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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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The Orphnoch element, though, I assume that’s going to be everyone’s favorite part. Because, like, Kitazaki.

He’s otherworldly, detached from the trappings of the flesh. His presence is terrifying. He invades space, holds stares, forces other people to run, to blink. He views the world as a playground, and everyone in it as a toy.

He reminds me a lot of Parado from Ex-Aid. (Admittedly, some of it is the hair.) Both of them have this joy at destruction, at maybe being challenged, at feeling something through that challenge, finally.

The performance is captivating, all whispered questioning and disturbing demands. The way he hovers over Houjou’s shoulder, and then floats to the other shoulder, it’s like a cat playing with a mouse.

(Incidentally, I’m predisposed to love this episode since it gave me what I’ve been missing out of Houjou’s appearances on this show: Cowardly Houjou. When that dude is shook to his core, nearly hysterical from terror, I am truly alive. Seeing Houjou almost bug-eyed from fright, it is a gift.)

More than anything, Kitazaki’s energy completes the Lucky Clover dynamic for me, giving them the brains (Houjou), the looks (Kageyama), the muscle (Sawada), and the wildcard (Kitazaki). It’s not just lucky, it’s perfect.

I've been waiting for Kitazaki to show up. I've been dropping a lot of casting trivia recently and this is my favorite.

Kitazaki is played by an actor named Ray Fujita. A couple years after this, he would be cast as one of the main characters on one of my favorite tokusatsu shows of all time: Garo. He plays the character Rei, aka Makai Knight Zero in that series and has gone on to reprise the role multiple times over the years, most recently in Zero: Dragon Blood, his second standalone miniseries. It's a completely different performance, but he's equally great in that part and I've long been a big fan of his work.