[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

--2--

The absolute smartest thing this finale did was say that the stuff from 47-49 that sucked? It doesn’t matter. It never mattered.

The Ticking Clock is irrelevant, because everyone dies at some point. Sometimes it’s soon, sometimes it’s later, but life ends. The important thing is to cherish what you have, to give it meaning. And, whether that’s fighting to save humanity, spending time with your friends, becoming a private investigator, or just doing laundry, living life is inherently meaningful. Existence is its own reward. Fighting for dominance, fighting for survival, it’s bullshit. It’s a distraction from what you have around you, what you’re better off thinking about.

The Orphnoch King is irrelevant, beyond being something to have a fight against. Teruo doesn’t factor into the story at all, permanently transforming into the Orphnoch King early in the episode. As a character, the Orphnoch King isn’t one. He’s a force of nature, a metaphor. He’s all the ways we lose sight of our connections with one another, how we allow our fears to divide us, how we view things like safety and happiness as finite resources, stolen from one person to give to another. With friends at our side, with a refusal to view him as legitimate, he’s easy to defeat.

Smart Brain doesn’t really have a role to play. Lucky Clover doesn’t really have a role to play. It’s a story about Takumi and Yuuji, at the end. It’s a story about acceptance.

I think Kiba accelerating Takumi's decay was a gambit to convince him to live as an Orphenoch by bringing him closer to death. The major flaw in this plan is that Takumi was never a person who cared about his life. He no longer believes he deserves to die but he's willing to for humanity's sake. Kiba wants him to live for the sake of living, without a purpose, and that's empty. Takumi would rather die a human than sell out his soul for a life that isn't worth living.

The ethical problem of Takumi having to kill a kid kind of just solves itself conveniently with Teruo being consumed by the matured King, which is still very dark to happen to a kid but at least the King is now an acceptable target. He doesn't appear to be sapient like other Orphenochs, maybe to emphasize his lack of humanity and what it really means to embrace being an Orphenoch and succumb to the amoral will of nature. It's not something a human should strive to be. Smart Brain boasts that Orphenochs are humanity+ which is true anatomically but looking down on humanity for being weak and throwing away their humanity to become stronger doesn't make them more deserving of their existence. Everybody has a right to exist and to fight to protect their existence and fill it with purpose.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

--3--

The Yuuji/Takumi fight is perfect. It’s a perfect fight.

Technically, visually, it does everything you want it to. It’s beautifully shot, and, as the clear centerpiece to the episode, it’s given plenty of room to breathe. They do so much with it, and it’s a big reason why this finale worked so well for me.

There’s a little bit of build-up, before things get started. It’s them having a human face-off, a final moment to say This One Counts. There won’t be any holding back, and no one’s coming to save them. You see Yuuji’s facade crack for the first time since 46, and it’s crucial to feeling anything for this fight. You need to see some flash of Old Yuuji, some reason to feel conflicted about this final Faiz Fight. It does a great job setting the stage.

The battle starts as a Rider battle, Kaixa versus Faiz. There’s clever gimmicks, like Faiz using his Shot to bust out of Kaixa’s Slash. It’s small, as Rider battles go. It’s not a big pyrotechnic extravaganza. It’s measured, though. Longer takes, more meat to the fight.

It transitions next into an Oprhnoch battle, Horsepower versus Wolfeyes. It’s more brutal now. Yuuji’s anger is spilling out, screaming himself raw. Takumi switches up into Faiz Blaster, and uses Yuuji’s rage against him. He gets in close with his blaster, taking Yuuji out of his Orphnoch form and giving Takumi a perfect moment to end Yuuji’s life by his own sword.

But he stops short. He refuses to kill Yuuji. Not because they were friends. Not because he doesn’t think Yuuji believes every single thing he’s said and done over the last four episodes. Not because Yuuji is good. But because Takumi protects humans.

Humans just like Yuuji.

And then the episode does the smartest goddamn thing in the whole goddamn series. There’s a screen that the camera’s been shooting through during this moment, slightly obscuring Takumi’s statement. But as he finishes, as he reaffirms his belief that all humans matter, that every life deserves to be lived, he walks through a hole in the screen. He’s liberated, assured. He doesn’t hate himself, question himself. He ‘s freed from the rage and self-doubt, and he walks away. He walks away from Yuuji’s anger and justifications. He leaves Yuuji, trapped on the other side of the screen, screaming and crying at the injustice of it all, at the idea that Takumi won’t sink to his level, won’t validate his bleak worldview. And in doing so, Takumi saves the day.

Yuuji ends up joining the fight against the Orphnoch King, proving crucial in ending the King’s threat. And, like, I get it if that turn (or re-turn) doesn’t play for people. But, god, I thought it landed so well. It’s Takumi being the icon to Yuuji that Yuuji always was to Takumi. It’s Takumi finally feeling certain in his choices, in himself. It’s Takumi’s accepting someone, even if he doesn’t agree with them.

That idea… it’s kind-of everything I wanted this show to say in the end? One of the best things we can offer one another is a chance to be happy. You do that by giving people support when they want it, and you let them make their own choices. Rigidity, expectations, judgment, these things trap people, leave them angry and scared. Accepting people, letting them feel like they don’t have to be afraid of themselves, that’s a gift we’re all capable of giving each other. Takumi doesn’t win the day by using the Faiz belt or his Orphnoch powers, he wins it by letting someone know that he wants them to have a chance at happiness, wants them to live their life.

That’s why he’s a hero.

I love the climactic 3-part showdown between Takumi and Kiba and how it escalates in to them using their final forms against each other. Kiba seriously loses his cool when Takumi spares his life due to considering him a human. He goes hysterical, infuriated by Takumi's insistence on protecting humanity even when Kiba rejects that part of him. It's like an insult to him, to be defeated in battle and denied death for being likened to what he thinks is an irredeemable and inferior species. Takumi's mercy is heroic though and shows that he's willing to forgive Kiba and wants him to restore his faith in humanity.

Kiba is still conflicted but in the end, he wants to believe that Takumi's way is right, that the ideal he gave up on was still worth fighting for. Although the final battle against the King isn't quite as epic as Takumi VS Kiba, the location where it happens is awesome! The rarely seen Kamen Rider Stormdrain is an awesome backdrop for any exciting climactic fight. Takumi also appears as illuminated Faiz for the first time.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

--4--

Kaido is off into the world, bruised but healing. Teruo was someone he failed to protect, and that’s going to haunt him. But now he can be haunted by it, because he’s a hero. He even said Henshin when he transformed!

Kaido said Henshin as early as Episode 7. Anyway, I want to talk about some foreshadowing here regarding Team Orphenoch. What was the first origami Sawada burned? A crane. Yuka died first. He burned a horse in front of Kiba, who died second. He never burned a snake though. Kaido lived and he deserved to since he was the only one who never killed anyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

--555--

Team Faiz, though… they’re relaxing, they’re happy. Sure, things were tough for a while there. They’ve been scared. They’ve suffered losses. (RIP Faiz CyKill, also I guess Yuuji) But they’re together, and they’ve earned their happiness. Takumi even has a dream, and of course, it’s Keitaro’s dream. The joke of the beginning of the series became the moral of its ending. Takumi wants the whole world to be happy.

This brings me back to what I said about where we want a show to take our favorite characters from the start to the end of their arcs. Team Faiz endured much suffering as they fought relentlessly to protect the happiness of others and they deserve to be happy themselves now that love and peace is restored. Whether Takumi lives for the next ten minutes or ten years as you phrased it, he lives without regrets or worries, knowing that he made his life mean something and found acceptance with his new friends, Mari and Keitarou. It's an emotional bittersweet ending that I definitely appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Sunred

Nicely done. By the way, Itsuro's new boss at the construction site is THE Toshiki Inoue who wrote this show. And Agito. And Jetman to name a few.

Legendary cameo!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

My main memory of Faiz pre-watching this show is the movie he's in with Kamen Rider X. (It's a Gaim one, I think? I'm pretty sure it's the one where Shotaro and Kaito chase a corgi, which is the most important detail in the film.) I dimly recall there being a thing on the wiki where they mention that Takumi's memory from the movie, a flashback to someone's death, was changed from how it happened on the show. So, I figured that post-series canon is... fluid.

Still, it didn't really detract from the show, thinking Takumi was alive. I sort-of always assume the title hero survives on a kids' superhero show? I mean, Ghost died about twenty times on his show and still was alive at the end!

Sometimes the hero dies. Takeru was alive at the end of his show but his luck ran out in the novel when his heart condition from Heisei Generations came back to finish him. What matters is that the hero lives on in their legacy and people's hearts.

Kamen Rider 4, which you watched, functions as an epilogue for Takumi, revealing what happened to him after the Final Faiz, giving closure to years of ambiguity. The title, Kamen Rider 4, obviously refers to the eponymous 4 but it could also hint at Faiz's relevance, being the 4th Heisei Rider. Riderman and Kuuga are also "4" but they're not actually relevant to the movie.

As you're now aware, the flashback to Kusaka's death in Kamen Rider War was very different to what actually happened which should raise suspicion about the authenticity of Takumi's recollection.

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Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

Now I just need to finish these 6 episodes of Blade before you finish the entire show, and I'm set to actually *involve* myself in discussions next time!

Blade is actually the only Heisei Rider season I haven't watched yet. I intend to change that before Die reaches the Day of Oma.