[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Like there's just this particularly clear intent to the script, which would definitely line up with the way Die is talking about it.

Yeah, it even gets to end in a very melancholy and final way, like Gene was an actual cast member. Normally, you'd end a thing like this with an upbeat Remember Why You Wanted To Sing montage, where JK rediscovers his love of performing with Gotou, and he trains a little harder to be good on his own merits instead of due to the proximity of cosmic energy/drug metaphors, and it's all very hopeful and open-ended. This one... definitely goes the other way! JK acknowledges that Gen asked him to keep at music, and he said no, preferring to leave it in the past and let his future reveal itself through his friendships. It's letting the musical aspirations be a way he was trying to find meaning, but that meaning became kind of a self-destructive trap, when the real meaning happened without him even realizing it. There's a maturity to that, and again: this was a JK story!!!