[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, the whole thing is incredibly contrived (he sprays down the entire office, something that would take minutes of sustained action) and serves no narrative purpose. Why did that need to happen, when it doesn't really affect anything in the story? It's another Shinji Shouldn't Be Living There scene, sure, and that's a storyline, but it's too dumb to believe in. That's when comedy gets bad for me, when it's too ludicrous to buy into.

Well, I said before it's a plot point, and it's answered in episode 8 where Shinji moves to Atori. Beginning of bromance lol.


Shinji snoring also...never enough of "annoying" traits to people in-universe.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

No, sorry, I meant Kitaoka. Dude is on the run and happens to wander into the one tea shop he'd be recognized in? How was Auntie getting these people to all show up at once? Was Ren out there blocking traffic, pulling people out of their cars, pushing them into the tea shop?

I think he just came to Atori as a regular customer honestly, but with Shinji (someone troublesome to him) there, makes it too uncomfortable for him there and canceled himself to order in Atori (you see before Shinji pins him, he sits on a table like regular customer does). As you saying he's a fugitive I think no; as his ego shows, he generally has a good reputation to the public as the best lawyer, but only a particular group like the Sakaura suits had a problem with him.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, all true, it's not like she's a morose character previously. If some parental figure showed up, referred to me as a teenager, and took over my life, I don't think I'd be smiling much, either.

This is one of the reasons why I vehemently talked about Yui's Shinji-level good deeds before, before all of this came up. Glad you noticed that she's not a morose character previously though. And for bolded one, the one that made me worked up is that she described herself as "she's just that kind of person she is", not because of Auntie situation or something. Though she IS a teenager regardless Auntie being wrong or not (19 year old). And not only for Yui, I also talked about how Shinji thinks her smiling is weird -_-

Though like I said before, different writer for episode 7, and an infamous one (Inoue...).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Obviously, a lot of that is down to Kitaoka. Kamen Rider Scumbag is maybe one of my favorite secondary Riders of all time? After maybe three episodes? Every scene he’s in kills, from his mentor relationship with Shinji, through his gross come-ons with Yui and Reiko, to his Don’t Hate The Player shit with Ren. He’s so perfectly smarmy, with his Greed Is Good ethos and his manservant and that he hates kids… why is it that everything that’s horrible about Kitaoka is so awesome? (Honestly, I felt like a total asshole watching these episodes. Every time Kitaoka or Ren were dicks, which was so often, it was cracking me up. There’s a point where Ren’s being horrible to Shinji, when Shinji’s been falsely imprisoned, and Yui goes “Leave him alone, Ren,” and I out loud said to the show, “Do NOT leave him alone, Ren. Never leave him alone.” I love it when Riders are awful to each other! That’s what Ex-Aid did, and by God it’s the right way to do it.) These two episodes are chock-a-block with Kitaoka, and they are sterling. Kamen Rider Scumbag forever.

Kitaoka is tertiary, not secondary btw, Ren is the secondary. And well, with you being cracked on with their dickery, I thought at first you won't like Shinji because he's not like those, and also like what Kitaoka thinks about him at the end, Shinji's righeous ideals make him boring as pedestrians. And even Ren met his limits on his douchebaggery as shown in his episode. He thinks Kitaoka is a dick, and actively criticizing him and calling him out for his acts "the best at his job, the worst at being human". Now again with Kitaoka treating Shinji to his life to get his charm but, well at least Shinji got something free even if Kitaoka doesn't do it to care for him, and voila, the first time, Rider battle but not fighting, but ideology clash! Shinji also uses his role as a journalist to take infos, taking notes. Kitaoka's gross come-ons to Yui and Reiko does come to an advantage though, with Reiko being the one asking him to represent Shinji, making him easier to oblige due to Kitaoka liking her.

And extra points of Kitaoka being a dick, when he came to Atori to force them to pay, he didn't know yet that Shinji was a Rider and that Yui and Ren were related to Rider stuff (which are all his enemies), so as far as he knows, he was just harassing innocent civilians and because they all need him, he can do whatever he wants there.

I admit Ren's dick moment here is funny, like telling how Shinji living there is the best for them with him "seemingly" comfortable and Ren can sleep well. Also regarding Yui to stay away from Shinji that she may get kidnapped, as Shinji is another Rider and that's like in episode 6 (and Ren genuinely thinking Shinji is dangerous to Auntie). With someone like Ren accusing Shinji as "villainous criminal", it should've been easy to talk back to Ren saying how he's the one actually thuggish and having criminal demeanor.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The other big thing now, I guess, is the tea shop? We're there a lot now? Masked Rider Ryuki seems all-in on the tea shop, and I’m of two minds on it. (Also, why are they all reading maps when Shinji shows up late at night? Are they all taking a trip together? Who just kills time by looking at maps?) My gut reaction is Too Many Settings. We’ve already got ORE, do we really need another workplace for comedy? I still don’t love Auntie, despite her schtick being toned down a lot, and I feel like we’ve got plenty of space to tell Shinji Is Bad At His Job stories with ORE. It feels redundant, I guess is what I’m saying. On the other hand, the tea shop scenes do an outstanding job of fleshing out the Ren/Shinji rivalry, so it’s hard to be too mad that they exist. If anything, it makes it seem like maybe the ORE stuff should go? The tea shop, it just features more primary characters, seems more convenient for a lot of the Rider Battle storytelling. I don’t know. I’m not loving them trying to do two workplace comedies in one show, and the tea shop just feels more economical, story-wise.

ORE will be needed for something....later. Regarding Auntie, I have to give a crack when she points out that Ren looks far more dangerous than Shinji (very true) when Ren thinks it's dangerous to let Shinji live there. Have also to point out the waiter scenario with primary/secondary rivalry inspires the same thing on Gaim. Also as Auntie is a traveler, so reading maps for next trip or something?

How did Ren know Shinji's shoes are dirty there? I usually check if shoes are dirty by checking its bottom. Also Auntie is abnormally open, she just lets Shinji stay on Atori, and later, Ren, after showing off his skills. That would mean he had a waiter background before being quit/fired before. Ren's waiter outfit also ftw! (more because of his dedication to the job)

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

That said, holy shit am I not loving how the show’s been using Yui. The more she’s left out of the Rider Battle story, the more she’s just some girl for Ren to feel protective of or Auntie to talk over, the more frustrated I get with seeing her. I don’t want to feel like that! I liked Yui in the first few episodes! Since Ren and Shinji aren’t doing a whole lot of monster fighting recently, and no one wants to clue her in on the Rider vs Rider stuff, it’s like the show can’t figure out what she’s there for, so she gets the worst The Girl story beats. (It’s not, like, Mai-from-Gaim bad, but it’s getting to the point where she might as well be a literal object for men to protect and covet, like a sturdy cabinet, or a commemorative plate. She’s barely a character right now!) Between spending all of her spare time staring at a picture of her brother and not saying a word when Kitaoka is an unbelievable creep, I’m not at all sure why the show is putting Yui in the doghouse.

As Ren said in the episode (to defend herself for Shinji accusing him of being jealous), he also keeps Yui for his advantage in Rider War, due to her being Shiro's little sister (but as ep. 6 shows, he cares more about her than that, enough for Ren's to suppress his more immoral traits for her; morality pet)

Not saying a word? Well, that'd be fixed with something on the next episode (something I liked about that episode there). And as for her role, after that next episode... Though if you talking about her role here, did everyone just do the same thing in this episode? Yui, Ren, Reiko, Okubo, Auntie, all trying to get Shinji out from the prison?

Also gotta have to say something here; despite expressing some distrust for Shinji in episode 4 before (which probably should be proven true with Shinji being accused as a kidnapper), she's the only one among Shinji's group that genuinely tried to help him and made him feel better, only bringing up the good news. Ren was a dick (sorry if I'm pointing this out cockblocking the Ren's comedy dick moments here), Reiko suspects Shinji as the kidnapper and is uncaring (only thinks about it being a scoop), and Okubo is a bit better, but still suspects Shinji for kidnapping Shimada.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

If only she had got the kind of attention that Shimada got in part of this story. That self-date night! Hilarious. I probably could’ve watched another ten minutes of her having an incredibly romantic evening with a giant stuffed doll she won at an amusement park. It was, sincerely, better than just about any sequence Yui’s been in since episode three. I’m glad the show’s finding room to write fun stuff for one woman on this show…

Shimada doing what weebs doing with their waifu pillow, replace the waifu pillow with a stuffed doll. And her being kidnapped is a testament of Shinji's hard luck. Him being just arrested without giving a word. So this is a comedy moment you appreciate?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Oh, hey , Rider fights, lemme talk about those for a minute. There, uh, aren’t a lot of them in these two episodes. There’s the Ryuki/Scumbag (I know he’s got a different name but they ain’t said it yet on the show so he’s Kamen Rider Scumbag in my heart) fight, after Ryuki knocks out the last Mirror Zebra, and a minute or so of a Knight/Scumbag/Like A Mirror Boar Or Something fight at the end of episode nine. The Ryuki/Scumbag fight, that’s the meaty one. I really like how each Rider (so far?) has a different color base suit. Big bright red, or green, or orange, plus a black suit for The Cool One. It’s a great visual cue, that These Are The Riders. From that one-color base suit, there’s plenty of room to layer on gears or vents or grills or whatever. It’s a great, flexible, dynamic design philosophy.

Speaking of philosophy, also Shinji and Kitaoka's idelology clash in place of Rider fight!

Can we also talk about how Zebraskull seemingly brutalizes a victim? That only gets obscured by a window view. Yeah, Kamen Rider is for kids, totally.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Kitaoka comes off as a very weasley, intellectual character, so watching him beat the hell of Shinji rounds him out as an antagonist. He can be cunning, but he doesn’t have to be. But, like, just because he can win in a fair fight doesn’t mean he won’t stack the deck (reference!) by cheating. It’s… he’s so great.

And also can we also talk about Goro being the contrast to the 2nd Kamen Rider Scumbag, after Yui to the 1st Kamen Rider Scumbag (Ren)? Kitaoka hates kids (we don't know why tho), but Goro treats the kid opposite into what Kitaoka does, also contrasting his thuggish looks.