That was delightful! Thanks!

I mean, sure? People can bring up whatever they want to about Faiz!

For Saya, I must've missed that. Can you remind me?

Sure, both of those things are what kicks off the story for Lucky Clover this time, but it spends a lot more time getting into the character relationships.

So, all of these questions have the same answer.

When the Ryusei School alumni were first introduced, my problem was that while Mari was the way in for that story, she didn't really develop emotionally because of it. We knew that this was a part of her past, but that information lacked emotional context. She reacted as though these were next door neighbors she fell out of touch with, not pseudo-siblings. Worse, the only emotional connection we saw with the Ryusei School was her as a kid, which is "the version we never really saw" in the sense that the kid versions are not active characters changing and growing on a weekly basis. Seeing her be happy or sad as a kid is largely irrelevant to the modern-day storytelling. (Unless they're doing a Faiz Babiez spin-off?)

But! The whole point of that last Ryusei episode was that this was crushing Mari. The previous connection to Sawada wasn't trivia, it was the lynchpin for her decision-making. By letting Mari's emotional stakes be the stakes for the story, it made the Ryusei stuff work. Prior to doing that, I absolutely wanted her to abandon them. But the show ended up making it work!

So, I stand by all of those previous statements.

To me, the problem isn't the high level of quality, it's the high quantity. They've got twelve-ish main characters! That's too many! The answer isn't to make five of them more boring, it's to cut characters.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 30

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz30a.png

--1--

It's tough to care about fictional characters.

Not, like, "it is difficult to feel an emotional connection to fictional characters", but, like, it can put you through the wringer. You care about someone in a story, and then something happens in the story that just breaks your heart. That's a good thing! That's a story getting an emotional response out of you! But it sometimes feels so bad that you resent it a little. The twist in the story stops being something that you marvel at for its effectiveness and starts being something you abhor for this pain in your chest. It's like you're being punished for investing emotionally in what you've been watching.

It's a little like a betrayal.

--2--

And betrayals are at the heart of this story. Takumi thinks he's been betrayed by Yuuji, Yuuji thinks he's been betrayed by Takumi, and Kusaka is betraying them both.

But that all comes later. First, it's the show rewarding you for caring about Yuuji and Takumi.

There's the requisite I Don't Even Know Who You Are stomp-off by Yuuji in the beginning, where he thinks his friend is a Smart Brain assassin. And Takumi handles that rejection as well as you'd think, namely by making that face and irritating his friends. (He still tries to play the Stop Having Feelings For Someone But I Can't Tell You Why Card! Still! He never ever learns!)

That's expected, but the pivot the show makes after that is extraordinary. You've got two men who have found out they don't really know their friend at all. So they go to a friend of the friend to find out what the deal is.

The whole middle section is great, where the two Teams pair off for some character definition. Mari tells Yuuji that, uh, Takumi does not have grand plans for the power of Faiz, he's 100% not a plans guy, have you spent more than one minute with him ever. Yuka tells Takumi that, hey, Yuuji would never harm a human (again?), he's a total sweetheart, you could do a lot worse. (That last part is implied.) Meanwhile, Kaido and Keitaro dye their hair in a hilarious attempt to reclaim their self-worth after being destroyed by love. The last one doesn't really go anywhere, but it's sincerely delightful. Those two actors are a comedic treasure.

--3--

After Mari and Yuka play matchmaker, it's time for Yuuji and Takumi to have their heart-to-heart, to really talk about all of the various conflicts between Orphnoch and RidHA HAHA HA HA HAHAHA

Oh, shit, I almost got all the way through that! No, what happens is that Takumi is so visibly uncomfortable trying to bridge the gap between them, the mistrust that still lingers, that it is a goddamn miracle that a nearby Orphnoch attacks so that Takumi and Yuuji can restore their bond the old fashioned way: killing a monster.

It's your basic Rider Restoration, where a difficult-to-articulate emotional problem seems less important after two (or more) men righteously battle against the forces of darkness. It's a beautiful sequence, where they're utterly in sync as they just humiliate the unlucky Orphnoch.

The whole entire scene of Yuuji and Takumi together, it's beautiful. The sunset, the summer bug noise, the tranquility of nature. And then the performances, with both men trying to find some way back to what they had. Takumi agreeing that it'll take time to trust each other, when you can see it's killing him that Yuuji doesn't trust him. Yuuji's smile as Takumi rides away, the weight off of his heart. It's been dozens of episodes to get to this point, to see this friendship blossom into a connection. The two halves of this show united, finally. It's so fantastic. It's such a reward to fans.

Enter Kusaka.

--4--

I mean, that's drama, right? Something good happens to make it more powerful when something bad happens, and vice versa. But, god, it hurts so bad.

Kusaka sees a future with Takumi and Yuuji working together, and he hates it. He'd be marginalized, made redundant. They'd be saving people, protecting some Orphnochs, fighting Smart Brain, being heroic in front of Mari... it's his nightmare. And after Sawada brings up the mysterious events of the Ryusei Reunion, tossing out a Failure insult for good measure, Kusaka is feeling boxed in.

So he schemes. He tears Yuuji and Takumi apart, framing each of them in turn for betraying the other.

It's honestly a pretty great plan! He knows that while they want to see the best in each other, those old resentments haven't just disappeared. They've fought enough times that it doesn't take a complicated lie to turn them against each other. (Although, when Kusaka calls Takumi "a silver-tongued liar" to Yuuji? And Yuuji's like Wow Really? Again, have you spent even one minute with Takumi my dude.) There's plenty of blame to lay at the feet of Kusaka, but I don't think Takumi and Yuuji are blameless here. They both very easily believe the worst about the other.

Takumi's flaw is that he's always waiting to be villainized, so he's not surprised if people hate him. If Kusaka says that Yuuji really hates him and has a grudge, that sounds correct to Takumi.

For Yuuji, his trigger is feeling betrayed by people he trusts. His cousin. His fiancee. Letting someone get close and then having that used against him, it's one of the few things that enrages Yuuji. (He loses it at Kaido after he learns the truth about Takumi.) He'd thought he'd misjudged Takumi, been angry for nothing, but that knee-jerk is what Kusaka manipulates. Yuuji falls back on his original anger, forgetting his forgiveness.

And, man, maybe that's why it hurts so bad? Their culpability? It's not just Kusaka tricking them, it's him exploiting their insecurities, encouraging their worst behavior. They make the decision to see the worst in one another, and that's heartbreaking.

--5--

But, shit, maybe folks feel differently! I can see this being a thing that, to some, smacks of writerly contrivance. Kusaka has to scheme a bit to tear them apart, and schemes can make viewers feel manipulated.

It didn't for me. I thought it all worked like gangbusters. (Well, maybe not some of the Jet Sliger effects work. Definitely took too big a swing on having two of those in the climax!) I loved how internally generated all of the conflict was, how it harnessed 30 episodes of character growth to just grab my heart and squeeze.

Did this one work for y'all? Let me know!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz30b.png

Here:

Yeah, as I said before, Kitazaki is Faiz' Asakura. Don't think about why he specifically targets someone name he doesn't know yet. He has the same feeling as him when he's "vexed" as Fish pointed out, he attacks and kills indiscriminately! He kills to have fun, and anything's fair game to him. Which also speaks about how horrible of a being he is, he's the most evil being in Faiz, just like Asakura in Ryuki, and it actually speaks more about it when he murders indiscriminately, instead of picking certain targets he specifically has animosity of. It's just that in this episode, he coincidentally happens to fight someone a part of main cast.

Takumi was at first, only trying to take Kusaka's (prejudiced) stance, with killing all Orphnochs indiscriminately. But finally, he does bring up the topic, to Yuji, which, being a humane Orphnoch himself, he's not shy to point out that Orphnochs isn't inherently evil. Yuji was still nonchalant of his seemingly normal longtime friend suddenly bringing up a "bizzare" topic, moreover with him threatening all Orphnochs, which Yuji also is. For Takumi and Keitaro, this is a fun sthick they're going with (I forgot to write this in every of the character vs irl people moment comparison), but there's definitely numerous people in real life that would do something like that, labelling either people or characters being emotional about anything (except anger) like Keitaro's grief here as whiny, wimpy, spineless, etc and just overall sign of weakness, and I don't like that stance not even a bit. For Yuka, Fish covered the mistranslation, though I still wonder what takes her so long to raise her hand.

I've always wanted for them to learn the secret identities though, even more with Takumi bringing up Orphnochs to him. Even when they fight, like when one of them wins, the loser will revert back to their human form and revealed, I guess their previous fight didn't last long enough simply to send them to that state. But I guess this one still qualifies, and better with Delta showing up that way from Jet Slinger.

Delta is so strong that he gives most memorable cliffhanger even in the background! He chooses to keep anyone alive to balance everything! For Takuma yeah as I said, this is polarizing, there are people who accept this stance, there's also people who only wants to see the ruthless unstoppable adversary and not liking him being reduced to that.

So overall you meant that she doesn't react as deeply (she blatantly does react in sorrow) from previous times like when witnessing the deaths in present day?

I now can finally participate in the translation blunders, because I did, was genuinely confused af for the dialogues you mentioned. Sawada blatantly changes, and I didn't know even a single bit why she said he didn't act any different, but the actual translation is actually this. And for Takumi and Yuka to be confused of asking human hearted Orphnoch based on the translated diaogue...wtf man? Both of them have witnessed by themselves about that type of Orphnoch, and especially Yuka herself who acts like that, and why Takumi would be confused of the same type of Orphnoch, raising her hand?! So this is actually how it is.

Sure, okay. I mean, it's a choice a writer can make, to have Saya be a very passive character. But, like, it's not a great choice? I'm sure it's intentional, it just didn't click with me.

It's like, if you enjoy spicy food, and someone makes you a very mild dish. That's intentional, but it's not to your taste.

Probably because she's killed so many people! This is maybe not a deeply-held belief of hers!

Yeah. In previous episodes, the focus was on the Ryusei School alumni. Here, the focus was on how the Ryusei School alumni were affecting Mari.

I like this episode, by itself. I mean, it was absolutely devastating to watch, but I knew it was in a good way. On it's own, it's like full of shocking gut-punching moments that leave you wondering all sorts of things like 'How will our heroes get past this new horrible wrench that has been thrown between them?!' or 'How will they discover what has Kusaka done?!' and so on, so forth.

A question you should not bother asking is "Where did Faiz suddenly get a new Jet Slinger and why did it show up just to get immediately blown up?".

I feel like the answers to both of those questions are fairly straight-forward!

Where did Faiz suddenly get a new Jet Slinger: He watched Delta type in the code that summons one. I mean, Delta literally just walked into a tunnel and found one the other episode, so Takumi totally earns his by comparison. (It's also great because when he types in the code, Kaixa's like What Does That Even Do and Faiz is all Shrug Emoji.)

Why did it show up just to get immediately blown up: All new equipment on this show is garbage the first time the heroes use it! At least it didn't actively try to kill Faiz!

Honestly, this was my gut reaction toward this development. I had a hard time in particular wrapping my head around how easily Yuuji swallowed Kusaka's bullshit, and I think it's because there's been so much time since the thing with his cousin and gf (way back in Ep 2!). Ever since then he's always portrayed as this sensible, level-headed, guy whose good traits stand out even more among the dysfunctional bunch, it's easy to forget how traumatized he must be and how it'd make sense that it only took a slight nudge from Kusaka (who is such an Obvious Bad Dude only to the viewers, not necessarily to other characters) to unleash all the insecurity and paranoia.

In retrospect, it's indeed in-character for all three parties involved. Once you can buy that, it's engaging material; at that point, I was certainly more invested in discovering whether Yuuji and Takumi would eventually make up and beat the shit out of Kusaka together, than anything else in the plot!

Also, I always find it fascinating when Yuuji and Kusaka shares a scene b/c of the diametrically opposite way the show is framing them, a sort of subversion to their supposed role. Yuuji is the first 'monster'we ever see, the guy who went on a murder spree on civilians, but the show absolutely want us to like him by doing everything to make him seem the most sympathetic person in the cast. Kusaka is the secondary Rider who's supposed to get along and kick ass together with the MC once they eventually overcome their differences, and his motivation on the most general sense is heroic: he wanted to extinguish all the Orphnochs, the threat to humanity, and protect the girl he loves! Isn't that a good goal? But no, they took painstaking efforts to highlight his toxicity and how much of a bad apple he is. I used to be bothered by how Kusaka's actor frequently overplay some of his scenes to the point of unintentional hilarity, but it makes sense if you consider that the show really want us to unambiguously dislike the guy while hammering home the whole role subversion thing. That scene of their first meeting together, that 'water scene' when Kusaka being such a hilarious asshole to the wounded Yuuji? That's the show in a nutshell.

In a way, it's a bit of a shame that the Ryusei plot is such a flop, since I can see how it can contribute to Kusaka's (and Mari ofc) characterization. Instead, they wasted all the time on a bunch of cannon fodders (even Saya was nothing more than a Plot Device; her story landed so badly to me).

Yeah, Kusaka's shit-stirring here is one of those moments where the show gets its reputation for miscommunication issues. Yuuji may not have known he was Faiz, but he's known Takumi much longer and more intimately than he ever knew that asshole who betrayed him to Smart Brain that one time. It does make sense that Yuuji's in a pretty screwed-up headspace right now and not thinking clearly, but it still feels wrong how easily Kusaka pulls the wool over his eyes. Come on, man, you've fought Faiz enough by now to realize that no wrist-flick = not the regular Faiz, even without him pulling a classic Kaixa collar straighten.

Well, I was taking about non-main characters (you said here about 12-ish), because previously you ask for like, even normal humans, civilians, or victims to possess the same high level of quality. And now you say about cutting characters.... while it's reasonable for main characters to be cut, it's impossible to cut every other living beings, if they all can't have that high level of quality. Dunno if this is understandable, sorry for bad English.

Obviously not every type of something is going to click for someone, but I just want to say that, for "it's a choice a writer can make, to have Saya be a very passive character.", something that doesn't click isn't necessarily something obscure (though in Faiz it probably is), it's an already established type of character called "Dandere". Other than that, sorry for this one this is more of a personal issue, but to rag on her (like mocking, though note that saying her not clicking is different though), based simply on who she is (of a shrinking violet type), and wanting her to not be herself, that sinks for a bit to me.

Same goes for the "spicy food" thing, they can enjoy spicy ones more, but I don't exactly approve if they call non-spicy foods as bad or uneatable (to themselves yeah, but can't speak on the same behalf for others), or especially call those who doesn't like spicy ones (actually... that's me) are bad to not enjoy what they think are good/better.

I guess early on you did say about the worldbuilding is interesting to you if it affects a character, and this part comes full circle and implemented on the series. I personally was only interested in what shit would be pulled on to the cast with the Smart Brain, or the father, or Sawada, or something, and therefore, only those characters part, but yeah audience have to go through the Ryusei School students for that, the ones who hold the most informations about that.

hey what if i stayed up late one night for no reason and wrote answers that probably don't make sense or address points

Maybe it's just me, but every time Yuuji does the Heroic Orphnoch thing, I think, "But you murdered two people." I'm not sure if the show wants me to remember that, or forget it, but it's something I can't let go of. So the rage we see at points from Yuuji, it's like, There He Is. It really doesn't take a huge story from Kusaka to get Yuuji to feel that betrayal viscerally.

To your point about how they've layered villain attributes onto Kusaka and hero attributes onto Yuuji, absolutely! The big Hell Yeah point in this episode is Faiz and Horsepower, fighting together! I... I don't remember feeling that great when Faiz and Kaixa teamed up!

Kusaka's a real gift to this plot, since he's pretty well-defined as Just The Worst, so his motivation to create chaos doesn't have to be greater than This Friendship Might Make Me Look Bad. And, yeah, the heightened sense of villainy he brings is really something else. He feels worse than some of the monstrous characters, I think, because of the ease with which he attacks them emotionally. They are so easily spun around by Kusaka!

One of the things that's been hilariously established on this show is that Kusaka's, like, power only extends to the kids in Team Faiz and Team Orphnoch, but they are defenseless against it. Kusaka did try to murder Yuuji just a few weeks ago, but, like, how many times has Kaido said he'd murder Yuuji? When you're a superpowered murder horse, I guess you've got a pretty thick skin against being threatened/assaulted?

Still, I think the telling part is that, yeah, it was easy for Yuuji to buy Kusaka's lies about Takumi. Maybe that says to some people that Inoue didn't do the work to make it believable, but I see it as Yuuji failing his friendship with Takumi.

All the other stuff... I am regularly not recognizing people I've known for years because half of their face is covered. I totally buy that Yuuji would assume that Faiz is Takumi in that scene!

It's good! I get what you're saying. My criteria, that I'm articulating for the first time ever, is probably that any character that's in more than two scenes, they should be compelling. The guy who screams at an Orphnoch is okay just screaming at an Orphnoch. Folks who recur, I'd like them to feel fleshed-out.

And, for the trimmed cast... this show definitely has too many regulars. However, one of the advantages is that stories can generate internally (like the last two) way more reliably than on other shows. I'm okay with the big cast as long as they're using everyone effectively. It don't work so great when the show brings in a half-dozen more characters for a story.

I don't have a problem with Saya's character as a starting point. It's not my favorite type, but sometimes a story or an actor can surprise you with what they do with it. For me, her story only had one compelling scene (that But Why Heroism scene paid off huge in the next episode), and the actor just didn't have a take on it that connected with me.

There's very, very little I'll preemptively judge on a Kamen Rider show. I try to give everything a fair shot, even if it's a trope or a type that I've never enjoyed. Saya... I hope I'm being fair to her?