[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fredbob392

Happy to see you enjoyed Build overall. It's my favorite Rider series, though admittedly I've only watched about 5, so there might be a better one I haven't watched yet. The ending worked for me, the change from government conspiracy to civil war to battle against an alien abomination felt better paced watching it week to week. I loved how it both gave things a happy ending, with everyone back to life, while still making their sacrifices count, with the all but Sento and Ryuga not remembering anything, though I appreciated the little hint that Misora still found Sento strangely familiar. Also, I definitely recommend watching the stage show. It's really fun, and fits well into canon.

I wonder sometimes if I'm more forgiving because I blew through this series, or less forgiving. I think it's maybe both? In the micro, I'm willing to say "those were fun scenes, there's a lot of good here, even if it's not all working", while in the macro I found myself saying "this plot, this storyline, I don't think it's working, despite some fun scenes".

The pacing, that change up from small Touto stories to bigger Japan stories to epic universe stories, felt problematic to me in retrospect. So much of the core starting narrative feels resolved in episode 22, and the "Banjou is a fugitive" arc into the Hokuto War arc felt really fluid and like a natural consequence of the characters' actions. After 22, the Seito War arc into the Evol(t) arc, it frequently felt both repetitive, with the Seito War, and like it was losing the characters in the spectacle and shocking reveals. Nothing that ruined the show for me, but the back half felt way more top-down plotted (things happening to the characters) and way less bottom-up plotted (things happening because of the characters).

The scene where Misora is trying to remember Sento is one of the most Build things to happen in that finale. It moves from:

-Sadness, as Misora doesn't really know Sento, one of her dearest friends
-Hope, as Misora feels that connection, somehow
-Joy, that look on Sento's face that maybe there's still a place for him in this new world
-Humor, because HA HA it's just that he looks like the frontman for Lynks
-Respect, because goddamn, did they really just cap off a hugely dramatic moment with a joke callback to an episode from almost a year ago?

It's cool that this series is one of your favorites! There's a bunch of franchise high-points in it, and judging from the recent poll, you're not alone in your enjoyment of it. If you don't mind my asking, which other series have you watched?