buffa-z

[buffa-z]

couples tshirts that say "god won't let me die" and "I'm god"

[buffa-z]

ep 31

beroba says they "drove Na-go off the front lines" which means, that's right, its time for my least favorite episode. the worst one. just doesn't make any sense at all

and it was only archimedel's blood! so its ok. also awesome how him and dunkie are just down there in the bg while beroba and daichi talk

michinaga immediately correcting his posture as soon as beroba appears

i resent the idea that neonTV not continuing also means neon wouldn't fight when there's a boss battle. i just don't believe it. i think after what happened, neon's only identity is /na-go/ like that's the only "herself" she has left

WAIT SO IS NEON JUST HOMELESS???? ON THE STREET?? no one is doing anything about this?? what are we meant to assume she's been doing for a week(?)

man sara's just got the worst luck ever. like canonically

ok but literally earthshaking magnitude of cunt severity here. like inarguably.

im gonna try and learn more info about this picture tomorrow. its already late.

this guy who's recording gets it. i feel like more people should be recording. including the girl who later /turns evil/.

now time for the STUPIDEST DGP game ever devised. yes... in a city block full of hundreds of apartments... we will be putting holes in some places outside... civilians will die from falling in a hole when ~12 jamato menace them with spears... perfect.

i mean look at this. really.

ok by my estimate there are 8 jamato in this first scene. tycoon has jet cannon.

oo rook steps over a pawn jamato instead of helping it! what happened to helping your friends??

COME ON. at least crop the frame closer. this looks so dumb.

oh it's beroba's voice but pitched down an octave lol

like yes it is reasonable for the people in the situation to get on the circles bc they don't know whats going on. and sure i'll accept that tycoon was too busy with rook to fight the other jamato off the civilians. but a whole game like this?? i mean honest to god that's why they took na-go out of the equation. it would be a breeze if she were here with her AOE and range. literally crowd control. plus they could get way more people to safety.

YUP EIGHT (8) JAMATO. folks we could not outrun eight jamato. would any normal person not run for the buildings? OR IN THE WATER??? like literally what can the jamato do if you're in the water. just swim around.

wait why do they almost have energy swords

and tycoon IS able to rescue people! so why not just distract the jamato and get everyone inside?

imagine /star of the stars of the stars ukiyo ace/ runs up at you and screams to get off the circles and then effortlessly kicks the shit out of two jamato. now you would assume that you're going to be on tv. right? but that doesn't come up at all

not her fucking oranges dude. fuck

it seems like some people are running inside at least.

BUFFA HAS BECOME CALVINIST!

well lets get right into the geats/buffa fight i mean that's all we really came to see right folks

struggling to decide whether this is a reasonable amount of people to die from the first round. i'd have to look harder at the plot that got lifted

i kind of like that samas is a violent person. i think it's awesome even if she's evil

also are the admin just fine with na-go not fighting? don't you think they'd at least try to trick her? hold something hostage? that's kind of the whole thing. i mean i know she wont be that strong if shes depressed but like they didn't even show neon denying the spiderphone call or throwing it across her room or something

and tycoon is kicking the shit out of this fish! awesome

you can always count on geats to do some fuck shit mid-fight

yupp this world has a finite amount of happiness #believemeuncritically #tvisreallife

happiness being represented by bubbles is AWESOME

canon goddess explanation: goddess collects lost happiness from the losers and funnels it into one big happiness (the wish) for the victor

USING THOSE TWO SHOTS IN SUCCESSION IS DIABOLICAL. THAT IS ADDED BY PRODUCTION THAT IS NOT MICHINAGA'S MEMORIES

this game was devised to tell geats whats going on, assuming he would die or they would leave this world anyway. except michinaga doesn't want the dgp to get away so he knows that hes just feeding geats information

ohhh well now geats knows. he knows now who the goddess is. who he is.

happiness is like money 👍

HARD CUT TO NIRAM CHILLING AND EATING. which should be an obvious indicator of where the happiness is Really Going. but that doesn't really go anywhere so /shrug

samas stopping niram from double-dipping??

the honesty of this posture is striking. especially in the dark with no lights on. and his voice is honest but still deeper than usual. it adds up to him being pissed off

wait waitwaitwait ACE is the one who pitches this? why??? did i somehow miss this before? where did he get that idea?? who does he think his father is?

samas' face in the background of this part is so interesting to watch. she really does have a lot riding on this, and she needs niram not to screw it up for her.

also everybody in the room knows keiwa is also there. it's fine

wait is this implying that keiwa thinks his parents died so ace could be born, or..? bc following the show, ace was first born 2000 years ago, and in this life, started playing in the dgp at ~16. and keiwa's parent died when she was in middle school or below. and she's older than ace in this life. so. like how is ace at fault for this specifically. i know keiwa isn't stupid but the writers seem to forget.

ALTHOUGH i honestly feel like this episode was written wayyy before a lot of this other stuff came to be, and they had to retrofit everything.

one of the most significant shots in the show imo

And Daichi Is Here Too

the zoom on the dodecahedron to reveal the internal crystalline matrix of bubbles. also gives a new impression to the rainbow effects on some finishers. literally burning happiness fuel for this victory

daichi claims this, but it's not the whole truth. when the dgp found out what mitsume could do, they switched to the rider v jamato mode, but the jamato were just a convenient thing they found on the destroyed and mutated post-end-of-the-world earth. if they landed one biome over it could have been salamanders.

THE VINE BOOM and ace's eyes getting wider while his eyebrows get lower and daichi wisely gets out of line of sight of the guy who can headshot with his eyes closed

this is one of keiwa's most memorable lines to me. bc not only is it true, but bc it completely undercuts everything ace has built his life on. he left his adoptive family in this life assuming that finding his birth mom would solve him. in doing so, he's unknowingly destroyed countless families that were already happy. not keiwa's, bc the timeline isn't right at all. but it doesn't matter. keiwa is right.

and notice keiwa is only part of the dgp bc sara is categorically unlucky and the jamato barrier knew to split her up from her only remaining family (and /that game/ fed ace's biggest wish to date). now of course keiwa became tycoon through her own merit. but also bc she had the right combination of altruism and #somethingwrong to be a kamen rider. which she probably wouldn't have had if she had her happy family. not to mention, she's not the only one who got recruited in that manner and didn't even survive the first round.

its really just clear cut like, for ace, every time he saves the world, there are people who don't come back. and when he's gone through enough sacrifices to finally find his mom, and she's a giant monster in the sky, or a statue, or just a regular human woman who tried to get what she wanted for once, all he'll be able to feel is regret. and resentment will build, and he will have the thought that /her life/ and /this family/ wasn't worth /the countless ones lost to get here/

180 flip + crossing the threshold + your existence is a debt paid in the blood of innocents + L + ratio + kill yourself

and then keiwa's line "What did they all do to deserve this?" bc that's really it! why do innocent people in their daily lives deserve to be hunted and killed for daring to exist in a world that the DGP wants to use as a playground? why should the DGP get to exist in this world? what right do they have to do any of this?

now ace is obviously willing to die for anything. if keiwa had pushed him through that window he wouldn't have transformed like he did fighting buffa. he would crack his head on the pavement and hope he landed on his lucky color

"I won't abandon anyone. No matter who they are." meaning keiwa is calling out ace's lack of concern for civilians/collateral/the death toll his victory streak has racked up.

im getting a bit reddit about it but i feel like they didn't /have to/ come back outside in the first place?? i think this is the part that made me really mad before. why did they even come back outside to get tortured

wait i just realized there was no conversation about keiwa being a kamen rider. i thought sara currently didn't know? did tycoon just give her the core to touch off-screen??

FUCK YES ROLLING THE CHARGE ON THE CONCRETE

oh its actually so fucked that the jamato can change the color. that is scary.

oh that girl was mind controlled. that's freaky. why did she do that. bc buffa immediately comes up and is like "there is no escaping the goddess's control." not her wrath, her /control/. OR that girl is a jamato in disguise. they've done that sort of thing before.

god its brutal how buffa just wastes tycoon in one shot.

now i do think buffa earnestly believes this

again this wouldn't have happened if na-go had been there. none of this. she would have defused buffa's argument like she did the first time, and she would have made everyone go inside and barricade the doors. if anyone knows how to survive a vindictive and mercurial mother, it's her.

"When you're gone, you'll be making someone else happy. You should be glad, right?" IS CRAZYY like god forbid keiwa have some character development since the last time you had a conversation with her [checks watch] 18 episodes ago

the casual effortless strength with which buffa lifts and then releases tycoon. it indicates he really believes he's right.

ACE YOU USELESS PIECE OF SHIT. more people are dying. YOUR FRIEND IS DYING. bc you're too fucking busy feeling sorry for yourself on another goddamn rooftop.

oh that cut was really weird. i'm gonna read too much into it on purpose and say they had to cut out everything he said, and just skip straight to michinaga walking up to him

"I took Tycoon down." not "I killed Tycoon." or "Tycoon is dead." michinaga isn't sure if death is real anymore.and he doesn't want to admit he just killed someone who never did anything wrong. at least he doesn't have to go after na-go. he just has to win this stupid game and then he can end all of this stupid shit. and geats is the last one left. but geats doesn't even want to fight.

"Heaven or hell... let's decide where we head next." FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK with both of them literally shaking with grief and guilt and trying not to cry on camera

dunkie is #drinkingfromthepuddle tonight

another iconic shot but for different reasons. i like to think its a callback to that one death in ryuki. badass

[buffa-z]

realizing that neon remembering the kidnapping was intentional?? they could have made it so neon didn't know what happened to akari. instead, she remembered it as if she experienced it, except with the happy ending. meaning that kousei's wish was not to wipe clean the tragedy, but for himself to be the hero in the situation. That is what makes neon built according to his ideals

[buffa-z]

ep 30

"the prince from the letters" out of context is a crazy title. honestly if i was a bystander i would assume it was the frog

beroba doing the into narration

watching them in quick succession, the past 3 episodes and this one have really just been about alienating keiwa by making her friends into unrealized plot devices

anyways back to torturing na-go on her birthday i guess

honestly very mature of her to just walk out and not even lash out at kyuun. that's doll training i suppose

we paid a lot for this fight scene you're watching it again

eugh the way the spikes come out of the wall and skewer bishop is so violent for no reason

not gonna get the audio but when michinaga says "Did you think I couldn't win unless you pulled this crap?" with the most offended tone

and then this shot. a crucial and delicious morsel. they can communicate not only via expression but by /masked expression/

doll time

the way neon approaches her mom as if she's small. speaking softly, offering the na-go id core with cupped hands

this is so fucked. it never gets less upsetting to watch.

really funny tho that kousei's lounge has so many like. trinkets to knock over when hes belligerently drunk. he's paying for that. we've seen his actual house, it's modernist with minimal stylish decor. in this room tho there's just wooden objects for smashing.

so much of this show is about like. /the dead can't come back to life/. but it can't decide whether that's true or not. i like that. i like the idea that death is something that can be reversed/circumvented/made pointless. but it effectively costs the person's identity.

that being said fuck kurama kousei and his crocodile tears. i hope your daughter crashes your company and gives all your money to wild animals

god. "this was never my home." can you fucking imagine. if anyone reading this has tried to run away from home before, you know. it's really harrowing. it takes a lot to decide to do that, and even more to actually attempt it (and we know she's tried at least 52 times). it is a last resort that you take when you're in a situation where your only other way out is suicide. now imagine, after a year of trying to escape, if you found out the place you were fighting so hard to get out of, was never even for you. that you only existed to be a prisoner in that house. and the whole time you were a replacement for the daughter they lost. i'm thinking of "And did you know the Liberty Bell is a replica/Silently housed in its original walls/And while its dreams played music in the night/Quietly, it was told to believe" from last words of a shooting star by mitski

still struggling with this concept that neon was designed to kousei's ideals ? bc while she has an entrepreneurial spirit, she doesn't seem to care about the company at all. in fact, she's repeatedly tried to escape that life altogether. this is a very direct metaphor for how a parent's plan for their child will never come to fruition and only seeds resentment. but the dgp could have made a child that did follow his orders, and they didn't. who made that decision? niram? the game master who operated the wish command? the goddess herself? honestly, i think it was a combination therein bc they knew neon would make a good contestant when the time came

it's also useful to know the dgp has been in the modern day timeline for at least 11 years. and somehow kousei knew how to get a hold of niram? how did that relationship begin? networking???

kousei: the only way to save my daughter... is to marry her into your future wealth and status kyuun: um no fucking way

^ seriously even kyuundere the stalker doesn't agree with you man

COME ON

chirami knew about the situation with na-go Obviously and it's probably why she got picked to be the desastar in the first place.

tsumuri crying? shedding tears? over a player?! this is actually big news for the invisible tsumuri cult-breaking narrative that only i seem to know or care about

"You can't look away. Your job as the Narrator is to see how the players' ideals play out."

^ LIKE THATS CRAZY. tsumuri physically shutting her eyes, wishing that this engine would stop, and being told that she Must be complicit, she Must keep her eyes open and keep watching the show. and then she just turns back to the screen, fights her expression back into a neutral one and tries not to cry.

ok now quick ace shoot him in the head. shoot him. with the gun.

you're talking to ukiyo fucking ace, the mega autistic tv personality guy who racked his entire emotional state onto a fish hook that gets ripped out every six months. there is no shot The Sensitive Blogger has a worse inability to share earnest feelings than him. and he's still nice to na-go, arguably nicer to her than to anyone else. get real and also die

ace: [storming out before he crazy murders a supporter] kyuun: [another stupid fucking question]

neon has officially started seeing ghosts! congratulations!

geats is literally like those posts about people watching the wrong movie, like watching like a super heavy drama and waiting for a big monster show up. and then the dunkleosteus shows up.

now how did ace find neon? i'll chalk it up to his enhanced senses + plot convenience powers

the dunkleosteus that eats neon is actually so fucking scary i would die if that happened to me AND THEN ALL THE CAMERAS???? at least her hair and outfit are still fine and not super wet and ruined from getting carried in the jaws of a prehistoric fish

calling it a public execution. with the big cleaver sword. its like pyramidhead but for being a teenage girl

here's the part that makes it. will she let herself die? or is being a kamen rider more important?

back to ace's gay little run. the genuine shock on his face when he sees michinaga too.

michinaga blatantly acting in this scene. standing and talking like he's delivering lines straight into the audience v

michinaga revealing that his plan is to get rid of the entire dgp. i remember this being huge when it first aired, and how excited i was to be right. also his face gets so red after that little collar grab back and forth.

it's telling but not surprising that the audience actually loves the jgp. they want kamen riders to suffer.

oh and daichi is just in the jail room torturing keiwa for no reason. can we kill this guy already

some starting evidence for the Happiness axis of the magic system. this will become relevant quite soon!

keiwa saying that neon's wish is what justifies her right to happiness is interesting. i think it's her recognizing that neon's wish and her own wish for world peace come from the same place of wanting to make people happy, which is part of what makes them so well-suited (lol) to be kamen riders but not necessarily to the dgp

YESSSSSSSS YEAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCK YEAHHHHHHH

IF SHE IS NOTHING ELSE. SHE IS STILL KAMEN RIDER NA-GO. AND SHE REFUSES TO LET THE WORLD DIE

unfortunately bc she still has no will to live/to happiness, her suit reads that and isn't very powerful. this is an unnamed but established phenomenon in geats specifically. the amount you believe in yourself directly correlates to your suit's power level. that's why geats is so strong and also so fucking unbearable.

speaking of, geats on the sidelines coming to terms with the fact that hes not the only "chosen one" bc it means he can find camaraderie and purpose in being neon's friend. maybe neither of them have to be alone. and he's hoping if he believes in her hard enough, her suit will work.

AND IT WORKS! several recent happy memories are beamed into her head and she's able to get up! fuck yes!

HUD shot! also "armor break!" being a thing that can happen?? crazy

ok the go-pro shot of her going to the ground was unnecessary

ace's grin that totally doesn't reach his eyes as kyuun runs up. this is a narrative victory, not a personal one.

writing the letters and then reading them out loud is the right move so i'm glad he at least figured that out. it's the bare minimum and certainly not enough to redeem him. but its something. he prevented na-go from getting decapitated at least.

neon is literally bleeding on the ground like 'are you really monologuing right now? my ribs are broken'

TALK FASTERRRRRR SHES BLEEDING OUT

ripping up the letter in front of her is bad optics man. have some tact

neon looking at him like /i wish this meant anything but this guy was literally just mean to me and then wrote sappy letters and also never gave me buckles and made me responsible for his emotional burden and he's kind of still doing that right now by taking this moment of rock bottom in my life to break out of his shell and i'm smelling burning is that normal?/

AGAIN like this could have been SO COMPELLING if it was between her and the other riders, like learning to trust and found family and all that stuff, but it's just some random guy from the future instead. twice now we've seen a main character go through something seemingly unbearable but then they have to emotionally shepherd their fucking supporter through it. its odd

i don't agree with everything she did but i'm with her on this

one thing we're gonna see is ace fighting jamato in a hallway

ill be honest i kinda wanted to watch na-go fight. in the na-go centric episodes. i kinda wanted that to happen. but laser boost is cool i guess

this seems like a really awkward scene to shoot. also how does she know to put up her hands for something?

she finally gets a fucking buckle! its a basic fucking boost buckle. ok. geats got laser boost and it wasn't even his birthday and she got a fucking boost buckle? the one-use item? not even like a new axe?

healing my inner/ghost child when a giant winged lion robot brings me a boost for my power armor

this scene is neon forgiving her newfound survivor's guilt. and reshaping her perspective bc even tho she's not akari, she's the one who's still alive. she has to live for akari if nothing else.

^ imagine if this scene had been a conversation between her and michinaga (who has a similar position of being the one who survived and has to keep fighting) instead of being about kyuun. i dont think michinaga would stay to fight her in the "true" timeline, but i can still imagine her showing up to the fight via dunkie and michinaga urging her to stand up and fight, and she can't bc how could she? and michinaga gives her some hard advice about not letting yourself die, because then it was all for nothing. and she internalizes that and hugs akari and they both turn and fight dunkie. just a thought. if she's not gonna get a power up anyway

FUCK YEAH THERE WE GO. RIDING THE CARD INTO AN ATTACK FUCK YES

nauseating geats pov where he uses his spatial powers he has now

BEAT BOOST GRAND VICTORY! CUT THAT THING IN HALF!

daichi's pocket watch/stim toy that he just threw on the ground?

i don't fuck with this ending scene. i don't think kyuun has earned this at all. i don't think neon should be so thankful towards him. i get why she might be, in this distressed situation where he did save her life. but this scene is so nothing. when it could be between neon and a character that matters. also there's no world where neon chooses to go with kyuun over HER CLOSEST FRIENDS WHO ARE THERE FOR HER

there's that extended shot of ace like looking at neon over his shoulder and thinking then looking back and shaking his head and his jaw twitches. whats the point of that? when i first watched it i assumed he was thinking about asking neon to live with him but i don't know if that's really it

the implication of archimedel about to cut his hand off lol

oo yucky closeup of michinaga's current jamavine hand situation. also why is he still in the jamato hq? leave! i mean he tries to but he still listens when beroba tells him about geats

this scene the first time was so freaky. why did they do it like this. there was no reason for it to be a culty ritual thing like this.

"mitsume" as in michinaga doesn't know that name bc geats never said it to him and he doesnt watch the show. but beroba assumes he knows bc she watches the show and spills that it's geats' mom

this wrinkled tablecloth...

THE VISION DRIVER CONTAINS ALL RECORDS REGARDING PRODUCTION!

[buffa-z]

ep 29

genuinely this dig site is one of the best things to happen in geats. what a solid addition to the world of the show

MIRRORBALL! what a grand and simple way to show michinaga's warped worldview (i know it's fish eye lens but it's obviously emulating the mirror ball stuff from 4 episodes ago)

this juxtaposition is awesome. the grinning with the wide lens making her seem small and framed by Love in several literal senses but its all toned very cool and sterile. then you see the real world and the camera is centimeters from her face, her smile is plastered on, and to everyone around her, her real face is covered by the camera. symbolism!

side note: is her birthday really the 1st? did i trick myself into thinking it was the 4th because that's the day the episode came out? also for the record i had already imagined everyone's birthday in my head when this episode came out. neon's was april 12 while michinaga's was april 1. then this episode came out like two weeks after

this kidnapping plot is so crazy. did we know about this before this episode? i feel like we did but i've watched this show too many damn times its my returnal

it is cute that keiwa and ace are out shopping together. is that a normal occurrence? in my head its related to the thing i wrote where ace starts like coaching keiwa on how to be a kamen rider/tv star, and knowing ace there's gotta be shopping involved in that sort of thing.

oh we have got to prevent this outfi WAIT FUCK YES HIS STUPID LITTLE BAG IS BACK FUCK YES

ACE HISTORY FACT NUMBER 1 MILLION: "They would bring kids to temples on their third, fifth, and seventh birthdays."

keiwa: it's still hard to believe you can remember your past lives ^^ IM HAVING A HARD TIME WITH THAT TOO.

especially when that's the best ace's got in terms of /historical anecdotes/. talk about getting trashed at a bacchanal on your 16th birthday if you're really so ancient roman

me when my actions have consequences and the way i act on tv informs the way people in real life see me

ace: shouldn't you be a little less credulous about all this? keiwa: honestly i just accept you as you are ace: [FLASHBANG] [SMARMY NONSENSE] [SMOKEBOMB] [[Smile]] congratulations! you have survived 1 genuine human connection! high score: 3

everyone's freaking out about the jamato but shes just a street performer???

ace immediately knows this is a trap. but what, he's gonna go let keiwa fall in a trap alone? without seeing what's going on?

I ADOREEEE THIS BUILDINGGGG also lol quick comparison:

^ shot in the show vs regular digital photo ^ [whos gonna know.mp3]

and if he ate shit right into the wall here.

why does he turn around???? why doesn't he try to call out to keiwa even once????

SHE WENT TO HEAVEN

help me the minecraft zombie gurgle

if i were to take any screenshot from the show and ask a random person to describe it. it would have to be this one. [alternate caption: the three genders]

after they guess that shot i would show them this:

the immediate next shot. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? can you earnestly imagine standing there under all those EYEBALLS STARING DOWN AT YOU while the spotlights are blinding you? after you just ran a quick 2.6 kilometers in a panic thinking someone is about to die? i don't blame tycoon at all for not winning

however i think that stock crowd noise is post-production. i don't think that keiwa heard that, or any of the subsequent crowd noises in this scene. keep an eye on the style of this episode bc its the one michinaga designed!

speaking of, shout out to the graphic designer(s) who worked on this show for real. all the JGP stuff is so cool and simultaneously a different style from the DGP while also fitting in seamlessly next to/against them. awesome

detecting owned levels: ◽◻⬜✅ OWNED DETECTED!

michinaga getting mad that beroba is explaining the rules of HIS game then remembering He doesn't care he doesnt care hedoesnt care hes just doing this to get his wish getthewish doesntmatter etc etc

the good news is tycoon can dodge like crazy

ok so obviously beroba permitted michinaga make the game bc she was curious what he'd do. but she got bored with nothing to scheme about, and she already had the idea re: neon, so now she just had extra time to execute it

LIKE LOOK at these graphics. how cute! someone's job was to make this. that's awesome. i can see a 2000s t-shirt with this on the front and a big JGP sigil on the back

neon's immediate sense of responsibility regardless of the game structure. its her friends or nothing

however ace is a bit of a hardwall and changes the scene.

it is relevant that michinaga made a game in which the jamato could very well lose. as well as the fact that it doesn't seem to involve getting the producer's vision driver at all. what is he playing at?

neon getting a party is actually so interesting and i'm honestly disappointed we don't get to see more of it. what does it mean to her for fans of the dgp to celebrate her birthday?

side note this lip color is really cute but it doesn't match her outfit? is that just a coincidence or does it represent a desire to be wearing something different, something warmer/brighter/more herself?

maybe its the height difference but is this not the most conspicuous way to talk to a person ever. she isn't michinaga. you can face the same direction as her. it's not going to hurt you or the symbolism

this ^ action is also incredibly important to me. disregarding all the other reasons i don't think they should be together, i don't want neon to be subsumed into ace's story as a love interest. and that's what tsumuri is thinking when she smacks chirami to knock it off.

i think tycoon actually ends up fighting the longest. she's fighting for at least 10 minutes, holding her own against a miniboss that's specifically designed to hurt her. and then what actually takes her out is the thing nobody knows about yet so it's not her fault

ok 3 things. 1) he is locked the fuck in. he bet the house. 2) HE HAS A CHAIR FINALLY! previous rounds he never got a chair in beroba's viewing room. 3) AGAIN the graphic is so cute for the banner. IT'S LITERALLY GOT A SPINE AND VINE HELIX!!! a clever hint to our best friend dunkie

god damn that's gotta hurt

wizard fight! notice how the corners of the graphic have changed from cogs to sigilism

HOW EXPERTLY FRAMED i love when we get a group reaction shot like this PLUS it mirrors the shot i talked about earlier! its a teams game! watch out the three genders! we just found four new ones!

CMON DON'T PUT KEIWA IN JAIL

my Brilliant IdeaBerry

stop this. there is nothing Blooming between them. he is STALKING AND HARASSING HER

of course neon knew this whole time. what else would it be. also her immediately holding up the magic letter and being like "why are you such an asshole to me in person then?"

oooo ms neon is acting in order to force a breakup. she has done this before

does she not look like her mom in this image. where do you think she learned it from? "if you are a pretty girl, you can always scream and march out. it doesn't matter what he did. protect yourself"

this flower shop is SO CUTE. too bad it represents patriarchal feelings of ownership over neon /represented as a beautiful but fleeting object/

THIS LOCATION IS CRAZYYYYYYY i love casino architecture. this is fucking insane.

"my wife tends to be old fashioned." yup exactly what i said before. neon's mom getting framed as the crazy one when kousei is doing the exact same thing just wayyy shadier

if kousei didn't immediately act super weird about it nobody would've caught on. but you fucked up so bad even kyuun can notice

this shot gives me so much to work with. one: the news coverage from that day was shot in full HD. two: ace's phone and the way he holds it. three: he had to find this video and then find the place it was filmed. how long has he known about this?

ace you confrontational freak. but i get it.

now this is fascinating bc ace is realizing he might not be the only one in the group who was handcrafted to be in the dgp. in fact he doesnt know he was. what if neon has been the main character this whole time? more importantly, SHE DIED?

cmon geats can you have some more fucking tact. its literally her fucking birthday.

THE OUTFIT look at this outfit and look at what neon wears this episode. doll clothes.

meanwhile this asshole:

dont worry na-go! a third patriarchal force is going to take your place in the tournament! or wait no he's just tactless and wants to try something. he has to make sure he's still the main character.

ohhh NOW i see why they dressed him like that. i kinda assumed he was just colorblind.

for a guy who was so pissed off about people ruining his game a minute ago. he sure doesn't seem very mad about geats changing the fight order

EXCUSE ME HE FELL FOR IT???? HE FELL FOR IT???? YOU KNEW HE WOULD DO THIS?????

i see! geats utilized ninja's instant ult! it appears that's attached to the buckle, not necessarily to tycoon. also magnum ninja is a really good combo esp for geats

this fight is so needlessly awesome. the revolve and then boost mk ii. and ill never turn down a 1v2 underdog sweep

that low res go-pro style footage bc we're watching on one of the camera drones

wait! beroba needs to ruin this somehow!

THE HORROR MOVIE MUSIC RETURNS

god. the slow shaky revolve. the laser raise riser. no pose. no remark. no plan. this ends now

geats shooting the camera down is another thing that i still can't get over. there is nothing the dgp/jgp won't do to ruin the lives of everyone it touches. so there is nothing geats won't do to end it

beroba muttering that na-go is gonna lose in the last round and michinaga looking over at her like wait that's me. i'm gonna have to fight na-go. well spoilers but hes not doing that

wait a second. the yelling plushies. those weren't from fans at all. those were from beroba. beroba planned this too. YEAH CUZ THE ROOM HOLOGRAMS OUT TOO TO PUT NEON IN THE MEMORY

these are kousei's memories.

this is really rich coming from a world of constructed people. is the idea that they thought they were watching something "real" from the "old days" of "earth" and so, to them, neon is the equivalent of how we see those 3d animated AI influencers?

notice how her real sadness is very silent and still.

its ok tho bc geats is defending her honor or whatever. i think he just has anger management problems but i agree hes doing the right thing. i mean seriously hes finally snapped. his life is forfeit already but leave his friends out of it.

geats going world cup on bishop into the announcer box is possibly the best thing hes ever done

ok maybe im crazy but this na-go centric episode didn't have any na-go in it. it had neon in it. and that's good. but she never actually fought on her own behalf in this one. maybe that'll change next ep?

[buffa-z]

immortality as theft (you have to steal life from something else) immortality as parasitism (there is something else inside You that is keeping you alive and you become less of yourself more and more the longer it stays in you) immortality as violence (everything is trying to kill you because everything is supposed to die and the universe will always try to find a way to right the wrong that is You) you understand

[buffa-z]

ep 28

sengoku game part 2

cliffhanger reveal! aaand hes totally fine. his real friends are here to protect him :) yay i hope this goes somewhere. this goes somewhere right

awesome that tycoon gets to have a badass moment! fuck yeah!

dont mind me just sleeping like a corpse or a dracula in the work lounge

you know its serious bc tsumuri didnt even do any of the "ace-sama" shit shes like "are you ok are you going to survive"

GENUINE EMOTION SPOTTED! QUICK! CUT TO COMMERCIAL!

now im not a fan of this episode. for obvious reasons. so i will be critiquing quite harshly. but why on earth would ace assume that /ziin/ was the one who saved him rather than TYCOON AND NA-GO HIS REAL FRIENDS THAT ACTUALLY SAVED HIM

now thiis is interesting. who does this apply to? to what extent? are supporters obligated to die in the 3.5D world? do they get to go back to their extraterrestrial metaverse? or are they dead forever? the only answers we get are that ziin in this world has "a life that can be ended in an instant" and if that happens he'll be "not existing in this world anymore"

ace: let me get on my high horse about existentialism. you see, death is what gives life meaning. one must imagine sisyphus as a badass foxboy who was maybe even cute with it

ziin: oh my god... it hurts to have bad things happen to you?? ace: dude wait til you find out about war

ACE HISTORY FACT NUMBER WHATEVER THE FUCK: Nobunaga Oda said "A man's life is but 50 years, compared to all else that transpires, it is fleeting as an illusory dream."

naturally he's most beautiful when he's deathly ill and being condescending. get that wistful glint out of your eye gayboy we have to hurt fandom bloggers!!

bringing my pet parasocial to the fountains on a rainy day so it looks like an accident

that story is SUCH A LIEEEE its such an obvious lie. in a setting that so vividly mirrors the first-arc scene with ace and keiwa at the river after keilow dies. am i the crazy one here?

me when i lie

THIS!!! THIS THING!!!! THIS THING IS A LYNCHPIN IN MY WHOLE UNDERSTANDING OFF THE WORLD!!!!

^^^^ THATS THE SPIDER'S PERSPECTIVE!!!!

the admin don't use spider phones. they don't need to. and ace is the one who brought ziin there. and he's shown to be friendly with the spider phones at multiple points previously. then we are explicitly shown the spider phone setting up camera to watch this scene take place. INDICATING, again, that this "revelation" about his reincarnations was /staged by ace/ in order to sell whatever narrative he thinks will benefit his reputation right now

man its too bad keiwa falls for it. like i dont blame anyone watching the edit but goddamn. way to isolate geats from his friends by making it seem like he was hiding this from them.

neon is getting the idea here re: ace's search for his mom. but unfortunately she is also being made to believe it. now personally i would speculate she knows shes being watched right now so she's trying to have the appropriate reaction, not necessarily her real one. but i cant say what she was actually thinking in this scene at this time

ok well my idea for the coin is better. i think it is the same coin from his "first life" but he randomly got it for a birthday he had during his ancient rome phase. his dad went on ebay and got him one that happened to be exactly that same coin.

child ace facts: -played with a blue ball -little nice vest outfit even when playing with ball (school uniform?) -found the coin on the ground (i also believe this could be true) -the dog thing

see how ziin is falling for it??? ace gives him impossible figures of luck and because ziin is already fully bought in, it reads as narratively satisfying, not as the unrealistic and frankly uninteresting premise it is. i mean seriously, he was never a bird or a bug? a fish? a dandelion??

ok death of a salesman. THIS ^ is why its important not to read too many arthur miller plays

ziin hearing all that and still coming to the wrong conclusion is fucking awesome.

ace's face when he says that and he realizes ziin is completely incapable of being a scene partner in any capacity (left) vs after ziin's monologue about how many times geats has faced death (right). maybe this guy does have a little narrative kick in him

"i was on tumblr in 2014. homestuck. bandom. superwholock. the cw dc comics shows. steven universe. the subsequent voltron and she-ra splinter factions. fallout during the mcelroy/polygon era. riverdale for gods sake. i was in fandoms you've never heard of. reading fic off bathroom walls about the guys from the great gatsby. the gay side characters from high school musical. digging magazines out of trash piles for interviews with the cast. do you know how many blogs i've deleted? do you know how many people i have blocked? you don't know anything you twitter brained loser."

immediately as soon as ziin starts crying (desired reaction) then getting confused (unknown reaction) ace switches back to his scheme brain and starts questioning him about tears. and then ziin starts crying more and ace realizes he did not have an exit plan for this conversation. um. fuck. stamp a "its good to be sad actually" and get out of there

ziin: this sucks! i don't want this at all! ace: [doesn't want to agree with him on principle but also agrees that emotions are categorically useless and painful] [resents that ziin has the ability to be so distant from it, and that even getting the true emotion he wanted didn't satisfy him]

see how they are separated. how the structure of the world divides them. and note that these resemble the pillars in the dgp lobby

ding! ace has finished cooking his final monologue. classic "you and i aren't so different after all" combo with the "learn to live in the moment" and a quick exit LETS GO

frankly i consider ace navigating these scenes with ziin as impressive as the fight scenes. expert level /getting out of a situation/ maneuvers

11 minutes in and we are finally ready to actually play the game!

just relentlessly serving for no reason in particular

oh shit producer niram has a sword too!

and you didn't think ukiyo "history fact!" ace was gonna sit this one out did you

pretty much a classic illustration of those that operate in light/those that operate in shadow. a brilliant composition

FUCK YEAH neon has been training with the sword!

how fun was this for the jamato actors

OH COOL TYCOON HENSHIN WITH THE DODGE FUCK YES

NA-GO FEVER BOOST LETS GO

ace: ill go to point you guys flank and pull aggro.

POWERED BUILDERRRRRRRR HOW IVE MISSED YOU

images that could get me burned at t he stake

"i challenge you to a duel or whatever" LMAO

the card makes the plastic clink of a buckle but it's just a card? but the IRL audience is conditioned to recognize that noise and thus instinctively understand that the card is equivalent to a buckle

FUCK YES TRAP HIM IN A POLYHEDRON FUCK YES

ok geats survives this blow, and beroba says "he accounted for everything?" and geats is in base form. did powered builder get destroyed?

[i am dragged away by security before i even open my mouth]

oooooo ace is testing ziin. he knows ziin is there. he could escape if he needed to but he wants to see what ziin will do with the lessons he's learned

and there it is! he learned!

CLOCK BELL! CLOCK BELL! one blast of future power and you'll be good as gas station energy elixirs

AUGH THE MUSIC IS SO GOOOOOOODD AUUUGHGGHGHHG

LASER BOOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

out of context this looks adorable. in context it irritates me

LASER RAISE RISERS CONFIRMED TO BE A SOURCE OF BODY-CHANGING POWER

^ a fandom blogger classic line

BIG CLIMACTIC FIGHT SCENE! bring out the second verse of the theme song

UNPROVOKED AND UNPRECEDENTED!

man. geats is so badass

this scene is quite good but i cant help imagining the height of the crate beroba's actress must be standing on for this shot

HARD CUT TO THE POP ROCK BALLAD HELP ME

it is actually nice of ziin to give ace the laser raise riser. a convenient plot tool for me if nothing else. but ace sees it as his main link to admin and info about the dgp going away.

the fact that michinaga still goes back to the damn jamato headquarters. even tho he has the vision driver and could go anywhere. really makes you think

the way that michinaga moves in this scene, he knows cameras are on him. he assumes that hes got a 3 camera setup and a pov tail. and hes not entirely wrong.

his slight grin! he's finally gonna get what he wants!!

the goddess lets him get away with being rude bc he's ace's main happiness siphon but also bc hes currently her best bet for salvation from the dgp

[buffa-z]

geats was like here's a guy that lies a lot as the star of a gambling and showmanship themed story. and here's the producer who is shown to only care about selling a story that he finds Realistic. then here's this absolute mark, this rube, who is shown to be quick to emotion and assumption, and here's what he thinks is happening. and i ask, "so the producer is totally crafting a fake story right? what that guy thinks is total fiction?" NOPE! actually what that guy thinks is true! and the dgp keeps going just with a better guy in charge! yay!

[buffa-z]

^^

[buffa-z]

ep 27

shoutout to archimedel's actor he's always giving it 110% especially in the screams at the start here. if i can find the clip someone made ill add it here:

ELUSIVE EXTERIOR SHOT OF THE ???? building where team jamato lives(???)

michinaga: daichi if youre so smart how the fuck did geats do that? daichi: idk lol but its fine bc beroba is still in charge beroba: I Am Going To Kill And Torture Ukyio Ace For Ruining My Plot

you can totally see how freezing cold it is. look at their breath.

absolutely unforgivable. theres no excuse for this.

also the phrase "i've never seen ace sleep before" sort of confirms my thought that he wasnt sleeping at the salon during the Desastar game.

WAIT ZOOM IN

PIERCING HOLE SPOTTED 👆! PUT SOME DIAMONDS IN THAT THING!!!!!!! honest to god star of the stars of the stars and not even a gold hoop???????? can we have NOTHING????

neon [geats closest friend]: what you think ace isn't human? keiwa [geats' protegee]: ehhhh i meann likeeee maybeeee ziin [geats' #1 supporter]: OF COURSE NOT

they translated keiwa's response as "who are you" but i feel like "and you are?" might be a better way to put it

its so fucked that geats got boost mk ii, didn't tell anyone about it, also ostensibly is hiding his old clues despite it getting revealed to the audience, but neon and keiwa don't watch the broadcast so they have to find out from ziin

sengoku game!! this one is honestly my favorite bc costumes

why is ace just sitting in the salon??? again he doesn't live there. and the others are at lunch. so whats his deal?

i remember the first time watching this having so much hope in my heart that geats Would get taken down a peg, and he would start to stumble and fall, and he would have to lean on his teammates at least once.

thank god neon and keiwa dont immediately give ziin information about ace. and are suspicious. especially neon bc she knows about having stalker fans and ace is even more famous than her.

^ a huge raise for whoever made this chestplate please

JAMATO FLIP ATTACK

heyyy keiwas pretty good with the sword! i love how shes gotten more acrobatic as she gets better at fighting.

all the untransformed fighting in this episode is so good

ok the jamato are doing some capoeira shit thats a little ahistorical but whatever its tv

na-go is fine with a sword but shes way better with an axe bc she uses a lot of momentum in her style (which i believe geats taught her)

michinaga pushing jamato aside as he enters the battle. symbolic in a way even i havent fully dissected

for someone who hates being on tv he has such a knack for it too

niram has an "iphone face" even with all that getup im afraid. also samas is not in costume at all lmao.

having the dgp "fort" be in this super modern pavilion is interesting. beroba went all-out with her set but the dgp has no interest in engaging with the past. symbolic!

theres nothing i can honestly say about these images that wont get my blog smashed like an expensive vase. you can figure it out

the decorative resheathing gesture staring at camera and giving a beatdown notifier. he is so fucking pleased to be here.

wait why does he have dirt on his face?

i dont know whats going on with the wig techs at toei but please god someone help anyone everyone

i hate it cuz boost mk ii is SOO COOOOLLLLLLL and it makes geats so badass. but i hate that guy so much he literally doesnt deserve it. nepo baby.

oh fuck those jamato have powers. better activate my fursona mode and spin around! ok this part is a little silly. its a lot silly the way that boostriker!geats interacts with the enemies in this part. i like it tho i would never ask it to change

the jamato actually get scared and try to run away at this part. buffa does no such thing

goddamn buffa survives a lot of hits. hes actually insanely strong

i appreciate this glimpse into the audio editing present on the live dgp feed. shoutout to those sound engineers for real. i wanna know their story

oh yeah ace didnt tell them anything bc hes super sick from acute epilenarcolepsy sudden-onset by evil lightning then he immediately transformed into the most powerful buckle. awesome

he got asked three questions and his brain just shut itself off. i mean its classic symptoms but you hate to see it. you just hate to see it folks. i joke but seizure disorders are life-ruining and i would do anything not to live like this. maybe join the dgp even.

oh right this is the part that pissed me off. ziin trying to make old clues real. thank god neon is lying right to ziins face bc she still doesnt trust him

obviously its more likely that geats is consciously reincarnating. rather than the idea that the dgp just didnt show them rejecting a wish. obviously. yeah man

oh hello yamano tower. i mean the dgp headquarters. at the dutchest angle we've ever seen it. also im not screenshotting it but theyre apparently on floor 8

yeah man another guy named ace is completely ridiculous. youre so right. never seen it. yeah i only know one transmasc named ace between the ages of 16-24. yeah just the one.

i love how fucking crazy the producer is. like hes just a bright-eyed serial killer with no qualms about any of this

now listen to me ziin, i am talking directly into your ear now. i need you to do me a favor. you will do this for me. i need you to go to gamestop, and i need you to ask the bastard working the counter if they have bambi on the ps2. if you come back empty handed youll be in big trouble mister. you will never see the light of day.

"it has. in the exact way you're thinking." IS CRAZYYYYYYY like calling ziin an ideal audience member is already crazy like basically hes the perfect rube to trick HES A MARK but saying WAHTEVER YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE! and grinning darkly and walking away. incredible writing for a psycho tv producer.

AND WHATS BEST/WORST IS ZIIN BELIEVES IT. HE GETS ALL GIDDY AND SAYS "I KNEW IT" AND SWALLOWS IT HOOK LINE AND SINKERRRRRRR see now how am i supposed to believe in old clues when This is the evidence

omg its so cold in these shots you can see tsumuri and chirami shivering

lolll the cutting off chiramis fingers bit is good + foreshadowing! real dunkieheads know

this shot of tsumuri fighting using her tablet to bludgeon is one of my favorite moments in the whole series

when beroba just scans his fingerprint and is like "you can keep your yucky fingers" pretty good.

BUT LIKE SEE the biotechnology of the DGP is the most interesting part! you have /fingerprint copying tech/, you have a /zombie/ and, separately, /plants that evolved to mimic humans/, you have /the cosmetics tablet/, you have /whatever they did to michinaga over the hiatus/, you have /ace's miracular conception/. you have /a woman turning into a goddamn statue/ by force of /some machine you wear as a belt/. there's so much to learn and play with there but no we had to have the evil keiwa arc??? this random evil main character arc could have been a bottle episode. and speaking of why dont we ever get a bottle episode. seriously if we cut the budget for this show in half it would have to be good. the maze game should have been the last time they got any money for sets and effects and the rest had to be filmed with what they had.

ace waking up with this really dramatic music makes you think he woke up from a nightmare, and also that he panics waking up in an unfamiliar place. and what are we supposed to glean from that "I..."?? personally i see it as him waking up thinking he might have died and reincarnated again. that's what it looked like it was aiming for.

THE HORROR MOVIE MUSIC WHEN HE SEES ZIIN LMAO the violins screaming in the background (i assume to represent the migraine geats has) and ziin is here ready to present his fan-canon ted talk to his idol

also this is conjecture but imagine being ukiyo ace, and all that that entails, and ziin comes up to you and says like "i finally figured you out" like what do you even guess that hes talking about in that situation. personally i would assume im in a [kill or be killed] situation and find the nearest weapon. but ace handles it well

"when i first saw you, you were already strong for some reason" because nobody has ever done martial arts as a kid? or had a chuunibyou phase? or been a teenager trying to impress his friends? or been a teenager period? MICHINAGA WAS LITERALLY SHOWN FIGHTING WELL AT THE SAME AGE JUST HUMANS INSTEAD OF JAMATO. IS MICHINAGA 2000 YEARS OLD TOO? NO! THEYRE CRAZY BC THATS WHAT IT TAKES TO BE 21 RIGHT NOW IN THIS SITUATION

sorry i do not like ziin and the fact that hes somehow right. i find him pathetic and his worldview too similar to those who harm me. NEVER LET PEOPLE ENJOY THINGS BECAUSE THIS^^^^ SHIT WILL HAPPEN!!!

its crazy bc ace has a gun in this scenario and doesnt use it. he is a better man than me ill say that much. jacket half on getting yelled at by a fandom blogger at 3 in the afternoon after awaking from a seizure coma seconds ago. last time that happened to me i went away for a week and came back on abilify. ace doesnt even get to abuse opioids in this timeline too goddamn. this show sucks

this music playing with this reveal like they did something. like this is anything like the maze game

ace realizing the stupid shit ziin is talking about and how the producer hinted that to him at their meeting and hes probably gonna have to go back and fight any second now and his eyes are still crossing against his will and this blue thing in front of him wont shut up about memories and GODDAMN HES SO GOOD AT PUTTING HIS FACE ON the way he like physically moves his expression into place is so fascinating. its a completely different shape. and now hes Ukiyo Ace, Star of the Stars of the Stars, Kamen Rider Geats.

wait did they actually hear my complaints and start giving him kohl. or is that supposed to make him look more tired? bc the "tired" effect is clearly mostly makeup (not everyone can be atsuhiro inukai) so he had to be in the chair instead of just getting it done at call. and whoever was doing it knew how to do their job and gave the fox rider a little bit of goddamn eyeliner

anyways right. ace is playing ziin like a fiddle

EEK EEK ITS THE PAST LIVES MONTAGE let me get my snip tool

we got:

Middle Europe and Sengoku?

and who is this grown ginger man running through the woods yelling in english in what is supposed to be ancient rome.

ACE GARFIELD. MY ETERNAL NEMESIS ON THIS EARTH. SCUM OF MY FUCKING MIND GUTTERS THAT GROWS LIKE ROT NO MATTER HOW MUCH VINEGAR I SWALLOW.

might make an edit of this scene where its just other movies with foxes in them like over the hedge, fantastic mr fox, zootopia, etc

ace like blatantly rolling his eyes at ziin and it doesnt matter. he could do anything right now and ziin wouldnt notice bc hes caught in the euphoria of his own delusion.

"My life isn't your entertainment" < imagine if this scene, that line, this whole thing, was what broke ace. like what popped him out of the mold the dgp was just about to finish setting around him. he should have gone rogue. taken his berserker form and ran. maybe he goes to get the vision driver himself in the dead of night. maybe he just tries to get out of the city. imagine. NOPE! SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER

ziin trying to like. win back ace's confidence by telling him to be careful with the buckle. when geats knows ziin doesn't know shit about the buckle. see how even in this moment, ziin feels the need to have the upper hand, the greater control over the narrative? he can't leave it for a second. he can't ever trust geats to live his own story (see also "heres hoping you have a plan" from ep 22)

kekera is shady just like all the supporters but hes shady in a way thats just regular evil instead of pissing me off so so bad like the others. and FUCK KYUUN get the fuck out of here. well they did a good job recreating the four worst parasocialites you know from fandom blogging.

honest to god i wish that this room full of flowers made neon sneeze like crazy and so she never went there bc whenever she did she had to leave to clear her nose. and her eyes were too watery the whole time to read the magic letter. and so she just kind of avoided it and hoped no one would make her go in there ever

THE FACT THAT HES ACTUALLY JUST SITTING OUTSIDE WITH EARBUDS AND AN IPAD. should this not be a comedy????

see now this is interesting important curious and worthwhile. the producer is given an in-universe reason to attack the jamato fort back, rather than remaining defensive. that reason being: beroba got chirami's fingerprint, conveniently just between rounds. Am I Not Supposed To Think This Is Scripted??

been there man

yeahhh lets have ace become the damsel in distress for once to see how it fucks with his sense of selOH GOD DAMN IT

can we get this nasty redditor out of here it smells

oh now he gets a badass moment ok

kamen rider geats is a tv show about about how being a fanboy is the best and you WILL get into your fave's universe and defend them at a crucial moment, putting them ever in your debt but you get to brush it off and be cool about it. there are no consequences to your epic and righteous actions!

thank god beroba showed up to stop him. cease the madness girl we have to take him away

YOU AND YOUR SISTER FIGHTING IN THE BACKYARD IS THE REAL KAMEN RIDER BATTLE!!! KEEP BUYING THE TOYS 📈📈📈

is beroba glare not so cute tho. like she sucks but at least shes having fun with it. doing her own thing. owning the brand. she could have you exiled from every skype gc in a 20-mutual radius before your dashboard even loaded. youre getting anons in your inbox for the rest of your fucking life, buddy

i get why she picked magnum and monster but i feel like ninja would have been a better pick strategically. i need her to win so i dont have to see ziin anymore

also these jamato are terrible at executing people. has anyone noticed. you dont want to be that close to someone whose about to get shot.

it would be SO FUNNY if they killed ace here i want them to do that so bad. just pistol to the head. one shot one kill. little gitsu's playing in the stars again. series over. michinaga kills people for ten episodes and then it ends with neon and keiwa dissolving all the id cores in a vat of voidic acid. roll credits. kamen rider geats. very last frame is tsumuri swinging at the camera with a hammer

[buffa-z]

questions this immediately raises:

whose idea was this?

how much of this idea was created during geats' conception and how much was created for the gotchard movie?

what the hell, man?

in universe, who named the dog? was it ace (confirming my "ace had a ancient rome phase as a kid" theory)? was it his adoptive parents (confirming my "ace's adoptive parents absolutely raised him to be Like That regardless of whether hes autoreincarnated or not)

the dog wants to be around ace so bad it becomes a spirit. fine. normal pet tragedy story. so the dog spirit is just Around forever? all the time? following him around? how does this tie in to ace's luck/spatial powers?

following that, when ace started seeing his spirit self in his mind, why didnt he see the dog too?

ace is not shown interacting with live animals once during the run of Geats. however, he is friendly to the boostriker fox(!!!) and the spiderphone. is that bc theyre robots or bc the writers didnt know this would be true in 8 months?

the wiki is written such that ace doesnt know the fox chemy is his childhood dog. does he ever find out?

thats a fancy dog. who paid for the dog?

does anyone else in-universe know about this????

what happened with the person who hit the dog with the car?

why couldnt the dog have just passed away of old age or something?

why is this the only information we have about ace's childhood?

WAS ANYONE GONNA TELL ME THAT THE REASON ACE CALLS THE BOOST FOX KON IS BECAUSE HE HAD A CHILDHOOD DOG NAMED CONSTANTINE THAT GOT HIT BY A CAR TRAUMATIZING ACE AWAY FROM ANIMALS FOREVER ONLY TO LATER BE REANIMATED AS A CHEMY???????????

[buffa-z]

WAS ANYONE GONNA TELL ME THAT THE REASON ACE CALLS THE BOOST FOX KON IS BECAUSE HE HAD A CHILDHOOD DOG NAMED CONSTANTINE THAT GOT HIT BY A CAR TRAUMATIZING ACE AWAY FROM ANIMALS FOREVER ONLY TO LATER BE REANIMATED AS A CHEMY???????????

[buffa-z]

[buffa-z]

that actually wasnt so bad. i thought reviewing that episode would make me angrier than it did. honestly i just feel even more vindicated and like i have a better understanding of how and why the producer staged it like that.

[buffa-z]

the infamous ep 26

authors note: this episode (specifically its cliffhanger reveal) is what caused me to turn a little handful of behind-the-scenes into the entirety of two men coming to the same horrible conclusion over a horribly long amount of time (or two men coming/tmc for short).

yeah i mean we all knew geats was gonna dodge that strike. he's playing pretend here

buffa noticing that geats isnt really fighting all that hard while hes busting his ass trying to use this clunky buckle

fudanziin just standing there watching them fight

hey why did tycoon and nago literally just forget how to fight? what happened? like either way the lightning blast had to hit for plot reasons, so why not have it hit them while they're doing a good job fighting, thus showing how even the best of their abilities aren't enough for this purposefully unfair game design? WHATEVER MAN

(youll notice that ill start complaining a lot more than im complimenting from here on out)

oh boy i sure hope that giant jamato lightning tower thats slowly turning towards me doesnt completely fuck my shit up forever LOL who am I kidding im kamen rider geats the biggest badass in the world and the most plot-armored bastard in the entire timeline

BUFFA LAUGHS AT HIM when the timer goes off and geats is still on the ground buffa LAUGHS its a GAME to them. SICKOS!

then as soon as buffa and knight walk away, geats changes his posture and huffs and kinda grabs at his hip. like he was hiding how bad buffa hurt him until now.

is the implication here that ace's rooftop is the dgp training rooftop? but theyre physically different rooftops. so are niram and samas at ace's rooftop? they just appear there so they might have literally just teleported there. bc thats how ziin found ace in the first place. but still. imagine the fucking producer on your private contemplation rooftop.

let's start negging ace to see if he unlocks a new form out of spite

watching michinaga put on his stage face is interesting. its different than geats-- geats puts on his mask or switches it from one second the next. but when michinaga does it, he changes where his eyes focus. he doesnt move his eyes a lot in scenes that arent meant to be broadcasted, but every time he realizes he's on camera, he starts being very mindful of where he's looking. like here lets break it down:

this is before he realizes ^

this is the process of him realizing ^

then he goes out of his way to make eye contact w/ tohru-knight bc thats what you do when youre talking to someone except michinaga doesnt usually make eye contact with the people he talks to

oh thank god there's canon justification for jamato only needing water to live. i thought i was being presumptuous. also 🪩the world is small through my MIRROR--🎶

daichi coming in to make sure everyone is adequately tortured. yeah i feel like the hate for him is not overblown he loves torturing people

"there's nothing objectionable about a friendship between a pair of jamato" is such a loaded loaded sentence. its even somehow homophobic in a way no one was ever asking if you could be. it is Perfectly engineered to piss michinaga offfffff

proving my eyes point further:

him thinking ^

^ him remembering he's on camera. notice the set jaw and the brow furrow. the way he angles his neck. like he's physically pulling his own marionette strings tighter.

anyways back to ace walking directly towards the camera

ziin: i could help! i could be your fighting buddy! ace: [visible stormclouding]

"when we fight, it's not for fun" ok ace listen im on your side against ziin here but. well you couldve fooled me. we all saw you and buffa a couple scenes ago.

''hi im ukiyo ace, star of the star of the stars, and im also the kamen rider that saved your festival. sort of. to make sure you connect the dots in case you didnt see, im wearing a fox fur-lined coat. and im gonna save the day.''

OH WAIT IS THIS OLD CLUES? ace asks that the temple has been there for 1000 years. is that implying he's been here in previous lives too??? AND IF THATS THE CASE DO THE DGP STAFF KNOW THAT?????

"why" child you got attacked by a monster yesterday what do you mean why did they cancel it

this sticks out to me as a type of expression + angle that we never get from ace. he's eye to eye with this kid, showing genuine concern that the kid might lose his wish bc of the jgp. this is the nameless fox that paid those hospital bills. we're not supposed to see his face like this. but the whole point of this episode is that his mask is slipping, right?

FLASHBACK! time to remember ace's mom again. get those clock bells tolling babey

SORRY BUT WAIT ive been playing infinity nikki so much and this looks JUST LIKE A SHOT FROM IT im not kidding. the fake roman architecture + the flowing white dress with long loose curls + high exposure bloom is literally straight out of that game. forget the goddess geats your mom is the fucking silvergale

ACE HISTORY FACT COUNTER WHATEVER: referencing a story in the Kojiki about using a festival to lure out the sun goddess. and supposedly that's the origin of festivals

^ once again not proof of remembering reincarnation. its merely proof that ace has read a lot of books.

the actual guy who works there and knows more about those stories than him: "yeah i've heard of that theory"

look at him reading off a script. in this scene we watch him write and then perform a script to cheer up that child in real time. and just like michinaga, he meters out his eye contact according to what he thinks he should be doing

tohru-knight standing up on the landing with michinaga

that fist-bump is so eerie. ive never seen a scary fist bump like this before SORRY WAIT

whats with tohru's big ass watch???? is he ben ten or something????? hes got the military black ops tactical timepiece DUDE YOURE A CLONE OF A GHOST

daichi saying that he'll become a jamato if/when the occasion calls for it. no offense but no way he survives the method michinaga did. a live person has to work their way up to that sort of thing.

its very cute of everyone to help out with the festival. tho where is ben? but yeah i kinda wish this had been a beach episode festival + outfits break. id be interested to see someone in-depth explore the event staff vibe of that day lmao

tsumuri being like "why am i here?" lmao

let neon play with the damn toys shes probably never been to a festival before + it helps kids be less apprehensive to try

very deft covering of the camera logo ms tsumuri. shes a professional! she's good at what she does!

well that was fun for 30 seconds. now lets get to the real show

ace locking in to go alone and then the others are like "we'll help" and ace SNAPS AT THEM bc in his mind things are already set in stone and theyre infringing on his preconceived notions-- and then he remembers hes a person and hes on camera and there are kids around and he shouldnt be mean so he corrects himself and tries to make it about protecting the festival.

the shared look between neon and keiwa after he said that too like "we're gonna talk about that later right" bc if ace was mysterious before hes straight up distant since the jgp started and they for sure have noticed he's being weird

tsumuri being worried bc despite everything she still cares about him and ace outright rejecting that and doing his little fox peck. dude this is why no one likes you. great that you can save the day but you need to be nicer to the people who make that possible for you

you can even see neon holding in her words of anger behind ace's back as he walks away. thats actually a really good detail im glad i noticed that this time. shoutout to yuna for always giving it 110%

AHA! toei has made a fatal error and left in a very recognizable building, the kumagaya rugby stadium. with the power of google lens and maps i was able to place the exact spot where this encounter takes place. critically valuable data.

let it not be said that i dont adore the drums in these episodes. really awesome premise and execution on that. pretty much the only thing keeping it all together.

two on one melee fight is no good! no good at all for geats!

do you think buffa brought knight on for this fight because subconsciously he isnt sure he can kill geats? like emotionally. theres a chance that knight might deal the killing blow and then it's not even in buffa's hands. so he doesnt have to even worry about it. even.

yayyyy we love hurting innocents yay yayyy

despite what i said before i definitely think buffa wants to/is capable of hurting geats. he can hurt geats bad. and he is. hes doing it right now.

YOU LOSE, GEATS!

'ohhh i have to actually fight. hold on let me activate my wish baby everyone-believes-in-me powers'

tsumuri and ace probably both have the same sort of sense for the Narrative (pictured as a large current through which events flow for the broadcast) and that if you time things right, you win because the story only makes sense if you do. geats abuses this power to win fights. tsumuri uses it to be the Navigator of that current.

watch out guys hes got determination like from undertale. he cant lose. this guy can literally reset from last save. so you cant really win against him.

^not exactly what buffa is thinking but he does briefly think of undertale when geats says that. bc michinaga is significantly online and exactly the right age to have been hit by undertale when it came out. even tho he clearly didnt take much from it

now that we've gotten plenty of shots of geats' outfit at all angles. let me say that this is him officially merging who he is in the dgp and who he is in real life. he's got the luxurious tailored fabrics, but it's shaped like armor, and it's fox fur he's wearing. plus his red shirt looks very similar to the one he wears with his dgp uniform. and then the black pants and shoes are just to accent that/be like the default rider legs.

*screams so loud my mom can hear me in space*

let's all be honest with ourselves here. ace had no fucking clue what was gonna happen when he did that. he just knew he had to do Something. and he's really hoping this does something

the producer looking pissed off while samas is 👀 about the goddess granting a player's wish

"the moment has finally come." "what are you talking about?" id like to know too man

ok now time for my conspiracy thought: niram runs out of kousei's room because he thinks that ace's parentage is about to be revealed and he needs to pull the big lever on his back-up plan RIGHT NOW. that backup plan being his demonstration with the four "previous ace incarnation" wish cards. 'that's why ace is so good, i promise! not bc his mom is the goddess and his dad is the producer. thats not Realistic!'

I MEAN REALLY why else set up niram as a critic of kousei's fatherhood if not setting up for himself to be equally as hypocritical? it honestly just feels like a thread that got dropped randomly bc theres multiple scenes that dont make much sense unless niram is ace's dad imo

"this is the power i needed" me when i have no idea what just happened but its definitely an upgrade

BOOST! MK II!

they call him geats mk ii bc theres at least two guys in there *🙏* lets go multiple personalities 🎉

"you're--" "Kamen Rider Geats. If I said that, would you believe it?" READY. FIGHT!

^ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sorry but thats badass

immediately punches buffa out of the way

time to kick the shit out of everything so fast, no one even knows what happened

YES HE GETS TO TRANSFORM INTO THE FOX FUCK YES

boing boing boing destroying all the jamato towers

notice how geats also knocks over/steps on the festival banners. what a chump he's not even getting points for that

FUCK YES this is the first time he goes so fast we can only see him in black and white

again its so fucked that they made knight a tohru clone. does knight really think its tohru? like does it genuinely believe that michinaga will save it?

THE MIRRORBALL CRACKING YES

theres also the fact that geats kept knight alive long enough for buffa to make a decision about saving it. curious

and the kid got the bell!! yay!! this is what bravery and determination can do for you, kids. and yup his mom is better too

^ did anyone notice ace just granted someone's wish? that feels important. the mk ii buckle is crazy but ultimately just another sponsored upgrade. but ace just realigned the timeline so that kids' mom got better. how did he do that.

ok. here it is. the thing that has tormented for over 2 years now. niram on that goddamn rooftop holding four supposed desire cards.

YOU AND I KNOW DAMN WELL THAT ISNT TRUE

cute graphic by the sub team but unfortunately that doesnt make it any more true or real ESPECIALLY YOU ACE GARFIELD

chances are with his fox ears ace can kind of hear the producer a couple rows over and is trying to eavesdrop while looking ominous and badass in his new suit.

"you shouldn't even exist" now That is niram' telling the truth's sincere belief.

[buffa-z]

ep 25

jamato grand prix begins! archimedel does the opening recap now

such an iconic shot plus hes gorgeous

the bells are a good game gimmick honestly i like the idea that even tho its the jgp, the jamato's place in the game is still kind of the same. theyre just more ambitiously evil

theyre still making the riders hang out with their sponsors huh

ace: ohhh wow theres noo way theyre doing a JGP thjats crazyy....[looking at ziin] right? (has this happened before?)

ace desperately needs eyeliner in this scene. possibly brow gel too. why are they lighting him like that its diabolical

ace: its crazy how beroba just sends the jamato out to fight and never does any of the hard work herself ziin: yeah... crazy....

michinaga, who joined the dgp to stop exactly this from happening: well shit i have to win

hey this tree seems important, can we look at it ever again?

because this is a childrens show, at 3:04 michinaga is not allowed to flip off beroba and instead must glare at her emphatically before walking away.

well into my room full of old defunct pumps. best seat in the house i always say

actually tho look how this is shot/lit/colored. he is one of the machines

michinaga being so well acquainted with tohru's memory-ghost that he immediately knows knight isnt him by the way it agrees with him

knight: heehee i tricked you

🎼the world is small, through my mirrorball 🎶

daichi: oh hey badass that that thing learned how to torture you specifically. wonder who suggested to plant that id core. probably someone really cool and smart

lets get a good look at that growth folks. you hate to see it. but at the same time, i really wish we got to see more

mokudai is so good at capturing the quiet, shaking rage of michinaga. where every fiber of his being is at war with everything inside and out

how convenient! a demon bell festival on the day of the first JGP! using bells!

the real horror: event planning for real tho id love to learn more about the guy in charge here he seems nice

cant wait to see this kid again in another show in 15 years

uh oh! looks like the oni are here a day early!

chirami using the words "non fiction documentary" ...

tsumuri is rapidly losing her patience.

now does anyone know why she does this

QUICK!! shoot at the child! seriously geats you are lucky you cant miss and also that your bullets didnt bounce off onto the child

michinaga waited until after the child was taken care of to even transform

well its easy and fine to knock tycoon over i guess.

buffa: i get points for fighting you three geats: [immediately makes incredibly lustful eye contact with him]

like neither of them care about tycoon theyre just biding time until they can peel off and fight each other

tycoon, unconvincingly: huh? we're the bad guys?

and yup there they go immediately

THE TRADEOUT REVOLVE LETS FUCKING GOOOO

nago beat zombie is sooooooo fucking cool shes so badass. i love the way she hefts around the chainsaw. not only does it make sense for her big-weapon dark souls faith build fighting style, but it also makes it clear how strong buffa is to wave it around like a pencil. i like that different riders use the same buckle in different ways thats badass

honest to god the coolest non-buffa zombie finisher ever. like just unbelievably cool. doesnt get more badass than this.

tycoon's table technique over the table and under the table and on the table kicking and hitting (could be related to punkjack's esteemed 'sit on the bench and fight on the bench' technique? keiwin clues anyone? if i order keiwin clues for the table will you have some?)

buffa and geats doing their foreplay and then knight comes in like umm actually geats is super easy to kill YOU DONT GET IT

the jamato may be evil but they canNOT fight outside the designated round time

the way buffa rips out his buckles and throws his hands up and when he goes back to face hes just seething/slightly nauseous

im so sorry i want to believe in the love that neon and keiwa hold in their hearts. like truly the power of love is profound and unbeatable. but honest to god what ever made you think michinaga would side with you at this point? and what on earth makes you think yelling at him is gonna do anything but make him more spiteful?

ace understands implicitly, thats why hes framed to be on michinga's side:

ace actually loves michinaga being in the jgp bc it benefits him in both knowledge and power. beroba and co could never be tricked into giving ace the vision driver. but michinaga definitely could be

ok everyone time for a game! which expression did ace make when someone insisted they were gonna kill him, and which one did he make when his biggest supporter showed up to talk to him? the answer wont surprise you at all

ziin: yeah the future is like [ray bradbury short story] ace: oh my god. i cant even pretend thats cool.

keiwa's selling points for the festival being takoyaki and yoyos lmao

two grown men fanboying over neontv ok. ok.

neon: [trying to be sweet towards her awkward possibly creepy fans] kyuun: you are a narcissist and im going to defeat you with my dark empath abilities

reeeally thematic rainbow in neon's corner here lol

neon must know that its him. if she didnt she wouldnt be entertaining this at all. shes not stupid but she also doesnt have any leverage. so shes stuck getting negged by this freak

neon: [senses the cameras and remembers shes being recorded] i mean who is that guy lol wtffff so random

well good that 1 out of every 10 people in [survey size????] know about jamato now. thats probably fine. just send your staff to fix it

kurama sr has the ability to "keep the police and government quiet" in some sense. awesome background info im sure that comes up agaWho am i kidding it doesnt

no but seriously imagine foxhunt part 2, where in a series of unlucky coincidences, ace ends up getting arrested by regular ass cops. and the others have to figure out how to get him out. A Kamen Rider... Arrested? like imagine how much more fun that would have been to watch than the creation arc

samas really is drawn as a parallel to tsumuri in this part of the show. like theres this idea that, all the way up the chain of power, women are getting used for their work and ideas. while their charismatic male counterpart gets to act out however he wants. show biz, babey!

crazy that even the producer is able to point out that kousei is being an asshole to his daughter. and he's literally the guy who tortures his son for profit. how are you worse at parenting than him?!

oh! reveal that he got neon with the goddess's power! hello wish baby plotline its been so long

full bake but no mascara or lip (even lip balm!) is actually unforgivable. seriously why are they shooting in this room if it looks like this. and dont even get me started on the empty earring hole

its great that ace isnt good with kids. unironically thats a takahashi staple that i do enjoy. i think making every main rider good with kids is unrealistic. i think ace doesnt know the difference between a 2yo and a 10yo. he wants to be nice and make a good impression but its not something he knows about and hes sort of scared of ruining the life of any child he encounters. thats good. hes 21.

cut to michinaga losing his sense of self to the parasite. just sitting on a random spot like 'man i really wish i didnt cut a devils deal for this shit. this sucks ass. i cant even kill myself to get out of it'

notice how michinaga is in both the frame and the reflection, but tohru-knight is only in the reflection [🎼its over now, come tear me apart🪩]

it is actually so fucked that daichi and beroba planted this (haha)

yeah id say this is typically how id hold my food. this isnt a visual stand-in for cigarettes at all. id say

cmon man. not only are you making michinaga mad about a false tohru, but youre also making him remember shit he did when he was 17. thats fucked

beroba immediately entering stage left as soon as knight-tohru walks off

ok the drumming making the lightning towers is badass sorry dgp but the jamato win this one on coolness factor

notice how buffa does not go after civilians. he stomped a banner til he heard his score go up then he moved on. hes only aiming for one kill

this single moment of unguarded concern before the fight?! put your mask back on! we're at war here! get that glint out of your eye!

oh well thank god fudanziin is here. hes gonna fight too

buffa and his fairness obsession: thats fine by me

ziin: two pairs of friends facing off.. who will win? geats: parasocial ❗❗

actually when theyre saying that the lens shifts?? look at this:

its not so obvious in photos but its really obvious when you watch it. its like it got perspective-warped mid shot. then it shifts back when ziin starts talking again. CINEMATIC QUALITY i mean seriously. the camera literally changes lens length depending on whose worldview we're meant to be seeing through. its perfect

YES THE BUFFA HORN THROW OF LEGEND

i love how he kicks the lid off. well, time for a new buckle you dont know anything about!

oh my god he hit the buckle a couple times to skip through the intro transformation. thats fucking awesome

literally geats has so much potential in how it plays with the concept of Being A Kamen Rider and Being On TV and how the two are linked and all the meta/fourth wall injokes that are possible. but alas. six more weeks of winter

HE IMMEDIATELY THROWS THE SWORD AWAY LOL

geats doesnt shoot him. he doesnt even try. he just lets buffa build meter on him. hes trying to lose. like yeah sure hes got 2000 years of wisdom under his belt and hes gonna run at the guy actively picking up a charged sword with the expectation of winning. ok. i can only believe one of those things.

YESSS YESSS THIS DEFINING MOMENT!! buffa slicing his own arm to get the final bit of charge for jet cannon. the way you see it from geats' perspective on the ground, struggling slightly, as if to somehow stop him. absolute cinematic perfection.

FULL CHARGE! TWIN SET! TAKEOFF COMPLETE! JET AND CANNON!

oh now geats remembers he has a gun and can shoot it. into buffa's invincible transformation. and hes trying to win?

buffa: oh fuck i can just fly now. well i win.

honestly picking geats up and flying around beating the shit out of him isnt a bad way to do it. it just looks gay as hell

theres a word for what you are that i cant say on twitch

the literal edging of that final blow. "geats, this is where i surpass you" its sick its all so fucking sick

[buffa-z]