[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It was actually a nice coincidence to run out of contributors on the story where Tsukasa runs out of new Riders to team up with. I thought I was the Tsukasa in that comparison, but apparently I'm the Otoya?

No, no, you're definitely the Tsukasa here. Not only is there the absence of a real guest star to team up with, but much as Tsukasa was rewarded for journeying through nine worlds with gifts that feel hollow, you were rewarded for watching nine arcs of Decade with its first episode by your favorite writer, only for it to feel underwhelming. Heck, even for us, it's like the thread is back to the normal format, much like Tsukasa is back where he started, and yet it feels strangely off in this context. It's all checking out perfectly; you picked the perfect one of these to not have anybody for!

I wasn't exactly wowed by this one either. Tasaki's direction is as extraordinarily communicative and pleasing to the eye as ever, but I feel like the script definitely lets it down a bit, despite solid ideas at the core. Newsuke's dynamic with Tsukasa here also really left me longing for the days of Aikawa being on this show. Him being used as comic relief in the Den-O arc made sense because it was Den-O, but here, I mean, he's literally getting stepped on, and it's not really balanced out by him also being the heart of the group or anything.

I also found it hilarious that Kaitou's impetus for getting involved is literally just hearing the word "treasure", which is about as... direct as you can possibly write him, and I find it just as funny in retrospect how I mentioned the Kuuga episodes not letting you into Tsukasa's head when Inoue lets us hear him thinking for the sake of spelling out his emotional turmoil upfront.