It's so weird how you misspelled "Peko"!

It's honestly just so fun to hang out with these three characters again. And the problem is so specifically Keitaro (a child is mad at clean clothes) that I was immediately on board with this super low stakes story. I'm almost a little mad that there's an Orphnoch at the end?

Yeah, I feel like it's the sort of thing that Inoue just doesn't think is that important? Most of the time, I'm right there with him. I don't need two scenes of Yuuji deciding to go hit a few dingers, and then he runs into Takumi. Just, like, give me that sweet sweet Takumi/Yuuji goodness and I'll forgive your shortcut.

The problem is, when you're taking shortcuts to do things that are either a) totally nonsensical, or b) not that interesting, I'm going to wonder why you couldn't spend another minute closing that plothole.

Like, if the meal at a restaurant is delicious, I'm probably not going to be too long-term grumpy at poor service. But if the meal's just okay, I'm going to remember the inattentive server a lot more.

Hell Bent is also the episode where the big long series mystery is resolved with a "*shrug* Who really cares?", so don't worry, he's also doing that there too.

We all know the most consequential character is Kouta's permanently off-screen parents.

Takumi's situation is relatable. He doesn't want to open up to people about his problems, he wants to solve them. Mari and Keitarou may have his best interests at heart but their attempt to force it out of him isn't helpful and just makes him feel even worse. Sometimes, introverts just need their space to process these difficult dilemmata. Kiba respects Takumi's feelings enough to not harass him and let him open up on his own. It's one of the major differences between Kiba and Keitarou, their approach to helping others. Keitarou is a chronic hero, he wants to solve other people's problems. Kiba wants to help people solve their own problems. Kiba is unable to solve his own problem as his murder of Chie has resulted in her brother throwing away his humanity in his crusade for vengeance. It's the perfect setup for Takumi to get out of his funk by seeing for himself why Faiz is still necessary and his purpose is still worth owning.

Despite being the conclusion of the Kaixa arc, it's not about him. He was the catalyst but this arc is really about how the accumulation of his actions affected Takumi. After a losing streak, this climactic fight establishes that Faiz is back! Team Faiz has revived as well with Mari and Keitarou visibly happy to have Takumi back to normal. Kusaka going on a road trip was just what Takumi needed to regain his confidence. It's definitely an awesome fight, Faiz solo against a tag team of Orphenochs, with Justifaiz playing in the background for the first time. I haven't even mentioned Justifaiz until now! It's one of my favorites for sure and ISSA will eventually portray an important character similar to Matsuoka Mitsuru.

Oh no! Don't let out of universe people like you also hooked up with Kusaka! Sure, Kusaka got some points right there, but grade-s-douchebags or villains can get a point occassionally while not being a righteous person. And even if Kusaka points out that Orphnochs are murderous and that Takumi's reluctance is dangerous, he also stated that he only fought to test his own skills, not for anyone, so why should Takumi actually fight in his point of view if no concern for greater good?

Yeah, blown off again the chance there. Mari and Keitaro still have some affection for him as shown here, that previously Sh Ranger thinks there's no chance to explain anymore, but here he does because they both recognize that the problem is that Takumi doesn't want to fight Orphnochs, and that this is the reason he attacked Kusaka. Though this one's finally actually solved. And Yuji being combo'ed with Takumi? Oh well, this actually just get started. Kusaka may be the secondary Rider, but Yuji is the deuteragonist of this series, like Ankh of OOO. Takumi/Yuji is just expected of that. Yuji talked about how there's something you should talk, but can't because they won't fix anything, but I think for this time, it can because Takumi's friends are concerned and not hostile again, though you think it's for their feelings.

As Justifaiz plays here (though it's the 2nd chorus).... Dilemma wa owaranai! (The dilemma that wouldn't end) It's written on the song! I didn't think much of Morishita knowing about Yuji being the killer because of his Orphnoch qualities, but here actually I gave it more thoughts because, obviously, him getting Orphnoch powers. That way, he'd be an actual adversary to Yuji! Now it's shown about someone gaining Orphnoch powers without being in danger? (like Yuji and Yuka).

Faiz being maximum badass here to defeat 2 Orphnochs at once. And Sparkle Cut, the sword finisher, the wave.... explodes the car it hits (I've seen this scene before going to the series). So Takumi didn't have to talk about it to his friends, because he's just going back into fighting Orphnochs. It's a shame that Cucksaka didn't have a chance to witness this (though he wouldn't change). Well yeah, I forgot to state this before but, I do think the same as you, I wouldn't necessarily want for gruff and unpleasant character to undergo a major and total change after development like Takumi here, but the opposite goes true as well to me, I also don't want a personable characters to be changed into grumpy douchebags just because those are the ones viewers enjoy; fanservice (like, if they don't want the unpleasant character to change only because they like watching jerks and want more of them to change the "wimpy" personable character too). Doesn't mean don't want any development to either type, though I just think that it's not that easy to change 180 degrees.

Yeah, Takumi's introversion is probably always going to make things difficult with Mari's bullheadedness (which worked great on Kaido) and Keitaro's clinginess (which worked great on Yuka). The fact that these three are still friends after eighteen episodes is maybe the most heroic thing of all!

Also, "dilemmata"? Nice work! That is definitely a new word I learned today. Thought it was a typo at first, but, nope, plural of dilemma. Kudos!

It's really growing on me. I mean, I liked it to start, but now I'm really liking it. Except, since Switchblade and Akiba Silver got me thinking more about Gaim, I can't get Just Live More out of my head.

I guess it's the difference between someone being right, and someone having a point. Kusaka's zero-tolerance policy for Orphnochs, along with his I Just Like Beating Things motivation, he's not right. But he still has a point when he tells Takumi that refusing to fight because things are complicated isn't a great solution.

Sure, there's definitely a difference between Yuuji's problem (he murdered someone) and Takumi's problem (he can't murder anyone). But the larger point the show is making, I think, is that you can't be frozen by an unsolvable problem. Sometimes sharing would help, and sometimes it wouldn't, but you've got to find a way forward regardless.

So, not sure if you mean him becoming an Orphnoch, or him turning into an Orphnoch for the first time, so I'll take a run at both.

For him becoming an Orphnoch, there's a gap in time between when Merderman attacks Morishita's car, and when Yuuji, Takumi, and Keitaro find him. I assume that Morishita's heart was burned up just before Yuuji found him.

For him turning into an Orphnoch, it's the same emotional stress that triggered Yuuji and Yuka's transformations.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 19

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz19a.png

--1--

Aw, what a sweet episode.

I feel like I’m going to bring this one up a bunch if I ever see people declare Faiz to be the Mean Kamen Rider series. There’s such a sweetness to this story, to Keiko’s arc, and it’s all based in Faiz storytelling. It’s just, like, tuned to Aw instead of Yikes.

--2--

Like, Keiko’s whole motivation and attitude, it’s no different than arcs we’ve gotten with Yuka or Takumi. She’s lost something important in her life, and being reminded of it makes her lash out. She ruins clean white clothes because clean white clothes used to make her happy, and now she can’t have them. She pushes people away because she’s been abandoned by her amnesiac mother, and she doesn’t want to be abandoned again. This… this is all very Faiz!

It’s fun to see this stuff play out with a child, though, because it makes some of the more extreme pieces of acting out seem more realistic. Not that I’ve got a problem with extreme behavior with the cast of Faiz! It’s just, Keiko racing out of Team Orphnoch HQ because she’s having a tough time emotionally is a little easier to understand than, say, Kaido constantly racing out of Team Orphnoch HQ while Yuka yells after him.

They’re all children, is maybe what I’m saying, and Keiko’s story is no different than any of theirs. She just gets to have a happy ending, while they’re still mired in their own neuroses.

--3--

Boy, pretty fun to see all six members of the classic cast, though, right? If last time I was complaining (“complaining”) about how often folks just run into each other, this episode is the reason why I’m not mad about that storytelling choice. I love how intertwined the two casts are, how easily Mari can just be at Team Orphnoch HQ, or how Team Faiz will call Team Orphnoch to let them know how Keiko’s doing. That shit never gets old with me.

And, in general, it’s cool to see Keiko float between the two groups, to see how each side deals with her. Team Orphnoch doesn’t really get a lot of time around her, but it’s nice to see that they welcome her maybe a little quicker than Team Faiz. Yuka sees a hurt little girl and immediately feels protective; Kaido sees a chance to preen; and Yuuji feels sympathy for someone lacking a family. It’s, again, not a lot (they really only get one scene together), but it makes total sense how they’d all react to Keiko.

--4--

The return of Fungus The Clown makes a little less sense, if I’m being honest. It’s a part of this story that never really connects, thematically or plot-wise. He’s just a monster clown who scares a little girl, but he’s not really relevant to the story.

For Keiko, it's not like this monster is some nemesis who's responsible for her mom's accident or anything. Her problems aren't even Orphnoch adjacent! (I mean, there's almost definitely some Smart Brain stuff at play, but it's incidental at this point in her story.) She's a girl who's had a tough go of it, and it's all about reaching her emotionally. Having an Orphnoch show up moves the spotlight off of Keiko, the character who this whole story centers on.

The Orphnoch ends up being a thing that makes Keitaro scared, and Keitaro then has to overcome that fear to protect Keiko. But, like, this story isn’t about Keitaro being scared, it’s about Keitaro trying to help a little girl feel better about her tragic existence, as well as maybe trying to fix that tragic existence. Like, Keiko wasn’t mad at him because an Orphnoch attacked and he didn’t fight it, she’s mad because he blew up at her and told her to go away. Him fighting an Orphnoch is a) not smart, and b) not what she was upset about.

Even for Keitaro’s arc, again, he wasn’t beating himself up about being a coward for the first part of this story, so having him physically protect Keiko doesn’t really solve his story. His story resolution is about reaffirming his desire to improve Keiko’s life, and he does that by being Keitaro, which is to say by doing a ton of laundry. Having that clown keep showing up, it feels perfunctory, irrelevant, a distraction. There’s a story they’re telling about someone protecting people’s smiles, and then a random monster shows up randomly. It’s my least favorite way of using a monster in a Kamen Rider story, and it’s structurally the only real problem this episode has.

--5--

The fight against Fungus The Clown isn’t even the memorable fight from the episode! Faiz’s fight against Horsepower was pretty great (with Horsepower going to Four-Legged Drive mode), but the final Faiz Fight against Mr. J had one of the coolest finishes this show has had yet.

Mr. J shows up after Fungus has been destroyed, and it goes back and forth for a minute. Faiz goes for his kick finisher, but Mr. J blocks it. But then Faiz boosts off of Mr. J’s block, puts on his duster in mid-air, and then brings it down with an Exceed Charge to finish off Mr. J.

Holy shit. It was so impressive, and it’s the kind of thing I love to see a show do. It’s fairly typically for a tough enemy to be finished off with the hero just, like, trying harder, and that’s fine. Or maybe an ally helps out, and that’s usually neat. But when the hero has to fight smarter, when they have to combine the tools they’ve already got to beat someone that’s previously had their number (I mean, both of Mr. J’s other defeats are at Kaixa’s hands), it’s my favorite thing to see in a Kamen Rider fight.

So, yeah, great fight for a surprisingly sweet episode!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz19b.png

Ah, poor Mr. J. So long, puddin'.

The important thing is that Chaco will be okay. In a lot of older tokusatsu from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, dogs were often killed off to show how scary and mean the monsters are. It's nice to see Chaco moving on to a good home, albeit one where the family is way too amused by their own laundry.

I’d say that the Shitten’Ou of Orphnochs that was Lucky Clover is broken, but as TV Tropes points out in its entry for this show under “Elite Four”, they were never a real example anyway.

Especially with Kusaka trying his best to make everybody hate Takumi. You're right that Mari's and Keitarou's methods have proven effective before, but only with people who are receptive to those methods. Square peg, round hole.

Thanks! I like words. If you're interested, Wikipedia has a list of ata suffix plurals:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Categ...ending_in_"-a"

Damn, I don't even like Just Live More and yet the chorus gets stuck in my head if I think about Gaim too much. When that happens, I usually just recall Be The One (Be The One! Alright!) until that song gets stuck instead.

Yeah, it's implied that Yoshimasa's heart was destroyed/mutated which makes him the same type as Kaido. This type is more common than Original and likely applies to most MOTWs, although not Flyingfish.

I think this is a good arc for Keitarou, even if his hesitance to fight is secondary to Keiko's story. This guy was originally planning to fight the Orphenochs as Faiz before he found out he couldn't so it makes sense that he would want to overcome this challenge and be more heroic as a human. Keitarou seldom gets as much focus as the other characters and that's why I like that this arc gives him as much focus as possible and while it's not immediately important, that development is going to stick with him as the show progresses. The part where Keitarou snaps at Keiko is also important. He feels bad about it but it shows that while Keitarou can be a pushover, even he has a limit.

I remember you saying that Faiz Shot was boring compared to Faiz Pointer and usually I'd agree, but yeah, the Faiz Pointer Shot Combo Smash Impact Finisher is a very memorable Faiz moment. It's like Pointer is the main course and Shot is the dessert and it wouldn't have been right to finish a tank like Mr. J with anything less. I love how adaptable Rider Gears are, how all it takes to jump from one finisher to the next is to move the Mission Memory to another device and press a button.

It's a shame Mr. J had to die since his interaction with Keiko showed he still had some good in him, which confirms what Takumi was thinking about Orphenochs in the previous arc. He just wanted to provide a good life for Chaco and he was forced in to his position by Murakami's threats. At least his death was honorable and Chaco got a new home. It's the worst part of being a Kamen Rider that Takumi understands now, having to kill potentially good people to stop them from killing other people.