[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

I personally remember absolutely buying into the emotional moment of Misora crying over her part in the war happening, but I do in hindsight see how it might be too heavily done and too soon as well. And regarding Sento... I hope you don't get too tired of them running that Katsuragi well, because as far as I can recall, they never stop running it in some form or another.

I love Grease. And I don't mind the Crows, but I really love Grease and I'm happy he's already made a good first impression on you.

The Misora thing... I can't tell if the show knew it was lurching into melodrama, so they had the Crows joke about it, or if the show made it lurch into melodrama so the Crows could joke about it. I don't love either choice, but one's a realization that you screwed up, and one is trying so hard to subvert a trope that you embody the trope.

Grease is a very solidly realized character, after only two episodes. This show does a create job creating layered, compelling antagonists. No one's a one-note cackling lunatic, you know? No one just wants to blow everything up. That's why the Bikaiser stuff from the winter movie felt so un-Build, you know? I want my villains ("villains") to have more moves on them. Even Rogue straight up harrasses Sawa in his first scene! There's a lot of different types of villainy, and this show gets it.

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Originally Posted by catwhowalks

One thing I do like here is them showing that sometimes war is not about good vs evil, but good people can be caught up in both sides and still be at war. Grease is clearly portrayed as still being a hero and a good person, but also very much an enemy and on the opposite side of the war. It's surprisingly mature and sober in spite of the all joking and silliness that gets thrown in. In a way, said silliness is necessary. This is HEAVY stuff they are dealing with for a kids show.

Yeah, the show does a good job talking about various characters' motivations, but it also focuses on one key point: once a war starts, it really doesn't matter who's fighting for what reason, you have to win at all costs. Like, Sento can give his "Kamen Rider is an instrument of justice, not a weapon of war" and Military Adam Driver can just go *jerk-off motion* because it doesn't matter to anyone but Sento! All Touto as a country cares about is if you're going to fight! There's a, like, pragmatism to it all that I find refreshing. It's not some high-minded But Why Heroism, it's a boots-on-the-ground, problem-solving approach. War is complicated, and, yeah, it's cool that a kids' adventure show is willing to address that.

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Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

Rogue and Slark paid good money for that chair, there's no way he's abandoning it in Touto when he could he sitting in it.

800 Hokuto soldiers died on a mission to extract The Chair from Touto, he damn well better be sitting in it!

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Originally Posted by Kurona

Oooh yeah, Cross-Z Charge! Welcome to everyone's least favourite Build suit!

Cross-Z Charge doesn't work for me, and, honestly, Cross-Z doesn't work for me as a suit, either. I don't think it works in the show aesthetic.

Build is a suit design that's based around model kits, and the snapping on of different parts to "build" a different design. Rogue and Stalk, the transteam suits, have an industrial, bolts-and-screws motif, as well as pipes to vent steam. Grease is covered in, y'know, grease, an industrial lubricant.

Cross-Z is a dragon, while Cross-Z Charge is a jelly dragon.

It's just so outside the established aesthetic of the show, and it really bothers me. He feels like he's from a completely different show. This is Kamen Rider 101! Gaim is all fruits! Ex-Aid is all motocross video games! Drive is all cars! The main Rider informs the rest of the suit designs and the internal logic of the suits! Banjou did not get that memo, I guess!

(I also just, separate of the unified look, really think it's ugly. The mask, those shoulders, ugh.)

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

The downside of binging this show after it originally aired is that you missed out on the week of speculation on exactly what the deal was with Grease’s initial reaction to Misora. I remember a lot of people guessing he was her brother or something.

So, believe me or don't, but the first thing I thought when Grease does a double-take at Misora was, "Oh, he's a fan. He's a Miifan." The show was so clearly trying to make viewers think they shared some secret history, and I was, like, Naw. He follows her online, for sure. Mostly because this is a funny show, and that would be the funniest outcome.

More than that, though, I really like how it's instantly paid off (no waiting weeks to find out their shared secret), not some dour thing, and that it allows the darker second act to keep my favorite element of Misora's character. It's a great move, and I applaud it.