[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 05

So, just to pull a complete 180 from talking about my inability to truly connect with characters in Kabuto, can I just take some time out to say I really, really love Hiyori?

Back in the Hibiki thread, I mentioned there was one particular moment, in episode 31, one image, that was burned right into my brain as much as anything else in the series despite not being anything grand or important at a glance. That picture above is that for this show. Hiyori just slouching over on the street, ready to pass out from sheer stress, that's something that's always majorly stuck with me from this show.

I could guess at a few reasons why. A character in any show suffering from this level of extreme social anxiety is just not something I've seen a whole lot of, and that would mean this one little moment was more fresh to me than any amount of high-speed bugmen could ever be. Another reason is that, specifically because she has that kind of personality, I have an extraordinarily easy time sympathizing with Hiyori's troubles. Again, this matter would've been more pressing to me than any amount of Kagami being in generic monster danger. (On which note, I'm sort of surprised it wasn't for Tendou, too.)

Hiyori as a character has always kind of fascinated me because she's so utterly unlike any typical type of Rider heroine. She doesn't smile and look pretty, she's not some tough firecracker out there speaking her mind, and she doesn't provide emotional support to anyone, because if anything, she's the one that needs that kind of help. Hiyori, the depressive recluse, obssesively drawing her weird fairy pictures while somehow managing to be even more blunt and uncivil in her speech than Tendou himself.

In a show that was essentially created to play it as safe as possible after Hibiki, Hiyori's characterization strikes me as something unconventional. Like Die, I give a lot of credit to Yui Satonaka for managing to put a lot of the life into the character just through a shocking amount of subtle variations on the same bored facial expression, but to stop beating around the bush for a second, I honestly just like Hiyori because I've been in those shoes at times and it doesn't take any extra work to empathize with that on my part. She is a shining beacon of relatability to me in the sea of much louder eccentrics that is the cast of Kabuto.

...On which note, yeah, all the ZECT stuff in this one had me outright giggling with how transparently dumb it is. At least their plan to capture Kabuto is so absurd you won't think about the implications of the show casually introducing the idea that Kagami has some kind of Worm-identifying thermal goggles?

One much more favorable random thought I had was that a lot of the filming locations seemed different than usual, and rather pleasant to look at? 5 and 6 were directed by Takao Nagaishi, who apparently does have some kind of reputation for putting more thought into that usual, so it might not have been my imagination.

As for Die's question... I mean... I wouldn't be hypothetically opposed to going to a flower expo? Although if there are any sword lilies there, I might start crying about Kenzaki again and have to go sit on a bench to calm down... which would only make things worse...

You know what, let me just drop that question for the one I forgot to answer at first, which is ironically the one Die forgot to ask at first: my favorite sibling relationship in Kamen Rider is... er, one I'm not allowed to talk about yet. Dang, I don't have any good answers right now.