[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 30



--1--

It's tough to care about fictional characters.

Not, like, "it is difficult to feel an emotional connection to fictional characters", but, like, it can put you through the wringer. You care about someone in a story, and then something happens in the story that just breaks your heart. That's a good thing! That's a story getting an emotional response out of you! But it sometimes feels so bad that you resent it a little. The twist in the story stops being something that you marvel at for its effectiveness and starts being something you abhor for this pain in your chest. It's like you're being punished for investing emotionally in what you've been watching.

It's a little like a betrayal.

--2--

And betrayals are at the heart of this story. Takumi thinks he's been betrayed by Yuuji, Yuuji thinks he's been betrayed by Takumi, and Kusaka is betraying them both.

But that all comes later. First, it's the show rewarding you for caring about Yuuji and Takumi.

There's the requisite I Don't Even Know Who You Are stomp-off by Yuuji in the beginning, where he thinks his friend is a Smart Brain assassin. And Takumi handles that rejection as well as you'd think, namely by making that face and irritating his friends. (He still tries to play the Stop Having Feelings For Someone But I Can't Tell You Why Card! Still! He never ever learns!)

That's expected, but the pivot the show makes after that is extraordinary. You've got two men who have found out they don't really know their friend at all. So they go to a friend of the friend to find out what the deal is.

The whole middle section is great, where the two Teams pair off for some character definition. Mari tells Yuuji that, uh, Takumi does not have grand plans for the power of Faiz, he's 100% not a plans guy, have you spent more than one minute with him ever. Yuka tells Takumi that, hey, Yuuji would never harm a human (again?), he's a total sweetheart, you could do a lot worse. (That last part is implied.) Meanwhile, Kaido and Keitaro dye their hair in a hilarious attempt to reclaim their self-worth after being destroyed by love. The last one doesn't really go anywhere, but it's sincerely delightful. Those two actors are a comedic treasure.

--3--

After Mari and Yuka play matchmaker, it's time for Yuuji and Takumi to have their heart-to-heart, to really talk about all of the various conflicts between Orphnoch and RidHA HAHA HA HA HAHAHA

Oh, shit, I almost got all the way through that! No, what happens is that Takumi is so visibly uncomfortable trying to bridge the gap between them, the mistrust that still lingers, that it is a goddamn miracle that a nearby Orphnoch attacks so that Takumi and Yuuji can restore their bond the old fashioned way: killing a monster.

It's your basic Rider Restoration, where a difficult-to-articulate emotional problem seems less important after two (or more) men righteously battle against the forces of darkness. It's a beautiful sequence, where they're utterly in sync as they just humiliate the unlucky Orphnoch.

The whole entire scene of Yuuji and Takumi together, it's beautiful. The sunset, the summer bug noise, the tranquility of nature. And then the performances, with both men trying to find some way back to what they had. Takumi agreeing that it'll take time to trust each other, when you can see it's killing him that Yuuji doesn't trust him. Yuuji's smile as Takumi rides away, the weight off of his heart. It's been dozens of episodes to get to this point, to see this friendship blossom into a connection. The two halves of this show united, finally. It's so fantastic. It's such a reward to fans.

Enter Kusaka.

--4--

I mean, that's drama, right? Something good happens to make it more powerful when something bad happens, and vice versa. But, god, it hurts so bad.

Kusaka sees a future with Takumi and Yuuji working together, and he hates it. He'd be marginalized, made redundant. They'd be saving people, protecting some Orphnochs, fighting Smart Brain, being heroic in front of Mari... it's his nightmare. And after Sawada brings up the mysterious events of the Ryusei Reunion, tossing out a Failure insult for good measure, Kusaka is feeling boxed in.

So he schemes. He tears Yuuji and Takumi apart, framing each of them in turn for betraying the other.

It's honestly a pretty great plan! He knows that while they want to see the best in each other, those old resentments haven't just disappeared. They've fought enough times that it doesn't take a complicated lie to turn them against each other. (Although, when Kusaka calls Takumi "a silver-tongued liar" to Yuuji? And Yuuji's like Wow Really? Again, have you spent even one minute with Takumi my dude.) There's plenty of blame to lay at the feet of Kusaka, but I don't think Takumi and Yuuji are blameless here. They both very easily believe the worst about the other.

Takumi's flaw is that he's always waiting to be villainized, so he's not surprised if people hate him. If Kusaka says that Yuuji really hates him and has a grudge, that sounds correct to Takumi.

For Yuuji, his trigger is feeling betrayed by people he trusts. His cousin. His fiancee. Letting someone get close and then having that used against him, it's one of the few things that enrages Yuuji. (He loses it at Kaido after he learns the truth about Takumi.) He'd thought he'd misjudged Takumi, been angry for nothing, but that knee-jerk is what Kusaka manipulates. Yuuji falls back on his original anger, forgetting his forgiveness.

And, man, maybe that's why it hurts so bad? Their culpability? It's not just Kusaka tricking them, it's him exploiting their insecurities, encouraging their worst behavior. They make the decision to see the worst in one another, and that's heartbreaking.

--5--

But, shit, maybe folks feel differently! I can see this being a thing that, to some, smacks of writerly contrivance. Kusaka has to scheme a bit to tear them apart, and schemes can make viewers feel manipulated.

It didn't for me. I thought it all worked like gangbusters. (Well, maybe not some of the Jet Sliger effects work. Definitely took too big a swing on having two of those in the climax!) I loved how internally generated all of the conflict was, how it harnessed 30 episodes of character growth to just grab my heart and squeeze.

Did this one work for y'all? Let me know!