[DreadBringer]

Probably sorry that I may come off as pushy before, but I'm doing that for the series' sake. And somehow previously I caught your age topic response as you being ignorant like ignoring Raia as a name for Quarter forever... dunno what happened to I am... did I somehow became Metalgelas at ep. 20 or Shinji at ep. 43. As I want to talk about this (I know you want to only focus on these 2 but still) but nowhere to put them so I would do it here.

Now ORE Journal tries to publish the monster picture... poor them. Not only those 9 year olds, adults/publics also aren't exempt from this. ORE Journal also gets a flak for talking about Mirror stuff for real, jeopardizing their already ill-fated reputation to an even worse degree, losing even more of their subscribers. Shinji, you must help them, the Card Deck to henshin and possibly control Contract Monsters is the only way to prove the monsters and save ORE Journal's reputation!

Sanako insisted that Shinji (and Ren) can live in Atori if they help her out at the cafe's opening hours. And here she closed the cafe due to exactly zero person helping her... but Shinji got to stay (dunno if Ren still lives there)? I should say Shinji's truly lucky, he wasn't kicked out, what you want is only a place to live right? Yet you want the cafe to be re-opened again, increasing unecessary duties (for you), especially after handling 2 jobs.

Also look at Shinji's shirt at the beginning (lol). Read everything's written there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

So, Sano and Toujou.
The main thing in it that I liked is how it’s exploring the idea of motivations, of want vs need. There’s a hollowness to Sano and Toujou’s characters, as they’re driven more by what they want (wealth, respect, love) than what they need. They’ll do horrible things to get what they want, but there’s this sense that they’re not sure having it will help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I liked that this story got told, and told now. It's a good point in the show to do a thing on a set of Riders who don’t know why they’re fighting. We’ve seen all sorts of heroism and villainy, but the idea of futility, I don’t think that’s one we’ve spent a huge amount of time with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The line at the end. “I just wanted to be happy.” I keep rolling that around in my mind.

For bolded one that's basically... all Riders in the war but Shinji and Tezuka? For Toujou sure, if only because of his lunatic mindset, but for Sano, it won't help only because of him never knowing what the Rider War truly is, to an even worse degree than Shinji. Sano's naivety is his eventual downfall as you can see in this very episode. He thinks it's a chance to get money with mercenary job, but it's about Riders killing each other until one man remaining. He thinks Shiro simply just put people into fight, when it's actually him intending for the fighters to be dead and stay that way. A̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶(̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶e̶w̶)̶ ̶h̶e̶n̶s̶h̶i̶n̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶Y̶u̶r̶i̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶l̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶p̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶M̶i̶r̶r̶o̶r̶ ̶W̶o̶r̶l̶d̶.̶ ̶He wants to quit for sure (he gets what he wants without killing people and prefers not dirtying his hands again, I think his redeeming quality is this, unlike you know, Verde), means he has no need for the war and wish, anymore, indicating he already gets what he wants, just prematurely in the middle of the war. He only becomes desperate after Shiro forces him to fight, otherwise get eaten. The only tragedy is (simply just becoming a Rider in this series IS tragedy) that if he didn't become a Rider, he would get to keep everything, so actually he only just needs to wait for some time to get his actual happiness. Of course you can't be fully happy if you don't have complete freedom yet.

Imperer also has an ironic death. I'd say one thing I like about Ryuki is how every Rider death is meaningful, like it's not simply people getting killed, they put efforts on killing them like making them ironic depending on which Rider. He actually became happy during the war, having no more need for the wish. Unfortunately, he had to fight in order to survive, and was betrayed by Toujou, whom he thought was his best friend. He died to Asakura soon after. Why here, Gigazelle didn't hunt and eat him as his Deck was destroyed by Ouja? Other than that, it's too unlucky for him that Ryuki is the one saving him from Tiger, but like with Kagawa's death, he didn't notice at all where Imperer is ambushed by Ouja, especially a very easy kill with how weakened he is. And even if Tiger scans the Advent Card, the attack feels like a Final Vent where Destwilder drags him across the ground for long time, only that it takes some time for Tiger to walk in, monologue, and stab Imperer in the gut (the finishing attack for his Final Vent).

And yeah this is what I meant before, Toujou fully knows that he's an outcast, and as you've seen, (understandably) among Riders too. That shapes him as a Rider for a whole, that he wanted to be liked by people by becoming a hero. And I have to note though, like Ren's wish to save Eri, or Kitaoka's wish to become immortal, "becoming a hero" is also Toujou's wish for winning the war. I don't know how Toujou's wish will be granted on him after winning (there are lotta ways to make someone a hero) but I'd say he should also has the same all-consuming drive, for hero is his war wish, so he also has the need to survive these battles to win and gain that wish (he thinks like that while killing Kagawa).

I think they have clear motivations and reasons of why they're fighting. Apart from hero is Toujou's wish, Sano having a happier life (possibly would mean him becoming rich after winning the war) is Sano's wish after winning. They have clear goal like that. And the futility, I dunno (probably half-right for Toujou). Toujou's clear he wants to be a hero, but the methods he used ends up ruining himself and others... because of his insanity, twisting an already flawed Kagawa's lesson to an even worse degree, to the point that Toujou's take won't even benefit anything unlike what Kagawa intends. Currently it's futile, but all he has left is the wish granting power Rider War gives ("to become a hero"), it's unknown if the wish will truly gives what Toujou wants. Sano's only futililty is the Rider War part itself, because he actually got what he wanted prematurely, making the risk involved to join the Rider War all for nothing. What he wants is clear, he's clearly satisfied of everything he got in this episode, he even wants to quit, not being greedy of wanting more. He only wants to survive, as a consequence of Rider War, where his method doesn't change, allying himself with other Riders (again), where this time he pays them, opposite to himself before who wants to get paid (at least Sano lives up to his methods!).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

His friendship with Sano in this was great, how neither of them seems to feel friendship on an emotional level.

Yeah, Sano being the result of his rich father disowning him so he can be a self-made man... and look about the results, how he turned into here. His father thinks if he didn't do that, he would become a spoiled brat (Gai??), but even this method also backfires. He does get a bit of development though where he knows that Kitaoka's messing with him (he acts welcoming when he visits, possibly for the money, but he wants to create the contract within years, long after Rider War is over, which means he isn't intending to ally with him at all). It's something that... a parent's death in this one, where because it's a complete turnover, is treated as a joy, a blessing, a pleasure. Who actually didn't see it coming that Toujou will again, betray his comrade here?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There’s a visual this episode keeps coming back to, a caged bird in Sano’s shitty apartment. I keep thinking about that image. It’s evocative in a way that Kamen Rider… I don’t think symbolism is necessarily a go-to move in Kamen Rider. There’s camera moves and set-ups that are frequently used to tell a story (that shot from a few episodes of the chair between Shinji and Toujou, how the barrier informs their incompatibility), but using an item, calling it back, it’s not really part of the language of Kamen Rider to me.

That goddamn bird, though.

To me, the cage is Sano and Toujou’s need to achieve. They’re trapped by it, by the need to get rich or be a hero, even while they convince themselves that it’s… I don’t know, safer, more comfortable. That this prison they’ve built for themselves of expectation is a liberation, is something that can deliver happiness.

Or, maybe the bird is the concept of happiness, locked away but always visible. Toujou and Sano know what happiness looks like, but they can’t possess it.

Or they’re the bird, and the cage is the choices they’ve made that are now containing them, reducing them.

I can just say this is a nice explanation for Sano's bird as symbolism. It's also probably doomed by the end of episode with Sano never coming back, which also potentiallly symbolizes their death.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There's a beauty to a lot of this episode, but especially the scenes in Sano's apartment. The way those scenes focus on Toujou, how they don't seem to be about judging him or punishing him, but are about trying to understand him, to reach him.

Toujou's probably intended to be written with Asperger's Syndrome but it seems that neither writer fully understands it (keyword: intended). He creates the sadness himself (though it's not that he's free from it previously)... from his twisted take of Kagawa's teaching that a hero is someone who suffers, and attempted to do that even more by betraying Sano. And it creates even more irony in him, he thinks sacrificing others would make him grow stronger, but as episode 43 can attest, it only served to make him weaker (and gaining sanity slippage), that he's alone now, he becomes other Riders' punching bag. And Sano hasn't improved his living condition yet (his apartment) after inheriting all of those.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

All of the scenes of Sano's success, I love how unreal they are. There's a dreamlike quality to them, all these old men telling him how great he is, how special and perfect he is. The speed at which he ascends to the heights he always dreamed of, it's bizarre. It'd be a joke, if it didn't feel like a parable.

Probably those advisors only wants to use Sano as a puppet, as a figurehead for the company, they're secretly manipulating him as they convince the board of directors to hire only him. It's weird that my concern is for Sano's company that his father worked up hard for, how will it go under his leadership (where he seemingly can't work off enough that he becomes Rider), or especially at the end losing him. Tragically both Yuri (broken heart for sure, but I'm afraid she may think Sano dumps her or something) and the company may think that he has just forsaken them. And something bizzare in this episode... do you notice that Sano's company building took the exact same place as Takamizawa's?? Now I wonder who is richer between Kitaoka, Sano, or Takamizawa.




Ren's a stingy cheapskate, as his friends attest, so that reaction of him is expected. May or may not still want Shinji to pay him (only, without all the petty additional fees) 30000 yen and saw Sano's payment as a potential substitute. Also a Toyota Supra!