[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magnugiga

Yeah, I totally agree that it's the show's main appeal, but that's also a dangerous game the show's playing; they keep expecting the audience to not just tolerate, but also put the effort to understand and empathize with the oftentimes atypical and counter-intuitive way the characters are behaving. They... didn't always succeed at that, I believe, even to the people like me who are really intrigued by these characters.

Oh, for sure. Any time you subvert audience expectations, especially when you base a lot of that subversion on difficult characters, it's pretty much an All Or Nothing play. If you think it works, you valorize it. If you think it doesn't work, you crucify it. It's a very big swing by a creator. It's ballsy. I don't want to give this deeply idiosyncratic show unwarranted praise, but I feel like this series is cracking open the concept of Kamen Rider in a way similar to what Kuuga was doing. Really interrogating what kinds of stories are possible, you know?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magnugiga

(Also, I just started watching Wizard, and my god, Shunpei is totally the homeless man's Keitaro)

(I hate Shunpei SO MUCH. There are very few characters in Kamen Rider that I instantly hated without ever revising my appraisal, and he's one. He's like if Keitaro had no interior life or ability to dress like an adult.)