[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

Given the name "Chalice the Legendary", the Mantis Undead (マンティスアンデッド Mantisu Andeddo) is the best fighter of all the Undead. As such, Hajime Aikawa uses the Undead's form and assumes the identity of "Kamen Rider Chalice" while suppressing his Joker nature.

OH SHIT Hajime pulled a Legendary?!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

King's Form still had the same usual Blade face, though it's true that for others, many likes King Form's look.

They actually raised up the sides of the helmet a bit, to give it a crowned look. He's so much more regal now!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I've said this before, but I'm afraid that Kenzaki's way of being morally upright; confiding and caring about other people will be looked down here by people with how Kenzaki is taken advantage by Umi.

Yeah, Umi. Across both episodes, I think she becomes a three-dimensional character, where her struggle is given some definition and her arc has weight to it. In the first part, though, she's very rough on Kenzaki, and he's very frustrated. It's largely played for laughs, and it's all there for easons the next episode will make clear (she does not think much of people who'd call themselves heroes!), but I get it if she's too abrasive in the first part.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Undead is never an acronym btw, it's the name of the monsters but the organization has no correlation with it.

Look, if someone makes a robot Undead, its name is going to have to be U.N.D.E.A.D., that's just how superhero fiction works. The writer forgot about this, and I am here to remind him.

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Originally Posted by LeviathanBlossom

Kenzaki's classification of heroism as a choice and the act of making that choice is one of the traits I love most about him. His emotional journey hasn't always been front and center of this series, but damn. It's so good.

It's so good! It even gets at Kenzaki's inability to think of himself as special! If he can be a hero, he thinks, anyone can be a hero. There's something very sweet and sad about that!

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Originally Posted by LeviathanBlossom

I also really enjoy the screws tightening around Hajime and Mutsuki, which would have been the highlight of almost any other episode we've been through so far.

Yeah, boy, felt a little bad blowing off the Hajime and Mutsuki scenes for that episode, 'cause they were good! The shot of Hajime seeing the restaurant in the distance, seeing his home, and realizing he can't get any closer than that... heartbreaking! All the stuff with Mutsuki and Twomi, with her saying that she finds the Riders' interference in her culture insulting... really interesting idea and motivation! Definitely stuff that'd be intriguing in any other episode, but that Kenzaki arc just expanded in my brain, pushing out all the other story beats.

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Originally Posted by LeviathanBlossom

What kills me about the current Tachibana thing, incidentally, is that he's not wrong about Joker winning the battle royale being a bad thing; we the audience know that it would be the end of Life On Earth through Hajime's nightmare. That Tachibana does not have access to this information and is still absolutely convinced that Hirose Sr. is telling the truth didn't ping for me initially and then I thought about it and was so pissed off at him

True! Another thing about it, and I can't remember if I talked about this, is how quickly Tachibana is effectively giving up on Kenzaki. Like, Kenzaki fought for so long to help Tachibana redeem himself, and now (for reasons, but still!) Tachibana is working with a secretive asshole and a jealousy-powered murder robot to keep Kenzaki from being a Kamen Rider. It's incredibly Tachibana for him to end up having zero faith in his friends while telling himself that he's trying to help, but it makes for character turn that's a bit of a slog to get through.