[Fish Sandwich]

Kusaka is as complex as most of the characters in Faiz (if not more), and while it feels kind of viscerally disgusting to say there's any real humanity in someone who treats everybody around him as an object to that level, I do think it needs to be pointed out that he's, well, like you said, maybe at least worthy of pity. Kaixa is legitimately one of my favorite secondary Riders, and while a lot of that is simply down to the black comedy joy I get from his scheming, I do genuinely think he's an interesting ("interesting") guy beyond that. It's cool to see you not writing off the show's attempts to paint him that way, Die.

Also, fairly minor translation cop note, that big breakdown scene has this little exchange between Takumi and Kusaka:

"What is she saving you from?"
"From what you know."

That latter line from Kusaka is supposed to just be a simple "that's none of your business." TV-Nihon is making it sound like some cryptic clue or something, and I'm pretty sure that's not the intent. I don't think it affects the story too much either way, though. Honestly, in general, I'm finding, at least from the bits I'm quickly skimming back through, TV-N's Faiz subs are maybe more accurate overall than I was giving them credit for? After realizing what we had to put up with for Kuuga all these years, I'm feeling significantly more generous towards them, even if the mistakes aren't exactly uncommon either, and there's loads of issues beyond that. We'll see if I'm still saying this by the end, but that's where I'm at right now.