[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Androzani: Shinji's generic
Fish: Shinji was fresh
Die: Shinji is Agito


I just love these threads sometimes

I honestly felt a little bad, criticizing Shinji after Fish Sandwich just did a whole He Was A Pioneer thing. Bad timing on my part, for sure, since...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fredbob392

Oh yeah, Shinji was definitely a bit stupid in that episode with being dead certain that Ren was trying to kill kids and refusing to accept other possibilities. Honestly, Shinji's a bit of an idiot overall. Like Ryuga though, he's a well meaning idiot, and he gets better over time. He's like a big dumb puppy

...I genuinely like how flawed the show is making Shinji, in usually charming ways. (Not in Episode 4, though! He's no one's favorite Rider in that one!) I like how bad he is at being a functional adult, how kind-of sloppy and dumb he is. (The screencaps for the last episode were almost Shinji trailing Ren, calling him RON repeatedly. Like, right up to the last two minutes of the episode, that's what it was going to be.) I like how childish his little scooter is, how emasculating it looks compared to Ren's bike. I like that he's making mistakes and learning from them. I think that's... it can be a problematic choice, depending on how dumb a mistake he makes in a given story, but it creates some unpredictable moments. Like, I thought Shinji deciding to team-up with Ren because he wants to give him a chance to prove himself while still not being sure he's not a bloodthirsty monster, that was a cool choice for the story.

Mostly, though, I like the stuff with Ren from that story a lot more. The actor makes so many smart decisions. He could go over the top, make it seem like Ren's going to eviscerate Shinji, but there's just this feeling I get that Ren think's it's hilarious how ill-equipped and out-of-his-depth Shinji is. I can see Ren thinking, "Holy shit, this dude is going to get himself immediately killed, I have got to see this." Like, he's annoyed at Shinji while Shinji is slowly winning him over. That chemistry, the grudging acceptance that Ren feels himself doling out, it's so solid. That shit, it's totally earned. I don't at all believe in Shinji's dumb choices in the episode when it comes to Ren, but I completely believe in Ren's change(-ish) of heart.