[Fish Sandwich]

All I can say right now is that I personally found Yuuji's turn to the dark side entirely believable, and thought the concept was the most logical possible direction for the story to take his character at this point in the series. It felt built up well enough, and it posed a lot of interesting questions that, by and large, I do think the show ends up answering in a satisfactory manner.

The execution, I can't decide if I agree or not there. The Murakami Jr. shtick is jarring for sure, but part of me wants to say that's probably just exactly what Yuuji would act like if he lost his smile. Still well-mannered and polite, but less empathetic and understanding. There are moments where his old self seems to poke through, but, at least broadly, I concur that the show would've been better served by trading in the suspense of his disappearance after Yuka's death for directly showing us more detail on how exactly he came to the conclusions he's arrived at.

I hope you feel a little better by the end, Die! But don't feel too bad about feeling bad, either. The previous 40+ episodes of regular glowing praise were far more than any Faiz fan could hope for. I think you've earned the right to some negativity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

I guess for me it's because he felt part satire of that and part deconstruction. As if Inoue looked at the likes of Shinji and Godai from the past couple years and went "hey, you know those characters who believed in justice and had unyielding optimism? Well here's how they'd actually be like; they're alone in their beliefs in the world, they're idiots who can't use a Rider Belt, and their development is about that optimism being crushed and learning to accept that the realities of the world don't match up to their ideals"

I gotta stick up for Keitarou here, because this was the image of him I had for the longest time, too, but, and Die has called tons of attention to this throughout, the show itself isn't making fun of him anywhere near the same way the characters in it do. I realized rewatching the series that his optimism, kindheartedness, and upstanding moral behavior are genuinely portrayed as a positive force for most of the people around him, and honestly, I think Takumi looks up to him more than he does to Yuuji, and that's saying a lot.

I don't buy the argument that Inoue would have wanted to make fun of those kinds of characters in a malicious way. The guy wrote Yuusuke and Shinji, and while it's true that in the latter's case he loved to emphasize his more goofball traits, what's even more relevant is that Inoue wrote Shouichi, who was basically Keitarou in reverse. A protagonist whose unshakable positive outlook is constantly rewarded, to the point jokes are made at the expense of characters like Hikawa for not comprehending why he's so "lucky". Heck, I might even argue Shouichi in Inoue's hands was more of an unyielding optimist than Yuusuke was in Arakawa's. He had a real genuine purity to him that Agito took very seriously, and despite the jokes at his expense, I think Keitarou does inherit a bit of that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Awww, that's one of the nicest compliments I can imagine! And a reputation I'd LOVE to cultivate

Also I'm really looking forward to Die's thread for Kiva.