[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

He's not really characterized quite like a straight hero, but is definitely not a villain, and that's a sort of character you I don't see too often in stories that otherwise neatly file people into groups that way. If you really step back and look at it, I feel like a lot of his status as an antagonist in his debut is owed entirely to the show's choice of perspective. In a lot of other narratives, the hard-working team player would be the one the audience is meant to cheer on against the emotionally detached man seemingly relying on endless good fortune, right? Yaguruma losing his cool because of Tendou looks bad up until you consider that it's Tendou. I think the show is smart about how it plays this, because it never totally feels like it's outright condemning either side, which is presumably why even Tendou himself feels bad enough to encourage Yaguruma a bit after everything goes to crap for him.

Of the four episodes Yaguruma's been in, for the last three of them I think the only word that comes to mind to describe his character... it's not Hero or Villain or Antihero, it's Tragic. He's almost immediately revealed to be someone who self-sabotages, who'd rather risk disgrace going for an A+ than live with the indignity of an A.

He's a fascinating character when compared to Tendou, since Tendou's whole approach to encouraging others is Achieve Individually, Succeed Together, versus Yaguruma's approach of Achieve Together, Succeed Individually. There's a feeling to both that the two men want others to succeed, but Tendou preaches an enlightened self-interest that could come off as self-centered, if the show weren't intent on characterizing it as independence and self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, it's the parts of the show that start to poke holes in Yaguruma's perspective where I feel the most interested in his character, where the idea of a team effort starts to look more like a cheer squad for a man who's less altruistic than he thinks.

Yaguruma in a Tendou story is where I'm way, way more interested in his journey.