[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Okay, so first and foremost: Asumu is incredibly lucky that he doesn't get his bike stolen, given how often he just leaves it lying around to go off with someone from Takeshi. That's two episodes in a row now.

We just need an episode where a Makamou steals all of the disc animals from Hibiki, so Asumu can learn the importance of looking after your things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

We get a lot more Ibuki in this episode - not a proper fight yet, but he's officially part of the cast now (I don't think that's saying too much, given he's pulled a Mutsuki and been in both the opening and closing credits since day one). I can't say that he's my favorite character on the show, but I do like him a lot as the secondary Oni. A big part of that is because of his personality. After several seasons in a row of antagonism between the main and secondary Riders, we have a show where the two are friends who just get along with each other. That's one of the things that I find so refreshing about Hibiki: everyone gets along and the show isn't driven primarily by interpersonal conflict. It's a nice change of pace.

I like that introduction of the secondary is just... him pitching in for a minute? He doesn't volunteer to help fight, or loudly declare that he's going to solve this problem. He just drops off a new drum for Hibiki, and then splits. It's so... quaint? It's that constant downplaying of the superheroism again, where no one's that afraid for Hibiki's safety, or that he won't get the job done. (Although, man, Zanki got hospitalized, right? Maybe they could be a little more concerned about the outcome of this conflict?) This episode spends more time on Ibuki trying to win over Kasumi, and Ibuki getting dissed by Ichiro for trying to win over Kasumi, than it does with Ibuki being another Rider. It's the most light-hearted choice they could make to introduce him, so I can see why they did it that way.