[Kamen Rider Die]

Uh oh! I go away to watch Palm Springs (so excellent) and I come back to Kamen Rider Die's Got The Unpopular Opinion!

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Originally Posted by Kurona

Toku has a lot of moments like these, and at pretty much every one where it feels weird I stop and remember "... oh, right, kids' show". This is very basic stuff to be telling a grown man, yeah, but it's also basic stuff that the show is telling the kids at home and is one of the lessons it wants to impart. It looks weird but that's just naturally how it's gonna be, and I honestly wouldn't have it any other way!

... though, that said; in life it definitely feels like there's a surprising number of adults who really, REALLY have to be told that insecurity and vulnerability is just a part of life and being human and that at some point you have to accept that. And said surprising number of fully-grown adults end up failing to accept that... so, heck, maybe this is one of the most realistic scenes in all of Kamen Rider

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Originally Posted by ShyGuy

I agree with this. There are so many adults in the world who are as bad as Tachibana here or worse, I've known some of them. We often think it's something people should have learned as kids, but for those who didn't, it becomes much harder for them to learn it as adults. They're usually thoroughly unpleasant people who exhibit a lot of the same characteristics as Tachibana does except without being nearly as amusing as he is.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This is a very, very pertinent point to make. Tachibana's problems all stem from an entirely common real life one, which is an unhealthy belief that showing any kind of weakness is like, the most unforgivable sin a person can commit. Tachibana pushing himself into this half-delusional corner where he constantly feels the need to prove how tough he is while also loathing himself for not being tough... you can certainly call it childish, but it's far from unrealistic.

So, absolutely, everyone's got a point. The speech that Kotaro gives is a good one, and it's got a mix of specificity (it's about how Kotaro views the world) and universality (it's a good lesson for anyone to learn) that I think it's a solid core to the episode. It's a great moral, and an important one to impart to children.

My problem is that the moral is applied to Tachibana, and I think he's constructed in a way that makes it difficult for me to see him have actual human emotions or a recognizable psychology.

He's so brilliantly, bafflingly self-absorbed, as well as maniacally concerned with his own survival, that I think the show has a tough time steering him back to being a regular(-ish) character on the show. He's so far off the beam that Kotaro's speech feels like one that'd normally be aimed at a kid who needs to learn a lesson, not a grown man who legitimately seems to have never considered that other people have emotions or an interior life.

And, absolutely, people can be horrible. People can be selfish, cowardly, self-absorbed, prone to putting their own needs over others. Yes. Sadly, yes. But there's at least a general feeling that people have, that other people exist in the world. I think that's largely accepted? Tachibana seems to view this information as brand-new, as eye-opening.

Weirder, it's not that Kotaro and Hirose are asking for his help to save a total stranger, or for him to sacrifice himself for a vague moral reason. They're asking him to pitch in (just pitch in!) to help find where Kenzaki was kidnapped, and he needs a child's speech to get him on board.

So, yeah, I like the speech, but it felt like it was the wrong one to have to give to Tachibana. (Like, Amane. This feels like the speech you give Amane, and I'm totally on the show's side in that scenario.) It paints him as such a frighteningly broken person that it undercuts (for me, at least) the pseudo-triumph of Tachibana trying to rally his shattered confidence.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The main actual thing I'd like to point out about this episode is just that the huge battle royale escalation to the ending is one of the defining moments of Blade's first arc to me. The whole idea of Trenchcoat Mastermind thinking he's doing this nice controlled experiment, and then Hajime freaking out and smashing through a window because he's so jacked about fighting Blade, followed by Dadi showing up and then freaking out because he's a total mess, it's all such wonderful chaos.

It's a really fun fight! I really loved how every step at which the experiment went haywire, Trenchcoat's just like Let's See Where This Goes. I'm starting to feel like he might not know that much about science at all.