Yasuko Kobayashi Month: The Keys to Understanding OOO: The strength of the screenplay: Dr. Maki's relationship to the rest of the characters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubKKwhNC3Mg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkC2ua4FRqQ

For most people, O's is written OOO,
when it should be written: O
                                       O     O

After all, Yasuko Kobayashi's previous work was on the Yu-gi-oh movie, where a pyramid was a key aspect of the episode. The pyramid is significant because of the ancient human belief in the strength of the number 3: the Holy Trinity, being a great example in Christianity and the Pyramid in Egyptian mythology/Ancient religion.
3 is also the holy number for the Kamen Rider Series at the time,
coming after Decade, the 10 in 1, Rider,
and W, the 2 in 1 Rider.
OOO forms his powers from 3 different (or SPOILER ALERT:
same) animal pieces to become a more powerful being.

OOO the show and the character also forms many triangular relationships.
The most obvious being Hina-Eiji-Ankh and their friendship.
The less obvious becoming Eiji-Kougami-Dr.Maki
There's also the Rider relationship of OOO-Birth-Birth Prototype.

The beginning of OOO happens for two reasons:
1) The Greed become unleashed.
2) Because Kougami gives Eiji the OOO driver.

Kougami chooses OOO and researches OOO as part of an obsession he has with that kind of power.
Dr. Maki has the same obsession, but instead uses it for evil, because of a mental illness he's developed from the past.
Both Eiji and Dr. Maki eventually have an arc regarding purple OOO medals, turning Dr. Maki into a parallel character, and foil for Eiji, or making them two parts of the same coin. Eiji has no desire for OOO at all and only uses it as a method to save other people, while Maki is obsessed with OOO and wants to use it to destroy the world, reaching an end.
Eiji comes from a war-filled Africa, much like Birth, and wants to save people. He

Dr. Maki
vs Kougami
Toei is the good Lockheed Martin
Gorangers and cyborg 009 got their powers from black ghost and I believe dr. Maki once worked for kougami unless I'm mistaken. 48 I was afraid of what would happen after kougami gave him the lost powers
The terrible humor in the beginning
to the tolerable humor in the end
Maki gave birth in attempt to get OOO.
So there is that war corporations can spawn evil considering he became the big bad
Yeah it's interesting in that he creates a black ghost
And more suspenseful is that you don't even see how!


The strength of Ankh's character in the beginning
to the strength of Eiji's plot in the end.

Is Ankh child missing Ankh arm or the other way around?
The Ankh child is also a literal representation of Ankh trying to remove his dark past.

My Top 5 favorite Yasuko Kobayashi Toku (2014)

5 ToQger:
There's a lot of subtext to the shows regarding Kubrickian themes of war, and lust, much like Space Dandy, Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange.
Light vs Dark is downplayed so much to really appeal to kids.

4 Ryuki
This was a real historic game changer for Toei. Out with the more conventional monsters of the week, and in with the Kamen Rider enemies instead. We'd see it again in larger Kamen Rider shows such as Kabuto and Gaim again.
There's a lot of subliminal themes in the show, but I don't why. Even in comparison to ToQger, it seemed a bit lightly scripted for the given narrative. Why does everybody hate Asakura if he doesn't really kill people? Why is Zolda a good guy in the end? (Maybe I'm missing something.)
It really does come full force as a Shotaro Ishinomori themed Kamen Rider though if you really pay attention.

3 Time Ranger

• This was her really breakout moment in tokusatsu. 
• The non-Red leader, 
• The Red Sixth Ranger, 
• The Y2K theme present in Ryuki and Gobuster.

So many good moments.

2 OOO
I really like a lot of things about this screenplay, such as the Dr. Maki-Eiji parallel.
The first half's narrative is a bit of a turnoff, but if you give it some patience, you'll get a great payoff.

1 Shinkenger
It's a well written character's drama in a supposed hero's journey which is really more of a criticism of Japan's old customs.

Yasuko Kobayashi Month: Kamen Rider OOO Episode 5 Analysis

This analysis will be brief as there was only really one scene I liked in this essentially two part episode.
The episode really gets you thinking about the characters. Everyone except regretably OOO is a little dark, creating Greed that is essentially destroying the city. The female Greed's friend that buy so much that you find on later on in the episode. In addition, Ankh is a dark pharoahish character, while Mr. Cake Kougami is essentially a big corporate guy: two big powerful Illuminati-ish figures.
You hear me say a lot about the Illuminati and I'm a 99%er, etc.. However, this episode's approach to explaining the rich is a little bit too diluted. Rich people buying cheap products and their expendability.
Sure, we probably wouldn't see Shotaro Ishinomori writing pro-1% shows when he was taking over, and it's a little fishy that a company like Bandai/Toei would write something like this, but we still have to examine in the series what exactly is Kougami and Ankh's ideals, as well as hidden subtexts in the show the writers/directors might've gotten away with prior to the executives stopping the auteur from acting further.
"It's a cheap product. Maybe it suits you better."
Furthermore it seems like it is actually the female protagonist's friends who are discriminating, albeit it may be a bit of spirituality, environmentalism or Shintoism that was brought up in their culture that taught them not to waste and that everything has a use.

"Why can't she live in a rich school?"
It is sort of discriminatory and stereotyping to analyze the person rich, so she can do anything rather than analyzing habits she may have gained that are later analyzed in the episode. Sure, they're not worth while, but the lesson is still to be learned there.
It is possible that she just grew up the wrong way.
Heck, many non-rich people buy things that they do not need in the US only to throw it away. The US is a major consumer based economy, where everybody buys things they don't need.

Also, OOO needs underwear and candy. OOO Japan!

Yasuko Kobayashi Month: Powerful Pinks

In Super Sentai, Pink has been associated with good feminine role model in Yasuko Kobayashi's works.
Ginga Pink's been dubbed strong and is more powerful than her yellow counterpart.
TimePink is the leader of Mirai Sentai Timeranger.
Bouken Pink is the militaristic loyal one of GoGo Sentai Boukenger
Shinken Pink, is one of the more powerful Samurai Sentai Shinkenger with a sword.
ToQ Pink is the uber powered Ressha Sentai ToQger thanks to her imagination
All 5 besides ToQ Pink have had an attraction with the Red counterpart, albeit we haven't gotten that far with ToQger yet.
Flower Warrior Saya has an admiration for Hyuuga.
Much like that is similar to that of BoukenPink to BoukenRed, leading her to both Pinks to becoming more powerful.
Shinken Pink marries Shinken Red in an episode!

On a side note, it's a little coincidental that Kobayashi decides to make Tsukasa/Kamen Rider Decade into Kamen Rider Den-O during their crossover episode, considering that Decade's the first Pink Rider.

Yasuko Kobayashi month: Reason to watch OOO: Abarenbo Shogun teamup

During the same year OOO premiered, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger had a teamup of all 199 Super Sentai characters.
I DON'T GIVE A SHIT!
Abarenbo Shogun is the shit.
I grew up watching this on the NJ NHK programming block on weekends. The plot's were pretty standard Showa stuff, but with great actors and choreography. Not really cheesy like Adam West Batman, although it had the great stunt choreography involved.
And then, they make it cheesy anyway.

And then, Eiji from OOO, does every single OOO combination while fighting a friggin CGI dragon.
Take that, Lord of the Rings. This is friggin awesome. Watch this teamup! It's great!