Kusaka is as complex as most of the characters in Faiz (if not more), and while it feels kind of viscerally disgusting to say there's any real humanity in someone who treats everybody around him as an object to that level, I do think it needs to be pointed out that he's, well, like you said, maybe at least worthy of pity. Kaixa is legitimately one of my favorite secondary Riders, and while a lot of that is simply down to the black comedy joy I get from his scheming, I do genuinely think he's an interesting ("interesting") guy beyond that. It's cool to see you not writing off the show's attempts to paint him that way, Die.

Also, fairly minor translation cop note, that big breakdown scene has this little exchange between Takumi and Kusaka:

"What is she saving you from?"
"From what you know."

That latter line from Kusaka is supposed to just be a simple "that's none of your business." TV-Nihon is making it sound like some cryptic clue or something, and I'm pretty sure that's not the intent. I don't think it affects the story too much either way, though. Honestly, in general, I'm finding, at least from the bits I'm quickly skimming back through, TV-N's Faiz subs are maybe more accurate overall than I was giving them credit for? After realizing what we had to put up with for Kuuga all these years, I'm feeling significantly more generous towards them, even if the mistakes aren't exactly uncommon either, and there's loads of issues beyond that. We'll see if I'm still saying this by the end, but that's where I'm at right now.

Thanks!

I think the way this episode tried to establish a vulnerability somewhere inside Kusaka, underneath all the layers of that gif from Finding Nemo of the seagulls going MINE, it's a bold choice. They waited until they made him his most awful (to date!) before asking you to care about why he's awful. I liked it, because I like vulnerable, complicated, awful characters. (Mitchy for life.) I'm really curious how this one played for people who don't want to be asked to have sympathy for Kusaka, though. Probably made the first two-thirds of this episode rough.

So at this point in the series has Kusaka said to Mari "I've been watching you, I want you to watch me too." Because that is some of the creepiest shit I've heard in my life.

Kusaka is a great character like Mitchy (Gaim) and Joffrey (Game of Thrones). They are awful people, they may have their reasons, but they are absolutely terrible. Damn do they add something to a story though.

He has! And they do!

Also, hey everybody, no Faiz episode from me tonight. I was about one second away from starting a write-up when I found out my River North (downtown Chicago) store, the one that was already being wound down due to the pandemic's effect on retail, just got its front window smashed in by looters. Remote camera caught a half-dozen guys rushing in through the broken glass and running off with armloads of stuff. Worse, I can't go out there and get the damage cleaned up and the site secured, since Chicago (and that neighborhood specifically) is under a curfew until 6am. The cops are going to go by, but they probably aren't going to stand guard for the next eight hours. Which means what's left of that store is easy pickings for anyone who wanders by.

Long story short, boy is my head not in a space to talk about Lucky Clover and Kaido right this minute. Since tomorrow's going to be a who-knows-how-long day of cleaning up and inventorying damage, not making any promises about tomorrow, either.

Everybody stay safe, we'll be back at this Faiz stuff before you know it.

No need to apologise. Take care during all that.

As for Kaixa, everything you've just mentioned has always been the appeal of the chararacter to me, alongside seeing what kind of ridiculous scheme he's up to next. I'm sure there is plenty more of that to come, but I remember my issues (and I assume a big part of mpst people's issues) is that the other characters don't exactly... respond to his continued menacing the way ai felt they should. I'll hold off elaborating because maybe when you get to future episodes, I'l suddenly remember differently.

Thanks. Right now it's stressful because I can't go take care of it. In the morning, it'll just be a bunch of tedious work. I've owned a retail business in Chicago for over a decade; this is not my first break-in experience.

It's a bummer, though. I believe in what the protestors are fighting for, and it sucks to see a few assholes tarnish that message for their own gain.

(hey what if i try and take my off of things by talking about faiz)

There's definitely some of that in Episode 24, but not a lot. Mari, for one, is acutely aware of Kusaka's transgressions. Takumi is more... okay, here's a story.

I've got this friend. I've known for a long time. He's a friendly, funny guy. You can not believe a thing he tells you. Nearly every explanation he has for something in his life, assume it's at least 40% fabricated or embellished. And, like, he's always been this way. It's not malicious, he's not scheming, but you basically have to treat his stories as apocryphal. If you can do that, he's a blast to hang around with.

I think that's how Takumi is starting to view Kusaka. He knows Kusaka's lying to everyone, so he doesn't care if Kusaka tries to lie to him. His interactions with Kusaka are calibrated towards He Is Up To Something, which creates space to actually communicate with Kusaka.

It's a neat dynamic!

The facets are varied, but one thing that's similar is that every single one of them are horrible things.

I mean, Kusaka does view everyone as rivals and competition, but he especially does this for Yuji, because his goal above everything else (like Orphnoch extermination) is possessing Mari, and Yuji's the one that potentially can take her away as she seemingly likes him. Though yeah, not seeing anything that would benefit him for Lucky Clover or Smart Brain, as he hated Orphnochs and it seemingly unrelated to Mari this time. So this is the meaning of creating a despicable character... to give a cathartic factor when he had downfall at the end?!

"our" pity hmm... a good number of people outright hated Kusaka for everything he has done (and if people enjoyed him, it's enjoying him all due to his vile actions, not due to pity), not to mention as you said here, others at Faiz has trauma too, but others aren't as depraved as him. The thing with Kusaka is, as you said, he's scheming and as I said, he's standard manipulative asshat seen in majority of soap operas existing in my place (Faiz is called KR Soap Opera!). It could be that Kusaka's just trying to make himself look sympathetic again, this time in front of Takumi unlike every other time. He can easily play with words in his own twisted sense of mind that he only sees Mari as something with value in this world.

Why this one time of her to Kusaka is a mature way of closing that door, compared to others? Also even if she's still that way, Kusaka's one person that she's softer too of being a childhood friend (still didn't get over you lumping her together with Keitaro previously for inviting Kusaka living together), like for simplest thing... using honorifics with him.

Yes for Yuji (for now) but you....changed your stance for the former? Again for Kusaka, you said it's a "maybe" for a big asking, but it's been proven it's not the case. People know full well of his horrible deeds, and probably, it's more clear to them because he's on the protagonist side, means he's someone you're suppossed to root for but he's given a plethora of horrible traits despite of his position, unlike those in antagonist position where people can be biased (even morality wise... something I'm not keen of the fandom) due to not having the obligation of possessing sympathetic traits.

Fair enough, and for another thing, even if at least you let other people free for this (want to know what's in other people's heads... means gotta know about the fandom in general too as they're made up by people, like Kuuga's influental position i̶n̶c̶l̶u̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶S̶h̶o̶u̶m̶a̶ ̶K̶a̶i̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶m̶o̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶K̶R̶ ̶f̶r̶a̶n̶c̶h̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶P̶a̶r̶a̶d̶o̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶), don't force shaping other Rider series with one like your preference either, or only limiting the good and bad based on it.

Which, you know, fair enough if Kusaka feels irredeemable. He's been resolutely awful, and I can't blame anyone who couldn't care less for a redemptive angle on his motivation.

For me, I take him at his word when he's losing it after Mari leaves. He's got a Manipulative tone that this definitely wasn't. I don't think Kusaka's that good of an actor!

There's a finality to what she's telling him, backed with a steadfastness. In other circumstances (Kaido), she'd bolt from an embarrassing romantic scene. Here, she's honest and direct, telling him that it's not going to happen. It feels different than how this show usually treats romantic plots.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 24

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz24a.png

--1--

Things seem pretty fucked right now, in the real world. Pretty, pretty fucked. People are protesting police brutality, the police are responding with more brutality... I don't know, man. I don't know.

I had one of my stores looted last night. Actually, due to not being able to get to the store because of the Chicago-wide curfew, it got looted six times. (Cameras caught it all, including one guy taking his sweet-ass time dumping Pop vinyls into a big bag.) Took over two hours to get there today (usually takes twenty minutes) due to sanitation trucks blocking off nearly every street into downtown Chicago. When I got there, the broken window had already been boarded up, but nothing had been cleaned up inside. Four huge metal bookcases had been knocked over, with product still inside. Total loss. Toys and games were stolen, along with office equipment. Filing cabinets and boxes were rooted through. A $1K life-size Spider-Man was stolen. Just a whole bunch of random theft and damage. No idea if tonight's going to be more of the same. Long day. Long day.

But, man, I still support the protestors. This wasn't them. This was asshole looters taking advantage of a situation. The protests, they still matter. They're still right. It's hard to give a shit about Kamen Rider when you watch some of these videos, people trying to save other people from open warfare. I don't know.

You probably don't care about my thoughts on this. There isn't going to be some smooth transition where I mention Kamen Riders fighting for justice or the power of entertainment or some horseshit like that. Centuries of systemic abuse and the frustrated response of a demoralized populace aren't something I feel like I can put a sweet bow on. It's on my mind, though. I... I don't know.

--2--

But, fuck it, let's talk about Kamen Rider 555.

I watched this one almost a day ago, and I'm not sure how much of it I remember. I'm pretty sure it's a lot of Kaido and a lot of Lucky Clover. Does that sound right?

--3--

The Lucky Clover stuff in this show, I think it's pretty good. I don't know where it would rank on a list of memorable Faiz things, but probably not super-high. There's not really been a Lucky Clover story or plot that's been as dramatic as, say, anything internally generated from Team Faiz or Team Orphnoch.

What I'm saying is, I don't know if this show really improves with an external villain group? I like the characters, they're never a drain on the show, but it feels (right now, at least) so unnecessary to the main storytelling. It's not as bad as the buried-alive workers at the Ryusei Cram School, who get a check-in every few episodes for one scene, but it's not something to look forward to.

Here, they're still trying to find a fourth member, since Kusaka has decided he'd rather not be a part of a group where at least 50% of them would be fine killing him. Also, he was only doing it to try and destroy Smart Brain, and this ended up being not a great scheme to do that.

So, they decide to choose some random kid who's become an Orphnoch. That kid, I'm just going to call him Kouhai (since Kaido's Sempai), isn't doing great. He's a monster, and he wants to die. He needs help understanding what it means to be a grey monster, and for better or worse he's got Kaido to lead him.

--4--

Almost the whole second half of this episode was Kaido and Kouhai, and it was a blast. Kaido's losing his mind after Mari's final-but-hopefully-final-for-Kaido-this-time-too rejection, and he wants some way to to get revenge on a world that's stolen all his happiness. Luckily, Kouhai's easily impressed by Kaido's strongly delivered advice on Being The Best Monster You Can Be, and praises Kaido's mentorship so much that Kaido goes totally off the rails.

(I love all the ways this episode establishes how crucial flattery is to Kaido's well-being. It might be the only thing that sustains him!)

With Kouhai's help, he gets a chance to join Lucky Clover's ranks if he completes one simple job: steal both the Faiz belt and the Kaixa belt. Easy!

And, holy shit, he does it. He plans a scheme that draws out the Kamen Riders, they tussle a bit over the belts (I know it's in context, but I love that there is a fight scene in a Kamen Rider where the monster's goal is to undress the Kamen Riders), and then they fake being cops to take the Smart Brain cases off of the heroes. Mission goddamn accomplished.

It's a bonkers plan, and the fact that it succeeded relies entirely on cartoon logic. It would not have surprised me if an earlier draft of Kaido's scheme included painting a tunnel on a wall and hoping Faiz drove into it. Like, where the hell did they get all of the shit for their barricade? But it's so goofy, and it completely works, so it's nothing I'm upset about. Worth noting, but not worth criticizing.

--5--

That plan's success gives us the awesome episode-ending image of Houjou and Kageyama Henshining into Faiz and Kaixa. (There's even a smaller person than usual in the Kaixa suit! Neat!)

This episode worked pretty well, I thought. It's heavy with Lucky Clover stuff in the beginning, but that transitions into a fever-dream of a Kaido story in the second half. Really fun stuff.

It's nice to think about Faiz. I really needed this. I hope things are less fucked soon.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz24b.png

Figured bringing this up would be a thing. Agree to disagree!