it hurts so bad, still

and i did it to myself

it's like i stabbed myself in the heart

just, goddamn

It is totally cool! I have a real blindspot when it comes to creatives for Kamen Rider. I think if I was able to read the credits, I'd be a little more cognizant of who does what. As it is, I'd need to go to the Wiki for that info, and... I'm sort-of trying not to do that, because a lot of their posts assume you've watched every Kamen Rider thing. It's stupid typical for them to start a recap entry with:

"I Can't Believe A Nice Guy Is A Villain!" is the twentieth episode of Kamen Rider Example. It features the final appearance of Kamen Rider Implication, until his return as Kamen Rider Inference.

Just, always one thing per series recap where they blow a surprise or something, so I can't risk it.

So, yeah, feel free to add names and dates and stuff as necessary!

Yeah, Kamen Rider has never really cared about spoilers in episode titles, especially when it comes to character death. Tackle's last episode on Stronger was more or less called "Tackle Dies!"

Western Media: "A big twist happens this episode, be sure to watch and find out what it is, before you see it spoiled the instant you step onto social media!"

Anime and Toku: "So this episode is called 'A New Form! Survive!', and it's where Naruto gets his new form.'

https://i.imgur.com/HXIo54e.png
https://i.imgur.com/jOvhQxU.png

It's a weird cultural thing, maybe, in storytelling. In America, once you hit the plot point, people sort-of tune out, they got what they came for. In Japan, maybe it's more of the curiosity of how something happens, why it happens.

Like, in an American superhero story, you find out Captain America dies, that's all people need to know. Cap died, that's it. Doesn't matter what the story is, that's the important part. (I cannot tell you how many more people watch YouTube videos where someone spoils a comic than would read the story in the comic. Multiples, for sure.)

In a Kamen Rider story, I feel like the emphasis is more on Hey Don't You Want To See How This New Form Happens. Toei's constantly using magazines to promote new characters, costumes, powers. It must cause fans to check in, to see why something happens, or they wouldn't promote it that way.

Weird. Never really considered how cultural expectations or idiosyncrasies would alter promotional strategies. Huh!

Oh no! I was only up to episode 23 of Headmasters! YOU MONSTER.

Yeah, though I feel for KR expert, gotta be open-minded for the talks.

And I want to also point out your previous complaint that makes me chuckle now; about her "begging a mirror ghost for answers", then few next episodes have Shinji and Tezuka doing the exact same thing.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...11600/ask1.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...66426/ask2.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...12634/ask3.png

And for Shiro, I have to tell you that he didn't only create the Riders/monsters and leave them be (like Banno to Roidmudes). He also has complete control of them if he wants, even better than Riders controlling their Contract Monsters, like Agito's Overlord of Darkness over Unknowns. He didn't simply give the Decks. Stopping him/Rider War would mean him deactivating the Riders and halting the Mirror Monsters so that humans will be safe from Mirror Monsters by then, or simply just close the Mirror World. He has bigger influence than you think and IS all-encompassing regarding Rider/Mirror stuff. But unfortunately going after him is just like talking the Riders down...

Obviously that's unfair for Shinji. And I don't think they really care about someone being in right or wrong (probably Shinji being in right even accounted to that), they just don't like flawed heroes (he's the down of his luck loser type like Ryotaro).. They don't care about the efforts, only the results (if their efforts are in vain it's like not making an effort at all to them, which Shinji is to them). Like you know there was Androzani84 in page 3 thinking that way about him. Can't talk further about this due to spoilers. And same here, wants Ren to retrain his default personality (though he does develop), but that can be used as a proof that Shinji doesn't accomplish anything (like him still fight-heavy)...

Well, most of the time in this series (and some of the other series too), people henshin together, so both party has to complete their elaborate henshin at the same time and can't interfere with the others. So, lesson taken is that you should wait for the opponent Rider to henshin too before you henshin.

I mean Shinji should get credit for this instead of you (someone who like him) labeling him as small-minded. I feel that he distrusts Shiro because of him being creepy and evil, not how he's incapable of doing so. There are no reason to believe that Shiro isn't lying to them (lying as in, giving false hope), so it may show that everyone but Shinji are actually all gullible, insane idiots (because murdering people because a man in a mirror told you that you'd get a wish is insane).

Well yeah I get it now, so here you talk about how her emotions are less varied compared to Ren or something. I think before you came across as not wanting her to show any grief or something when witnessing tragedies while ironically you want her to when "in danger" because of Gai. I can't think of the solutions about this though.

Shinji and Reiko's interaction for some reason makes Shimada think he's possessed by an evil spirit (he just matures! don't ignore character development, in-universe characters or fandom!). So Shimada's weirdness can be...dangerous here, with her inadvertently harming an innocent. I would talk about this more if this place is spoiler free because it's hilarious to think about what happened in Ryuki movie compared to this one.

I also want to talk about the fight of Ryuki/Knight vs Ouja at the beginning; so Mirror World time limit can cease the fight like Ryuki vs Scissors before and save someone in certain situation. It's shown to have a psychological effect too, look at Shinji. Ren, and Asakura's situation after this. And Asakura is the one eventually "lost" as he collapsed. And now this is another problem Rider War causes, with Shiro choosing Asakura, an unrepentant criminal. With him gaining Rider powers, now society is in even bigger problem with the fugitive having higher chance to create chaos and/or getting away scot-free with his powers! (Oh wait Scissors also did, with him using Volcancer to get away scot-free from his crimes. Gai isn't part of this because somehow he can be a threat without Riders/Mirror stuff with his games). Now polices are utterly powerless to him as Ren remarked. But I also want to ask how Ouja can use his Veno Crash (Venosnaker kick) Final Vent again?? Didn't he already use that in previous episode when Knight saves Ryuki?

The mirrors really shows their beauty this time. And about Shiro's mindset it's already covered by Switchblade, and personally to me, Shiro's mindset reminds me of people (like in fandom) who thinks someone is cowardly because they don't want to compete in something (accusing them as afraid to lose instead of being peaceful), no ifs, ands, or buts. You ignored the Rider/card stuff from latest reply but let's talk about the card Shiro gave to Tezuka, which is a pretty new stuff (to a watcher like you). Knowing that Shiro gives advantages to those he deems weak/cowardly, this should be used as a tactic by an unrepentant Rider to gain an advantage in battle by pretending to be a hero who wants to save everyone until Shiro gives you the upgrade.

This scene really shows what Kobayashi and Satoshi Matsuda think about these 2; aka them being surrogate siblings. I lowkey brought up this scene when bringing up the review before in my previous reply where she won't stop getting to know about the truth even if it hurts her (collapsing here) and doesn't want him to worry like that. Dunno if, her asking for her childhood pictures to her aunt can count as the Kanzaki siblings' past is an integral part of this, as the other info Tezuka gained is also about the past (Kanzaki siblings as a child, about the explosion).

Now it's clear. The exact reason why Tezuka is the only other heroic Rider than Shinji is...because he too, isn't a chosen Rider like him! Shiro chooses morally ambiguous people as Riders, but the upstanding ones are..not chosen, see the pattern? And this is the scene I talk about when you called Tezuka even-tempered. Instead here he completely loses himself there that even Shinji is shocked. And (joke) dude Tezuka, shoving Shinji like that when you borrowed a weapon from him to gain upper hand on Guldthunder? I know you're revenge-obsessed but that's not nice of you. Would Guldthunder function better than Evildiver as a Contract Monster? He seems to have more varied powers, but I think flying Contract Monsters like Evildiver seems quite untouchable.

Yeah there Asakura's stunt of using Mirror World to fake his death won't last for long. Well previously it was the girls getting kidnapped but Goro...of all people... is getting kidnapped?! Where Asakura holds him hostage in a car to bait Kitaoka. We don't really get to see 2 fighter humans going all out though right there. And Kitaoka, what's with your attitude at the end? The only person you care is held hostage by Asakura and you seem undaunted? Probably he doesn't want to satisfy Asakura and Goro may be able to fight him back?

I've sometimes wondered why, in Double, a Dopant never jumped Accel during his henshin. Dude does his HEN and then pauses about ten minutes before saying SHIN. If I was a Dopant, and he hit that first syllable, I'd probably be going, "Is... is there more? Is that it? 'Hen'? Okay, well, I got places to be, people to murder, so I'mma just gonna shoot flames at you now."

I see what you're saying, and the other Riders are taking a lot on faith, but depending on their circumstances (trying to save their own lives, or the lives of loved ones) I see why they'd believe Shiro. He's got weirdly non-specific magic powers! If he says one of them is Wishes, I don't know why you'd doubt him. He could be making it up, but I don't know that he comes off as a Making Things Up guy. If Kitaoka said that he had wish-granting powers, like, yeah, that dude is full of shit. I guess for me, the demeanor of a mirror ghost is inherently trustworthy? Maybe it's just my poor upbringing.

Shinji and Reiko's interaction for some reason makes Shimada think he's possessed by an evil spirit (he just matures! don't ignore character development, in-universe characters or fandom!). So Shimada's weirdness can be...dangerous here, with her inadvertently harming an innocent. I would talk about this more if this place is spoiler free because it's hilarious to think about what happened in Ryuki movie compared to this one.

The time limit thing is neat, for the adverse effects and additional complications, but I think it's mostly just a super-smart way to create reasons why the Riders don't immediately kill one another. Like, without the time limit, you'd be hard-pressed as a writer to explain why fights stop, why Ouja or Gai or Zolda don't finish off every Rider they fight. With a time limit, it allows for fights to not end in murder, for stories to get multiple face-offs. Plus, it's a real fighting game staple, so it absolutely needs to be in there.

It's hard sometimes for me to talk about new Cards, because with some of them, there's no context. People can be all THE SURVIVE CARD!!!, but in this episode, Quarter doesn't use it, and no one explains what it is and what it does and why it matters and really anything. It's a very ominous card, and, okay? Can't really find it in me to get hyped for something like that, especially when there's so much other content to talk about. I don't know. I'm interested, but not, like, edge of my seat. I don't feel the need to speculate or analyze, not until there's more to go on.

I mean, we haven't been shown all of Tezuka's backstory, just some flashes, so this might be veering into spoiler territory. From what I got out of his scene in the German diner with Shinji, his motivation is unique from Shinji's in that it's built around a form of vengeance, of a friend who died as a result of the Rider Battles, and he wants to stop them because of it. Shinji's motivation was a very split-second I Want To Help, throwing himself into danger. Tezuka seems like he was doing this for a reason, while Shinji was doing this without thinking it through.

Yeah, boy, that feels like what the next episode has to be about. Is Kitaoka serious about leaving Goro to die? Will his conscience (citation needed) get the better of him? What's he really thinking about all of this? It's very smart of the show to create that kind of ambiguity, to make you uncertain as to whether Kitaoka cares enough about Goro to risk his own life, or if he sees Goro as a tool and sycophant. It's a great cliffhanger.

They can't move because of the suspense of what he's gonna say next. Could be anything, ya know?

"HEN--" oh god he's going to turn into a superhero and murder me this totally sucks should i just attack him no god that'll just piss him off what am i gonna "--CHMEN have mostly just made bad choices in their life, and it seems unconscionably cruel to assault them. Why don't I buy you a coffee, and we can talk about what led you to this point?"

I meant false hope as like using the wish for Shiro's personal gain instead for the winner. OK, before I explained above (just to convince that Shiro or going after him is no way less-important) or recent episodes, did you think that Shiro actually has various powers, or you just view him as someone who simply gives the card Decks, watches Riders and urges them to TATAKAE (like the wish power comes from somewhere but he just tells informations about the wish)?

Oh, yes all true for Mirror World's environment system. It's more than just being a horrific danger for humans (Riders mitigate that but still). And yeah for bolded one for meta reason is a sensible way to pad out the series. Though now I wonder, why Riders only fight each other in Mirror World (Monsters live in Mirror World so fighting them there is expected)? Is that because you can only summon weapons/monsters in Mirror World? (I think you may be able to call monsters from Mirror World to real world to aid you) Or possibly incapacitate other Riders so they can't escape from Mirror World when too weak and will disintegrate? Unless like that, Riders seemingly are a bit suicidal to choose to fight each other in a hazardous environment.

Personally for me it's more intriguing to see cards that are NOT tied to Riders (cards like Sword Vent, Strike Vent, Guard Vent are tied to Riders as they're all parts of their contract monsters) being showcased.

Yeah no backstory yet, but just pointing out about how Tezuka being another non-chosen Rider makes sense of WHY he's the only other heroic Rider. And your Tezuka and Shinji's comparison reminds me again of why Shinji can be weak and/or untrustworthy like in ep. 4 where he lacks real drive and agenda.

Or probably just him having a faith in Goro and his skills?