[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, it's not that it's hard for me because it happens to Mari, it's that the visual of Kusaka slapping Mari in the middle of an argument that takes place in their living room is a loaded visual. That type of story element... they are opening a door to some incredibly difficult storytelling that I don't think they want to walk through.

I mean, I don't know how much more I can say about this. When I see Kusaka hit Mari in the middle of an argument, it takes me out of a TV show where men in colorful suits punch monsters. It so far removed, for me, from the sort of allegorical storytelling that allows for relatively consequence-free violence and peril. This is... it is an order of magnitude larger than the usual Kusaka Is Terrible. There isn't enough distance for me to be able to view it as a story. The can of worms that they've opened!

And, again, as always, I don't know. It is super subjective! I just got a real tough time watching this show try and add regular-world evil to the cartoony evil they normally traffic in. These things aren't apples-to-apples substitutions.

When talking about morals and acts like this, I sincerely hope to throw away all the subjectivity and look without any biases.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I love it when a show comes up with an inventive way to resolve a cliffhanger. Last episode had Faiz completely at Kitazaki’s mercy. How were Yuuji and Mari going to survive?!

And I wish for any in-character reason like this to get acknowledged in discussions, without always labelling anything as plot armor to protagonists. Also talking about Mari surviving? She wasn't in the fight at all and just got into the scene after Kitazaki goes away. You meant Takumi? And for Murakami it's the good ol' other Riders arriving to fight him off, and please tell me that Murakami wasn't in trouble and just got away (I know Riders use double finishers, but finishers have been blocked before).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Ryusei Reunion stuff, though. Not crazy about how that story played out.

I agree about your questions here, about why Mari didn't remember (the memories returning can be excusable, but her forgetting), why Kusaka lied (he's a manipulator, but dunno what would he gain from this), every kid forgot. So far for those I can't explain anything here to correct. So it's not that the mystery genre is a bad one to you that it's the execution here? Or what... dunno I seem want to know about this, as previously you only tolerate if a mystery part is like this (ex: all questions having same answer and only in 1-2 episodes) which still kind of denying the genre. BTW at least for Takumi it's clear here, that is in the flashback there was more than 1 Orphnochs, there are the one killed by Takumi, Takumi himself, and Kitazaki. Takumi isn't OOC at all and tried to use his Orphnoch power to fight them off, but him being Orphnoch makes him feared by others and mistakenly assumed to be one of them.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Real happy to see Takumi interacting with Team Orphnoch, though. Hey, remember them?

Hey! Potential of Takumi living there and seeing more!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And, man, this is a little bit of a Thank You But I Wanted More episode, because holy shit Mari and Rina simultaneously putting on the Delta and Faiz Gear?! I absolutely gasped in excitement. I was so happy with Mihara’s weird I Don’t Want To Go To School Today tantrum, where he fakes a debilitating injury so he doesn’t have to be Delta again, that I wasn’t even prepared to see Rina be all gung-ho and show up to the fight herself. And Mari! Throwing on that belt, ready to do her part.

Which unfortunately got an infamy like in this video

But yeah, this moment is just to show another proof of unfairness with females unable to henshin. But for this series, non-Orphnoch can't henshin. Like Keitaro too for Faiz. So it's not about gender but it's about which species you are. Though dunno what's wrong with Rina that she has worse showings as Delta than even Mihara (in previous episode, compared to Takumi). For Mari part it's nothing more than determination.