This episode!

I realized, thinking more about it later, why this type of comedy landed for me. There's a thing I think a lot of people do, when they're watching a show, where they think Wouldn't It Be Hilarious If X Happened Next. And you know the show isn't going to do X next, because it's stupid and funny but it could break the reality of the show. But then the producers do it anyway, and they do it in a way that the reality of the show supports. Moreover, the reality of the show enhances the joke, leveling it up into something hilarious and poignant. That shit, where a show can validate an absurd premise, rendering it both funny and insightful... I'm not sure there's anything in storytelling that I like better.

Awesome! I'm glad Faiz is working for you. Twenty episodes in, I think it's got a ton of positives.

Bob's Burgers AU Where It's The Six Main Characters From Faiz Running A Pizza Place:

Takumi = Bob
Yuuji = Linda
Kaido = Louise
Mari = Gene
Yuka = Tina
Keitaro = Teddy

So, two things.

First, she's a kid, and I've seen real-life children act WAY worse than Keiko acts here. Children are still developing their critical faculties, their coping strategies, and all of the ways adults process their emotions. Keiko's behavior is from someone at a formative stage, and that formative stage can get messy and ugly. It's not really accurate to compare adult problems to a kid's misbehavior.

Second, she's going through a lot. She doesn't know what to do with all of this fear and anger and sadness, so it comes out in weird ways. She's not being a brat when she ruins people's clothes, she's seeing a physical manifestation of her former happiness, and she can't process its absence. It's a trigger for her, and the fact that she only dirties those clothes is maybe an incredibly mature choice.

Oh, I didn't think she made the connection back then, just that she had to be there for that exact moment so that she'd have the information later.

Hey, so, more thoughts on why that Yuka/Mari scene was so great.

A while back, I said that I don't think Yuka is really in love with Kaido or Keitaro. And, y'know, after this past episode? I still don't.

Yuka's lived an intensely traumatic life, and her views on romance have been warped by those traumas. She viewed Email Keitaro as an escape from pain, not anyone she was truly connected to. She viewed IRL Keitaro as a distraction from complicated feelings, a way that she could ignore her confusion. She views Kaido as a way to define herself, as a way to feel useful. And feeling useful is the core of Yuka's self-worth, how she knows if she's allowed to feel happy. The things she mentions to Mari in this episode about Kaido, it's about how useless she feels and how he'd like her better if she could do more for him.

All of those things, they're intensely unhealthy. These are not pure emotions, they're someone trying to paper over a lifetime of abuse. It's running from tragedy into a completely different identity, that of Someone's Girlfriend.

The thing that makes me love the Mari and Yuka scene, then, is how much that doesn't happen. How we don't see Yuka contorting herself into a shape that's more pleasing to someone else, but how she's comfortable, happy, accepted.

Yuka's probably never had a friend, let alone a friend that was a girl. Her relationships with men are all based in supplication, in deference. She follows Yuuji's lead, she accepts Kaido's judgment. With Mari, all of that is off the table. Mari doesn't make any demands on her. Mari doesn't judge her. Mari allows her a space to be open about her fears, to feel joy in her dreams. It's simple friendship, and it brings out Yuka's happiness in a way that I'm not sure anyone else ever has.

She doesn't need a man to attach herself to, she needs a friend like Mari. That's why I'm glad we got that scene.

OK, I'm sorry for a take like this that you have to do this (and sorry for the next I want to say here too). I was probably a bit irrational right there, just speaking out of my mind of something that reminds me right there. And even if anything, here you say don't compare kid's misbehavior with adult problems here, but actually, those adults I refer with the problems I mentioned before? Those are the ones that will be refered as immature, because they respond in the same way as a kid's misbehavior.

Well, not all hard workers are money oriented or a guaranteed success (depending on what busniess they do!). So being a hardworker doesn't really indicate how well you are as a businessman. Even then, being a hardworker at least indicates it's like, going through "brute force" way compared to "skill and finesse" way at work. Plus they sometimes say, work smart, not hard. Eh then again that phrase is used for those primarily money-oriented because that's what success is viewed primarily... ok enough rambling, back to Faiz, Keitaro explicitly stated he only wanted to help people, not be rich from the job, so it's not like he's a poor businessman just that he's not money oriented (which obviously, have Takumi and Mari think so for that)?

Then yeah, sooner or later of course, Keitaro will get to know Kaido better, the person who he previously deemed as unworthy of being a Faiz compared to Takumi. But how would he feel against him now? That he becomes one of the few person that Kaido gets along seemingly without any rudeness. The boys are just more open and direct compared to the girls... they just right at the bat mentioned the name of the person they fell in love with. W̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶K̶a̶i̶d̶o̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶s̶t̶i̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶K̶e̶i̶t̶a̶r̶o̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶o̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶a̶s̶t̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶f̶a̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶i̶r̶l̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶s̶ ̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶o̶f̶.̶ Mari mentioning about someone falling in love with her... she didn't sense Kusaka likely having that too to her? Or that it's not only Kaido having that? And so it seems that Yuka truly have an interest to Kaido....what happened with Keitaro's? Also did Mari get to know Yuka's name? She thought Keitaro plays off 2 women (one named Yuka, one named Osada), if she does it could come together.

T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶i̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶e̶p̶a̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶.̶.̶.̶?̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶K̶a̶m̶e̶n̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶.̶.̶.̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶k̶u̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶c̶u̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶!̶ OK, with this being "the top of the mountain in entertainment" and "perfectly suited to my tastes", can you give a concrete definition of it here? It's currently harder to figure it simply by reading your gushes. Also I wonder about the line and toleration between "natural" (the girls) and "wacky" (the boys, and pretty much everything else) respectively that you love both here (and both traits are total opposites).

It seems that the Smart Brain and the Lucky Clover were really on the same page. Smart Lady drives a
(facelift) NSX, now here Kageyama driving Honda S2000.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...4052/s2000.png
I didn't expect that Mr. J was just on lower level that other Lucky Clovers are the one to keep up the heat. And the Takuma fight, so was the Riders' belt here isn't attached into their Rider forms they henshin to? Oh well, Faiz Riders here has a fatal weakness! To have the belt so easily pulled away from them (this fight! one of those that actually targets the very thing that made the Rider strong in the first place!). And for Yuji wondering about who's Faiz, he probably didn't have the thought of Takumi being Faiz right? I haven't seen his reaction to the revelation yet here, though probably will be done next episode. To see his suspicions just turned right that Faiz belt was in the hand of someone immoral.

To be honest, when I was younger what I heard was Faiz having a good and engaging story. I even convinced one of my friends to watch Faiz that he talked about which ones with good story (he collected KR series but only for collection, not watching them). But I didn't delve into the discussions further that what lies beneath that for people was actually the flaws like misunderstandings and melodrama. I think probably with this thread, the valid one is going back to what I heard when I was younger again. OK so apart from Faiz, what's the actual thoughts for Inoue?

So, I don't really have much to contribute to the discussion at the moment (it's hard to play contrarian when I agree with so much of what Die keeps saying, plus this was a stretch of the show I don't remember the subs having any real problems), but I do just wanna say I, I don't know, I just really like how positive the vibe this thread has going is?

I mean, Die, you've said a lot of nice things about my Kuuga thread, but I don't think you realize how much of a service you're doing to all the destitute Faiz fans out there right now. I didn't realize how much my life needed someone else gushing about how fun this wacky bunch of weirdos (and Yuuji) is until I had it.

Don't be sorry! You're entitled to your opinion! I just wanted to give some space to the notion that a kid character is maybe allowed to be awful in a way that's a lot more situational or temporary than an adult character. It's totally fine if Keiko still bugs you. She's not easy to like!

As a business owner, let me assure you that being a hard worker is not the surest path to financial success.

The point that I think Mari and Takumi were trying to make, though, is that he's a hard worker that is not going to have a business to work hard at, unless he figures out a way to make more money. It's well and good to have a high-minded mission statement, but unless Keitaro's running a nonprofit dry-cleaners/therapy office (which, it's possible!), he's going to be out of a job and homeless pretty goddamn soon.

I didn't really talk about this before, but I'm a big fan of Keitaro no longer holding a grudge against Kaido. I think another show, a worse show, would have them be rivals, antagonists. But here, there's no real animosity. They so quickly fell into a friendship, so excited about finding another hopeless romantic to hang out with.

I did! Just a little bit ago!

Hope that clears it up!

Yeah, boy, Houjou's clearly the smart one! Instead of some long battle, he's all Yoink and that's it. It's a good strategy!

I never got the feeling Yuuji suspected Takumi was Faiz. Yuuji sees Faiz as a Smart Brain enforcer, so Faiz being some young guy who works at a dry cleaners (and is a total failure of a human being, per Mari's cover story) wouldn't make his list of suspects. So, yeah, it being Houjou is exactly who he'd think Faiz would be.

Aw, thanks! I'm happy to help!

I just like watching Kamen Rider, you know? All types. It's awesome to be able to talk about these shows with people who like them, too!

Imagine liking Kamen Rider, everyone knows to be a real fan you have to hate all of it apart from your one chosen episode that the rest will never live up to. Mine is the episode of Drive where Genpachiro befriends the Decatora car, btw.

Look, honestly? Everything in this franchise is garbage except for Gremlin getting frustrated at Medusa for misidentifying Kamen Riders. I was just being polite this whole time, but I'm glad to find out that Actively Enjoying Kamen Rider is an unnecessary perspective. Phew! So much less pressure!

Still not a fan. I've seen Kiva, a show I will definitely not be re-evaluating my opinion of.

Pretty good choice! Aside from, y'know, it being rubbish due to everything being garbage aside from my chosen episode -- the Kikaider episode of Gaim!