[Magnugiga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The problem I think this episode has, as I've thought more about it, is what stories these plots are serving. The A-plot is Mari and Sawada, but the focus pivots from Mari, a character we're (hopefully) fully invested in, to Sawada, someone who's brand-new and part of the villain group. That makes the A-plot feel so much less compelling to me, since it's not really about Mari's arc anymore. She's fully committed to Sawada's redemption, then she's betrayed. We don't even get to see her reaction to being betrayed! The story's entirely about Sawada, and his choices.

Worse, that A-plot is pretty much only there to provide a viewpoint for the B-plot, which is the Takumi and Yuuji plot. Sawada's decision-making is important because of how it affects Takumi's feelings for Yuuji, and vice versa. The entire A-plot exists to support the B-plot, which... not a great way to construct a story!

For me, this episode is built around character-driven storytelling, it's just applied in a way that makes elements feel more hollow than I'd like.

Oh okay, I see it now. About Mari in particular, I honestly felt at this point she's a shell of the super interesting, fun, girl we saw in the first few episodes. The whole Ryusei plot should've revolved around her and build up her character, and yet it felt like she's only there to provide sad/anguished reaction faces (sometimes not even that!). As I said, Faiz is still pretty good at making sure every major character gets plenty of screen time... so we saw a lot of her, but not enough about her. And it feels like she's increasingly fallen to the trappings typical to character of her ilk, namely she's primarily there to serve as the male characters' development and point of conflict.