Welcome to a new series of blogs for my page; Random Rants. The idea of the series is pretty self-explanatory, just a bunch of random rants based on minor things that just irk me to no end. I've been meaning to do these for a while, but was just too lazy to get around to it until now.
With that said, this first in hopefully many rants will be on something that you think wouldn't matter in the slightest, but kind of does in relation to the fanbase; the Counting Gag, for Kamen Rider.
For those unaware, the fan-coined "Counting Gag" is based on a numeric theme for the franchise for Kamen Riders W, OOO and Fourze. The gag was basically how the number was integrated into the shows themes, wordplay, episode titles, music and gimmick of the year.
This started with W and the number 2; 2 Gaia Memories used in the belt to transform, 2 people becoming W, the name itself being a pun on the number 2 (pronounced as "double", not "W") and each episode having 2 different titles (an arc name based around a letter and a title summarising each episode, with the letters in the arc name having two different meanings).
This was followed with OOO and 3's; 3 of the same term in the name, 3 Core Medals used at once to transform, 3 descriptors of the episode as their title names, 3 of the same type of Core Medal for a new form (i.e.: Tajadol based on birds or Gatakiriba on bugs), and hell, even the opening lyric for the theme song is "You count the Medals, 1, 2 and 3".
And finally, we have Fourze with the number 4; 4 Astro Switches to transform, 4 bases on the suit for the Switch Modules, 4 Kanji used to spell out the title names, and of course the name itself being a portmanteau of the numbers 4 and 0 (zero), in reference to Kamen Rider's then-40th anniversary, not to mention the 40 Astro Switches seen in the show.
There are more detailed ways as to how the Counting Gag is used as theme in and of itself in these shows, but that's the basic gist of it. However, due to every fanbase having a disturbing amount of trolls in them, there are of course people that simply won't let this fucking gag die out, with ludicrous and contradictory evidence to support that the gag continues with Wizard onwards.
In truth, they're not really counting anything; they're just looking from ANY visual gag that looks like a number while deliberately ignoring how the number was integrated and represented. Hell, the number itself should be irrelevant so long as as it's part of a consistent thematic, which it isn't in any respect for Wizard onwards.
I kid you not; some fans honestly think that the gag is in Wizard just because there are 5 fingers on the WizarDriver!
Hey George Carlin, what're your thoughts?
You're goddamn right!
First of all, no it doesn't. Just like any normal human hand, it has 4 fingers and 1 thumb. Second, even you were using the logic of "visual confirms Counting Gag", NOWHERE on the belt is there anything resembling the number 5! On top of that, there are no titles spelt out with 5 words, the theme song isn't focused around the number 5, Wizard the character doesn't have 5 of the same thing; face it folks, the Counting Gag is not in Wizard!
The same fucking thing happened with Gaim and the number 6, just because an unlocked Lockseed, apparently, looks like a 6.
Okay, I can kind of see that, but again, it wasn't the visual that confirmed the gag was still going; it was how it was consistently presented as a theme in and of itself! If it's not used the same way as W, OOO and Fourze, then it isn't there!
But it only gets worse from there; for Drive, it's the flipped over Shift Cars; Ghost, the Infinity sign flipped up; and Ex-Aid, a Gashat flipped upside-down! Did the fanbase just have a weird obsession with flipping over stuff just to look for an unrelated gag?! Because otherwise, NOTHING IN THESE SHOWS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE COUNTING GAG!!!
Even the episode title styles from Drive onwards has changed to be reflective of the shows themselves, thus showing that they aren't even TRYING to do the Counting Gag anymore. With Drive, the titles are questions that are then answered in the episodes. With Ghost, they are reactions to what will happen in the episode. And with Ex-Aid, a romanized phrase among Japanese Kanji characters.
Hell, even Toei themselves have outright said that the Counting Gag stopped with Fourze, mainly due to both the writing staff for each show not being able to incorporate a higher number as a tertiary theme and Plex, the company who does design work for Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, had the same issue with a higher number than 4. Thus, they just gave up on it and told the fans straight that the gag was over. But again, because of the trolling we see all the time, they refuse to just let the gag fucking die! It's starting to feel like a joke you had told to you by a friend time and again; every time you hear it, it gets less and less funny, thus ruining the appeal and making it more aggravating for every one listening!
Point being; Rider fans, if you still say the Counting Gag continues past Fourze with more and more ludicrous, unfounded evidence to "support" your claims... well, I think UHF summed it up best:
I hope you enjoyed this rant and, as always, this is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off!
The number thing has become a meme at this point. Sometimes I'm not even sure if people are joking or if they legit think this.
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