scans_daily

Just a heads up I'm down to my last few gigs on Photobucket for the month so this entry may end up unreadable. If that happens I'll delete it and repost it in a few weeks.

The next couple of chapters make me a little uncomfortable due to the way they trivialize third world conflicts and the resulting hardships but we will discuss that as we come to them. First some exposition.

Taki is heading to the fictional wartorn nation the Republic of Gamon to find Hayato Ichimonji aka Kamen Rider 2. He was turned into a Kamen Rider to go after the original escaped Rider but eventually joined him. Behind the scenes he was actually created because the actor who played Kamen Rider 1 was severely injured in a stunt so they made a new Kamen Rider to replace him as the lead while he recovered. This lead to Toei adopting a policy of having stunt men in the suits do the action scenes while having separate actors for out of suit scenes and voice over for the fights.

Anyways Taki gets in a hostage situation between some rebels and a big name general for the UN backed government forces (totally not a neo-nazi cyborg Spider monster that would be silly). One of the rebels makes mention of a demon to which Taki proceeds to kick his ass and demand more information.

So it looks like something strange is going on with our second Rider. Has he turned back to the dark side? Does he know something we don't? Is this just a total fake out?

Anyways the General is wounded along with several civilians that don't get names. Taki proceeds to take the wounded to a nearby Temple that has been repurposed as a Combat Hospital/Refugee Camp.

Hayato refrains from talking about the “demon” and instead drafts Taki into helping him with his work around the camp.

Dun Dun Duuuunnn. Things don't stay quiet for long because...

The camp is under attack. No real reason why just for the evulz or something.

General Evilface is still alive and riding in a tank. I'm not sure if it was a translation error or in the original manga but earlier they said he was with the Government forces but here they are being called guerrillas. Either way it highlights my problem with this story and it's treatment of Third World conflicts. It tries so hard to paint a Black vs Black picture of the morality of the situation even dragging well meaning if not always reliable organizations like the UN into the corrupt fold but when you introduce a Kamen Rider into the picture the entire moral paradim shifts and I'm just left feeling like they are trying to say that only Doctors and Kamen Riders (occasionally Interpol agents but not always) are moral and everyone else is a baby eating monster who doesn't care if civilians die or even relishes in that fact. We aren't even told why the separate factions are fighting just that they are.

Beyond even the simple trivialization of real world events this plan doesn't even make sense. The world will cower before me as I use advanced tech to destroy a peaceful Refugee Camp full of orphans, a reporter, doctors and an Interpol agent. None of that is going to fly with world public, in fact it will make them come down on you harder. Of course the next issue shows this is not his real plan but oooh boy that one is pretty out there as well.

While I ranted about the problems I have with this arc the Evil General fired his super tank upon Taki.

Hayato makes a badass entrance, it may not make the universe light up with colour but damn that's hardcore.

Despite my higher brain functions yelling at me about everything wrong with this story that line wins me back over despite myself every time I read it.

11 pages from a 33 page chapter

Next Week: General EVIL shows us his Spider form and his true evil plan, a real fight scene with Rider 2 and the knowledge that Rider Kicks can indeed solve all of the world's problems.