[Kamen Rider Die]

So, I'm still thinking about that last episode. I'm feeling like I missed talking about a major, positive element. I was so into how funny it was, I think I missed how poignant it was?

I mentioned before that the framework of the last episode, the "what do humans think of Agitos" part, was really smart. It's just, there's a thing they do with Hikawa and Kino and Shouichi that feels like a mission statement for the show, and a road map for the franchise.

Hikawa's inability to realize that Shouichi's Agito, it's funny for the obliviousness, but it's true to how Hikawa would think about Agito. Hikawa's conception of heroism is of someone like Kino: serious, strong, dedicated, cold, hardened by sacrifice and duty. That's the sort of masculinity Hikawa associates with heroism, and it's a reason he frequently doesn't see heroism within himself. That's an ideal he doesn't feel like he lives up to. Shouichi, he's 100% not that guy that Hikawa would see as Agito. Shouichi's goofy, empathetic, nurturing, sweet. Those aren't the things that Hikawa would see as a heroic nature.

The reveal, then, is that Hikawa's gotten it backwards. Kino's aloof nature doesn't speak to a dedication to justice, it's because he's a power-mad asshole. Shouichi's sweetness isn't because he's weak, it's because he cares about people so deeply he can't hide it. Kino wants power for himself at the expense of others, while Shouichi accepts power to help others. Kino isn't someone to emulate or idealize, Shouichi is.

That's a lesson Hikawa learns over the course of the episode (in the funniest way possible), but it feels more like a message to doubting fans, that Shouichi is a valid Kamen Rider, someone whose version of heroism might not be the taciturn badass version that Kino's coded as, but an equally real hero. Someone who believes in justice can still be funny, absent-minded, domestic, emotionally-present, and a contributing member of a household. There are a million different ways to be a hero, and every type of person is capable of heroism.

Kuuga was a show that was difficult for me to see a lot of what I liked about the Kamen Rider franchise, while Agito's been more of the things I love. This episode, in retrospect, it really feels like they're making a case for all those good parts of the franchise.