[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I feel like suprisingly little is coming to mind to say about this one, but it's a really great coda to the development Rintarou has had up to this point. Contrary to the image Saber created for itself early on, they really took their time building this whole arc for the guy, to the point we just did a two-parter where you could've easily imagined that being the big endpoint final form debut for Blades if they felt like it. Instead we get this fantastic extra step, with tons of gloriously kinetic Sugihara direction, and a script from a new writer that somehow manages to slip right in -- at the *end* of a storyline no less -- without feeling like it doesn't fit with what's happened before. Hiroki Uchida made a pretty darn great first impression for his work on Rider here.

Yeah, it's an episode I definitely wouldn't've minded the absence of (31's just so great for its emphasis on Rintaro's place within groups in general, and this specific group in particular), but I like how big of a win Rintaro gets here, in a way that wouldn't matter to almost any other Rider. Like, Ren wouldn't care what the rest of the guild thought of him; nor Ogami or Daishinji, for that matter. But this one's just to make Rintaro feel loved. It's nice when the big power-up comes from a character-focused place.