The Highs & Lows of Kamen Rider Kabuto

(Reader beware, the following entry contains several major plot spoilers for the entire Kamen Rider Kabuto series, as well as other recent series such as Kamen Rider Faiz, so read at your own discretion. It also contains much tongue-in-cheek opinionated self-indulgence on my part, so again, I advise caution.)

Kamen Rider Kabuto wrapped up last Sunday morning (Japan time) and the immediate reaction has been mixed, to say the least. Considering how popular the show proved to be when it was airing, and how high (or low) expectations were for the finale, it's logical to assume that not everyone was pleased with the outcome. Of course, you're not reading this to hear about what they think. You're reading this to hear about what I think, right? So on with it then.

Following on the heels of the controversial Kamen Rider Hibiki (which, for the most part, I liked) Kabuto was supposed to be the big one. The 35th Anniversary series. If the last few shows had been able to get away with wacky experimentation and Trial D-and-error (Get it? Trial D? Like in Kamen Rider Blade? HAHAHAHA, I love me), then this one would be the standout, the masterpiece, the grand aria of Rider series. Well maybe not, but I like to think that's what most people were hoping for. The Rider show that everyone would be watching, that took all the best parts of 35 years of history and rolled it into one entertaining package. And if you ask some people, that's exactly what it was, mostly. To others, it was just another series for another year, and to still others, something they could skip over in between This Year's Sentai Whateveranger and another installment of Pretty Cure if they're watching on the telly, and just avoid like the plague if they download/get everything on DVD/whatever.

All in all, Kabuto is a hard show for me to judge. It's sort of like a movie where, on the whole, you like it, you even really like it, but there's a couple little parts you just wish weren't there, because they don't jive with the rest of the film and belong in with the "Deleted Scenes" on the DVD. Or, that those little parts were developed a bit more so they made more sense, and they jived with the rest of the movie because it felt like they needed to be there. It's all a bit hard to explain properly, so I'll break it down (in no particular order) into my definitive pros and cons of the series, which, chances are, will probably be very different than yours. But hey, Grandmother said this: "Opinions are like snowflakes: each one is unique, wondrous, and somewhere, FIRSTy Hongô is getting paid to talk about them."

What Worked:

Tsurugi: Hands down, many Kabuto fans will tell you that the man who stood at the top of the series was that irreverent, often socially inept inheritor of the Discabile family fortune, Kamishiro Tsurugi. And why not? Tsurugi was one of the characters who arguably went through the most growth in the series, starting out as an arrogant, rich, snobbish quasi-villain and rival of Tendô who went to ridiculous lengths to one-up our main man with often-times humorous results. But beneath his seemingly-cold exterior, he had both an utterly noble heart and a tragic secret that even he wasn't aware of. Tsurugi changed throughout the series rapidly, and never without good reason. He lcame to genuinely feel guilt for his careless actions, and humility when his fortune turned out be all but gone. He became something of a comical supporting player, developing a hilariously oddball friendship with Kagami and an unattainable crush on Misaki. Even between trying to rebuild his fortune and embarking on a quest to learn the ways of the common people, he was always there when the other good guys needed him most, even if he wasn't always very helpful. Near the end of the series, he became a far more mature man when he learned to stop imposing his own wish for Misaki to be the reincarnation of the sister (who had died by his own unknowing hand), and started seeing her for what she really was. And then, just when it seemed he had truly found happiness, it was all unraveled as the terrible truth behind who he was came out. In spite of an eleventh-hour turn towards his vicious Worm side, when Tsurugi died, he really died as Tsurugi, and not as Scorpioworm. Whether you wanted to see it happen or not, his final scene, where he slowly drifted off towards an eternal rest with Jiiya at his side, was absolutely one of the best moments in the series.

Jiiya: Jiiya rules. A big part of why I liked Tsurugi so much was also because of him. He was the ultimate sidekick, loyal to the end. More Riders need charming old butler sidekicks!

Cast-Off: While some will dismiss it as another marketing gimmick made up by Bandai to sell more toys, I found the idea to actually be pretty neat and a refreshing change of pace from the usual form upgrades (of course, then Hyper Form shows up later anyway. Go figure.) Granted, the names don't make a whole lot of sense when you consider that the Masked Forms rode the bikes a lot, and some of the Rider Forms never even touched a motorcycle, but hey- it was different, it was a neat idea, and I *like* the Drake and Sasword Masked Forms, even if nobody else does.

Clock-Up: Who didn't like Clock-Up? Yes, it becomes taken for granted after a while (as with Casting-Off, and so many other Rider gimmicks) but it was cool, and I liked that even it was eventually shown to not be completely unbeatable.

Daisuke: He may be one of the fruitiest Rider aliases ever, and the make up battling got a little crazy at times, but you know what? I liked Daisuke; even when he was at odds with Tendô he was still a genuinely good guy; his interaction with Gon was great; and his "featured" episodes are some of my favorites. I'm glad he made it out in the end alive.

The designs were, mostly, pretty good: The Hoppers, both forms of Sasword and Gatack are my favorites, but overall, I ended up liking nearly all of them. Riders, Worms, motorcycles(underused as they were) and weapons alike. Especially the Zectroopers!

Kagami as Gatack: To be honest, at first Kagami's character never felt like he really had his place in the show figured out. He was the essential "non-Rider sidekick", except he was not only supposed to be a Rider from the get-go, but less than a dozen episodes in, he becomes one, only to go back to regular 'ol Kagami an episode or two later. At times, he was comic relief; at others, deadly serious and fairly tragic. One week he'd be on Tendô's side, and the next week they'd be at each other's throats (although you can also blame this on Tendô as well.) And then, finally, after that failed bout as TheBee and his destroying a Worm on his own (with a little help from Kabuto), it seemed as though the message Kagami was supposed to get across was this: "Just be yourself. You don't need to be a Rider to still fight just as hard and be a hero!" Right?

Then it came out (in the real world) that he'd be the guy who turns into Gatack, the strongest Rider of all. And even better, it had been decided (in the series) years before he was even born, that he was fated to become Gatack. What the-!? Initially, it just seemed like another bizarre plotting choice, but as it turns out, Gatack was exactly the role Kagami needed from the start. Now he could finally stand toe-to-toe with Tendô, and what with all the shifty things in Mr. T's past, he became a sort of surrogate main Rider we could follow, a pseudo-Rider 2 if you will. And that's where he really rose up in my eyes. He's like a reverse-Knight of sorts: a secondary Rider who is the "average joe" to the other one's "mystery man" antics. Well, of course the mysteries of Tendô are solved sooner rather than later, but Kagami/Gatack is key in helping him along the way. And that's where he really started to shine.

The Movie Riders: Much like with the movie-only Riders during Hibiki's time, the Kabuto guys proved once again that you can't really judge a costume until you've seen it in action. The initial pics made them look like a couple repainted Kabuto suits with a new horn slapped on here and another one on there (which, if you want to get really technical, they are) but after seeing them in the movie, they not only stood out as three distinctive characters, but the suits actually work quite well, and Caucasus may just be one of my favorite movie-only Riders ever.

The Music: The Kabuto soundtrack really caught on with me, with some nice moody tracks and energetic battle themes. As for the songs, "Next Level" and "Lord of the Speed" were okay; I really liked "Full Force" and "One World". I plan on getting the big 'ol CD box when it comes out. Although I still kind of chuckle whenever "God Bless America" is used.

Riku: Was a crazy nutbar. But I loved whenever he was on screen. MOOOOOOOZZAAAAAAARRRRTTT!

Tendô: Tendô was a roller coaster of a character, one minute you'd love him and the next minute you couldn't stand him (especially during the early TheBee episodes, where Yaguruma became the guy I actually rooted for) but for the most part, and most importantly, by the end, he was worthy of having the show named after him. Although it was the supporting cast that really kept my interest throughout, Tendô was a good enough hero, and admittedly had more than a few hilarious moments to go along with the dramatic ones.

The Zecter voice: Of all the talking Henshin Belt/weapon voices over the years, Kabuto's had some of my favorites. Especially the Kick/Punch Hopper & Gattack belt sound effects. Surage Gajria, you are awesome.

The Hoppers, most of the time: The Hoppers are tough characters to settle on, because they ended up as something so radically different than what they began as. So I'll break it up into what parts I liked and what probably needed some work. Yaguruma/Kick Hopper, in the two or three episodes before he gets Kageyama as his 'lil bro, was pretty awesome, and has one of the coolest entrances in a Tokusatsu series in some time. That first 2-on-2 rumble, where the Hopper duo beat the crap out of Kabuto and Gatack, was cool and rather freaky since Kageyama looks and acts like an escapee from a mental institution. Some of their later antics are actually funny (especially the "adoption" of Tsurugi), and I do like that they got some development at all considering how crowded the show gets later down the line. Kageyama's (and possibly Yaguruma's, it's vague) death was handled decently, once again, given the crowded nature of the last few episodes with so many plot lines going. And even though it's a concept I don't want to see used again for another like, 15 years or so, the "evil Double Riders" thing was pretty cool.

Hiyori's pet bird: Bow down before his might.

Mishima: Although it took some time before it really became clear what the heck he was doing, by the end of the show, I have to say I like how Mishima worked out in the end, and I liked that there was a reason behind why he was such a weirdo. As opposed to, you know, most everyone else, who really were just bonkers.

Area X: No, we didn't get nearly enough explanation about it. Like why exactly Tendô and Kagami wind up on the beach that one time. But it was a cool idea, and I love big secret mysterious conspiracy plotlines.

Cameos: While you can take or leave all the non-Rider alums, some of whom seem like they got lost on their way to the Boukenger set, having past Rider series actors = always good. FIRSTy Hongô's little bit is among my favorites.

35th Anniversary Files: They're not exactly that much to get excited about, but they were neat ideas, and it was good to see the past acknowledged (and that somebody actually remembered it was the anniversary at all.) Stronger could still take Kabuto any day though.

The Zectroopers: Were they anything like what I thought they were going to be? No. Did I love their antics? Oh, hell yeah.

What Didn't Quite Work:

TheHotPotatoBee: I'll say it straight up: I hate the belt-swapping ID-switching stuff. It was tolerable with G3/G3-X in Kamen Rider Agito, and the first time or two in Kamen Rider Faiz it was okay. And in a rare exception, I like the one time they did it in Kamen Rider Blade with Leangle. Beyond that, hate it. My main issue with something like that is, 5 or 10 years from now, when you look at a picture of Kamen Rider Kaixa or Kamen Rider Delta, who is it going to be? Everybody knows who Rider 1 or BLACK or Kuuga or Blade is, but who's the dude who turns into Kaixa? Delta? Faiz, for that matter? Granted, you can say it would be Kusaka, Mihara and the ever-loveable Takumi because they held onto the belts the longest, but what about TheBee?

Three of the guys who held that title all went on to become different, all-new Riders later, and the fourth used it for less than 2 minutes. In the end, it was just another piece of Kabuto's big 'ol sword. It really served no greater purpose other than to introduce two new characters who had nearly turned into dead weight by the close of the series, and to briefly give Kagami a little wish-fulfillment (at the expense of all logic, since he was fated to become Gatack from the start. What ever happened to that tatoo anyway?) And as for Kamen Rider TheBee himself, again I ask, who is he? What's his personality, who are people going to remember as being behind the mask? I would say Yaguruma, if only because he was the most competent user and got a second shot at it in the movie, but then again, he's also probably going to be better remembered as Kick Hopper, a Rider that only he was. See what I'm getting at here? Oh well, at least the "Hyper TheBee Zecter" jokes will last for a few more years.

The Hoppers, the rest of the time: Here we go. I have to say, had I written the show, they would have either been introduced much earlier. Or, that initial rumor about them being two forms of the same guy would have been true, with Yaguruma returning and having a split personality (hey, it could work.) Or, Dark Kabuto just wouldn't be in there, because IMHO he's really what took the threat away from them: Kick Hopper is originally introduced as a crazy badass rival nihilistic anti-Kabuto. Sound familiar? Yeah. Pairing him up with Punch Hopper worked both for and against him; that's another extra old character to develop and explore, and there's the whole nifty "evil Double Riders" thing, but it's also another proverbial Rider mouth to feed. And with a bunch of Riders and non-Rider combatants already, plus another one on the way, things just got too crowded. So the Hoppers are reduced to being a sort of side act; an intermission from the main story which they occassionally wander in and out of, but nobody really takes them seriously. Like Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, if they walked the path of DARKNESS!!1! And you can say, well, that's the point, right? They're self-described losers, who have only each other, because they've been shunned by a world they never made (or something like that, I dunno, I just wanted to use that phrase.)

Which is all fine and well, until you remember that when he first appeared after a painfully long absence, Yaguruma was a butt-kicking badass who seemed to have a major bone to pick with Tendô. And Kageyama, after getting Hopperized, looked like he was short a few screws. And had just, y'know, shot a couple dozen guys to death in a mad rage the episode before. It's just a little jarring to see them going from this to getting knocked flying through the air comedically, constantly straying from the path and getting in each other's faces only to make up by the end of the episode, and generally being seen as a joke by everybody. I'll cut the writers some slack because they did at least let them kill someone important (one of the Cassisworms near the end) and the end of their storyline is genuinely touching, but it's still hard to say they were handled as well as they could have been. And let's not even get into how we never found out where the Hopper Zecters came from (although popular opinion is that it was all a caffeine-induced hallucination after Yaguruma & Kageyama drank 100 cups of coffee, thus explaining where they got the energy to jump so high while simultaneously looking like nervous wrecks.)

Nogi's not-so-grand exit: Yeah, um, what happened here? The most powerful Worm of all, who could freeze time, absorb his enemies' power and use it against them, and bring himself back to life even after being completely destroyed (as two seperate guys the final time) and was generally an all-around brutal hand-to-hand fighter...got reduced to a pair of mindless stooges in the end before being defeated with regular old Rider Kicks and Rider Punches. The intent was probably to show that, ironically, even the biggest threat of all was just one in a line, and he did have it coming after how he ruined Tsurugi's life. But c'mon- it just seemed like a cop-out to build the character up as being so fearsome, only to have him go out with such a whimper, especially when the next guy turned out to be the true mastermind...

Negishi: My line of thinking is that 9/10 of the time, problems with a character can be attributed moreso to a writer or director than the actor, as we've seen elsewhere here. After all, even the greatest actors are still at the mercy of a bad script or poor direction. There are exceptions, however. Take Teruo in Kamen Rider Faiz; the kid playing him just wasn't very good, hence the character comes off as more irritating than sympathetic and this undermines the intended tragedy of his eventual death/destruction. In this case, the guy playing the crucial role of Native ringleader Negishi...just wasn't very convincing when it came time for him to be Mr. Bad Guy. Especially considering a role of such importance (overshadowing even a bad boy like Nogi), he really should have been played by a veteren from a previous Rider or Tokusatsu show. When Kamen Rider Blade needed someone to play ex-BOARD chairman Tennôji, they spared no expense and went for the big guns. Negishi's character would have benefitted from a similar treatment.

Abandoned concepts and plot lines that led no where: The Zect Mizer was introduced...why again? The Red Shoes System was cool idea, but what happened to it, beyond a casual mention or two later on? How did Tadokoro become a Native, or was he one from the get-go? TheBee Tatoo and the Hopper Zecters, where did- oh, already covered those. I like leaving some mysteries unsolved at the end of a series, but Kabuto really pushed it at times.

Renge: Okay. I'll admit it. I did like Renge by the end, but for most of the time she was around? All I can say is "WHY!?"

So there you go. This brings us to the finale. I think the last episode was fairly exemplary of the series as a whole: "Mixed, but on the whole pretty good". Now, your mileage may vary, but I was pretty surprised by how much I actually liked the last episode. No, it didn't answer every last question and resolve every plot line. The entire part with Dark Kabuto was more than a bit rushed (they may as well have just had him run out of the fire and into Negishi, blowing them both to bits without a word.) And yes, everyone should have attacked Daisuke when he popped in at the end and was all like "Hey guys, I'm alive! As in not dead. Anything happen while I was off at this fantastic party surrounded by many lovely ladies, drinking fine wine and eating Kobe Beef?"

But aside from all that, it did resolve most of the major plot points nicely. It did get back to core driving force of the series, the friendship between Tendô and Kagami, and their inability to recognize it until the end. And it did end with a big fight and everything blowing up, as all Rider finales should. So that said, on the whole the goods outweigh the bads. I give it, as well as the entire Kamen Rider Kabuto series, a thumbs-up, and I can't wait to see what Kamen Rider Den-O has in store for us.

"Clock Over!"