Do you mind if I add to the Ryutaros discussion? Not that I can hear your answer!

Ryutaros is basically a kid, so I think his love of Airi is more innocent and familial than Miura and Ozaki and even Urataros with his infamous "she's too good to just be your sister" line. The important thing to remember is that Ryutaros is an Imagin which can be a lonely existence. He was born without anything resembling a family of his own so he wants to experience that through Ryoutarou.

Actually, this is something I can relate to, since I don't have a big sister either. It reminds me of a story written by Inoue in Ohranger where the siblingless Oh Blue/Yuji tried to make two brothers stop fighting with each other and that episode made Yuji my favorite member of the team. This is probably another reason why Ryutaros is one of my favorite Imagins, in addition to him being purple and cheerful.

Ryutaros' love of Airi is also a catalyst for his development towards becoming more heroic and tame, by looking up to Airi as a big sister and role model for how he should behave. This isn't like those other guys who are just lusting for her without thinking about what Airi wants. Ryutaros' care is more genuine and from the heart.

Seeing a KR protagonist be like "I deserve better than this" is definitely uncommon so early in the show.

Regarding which Imagin is the weakest link, I'd say Urataros might be more of a liability than Ryutaros. He seldom fights unless it's near water and he causes a lot of complicated romantic problems for Ryoutarou.

I can see how Momotaros might be secretly worried about being replaced by all these newer younger Imagins, but yeah, there's no way Ryoutarou is going to throw him under the train (haha, get it?). Those two have a lot of sentimental value.

I think she just likes changing her clothes? I could definitely headcanon it as Hana thinking her train outfit is too conspicuous, so she puts on "normal clothes" (including an outfit that would only blend in if they needed to save Jimi Hendrix from an imagination monster from the end of time) when she's running around Tokyo.

That said, I way prefer her train outfit. It's a good look!

Neat! Thanks!

At this point in the show, I guess I'd argue with the last line? His affection for Airi is still unhealthy, being that he treats her like a sister when she doesn't even know he exists. There's no reciprocity to their relationship, and that means that Ryutaros' care is more selfish than not. It's him caring for a character in his story, not a real woman with an interior life. He's obsessed with Airi, and even if it's not in a sexual way, it's still not great.

I'd probably put Ryutaros and Urataros neck-and-neck as far as who is the least helpful. Depending on the particular scene, either one of them could be the biggest drawback to Ryotaro's goals. But, Ura has at least some marginal use (investigation, subterfuge) that Ryu lacks. It's a close one, though! Definitely some variables that can change in a heartbeat!

For sure, his affection is misdirected and destructive, but it still comes from a good place. Ryutaros wants recognition and a place to belong, just like how Momotaros wants respect. He's going the wrong way about it and deluding himself but honestly that just makes me pity him more. I think he just needs someone to care about him openly to make him less troubled.

There's also the factor that Urataros is, by his own admission, totally untrustworthy. At least Ryutaros has the courtesy to tell you if he intends to murder you! :p

Conversely, Urataros is admitting that he's untrustworthy, while Ryutaros lulls you in with his childlike naivete. It's really a push between these two!

Discovered just now that Naomi’s costume was designed to be decorated with random numbers. Have to wonder why they changed that.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwDihYaX...jpg&name=large

Odds are the material didn’t play well with ot or it didn’t look good when made i to a physical costume

Hana's looking for any excuses to get rid of the Imagin, though for this one, the reason is plausible so far, Ryotaro getting too tired for likely being possessed by 4 imagins at once. Well, as super powered as Hana is, the Owner has the highest authority in the DenLiner, though the Owner also has attempted to kick out an Imagin like Kintaros.

Ryotaro's main draw from what I read is about his comically bad luck moments. Though yeah, for him being shrinking, quiet, and pushed around, I've talked with someone who does dislike him due to that (and they're those who like other saintly main Riders like Yusuke). Takeru Satoh's main draw as an actor is about how he can portray Ryotaro and all of his Imagin possession differently, but I wouldn't want for people to view "bigger personality" as having more negative traits (Ryotaro vs Imagin possession claim here). And as I said before in the episode review, I think Ryotaro's evolution is overlooked, that he now takes the charge of the Imagin hunting, like him going to investigate or him being the (only) one who scans the Rider Card into the contract holder. And of course Ryotaro will develop later regarding Rider stuff, but I wouldn't want for the development to be about him becoming more negative person (because I want to let it be known that development isn't only about that) or being assertive meaning becoming more selfish or something (I deserve better than this signs that). Ryotaro being presented with difficult choice do make for an interesting dilemma. And for the school part, he still wasn't the best man there, as someone who dropped out from the school. It's unknown for the reasons at this episode but I wonder if this is about another bad luck or self-inflicted, as I know about another loser character who has bad luck, and constantly getting abysmal marks on school.

Kintaros screwing up again with his strength, making coffee with brute force and end up ruining the tools with his strength, and Urataros claiming to be the most useful in Ryotaro's daily life as he can amass harem for Ryotaro. Momotaros has something lacking compared to other Imagins, like intelligence to Urataros, and moral to Kintaros.

Well, dunno about her character quality or something here, but probably Sawada is another one who can converse normally with Ryotaro, without . I don't want everyone to be made of having petty squabbles for "more conflict" (yeah, fighting against Naomi's view of living beings), or be turned jerk (albeit Sawada being based on nostalgia filter can result in likely jerk traits to bring up about nostalgia stuff) just to have those conflicts (and Kintaros mostly doesn't respond aggressively to the others, good thing yeah, but the other 3 would inveitably pick fights and includes Kintaros)

Passion! Momo's the passionate one!

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 18 - "THE CLOCKWORK FIANCE"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den18a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den18b.png

So, I liked the idea behind the episode, where it ended, but I was not at all into how we got there.

Like, at the end, this is a story about people bravely taking on the burdens of others without telling them, and how colossally stupid that is. It's an episode that shows through Ryotaro and the Imagin that killing yourself to save others from hardship is just creating a situation that's bad for everyone. Ryotaro doing all of this dumb training to be of more use to the Imagin has nearly gotten them to kill themselves, and that in turn would've left Ryotaro at a disadvantage/crippled him with guilt. Everyone's making sacrifices that only make things worse. It's "The Gift of the Imagin", basically.

So, that concept, I do like it. The fight scene in this one is the most memorable part, because it's Momotaros feeling justifiably let down by Ryotaro, and just stopping the fight dead to lay down some scolding on Ryotaro. Momo is, for all of his flaws, a straight-shooter, and he's not happy with all of the secrets Ryotaro is keeping. Having the Airi stuff and the Den-O stuff collide in a thematic lesson from Momotaros is brilliant, and it makes me wish the episode's path to that speech was better.

Because, goddamn, a bunch of fat on this one. Sawada, for one, feels somewhere between a massive red herring and a missed opportunity. Her story is disappointingly simple, with her feeling overburdened and homesick, and then Airi gives her a pep-talk, story's over. The whole point of the scene with Airi ends up not even really being about Sawada (who has recovered astonishingly well after being assaulted by a monster who disappeared into her body), but instead it's just more of a push to get Ryotaro to stop coddling Airi and tell her the truth. Sawada barely feels like she's a part of this story in the second part, which is way more concerned with Airi's tragic backstory.

Which, man, not a huge fan! Two of my least favorite toku tropes are Narratively Convenient Amnesia and We Can't Tell A Woman The Truth For Reasons, so imagine how thrilled I was to hit the midpoint of this one. The directing is selling Airi's tragic backstory for all it's worth, and it sincerely hurts to see Airi so devastated, but I'm just zero percent into this story. This is completely subjective, but the foundation of this thing is just rotten to me. So rotten that it's almost preemptively spoiling the appearance of Zeronos (I recognize the toy from his train pass, plus Hello Kyosuke From Hibiki), because I'm not going to love hearing this dude explain why We Can't Tell Airi The Truth For Reasons. I hope that's not where they're going! I wish with all my might that Kobayashi is smarter/braver/stronger than that! But I got my fears.

So, yeah. Fun ending, with this being a story about folks needing to stop keeping destructive secrets and start letting people in, but the nostalgia theme never really came through for me (it doesn't really feel pertinent to anything other than Airi's memories?) and Sawada didn't really get enough focus. Love that fight scene, pretty disinterested in the rest of this one.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den18c.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-I almost can't wrap my brain around this, but the whole thing about the Imagin (no idea what he's supposed to be) that's just totally artistically blocked in 2004, just looking at this blank canvas of a city and stumped about what he's supposed to do to level it, I loved that. It feels like the production team couldn't figure out a reason why the Imagin doesn't just blow up 2004 after escaping from Den-O in the previous episode, and they definitely need him to hold off so that they can do all of their Airi exposition, so the team just seems to have gone Maybe He's Drawing A Blank Too. It's such a weirdly human response, and it totally worked for me. I love the banality of it, how this monster looks at destroying the past like it's confusing instructions for Ikea furniture. I am all about monsters who are not great at their jobs, so this Imagin was a bright spot for me in the first half of this episode.

-Zeronos! Real interested to see what Sakurai's like, and how much my (incredibly recent!) memories of Kyosuke color his introduction. For a show that's all about trying to reconcile the mistakes of the past with hope for the future, having everyone's favorite Hibiki character from everyone's favorite Hibiki era show up... very thematically appropriate! Great meta casting!

Not a ton to say about this one. Its main purpose is to be the exposition dump on Sakurai, which in turn sets up the introduction of Zeronos. There are some nice bits - Momo's apathetic fight, Kin asking Ryotaro to make a wish, Elly from Ultraman Max is still hanging around a bit - but it's not the most exciting or dynamic episode.

Keep this part in mind. It will come up again later.

From what I've heard this was not a popular casting choice in Japan at the time. We'll see what your thoughts are as we get into Yuuto's run on the show.

The important thing is that, with Yuuto here, you're finally going to get to see the real MVP of Kamen Rider Den-O. I'm excited for him to be here as I am for you to meet him.