I'm wondering how much input Inoue had into Daisuke's character. He seems to have been in charge of the major Daisuke focused episodes so far and a major factor in how incredibly goofy the character is and his episodes really ratchet up the sillier characteristics.

(As a side note to tie in to the earlier conversation, Daisuke's actor would go on to also play Kazami Shiro, aka Kamen Rider V3, in The Next).

So I've mentioned a few times now how much Kabuto failed to stick in my long term memory. Well, this episode has one of the few things that I really did recall long after the show ended: the drunk doctor's specific drinking ritual and accompanying noises. Not sure why that endured where Kageyama's freaking name got lost, but it did.

The most I remember from this episode is someone commenting “Good god, is there anything Tendou can’t do?” I had to check the wiki to find out one of the guest stars was also the Liar Dopant in W and the recurring science guy who helped Takeru’s Dad build the Ghost Driver(I forget his name) in… um, Ghost.

I’ll have a bit more to talk about next time, especially with how arguably important it is for future crossovers. I’ll explain why afterwards.

Typically I'm the friend who's energetic and annoying most of the time, so during the rare times that I'm feeling down, I tend to shut myself off and lock myself away in a cave so to speak. That said, in my own personal experience, having someone reach out to let me know that they care does wonders, and it's almost always been just the thing I needed to get me going again.

Tip for those who prefer to be left alone though; If you have friends like me, be sure to let them know that it's not a personal knock against them that you need time to yourself. Even though my brain knows the situation has nothing to do with me most of the time, it still hurts that all I can do is sit back and do nothing whenever it happens. So if you have friends who are very affectionate, then they'd probably appreciate the heads-up, I imagine.

To be fair, at no point are we really going to complain about a lot of Kagami. And as you v eloquently proceeded to say, the episode says a lot about how to support a friend. I really enjoyed seeing how it played out with the different approaches; this isn't a story that I have a specific memory of from the first time I saw Kabuto, so I also don't know how I'll feel about it after the conclusion, but the setup was ridiculously fun.

Tendo and Kagami's relationship developing throughout the show is my favorite non-Hiyori part of it. I'm not always fond of Inoue's writing, but this is where I felt like he really hit his stride and balanced all of the aspects of the characters and story in a way that resonated with me. Best moment for me in this one was Kagami's expression as Tendo-the-ZECTrooper pulls out his "Grandmother always said" line.

:lol :lol :lol I had a lot of sympathy for Kagami there, partly because there was this half-second at the start of Tendo's insult where he could conceivably have been insulting Kageyama, and then it becomes blindingly obvious that he's stamping all over Kagami's ego instead. Poor Kagami, even though he should know better than to expect overt sympathy from Tendo, lol

This thread is a bright spot and I love that you're doing it. I will repeat this FOREVER. :)

It really feels like Inoue called dibs on Daisuke! And (so far) like he called not-dibs on Hiyori! Daisuke's inclusion in this story is... it doesn't feel particularly motivated by anything? He's treated like he's always around, despite being in none of the last story but randomly showing up at the cliffhanger to fight Kabuto. It's like Inoue wasn't told that that Daisuke stopped appearing after his last two-parter?

In fairness, that drinking ritual isn't constantly a smug asshole to beloved characters, so it's worth remembering in a way that Kageyama isn't.

Huh! I don't remember that scene. I'll have to dig around for it. Thanks for the info!

Yeah, it can be tough sometimes to be appreciative for a friend's show of support, while still being honest about your own emotional process. It's no good to ghost your friends to protect yourself, but getting across I Value You But My Brain Needs You To Back Off is... god, it can be stressful. Definitely worth doing, though.

The climax (which I really couldn't talk about yet) is both exquisitely done (just that slow ratcheting up of Boy That One Trooper Is Talking A Lot > Wait I Know That Voice > "My Grandmother Always Said" > OH SHIT WHAT) and something that I'm actually upset that they ruined in the preview. Of literally all the things in the episode you'd want to withhold, the last five seconds of the episode should be at the top of the list. Kills me that I knew it was Tendou before his helmet came off.

But, yeah, I think Inoue had a stronger grasp on how antagonistic the relationship should be between Tendou and Kagami, without having it tip over into parody or cruelty...

...except for the opening, which is laughably broad. It needs to be there to establish stakes, but having a grown man run off in a tantrum... not a lot of nuance there! I actually think it reflects worse on Kagami than Tendou, since it mostly proves Tendou's point that Kagami's been too thin-skinned, too trusting, too naive. If someone's like Why Are You Being Such A Gigantic Baby, and your response to run off, bawling your eyes out? I mean, yeah, neither side comes off great, but I feel like the side that can be soothed with animal crackers and a juice box is the bigger offender.

You are very kind! Everyone's been very un-Tendou-y in volunteering their thoughts and time, which makes me feel like none of you are actually paying attention to the show. Where is the closed-off snark? Where are the seven competing threads, to show dominance? The only reason everyone would be so generous on a daily basis is... wait, am I Juka?!

To clarify, the comment was from somebody online. Not in the episode.

Probably not Kagami as overall character other than this one moment, but this is what I talk about showing goodness by only selective care (and typically, about those with guaranteed care like family or friends) being not particularly convincing. Several for protagonist side had caring and siding with your beloved ones being portrayed as good in story and it expects the audience to agree with that, anything else like other characters or consequences be damned (a case of protagonist-centered morality; where character or events being good or evil is based solely on their actions toward the main character or if they are the main characters). Other than that, what do you mean regarding blameless to martyr spectrum for this one? And it being a dick move, that's what I thought as the only other choice if responsibility issues to make things right made someone can't function as a person and isn't being healthy emotionally or processing it which means the other choice, which means neglecting it..

Hoo boy, lecturing incoming. While deep down, it's likely Tendou caring for Kagami in his own ways, which is leaving him alone as he wants to prove his worth, by actually contributing to something and accomplishing it, which would mean best done without any help, unfortunately this can be used to excuse people's awful behaviors. The belief that bad things are good for people opens a door for those to use said belief to justify their rotten behavior, any occassions of people behaving awful to others is treated as tough love, even for those that aren't doing so. And those that had problems or showing weakness (no matter how many amounts) on any occassions like Kagami is treated as spineless cowards who can't handle the suffering in life, and those got the blame. It's also how some audiences unfairly bash a character, particularly main one, who had tons of flaws/weaknesses (relatable) and isn't living up to the badassery they expect; they got considered pussies and when they lament about they failure they got treated as crybaby.

And yeah, as someone who you said, wants to see others succeed, Tendou's someone who expects everyone else to live up to unrealistic high standards, and that'd be an automatic social brick wall. Tendou may care deep down, but I think the first scene showed him at one of his nastiest, tearing down someone who's in despair, at least outwardly. While Kagami's dad, although you said he had the same light as Tendou, in contrast to his earlier appearence that reminds me of Blade's Jin dad, comes off as supportive like usually a parent would be.

And talking about Tendou's words of only being saved as something that matters (you can't complain at all), about the audience again, like what's discussed in Ryuki thread in ep. 27, about the misunderstanding of what makes superheroes heroic, not only children, but also for those that carries that since little. Namely that the mindset that heroes are people who beat up bad guys, and the bad guys are bad because the heroes beat them up. In relation to beating up bad guys, some people can think that heroic deeds is as simplistic and limited to saving other's lives, and by that those that are saved have no right to behave in any manner other than being grateful; like objecting to something. While admittedly, someone who acts completely as a jerk to the savior is a complete dick move (and it'll infuriate me, and other audiences), but some people simplify heroic as only about saving other lives can be an uncaring view to it.

There are much more legitimate life problems other than just being saved or not, like Kagami feeling worthless after realizing that he's just a tool used by Kageyama. The view of heroic being only about saving lives can be callous towards anyone's problems as long as they live and not get killed, and while obviously saving others is a good thing to happen, performing heroic deeds is much more than only that, saving is only a part of it, but neglecting the other part isn't complete heroic deeds; what I said is aimed to someone who thinks characters like ideal heroes such as Eiji or anti-heroes such as Kaito as exactly similarly heroic because limiting hero definition as just anyone that can actually save people in need and treating what they do it for (money, recognition, etc.) or any character flaws as something that doesn’t matter, as long as they can save people. Which means that definition only takes "save people" into account and applies to my lecture here, as in KR mostly anyone on protagonistic side regularly kill monsters that attack humans.

Other than Tendou here, Misaki is also someone that frequently chews Kagami for his blunders, though rightfully so. And still does here while he's moping in the food store. Misaki however, I think it had happened other than the part here where it's a reflection on her failing to protect Kagami. Previously, she, like other ZECT members, was heavily against Kabuto being used by Tendou and one of the reasons she chewed out Kagami, but later Kagami rubbed off on her; she decided to entrust Kabuto Zecter to Tendou, and she also shows a bit of defiance against ZECT where she covered Tendou, and was against their policy of eliminating any Zecter users not affiliated with ZECT. And by that, Mishima (Goro) devalues her, claiming her as not knowing anything. So by that Misaki becomes more and more of an equal to Kagami, even before this episode, and for being at the top of ZECT's shit list. Probably with their equal infamy, it can cheer Kagami up, if Misaki told so, with Misaki also being deemed as worthless by Mishima.

I mean, Misaki's already doing this before right? She objects to Tadokoro and Mishima about HQ's decision of eliminating non-ZECT Zecter users. Tadokoro did represent about how workers can act as drones and blind loyalty; cult-ish belief to believe that anything their organization did was righteous and for the benefit of everyone, and to never question their rule. It's the classical "to be lawful or good" debate; dilemma between doing the honorable/legal thing, or the compassionate thing? And also many times in history humans have had to choose between what the law system expects of them and what their conscience or the circumstances demand. Tadokoro's firmly on the former though, no struggles between the choices, although Tadokoro seems to care about Misaki and Kagami from previous episodes. It's still unknown yet that why ZECT HQ is practically worshipped though.

I think I'd want to point out that, something like Juka's morning mukbang and Kagami running off crying isn't Inoue thing (unless about some of the camera takes), as the former is established before Inoue takes a part, and the latter happening in many other occassions where the writer isn't Inoue. Tendou offers guidance for Juka yeah, but I don't think that he offered Kagami any guidance here, unless you're counting the part where he acts as a Shadow member. For once, shockingly an identical people isn't about a Worm disguising as one here for the old men here. Daisuke's a white knight who only treats women well (and to speak of this, Kagami's issue of his existence being only seen as worthless and Daisuke's view of gender being something socially acceptable can correlate to me, where this creates male expendability idea in society, to clarify about something I fear in what I talked about Daisuke at his debut, where only women lives are the ones that are important and deserves special treatment and men's lives, like Kagami's to Kageyama, are less important and more disposable - like how Daisuke behaves, but extended to wide range of society) and the way to make him contribute in action is a women asking him for it as he'd oblige (I didn't know what happened in Misaki-Daisuke conversation in previous episode though, both Kagami and her also asked him to cooperate there).

W̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶,̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶c̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶(̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶'̶d̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶g̶u̶a̶r̶a̶n̶t̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶a̶d̶)̶?̶ I'd be likely the part who prefers to be left alone, though won't automatically reject helps (although helps barely happened anyway). Because those who help can border on toxic positivity (they're well intentioned, but doesn't have the capability to properly help), or even worse, the risk about them betraying you by using your problems as an information to ruin you (moreover with rotten behaviors being justified by others). And as I said above, Tendou's ways would just hurt more for my eyes, it's like the sink-or-swim mentor type, it should be something like Kagami's dad.

I'm thinking of accepting responsibility as more of a sliding scale, where it could be anywhere between accepting no responsibility for anything (Blameless) and accepting all responsibility for everything (Martyr). In this instance, while I think Kagami bears some responsibility for Kageyama's resentment, it's not really a huge amount.

I don't completely follow your second point, but I was just saying that abandoning coworkers for your own issues (especially if they might depend on you for their jobs/lives!) is maybe selfish in a way the show hadn't really addressed.

Misaki and Kagami do it constantly, and that's why it's so funny to me. Practically the only use of Tadokoro on this show is him sitting in a van and getting lectured by his subordinates. I think that's hilarious? I had to create a headcanon for why this dude just absorbs these moralizing outbursts, and Frustrated Salaryman is the one I landed on. I really enjoy creating an internal monologue for Tadokoro, where all of the judgment that gets heaped on him... like, he knows all of this is insane. Of course he knows that Kageyama is an asshole for almost getting Kagami killed! He would definitely prefer for half of his division's manpower to not get shot to death so some reprehensible toad could feel smart! But, like, Tadokoro is middle-management, and Kageyama isn't in his department. Misaki yelling at him is, like... lady, you are chewing out your boss for something he didn't get a vote on. Take it up with ZECT HR! Or quit your job! But, god, leave Tadokoro alone. He does not get paid enough to deal with your judgment.

For what it's worth, I consider you a friend? So don't feel like an outcast!

I guess we must both be weirdos then since I also prefer The Next. The pacing is never too slow and the horror and mystery keeps me intrigued for the whole movie in a way that only a guy like Inoue can manage. There's also Hopper 1's green Sakurajima suit which I prefer to the teal version.

It would have been cool to see "The Stronger" upgrade Tackle from sidekick to Kamen Rider Tackle and I was excited for "The Man" to happen in Amazons after Kazuya got his right arm eaten, that's the perfect origin story for a Riderman and I thought that was a missed opportunity.

Kagami's problem seems to be a continuation of his personal development arc from Episode 4 and 10. Tendo wants him to be more independent and make the difficult decisions and now that Kagami is committed to being Tendo's friend over The Bee, he wants to prove himself worthy of that friendship and that he's not just using Tendo as a safety net for his potential failures as a flawed human being. His choice to give up being a Kamen Rider means he's more suitable for being a Kamen Rider since he has an admirable devotion to his principles that sets him apart from posers like Yaguruma and unscrupulous people like Kageyama. Tendo doesn't want to diminish that by interfering in his development.

There are a few factors to consider here, such as whether the character is introverted or extroverted, or what kind of help the friends are willing to offer. For example, Takumi is introverted and the pushy methods of his friends in Team Faiz are insufficient to get him to open up, while Kiba knows exactly the right things to say to console him. Keitarou seems to be the opposite. He craves affection and needs to be around people all the time or else he'll get lonely.

There's a sweet spot between being too dependent on friends and indulging in self-destructive behavior by pushing them away. Where that sweet spot lies is determined by the individual. For me, I like my space to recharge my energy, I enjoy my own company but I don't want to be alone all the time, I need to interact with fellow intellectuals to keep my mind stimulated and give me inspiration.

https://i.imgur.com/i2TKlEs.png

Trying to write about this perfectly enjoyable episode of Kabuto really gave me an appreciation for what Die was talking about when he said it's hard to break down. Naturally, right after saying that, Die broke down the episode very nicely, but me? I just can't find an angle to save my life right now. The amount of trial and error it took simply to reach the paragraph you're currently reading was rather substantial. There's no big disagreement I have with Die; no piece of the episode that could've stood to be covered more; no general yet pertinent thoughts or fun trivia to work in.

Maybe that's the secret, though? This is a very tight episode of the series in terms of focus and structure. There's no dangling threads for me to swoop in and talk about, because every scene is advancing the same, singular plot. Even something as simple as Tendou cooking for Juka is used as a method to allow for elaboration on the central theme. There's close to nothing extraneous in this one, and that's a huge point in its favor. There's no highly contentious thing I can take a bold stance on, because it's delivering that one plot in a very competent manner that maybe doesn't leave much to the imagination, but also doesn't expect you to fill in holes yourself. Kagami's dilemma here is pretty well-conceived, I'd say, and it's neat to see him be allowed to reel from the events of the previous story, giving it more weight retroactively by not brushing off the stress of being framed for serious crimes as just another day at the office that he can forget about and go right back to the status quo. There's no general thoughts or trivia because... well, on second thought, I'm sure I can find a few random things to cover.

These next two episodes were directed by Nobuhiro Suzumura, who's a tiny bit younger and less experienced than some of Toei's other usual suspects, which admittedly shows in how basic a lot of the episode looks, but it's a very competent, by-the-book sort of basic that's appealing enough, and there were still some little touches I found neat. One was the use of Clock Up here, which won't sound like a compliment for a second, but bear with me. It seems apparent the show doesn't have the budget to keep up the elaborate slow-motion setpieces in every episode, which leads to Drake's use of it here being almost pointless. Remove the sounds, and taken out of context it would like any other fight. Because I'm assuming this is a budget issue, however, I appreciate the very blunt establishing shot showing speeding trains slowing down, with the sound of them rushing by cutting out, and then right back in once the sequence is over. It's only a background element; they don't go fighting in traffic like Kabuto in the second episode, but it works wonders to quickly build the right sense of atmosphere without breaking the bank. Plus, I mean, the whole fight is shot at night, so just in general it looks cool.

Another bit I liked was the increasingly petty escalation of Tendou and Daisuke's squabbling until the scene just ends with them having their backs turned to each other in disgust, although in that case, I have to give just as much credit to the writing for getting me on-board with this dynamic more than last time. It becomes really clear in that scene why exactly Tendou can't stand putting up with Daisuke in a way that makes his frustration feel more natural and in-character. The way his snickering facial expression when Daisuke asks to do Misaki's makeup changes to shocked horror as soon as she says yes is what sold me. Tendou is waiting for this guy to press his luck too much and embarrass himself to the point of self-destruction like most of his potential rivals do, but Daisuke is keeping his composure and getting results just like Tendou would, and the concept of someone who can even come close to matching him entering his life out of nowhere this way freaks Tendou out. Their animosity is borderline instinctive, like two magnets with the same polarity or something. Its honestly pretty adorable.

Alright, that turned out a lot better than I thought it would for a while! This is the first of six straight episodes written by Inoue, which will no doubt be great fun for Die, and hopefully won't always leave me struggling this much to contribute?