Faiz is what I'd call a show where it's got a good amount of people who like or those who hate it. I remembered Kamen Rider Faiz aired on GMA-7 and if I'm not wrong -- it was also that time Power Rangers Dino Thunder was crap-dubbed by ABS-CBN. Ironic how Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger aired the same year as Kamen Rider Faiz. Now it's time for me think about how this show has me constantly shifting my opinions. I didn't start learning who's behind Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, etc. if it wasn't for the Internet or if I didn't travel into Sentai Bandicoot's now-closed shop Valsag Fantasy which I used to read a lot to get information. What do you expect from someone who only knew Kazuo Niibori through Akibaranger?!
Knowing the guy who was responsible behind my personal favorite Jetman also wrote it was a start. I started to think, "Okay I'll give it a shot." I thought about my experience of starting to miss Tokusatsu or when I started getting a new PC and better Internet connection to watch those shows. I watched some of the shows such as Kamen Rider Kiva (which I saw first) even if it was obviously where Inoue was raising signs he was totally burnt out. I just thought of the urge to watch both Kamen Rider Agito (which I believe also has a fair amount of haters cause Inoue) and Faiz. I admit, it's the darkest and edgiest work Inoue could come up with. At the same time, he also started burning out midway and I can't say which is worse between Yasuko Kobayashi's starting to burn out during Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters or Faiz.
At first, I thought of how "too serious" it was never mind I actually enjoyed Chojuu Sentai Liveman which had lesser humor or perhaps the most serious of Hirohisa Soda's works. Heck, Liveman was more serious than Jetman IMHO. But what really drove me dizzy in Faiz was the tendency to literally turn the plot around. The three henshin belts kept getting turned around. On the other hand, I wonder why did Inoue decide to write Masato Kusaka as a secondary villain? Did he really decide that having a more human villain could work? He was a more active douche than the walking spoiler that is Captain Ryuuya Asami in Mirai Sentai Timeranger. Sometimes, I feel like he's Captain Ryuuya done right in almost every way. I had no pity for Masato either. It was quite satisfying to watch Yuuji break Masato's neck though he did deserve worse than that. I thought having Yuuji shoot Masato could've been more satisfying and he dies making up dumb excuses in doing what he did.
I thought the Orphnochs were an interesting but poorly wrapped up concept. Sure, it was trying to take mutant and human wars to a whole new level. It was something Haim Saban's underlings couldn't put in either the 90s X-Men cartoon or Power Rangers Time Force. Worse, it turns out that Takumi is an Orphnoch himself -- he was actually trying to stop the war while Masato was trying to exterminate all Orphnochs (good or bad) while using Orphnoch DNA on himself to use the Kaixa belt. There were good ones and bad ones. What I didn't like was the whole Smart Brain had some wonky execution or the sudden arrival of the Orphnoch King was anti-climatic or not even well thought of. I even thought that maybe even Ressha Sentai ToQGer's ending with Emperor Zetto ending in a coma was better written than Faiz's coma scene -- at least Emperor Zetto had PLENTY of development space compared to the Orphnoch King! I even thought Smart Brain's president Kyoji Murakami could have served as the final villain OR we could have had Masato as the person who secretly mastermind all events behind the scenes.
So far, I thought about the whole idea that it's probably still having a fair amount of fans and haters. Personally, I've warmed up to Faiz even with all the flaws it contains. Though I wonder would have it done better if Inoue had at least some help from other writers available that time? After all, he wrote every single episode. He was even so happy that he showed up in the final episode in a cameo. What do you think of this series?
by far the darkest series after ryuki.
ReplyDeletethis series was so serious that I got tuned in and it showed some of the humans having darker sides and how lust for power affect everyone.
This series revived my interest in the kamen rider series way back in 2006 (thanks to gma 7). The notable drawbacks would be:
1) the anticlimactic ending. The Orphenoch king survived and while shown to be injured there is a chance that he would come back and cause trouble.
2) there was no definite ending as the general population are unaware of the Orphenochs' existence which means trouble and murder are about to happen.
With the kaixa gear destroyed and Yuji Kiba dead, this leaves Faiz and Delta to defend and protect.
you may be right about Inoue getting burned out, as the ending really left a lot of questions even if it meant as an open ending.
I just thought about how Inoue himself is really not the best person to write your ending. Sure, he writes good episodes but he definitely doesn't know how to write good endings. Hmmm and same with Kobayashi to a certain extent.
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