I'm so glad to hear that Yuka is one of your favorite characters! She's one of mine as well. So as you'd expect I'm just as sad as you are about her death. Unlike Mari, she doesn't even have a corpse anymore.

Takumi and Kiba have opposite character developments. Takumi used to see Orphenochs as a force of destruction but now he sees both sides of them, the good and evil that's also present in humanity. Kiba used to see humans as a force of good which extends to Orphenochs but now he's losing his faith in them as his kind is being betrayed by them. Takumi believes in Kiba's ideal of co-existence between humans and Orphenochs but with Kiba's faith slipping, Takumi might have to take charge of that ideal. Takumi looks up to Kiba as someone he should strive to be as a hero fighting for the good in both species which is why he's worried about what's happening to him.

Wow, your take on what happened between Yuka and Saeko is totally different to mine! I doubt Saeko would be so reckless to assume her Orphenoch form just to hide her tears. I'm sure such an act of emotional suppression would make Troy Burrows proud but I'm pretty sure she just killed Yuka. The secret science society reduced her to human and killing humans is part of the job. She may have cared about Yuka's potential and saw herself as a mentor who could nurture it but I doubt she actually cared about Yuka as a person or she would have considered her feelings. Yuka never wanted to hurt anybody, she had a modest desire of living a happy life with the man she fell in love with and Saeko took that away from her.

Saeko having those Kaixabrows is fitting since my hatred for her immediately surpassed my hatred for Kusaka when she killed Yuka. It's the same reaction I always have when a bad guy kills a character I care about. Kudos to Inoue though, he built a very high tower of happiness and then demolished it. He's always breaking my heart like that. At least Yuka got to die happy with a sense of fulfillment. That's the least she deserved after so much suffering in her life. But Keitarou gets left behind and he's going to have to live with the pain of never seeing her again.

I'd really like to support Die's reading of how Yuka... er, died, but the way that sequence emphasizes Kageyama gradually drawing closer and closer, culminating in that almost jump scare style cut where she's suddenly in her Orphenoch form, her face filling most of the frame, definitely gives me the distinct impression she wasn't only watching.

I don't think these two interpretations are all that mutually exclusive though? It's entirely possible whatever final wound Kageyama would've given Yuka, she could've seen it as more of an act of mercy than anything. Her dialogue is angry in tone, but the words themselves speak to somebody who's profoundly disappointed Yuka chose to play out her human life to its inevitable miserable conclusion rather than embracing what she could've been as a top-of-the-food-chain monster who doesn't take anyone's s***. It's hard to say. Kageyama's mind is scary and not something I really want to be all that deep in!

Oh, okay, sure! Got it!

Happy to help!

Yuuji's having a lot of his core ideals tested, and he's maybe not handling it super great?

Yeah, I like that they left it ambiguous. We get to put our own ideas into the series, and that's always nice.

Yeah, I've vacillated a lot, but I think I'm okay with them dating for a bit, see where it goes. Yuka was still figuring herself out, and that means trying new experiences. It could've been fun for a little while.

She didn't want to be a burden to anyone, even in death!

I loved how mad Takumi got when Yuuji was all Maybe Saving Humans Is Lame. He was not having that conversation with Yuuji in Episode 44 of a 50-episode series!

Fair enough! No such thing as a wrong opinion!

It is definitely a stretch! Thanks for the feedback and impressions!

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 45

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz45a.png

--1--

Look, we’ve spent a lot of time in this thread talking about the big emotions behind the recent episodes, how considered and breathtaking some of the character arcs have been, the ways the cinematography and sound design elevate the material, whatever.

Let’s finally talk about stuff that matters.

HOLY SHIT DID FAIZ JUST USE ACCEL TO PULL OFF FIVE OVERLAPPING CRIMSON SMASHES ON THE BAT COWBOY ORPHNOCH

I mean, the balls of that move! Sickshooter (the Bat Cowboy Orphnoch) had been beating on Delta for, I don’t know, an hour? Faiz was outside of town (great cell reception in a secret science cave, though) and had to travel all the way back into the city to join the fight. (Did Rina hate Kusaka so much that he wouldn't be her first call?) But despite Sickshooter having Delta on the ropes for forever, Faiz rolls up, tries out a couple moves, then just humiliates this dude with one of the most amazing displays of force I’ve seen on this show, and that’s in an episode that also sees Kitazaki get his worst whooping to date.

It… FIVE OVERLAPPING CRIMSON SMASHES.

DID ANYTHING ELSE HAPPEN IN THIS EPISODE?

NO! NO, IT DID NOT! POST OVER!

--2--

ugh okay fiiiiine

This one was very plot-heavy, in ways that I didn’t really love. There’s stuff that felt very focused on cause and effect, and then there was stuff that was like Oh We’ve Only Got Five Episodes Left After This One.

Because I am merely a thin layer of skin that envelopes feelings about Kamen Rider, boy did the Keitaro stuff land in this episode for me. It’s tangential to what else is happening in this episode, definitely epilogue material, but it’s more-or-less what I watch this show for.

I mean, what do you do if you’re Takumi, watch your friend be miserable because he thinks a girl he liked never cared about him? Or tell him that she got murdered by a cop ambush that you inadvertently led her to? These are awful choices, and I don’t know that I can blame Takumi for keeping the truth from Keitaro.

(Incidentally, second Kamen Rider series in a row where someone misses out on a first date due to dying beautifully. I wonder if anyone who gets stood up in these series just assume their date died. Just, like, text if you’re going to be late. Folks are right to worry!)

My favorite thing about the storyline is that, while Takumi's our POV for it, and his knowledge of Yuka's fate hangs over him like a cloud, the show never loses sight that it's Keitaro's grief we're supposed to be focusing on. He's the member of Team Faiz that'd be most damaged by Yuka's disappearance, and Takumi shouldn't usurp that role.

The show handles Keitaro's arc well, letting him try and shrug it off and focus on the positive, before just breaking into pieces. I mentioned before that it’s tough to watch Yuuji lose his shit, but, like, do not make me watch Keitaro cry. I can’t take it! He is a pure snowflake of optimism and friendship and he isn’t supposed to suffer this way! Bad show! Bad!

--3--

Yuuji’s reaction to Yuka’s death is a lot more relevant to the plot, in so much as he goes on a rampage that ends up crushing Minami’s mad science initiative. (I mean, probably not. Minami got a hell of a death scene by laughing at Yuuji’s assumption that the Orphnochs scored a victory over humanity. Probably more to come on that front!)

It’s a plot that has some fun beats to it, mostly in how long the show keeps Yuuji hidden. As soon as he deduces that Yuka’s dead, we don’t see him until the last few minutes of the show. There’s a lot of tension in not knowing what Yuuji’s up to, and it’s a strength of the episode.

One quick thing I thought was funny, though. For a show that’s got a reputation for miscommunications and teased-out reveals, it’s hilarious that both Takumi and Yuuji immediately figure out that Yuka has died. I’m not saying the show didn’t do the work to get them to make the connections, but it’s real funny to me. Like, now they can put the clues together? Cracked me up.

The down side, for me, is that Yuuji’s story seems like it’s going to intertwine with Orphan Daddy’s.

--4--

Hey, Orphan Daddy’s back.

Between him and whatever is happening with Teruo’s story, that’s where this episode started to lose me. Both of those, plus whatever horrible thing that Minami discovered about Orphnochs… I don’t know, my heart isn’t in it. (Much like Minami’s heart isn’t in him! Too soon?)

It’s all the stuff I was complaining about before, where it’s all shit coming in from the outside, while homegrown plots like Keitaro’s grief and Yuuji’s rage get pushed a bit to the edges. This late in the series, I don’t feel a ton of enthusiasm for trying to suss out what weird thing Teruo is, or what shocking thing Minami discovered, or why Orphan Daddy’s returned now and recruited Yuuji. They might be cool stories, maybe, but the way they get brought up in this episode didn’t do it for me.

The Teruo storyline, like, what? There’s a sliver of something interesting there, about Kaido, but then it’s all Anti-Orphnoch Lasers or whatever and I kind-of zone out. It ceases to be something that’s telling me anything about Kaido, or (god forbid) Rina and Mihara, and becomes some big Mystery for the show to focus on, like the Ryusei Massacre. That shit is not exactly what I recommend about this show!

Same thing with Orphan Daddy. Save a couple moments back in the teens when we got some backstory, and the one episode where he unhelpfully tells Kusaka to just keep fighting and everything’ll work out, this dude is just a question mark in a bandana. I don’t really care about him, because the show hasn’t really given me cause to care about him. They’ve barely even remembered that I’m supposed to be curious about him in the last dozen episodes. He pops up in the Kitazaki fight, but it's all OP Boss stuff and an air of mystery. Nothing to get me emotionally invested, and barely enough to want to see his story developed.

Like, there are five remaining main protagonists for this show (six, if you count Kusaka, which I do not) and the time we spend with them in this episode runs parallel to the plot elements like Orphan Daddy, Teruo, and Minami’s Machine. I feel like the show keeps dragging me away from the characters I care about, to sit through scenes focused on currently siloed plots. Like, I’m sure it’ll get more relevant for our cast, but it felt so incongruent this time that I wasn’t loving it.

--5--

Real ups and downs in this one. The Keitaro stuff was a home run, the Yuuji stuff (brief though it was) came out strong, and FIVE OVERLAPPING CRIMSON SMASHES is a hall-of-fame idea. The rest of it, all of the Getting Us To The Finale stuff, clunky. Real clunky, and not my favorite look on Faiz.

We’ll see if it improves next time!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz45b.png

I've been waiting for this. I knew it happened, but I thought it was much earlier in the series. I've been expecting it pretty much every time Accel form shows up.

I just want to say it's really funny how Faiz barely used Axel from when he got it, but now he's got a new super form he suddenly feels the need to use his last one instead. Love it

It's the only scene in Faiz that's worth watching. Everything else is garbage. Every time someone brings up their feelings now, I'm going to be mad.

My hope is that Takumi is kicking himself after this battle, realizing that Do Your Finishing Move Five Times At Once is a pretty goddamn winning strategy, and he only used it once.

I feel that a lot of Early Heisei shows like to focus on their characters more than their plot and it usually shows final episodes, because it always feels like

Producer: "Crap, we lonly have 10 episodes left we need to really wrap this bad boy up"

Head Writer: "I know let's insert these last minute plotpoints so we can have a kickass final boss."

Produce: "That's why we hired you."

It’s near the end of the year, so it’s their last chance to sell those toys before they’re replaced with the next line, freeing up the show to spend more time on the plot and to feel free to destroy as many of the products as they like.

Yeah, it can be a problem franchise-wide. Double had some late-series stuff that I found difficult to invest in, and Ex-Aid would have a few stops and starts to its plotlines.

Easily one of the trickiest things in this franchise is balancing the character development with the long-form plot. When series end up not working, I think that's the easiest thing to point the finger at.

That's one of the reasons I'm so critical of plot developments that occur outside the main groups on Faiz. Spending time setting up a whole new conflict inevitably means less time developing the characters. I don't love that trade-off!

Of course he only used it once when the show made it a goal to put a unique twist on Faiz Accel Form's fight scenes each time it made an appearance. What good is a winning strategy if you can't have showmanship?

I seriously love how sparingly Faiz's powerups are used. It goes back to the attitude this show has always had, but, especially in retrospect, it's kinda nice to have a main Rider this absurdly averse to using anything but his base form. Faiz Blaster hasn't even had a chance to fire his Blaster yet!

Oh yes, the coolest move Faiz did, or just the fight in general here. Crimson Smash is already one of my top list of base Rider kicks, and for Axel it topped that with multiple of them! I've seen this on the video games first though. Also what's the reason for Rina to hate Kusaka? The Ryusei School alumnis see no reason to hate Kusaka, at least for now.

What do you mean by not usurping that Keitaro only appeared in certain scenes before all the focus is shifted to the other plot? And this is Inoue, what do you expect? Pure snowflake of optimism and friendship.... are his punching bags.

Yeah, now Yuji's slipping down on morality spectrum. Though his act isn't unjustifaiz here by killing those responsible and the worst human to ever exist in this series (including his staffs who are probably just following orders indiscriminately though, sense of plunging to darkness). And again, it's all Minami's fault. It's his fault that all the drama happened and Yuji's turning into a threat by himself, a self-fulfilling prophecy for Minami and other humans.

I wonder if Teruo's is complainable because this is put up in near the end of the series, what if it's put like in earlier part? (I'm thinking about main bad guys who gets known more in late part of the series) And for Orphan Daddy, yeah probably at this rate, he's not going to give much impact. Though iirc, people's complaint about it are about how it's not fully resolved, not how it's not left out like you likely hoped. Wasn't the machine is more about how shocking it is to Murakami instead of what Minami's about (he's likely just going to keep doing his thing)? Him discovering that one of his employees are plotting a sinister plan against whole Smart Brain. And for protagonists, it doesn't take morality into account, even if most protagonists are heroes. Protagonist doesn't equal hero. Antagonist doesn't equal villain. Protagonist just means the main characters of a story, and antagonist means those who oppose them. Kusaka is one of the protagonists in the story (he's on protagonist side only because he hates Orphnochs more than human for sure, and share a mutual goal), but he's not a good guy - an example of villain protagonist.

Hatred for Saeko? Hatred for Kusaka? I thought you're being lenient on Kusaka like pointing out his redeeming qualities to paint him out as a still anti-hero?

It's true that I consider Kusaka an extreme antihero with a few redeeming qualities, but that doesn't mean I can't hate him as well. However, he never killed anybody I care about, which is why Saeko gets most of my hatred.

Showmanship? Faiz?! I believe you're confusing Faiz with Wizard, which is a notoriously easy mistake to make.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/misa2.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/misa3.png

That's what's a little confusing to me! Mihara is getting his ass kicked, and Rina calls Takumi. Why wouldn't she call Kusaka for help first?

It might've helped, maybe? It's more that I don't feel like I'm learning a lot about Kaido from this plot, so it doesn't do a lot for me.

Not to skip too far ahead to a series recap, but I do sort-of like what the Teruo stuff could explore thematically. A lot of what this show is about is assimilation, of coexistence beyond survival. Teruo represents the next generation after the one that fought for change, and about the world that gets left for people like him. I can respect what it's trying to say, but I still want that storyline to have an impact on Kaido.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 46

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz46a.png

--1--

Or, uh, shit, I guess I could start talking about it right now?

There’s stuff in this episode that’s relevant on a thematic level, while still feeling incredibly misguided on a dramatic level, and it’s hard to talk about that without drilling into the thematic part of Faiz. I was going to save that sort of top-level discussion for the end, but this episode made that wait impossible. So let’s dive into it.

--2--

To me, Faiz is exploring some of the same themes as in Agito, but in a more nuanced way. Agito was largely about how we react to change, and that was dramatized through a new species. They fought for their survival against a humanity that would sooner obliterate them than understand them.

Faiz uses the Orphnochs in a similar way, but it’s largely avoided the fight for survival against humanity; instead, exploring deeper, more relatable themes. How does a disadvantaged group argue for its right to self-determination? How does an in-group coexist with an out-group? How does society better relate to new ideas? All of that’s in the show, and the metaphorical way it’s approached is almost always impressive.

The two groups of characters in the show, Team Faiz and Team Orphnoch, they’re approaching the same themes from opposing sides.

Team Orphnoch is all about how a marginalized group tries to find its place in society once the threat of extinction has been removed. What of their identity is their own, versus what of their identity is inherited from the rest of society? How do they deal with a world of intolerance in a healthy way? Threats like Lucky Clover are a previous generation trying to keep old divisions intact to maintain their importance to their culture. Minami is the fear that violence and prejudice are bubbling under the surface, ready to return as soon as they let their guard down.

Team Faiz is a culture that doesn’t know how to respond to change. They strain to understand this new group. They make mistakes, cause conflict, all while becoming more aware, more understanding. It’s how allyship is well-meaning but occasionally insufficient. They’re heroes because they try to get better at being people.

The way this episode centers around Murakami and Orphan Daddy’s dispute, it’s all about the irrelevance of the Old Guard. It’s folks who can’t view incremental progress as real progress. It’s about old men who shouldn’t get a vote in what happens next, clinging to power they shouldn’t be allowed to exercise.

Teruo is a representation of the next generation after Team Faiz and Team Orphnoch, the hope that they can leave a better world than they found. How he could take acceptance as his birthright, or get ground up by a world that won’t see him as anything but an outsider.

Thematically, like, all of this stuff is there for a reason, and I really enjoy thinking about it.

--3--

Dramatically, though, it’s a huge misfire. Huge. It’s about zero percent fun to watch, save for a really excellent fight scene.

The big, big, big problem is that this story is all about Murakami. Team Faiz is completely ignorant of what’s happening at Smart Brain. Yuuji’s involved, but he doesn’t even have a line of dialogue in this episode. All of the tension is around how this is affecting Murakami, what he’s going to do next. And, I like the dude as a villain, but it is a terrible idea to give all the decision-making in an episode over to the villain, and to make his ideological and physical opponent a dude who has been in three episodes of this show.

Team Faiz is so irrelevant to the storytelling and narrative of this episode that it was infuriating, but only when it wasn’t dull. Most of the time I passively watched what was happening, noting it without caring about it. It’s all Orphnoch King machinations, and that shit only matters to Murakami and Orphan Daddy. Team Faiz is so secondary to this plot that they mostly wash bikes and play baseball!

--4--

The Kaido/Teruo stuff, not much better! There’s a few good comedy beats in there, with Kaido feeling protective of Teruo while getting completely frozen out by the others (I mean, he’d be a terrible roommate, they were right to kick him out), but it still doesn’t feel like we’ve gotten to the core of Kaido’s story. He’s funny in this, but he doesn’t really progress any stories.

Again, the Teruo stuff, his importance, it’s all Murakami! Team Faiz takes this kid in because he’s being hunted by Orphnochs, and… that’s it. They don’t really get to know him, and we don’t really see him interact with them in a meaningful way. Thematically it’s fine, and Mari mentions that taking in an orphaned kid is poignant for the Ryusei alumni. But, again, dramatically, there’s no character to Teruo and no specificity to that storyline. If the Orphnoch King was a poorly-trained dog, or a 50-pound bag of rice with a face drawn on it, you’d have roughly the same story with as much emotional resonance.

It’s all plot, and it all feels like it’s happening to the characters without trying to make it about the characters.

--5--

That fight at the end, though! That was no joke.

If that’s all you recall from this one, it’s probably going to stick in your brain as a good episode. Everyone remembers all the cool shit their gear does, and they make it look awesome. Jet Sliger. The ED-209 thing that Kaixa’s bike turns into. A combo Delta/Faiz finisher. It’s all very fun, and a total highlight.

But, man, the rest! A ton of energy spent on ideas that work in theory, but fail in practice. Did not like this one!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz46b.png

I think one of the issues with Murakami right now is that the show is trying to wring one last mystery out of the plot. There's something that Murakami knows that's driving his actions right now. It's the thing that Minami showed him on the computer and it's why he's suddenly so desperate to find the Plot Devi.... er, Teruo. The show is still being coy about what that thing is, though, which can definitely make it a little more frustrating to figure out exactly what's going on.

"Frustrating" is right! Plot-wise, it's like having a friend say "Guess who I ran into today," and then giving you no clues. Isn't it fun and mysterious?! No, not really.

Honestly, though, my problem is how much the Murakami plot would work exactly the same if you took out all of the other main characters. That... that should be a huge red flag to a writer!

If it helps, you will learn what Murakami found out eventually and oh boy is it a doozy.

Well that goes without saying, doesn't it? The problem comes from how the journey to get to that answer is just not interesting. It would be extra ridiculous if they spent all this time building up dramatic plot points and just end up never doing anything with them!

Ah yes, the "Time Vent" defense. It's been a while. I nowhere near as interested in saying this was some amazing episode, especially with the albatross of "there's like 4 episodes left why is this story not tighter?" hanging over it, but, you know, you can have some fun with it! I'm am totally cool with spending a ton of time with Murakami, especially watching him gradually lose his usual cool almost completely by the end. The dude is a super fun character, and after doing some thinking about it, he might be the first main Heisei villain to truly be a character with presence? He's not an enigma like Agito or Ryuki's main bad guys, and he didn't take forever to show up like Kuuga's. Knowing what was coming up here, it even made me realize he set an important precedent, because by using the Delta Gear, he's technically the first big bad to become an evil Kamen Rider, since Odin was just Kanzaki's meat-puppet. Of course, he got the belt just in time to get fired, so he can't join the club of evil CEO Riders, but still. Murakami was maybe a pretty significant character in the evolution of the franchise, so maybe just let him have this one?

It's definitely not a coincidence that the fight scene at the end goes so big, by the way. This episode aired on December 21, so they wanted to make sure all that merch was flying off the shelves. I don't think Rider makes it a point to do this that often, but I know Sentai regularly does a similar thing where you'll suddenly see old mecha combinations that haven't been relevant for months in the lead-up to Christmas.

Also, this episode has Kusaka spraying Kaidou down with a hose like a petty child, which is even more proof it's not all bad! TV-N's translation is still pretty choppy though. He's telling Kaidou and Takumi there that they'll eventually be resented by both humans and Orphenochs for trying to exist in the middle, not that Takumi and Kaidou will resent them, which is way less pertinent to the themes of the show. Also!

This one isn't something that will really affect your reading of the plot all too much (unless you have some deep theories about this line I'm now crushing), and I try not to go out of my way to complain about those, but this error is so bizarre I feel like you'd appreciate the explanation.

Mathematical proof of just how cool Delta is?

(What's that? This joke is dead. Nah, nah, it turned into an Orphenoch.)

Personally it petered out for me when that suit started spending every episode getting whooped...

This episode made it look cool for a while though (thanks to somebody else wearing it), and I love the epic choir music playing alongside Kaixa riding sidecar. The only one missing from this big brawl is Auto-vajin...

Huh, did you forget the name of Side Basshar?! There are so many missiles in that chase fight with Side Basshar and Jet Sliger. So many missiles. Crazy scenes like these are rare in the franchise but when they happen, they're awesome! One of my favorite CGI moments from the show.

Unsurpisingly, Murakami joins the club of Delta users who are cooler than Mihara. He's no longer president so he doesn't mind collecting Gears now. Faiz and Kaixa only had to chase him since Mihara basically called him a ride.

And this is why I never got in on that joke: because I knew Mihara was coming.

In before Orphnochs are all revealed to just be really hardcore smokers.

I mean, sorry? I never know if the shit I care about is of interest to the fandom at large, so when a weak episode has a strong ending, my assumption is that that papers over a lot of the flaws in people's memory. I'm sorry if I'm being dismissive or reductive!

It just felt so frustrating to give him the spotlight so late in the run, and have it be so disconnected from the main characters. He doesn't share a dialogue scene with any of them, and the stakes of the conflict are never made clear to the heroes. It just didn't sit right with me.

I completely did forget the name of Kaixa's bike, thank you! In fairness, that name hasn't been uttered onscreen... maybe ever? And the bike hasn't transformed in dozens of episodes. At least a Rider used the sidecar, this time!

Yeah? Well I heard that Delta is so cool, not even the existence of Mihara can stop this running gag from being hilarious.

Oh, I didn't really mean anything by that! I just found it amusing how familiar that part sounded. I even agree that this one was far from Faiz's best material. I don't think I've ever seen you be truly dismissive of other people's opinions. I didn't mean to come off like I was criticizing you there!

Now, do you talk about Renegades and Team Faiz within this episode, or the series as a whole? And other than this, each member of the teams are actually different in approach, individually that you know.... though they're modeled after each other's counterparts. And other than Lucky Clover, what would you view for Smart Brain (other than Murakami, Hanagata, and Minami)? For Minami your take seems tame for him to seem justifaizing him... I don't approve of it. And this should be taken objectively for me, but what do you mean that Team Faiz are heroes because they try to get better at being people? And for Teruo here, did you only speak about him as a character instead of his other stuff?

You talk about how it's about Orphnoch King's machinations, and Team Faiz being in secondary, and you don't realize he's a potential threat to others (unlike what I think for Hanagata now), and moreover, Team Faiz are spending time with Teruo? And I'm sure Yuji not having dialogue meant something here, to add tension on what's going on with him, and it's probably in character for him to run Smart Brain the first time, how he treats the others there.

I support Kaido getting acknowledged here! (Mari just saying Keitaro saving him, probably out of spite) This act is actually performed by him (although he's not doing it earnestly), he's a dick but it's not like he's trying to take credit from others or exaggerate what he's done here! There's also more of Kusaka's racism to Orphnochs to just attack Kaido without provocation. And for Teruo and Orphnoch King all important to Murakami.... isn't this... coincidence?

But for some reason Auto Vajin doesn't join the party to complete the set!. This does utilize ED-209's multi passenger vehicle to carry both Faiz and Kaixa..... and the fight yeah it's noteworthy that this combines both the Rider combat and motorcycle clash for Faiz (previously it was only about the motorcycle... in a less choreograph than Kuuga's one other than being flashier).

Those who hate him's reasons are all his cruelty, and because of that they can't see him as anti-hero either, because they acknowledge he does more harm than good overall even if he kills Orphnochs. Though like you said before, people like Kitazaki and Minami are even worse (they're listed as pure evil). But having few redeeming qualities doesn't absolve you of evil alignment (caring for Mari - caring for a single person is seen in some of them, and that even what drives their villainy), more villains are on that category - Kitazaki and Minami are just in special worst category that is even too evil for villains (other examples for this in other Riders - Daguva, Ouja, Dr. Maki, Banno, Masamune, Evolt, etc.).

I'm going to put a pin in this one for the time being, since it's all stuff I plan on delving into after the series concludes. I do have thoughts, but answering that paragraph would take me the rest of my day off. Sorry! I hope it'll be worth the wait!

Yeah, a little weird that we haven't seen Auto Vajin in a while!

Wow, what happened to "Faiz CyKill"?

He's conserving his power. Waiting for the right time

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 47

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz47a.png

--1--

I don't... man, I don't love being bored with a Kamen Rider. I love being excited, obviously, but I'm even into being angry on occasion. I like feeling something. An episode like this, like last one... this sort-of sucks? I dislike disliking it, and I feel like an asshole writing about it.

I feel so disengaged from what's happening in the show. There're only a few episodes left, and the show seems pretty all-in on its big choices, and I don't really like them? This isn't like some mid-series diversion that can get swept under the rug or fixed down the line. This is the end of the story, and it's being presented in a way I don't find a lot in, and it's doing things I don't think it's earned.

But, honest to god, the worst part is coming to this thread to say that. It makes me feel actual sad to come here and be like Hey Faiz Is Maybe Tanking It At The End. I don't like doing that! I never ever wanted that to be what these threads are like! But, man, not seeing a ton of light at the end of this tunnel.

--2--

The big problem for me is that I feel like Yuuji's turn is unconvincing.

I see where the show wants that plot to be. Yuuji has always been an empathetic beacon of humanity, so seeing him become a cold, calculating champion of Orphnoch supremacy should be chilling and terrifying. More than that, he's been a friend to Takumi, an example of what Takumi hopes for himself, and being on the other side of a fight with Yuuji is heartbreaking to Takumi.

I just don't feel like they've done the work to justify that shift in Yuuji's character. It's a huge turn, and they've left it largely to implication and dry exchanges.

Seeing Yuuji as, basically, Murakami Junior, I don't know how we got here. Yuuji felt betrayed after Yuka's death, sure. Absolutely. We'd seen him grappling with whether or not humanity was worth all this suffering right before that, and her death was probably the last straw.

But taking over Smart Brain, working with Orphan Daddy, swearing off humanity entirely... all of that happened off-screen, and what we get now feels half-baked, tired. We have Yuuji telling Takumi to give up on humanity, but it's said with the same detached air that Murakami would say it. We have Yuuji ordering Lucky Clover around with the same bemused satisfaction of Murakami. This was the biggest change to Yuuji in 40-something episodes, but it just feels like he's reading from Murakami's script.

The Takumi/Yuuji scene, honestly, that was the moment where I got really worried about the rest of this run. That's an unbeatable combination of characters, my favorite screen pairing, my eternal ship. But there's nothing in that scene. Takumi's flabbergasted, and Yuuji's resolved. Takumi's disappointed, and Yuuji's unmoved. That's it. What should be a heart-rending reckoning plays like two guys who can't agree on how to split a check for dinner.

I was hoping for so much from Yuuji in this episode, something to make up for all of the mystery we were left with after last episode. Instead, I feel like one of my favorite characters disappeared from the show, replaced by a poorly-written Murakami substitute that the actor can't figure out how to play.

--3--

But, weirdly, I feel like I get Kaido's arc a little more? Some of it plays too heavy on dramatic irony (the kid who gives him purpose is trying to kill him, he's following Yuuji's dream at exactly the point that Yuuji isn't), but Kaido's the best comedic character on the show, and his scenes are always at least entertaining.

I like that Kaido ended up seeing the worth of humanity in this grumpy, possibly-demonic child. That he saw this kid being a brat and was like I Will Die For Him. It's fun. It's just a fun idea, and totally in line with how specific Kaido is as a character. He's all id, you know? He wants something, and that's his only motivation. This kid rejecting him, ignoring him, that made Kaido love him all the more. It's ludicrous, but, hey, so is Kaido.

--4--

Also, Murakami dies in this one! I should probably talk about that.

It didn't end up meaning a lot to me, unfortunately. Some of it is because Yuuji is playing that role before Murakami even dies, so there's no Murakami-shaped hole in the narrative. The other part is that he dies laughing hysterically, which is exactly what Minami did a couple episodes earlier. It should feel grandiose and theatrical, but I was definitely thinking This Again?

I frequently said that I liked Murakami better as a corporate overlord than an Orphnoch badass, so his demise being the result of three simultaneous Rider finishes (while visually impressive) felt too small to me, too predictable. It was the Yuuji plot twist making Murakami as redundant to the story as he was to Smart Brain, and that bummed me out.

--5--

I'm so sorry about this post. I hate being this guy. I don't... I don't like saying these things, feeling this way. This show was doing so many things right! Devising so many clever ways of expanding its characters, deepening their bonds!

This, it all feels... bad. I don't like the decisions, and it's hurting my feelings. It all feels rushed, pushed forward to satisfy plot requirements instead of letting the characters drive the plot. It's making all of the character relationships take a backseat to Orphnoch Kings and new belts and Orphan Daddy, and it's making me into a guy who goes on the internet to say he doesn't like a thing he's a fan of and I never ever ever wanted to be that guy.

This is all bumming me out so bad! I've never been closer to quitting doing these posts than this episode! I'm very sorry!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz47b.png

Using that name for Auto Vajin makes me happy, and I did not feel like I deserved happiness after watching and writing about Episode 47.

Ohh... boy, you're here. Yeah.

So I think we've all said here at some point that Faiz is -extremely- a character-driven show, right? And that you really have to be into the characters to love it, and if not... oh dear? And I think, like... I also said at the mid-20s during Faiz Axel's debut that I heavily agreed with Die going on about how great Kiba and Takumi's relationship was, their chemistry together, their really fun dynamic?


Kiba was the one character in the show I was particularly into, aside from possibly Takumi; and this is where Faiz completely lost me. Like Die, I get what they're going for here, but it's not convincing and it just seemed like a ridiculous change for this character. I can't get into any of his character anymore and everything he once was was swept aside for what doesn't really feel like justified reasons.

And again, I get it; y'know! Someone holding so hard onto these very high beliefs and ideals, even when they are specifically in a place that has them hated and attacked from all directions; and one of the few people they loved and one of the few people that was really willing to befriend him just got killed by the people he placed his trust and ideals in. I get that! I... boy, I kind of get a lot of that, actually. But it just... still does not track. I think they're dealing with really complex subject matter here but they're not willing to dive into that complexity at all and as a result it comes off as weak.


So, like, yeah; I guess this is where Faiz truly dropped off for me -- a character I really liked went in a really bad unlikeable direction for no reason, and man, does that become a bit of a trope for Inoue in my experience. Kiba's only one letter off from a show all about it, so I really should have seen it coming!



Oh well. He's got ONE great thing left. One great thing coming, and I'm looking forward to it.

I mean, while I'm sad to hear that this is one of the reasons why you ended up not caring for Faiz, I'm sort-of glad to not be alone on this.

I think my biggest problem with Yuuji's turn is the Murakami cosplay. They had a chance to really delve into what Angry Yuuji would be like, how it would affect his relationships and everything he spent the whole series fighting for... and they just made him Murakami. It's such an unappealing choice, and it robs the character of the innate connection he had with the audience. I was into this actor from his first scene, and everything in 47 was just Whatever.

Well in all fairness, I still wouldn't have cared for Faiz that much -- like I said, Kiba and maybe Takumi are the only characters I'm into. It almost feels horrible saying this after how much this thread has had people go into how much they love Yuka and Keitaro but I just cannot feel a connection to them in the slightest and it failed to leave an impression on me -- so really, if this hadn't happened, Kiba for me would have been the big bright spot in a show that's otherwise turned the lights off for me. He would have been my Necrom, my Orange!Mage, my Sasword... but instead he's just :(

Look, hey, he transcends the mere classification 'character'

Just gonna randomly throw it out there. Die if you wanna see Mihara as a chopper pilot who occasionally can be short-tempered and rebellious and has Asuka from Evangelion as his senpai(no joke the actress is the voice of Asuka from Evangelion) watch GogoV, if you wanna see Kusaka as a kind-hearted soul watch Zyuohger. And finally if you wanna see Kaido become a brooding cursed swordsman/most badass red ranger nemesis of all time, Shinkenger. :lolol

I'm going to try to be vague here, but Faiz is a show that's known for making a lot of... let's say "decisions" with its ending. I'm not saying they're all bad, but they're certainly things - like Ryuki's total reset - that tend to provoke a lot of strong reactions in multiple directions.

Assuming the next couple episodes of Faiz don't completely crush my spirit, Sentai is definitely one of several post-Saber possibilities. (JFC, I cannot believe that my Kamen Rider timeline has an endpoint, and that that endpoint isn't anything more than a name. What a time to be alive!) Go-Busters, for sure, that's one I'm keen to experience. I'll take the others under advisement!

They just... they feel like decisions that make the characters less interesting?

Like, making Yuuji into Murakami Junior, there's a way I could make excuses for it. Maybe Yuuji's so dead inside that it's easier to pretend to be Murakami than own up to his choices. Maybe he's cold and distant and manipulative because the alternative is insanity. But, a) that isn't really supported on the show as it stands, and b) those are entirely interior character beats that are impossible to dramatize. A character being ice-cold on the outside and a roiling volcano of conflicting emotions on the inside, that's something you can do in a book, or a comic book. You have to do it in a medium where you can get at their internal struggle. Here, he's just a boring asshole playing at being Murakami? And I hate his new hair?