KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 37

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--1--

Okay, this one is way more of a plot episode.

My favorite part, though, is the further exploration of the difficulty and necessity of acceptance. Last episode put the spotlight on Mari and Keitaro, and how they weren't able to be the friend that Takumi deserved. This time, the spotlight swings back to Takumi. We're going from what happens when you can't accept a friend, to what happens if you aren't accepted.

It's... it isn't good. Takumi's tendency is always to blame himself, to endure the judgment of others. It's worse when he thinks of himself as responsible for a massacre at the Ryusei School reunion ("Run Meteors!"), but more on that later. For now, he can't really live with himself.

He so can't live with himself that he spends the episode's opening fight begging Faiz to kill him. Yuuji won't, so that makes Takumi run for the woods. (He is a wolf, after all.) After that, we get some small, but crucial, looks into Takumi's crumbling sense of self.

Murakami brings up in this episode, when the Lucky Clover is talking about how ill-suited Takumi is to be a member, that Orphnochs are at their most powerful when they shed their humanity. He says that Sawada couldn't shed his. But he says that Takumi has to shed his.

The thing that's killing Takumi isn't that he's an Orphnoch, it's that he can't be a human. His friends, accidentally or not, regretfully or not, have closed that door on him. When Mari calls, he tells her to forget him. When Yuuji calls (in just the loveliest scene, there's always so much warmth when Yuuji talks to Takumi), he asks how he can move forward. He's adrift. He can't find an answer that makes sense. His friends don't want him. Lucky Clover would be the death of his soul. He doesn't know what to do.

We got to see Takumi trying last episode to be worthy of being accepted. It didn't work. The people he trusted most viewed him as a threat. Now, the lack of acceptance calcifies in him, fills him with this unshakeable belief that he's wrong, that he's bad, that he doesn't deserve to feel at peace. It's the tragic consequence of being turned away. It's listening to people that are wrong, and believing they're right.

The parts of this episode that let that idea play out, that really allow Takumi to feel upended by his new isolation, it still works amazingly well.

--2--

It's just, that's not really the episode that got made? Hoo boy, there's a whole bunch of setup for the final run of the series shoved into this episode, and it is inelegant.

The Ryusei School reunion plot comes out the least worst, since it's the most tied in to what's going on. We get to see why Kusaka's always cleaning his hands (he's been cleaning off Mari's blood that he can't unsee), and we get Mari sharing her memories of the event with Kusaka. It ends up motivating Kusaka to try to do what Yuuji wouldn't, which is kill Takumi.

It's... I'm not that into it? The big problem is that we still don't have the full picture. I don't believe that Takumi just showed up and murdered a whole bunch of kids for no reason. Moreover, Kusaka is a very unreliable narrator at this point, since he's losing his goddamn mind (that crazed look when he tells Mari that he's fine!), so a lot of what he's "seeing" or "remembering", I don't a hundred percent buy it. So that leaves a lot of the big motivators of the story feeling indistinct, or slight. I get that Kusaka's swearing vengeance, and I get that Mari's traumatized, but the why of it feels so difficult to believe in or care about that it's... hollow? There's a hollowness to the plot, a space where the part that connects with the audience should be.

It leads to some good fights, that Kaixa/Wolfeyes fight is pretty brutal, but I'm mostly waiting for more information before I can start caring about it.

--3--

Speaking of waiting for more information, we get another check-in with Kaido, whose plot with the kid he saved inches forward.

It's funny stuff (holy shit, he does the Ichigo pose when he scares off those bullies), but it feels like we're just waiting for more to happen. It's cute, and I'm reluctant to ever call a Kaido comedy runner a waste, but it feels so weird to pull focus from the very very good Takumi stuff to do a couple scenes that are clearly just setting up some future story. (I mean, they've mentioned this kid in multiple episodes; I don't feel like I'm out on a limb here.) It's that Inoue thing of maybe not being disciplined enough with what plots get addressed when?

--4--

Like, holy shit, Soeno's back?! And it's connected to the orphaned kid? And all of the many, many explosions that have created (or nearly created) decades worth of orphans? It's sort-of hilarious that this show found time to include Soeno again, and that he comments on how irrelevant he is to anything, but... him?

I mean, where the hell is Yuka? Has she gotten anything more than a role supporting Kaido and/or asking Yuuji questions in the last ten episodes? She's in the credits of every episode and the show can't find anything for her to do, but we're back with Soeno?

And, did Kitazaki go back to his home planet or something? He gives the Delta Gear to Sawada and then, like, vanishes. He's not in any of the Lucky Clover scenes at the bar, and when Houjou attacks Takumi for failing to defeat Yuuji, he brings a completely new Orphnoch with him. (I get that Houjou wouldn't necessarily bring Kitazaki, but it's bonkers to bring a third Orphnoch to a Lucky Clover fight that isn't Kitazaki.) Where is the fourth member of the group?

That sort of stuff wouldn't bother me if this episode had spent more time on Takumi's story, or even Kusaka's story. (It sure as shit didn't bother me last episode!) But this one has time for all these subplots with background characters, but there's so many regulars we barely see. Even Keitaro's just in one small scene. Maybe he'd do better with the blonde hair again?

--5--

I probably sound like this episode was a disaster, but it really wasn't. The Takumi stuff alone makes it a must-watch. It's just, it's a little less tight than last episode, a little more sloppy. The Kusaka plot, honestly, it's a big Ask Again Later for me, and the other little plots are slightly frustrating for their inclusion while still being fun in the moment. (That Kaido scene, for real, so funny.) But the more they focus on the long, difficult road of valuing your own feelings and finding the strength to say to others that those feelings matter, it's still a good show.

At its worst, it's still got Houjou, you know?

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Answer the question, Die. Who's cuter!?

These stretch of episodes have been doing such a good job of making Takumi's situation feel dire and miserable. Or at least, I was very much rooting for him to finally get a break from the universe. There's so much time spent where he's without his gear and without his friends, it's like the whole world is topsy-turvy and inherently not right, but that's what makes it so engaging too.

This being Faiz and how it never seems to care about what people expect, I wonder if there were viewers, whether kids or adults, who started to wonder if maybe Takumi was never going to be Faiz again, if this was actually the new status quo?! After all, it's not like the opening credits care to ever change to reflect plot developments anyway.

There's more Yuka stuff coming. The return of the cops who were investigating her after ~20 episodes of absence is a sign that she's going to be moving back into focus again in the near future. Faiz is somewhat haphazard in its pacing and it has a lot of characters to juggle (we're at basically nine regulars, six recurring, and whatever the hell you consider Smart Lady at this point); the show does know where it's going, though, so you can get some foreshadowing like this.

I also want to add that I'm so happy to see the illuminated suit again, and with Kaixa getting that treatment, too. I'm sure they're much less durable than the standard action suits (plus they really only work well during more expensive night filming), but they look so goddamn good. It's a rare treat when they show up.

This is a somewhat pedantic bit of translation policing, but I feel like you'd appreciate the explanation.

So basically, it's not actually a translation error, but it's still a mistake.

Oh, for sure! The crazy thing is, I'm pretty sure this episode is the first time the show actually used either of those suits in the series? Part of my brain always wants to remember every scene of Faiz at night (like the first episode) having him all lit up, but I don't think it's actually the case.

Kaido doing the Ichigo pose (complete with SFX) is the one moment I remember above all else from this series.

HOUJOU. FOREVER HOUJOU. Truly, Kageyama's hesitation is her most villainous act to date.

I'm a superhero fan from way back, and there's always a special joy to seeing someone else in the suit for a minute. Falcon taking over as Captain America, Nightwing taking over as Batman... it's just fun to see how a different character would approach the role of Main Hero. So, this show, it's activating a lot of those parts of my brain, as multiple established characters get to show off what their version of Faiz is. I hope there were some kids in Japan who were equally excited!

I mean, some of my objection is just that the Takumi stuff is so compelling that any time the show cuts to another story, if that story isn't at least as compelling as the Takumi stuff, I'm going to be slightly frustrated.

But, I get it, they're setting up a bunch of endgame things. I just feel like maybe they should've let the Takumi stuff breathe for another episode or two.

It is pretty gorgeous, but all I can think is "That stunt guy has zero visibility."

Yeah, I read that weirdo line as that he'd disappeared from their observation, that they didn't know where he was. It's a bizarre translation!

My headcanon is that (like is sort-of established in Fourze) all of the Showa Riders are urban legends, and that Kaido is a huge nerd about them. As a kid growing up, he got obsessed with stories of Kamen Riders. He internalized all of that iconography, so when he had to be a hero to that orphan, his go-to was Ichigo. (Also, Yuuji and Yuka are thoroughly sick of him talking about Riderman.)

Another fun little theory is the idea that Smart Brain is just simply another evil organization controlled by the Great Leader. And being honest here I think Kaido knowing the Ichigo pose is Inoue paying respect to his dad. Masaru Igami a prolific writer for Showa Kamen Rider.

Oh, neat! Thanks for bringing that up!

Since Inoue is a pretty dramatic guy, the scene with Kusaka imagining Mari's blood on his hands could've been a reference to MacBeth.

So yeah, it definitely doesn't look like Kusaka has any intention of showing his gratitude to Takumi. Kusaka is a protector of humanity and now that Takumi is a known Orphenoch, he decides that gives him carte blanche to murder him for apparently attacking him and Mari at the reunion. He won't hesitate to destroy an Orphenoch even if it's a comrade. Whether or not it was actually Takumi is irrelevant to him, it's just another excuse to do his job. Takumi does put up a fight to protect himself but it's mostly for show and he's probably just waiting for Kaixa to destroy him like he thinks he deserves.

Kiba as Faiz, who he wanted to destroy him earlier, instead ends up saving him from Kaixa. Right now, Kiba is the only one actually standing up against Kusaka since he knows he can't be trusted and unlike Takumi, he doesn't tolerate him. Mari and Keitarou may be struggling to see Takumi the same way, but Kiba understands how painful and lonely it is to be a monster feared and hated by humans, to betray and be betrayed, to try and hold on to his own humanity while Smart Brain pressures him to throw it away like something that doesn't have any value. They're very different people but their experiences are similar and that means they can help each other. He's the friend that Takumi needs right now.

If Kamen Rider Faiz has a flaw, it's the scarcity of Yuka focus. She has such a great arc but it's all broken and scattered, the same with Keitarou. Most of the action and plot progression happens around the other members of Team Faiz and Orphenoch, Kusaka, Lucky Clover, Sawada and sigh.... Mihara. But yeah, this show could've used more Yuka. We've had our disagreements about her but at least we can agree on that, right?

Too bad Powerful Keitarou's blonde hair got singed black in the fire, according to Kaido. :p

I'm pretty sure you're right. Delta had the lights on in the cold open of Episode 28, preceding both illuminated Faiz and Kaixa in this episode. It's so cool how their lights are on for the whole scene which makes it so much more dramatic. They really show the raw power of the suits in a way that other Riders don't and it's especially cool for Kiba since he gets the lighting effect before Takumi. It's a shame that the effect wasn't used more often.

At first, I thought that. It seemed like the show was hinting at Kusaka's foul deeds with him unable to cleanse his hands of all of the blood.

But then they're like Hey Mari Got Hurt At The Reunion And Kusaka Got Blood On His Hands And He Blames Himself For Failing Her, and... I guess that's it? It's more literal, and a lot less fun. I don't know. I definitely like it better if it's guilt, and not guilt plus a memory.

I think there are a couple other wrinkles. First, Mari still believes in Takumi, so killing him eliminates a competitor for Mari's attention. Second, I think it's also that Takumi's reached the end of his usefulness. Kusaka doesn't currently have a huge problem keeping Yuuji alive, because Yuuji has a beef with Smart Brain and that can be leveraged for Kusaka's benefit. Takumi's joined up with Smart Brain, so he's got to go.

I mean, it's such a Kamen Rider thing, isn't it, Suicide By Combat? (I mean, there're probably some roots in ancient Japanese society, but that's above my paygrade.) It's not just that Takumi wants to be killed by someone, but that he has to be defeated and killed. Dude definitely wants to feel punished!

Yeah, boy, a lot of what Takumi's going through must look pretty familiar to Yuuji. I'd kind-of love if, during their phone call, Yuuji went, "Hey, if you feel like killing one of your friends because you feel like they betrayed you, maybe don't? Especially if they have a brother who might want vengeance. I've, uh, I've heard some Orphnochs do that and they totally regret it. Not me, though! I love humans! I definitely never felt relieved by snuffing out their organs!"

Absolutely! It's weird how much the show front-loads Yuka's story. Do they think they've said enough about her?