[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

I'm trying not to spoil things, but there's still a ways to go with those characters before we get to their main status quo for the series.

And it's neat that they're doing it this way, where instead of the monsters taking action and we eventually find out their motivation, here we start with the motivation. Like, it's getting the monsters closer to what I enjoyed about the Phase 2 Heisei approach, where there's some core trauma they're manipulating or inflaming, rather than just attacking people. I appreciate this more deliberate style!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

It's crazy how extreme the bullies go to torment Yuka at every opportunity. This episode is always engraved in my mind for how terrible they make her life and even though my school life wasn't as bad as what she had to endure, it does bring back a few bad memories. That's why I find her so relatable.

Yeah, it's weird how universal it is to have had a not-great high school experience. Maybe it says something about my upbringing, but the horrible mistreatment Yuka suffers at home feels impossibly terrible, so as to be absurdly funny, while when I watch the high school stuff it's just Yeah I Can See That. I didn't have it particularly rough as a teenage boy, nothing that really stuck with me, but everything that happens to Yuka in school feels like what could happen to a teenage girl. They got it real bad in life!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Speaking of Keitarou, he's an example of what makes a good human being, perhaps the nicest guy in the show, often to a fault. He goes out of his way to help others. No problem is too small or big for him. He has the courage to fight as a hero of justice and Takumi is fine with letting him be Faiz. The only problem is, as Cactus lampshades, "not everyone can be Faiz" which he proves immediately with his successful henshin. Like Mari, Keitarou is lacking something, but the fact that he tried is commendable enough. He'd make a great Kamen Rider, but Faiz wasn't meant for him. Takumi never wanted to be Faiz, but he's the best they got right now.

I think you need to have the narrative counterweight of Keitaro. You always need someone in the cast to push against the other characters' assumptions and strategies. What I love about Faiz is that in any other show, Keitaro would be the hero character and Takumi would be the disgruntled anti-hero. Keitaro would be the voice of the plot, the focal point for the story, and Takumi would be the one acting in opposition. Here, they switch it, and Keitaro is the contrarian, asking terrible people to be slightly-less terrible, while Takumi is the Only If I Have To spirit of the show. It's such a fun inversion of the Kamen Rider formula.