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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

First, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about the theme song? I really like it. It’s not as epic as my favorite Phase 2 Heisei tracks (I’m listening to the shit out of that Memorial Works compilation lately), but it’s still pretty fun. I definitely find myself crooning Can You Feel each episode, so that’s got to be some small success for the composers.

I like Justi-phis well enough, but I've always found it a little too similar to Alive A Life, which leads them to sometimes blur together in my head.

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Team Orphnoch gets to deal with dreams, too, but mostly just through Kaido. (Yuuji’s on bedrest after narrowly surviving the opening fight, and Yuka is almost entirely forgotten about.) Kaido’s story is about how he feels like his dream was stolen from him after an injury, and now that he’s an Orphnoch he’s going to lash out and get some revenge.

The thing I really like about how the Orphnochs are portrayed in this series, at least our core trio, is that their rage is like Takumi’s rage: it’s a resentment born of desire. Yuuji’s actions were against the people who robbed him of the life he longed for, one he still can’t entirely let go of. Yuka’s actions were because she wanted acceptance, and she could never obtain it. Kaido wants to hurt the people who are living out his dream.

I think the key scene for me in this episode is after Kaido storms his old guitar class with his new club banger Stupid Stupid Stupid (Dance To My Drums). He’s about to get thrashed by a group of students, which is perfect, because then he can unleash his inner monster on them with no guilt. But then his teacher comes out, and Kaido’s whole demeanor changes. He’s polite, respectful. He apologizes for his actions. His anger isn’t at his teacher, or the institution. His anger is at the people living the life he wishes he could reclaim.

And then you get the other half of that scene, when Kaido helps out a struggling first-year. There’s a vulnerability to the scene that I found heart-warming. I thought it might go a different way, like Kaido would go nuts on him, or the kid would turn out to be the Owlphnoch. Instead, it’s just this really sweet scene about a character trying to heal his own soul through the music he can’t play any longer. It’s… really not the direction I thought this show was going in, and I love that it tried this move. This is a tough show to predict, and I love that about it.

Two things here. First of all, it's really interesting to be going back and watching this while Zero-One is on the air, which is also focusing a lot on the idea of dreams right now. Very different approaches, but an amusing correlation at the same time.

Second, welcome to one of Toshiki Inoue's favorite story tropes: the artist with the career ending injury. It's an easy pathos well that you will see him come back to throughout his era on Kamen Rider, including another guitarist at one point (although not nearly as well as with Kaido). I'm not saying it doesn't work here, because it really does, but it's one of those things you'll notice repeating as you watch more of this guy's work.