[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Seeing Ryutaros' delusion fall apart with him crying after Airi doesn't recognize him is one of the saddest moments I remember from this show. His delusion of taking Ryoutarou's identity as his own and Airi being his big sister made him feel less alone but even though he has good intentions, he can't be the Ryoutarou she knows. Now he has to deal with that truth, that playing pretend can't give him what he wants, which shows that there is a limit to what imagination can do. There is still that thing called reality which people have to fight and the reality for him is that he comes from a future without a family. That's not going to change unless he actually shows people who he really is. I have a lot of pity for him.

Yeah, this story did a ton to humanize Ryutaros. He's given a problem he can't tantrum his way out of, and the end result is him carrying this disappointment with him in secret. That's heartbreaking! I think I almost lost it when he's acting like a brat on the DenLiner to avoid having to apologize twice, ha ha, everything's back to normal... and then he's just unrolling his drawing of Airi, delicately, preciously, and staring at this sister who now knows he exists, but doesn't feel anything for him. It's this minor positive change (she finally sees Ryutaros for himself) that ruined everything for him (she knows that Ryutaros isn't Ryotaro). Incredibly sad!

That said, if there's one non-fight-geography problem in this episode (HOW DO RYUTAROS AND YUUTO LEAVE THE TRAIN TERMINAL), it's that this is another Airi story that doesn't have much use for Airi as a person. It's about Ryuta's feelings about Airi, and about Yuuto's feelings about Airi, but Airi doesn't get much of a voice in this story of two people treating her as a prize. Also incredibly sad! But for different reasons!