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tyrantisterror · 3 years

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I did a four part series of trivia posts when ATOM Volume 1: Tyrantis Walks Among Us! came out, and that was pretty fun! You can see that set of trivia posts here if you’d like. I thought it’d be fun to do another now that ATOM Volume 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth! is out - just one this time, because a lot of the trivia I talked about with Volume 1 still applies.

I’m gonna divide this into two sections: non-spoiler trivia, for things that really don’t give a lot of plot points away, and spoiler trivia, for things that DO give away major plot points. I recommend not reading the spoiler trivia until after you’ve read Tyrantis Roams the Earth!, for obvious reasons, and will put the spoiler trivia under a cut.

Ok, let’s go!

- So if you read ATOM Volume 1, you probably noticed that the book is split not only into chapters, but “episodes,” which consist of four chapters a piece. It’s kind of a nod to how the series owes a great deal of its DNA to various monster of the week shows, with Godzilla: the Series and The Godzilla Power Hour being obvious influences. It also allowed me to pepper in some illustrations and cheesy b-movie style titles into each volume.

- The first “episode” of Volume 2, Tyrantis in Tokyo, pays explicit homage to the giant monster movies of Japan, perhaps even moreso than the chapters that came before it. Given how much Japanese media influenced ATOM - from tokusatsu like the Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman franchises to anime like Digimon and Evangelion (hell, the title of this episode itself is a tip of the hat to Tenchi Muyo by way of one of its spinoffs) - it kind of felt obligatory that Tyrantis visit Japan and pay his respects.

- Tyrantis in Tokyo also fits in a tribute to another staple of Atomic Age pop culture: Rock and Roll.

- Kutulusca, the giant cephalopod that appears in Tyrantis in Tokyo, is one of the oldest kaiju in this series, dating back to the first iteration of Tyrantis’s story that I put to paper back in 2001 or so. It’s changed a lot since then, but its fight with Tyrantis goes more or less the way it originally did.

- Old Meg, the giant placoderm/shark, and Nastadyne, the bipedal beetle, both owe their existence directly to Deviantart’s Godzilla fandom. Old Meg originated as a dunkleosteus monster I submitted to a “create a Godzilla kaiju” contest held by Matt Frank, while Nastadyne is based on a Megalon redesign I made during the “redesign all the Godzilla kaiju” phase of DA’s kaiju fandom.

- The second episode, Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace, gets dark as we visit the USSR, which had enough REAL horror with atomic power in its history to make creature features seem a bit defanged by comparison. It’s probably the episode with the strongest horror elements - ATOM’s always been influenced by Resident Evil, and this is probably where that influence shows the most strongly.

- It also features the first fully robotic mecha in the series, the mighty Herakoschei! Its name is a combination of “Heracles” and “Koschei the Deathless,” with the former part being added by its Russian creators to make it seem a bit more international as they offer it to the U.N. in hopes of gaining aid for a very extreme kaiju problem they’ve developed.

- Most of Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace takes place in the Siberian Monster Zone. Its name is a reference to the Lawless Monster Zone in Ultraman, which is such a cool fucking name I wish that I wish I could go back in time and steal it.

- The next episode, Tyrantis’s Revenge, is... full of spoilers, so we’ll move on for now.

- The penultimate episode, Tyrantis vs. the Martian Monsters, is a love letter to MANY different sci-fi stories that involve life on Mars, though the most prominent of them is of course The War of The Worlds (one of my top 3 favorite books) and its various adaptations. From its tentacles sapient martians, the tripodal leader of the titular monsters whose name includes the word “ulla” which is uttered by said sapient martians, the plant monster made of red vines, the cylinder-shaped spacecraft the Martian monsters are sent to earth on, the copper-skinned stingray-esque flying martian who shoots lasers from its tail, and the fact that every chapter title in this episode is a quote from the book, the H.G. Wells influence is STRONG.

- The final episode, Invasion from Beyond!, is shamelessly inspired by Destroy All Monsters, although there’s a dash of “To Serve Men,” Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, and The Day the Earth Stood Still mixed in as well. It’s also sort of a tribute to my first “published” bit of a kaiju fiction - a rewrite of Destroy All Monsters that included EVERY Godzilla monster that had appeared at the time, which my middle school self wrote back in 2002 or so for Kaiju Headquarters, a kaiju fansite I’m not sure exists anymore. Invasion from Beyond! is just as ambitious (but hopefully better executed) as my DAM Remake, with dozens upon dozens of different kaiju duking it out, earthlings vs. aliens.

- There were three different documents I made to outline the final battle of Invasion from Beyond! It’s the largest episode of the series so far and more than half of it is that fucking fight. My inner child is pleased, though, so hopefully you will be too.

Ok, that’s all I can share without spoilers. READER BEWARE WHAT FOLLOWS BELOW THE CUT!

JUST MAKING SURE you know that SPOILERS will follow from here on out. Read at your own peril! YOU WERE WARNED!

(I’m gonna start with lighter ones just in case you scrolled too far and want to turn back)

- There’s a number of explicit Spielberg homages in ATOM Volume 2, from a “we need a bigger boat” joke during a chase with a giant shark to the fact that Invasion from Beyond! opens with a group of people flying to an island of monsters to review whether or not it should get more funding.

- When Tyrantis appears in the first chapter, I snuck in modified lyrics of The Godzilla Power Hour’s theme song. “Up from the depths”... “several stories high”... “breathing fire”... “its head in the sky”... Tyrantis! Tyrantis! Tyrantis!

- The two rock bands in Tyrantis in Tokyo have real life inspirations ala Gwen Valentine, albeit a bit more muddled than hers. The Cashews are inspired by The Peanuts (see what I did there), while The Thunder Lizards are a mix of The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper. I wanted The Thunder Lizards to be more akin to the myth of a famous rock and roll band than the reality - less the real Beatles and more the Yellow Submarine cartoon version of them.

- The song The Thunder Lizards write for Tyrantis was written to fit the tune of “The Godzilla March” from Godzilla vs. Gigan, though ideally if someone made an actual song of it it would be its own song. I got the idea from Over the Garden Wall, which used the Christmas song “O Holy Night” as a a starting point for “Come Wayward Souls.”

- Perry Martin, UNNO reporter and peer of Henry Robertson, is a nod to Raymond Burr, with his name being a combination of two of Burr’s most famous roles: Perry Mason, and Steve Martin from Godzilla King of the Monsters (1956).

- Dr. Rinko Tsuburaya is a few homages in one. Her name comes from Rinko Kikuchi (who played Mako Mori in Pacific Rim), while her last name is obviously in homage of Eiji Tsuburaya. Her being the daughter of an esteemed scientist is inspired by Emiko Yamane from the original Gojira.

- Nastadyne’s Burning Justice mode is named after a similar super mode from various Transformers cartoons, though it’s more directly inspired by the Shining/Burning Finger super move from G Gundam.

- Martians sending kaiju to different planets via shooting them out of cannons (with or without cylinder spaceships around them) is another War of the Worlds shoutout. So is martians living on Venus after their homeworld was made uninhabitable, actually.

- Kurokame’s vocalizations are described as wails in explicit homage to Gamera. His name can be translated as either “black tortoise” (a reference to the mythical guardian beast Genbu, which can also be construed as a Gamera reference thanks to Gamera: Advent of Irys implying Gamera and Genbu are one and the same) or a portmanteau of the Japanese words for crocodile and turtle - “crocturtle.”

- Burodon’s name is just a mangling of “burrow down.” It also sounds vaguely like Baragon, who Burodon is loosely inspired by. AND, since Burodon is sort of a knockoff/modified Baragon, that kinda makes him a reference to various monsters in Ultraman!

- The final battle of Tyrantis in Tokyo is sort of a hybrid of the finales of Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster and Destroy All Monsters.

- The Japanese kaiju teaching Tyrantis the art of throwing rocks at your enemies is both a joke on the prominence of rock throwing in Japanese kaiju fights AND the tired trope of an American hero learning secret martial arts from a Japanese mentor ala Batman, Iron Fist, etc. In this case, the secret martial art is throwing rocks at people.

- When introduced to Herakoschei and its pilot, we are told that the strain of piloting this early mecha is so intense that many pilots have died in the process, with the current one passing out on more than few occasions. This is of course a Pacific Rim homage - sadly, no one invents drifting.

- Herakoschei’s design is a loose homage to Robby the Robot and Cherno Alpha, because big boxy robots are cool.

- The Writhing Flesh and ESPECIALLY Pathogen are both hugely influenced by Resident Evil and The Thing. Giant body horror piles of raw flesh, tendrils, mismatched mouths and limbs may be a bit outside the main era of monster design ATOM homages, but they fit the themes and bring a nice contrast.

- I came up with Pathogen long before Corona but MAN it definitely feels different in 2021 to have a giant monster whose name is a synonym for disease driving other creatures crazy in a quarantine zone than it did when I plotted out the story in 2016.

- The chapter title “Hello, Old Foes” is a riff on “Goodbye, Old Friend”

- Minerva, the kaiju-fied clone of Dr. Lerna, is meant to be an homage to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, which is a genuinely good giant monster flick. I am sure many of you will also believe I included her because I’m a pervert whose into tall women, but you’d be wrong! I included the seven foot tall Russian mecha pilot Ludmilla Portnova because I’m a pervert whose into tall women. Minerva’s inclusion was just coincidental, I swear!

- Since Promythigor is a play on the archetypal ape kaiju to contrast Tyrantis as a play on the archetypal fire-breathing reptile kaiju, their fight has a lot of nods to King Kong movies. Promythigor attempts the famous jaw-snap maneuver of Kong (with less success), J.C. Clark paraphrases the “brute force vs. a thinking animal” line from the King Kong vs. Godzilla American cut, and Tyrantis slides down a mountain to knock Promythigor off his feet in a reversal of Kong doing the same in King Kong vs. Godzilla.

- Tyrantis sliding down a mountain on his tail doubles as a Godzilla vs. Megalon homage.

- Though Promythigor is the archetypal Ape and Tyrantis the archetypal Fire-Breathing Reptile, I think it’s fun to note that in some ways, Promythigor is the Godzilla equivalent in their matchup, and Tyrantis the Kong. Promythigor has a slight size advantage, was scarred by humans performing unethical weapons technology, and is associated with violent explosions. Tyrantis is a good-at-heart prehistoric beast who humanized in part by his unlikely friendship with a human woman.

- Of course, in the context of the famous quote from the American cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla, they remain in their archetypal lanes. Promythigor is the more intelligent of the two (though not necessarily wiser), and Tyrantis is in many ways a brute reptile. Their battle is a rebuttal of sorts to the assertion that Kong is the “better” animal because he is closer to human. Promythigor’s near human creativity and emotions don’t make him the kinder/more benevolent monster, but instead fuel a very self-centered and destructive attitude that makes him the far more dangerous threat. On the other hand, Tyrantis, who is less intelligent, limited in communication with others by his reptilian mindset and instincts, and simple in his thoughts and desires, is nonetheless a sweet creature that is easily dealt with when others consider his animal needs and mindset. There’s a quote from Hellboy I love that probably sums up all of my writing thus far: “To be other than human does not mean the same as being less,” and that’s what the matchup between these two in particular tries to illustrate: the “less” human Tyrantis is nonetheless more benign than the “more” human Promythigor.

- Kraydi the psychic lizard began life as a soft sculpture I made of the Canyon Krayt Dragon from The Wildlife of Star Wars. The sculpture didn’t look much like the illustration, but I liked how it came out, and so I made it an original monster named Kraydi (see what I did there). Figuring out an explanation for that name in ATOM’s world was possibly the most difficult kaiju naming task in the series, but it worked out in the end.

- Kraydi and Promythigor having psychic powers is a result of my time on Godzilla fan forums in my middle school years. Most of the forums had OC kaiju battle tournaments, and SO many of those kaiju had a wide array of beam weapons and psychic powers just to win the tournaments by beam-spamming and mind controlling their foes into oblivion. There’s a special kind of rage you get when your original creation is beaten by “Fire Godzilla” because he has a genius level intellect and the power of unstoppable telekinesis. Kraydi began as (and still is I suppose) my attempt to do a psychic kaiju well, while Promythigor’s villainy being tied to psychic powers being forced on him is sort of my passive aggressive commentary on people foisting powers on a monster without any real thematic reason for them.

- Henry Robertson and Dr. Praetorius chewing out the laziness of people giving kaiju completely unaltered names of mythic beasts will probably be seen as a jab at the Monsterverse and/or the numerous writers in the kaiju OC scene who do the same, but it’s ACTUALLY a jab at my past self, who had DOZENS of kaiju whose names were just Greek mythological figures verbatim. There are dozens of kaiju named Hydra, Scylla, Charybdis, Chimera, etc., past me, try to make the names stand out! Oh wait you did. I mean, don’t pat yourself on the back too much, you still went with “Mothmanud” as a canon name and never came up with something better, but, like, good on ya for trying I guess.

- Dr. Praetorius takes his name from the evil mad scientis in Bride of Frankenstein, who basically has all the wicked traits that Universal’s Frankenstein downplayed in their take on Dr. Frankenstein. Ironically, ATOM’s Dr. Praetorius is a bit less evil than his fellow mad scientists in ATOM. I really like how his character turned out, he surprised me.

- Isaac Rossum, the pilot of the USA mecha Atomoton, is named for Isaac Aasimov, whose robot stories are to robot fiction what Lord of the Rings is to high fantasy. His last name is a reference to Rossum’s Universal Robots, which is where the word “robot” came from.

- The unfortunate pilots of MechaTyrantis in ATOM Volumes 1 and 2 are all nods to Jurassic Park. John Ludlow = John Hammond and Peter Ludlow, Ian Grant = Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant, Dennis Dodgson = Dennis Nedry and Lewis Dodgson.

- A good way to pitch Invasion from Beyond! would be “what if the staff and monsters were able to fight back when the Kilaaks tried to take over Monsterland?”

- Ok, here’s a fun joke that no one will get but me because it requires a very specific chain of logic based on some obscure and loosely connected nerd bullshit. There’s a rocker in ATOM’s universe named Sebastian Haff, right? One of his songs, “Darling Let’s Shimmy,” is referenced right before a mothmanud larva emerges from the ground in both ATOM Vol. 1 and 2. Ok, so, in the Bubba Hotep, an aging Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff claims he is actually the real Elvis Presley, having changed places with the real Sebastian Haff as a sort of Prince and the Pauper deal that went wrong. Got that? Ok, so, in UFO folklore, a common joke is the theory that Elvis didn’t die, but was rather abducted by aliens (or he actually WAS an alien the whole time - the whole “Elvis didn’t die, he just went home” joke in Men in Black is a good example of this). Ok? Ok. So, in ATOM’s universe, we can surmise that their equivalent of Elvis, whose name is Sebastian Haff, WAS abducted by aliens, and that his song “Darling Let’s Shimmy” is subconsciously influenced by his repressed memories from his time aboard the Beyonder spaceships, which is why it accidentally awoke a Mothmanud larva in Volume 1. There’s a lot of bullshit jokes I put into ATOM, but this is perhaps the bullshittiest of them all.

- One of the most common bits of feedback on ATOM Volume 1 I got was “I kept waiting for something to eat Brick Rockwell, he’s such an asshole.” And I had to smile and go, “Oh, yeah, guess he never got his, huh?” the whole time without letting on that he was going to die here all along!

- Dr. Lerna and Brick Rockwell’s nature as foils to each other is probably most apparent in Invasion from Beyond!, where both are given fairly similar situations - a nonhuman approaches them with a solution to a global crisis - and react to it very differently. I worry that some people may think they both made the same choice and got different results, and that that’s hypocrisy on my part, but I hope I wrote it so you can see how their choices and situations actually differ in key ways, and why their decisions, while similar on the surface, are ultimately very different, and thus result in almost opposite outcomes.

- So, when I planned out this book in 2016, I swear I didn’t know about the Orca from 2019′s Godzilla King of the Monsters. Having the plot hang around Dr. Lerna deciding whether or not to use a sonic device to rouse all the kaiju to save the earth was not INTENDED to be a Monsterverse reference - it came about from me looking at Pathfinder’s take on kaiju, who are all explicitly influenceable by music, and thinking, “Oh, wow, music and songs DO have a major connection with kaiju in a lot of media, I should do something with that.” Whem KOTM came out a few days after Volume 1 came out I realized I was kinda fucked here, because the comparison was definitely going to be made, but I’d also set this all up already and you can’t just change suddenly to avoid looking like a copy cat and make a good story, so... I dunno, I leaned into it a bit, but it is what it is.

- While most people will probably think they’re a reference to the Reptoids of UFO folklore, the Reptodites are more inspired by the Dinosapien of speculative evolution fame and, even morso, by the Reptites from Chrono Trigger. Me wanting to avoid the “lizard people control the government” conspiracy theory trope is one of the main reasons why Reptodites have this non-interference clause with humanity.

- Lieutenant Gray is a bunch of different humanoid aliens rolled into one - a little Hopskinville goblin, a little classic gray, a little this one weird alien with five-fingered zygodactyl hands, etc.

- There’s some Beyonder Mecha in this volume that are basically kaiju-fied versions of the Flatwoods Monster. The species that built them ALSO engineered the Mothmanuds, because connecting Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster is fun!

- Pleprah is, obviously, a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater.

- Tyrantis’s brush with death, in addition to being so very anime, was inspired by my dad outlining how mythic heroes often have to travel to the underworld/land of the dead before they can finish their journey. It’s one of the plot points that I’ve had planned for this series since middle school.

- I’m sure some will view it as hackneyed and corny, but as a person who’s battled with depression for decades, having Tyrantis’s choice to live be the big heroic turn of the finale was very important to me. Tyrantis incorporates elements of a lot of imaginary friends I made as a kid, and in many ways he’s kind of the face of my more positive side in my head. He’s been telling me to choose to live for a while, and while maybe to an outsider it may seem hackneyed, it’s just... very Tyrantis. He chooses life and kindness in the face of pain and struggle. That’s Tyrantis.

- Tyrantis’s powered up form is called “Hyper Mode,” which is another Gundam reference. Originally it was a lot gaudier and involved him turning gold like a fuckin’ Super Saiyan. I opted for something a little more toned down here.

- Also, speaking of KOTM references, I decided to make Hyper Mode Tyrantis’s final duel with Pathogen be a sort of foil to Burning Godzilla’s final bout with Ghidorah in KOTM. Instead of ravaging the city, Hyper Tyrantis’s pulse of energy rejuvenates his fallen allies, and as a result he is “crowned” not out of fear for his supremacy in the wake of killing a powerful enemy, but in gratitude for his kindness. See? Leaning into it!

- And now I can finally reveal that Yamaneon is ATOM’s equivalent of The Monolith Monsters - that is, a kaiju that is also a mineral. I took the “strange continuously growing rock” thing in a very different direction, though, as unlike The Monolith Monsters, Yamaneon is actually alive.

- At various points in the pre-writing process, either Promythigor, MechaTyrantis, or both were going to die fighting Pathogen. I ultimately decided to let them both live, with MechaTyrantis even getting his flesh and blood body back, because I think it’s more interesting and thematically consistent that way. They get a chance to heal their wounds by changing their ways.

- The Great Beyonder and Dorazor both almost didn’t make the cut, as I felt they didn’t have the same pull as villains that Pathogen, Promythigor, and MechaTyrantis did. But then I thought that could actually be the gag - build them up as the final boss, only to have Pathogen take their crown. I want to explore post-face turn Dorazor a bit more, though. We’ll have to see about that in a later volume.

- Volumes 1 and 2 make up what I call “The Ballad of Tyrantis Arc” for ATOM. I call it that because Tyrantis’s storyline in these two volumes was patterend after Chivalric ballads like Yvain the Knight of the Lion. Tyrantis, a heroic warrior who is kind but dumb of ass, learns of strange goings on outside his home and investigates. During his journey into the unknown he falls in love with a powerful woman, whose favor he tries to win. Through happenstance he is separated from his love and, distraught, wanders around fighting various foes to prove his worth, before finally returning to his love a better hero. Invasion from Beyond! could even be seen as a sort of Morte d’Artur, with Tyrantis and a bunch of other kaiju heroes (including Nastadyne and Kemlasulla, who are built up as Hero Kaiju of Another Story) take part in a huge battle that threatens their idealic kingdom (of monsters).

- Volume 2 isn’t the end of ATOM, but it’s designed to work as an ending if you want to tap out here. As a reader I feel a definitive ending is important, but as a writer I’m always tempted to revisit my beloved characters, so I feel giving closure while leaving a few doors open for possible future adventures is a good compromise between these positions. There will be more ATOM stories, some (but not all!) following Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna, but if you want to know that Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna get an ending and the resolution to their arcs such a thing promises, here you go. An ending, if not THE END.

#The Atomic Time of Monsters #A.T.O.M. Trivia

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starberry-cupcake · 3 years

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The Chinapuri finale and its montage aka censorship who?

I decided to do all of this in one post and read more, so that the 95% of my followers who are uninterested on this particular drama/source material can easily skip it. Here are 7 relationships showcased in the montage ranked and 2 bonus (a family relationship and an extra).

Note: I’ll speak about the relationships as they were portrayed, whichever the form of relationship chosen to display in this version. Also, I’m glad that everyone was aged up in this version, kinda wild but very much appreciated that some of these actors are my age or somewhere around there lol

#7 Lu Xia (Echizen Ryoma) and Qi Ying (Ryuuzaki Sakuno)

This drama was a bit more romantically-inclined in terms of these two than the anime/manga was, but some of that may be also influenced by them giving their version of Sakuno more room (which yay!) and having them be older.

For this to stand alone as a drama, it was a needed step, I believe. I found Lu Xia to be more vulnerable than Ryoma, he doesn’t feel quite as ~cool~ and it doesn’t take away from the character that he has moments showing internal struggle (in tennis as well as at home). These two were sweet and adorable, which gave the drama probably more of an expected appeal for a wider audience, to make it stand on its own as a drama and not only an anime adaptation.

#6 Yan ZhiMing (Inui Sadaharu) & Liu Lian (Yanagi Renji)

Kinda mad they didn’t do this for Fuji (Zhuo Zhi) and Saeki (Zuo Xiaohu) but they did good with these two. I didn’t know at first why they started to build up their relationship so early, but it ended up being a good emotional plot point during their match, which is, as we all know, a determining factor in Seigaku’s (Yu Qing) win against Rikkai (Hai Guang).

I don’t remember being as invested in their match in the anime as I was here, maybe I was just too focused on the Fuji match at that time, but what they did to build that game as a decisive point in the season finale was so well developed, I was impressed.

#5 He XingLong (Kawamura Takeshi) & Ya JiuXin (Akutsu Jin)

This is a relationship that can get complicated and even problematic if handled incorrectly. Akutsu’s journey through the anime is pretty long and takes a while for him to be on a healthier place, but the added element of aging the characters could have gone really wrong here if they had done him exactly as in the anime or manga. I think they did pretty well with the time they were given, showing his turmoil and learning curve.

XingLong was allowed to have a more in-depth journey being older and about to graduate, it made more sense for him here to think about his career at this stage and added the gravity of this being THE moment to decide whether to keep pursuing the sport or take over his dad’s restaurant (they even adapted the type of food they cook to match the cultural impact of the family-owned business, which was great).

I think the two complemented each other really well and worked interestingly together, in a way I didn’t think the drama was gonna give them time to do, so I’m really pleased.

#4 Qiao Chen (Momoshiro Takeshi) & Zhang BaiYang (Kaidoh Kaoru)

My younger self is thriving with this one being included tbh. These two were so much fun in the anime, two rivals and opposites that represented the future of the team upon their elders leaving.

I was surprised to see them so focused here, because it’s not a relationship most adaptations put emphasis on (their loss), but it paid off immensely by the time their game against Bunta and Jackal (Jin WenTai & Ke Jie) came around.

Kaidoh is a tough one to adapt most times, and they did him so well in this one, I think this is my favorite live action Kaidoh in any adaptation, and I’ve watched a whole bunch of tenimyu in my day. They really captured the ambiguity of his character, how he balances a tough exterior with a sensitive core. Qiao Chen maintained his feelings for Xu Xingzi (Tachibana Ann) but that didn’t stop them from showing these two every time they could.

#3 Mu Siyang (Tezuka Kunimitsu) & Ji Jingwu (Atobe Keigo)

Oh, these two. Hyotei (Xing Yao) wasn’t featured as much as one would probably expect (I’m a Fudomine fan and with Yu Feng I got more than I even was expecting, but I admit Hyotei is a riot and I always live my best life when they show up). Still, they did the Tezuka/Atobe match justice and then some.

Mu Siyang was incredibly compelling as Tezuka, and had a vulnerability to him that made me worry for his health more than I probably did for his anime counterpart. Maybe also the fact that he was older than his anime version yet looked younger than him made it sink more that his injury was something to worry about. I wish we had time to include anime!Tezuka’s issues with yips with Siyang, because I know the drama would have pulled it off, but that was further down the line in the story. Maybe for a season 2.

Anyway, the Atobe/Tezuka game is one of the best games in tenipuri history and the drama knew it. The game felt like it earned its gravity with the development of both Siyang’s injury and Ji Jingwu’s determination to play against him. Then they sprinkled the camp on top, as the anime does, with Ji Jingwu paying for his every expense and calling him to get updates, which is 100% canon compliant imo.

I feel like Ji Jingwu didn’t have enough room to be as much of Atobe as he could be, but then again, that’s not easy for anyone to pull off. Not even Kato Kazuki can do Junichi Suwabe as well as Junichi Suwabe.

#2 Bai ShiYan (Yukimura Seiichi) & Tian ZiLong (Sanada Genichirou)

So, it’s tough to feel for Rikkai (Hai Guang) at this point of the story. You learn about Yukimura’s health and it’s difficult, but you just met them and the first impressions haven’t been great.

However, the relationship between Sanada and Yukimura has always been something pivotal for the way the team is constructed (they were named that way for a reason, two parts of a same hero and all that) and they sustain the team in a way other teams don’t have to. They are the mom and dad of the team, the coaches, the leaders and the pillars. They have a balance of severity and permissiveness, of strictness and instinct. They are like a couple who has been married for 25 years.

How on Earth, I asked myself, will they achieve that with censorship on the way? I don’t know, but they did it, the mad bastards.

It really does come through 100% the importance of their relationship and the way in which the captain’s health affects the team and, more than anything, their vice captain. It reaches a crescendo during the final match, before ShiYan’s operation, and they manage to pull it off with the time they have.

Also, their scenes are like shot for a contemporary romance drama and I appreciate that vibe.

#1 Tang JiaLe (Kikumaru Eiji) & Chi DaYong (Oishi Shuichiro)

Oh boy. Look. I still own Golden Pair merchandise from my Days, ok? These two hold a special place in my heart. I saw actors who portrayed them grow up, succeed and pass away, sadly. I still sing Depend On Me sometimes. There is a cheerful vibe with these two, a sense of overcoming obstacles and finding balance, I don’t know. Fuji is my favorite character but these two are special in their way.

This freakin’ drama just went full on Golden Pair. The level of content was off the charts. The moment they came on the screen, the second they talked about their doubles, it was already setting the tone of how deep their relationship was going to go. I am a bit amazed that they avoided to get closed down for this ngl. And I appreciate the risk because it paid off.

They have a body language communication that is captured in every shot. Even when they’re not the focus of the scene, they’re close, touching or holding each other, arms around each other, hands on each other’s shoulders, grabbing each other’s clothes. When they fight, that language changes drastically, and the distance they take feels intense and cold. You go through it with them and the team shows it as well. There’s an entire episode I had screencaps of and never posted when the team falls apart because they do.

My favorite part, though, ironically, isn’t what they did with them together but what they did with them apart. They took time to develop them as individual characters with their own issues, their fears, their worries and weaknesses. They were allowed to be flawed and wrong and have to mend their ways.

What really got me and impacted me deeply was the fact that they chose DaYong to talk about mental health. They gave room to speaking about the physical implications of anxiety disorders and about how self esteem issues can give more magnitude to ongoing issues with your mental health. Again, the age of the characters being changed helped add a depth to some issues that get developed with more intensity in a drama of this kind, and the way in which it takes TIME to get resolved, it isn’t a one episode thing, it’s an underlying issue that spans the season...*chef’s kiss*

Even though there’s a specific tenimyu incarnation of these two that I hold dear and will always remember fondly, I think that Xu Ke and Zhu ZhiLing are the most successful and best portrayed live action Golden Pair I’ve ever seen.

Bonus that was in the montage but it’s specifically about a family relationship: The Zhuo Bros

I have said Fuji has always been my favorite and his relationship with Yuta as an older brother (albeit he’s not the eldest sibling like me) is one I always felt close to.

In the anime, the two have a rocky relationship that gets developed throughout, but the drama is very good at establishing not only Zhuo Yu’s (Fuji Yuta) self esteem issues, the subsequent use of that Guan Yue (Mizuki Hajime) does and Zhuo Zhi’s (Fuji Syusuke) attempts to breach the gap between the siblings, they also use it to develop Zhuo Zhi’s character and his reticence to show weakness.

It’s tough to get Fuji towards a place of vulnerability without breaking character, but they used family and the care he provides to his brother as a point to further his story, and I appreciate that a lot. They managed to build Zhuo Zhi up with this sibling bond as one of his core elements, and that gave a lot of dimension to his games and his character.

Bonus that wasn’t in the montage but I’m including in some capacity: Mu Siyang (Tezuka Kunimitsu) & Zhuo Zhi (Fuji Syusuke)

I thought these two deserved a place in the list, even if they weren’t grouped much in the montage, because the drama did make them share moments together that I feel gave more depth to their characters.

There was a very interesting moment in which they showed Mu Siyang and Zhuo Zhi establishing their differences when approaching tennis, and how serious Mu Siyang is about taking the team to victory. I think that strengthened the character as a captain to me, in a way that shows it rather than tells it, and allowed for his guidance to still be present when he wasn’t physically there. His determination ultimately influenced Zhuo Zhi to take things more seriously, and that was a pretty interesting development to see.

All in all, I should, at some point, go and do a serious review for MyDramaList but I wanted to leave in my blog how much I appreciated this adaptation. I wasn’t expecting much and I was delivered everything.

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kabutoraiger · 5 years

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Zi-O rewrite time! An attempt at retaining a lot of the main elements while improving the general enjoyability.

First of all, we need to change the age at which Sougo is first approached by Swartz. By 10 kids have pretty solidly already developed their own opinions and ideas about stuff. If some stranger had come up to me at age 10 and told me I was destined to be [something I’d never cared about before] I would’ve been like uh, what? No. :/

So he’s 5 or 6 when he first meets this weird guy who tells him about the concept of kings, about how they help people, tells him he sees the skill for it in him, even gifts him a little picture book about a heroic fairytale king which years later Sougo still cherishes. This guy continues to appear intermittently in the years leading up to the bus crash to really lay it on thick with this king stuff.

The other important basic change is that rather than being considered an amusing quirky oddity by his classmates, Sougo is genuinely ignored/shunned by them for his obsession with being a king. (And in flashbacks to when he was little, outright bullied.)

Thus we can see from the very start Sougo’s potential path to becoming an evil overlord. He truly wants to protect people and do good in the world, has been influenced to believe ‘ruling’ is the best way to do so, but his future subjects reject him harshly at every turn. And it’s obvious that anytime soon his goofiness and cheerful optimism could finally run out.

The attitude from his peers makes his lack of friends and his loneliness much more obvious from the getgo, and so you feel far more deeply for him as he tries to make things work with Geiz & Tsukuyomi.

And as he spends time genuinely, like, talking and connecting with the past riders he meets. He has at least one heart-to-heart moment with most of them. Sento tells him about how easy it is for the best intentions to have terrible results. Takumi tells him about how alone and afraid of himself he was until he met the right people. Eiji tells him about how important it is to want things, but how wanting too much can be dangerous. And tells the story of the OOO who came before him.

And so about halfway through the show, Sougo begins to wonder. Is it really ‘subjects’ he wants? Or just friends? Is a king a good thing to be? Did he ever choose ‘king’ as his dream? Or was it forcibly imprinted on him?

These doubts continue... until Geiz and Tsukuyomi begin to literally fade around the edges. Sougo questioning his own dream is on the verge of erasing Oma Zio from ever existing, and thus erasing the events that led to them traveling back in time. (Woz is not affected due to being some kind of time anomaly.)

Woz offers Sougo a special powerup. “If you accept this, you will return to your correct path as Waga Maou. The timeline will be reestablished, and Geiz and Tsukuyomi will remain here in this time.” Sougo finds himself tempted to accept, but not because he wants the power. It’s because he wants his friends to stay. But he remembers all the wisdom imparted to him by his senpai riders up to this point, thinks about what friendship really means, and he declines Woz’s offer.

Before Geiz and Tsukuyomi vanish & return to their own time Sougo asks them to please try and remember him, and they promise they will.

Now we get into a stretch of episodes where the narratives are jumping back and forth between present day, where Sougo is trying to be happy with only Woz for company, and 2068 - a different 2068 that is mostly peaceful. Geiz and Tsuku are normal teenagers (Geiz’s mysterious dead loved one is alive and we get to know them, even) living happy lives, but feel as if something is wrong. There was a war, wasn’t there? They’d been fighting. They look at their friend group and feel disconnected from them. They think that someone is missing.

In present day, Swartz puts his plan B into motion. He can no longer bank on this king nonsense to string Sougo along, and so, perhaps by using a disguised hat Woz, they manage to convince Sougo that by collecting the remaining ridewatches he will gain the ability to time travel and will be able to see his friends again whenever he wants. Either way, it’s not as if Sougo can ignore Another Riders.

Meanwhile, Geiz & Tsuku are beginning to remember bits and pieces. But as they do, Another Riders begin to slip into their time period via the cracks in the timeline created by their conflicting memories. These Another Riders are all based on future riders (or maybe uh. ‘in between riders’ in this case), and Geiz & Tsuku have to seek out each of the originals in order to get their watches. (Worth noting that this is the point in the show in which Geiz regains his rider power and Tsuku gains hers.)

With each watch they acquire they remember more of Sougo. It’s implied that all of these ‘future riders’ have met Sougo at some point & think fondly of him, though these meetings are still far in 19 y/o Sougo’s future.

Having remembered him fully, they use sweet 2068 tech to contact him across time (an emotional moment for all 3) and Tsukuyomi, having also managed to recall her true place of origin and her connection to Swartz, warns Sougo that he’s probably the one behind it all.

Basically what this all leads to is Swartz getting his shit wrecked concurrently in two separate time periods (think the best parts of Kiva), Sougo & Woz on one team and Geiz & Tsuku on the other as the scene switches back and forth and splitscreens at all the most important moments. And it’s truly an epic high of tokusatsu television shows.

They come close to landing the final blow, when suddenly - Sougo finds himself in that black void facing down Oma Zio. “A timeline may become a ghost, as mine has,” he says, “but the possibility can still linger. You could still become me, right now, if you wished it.” He holds out his driver. “Restore me. Us. Our glory.”

Again Sougo remembers everything taught to him by the past riders, and he tells him no. That the sort of power offered isn’t the kind anyone should have. That it was a dream given to him by someone with terrible intentions, and he doesn’t want it or need it to keep himself going anymore.

Oma Zi-o appreciates when he’s been bested. He offers to use the last of his strength to grant any wish that Sougo has. Sougo considers wishing for Geiz and Tsuku to come back and stay in 2019 with him. But instead he smiles sadly and says “I wish for my friends to be happy, whatever that means for them.”

He returns to reality to finish his rider kick and end the final fight.

Sougo wakes up in his bedroom the next morning feeling lost. Picks up that old picturebook of the fairytale king and flips through it aimlessly. He said he didn’t need it, but wasn’t that a bit of a lie? He doesn’t have anything else to replace it.

He’s still holding it as he goes downstairs for breakfast. And finds Geiz & Tsukuyomi at the table, chastising him for sleeping in so late. Realizes that Oma Zio must have granted his wish. He’s definitely crying a bit as he smiles. The other 2 might be a little bit as well. The camera focuses on Sougo tossing the picturebook aside before joining them at the table.

#kr zi o #it's ok y'all don't actually have to read all this lol

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sailor-cresselia · 6 years

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Welp, I’m bored. I’m way behind on watching Kamen Rider Build. Okay, so it’s more “I got behind halfway through the season and don’t think I can catch up.” Eh, its not like I was really liking it at this point. I liked Gaim, Drive, and Ex-Aid way more. However, since I haven’t technically finished Ex-Aid by way of not having gotten to watching the later movies and most of the specials yet, I do most of my theories and ‘future family issues’ for Drive.

(And to think, I only watched Gaim because it looked absurd and was on right before Doki Doki Precure. Which I dropped halfway through, and didn’t come back to Precure until Happiness Charge. Go figure. That’s… just what’s happening with Kamen Rider – I’m going to start over once Zi-O starts. Which, much like Happiness Charge, is an anniversary season. Huh.)

Okay, okay. That’s enough of that.

I like doing post-series worldbuilding. It’s just FUN, and lets speculation run wild.

And Drive is RIPE with post-canon potential.

One of my recurring trains of thought is “How is the Drive Family Doing?”

By family, I don’t just mean Shinnosuke, Kiriko, and Go. I mean the entire team. ALL of them.

***

(more behind the cut, this started getting long winded.)

***

See, I figure that we’ve seen the Special Investigation Unit still works together and keeps in touch after the events of the main series. It’s not always in any “formal” situation, but… They’re all definitely friends, and Heart’s chapter of Drive Saga shows it. Go, Rinna, and Kyu are all working together to get Chase back, and Otta becomes friends with Heart after that… doesn’t quite work. (This means that Otta’s probably distantly friends with Brain and Medic, too – bodysharing is WEIRD.)

So. The Special Investigation Unit is basically one big extended family… but the humans aren’t the only members of that family.

I mean, both the Ghost & Drive movie and the Ex-Aid & Ghost movies have proven that fate is just not going to let Krim hide out in his depression cave. He keeps getting brought back out, first in the Ghost film to help in that fight (thanks, time travel) and again in the Ex-aid movie to help in THAT absurd fight. (Thanks to everyones favorite street-dancing-fruit-samurai-jesus-adam.) (You know, Kouta.) (Gaim got WEIRD. Thanks, Urobuchi.)

So, that’s Krim being dragged out of his literal hole in the ground via some sequence of events. But I’m not stopping there. Oh no.

I AM GIVING GO HIS FRIEND BACK.

The Ghost movie was just... such a TEASE. The Drive & Gaim movie was bad enough with Kaito, but no. The Ghost & Drive movie had to bring back FOUR characters.

(Mind you, by ‘bad enough’, I mean the “… oh. Right. He fought alongside the team again but is very definitely dead” bad enough. Megahex TORE MY HEART OUT with that, and then the next crossover film pulls the same thing TIMES FOUR.)

But, while the Ghost & Drive films status within canon is questionable (thanks, time travel), the Heart and Mach specials are almost definitely canon. And all three imply that Roidmudes not only have an afterlife, but can be resurrected. (thanks, 005. Now cut it out.)

That makes five characters that are getting back into the game – Krim, Chase, Heart, Brain, and Medic. You get a body, YOU get a body, Everyone’s getting a body! Heart, Brain and Medic are basically those slightly odd uncles and aunt and sometimes you wind up with one showing up and crashing on someones couch for a week because there was A Disagreement at their place.

Yeaaaah, I was plotting out some of this and… it takes a bit to make it work at first, but after a while those three are in a poly relationship. They shared a body, and that… that shit doesn’t leave you, and both Brain and Medic were already Super Into Heart. Heart’s… well, he got that name for a reason, and if it weren’t for Banno’s influence, probably would have been a pretty decent guy from the start.

***

Krim is actually the last one to get up and walking. Quite frankly, he ran and hid at the end of the series, and I personally think that he would be the most nervous of any of the data-folks to have a body again.

He has to be talked into regaining a physical form, but eventually caves. He gives in mostly for practicality – he has like three options for movement otherwise, but none of them are convenient. One is just... being carried places, being worn or otherwise. The second is being on that cart he uses around the Drive Pit, and... well, wheels aren’t exactly great at stairs. His third option is riding on the Trailer Cannon – which while it’s the only one of the Shift Cars to be LARGE enough to carry him, it’s also absurdly slow. Probably even more than usual when it’s weighted down by, say, a grumpy belt.

Okay, technically Krim’s got FOUR options, but since the last is the Tridoron, it’s even less practical, being a car and all.

The thing is, he has a lot of difficulty adjusting to having a body - “HOLY CRAP LEGS WHAT IS THIS WALKING IS HARD NOW”

(Except, you know, said both more eloquently and somehow hammier. Krim Steinbelt is a classy man, but also one who may or may not have been making the all the belt announcements himself.)

The third time he falls over – in a row, mind you – Shinnosuke’s just… he’s had it, okay? “Everyone has been working nonstop to get you out of the belt, and we were trying to ease you into this. We’ve been training for two months now, with you piloting Type Tridoron the entire time, and had zero problem with that. I mean, you had no problem with it the first time around. You know, when we had both just literally come back to life.” (thanks, Freeze.) “What the actual hell.”

(Except, you know, said both more eloquently and somehow even dryer. Tomari Shinnosuke is smart, and also is kind of a little shit when he wants to be.)

“Well, it’s different when it’s just me!”

Exactly no one is impressed.

***

At some point, it becomes apparent to everyone that the Executives having shared a body That One Time had some… side effects.

And by “at some point” I mean it becomes abundantly clear after Heart walks in on Brain attempting to practice ballet. Brain then proceeds to swear Heart to secrecy on pain of everyone else ‘happening to find out’ that Heart has a suspiciously familiar handkerchief tucked in an inner pocket of his jacket. This threat fails completely, because that’s about when Rinna walks in, having been asked by Medic (who, along with Brain, is a fair amount more personable by way of longterm exposure to actual sane, functioning humans) to help find these two morons.

“...”

“… does Medic know you two are here?” says the scientist, looking at these two morons who are frozen mid-argument.

“… ...”

“She does now,” says the scientist, taking a picture with her cellphone.

“!!!”

This eventually leads to both of them having to find someone else’s couch to sleep on, not because she’s mad that they’re using her studio, but because they hadn’t asked permission.

(Also, the reason Medic wasn’t looking for them herself was because she was getting some social media lessons from Kyu, who had been helping Rinna and Go with teaching the less tech-savvy members of The Drive Fam how normal technology works - you four are literally androids, why is Brain the only one who can use a computer.)

It’s literally just because of the guy he copied. That’s the only advantage he has over Heart and Medic. Chase picked up a bit while working with everyone last time around. Otta has been strong-armed into the lessons by Rinna. (he’s whipped.) Krim and Shinnosuke are also in them – Shinnosuke because he is not the best at it, and Krim? Well, while Krim’s good at inventing and mechanical things, he has kind of been out of the loop for a number of years between being a belt in hiding, being a belt that is normally attached to a superhero, and being a belt hiding in a depression cave.

(He did most of that to himself - “hiding until the world is ready” my rear end. It’s a depression cave and you know it old man.)

So, yeah. I didn’t realize that Found Families are kind of my jam until recently, and now I’m stuck thinking about these things when I’m working.

A part 2 on “Why has Tomari Eiji never heard of these films?” coming soon in the form of a personal reblog once I figure out how to word it.

#Kamen Rider Drive #KR Drive #sailorcressy says #someone help i wrote the first draft of this in an email to myself #and this is only one of three topics i managed to cover

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