Kamen Rider Kuuga: Difference between revisions

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The 2000-2001 entry in the ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' franchise, and first in the Heisei Era.

A group of archaeologists uncover an ancient tomb of a legendary warrior, and discover a mysterious belt-like artifact known as the [[Transformation Trinket|Arcle]]. Unfortunately, they also happen to pop the lid off of the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] at the same time, unleashing a race of monsters known as the Grongi. The tribe-like Grongi compete against each other in a "game" of killing humans, with the strongest Grongi winning the right to challenge their leader for domination of their race.

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* [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells]]: The Nerve-Severing Bullets made from research on the remains of Zu-Gooma-Gu.

* [[Destructive Savior]]: The Rising forms impart enough power that avoiding this is a key plot point of the second half of the series.

* [[Deconstructor Fleet]]: It's not a full deconstruction but it has a lot of subversive elements, like the monsters from the past not being able to speak Japanese, to the fact that cops are heavily involved. The cops themselves show what would happen if normal people dealing with monster would be like - a lot of dead bodies, though down the line, they're not as useless as they were in the beginning. Most Tokusatsu and Shonen shows gloss over elements like these, and in addition common shonen tropes like [[Calling Your Attacks]] are avoided by Kuuga. The motivation of the monster isn't even spelled out to us until a bit down the line. Hell, Kuuga growing in power is treated as a scary thing and causes problems later in the series. There are many other examples if you look at the series, while the show can be viewed as a standard toku, if you compare it to later series and even earlier series, it can rather jarring.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Go-Gadoru-Ba seems to have a counterpart of each of Kuuga's standard forms. For that matter, arguably N-Daguva-Zeba serves this purpose for Kuuga himself (both seem to be based on stag beetles).

** Grapple Form = Mighty Form; Shooting Form = Pegasus Form; Herculean Form = Titan Form; Quick Form = Dragon Form; Shocker Form = Rising Mighty Form.

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* [[Inferred Holocaust]]: Kuuga's Rising Mighty Kick causes a gigantic explosion, which at one point happens in a heavily urban area. {{spoiler|This is the point in which the show begins to show that Kuuga becoming even more powerful isn't a good idea...}} While no one is actually killed in the blast due to Godai informing Ichijo that his kick might be too powerful, the property damage leads the police to begin doubting No.4's status as an ally.

* [[Kiss of Death]]: The Mushroom Grongi Me-Ginoga-De uses this as his murder method; he manages to deliver this on Kuuga who falls gravely ill. He gets better, but could only assume Growing Form until he fully recovered.

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: Godai plays it straight in Episode 20.

* [[Lethal Joke Character]]: Yuusuke at one point succeeds at defeating a Grongi (see [[Kiss of Death]]) using Growing Form. Granted, he needed to use the considerably feeble Growing Kick ''three'' times, but it still ended in Kuuga's favour.

** It must be noted also that Growing Form isn't just "not powerful enough" (like many other [[Joke Character]]s), it has all the weaknesses of the other forms, and none of the advantages: slow like Titan Form, weak like Dragon Form, feeble like Pegasus form AND it doesn't have any weapon.

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* [[Recap Episode]]: Episode 17. Episode 31.

* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: {{spoiler|Inverted. Black-eyed Ultimate Kuuga is powered by rage, and is thus prone to becoming evil. Godai's good nature negates it and replaces the black eyes with Mighty Form's red eyes.}}

* [[Redshirt Army]]: Almost every episode had policemen getting killed while feebly trying to combat the Grongi.

* [[Reluctant Warrior]]: Godai himself actually hates fighting, but has to do so to protect everyone.

* [[Revival]]

* [[Robot Buddy]]: The Gouram arguably counts as a [[Lost Technology]] variant; it not only serves as barding for Kuuga's bikes but also a flying support mech.

* [[Rousseau Was Right]]: Pretty much the theme of the whole series. Also the reason why Godai keeps fighting for everyone and {{spoiler|why the Grongi didn't succeed on having humanity embrace brutality and violence like they do}}.

* [[Rummage Sale Reject]]: The Zu class, and the Me class to a lesser extent, dress in outlandish clothing. The Go class manages to blend in human society better.

* [[Snow Means Death]]: The final battle occurs on the snowy slopes of Mount Kuro, [[Where It All Began]].

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* [[This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself]]: Yuusuke's final battle.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Arguably, Sugita and Sakurai, Ichijo's colleagues in the Science Police. {{spoiler|They do manage to defeat Ra-Dorudo-Gu with the Nerve-Breaking Bullets later on.}}

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Apart from the obvious hero, special mention goes to the Grongi [[Butt Monkey|Zu-Gooma-Gu]] {{spoiler|who, after taking a part of Daguva's power for himself, manages to overcome his photophobia and go toe to toe with the remaining Go-class Grongi.}}

* [[Took a Level in Badass]]: Apart from the obvious hero, special mention goes to the Grongi [[Butt Monkey|Zu-Gooma-Gu]] {{spoiler|who, after taking a part of Daguva's power for himself, manages to overcome his photophobia and go toe to toe with the remaining Go-class Grongi.}}

** {{spoiler|Add in the fact that he also was on the verge of killing Kuuga and would have done it had he not sensed Daguva near by and went to challenge him only to be killed off screen}}

* [[Tranquil Fury]]: The version of Ultimate Form Yuusuke takes in the final battle.

* [[Unflinching Walk]]: Yusuke's solution to defeating the Squid Grongi after obtaining the well-armored Titan form.

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[[Category:Seiun Award]]

[[Category:Japanese Series]]

[[Category:~~Kamen Rider Kuuga~~]]

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