Each belt has different rules around who can use it, with Delta being the most permissive and Faiz the most restrictive (Kaixa is actually on par with Delta in who can use it, but it will also straight up kill you if you weren't its intended target). I forget how much of this is clearly explained in the show itself, but I can tell you that there will be an explanation for how Kusaka can use all three Gears.

Yeah, this is stuff I really don't stress about, since if it feels like an error it's probably more that the explanation hasn't arrived yet. That's a lesson I learned on Ex-Aid, when the show makes a really big deal about the fact that Emu could immediately use the Gamer Driver when everyone else needed compatibility surgery. I assume that we'll get some clarification on what the deal is with the belts over the next dozen episodes.

That's true and Keitarou would have to adjust to the reality that all his friends are suddenly Orphenochs. Would make a good fanfiction though!

So it's like Mari's death is a thing that happens, whereas with Takumi, it tells us something we didn't know about him. Mari's death changes the future of the show, but the reveal of Takumi changes the past of the show, redefining him in a new way? Yeah, I totally get that.

It's more that Mari dying is a thing I expect the show to fix, while Takumi being an Orphnoch is a thing I expect the show to explore. Speculating on how something'll get fixed... I mean, that's what I'm watching the show for. But speculating on how something'll impact a character, or what it's saying about the story being told, that's shit I can't stop thinking about.

Welp, guess only word I have for you Die is WELCOME TO LUCKY CLOVER. :lolol

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 35

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--1--

Last episode, everything changed. Mari died. Takumi was revealed to be an Orphnoch. The entire premise of the show was cracked open, irrevocably altered. Nothing would ever be the same again.

What this episode asks is, Why Not?

Maybe this is another one that's frustrating to some viewers. There's an active attempt by the characters to sweep all these changes under the rug. There's a cute cookout scene that's very mid-20s, episode-wise. What you might expect to be about a bold new status quo (or, failing that, boatloads of exposition) ends up being a concerted attempt at Business As Usual.

But, man, I love that choice.

It all feels like exactly what people do in times of trauma. Nothing makes sense, everything's chaotic, there are no answers. But then there's this tiny chance of normalcy, and everyone grabs on for dear life. (I mean, god, look at most cities that reopening right now.) Mari died? Hey, it was just a wacky mix-up at the hospital! ("Oh! You thought I said your friend was ‘not alive’? You must've misheard me. When you asked if she had died, I said she was ‘naw, alive.’ Ha ha, whoops! What a crazy misunderstanding!”) Takmui's an Orphnoch and everyone knows it? Not if we never bring it up again! See? Everything's fine forever!

And, like, of course it isn't. As much as we might long for normalcy and the safety of predictability, things always change. Mari can put a big stupid grin on her face when her friends are around, but she can't hide her haunted look when she thinks no one sees. Takumi can force his Orphnoch form back in the closet, but he can't hide it away forever. These things need to be acknowledged, recognized, processed. Running from that... it's only going to work for an episode.

--2--

It's a good episode, though. Not what I was expecting at all, but I really do like the choice to try and act like nothing changed.

There's some very fun directorial decisions in this one. All of the back-half of the episode, it's upbeat dialogue and friendly activities (Keitaro really likes that grilled pumpkin, you guys), but the lighting is overcast, the atmosphere foreboding. It sells the impression that none of this repression is good, that it's not going to work.

And, man, that shaft of light that drops down as Takumi transforms into Wolfeyes, his Orphnoch form, it's such a stupidly fun choice. Cheesy in all the right ways.

--3--

This is, unfortunately, a weirdly tough episode for me to dig into! A lot of stuff happened, plot-wise, but it mostly feels like moving pieces around, or creating consequences for other episodes. I love the tone, the approach, but the individual pieces don't have much meat on them. There weren't a ton of conversations between characters, and what was there felt very... on-the-nose?

Like, the stuff with Takumi and Murakami/Kageyama, it didn't really pop for me. I like the idea of seeing Takumi have to navigate a different group, but this episode was very... transactional? It felt too plot-driven to me.

The Kusaka/Yuuji scene had the same limitation to me. (That opening punch, though! Second funniest thing in the episode!) It's just Yuuji saying that he knows Kusaka is a liar, and Kusaka wanting to know what the Orphnochs are all up to. There's a little moment I liked in it, where it's clear that Kusaka is suspicious because this feels like one of his schemes, but then Yuuji just goes ahead and says that out loud.

I didn't mind the Takumi/Kusaka talk, but it didn't really do a lot for me. It plays into the themes of the episode, that it's natural to try and pretend things haven't changed when it's too tough to find a new path, but that's really all their talk has to it. I like that Takumi trusts his friends (and Kusaka?!) enough to let them decide if he should stick around or not, but it's a scene that's mostly redundant by the time the cookout happens. That scene, it does it all in a more elegant way?

And, man, that cookout scene is pretty great. It's this nice mix of surface-level happiness with barely concealed terror, this group of people Faking It Until They Make It with their ability to coexist. It's forced in a way that's heartbreaking, and that's even before Lucky Clover shows up for their newest member.

--4--

My favorite, favorite thing about Team Faiz trying to go back to business as usual (including no one telling Mari that Takumi is an Orphnoch, my least favorite Kamen Rider trope) is that it all blows up in their faces in the first goddamn episode. Their attempt at a status quo does not even last an episode. Fantastic.

It's like, I'll give them the realism of these kids hoping that nothing has to change, but only for a minute. After that, yes, Lucky Clover wants what they're owed. Mari has to find out that Takumi is Wolfeyes, the (probably) same Orphnoch WHO WAS AT THE RYUSEI SCHOOL REUNION. They tried running from this. I get why they'd try, and it's important to show it, but it can't work. Everything's changed forever.

--5--

Plus, running away is 100% Mihara's thing, and I still love it. (He's going to try being a hero now, though, so I'm probably going to fall out of love.) The biggest laugh I got from this episode was from Mihara. The episode opens with this awesome Wolfeyes/Skullcandy brawl, with Takumi knocking Sawada off of a cliff while everyone else watches, stunned. The next scene is Mihara trying to give the Delta Belt back to Kusaka so he can go home. Yes. YES. I would never have gotten tired of that dude trying to quit after every single fight, and I'm worried that him committing to heroism is a huge narrative miscalculation.

I hope it's all a miscommunication!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz35e.png

Four years prior to Faiz, Mihara was rescue chopper pilot Sho Tatsumi aka Go Green in Kyukyu Sentai GogoV. Polar opposite of Mihara too character-wise.

*insert clever way of pointing out this is another Ishida episode here*

I would be down for this idea too. Just have every Delta fight from here on end with Mihara naively assuming it's his last one, and keep contriving increasingly absurd scenarios to force the belt back on him. Everyone else can be involved in this complex web of drama, where every difficult decision leads to the next, while off to the side, Mihara just can't go out for an ice cream cone without the guy selling it turning out to be an Orphenoch that wants him dead.

Fast and Furious "One last job" logic only it's the Ryuseii School alumni constantly showing up at his door and refusing to leave unless he helps them with a problem that is invariable Orphenoch related.

"Fine, there you go, I killed that hit-and-run driver who was really the Cockroach Undead. Can I go home now?"

Also an't believe my brain just thought of thishttps://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E01/104...5DRUQgREVBRA==
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E01/106...8gIkFMSVZFLiI=

I can't respond for this other than a new info ok, for how people work like when they're in trauma...the avoiding things related to trauma part? (from many, many types of reactions). And I guess the viewers that are frustrated didn't really specify which one except for "miscommunications", so I was confused for reading your "sweep all these changes under the rug", though they would meant keep piling up problems by constantly avoiding them and not bringing them up and solve it?

It's celebration! But it has to be ruined by the Lucky bastard Clovers.

With it all being processed offscreen.... the "price" was Takumi revealing publicly that he's an Orphnoch. For it being too plot-driven, so you don't like plot-driven stuff (no, world-building is not mutually a plot-driven stuff)? But now let's discuss about the answer for a mystery long ago, the Takumi being "chosen one" you discussed early part while Mari and Keitaro aren't, is because, well, he's an Orphnoch. In Kamen Rider Faiz, Riders and MOTW are mutual because, only Orphnochs can transform into Riders. The series where Riders and monsters are one! Also f**k yeah for Yuji figuring it out that Kusaka is a schemer and liar! So I guess he sides with Keitaro more (that informs Takumi feels he's at fault for Mari's death because he wasn't able to protect her instead of directly attacking her)? Also Takumi/Kusaka never really do a lot to me in any scenes (against the shipping!) because Kusaka's a two-faced bastard which would mean all the talk is fake. But you're right that for all the hard time Takumi gives to others, he's too lenient on Kusaka (unlike him lashing out at Kageyama, a moment where I also went "f**k yeah!").

It's Takumi's decision to fight as Faiz or as Wolf Orphnoch, but I dunno what pressures Takumi to use his Orphnoch form here. Also for "no one telling Mari that Takumi is an Orphnoch" being your least favorite trope, that kind is actually the viewers' frustration for the series you discuss before, only it's not merely about not telling her, but about the entire cast never telling/discussing anyone anything. Now I wonder, which differentiates between tolerable or not to you, and the criteria for tolerable or not in all those "misunderstanding" tropes?

With you discussing the viewers frustrations in this viewers, this doesn't cross your mind, about Mihara constantly running away for them?

I would be over the moon if every Delta fight going forward was an exquisitely-crafted battle for the ages, and they all end with Delta's heroic motto: "Can I go home now?"

It really is! Except it's only a celebration if they ignore the horrible costs of that victory, so...

If there's a misstep in this episode for me, this is it. I've got to squint really hard to see how Takumi could trust his future in the group to someone like Kusaka. Like, Takumi's asking that guy to be fair to him. Kusaka. I buy it in the moment, because Takumi doesn't think a whole lot of himself right then, but it's still a tough pill to swallow.

Well, Takumi loses the belt in the middle of the fight, so his only option was to use his Orphnoch form.

No One Can Tell The Lady About What's Going On is a very specific flavor of people hiding things, and I have next to no patience for it. It has less to do with misunderstandings and character-based miscommunications, and more to do with depressing gender expectations and not-so-subtle infantilizing. A lot of the stuff that happens here, with people not knowing how to open up with one another, it can be chalked up to broken people doing the best they can with the emotional tools they've got. Not telling Mari, it's like, but Keitaro is okay to know?

Do... do people get frustrated by Mihara wanting to quit?! That's the best part of the show!

I, typically, can't stop thinking about dumb Delta things that'd make me incredibly happy:

-Figuarts Zero Mihara, molded in Giving Away Delta Belt pose.

-Playable Delta in Climax Fighters, but he Ring Outs as soon as the match starts.

-CSM Delta Gear "Mihara Edition", where all of the belt noises are him begging not to participate.

Not only that, but it's plot relevant. It's the only reason he can use it without the usual addictive side effects. The blet can't make his desire to use it and fight compulsive, because he doesn't have any in the first place!

Like it would be a huge plot hole if he suddenly really wanted to fight.

Whoa, I hadn't considered that! Good point!

The Delta Driver's innate coolness and badassery is cancelled out by Mihara's simple earthly desire to go home and watch the lastest chapter of his sitcoms.

Honestly as much as I like watching Faiz, this is probably the Rider with plot I would least want to actually participate in.

I think while I was watching, I was wondering why the characters (and the show as a whole) kept trying to make this plain guy who just wants to go home into a rider. I know it's a common cliche to get an unwilling hero into action but like, there's not only no reason why it specifically has to be him, but you're also not currently lacking for options!

The most askance I've ever looked at Kusaka is when he was screaming at Mihara that he can't go home, that they have to fight, that they won't have a home until they defeat the Orphnochs.

And I'm just like, no? It doesn't seem like the Ryusei School alumni (at this point in the story, because I'm sure Secrets Abound) are getting picked off by Orphnochs. It seems like they're throwing themselves into dangerous situations and then getting murdered. Like, it definitely feels like Mihara could work some office job, get a drink on the weekend, rewatch Parks and Rec, and do all of that without fearing for his life.

When Kusaka's berating him for not embracing a life of mortal combat, it felt like Kusaka was in the throes of whatever brain fever keeps the other Ryusei students from having a goddamn ounce of self-preservation. I don't think all of Smart Brain is desperate to end the life of some dude who just wants to get through the new season of Westworld! I mean, it's not a great season, but they probably won't kill him for watching it.

Like you wouldn't want to actually be a Rider in Faiz? I definitely get that. I wouldn't want to be one in Blade either, or Ryuki actually. Hell, I wouldn't want to be a Rider in a lot of Rider shows honestly. I think "carrying the weight" of being a Rider in a lot of these stories is pretty dang heavy.

Kusaka doesn't want him to go home because it might let him think about stuff for more than five seconds and go "Wait a minute, maybe Kusaka's toying with us. I better tell the others... right after I scroll through twitter for an hour."

I mean, if I was forced to come up with an in-story reason why Kusaka is so insistent that Mihara fight as Delta (that doesn't involve having Meteor Madness, the tendency for Ryusei students to get themselves killed for no apparent reason), it would be that he could really use a meat-shield like Mihara at this point in the story. I mean, Takumi won't fight as Faiz, and can't be trusted as an Orphnoch. Yuuji's got his number. With Mihara, this is one of the few people left that he can manipulate into fighting alongside (or in front of) him.

"MIHARA! You HAVE to fight! This guy! Who wants to kill me!"

You say this like it's a joke, but I guarantee you this is exactly how Kusaka's brain works. The man likes having tools! He's fine having a particularly whiny one, as long it means it won't start asking questions!

It ends in a joke, but that was a real theory! I don't doubt that he cares more about his own dwindling chances of survival than he does the responsibility of wielding power in service of others!

It's crazy how often watching Kamen Rider makes being a Rider look awesome and a burden at the same time. Imagine yourself in this hypothesis. Firstly, you would need to die or be injected with mutagen in your heart to revive as an Orphenoch which is an unlikely event. If successful, Smart Brain would be hunting you down to kill you. By chance, you find the Faiz Gear which you can use to fight back. So, you're Faiz and that seems pretty cool at first, but now you're a priority target and if that's not bad enough, it's taxing on your body. At least Faiz is less dangerous than the other Gears. It would probably be the least of your worries.

I'm indifferent to Mihara. He's not a detriment to my enjoyment of the show, nor does he enrich it. Kusaka trusts his Ryusei School friends the most and for some reason he thinks Mihara specifically is the most fit to be Delta. Their numbers may be dwindling but Rina's still alive and she doesn't seem opposed to fighting. It's not like anything is stopping Mihara from giving Delta Gear to someone who actually wants it. Maybe he doesn't want to cause problems for others. He doesn't want to fight, but he will if it means his friends won't have to. That seems to be the only motivation he could have.

Nothing to see here.

Ignore this post.

Yeah, boy, maybe Mihara just doesn't like getting yelled at? Like, I've been in situations where I've done stuff for people because they care more about it than I do, and it's not worth fighting about it. Maybe that's Mihara?

And, maybe Kusaka knows that, and that's why he's so insistent that Mihara be Delta? Because Mihara's a pushover, and Kusaka likes pushing people over?

Guess who's glad he took a minute to read these posts!

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 36

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--1--

Perfect episode? Maybe the perfect episode.

I loved this one so much. I don’t think there’s a bum note in it, and it’s easily my favorite dramatic episode of the series. Last episode was a qualified good, with a lot of emphasis on what characters would do. (Namely, ignore the situation as best they could.) This one, it’s about how characters feel. It spends almost all of its run-time drilling into the characters and their relationships.

Last one, it was a rush to address the sword hanging over our heroes. This one, it’s the release of a held breath, and silence, and sadness. What seemed like it would be a catastrophic schism is just (to quote Superchunk) a soft collapse, a slow-motion fall.

--2--

Nearly every scene had something in it that broke my heart.

The beginning, with Mari fleeing through the woods. I don’t love the trope of The Girl Can’t Know The Truth, but this series rehabilitates it by adding in the reality that Mari isn’t just scared of Takumi being an Orphnoch, she’s terrified that Takumi is the one who killed a bunch of her friends/siblings a year or so earlier. That is an okay reason to be scared! But there’s this shot of Takumi, from Mari’s perspective on the ground. He’s trying to reach out, to show her that he’s still her friend. But he’s backlit by the moonlight. He’s all silhouette, no expression. His shape is distorted by shadows; it’s foreboding, monstrous. He can’t get her to see him as her friend anymore.

Or, there’s this moment when Keitaro’s ironing. (I’m actually tearing up typing this.) Out of nowhere, Takumi walks in, like nothing happened. Keitaro’s overjoyed. Takumi isn’t really there, though. It’s a mirage, a flash of hope. It’s over so fast, but it hits like a truck. That realization that, no, we’re so far away from things being alright.

Even Takumi gets in on it, with a moment spent imagining that a group of people playing in a park are him and Mari and Keitaro. It’s sappy, and out-of-character, but it feels so honest. It’s someone who’s lost more than he ever realized he could lose, dreaming of a friendship he took for granted.

And, god, the moment when it all breaks for good. Everyone in the living room, as Mari recoils from Takumi’s touch. Accidental, but it’s what his friends have been trying to hide from him all day. Keitaro couldn’t stop shaking at the lake, and now Mari flinches, starts sobbing at the fear she’s trying to banish. The muffled sobs as the only noise on the soundtrack, barely audible but drowning out everything. She can’t pretend she sees Takumi as less than a threat, a monster.

He can’t stay. It’s all over for them.

--3--

There’s a lot in this that felt like Inoue digging into Agito, and trying to view some of its plots with a bit more nuance. An older, wiser Inoue? Maybe.

There’s a key moment in the beginning of Agito, when Mana thinks Shouichi might’ve murdered her dad. The evidence is circumstantial, and Shouichi can’t remember enough of the events to say what his role was. In the end, she decides to believe that he’s the kind man she knows, not the killer she’s afraid he might be. “Shouichi is Shouichi,” she says, and that gets called back a bunch of times over the series. It’s about, I think, being able to see what you love about someone no matter what. It’s about friendship, and standing by your friends in difficult times.

In this one, we get a couple versions of that phrase. “Takkun is Takkun,” Keitaro says, as he trembles in fear of his friend. “Takumi is Takumi,” Mari says, as she bottles up her apprehension and mistrust. It’s the callback to Everything Is Going To Be Fine, but unsteady, insincere. It isn’t about acceptance, it’s about the distance between wanting to accept someone and actually accepting them.

Shows like this, they can make acceptance seem easy. Believe in your friends. Support those you love. But, man, that shit can be hard. Human beings are messy, contradictory. Keitaro and Mari genuinely want to make Takumi feel safe, seen, accepted. But Keitaro fears Orphnochs. Mari views Takumi as a killer. They try to push it all down, focus on what they want to see in their friend. Takumi is Takumi, right? But it’s like someone changed the definition for Takumi, made that name equate to horror, to bloodlust.

Acceptance… it should be easy, you know? But sometimes, it’s hard. It’s work, even if we don’t want it to be. Mari’s tears begin as a visceral reaction to Takumi’s closeness, a primal fear. But they change into something much sadder: she’s hurting her friend and she can’t make herself stop. She wants to be a better person, and she can’t be that person fast enough to help Takumi.

--4--

Luckily, there’s always Yuuji to make things better.

One of my favorite dialogue scenes was a ways back, when Yuuji and Takumi hung out at the batting cage. Yuuji has this ability to reach Takumi in a way that no else seems able, and their scenes are generally terrific. Well, shit, Inoue must’ve been reading this thread (Faiz is the current show, right?), because here’s a very sweet scene with Takumi. It’s mostly about how much Yuuji believes in Takumi, and how much Takumi respects Yuuji, but there’s a thing in it I thought was really interesting.

As they’re talking about how they can hold onto their humanity while still being Orphnochs, Takumi tries to explain to Yuuji what being Faiz means to him. It should be about protecting humans, but he was really just doing it to deny his true nature. It wasn’t heroism, it was self-negation.

I don’t really buy it. Yuuji, when he hears this confession from Takumi, has a look on his face that reads as That Doesn’t Sound Right. Takumi’s always had a tough time recognizing his altruism, and that certainly hasn’t changed when his friends view him as a monster. But the idea that Takumi sees everything he’s done as obfuscation, as a distraction from the secret sickness inside of him… I really love exploring that self-loathing. Like, that’s the stuff I want to know more about, and I’m glad to get a Takkiba scene that lets those thoughts bubble up.

Then, man, icing on a delicious melodrama cake, we get Yuuji showing up as Faiz to defeat the week’s monster. It’s a quick fight, nothing too heavy, but the aftermath of it is outstanding.

Faiz has defeated the monster. Not Takumi, but Faiz. Faiz standing there in front of Keitaro and Mari, it’s rubbing their faces in how they couldn’t support their friend. It shouldn’t be Yuuji standing there. It should be Takumi. Mari can’t even look at Faiz. She starts picking at the plaster on a pillar, something to keep her mind off of the harm she’s caused. It should be Takumi standing there, but she drove him away.

Into the arms of Lucky Clover, who arrive with a pitch-goddamn-perfect slow clap of condescension from Houjou. They want the Faiz Belt, and their newest member’s job is to take it off of Yuuji. Takumi, who transforms into Wolfeyes, and rushes straight at Faiz.

Best goddamn endings on this show, you guys.

--5--

A heavy, beautiful episode, this time. But not without the usual gutter charms of horrible people being horrible, aka Oh My God Kusaka.

He’s phenomenal in this episode. Every time he acted the white knight around Mari, saving her from the brutish Takumi, I lost it. So funny. All of his ingratiating bullshit, the faux chivalry, it was not any less funny despite the deep, rich storytelling on display. And when Mari’s like Hey About The Reunion and he screams at her to shut up, it was so excellent. There’re a couple points in this episode where Kusaka can’t deflect fast enough, and he just explodes. That scene with Mari, and the one where Keitaro defends his friendship with Takumi to Kusaka, and Kusaka gets so flustered he just starts randomly insulting Keitaro. I feel like, as the stakes get higher, maybe Kusaka’s having a tougher time navigating through all of these decaying bonds? Like, everyone’s harder to manipulate when they’re feeling the Big Emotions.

And, shit, we are in Big Emotion territory for sure. I am fully dialed-in for what this show is doing. A+ episode.

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I think one of my favorite touches is that Kiba uses his left hand to operate the phone during his transformation, subtly implying that even though we're supposed to be cheering him one as Faiz that something's off with him and this situation. Granted I also know it was probably done to help differentiate him as a rider user like Kusaka inserting the phone at an angle.

And regarding Mihara as Delta I would say he's the ideal user* due to his lack of desire to even use the damn thing. But the easy time he's had in his fights might also be making him think that this is going to be easier than in actuality to the point that a rude awakening whenever the raw power of the belt doesn't hack it anymore might happen. But it also makes sense he's half-assing it due to just wanting to go home and forget about all these nuts and their issues but now the monsters are stalking and trying to kill him due to the belt.

* compared to Saya being the most efficient user(using the finisher and seeming to just go into a fight trying to end it as fast as possible) and Kitazaki the strongest user (only hampered by never using the finisher due to wanting to make things more interesting/fun for himself)

I was a little surprised at how great Yuuji was at being Faiz. Like, he got that Gear figured out fast. Maybe being Faiz is just way easier than Takumi makes it look?

Yeah, the joke answer is that Mihara harnesses the power of Delta to spend less time being Delta, but in general I don't think he's had to fight that hard? The Orphnochs he's defeated weren't, like, Lucky Clover or anything.

Or, who knows, maybe it's like Yuuji being Faiz and the real answer is that Kitazaki and Saya just sucked super bad at it.

Ryuki having that episode dedicated to scaring that kid might have been more on-point than I thought!

I think if I got the option, I'd probably go with being a Rider on Ex-Aid. You work a well-paying medical job while also playing video games at the same time! Granted, you and someone else will die if you're not good enough, but I'm pretty confident in my Mario skills.

Okay, first off, this I've just gotta say this: Die, I'm starting to feel like you've gotten really good at this whole process over time. Maybe it's just that Faiz leaves you with a lot to talk about or something, but episode write-ups like that are A+ work in their own right. You are making an astonishingly good case for how you see this show right now.

Also, changing the format so that it didn't require everything to be in huge, unbroken paragraphs was definitely a smart move looking back, huh? So many words!

*insert clever way of pointing out that since Rider episodes are largely written and filmed in pairs, this is still Ishida doing what he does here.*

Well, Yuuji does have tons of experience being on the receiving end of the Faiz Gear. I think he probably got the basics of "hit people and then stick a laser pointer on your leg" figured out somewhere around the time he was deflecting Rider Kicks? Although I guess stunts like that point right back to him maybe secretly kinda being a way better fighter than Takumi.

Aw, thanks! I don't know if you had to say it, but I really appreciate that you did. Coming from someone who's pretty much the highwater mark for writing about Kamen Rider around these parts, that's incredibly flattering.

I don't know if it's Faiz specifically, but I really enjoy emotionally dense episodes like this one, both as a viewer and as someone writing about their viewing experience. Give or take a Ryuki episode that had a hundred ways in and no ways out, they're the most fun episodes to talk about. (Even that Ryuki one got to be fun in its own neuroses-inducing way!) Like, I really enjoyed trying to talk about the Build episodes with the Hazard Trigger. When it's all emotions driving it? That's my stuff.

Plot-heavy episodes, honestly, not always that fun to talk about. So much of what makes a plot work isn't in the details, it's in the overview, the arc. Talking about one segment in a long-form plotline, it's like trying to delve into one sentence in a paragraph. Sometimes it's a really good sentence! It might use some neat words! But sometimes, it's just getting you from the previous sentence to the next.

Episodes like 36 for Faiz, though, that's where it feels like you're having a discussion with the writer. The machinations are pushed to the side, and now it's time to talk about the heart of the story. Who are these characters. How do they feel. What would it take to break them. These types of episodes, they're so dense, like I said. So many details to obsess over. They are, honestly, so fun to try and talk about. I'm glad I'm doing them justice!

I sort-of figured, but thanks for the confirmation! Also, man, I was so nervous that Translation Cop was going to show and tell me that, actually, that scene where Takumi is talking to Yuuji got horribly mistranslated, it's all about how Takumi blames his friends and hopes they die in an explosion. Finding that out would've been such a bummer, you know?

Structurally, that fight needed to be over fast so that the show could really let that cliffhanger breathe. But, I don't know, it would've been fun to see Yuuji, like, put the Faiz Pointer on upside-down at first. Tonally inconsistent, and a distraction from what the story is trying to do, but still fun!

Unfortunately yes. For all the Faiz hate, he got it the worst. It's frustrating to them about his cowardice, indecision, reluctance, that they think it's stupid for him to reject a chance for being strong and safe especially if Orphnochs are trying to kill. Also they think he doesn't deserve to be Delta because of how unskilled in a fight he is; that Delta's power should be used by someone more deserving.

Everything (in-universe) is ruined in this episode because of the broken status quo. Total broken home.

For The Girl Can't Know The Truth, while others are at fault for this... what do you expect for Kusaka? I think for Kusaka employing this trope, it's in his character. This could be... just another one of unlikable qualities put in Kusaka! (he does treat her inappropriately after all) But unfortunately, while this trope isn't a fun one (not to me either), I feel like people are hoping for a subverting expectations that the said girl won't have reactions like here (no, and I feel like circumstances are ignored for this one), to prove that it's ok to feed any truth for the girl, don't underestimate them. But with her having reactions like this, just like what they feared, this would likely push the Girl Can't Know The Truth trope even more (with Kusaka being an in-universe example for this). Previously, I actually didn't know what's with Mari being totally scared for Takumi being an Orphnoch (like Keitaro pointed out, he protected her with it)... but this episode answered it with Takumi, not merely being an Orphnoch, but also the very Orphnoch that caused the doom in Ryusei reunion. For Takumi, with his fear is him being destructive to other people, I guess with the imagining in the park, he's finally proven himself wrong that he can be benefical to others like this?

Keitaro only wants to forget about Takkun being an Orphnoch and not only Mari that wasn't told, but everyone else as well, but nah, Takumi's deal to Smart Brain was publicly revealing that he's an Orphnoch so it's for naught..... Keitaro is a victim of Can't Know The Truth as well then? He knows Takumi is an Orphnoch, but he doesn't know about his worse state about being publicly known that Takumi won't tell him. Also with you talking about acceptance like this, "believe in your friends", would this be related to Sawada part before? Where like Kusaka points out, there are being reckless in your sympathy. Keitaro claiming that Takumi transformed to save Mari could be attributed to the part where Sawada "saved" Mari as well.

Yuji just tells his trio outright that Takumi is an Orphnoch... in contrast to his interactions with Takumi before. I guess Keitaro has restored Yuji's full faith to Takumi right? And now the one he's suspicious to was Kusaka. Yuji becoming Faiz cements his position as the deuteragonist of the show, even if the secondary Rider is Kusaka. Also now I wonder what's the deal with Takumi's past! It's informed that he gained Orphnoch from an accident, apparently that Takumi killed the Ryusei reunion, and he's aware all this time that he's an Orphnoch, that he tried to deny with becoming Faiz. Also with him apparently carrying Lucky Clover's mission (one of the things that make Sawada obviously evil was him joining Lucky Clover you said? see Takumi here).

Unfortunately, I feel like there are probably people who prefer everyone to act like Kusaka like this in face of traumatic events like this, with the argument being "it's already happened, suck it up", "being a crybaby wouldn't change what happened" or something, claiming it's strong to act like Kusaka in face like this. So to be strong is to be psychopathic? Smh.

Fortunately, these past few, insanely critical episodes of the series have been relatively good about that kind of thing. Though there are minor mistakes here or there I've caught that I don't really feel the need to actively bring up. Takumi telling Yuuji that "we" fight to negate "our" true forms in that conversation, for example. Very obviously wrong, but I figure, like, you probably know Takumi is still talking about just himself there without me telling you, because the conversation on the whole is clearly about that. This far in, I guess I'm assuming you've adjusted to how difficult some of TV-N's lines can be to parse anyway.

Yeah, I know what you mean. You could have an awesome plot in theory but it's meaningless if you don't get to see how it affects the characters and more importantly, you need to care about them. Generally, I think this show does an excellent job of making the main characters feel complex and dynamic and I appreciate how the emotions of the disbanded Team Faiz is at the center of this plot, I think it needed to be about them and how they're dealing with this.

I guess this is why you had so much to say about the Takumi reveal. I mean, I expected you to have a lot to say since it's a pretty big deal, but the way it changes everything is what makes it important. The status quo has been destroyed and the characters don't know how to move forward. Smart Brain are now chasing Takumi like a gang of loan sharks (which is ironic since Faiz has a shark motif), looking to collect on his deal with Murakami. Takumi's in a difficult position. He owes them, but what they want, he can't do it. He can't join Lucky Clover if it means being an enemy to humans. Kusaka claims to owe Takumi but this is the second time that Takumi has got Kusaka out of a bad situation after saving him from Smart Brain and it doesn't look like Kusaka intends to repay him.

In addition to the echoes of Takumi that Mari and Keitarou saw, the cat licking Mari could've been a metaphorical reminder of him, due to being a nekojita.

Izumi originally auditioned for the role of Takumi and even though Handa was chosen instead, it's cool that he still got to be Faiz part-time. Kiba seems to be the only person other than Takumi who shows expertise at using Faiz. Takumi made a good choice for his successor but Kiba assures him that he will become Faiz again someday.

If Takumi didn't seem aware that he was an Orphenoch, it's probably that he was trying to hide it from himself ever since whatever happened at that reunion. He's a guy who prefers to run from his problems rather than confront them so it makes sense that he wouldn't bring it up until Mari's life depended on it. There's definitely a lot of mystery surrounding his involvement in the reunion. But I've already said too much yesterday.

Not sure if anyone touched on this yet, but my two cents on Mihara Delta: It's established earlier on that most normal people (aside from perhaps other Belt users/already powerful Orphnochs) get poisoned by and addicted to using the Delta Belt. It's only people like Saya and Mihara who don't have a lust for power that are able to use Delta without suffering any ill effects. However, Mihara is just not a good fighter, so while he's able to use Delta, it can never function to its fullest potential.

While I personally find it sad that Delta never lived up to its initial bad-assery (as I love that belt and suit design), I have to admit that it's rather brilliantly ironic/poetic - that the most powerful belt can only be used by the weakest users. Not to mention, it's a great way to nerf Delta and put him on the same level as the other Riders.

Wow, weird. I definitely don't feel that way!

Yeah, I think the show avoids some of the pitfalls of the trope by a) having Mari find out almost immediately and get mad at Keitaro and Kusaka for hiding it from her; and b) making her reaction less about Takumi being an Orphnoch and more about him being the Orphnoch that traumatized her. There's a specificity to it that overcomes a lot of the negatives for me.

I want to say that Keitaro's problem isn't so much that he's trying to forget that Takumi is an Orphnoch (that was the previous episode), but that he's trying to act like it doesn't matter to him. But it clearly does matter.

It's two different things?

One of my favorite choices the show made in this episode is that the show flipped the roles of the characters. Usually, it's about Takumi being closed-off, being inflexible, and his friends trying to reach him. Here, he's open, he's trying to put them at ease. They're the ones who end up screwing this up, unable to articulate their emotional needs, unable to communicate with Takumi.

With Sawada, all of Mari's conception of him was projection. She wanted Sawada's reluctance to be about him looking for a way back to his humanity, and that was a mistake. Here, Takumi is doing everything he can to reach back to his friends and they're making him feel like a stranger. This story is about acceptance, and how hard it can be to live that. Sawada's story was about the ways our hopes for people can blind us to their shortcomings, how dangerous rose-colored glasses can be in Kamen Rider.

Two different stories!

It's probably more that Yuuji sees a kinship in Takumi that he didn't before. They were friends who had a falling out, but now they have a shared experience. Yuuji, I think, is very excited to have that commonality with Takumi, and that's why he tells the others so quickly. This is a very big deal for Yuuji!

It's maybe become a little like code-breaking? I'd never be able to do what you do, hearing the line and knowing it's wrong, but I can try and look at the whole scene and figure out what point the translator is trying to make.

Yeah, it meant the world to me that their breakup, the lowest point, it's them in their living room. It's not in the middle of some battle or on a dramatically-lit stage, it's the place where they're most comfortable. But now it's poisoned, dangerous. It's not about monsters or villains, it's just people failing each other in the most common, human ways. It's all about how they're processing these developments, not What Happens Next.

Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but I feel like Murakami is a good enough manager to know what he can and can't get Takumi to do. Getting the Faiz belt back is within the range of Takumi's morality. I wouldn't expect Murakami to try and get Takumi to kill humans, but reclaiming belts and offing random Orphnochs is... it ain't a million miles from his average Tuesday?

Good catch!

It's a fun inversion of the usual storyline of Proving Your Worthiness, to have Delta be used by someone who least wants it. It's a way of exploring the Terrible Burden trope in a way that I don't recall seeing before? It's also, honestly, such a relatable reaction to seeing every other Ryusei belt-wearer get killed or go crazy. You'd have to be out of your mind to be excited to be Delta!

Die, if the last couple dozen pages of this thread have proved anything, I think it's that you'd have to be more crazy to not be excited about being Delta.

Mihara's a sweet kid and all, but if he doesn't see the appeal of becoming basically the greatest, most amazing Rider who ever existed, I mean, can you blame the fans for not liking him? :p

I heard Delta is so amazing that Shinji Kido told a small boy that he should definitely want to be a Kamen Rider like Delta. And Goro cried, he was so amazed!