I really like Takumi's speech. It's a Kamen Rider staple, the But Why Heroism speech (Build and Ex-Aid did a whole movie about it), and I love the specificity of Takumi's. It's slightly condescending, in that he's like I Don't Have Any Dreams But It's Cool If That's Something You Need In Your Life, and that is exactly what I want from this Rider's view of heroism.

The guitar music... I liked it a lot the first time because of how unexpected it was, and how the fight choreography was edited to match its rhythm. This time, it felt a little redundant to me? Like, doing it for a second episode, it wasn't fresh anymore. And, sure, there's some symmetry to it being Kaido playing the second time, and it cutting out because his hand couldn't finish the song, but it still wasn't as powerful to me as the first one. I don't know, just didn't resonate as well with me.

(I've also got a bit of a headache, so if you think I'm being harsher than this episode deserves, you might be right!)

Well, this is my favorite episode of Faiz, and up on there on my list of favorite Rider episodes in general, so uh, yeah, that theory is still holding. Takumi's speech in it is iconic, and everything around it is pretty freakin' great too.

Here's what I had to say about it, but I'll also add that you should simply see where the show goes from here. Kaidou's character development is far from over. I think being able to read that ending in multiple ways was probably part of the intention, despite my positive interpretation of it.

Also! I'm back on duty for this episode!

I honestly don't mind mind mistakes like this that much, since the characterization is more what I'm worried about with Faiz, but an error is an error, and this kind of stuff is real sloppy.

I think I had a slightly-not-as-great time with it (I respected it more than I enjoyed it) because it felt like this was too talky of an episode, too monologuey. There's a lot of great ideas in it, but it felt like the pacing was dragged down by a lot of pontificating, where the other person in a dialogue scene was only there to silently absorb these Big Ideas. I just didn't love how much it felt like it was The Writer telling me these things, rather than the characters.

Absolutely not, opinions need to be formed immediately and defended until death. I did not come to the internet to be told to wait until all the facts are in!

People always echo Takumi's speech here about how "even if I don't have a dream, I can protect others' dreams", which... is lovely, and definitely a nice bit of framing for Kamen Rider. It's an idea that doesn't get brought up as much as it should be for a motive and it's just as poignant and important as someone having their own dream.


It falls completely flat for me because both up to this point and having watched the series entirely, it feels out of nowhere and out of character for Takumi. Like he suddenly got a shot of Big Hero Speech plugged into his veins because the directors were worried that Faiz wasn't enough of a hero to look up to after the first few episodes. I don't know, it's just... all talk and no action, to me. It rang very hollow.

It'd be easier to talk about this with the context of future episodes, but I hugely disagree Takumi caring about other people is out of character. Even this early, there have been loads of little hints of that in his interactions with Mari and Keitarou. Remember, he's not scared of being betrayed; he's scared of betraying people. His central motivation being "I want other people to be happy even though my stupid life sucks" is as in-character as you can get for Takkun. It's very specific to him, and not something you get out of any other Rider lead.

Gotta stick up for my boy Takkun here, and reiterate that he’s a classic case of 'not what he really seems', which is very atypical for a Main Rider. Even without hindsight from future episodes, those little scenes and moments with Keitaro and Mari eventually add up to convince me at the time that there are layers to his personality; that he’s not a plain selfish jerk that I had assumed he was (which might make the series less ‘fun’/more predictable, but also get the audience intrigued on what he’s really about!).

I love the climax for this episode, mainly because how perfectly executed the cross-cutting of scenes was in visual and thematic sense. Mari doubling down on what she wants to be, Takumi discovering who he wants to be, and Kaido letting go of who he used to be in multiple ways…. it just reflects the way both groups contrast each other in terms of their current standings. The pontification was pretty on the nose, yes, but still miles ahead and way more nuanced than your typical tokusatsu fare when tackling similar theme (which is typically just a character narrating the exact reason of their aspiration, e.g. “I adore my former policeman dad!” -> token flashback scene of that policeman dad smiling -> we’ve finished establishing the entire identity of that character!).

Incidentally, I love that there’s a whole segment dedicated to Mari’s professional struggle, how they managed to find the time for a side character’s profession/aspiration that you can’t immediately link to the Kamen Rider-ing plot, the way you can with a lot of side characters’ professions as journalists or detectives. Now that they’ve finished introducing and painting a (mostly) full picture of the core six characters, it made me appreciate this early 'arc' even more and how they're not afraid of constantly putting the plot on the backseat to have all these small character-driven moments.

(OoT: LAHM looked super terrifying, in a good and intriguing way, in that screencap above)

Oh no, I'm not disputing that Takumi cares about people -- I think it'd be hard to make a case for any main Rider not caring about others. But the way this done, it's like... I don't know. It's like if Godai started getting very grungy. Like, yes, we know those character traits are there, but this doesn't feel like the way they'd express them or use them at all.

I think the thing that really made it work for me is that the only person who hears Takumi's speech on the power of dreams and how even a hollow man like him would protect them... it's a monster he immediately destroys. I love how secret Takumi keeps his motivation, how he wouldn't dare give a high-minded defense of dreams to Mari or Keitaro. It's basically a confession, and now the monster has to die after hearing it.

That aspect of it, how he'd never admit it to anyone (that he'd let live afterwards) even though he feels it intensely, I think that's what locked it in for me.

I'm just going to take a second here to point out that this episode also saw the debut of the Faiz Edge, the final major piece of Faiz's arsenal (for now), and the part that identifies the third major influence for Faiz's design: the letter phi, a shark, and a construction worker.

In Episode 5, the car scene established an important difference between the motivations of Kiba and Yuka. Kiba was happy in the past, but it's dead to him now so he has to change. Yuka never had a past like that, so becoming an Orphenoch was the best thing to happen to her. Kaido is kind of a medium. His past was taken from him, except his dream prevents him from moving on. Losing his humanity was nothing compared to that.

There's a great parallel between Kiba and Takumi in the climax where the former recites Kaido's speech as he's about to avenge his dream that was destroyed by Owl, and the latter delcares his intent to protect dreams. I like how smoothly these two plots come together to show that dreams are sacred and not something to be taken lightly.

As others have pointed out, this episode is an important turning point for Takumi and features his iconic line about protecting dreams. He's scared of hurting people and has no self-confidence. But this responsibility of Faiz gives him purpose and the means to help people. It's exactly the boost he needed and that's why he's starting to take it more seriously. It's selfish, which is just like Takumi, but it's not wrong. A superhero deserves to feel some pride.

The guitar is symbolic of Kaido's "curse", the burden he carried from the dream he's unable to fulfill on his own. Having passed the curse on to his protege, he has created a legacy that will ensure his dream will become reality in the future and thus ending the curse for good. That doesn't mean he's going to embrace being a monster.

Kaido's arc is interesting since it deals with his backstory after his introduction in the previous arc. Of course, that's cause he's not an Original Orphenoch. Kiba and Yuka are mutants but he's more of a mutate. This means he doesn't possess the mutagen to turn other humans so Smart Brain will need to use his skillset in other ways.

Finally, the debut of Faiz Edge which I forgot to mention due to it being separate from the Faiz Gear briefcase. When Faiz diverts Photon Blood to the rod, you can see it light up similar to a Lazer Blade from the Uchuu Keiji series. Although this lighting feature was already revealed in the OP. It looks cool in action nevertheless!

Auto Vajin was a protective charm for Mari but it acts recklessly when "helping" Faiz with the friendly fire. In its debut fight, it attacked Faiz deliberately but it was in response to Mari as the Faiz Gear user was Cactus who it recognized as a threat. It's still a little humorous how Takumi, the primary user of the Gear, has to scold it for behaving this way.

I also like how it's making Takumi okay with not having all the answers, with allowing him to be uncertain. It's something I really liked from Ryuki, the way the show seemed to value asking questions, and it's cool to see a version of it here.

More than that, I think it shows a real bravery for Takumi. He doesn't feel this connection to dreams that anyone else in the story does, but he's going to trust that they're being honest with him, and fight to give them a chance at seeing their dream through. Like, I think it's more heroic to have Takumi fighting for something he doesn't understand, than something he feels deeply.

I just feel like there's a read where he's, like, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. (Not out a window, but figuratively.) The freedom of no longer having a dream is... maybe not a great thing? The show makes a great case for Kaido being smothered by his old dream, but I'm not sure it's super healthy to deny yourself an outlet that you feel like you aren't great at anymore. That feels more like a surrender than personal growth.

Yeah, for sure, Takumi is definitely heroic for fighting to protect dreams even though he doesn't understand them. It's a role he needed time to warm up to since being Faiz wasn't something he just chose. But it's more about why he's doing it. I think that, in addition to generally being a good thing to do regardless of his motive, it's making him a better person. And he wants to be better.

I kind of understand your perspective, it looks like he's given up. Consider the context though. I think Kaido was content for someone else to take over his dream, since he can't pursue it anymore, at least not to his former potential. He unlocked that potential in another. Having a dream is good but it was holding him back from putting the past behind him the way Kiba had. Now he can use that freedom to find something else to strive for, something he can actually give his all. He's pretty much in a similar position to how Takumi was at the start. And as an Orphenoch, he has a new range of skills that he can use however he sees fit.

Die covered a point I would have made already in how the nature of who Takumi is saying those lines to matters. What I'd also like to call attention to is how precise Faiz's dialogue often is. The actual part where he details why dreams matter, he feels the need to qualify it with the "or so I've been told" at the end. He takes those extra words just to distance himself from what he's saying. It's defensive, and that's, again, classic Takkun. Even in the scene that forms his central motivation, he's still holding back on admitting how strongly he feels things. He never says a word about caring, just that he's going to do this. It's really not a typical big hero speech, and that's exactly why it's so memorable and closely associated with the show.

So here now Takumi softens up. Takumi is the one to go to Mari, to show it. Even if Mari blames Takumi for her failings. And I didn't expect Mari to fail that hard at first, I thought she must've had some information or a little experience of it before actually performing there. And the one that gets Takumi to understand other people's dream was watching Mari did better and get some approval right?

Team Faiz also remarks that dreams can be painful and suffering, but they do it because it makes them fired up.

I mean, Yuji and Yuka calls out Owl Orphnoch for doing that depraved thing right? Yuji and Yuka tries to make sure they're still human and doesn't descend into monstrous mindset and tries to make sure Kaido's that way too. And Yuji fighting Owl Orphnoch, probably should change your take; it's just him doing the right thing and punishing evildoers. He and Yuka are not happy that the professor did such a vile thing to their friend. And Yuji is simply called Horse Orphnoch, btw. Orphnochs only names themselves after the animal they're based off. Though yeah Yuka's confused when Kaido asks what's her opinion to humans.... but unlike Kaido who declares his hatred right away (though it may be an upfront with him mentoring others and Yuka pointing out he still likes music).

You're right that there's a lot of ways to compare Team Faiz with Team Orphnoch. Here it's the parallel of Takumi and Kaido regarding them can't grasping dreams and what it means to others. But there's also a parallel between Takumi and Yuji when they monologues to others about what they think about dreams. What's with Yuka also following Kaido to sit inside and see the first-year playing guitar in the class?

He has nothing left to do as a human with his disabled finger and remarked that he wants to surprass their limitations and got what he wanted as an Orphnoch... so I'm gonna wait to see what he's gotta do as an Orphnoch. He did shed the toxicity yeah, and he interacts closer with the other 2.

Lol yeah, even with Takumi softening up, he's still abrasive to beat up Auto Vajin right there.... and then take its handle to use as a sword like how Kuuga did it. Auto Vajin is supposed to be an assistant for Faiz, like Dragreder for Ryuki or WizarDragon for Wizard.

Well, Mari "blames" Takumi for her failings. She's just acting out because she's upset at herself, and I think Takumi of all people gets that feeling.

To her not doing well at her tryout, she describes this salon as a dream job, meaning it's probably one of the most acclaimed salons in the biggest city in the country. A place like that is tough to get a job at, and it seems like the stress of her tryout might've made Mari a little more sloppy than she'd normally be. She's probably more than good enough to get a job as a beautician, but she's going to have to try harder for the job she wants. It wouldn't be a dream if it were easy!

I think what does it for Takumi (beyond every other minute of the past two episodes building to it) is seeing not the approval, but how happy trying and succeeding made Mari. Her ability to channel difficulty into a positive outcome was what I think he responded to, not anything else.

My personal rule is that if they don't use a name on the show, I'm going to give them a name. Yuuji is the man, Horsepower is his Orphnoch form. At least in this thread!

I think it's two things. First, I think she's trying to be a good friend to Kaido, take an interest in what's been troubling him. Yuuji probably would've gone with, but he was still on bedrest. Second, Yuka's supposed to be sticking to Kaido to make sure he doesn't kill a whole bunch of people, and he figures it out early enough that she doesn't need to hide from him. She's like a chaperone for Kaido in this episode.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 09

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--1--

It's not that this wasn't a thematically-rich episode (there's a nice runner about supporting your friends by giving them independence, and the reality that large corporations generally don't have your best interests at heart), but this was an absolute corker of a plot-driven episode. Nearly every scene was either new information or Team Orphnoch running into Team Faiz. It's a big episode!

--2--

Although, I guess Team Orphnoch is Team Faiz now?! That was a hell of a final reveal, that Kaido is The Next Faiz. (Thank goodness I've been keeping my eyes open as instructed!) It's a solid story up to then, but that cliffhanger! Goddamn!

I really appreciate that the next story they decide to tell with Takumi after his But Why Heroism two-parter, the very next story is What If Someone Took The Belt Back. Super smart. He'd just accepted that he should be Faiz, and now he's free and clear to give up the burden.

Except, maybe it's not that much of a burden to Takumi? There's a quick scene with Mari and Takumi, after they give the belt back to Smart Brain, where Mari asks how Takumi feels about it. Takumi smiles and says he feels relieved. I wouldn't believe him anyway, but the fact that he smiles when he says it is just about the biggest red flag this show could go with. He's only happy when he's mad, so the fact that he smiles means he's very unhappy.

The last three Riders were very much Suffering For Our Sins types of Riders, and they each had stories about how deep and painful it is to fight as a Kamen Rider. I kind-of like the idea that Takumi feels a sense of fulfillment, of purpose as a Rider, and now that's being taken away from him. Worse, he might have to fight to get it back, which, visibly expressing a desire is maybe his kryptonite. While every other Rider has to accept a terrible burden, Takumi might want to be a Kamen Rider. It's something someone else can do, and he has to grapple with wanting it to be him instead. I really do love that, and it's typical of the way this show inverts Kamen Rider tropes for entertaining effect.

--3--

Like the way this show has the Orphnochs donating money to the disadvantaged/terrible (Yuuji! I will never get tired of Yuuji telling Takumi to be a better man!), doing each other's laundry to show they belong, and being a goddamn Kamen Rider. It's all hero stuff, top to bottom, and that's so consistently great to me. I love how much this show is making Team Orphnoch have a nobility to them.

As I sort-of suspected, Kaido's putting away of his old dream by theatrically obliterating the totem of it was... maybe something that's having a negative effect on him. He pushes away Yuuji and Yuka, and they react to it differently. Yuuji mostly just sees through Kaido's outburst and storm-off, and assumes he'll be back.

Yuka's response is interesting, because it's all about her core trauma. Yuka's so used to being blamed for everything, that she assumes that anyone's unhappiness is a) her fault, and b) her responsibility to fix. She makes sandwiches to cheer up Kaido, she badgers him for more information when he runs off, she frets about not doing enough. Yuuji's content to give a friend space, while Yuka clings to scraps of affection as though they'll be ripped out of her hands at any moment. It's a really interesting dynamic that group has.

--4--

Yuuji didn't get a ton to do in this episode, besides (naturally) staking a claim for Team Orphnoch to be the defenders of humanity. It's nice to have that scene, of Yuuji calmly and happily telling his friends that he thinks they should save lives, while the next scene is Mari telling Takumi he's a champion of justice and Takumi's just Ugh Why Would You Say That. It is delightful. You've got the monster group fighting for humanity, and you've got the Rider group giving away their Driver and quitting when the going gets tough on a neighborhood watch. (Takumi loves quitting! It's maybe his only dream!)

Kaido showing up at the end as The Next Faiz, teaming up (effectively!) with the FaizCyKill to save Team Faiz from an Orphnoch... it's like my heart grew two sizes. It's great on so many levels. There's the visceral reveal level, where I zero percent was expecting Kaido to be given the belt by Smart Brain. There's the character level, where it's totally in keeping with Kaido's need for a new dream for him to take up the mantle of Faiz. There's the deeper character level of what exactly Kaido's getting out of this, why he'd fight to save people, why this dream. And there's the plot level, where I can't wait to find out how all of this gets untangled. If it ever does! Which I'm not really against! This show is killing it with its choices!

--5--

Just, it's really buckling down and nailing its storytelling for me. The humor's been great, the melodrama has been proportional, the characters are all so multi-faceted, and now the overall plot machinations are really popping for me. I think Murakami is a fun villain (although, this show, probably "villain”) that's not really done enough for me to get a grip on his character, but definitely has me curious. Like, this episode was great at getting me real, real invested in Smart Brain, Mari's missing adopted dad (because her birth parents died in a fire at Ore Journal, I guess, since she was rescued and brought down their back stairwell), and how those plots will alter things for Team Orphnoch and Team Faiz. Great episode!

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In my opinio, this is one of the show’s best cards: the idea that the Rider’s identity is not set by the first guy to appear in the titles. I’m slightly disappointed there aren’t many other shows that do it. (Though in one of the shows that DID do it, they released an album for all the users of one Rider gear)

Yeah, I'm not really against the trope of A Rider's Heavy Burden or whatever. I think you can tell some interesting stories with a Rider who doesn't really get the potential consequences of deciding to be a Rider (Ryuki!), or who has to persevere through all sorts of danger because no one else can handle the power but them.

That said, I really like the stories where the burden evolves beyond No One Else Can Do This But Me and starts to require a kind of continuous recommitment, where someone else could do it but the lead character chooses to do it. I came in through Ex-Aid, so I don't really have a problem with someone proving why they should be allowed to be a Kamen Rider over someone else. I like when stories have a deeper way of making a case for their hero than He Called Dibs, you know?

If they met the Smart Brain president earlier, probably Takumi would be completely free of any burden because Faiz hasn't grown up on him, or the realization about Orphnochs existing. Unfortunately for him though, they're manipulated by Smart Brain to give the belt back, like the main reason they're hunted by others. Possibly the reason he's mad, he even hesitated to return the belt until Mari convinces him otherwise.

And was Kaido's treatment of Yuka is still better to her than everyone else in her life for her not to snap?

Lol yeah, even with many ways of comparing Team Orphnoch & Faiz.... I've been bringing up this multiple times but, Kaido is Takumi. Both of them are appalled by the ally of justice concept their team pushes out to them, and... yeah Kaido becomes Faiz! I think Faiz' perks is about how the belt continually changes its wielder, apart from good monsters.

It's clear now in this episode... Yuji (possibly Yuka too) wants to protect humans with their power and doesn't want to be used by Smart Brain. And the president, Kyoji Murakami, is the real villain Orphnoch to fight.

Murakami just doing his stuff while he's in human form man! He levitates and fires a genkidama at others. But there are no visible injures to the others there? Fire at ORE Journal..... Shinji's dream turning into reality?

I think it's less that Mari convinced him, and more that he would have to tell a roomful of people that he wanted to be Faiz. I think saying that out loud at this point in the series would've caused him to burst into flames like an Orphnoch.

It's a total strength of this show that they can pick any single member of Team Faiz, and any single member of Team Orphnoch, and do a story about how they compare and contrast. You could do a Kaido/Takumi episode about how they lack fulfillment. You could do a Yuuji/Takumi scene about how they do or don't try to help strangers. You could do a Yuka/Takumi thematic thread about how they don't know how to say what they want, how to express their feelings. There's a ton of potential with this cast!

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 10

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--1--

This episode felt… I don’t know, a little slim. Maybe it’s because, like, 90% of the energy was on the Team Orphnoch side, leaving Team Faiz to only have a few funny scenes and a few set-up scenes. And, weirdly, the show didn’t seem to realize it? All of the tension in the episode evaporates after Kaido loses the belt, but there’s somehow still the climactic Faiz Fight to go. It makes for an episode that’s got one huge, indelible shot (see above!) and a bunch of other stuff in it. It’s like they didn’t know what story they were telling?

--2--

Because they are 100% telling a story about Kaido’s self-deception. Even Yuka, who is loath to rock the boat, straight-up tells Kaido that it’s abundantly clear that he doesn’t want to kill humans or hurt people. I mean, he took a job where he only fights Orphnochs, and he’s convinced himself he’s on the side of Orphnochs. He is really not seeing the contradiction there.

Yuuji sees it, though. When Kaido calls him up to get murdered for being too Pro-Human, Yuuji calls his bluff. The fight’s solid (I love how the suit actor does the thing where Kaido picks his fingernails as The Next Faiz, rather than Takumi’s wrist-snap), but it’s the final moment that maybe saves this episode. (It’s not bad, it’s just kind-of forgettable.) Yuuji tells Kaido that Kaido can’t beat him, but what Yuuji means is that Kaido doesn’t want to beat him. Kaido wants to fight and kill Yuuji because that'll prove Kaido doesn't care about saving humans. Yuuji wants to save humans. If Kaido can kill him, that'll prove that Yuuji was wrong. His argument for saving humanity dies with him. Kaido has tried to convince himself that he’s an Orphnoch, he’s a killer, he doesn’t have to care about humans, he’s not a human, humans are terrible, he doesn’t have to care. But he does, and he’s not a killer yet. Yuuji saw his bluster for what it was, and let him discover the truth.

--3--

It’s a hell of a shot, that Faiz Finisher just millimeters from Horsepower’s face. More than that, it’s yet another deeply empathetic moment from Yuuji. He’s got a bunch in this episode alone. I loved the moment when Murakami’s like You’ve Disappointed Me and Yuuji’s just Why Should I Care About That? It’s not adversarial, but simply noted to Murakami. Don’t assume that Yuuji is looking for your approval or respect. For a character that’s searching for direction, for some way to define himself, Yuuji manages to give off such a mature, calming aura. He’s open and considerate with Mari when she coincidentally drops by with his dry-cleaning. He’s able to give Kaido space, but willing to be stern if things get out of hand. He’s maybe the best?

The downside is that he’s still very much in a mode where he’s defining himself by what he won’t do, same as Kaido. If there’s a problem for me with this episode, it’s how the Team Orphnoch stuff feels maybe a little too introspective. It’s fun to see these characters interact, and god bless any time they run into Team Faiz out in the world, but it means that there’s an entertaining episode where not a lot really happens. Most of what moved Yuuji and Kaido forward in this episode is in maybe one minute’s worth of story. It’s a good minute! But it makes the rest of this episode a little, if not forgettable, then inconsequential.

--4--

And, honestly, some of that is because the Takumi story is funny without really growing his character. Or, I don’t know, it does, but it also doesn’t do a great job of writing itself out of last episode’s really smart developments.

The whole episode this time, Takumi is hilariously adrift without the Faiz belt. I don’t know if his brain was inside that phone, but he’s like a zombie in this one. It’s terrific, and it’s clear to everyone around him that, like Kaido, all of his assertions are because he feels exactly the opposite. Him shouting I DON’T LOVE BEING FAIZ AT ALL is because he misses it so much. It’s stupid funny to watch, and it made what little of Team Faiz was in this episode really work.

But they needed to end the plot, get Takumi back as Faiz, and holy shit did they shortcut it. Keitaro swipes the belt from an injured Kaido, mostly because Kaido was being mean to Yuka. He gives the belt back to Takumi to fight an Orphnoch, mostly because he felt sorry for him. (I mean, he totally respects Takumi in general, but that belt toss is probably 70% pity.) Takumi gets to smile because he’s Faiz again, and still accepts the honor of being a Kamen Rider with a definitive I Love This I Guess It’s No Big Deal Whatever You're The One Who Cares Not Me. (Him and Yuka, they don’t love being honest about their feelings!) It’s a story that should be all about Takumi asserting his desires, owning his feelings, and instead he just mopes until someone gives him the belt back.

And, like, that’s funny as shit. It’s totally in the spirit of this show for Takumi to internally change while externally staying the same. It’s just, there’s almost no catharsis to Takumi becoming Faiz again. It’s totally anticlimactic. You can spin it as a cunning subversion of storytelling tropes (Takumi never ever articulates why he wants to be Faiz), but it’s still totally anticlimactic. Worse, it’s placed after a genuinely emotional, fully-earned moment between Kaido and Yuuji. They had an episode-ending story beat, and then they were like Now Here’s The REAL Ending, and… no? Weird choice. Weird, unfulfilling choice.

--5--

Or, shit, maybe it’s totally irrelevant. Maybe no one was even paying attention to the Faiz Fight, because of the shadowy new Rider lurking on top of Gills Bridge. (There’s a tension I get when I see that bridge. I’m both excited over the big Gills/Agito fight that occurred there, and depressed when I think about how bad the next two episodes of Agito after that were. Complicated feelings about Gills Bridge!) I don’t really have much to say other than… it looks like we’ll be getting a new Rider soon! I like that they seem to be the X to Faiz’s O! It’s probably Kaixa, which is a name I think I’ve heard more often than Faiz! I’ll know for sure in another episode or so!

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One of the things that struck me watching this episode is how Yuka and Kaido are essentially polar opposites in how they relate to Yuuji. Kaido talks big game about being a monster and killing humans or rogue Orphnochs, but it's all talk. The moment he gets a chance to actually take out Yuuji he can't commit because, at his core, he's not a killer. Yuka, on the other hand, seems completely loyal to Yuuji and his vision of living in peace with humans, but the minute she's on her own she's luring punks to their deaths.

This is a moment I've been looking forward to, and it happened earlier than I remembered. I've watched a lot of Kamen Rider but this is still, hands down, one of my favorite Rider designs ever. It's a gorgeous suit and it has some fantastic gear associated with it.

It's a really good point. Kaido's story so far is him wanting to wash away every part of himself he feels burdened by, letting Orphnoch become his identity. But he can't, really. He feels that pull of humanity and he can't let go of it.

The Yuka stuff is her being very onboard with Yuuji's plan vocally, but there's a bloodlust, a rage, that she can't really articulate. She's not someone who's really grappled with her trauma fully, hasn't really figured out what she wants, which is very much in line with the rest of Team Orphnoch.

It's like, Yuuji sees himself as human, to avoid the consequences of being an Orphnoch. Kaido sees himself as an Orphnoch, to avoid the consequences of being a human. And Yuka doesn't see herself at all, she's all ingrained behavior and reactive emotions, so her actions are without the burden of consequence.

This is a smart show!

Keep in mind this scene of the new rider. Otherwise yeah it’s honestly one of my absolute favorite designs in the franchise period

I can't really think of how to fit in Takumi having a big moment out of getting the belt back into this episode, but I think it would have been more fitting (and maybe funnier) if Kaido impulsively threw the belt over a ledge or something after that whole conflict. Then either Takimi and Keitaro picks it up from there.

I liked this episode anyhow. Our three monster pals are at some of their most compelling here, personally speaking.

I'll keep it mind!

I don't know how they should've gotten Takumi to be Faiz again. As Kurona pointed out, Takumi giving a Feelings speech is a big ol' nope for a lot of viewers. This version... say what you will about it (like that it's rushed and anticlimactic), but it's pretty true to the characters.

It just bums me out when a show creates clever dilemmas, or asks smart questions, but can't follow through on them. A show really only gets a couple of those with me before I start to get skeptical of any fun twists, in case they botch the exit.

And, yeah, these last two episodes were pretty special for Team Orphnoch. I legitimately had a moment when the show gets to Team Faiz having breakfast where I was like Oh Yeah These Guys. And they're the heroes of the show!

Faiz was my introduction to the madness that is Toshiki Inoue. Buckle up because it only gets crazier from here

I disagree Takumi becoming Faiz again had to be anything bigger than it was. Having Takumi be too assertive about that only 10 episodes in would be... like, I just don't think it's time for that yet? As you've already admitted, there's a point where something like that would no longer fit the show, but what I think you're underestimating here is all the things that do work about that seqeunce.

Having Takumi the one to grab the belt back himself, speech or no, I think it's way more likely that would lack catharsis. Joke all you want about it being pity, but for it to be Keitarou snatching it back from Kaidou after seeing him be a jerk, to have him, one of the most morally upstanding, nicest characters on the show, be the one asserting himself, and then saying that Faiz has got to be Takkun, that's great. It's the best possible way for the show to validate Takumi as a hero. That big, dumb grin from Takumi when he hears that, how he lets his facade slip a little with that downplayed "maybe you're right" in response, that's a wonderful little moment between these characters that are gradually growing closer to one another. I guess the actual act of retrieving the belt was low-effort, I can't argue that, but I also feel like that's maybe the least important part of what's going on there?

It's also hard to compete with that Kaidou/Yuuji drama too, admittedly. Man is that good stuff.

Be prepared for terrible writing regarding the new rider. He is considered the biggest jerk in all of KR but unfortunately; the way it comes off is just...dull; the character is just a jerk with very little real explanation due to the fact inoue basically gave up on being good at his job after agito.

X-Rider time

X-Rider time

Respectfully, I couldn't disagree with this more.

I don't want to get at all spoilery, so I'm not going to list off a bunch of in-show examples, but I would say Kaixa is a very compelling character. The actor is well loved in the community, to the point that Kaixa Day is a thing.

The actor is definitely popular, mainly because he apparently likes his role and place in the series enough to come back for things like a marketing campaign with Hello Kitty.

https://i.imgur.com/EsrA9ST.jpg

The character though – very much the "you love to hate them"-type, I think it's safe to assume most people loathe him. And for good reason.

You could say that was the intention, but the problem is that most of his involvement with the other character can only happen because no one in Kamen Rider Faiz talks to each other like an actual human being would. That made me a bit furious when I watched this show. He's not really good at what he does; it's just that everyone else is dumb enough to let him do his thing.

Kaixa day is an accumulation of both aspects, but mainly a celebration based on the massive amount of hatred for the character. As evident by the usual fanart of Kaixa being mean, among other unredeemable antagonists or, as often depicted, sitting in a trashcan.

X-Rider kyou mo yuku!
Kamen Rider X! X! X!

This was a good payback for Kiba after Kaido ditched him in Episode 6 when he was injured. Kaido putting his dream behind him was still ultimately the best thing he could've done but without direction, Smart Brain were able to convince him to be a hunter of "useless" Orphenochs. This is the only way they can really use him since he can't increase their numbers. As Yuka already deduced though, all his talk of hating humans was denial. She knows what it's really like to hate humans, other than Keitarou. Now it's Kiba's turn to knock some sense in to him, literally, as he forces him out of henshin when Kaido hesitates. If he can't kill humans, how can he kill his own kind, especially someone as familiar as Kiba who he has nothing against? His career as Faiz was doomed from the start and Kiba showed great strength and perception to make him see that.

I can definitely see your earlier comparison between Takumi and Yuka with their mutual lack of honesty. Their reputations and motivations are at odds. Anyway, it's an interesting development for Takumi. He finally accepted his role as Faiz and then was persuaded to give it up. Keitarou seeing how much better Takumi was compared to Kaido really says a lot about how much Keitarou has started to see Takumi as someone with potential to be a good guy. Even Takumi openly acknowledges that maybe he really was meant to be Faiz. In a show where anybody can be Faiz, only Takumi is Kamen Rider Faiz.

The only Kamen Rider to have his own national day, Kaixa Day otherwise known in Japan as 913 Matsuri, September 13th (913). He's definitely a big deal! There was even a manga published recently which adapted the events between Episode 5-13 from his perspective:

https://kamenrider.fandom.com/wiki/Kamen_Rider_913

Might be worth checking out once you're caught up with those episodes.

I forgot to mention before that the Faiz Driver is the first Driver to be called a Driver, although his equipment is still referred to collectively as Faiz Gear. Just another staple of the franchise that started here.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/tenor.gif

They just built themselves into a corner, storywise, with how the joke resolution had to come after the emotional resolution. That's a hard turn to make, dramatically, and it ended up making the Takumi resolution feel a little too slight, a little too arbitrary. In general, I'm totally on this show's side when it wants to screw around with Team Faiz, to try different takes on Rider tropes. Here, it was like the class clown who stops being funny and starts being disruptive. It's cool to crack jokes, but now it's test time, so settle down and get to work.

But, honestly, it's still a cute scene. It maybe didn't treat the How Faiz Got His Gear Back stuff with as much importance as I'd like (the hero reclaiming his hero identity was the second-most important plotline!), but like I said before, it's all totally in-character. It's kind-of perfect that Takumi moped so well that he got his belt back.

I'm not mad at the scene, exactly, just a little disappointed in it.

The weird thing about Keitaro's assertion that Takumi should be Faiz is that, based on the one fight Keitaro saw for The Next Faiz... Kaido's actually pretty good at it? He had real chemistry with the FaizCyKill, and while the Orphnoch got away, he still saved three people. Metatextually, we know that Kaido isn't cut out to be Faiz, but from Keitaro's perspective, it feels like he took the belt away from some moral/spiritual view of heroism (Takkun good, guy yelling at Yuka bad) rather than actual effectiveness. Which, sure! That's how Keitaro would make a decision like that! He would absolutely value heroism as an ideal more than effectiveness in battle! I just think it's funny, is all.

Thanks! People really have feelings about Kaixa!

A single screenshot of X-Man is enough for you all to just divulge all your thoughts about him before Die has even seen a second of him on screen, huh...

Folks got feelings about Kaixa! They haven't even said his name onscreen yet and I was like I Bet That's Kaixa. Like I said before, I think I've heard his name on these boards more than I've heard Faiz's.

(Also, yeah, boy, definitely some paragraphs up there that I decided I'd be better off skipping.)

Before you've heard it, how are you pronouncing "Kaixa"? Because I was getting it wrong for years before it cropped up on screen for me to notice.

Personally I pronounce 'Kaixa' as 'Motherfucker'

I read it as "Kay-Icks-Uh", but since this is the franchise that would later pronounce "Cross-Z" as "Claws", I am keeping my options open. Such as:

The pronunciation of Kaixa makes no real sense but it feels oddly fitting. From a German point of view at least.