[IXRollOutIX]

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Originally Posted by barnstenchfartface

To be fair, it's actually so rare it didn't even happen in this episode. That was Excite doing a little embellishment. He really just asked if he was really sick.

Ah, okay. I suppose that certainly lightens the stakes a little bit, but then again Emu (and the viewer, I guess) doesn't know how deadly the Bugsters are either. His optimism still comes off as false reassurance in a way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnstenchfartface

Because, technically, this actually is the lightest first episode of the last few series, in the sense that at least a lot of people didn't die this time around.in the sense that at least a lot of people didn't die this time around. While Kamen Rider as a whole has moved away from casual civilian deaths, first episodes have been exempt from that, as Drive had the whole Global Freeze thing and Ghost had Ganma throw around rides full of people until they exploded.

Which is why I specified "victim of the week." Those massacres in Drive and Ghost were almost meaningless. I wouldn't say they were very "dark" because they were more or less just carnage for the sake of it to show how "scary" the villains are. As an audience, we didn't have any real connection to that violence. It barely reaches us on an emotional level.

Kouta unknowingly murdering his monster-turned best friend? THAT is dark.