Originally Posted by Sunred (Post 763380)

By the way, what does everyone think of Takumi's wrist flick he occasionally does during battle? It's such a trivial movement but boy does it look cool time to time.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 763379)

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 13
There’s the beautiful sequence of him trying to show off for the tennis club and whiffing hard.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 763379)

Tidying Up with Mari Kaido

Originally Posted by Magnugiga (Post 763385)

Takumi: Tennis Ace might be the hardest I laugh at any toku show in, like, ever. So pitch perfect in its direction and (complete lack of) sound at the punch line. Also I wouldn’t stop having my mind blown by how young the actor was and how it’s supposed to be his professional acting debut; dude absolutely killed it out there.

Originally Posted by Magnugiga (Post 763385)

Considering I'm super not into this particular ship, I laughed way harder than I probably should.

Originally Posted by FreshToku (Post 763387)

Faiz the tennis star will go down in history, the opening sequence will make sure you never forget Takumi's most shining moment.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 763379)

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 763379)

--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.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 763379)

--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.

Originally Posted by Sunred (Post 763380)

By the way, what does everyone think of Takumi's wrist flick he occasionally does during battle? It's such a trivial movement but boy does it look cool time to time.

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger (Post 762367)

From the moment he flicks his right wrist, you know he's about to do some serious damage to an Orphenoch!