But that's not Deltaaaaa *pouts*

Delta once reached 33% of his power, and that's why God had to push Paradise Lost into a parallel Rider World.

And Die, to offer you a little sympathy, I've did the thing of watching the Blade Movie recently as "when it was released order", and that was equally happy to just drop things the TV show was getting to casually into the plot. Of course, the Blade movie is almost on the same level of AU, so it's also interesting to see how the different writers take the ideas. Not as if Inoue has much time to develop them, but hey, it's something.

I haven't covered this yet.... but I guess not even on person (Die's probably understandable for being new), Takumi and Kusaka had their birthday not so long ago, 4th June for the former, and 1st June for the latter.... it's so coincidental that the primary and secondary Rider has a very close birthday date!

:(:mad:

Oh, I just thought that with the 4th note you wrote in the very first post in this thread.

For bolded one, it gives me the vibe that you changed your stance that now here you can only talk about the "good parts" (the parts liked) of the series, or just agreeing with anything said, no creating heated situations like debating or something, which can be done if there's alternate/dissenting views. And as for the memorable one at every level, well, I mean it's obviously great if they can achieve making guest star with comeplling arc, or deep victim, but I probably also think that making the series all 100% like that is out of the people's capabilities (I read somewhere that western's expectations are too high), I mean even making every single recurring cast equally as deep and completed is known as an enormous task, let alone the victims and one-time people (which some also think they should balance the focus which means not giving much to the very minor ones to not ruin the major one, that they think it's ok for the minor ones to only serve as that role proportionate to their purpose).

Yeah, the thing I was looking into for Ryusei Cram School scenes, was about Kusaka being cordial to them.... I was fascinated on what's on his mind during that, though it's also helped by Kusaka's infamous reputation in the fandom for me wanting to know. I'm never into demonizing every single part of those people don't like (thankfully you didn't really do that, for now, to Kimura), like calling every Ryusei Cram Schools idiots or maniacs or something, but by this episode seems that term is completely right on them. So they're the hidden evil twist type too for being power hungry for Delta belt, and enjoying the use of the superpower Delta belt granted to them for their sinister purposes... And for your last plead to follow Takumi.... probably even like me here, Mari has always been presented as significantly more amiable and fond to her old friends at the school here, but she just witnessed their rotten traits here. And Kusaka... even he also seems the same like Mari, or even further than that, his old friends are some of the only people he's not cruel to, showing no animosity to (like above, still wondering what Kusaka thinks of them, and hope no bias; no projecting what people feel about the students to speak about what Kusaka thinks, not you), which obviously would mean Kusaka would take the Ryusei Cram School students side more compared to Takumi, and even more to Mari obviously.

Delta is my favorite, design wise, for Faiz Riders. The helmet seems to be a cross of Faiz and Kaixa's, where the upper part are diagonal lines, and the lower part is vertical line. And yeah, after Takuma being one of the biggest badasses for the first 20 episodes, his downfall began here. I wonder what makes Kaido despondent this time (it's really ridiculous and amusing to have him in completely limp state like someone being in coma or even dying!). Yuji still thinks of Takuma as Faiz right to go completely livid at his presence. And with Keitaro again finding Orphnochs and calling Takumi to fight them, but how would Takumi know Keitaro and their locations?

Yeah, it's not really different if it just shows Takumi having usual secondary Rider personality of "asshole with gold heart", the anti-heroic persona they take ("he’s rude to people even though he’s a hero", anti-heroes are heroes with less heroic qualities like that). Actually, I was more into the idea of Takumi assuming a rare more approachable persona like he did previously with Saya (I feel uneasy for that name due to my country) due to both being nekojitas. But actually nope... Takumi reverted back to his usual self. As for Kimura's performance, I think I would bring up what I said for Yuka previously (fixing it too with my second explanation due to it not being so clear):

Probably for Saya, her having no spark, is in the character, that she's meant to be a shrinking violet-type of person that is meek, shy, quiet, anxious, insecure, apologizing a lot, etc. The character type like that is obviously, doesn't stand out (because that's what they want, not wanting to stand out among the crowds).

There's also Mari managing to message Takumi to inform her kidnapping. I mean yeah crushing on Mari is one of the show's sthick, but to think Sawada was like that too based on the scene they were little? She described him as kind, so what if he was truly having a good side beneath his nature by realizing he was going too far on her that time and helped her out (who just fell)? I don't like dumbing down someone doing a good act as having more self-interest deep down like wanting to suck up to that person, which can also count as demonizing them IMO. Switchblade did mention that Sawada is the one that will be remembered (meaning he was right), but also yeah.... Sawada, unlike the others, is meant to be a major, or at least recurring character. BTW what makes the Lucky Clover thread is done in more relevant way here?

So, I guess to clarify, when I said I'd be talking about what's fun for me to talk about, that doesn't mean I'm only going to be complementary or that I'm going to ignore the flaws. It can be fun to talk about those! I mostly meant that if I didn't care about something in an episode, I wouldn't bring it up at all. It's not about avoiding talking about bad things, it's about avoiding talking about boring things. I enjoy talking about non-boring stuff, even if it's a disagreement!

I took it as Kaido finally letting out his sadness about Mari. He went pretty quickly into Rage and Bargaining, what with him throwing the ring into the river and then trying to become powerful enough to forget his pain. This is Depression, and he's being very theatrical about it. That's maybe a good sign!

I just felt like it had more juice to it, more moves. It's not just Go Kill This Traitor or Steal This Belt. The plot had a lot of moving pieces to it, and that kept me pretty interested. It was a story that fleshed out their group to the degree that I'd watch scenes of just their dynamic, same as I would for Team Orphnoch.

KAMEN RIDER 555 MOVIE - PARADISE LOST

OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE no I'm just kidding I didn't watch the movie yet

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 29

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz29a.png

--1--

Why isn't Kaixa in the credits yet? He's been in this show for, like, more than 15 episodes. They put all of Team Orphnoch in the credits before they even all had debuted, and nothing for Kaixa in what would've been four months? Crazy!

In fact, they've added nothing to the credits. No Faiz Accel, no Lucky Clover, nothing. Weird! I wonder why?

--2--

It's nice to ponder unanswerable questions like that (unless someone wants to point me to an Inoue interview where he says he despises the weakness of altering credit sequences), since a lot of this episode is given over to Not All Orphnochs.

It's, y'know, not where I thought this episode was going to go! There's a little bit more of the Delta vs Faiz/Kaixa fight in the beginning, which leads into Lucky Clover's contest to see who can kill a traitor Orphnoch first. It's... it is not the smoothest transition. It's mostly Kitazaki saying that, while Murakami wants more belts, he doesn't give a shit. He just wants to fight traitors right now. And, sure, Kitazaki is an impetuous monster, but it feels a little poorly motivated. Like, he doesn't even know Yuuji's name yet. Why make killing him (or another member of Team Orphnoch) a priority? It's something I could maybe explain away as Kitazaki wanting the fresh challenge of a new Orphnoch, rather than fighting Riders again, but it's still a thin motivation.

But it mostly doesn't matter, since that's not really what the episode's about? It's a framework, but it's not what the episode's about.

It's about Orphnochs, and whether they're worth sparing.

--3--

Takumi's having a tough time of it, after seeing Skullcandy kill Saya. He wants to believe in the innate humanity of Orphnochs, but the murder of someone he'd grown to tolerate (Takumi's closest type of relationship!) by what was basically her brother, that changes his feelings. He's seen the worst Orphnochs have to offer, and now that's all he can see.

One of my favorite threads in this episode is watching Takumi just process his grief in the most Takumi ways possible. When Keitaro is crushed by Saya's death, Takumi tries to console him, but he does it by saying Hey You Can Stop Mourning Her Pretty Soon. He's trying to say something about the necessity of letting grief end, of letting someone live in your memory, but he's incredibly/naturally tactless, and it just makes Keitaro wonder what in the hell is wrong with Takumi. Which in turn makes Takumi defensive, and more tactless, and withdrawn. It's a classic Keitaro/Takumi Mess-Around!

It keeps Takumi in a funk long enough to be a horrible employee of a dry cleaners, loudly berating customers to do their own damn laundry. Takumi is losing his mind about all of this rage that he can't put anywhere.

Cue Yuuji, the rest of Team Orphnoch, a melon, and some awkward conversation.

Literally nothing makes me happier on this show than when we get all six of the main cast in a scene. Having them all sit around a table, speculating about whether Orphnochs are innately human or whether human-seeming Orphnochs are an aberration, it's a great way to surface the episode's themes while still being as charming as possible. Because, like, it's a pretty split decision! Yuuji's confident that Orphnochs are human, and so is Mari, but Kaido needs some prompting. (At least he got his Sour Kelp!) Yuka's onboard... sort-of? Keitaro is so ashamed to be around Yuka that he abstains. And Takumi thinks it's a question that can't be answered by a vote, partially because he's currently being outvoted.

It's a big question, and one the show isn't super into answering right this minute. Mostly because it's using that discussion to reiterate how in-the-dark Yuuji and Takumi are about their secret identities, and that's important to do since they are no longer in the dark.

--4--

THAT ENDING!

I'd gotten so used to Takumi and Yuuji just missing the chance to learn each other's secrets that, uh, I sort-of forgot they actually could learn them! And holy shit they just did!

For a show that's had a crazy amount of good cliffhangers, this one has to be in the top 3. (I can't rank them, but this was a really good one.) This episode had given us both a very sweet Takkiba scene (Yuuji asks if he wants to talk about what's bothering him!), as well as another brutal Faiz/Horsepower fight. We'd seen the bond of their friendship, and the depths of their hatred. That's precisely the moment you want to expose their secrets.

Oh, also, Delta shoots a billion missiles at them from the most Delta ride machine.

--5--

Just a top-to-bottom great episode, even if it surprisingly moved Delta to the background a bit. Seeing the whole core cast together is a huge treat, and the way the show used Saya's death to reexamine some of Takumi's heroism, that was unexpected but really neat to see.

Didn't really get to talk about it, but goddamn do I love the story this show is telling with Houjou. He's shed the skin of a tactical genius and emerged, gloriously, as a snivelling coward, terrified of Lucky Clover's resident bully. He's full Houjou, and it's my lifeblood. That scene with him hiding on the roof, being consoled maternally by Kageyama! Beautifully shot and so wonderfully weird! I love him as a helpless baby!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz29b.png

Faiz's credits never get a Kuuga or Agito-style reworking. If you look closely, though, you'll see that each episode's opening includes a few clips from that specific episode in some of the background shots.

I've been thinking about mentioning this for awhile now. I love how this show does cliffhangers. For all his faults, Inoue had a great sense on when to end an episode with this series. I've seen the entire series before and I know where every character's story ends, but I've still gotten to the end of multiple episodes with no idea of how the hell Takumi and/or Yuuji and/or Kusaka are going to get out of things this time. The show has such a knack for ending on obvious no-win situations that make you want to start up the next episode right away to find out who's going to get knocked into a fight-ending body of water.

I have noticed that (I called out the Takumi Tennis Serve Of Perfection way back in the teens), but it's not really the same. It's a little weird that Kusaka's in the show as the secondary Rider and he can't get a look in. No wonder he's so intent on proving his superiority!

He's great with the cliffhangers, not always so great with the payoffs. Like, I would not be surprised of the next episode starts with Auto Vajin blocking the missiles, but the ensuing explosion gives both men short-term amnesia.

Still, this one? The one where Kaixa's going to murder Faiz for the first time? The one where Houjou and Kageyama Henshin into Faiz and Kaixa? Memorable-ass endings!

Delta is so cool that he rides in a giant hoverbike that shoots a hundred mis- Oh wait, that actually happened. It's ridiculous (and amazing).

I've always liked the relationship between our two leads but I don't think I ever felt much about their 'rivlary' as Rider and Orphnoch. The show really tries to make it a point that they hate each other, and while I kinda get behind Yuuji seeing Faiz as this ruthless slayer of his kind, Takumi's only view of Horsepower is just 'that guy keeps beating me up'.

That doesn't take away from how much a shock this moment is though, when they finally find out about each other's secret identity. Absolutely agree that it's top-tier among cliffhangers.

Jet Sliger is the second best Rider in the show. I still prefer Auto Vajin because of his arc and growth, but damn if Jet Sliger isn’t cool.

Hey, you think that's bad, imagine how vexed Asakura must've felt back in Ryuki! Or, heck, Kitaoka probably would've wanted every shot in the opening replaced with ones of him... as long as they're from his best angle, anyway.

Anyway, this is another great episode I also don't find myself having much to say about, but there were quite a few errors I caught skimming through it, so:

- This is something your brain probably made right because it's so glaring, but "Even when [Sawada] changed into an Orphenoch, he didn't act any different towards his Ryuusei School friends" is more like "Even though Sawada's become an Orphenoch, it doesn't change that he's one of our Ryuusei School friends" or whatever. I mean, I could take the time to come up with something less clunky than "Ryuusei School friends", too, but you get the idea. Sawada acted VERY differently towards his friends! This is a really big, obvious mistake caused by what I'm noticing is a trend with TV-Nihon even to this day sometimes, which is not paying enough attention to grammar. I think they heard "became an Orphenoch", "Ryuusei School", and "no change" and were just like "I GOT THIS!"without thinking about it very hard.

- Takumi's response to Mari saying Saya would've wanted to help Sawada right after this also really shouldn't be "I knew that already." It's literally more of a blunt "Why should I care?", which is equally standoffish, but what's important here is that Takumi genuinely hadn't been considering that idea.

- And speaking of small lines from Takumi, when Yuka starts raising her hand to at that meeting to vote in favor of Orphenochs being able to have human hearts, the thing he whispers to her is along the lines of "I mean, of course you think that, but...", which is basically the complete opposite of the surprised "Even you think so?" TV-N has it as. I don't think theirs really gets across how much of a stubborn jerk Takkun is actually being right now. He doesn't process grief very well!

You know, I bet Delta wouldn't have any trouble with bad translations though. I heard that guy is so smart, he speaks, like, eleventy-billion languages! Yeah!