Maybe? I never really saw Hibiki's lack of stopping as related to his resolve or anything, but, maybe? I think it's just more to do with Hibiki feeling more comfortable staying mobile than coming to a halt.

No, that's fair. Calling out the show for keeping Hitomi in the dark when they have so many involved women, okay, sure. I think it's a little different, since multiple people could clue Hitomi in and (spoiler for the next episode) the cover-ups are just going to get more lame and insulting, but you're not wrong about the show having a bunch of women that are integral to the monster plots.

I've always enjoyed this arc. Todoroki is a really delightful combination of exuberance and flopsweat at this point in the series. I like that the show treats him like a rookie, but not like he isn't competent. He's just as accomplished at his job as any of the others, he just has a unique way of going about it. Also, his gorilla disk animal air guitars alongside him and that's adorable.

I don't really have a lot more to add about this arc. I'm not sure why, since it's a good pair of episodes with a lot of great moments - love the part where Hibiki and Kasumi are buying snacks in the convenience store - but a lot of what I would say has already been said.

They made a Kamen Rider show about weird dads and their weird kids and I really love it.

Like, Zanki is super cool and he made just the weirdest kid. He's not withholding, he's just laconic, and somehow Todoroki is, like, Kamen Rider Anxiety. Hibiki's like, Cool Weekend Dad (also where the eff is Hibarki in this one?!?!?!) while everyone else in the family actually raises Asumu... Ibuki and Akira are the only normal family in this one, and even he's okay with depriving this girl of normal socialization to fight in a demon-exploding franchise/cult.

It's weird! They're all insane, and all of them should have their kids taken away by the state, Todoroki included. Get him a better, hopefully less-cool dad.

And now, for the thing I’ve been holding in for a day.

The diver that appears in this episode (if you missed him, I ask “How?”, since he’s the only non-regular in this episode) is played by a Keizo Yabe, who was previously the suit actor for Zanki before his retirement. And that word is italicised for a reason I won’t say anything about for spoiler reasons, other than this: Õiwa Hisanori. (That’s not a spoiler because it’s the name of an actor)

It made sense enough to me. Ibuki really is a pretty conventional Kamen Rider archetype huh?

That was a pretty bad*ss way to take out both of them with one throw!

Oh for sure, I wouldn't want other shows to be just like Faiz. I appreciate that there are a lot of shows with qualities of their own and that's what makes them unique.

Yeah, I was talking about conflict in general, not necessary the dark and edgy kind. Every show is built on some kind of conflict with its own stakes to propel the plot forward. I think Hibiki usually does this just fine and making it more like Faiz is basically what happens later anyway which most people agree, myself included, is to its detriment.

You're right that conflict needs to serve a purpose in the story such as teaching a moral or as a catalyst for character development to justify it being there and not just to make it seem more complex than it really is. I definitely don't want Mochida to go full yandere and kill Akira or anything like that since Hibiki isn't that kind of show. The reason I complain about it is that the conflict is set up and resolved too quickly, like an anticlimax. I didn't feel like I learned anything from that.

Shounen studying for his exams is a conflict and one that is suitable for a regular high school student to have. It may not be the most exciting conflict in superhero genre but it can be more valuable for the moral and a more relatable parallel to the Oni's struggles.

Sorry if I was unclear, I meant that Akira is the female lead to Shounen. But yeah, Kasumi is the female lead overall, since she's the first girl in the credits. Mochida is as you say, just a side character.

With Tekken, are you referring to the two live action movies or the CGI movie Blood Vengeance? I thought the live action adaption sucked but Blood Vengeance was awesome and a nice prequel to Tekken 6.

Actually, Todoroki's age is 26, 2nd oldest Oni of the main Oni trio introduced. He's very childish for his age. And saying they got a system for being an Oni... is it really that? It seems that the way of how Hibiki, Ibuki, and Zanki mentors others are different (especially Zanki's).

Now it seems that Todoroki also has the tendency to try to appear perfect and flawless, especially in front of his mentors... like what Asumu thought of Hibiki at first before meeting Midori. It's seen before that Zanki would be in trouble if Todoroki didn't help him at his debut, according to him. Now probably it needs to be shown to him how other Onis isn't always perfect in fighting, to change Todoroki's perception of Zanki in a more realistic manner.

Yeah, it seems to be parallel again, both Todoroki and Asumu rushed things out, but Asumu paid the price for it. And although Ichiro seems kind and generous outwardly... never underestimate the mellow ones (seriously). It happens where a leader is outwardly nice, but takes what he has seriously and will respond harshly if someone screws up. So it's plausible for the fear, and probably, people should have fear even if the leader is outwardly nice. Asumu's still need to be guided though (although no need the overly harsh way that people seem to hail as being the only effective way), even if it's his first day, which Ichiro and to a lesser extent Hinaka did; not being excused for being a beginner.

I mean yeah, continuing from before, Zanki wishes for Todoroki to just branch out of him and not following him fully by-the-book. And by that Zanki need to make sure that Todoroki's staying that way. And I feel it, the part where he feels like he's not doing enough and everyone's secretly disappointed in him (and that others just lie and flatter you due to not wanting to hurt the feelings), waiting for someone to be actually "honest" about your results. And obviously, "he gets results, dammit!", so true, with Todoroki keeping the count of Makamou he killed. And I think this plays a part about the opposite of this situation compared to real life ones I experienced. In real life usually the adults crave for the "testifying devotion" part like in education/training places, forcing the youths to express the devotion like that whenever they like it or not. But here, the junior (he's 26 age-wise! but junior as he took up the mantle recently) is doing that himself, and the adults who teaches had to understand and ackowledge this move. And agree that the guitar drill move of Todoroki is dope, and efficient of hitting 2 Makamous at once.

Keyword: adaptation. It's obviously the live action one. Y'know, many of those games are western adaptations and they don't really give a fuck about the source material. Blood Vengeance was made by Harada and Namco themselves (admittedly, as a backlash to the western adaptation as they weren't allowed to supervise the live action adaptation), so it's just another franchise work in different field.

Thanks, and, yeah, knew exactly who you meant when you said "the diver". This wasn't a very guest-heavy episode!

He's the most traditional by far, which is why I'm glad he's on the show as a supplementary Rider. It's cool to have a handsome young man being empathetic and heroic... but not as the lead on this show.

One of the most unique things to me about the Riders in this show is how codified their roles are, how much goddamn bureaucracy there is to Takeshi. They all seem to treat doing their jobs as having a clear system of Dos and Donts, which is why every single other person seems confused by Todoroki's individualism.

Right off the bat, I can't let this one go by without mentioning that, after a brief sneak preview in 17, it features the real debut of one of the coolest Rider weapons ever:

https://i.imgur.com/9GTq7uR.png

I have to wonder how much better this show would've done if they had been selling it on this kind of visual from the start. A hero with a blade made out of fire seems like an easier sell than "so this guy plays drums or something, I guess?" It's sort of surprising to me they didn't come up with this idea earlier. I mean, Hibiki... with a sword! How could that idea go wrong?

Anyway, this was a touching enough little story about Todoroki growing into his own, and I like the idea it lands on that Todoroki finding his own path as an Oni doesn't require losing Zanki's support. It's more of that mutual teacher/pupil kind of deal where it's actually both of them who are trying to redefine their status quo, and, as Die pointed out, it isn't simply a matter of Todoroki not "getting it" or whatever. It adds a lot of dimension to the plot.

There's also a touch I love in both these episodes that does a great job showing how overworked and overexcited Todoroki is, which is him dumping his Disc Animals haphazardly out of the case when he's tracking down Makamou. It's such a stark contrast to all the previous scenes of characters setting up these elaborate thumbtack grids on maps and sitting around politely drinking tea while they wait; a single little gesture that speaks volumes about Todoroki as a character, and where he's at in life.

That part is great and, like a lot of Todoroki's approach, still pretty effective. It maybe makes the more intricate planning of the other Oni seem... more theatrical? Intentionally so? There's this weird mix of Punching A Clock and Our Sacred Duty at work in all of the hunting scenes, so them just getting to it would probably sound vaguely insulting. With Todoroki, he's willing to say Dad's Not Around So I Can Do This How I Want. Todoroki is doing his version of being an Oni, where he's putting different emphasis on different parts of the task. With the other Oni, the process is maybe the point?

Personal theory? Takatera was binge-watching Star Wars movies during his day off and the following day said, "FLAMING LIGHTSABERS!" to the writers. :lolol