[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, those are the subs I'm watching. It's just... I don't know if I believe Asakura? He says she was bait, and it seems reasonable (Ren's probably screaming I KNEW IT in his brain), but it's just his word that that's what happened. It certainly wouldn't be out of character for him to lie, and if did help a little girl he probably wouldn't want to cop to it. Doesn't do a lot for his brand, you know?

To me, it feels like some gray area. Not saying you're wrong, but I don't think there's a definitive answer to be had on this one.

Just that I feel... there's pragmatic villainy, a villain, even irredeemable ones, who does something good but not out of kindness, but because it's detrimental to their interests. Other example from Asakura here (he used Mika as a bait for 3 pack monster, to feed his 3 Contract Monsters simulatenously, it has definite answer where Asakura throughout the 2 parter is constantly avoiding his 3 monsters and persuading them that he still has time to feed. Shinji, Ren, and Kitaoka all made remarks on this, the former not wanting even him to die, the latter 2 gloat about Asakura's demise) is Masamune being courteous towards his workers to maintain good publicity. He can lie but his lying (to Akira) was meant to do even more depraved things, not inverse. He didn't even use better excuse when Kitaoka represented him in the court ("vexed").

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The main plot, it’s paying off the cliffhanger from last episode. (I don’t usually like talking about the cliffhangers. There’s generally not much more to talk about than speculation, and I never know how prominent some of them will be. Sometimes I get really excited and the next episode completely blows it off. I’d rather wait until there’s some substance.) Megumi’s seen Shinji walk out of a mirror, and now she’s going to investigate.

After long last, cover finally blown for Shinji, coincidentally, luckily for him it was in front of Megumi, who instead thinks that he does a magic trick, instead of Reiko or Okubo who discusses about disappearences relating to mirrors. How will Megumi crack those open by the way? Other than.. the magic show which is the cartoon trait "goofy-act-inadvertently-provides-a-bit-of-help" as like below. Now Shinji does consider telling people about Mirror stuff but, what makes him hesitate about it? It's easy to prove those by showing his Deck and henshin, as Takuya attests.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Except it doesn’t, because Megumi’s ludicrous demonstration (I hope she just rented that disappearing box) is the final piece that Reiko needs to complete a working theory on the last eight months worth of mysterious disappearances: a mirror world. On the one hand, I’ve expressed my disappointment that so much time has been spent on Reiko learning stuff the audience has known for a while. Dramatically, it’s not that exciting. In this one, I think it kind-of works, and not just because of Reiko’s new haircut. (It looks great! It’s so weird that she got a haircut because I feel like that usually doesn’t happen during a series? It seems like every dude’s hair is a foot longer by the end of the season, anyway.)

Unfortunately I prefer Reiko's previous hair... And also one of the pieces previously for the theory has to involve calamitous moments like indirect murder (Akira) and a harsh truth (Shiro Takami death). There's still something on how to explain that fantasy element to others, how to properly alert people in their newspaper publication, if not relying on one of their co-worker Shinji, a Rider. They only know that the disappearences coincidentally happened near a mirror, but know zero thing about actual Mirror stuff like Mirror Monsters. They also should start prepare themselves for the bunch of reflective surfaces they have in their office, where for some reason monsters never appear there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Most of the rest of this one is just Shiro being an asshole and tightening the screws on everyone. The scene where he visits Kitaoka and basically says Fight or Die while raising his eyebrows as high as he can on the word DIE, it’s still funny to me. I love the weird salesmanship of Shiro, how he’s so eager to get Riders fighting, how he fundamentally doesn’t understand why they aren’t murdering each other by the end of this sentence. It’s cute, in a socially awkward way. He’s got a passion for superpowered men murdering each other, and he really wants to share that passion, you know? He’s a very enthusiastic instigator of battles to the death. It’s adorable.

I mean, less adorable when he almost kills Eri to motivate Ren, and Yui’s whole Time Has Run Out In The Mirror World-esque dissipating doesn’t seem like a good thing, also Asakura is maybe going to try and pick off a near-death Kitaoka… okay, I think “adorable” might’ve been too far. I see that now.

Something fishy is that how Shiro can affect Eri's body like that? Shiro & Kitaoka part is a repeat of ep. 20, Kitaoka waits for Riders to kill because he prioritizes being a hedonist in his life over exerting himself in a Rider battle? And Shiro more actively egging Riders to fight more here can't be coincidental with Yui disintegrating eh? Even for Asakura, he wants to fight and kill the Riders in a fun way so he can give others chance especially outside Rider battle. There's something you forgot, there's a new Rider Deck at the end.