Good catch! I think it's also referring to each Rider's outlook on Fangires. Kiva is someone who believes in redemption, who looks for humanity in everything. IXA is all punishment and wrath, someone who won't allow for the possibility that a Fangire might have a soul. IXA's finisher obliterates a Fangire, while Kiva's finisher... maybe liberates them?

If I recall, the suit is supposed to resemble a cleric's garments and his arm motion during transforming overall forms a cross.

I guess cool was the wrong word. Charming is more apt. I think the other important difference for me is that Fourze Driver has range. It keeps the emphasis but can go high and low, making each Switch sound different. IXA Knuckle always sounds the same no matter what it says and I think that's grinding to listen to.

This adds new context to Oomura's line to Wataru encouraging him to make his own violin, since Otoya's reason for declining possession of Black Star taught him that masterpieces should be celebrated for their uniqueness. Otoya was destined to create his own violin, the Bloody Rose. His inspiration gave Oomura a desire to change to stop being a monster, which allows him to sympathize with Wataru who wants to change to become a stronger person. Even though he dies tragically and wasn't able to keep his promise to Otoya, his legacy passes on that inspiration to Wataru across 22 years, to do what he couldn't.

[QUOTE=Kamen Rider Die;800677]I would say that I agree with them! For the most part, the objections people seem to have to Otoya's character aren't just that he's awful; it's that he's awful AND we're supposed to be invested in him and Yuri. The show has spent a lot of time with Otoya trying to win over Yuri, and it's also spent some time showing a gentler, better side to Otoya. You can argue that the show shouldn't be forcing that pairing, but you can't argue that the show isn't investing in it.

That's the thing that actually earns Otoya a designated hero trait, because while you said, the show spent some time showing a gentler, better side of him, his good qualities perk up few and far in-between each other. How the show handles its showing of Otoya's gentler, better side can be the exact reason for those objecting.

In similar virtuous morally upright Rider fashion (not Inoue exclusive thing...like characters such as Kenzaki, Kagami, and Ryotaro before, or someone like Takeru and Emu after), the main character learns that a monster isn't evil or completely evil, and strives to protect them too and is shaken about him fighting off monsters to seek which monsters are good/neutral or bad instead. Wataru's the one having his moment here, he'd resort into questioning about Oomura's backstory, of how he got into there. You claim asking question is what every sane person does like Wataru here... but, unfortunately fiction has made people support Nago's way of dealing with "baddies", that they think to ensure safety for people, heroes should follow that example, to just finish off anyone's bad without any second thoughts, because that's the most efficient way to ensure safety, preventing the risk of the spared baddies taking advantage of that to do another crime unprovoked.

Nago is a self-righteous executioner, he has blasphemous boast to keep talking about how God is in his side, his ally, etc. and dedicates his killings of Fangires to God. Nago doesn't only use an excuse but he uses emotional manipulation here too to guilt-trip Oomura. It's deeper look yeah to see Nago's arch enemy as moral relativism, but I think it can be both for Fangires being his arch enemy too, because Nago has black-or-white view of judging someone by their species; if they're Fangire it means they're automatically bad no matter what. You describe Nago's sun as something demoralizing here, a total contrast of the sun description you gave to Tendou (although the sun description of IXA here still can fit to Tendou, he's an anti-hero too albeit milder one). Oomura's violin creating and mentoring Wataru part of creating art can be rooted, but the part of sound trigger (to stop people playing badly) shouldn't be rooted.

I'm more convinced of the showing of Otoya's gentler, better side here, rather than his protective interaction to women. The part of protecting women only means middle finger to men. Which is Otoya having a civil interaction with another men, as womanizers tend to see other men as enemies and competitors in his way to get women (toxic masculinity btw). I'm also with Otoya here for warning Yuri about Jiro being a monster, which just got shut down by Yuri due to her disdain to him. So Oomura was actually a standard villainous Fangire before, but he redeemed himself to stop attacking humans as a promise to Otoya. So Oomura before meeting Otoya wasn't innocent or morally ambiguous (though by hindsight he may), but after meeting Otoya, Oomura turns innocent to not attack humans anymore.

Got a bit too busy this weekend to really talk about 9, so let me just combine my thoughts here.

Really liked this two-parter. It reminded me a lot of Faiz, in good ways. Not just because Murakami was the Fangire-of-the-fortnight, but because the whole concept of his story about wanting to live a normal life while dealing with his monstrous impulses is literally Faiz's thesis statement. The ending, with Oomura's fragments drifting by the violin, is classic Inoue pathos at its best. This is the kind of stuff that I like from this show, especially with how it manages to find some redeeming traits in Otoya and comes perilously close to actually motivating Wataru to be more assertive. Excellent stuff.

Also a big fan of Ixa, design-wise. I tend to prefer the close-visored Save mode over the open-face Burst mode, but either way it's a crisp design with a really strong holy warrior aesthetic that fits both the monster hunting theme of the season and Nago's specific brand of Lawful Stupid dickishness. I also just adore how badly the Ixa belt over-pronounces every single syllable of a word and then tosses a few more in for good measure.

Yeah, there's also a lot in this story about finding a balance between the drive to create something versus the the need to control that creation. It's a story where men are ruled by their need to define themselves through their art, and then Otoya's like Maybe Don't Think About It Like That. Otoya's the one who comes at art as something that already exists in the world, it just needs to be uncovered. He's not trying to speak through art, he's trying to listen, if that makes any sense. It's the only time Otoya isn't loud!

I don't know. I thought the Otoya/Oomura conversation was really intriguing, what those two guys were saying about their relationship to art.

It's part of the way this show repurposes different tropes to mean different things. Kiva's the hero of the show, so the aesthetics and iconography are all finding the heroic sides of his design. The moon is less a symbol of desolation and fear, and it's more a symbol of protection; clarity and safety in the night. IXA's inverting the sun into something horrible and uncompromising. Smart shows play around with these sorts of expectations!

I was so monumentally disappointed that there wasn't a single "Oomura is Oomura" call-out in this story. (We did get Nago shouting "Evil is Evil!", but that's not really the same.) Inoue's fascination with how people define themselves off of their merits and flaws, how heroism can sometimes be nothing greater than accepting a complicated person for themselves, the hard but necessary work of self-acceptance, learning to live by your own sense of accomplishment... yeah, pretty classic Inoue episode here!

I only just realized I could have used the Murakami connection to make a witty joke about these episodes being the best of the best, but now my timing is so late I just feel like the lowest of the low. :p

I'll have to cheer myself up by pointing out 9/10 were directed by Ishida even though Die was too busy gushing about Inoue's writing to give me the usual easy segue.

I was gonna say something here about how Tendou would never kill a monster trying to redeem themself, but then I remembered, no he totally did do that.

Can we talk about the direction of this story for a second? Because it's incredibly good.

All of the shots in the Kurenai workshop are shot to enforce the connections of characters. It's a tiny place, and characters are frequently on opposite sides of a table, but Ishida keeps angling the camera to catch Oomura beaming at Wataru, or Otoya contemplating Oomura's fate.

(My absolute favorite acting move in an episode of A+ Otoya acting was the switch that gets flipped once he decides to spare Oomura. He's already going to do it; he can't leave this sensitive soul to get devoured by Zanki. But he goes from Art Is A Soothing Influence to completely theatrical as he's getting up out of his chair. By the time he's standing up, he's throwing his arms around and painting himself as a saintly hero. Otoya will only let himself be so authentic!)

It's a weird couple episodes, because besides some great scenes (all of the workshop stuff, the Mal d'Amour comedy stuff from the beginning of 10), I don't think I was really paying attention to the directing. A lot of that is, like, the directing didn't need to fix anything; it just needed to communicate what the story was saying. The writing was terrific, the acting was exceptional (no small thanks to the director, though), there was a cool new Rider... yeah, this one didn't need to show off a lot to make for a good couple episodes.

??? When? I don't think Tendou would ever do anything like that. I mean, he was kind enough to pay for Tsurugi's ticket back to France! He's a hero!