[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tokumonkey

I get what the episode was going for: Asumu didn't have to become a Rider to have a fulfilling future. And that'd make sense on any other show, but this is Kamen Rider, wherein character growth is typically marked by becoming a Rider or getting a power-up. It was tremendously unsatisfying to watch him essentially fail at the point of being a Kamen Rider protagonist.

And right there you accidentally stumbled on why I love that part of the ending. Hibiki was conceived as a very atypical Rider show and Asumu not becoming an Oni was very in line with that. I don't think it was some brilliantly planned out conclusion but the series up to that point seemed to support the idea. It fits the coming of age theme in my mind to have him try a path out only to find it isn't really his thing.

I'm largely in agreement with everyone else about Hibiki's second half and especially the finale itself but I'll defend that element of it to the death. Especially the very last scene where Hibiki sums up the point of the whole show by telling Asumu "you don't have to be an Oni to be my student" with Shounen Yo playing for the first time in several dozen episodes.

Hibiki was the last of the Heisei Riders I played catch up on and while it was a bit of a bumpy ride that final scene felt straight out of the first half of the series and, for me personally, not only ended Hibiki on a good note, but my entire run of having whole Kamen Rider shows to binge at my leisure (excluding the Showa stuff obviously). With that kind of pressure I think it's impressive I liked it as much as I did.