From what I remember, they didn't have very effectient LED lights back then and the suits were extremely hot, making it impossible for the actors to use them for any extended periods of time.

I think that was intentional, since Kusaka is a morally ambiguous character who clearly had something he wanted to hide about his involvement in the reunion so it's believable he could've done something worse. Even though it wasn't his fault what happened, it's still a traumatic event for him and like he said, the power of Kaixa isn't what changed him.

Oh yeah, for sure. Takumi was the first person to see through Kusaka and a rival to his quest for Mari. It's likely that Kusaka wanted to kill him for a while and learning how he's not only an Orphenoch but possibly the same one responsible for his past was the perfect excuse to be rid of him.

As a Jidaigeki fan, I can confirm that suicide by combat was indeed a popular honorable way to die for samurai, second only to harakiri. It was even more popular with vikings.

This is the third time Takumi tried to get himself killed. First by Kiba after Mari's death, second by Faiz and now by Kaixa, who actually wants to kill him.

Well the conclusion of her arc is yet to come but I think maybe there was a lot of unseen potential with her interactions like when Takumi asked her for advice about Kiba. She's an important character but she does feel detached from most of the story, possibly due to the focus on those Ryusei School guys ever since the Delta arc.

I feel like you're not a real Kamen Rider until you beg a friend/frenemy to murder you. It's maybe more important than saying Henshin?

It's just weird that, after her story with Takumi, she's such a background player. She's definitely in the mix when it comes to the romantic hijinks plot, but she's not a prominent player in anything else. I'm glad to hear the show ain't done with her, but, man, a lot of episodes where she is not well served.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 38

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz38a.png

--1--

Alright! Had my Nando's for dinner, watched a Faiz, gonna have one of those Insomnia cookies from last night after writing this up. Let's talk Kamen Rider!

One of the things I like about the villains on Faiz is that they're so much more competent than the heroes. Not more effective, necessarily (there're too many dead Orphnochs to claim that), but there's a professionalism to them that I really appreciate. To paraphrase Emma Stone in Maniac, they're not crazy, they're goal-oriented.

(Give or take a Kitazaki, who's back like he never left. They even bring back up the Kill Kiba bet, which, how long ago was that a thing, a year ago? A hundred years?)

I think a lot of it comes down not to the structure of the show, or the teamwork of the Orphnochs, but to Murakami. God, I really like Murakami. He's like a less ridiculous, more ruthless Kougami from OOO. I totally buy that this dude could both run a hugely successful company, and motivate a variety of monsters. There's a... calmness, maybe, to his performance? The same focus and dedication he applies to spreadsheets and mergers, I feel like he's that way with building up the Orphnoch army he needs to rule the world. (Or whatever his goal is. I genuinely don't know what this is all supposed to be leading up to, if I'm even meant to. In all of the fun emotional stuff, I very much lost the thread of what Smart Brain wants.) He's got a flexibility that I find difficult to root against, a sense that he's judging each circumstance individually rather than by some strict code. Like, the Evil Mad Bomber that got caught mad bombing, when Murakami tells Kageyama to get rid of him, it's not because he mad bombed a bunch of stuff against orders, it's that he got caught by the cops. That's refreshingly level-headed!

In general, everything Murakami does in pursuit of his villainy, I get it. I get why he tolerates some people, and disposes of others. I get why he has faith in his plans, even if it's not clear that he should. I just... I think he's neat. He's an approachable villain, if that makes sense.

--2--

On the other hand, Kusaka, which, maybe time to cancel that dude.

He's confronted by Mari over him attempting to kill Takumi. She screams at him that she can't trust him, that she trusts Takumi more. He slaps her in the face.

No. Just, no.

I'm not sure the show knows what it's doing here? I hope it does. I hope it understands the weight of Kusaka hitting Mari in the middle of an argument. It treats the aftermath as... not exactly an explanation, but with enough There's Something You Don't Know that it's uncomfortable. I get that a monster like Kusaka would have some bullshit excuse for why he's sorry, he won't do it again, he would never, but she doesn't understand what's really going on, etc. But Mari hearing him out is... no. Just, no.

Basically over Kusaka now. Your mileage may vary!

--3--

Washing the taste of that scene out of my mouth, hey, let's talk about how the whole storyline about acceptance swings (briefly, but still) back to Mari.

The show seems to make the point in this episode that it's not Takumi's responsibility to try and win Mari over to accepting him, it's Mari's. She screwed up. She hurt him, and she needs to fix it.

There's a lot I've enjoyed about this storyline, and this is another super smart move. Takumi tried to fit into a shape she'd be comfortable with, and she turned him away. It's up to her to confront her biases, get over them, and patch things up with a friend she hurt. Like, that's it, that's all she can do, and it's a pretty mature story to tell. It's not just about apologizing, it's about becoming a better person to better support your friends. It's about acknowledging the innate humanity of everyone, even if you find it confusing or uncomfortable. It's about doing the hard work of, not excusing your mistakes, but confronting them and atoning for them.

Just, man, real into this part of the show.

--4--

Also, there are super-powered men fighting monsters, if that's something you care about. (I'm probably on the wrong board for that.) Both of the final battles had some very fun ideas in them, enough that I feel like I want to talk about them. I hope that's cool!

It's tough to talk about Kamen Rider 555 fights, I've found. They're very fun, but, like, sort-of inessential? It doesn't feel like there's a lot of storytelling to them. There are fun effects, and good choreography, and neat designs, and cool songs, but a lot of what I have to say about them is There Was A Cool Fight. Doesn't really seem worth bringing up?

With these, each had something that I felt elevated it above the baseline.

The Kitazaki/Faiz fight, I love that Kitazaki has multiple phases to his Orphnoch form. I like that there's a slow, tough outer shell that he can shed to be a fast, lithe striker. It's a move I wasn't expecting in the fight, which made it really work for me. I thought we'd get indifferent Kitazaki, ignoring Faiz's blows, No-Sell Boss style. But then he's everywhere, running rings around Faiz Accel. It's a great twist in the fight, and a solid indication that Kitazaki is as serious as it gets.

The Murakami/Wolfeyes fight was just gorgeous. (And funny, with an all-time great Mihara contribution, see below.) Two Orphnochs fighting can be a little bland, visually. It's two white suits, swiping at each other. With Murakami, we get this whirlwind of rose petals, enveloping both fighters and exploding around Takumi. It's a beautiful sequence, ending with some great shots of Murakami and Takumi, tiny in the frame, with Murakami slowly choking Takumi to death. It's a neat idea, to place it so far from the viewer. When it's up-close, large in the frame, you're Takumi. It's a fight for your survival, you feel like you can affect the outcome. When they push it out, farther from the camera, you're a helpless participant. It makes the action seem unstoppable, something you can only watch in fear. Smart camera moves!

--5--

I'm generally liking how this series is approaching its final episodes. It's maybe not the mix of characters or stories I was expecting, but this installment really felt like it was tooled up to conclude things. The threads are all being pulled closer together, and it really feels like time is running out for the good guys.

Thankfully, Mihara's ready to OH OUCH DAMN

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/gif/mihara.gif

Yeeeeeah Kusaka hitting Mari isn't great. Not that I find it particularly out-of-character for the people involved, but it's treated simply as just one more instance of Kusaka's facade cracking instead of the tipping (spilling, really) point that it should be. I don't think the show realises that action is on a completely different level from everything else he's done.

Better things to think about are Murakami. I don't know why I seemed to have completely forgot about him sometime after I finished watching the show, because he's actually pretty cool as the big-brained leader of Smart Brain. Not that much depth, but that's on par with Lucky Clover. Then again, I somehow also forgot that Kitazaki has an 'Accel Mode' of his own. If he was still Delta at this point, wouldn't it be funny if he just could move that fast on his own because he felt like it?

Speaking of, Mari has a flashback that shows Kitazaki there during all the traumatic stuff, and it's probably fair to assume that he's more responsible for all that slaughtering that happened that day instead of Takumi. You mentioned that you like Mari has to make up for how she treated Takumi, and I do too, so that's why this revelation kinda bugged me a bit?

Obviously I get why they wouldn't just have Takumi responsible for killing a whole bunch of Mari's old classmates, but the way this plays out now, it feels less like Mari is getting over her biases and more like 'hey it turns out I was just mistaken and never had any reason to be afraid of Takumi after all'. I wished her inevitable coming-around to Takumi would have been more remembering how close they've gotten over the last 30+ episodes and that becoming more powerful than her fears stemming from the past. Again though, maybe actually making Takumi responsible for her trauma would be too much, even if it was something like him going berserk due to a full moon or something, so I understand this decision.

It's going to be different for every viewer, but for me it's just not something you sprinkle in, you know? This is so far from the realm of That Dastardly Kusaka, and it's a frustrating misstep for a show that was saying such smart, empathetic things. Bummer!

It's not just that he's smart, though, it's that he's damn near unflappable. He's literally clear-headed!

I didn't really get around to talking about it because it very much felt More To Come, but I don't love the Ryusei Bloodbath story element. I'll probably talk more about it next time, but I think they went about misleading the audience badly. Like, I don't fault them for trying to mislead the audience, but they did it badly.

And, yeah, it's not great that Mari's epiphany is more about, like, Takumi being One of The Good Ones (ugh), but I'll try and withhold judgment until I see how the show plays it. In fairness, she was 99% of the way to fixing herself before she remembered that stuff about Kitazaki.

Regarding plot vs characters, personally, I think either is okay, if both can create a proper story for the series, and not play the series out in a purely formulaic way (watching the exact same thing over and over, not even a little difference too). OK then, for some reason Murakami still gives Takumi a chance, like saying Takumi has to shed his, while he's easily the most rebellious Lucky Clover "member". even more than Kusaka and Sawada. Kageyama and Takuma (whose name is just Takumi but replace i with a! And both became Faiz!) obviously won't be accepting, but I wonder which criteria for Lucky Clover that they will accept, admittedly yeah every Lucky Clover criteria shown up so far are probelmatic against them while Murakami is more tolerant. And for the latest episode, Mari and Keitaro being put in spotlight like that, that'd probably sum up Takumi's greatest fear of connecting with people that he'd be detrimental to them. Yuji just assumes here that Takumi wants to kill himself because of his fear of his Orphnoch form, so that's true this time, all of him going to Lucky Clover and carrying out their mission is meant for that? Takumi would still likely act the same that he attacks without explaining the reasons.

O̶r̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶y̶u̶s̶e̶i̶ ̶S̶c̶h̶o̶o̶l̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶d̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶t̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶l̶a̶u̶g̶h̶t̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶e̶n̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶s̶e̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶W̶o̶l̶f̶ ̶O̶r̶p̶h̶n̶o̶c̶h̶?̶ ̶O̶h̶ ̶w̶a̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶'̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶g̶u̶l̶a̶r̶l̶y̶ ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶i̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶b̶i̶g̶g̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶c̶a̶l̶e̶.̶ Yeah, Kusaka refusing to tell Mari, while if Kusaka forces Mari to do so, she tells him (but still, this is in-character for Kusaka, complain to the character instead of the writing for this!). For some reason here, Kusaka just consoles Mari here instead of reaffirming that Takumi is rotten. And for Kusaka losing his mind, was he a sane person to begin with? Kusaka is not only a PTSD victim, but he also suffers from a high-functioning mixed personality disorder with both antisocial and borderline traits. So for Takumi in the flashback (and Kusaka's narrating, but I mean, Lucky Clover also showed Wolf Orphnoch slaughtering others and Takumi is that type of Orphnoch), bringing it up again from previous reply, that'd mean mystery genre isn't for you right? Otherwise, what I can say for Takumi flashback, it's not looking good for the others, Kusaka can utilize that even more effectively to give Takumi even more of bad reputation by revealing that Wolf Orphnoch slaughtered innocents.

Yeah, he does Ichigo pose, and to think Kaido was Faiz, I only wish he was still a Rider wielder (the gear's in Yuji's hand, can have Kaido borrow it from him temporarily or something) so that the Rider pose would totally make sense. Dunno if Kaido was acting tsundere towards Teruo, but with Teruo being a total ungrateful brat, Kaido's disdain towards him is even more justified (justifaiz). Also this kid is far more important than you think. I wonder why Keitaro wasn't reported at all, Kaido indirectly rescued Teruo by rescuing Keitaro (who is holding Teruo) who's collapsing from the burn. Even if Keitaro was seen as the burn victim, he's still not heard anywhere, just Kaido saving a kid. Also you saying Kaido has better resistance, would that mean Orphnoch is far stronger overall than ordinary humans even in human form? And the actual reason why Takumi got "protagonist strength" by fighting off Kaido in episode 6 in human form?

Like you said, this episode is more plot-driven, so they're pushing those that are plot relevant first? Those you mentioned except for Kitazaki, are involved in the "soap opera" (daily life) part of the series, Yuka and Keitaro are involved in love triangles with Kaido and Mari too (and those 2 aren't about their love problems here). Also Keitaro dying his hair blonde was about him moving on from love... I mean why's he even moving on? He hasn't talked to Yuka about their love again (and even if they do, even if Yuka's probably feeling for Kaido for real, she'd probably still proclaim her love to Keitaro too, trying to have both of them, being a pleaser). Also the fourth member of the group? Hasn't it been like, the plot of Lucky Clover up until now? There are no fourth member, they're looking for them, with Murakami giving others more chance and Kageyama & Takuma being hostile to the "new kid", but every single of the 4th member being rebellious or not meeting their criteria.

I wonder that you think of this as a weird, but when I talk about people probably (just probably) can think of Kaido as inconsistent, you agreed with that. The thing is people also can watch fiction as escapism with all the powerful badass characters doing awesome things so they can feel the badassness by proxy. To see Mihara denying that, either it would deny their wish of watching this or thinking it's stupid for someone to be denied power in a dangerous hostile world.

What I talk about was people (either in-universe, or out of universe) that pushes the trope of girl can't know the truth, because they fear about the girl being totally traumatized and broken over it, even if the reaction is justified (justifaiz). They want the girl to remain calm and collected, keeping a grip on herself in the face of the truth, to make them able to allow giving that to the girl. And Mari knowing it, has the exact same reaction they fear about, which could make those people push forward the girl can't know the truth even more (Mari lashing out at Kusaka aside, Kusaka does have that mindset, and actually gets mad at Takumi for letting her know the truth).

Well, for starter, Takumi being an Orphnoch is the very reason that he can be Faiz in the first place, which carries Keitaro's wishes and can save him and Mari at times. I guess it doesn't matter to him if Takumi's attitude doesn't change that much that he also has already experienced his Orphnoch perks all this time as Faiz? In this series, being a Rider and being a monster is always mutual.

Feel hilarious that this discussion we just had... is brought up on episode 37, where Kusaka tried to push the same thing on Team Faiz regarding Takumi, bringing out Sawada who betrayed the Team Faiz' trust. I understand what you're talking about here though; Sawada's humanity is only a delusional optimism, while Takumi's humanity has been proven, albeit shaken by the Lucky Clover getting the recording of Wolf Orphnoch slaughtering Ryusei alumnis. And also others are trying to reach out Sawada who's closed off, but here Takumi's the one trying to reach out others with others closed off (though I don't really feel like others are closed off, except Mari at first, they're just shaken but they acknowledge Takumi's humanity and importance to them).

I would probably think if Yuji still sees Takumi as rotten manipulator Kusaka made him up to be, he would think it made sense for Takumi to be hidden evil that he's an Orphnoch.

This is the point where I was probably a bit lower on the series than you are. There are still a few good stuff left (and when Faiz gets good it's really good), but Murakami didn't click for me (I understand your reasoning but he's just not that interesting to me for some reason), while the jarring transitioning between sub-plot/characters and uneven pacing have become increasingly noticeable. It felt like they're attempting to juggle too many balls than what they can handle.

I mean.. who really gives a damn about Mihara's story at this point of narrative and with everything else that's been going on (even with the occasional hilarity he provides!).

I don't think that Kusaka scene is really jarring; at that point, I've stopped to chuckle at Kusaka's antics (ever since Mari's 'death' probably when he lashed out at everybody; that's the tipping point I think) and started to think "whoa this guy is genuinely fucked-up and started to crumbling apart". The tongue-in-the-cheek sense of "'That's Our Kusaka!" moment has been gone for a while, and the show now frame him as... not a villain, per se, but a genuine threat? That's how I read it at that time, at least, and I was super invested at how far the deep end the show would push him.

Just a reminder, this is the light and fluffy version of Kusaka compared to other versions of the Faiz story.

Thank you for this. I could watch this on repeat for ages. There's a reason you will never hit a moment in Faiz when your reaction is "Oh thank goodness, Mihara's here. Things are going to be all right now."

Damn, I'm surprised you've lost your tolerance for Kusaka. Slapping Mari was uncalled for but it shows once more that he loses all his skill and cunning when he doesn't get his way with her, like when Takumi was able to catch his fist even though Kusaka had been consistently outclassing him until then. He can't think straight when he feels rejected by Mari. He can't stand the thought of her trusting some despicable Orphenoch more than him. He didn't want to hear her say those things. And that's what caused him to release all his pent-up frustration in that moment, like he was punishing her for what he considered a betrayal of his feelings. If she won't love him, he at least expects her to trust him. Mari is his weakpoint and when he can't control her, he loses control of himself. It breaks him that despite everything he does, he still can't get her to reciprocate his feelings. He's very pathetic.

The funny part is that Murakami misses his chance to swipe Delta Gear. Mihara means that little to him! Or perhaps the task of collecting Gears is below him.