, mostly just rambling thoughts.
This series doesn't exactly take itself very seriously, does it? I'm more than halfway through the series now and it's still totally LOL DINOSAURS AND NINJAS and I love it for that. I'm still not convinced that it's going to eventually come around and start making sense, but it's still got a ways to go, I suppose. I think what still trips me up the most is that stuff is constantly getting destroyed in the past and people see the Imagin all the time, yet... everything's fine? I suppose I can still fanwank the excuse that the timeline can repair itself to a certain degree, but. I feel like the show should address it at least!
I'm also kind of >:< over Hana not being the Rider of her timeline, since she's a singularity point, but I'm assured that there's a reason she can't be, so I'll reserve judgement on that. Even if it still feels a little like OMG EW A GIRL AS A RIDER? GROSS, NO WAY! to me. >_>a
You know who I love a lot, though? Sakurai Yuuto. He was kind of annoying at first, but his relationship with Deneb is possibly the BEST THING TO HAVE EVER EXISTED. I... I kind of keep thinking that I should potentially ship them, except I don't really get that vibe off them, not nearly like I do with Ryoutarou and all of his Imagin or, you konw, the way Yuuto acts around Ryoutarou.
HE REALLY HATES NOGAMI AND DOES NOT LIKE HIM AT ALL HE'S SO ANNOYING. AND HE'S GOING TO GO STALK NOGAMI AGAIN AND FIND EVEN MORE REASONS TO NOT LIKE HIM AND THEN GO TELL NOGAMI ALL THOSE REASONS WHY YUUTO DOESN'T LIKE HIM AT ALL. AND THEN START ALL OVER AGAIN TOMORROW BECAUSE NOGAMI SHOULD KNOW HOW MUCH HE DOESN'T LIKE HIM.
The flying tackle and elbows to Deneb's face NEVER GET OLD, too. And I was genuinely moved by when Yuuto tossed the last Zeronos card into the river because Deneb ran away after accidentally causing Yuuto to use the second to last one. I just. I really loved that Yuuto didn't really think much at all before grabbing that second to last card to use when he thought Deneb was in trouble. He really DOES care underneath the prickly exterior.
And despite how totally gay he is for Ryoutarou, I... actually don't mind the idea of Yuuto/Airi, they could be really cute together! His pouting over how she'd apparently totally forgotten him was SUPER ADORABLE.
I do think it's weird the way they wove the canon of the movie into the series, right in the middle of episode 27, so you have to stop it halfway through or else it makes a lot less sense. Like, I get setting it directly after an episode, but... having build up for the movie in ep27, but the recapping the movie in the second half of that same episode??
Although, it's still pretty LOL to me the way they found a way to have four Ryoutarou's in the same space, you could positively HEAR a dozen doujinshika picking up their pencils and starting to scribble furiously right at that moment. Also, what never fails to make me LOL is the ZeroLiner and Zeronos' transformation sequence. The mooing just. a sdf;lkjasljk AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SO GREAT.
Also, so hard not to marathon through the rest of the episodes in one night. .__. At this rate I really will start Boukenger or something. ._____.
Also a few ARASHI-related things, because the stupid boyband has been trying to tear me away from the tokusatsu lately, what with the Dome Tour and Hanadan Final promotions (a;sdlkfjalskj Shun/Jun oh my god *__*) and with the pairing awesomeness and just. Everything.
>:F
♥ - This Hanadan/F4 interview is one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life. I've been waiting for some Shun/Jun fanservice, but I didn't expect... w-well.
SHUN: JUN said to me "If it's SHUN, I don't mind to make love."(Laugh)
That reminds me what interesting was.... by JUN's pillow....
SHOTA: There was SHUN's photo book! (Laugh)
JUN: Everyone came to my house for the first time,
and first of all they began to search the inside of my house.
SHUN: I realized that you loved me unexpectedly.
JUN: Someone gave it to me! I was just reading it in the bed before I slept. (Laugh)
SHUN: Though I felt weird, I am happy.
...........wh-what. Like.
I cannot make that any more blatant than what it is.
It's like.
Shun: I see you have my photobook! BY YOUR BED.
Jun: WHAT? NO! SOMEONE GAVE IT TO ME! I WAS JUST READING IT IN BED LAST NIGHT!
I AM NOT EXAGGERATING THAT. THAT IS WHAT THEY SAID. *DYING*
You think it can't get much gayer than the Hanadan cast being invited over, so Shun obviously??? goes to look through Jun's bedroom and yet it can. PHOTOBOOK. READING IN BED. IF IT'S SHUN HE DOESN'T MIND MAKING LOVE. ........WHAT?
I--
*incoherent*
There's another really great part in the interview, where they asked the cast what kind of girl they each saw the others with.
SHUN: I think JUN also will be good with someone like that, aren't you?
JUN is basically a workaholic, so if JUN was with a girl
and there is an invitation from the colleague that he likes to go at any cost, he will go.
The person who can understand such a thing,
and can think that's to increase a possibility of JUN.
If it is not so, it becomes tired.
How does JUN will be if he is left with a girl alone? I can't imagine it at all.
And if I read that right... Shun is basically saying, "If Jun's with a girl, she has to understand that he'll often go out with friends every single chance he gets, rather than stay with her. Also, picturing Jun with a girl? ERROR/RETRY/ABORT/FAIL."
It's actually sort of interesting (especially when Shota basically says the same thing, if less gay, and Jun goes OMG YOU GUYS KNOW ME SO WELL :D) because... any girl Jun is with is kind of doomed to being second (or third or fourth or fifth or sixth) place all the time, he'll put his work stuff ahead of the relationship all the time. Which just makes me think that he really would be best off with someone from work.
♥ - I'd heard a lot about the TIME Tour Final MC and had watched it raw with the DVD and flailed a lot already, but it's different when watching subs of it. Because it's EVEN MORE HILARIOUS.
It starts off with them being nostalgic about the end of the summer tour and Aiba tells Sho not to say sad things about the tour wrapping up and Jun says, well, all things come to an end, right? So, what does Aiba do? He IMMEDIATELY whips around to agree with Jun, WELL, I GUESS THAT'S TRUE!
And then they explain that Aiba's all .___. because MATSUJUN GOT MAD AT HIM AND SO HE'S BEING NICE TO JUN NOW. The DVD helpfully spliced in footage of Jun walking over to tell Aiba to take his jacket off (and a;slkdfjakljs god bless them for that because it wasn't in the regular footage, and I would have cried if they hadn't shown that) and it's just.
It could not possibly be more, ".__. I'm agreeing with everything Matsujun says because I really, really don't want to sleep on the couch tonight."
Also, you know who are a bunch of bitches? Ohno and Nino. And Jun, a little, but. Aiba and Sho talking about how sometimes they get the urge to send really sappy e-mails to the rest of the group before or after big events, like, "Let's do our best tomorrow!" or "Man, Arashi is THE BEST!!" but they usually regain their sanity beforehand.
Nino says, nooo, you guys should send those! >:D Aiba and Sho both go, NO WAY WE KNOW YOU BITCHES WOULD NEVER LET US HEAR THE END OF IT, which is extra funny because that is exactly why they were encouraging it, the little shits. Meanwhile, Jun is trying to play it off as being a bitch, but you can totally see on his face that he would be all over that kind of message from his bandmates.
And I love that, later in the MC, not long before they start Kaze, Nino is the one to start more shit with Aiba, who knows better than to continue teasing Jun about being mad at him (because Jun's denying it and if Aiba wants to not sleep on the couch, he will AGREE WITH MATSUMOTO THAT HE WAS NOT BEING MEAN +__+) and says, no, it's too late, Aiba, Jun's already mad at you, which winds up being as more teasing Jun and then asd;lkfj the line about "Thank you for the loving discipline." That was. Totally straight, yes. .__.
Then, Kaze (as I kind of skimmed past the H!S!J stuff) and I really like that song and I just. I love that Nino air guitars against his leg, Jun's tapping out the beat, and you can just see how much they truly enjoy performing. ;___;b I loved absolutely everything about this MC from start to finish. *__*
♥ - I also watched D no Arashi #83 [2005.02.09] and D no Arashi #84 [2005.02.16], both of which were some of my favorites. #83 is awesome for several reasons, the awful -50 degrees (C) experiments that Jun clearly hated and yet they make it up to him!
The day before, Aiba's left a container full of vegetables in there. One of which is a green onion, so it's a long, thin stalk that Jun picks up and looks at experimentally. The first thing the does?
Starts whacking it over Aiba's head until it breaks.
I love that he loves to crack things over Aiba's head! I actually do feel sort of badly for Aiba, he totally goes "OUCH. >_o" over it. And I love that Aiba lets Jun do all the fun things. Like hitting the frozen watermelon with a hammer or dropping it when that doesn't break.
And then gives him a GIANT WATERGUN.
While Aiba holds the dartboard target up.
Yes. That's a great idea.
Give Matsujun a giant watergun in -50C and have one of his stupid hot bandmates hold up a target about a meter away from him.
What could go wrong?
In one of the later A no Arashi segments, it was Jun's idea to blow bubbles from various things! He was similarly *__* over the bubbles in that episode of Himitsu no Arashi-chan, so. Hmm. My running gag senses are tingling a little. >:D
This is also the episode where they double-prank Degawa and it's awesome to watch it raw, but the subs make it EVEN BETTER OMG. Like, Degawa's good about having been backed into a corner where he couldn't disagree about the electric shaver and was pissed about it later, especially because Arashi wouldn't properly apologize and that was so, so aaaaaaaawkward.
Jun starts getting pissed, no, I DID apologize and it just blows up from there and OH MY GOD I know he was just acting and all, but that is why I never want to meet Matsujun in a dark alley because he would totally scare the shit out of me. ;_____; I rewatched the scene several times and watched him like a hawk a few times, he doesn't break character for even a SECOND, not even when it takes practically half of the staff to literally drag him out of the room. If I were Degawa, I'd have been curled up in a little ball on the floor, too. .____.
In contrast to that episode, #84 was dorky as hell and one of the best moments was when they're doing that yes/no game. The rules are, you ask a question and everyone has a coin, if the answer is yes, heads up, if the answer is no, tails up (basically). You place the coins under a cloth and swish them around (without flipping them over) so no one knows who said what.
The question: "After watching videos of fail A no Arashi segments, who wants to be on Aiba's team with him?" All five of them put coins under the cloth, including Aiba himself.
The result? Three NO, two YES.
I could NEVER GUESS who the second YES was. Never, ever. .__.
(Now. They don't actually say, but. I have very little doubt.)
The other A+++ moment was when they were using Aiba's special binoculars to play Jenga and everyone else has gone through their turn okay, then it's Sho's turn and he knocks the tower over. Nino gleefully shrieks, "I knew it'd be okaasan!! I knew it'd be okaasan, guys!"
This is why Sho does T no Arashi, you guys. :< Because you call him names. :<
Also, LOL FOREVER the way they actually do call him "okaasan".
♥ - Zoom In [2008.06.16] Arashi Tokyo Dome Concert + Mezamashi [2008.06.16] Arashi Tokyo Dome Concert - I've also been skimming the concert reports and the short clips of concert footage (OH MY GOD WHERE ARE THE FAN CAMS GIVE THEM TO US, WE WANTSES THEM, HISSSSSSS) and... wow, the fanservice has been kind of awesome, which is great to see, given that they seemed to be off to a bit of a rocky start when the concerts first started. There's been a lot of Aiba/Jun, Ohno/Jun, and I even noticed some Nino/Jun and it's like. Arashi is going HEY STOP WATCHING ALL THAT KAMEN RIDER CRAP AND COME BACK OVER HERE.
And oh man does the upgraded version of Fight Song look SO COMPLETELY AWESOME. Spinning! In mid-air! A lot like Jun did for Yabai, except there are five of them now and a;skdfa;lkjslakjffffffff I need more footage of this RIGHT NOW. And ditto for the carnival theme, which I was kind of skeptical about at first, but after seeing those costumes? I AM ALL ONBOARD, THEY LOOK BEAUTIFULLY HIDEOUS. I LOVE IT.
Seriously, those floats look BATSHIT CRAZY and kind of SERIOUSLY AWESOME and THAT IS WHY I GOT INTO JE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Because when a concert setup can make me go *__* and LOL at the same time, I know it's love. <3
I can't-- I can't even begin on their outfits. Jun is wearing what looks like a rainbow-colored peacock-style coat with WHITE FRINGE on it! Aiba looks like some sort of demented clown that had a rainbow throw up on it! Nino is COVERED IN FLOWERS! Sho's coat just makes me laugh and laugh and laugh! Ohno is like a batshit jester and is actually the sanest of the bunch, which isn't saying anything at all! The floats! HOLY CRAP, there's a giant monitor on one, there's a bunch of floating heart-shaped balloons in another, there's one shaped like a giant carousel horse!
Just. I cannot love this concert tour any more than I already do, I don't think.
I also hope they really did film and will release Nino's birthday concert because just the LOOK on his face when the entire crowd wishes him happy birthday and he's just soaking it up like WELL OF COURSE THEY'RE HERE FOR ME u__u while the rest of the band go HEY. >:| at him. Aki's concert report is full of so much awesome that I just spazflail at the whole entry, from Aiba and Jun clearly being in league with each other to the torture of Nino on his birthday (WHO DESERVES IT, THE LITTLE SHIT) which is clearly payback from Jun's last birthday with the cat and the wineglass and the robe and all that.
OR OR OR. The one where all four of the others are suspended in mid-air during Fight Song and they're just SPINNING LIKE CRAZY while Sho-- asd;fklajs;lkjaljk Sho just HANGS THERE and looks like so much NO WAY IN HELL. >:<
♥ - Game Nikki X 2008.06.17 vol255 - Pretty much everyone has seen this, but. Like I couldn't flip out over it.
Translation of the jweb entry Nino made on his birthday and how Jun was the first of Arashi to send him a message and as;ldkfjaljk "My Jun" with a little red heart next to it and I--
I need Nino/Jun like burning now.
Also, Nino is SO ADORABLE AND I WANT ONE.
Anyway, SPOILERS for the episode listed at the very least (and very likely into the 30s and possibly the whole series), I don't plan these things in advance, we'll see from there.
Kamen Rider Kabuto episode 08: So, this episode starts off with a rather lengthy flashback to TheBee's fight against the Worm while Kabuto watches, and I don't mind because it's been awhile since I was watching and it's a good memory refresher. I'm still not sure what to make of Tendou making it obvious who he was, I don't think he told Yaguruma his name? But he obviously did his pose and... well, Yaguruma says, "Aha, I knew it, it is you." so maybe Tendou just thought, eh, he probably has already figured it out, so no use hiding it?
And Tendou continues to be really kinda extra pissy during this arc, I swear it's not just my imagination. Not that he's ever very friendly to ZECT, but when Tendou comes screaming after him to yell at him for hurting Kageyama and for not staying out of the whole thing like Kagami told him to, Tendou just has this attitude about him, this polite aura that's covering him that he's really kinda in a bad mood. He says to Kagami, "Tell him this. If you meddle with me, you will pay for it." To which Kagami is like, "....meddle with you? Huh?" before Tendou distracts him with pointing out that Yaguruma let a Worm get away.
I... I realize that Tendou is saying that TheBee meddled with him as Kabuto, that the line was referring to their half-started fight because Yaguruma's orders were to bring Kabuto in and it's not like Tendou was going to let that happen. But the tone of the scene reads as being about Kagami/Tendou so strongly to me, because of the way the actors said the lines, because of Kagami's obvious confusion about it. I suppose Kagami didn't really see the beginning of the fight, he just walked in when Kabuto and TheBee were fighting, just saw Kabuto injure Kageyama. (Interesting, btw, that Kabuto kind of just stands there when Kagami rides up and yells at him.) So he doesn't really get that TheBee is after Kabuto.
It's just. It's part of that shoujo manga effect. Where the main character doesn't get the extra level to the conversation, they miss the underlying implications that aren't really about what the surface says. That's what this scene reads like to me, that it's about Kabuto vs TheBee on the surface, but about Kagami/Tendou underneath that, even if I know it probably wasn't meant to come off that way. It doesn't help that it's set right in the middle of the arc where Tendou's so pissy because Kagami is all *__* over Yaguruma.
Same for how Kagami's next scene is of him asking Tadokoro-san to let him join Shadow, which just further plays into that whole subtext between them. He's angry at Tendou for not listening, for seemingly picking a fight with TheBee, so he asks to join Shadow because it's obvious that he feels like this is the right thing to do and that there's more going on with his motivation than just admiring Yaguruma.
So, Yaguruma lets Kagami join Shadow and then goes to visit Kageyama in the hospital and it's interesting to watch these scenes again, knowing what's going to happen and what kind of people they both really are. I do like to think that at least some part of Kageyama's lighting up around Yaguruma was real, even if part of it was jealousy (or something like that), too. Yaguruma leaves Kagami and Kageyama alone in the hospital room while Kageyama talks about "perfect harmony" and how Shadow doesn't allow grandstanding, where instead they help each other out. You can just see it written all over Kagami's face how much that frustrates him about Tendou, which is obvious, but still telling.
Mishima then calls Yaguruma and says there really is another Worm with the same MO as before, that Kabuto was right when he said one got away. Yaguruma is shocked, practically destroying his phone with the deathgrip he has on it until Kagami snaps him out of it. Then a scene with the Worm attacking more wedding-goes and, you know, the series never really explained why that was. Why the Worm attacked in certain patterns like that.
Anyway. Yaguruma and Kagami go to buy tofu, but that "guy who walks the path of the heavens" already bought it all up and Yaguruma seems smug when he says, jeez, how petty is that guy, that's revenge for the last time I beat him? The tofu seller laughs and says, nah, he seemed really happy! He said he was going to have a tofu party! And Yaguruma's expression turns tense and hard, like he's struggling to keep it together, and I'm... not sure how to parse that, precisely. I assume it's part of his whole fracturing world, where everything is starting to come undone and things aren't falling into the neat little places like they're supposed to be doing, that Kabuto is messing everything up, that he can't predict/read Kabuto as well as he thought he could.
It just. Kind of reads like, oh, that guy is still being petty over the last time I beat him? and then gets wound up when the tofu seller tells him, nope, it's not about you at all. Which isn't precisely shippy so much as it is... about Yaguruma having no effect on Kabuto (that he realizes) and how that's not the way it's supposed to be.
After that, Kagami runs up to Tendou, ready to yell at him over the tofu thing, and once again I notice that Kagami puts his hand on Tendou's shoulder to stop him and... Tendou lets it happen. Also, when Tendou asks, oh, did you want tofu en masse? and Kagami snaps, no, Yaguruma does!, the look on Tendou's face is beautiful. Especially when he sais that Yaguruma wouldn't give him any tofu (which is a lie) and Kagami repeats his, "Yaguruma-san, unlike you, is an amazing man." and says that the tofu is for his subordinates. Tendou is STARING at Kagami and he says, "Chummy as always, huh?" to which Kagami goes, "What?" and Tendou tries to leave when Kagami gets a phone call and then he runs back over to Tendou and says he'll never forgive him if Tendou hurts his comrades again and it's just.
Seriously.
After awhile how else do you interpret that kind of tone to the text? When Tendou is staring intently at him with those final lines between them for that scene, there's no smugness like you would expect. His tone when he says he can't do anything with Kagami isn't dismissive in the usual way, either. At this point in the series, there's really not a whole lot of reasons for Tendou to react like that to Kagami, someone who really can't even provide him with much ZECT information. There has to be another reason that Tendou treats Kagami the way he does and, time and again, I keep coming back to... well.
Especially when, a couple of scenes later, Tendou has shown up at the church and, admittedly, there was a Worm there that he was going to defeat, but. He certainly made a point of making sure that Kagami and Yaguruma knew he was there and that he had spotted the Worm when Yaguruma hadn't. He says, "How is this perfect security?" (after Yaguruma said that Shadow had perfect security around the church, so I'm assuming that Tendou heard him say that) and makes a big show of pointing out the Worm was in the choir the whole time. He could have easily just taken care of the Worm himself, then gone home and left the peons to do whatever they would, but no.
No, Tendou makes sure that Yaguruma and Kagami are there to see the reveal. He makes sure they can't miss how much more awesome he is than Yaguruma. He leaves Hiyori and the tofu party to go make sure that Kagami knows how awesome he is, in the most dramatic and awesome way possible. Because Tendou is kind of a giant drama queen (which will never not be hilarious) and Kagami said that he respected Yaguruma more than Tendou and that was not to be tolerated.
Afterwards, Yaguruma continues to kind of lose it because things are not going as they should, so he shows up at La Salle and... Tendou tries to give him a bowl of tofu, which. Okay, I know that they probably didn't really mean it that way, but given that Kagami yelled at him about that earlier, it still strikes me as kind of. Suspiciously gay. >_>
Yaguruma knocks over the bowl of tofu and they decide to take it outside. You know Yaguruma is doomed from the moment Tendou says that no matter how brightly the stars shine they're no match for the sun and Yaguruma tries to say that he's the sun. The first time through with these scenes, a lot of what was going on with Yaguruma kind of went over my head, largely because I wasn't really paying attention to his character. But the second time through, I think I picked up a lot more, especially about how stable he was not. He was kind of clearly putting everything into TheBee and his role as a Rider, so when Kabuto came along and messed that up and did things more perfectly than him, it sent him into a downward spiral.
The episode ends with Kagami riding up and yelling at them and TheBee about to hit Kabuto with a Rider Sting and I rub my hands together gleefully because the next episode is also one of my favorites of the early episodes. It's right around these episodes where I wasn't just watching because I felt I owed it to Meg and more because I was starting to actually really like it/the series really picked up a lot. ♥
I'm also up to episode 30 of Kamen Rider Den-O (which includes the movie!) so SPOILERS up to that point. Though, it's not like I'm really talking in very specific details, mostly just rambling thoughts.
This series doesn't exactly take itself very seriously, does it? I'm more than halfway through the series now and it's still totally LOL DINOSAURS AND NINJAS and I love it for that. I'm still not convinced that it's going to eventually come around and start making sense, but it's still got a ways to go, I suppose. I think what still trips me up the most is that stuff is constantly getting destroyed in the past and people see the Imagin all the time, yet... everything's fine? I suppose I can still fanwank the excuse that the timeline can repair itself to a certain degree, but. I feel like the show should address it at least!
I'm also kind of >:< over Hana not being the Rider of her timeline, since she's a singularity point, but I'm assured that there's a reason she can't be, so I'll reserve judgement on that. Even if it still feels a little like OMG EW A GIRL AS A RIDER? GROSS, NO WAY! to me. >_>a
You know who I love a lot, though? Sakurai Yuuto. He was kind of annoying at first, but his relationship with Deneb is possibly the BEST THING TO HAVE EVER EXISTED. I... I kind of keep thinking that I should potentially ship them, except I don't really get that vibe off them, not nearly like I do with Ryoutarou and all of his Imagin or, you konw, the way Yuuto acts around Ryoutarou.
HE REALLY HATES NOGAMI AND DOES NOT LIKE HIM AT ALL HE'S SO ANNOYING. AND HE'S GOING TO GO STALK NOGAMI AGAIN AND FIND EVEN MORE REASONS TO NOT LIKE HIM AND THEN GO TELL NOGAMI ALL THOSE REASONS WHY YUUTO DOESN'T LIKE HIM AT ALL. AND THEN START ALL OVER AGAIN TOMORROW BECAUSE NOGAMI SHOULD KNOW HOW MUCH HE DOESN'T LIKE HIM.
The flying tackle and elbows to Deneb's face NEVER GET OLD, too. And I was genuinely moved by when Yuuto tossed the last Zeronos card into the river because Deneb ran away after accidentally causing Yuuto to use the second to last one. I just. I really loved that Yuuto didn't really think much at all before grabbing that second to last card to use when he thought Deneb was in trouble. He really DOES care underneath the prickly exterior.
And despite how totally gay he is for Ryoutarou, I... actually don't mind the idea of Yuuto/Airi, they could be really cute together! His pouting over how she'd apparently totally forgotten him was SUPER ADORABLE.
I do think it's weird the way they wove the canon of the movie into the series, right in the middle of episode 27, so you have to stop it halfway through or else it makes a lot less sense. Like, I get setting it directly after an episode, but... having build up for the movie in ep27, but the recapping the movie in the second half of that same episode??
Although, it's still pretty LOL to me the way they found a way to have four Ryoutarou's in the same space, you could positively HEAR a dozen doujinshika picking up their pencils and starting to scribble furiously right at that moment. Also, what never fails to make me LOL is the ZeroLiner and Zeronos' transformation sequence. The mooing just. a sdf;lkjasljk AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SO GREAT.
Also, so hard not to marathon through the rest of the episodes in one night. .__. At this rate I really will start Boukenger or something. ._____.
Also a few ARASHI-related things, because the stupid boyband has been trying to tear me away from the tokusatsu lately, what with the Dome Tour and Hanadan Final promotions (a;sdlkfjalskj Shun/Jun oh my god *__*) and with the pairing awesomeness and just. Everything.
>:F
♥ - This Hanadan/F4 interview is one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life. I've been waiting for some Shun/Jun fanservice, but I didn't expect... w-well.
SHUN: JUN said to me "If it's SHUN, I don't mind to make love."(Laugh)
That reminds me what interesting was.... by JUN's pillow....
SHOTA: There was SHUN's photo book! (Laugh)
JUN: Everyone came to my house for the first time,
and first of all they began to search the inside of my house.
SHUN: I realized that you loved me unexpectedly.
JUN: Someone gave it to me! I was just reading it in the bed before I slept. (Laugh)
SHUN: Though I felt weird, I am happy.
...........wh-what. Like.
I cannot make that any more blatant than what it is.
It's like.
Shun: I see you have my photobook! BY YOUR BED.
Jun: WHAT? NO! SOMEONE GAVE IT TO ME! I WAS JUST READING IT IN BED LAST NIGHT!
I AM NOT EXAGGERATING THAT. THAT IS WHAT THEY SAID. *DYING*
You think it can't get much gayer than the Hanadan cast being invited over, so Shun obviously??? goes to look through Jun's bedroom and yet it can. PHOTOBOOK. READING IN BED. IF IT'S SHUN HE DOESN'T MIND MAKING LOVE. ........WHAT?
I--
*incoherent*
There's another really great part in the interview, where they asked the cast what kind of girl they each saw the others with.
SHUN: I think JUN also will be good with someone like that, aren't you?
JUN is basically a workaholic, so if JUN was with a girl
and there is an invitation from the colleague that he likes to go at any cost, he will go.
The person who can understand such a thing,
and can think that's to increase a possibility of JUN.
If it is not so, it becomes tired.
How does JUN will be if he is left with a girl alone? I can't imagine it at all.
And if I read that right... Shun is basically saying, "If Jun's with a girl, she has to understand that he'll often go out with friends every single chance he gets, rather than stay with her. Also, picturing Jun with a girl? ERROR/RETRY/ABORT/FAIL."
It's actually sort of interesting (especially when Shota basically says the same thing, if less gay, and Jun goes OMG YOU GUYS KNOW ME SO WELL :D) because... any girl Jun is with is kind of doomed to being second (or third or fourth or fifth or sixth) place all the time, he'll put his work stuff ahead of the relationship all the time. Which just makes me think that he really would be best off with someone from work.
♥ - I'd heard a lot about the TIME Tour Final MC and had watched it raw with the DVD and flailed a lot already, but it's different when watching subs of it. Because it's EVEN MORE HILARIOUS.
It starts off with them being nostalgic about the end of the summer tour and Aiba tells Sho not to say sad things about the tour wrapping up and Jun says, well, all things come to an end, right? So, what does Aiba do? He IMMEDIATELY whips around to agree with Jun, WELL, I GUESS THAT'S TRUE!
And then they explain that Aiba's all .___. because MATSUJUN GOT MAD AT HIM AND SO HE'S BEING NICE TO JUN NOW. The DVD helpfully spliced in footage of Jun walking over to tell Aiba to take his jacket off (and a;slkdfjakljs god bless them for that because it wasn't in the regular footage, and I would have cried if they hadn't shown that) and it's just.
It could not possibly be more, ".__. I'm agreeing with everything Matsujun says because I really, really don't want to sleep on the couch tonight."
Also, you know who are a bunch of bitches? Ohno and Nino. And Jun, a little, but. Aiba and Sho talking about how sometimes they get the urge to send really sappy e-mails to the rest of the group before or after big events, like, "Let's do our best tomorrow!" or "Man, Arashi is THE BEST!!" but they usually regain their sanity beforehand.
Nino says, nooo, you guys should send those! >:D Aiba and Sho both go, NO WAY WE KNOW YOU BITCHES WOULD NEVER LET US HEAR THE END OF IT, which is extra funny because that is exactly why they were encouraging it, the little shits. Meanwhile, Jun is trying to play it off as being a bitch, but you can totally see on his face that he would be all over that kind of message from his bandmates.
And I love that, later in the MC, not long before they start Kaze, Nino is the one to start more shit with Aiba, who knows better than to continue teasing Jun about being mad at him (because Jun's denying it and if Aiba wants to not sleep on the couch, he will AGREE WITH MATSUMOTO THAT HE WAS NOT BEING MEAN +__+) and says, no, it's too late, Aiba, Jun's already mad at you, which winds up being as more teasing Jun and then asd;lkfj the line about "Thank you for the loving discipline." That was. Totally straight, yes. .__.
Then, Kaze (as I kind of skimmed past the H!S!J stuff) and I really like that song and I just. I love that Nino air guitars against his leg, Jun's tapping out the beat, and you can just see how much they truly enjoy performing. ;___;b I loved absolutely everything about this MC from start to finish. *__*
♥ - I also watched D no Arashi #83 [2005.02.09] and D no Arashi #84 [2005.02.16], both of which were some of my favorites. #83 is awesome for several reasons, the awful -50 degrees (C) experiments that Jun clearly hated and yet they make it up to him!
The day before, Aiba's left a container full of vegetables in there. One of which is a green onion, so it's a long, thin stalk that Jun picks up and looks at experimentally. The first thing the does?
Starts whacking it over Aiba's head until it breaks.
I love that he loves to crack things over Aiba's head! I actually do feel sort of badly for Aiba, he totally goes "OUCH. >_o" over it. And I love that Aiba lets Jun do all the fun things. Like hitting the frozen watermelon with a hammer or dropping it when that doesn't break.
And then gives him a GIANT WATERGUN.
While Aiba holds the dartboard target up.
Yes. That's a great idea.
Give Matsujun a giant watergun in -50C and have one of his stupid hot bandmates hold up a target about a meter away from him.
What could go wrong?
In one of the later A no Arashi segments, it was Jun's idea to blow bubbles from various things! He was similarly *__* over the bubbles in that episode of Himitsu no Arashi-chan, so. Hmm. My running gag senses are tingling a little. >:D
This is also the episode where they double-prank Degawa and it's awesome to watch it raw, but the subs make it EVEN BETTER OMG. Like, Degawa's good about having been backed into a corner where he couldn't disagree about the electric shaver and was pissed about it later, especially because Arashi wouldn't properly apologize and that was so, so aaaaaaaawkward.
Jun starts getting pissed, no, I DID apologize and it just blows up from there and OH MY GOD I know he was just acting and all, but that is why I never want to meet Matsujun in a dark alley because he would totally scare the shit out of me. ;_____; I rewatched the scene several times and watched him like a hawk a few times, he doesn't break character for even a SECOND, not even when it takes practically half of the staff to literally drag him out of the room. If I were Degawa, I'd have been curled up in a little ball on the floor, too. .____.
In contrast to that episode, #84 was dorky as hell and one of the best moments was when they're doing that yes/no game. The rules are, you ask a question and everyone has a coin, if the answer is yes, heads up, if the answer is no, tails up (basically). You place the coins under a cloth and swish them around (without flipping them over) so no one knows who said what.
The question: "After watching videos of fail A no Arashi segments, who wants to be on Aiba's team with him?" All five of them put coins under the cloth, including Aiba himself.
The result? Three NO, two YES.
I could NEVER GUESS who the second YES was. Never, ever. .__.
(Now. They don't actually say, but. I have very little doubt.)
The other A+++ moment was when they were using Aiba's special binoculars to play Jenga and everyone else has gone through their turn okay, then it's Sho's turn and he knocks the tower over. Nino gleefully shrieks, "I knew it'd be okaasan!! I knew it'd be okaasan, guys!"
This is why Sho does T no Arashi, you guys. :< Because you call him names. :<
Also, LOL FOREVER the way they actually do call him "okaasan".
♥ - Zoom In [2008.06.16] Arashi Tokyo Dome Concert + Mezamashi [2008.06.16] Arashi Tokyo Dome Concert - I've also been skimming the concert reports and the short clips of concert footage (OH MY GOD WHERE ARE THE FAN CAMS GIVE THEM TO US, WE WANTSES THEM, HISSSSSSS) and... wow, the fanservice has been kind of awesome, which is great to see, given that they seemed to be off to a bit of a rocky start when the concerts first started. There's been a lot of Aiba/Jun, Ohno/Jun, and I even noticed some Nino/Jun and it's like. Arashi is going HEY STOP WATCHING ALL THAT KAMEN RIDER CRAP AND COME BACK OVER HERE.
And oh man does the upgraded version of Fight Song look SO COMPLETELY AWESOME. Spinning! In mid-air! A lot like Jun did for Yabai, except there are five of them now and a;skdfa;lkjslakjffffffff I need more footage of this RIGHT NOW. And ditto for the carnival theme, which I was kind of skeptical about at first, but after seeing those costumes? I AM ALL ONBOARD, THEY LOOK BEAUTIFULLY HIDEOUS. I LOVE IT.
Seriously, those floats look BATSHIT CRAZY and kind of SERIOUSLY AWESOME and THAT IS WHY I GOT INTO JE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Because when a concert setup can make me go *__* and LOL at the same time, I know it's love. <3
I can't-- I can't even begin on their outfits. Jun is wearing what looks like a rainbow-colored peacock-style coat with WHITE FRINGE on it! Aiba looks like some sort of demented clown that had a rainbow throw up on it! Nino is COVERED IN FLOWERS! Sho's coat just makes me laugh and laugh and laugh! Ohno is like a batshit jester and is actually the sanest of the bunch, which isn't saying anything at all! The floats! HOLY CRAP, there's a giant monitor on one, there's a bunch of floating heart-shaped balloons in another, there's one shaped like a giant carousel horse!
Just. I cannot love this concert tour any more than I already do, I don't think.
I also hope they really did film and will release Nino's birthday concert because just the LOOK on his face when the entire crowd wishes him happy birthday and he's just soaking it up like WELL OF COURSE THEY'RE HERE FOR ME u__u while the rest of the band go HEY. >:| at him. Aki's concert report is full of so much awesome that I just spazflail at the whole entry, from Aiba and Jun clearly being in league with each other to the torture of Nino on his birthday (WHO DESERVES IT, THE LITTLE SHIT) which is clearly payback from Jun's last birthday with the cat and the wineglass and the robe and all that.
OR OR OR. The one where all four of the others are suspended in mid-air during Fight Song and they're just SPINNING LIKE CRAZY while Sho-- asd;fklajs;lkjaljk Sho just HANGS THERE and looks like so much NO WAY IN HELL. >:<
♥ - Game Nikki X 2008.06.17 vol255 - Pretty much everyone has seen this, but. Like I couldn't flip out over it.
Translation of the jweb entry Nino made on his birthday and how Jun was the first of Arashi to send him a message and as;ldkfjaljk "My Jun" with a little red heart next to it and I--
I need Nino/Jun like burning now.
Also, Nino is SO ADORABLE AND I WANT ONE.