[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 18 - “DESTRUCTION, REASON, AND EEL WHIPS”

It’s a sweetly sad story, this girl who realized that she had an unrequited crush but still couldn’t help dreaming of both requitement and crushing. She swooned over a man and wanted to destroy her rival, even though literally no one else knew they were in this teen girl’s story of heartbreak. (I especially like that her teacher and his wife never learn about how Shiratori accidentally put them both in danger. This is a story about her choices, not anyone else’s culpability or judgment.) Shiratori’s Yummies are just her adolescent rage and shame bubbling to the surface, which makes her the most perfect victim yet for these autonomous metaphors.

Dunno if you'd think making the assumption of being in love because of Shiratori being a teenage girl is something reductive against a gender, and I do see a handful of people thinking it's reductive if a girl character is made to be in love with someone. And it seems that love is more commonly used to refer to romantic interest in someone else, but more rarely about something like, for example, compassion for others, or even family affection, which can fit to people like Eiji too in why he'd take care of others, he's an all-loving hero type.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Where Eiji constantly reaches out to pull people to their feet, Date exists for those occasions when you have to pick yourself up off the ground if you want to have any hope of getting better. Eiji shouldn't fight this battle for Shiratori, and Date gets that. Date is a guy who understands that needing help and needing a chance to help ourselves are two very different things, and self-reliance exists alongside the selflessness of someone like Eiji.

Here Date seems to be someone who has better social skills than Eiji (it's common that the main Rider types wouldn't excel in anything other than their virtue, Eiji's the social part, many others are about being naive/idiot), where he gets through Shiratori better. And Eiji's the one in the wrong in this episode too, that Date calls him out for being insensitive to blurt out Shiratori's true desire. If not for Date's happy-go-lucky demeanor, maybe he can be condemned more by the fanbase at this point for wanting money (or just anything else, for KR formula) and also being an obstacle to the protagonist regardless of what (Date did say to not involve others in reaching desires), Ankh (despite him being a much worse scumbag, but he's the lead), as Eiji has no need for collecting medals, though Date did refuse Eiji's offer to work together, albeit it's due to Eiji's type.