[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

You're doing better than I am then! I mean, I love a story that uses a light touch, but this whole episode just made me feel like I missing... everything? There's a story about Asumu here that's really hard to get a grip on, and there's a story about Oni aligning that just kinda doesn't seem to even loosely parallel the Asumu story the way Hibiki's plots are supposed to be structured? A lot of the individual moments are done rather poignantly, but I wasn't getting a strong sense of cohesion here.

Its big problem, for both parts, is that we never get Asumu articulating what he's going through. There's a chance that a small scene with him and Hitomi could've put a bow on this one, but instead it's just her saying that things aren't that bad and him silently eating. We never, once, get to hear Asumu tell us what the problem is. Even Ichiro's little speech... he's just guessing at what Asumu's going through. He's insightful and wise, but he's not a mind-reader. (Aslo, he's spent about twelve minutes with this kid, so he's really got no idea what he's dealing with.) It's cool that the show felt like we knew enough about Asumu to be able to discern his troubles, but they could've thrown us a rope at the end.

And, yeah, baffling that they never try to tie it all in with the Hibiki/Ibuki plot. If ever a story needed that parallel to surface the themes, it was this one!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I think Hibiki crashing Tatsumaki is the best part of this episode. It's humorous how subversive the show is about what Hibiki, as a Kamen Rider, can actually do and operating a vehicle isn't a talent he automatically has. This was foreshadowed in Episode 2 when he stalled the car all the way to the place where Shounen and his cousin were staying. Even Shinnosuke who doesn't have a bike can still drive a car competently. How did Hibiki even get his driving license like that?!

Maybe the Kamen is Hibiki, and the Rider is Asumu? All I know is that there are two leads on this show, and Asumu's the one who's constantly riding a bike. It's literally the first thing you see after the Don't Get A Seizure warning!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

It's also the first time we see how Hibiki and Ibuki work together in a fight with Ibuki stepping back from his solo focus in the previous arc to shoot down the Otoroshi for Hibiki to finish with his subtly different technique. Fortunately, Ibuki is still an independent Oni in his own right and you can look forward to seeing more of his solo fights later. Regarding what fantastic monster the Otoroshi resembles, I thought it looked like some kind of flying Adamantoise, which would be terrifying!

They were a pretty great team. For all of their individual responsibilities, it's nice to see that the Oni can work together against bigger threats. It's a more professional dynamic than I think we've seen before? Even Blade/Garren had some issues with working together (in the very brief window of Tachibana's stability), and they were meant to be a team.