So which Marvel character and which DC character do you think Kusaka is similar to?

Since I’ve held off long enough, I’ll share my two cents on Kusaka. Heaven emphasis on “two”.

He’s a pretty good idea (that the wrong kind of person can still be considered a hero), but the execution… jury’s out on how that went.

As for whether he’s well written… he’s certainly handled better than the likes of Accel, Birth and Meteor, who the writers were practically snoring their way through by the end.

I mean, they don't have to be mutually exclusive, Takumi can still be a petty insecure little shit and totally right about Kusaka (you can even argue that the latter is more of a confirmation bias that happened to be true rather than actual objective reasoning on his part :lol). In that sense, it kinda reminded me of the Dexter show (when it's actually good), where Kusaka is like the Dexter to Takumi's Doakes.

I just went back and rewatched the episode for the Takumi vs. Kusaka scene in particular, and can't decide whether my favorite scene would be that living room scene, the Takumi: Ironing Ace sequence, or the Kusaka "Shit He Saw Through Me" scene, but I adore this small interaction before all that:

Kusaka: whoa it's your home, Mari?
Mari: yea, let's come inside
Takumi: hey, it's actually Keitaro's!
Mari: *pulled off a split second, perfect, fuck-you-Takumi face*

It reminds me a bit of the Fourze/Meteor rivalry, where everyone in the KRC bought Meteor's whole Aw Shucks I'm Just Happy To Help bullshit except Fourze, and how you could see that start to wear on Meteor. Fun to watch!

My ultimate fear is that both Yuuji and Takumi wash ashore in Episode 15 with their memories intact, leading to a two-episode storyline that ends up filling in backstory but resetting at the end, rendering their characters completely unaltered by the experience.

But we'd also get Faiz Trinity, where he does a finish with his punch AND his kick AND the Phone Gun, so it's a bit of trade off.

The quick answer is "None of them, he's Kamen Rider Meteor," (or more accurately, Meteor is Kaixa) but to play along...

Terra, I guess? It's tough to say without knowing his whole deal.

I don't know if I think of those Riders as having stories that stalled out? They got the whole middle-third of their shows to tell a story in, and all of their motivation got dealt with and resolved, which is pretty standard for the secondary Rider. After that, they've got to take a backseat to the primary Rider and the season-long arc stuff. The secondary Rider's moment is almost always just in the middle of the season.

That Let's Invite Him In sequence is great because it's this mix of Takumi not liking this guy for reasons he's still figuring out; feeling insecure about his effectiveness and usefulness; just wanting to get away from this dude for, like, five seconds; and him grasping at straws to throw up any obstacle he can to make Kusaka's life difficult and make him feel unwelcome.

I think the thing with the incompatibility of Takumi being irrational with Takumi actually being right, it's all in how Takumi needs to act. When he's just being a dick for no reason, it's that shot of Kusaka reaching out his hand and Takumi slowly turning his head away, acting like he doesn't see the hand in front of his face. It's impotent rage, more embarrassing for Takumi than it is for Kusaka, and so goddamn funny.

But if Takumi's right, then he needs to forcefully confront Kusaka with real accusations, actual concerns, and that's all drama rather than comedy.

Fish thread is very elaborate, that's no given, but I don't know if I can use his yet to give people proper infos about Kuuga, like I did with AkinoAme's for Ryuki and OOO in Dreamwidth. The only current "flaws" IMO there was that no easy navigations to the episodes, and probably no each character's bios yet. and I do want to collect every "better wiki substitute" about each Rider series and collectively share them to people, this is practically one of my current goal regarding Kamen Rider.

Uh... for Mari's part, "Yes The Tall Handsome Athlete Who Carries Around A Photo Of Me", did you miss the part where they're childhood friends, as Keitaro pointed out to Takumi? Kusaka's naturally going to be the person Mari confides the most, if she's okay being with strangers like Takumi and Keitaro, she would be more accepting to the long lost close person. And surely for now, it seems that Kusaka is the one Mari has no single hostility towards. Though Keitaro has a fan tendencies, he seems to have a limit for it that he didn't accept Kaido becoming Faiz before, but not for Kusaka. Or that he wants Takumi to become Faiz no matter what.

His infamy truly isn't known yet here, both to audience AND the people in-universe I guess. Oh, except for Kusaka being sardonic to Takumi, but yeah Takumi's the one who started it here. Oh wel, right now you did agree more on Takumi's hostility to him that Kusaka's suspicious, which would indicate you also feel the same for him, even if he's presented like you said, as exaggeratingly alturistic and heroic. Your observation for Takumi before has come true too here, where Takumi said in the car that he can't do anything, or at least compared to Kusaka. Keitaro wanted to console him with his good traits but... ah well we didn't really get to hear it. It may help some insecure viewers too!

I know he's played by Houjou but... his name's already mentioned in this episode! Pun intended - It's(uro) Takuma, aka Centipede Orphnoch. Also, wtf, the book Takuma uses is an effective shield, how can it tank attacks from a superhuman monsters?! And yeah Yuka did kill some humans, bad ones... but why Takuma still attacked Yuji? He also killed bad humans too. So the conclusion from Yuka is, you CAN safely be a superhero as an Orphnoch, if you stop evil humans by killing them. Yuji's next line to Yuka, I mean, Yuka's not to different from Yuji anyway, she only punishes bad people with her power and also wants to use her powers for good.

Speaking of Orphnochs, I should be more patient I think, Mr. J's revival iprocess is shown here. And Mr. J's ability (forming swords) and finishing attack is now shown in this episode. And the power Orphnochs can use in human form, are they independent to their monster forms? They can fire blue energy balls as humans, but they should probably be effective too for long ranged attacks as Orphnochs. The Kaido/Mari scene... Kaido just fell into a simple bluff, aka doing what daily drivers/riders (not Kamen Rider! but those who rides a motorcycle) do in streets, going forward when the traffic light is green. It's like teaching a new driver/rider about traffic lights!

If you don't think people who were friends as kids, fell out of touch, and then met up as adults probably want to bone, I have several centuries worth of storytelling that's going to come as quite a shock.

I just feel like Kusaka checks off more boxes for What A Hero Should Be Like than Kaido ever could. Like, Keitaro isn't a fan of Faiz, he's a fan of heroes. Everything Kusaka does and says is, like, Generic Hero, and that's incredibly appealing to Keitaro.

That Keitaro/Takumi scene in the van is great! When Keitaro says that Takumi has a lot of positive qualities, I was like, What? At which point, when pressed, Keitaro comes up blank. So great!

It's not just any book, though! It's the collected works of a Nobel Prize-winning poet! Kaido's just lucky that Houjou wasn't packing a book by T S. Eliot, or he'd've been vaporized.

I think it has maybe more to do with Yuuji's firm stance to Smart Brain that he won't kill (again...), and Kaido flunking out as Faiz. Both of them were given chances and warnings, to no improvement, so now Houjou's going to take them out.

Probably want to bone? Also what kind of storytelling there?

No, no, yeah, I wasn't saying Keitaro's a fan of Faiz, but that he wants Takumi to take a part in becoming Kamen Rider (means he's a fan of Takumi?), and when Kaido appeared there were only 1 belt seen. And him being a fan of Kaixa here should speak about that he's not a fan of Faiz. Lol... really, the infamous Kusaka seems like an ideal hero at his debut here to appeal to Keitaro... don't be tempted, take Takumi's stance of him!

They're two young adults who have romantic feelings for one another based on a shared history and physical attraction.

Maybe that post could've used a :p or something, because I wasn't trying to be particularly serious there. It is absolutely in-character for Takumi to childishly look for any possible way to like, claw a "win" out of an argument with Kusaka. The sarcasm thing works in its own right! Sort of like, accidental localization on TV-N's part, you could say. I don't think they'd get that loose with a line on purpose, but it turned out pretty okay here.

Probably the one thing Takkun could beat Kusaka at right now. Their dynamic in these episodes is super fun, by the way. Going back to that "subversive Rider show" point, the idea of Kaixa just straight up bowing out of a fight to leave Takumi to fend for himself is hilarious. They aren't in the dark about each other's identities like Agito, and they aren't destined to fight like everyone in Ryuki. It's two Riders who have no reason NOT to be working together, but they just hate each other that much.

Also thank you so much for plugging my thread twice. That's way too kind of you.

Yeah, I know people like to shout MELODRAMA at Inoue, but I find the Takumi/Kusaka story pretty goddamn grounded so far, despite how bonkers parts of it are. Not getting along with someone immediately for vaguely-defined reasons is, I'm going to guess, a pretty common experience for people. (Or maybe I'm just an asshole?) If anything, this rivalry is more relatable than most other shows, because they just don't get along. It's not something (right now at least) that can be overcome by them proving their dedication to heroism to each other, or sharing their traumas, or any of the ways brave men find common ground in Kamen Rider. They just don't like each other, full stop. That's pretty much how normal people behave!

It's my pleasure! You did an amazing job!