I guess I meant that there isn't a Secret about Shima. He shows up, and at the end of his first episode we find out he's an Undead. Hajime, there's been a bunch of episodes where we are meant to be wondering about elements of his character.

But, like, that's the addiction metaphor. You don't cure someone's addiction by taking away the substance they're addicted to. An addict will always find more of what they want. In essence, they can't escape it. You have to address what's going on inside, manage the psychology, and then they can actually recover.

Kenzaki, unfortunately... this just isn't a tory he can take part in? The show really hasn't given him the tools to help Mutsuki out. Developmentally, Kenzaki isn't the character to reach a possessed teenager who thinks he's going to fight endlessly and lose his mind. Definitely more of a Tachibana and Shima problem to solve. I mean, shit, I'd love if the show had found a way to get Kenzaki involved, but the past two dozen episodes didn't really give him a way into this one.

I guess I would've liked to see Tachibana be more integral to the climax, if the show is going to spend so much of the episode focused on his feelings. I get that they wanted a downbeat ending, where Tachibana whiffs it again, but it just made me feel like the Tachibana scenes were unimportant.

They end up making Shima a meal that he's too busy fighting for Mutsuki's soul to go eat! It's not that the characters aren't in the episode, it's that they aren't in the story!

And, oh man, do not love that the show had several men telling the smart, competent team leader that she'd be prettier if she smiled more!

...And I actually get to talk about someone other than Ishida for once! This episode was directed by Satoshi Morota, who worked on Blade and Hibiki, and then also worked on every single Rider show from Double onwards, right up to Zero-One. I haven't developed the borderline obsessive worship for him I sort of stumbled into with Ishida, but the guy has definitely directed some gorgeous episodes of Kamen Rider, including Toucon Boost's debut in Ghost, which is one of my favorite Rider episodes ever, naturally. Good to know he was apparently already doing great work even back in 2004.

There's also a fun bit of trivia going on with the character names here I might as well point out, since Inoue likes to do that kind of thing. Rarely does the symbolism get more blunt than here though, where we have Hajime (始), a man whose name literally means "beginning", and his identical counterpart, yet the opposite of him in every way, whose name is Ryou (了), which literally means "ending".

And We’re back with the Rouse card Information Kiosk. This time, we have a pair of diamonds.

Absorb Serpent

A medusa-like monster that is hunting for the Joker, having the Tortoise Undead to aid her. Her hair changes to snakes and can be used as whips


* Suit: Diamond (♦)
* Category: Queen (Q)
* Effect name: ABSORB
* Card name: Absorb Orchid (アブソーブ・サーペント Abusōbu Sāpento)
* Consumption points: EP +2000

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110143111

Rock Tortoise

An Undead who aided the Serpent Undead as her bodyguard, attacking Blade and Garren to keep them from meddling in her affairs.

* Suit: Diamond (♦)
* Category: Seven (7)
* Effect name: ROCK
* Card name: Rock Tortoise (ロック・トータス Rokku Tōtasu)
* Consumption points: FP 1400


And since it was already mentioned, snake lady is the second inadvertent link this series has with Hurricaneger, despite the fact that, as far as I can gather (I haven’t seen Hurricaneger past episode 7 and it’s VS movies. The subs I have for later eps are just awful.), the two don’t have much in common.

The Takoyaki episode is such a bizarre trip, it's beautiful. The comedy, the symbolism, the Takoyaki, it's peak weird.

What's not to love?

I would've never known that about the names! Thank you! While they're a little straightforward, they're also probably better than what I came up with before learning Ryou's name: Hajime and Hajimenot

Is this a good point to mention that I think Kenzaki is an/the other Joker? From Karasuma's old "DOUBLEJOKER" password? Just putting that here. Please don't tell me if I'm right or wrong, I just wanted to mention it for future discussion.

(Some of the reason I think he's a Joker is from sort-of dimly recalling the Ex-Aid video series he was in, and some of the plot points I didn't get from that before, and some of the stuff Medusa Undead Or Whatever said to Chalice, and it all combining to make me think Kenzaki is a Joker.)

...Y'know, nothing. I sat here for a minute and tried to come up with something I didn't care for, and, nope! All killer, no filler.

Now how can there be a 'Double' Joker if there's not even a single Batman?! Though I guess we have a Spider-Man thanks to Leangle...

I went and rewatched these episodes really quick (and then binged on a few random other Blade scenes afterwards) and yeah, still can't believe I didn't remember any of this! Funny thing is that superhero hijinks mixed with running a food stall doesn't sound like it'd be too out of place as a premise for a Kamen Rider season of today either.

I have a soft spot for Noir For Kids, when someone's using crime tropes but tweaking it just slightly so it's goofy enough for kids to be entertained by.

For the food stall Kamen Rider premise, that is definitely what they should've done with the Specter movie. They'd already set up that Alain opened up a takoyaki stand, right? Missed opportunity!

Also, hey friends, today's my one-year anniversary on these boards. It's been a year of talking about a variety of Japanese superhero TV shows (the names escape me) and tiny plastic action mans. This community has been outstanding, welcoming me in and letting me be consistently weird about the Kamen Rider franchise. Thank you all so much for a fantastic year. (Only in the sense of participating in discussions on TokuNation; the rest of it has been an unmitigated shitshow.) Thank you for being people I now consider friends. I'm very much looking forward to another few years of talking about these shows with you.

Looking back, though, there's one thing I'm maybe proudest of, one post that still cracks me up when I think about it. Self-indulgently, here's my favorite post from the past year:

I won’t say anything, but I doubt it was planned at this point in the series. Not only were they going through a staff turnover, but Shirakura (the producer) has gone on record as saying that he never allows his writers to plan the show ahead of the episode they’re currently working on, to keep it fresh and unpredictable.

Not actually related to this thread, but Shout came out with official English DVDs now and they also have the whole series up for streaming on their website.

The Comically Serious for Hajime? It's a common trope btw in various medias. For the part of it being thematic, it'll also probably depends on how insightful on the audience of picking up those, which is why by that, I'm so doubtful to label anything that doesn't work as (objectively) bad, it can be just that it doesn't get to someone but another gets it. Back on the episode part, the theme would just mean anything that is good, even if not about something related to Kamen Rider series? (as KR also tried to give good themes).

Can't say anything but good analysis on the directing here, those here are great, but I also don't like a few others like the face close-ups.

Speaking of tone, the tone doesn't shift here? That it's still a tragedy either way, with Kotaro fruitlessly looking for Natural, which just strikes to anyone inside the house that this is tragedy.

I don't know what makes Hajime agree to switch lives with Ryou. And it's obvious that the others would be puzzled with what's going on with Hajime that he suddenly becomes sociable and it's a blast to watch, but the problem would be, what if Hajime returns to them, what would be their reaction and Hajime's, that shouldn't be forgotten in-universe, or to me, it'd be a bit writing blunder to me to just suddenly have amnesia on this moment. Hajime also probably watched how everyone is joyful on his environment as an another part of humanity. But there's also a comedy here that I don't like, the part where Michi lashes out at Ryou like throwing stuffs. It's the domestic abuse type (though it's probably not noticeable with its comedic traits... but domestic abuse is a common form of comedy); where female on male violence is presented as acceptable (while vice-versa it's always bad), if not encouraged, where it's further justified if she's a tsundere (in anime especially, but here too) that it's justified as "she's actually flirting if she's verbally or physically abusive!"

What will you say to those not abiding by that? ̶A̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶m̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶"̶r̶e̶s̶t̶r̶a̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶I̶n̶o̶u̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶e̶v̶e̶r̶"̶ And again, informing more, those that had problems with Inoue I talked with, like you do (where you pointed out in Faiz where his sense of humor is definitely his strength), they also admit that he works better with parts like more comedic stuff like Changerion and Gouraigan (what they mentioned, this episode would qualify too perhaps), or at writing slice of life special (like this episode, so don't take this as me dissing this episode, I and others can appreciate this episode while not being blind) or being restrained (including that person I talked who had problems, they started with saying he did some really good work before talking about stuffs that makes him uncomfortable). Just that they won't be blind on him with his actual worse stuff which outweigh those good like the gross part in another that is being normalized. He's polarizing that he had both those 2 within him. So for saying he doesn't get enough credit of, they do give him that, but acknowledge his infamy. This also applies to akinoame, the reviewer I put at my signature, they give some defense to Inoue and stand by it (like writing Jetman and Agito), but they had limits on that and won't be blinded, for their case the problem being the...

Still, he can have his sthick but don't let it resort to something for example (not talking about this episode, but others); characters being OOC to fulfill that, leaving numerous plot hole to abide with his sthick, or the writers fighting with each other in the plot, due to the clashing style.

No, these episodes aren't him at his wildest, because for TV series, Inoue's on a leash, where it's agreed that he works better when restrained. But when not, his wildest is something seen at the Rider novel adaptations, where it's insanely edgelord-y, bordering on gross and disturbing things.