[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

A little girl is the only survivor of a cruise (or something?) that has everyone else onboard disappear. All she says is that a man was there, and everyone was taken by three monsters. Shinji assumes it’s Asakura, enlists Ren, and they go out on a heavily-covered-by-journalists trip by the police to recreate the initial voyage and see if they can discover the truth behind the disappearances. Asakura’s on the boat, the crew freaks out, people start disappearing, everything points to Asakura… except maybe it’s not him? It’s not his monsters, and he’s basically calling dibs on them, ignoring Knight and Ryuki so he can feed his hungry monsters. Also, the little girl says Asakura saved her?!

So this is the time where, a dead topic usually ORE only follows is actually popular, with all the other journalists there. It's not that often for Shinji to ask for an Atori crew to help his ORE job... And also, does this remind you to the "Ren amnesia" 2-parter where everyone on a public transportation disappears except for one person (and the time you complained about how Mirror Monster works by that, yet it's maybe similar too here)? Asakura should've probably just feed his monster upon humans considering his morality, especially when he's extremely close to dying, but I guess that he likes it hard way (or rather, fun way in form of fighting as Rider, as seen where he gives his Rider opponents a chance outside Rider fight)? This is one thing even Asakura doesn't (but perfectly can as seen with Akira) do as habit unlike another evil Rider (Scissors).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There’s a bunch of mysteries left over in this one (what happened on the previous trip, most of all), so it’s tough to talk too much about the plot other than recounting it. Hard to know how I feel about some of this story without knowing how it ends. Still, I did really enjoy the plot of this one. It’s a tense locked-room mystery for most of it, Ren and Shinji running all over a boat, trying to figure out what’s going on. There’s a real patience to the storytelling, holding off on the monster reveal until very late in the episode, leaving Asakura’s involvement an open question. Keeping Asakura largely off-screen helps the story in two ways, building tension for the monster reveal, and also leaving the nature of his connection to Mika mysterious. Even at the end, we don’t really know what Asakura did before Shinji and Ren showed up, so every scene with Mika and Asakura is as baffling to us as it is to the heroes. Why isn’t she scared of Asakura? Is he really blameless? It’s a possibility that seems more likely than the previous time folks thought Asakura had a heart of gold, that’s for sure. Things are kept appropriately open-ended in this story, with a few theories and no real answers. Everything’s subjective, which is a nice way for Ryuki to do a monster plot.

Asakura is a red herring, people talk about Buzzstingers (the monster trio, yellow is Bee, red is Hornet, blue is Wasp), and he's the one having 3 monsters as Shinji knows, but there's actually other monster trio. And as usual, nobody is allowed to know more about the monsters. Well overall, this is just the mystery stuff which is one of the main trait of Ryuki, in numerous previous 2 parters. And no Shinji (and audience)! Don't be baited again by Asakura! Though to his defense, he does that for the well-being of Mika (requiring Asakura to calm down), instead of Asakura. And even aside from that when asking for Asakura's morality, Asakura pushes Mika out of the way in this episode... and she seems fine too. Poor Shinji though, the kids he want to take care about are all confiding more into the morally ambiguous Riders and refusing to contact with anyone else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, in fairness, this is a very Ryuki version of a monster plot. While the monster reveal is a nice surprise, and the how/why hasn’t been fully explained yet, this is still a plot about whether or not Asakura can be redeemed. It’s not about Mika, exactly, or anyone the monster killed. She’s a victim to protect, and a way to ask questions about Asakura. (It’s not really a story that does much to explore Shinji or Ren. This is, despite him not being in a ton of it, 100% an Asakura episode.) I guess you could make the argument that basically every monster plot in Kamen Rider is about the Kamen Rider, that doesn’t sound wrong to me, but the ones I like do more disguise it a bit. This one managed to get me thinking about the monster’s agenda more than most Ryukis, so I’ll thank it for that.

Obviously this is an Asakura episode. Shinji and Ren are just his judges (and again a bet between them if Shinji's ways are sensible or not). Battle-wise, Ryuki and Knight scans his Final Vent card but it somehow gets negated after the Buzzstingers escapes (while Ouja prepares Unite Vent, they're more scared of that?!)... Also previously, can we talk about how something (Buzzstingers) manages to survive Final Vent unharmed, knocking Ouja back?!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Not much else in this one, besides a funny fight over the Ore Journal MacBook and whether it’s called Gosaku (ugh) or White Milky (YES), and Yui’s cute new hairdo (a million times better than the last 30 episodes, please keep it past summertime).

And there goes next of Megumi's victims, undeserving one in Shimada, maybe even extends to whole ORE as they depend on computers. Always side with Shimada regarding computers. And apparently Megumi's idiocy runs in family too.


How about Yui with long hair instead?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

First of all, I love that the only reason she became a secretary is because she wanted to be a journalist and accidentally took classes to become a secretary instead. That concept, of her tripping and falling into a completely different career and her being, like, *shrug emoji*... perfect. Gold-plated perfection. I don't know if I've ever heard of a better origin story.

What was Okubo thinking? Looking for insane people to hire and prioritizes situations over performance. No wonder ORE is failing.. apart from keep following dead trends (Mirror stuff). Besides here Megumi got what she wanted in ORE, not that she's any better there and will torture ORE like she did to Kitaoka. Megumi is like the emotion pair to Shimada's intellect. And you have to remember that ORE gives the monster plot in this episode, so what were you saying again about this series workplaces?