[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 17



--1--

I really love that, after a few episodes of Kusaka being a complete tool, including giving Faiz a thorough beating in the first scene of this one, the crux of this episode's like, Hey Does Kaixa Actually Have A Point? Bold choice!

Basically, with Takumi icing out his friends (who are literally begging him to let them in) and refusing to fight Orphnochs, Kusaka considers him irrelevant. He's beaten Takumi in every way that matters, which means he can actually communicate with him. That gives us a really neat scene where a Horrible But In A Regular Way version of Kusaka tells Takumi that he shouldn't worry about fighting Orphnochs, because Kusaka will handle it from here.

I think that's a neat choice, to not only frame Kusaka's antagonism towards Takumi as something that can be resolved (mostly by Kusaka being better than him at everything, a totally normal way for people to define their interpersonal relationships), but by giving Kusaka a valid point-of-view. There are murderous Orphnochs out there, and Takumi's reluctance as Faiz is incredibly dangerous. If he can't fight Orphnochs, he should just quit already. Let Kusaka do it, because he'd never let sympathy get in the way of him finishing off an adversary (he says, staring right at Takumi, again a totally normal thing to do).

I almost can't believe how easily the show swung back from Kusaka's Going To Kill Takumi to just These Two Don't Like Each Other. It kind-of shouldn't work? Takumi treats being nearly murdered the way someone else would treat an impolite text. I think it works for this story, largely due to how Takumi prefers being punished to being pitied, but it's still a pretty big swing, tension-wise.

--2--

Also, holy shit does Takumi not like being pitied. The second-most important arc in this episode is how Takumi will mend things with Mari and Keitaro, who don't get why Takumi's protecting Orphnochs and fighting Kaixa. These are reasonable concerns!

It's just, I think Mari and Keitaro have 100% the wrong approach here.

They beg and plead with Takumi to explain himself, to talk about his feelings, to share. And, man, no. The more you try and drag it out of him, the more he's going to shut down. He basically goes fetal after his friends beg him for an explanation.

After he runs away to brood, yet again, I was wondering how the show would draw Takumi out of his shell, put him back on the road to redemption. I wondered what character would be the one to reach out.

It's Yuuji, and it's amazing. Of all the various Team Faiz/Team Orphnoch combos, I think I find Yuuji and Takumi the most entertaining. Usually, it's because I find a monster asking a Kamen Rider to consider being a better person hilarious, but here it's due to how Yuuji's kindness overcomes Takumi's gruff exterior in a super interesting way.

He gets Takumi to open up a bit by not trying to draw it out of him. Yuuji clearly sees that Takumi has a problem, but he instantly realizes that Takumi doesn't want to talk about it. So Yuuji starts to share his own problem, and how he can't even really talk about it with Takumi. That sympathetic approach, it seems to work wonders on Takumi. When his friends want answers and explanations, it's about their feelings, and the way Takumi is negatively affecting them, and that pressure is something Takumi can't deal with. But Yuuji's just telling Takumi that what he's feeling is normal, isn't something to be scared of. By making Takumi feel less like a failure, less like a burden, it gives Takumi permission to process what he's feeling and try to live with it.

Just, man, super smart writing for these two characters. It's a little disappointing that Takumi didn't whiff on every single pitch in the batting cage, but that's the only real misstep the Yuuji/Takumi stuff had for me.

--3--

And, dang, not a great episode for Yuuji! It's more with Morishita, who ends up being a perfect compliment to Takumi's dilemma.

Takumi's main problem is that he can't stop seeing the possibility of goodness in Orphnochs. Yuuji's problem with Morishita is that he's taken a wronged man and made him a murderous Orphnoch. Takumi can't kill an Orphnoch if it might have a soul, while Yuuji has to watch another soul be lost to being an Orphnoch.

But the show smartly uses Yuuji's dilemma to unlock Takumi's. Yuuji can't take action against Morishita, because this all started with Yuuji's murder of Chie. That ended up warping Morishita, putting him on a path of vengeance that ended in unrelenting murder. There's nothing left of a grieving brother in Morishita. Now he's Armakillo the Orphnoch, and he's killing because he wants to.

Which is almost exactly what Takumi needed to see. Yuka was someone Takumi could relate to, someone he could care about. Merderman was the unknown, the possibility of a soul. But Armakillo is unrepentant, irredeemable evil. There's nothing to save. It's here that Takumi stops looking at Faiz as something that he can feel good about, and starts to view it as the burden it is. His inaction has cost lives, and his indecision hasn't helped anyone. Maybe he's a terrible person for killing Orphnochs. Maybe they have souls. But if they're going to kill humans, he's going to fight them.

It's an assertion that could ring a little hollow, what with it being Takumi making a Heroic Declaration, but I really feel like the show earns it. Half of it is from how long it takes Takumi to come to grips with his responsibility, and half of it is about how Takumi frames his choice. Takumi's way of relating to people is mostly about living down to their expectations, about absorbing their low opinion of him. His version of a Rider's burden, then, is that it's only his soul being damned, which isn't something that has any value. There's a self-flagellation to his choice here that feels perfectly grounded in his psychology.

--4--

It all leads to a terrific double Faiz Fight, a fight so good it gets fight music AND the opening theme played over it. The visuals are so fun here, with Faiz and Armakillo fighting on top of cars, Faiz rushing Merderman (who returns just in time get immolated), Faiz getting two finishers, and Faiz getting his sword finisher through an exploding car.

It's all insanely high quality, and it feels like a reward for watching Faiz completely fall apart for the last two episodes. It's such an awesome fight that Mari and Keitaro consider it to be a sign that Takumi's back on the side of justice, and ready to defend humanity against Orphnochs.

Once again, I sort-of like how the show keeps these characters in each other's orbits without Takumi necessarily becoming, like, better as a person. He's withholding to them in the beginning, and in the end it mostly just looks like he's better and they're okay with that. It could be a drawback, but I think it's a very unique kind of friendship. Some friends... it's like you're friends, and it's down to the core, but you don't really talk about it. You know? There are friends that would never use that word. I feel like that's Team Faiz and Takumi.

--5--

The show wrote itself into a crazy tight box last episode, but I think it pretty nicely wrote itself out of one this time. There's a thing they did that I really appreciate, and it's how Takumi's feelings aren't made to be wrong and he deserves to be punished for them. You know? He's a broken person, and things are difficult for him, but the show isn't just saying Git Gud or whatever. There's a care given to his troubles, and I think that's neat. Being a better person is hard, and it takes time, and there's value in being patient with people who are struggling. I like a story that keeps that in mind.