[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BRAVE: ~LET'S SURVIVE! REVIVAL OF THE BEAST RIDER SQUAD!~



Beating a woman with a lead pipe was gross. Attacking a woman in her shower was unnecessary. But I think it was when Emu was getting his face shredded with broken glass that I completely checked out of this Ex-Aid Fan Club one-shot.

The tone is Horror Movie, which just sits so uneasily beside Video Game Adventure that I can’t imagine why anyone involved thought it was a good idea. There’s some small tension to putting Asakura - arguably the most heinous Rider of all-time, what with all the serial killing - into this show about klutzy gamer doctors and saccharine mascots, but it almost immediately reveals itself as a terrible concept, because Asakura doesn’t care about that tension. It’s not a story that weaves Asakura into the narrative, or incorporates him into the aesthetic; it’s a story where Asakura throws away the central MacGuffin because it diminishes the enjoyment he derives from brutalizing people. You can’t ever harness Asakura, which is part of his charm/”charm” in Ryuki. He doesn’t want anything other than fighting. He instantly reorients the storytelling away from character-based drama and thematic relevance, and straight into Grand Guignol nonsense. They put a character who breaks stories into this story, and he broke it.

There’s honestly nothing in this episode worth talking about besides Asakura, which is a bummer. I don’t buy Hiiro’s declaration that he’s committed to medicine so that he can give other people a chance to follow their dreams, because I’ve watched more than two consecutive minutes of Ex-Aid. His sycophantic nurses withstanding his verbal abuse with good-natured We’ll Make Him Proud Someday obsequiousness feels like it’s glossing over an intensely troubling power-dynamic, bordering on an abusive relationship. And Foundation X’s appearance at the end could not be less welcome.

On the one hand, as a Ryuki fan, it’s nice to see Asakura come back and do his shtick, spout his catchphrases (yes, he is still vexed), and just generally dominate the screen with an unhinged performance and unstoppable charisma.

But on the other hand… this is an incredibly inappropriate show for him to make his triumphant return on. Like, Drive. Bring him back on Drive. Do not taint the colorful and jovial world of Ex-Aid with a story about Hiiro executing a serial killer. No thanks!