https://i.imgur.com/Ax9QdZy.png

So, we've arrived here at last...

the whole Dark Knife saga is certainly one of the most famous (infamous?) parts of Kabuto. So (in)famous I'm calling it a "saga" as though it is isn't just another two-parter. But then, it's really not just another two-parter, is it? These ones are weird, for sure. I wish I could share some personal anecdote about my first time watching them, but there's honestly not much to say. I knew about their reputation going in and... I mean, I don't even remember if I particularly liked or disliked them?

That was then, though, and this is now, when I can not only tell you I thought this episode was fantastic, but also how much of that is down to the direction of one Hidenori Ishida.

Watching this right after that last two-parter from Tasaki really brought out the flavor of Ishida's style through sheer contrast. That Drake two-parter was direct and concise in how it was put together, whereas this episode thrives on wild exaggeration. It's all about conveying the mood above all else, and it gels so perfectly with such an oddball script from Inoue.

There's a sort of conscious, deliberate waste to the way a lot of shots are set up that I love. Lots of objects in the foreground that don't need to be there, or angles that are just generally less straightforward then they could be. I think it could be argued it's a bit on the showy side, but I eat up the emphasis on dynamism, and in this particular case I find it adds to the overall off-kilter vibe of the story.

So much of what makes this episode work is in the deliberate sense of unreality. It opens with a narrator recounting the tale of this mythical kitchen utensil with visual accompaniment set up to look like theatre. Tendou and Kagami talk to each other psychically. When they go to eat the food Hiyori makes them, it smash cuts to the same exact angle with the plates already cleaned off, as though they the ate in the span between the two frames. The Dark Knife seems to like that so much lightning starts coming out of it. When Juka is talking with her mouth full to Tendou later, her mumblings are subtitled in the jittery style of silent film title cards, complete with the noise of the projector rolling. I mean, I could go on like this ALL day, if I wanted to. It's not even one particular kind of stylistic touch; it's a million little things that make this one work so well. I'm not going to do a full-blown art gallery, as much as I'm tempted to, but check out this shot of Tsurugi being all proud about his paycheck:

https://i.imgur.com/Ew2GRtG.png

This is just so aesthetically appealing to me. Not because it's weird or funny, even; it just looks super neat. It's maybe set up that way because, as Die pointed out, this one loves it's long takes, and Tsurugi will exit the scene going down that staircase, but the way it's framed, almost calling more attention to that fancy rich guy clock than the actual characters, it's a fun choice. And it's not simply random, either, as the equally prominent fancy framed pictures directly come into play when the idea of framing Tsurugi's glorified spare change is mentioned.

I honestly can't even bring myself to talk about anything but the direction, as much as there is to say about the writing, too. Like, I could mention the distinct Inoue audacity it takes to have Tsurugi's true nature as a Worm discovered by Kagami in the midpoint of this absurdist fever dream of a Kabuto arc; or, hear me out, I could mention that there's a bit where Tendou says he always carries a book about cooking on him and then, with great effort punctuated by cartoonish sound effects, pulls out of his jacket a book that is blatantly too big to fit in his jacket. And then the scene just carries on like nothing unusual happened.

This one is just amazing. It's the best kind of dumb comedy, because it's very smart about being very dumb. That's just as much in the writing, too, but I honestly believe this whole thing would've fallen apart without the very specific skillset Ishida brings to the table.

So these were the episodes that I referred to as the peak silliness of the show. You can see why, I suppose.

They are also the two episodes of the entire franchise that I loathe the most. It feels like an entirely different show. A really bad one. Like if these had been the first episodes of Kamen Rider I had ever seen, I would have assumed the entire franchise was a massive dumpster fire and never taken a second look at it again.

So I find the perspective of those of you who did like it to be rather interesting. I'm glad not everyone suffered watching these episode. I was not so lucky.

The thing is, I'm seriously not sure I was even into these episodes the first time around? It's so hard to remember clearly, but I definitely think I appreciated this one more now than I did originally.

It certainly doesn't take much effort to imagine why it'd be a hard episode to get into, at any rate. It seems very much like the sort of episode that will leave you totally cold if you aren't into the very specific thing it's choosing to do.

Yeah, it's an episode that very smartly starts with this ridiculous exposition about secret chefs who use their powers to control humanity and a powerful piece of cutlery that can only be wielded by someone worthy, so there really shouldn't be any surprise about where the tone of this one goes.

Were you the lab tech during my trip to the ER last year, who needed seven attempts on two different arms to find a vein? If not, you're doing okay!

Everything on display in this episode looked delicious, so my compliments to the (probably incredibly overworked and resentful) set dresser and props team!

It's an incredibly assembled episode. There's so many ways the jokes could've failed, or the performances could've shot past each other (Jiiya and The Dark Chef are on completely different wavelengths, narratively), or parts of the story could've felt inessential (the ZECT In A Van Go To A Lunch scene, the one actual Kamen Rider fight scene), but it all feels... there's a brashness to it all, a feeling like if this one scene has weight, no matter the scene, all of it has weight.

Which, yeah, this is the flipside! If one scene doesn't work for you, absolutely none of it does.

I think this episode is as Kabuto as anything else in the series, but I get why it might not work for folks. Any time there's a Comedy episode of a Kamen Rider show, there's going to be folks that don't dig the jokes, or don't feel like it's treating its world/premise/stakes seriously enough. (I can still buy Kagami Outrageous as a cunning mastermind, despite his fascination with Evil Cooking or whatever, but I can see how it might undermine his threat for other viewers.) I think the core of the episode is still true to the world of Kabuto, though, even if the tone is not what you're looking for.

Only halfway done with 30, but three things I need to mention:

1. Holy hell, it's the restaurant from the Faiz episodes where the entire supporting cast gets part-time jobs, then gets so deathly ill that they need Takumi and Yuuji to fill in for them, aka The Greatest Faiz Plot Of All-Time:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kabuto/faizcafe.png

2. It's that abandoned house from Blade where folks were constantly hiding while they tried to heal from life-threatening injuries:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...bladehouse.png

3. There is a graveyard for chefs who could not master the art of cooking.

As much as I love episode 29 in all its goofiness, I still like the second part even more.

The sound design is impossibly overbearing, but yeah, 30 is unbelievably smart about the story it chose to tell.

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 30

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto30a.png

Oh, man, INOUE FOREVER. There's something about his episodes... I think I said in another thread that he's a dude who always swings hard at an idea. If it's one he doesn't fully connect with, it goes foul, sometimes infuriatingly so. But when he connects with an idea, really gets ahold of it, it is exceptional. This is... it's maybe not the best Kabuto episode yet, but it is so quintessentially Kabuto, so true to the soul of this show, that it makes other episodes look like pig food.

Like, I think The Dark Chef is maybe the best villain this show could ever have? I know there's a Dark Kabuto coming up (I've got an unopened SHODO figure that attests to it), but no matter who that ends up being, I can't see how they could be a better foil to Tendou than this story had. The idea of someone who values excellence because he can take it for himself, someone who'd drain great people of their skills, someone who humbles great people for his own pleasure, the very idea of excellence being a zero-sum game... all of that stuff is antithetical to Tendou's worldview. Tendou envisions a world of Objectivist wonders, where geniuses of all stripes follow their muses into realms of achievement that render the world a better place. The Dark Chef covets the skills of others so that he can control the future, lock the world into his desires and goals.

And then to make it all about food? To take Tendou's ability to bring joy to others, and warp it into a weapon? To turn a gift into a cage? All of that is so compelling that, like, if the Dark Kabuto doesn't try to also defeat Tendou in an underground cooking competition, I can't imagine why this show didn't save The Dark Chef for the endgame. He's such a perfect distillation and inversion of what the show is saying with Tendou, and it's one of the smartest things I've ever seen on this show.

And to do it all in an episode that's also using the metaphor of food to explain how staying true to yourself is more important than beating others? How true achievement comes from clarity and self-respect, not dominance and control? How the idea of beating someone in art misses the entire point of creating art?! COME ON. This episode is overflowing with smart takes on the themes of Kabuto, and smart looks at Tendou's heroism. INOUE FOREVER!

(I'll say this as a knock against this episode, though: the sound design is oppressive. For all that the last episode seemed to let the jokes land on their own, this one has a wacky sound effect for literally every movement and line of dialogue. It's suffocating. I'm in love with this episode, and can forgive a lot because of how brilliantly it's approaching its themes, but it was absolutely getting on my nerves. Much like Tendou had to learn in order to defeat The Dark Chef, sometimes the best flavors are simple. The sound design doesn't irreparably harm the episode or anything, but it does hamstring a couple jokes by overemphasizing the humor.)

It's not just Tendou's heroism that finds new expressions in this episode, though. We also get a little bit more with Kagami and Tsurugi. (I absolutely love that last episode has this killer cliffhanger of What Is Kagami Going To Do About Tsurugi, and the first scene in this episode is What Is Tendou Going To Do To Avenge Jiiya. This story zero percent cares about the suit action!) We'd previously had Kagami find some similarities between his dead brother and Tsurugi's dead sister, but this episode blew my mind by trying to draw a parallel between Tsurugi not knowing he's a Worm, and Kagami's impetuousness. It's... I mean, I'm probably reading too much into it, but I really like Kagami seeing this dude trying desperately to wage a war on Worms when he himself is a Worm, sees the futility of that, and goes Hard Same. (There's another great long take in this one, where Tsurugi gives a big I'm Going To Defend Ladies Who Remind Me Of My Dead Sister No Matter What speech to Kagami, one that sort of wins Kagami over. The camera starts, like, sixty yards away and then slowly tracks in until it's right in Tsurugi's face. Super great camera move.) Kagami's a guy who believes in his Very Big Feelings, has found fulfillment in doing what he thinks is right, so how can judge Tsurugi for being a Worm who wants to destroy Worms? How can he let this weird, self-negating creature come to harm?

It's a thread I wouldn't've thought to explore, and it's one that I'm excited to see the show develop. It gives Kagami this crazy limb to go out on, and I always like this show better when Kagami is heedlessly following his Very Big Feelings. Much like Tendou's epiphany about things having an innate quality, I like that this show realized the power of Kagami making potentially terrible decisions for adorably heroic reasons.

INOUE FOREVER!

A QUESTION

Yes, I absolutely am going to talk about Jiiya's heretofore unrevealed older twin brother, the master chef Hiiya. He's a great, bonkers twist on the Old Master character, treating cooking as a bloodsport, a crucible that destroys souls. There is a graveyard outside his house where failures are buried. He's amazing, and I love that he exists. He's doubly great because he's played by the same actor as Jiiya (obviously), and the tones of the two characters are wildly divergent. Jiiya is trembling, gentle. Hiiya is implacable, confrontational. The actor kills in both roles. As of Episode 30, who's your favorite actor (not character) on the show?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto30b.png

There are so many small things that I love in this episode: evil chef's determined but awkward shuffle walk, the ridiculousness of everything involving Jiiya's brother, whatever the hell the actor playing Tadokoro's brother was doing (I hesitate to call it "acting" when it felt more like some form of avant garde performance art). The big thing that really struck me, though, was the episode's plot - not the details, but more the format.

I want to talk about Skyrider for a second - the 1979 reboot of Kamen Rider that ended up becoming a sequel instead. There's an episode of Skyrider that features the villain of the week being a "dojo killer" - a martial artist who travels to different schools to challenge their master and take away the dojo's title when he wins. It's a classic martial arts film trope - Skyrider wasn't the last time it would show up in a Rider show, either. And that's what this episode is, it's a martial arts movie. Everything about it follows the path of a classic kung fu film: lost ancient weapons, the rival who defeats the hero's mentor, the restaurant conquering, the wise old hermit master, etc. The entire arc is an homage to these kinds of stories, just with cooking and wacky underground Iron Chef arenas. It's so weird in concept but so beautiful in execution.

On the Tsurugi front, I'm a bit split. I love that Kagami is thinking about the situation and trying to understand it instead of acting. It's another sign that he really is the show's heart. I'm less into the obsession with Misaki. I remembered that this was part of Tsurugi's character arc, but I forgot that it starts completely out of the blue with only WorMisaki as anything that might hint to this storyline having a beginning. It picks up so intensely here, though, that it just feels almost completely random.

I didn't know that! Very cool!

It's been building over the last few stories (the WorMisaki shows up in the 25/26, Tsurugi hits on Misaki in 27/28 and gets rebuffed, and he asks her out in this one), but it's got a much weirder urgency to it here. Some of it is because of Tsurugi's, uh, single-mindedness when it comes to getting what he wants (and I assume what he wants this time is to stand at the top of workplace harassment), but the larger reason is to create a situation that requires Kagami's intervention.

(To be clear: Misaki can totally handle this herself! It's just, if Kagami's willing to throw himself on that grenade, why not let him?)

Getting Kagami to tell Tsurugi to back off gets Tsurugi to talk about his Very Big Feelings regarding protecting Misaki, which gets Kagami seeing more of himself in Tsurugi. It's maybe rushed in the sense of how thirsty Tsurugi is, but this has never been a character defined by half-measures.

Boy, I wanted to gave screencaps of this, but again, based on the sub mistakes. Break.. the.. TOKU?! (Self-depreciation of the genre to the max)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...44235/toku.png

About cooking being a reflection of the goodness of a soul, reminder that there's someone like Yaguruma and to a lesser extent, Tsurugi... And like Ichiro here, not about outright using the power like cooking for evil, but exceling at cooking can also be commonly used for various people not merely for providing for others but also to prove their greatness, or being necessary to stay on business. Like for example in Faiz, Keitaro wants to use his laundry job as a means to provide for others like how main Riders usually do, but doesn't mean every single laundrymen is like that (probably only a few of laundrymen that uses their job like Keitaro).

Also, sorry to break it to you, but there are various characters in fiction that are purely benevolent, but has inhumanly awful cooking skills, they're lethal chefs. I don't know if you would understand the examples I would mention, but there are a bunch on medias like anime or video games. But weaponizing bad cooking isn't something common, so I would be on board with it for someone who cooks bad and utilizes their "talent" for their sinister purposes, such as killing (literally or figuratively) from inside.

So it's shown at least here that Riku and Mishima also had similar impossible taste for cooking dishes like someone such as Tsurugi (who revolves around cooking more), didn't know that the ZECT, at least the higher ups, is that invested into cooking. Tadokoro seems more like how normal people responds to food (outside of the exaggerated special effects), although dunno if Tadokoro also had high standards when seemingly Kagami and Misaki didn't respond, at least outwardly.

Ichiro is more than about proving his greatness though, he's not a neutral character, he's a Worm (it's shown when he clashes with Rena), so he's outright evil, and he had the standard villain goal of dominating the world, and had the god complex to go with it a la Kuroto, but probably yeah, this is the case when good cooking is used for evil purpose (not good or even neutral ones like proving their greatness).

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...44298/kami.png

Dunno but what I catch from Kagami is that decent means morality, like I catch that he wants a Rider that acts like standard main Riders, not morally ambiguous ones).

I feel like the Worm battle here didn't showcase Hyper Kabuto's superiority well here... The other Riders remarked that they can't see what's happening ("what was that just now?") but the audience can see Hyper Kabuto's movements (it's still fast but trackable) :p unlike, (sorry) the movie, where it's shows a clear Hyper Zecter's superiiority where the ordinary Riders even with Clock Up active also moves like a slug in Hyper Clock Up. I think they should just show the monsters exploding without anything happened (like Cronus' time stop in much later Ex-Aid), or have Hyper Kabuto moved to destroy monsters in a flash while the Riders are in Clock Up and moving with normal speed.

But for the worst there's Daisuke for taking care of himself, or Kagami (at least previously) for trying to make things better! I would be looking for missing things, it can take long time for me to complete that.

Good catch! Pretty appropriate for that episode.

It's the reason why he's controversial. "if it's one he doesn't fully connect with, it goes foul" describes controversial. And the one that is mainly mentioned as complaint about him is his edgelord traits, the angsty and edgy parts (well you treat those parts for another comedy part, comedic sociopathy that is, watching people suffer as a form of comedy, which to me, it can be entertaining too, but not always sit well for me at all times because it can justify and/or make light any transgression act for comedy sake), or his side medias (without leash) which can be outright gross, not mentioned about the episodes he made like this though (unlike catwhowalks). But real talk though, the real contribution is provided by the TV production team, Inoue needs a leash, and they're the one who puts Inoue on the leash for his TV writings.

"Dark Kabuto". DARK KABUTO?! Don't mention that name so casually! Jokes aside, I'd catch that, here, the one that finally makes Tendou win over Ichiro is that, as narcissistic as Tendou is, he's still not narrow-minded, he still wanted to learn from others, which he came to Hiiya to do that, and implement surroundings and other worldviews for his cooking methods. While Ichiro, being someone who has even worse superiority complex, rely solely on his method, and doesn't care enough to improve from that. This seems to be a case of Villain Level To Level Grind that becomes his downfall. And as you talk about defeating someone in art makes it pointless about creating art in the first place; this is also an important thing that has to be taken note about artists, you shouldn't refuse to take criticism or supplant your ego to learn from others, refusal to admit flaws and learn from his mistakes keeps from progressing. And I guess, Tendou doesn't need to seek flavors from someone like Hiyori (who Ichiro looks down) then like he was doing previously!

I've known a piece of media where someone got annoyed in-universe because everything they do is accompanied by wacky sound effects. Also no offense, but I'm also not always (but doesn't mean always against, like more 50-50) into forced exaggerating expressions that people do in these kind of episodes like Tadokoro's brother or to a lesser extent, Wakabayashi clone's eating scenes.

Kagami also wants to wage war against Worms (in ep. 3 and ep. 9, and those are between Ryou episode which is the first case of Kagami trying to reach out a Worm), but he'd make an exception towards those that show some humane side like Makoto (who shielded him) and Tsurugi (who is pretty much human now, Tsurugi's personality completely overwrites Scorpio Worm's). I don't know what's the futility of that though, it's just someone powerful enough, killing a superhuman species. There are no rules that Worms can't harm each other, Tsurugi waging war against Worm goes just like any humans who wears Rider Suit fighting off Worms.

I want to say though, twist of Old Master character isn't something exclusive here. I'd just think that to treat old master here as a bonkers twist here, it's more of people stereotyping how Old Master they usually know portrayed as, and overlook the twists in various medias not only this one. Hiiya seems to be someone who is also a stealth mentor, trying to make the student find by themselves, the deeper meaning behind the teachings; like clothes being ineligible for food at the first place. Would be likely Tendou's actor Hiro Mizushima, as he's someone who likely achieves more, he's fluent in English, and he's one of the actors that goes international.

It's not unusual at all for people liking these kind of things on Internet, it's flooded with memes, shitposts (sometimes even derailing discussions for their meme sake, to the point that some community had to make a rule about not posting shitposts), and people (though probably vocal minority) hailing the abridged series of a media as a true canon. So it should be expected for people who like these kinds.

Sure! Learning humility is a major theme in the series, and it's a big part of Tendou's success in this episode.

https://i.imgur.com/PUWhaDe.png

Definitely not my favorite episode of Kabuto (the lack of Hiyori is a major handicap, admittedly), but I did come out of this two-parter with a newfound appreciation for its absurdist sensibilities. Not sure I have anything as insightful to say about this one as Die, though?

Comparisons to martial arts films are apt, for sure. The deliberate overabundance of as many schlocky tropes as they could fit in is something I can't hate. When a show gets to do an episode playing with ideas from some completely different genre like this, I often find it's a good time, and that's because it's often apparent how much of a good time the people making it were having just cutting loose and doing something wild. That's totally the case here, as, despite Kagami's best efforts to keep things on track, this series could not be any less interested in being a hero tokusatsu right now.

In a way, it's a characteristically run of bad luck for the guy. Kagami has to babysit Tsurugi and grapple with the complex dramatic question of how to deal with a monster who doesn't know he's a monster, and meanwhile, everybody else gets to kick back and relax being a part of this ridiculous cooking showdown plot. It's a good thing it's so fitting for Kagami's character, or else I'd feel it's more of a shame he wasn't more involved in a storyline that gave so many characters so much fun material to work with.

You get to see different sides to a lot of Kabuto's usual faces here, and the episode knocks all that out of the park. Tadokoro's secret history as part of a great lineage of soba chefs is a highlight, and is a heck of a way to give him his first scene with Tendou, to say the least. But I think Tendou himself was what really surprised me here. The comical nature of this story lets him be a lot looser with his feelings in places, lending a lot of variety to the performance you don't always get from the guy. I was very impressed by Hiro Mizushima's acting in this one, from obvious big emotional swings like his horrific realization Juka doesn't like the meal he just made, to more subtle bits like the gradual escalation of him getting fed up with his new mentor in the art of cooking. That's maybe one of the most easily commendable things about these episodes, even – just getting to see Tendou dealing with something he's openly passionate about. He's still thoroughly Tendou, all the same, so I imagine the crowd that can't stand him at all won't be won over or anything, but it's a bit of a different angle on that same personality that was fun to see.

Visually speaking, the direction is still quite good. I see what Die is saying about the aggressive nature of the way the gags are emphasized, but I'd argue it's a deliberate choice to highlight the mounting levels of wackiness at play. Like, I think the goal was to make this one so nuts that part one looks sane by comparison, and I'd say mission accomplished on that front. Ethereal glows all over the place; that same running gag with the cheap looking halos above people's heads when they eat the Dark Chef's food, but it happens like twice as many times; and yes, more sound effects than you shake a stick at. It honestly didn't even register with me until reading Die's post, because it strikes me as such a natural fit for the exaggerated style the episode aims for. Kabuto apparently made a conscious effort to inject as much humor as possible to counter its inherently grim premise and setting to begin with, so if an episode comes along that wants to be 90% kabuki sounds for the heck of it, I mean, I'm not going to question it. You go right ahead with your nonsense farce about dueling chefs, Kabuto, I won't stop you!

That's about the sum of it, at the end of the day, I suppose. This two-parter is the sort that's all about being experimental and pushing the limits of what a Kamen Rider episode can even do, and in that sense I legitimately respect it for being so outside the box. Whether or not it's any good is almost secondary at that point, but, fortunately, I can see the argument that this is a high point of sorts for the show rather than a low one. Not for everybody, and, for me at least, no wacky Inoue episode 30 will ever top Taiyaki Master from Blade (the best food-centric filler plot), but if you're open to this bizarre tale of legendary kitchen knives and epic cooking battles, it can be a rather amusing ride.

Weirdly, I think Kagami is responsible for my favorite gag in this episode? It's so hard to describe why it works, so let me set it up with this gif:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...s/sobashop.gif

He treats the emergence of the soba chef, coupled with the reveal that it's Tadokoro's brother, like a Worm just showed up. Him wheeling backwards, smacking into the door, desperate to escape this new information... it's definitely the one thing I can remember laughing out loud at in this episode. (I'm pretty sure I found other stuff funny, but I'm certain I laughed at this.)

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 31

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto31a.png

An episode full of questions, all asked to varying degrees of anticipation.

The one I was the most interested in was Are There Good Worms, and the episode really finds itself when it's digging into that idea. Now that Kagami has it confirmed by Jiiya that Tsurugi is a Worm who thinks he's an idiot man (and that confirmation is almost withheld by Jiiya escaping on a conveniently-placed bicycle, before realizing the kickstand is down and he is not moving), there's more skepticism than normal to Tsurugi's heroism. He's seen first-hand that Worms can be redeemed, so maybe Tsurugi just needs to be supported? Befriended?

It leads to the best parts of this episode for me, where Kagami's Very Big Feelings see him trying to break the reality of the situation to Tsurugi, and being thwarted by Tsurugi's unshakable belief that Kagami just wants to be his friend. It's a great escalation through the episode, with Tsurugi's heartfelt exposition drawing the two men closer together, and Kagami's growing frustration at being The Smart One in an exchange keeping him from seeing Tsurugi for the monster he appears to be. Like, this is an episode where Kagami is the one dealing with an oblivious Rider, and it's such a fun idea. Taking that idea and then saying, wait, Are There Good Worms around it, spinning Kagami's confusion out to a larger reexamination of the show's central threat... I think that's a debate that has merit?

It helps that it's an ideological struggle between Kagami's Very Big Feelings and Tendou's self-righteous certainty; optimism versus pragmatism. To Tendou, the Worms are a pestilence, a swarming race of monsters. He'll take them out, because he knows that, given the chance, they'd take him out. To Kagami, he's experienced the battle within Worms, seen them act with humility, nobility, kindness. If a Worm can take a human's memories, couldn't they also take their empathy? Their soul? Isn't there room to question whether or not they all deserve to die?

It's a question that's fun to explore, and then the episode finds a thrilling high gear once it brings Hiyori into that debate.

So, I'm told that Hiyori and Tendou are siblings. There's not really a lot of speculation I can offer on that storyline now. The why and how of it are yet to be determined, but I'm not loving it as a story move. It requires a lot of convoluted trickery to have two adults who just met a few months ago be secret siblings, and I'm not sure it's going to feel more fulfilling to me than their previous friendship. Between knowing the endpoint of this one and not being too excited to get there, the developments with childhood photos and all that... mostly didn't work for me.

But Hiyori as a Worm?! Very excited to see that plotline develop. Not only does it bring Hiyori further into the series-long Worm plot, but it also immediately confronts Tendou with a counterpoint to his Kill All Worms policy. It makes the person he values most (besides Juka or Jiiya) into the enemy he's vowed to destroy. Knowing that Hiyori won't be on the show much due to illness dampens my enthusiasm somewhat (once again), but it's a helluva twist for the end of the episode.

This one... it's a lot of setup, maybe? It's very much an episode that is foregrounding the mysteries, trying to get them some momentum. It does it fairly well, with crisp action (it's never not fun to see Riders wreck a ton of unmolted Worms), tantalizing ambiguity (Kagami makes some rare good points), and hilarious Tsurugi idiocy (his reassurance to Kagami that they are now best friends is adorably dumb). Way more of a focus on plot stuff this episode, but still a delightful experience.

A QUESTION

I cannot say enough good things about Tsurugi and Kagami's friendship. It makes Kagami into the Tendou of the friendship, and it's endlessly charming. Tsurugi is way more than a handful, but it's hard to look down on his enthusiasm. If you had to befriend one member of the Kabuto cast, who would it be and why?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto31b.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto31c.png

This is a hard one to talk about since so much of it is setting up questions that I already know that answer to from having seen the show before. I'll have a lot more to say tomorrow after we get to part two of this story. I will comment that I like how we have some parallel narrative going on with Tsurugi and Hiyori here; the show ties those threads together very nicely.

Also, Tsurugi has no idea how food works and things "udon" must be African somehow. Never change, you sweet summer child.

This is another episode where my reaction can be summed up by the comment I posted online.

It’s also got what is my personal highlight for the SHT outros (about three minutes into this video) https://youtube.com/watch?v=mB3IUtcceU4

Yeah, this is a good concept to explore within Worms that inherit humans' memories, and possibly everything that human has. I've known a media that redeems someone via inheriting humans' memories. A good number of Worms, those that are MOTW, are still malicious though, even after inheriting that human's aspects. Or using their human aspects previously, as two-faceted bait to those that come across them, using their memories as leverage to prevent others finishing them off, while they're free to resume their atrocities. Tsurugi is a special case where Tsurugi's personality completely overpowers Scorpio Worm, dunno if this'll be able to happen to someone other than Scorpio Worm, but it's interesting for the potential of Worms coexist with humans, by having and letting them fully inherit the humans' traits, if that human isn't an evil one.

A good number of other Worms boasts about living that human's memories, but Tsurugi is the only case of this, where the real Tsurugi dies, and Scorpio Worm became completely Tsurugi. Kagami and Tsurugi also relates from how they have similarities too, where both lost their siblings due to Worms. It seems that not only Misaki that has gone through Tsurugi, but Kagami too here, that Tsurugi also thinks defeating all Worms is also avenging Ryou for Kagami's sake. Usually Tsurugi backs up what he's talking, but this is pure big talk for him (Most Kabuto Riders are godly at every possible skill except being humble, so that'd include babysitting for Tsurugi previously. At one point Tendou's grandma taught him to look down on friendship and emotions though..) most in quoting Jiiya that friendship is the biggest treasure, when this is someone who is an elitist that wouldn't associate himself with "peasants" due to his royal heritage. Being at the top of friendship? I wonder if for Tsurugi, it's by providing the best as he can to those he considers a friend (but only for those few he'd like to befriend).

Well yeah, GSL spoils that part, though dunno if I made a mistake for saying that and the other pre-Den-O movies (tbf, you watched something like Paradise Lost after finishing the series), if I do then sorry. Hiyori being the only other person Tendou cares as much as Juka, and them being family explains similar treatment Tendou gives to both girls (although he does that too for a non-family in Jiiya). I think the photos of Hiyori and Tendou having the same parents on it is the plausible way to get them to know that they're siblings, albeit the photo is discovered by mishap and accident via visiting Tendou's home,. unless what you're saying here is that don't make Tendou and Hiyori siblings at all. Hiyori seems to start lighten up more here, with her doing her proclamation of trusting Tendou again in ways not seen before by actually warmly responding to him, and then to Juka too with smiles after they finish interacting.

Yeah, in this part, I can't wait for Kagami's Worm debate to Tendou and Tsurugi to be resolved, and while Hiyori is revealed as a Worm, I'm pleading for Tendou to get to see this directly, especially about his philosophy to be merciless to Worms. What if, someone that is the closest to you, is a Worm, how will you reconsider your no-mercy philosophy to Worms? The reveal of Hiyori being a Worm isn't merely for character test for Tendou though (saying this for someone who's mainly invested in characters part), it's something crucial for the plot part.

Well, no doubt, like the Christmas question before, Kagami (and probably one of the few I'd choose). He's the easiest and safest to befriend (only his hotheadness is a minor problem). To be honest, don't judge me for this, I'd try to avoid a good number of other characters, such as, other than obvious villains, people like Tendou, Yaguruma, Daisuke, and Tsurugi at first glance. Some other characters like Hiyori, Gon, and Misaki aren't easy to get into too, but at least they're safer to be around unlike those I mentioned.

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It's not going to some bold statement that this is a very inquisitive episode of Kabuto when that the was first thing Die called attention to as well, but that only proves how inescapable the questions are in this one. It covers a range all the way from innocent fluff, like Tsurugi wanting to know more about noodles, to material as heavy as Hiyori having to question her entire existence, which is significantly less comical!

And yes, the huge focus on Hiyori naturally means I'm way onboard with this episode is doing. That consists almost entirely of moving the overarching Plot forward, which can make things trickier to dig into on a standalone level, but rest assured it's exciting to watch. I'm especially impressed by the structure the series worked out by hitting these huge revelations right as Tsurugi and Kagami strike up their weird friendship, seamlessly tying some previously separate plot threads together into a much more cohesive whole.

Oh, yeah, and this episode does mark the very first instance of Tsurugi talking about his best friend, Kagami, meaning Tsurugi is about to reach even greater heights of being himself than ever before. It's not hard to see why Kagami can't bring himself to write Tsurugi off as a monster when he's become so ~adorable~ in such a short time. Most of his displays of arrogance are now being delivered in the form of this sort of self-centered selflessness that's impossible to hate. Tsurugi wants nothing more than to bring joy to the people in his life by allowing them to bask in his own radiant glory, and the fact that he's proving so terrible at so many things creates such a rich character (figuratively; pretty sure the dude is still broke) who's never dull to watch. It's incredible to think how far we've come from those five minutes he was just some jerk who was good at sports.

Beyond that, I'm not sure I have any things I took away from this episode that I could really drill into at all. Like, one of my favorite things in here was just that a childhood photo of Tendou has him wearing a big origami kabuto helmet, which is so on-the-nose it's perfect. But there's not exactly much depth to be derived from talking about a quick sight gag, nor can I go into much detail about the action, which as always, looks great to this day. There are three shots in here of Gatack on his sweet hoverboard, coming to Kabuto's aid at the end, and they look shockingly not cheap when you consider how awkward that sort of thing often ends up coming off in Kamen Rider. What I most appreciated in the action this time, however, was just seeing Tadokoro barking out some commands in the fight in the middle, making good on that promise of renewed teamwork from back in 26, rather than letting it stand merely as some informed thing.

All around a comforting return to normalcy after a month's worth of episodes from Inoue. There's an overall feeling that it really is picking up right from where 26 left off in a lot of ways; getting back to business, as it were, but not in a manner that feels like it's throwing those last two arcs under a bus or anything. Just a real solid outing for the show all around.

The reveal about Hiyori and Tendou actually makes more sense once you get the full backstory and the show has actually been setting this up since the beginning. There's a very good reason she didn't know. Even Tendou's constantly quoting his grandmother is tied into all this.

I fear I may have already said too much, but I think you'll around to it in the end. There's just a lot more going on there than a carelessly shoehorned in relationship.

His ability to instantly offer the Sudan as the possible home for udon proves that, at the very least, Tsurugi is the man who stands at the top of geography.

It's also the noblesse oblige lesson that he's trying to live, where his nobility is shown through service and empathy. Offering to take on Kagami's burden, a sort of well-meaning condescension, that's a pretty standard Tsurugi response.

My favorite part of this episode was when Kagami's relaxing from his stressful conversation with Tsurugi about Hidden Truths and/or Eternal Friendship, and Misaki comes over the wire to say Hey There Is Still A Fight Happening Could You Go Help Kabuto. It's a hilarious acknowledgement of how these action scenes can frequently have these incongruent dramatic scenes in the middle of them, and how the world doesn't stop for an emotional moment. It felt self-referentially funny without breaking the fourth wall or anything.

I hope I do!

Secret histories for characters... it's never really my favorite thing on these shows? It's something where all the weight is in backstory, in versions of these characters we've never met and aren't invested in. Worse, it frequently needs long explanations and equivacations for previously-established facts that make Obi-Wan's From A Certain Point Of View defense look airtight and generous. It's a combination where I feel like the character growth stops, in favor of puzzle-box shenanigans. We're not pushing these characters forward, we're dragging them back.

But, you know, I'll try and judge it on its own merits. Sometimes these shows have surprised me (Build did some fun stuff with Banjou's backstory, how they dramatized it), so I'm hopeful that Kabuto will figure out a way to keep evolving its characters.

That was a fun beat, but at the same time, Kagami arriving to find Kabuto up against a single cowering Worm, begging for mercy really underlines how strange it was of Misaki to think Tendou would need help fighting a generic squad of goons.

Oh, and on the subject of slightly meta moments in the fights, I'd like to point out that my screencap of choice this time is from the beginning, where the first thing Tendou does, in this episode by Yonemura, is ask for clarification on why Kagami was being all Inoue in the cliffhanger last time and beating him up without even making an attempt to verbally communicate like a functional human being. It's a similar subversion to Drake's first clash with Kabuto – where the episode just sorta immediately discards the dramatic ending from the previous week to move on to the things it's actually interested in exploring. I thought it was rather cute.

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 32

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto32a.png

Hey, let's see if I can figure out why this one didn't work for me.

It didn't, really. At all. It wasn't bad (maybe?), it just... it just wasn't saying anything I cared about. It was like if they'd decided to do an entire episode where characters gave impassioned speeches about semaphore. No matter how elegantly it's done, or how hard the actors try, it's just a topic I don't have any interest in?

A lot of it, maybe all of it, is down to the new information about Hiyori and Tendou's relationship. I hate in the same way I hate stories that reframe tales of accidental heroism as Chosen One narratives by revealing a character's secret history and Very Special Person status. It takes choice out of the equation, renders a story about someone's personal journey into destiny; inevitability.

It's like that with Tendou and Hiyori's bond. What was previously a story about two people that overcame their own weirdness to find something within the other, a story where you can make a family out of the people who are always there for you... now it's just a story about Tendou gaslighting Hiyori. And, like, I get why he didn't tell her the truth about their relationship. Even if she'd've believed him (she wouldn't've), telling her that she's his Worm half-sister (or whatever) means telling her she's a Worm, and that would be incredibly dangerous for her. He needed to keep it a secret for her safety. But now it's this semi-gross story about a dude keeping secrets because a woman can't handle the truth, a decision he makes 100% on her behalf, and... I mean, it's not a story about two people finding something within the other. It's a story about Hiyori finding something of herself in a friend, and Tendou protecting his sister no matter what.

There's an... an asymmetry to it that I really dislike. It's not about common ground, or friendship. He's withholding the key elements of their relationship, and it robs their story of so much choice. He's not protecting Hiyori because of her kindness, her vulnerability, her talents, her brusqueness, her her her. He's doing it because She's Family, and I find that less interesting. So much less interesting.

And to take that reveal of Hiyori being a Worm and do an episode that's half filling in blanks and half Tendou's Very Big Feelings (for a change!), I don't know. It's an episode that doesn't leave a lot of room for Hiyori, in a story that's ostensibly about Hiyori? It makes her a problem to solve, emotionally and narratively, rather than an active character in the story. (One of the biggest emotional parts of the story is Tendou and Kagami yelling at each other about Hiyori! A scene she's not even in!)

The details of her history... I guess they work? There's presumably a ton of detail yet to be explained, because what's here makes the barest amount of sense. Why were those two Worms there before the asteroid hit? Why copy and kill Tendou's parents? What the hell were they doing for the next however many years? It's all stuff that's not exactly pertinent to Tendou and Hiyori's story, but the absence of it made it difficult to concentrate on the rest. It's definitely a set of answers that raises twice as many questions, which is I guess the mode this show is in now.

Even the plot at the end... it leans real heavy on things happening for barely defined (or completely undefined) reasons. Hiyori gets a psychic call to go to Area X (thankfully the call didn't take her to the more distant Area Orpheus, or she'd still be walking), where she unlocks the Man In The Mask, who is Another Tendou. Not a huge shock, since the combination of a mask and the Law Of Conservation Of Actors meant that whoever was under there was someone already on the show in another role, and Tendou was the most likely suspect. There's basically no other details given here; who he is in relation to Tendou and Hiyori, why he's in a basement, what he wants, etc. It's another question.

I found this one... not good. It took a story, a pairing, that I was really invested in, and scribbled SECRET DESTINY over all of the nuance, all of the characterization. It took a smaller story about two people and made it epic, washing out the decision-making in the process. They were people, now they're plot.

A QUESTION

I'm definitely going to miss pre-32 Hiyori. What's your favorite Hiyori moment from the first 31 episodes?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../kabuto32b.png

This is the one episode from this part of the series I have no comment on.

I will say that Another Tendou is a character you have free reign to call what you want, since the show and it’s media never call him anything. The credits call him “The Other Souji”, while many fans refer to him as “Souji Kusakabe” (after the surname he abandoned)

I will say that I like the explanation of Souji’s vendetta against the Worms. Yeah, giving him the same origin as Batman is slightly derivative, but it does give us a look at his mindset.

Even this sort of bothered me? Thematically, it makes sense for Tendou to want to stop the Worms: he is all about helping people achieve, and they are all about stealing that achievement for themselves. Narratively, they already had a great reason for him to want to stop the Worms: it's what he's best at, and it'd be unconscionable for him to do anything less than his best at all times. Making his motivation They Killed My Parents... ugh. Uggghhh. It's like in one episode, they sanded down every interesting angle on this show.

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https://i.imgur.com/wUwNTj6.png

Die might be struggling with his feelings in light of recent plot revelations, which means that, A) Hiyori is still the most relatable character, and B) I'm going to swoop right the heck in here to say I hugely disagree that anything the show did here undercuts or devalues anything it's done so far.

The idea that this episode doesn't make room for Hiyori, especially, I have to question. Like, that big scene where Tendou and Kagami discuss their feelings about Hiyori is directly followed by a scene of almost equal length where Hiyori and Rena discuss Tendou, which already isn't sounding asymmetrical to me.

I've made it clear before how much I feel the show places priority on treating Hiyori's emotions as a proper, independent entity that doesn't only exist for the sake of other characters to react to, and how much I adore that it does that. That was very much the vibe I was getting from a lot of this one, to the point it only reinforced my already rock solid faith in the show's handling of her character. This isn't an episode entirely about how Hiyori feels, but it's not entirely about Tendou's thoughts either; it's a half and half balance of both, and that's what made this one work for me.

Small touches like the role reversal of Hiyori getting to be the one dramatically watching from a distance as Tendou make a visit to that same grave from back in 23 are great, and it's all those little things that start adding up. Maybe Hiyori's Very Big Feelings don't come across as readily because she still keeps them small on the surface, and largely nonverbal, but they're there all the same. I think my favorite moment in the whole episode is just when Hiyori is waiting in that chapel or whatever for Tendou to come back, and is about to greet him with a huge smile that immediately slips away when she sees it's Rena coming in the door. Moments like that are all over the place here, and it's everything I love about Hiyori. She's great here because she's always great and will always be great.

When it comes to Tendou, I... I mean, first of all, there are still things I can't say, but, crucially, while I understand how it could be a hurdle for Die, I don't feel the revelation of the secret connection between the two of them does anything to diminish the way their relationship has built up through the show. I'm not sure I can adequately describe why I think so, but... cooking is a huge deal in this show, right? So, think about frequently and how glowingly Tendou praises Hiyori's food, and then tell me if Tendou is the kind of person who would hand out that level of praise to someone solely because they're related to him. Him protecting Hiyori because she's his sister, and protecting Hiyori because she's Hiyori are not mutually exclusive concepts, in my mind.

Now, Die's made his personal distaste for these kinds of storytelling concepts very clear, and I don't want to dismiss that like he's not allowed to feel that way. I'm honestly worried I've already gotten a bit too fiery here, to tell the truth. Like a lot of disagreements I have with Die, I even, broadly speaking, can relate to where he's coming from. I'm very rarely a fan of stories that undercut the free will of characters with grand predetermined destinies myself – it's one of the reasons this franchise, that started with a monster rebelling against his creators' will to become a hero, holds such infinite appeal to me. For Kabuto, though... how do I put it? My shallow impression of Kabuto has always been that it's a bombastic melodrama, so these soap opera twists make sense to me; while Die, as ever, immediately starting locking on to all the subtle, smart bits of writing the show was doing, and doesn't want anything to get in the way of that stuff – the true core of the show's quality.

It's like, we feel pretty differently about this episode, but I think our end-goals are pretty much the same? So yeah, I sympathize with the apprehension, but I still felt I was getting what I wanted from Kabuto with this episode. Hopefully my usual argument to the contrary can be at least somewhat reassuring.

I mean, the asymmetry was more about how their emotional investment in the early stages of their relationship now feels uneven (it is weird if a stranger is like We Are Family), but to your point about the Worm Widow coming in to poison Hiyori against humanity... it's not a lot? It's a brief exchange where Worm Widow tells her that no one's going to like her because she's a Worm, and then she runs off. I like that it's presenting a devil on Hiyori's shoulder, after Tendou was trying to sell her that everything was going to be a-okay peachy-keen, but even that feels like it's more woven into the Worm plot than it is to Hiyori's personal struggle. Like, it's a scene furthering Worm Widow's agenda, not a scene that does a lot with/for Hiyori.

That's a great moment, for sure. (Is the chapel they're in the same exterior the show used for the ZECT base where Gon was held captive? That's where I thought Tendou had taken Hiyori at first, which I found super bizarre.) I guess I'd disagree that there are enough moments like that? I felt like I needed to see more of this story from Hiyori's perspective, and the show immediately made it about Tendou's dilemma.

But it muddies the water, and (to my mind) unnecessarily so. Tendou choosing to protect and befriend Hiyori feels so much cleaner, so much more important than if he's always known he would protect her AND then he chose to befriend her. Like, I can't see what their relationship gains, narratively or thematically, from making them siblings? For me, it subtracts so much intentionality for a frustrating amount of He Likes Her As A Person But He Was Probably Always Going To.

Not at all! I figured this was one you were going to enjoy (there's too much Hiyori to think you'd be let down about it), and I'm sure plenty of other folks are going to agree with you. I don't think this was an objectively bad episode, really, but it did move the story to a place I don't feel as good about. That's me, and what I'm looking for in a story. I'm glad to hear when folks disagree!

I did understand those were separate points you were making, but I couldn't stop myself from being cheeky there anyway; hence why I was worried I coming on too strong this time. I'm being argumentative because I guess that's just a thing I do, but, to be as clear as possible about this, I think you presented a very concise and compelling case for how you feel, as always. I'd prefer if you were having a more positive experience, because, again, thing I do, but I don't truly think you were saying anything unfounded.

And, really, at the end of the day, any episode of Kabuto could be improved by placing more focus on Hiyori, including the ones that already do, so even there, we agree on the fundamentals. :p

It definitely is, after going to check the episodes real quick, but they stuck a little cross on it for this one to make it at least 10% more holy! I mean, frankly, I thought it was more bizarre using that place as some secret ZECT outpost in the first place. Maybe the point was how unassuming it looked, but that was a Tasaki episode, and this is a Nagaishi one, and I've learned to trust the latter's instincts when it comes to filming locations. There's a really far away shot in the big fight where Kabuto ends up "killing" Hiyori where the camera is very clearly more interested in how pretty the rocks they're standing on and the docks in the background look than in the actual fighting. That's how you know the guy is passionate about these things!

I can forgive Die for not noticing it, but I can't believe no one has mentioned the biggest thing to happen in this episode: we got the first appearance of Tsurugi's pronunciation of Kagami's name. It'll get more exaggerated as we go on, but it started here.

So, one thing I'll say about the Hiyori reveal is that it doesn't feel like a retcon or something that the writer threw in out of nowhere. It does fit with a lot of the earlier interactions between Tendou and Hiyori and why Tendou was so insistent on forcing his way into this otherwise random girl's life. It also recontextualizes the scene from a few episodes back where Kagami's dad vaguely threatens Tendou's little sister - he was talking about Hiyori, not Juka.

So I actually like the twist in how it makes sense when retroactively applied to the rest of the series. The big issue I have is with the execution, especially when we get to the later stuff with the Tendou in the Iron Mask. I don't doubt that this twist was planned from the start, but the timing and execution are things that I have some real concerns with.

So, as was spoiled earlier, Yui Satonaka, aka Hiyori, got sick and couldn't continue working on the show full-time (you may have noticed that she's been largely or entirely absent from a lot of recent episodes). I'm sure that the Worm reveal was planned for some point, but I don't know if it was supposed to happen now or later. All the stuff with Tendou-2, though, definitely feels like it was crammed into the episode because the show needed to a) act while Hiyori was still available and b) find a mechanism to write her out.

I mean, it's a very pretty location. I think Kamen Rider shows just look better when they're filmed in the summertime? I love seeing all of those suits in the sunshine. I think it has to do with me doing all of the Phase 2 shows first, and those all start filming their seasons in late-summer. Like, that's how I got introduced to so many of my favorite characters, in these bright outdoor shoots. Very nostalgic.

It's cute, for sure. He holds a beat on it, so everyone's clear on him and Kagami having nicknames for each other now because they are total best friends, both of them. (Talk about asymmetrical relationships!) I wish this episode had more scenes of the two of them, but it was already sort of awkwardly placed, just the one.

I really like this read, but I'm not sure it tracks? If it's from when Tendou confronts Kagami Outrageous at Police HQ, the thing that's going on during that threat is that Juka's been kidnapped by WorMisaki. Oh! Wait! The larger plot is that Worm Widow is trying to bump off the folks with space rocks, and Hiyori is in danger because of that. Yep! You're right! Good catch!

The end of this one was easily the weakest part to me. It's rushing through a bunch of plot, and no one's doing anything that feels explained. Much like the random appearances of Hyper Kabuto (who is instrumental to Kabuto's switcheroo and it never gets called out in the episode), there's a little too much going on that plays better in retrospect. Like, way too much This Will All Make Sense In The End. It's not that I don't trust the show to dot the i's or whatever, but it feels like I'm deferring too much of my enjoyment. I'd like the episodes to be good now?

Yeah, for the record, this is exactly why I choose that screenshot for episode 26.

Then that was also a good catch, and you are very sneaky!

Well sorry you still don't like the reveal. It fits though, with the shape shifting Worms replacing people and the like. Still it seems pretty obvious that this was planned. You are for whatever reason, enjoying the things about this show that I dislike and disliking that things that I like. This show is just that weird I guess.

That does sound like me, yeah.

For the record, I never thought the reveal that Hiyori and Tendou were related was unplanned or a retcon. (I did think it was something that was just in the movie at first, though.) This show's way too smart and intricate to just suddenly decide something this major. I would not doubt for a second that it was in the initial pitch document or series bible.

What I'd argue is that it's an unnecessary element, and one that arrives later in the series than I'd enjoy. If this happened around episode 15 or 20, I'd be a little more receptive to it. Here, at 32, it feels like the relationships between the characters had progressed so much further than Secret Siblings as an idea, gotten so much deeper than Tendou Has To Kill Kagami To Protect Hiyori's Secret. (Which, I see what the show is going for emotionally with that, highlighting Tendou's unshackled commitment to Hiyori, but it comes off like Tendou hasn't listened to a word Kagami said for the last two episodes. Kagami was specifically the one who said that Not All Worms deserve to die. It's another moment in this one where I can't understand why people are behaving the way they are.) It... I think it flattens out the uniqueness of Tendou and Hiyori's bond, and that bums me out.

Also, I think my feelings about Tendou/Hiyori (do not like) are getting a little tangled up with Hiyori/Worm (pretty into, didn't love how the show handled the fallout) as far as how I'm communicating my feelings about this episode. There are two reveals, and it's really the Secret Siblings one that I regret the show pursuing.

Thinking about this more, I feel like I've accidentally hit upon why the execution of the episode mostly didn't click with me: it's maybe trying to do too much, too quickly? We had just come off of the huge Hiyori Is A Worm cliffhanger, but instead of getting to deal with that story fully, to really grapple with how Hiyori feels about this new aspect of her identity, the show immediately adds in the reveal that Tendou is Hiyori's brother, which pivots the lens onto Tendou's feelings towards Hiyori: his protectiveness, his fears, his need to control the situation, etc. There's a whole middle section of this episode that becomes about a completely different thing than the last episode's cliffhanger?

Like, I feel like this episode would've been better served as two episodes? An episode that's more directly about Hiyori being a Worm would've felt like the show was taking that change seriously, while a following episode that let Tendou react as her brother would've been... I mean, I still wouldn't be in favor of it as a story, but I think it would've felt more organic (and less intrusive) than it did here.

The question of whether or not a group of monsters inherently evil has been brought up a lot in the franchise ever since Faiz. In the Worms' case though, it's more specific to the Roidmudes, where who they copy determines how they behave and their chance of being redeemed. Tsurugi has a very strong personality and sense of identity that keeps him oblivious to the fact that he's the same Worm he wants to destroy so he can avenge his sister. Caring about sisters is something that he and Tendo have in common, except Tsurugi only has revenge he can fight for now, as well as restoring the Discabil family fortune outside of fighting.

How he would react to finding out the terrible truth is something that makes Kagami hesitate to tell him, which puts him in a similar situation to Tendo who holds the truth about Hiyori. It's a difficult problem. If the truth is so terrible, does that justify keeping it a secret from someone or lying to them, or does that just allow them to live in false happiness? Does it make the humans any different from the Worms? Maybe Tsurugi, who is if nothing else honest, is more human that most actual humans which is why Kagami feels a connection with him.

I have a friend IRL who's similar to Tsurugi so at least I could probably get along with him. Gon/Yuriko is the most amicable though, so befriending her would definitely be the best option.

Destiny has been a major part of Tendo's motivation since the start though. He's the chosen one, walking the path of heaven to rule over all. Hiyori being his sister and a Worm makes her a part of that, just as all people encounter friends and rivals who can change the direction of their life. But his story isn't the only one that's important.

I think all the nuance of their friendship is still there and the new revelations about Hiyori are just as important to Hiyori's own story as Tendo's. You wanted to see more progress for Hiyori's arc following their adventure in Area X and that's what's happening here. With this new information, she has gone back to that place in search of answers that should hopefully be more clear to her now. The other Souji is important to her destiny.

Yeah, there are two Soujis but only one Tendo Souji, the one who walks the path of heaven. The other Souji was never raised by his grandmother, a Tendo, so he keeps his parents' family name, Kusakabe.

Waga Tomo KaGAHmi is what I hear in my head everytime I type or read the name Kagami. I just couldn't recall when Tsurugi started saying it but he's a great source of comedy for sure!

So yeah, just as I expected for the reaction in this part, but yeah, don't declare this episode as objectively bad just because it didn't work to you. And I did say before that, I don't think that Tendou learned anything in ep. 25, especially him saving her at the end of the episode. Also to make it clear, it means that Juka is the half-sister of Tendou, Juka isn't Tendou's sister by blood, only adopted sister. His grandmother, the Tendou family, adopts Tendou as one of her and Juka's own after his parents' death, changing his name from Souji Kusakabe to Souji Tendou.

Firstly I'd want to talk about Tendou's stark contrast about his response to Hiyori compared to most other people as something that makes sense (especially with his proclaim here to kill any beings to protect Hiyori, though this won't happen for sure); the other person who Tendou shows as much care was Juka, his family member, albeit step-sister, it seems that Tendou cares the most about family (and I'd say the flashback is only rectifying this, not some destiny BS, more info below), while it can be less so for friends like Kagami, and mostly about only saving lives for strangers. Fish did explain about how this relationship didn't overwrite the bond they've created before, but the thing is, Tendou also can show nearly as much care as those 2 to someone based on talent, like Jiiya, and he has no familial relation to him in the slightest, so yeah probably you not wanting this is warranted too based on this part.

I'd like to talk about how Tendou responds to Kagami in this episode. If Tendou proclaims to kill any beings to protect Hiyori, because of Kagami knowing that she's alive (Tendou faking her death so that she won't be targeted by others), so that means Tendou won't allow anyone to know or interact with Hiyori other than him? How would Hiyori be able to live properly this way, with Tendou wanting Hiyori to live as Hiyori (I know what that means, he wants for Hiyori to live as Hiyori, not as a monstrous Worm)? This is overprotective taken to the extremes.

Uhh... didn't Hiyori tell Rena to stop, and that at the end, she goes to the Shibuya by herself and confronting any ZECTroopers with a chilling look on her face, and disposed them using her Worm form? Isn't that being active, being able to go into that place without Tendou or Kagami accompanying her, and her making a good use of her Worm form?

Well, no offense sorry, but I don't feel that you're being fair here. For this part which don't work to you, you throw in various questions to show more of its disapproval here (well, tbf, you did question about what the Worms are actually doing), like the Worms existing before asteroid, targeting Tendou's parents, what they're doing for next years. I'm probably not defending these parts, but my point is that, there are also various things that probably doesn't make sense (dunno if you or others think plausible explanations for this) in the story, like for Tsurugi, him being the only case of a Worm that had the human personality completely overpowers him by impossible odds, only due to Tsurugi's arrogant nature and personality. Also for why the Worms that impersonated his parents existed before the asteroid, sorry, I can't explain that too! Because spoilers.

As already said, he's not refered as Tendou, but Souji Kusakabe (so "Another Souji", for this time, further of this would be spoiler), but this is another question at this point yeah.

But there's Hiyori storming the base on this episode (and you don't treat her as active character here)... well to answer this question, it would be Hiyori figuring out Tendou being a killer or not by tasting the food at ep. 13-14, with the help of your take of it to appreciate it of course.

I don't think that Tendou's motivation is about parent death based from here. From what I catch, Tendou is someone who cares the most for family members, that being Juka, for what's shown (and well... Hiyori as from this part), and previously, Tendou also loses his cool, swears personal vengenace, and even acting recklessly to Worms that targeted Juka (proclaiming that they won't get away) and endangered Hiyori, as for ep. 26. So I think the flashback here, Tendou shows similar characteristics of that, Tendou being enraged for harm to his family, where Worms that targeted and killed his parents are what Tendou hates the most, just like the Worm that endangered Juka and Hiyori. The flashback I think isn't meant to change Tendou's motivation, it's meant to show Hiyori's origin as a Worm.

I guess I still don't see their friendship the same? I can't reconcile the previous version, where Tendou chose to dedicate himself to this person because of her innate qualities, with the current version where he made a vow as a child to protect her no matter what. Like, he was invested in her before he even knew her, and that colors every interaction they ever had on the show for me.

For her getting a psychic Find My Friend ping and discovering Another Tendou... it's a lot for one episode. They are hitting Hiyori with being a Worm, finding out her terrible origins, discovering Tendou is her brother, and then still having her wander off to Area X (a hard right after Area Sundown) to meet Another Tendou. That's a lot! I think all of that stuff needed more room to breathe.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and file A Worm Copy Of His Unborn Sister as a half-sister. I'm sorry if that's speciesist!

It is, and it's something the episode doesn't really have a ton of space to explore. (They have a lot of ground to cover in this one!) While I didn't love Tendou threatening Kagami to protect Hiyori, I really did like the scene of Tendou telling Hiyori how her life was going to be now. It's incredibly Tendou to take a chaotic situation and unilaterally decide how to proceed. What he's offering Hiyori is a gilded cage, and it's sort of cruel. He's valuing his needs (Hiyori Must Be Protected) over her autonomy, her independence. It's treating her as an object to be defended, rather than a person who is living a life. It's my favorite Tendou thing in the episode?

Not to me? Her wandering off is something that happens because of a psychic phenomenon, so I'm not feeling generous enough to say that it makes Hiyori a story driver. She's not even recognizably Hiyori at that point in the story.

And her running off because Worm Widow is telling her They're All Going To Laugh At You... I mean, if we're going to refer to that as Hiyori being in control of her story, we have lowered the bar pretty low.

The problem for me with both of those examples are that it becomes more about other people's agendas, other plots. Worm Widow's scene is about her manipulating Hiyori, not Hiyori responding to manipulation. (It's also under a minute long, so let's keep that in mind.) Hiyori going to see Another Tendou at the end isn't some huge decision, it's a weird plot thing that happens because of a psychic phenomenon.

My point (which I guess I made badly) wasn't that there aren't potential answers for all of these questions. There definitely are! They are probably going to be resolved somewhere in the next seventeen episodes! My frustration was that Tendou's explanation introduced so many new questions that it became an obstacle for me. I've probably made an analogy like this before, but it'd be like if you saw a friend on the street, and that friend was dressed like a clown. If that friend responded to the question Why Are You Dressed Like A Clown with I Agreed To Do It When I Lost A Volleyball Match To Paul Rudd, it replaces my one previous question with at least two new questions. It's an answer, but it's an answer I will need so much more context for.