The dude doing the full Dante Hicks "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" routine is played by Atsushi Harada, one of the rare Faiz actors to have a notable tokusatsu role before Faiz. In this case he was the Green Ranger on 1999's GoGoV, the show that was ported over to the US as Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue.

Sadly, here's where the plot gets a little bit iffy. Hope the next couple of episodes do something to shake things up a bit.

Here comes my first Delta nitpick. Something that I found really annoying about Kitazaki Delta was that he never seemed any more powerful when transformed than in his Orphnoch form. In fact, many of his OP abilities are sealed away, so he never actually feels like the threat he's supposed to be. And as per gun-wielding hero tropes, the Delta Blaster is either underused or rather nerfed when it is used. It's one thing if he were too OP as Delta and got bored of it, but that really wan't the case at all.

Hell yeah. Not only that, but I love how the belts aren't locked to a single person. This is kinda meta, but this is why the Faiz Gear are some of my favorite belts, along with the belts from W and Gaim. If you have the roleplay toys, it's actually within the realm of believability that you'd be able to wear them and use them.

Also, if I remember correctly, this is the only time when we see all three belts together, being owned by one person. Don't mind me bragging, but while it took quite a bit of time and effort, I finally managed to recreate that scene with my CSM collection and replica cases!

Reading so many parts of that overview was... really amusing. Looking forward to your reaction on future episodes.

Given that Kitazaki gave up the Delta Gear in the same episode that new guy Mihara appears, you can see where this is going.

As I promised back when Kusaka debuted (I’m too lazy to quote myself) and because you’ve already had Harada’s previous major role explained to you, here’s the second part of that compilation. https://youtu.be/uI8nEnrSUaU

And since Kento Handa’s over Tokusatsu role is in neither of those videos, I’ll tell you he was the top third of this robot https://youtu.be/w43OQpL8zVQ

Ps. I told you the title of this episode included “Shin”, because one of its meanings is “death”. I was playing around with the intricacies of the Japanese language.

Could you not keep hinting at events that haven't happened yet? I myself might accidentally speak too much on occasion due to foresight, but you're just giving away future plot points for no reason.

Why.

Somehow, in an episode titled "Mari Dies", Die finds absolutely nothing to say about Mari's death....

HUH?!

Androzani84 and I were looking forward to your reaction. :(

You're actually not too far from the truth. Takumi wasn't quite at the "I want to be punished by my arch enemy" stage then, but now he's not just responsible for putting Mari in a hospital, he's responsible for putting her in an early grave and it doesn't get much worse than that. Imagine how vexed Kusaka's going to be when he finds out.

I think we interpreted it mostly the same way, except my take is that Takumi's change of mind is something that happened gradually from wanting to punish Kiba for deceiving him to wanting to be punished. He saw Mari die in front of him and there was nothing he could do about it. That was the trigger. He didn't just screw up, he failed his purpose as Faiz and that takes his self-loathing to a whole new level where his hatred for himself surpasses his hatred for Kiba, even giving up on being Faiz since he feels unworthy of it.

I said Takumi's guilt was excessive since his attempt to redeem Sawada wouldn't have been so reckless if only Kusaka hadn't intervened in his friendship with Kiba, screwing up his whole opinion of Orphenochs in the process. Kusaka can't see it but he's indirectly responsible for Mari's death by catalyzing Takumi's change in behavior. It's good that Takumi accepts the blame for his role in her death but the problem is how he deals with his guilt. He mopes, beats himself up and gives up on being Faiz and none of that punishment is helpful to anybody, least of all himself.

It was so weird watching GoGo V after Faiz (both of which have 555 in the name!) and being surprised by how autonomous, confident and un-Mihara-like Shou was compared to Mihara! It's like the difference between Smart Lady and Shimada. I'm also surprised that you find Mihara so remarkable. Or perhaps it's just remarkable how unremarkable he is compared to virtually everybody else in this show, almost like he doesn't belong. He's definitely some kind of average guy for sure.

Kusaka really lucked out here, getting all three Gears given to him on a silver platter since nobody wanted them. It's such a turnaround from the Delta arc where everybody wanted to be Delta and now Kitazaki's like "meh" after Takumi and Kiba don't let him play with them and he gives it up just like that. Shows how lame and small-minded those Ryusei School guys were for making such a big deal out of it.

It wasn't even "Shin" in the title. It was "Shisu". The joke about Shin Dan Kuroto Kami-sama was all for naught!

Look on the bright side! It is never a waste to reference our divine game-master.

Neat!

That dude really finds some honesty in his performance, and it's the best thing about the Ryusei School story. I'm so incredibly into the thought of one guy feeling shackled to these other orphans he grew up with. It's bad enough he had to spend his childhood in a mysterious school for mysterious orphans. Does he seriously have to squander his adulthood with the same group, now that they've graduated to full-on sacrificial combat? It's a great time to have other plans!

I feel like it's the other way around, where Kitazaki felt too-overpowered as an Orphnoch, so he became Delta to have more of a challenge and get the other Riders' attention. (Which, ha ha, man, making the most powerful, feared form on the show a handicap for an Orphnoch? Hilarious.) Now that Delta isn't even getting to fight, he's fine giving it away.

Wow! Congrats! I hope they were all given to you by people who fought hard to obtain them but then didn't care anymore.

I'm glad to get this stuff down before everything changes. I like, I don't know, preserving that moment right before a reveal. (It definitely seems like one is imminent, from the chatter.) I hope that's fun for other people to read?

I mean, I guess I can now!

Sorry to disappoint! My reaction was mostly that it was a a cliffhanger that I felt like would be resolved in the next episode with Mari not being dead. It's not a development I feel is more than a one or two episode blip, so it didn't do much for me.

If it turns out that she's 100% forever dead... I don't love it? There's the obvious trope of Now All These Men Are Upset of it all, but more than that, I don't know that I like it as the end of Mari's story. Her dying because she trusted Sawada and wanted to see the best in him is... it doesn't feel like where 30 episodes of Faiz were building up to?

So, yeah, felt like the middle of the story, not the end, so I wanted to wait to talk about it.

The thing I liked about Takumi in this episode is how established his behavior is at times of crisis, and that is to quit. When people turn on him, when he feels responsible for tragedy, he internalizes all of that judgment and gives up. To quote Achewood, Takumi "folded with a focus and intensity normally seen only in successes." There's something so pure about that, to me. That, as much as Takumi has grown and changed through the show, he's still got the reflex to give up that he did before the show began. He still inherently sees himself as what's wrong with a group, and his version of protecting his friends is limiting their exposure to him.

That's... actually rather brilliant. Never thought of it that way! (^.^') Still, I really wished Delta lived up to its initial hype.

I average about one good observation every thread, so I'm glad you found it useful! But, yeah, they hyped the shit out of Delta and then he's swatted aside during that Faiz/Horsepower fight.

It's weirdly common for Kamen Rider, though. So many new forms or upgrades or Riders are introduced as None More Powerful, and then a handful of episodes later they can't keep up with the monsters. Usually it's power creep, but here it's just like the show decided Delta being powerful was dumb, so they ignored it.