[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 17 - “TARGETED TOWN”

This is another pitch-perfect episode of One Theme, Three Casts, where the idea of dating and attraction filters through a bunch of different perspectives. It’s an episode that lets this funny, gorgeous, charming cast have comedic interludes and romantically-charged conversations. It’s an episode that could come off as a respite from the tension of the last couple stories, if it weren’t for how huge the emotions are of teenagers.

So it's okay to do scattered casts (where you say it's like watching 3 different shows or something) if it's about slice of life like in this episode? And the last caption there... so there you go, tensions isn't the only means to create a story.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Akira’s finally showing up to school, and things immediately get weird with her, Hitomi, and Asumu.

The pic really sums it about these 2 circling Asumu.


But they didn't (or the show didn't) show anything about their concern to Asumu being hit by the basketball, which happened right after (and because of that)!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There’s a part of me that regrets that we’re in a place where two smart, capable women could squander a burgeoning friendship on (and I love him) a doofus like Asumu.

Yeah, you're not thrilled with Hitomi feeling weirdly jealous, but you excuse Yuka acting bitchy to Keitaro in Faiz ep. 41, which is even worse behavior... Though now, have nothing against Hitomi, but I don't know where you got Hitomi being smart and capable too? All she did so far was doing usual school life; following lessons and talking with friends, nothing different from other students. Though if you also talk about her passing Jounan.... then Asumu can't get "doofus" label! Also I had uneasiness myself to you expressing regrets to Asumu being friends with those 2, why for that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Even the actual superheroes are spending most of their time this episode in romantic comedy plots!

Replaced? Because of $$$ (and not talking about this episode as Switchblade pointed out)? As the toys of Hibiki were selling poorly, the higher ups blamed the show for this, giving it a drastic retool around episode 30, in an attempt to make it more 'Kamen Rider-like'. The changes come from Shinichirō Shirakura (who was involved in producing Agito-Blade, and took over the role of producer at the same time as Inoue took over writing; Shirakura is similarly disliked by Kamen Rider fans, yet strangely, this isn’t one thing he gets blamed for). Though, the one that has attraction to Todoroki was Hinaka, not Todoyama, or at least, more one sided to her, so Todoyama isn't to blame (and I'd hate the "girls always right" double standard, though for Ichiro it's his daughter).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Hibiki’s barely in this one, and what’s here is tangentially related to all of the romance in the air.

Well this is also the superhero part in the episode, and I don't think this is resentful, this is about Midori trying to enhance Hibiki with his flame output, even if you would notice their bickering more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Way more of this episode is handed over to Ibuki and Kasumi, who are basically the slightly-older versions of Asumu and Hitomi. They’ve known each other forever, they’ve got a ton of trust built up, and Ibuki can’t seem to move things to the next level.

I know that this is worth praising but I guess things they do like him deferring to her taste, her wanting him to be Oni Decisive in his everyday life, him trusting her to help raise Akira… it's also a common part on the franchise (Kamen Rider intros showcase humans more rather than the supernatural elements for a reason), but they didn't get as much coverage as the ones here?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There's a dumb quote/meme that kept surfacing in my brain as the show was keeping Asumu and Hibiki apart. It's a (typically great) Raul Julia line as M. Bison from the (astonishingly bad) Street Fighter movie: "For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

Game movie adaptations are most, if not all, bad like that (seems like no passion is run during its making, so unfair to actual fans who can't make one, yet produces much better fan contents within that game), though that quote is hit enough on the internet, for various other media. And you know what? This quote is used to represent someone's totally lack of empathy and concern (typically of course, irredeemable villains) towards something which is like, a damage they do to someone in their backstory, it's too far fetched to use this on Hibiki.