[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 44



--1--

Oof.

Oooooooffffff.

Heavy episode, man. Some real joy, and some real darkness. One of my favorite characters gets an end to their story. One of my other favorite characters struggles with their core defect. Kaido abducts a child I guess?

It’s a big episode, for good and for ill, for Team Orphnoch.

--2--

Hey, let’s talk about Yuuji first.

Yuuji’s most heroic quality is his belief in people, both singular and plural. He has friends and family that he’ll fight for, but he’ll also protect total strangers from Orphnochs. Yuuji’s most fatal flaw is that he can’t handle being betrayed. When his compassion is taken advantage of, he’ll straight-up heart-murder someone.

So, you can imagine the conflict he feels when it seems like humanity as a whole has betrayed him. Everything he’s been doing for the last year has been to protect humanity, and now he feels like they’re manipulating him, betraying him. Does humanity deserve his help when they’re trying to kill him and his friends?

It’s tough to see Yuuji so pitiless, so enraged. (I mean, it’s fun to watch. There’s a really fun almost-single-shot dialogue scene with Takumi and Yuuji in a car that’s a little showy, but still impressive. The way the camera starts on Yuuji’s side and then rotates around the front of the car to end on Takumi answering his phone? Definitely working hard to make that scene pop!) He’s long been the most empathetic, most measured of all the Orphnochs. To see him decide that Orphnoch safety isn’t worth jeopardizing anymore… huge development.

The episode doesn’t really get much of a chance to interrogate it, beyond a few characters being unnerved by Yuuji’s new attitude. With Yuuji’s tentative hope that things could improve being assaulted by a ton of snipers, I’m guessing we’ll get to spend a little more time with Angry Yuuji.

--3--

Hey, let’s talk about Kaido next.

I’m having a little bit of a tough time seeing where all of this Kaido/Teruo stuff is heading. I like what’s been in here, but it’s definitely the most Wait And See plot on this show right now.

I feel like there’s a side to Kaido that just hasn’t been explained yet. Because what I know about him… I don’t know if it’s at all clear why he’s so invested in this bullied kid. At first, it seemed like it was out of guilt, and maybe it still is, but I really hope there’s more to it? I’m excited to get to a point where Kaido explains to someone why he’s so worried about this traumatized kid that he’d skulk around outside his school and abduct him.

Visually it… man, it don’t play real great! “Problematic” would be an understatement. I know this kid’s been bullied, but this is a grown man taking him away from his (like it or not) home, without informing anyone who’s responsible for him. This is a pretty big deal, and it needs a really good explanation in the next episode.

--4--

Hey, let’s talk about Yuka.

I mean, it felt like she wasn’t going to make it out of this one. She was so happy. Everything was working out. Dramatically, it all felt like One Last Good Day. And, like, she’s got a date with Keitaro planned? Jesus, was it also her last day before retirement?

But it was still a lovely episode for Yuka. She got to have some affection from someone. She spent some time fretting over whether or not she’d ruin Keitaro, before Mari told her to choose happiness instead of misery. And she died like she lived: with someone telling her to just drop dead already.

That Kageyama scene! I keep rolling it around in my head. Of all of the last people to see Yuka alive, they made it Kageyama. And she tells Yuka to die, here and now.

There’s a clear disappointment to it. Kageyama hoped for so much more from Yuka. Every other young Orphnoch, all of the pretty boys, she’d treat them sweetly, nurture them. With Yuka, she was stern, imperious. She knew that Yuka held back, and it insulted her. She tried to tell her that caring for humanity would get her killed, and it did. So she sees Yuka there, wounded, unable to summon the Orphnoch form that could save her life. And she just watches Yuka.

But she changes into an Orphnoch beforehand, and I feel like I know why.

I think it’s breaking her heart.

I think she saw something in Yuka that she didn’t see in any of those others. She wanted her to succeed in a way she didn’t for any of those others. And this is the end of Yuka’s story. She’ll never be anything more than she already was. She’ll never be the person that Kageyama hoped for, and it’s shameful. It’s a loss for all Orphnochs.

I think she’s crying.

But, y’know, Yuka isn’t. She’s been through so much, suffered so often, rarely felt accepted. But right at the end, at the very end, she got to live her dream. She was accepted by someone, and she knew she deserved that acceptance. It didn’t last, but dreams rarely do.

--5--

Poor Yuka. And, man, poor Keitaro. All-star episode for that guy. (I made a joke about him not making a “Yuka is Yuka” speech last time, which he then trots out in his scene with Takumi. Inoue’s got a catchphrase! I’m excited to find out who on Kiva gets to have a tautological affirmation of their innate goodness.) He’s so in the zone on this one that Takumi, Takumi, is overjoyed. Keitaro’s a character that could’ve been a one-note punching bag, but he ended up being a series highlight. I wish things would’ve worked out better for him and Yuka. They earned a happier ending.