I mean I'm assuming there was an off screen fight that happened with Kaixa before noticing the Faiz fight and assuming that one of their fellow classmates was here with another belt and then dying.... but your version is better so it's canon now

I'm running out of unique ways to say this, but this episode is once again Ishida's work, and if that spotlight bit with Mari doesn't prove it, nothing will. I think moments that extreme are basically him taking a "boring" scene as a challenge? The episodes of Agito where Shouichi first gets his memories back were him too, which, even though you liked all that stuff a lot less, means the color-coded plot threads was something he came up with, too. No idea why the camerawork itself had to be so shaky, but it does show how outside the box he's willing to go, for better or for worse.

Anyway, Kaixa's "introduction". I love it. It's hard to call it this coming right after Ryuki, but Faiz is kind of THE subversive Rider show to me, and I can't think of many things that symbolize that better than the brand new, amazing cool hero you should buy toys of dying three times right away. Faiz gets so much mileage out of treating the belts as pieces of equipment anyone can use. Seeing Kaidou as Faiz, and random nobodies as Kaixa, all of this stuff has such a novelty factor, and legitimately makes the story more interesting on top of that. It's awesome.

The fact that the people using Kaixa in this episode were all good people should tell you what kind of person the actual user will be if you know what trope they’re invoking.




If you haven’t figured it out, here it is https://www.google.com/url?client=in...obc-gDxZXuZ1su

I think you misunderstood the three lives thing. Murakami was addressing Mr. J specifically. It's his signature ability as Crocodile.

Yeah, this is exactly what I've been waiting to talk about. Rina mentioned that the first Kaixa Gear user was Takamiya. It's very likely that the Kaixa seen at the end of Episode 10 was that guy. The scene stands out as weird when you rewatch it with knowledge of how Kaixa Gear affects the user. He henshined, spectated Faiz's fight with Snail and promptly died! That's a lot of dedication just to show off a cool suit.

:thumb:

Now that we've seen Kaixa in action, destroying one of Mr. J's three lives, it's time to talk about the suit and Gear functionality. Kaixa is just as high tech, cool and simple as the impressive Faiz suit. The main differences are chi instead of phi, double the Photon Streams and the Photon Blood is yellow instead of red. Functionally, Kaixa is stronger than the basic Faiz and his Kaixa Blaygun has more configurations than the Faiz Edge.

I mentioned before that Faiz Gear can be used by anybody but of course that's not entirely true as only a few people are compatible. Kaixa Gear really does work for anybody but you'll die if you're not compatible. Due to generating double the Photon Blood, this Gear is twice as demanding on the user which means you really need to be compatible. The error feature on Faiz Gear can be seen as a safety lock, preventing Mari and Keitarou from accidentally killing themselves. Kaixa Gear doesn't care about your safety.

Thank you for reminding me of that shaky-ass Agito episode. My head just started hurting by remembering it!

I cannot tell you how hard I laughed when, just after his totally cool move of slicing the villain in half, not even looking back as the monster bursts into flames... Kaixa immediately shorts out and has a seizure, smash cut to opening credits. Like, that's the move you'd do on a parody of Kamen Rider shows. Just unreal.

Oh no!

I definitely did misunderstand that scene. Thanks!

So, my theory is that there are a lot of other kids shown in that class reunion photo, and about half of them died testing out the Kaixa belt. Each one putting on the belt, Henshin, Error, ash... and then the next kid's like This Time Is Bound To Work. Eventually one kid probably took so long to Error out that they went into battle with it, and that's probably what they'd call "the first user". (Also, they probably don't want to tell Mari that they killed a half-dozen of her childhood friends and family.)

There's almost no version of the Team All-New kaiXa-Men backstory that isn't these kids watching their friends die and then, like, excitedly following in their footsteps.

Neat! Thanks!

Imagine designing a belt with safeties.

This meme made by KaiXa-Men.

Someone with better video-editing skills than me please take the "Kaixa being an awesome bad-ass" scene from the beginning of this episode, and layer in the Smart Brain commercial voiceover just before he Errors and dies.

"True life is gonna start." ERROR *painful scream*

Just like what you said about his fighting style to just getting out of the problem ASAP. Become addicted? Probably all of this are just peeling off Takumi's insides; he is aloof to others, only to reveal that he thinks it might be bad for them to get close, he wants to avoid Faiz as possible, only to reveal that he's in weird state after it's taken away, now he wants to stay away from problem, but now he tries to solve them. Probably must be that he realized that if a problem is left out, it'll lead into bigger problems so that he solves it instead with the fastest way possible (just do what I tell you), like without venting. Takumi's the practical type? Like him who just wants to get shit done ASAP, so just do the practical thing outside, with no regards on their inside. His own way to stay away from problems, by solving a problem ASAP before it grows, realizing the situation he's in. By that he (and Mari) are just being blunt to Keitaro that now they take the turn to be the one who calls him..... scum. Keitaro's problem of "one-woman-two-relationship-thing" is the part of the show's "misunderstandings" though, but Mari and Takumi's reaction to him is kind of in their character?

So Kaixa is the way to move the story forward. With appearence of second Rider revealing Mari's family and the deal with one of the Smart Brain's higher ups. Mari getting the bet from that father.... that's already revealed before though. But peaking of the other orphans, it's a relief here that all of them also know regarding the belts, not only Mari to get informations. What makes the light automatically highlights Mari during the exposition at the house?! With you tolerating the part where others might find it weird part, so you normally has a problem with expositions? Like in this series, when Yuji and Yuka visits Smart Brain.

This isn't Mari's surprise... you gotta pay attention to her adoptive dad's, and standardly, Smart Brain's aims, and also above, the mechanics of the belts, like the malfunctions. It's more about worldbuilding in general, the mechanics in Faiz' universe. Stay tuned for like... something surrounding the characters. The orphan groups are supposed to be made with as much position as the monster victims, or, you know, like Yuji's cousin or Yuka's bullies at the beginning of the series, they are just the non-evil ones compared to them. The only one you shoulld pay attention is the name they mentioned, Masato Cucksaka.... uhh Kusaka.

Well Yuji explains it a bit regarding Kaido's nature to Yuka and not about it's being her. It's unknown if this is "misunderstandings" too, but Yuka should also notice that Kaido is also abrasive to others.... or she thought that Kaido treating the first-year better as an indication of her making him angry? There's something I want to know regarding Yuka saying she "likes" Kaido, despite being another one to hostile to her (on the outside) in her life.... or that she has someone she already fell in love with.

A sense of backfire in Lucky Clover and Smart Brain that the belts are made to protect the King, but now is used among some people to kill Orphnoch instead. This is the true nature of Smart Brain in Smart Lady egging other Orphnochs to be evil and kill humans, to prevent them being obstacles to Smart Brain's evil plans, especially regarding the nature of the belts. And Yuji you're not evil, but saying you would never attack humans.... Chie and Yuji's cousin: Are we a joke to you? Were they only talking about Mr. J who gets 3 lives? Also other than that, when Kaixa defeated him first before, he turned completely into dust, how did he come back? The dust reforming his body again? I know Crocodile Orphnoch is a major character, but I wonder the Orphnoch's body system.

Calling Takumi "practical" is maybe a good way of putting it. I think it's more that he finds it easy to tell other people what to do, which is a hallmark of the kind of friend who has an answer for all of your problems. He's... maybe a little less great at treating his own concerns as things that are easily fixed, judging by the full episode he spent moping over losing the Faiz belt.

I understand the need to explain plot details through story, but "exposition" is something I'll usually use as a pejorative. Any scene that requires someone to spend more than a minute straight explaining details of the story to other characters, not my favorite type of scene.

But! If the actors or director can do something fun with it (Build is maybe the show that did it best), it makes the medicine go down smoother. With this one, Mari's story is all dry background information so the audience will get more of the Kaixa plot, but the delivery is fun to watch, so I liked it a lot more than the Orphnoch stuff at Smart Brain.

The thing is, I only care about world-building if it impacts the characters in some way. I care about Mari, I don't care about her dad or Smart Brain or belts. If the show had couched the new information in Mari's feelings, her reactions, I'd be all for it. As it is, it's all focused on people I don't have an investment in.

I don't if I'd call the Kaido/Mari stuff a "misunderstanding". It's all character-based stuff, where Kaido's lashing out is because of his personality, and Yuka's blaming herself is because of her personality. I think I talked a little bit about my take on it when she left the apartment.

Oh, and her telling Yuuji she likes Kaido, I think she just doesn't want to make waves. She doesn't have a ton of self-confidence!

For sure. When Yuuji had that steely look in his eye and told Live Action Hatsune Miku that he wouldn't harm humans, I said out-loud to my TV, "Anymore, right? You're not going to harm humans anymore, Yuuji. You killed two people already!"

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 13

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--1--

I was sort-of wondering what a comedy episode of Faiz would be like, and, uh… it’s transcendent? Holy shit, did this thing deliver. Wall-to-wall laughs (even one of the Orphnochs at the end dies funny!) coupled with big plot movement and the debut of Actual For-Real Kaixa… this episode crushed it.

--2--

Let’s start off with Kaixa, who is pretty fantastic. Actually, I don’t know that I find him fantastic, but I love what he brings out of Takumi.

Recently, Takumi had been finding his place within the group, working with his friends to be, if not an ally of justice, then maybe someone who would help justice move if they didn’t have anything else going on that weekend. Takumi was becoming almost not insufferable, so of course here comes Masato (Masato! Masato! I think this episode established that you have to say his name three times) to bring out all of Takumi’s insecurity.

And, weirdly, that’s what this episode’s all about? Takumi lost the Faiz belt, and got it back by being so pathetic that his sidekick stole it for him. (citation needed) There’s maybe some residual feelings of doubt there, some subconscious expectation that it could all fall apart again. Maybe that’s why he’s been throwing himself into helping out the rapidly-dwindling Team All-New kaiXa-Men? (There’s a part I really liked, where Bobby Drake apologizes for distrusting him, and Takumi shrugs it off by noting that he’s an outsider, and he can see why they wouldn’t trust him. It’s a small touch, but I like that Takumi understands and forgives being seen as untrustworthy way more than any other slight against him. He’s got so many emotional problems still!) Maybe he’s been trying to prove himself worthy of being Faiz, of being given Keitaro’s faith.

But it leads to an overconfidence from Takumi that’s as hilarious as it is unhelpful. So many laughs this episode come from Takumi taking on challenges and inserting himself into situations and just sucking so bad. There’s the beautiful sequence of him trying to show off for the tennis club and whiffing hard. There’s him walking through horse shit. There’s him challenging Masato to an honor duel, and losing immediately. There’s him just cold brawling with Masato and getting whipped. And there’s my favorite moment.

Team All-New kaiXa-Men are down to two members, with an approaching Orphnoch ready to cancel their team for good. (X-Men comics always get relaunched, they’d be back in less than a year.) They call Mari, who shouts at the downed Takumi that they need to go save them. But when Takumi sees that Masato has looked over at the shouting Mari, Takumi tries to trip him before getting up to leave. Lives are in danger, and he’s like Eff This Dude, and it doesn't even work. It’s stunningly petty, and one of my favorite Takumi moments ever.

I’m sure Masato will get to be weird on his own, but I adored how weird he made Takumi in this one.

--3--

Speaking of weird, this is also an episode where Kaido and Yuka go on an uncomfortably high-energy version of an afternoon date, and it’s so weird that Yuuji’s only moment in the episode is being surprised at it.

It’s full of fun comedy, namely how on Kaido is, but the why of it is what killed me. Halfway through the date, Yuka asks Kaido why he’s doing all this. He says it’s practice, because he wants to ask out a girl he likes. To which I definitely shouted OH SHIT MARI about half a second before we got a flashback to Mari telling Kaido to stop being a brat.

I don’t… I did not know how much I needed that in my life. I ship that so hard. Tidying Up with Mari Kaido, brought to us by KaiMari Media, yes please, every episode.

--4--

The only other character who gets a beat in this episode is Keitaro, and it’s another little thing, but I thought it was sweet and funny. Right at the start, when Mari and Takumi are going to find Masato, Keitaro’s like Hey You Guys Never Invite Me To Anything Anymore, so he goes with.

I really like that for some reason? I like that the show acknowledged that most of the Smart Brain and Team All-New kaiXa-Men stuff was done while Keitaro was in other plots, and they acknowledged it through Keitaro. It’s like the thing from Mari’s exposition last episode, where he’s like Did You Guys Do Backstories Without Me?! It’s a little fourth-wall breaking maybe, but I like how wounded he is that they aren’t including him in big stories lately. It’s, yeah, it’s very cute.

--5--

Funny goddamn episode, you guys. It was pretty clear to me from the second run-in with the Jock Of All Clubs that that dude was the Masato from Mari’s past, not the one in the fencing class, so that reveal wasn’t a surprise or nothing. It didn’t take a bit off of the comedy, though. It maybe made it better, because each additional run-in was like Oh My God Kaixa Is Owning Faiz. It’s a great, great way to actually introduce the newest Rider. I love it. I love how suave, competent Masato makes Takumi… it’s like in Kuuga, where Mighty becomes Rising Mighty? Except it’s Takumi becoming Rising Insufferable? He’s become a golden-edged asshole.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz13b.png