KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 15

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz15a.png

--1--

Hey, it's a Yuka spotlight episode! It's a bit of a mixed bag!

Yuka's a character I'm intrigued by, played by an actor who seems slightly outclassed by the material. Of the three Oprhnochs, she's maybe the least-talented actor, in so much as Yuuji's serenity and Kaido's raw charisma helped them pop even before we knew their whole deal. With Yuka, it's been fifteen episodes, and while I sort-of get her deal, I'm having trouble investing in her emotionally.

Some of it's the performance (she's not really finding the core of her character, emotionally; it feels like it lacks an honesty to the portrayal), but some of it is how confusing Yuka's actions are. And, right up front, I love that they're confusing. I love that she's a difficult character to pin down, because it makes her journey so much more fascinating. But it can also keep a viewer at a distance.

I'll admit, I was not expecting this episode to really be about Yuka. Yuuji or Takumi, absolutely. Kusaka or Kaido, probably. But Yuka? Surprising choice, especially in the story they decided to tell.

Yuka's core problem is that she has no real sense of self. She's never felt comfortable owning her feelings, making demands of the world around her. She's buffeted by fate, grasping for dear life at any shred of connection. While other characters are deciding how best to navigate a dangerous new world, she's following everyone else's lead.

Except for when she kills people. Then, and maybe only then, she feels like herself. And it's killing her. She doesn't want that life for herself. She judges that life, and tries to change herself back into someone who'd never do those things, couldn't be that person. Even if it means being miserable.

There's a Closeted feeling to Yuka's story, as she desperately denies what she needs in order to be what other people expect, or to lose her desires in making someone else happy. It's, I think, the reason why she throws herself at Kaido. I don't think she has any real interest in him. Honestly, I don't think she has any real interest in Keitaro, online or IRL. But those relationships are a safe harbour from thinking about herself, from having to come to terms with who she is and what she needs to feel like herself.

The Takumi scenes are the same thing, her caring for him because of what Yuuji would think of her, or how sublimating her needs into being a caregiver (she's literally faceless for one shot, she's a role instead of a person) absolves her of any self-interrogation or reflection. She's always throwing herself into someone else's arms, because she doesn't trust what she wants to do with her hands.

Huh. Maybe I'm not having any trouble at all investing in Yuka? Maybe her spotlight wasn't a mixed bag? Maybe this episode was a goddamn home run?

--2--

Because I thought the rest of the story was pretty much aces. Kusaka has ramped up from last episode's Maybe Not The Best Guy to this episode's 67% More Weaselly. There's a cruelty to him that I think differentiates the kind of asshole he is, a qualifier maybe only necessary on this Kamen Rider series. Takumi can be horrible, but usually in a blunt, insensitive way. Kusaka treats the rescued Yuuji like a hostage, someone he's happy to watch suffer. Whatever version of him was The Good Guy has all but vanished, leaving a bully in its place. It's not something that ends up getting a ton of play in this episode, but it's fascinating to watch develop.

--3--

I mean, I guess you see it a little at the end, him being a bully, once Takumi picks sides in the Faiz Fight at the end.

Yeah, really thought this was going to be a Takumi story, and it's not really one. His point in the story is to observe Yuka's struggle and try to make sense of it. His perspective is limited, so he's maybe viewing her as more of a conflicted soul than she really is. Or, I guess, viewing her conflict as a metaphor, rather than her individual problems. (Well, everyone's always projecting onto Yuka, so why not our hero?) She saved him back at the river, and he can't figure out why. She's an Orphnoch, and they're monsters, and Faiz kills them. Suddenly, it's more complicated.

The whole episode makes it complicated, with Kamen Rider Kaixa being a grotesque sadist, while the deadliest Orphnoch nurses Takumi back to health. It makes this story less about sides, and more about people, and that's so rewarding to watch. That choice Takumi makes to defend Yuka, to see a humanity that may actually be killing her and try to protect it, it's something that I think the show almost entirely earns. I might quibble a bit about it giving Takumi a more empathetic outlook than we've seen from him before, but a) dude had a near-death experience and that gives him a pass for at least a day as far as making uncharacteristic choices, and b) it means he'd have to fight Kaixa and I don't think that's a tough choice for Takumi to make.

Much like previous heroic moments from Takumi, there's a little bit in the performance where he doesn't even seem to know why he's risking this fight for Yuka. It's a rash, almost selfish decision, to fight Kaixa. He's got a gut feeling that this is all wrong somehow, that someone who'd save his life doesn't deserve to be beaten the way Kaixa is beating her, no matter what species she is. (The show does a great/horrifying job of making the Kaixa/Yuka fight entirely one-sided, keeping Kaixa firmly in the role of sadist once again.) He's saving Yuka, but it's more that he's saving the idea of complexity, of a world that isn't binary. He's fighting for a world where monsters can save people and Kamen Riders can be assholes.

--4--

He's also FIGHTING. That Faiz Fight at the end! Man!

It's a barnburner for sure, with Faiz holding his own against Kaixa in a swordfight (maybe if Takumi could've punched a few times during that fencing duel he'd've gotten a point or two) before everything escalates to Ride Machines and missiles. I'm not crazy about Kaixa's ED-209 motorcycle (which came from... where?), at least in its CG mode. The bike itself is cool, though. Love that sidecar! Definitely love the Gundam amount of missiles, too!

--5--

So weird. Thought this one wasn't that great, but now I feel like I really loved it? There's not really much I could point to as a mark against it. Yuka's actor has a tough time in a scene or two, but the character is pretty fully-developed in my brain now. Whatever deficiencies she might have, I guess I don't really care that much? The story they told with the character was strong enough to paper over those flaws, at least in retrospect.

Most times, I feel less good about a middling episode after writing about it. Here, it's like I found way more to love about it. Finding beauty in something you thought you didn't like? How Faiz!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz15b.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz15c.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz15d.png

Really interesting how you accidentally had a complete turnaround on that episode while writing about it.

Yuka's acting is maybe down to the directors not giving her the best advice or something? I feel like she's halfway onto something, but it tends to mush together into this sort of bland emptiness, which is broadly appropriate for the character, but really not on the same level as most of the other main cast, who give standout performances constantly. Just look at Kusaka. That guy is fun.

Still, her character development is pretty great, which is why this next translation error was one that really got to me.

Part of me wants to start faiz so I can read along with this thread, the other part knows I'd be cringing and wincing a lot from the miscommunication, and no one having any info, and that same part also knows that I can't speak Japanese, so I'd get real confused by the mis-translations.

Yeah, I think asking a young actor to play Inner Turmoil is a pretty big ask, and it's to the other actors' credit that they're able to find something in Kusaka's obfuscation, or Takumi's self-loathing, or or or. With Yuka, she's definitely going for a malleable, reflective personality, begging to be defined by other people, and that makes it tough to see the why of it. I think it ended up coming across in this episode, but I really had to think about it.

The mistranslations... I don't know, I don't think I've hit anything so far that was a dealbreaker. There've been some weird phrasings, and one or two I Think I See What They're Trying To Say moments, but I don't feel like I'm enjoying the show less because of them. Even the stuff Fish has been pointing out, the mistranslations don't ruin the episode, even if they ruin a scene. (And, honestly, even the "wrong" versions of some of these lines create some fun interpretations!)

As for the miscommunication... I can't speak for anything that happens later, but in fifteen episodes the most I've seen of miscommunications is some minor details in the Yuka/Keitaro scenes, and that shit is highly debatable.

But, there's a thing in this episode I thought people might get upset about, and it didn't bother me at all.

Takumi sees that Yuka's an Orphnoch, and very quickly realizes that she's Keitaro's new/old girlfriend. He tells Keitaro to break up with her. Not asks, tells. He doesn't give a reason beyond that he has a bad feeling about her. He doesn't tell Keitaro that she's an Orphnoch, or that she murdered a half-dozen people. He just curtly tells Keitaro to leave his girlfriend while all of Team Faiz tells him he's horrible.

I can see people saying Hey Why Not Share That Information. I can see that lack of communication feeling like a strain on credulity. But, man, it felt like exactly what Takumi would do, and exactly how he'd very stupidly try and solve someone's problem. He'd think he was sparing Keitaro's feelings by not telling him the truth about Yuka, and he'd also just assume that Keitaro would do whatever he says. Of course he'd make things worse.

And that's why it doesn't bother me. Miscommunication, I think of that as people not sharing information for bad reasons. The CW-style We Have To Keep This A Secret Even Though Every Year We Keep A Secret And It Blows Up In Our Face. That's shitty storytelling. What this show has is terrible people who don't have fully developed communication strategies. They are weird, flawed people, and friendships are going to be tough for them. They may be guarded, or wary, and that's going to lead them to portion out things someone else would spill out.

But I get that it's a fine line. Takumi's tactic is exactly the shit that Ren and Shinji would pull on Yui in Ryuki, and I hated it. Here, I feel like it works because no one's pretending that Takumi is doing the right thing. He's trying to protect his friend's feelings, but he's very bad at it. That lack of endorsement works for me, keeps it as a character choice rather than a story choice, if that makes sense.

I hope that explanation makes sense! Short version, I'm not seeing the rampant miscommunications that other people have referenced!

So to sum it up from your takes, Yuka is overall, a people pleaser right? Her abusive backstory shapes her into 2 modes, the one where she puts the burdens on herself to please other people like by becoming what other people expect - to make people not hostile like they usually are to her, or her being a troubled from the trauma she received by killing people she perceived as bad - because obviously, all the hell those kind of people give. And it's ironic that you actually made an elaborate post about her, so maybe you did invest in her and this isn't a mixed bag? Also here Yuka, aka Crane Orphnoch's powers are displayed here, to create cutting wings, her finisher. And speaking about acting.... I don't know if acting must be all about goofy, or over-the-top, or larger than life, or laugh out loud, or in your face and wide-angle lenses, or other kinds of that. People usually cite that as bad acting or no personality, but it can be just the people mindset that they just throw that term to those they think “this person doesn’t stimulate me”, or “this person doesn’t interest me”. Also a term to say someone is not extroverted, that because they can’t figure their personality, it doesn’t exist. A rather lazy and egocentric view of other people tbh, and a very superficial judgement. And that there's no such thing as " no personality". The person refered as such may be a little hidden if they are very shy, but they have a personality.

Oh yeah, edging slightly into Kusaka's real infamy in KR fandom here. Kusaka seems to have a special vendetta against Orphnochs.... just like total racism upon them. Or that he didn't know yet that Yuji is an Orphnoch?! Means even more vile then! Takumi is horrible in an usually secondary Rider way, that he's a morally grey anti-hero (means he has good side deep inside).

Takumi is just as dumbfounded as the audience here (especially if they followed during Faiz' airing era), to see the totally different point of view regarding 2 well known factions. A Kamen Rider that is a total asshat (though Ryuki has promoted this), and a monster who has humanity. Both Takumi and the audience are so twisted by the unusual perceptive of tokusatsu series. That the world isn't simply black or white, or that stereotypes (monsters are always 100% pure evil) aren't always a fact. Oh and also the main protagonists being not the most upstanding, but this isn't brought up here (Takumi is the one on dilemma! w̶a̶ ̶o̶w̶a̶r̶a̶n̶a̶i̶). And like I said above, Kusaka has a vendetta against Orphnochs to beat up any of them brutally, unconditionally. And even if Takumi observes Yuka, the usual perceptive still exists in others, the others were dumbfounded why Takumi was fighting against Kusaka to save a monster, so they still see monsters as deserved to get beaten up, even sadistically like how the audience usually, probably because the end justiφ’s the means.

Kaixa's counterpart of Auto Vajin, SB-913V Side Basshar appears here! But yeah sometimes the Riders' human form performance isn't always consistent to their Rider fighting like here for Faiz holding against Kaixa. Then again, AFAIK there were few showings of what Riders can do in human form (some non-main Riders are the ones to get that, like Alain before becoming Necrom).

To save time... probably you can watch this, with 2x speed :p. That's what I do actually. There will be certain series that I won't participate while Die's watching it too.

I've seen more people's views, and someone more insightful do say that the first 13 (or 15 in this case?) episodes of Faiz were actually so good, and that the infamy comes out later. I don't know how will you respond to those, but probably people make it out as the bad things are the whole series and ignoring the good parts like that.

Yeah, I think it's mostly that she's internalized a lot of the abuse she's received, and her decision-making is largely about placating the person she's with, of doing whatever will make them happy. The killing, that's a choice she makes for herself, and it's maybe the only one she ever has?

I'm not sure if I'm entirely getting what you're saying, but the problems I have with Yuka's actor, it's that I feel like I'm not seeing honesty in her performance. She's hitting marks and saying lines and portraying emotions, but it doesn't feel like Yuka, it feels like an actor. Like I said, I think the story they're telling is solid enough that it's mostly just that she's not elevating it, instead of being a distraction. I don't know if that addresses your comment?

Uh, I did not for a second think that Kusaka knew that Yuuji was an Orphnoch. This was just an injured guy that he could watch suffer.

Oh sorry, I didn't make it that clear. I'm talking about how some people can consider any actor who doesn't act goofy, or over-the-top, or larger than life, or laugh out loud, or in your face and wide-angle lenses, or other kinds of that (or just those who doesn't portray types of characters they like), basically acting as a "normal" person, as bad acting or displaying no personality. Though even those qualities I mentioned can also have limits, like Shunpei.

My previous post "People usually cite that", I refer "that" for "actor who doesn't act larger than life".

Got it! Yeah, I don't think my objection is that Yuka doesn't go big enough. That... that would be the worst choice for her to make as an actor. It's more that (and this is going to sound ridiculously pedantic) she's portraying a character, not becoming a character. There's a distance, maybe, to her performance, and it makes it difficult to connect with her character.

And, like, that's sort-of Yuka's identity, though? Yuka's core motivation is deference-as-survival-mechanism, and that's going to take the form of her acting differently to please the people around her. Like, an artificality to her performance is a feature, not a bug. It's just, that inherently keeps a viewer at a distance.

It's tough to square the circle of Artificiality That Exhibits A Deeper Truth, is maybe my ultimate point. Tough job for a young actor.

Ah, now this is some peak Faiz: Kusaka is a complete dick and Takumi makes a situation worse by refusing to explain things. Not a bad episode by any means, but it is very Faiz-y.

Reading through this thread has convinced me that die and fish should team up to do a podcast about kamen rider together as they mesh so well in personality. Then again fish is one of my favorite people here as is die, so I may be biased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU7IUprPqag

I know I'm late but hush

That's an interesting take you have on Yuka. I partially disagree though. I'm pretty sure Yuka's affection for Kaido and Keitarou (pen pal) are sincere. Like Takumi, she has no self-confidence and is scared of hurting people. Which is justified, considering she actually does kill people, bad people. I don't think it's that she doesn't want to think about herself, rather she's idolizing people like Kiba, Keitarou and even Kaido as an example for what she should be.

That fear of hurting people is now coming back to haunt Takumi. The heroic Faiz isn't just protecting people from Orphenochs, he's killing Orpenochs, bad Orphenochs, bad people. Takumi's sins and Yuka's are actually the same, which is why I think it was a smart move to have these two characters interact. Takumi found his purpose as Faiz and now that purpose is making him question his own morality.

Kusaka may be an awful guy, his hostility towards Kiba was uncalled for, but he didn't instigate the Faiz VS Kaixa fight. He was doing his job, fighting an Orphenoch, who had likewise been doing her job of killing humans albeit remorsefully. Of course, I support Takumi's decision to defend Yuka, she deserves to live and seek redemption, but everything about his rivalry with Kusaka is just making him look bad.

Kusaka is an excellent manipulator and Takumi is more honest, maybe not so much about how he feels intrinsically but definitely about others. He's playing to Kusaka's tune right now, getting beat up by Kaixa as soon as Mari and Keitarou are out of view and scolded for his actions, even when he goes against his nature to attempt to spare Keitarou's feelings. Team Faiz has become Team Kaixa as this point and Takumi is now the outlier.

Kaixa's bike, Side Basshar, really shows just how much his equipment outclasses Faiz's right now. Not that Auto Vajin ain't cool or anything, it's a transforming bike robot after all, but Kaixa gets his own mech with some totally crazy firepower. You can really see that "Oh cr*p!" in Faiz's stance as he's about to get blown up by missiles before the credit cut. He just recovered from the injury he received last episode! Dude can't catch a break.

Yeah! It's those same majestic wings she spans in the OP but now we actually get to see them in action after all her other murders happened offscreen. I love that shot in the OP and after what Takuma said about advanced Orphenochs using their abilities in human form, it looks very foreshadowing.

I think "a complete dick" is maybe underselling it!

Aw, thanks!

So, after spending a few weeks reading over Fish Sandwich's (very excellent) Kuuga thread, and really getting to see his approach to the material, I figured out how to compare our styles.

I'm Indiana Jones to his Professor Henry Jones Jr.

I like diving in head-first, taking risks, making mistakes. I'm all about getting into that deadly labyrinth and trying to figure my way out of it. Sometimes it can get a little dicey. Sometimes it means having to run from a giant boulder! But with my wits and little bit of luck, maybe I'll have something cool to show for it at the end. (Also, people like punching me.)

Fish is great at taking the cool thing that came out of a deadly labyrinth and giving it context, explaining why it was even in a deadly labyrinth to begin with. He's got the whole picture, and can explain exciting, specific details about things most people would overlook. (Also, everyone thinks he's dreamy.)

I've already got a weekly podcast my business partner and I do on comics retail (not counting the weeks where it's him complaining about a painful injury), but I do love talking about Kamen Rider!

More like SERIES highlight! I was completely thinking of this scene when I said Bone, so thank you for posting it. That said, this is maybe my favorite Brooklyn Nine-Nine cold open:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1CtS2KA3Zs

Sure! I can see that version, too.

I think this is a neat way of Takumi withholding crucial information from Keitaro. Takumi's just starting to put himself out there, just starting to make friends, and he's so scared of pushing people away again that he screws it all up by mistake. To protect Keitaro's feelings, he makes himself look like a terrible friend.

I don't know, there's an aggressiveness to Kusaka's attack on Yuka that feels too punitive to be him just doing his job. He's not even fighting her at a certain point, he's beating on her.

Wait, but Indiana Jones is-

You know, I'm just not going to read too hard into this comparison. On the subject of overlooked details, though, I somehow completely forgot there was something I wanted to say about episode 14 still, so let's just pretend it's a day or two ago for a second.

The shot Die is talking about here, it's really hard to get across just how simple and elegant it is just by talking about it. For such a minor moment, it's great, and I think, in my ongoing quest to try and find out what makes Kamen Rider directors stick out from each other, this kind of thing might be Ryuuta Tasaki's unique talent when it comes to visuals. He's not wildly creative in the same way guys like Ishida and Kamihoriuchi are, but he's really good at getting in there, and quickly finding appealing yet straightforward ways to shoot scenes. There's a hypothetical version of that scene where it starts with a wide shot that immediately shows Takumi at that table well before he speaks, and probably even a version where nobody thought to emphasize the physical distance at all, but Tasaki, I think he probably makes snap judgments like that on a dime. Have Takumi sitting off to the side. Only put him onscreen once Keitarou asks for his opinion. Make sure he's looking away from the group, and right into the frame, so we can see his pouty expression in all its glory.

Somebody has to actively think of all those little things for them to happen, and assuming Tasaki is the one doing all that, I mean, I've described him as "workmanlike" before, but just know that is most definitely not an insult.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 16

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz16a.png

--1--

If Ryuki broadened the idea of what a Rider could be (Zolda 4eva), I think Faiz is doing the same thing for the monsters.

For me, someone who came in through Ex-Aid's marvelously complex and occasionally sympathetic monsters, these early Heisei shows have been... a little lacking. There've been fun villains, and some neat antagonists, but the weekly monsters have been little more than uncommunicative beasts or nearly-alien killers. It's been missing something that I'd guess I'd taken for granted, and that's that the monsters should have a point of view.

(So, yes, Kuuga, the Grongi, sure. I don't know that more than two or three Grongi really popped for me as characters, though. Other than those two or three, they've all got the exact same motivation, which is mostly what I'm talking about.)

The monster of the week this time is emphatically not what I'm referring to, though. That dude comes out of nowhere and is nothing more than a random nuisance. He's a spree killer, an obstacle for Kamen Riders to detonate/immolate. But.

But maybe he isn't? Maybe he's been driven to these murders and assaults because of some deep trauma, or because he's been forced to by Smart Brain, or because these people wronged him somehow, or any number of other possible reasons. We don't know his story. When we look at him, we see a monster, and Kamen Riders kill monsters. Open and shut.

Except Takumi's seen an Orphnoch with feelings. He's been saved by an Orphnoch. He knows that Orphnochs can have fears, can have dreams. How can he destroy a thing that might have a soul?

That dilemma is really fascinating to me. Kamen Riders Fight Monsters is, like, an autonomic process for these stories. It's something that barely needs a justification. So to slow everything down, to cast doubt on the very language of the franchise, super into that.

And, god, making Takumi the focal point of that? Yes. Yes. He's someone who sort-of hates slowing down, getting to know people, trying to understand them. Having him be the guy who sees the humanity in the Orphnochs is great because he doesn't even know what he's seeing, let alone how to explain it. He's so lost in this story, so unsure of what to do, and I find that introspection and confusion weirdly heroic. He can't ignore someone's dreams, even if they're the dreams of an Orphnoch. But Orphnochs are responsible for killing people, robbing them of the chance to live out their dreams. It's an impossible situation. Which, y'know, those are the ones I want to see Kamen Riders deal with!

--2--

Making Takumi's episode even more stressful is that, uh, all of his friends hate him?

Some of it's Takumi's fault, in that he can't really explain himself at all, and I don't blame his friends for turning on him. I mean, they've only known him for a few months, during which he's been varying levels of insufferable. He's always been tough to be friends with, and him rudely declaring Keitaro break up with a girl because Takumi has a bad feeling about it, along with being incredibly aggressive with Kusaka, it's all a pretty bad look on Takumi.

I get it, though. This is a guy who in the second episode kept trying to run away from people who wanted to get close to him. The fact that he ran away from their accusations this time and then came back for more is, like, probably the toughest thing he's ever done. He hasn't learned how to fight for what he wants, but he's sure as shit learned how to absorb people's scorn.

I think that's the heart of the "miscommunication”, or whatever. It's that Takumi can't talk about what he's feeling, can't express the conflict in his heart. He sees everyone turning against him, and he wishes it wasn't the case, but he doesn't have the tools to defend himself. Worse, his reflex is to lash out, mope, run away, make things worse. He doesn't want to be in this position, but he at least can handle it. So he keeps plugging away, hurting feelings and confusing his friends, letting them get over it, then doing it all again. He's probably his own worst enemy in this one.

--3--

Ha ha NOPE it's definitely Kusaka. That dude... I'm pretty sure he's the devil?

He's great here, though, for real. Every time he'd trick Takumi into looking like the bad guy, and then Takumi would make himself look even worse than that... I mean, it couldn't've gone better for Kusaka if Takumi had been in on it.

Real curious what his endgame is, though. He's got two moves, manipulate or destroy. Keitaro and Mari could be manipulated, so they seem safe. They treat him like a hero, take his side in his rivalry with Takumi. He seems happy with that. But Takumi didn't buy it, so he's got to be forced out, humiliated, reviled, probably killed. But what for? Why all of these machinations? Right now, Kuasaka's all schemes, and I dig it, but I want to see where all of this is going. Like, currently it's Control and Sadism, but, and then what?

--4--

Besides the two Riders, we get a bit with Team Orphnoch, each of them doing their own thing.

Yuuji, hilariously, inexplicably, is having to team-up with his murdered girlfriend's brother to hunt down her killer... which is still Yuuji! It's totally bizarre for this story to pop up now, out of the clear blue sky, but I do like the position it puts Yuuji in. He's been talking a lot of heavy talk about not harming humans, and now here's a dude reminding him that he definitely murdered a human in cold blood. There's always been a little hypocrisy to Yuuji's pacifism, a feeling that two murders or less is an acceptable number, but more than that is No Thank You. (Or, perhaps, he's okay with sampling murder? He killed a man, he killed a woman, and now he's okay saying it's not for him. He's a very open-minded Orphnoch!) Having this all thrown back in his face by someone he's legitimately wronged, it's got some potential.

Yuka's story is mostly her trying to explain her conflict, what she wants out of life, how she kills but doesn't want to be a killer. I talked a ton about this all last time, and here it's mostly for Takumi's benefit, for him to get a better understanding of what could drive an Orphnoch.

Kaido only gets a couple moments. The first is a quick little scene where he wants Yuka to stop obsessing over him, while the second is a joyous comedic scene with Mari. All of the Tidying Up With Mari Kaido stuff has been adorable, and this one's no different. Love him smooshing his face against a window to get her attention. Love him fogging the window to draw a little heart. Love her exhaustedly dropping her head out of view. Love him asking if she really likes him. Love her shaking her head No. Love him asking if she likes him. Love her shaking her head No. Love him asking if she likes him even a little. Did not love Kusaka barging in to scare him off. Goddamn you, Kusaka! I was onboard with the torturing of Yuuji and trying to kill Takumi, but this is too monstrous. Keep your nose out of my ship, Kusaka! I'M COMING FOR YOU, KUSAKA!

--5--

I really like the journey that Takumi was on in this episode. God, the shots at the end where a contemplative Faiz has to literally sit out a fight, so evocative. I love the show asking if and why the monsters deserve to be detonated/immolated. I hope they come up with a good answer!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/faiz16b.png

Yeah, you're starting to get into what makes Faiz such a special show. Or at least, it's really coming to the forefront in these episodes after so long of already following Yuuji, Yuka, and Kaidou around. See, the fact that Faiz went out of its way to try undermining like... the absolute most essential premise of a Kamen Rider show is why I love that the monsters are literally gray.

And Takumi, yeah, it is entirely based in his character for him to be handling this situation the way he is. He's got... he's got a lot going through his head right now, and with the kind of person he is to begin with, you know, of course he doesn't know how to talk about this.

Oh, and what you do know, this episode pulls that trick where the insert song cuts out, in this case right after Takumi remembers he maybe doesn't want to "heroically" murder people? Really effective way to emphasize how wrong everything is right now. Faiz just gives up, and so does the music.

I think my favorite choice this episode makes is to surface Takumi's conflict during a fight with an Orphnoch that basically has just been attacking people all episode. It's easy to see the complexity of a character like Yuka, or Yuuji. It's easy to get the audience on Takumi's side if it's protecting a cast member we're invested in. But this dude? Merderman or whatever? It's all projection on Takumi's part. There's nothing we've seen that says that this dude deserves to be spared.

But, like, that's what makes the story work for me. If Yuka can be worthy of protecting, why not Merderman? Instead of working from All Monsters Must Die, and making exceptions, why not work it from the other direction? Why not ask why any monster deserves to die?

The show took the most basic monster and had Takumi unable to ignore the possibility that it didn't deserve to be killed. Huge choice, and I love it.

If you ever make your way onto Metal Heroes (which, let’s be honest, I don’t see happening within the next few years), they have a few shows where episodes discuss the concept of killing the monster, even if those monsters haven’t done much to earn sympathy.

Yeah, boy, pretty booked, but that's good to know! Thanks!

Yeah, bringing that up because all the other Faiz' characters are in any of the big categories I mentioned and she's the one who isn't really. And the "sort-of Yuka's identity", that's also part of my point, differentiating between bad acting, or if that's actually the part of the character. Like for a simpler example, people who consider an actor as bad because he can't emote, but the character he portrays is meant to be stoic and devoid of emotion.

It's the good thing if you make humans, the species you suppose to fight. Like Ryuki, the monsters are still nonsentient beasts, but the antagonists are Riders, and they're humans, creating this dilemma although in a lower scale. Faiz now is the one to make the monsters directly root from humans (Kuuga did but, all of the humanity disappeared as Grongi), where the ambiguity all comes from the different moral views a human have. With Orphnochs originating from humans, they all have the same exact ambiguity as humans, so don't lump Orphnochs as worth killing because "Orphnochs are responsible for killing people, robbing them of the chance to live out their dreams", just because there are human who kills doesn't mean all humans should be exterminated (though certainly there are those with that mindset). Though other than the Orphnoch trio, so far the other Orphnochs are standard villainous monster of the weeks. If you already know the Smart Brain's deal, there would be an easier way to get through this dliemma (wa owaranai - that wouldn't end!), any Orphnoch that is targeted by Smart Brain are probably the good ones, though Yuka makes it more difficult for those that kill only bad guys.

Stressful that his friends hate him? Don't he want to brush off people away from him, and this is what he wanted? Or also like Faiz, deep down he strives for it, for the proper one, for the one that can't be ruined with his behavior. And there's truly signs of miscommunication here yeah. If Takumi told that an Orphnoch saved him, it's all clear. I don't know what's the excuse for this one other than Keitaro break up (he shouldn't know the truth that Yuka is an Orphnoch).

The devil? Kusaka's not infamous within the fandom without a good reason, y'know. And like I said for soap opera elements for Yuji and Yuka's story, this comes more in full force on the main story part, at least Kusaka embodies it. All the stunts he pulls, all the scheming, all the expression of him gloating through the other's misery, that's all I see on my country's airings. Yeah truly, no kidding. Being so self-important and threaten others for petty reason that they may take their spotlight? Check. Faking yourself in front of the other people you want to impress while hiding a much more sinister side? Check. Manipulating others to ruin someone else while you can for your own amusement? Check. Exaggerated expressive gloating over others and your schemes? Check. I see that everyday on my country's plethora of soap operas (the one resembles the most was Yuka's thing with the stepparents and siblings though).... which is also one of the reasons people hate them. But probably at least here this gets a free pass for some reason.

For Yuji I can only say a reminder that any victims have their close ones. For Yuka she also persistently helps Kaido. For Kaido... just be prepared for the Kusaka stuff. And Mari, your move to Kusaka there, watch out.

I think it all goes back to when he lost the Faiz belt to Kaido. A lot of his problems could've been avoided if Takumi had expressed himself emotionally, or asserted his emotional needs. That... that is not Takumi! Here, he'd have to defend himself, trust his friends, argue for his own perspective. Those are things that he just isn't capable of doing right now. To extricate himself from all of his friends' anger, he'd have to be vulnerable enough to ask for their understanding and compassion. Instead, he is definitely going to run away for awhile, and then he is definitely going to come back and make things worse.

Some people call it miscommunication but it's definitely in character for Takumi to accept the blame for something he didn't do, as shown in Episode 5. At his old job, his colleagues blamed him for stealing money and he outright said it's better that way, for him to be scapegoated, even though Master never believed he did it. Takumi thinks he deserves punishment. That fear of hurting people makes him alone. If he doesn't fight, people die. If he fights, people die. He accepts the blame cause he blames himself. Even if he did defend himself, against Kusaka's reputation, who would they believe? He knows he wouldn't stand a chance as he is now. Kusaka doesn't hesitate to kill Orphenochs, which makes Takumi feel like he's not good enough anymore.

So you understand Kusaka's two means: Manipulation and Destruction. He also has two ends, one of which is a means unto itself, the end of Orphenochs. He doesn't see the good in them like Takumi does, he doesn't try, he doesn't care, not unless he can use them. This is actually his least important goal. His main goal was briefly mentioned by him in Episode 14 but it's not in the foreground quite yet.

See, this is the thing about the "miscommunication" in Faiz, for the most part anyway, that I'm really happy to see Die finding in it too: it's legitimately, dramatically, interesting. Even incidents as big as Takumi making zero attempt to explain why he protected Yuka from Kaixa, they say things about the characters, and the things they say are most definitely not merely "we needed a plot to happen to these people". There's some real juicy meat on the bones of this stuff if you just read into it even a little bit, I swear!

I didn't think that Mari and Keitaro are that hostile to Takumi before Kusaka fakes being hurt at their house... because that time it's been clear to them that Takumi is an asshole for attacking Kusaka, but if it was when Kusaka was brutalizing Yuka at the beginning, they are still confused on Takumi's act (and even Mari noticed he didn't really attack Kusaka) so explaining to them that time would have them listen I think, if only probably gets them confused af with an Orphnoch saving others. What's Kusaka's excuse for that time? Just standard "he's lying"? Not really valid imo because Kusaka knows nothing about the deal with Takumi and Yuka. For the moment in their house he obviously got a clear one with Takumi attacking him before without explaining.

Yeah, for pretty much all the miscommunication that's driving this story, it's really just Takumi not knowing how to fight for friendship. He's a dude that opened the series having run from a job where other people made him the fall guy. And when his boss was like I Know You Were Innocent, we don't get Takumi feeling happy about that. He's was totally fine with everyone hating him, and trying to get back what was taken from him probably seems way too daunting. It's easier for him to be the bad guy, to be a shunned outcast. That's a reasonable outcome for him. It's the same thing in this past episode. In much the same way he'll fight for others' dreams but doesn't have one of his own, he'll defend other people's feelings without being able to defend his own. Having to struggle to be heard, having to argue for the right to be treated fairly, to ask to be liked, that's too enormous an ask for him.

That said, while I'd argue that frustrations with Takumi's attitude and choices are basically the show Working As Intended (you should want to Takumi to get better at friendships!), I don't blame anyone who doesn't find that emotional throughline something they want to spend 50 episodes with. It's... I mean, you need to feel like Takumi's growth has value, and if you don't, this show is not going to work. If he's not a compelling protagonist, I can see this show being a rough watch.

(Also, hey everybody, the AEW PPV ran a little later than I thought, so no new Faiz episode today. Sorry! Maybe two on Sunday? No promises, but I'll give it a shot!)

I think I'm starting to get this after Kurona called the show "marmite"? Because I've always found it weird how much flak Faiz takes for everything that isn't a suit design, and now I'm getting the feeling none of this is really about how good or bad the show is at what it's doing so much as the simple question of "how much of a s*** can I give?", and looking at it that way, it like, immediately makes sense why opinions on it are spread the way they are.

Kamen Rider's soap opera stuff is basically professional wrestling. If you talked about AEW and slapped Faiz's face over a screenshot, nobody would be able to tell the difference!

The thing I'm most reminded of is the Sixth Doctor, from Doctor Who. I never watched it, but I remember reading interviews with the production team talking about the problems they had.

The conception of the character's arc was that he'd start prickly and insufferable, but grow to be the the more heroic Doctor that fans were used to. Problem was, while the writing team knew they were on an arc about character growth, the viewers tuning in each episode were like Why Is This Show About This Asshole. It ended up really not working, despite seeming like a pretty cool concept. (Of course, I'm sure there were plenty of other reasons why the show didn't work for that era. Like I said, I didn't watch it.)

I wonder if arcs like that are better suited for finite, contained works, like a book or a movie. Doing them as a series of installments means a viewer has to keep wanting to continue the story, a story that they're not sure will be worth it. Like, with a movie you're probably going to see it through, while with a TV show you have to continuously choose to watch something that is purposefully difficult.

Just a thought!

Y'know, between Kamen Rider, AEW/NJPW, and superhero comics, I'm apparently pretty pretty into long-form storytelling about men who alternate monologuing with bursts of violence. Huh.

Anyway, that AEW event was wildly uneven. The Casino Battle Royale and Stadium Stampede matches, the ones that bookended the event, were great. (Well, I definitely don't give a shit about Brian Cage, so that's gonna take a few points off of the Casino match.) But, man, besides the MJF/Jungle Boy match, I thought the rest of the card was real dull. Maybe my least-favorite AEW PPV.

That’s the core of the issue Faiz, if you aren’t invested or care about the cast the narrative choices are going to tick you off due to them being solely caused by the personality’s of the cast

You fool, you've mentioned Doctor Who, so now it is my time to chat!

The Doctor Who related thing this is reminding me of more than anything is probably Series 9 of New Who (The last Clara one). The overarching theme losely woven through is about the Doctor and Clara's relationship, whether or not it's good for them, how much it's changing them, etc, and it culminates in the final episode, Hell Bent, which is one of the most divisive episodes I know purely because of the reasons we've been talking about. It's effectively a whole episode where the plot is a device for these two characters to analyse their bond. If you vibe with the pairing, it's one of the mose heartfelt and personal episodes ever made. If you don't, it's an hour of pointless navel gazing that meanders between wasted settings. It's not a 100% similarity, but it kept coming to mind.

(Incidentally, the reason I don't like Hell Bent and don't want to watch Faiz is because I really don't vibe with people being jerks to bad for each other purely because that's how they are. Like, I get that it's interesting and all, it's just not what I enjoy watching. I have enough problems with comminicating with people in real life, I don't wanna watch it!)

(Also, you're not wrong with there being lots of reasons why Colin Baker's two series didn't quite work out well. My personal favourite is how the writer of his final episode died before finishing it, and the person who'd been trying to fix it quit after an argument with the producer (and thus they couldn't use any of his work on that serial), so it had to be patched up by writers they'd already had do a story, withoug looking at either previous persons' notes on how it was meant to go, in the space of a week or two.)

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 17

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--1--

I really love that, after a few episodes of Kusaka being a complete tool, including giving Faiz a thorough beating in the first scene of this one, the crux of this episode's like, Hey Does Kaixa Actually Have A Point? Bold choice!

Basically, with Takumi icing out his friends (who are literally begging him to let them in) and refusing to fight Orphnochs, Kusaka considers him irrelevant. He's beaten Takumi in every way that matters, which means he can actually communicate with him. That gives us a really neat scene where a Horrible But In A Regular Way version of Kusaka tells Takumi that he shouldn't worry about fighting Orphnochs, because Kusaka will handle it from here.

I think that's a neat choice, to not only frame Kusaka's antagonism towards Takumi as something that can be resolved (mostly by Kusaka being better than him at everything, a totally normal way for people to define their interpersonal relationships), but by giving Kusaka a valid point-of-view. There are murderous Orphnochs out there, and Takumi's reluctance as Faiz is incredibly dangerous. If he can't fight Orphnochs, he should just quit already. Let Kusaka do it, because he'd never let sympathy get in the way of him finishing off an adversary (he says, staring right at Takumi, again a totally normal thing to do).

I almost can't believe how easily the show swung back from Kusaka's Going To Kill Takumi to just These Two Don't Like Each Other. It kind-of shouldn't work? Takumi treats being nearly murdered the way someone else would treat an impolite text. I think it works for this story, largely due to how Takumi prefers being punished to being pitied, but it's still a pretty big swing, tension-wise.

--2--

Also, holy shit does Takumi not like being pitied. The second-most important arc in this episode is how Takumi will mend things with Mari and Keitaro, who don't get why Takumi's protecting Orphnochs and fighting Kaixa. These are reasonable concerns!

It's just, I think Mari and Keitaro have 100% the wrong approach here.

They beg and plead with Takumi to explain himself, to talk about his feelings, to share. And, man, no. The more you try and drag it out of him, the more he's going to shut down. He basically goes fetal after his friends beg him for an explanation.

After he runs away to brood, yet again, I was wondering how the show would draw Takumi out of his shell, put him back on the road to redemption. I wondered what character would be the one to reach out.

It's Yuuji, and it's amazing. Of all the various Team Faiz/Team Orphnoch combos, I think I find Yuuji and Takumi the most entertaining. Usually, it's because I find a monster asking a Kamen Rider to consider being a better person hilarious, but here it's due to how Yuuji's kindness overcomes Takumi's gruff exterior in a super interesting way.

He gets Takumi to open up a bit by not trying to draw it out of him. Yuuji clearly sees that Takumi has a problem, but he instantly realizes that Takumi doesn't want to talk about it. So Yuuji starts to share his own problem, and how he can't even really talk about it with Takumi. That sympathetic approach, it seems to work wonders on Takumi. When his friends want answers and explanations, it's about their feelings, and the way Takumi is negatively affecting them, and that pressure is something Takumi can't deal with. But Yuuji's just telling Takumi that what he's feeling is normal, isn't something to be scared of. By making Takumi feel less like a failure, less like a burden, it gives Takumi permission to process what he's feeling and try to live with it.

Just, man, super smart writing for these two characters. It's a little disappointing that Takumi didn't whiff on every single pitch in the batting cage, but that's the only real misstep the Yuuji/Takumi stuff had for me.

--3--

And, dang, not a great episode for Yuuji! It's more with Morishita, who ends up being a perfect compliment to Takumi's dilemma.

Takumi's main problem is that he can't stop seeing the possibility of goodness in Orphnochs. Yuuji's problem with Morishita is that he's taken a wronged man and made him a murderous Orphnoch. Takumi can't kill an Orphnoch if it might have a soul, while Yuuji has to watch another soul be lost to being an Orphnoch.

But the show smartly uses Yuuji's dilemma to unlock Takumi's. Yuuji can't take action against Morishita, because this all started with Yuuji's murder of Chie. That ended up warping Morishita, putting him on a path of vengeance that ended in unrelenting murder. There's nothing left of a grieving brother in Morishita. Now he's Armakillo the Orphnoch, and he's killing because he wants to.

Which is almost exactly what Takumi needed to see. Yuka was someone Takumi could relate to, someone he could care about. Merderman was the unknown, the possibility of a soul. But Armakillo is unrepentant, irredeemable evil. There's nothing to save. It's here that Takumi stops looking at Faiz as something that he can feel good about, and starts to view it as the burden it is. His inaction has cost lives, and his indecision hasn't helped anyone. Maybe he's a terrible person for killing Orphnochs. Maybe they have souls. But if they're going to kill humans, he's going to fight them.

It's an assertion that could ring a little hollow, what with it being Takumi making a Heroic Declaration, but I really feel like the show earns it. Half of it is from how long it takes Takumi to come to grips with his responsibility, and half of it is about how Takumi frames his choice. Takumi's way of relating to people is mostly about living down to their expectations, about absorbing their low opinion of him. His version of a Rider's burden, then, is that it's only his soul being damned, which isn't something that has any value. There's a self-flagellation to his choice here that feels perfectly grounded in his psychology.

--4--

It all leads to a terrific double Faiz Fight, a fight so good it gets fight music AND the opening theme played over it. The visuals are so fun here, with Faiz and Armakillo fighting on top of cars, Faiz rushing Merderman (who returns just in time get immolated), Faiz getting two finishers, and Faiz getting his sword finisher through an exploding car.

It's all insanely high quality, and it feels like a reward for watching Faiz completely fall apart for the last two episodes. It's such an awesome fight that Mari and Keitaro consider it to be a sign that Takumi's back on the side of justice, and ready to defend humanity against Orphnochs.

Once again, I sort-of like how the show keeps these characters in each other's orbits without Takumi necessarily becoming, like, better as a person. He's withholding to them in the beginning, and in the end it mostly just looks like he's better and they're okay with that. It could be a drawback, but I think it's a very unique kind of friendship. Some friends... it's like you're friends, and it's down to the core, but you don't really talk about it. You know? There are friends that would never use that word. I feel like that's Team Faiz and Takumi.

--5--

The show wrote itself into a crazy tight box last episode, but I think it pretty nicely wrote itself out of one this time. There's a thing they did that I really appreciate, and it's how Takumi's feelings aren't made to be wrong and he deserves to be punished for them. You know? He's a broken person, and things are difficult for him, but the show isn't just saying Git Gud or whatever. There's a care given to his troubles, and I think that's neat. Being a better person is hard, and it takes time, and there's value in being patient with people who are struggling. I like a story that keeps that in mind.

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If Kamen Rider has a Your Mileage May Vary series, it's likely Faiz!

Yeah, I checked out of Doctor Who during the Moffat run just before Clara showed up. I really started to dislike his approach. Not to get off-topic, but he had this thing where he'd create a mystery, spend a TON of energy on it, then when it was time for the payoff he'd basically go Why Do You Care About That Dumb Thing When There's This Even BIGGER Mystery. He loved asking questions, hated giving answers. Just bugged me.

(Hilariously, I came back for Chibnall's run and quit halfway through the last series because everything felt too inconsequential to me.)

To your example, though, it's tough trying to craft a story about difficult people that doesn't end up feeling like too much work to get through. It's like, you have to hope that these people end up being worth all of this work. For Faiz, it's really only Takumi who's the difficult one, I feel. Everyone else has their failings and neuroses, by Takumi is the Hard Work character. I think he's been worth it for me?

Yeah, I lied a little when I said episode 8 was my favorite. I mean, it's right under this one, but under it nonetheless. This episode has a lot more going on with its narrative, and the arc it concludes is the one where Faiz truly sets itself apart in my opinion. It took some some guts to do a plot that asks if the monsters of the week deserve to live, but it took some talent to resolve that in a way where things go back to "normal" without it feeling like the entire thing served no purpose.

What was especially helpful on that front is how that central question never really does get an answer, which is a perfect fit for the kind of themes and tone Faiz has. People having to make difficult choices about what they value and how they want to live their lives in a world that refuses to provide easy solutions is just about the raw essence of this show, and as much as I like episode 8, I think this one gets that across in a more nuanced and interesting way, while still somehow managing to land back at an awesome fight scene where you can root for Takumi fighting Orphenochs again. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who doesn't get at least a little excited when Justifaiz starts playing.

Also, credit where credit is due, TV-Nihon deliberately played loose with 俺が背負ってやる here by making it "Then let me be damned!", which keeps the punchy dramatic emphasis a lot more than would be easy to do with a more direct translation (Although "Then I'll bear that burden!" would sound fine enough). I guess something about this scene really inspired them, because this kind of thing is highly unusual for a group that prides themselves on not straying too far from the original dialogue.

Man skimming this thread, I can't really see why people think Faiz is bad. I can understand frustrating, but so far it seems to do a good job at what it sets out to do.

Yeah, there's something fitting about Takumi's quandary being resolved with an It Depends answer. He was right to defend Yuka, but he was also wrong to spare Merderman. But more than anything, it's not even about actions being right or wrong. People are complicated, things are complicated, and sometimes the best you can do is the least bad thing.

There's an idea Kamen Rider floats occasionally, that it's okay to question yourself, but don't be paralyzed while you wait for an answer. Takumi's problems here are that he wants that clear, unambiguous answer. He feels like doing anything means doing the wrong thing, when the only wrong thing is doing nothing. It's a fun story to tell!

I cannot tell you how much I love the declaration "If fighting is a sin... then let me be damned!" It is so metal, so Kamen Rider, and so Takumi, all at once. If TV-Nihon came up with that, Inoue owes them a thank you.

My thing is, I don't really like saying art is Good or Bad. I've tried to keep in mind how subjective experiences are. I'm more comfortable saying what worked for me versus what didn't work for me. Even stuff that doesn't work for me might have some value to someone!

The other thing is, I think the people who are likely to post in a thread for a series this old are those who liked it, and have positive things to say about it, which can make a series maybe seem better than the non-thread consensus would have you believe. The people who think Faiz is bad probably don't care enough about it anymore to criticize it in a thread.

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 18

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--1--

It's a lighter episode of Faiz, which I appreciate. The last few have been heavy, deep episodes, and it's nice to maybe just relax for a little bit? I am not opposed to something that's having some fun with this whole Kamen Rider thing.

Also, man, I love it when a show remembers that the non-Rider characters have goals and plans. Gaim was a show that spent a ton of time in the early going on dance crews... until the show had zero bandwidth for dance crews. It left me with a feeling that I wasted my energy getting invested in some of those characters, since they'd never get much of a chance to be relevant again.

All of that is to say that I really dig an episode that's built around Keitaro's easily-manipulated altruism and Mari's dreams of being a hairstylist.

--2--

It's pretty much all Keitaro this episode, so I hope you like seeing Keitaro being taken advantage of by a little girl!

And I do! Seeing him and Keiko bumming around town, him forced to cater to her whims thanks to his need to make people happy, it's pretty fun. It's honestly not much more than a collection of gags, but I laughed a bunch. The very long process of him buying an ice shaver, buying ice, shaving ice, pouring some syrup on it, serving her the shaved ice, and then she eats once scoop before moving on from it? Great. Great gag.

--3--

Keiko's a cute enough character, for sure. She's a total brat, which makes her fit perfectly into the Team Faiz Classic dynamic. (Kusaka is on the road this week, or else he'd've probably murdered her and hid the body.) She's manipulating Keitaro and insulting the other two as soon as she meets them, because this kid wastes no time. She loves pushing buttons!

But, you know, there's a tragedy in her background, two parents that died in a "gas explosion" (probably not even a little nefarious or suspicious) and an unsettled rage. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of her trauma next episode. As it is, she's a fun, low-impact plot device.

--4--

Same thing with Mari's plot, which is her making a friend at the salon. That friend is Hikaru, who conveniently happens to be the daughter of the barely-remembered Detective Soeno. (I actually really like how the show feinted towards the cops' investigation of the Orphnochs being a thing, and then immediately were like Nah. It'd be hard to fit in amongst everything else this show is trying to do, and I can't imagine it'd be that useful to the plot.)

Honestly, hey, can we talk about "convenience"? Because I think I'm finding that more prevalent in the storytelling than "misunderstanding" or "melodrama". There's a ton of people running into each other in this series, like the city is only two square blocks. I don't really hate it, since it makes for fun scenes and a quick pace (like, I love that the one time we see Takumi go to the batting cage, Yuuji just happens to walk in), but there's a point where it's a narrative crutch. This episode had some unbelievably convenient head-scratchers, like Soeno loudly and repeatedly saying Keiko's name just after Mari arrived to hear it, and Yuuji driving up just as Faiz is fighting Fungus The Clown, this episode's horrifying Orphnoch. It's not that either of those things are impossible, but both of them happening in the same episode is a little lazy.

--5--

But, god, it feels like everyone involved in this show wanted to take it down a notch after all of the Kusaka and Takumi stuff of the last few episodes, so I don't mind a little bit of lazy. What's here wasn't super deep, but it's a pleasant enough episode. That goddamn clown, though! Not pleasant! Does not need to turn into a mushroom monster to be scary!

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Episode 17 is probably the most memorable episode for me. The drama of Takumi's conflict and his great, big fight at the end to the tune of the theme song, it's just epic. It also has two of the most memorable translated lines courtesy of TV-Nihon. That "If fighting is a sin, then let me be damned" is indeed metal... Less metal is "who carries magazines while intentional going".

Poor Keitaro getting dragged around by a little girl, but also I can't imagine any other fate for him.

Yeah, gosh, that magazine line! A little surprised Fish didn't bring it up!

I'm sort-of struggling, not with the line, but with what Mari's even doing at the college. The show lampshades it with Takumi's whole Why Are You Just Carrying Around A Magazine complaint (which is how I interpret that "intentional going" line), but... why was she on the campus in the first place? Was she consulting a college professor on an article about getting someone to enjoy hot foods? It can't be that she was meeting Takumi, since she'd have no idea he went there, and if she called to meet him he'd've definitely told her to stay away. Like my complaint (well, "complaint") from Episode 18, it's a shortcut that the show's going to a little often lately.

It's true! I love this plot because it's completely how he acted in his first appearance. I like that he's still the same eager-to-please dreamer he was back then. And, just like in his second episode, he can't get Takumi or Mari to want to help him fight crime. (Mari: busy at work. Takumi: no excuse, just doesn't care.) He's still got his dumb dream that no one else appreciates! Everything here had a charm that was maybe not as apparent the last five or so episodes.

I feel like you're underselling Chucky, the true hero of Gaim.

Murdered, yes. Hid? Nah, he'd just dump the body in Takumi's room and tell everyone that he did it.

I liked the Keiko plot in this episode, mainly because it gave Takumi and Mari the chance to be the wet blankets to Keitaro's enthusiasm again. With all the Kusaka stuff in the last few episodes it's been awhile since we got some time with the original trio and I never get tired of Keitaro getting consecutive rejections.

Previously, on "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider 555"...

I just didn't think it'd be very polite to immediately s*** on TV-N right after trying to be genuinely polite, especially when I already dunked on that line in my very first post in the thread. Also, that line is a nightmare that drove me more than a little insane when I rewatched Faiz, so I don't really like thinking about it!

Mari knows Takumi is at there because Keitarou called Kusaka right before, but really, what this all boils down to is that thing you've locked onto about Faiz's writing that I'd actually agree is its most frequent "problem". It's a very small world after all! It's absurd Mari would want to go there at that time (like, she would know there's a monster running around?!), which to an extent, is exactly what Takumi is saying there. It's about reaffirming how much of a bond there is between these characters that she saw that magazine and was like I Gotta Give This To Takumi Right Now. You could have that line as something like "You came all the way here just to give me this stupid thing?", and it'd be a lot closer to the real intent. Emphasis on closer, though, because, to be fair to TV-N again, it's not even the most fun line to work with in the first place.

Faiz absolutely pushes how much you can get away with everybody meeting each at exactly the right times, though. I don't mind it much either, since I see it as all being part of that soap opera style. It kills the drama if everyone has to wait around for each other and/or make phone calls constantly, which is why we never see Keitarou providing any details when informing people Orphenochs are attacking. Like a lot about this show, it's something you can either live with, or not.