[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Yeah, this whole Black Fang storyline is really dumb. That's kinda why I like it. The show really expects you to get caught up in the pathos of this whole situation and it's just... it's just a fucking motorcycle. I know they talk it up like it's the ultimate anti-Undead weapon, but it's a motorcycle. The Wolf Undead goes on about how it's made him so powerful and all he does is use it to interrupt a motorcycle race. The whole situation is incredibly stupid, but in a way that I can't help but find endearing.

No hyperbole, I spent a non-zero amount of seconds during this episode wondering if I even liked Kamen Rider anymore. There was a hollow space inside me where all of my usual fandom resided. It's like, I was watching this interminable middle section of the show and my brain just emptied out of whatever chemicals made me ever enjoy Kamen Rider. It was bizarre and some small portion of scary.

I don't really want to dwell on what didn't work for me in this episode (it would definitely come off like I was picking on it), but what in the hell was Shinmei's actual plan? He rebuilt BOARD, enlisted and equipped dozens of people, spent an amount of time (?) hunting himself and his offspring down, specifically to draw out Blade and Garren, and then he used their bikes to finish Black Fang, a thing that he somehow knew about (so he was an Undead when he was working at BOARD?), at which point he murdered everyone he recruited, didn't want to kill the Riders, then did want to kill Kenzaki, then went to a race track?

Am I... Am I getting that right?

(I also wasn't a fan of Tachibana's speech, but I'll leave it there for now.)