[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I mean it's better than having a good old flashback. They would have to do an effort to search for their memories and realize what’s really important to them. It shows the character's self-exploration, it'll be important for Ren later, with what path he should take.

At least a flashback would be able to get to the point! This episode's just so flabby and drawn-out. It's a lot of stalling until the final minute. I can't imagine a different way of telling this story would be as ineffective, dramatically.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I mean isn't that obvious this affects her in the episode? She's having even more fears of how the battle will affect Shinji and Ren (first Ren got amnesia here, next...they face each other or worse, killed?) that she started to actually make a move and investigate Shiro (who instigates the battle) by herself to try stopping the war?

I don't know that I'd count "my friend has a traumatic head injury and problems with his memory, I'll let the dude who's known him for three months take the lead on this, I have my brother's disappearance to (finally?) investigate" as showing how Yui cares about Ren, but, okay, sure. It's just, it feels yet again like Yui's being sidelined into a less-important part of the story, the kind with zero action. She just watches Shinji run after Ren, like she's been shackled to the tea shop, and then a few minutes later she just leaves anyway. Why is this show so mad at Yui?! Did the Shinji and Ren actors refuse to work with her for some reason?

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

You may feel that those "only finishes asking a question", but those will be much more important later.

But that's the problem with this episode. It's all This Will Be Important Later, and that makes for a boring Right Now. It's a whole episode for gathering ingredients, but you can't eat the cake until next week. Bad story construction!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Probably because past episodes only show 1 victim at a monster's range (besides it's a variation where Zenobiter is the one monster with huge gluttony, variations existed in other monster types in other series). The reason that monsters attacks are random is because Ryuki's motif and concept is horror. As per horror it's meant to create fear and terror to the audience. This is how Mirror Monsters work, they stealthily work from reflective surfaces to snatch the victim, instead of directly appearing and attacking others (I mean that type of monster attacks seen in other series are also "random" right, they appear in certain place to wreck havoc). The horror part is exactly the random part, they can appear from any reflective surface; ranging from mirrors, windows, any body of water, computer screen, etc. while you're just doing your daily activities.

You can have horror with a logic behind it. Even monster attacks need rules. Like, Agito, not that great with the monster plots, but there was a logic behind them. Same thing with Kuuga. This, it's just, Sometimes A Monster Pops Out. Okay? I guess that's a choice? Like, if there was some way the monsters hunted, or the type of prey they chose, or something. This, it feels like a bizarre escalation, that what few rules it seemed like existed have vanished. If the monsters can, at one time, kill somewhere between one and infinity people, I almost stop caring if the heroes can defeat them. It's too nebulous to care about, too fictional to invest in.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Other than that I have to talk about the fighting choreograph that interests me in this episode. Where Zenobiter utilizes his boomerang to negate any Vent cards a Rider use (knocks away Ryuki's Sword Vent), but later Shinji tricks him by summoning Strike Vent (where he knocks again) TO buy time to pick his Sword Vent. So Shinji's your usual dumb-at-daily-life-but-good-at-fighting MC.

Credit where credit's due, yes, that is a cool part of the episode. It's a great point, when a Rider can outwit an enemy to gain an advantage. I just wish the monster meant more to me when Ryuki blew it up.