You have to respect Kusaka's devotion to being a complete dick. Mari, the woman he wants to be his mother/look at him, is lying in a hospital bed, seriously injured, and Kusaka is still focused enough to pit Takumi and Yuuji against each other. That is dedication.

He is a very fastidious schemer! He uses every part of the tragedy!

Of course Kusaka still has his head in the game! He's not some sloppy, overly emotional idiot, like that horrible monster Inui!

In all seriousness, one thing I really love about Kusaka's lies in this part of the show especially is how, and I'm pretty sure this a real thing emotionally manipulative people do, he likes to tinge his falsehoods with bits of truth. Was Mari attacked by Takumi? Absolutely not. Was her getting attacked his fault? Debatable! Same thing with him brushing off trying to murder the s*** out of Yuuji by telling him that whole thing was just part of a plan to destroy Smart Brain from the inside. This is why I say he seems to believe everything he says the second it leaves his mouth. Past events always exist to whatever level is most convenient for him at that particular moment. Sometimes it feels like he's deluding himself as much as his victims.

A couple translation cop notes for this one, by the way, and what do you know, they're both from Kusaka, during his conversation with Takumi early in the episode:

- "...it seems you're quite interested in my past. I'm not going to tell you anything about myself." is "You seem to be pretty interested in my past, but you never talk about yourself." Part of the actual thing Kusaka is doing here still survives in the next few lines, but Kusaka's jerk move here isn't merely stubbornly refusing to give information. What he's actually doing is trying to posit that Takumi is the REALLY suspicious one, which is just so much more Kusaka.

- Unfortunately, the part of this that made it in is still messed up. The "about that house" bit is complete nonsense, and a result of TV-N not being able to figure out what sono uchi meant. The full line is something like "I'd really like to hear about it someday. About your past."

By the way, Die, I'm amazed by the restraint you had not to make one of the screencaps for this one Kusaka saying "It's a terrible story." Refusing solid gold like that is how I know you really do like this show!

The Kaido/Keitaro stuff... is it the fire incident? Yeah that one may seem random, but it'd be quite important later on.

I don't mind the distracted feel of this particular episode, because Faiz has long established itself as a more character-driven show than a plot-driven one. I think it's worth it even with the risk of awkward transitioning/tonal dissonance, just to keep having the relatively balanced amount of character focus without forcing all of them to be involved in the same plot. Also, I think this is usually the point where the non-transforming/non-fighting supporting character started to really become obsolete and a non-factor in the grand scheme of things, so I appreciate that they constantly have new separate stuff to do for Keitaro (who, bless his heart, I have a hard time imagining would contribute much to the current Plot A besides the usual "TAKKUN, ORPHNOCH!!").

Eventually, the threads tend to converge at some point, though it'd naturally feel disjointed if you evaluate them on individual basis. I do think that early in the show, it did a much better job transitioning/juggling several plot threads than at this point, but obviously it's easier to do so when the stakes are lower and there were fewer number of characters.

Not to spoil anything, but the next episode’s title has “shin” in it.

FYI Sawada/Spider Orphnoch is played by big-time actor Gou Ayano, and this show was his debut work. He has been doing all sorts of roles post-Faiz and around early 2010s he just kinda had a big break as an actor and has been doing well ever since.

Yeah, I think he lies in a very tactical way, making sure that what he's saying is tailored to his target. I said it before, but I think it's awesome how how he lies to spark suspicion, and then his target fills in the blanks. It's very advanced assholery!

Thanks! This exchange makes a lot more sense now. I... geniunely didn't know if I'd forgotten a scene with Takumi's Mystery House. Phew!

The problem I think this episode has, as I've thought more about it, is what stories these plots are serving. The A-plot is Mari and Sawada, but the focus pivots from Mari, a character we're (hopefully) fully invested in, to Sawada, someone who's brand-new and part of the villain group. That makes the A-plot feel so much less compelling to me, since it's not really about Mari's arc anymore. She's fully committed to Sawada's redemption, then she's betrayed. We don't even get to see her reaction to being betrayed! The story's entirely about Sawada, and his choices.

Worse, that A-plot is pretty much only there to provide a viewpoint for the B-plot, which is the Takumi and Yuuji plot. Sawada's decision-making is important because of how it affects Takumi's feelings for Yuuji, and vice versa. The entire A-plot exists to support the B-plot, which... not a great way to construct a story!

For me, this episode is built around character-driven storytelling, it's just applied in a way that makes elements feel more hollow than I'd like.

Shin Godzilla in Episode 33, confirmed!

He's pretty good in this one! I can see why he'd do well in his career.

Takumi made a fatal error in trusting Sawada to take care of Mari. Between feeling betrayed by Kiba and seeing the consequence of his misguided judgement with Sawada, a complete stranger to him, he's starting to lose his faith in the humanity of Orphenochs. He also blames himself, due to his lack of self-confidence, for letting them deceive him. It's partially his fault, this time wasn't caused by inaction, he consciously made a decision and it was wrong. However, his guilt is excessive which is typical of his personality. He can't see past his mistake and he's determined to atone for it.

He's convinced that Orphenochs will eventually turn bad and should be destroyed, starting with Kiba, who conveniently wants to beat him up for attacking Mari, as Kusaka misled him to believe. You can see that as much as Takumi judges himself, he refuses to be judged by who he considers some heartless Orphenoch. He immediately turns hostile towards Kiba. These events have shaped him in to become a more indiscriminate killer of Orphenochs like Kusaka and it's not a good place for him right now.

Kusaka is such a talented manipulator! Even with Mari in her critical condition, he still finds something to salvage from the worst case scenario to continue his schemes. It's diabolical, but hard not be impressed.

Building his elaborate web of lies on a foundation of truth is what makes them so verifiable. He knows Takumi feels guilty for what happened to Mari, so he twists the truth to make him look worse and the rest takes care of itself. However, I don't think he's completely deluded by his fantasies, although he definitely has a warped narrative of himself and other people. He needs a grip on reality so he can remind himself that Sawada is the guy he wants to kill the most. Having Takumi scapegoat himself is just a bonus. His manipulation isn't without reason after all.

"Shisu", to be specific. "[insert name here] Shisu" is another one of those Inoue-isms. If my recollection is correct, next episode is the 4th written by him to have such a title.

Fiveman Episode 32

Jetman Episode 18

Die should be familiar with this one from Agito:

Agito Episode 27

If I missed one, let me know.

Oh okay, I see it now. About Mari in particular, I honestly felt at this point she's a shell of the super interesting, fun, girl we saw in the first few episodes. The whole Ryusei plot should've revolved around her and build up her character, and yet it felt like she's only there to provide sad/anguished reaction faces (sometimes not even that!). As I said, Faiz is still pretty good at making sure every major character gets plenty of screen time... so we saw a lot of her, but not enough about her. And it feels like she's increasingly fallen to the trappings typical to character of her ilk, namely she's primarily there to serve as the male characters' development and point of conflict.

Man, what is it about Faiz where all these actors in it either had notable roles prior, or went on to have major roles after? I'm not imagining this, right? This kind of trivia is there for most shows, but it seems like Faiz has a neat casting choice like this every few episodes.

During my rewatch, I remember feeling like the acting in Faiz was a slight cut above its contemporaries, but between all the experienced talent and rising stars, I guess there was a good reason for that.

Ah, yes, Kusaka's favorite class back at college! :p

Man, I know you don't truck with Showa, but I'm still legitimately sad that this was the "Shin" your brain went to in a thread about Kamen Rider.