I mean I'm assuming there was an off screen fight that happened with Kaixa before noticing the Faiz fight and assuming that one of their fellow classmates was here with another belt and then dying.... but your version is better so it's canon now

I'm running out of unique ways to say this, but this episode is once again Ishida's work, and if that spotlight bit with Mari doesn't prove it, nothing will. I think moments that extreme are basically him taking a "boring" scene as a challenge? The episodes of Agito where Shouichi first gets his memories back were him too, which, even though you liked all that stuff a lot less, means the color-coded plot threads was something he came up with, too. No idea why the camerawork itself had to be so shaky, but it does show how outside the box he's willing to go, for better or for worse.

Anyway, Kaixa's "introduction". I love it. It's hard to call it this coming right after Ryuki, but Faiz is kind of THE subversive Rider show to me, and I can't think of many things that symbolize that better than the brand new, amazing cool hero you should buy toys of dying three times right away. Faiz gets so much mileage out of treating the belts as pieces of equipment anyone can use. Seeing Kaidou as Faiz, and random nobodies as Kaixa, all of this stuff has such a novelty factor, and legitimately makes the story more interesting on top of that. It's awesome.

The fact that the people using Kaixa in this episode were all good people should tell you what kind of person the actual user will be if you know what trope they’re invoking.




If you haven’t figured it out, here it is https://www.google.com/url?client=in...obc-gDxZXuZ1su

I think you misunderstood the three lives thing. Murakami was addressing Mr. J specifically. It's his signature ability as Crocodile.

Yeah, this is exactly what I've been waiting to talk about. Rina mentioned that the first Kaixa Gear user was Takamiya. It's very likely that the Kaixa seen at the end of Episode 10 was that guy. The scene stands out as weird when you rewatch it with knowledge of how Kaixa Gear affects the user. He henshined, spectated Faiz's fight with Snail and promptly died! That's a lot of dedication just to show off a cool suit.

:thumb:

Now that we've seen Kaixa in action, destroying one of Mr. J's three lives, it's time to talk about the suit and Gear functionality. Kaixa is just as high tech, cool and simple as the impressive Faiz suit. The main differences are chi instead of phi, double the Photon Streams and the Photon Blood is yellow instead of red. Functionally, Kaixa is stronger than the basic Faiz and his Kaixa Blaygun has more configurations than the Faiz Edge.

I mentioned before that Faiz Gear can be used by anybody but of course that's not entirely true as only a few people are compatible. Kaixa Gear really does work for anybody but you'll die if you're not compatible. Due to generating double the Photon Blood, this Gear is twice as demanding on the user which means you really need to be compatible. The error feature on Faiz Gear can be seen as a safety lock, preventing Mari and Keitarou from accidentally killing themselves. Kaixa Gear doesn't care about your safety.

Thank you for reminding me of that shaky-ass Agito episode. My head just started hurting by remembering it!

I cannot tell you how hard I laughed when, just after his totally cool move of slicing the villain in half, not even looking back as the monster bursts into flames... Kaixa immediately shorts out and has a seizure, smash cut to opening credits. Like, that's the move you'd do on a parody of Kamen Rider shows. Just unreal.

Oh no!

I definitely did misunderstand that scene. Thanks!

So, my theory is that there are a lot of other kids shown in that class reunion photo, and about half of them died testing out the Kaixa belt. Each one putting on the belt, Henshin, Error, ash... and then the next kid's like This Time Is Bound To Work. Eventually one kid probably took so long to Error out that they went into battle with it, and that's probably what they'd call "the first user". (Also, they probably don't want to tell Mari that they killed a half-dozen of her childhood friends and family.)

There's almost no version of the Team All-New kaiXa-Men backstory that isn't these kids watching their friends die and then, like, excitedly following in their footsteps.

Neat! Thanks!

Imagine designing a belt with safeties.

This meme made by KaiXa-Men.

Someone with better video-editing skills than me please take the "Kaixa being an awesome bad-ass" scene from the beginning of this episode, and layer in the Smart Brain commercial voiceover just before he Errors and dies.

"True life is gonna start." ERROR *painful scream*

Just like what you said about his fighting style to just getting out of the problem ASAP. Become addicted? Probably all of this are just peeling off Takumi's insides; he is aloof to others, only to reveal that he thinks it might be bad for them to get close, he wants to avoid Faiz as possible, only to reveal that he's in weird state after it's taken away, now he wants to stay away from problem, but now he tries to solve them. Probably must be that he realized that if a problem is left out, it'll lead into bigger problems so that he solves it instead with the fastest way possible (just do what I tell you), like without venting. Takumi's the practical type? Like him who just wants to get shit done ASAP, so just do the practical thing outside, with no regards on their inside. His own way to stay away from problems, by solving a problem ASAP before it grows, realizing the situation he's in. By that he (and Mari) are just being blunt to Keitaro that now they take the turn to be the one who calls him..... scum. Keitaro's problem of "one-woman-two-relationship-thing" is the part of the show's "misunderstandings" though, but Mari and Takumi's reaction to him is kind of in their character?

So Kaixa is the way to move the story forward. With appearence of second Rider revealing Mari's family and the deal with one of the Smart Brain's higher ups. Mari getting the bet from that father.... that's already revealed before though. But peaking of the other orphans, it's a relief here that all of them also know regarding the belts, not only Mari to get informations. What makes the light automatically highlights Mari during the exposition at the house?! With you tolerating the part where others might find it weird part, so you normally has a problem with expositions? Like in this series, when Yuji and Yuka visits Smart Brain.

This isn't Mari's surprise... you gotta pay attention to her adoptive dad's, and standardly, Smart Brain's aims, and also above, the mechanics of the belts, like the malfunctions. It's more about worldbuilding in general, the mechanics in Faiz' universe. Stay tuned for like... something surrounding the characters. The orphan groups are supposed to be made with as much position as the monster victims, or, you know, like Yuji's cousin or Yuka's bullies at the beginning of the series, they are just the non-evil ones compared to them. The only one you shoulld pay attention is the name they mentioned, Masato Cucksaka.... uhh Kusaka.

Well Yuji explains it a bit regarding Kaido's nature to Yuka and not about it's being her. It's unknown if this is "misunderstandings" too, but Yuka should also notice that Kaido is also abrasive to others.... or she thought that Kaido treating the first-year better as an indication of her making him angry? There's something I want to know regarding Yuka saying she "likes" Kaido, despite being another one to hostile to her (on the outside) in her life.... or that she has someone she already fell in love with.

A sense of backfire in Lucky Clover and Smart Brain that the belts are made to protect the King, but now is used among some people to kill Orphnoch instead. This is the true nature of Smart Brain in Smart Lady egging other Orphnochs to be evil and kill humans, to prevent them being obstacles to Smart Brain's evil plans, especially regarding the nature of the belts. And Yuji you're not evil, but saying you would never attack humans.... Chie and Yuji's cousin: Are we a joke to you? Were they only talking about Mr. J who gets 3 lives? Also other than that, when Kaixa defeated him first before, he turned completely into dust, how did he come back? The dust reforming his body again? I know Crocodile Orphnoch is a major character, but I wonder the Orphnoch's body system.

Calling Takumi "practical" is maybe a good way of putting it. I think it's more that he finds it easy to tell other people what to do, which is a hallmark of the kind of friend who has an answer for all of your problems. He's... maybe a little less great at treating his own concerns as things that are easily fixed, judging by the full episode he spent moping over losing the Faiz belt.

I understand the need to explain plot details through story, but "exposition" is something I'll usually use as a pejorative. Any scene that requires someone to spend more than a minute straight explaining details of the story to other characters, not my favorite type of scene.

But! If the actors or director can do something fun with it (Build is maybe the show that did it best), it makes the medicine go down smoother. With this one, Mari's story is all dry background information so the audience will get more of the Kaixa plot, but the delivery is fun to watch, so I liked it a lot more than the Orphnoch stuff at Smart Brain.

The thing is, I only care about world-building if it impacts the characters in some way. I care about Mari, I don't care about her dad or Smart Brain or belts. If the show had couched the new information in Mari's feelings, her reactions, I'd be all for it. As it is, it's all focused on people I don't have an investment in.

I don't if I'd call the Kaido/Mari stuff a "misunderstanding". It's all character-based stuff, where Kaido's lashing out is because of his personality, and Yuka's blaming herself is because of her personality. I think I talked a little bit about my take on it when she left the apartment.

Oh, and her telling Yuuji she likes Kaido, I think she just doesn't want to make waves. She doesn't have a ton of self-confidence!

For sure. When Yuuji had that steely look in his eye and told Live Action Hatsune Miku that he wouldn't harm humans, I said out-loud to my TV, "Anymore, right? You're not going to harm humans anymore, Yuuji. You killed two people already!"

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 13

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz13a.png

--1--

I was sort-of wondering what a comedy episode of Faiz would be like, and, uh… it’s transcendent? Holy shit, did this thing deliver. Wall-to-wall laughs (even one of the Orphnochs at the end dies funny!) coupled with big plot movement and the debut of Actual For-Real Kaixa… this episode crushed it.

--2--

Let’s start off with Kaixa, who is pretty fantastic. Actually, I don’t know that I find him fantastic, but I love what he brings out of Takumi.

Recently, Takumi had been finding his place within the group, working with his friends to be, if not an ally of justice, then maybe someone who would help justice move if they didn’t have anything else going on that weekend. Takumi was becoming almost not insufferable, so of course here comes Masato (Masato! Masato! I think this episode established that you have to say his name three times) to bring out all of Takumi’s insecurity.

And, weirdly, that’s what this episode’s all about? Takumi lost the Faiz belt, and got it back by being so pathetic that his sidekick stole it for him. (citation needed) There’s maybe some residual feelings of doubt there, some subconscious expectation that it could all fall apart again. Maybe that’s why he’s been throwing himself into helping out the rapidly-dwindling Team All-New kaiXa-Men? (There’s a part I really liked, where Bobby Drake apologizes for distrusting him, and Takumi shrugs it off by noting that he’s an outsider, and he can see why they wouldn’t trust him. It’s a small touch, but I like that Takumi understands and forgives being seen as untrustworthy way more than any other slight against him. He’s got so many emotional problems still!) Maybe he’s been trying to prove himself worthy of being Faiz, of being given Keitaro’s faith.

But it leads to an overconfidence from Takumi that’s as hilarious as it is unhelpful. So many laughs this episode come from Takumi taking on challenges and inserting himself into situations and just sucking so bad. There’s the beautiful sequence of him trying to show off for the tennis club and whiffing hard. There’s him walking through horse shit. There’s him challenging Masato to an honor duel, and losing immediately. There’s him just cold brawling with Masato and getting whipped. And there’s my favorite moment.

Team All-New kaiXa-Men are down to two members, with an approaching Orphnoch ready to cancel their team for good. (X-Men comics always get relaunched, they’d be back in less than a year.) They call Mari, who shouts at the downed Takumi that they need to go save them. But when Takumi sees that Masato has looked over at the shouting Mari, Takumi tries to trip him before getting up to leave. Lives are in danger, and he’s like Eff This Dude, and it doesn't even work. It’s stunningly petty, and one of my favorite Takumi moments ever.

I’m sure Masato will get to be weird on his own, but I adored how weird he made Takumi in this one.

--3--

Speaking of weird, this is also an episode where Kaido and Yuka go on an uncomfortably high-energy version of an afternoon date, and it’s so weird that Yuuji’s only moment in the episode is being surprised at it.

It’s full of fun comedy, namely how on Kaido is, but the why of it is what killed me. Halfway through the date, Yuka asks Kaido why he’s doing all this. He says it’s practice, because he wants to ask out a girl he likes. To which I definitely shouted OH SHIT MARI about half a second before we got a flashback to Mari telling Kaido to stop being a brat.

I don’t… I did not know how much I needed that in my life. I ship that so hard. Tidying Up with Mari Kaido, brought to us by KaiMari Media, yes please, every episode.

--4--

The only other character who gets a beat in this episode is Keitaro, and it’s another little thing, but I thought it was sweet and funny. Right at the start, when Mari and Takumi are going to find Masato, Keitaro’s like Hey You Guys Never Invite Me To Anything Anymore, so he goes with.

I really like that for some reason? I like that the show acknowledged that most of the Smart Brain and Team All-New kaiXa-Men stuff was done while Keitaro was in other plots, and they acknowledged it through Keitaro. It’s like the thing from Mari’s exposition last episode, where he’s like Did You Guys Do Backstories Without Me?! It’s a little fourth-wall breaking maybe, but I like how wounded he is that they aren’t including him in big stories lately. It’s, yeah, it’s very cute.

--5--

Funny goddamn episode, you guys. It was pretty clear to me from the second run-in with the Jock Of All Clubs that that dude was the Masato from Mari’s past, not the one in the fencing class, so that reveal wasn’t a surprise or nothing. It didn’t take a bit off of the comedy, though. It maybe made it better, because each additional run-in was like Oh My God Kaixa Is Owning Faiz. It’s a great, great way to actually introduce the newest Rider. I love it. I love how suave, competent Masato makes Takumi… it’s like in Kuuga, where Mighty becomes Rising Mighty? Except it’s Takumi becoming Rising Insufferable? He’s become a golden-edged asshole.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz13b.png

By the way, what does everyone think of Takumi's wrist flick he occasionally does during battle? It's such a trivial movement but boy does it look cool time to time.

I really like it. I like any physicality that makes a Rider distinct, and the dismissive nature of it is so Faiz.

Cool thematic significance about Kaixa’s belt aside, not a big fan of the previous episode—just super jarring how the series went from very deliberate build-up and character work to… Team Cannon Fodder. This episode though, holy shit, more than makes up for it.

Takumi: Tennis Ace might be the hardest I laugh at any toku show in, like, ever. So pitch perfect in its direction and (complete lack of) sound at the punch line. Also I wouldn’t stop having my mind blown by how young the actor was and how it’s supposed to be his professional acting debut; dude absolutely killed it out there.

Considering I'm super not into this particular ship, I laughed way harder than I probably should.

The best part, the best part, is the wide shot of Takumi handing the racket back and walking out of frame.

The weirdest part about that sequence, and maybe the smartest move in editing, is that there's a part they used in the opening credits, with Takumi taking his big serve. When I saw that, I'm like, Oh I Guess Takumi's Some Tennis Ace? Wizard had a whole story about its Rider being a former soccer star, and Agito got some tennis mileage, so it seemed possible to me.

But no! He's awful! You can tell how proud everyone on this show was for that joke, because they sculpted the experience exquisitely.

I'm glad it could spark joy!

Faiz the tennis star will go down in history, the opening sequence will make sure you never forget Takumi's most shining moment.

The whole episode is like Faiz is fighting an invisible Dunning-Kruger Orphnoch, and losing.

I am glad you seem to be enjoying faiz; its a show I loved the concept of; but didn't like the execution. I wish we had more suits like the Faiz ones; as they are elegant, practical and awesome.

Well since we’re at Kusaka’s debut episode, I think now is the time to share this. Faiz is the only show where all three of it’s main Rider heroes (for a given value of “hero”) are also heroes in Super Sentai. Which is a distinction that very few can claim, so here’s a video compiling some of them (there’s a second one, but you don’t get that until you get to the third Rider’s debut) https://youtu.be/38stnKv6RtY

Also, that choice of picture to end your recap? As someone who’s seen the whole show, it’s darkly ironic. And that’s all I’ll say on that matter (unless you remember enough of Kamen Rider Taisen to know what I’m talking about).

I really can't hate these subs when it gave us one of the best 5 Kamen Rider screenshots. Absolutely legendary.

I was actually betting that the tennis fail scene would be one of your screencaps but I guess Takumi warning Kusaka not to get kicked by a horse and die (I guess insults are another thing he doesn't bother escalating) is an adequate contender. The tennis fail scene though is the most memorable comedic moment from the show, the way Takumi just walks in randomly and tries to show off which results in an epic fail. It's definitely an unusual way to do the introduction between the primary and secondary Riders.

So now the infamous Kusaka has appeared, the man behind Kaixa. There's a strong contrast between him and Takumi. They're both a**holes but as you may have noticed, unlike Takumi and Kaido who are pretty transparent about it, Kusaka does his best to maintain a good reputation, especially around Mari. He's also an ace, being captain of various sport clubs, including fencing. This finesse to his fighting style makes him a good match for the more difficult Kaixa Gear, in contrast to Takumi's attritive style as Faiz. Kusaka is a guy who clearly has a lot of experience in fighting which combined with the power of Kaixa gives him everything he needs to be a formidable opponent to anybody he deems a threat to his priorities, which I'll elaborate on later when they become more apparent.

Wow, you took a while to connect Kaido's atypical behavior this episode to his interaction with Mari in Episode 11. Well yeah, he's totally fallen for Mari, which is a problem for Yuka/Kaido but convenient for Keitarou/Yuka. I don't support Yuka/Kaido but I do feel sympathy for Yuka, getting taken on a date by the guy she has a crush on only for him to reveal it's just a practice date for the girl he has a crush on. That's got to hurt.

Kiba's surprised reaction to Kaido is another funny moment. Kaido is so unpredictable!

Agreed!

It's so easy to go over-the-top with suit designs. The Heisei era for suits definitely has a maximalist, more-is-more philosophy to a lot of them. Most of my favorite designs are base suits, before the designers start adding on a ton of Powerful additions. Faiz has a great color palette, with the black/silver base and eye-catching red highlights. It fits in my brain right next to Wizard's base suit, another design I really liked.

I do remember a little bit of Faiz's story in that movie, and I'm trying real hard to forget it!

I will usually just grab a bunch of screenshots when I'm watching, funny lines or cool photography or stuff that feels relevant. Afterwards, as I'm writing, I'll choose two that work the best alongside what I've written.

This one, as soon as it happened, I'm like This Is It.

And it's the perfect way to do it on this show. No matter what happens for the rest of this show, Takumi's going to know he embarrassed himself in front of Kusaka and it's going to eat him up inside. That's exactly what I want to be at the core of their relationship.

The bit where Takumi tells him he hopes he doesn't get kicked by a horse and die has a really on-point follow-up that I didn't talk about before. Right after Takumi says it, Kusaka's like Why Would You Say That To Someone Ever, and Takumi says that he's just being sarcastic. Which is what every asshole says when they get called out for being an asshole. It is a response that is one step away from I'm Sorry You Were Offended. It's an asshole trying to pretend you're the asshole for calling them an asshole. It's, again, perfect.

Both Takumi vs. Kusaka scenes were great examples of their individual styles, strength against skill. Takumi definitely has some room to improve!

Probably yeah those aren't your favorite but, don't necessarily call those bad because that is subjective.

Oh well, you said you're drawn characters back then, and just realized it's an exact words, means a no for world building. But the thing is, I believe that those you mentioned will impact the characters like Mari real bad because those are big players of the story. I can predict who was discussed in the world building like Smart Brain/belts, and think how big it will impact the characters you care, even if not immediately.

I'm not talking about Kaido, only Yuka. I think I bring up Yuka's stuff because I also have been in her shoes, to blame myself for other's problem, but to solve that for myself I think again about that person, how do they behave toward others, if they're like that too to others, means it's not my fault.

What's Takumi's deal? Kusaka is infamous but, for this one, it's probably Takumi's fault? What did Kusaka do to him that sends Takumi into that weirdness? Was him the one actually brought Kusaka's bad side here (where would you place Kusaka in character alignments, just this time)? Oh and the part where he walked through horse shit, that's the part I saw on TV when it films Faiz, but only that. And it's proven here that Takumi doesn't have any fighting style ("boxing" is just giving him more credit) where he's just ineffectual on the honor duel.... and probably the brawling too?

Mari? Shipping? Did you just... ignore Masato Kusaka above? And Yuka just accepts Kaido's "date" even if she probably has Keitaro? She's just like Keitaro here to have thoughts of dating another guy.

I already know who's the infamous Masato is, and I was confused why the other Kusaka obliges when Mari calls him such. Turns out that his name is also... Kusaka, just not Masato lol.

Takumi even tries to justify himself by blaming it on his personality. He actively tries to avoid confrontation but everything that comes out of his mouth has a high probability of provoking someone. The rivalry between Takumi and Kusaka is going to test both of them.

I checked the kanji for the 2 Kusakas and.... 草加 They're both the same! What are the odds?!

Everything I'm saying is subjective! I don't ever feel comfortable declaring something objectively good or bad! Everyone's got their own view and all views are valid!

I mean, sure, all of this could/will become very important to Mari down the line, and when that happens I'll probably enjoy it. Right now it's not that important to her, so I don't.

This whole story is Takumi being an asshole to Kusaka for almost no reason, and that's what makes it so funny to me.

If I had to give it a reason, I'd reiterate that there's some core insecurities to Takumi. Him losing the Faiz belt really shook him. Getting it back made him feel more confident, maybe (definitely) overconfident, but it also probably stuck with him that he can be replaced as Faiz. Then Takumi keeps screwing up in front of this jock, and it's all of those insecurities exploding in his brain. He's not good enough, this guy's more popular, etc etc. Takumi's just lashing out because he's scared. It's basically the way characters on this show say Hello to each other!

What's fun is that you can see from the scene where the FaizCyKill falls over on some guy's car that Takumi can politely disengage when folks are mad at him. Something about Kusaka just brings it out of him. Oil and water, those two.

The best part is... this is actually a totally accurate if moderately clunky translation!

Speaking of, Translation Cop here again! The line works either way, but Takkun's actual excuse for his bad mouth is another classic entirely: "I was just born this way". Takumi is the kind of character who is not afraid to own how much he hates somebody! The idea he'd try to pass off an insult as sarcasm instead of immediately doubling down is ridiculous!

I think him claiming sarcasm kind-of is him doubling down on the insult, though? He's embarrassed in front of Kusaka again, and then Kusaka chastises him for being a smart aleck. Claiming sarcasm is a kind of asshole aikido, where you try and turn the the victim's (warranted!) offense against them. By writing off his insult as sarcasm, he gets to insult Kusaka AND try to make him the dope for getting upset about it.

If only Takumi had challenged him to an insult battle instead of fencing!

(Which, of course isn't the line, thanks for the clarification, but I think Takumi would totally use sarcasm as a defense!)

Nah, they should have just settled it with either a walk-off judged by the late David Bowie or a rap battle. :lolol

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 14

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz14a.png

--1--

I mean, first of all, Fish Sandwich finished his Kuuga rewatch, and holy shit. If you've suddenly got some free time because of the Zero-One hiatus, or, uh, the world, I would queue up the recently re-subbed Kuuga on TokuSHOUTsu and use Fish's thread as a guide to one of the most celebrated Kamen Rider series. It's astonishingly thorough, made even more so by insights from Kurona, DreamSword, DreadBringer, FreshToku, and so many others. Plus, it's got people taking drive-bys at me, which is one of my favorite things to read. You owe it to yourself to give it a read. It's the healthy thing to do!

--2--

Meanwhile, I've got this episode of Faiz to talk about, and... it's okay. Anything after last episode's fever-dream intensity was going to feel like a step down, and this one sort-of steers into the skid by not really trying to craft a banger. It's a slower episode, with a couple good scenes and a lot of atmosphere, but not the most memorable of installments.

--3--

The big lure for this episode is more Kusaka, and it's got a nice sense of tension to it. Kusaka's quickly winning over the rest of Team Faiz, getting invited to live with them due to Keitaro's fan tendencies and Mari's rarely stated but common-sense policy of Yes The Tall Handsome Athlete Who Carries Around A Photo Of Me Can Stay The Night. Takumi, however, upgrades his irrational hatred of Kusaka to very rational distrust.

I'm, obviously, way more of a fan of Takumi losing his goddamn mind over Kusaka for no logical reason other than Takumi's regrettable psychology, but what's here definitely has more meat on the bone. It's becoming clear that Kusaka's altruism and decency is a little bit exaggerated, and his methods of avoiding questions he can't answer are huge warning signs for Takumi. It's funny if Takumi's mad at a dude that's better at him, but it's way more dramatically interesting if that hatred starts to make Kusaka's mask drop, the suspicions that Takumi won't keep secret dissolving Kusaka's veneer of respectability.

All of that is another way of saying that even a broken hero is right twice a Kamen Rider series, and Takumi's antagonism towards Kusaka may be warranted. I mean, it's definitely warranted, that dude's got capital-s Secrets, but what's in this episode is mostly Kusaka's overly-ingratiating behavior and heroic platitudes turning to sweaty accusations and bug-eyes under Takumi's intransigence.

The arc of Kusaka's slow collapse, it's a pretty great set of scenes. You've got the opening scene, with Kusaka acting the accidental hero, thrust by fate into the spotlight, oh please save your applause I'm but a humble man who blah blah blah. It's enough to make you gag, which is maybe the first thing that pings Takumi's radar. Kusaka's vague denial when questioned about the Ryuusei Cram School For Gifted Youngsters class reunion ("Go Meteors!”) serves as additional proof that this dude is probably a liar. That suspicion curdles into a big ol' Takumi pout, and my favorite visual of the episode. As Kusaka is humbly, so humbly, accepting the role of Kamen Rider Kaixa, he's lauded by Mari and Keitaro, flanking him on the couch. But Takumi isn't onboard, and the camera takes sooooooo long to pull back and get Takumi into frame, since he's seated about twelve feet away from the rest of the group, pouting at the dinner table. It's a beautifully done gag, with Takumi basically in another room, so reluctant to even breathe the same air as Kusaka. The next Takumi/Kusaka scene is the clincher, though, with Takumi telling Kusaka a) I hate you, b) because you're definitely a liar. And Kusaka just starts to lose it. Here's a guy that he can't bullshit, can't win over, and he's holding back a disturbing amount of rage that he wants to level at Takumi. But then the rest of Team Faiz shows up, and he's all smiles, all Me And Takumi Are Just Being Friendly Rivals. But then he's definitely willing to let Takumi get murdered by an Orphnoch at the end, so, maybe this Takumi guy is right?!?!?!?! Rough times ahead for this show's two or less Riders!

--4--

Although, Team Orphnoch isn't doing so hot this week, either. Kaido's committing himself as a lover, not a fighter, while Houjou takes aim at all disobedient Orphnochs with the deadliest weapon of them all: poetry!

It's a solid entry for the Orphnochs, mostly on the strength of that final fight. (The Kaido/Mari scene is very cute, too.) Yuuji tells the group early on that they need to understand that his decision to not harm humans puts them at odds with Smart Brain, and there will be repercussions. Those repercussions are that Houjou will show up to beat the shit out of a fully-Oprphnoched Kaido without even transforming.

It's so, so great. It's a classic You Go Big By Going Small dramatic move, where the fact that Houjou barely even has to fight to destroy Kaido is the most terrifying display of power imaginable. And he kicks his ass with Yeats! Just trounces him with an Irish poet!

Once Yuuji and Yuka show up, the fight becomes truly memorable, as three Orphnochs are no match for the nearly untouchable Houjourphnoch. There's some stellar choreography here, with Houjourphnoch constantly able to position himself in a way where one of his opponents takes the hit instead of him. It's all tactics, all strategy, and it makes him look like someone who can take three monsters without breaking a sweat. It's Yuka's interference that stops the fight, though, with Houjou clarifying that he's only after Orphnochs who won't kill humans... so she's in the clear.

Yuka's complacency has been one of the more interesting stories of the three Orphnochs, as she conforms herself to whatever role best suits her teammates. Even when Yuuji's looking for affirmation from the other two that they understand the risk and believe in his cause, Yuka's basically Uh Sure Whatever You Think Is Best. Not exactly a ringing endorsement! (Also, Yuuji's next line is that Yuka definitely wouldn't kill anyone anyway. Hilarious!) Her... I don't know, self-actualization, that's been a nicely simmering subplot, and I'm interested to see if the show's ready to bring it to the fore.

--5--

And that's a lot of what made this episode a solid-if-unexceptional one, the feeling of things ramping up, almost getting to the good part. What's in the episode is still entertaining, but it's a more subdued, tense version of what Faiz usually does in a more bombastic way. It's a little less of what I'm looking for in Faiz, but I still had a good time with it.

Now go read Fish Sandwich rewatches Kamen Rider Kuuga!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz14b.png

Excuse you, I have never had an 'insight' of any kind! Also wow, I remember how fun it was to see Takumi and Kusaka drive each other up the wall in such a specific way in this episode. Takumi's incredibly petty but in this case, it's exactly what is needed to crack Kusaka's oh-so-perfect shell.

I have some early thoughts about Kusaka, but I'm going to save them until you get to know him a little better. I'll just say for now that he is, hands down, the Toshiki Inoue-est character on the show by far.

And speaking of Inoue, we got one of his major go-to story beats this time around: a fight ending when somebody gets knocked into water. Two times in a row, no less.

So which Marvel character and which DC character do you think Kusaka is similar to?

Since I’ve held off long enough, I’ll share my two cents on Kusaka. Heaven emphasis on “two”.

He’s a pretty good idea (that the wrong kind of person can still be considered a hero), but the execution… jury’s out on how that went.

As for whether he’s well written… he’s certainly handled better than the likes of Accel, Birth and Meteor, who the writers were practically snoring their way through by the end.

I mean, they don't have to be mutually exclusive, Takumi can still be a petty insecure little shit and totally right about Kusaka (you can even argue that the latter is more of a confirmation bias that happened to be true rather than actual objective reasoning on his part :lol). In that sense, it kinda reminded me of the Dexter show (when it's actually good), where Kusaka is like the Dexter to Takumi's Doakes.

I just went back and rewatched the episode for the Takumi vs. Kusaka scene in particular, and can't decide whether my favorite scene would be that living room scene, the Takumi: Ironing Ace sequence, or the Kusaka "Shit He Saw Through Me" scene, but I adore this small interaction before all that:

Kusaka: whoa it's your home, Mari?
Mari: yea, let's come inside
Takumi: hey, it's actually Keitaro's!
Mari: *pulled off a split second, perfect, fuck-you-Takumi face*

It reminds me a bit of the Fourze/Meteor rivalry, where everyone in the KRC bought Meteor's whole Aw Shucks I'm Just Happy To Help bullshit except Fourze, and how you could see that start to wear on Meteor. Fun to watch!

My ultimate fear is that both Yuuji and Takumi wash ashore in Episode 15 with their memories intact, leading to a two-episode storyline that ends up filling in backstory but resetting at the end, rendering their characters completely unaltered by the experience.

But we'd also get Faiz Trinity, where he does a finish with his punch AND his kick AND the Phone Gun, so it's a bit of trade off.

The quick answer is "None of them, he's Kamen Rider Meteor," (or more accurately, Meteor is Kaixa) but to play along...

Terra, I guess? It's tough to say without knowing his whole deal.

I don't know if I think of those Riders as having stories that stalled out? They got the whole middle-third of their shows to tell a story in, and all of their motivation got dealt with and resolved, which is pretty standard for the secondary Rider. After that, they've got to take a backseat to the primary Rider and the season-long arc stuff. The secondary Rider's moment is almost always just in the middle of the season.

That Let's Invite Him In sequence is great because it's this mix of Takumi not liking this guy for reasons he's still figuring out; feeling insecure about his effectiveness and usefulness; just wanting to get away from this dude for, like, five seconds; and him grasping at straws to throw up any obstacle he can to make Kusaka's life difficult and make him feel unwelcome.

I think the thing with the incompatibility of Takumi being irrational with Takumi actually being right, it's all in how Takumi needs to act. When he's just being a dick for no reason, it's that shot of Kusaka reaching out his hand and Takumi slowly turning his head away, acting like he doesn't see the hand in front of his face. It's impotent rage, more embarrassing for Takumi than it is for Kusaka, and so goddamn funny.

But if Takumi's right, then he needs to forcefully confront Kusaka with real accusations, actual concerns, and that's all drama rather than comedy.

Fish thread is very elaborate, that's no given, but I don't know if I can use his yet to give people proper infos about Kuuga, like I did with AkinoAme's for Ryuki and OOO in Dreamwidth. The only current "flaws" IMO there was that no easy navigations to the episodes, and probably no each character's bios yet. and I do want to collect every "better wiki substitute" about each Rider series and collectively share them to people, this is practically one of my current goal regarding Kamen Rider.

Uh... for Mari's part, "Yes The Tall Handsome Athlete Who Carries Around A Photo Of Me", did you miss the part where they're childhood friends, as Keitaro pointed out to Takumi? Kusaka's naturally going to be the person Mari confides the most, if she's okay being with strangers like Takumi and Keitaro, she would be more accepting to the long lost close person. And surely for now, it seems that Kusaka is the one Mari has no single hostility towards. Though Keitaro has a fan tendencies, he seems to have a limit for it that he didn't accept Kaido becoming Faiz before, but not for Kusaka. Or that he wants Takumi to become Faiz no matter what.

His infamy truly isn't known yet here, both to audience AND the people in-universe I guess. Oh, except for Kusaka being sardonic to Takumi, but yeah Takumi's the one who started it here. Oh wel, right now you did agree more on Takumi's hostility to him that Kusaka's suspicious, which would indicate you also feel the same for him, even if he's presented like you said, as exaggeratingly alturistic and heroic. Your observation for Takumi before has come true too here, where Takumi said in the car that he can't do anything, or at least compared to Kusaka. Keitaro wanted to console him with his good traits but... ah well we didn't really get to hear it. It may help some insecure viewers too!

I know he's played by Houjou but... his name's already mentioned in this episode! Pun intended - It's(uro) Takuma, aka Centipede Orphnoch. Also, wtf, the book Takuma uses is an effective shield, how can it tank attacks from a superhuman monsters?! And yeah Yuka did kill some humans, bad ones... but why Takuma still attacked Yuji? He also killed bad humans too. So the conclusion from Yuka is, you CAN safely be a superhero as an Orphnoch, if you stop evil humans by killing them. Yuji's next line to Yuka, I mean, Yuka's not to different from Yuji anyway, she only punishes bad people with her power and also wants to use her powers for good.

Speaking of Orphnochs, I should be more patient I think, Mr. J's revival iprocess is shown here. And Mr. J's ability (forming swords) and finishing attack is now shown in this episode. And the power Orphnochs can use in human form, are they independent to their monster forms? They can fire blue energy balls as humans, but they should probably be effective too for long ranged attacks as Orphnochs. The Kaido/Mari scene... Kaido just fell into a simple bluff, aka doing what daily drivers/riders (not Kamen Rider! but those who rides a motorcycle) do in streets, going forward when the traffic light is green. It's like teaching a new driver/rider about traffic lights!

If you don't think people who were friends as kids, fell out of touch, and then met up as adults probably want to bone, I have several centuries worth of storytelling that's going to come as quite a shock.

I just feel like Kusaka checks off more boxes for What A Hero Should Be Like than Kaido ever could. Like, Keitaro isn't a fan of Faiz, he's a fan of heroes. Everything Kusaka does and says is, like, Generic Hero, and that's incredibly appealing to Keitaro.

That Keitaro/Takumi scene in the van is great! When Keitaro says that Takumi has a lot of positive qualities, I was like, What? At which point, when pressed, Keitaro comes up blank. So great!

It's not just any book, though! It's the collected works of a Nobel Prize-winning poet! Kaido's just lucky that Houjou wasn't packing a book by T S. Eliot, or he'd've been vaporized.

I think it has maybe more to do with Yuuji's firm stance to Smart Brain that he won't kill (again...), and Kaido flunking out as Faiz. Both of them were given chances and warnings, to no improvement, so now Houjou's going to take them out.

Probably want to bone? Also what kind of storytelling there?

No, no, yeah, I wasn't saying Keitaro's a fan of Faiz, but that he wants Takumi to take a part in becoming Kamen Rider (means he's a fan of Takumi?), and when Kaido appeared there were only 1 belt seen. And him being a fan of Kaixa here should speak about that he's not a fan of Faiz. Lol... really, the infamous Kusaka seems like an ideal hero at his debut here to appeal to Keitaro... don't be tempted, take Takumi's stance of him!

They're two young adults who have romantic feelings for one another based on a shared history and physical attraction.

Maybe that post could've used a :p or something, because I wasn't trying to be particularly serious there. It is absolutely in-character for Takumi to childishly look for any possible way to like, claw a "win" out of an argument with Kusaka. The sarcasm thing works in its own right! Sort of like, accidental localization on TV-N's part, you could say. I don't think they'd get that loose with a line on purpose, but it turned out pretty okay here.

Probably the one thing Takkun could beat Kusaka at right now. Their dynamic in these episodes is super fun, by the way. Going back to that "subversive Rider show" point, the idea of Kaixa just straight up bowing out of a fight to leave Takumi to fend for himself is hilarious. They aren't in the dark about each other's identities like Agito, and they aren't destined to fight like everyone in Ryuki. It's two Riders who have no reason NOT to be working together, but they just hate each other that much.

Also thank you so much for plugging my thread twice. That's way too kind of you.

Yeah, I know people like to shout MELODRAMA at Inoue, but I find the Takumi/Kusaka story pretty goddamn grounded so far, despite how bonkers parts of it are. Not getting along with someone immediately for vaguely-defined reasons is, I'm going to guess, a pretty common experience for people. (Or maybe I'm just an asshole?) If anything, this rivalry is more relatable than most other shows, because they just don't get along. It's not something (right now at least) that can be overcome by them proving their dedication to heroism to each other, or sharing their traumas, or any of the ways brave men find common ground in Kamen Rider. They just don't like each other, full stop. That's pretty much how normal people behave!

It's my pleasure! You did an amazing job!