[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

Yeah, I’m not sure I expected Kagami to remain as TheBee for a significant length of time, but I can say I was not expecting it to be one episode.

Next time, you will enter a realm that a certain seafood-on-two slices of bread once dubbed “The Inoue Zone”. I can already predict your reaction.

I'd say "Kagami had a good run as TheBee," but.. debatable! At least no one died?

Also... INOUE FOREVER! Very excited for tonight's episode.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I don't have anywhere near as much of a hard time getting behind the climax here as it seems Die did. Kagami having to choose between his friend and his power, it's a pretty obvious (if effective) note to land the story on, so I really appreciated the way the show gets a bit more clever with it. If this is an episode that makes you sit there afterwards and think intently about the meaning behind it, that kinda sounds like the exact opposite of a problem to me? Especially when it's a plot beat that's wrapped up in Tendou's own alien decision-making process, which is supposed to be enigmatic by nature.

Yeah, I... I would never mean to imply that an episode that inspired so much analysis out of me was a bad thing, it's just that...

Like, I wonder if the relationship between Tendou and Kagami could stand to be slightly less opaque? I don't want to lose the mystery and idiosyncrasy of Tendou's whole thing, but there's an element to their friendship/"friendship" that made some of Kagami's decision-making at the end of 10 feel difficult to comprehend. I don't have a solution for how you'd balance what you have now with what I think the show needs, but getting to the end of an episode and having to spend a bunch of time explaining to yourself why someone did something... I'm not sure that's the most optimal way to tell a story? Feels like a reason for folks to check out, if it's too much work to figure out a show.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Fair enough, I get it more now. The total role reversal that Tendou steals the doctor's jobs even from themselves. Shows more about Tendou's perfectness of mastering any role he partakes in, just like when he became priest before.

Yeah, I think that's pretty much the joke; that any situation you drop Tendou in, he's going to make himself the focal point of.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

This is one of the good lesson that can be taken from Kabuto, among its morally ambiguous characters, that you shouldn't always copy others and stay true to yourself.. Though still, there's a counteract to that message; that you should try to improve (especially if someone's wrong, where Yaguruma can be more unhinged than Tendou, staying true to yourself can be twisted into something like staying rotten if that's how you are), and one of the ways to do that is take inspiration from others... So, about this scene, it's Yaguruma taking it too far like even copying Tendou's style of making tofu? (something that he wins over Tendou from Hiyori's tasting them).

To me, it's a scene where Tendou is asking Yaguruma to be a better/truer Yaguruma, rather than follow Tendou's path. He wants Yaguruma to improve himself (because god knows he needs improvement at this point), not remake himself into someone else.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

And Tendou's task-oriented approach here makes sense for him to see something outside that like friendship (at least from the outside for what's shown in Tendou) and feelings as unecessary and just a hindrance. He only takes the "emotions cloud our judgment part" or "emotions make us subject to manipulation" as his mindset, though this part of story has it being right (well, it's Tendou, after all) with Kagami being indecisive at his job.

I think the thing I enjoyed the most about Tendou in this one was that he's very keen to compartmentalize people, or... like, to appreciate the core of a person, even if there's a ton of stuff around that core that he really hates. When Kagami tells Tendou that he'll have to fight Kabuto if he sees him again, Tendou is still like Okay But You're Coming To The Party Tonight Right. Like, Kabuto versus TheBee is a work thing, and Tendou's okay leaving it there and still being friends with Kagami. (Even the parts where Tendou thinks Kagami should lose his job... he still cares about Kagami! He's still his friend! Hating him as a worker and caring about him as a person are two separate things in Tendou's mind!) It's the same with Yaguruma, where he's able to want his rival to be the best version of himself. I think that's a very neat version of a Kamen Rider!