[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 42



--1--

I'm sure I've mentioned this before on other threads, but I always get a little melancholy at this point in a Kamen Rider series. I look in my folder of video files, and notice that there're so few left. A handful, and that's it forever. No more new stories with this cast. Save for a few Legend Rider appearances, that's it for the story of Kamen Rider Faiz.

It's a little like graduating, I guess. You spend all this time learning about people, getting invested, caring about them, and then just... done. Gone. There's memories, hopefully more good than bad, but that time is over.

It's... yeah, melancholy. I love that Kamen Rider stories end, but I hate that they end.

--2--

And, shit, that's probably a good emotional state to be in for this episode! It's a darker one! Lots of emotions! As expected from the last cliffhanger, it's centered on Yuka's newfound status as a fugitive, and what that does to the status quo.

Team Faiz reacts pretty much how you'd think, and they're mostly in the background for this one. Kusaka doesn't shed any tears over one more hunted Orphnoch, Keitaro tosses out a conversation-starter that propels a fascinating subplot for Mari, and Takumi has some feelings about Orphnochs' right to exist.

It's Team Orphnoch that, naturally, gets a little bit more weight behind them, and I love the choices the story made. It hits the beats I'd want it to, and lets each character in the group do precisely what they've been designed to do.

Kaido immediately tells Yuka to turn herself in, which, yeah, smart decision. Things got out of control, he definitely doesn't want any trouble with the cops, let's get this all shut down. It's casually cruel to Yuka, suggesting she's brought danger into their lives, but I feel like that's a Kaido move? He's incredibly self-centered, and he's one of the least empathetic people on the show. Him wanting to bail, to abandon Yuuji and Yuka the second things get dicey, I can see it.

Yuuji's reaction is, again, totally in-line with where he sees himself within Orphnoch culture. He views himself as a leader, a revolutionary. He's trying to carve out a place in the world for Orphnochs to hold onto their humanity. If this is happening to Yuka, it's because she's an Orphnoch. He can solve it by proving to the police that she's done nothing wrong, that Orphnochs can be peaceful and human. He never once asks Yuka why the cops might've attacked her, of all people. He's so high-minded, so Big Picture, that he takes on her burden since she's an Orphnoch.

And of course, these decisions by Kaido and Yuuji are killing Yuka. This is her nightmare. Kaido is anxious and scared, and it's her fault. Yuuji is going to sacrifice his safety for hers, and the guilt she feels is immense. Her life, her stability, it's all been demolished.

There's a very sweet callback the show does, where Yuka emails Keitaro to tell him about her dream. It's the same thing she did when the walls were closing in on her back in school. She longed for isolation back then, for solitude. Here, her dream is of connection, of affection. She deserves love. She deserves family. She's grown so much. And, to prove it, she makes the decision to turn herself in. There's an element, maybe, of the martyr complex she's always had. She wants to make everyone happy, even if that makes her miserable. And, maybe, it's because Kaido rejects her when she most needs support. Maybe it's a choice she makes because she feels alone, abandoned.

But, I don't want to see it that way. I like thinking of it as a maturity, as a realization that hiding in crushes, hiding in someone else's sacrifice, it's just another cage. Here, she gets to wipe the slate clean on her own terms. To not let Yuuji or Kaido wrest her story away from her, but to do the right thing, even if that means her dream is gone. It isn't the cowardice of subsuming her hopes in order to follow someone else's path, it's the bravery to move forward by herself into uncertainty.

Yuka's story... I love how many interpretations you can pull from it. I love how nuanced and poignant it gets to be. Yuka's story, it's the least showy, maybe? But it's the saddest, and the most interesting to me.

--3--

Mari's story this episode is no slouch, either. Man, some fun moves in that one this time out.

Keitaro's casual mention of Hey What If One Of Us Becomes An Orphnoch has a little bit to it that I liked. It's just a little slice of story, nothing huge, but there's an idea that I think is a huge, huge part of the series' themes.

Basically, Mari freaks out because she's scared she might turn into an Orphnoch. With all of what Sawada went through, maybe her and Kusaka are next? Kusaka tells her that it probably won't happen, because it likely would've already occurred. (I mean, Mari's died once since her previous resurrection, so it doesn't feel likely.) He does say it in a very suspicious way, so who the hell knows for sure.

But it's the end part that I think is fascinating. When Kusaka tells her she's probably not going to become an Orphnoch, she's relieved. And then she's incredibly guilty for feeling relieved. Kusaka tells her it's fine to be relieved, because (basically) Kill Them All, but the way the show even allows for judging Mari, of Mari wondering if it's fair to feel relieved, it's amazing.

It ties in with the idea of acceptance that the show spent a long time interrogating. Mari reflexively others the Orphnochs, feels grateful that she doesn't have to exist as one of them. And it exposes a prejudice that, despite knowing some of The Good Ones, she hasn't really examined in herself. She was terrified that she'd be a monster. Not that she'd be hunted, like Yuka, or reviled, like Takumi. But that she'd be something worth being hunted or reviled. That she views that as the baseline for an Orphnoch, while Yuuji and Takumi are exceptions.

It's something that I really, really hope the show spends a few more scenes on.

--4--

And, I mean, I guess it does, because the other (no pun intended) half of that story is in Takumi's stuff.

It's not a lot, but it does set up another Faiz vs Kaixa fight. Kusaka is still steadfast in his belief that all Orphnochs should be killed, but Takumi has seen too much to believe in that kind of reductive morality. He's started to understand that, unlike Mari's initial thought of Orphnochs as inherently monstrous except for a few Good Ones, maybe it's not something that Orphnochs should have to prove to people? The Orphnoch who saves Yuka from torture and experimentation, Shambles, he's not doing it because he's human, he's doing it because he cares that she's in pain. Orphnochs aren't some horrifying adversary that need to be shown the light, they're emotional creatures capable of grace and beauty, creatures who should have the same right to exist as humans.

Of course, that kind of nuanced argument goes over super duper great with Kusaka, who was clearly having a blast pummelling the mostly-dead Shambles. That frustration already found a great release valve in Faiz's face, so things are probably going to be a little rocky amongst the Riders going forward.

--5--

This episode really drills into the idea of prejudice, of othering, of the ways marginalized cultures are constantly made to defend their right to exist. It's... man, it is not something I expected a Kamen Rider show to examine this thoroughly or deftly!

Not exactly the most dynamic episode, maybe. Not one that had me leaping out of my seat. (Although, I got very happy seeing Soeno typing out his police report on the goddamn Ore Journal set!) But a real thinker of an episode, with some very interesting looks at its characters.

I really hope this worked for other fans!