[Fish Sandwich]

Man, you seriously did just get a dozen people all telling you the same story about growing up watching Power Rangers and how Decade was one of their first shows, didn't you? I mean, you picked "Kamen Rider Die" as a screen name, but I didn't realize you'd be living up to the whole classic lonely Rider archetype so much.

...And hey, speaking of names, one pretty exciting thing about the name "Diend"? That spelling isn't a mere stylistic choice, apparently! It's not only "the end", but a combination of the words die and end. ...Because, like, death is an ending too, or something? I don't actually know why. But maybe that trivia will make you feel some extra kinship with this possible(?) obsessive Rider fan, as he spices up the show with his phantom thief antics and ridiculous suit. Diend has one of those designs I li– or no, actually, I'm not going to even attempt to quantify it with any verb.

Diend's suit transcends that. It's a very straightforward copycat of Decade's design that immediately identifies him as part of that show, which was important in a series that has *everybody* in it. It's weird and Heisei-y with its lack of proper eyes (apparently they even almost designed him to not even have the shapes that imply eyes) and those yellow lines on his chest to look like the number 11 in contrast to Decade's X for 10. Kaitou is apparently trying to one-up Tsukasa in the most literal way possible. The cyan body color also keeps the subtractive color theme going by contrasting Decade's magenta, obviously. (They were also considering using yellow, even.) ...Oh, and he also looks like an original model PlayStation 2, so that's a thing. Pretty sure that last one wasn't intentional though.

His gun is sweet though. I can easily quantify that. One of my favorite transformation devices in Rider, and I honestly prefer it to the already cool DecaDriver. The motion of it extending is just so cool. There's definitely a lot to love about Diend for me, between aspects of his design (I like blue things), the fun character concept, and even just that Diend marks Eitoku's very first big secondary Rider suit acting gig, but with all that in mind, he's still never quite been a favorite for me.

Maybe the same deal with these episodes overall? I've always remembered them very clearly, and they're quite fun, but I also agree the story doesn't quite rise up to any truly amazing heights. That being said, I'm pretty sure I felt they did a better job than you guys seem to? Like, in terms of the Faiz themes, I mean, that is a dense show, and I see huge echoes of how I felt about the Ryuki arc in Die's opinion on how they handled that impossible task, but here, I feel a lot better about it. You've got a main character hiding a secret because he fears his own identity (I kind of view this Takumi's personality as being like Takkun and Kiba mashed together, too.), and you've got a focus on dreams that's absolutely true to that part of the show.

Like, Tsukasa's moral of the fortnight here, about the importance of protecting those tiny hopes and wishes we have? That's literally the note Faiz ended its entire story on, and I really enjoyed how not-Mari's love of photography played into the plot. I'd have even been upset if Newsuke was the one explaining the lesson here, because it's very specifically appropriate that Tsukasa can feel a bit of an extra connection to her through that shared passion, and express what he's trying to say in a manner nobody but him could. Of all the jerk Rider protagonists out there, I've always liked Tsukasa because I feel he's sort of a warmer person all around than most of them, despite how much he enjoys giving people trouble, and that cameraman shtick is key to that. I mentioned how I've been reading the episode guides from back in the day as part of this, and it was especially enlightening to read the one previewing episode 8, which details the process of how the staff hashed out why he takes pictures, and how their big breakthrough was Tasaki chiming in to say it's how he expresses his affection, in his own weak way. The camera is like a wall he puts between himself and the world(s), and that distance is reflected in how he has a camera he looks down into, away from what's being captured, as well as the "bad" nature of the photos themselves. But he takes photos all the same, because he loves the world(s), no matter how hard it is for him to show it.

So yeah, I don't know, I really enjoyed that aspect of the story, even if it was only one small aspect of it. Beyond that, I think it's still very solid on its own merits, and just plain fun, the way Decade always is. That tennis match, man! It was something else! (Also literally a reference to something else, possibly? I understand Masahiro Inoue was in some Prince of Tennis stage musical thing prior to Decade?)

Oh, and Ride the Wind IS Decade's song, by the way, not Diend's, and you'll be happy to know the full version directly incorporates bits from his regular BGM into a guitar solo, on top of generally having the same Latin flair.