[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

The seemingly involuntary aspect of being a Donbrother (Haruka can't get rid of her new magic sunglasses, Tsuyoshi gets teleported from work against his will to go fight again, etc) seems like a really interesting foundation to build a team upon, yknow?

I think this was a great touch, because it makes all the obligatory Team aspects feel more incremental. Like, two-thirds of the team as shown in this episode don't really have a clue what they're doing? Or that they're even a team? And that's a really killer hook for a newbie like me: The Sentai That Don't Know They're A Team.

Having them each view their superheroic identities with different emotions -- enthusiasm, trepidation, borderline-exhaustion -- creates a space to redefine (or, for this one cubist-monstrosity who is new to the franchise, define) what the Team is for, and how/if it could be a benefit.

Like, I don't want to say this with Episode 1, but: Faiz. Faiz was a show that was intensely skeptical of basic heroic concepts about tokusatsu, and then it spent an entire year creating the circumstances for a withdrawn, surly, wishes-strangers-would-get-kicked-in-the-head-by-a-horse of a guy to become a world-saving, idealistic hero. It did that by interrogating every preconceived notion, every inherited bit of philosophy. It made the characters in it work for everything (except power-ups), and it was the better story for it.

All of that is to say: YES, make these weirdos work for every bit of camaraderie, THANK YOU.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

(This is such an odd place to add this tidbit, but that one shot from the OP, where Taro is dancing in front of a screen displaying the other team members dancing-I know that's gonna bug the hell out of me until the show's over, that can't just be a stylistic choice, right?)

Yeah, that shot! Real weird! Probably super on purpose!

(I could theorize that it's to indicate that Tarou's whole Hero's Journey thing risks rendering the people caught up in it as something less than their full selves -- if all connections are equally valuable, does it flatten out true friendships? -- but there's not nearly enough to go on. But I like thinking about it! Thanks!)