[Fish Sandwich]

Faiz 15-16:

This is probably the first truly notable ~misunderstanding~ in Faiz, and I'm a little unsure of how to tackle this. I'm watching this show again in part so I can reevaluate it, and as such I've been trying to avoid making any sweeping judgments of its quality or running my mouth off about how everybody else just doesn't "get" it. But I've gotta speak my mind on how much I'm still loving this show, and while I still can't speak for what comes later, I find this stretch of the show fascinating.

First of all, the way Faiz structures itself is always a delight, and simple things like Takumi and Yuuji sort of "crossing over" into each other's cast in 15 after they both got defeated in the last episode, and then also swapping back right at the same time, is super neat, and I wanted to give a quick shout out to it. Moving on to the actual meat here, I adore Takumi's character development in these episodes. This is where it starts becoming apparent just how big a heart Takkun has, and while I'm sure plenty would be eager to call him out for not explaining what's going through his head here to Mari and Keitarou, this is all completely in-character for him. He's a closed-off person to begin with, is currently processing a lot, and is also being screwed over by Kusaka deliberately manipulating the situation to make himself look like the good guy. Which works great on Mari, who hasn't seen Kusaka's dark side and still thinks of him as that defenseless little kid, and slightly less so on Keitarou, who likes Kusaka too, but is also more active about trying to get Takumi to communicate properly.

I'm still not discounting the possibility that I'll be eating my words later down the line, but, at least right now, I can't see this as anything other than developed characters behaving in ways that line up perfectly with their very human faults. It's driving the story forward, and it's resulting in further growth for the cast, so I'm happy.

もちろん、嬉しくない時にはファイズ翻訳ミスコーナーです～！今日の翻訳ミスはこれだ！



「木場さんなら、見捨てたりしないと思うから。」

Yeah, Yuka's dialogue gets messed up a lot. Just for context, this is from when Yuka and Kaidou are looking for Yuuji and find Takumi instead. Kaidou recognizes him from when they fought earlier in the show, and tells Yuka they don't have time to bother helping him, and Yuka's counterargument here is actually more along the lines of "if Kiba were here, he wouldn't abandon him". Pointing out that Kaidou would've been happy to grab Yuuji out of a river is a complete non-observation when they both know that already and came here planning to do so.

What this is actually about, which is critical to the plot of the episode, is how much Yuka looks up to Yuuji's unwavering sense of morality. Throughout these episodes Yuka is trying to shake off her inner demons and become a better person, and it should really go without saying that the pervy snake dude is not the one acting as a role-model for her.

W 15-16:

I don't think this is going to be as controversial as me defending Faiz, but, uh, this arc is a masterpiece. This is the first time Double pulls out all the stops and ups the stakes. It starts with a simple enough sounding plot about protecting the good name of Kamen Rider, which would already be amazing, because the only Heisei Rider up to this point to treat that title with any gravitas was Blade, which just goes to show how serious Double was about going back to basics. But then you get "tricked", and things go completely to crap at the halfway point, moving into a second half where Philip has to act on his own, letting him grow as a character by showing him in a position where he has to call all the shots himself, leading up to FangJoker's (televised) debut, a form that on top of looking sick legitimizes Philip as the co-protagonist by using his body instead of Shoutarou's.

There are not enough good words to say. This two-parter is so slick, it effortlessly slipped in a compelling explanation for why Double announces his finishing moves during the climax like it was nothing at all. I'd be here all day trying to point out everything in it that works, so let me just mention what a delightful example of Seiji Takaiwa's suit acting prowess it is seeing Philip's side of Double try to keep Shoutarou's side from punching out Jinno at the end. Two characters in one body is nothing after playing four, I'm sure, but still, it's always fun to see him do this stuff.