[Magnugiga]

One of my first few posts here was gushing about the first few episodes of Faiz, and while I didn't articulate them as well as you, 90% of your impression was what I felt too. Love the tragicomedy vibe, the insanely cool way the suit and henshin sequence come together, and the playful deconstruction of hero/villain archetypes (good news: more of that coming!).

At the risk of exposing myself as a pure sucker to melodramatic bait, I truly feel the Yuka/Keitaro bit. OTT moments of Unholy Family and Classmate Alliance aside (although yeah, the girls-to-girl bullying depicted here wasn't really that far from the reality I've seen), it's genuinely heart-breaking how much of a complete doormat she is, and how she felt the need to invent a fanfiction of her life just to keep up with Keitaro's sincere enthusiasm and endlessly positive vibe.

As for Keitaro, he initially felt like a caricature/parody of a Kamen Rider persona, but he quickly won me over. Dude really walks the talk, and just look at how crushed he was, to find out he can't get the power to do what he really wants. Just an excellent foil to Takkun and Mari, and show's got an absolute mileage early on milking the way the three bounce off of each other; I really wouldn't mind watching a sit-com series about just the three of them running a laundry service.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, it... someone asked before about Amazons, and how this compared, and I think I have a better answer now. Amazons is What If It's More Violent But Still Heroic, while Faiz is What If It's The Same Violent But Everyone's Horrible.

That was me, and yeah, I think I now have a good idea on what Amazons' like! Love your description of Faiz; four episodes in, and we've got two selfish jerks, a sucker, a doormat, and a luckless loser. This really is Kamen Rider: Jerks and Losers, but what can I say, they're my kind of jerks and losers.