[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

I’ll mention here that when I watched the series, Ibuki barely registered on my radar, even after I got hooked by the second half. But apparently, according to the wiki, he has the second clearest arc out of the non-Asumu characters. I’ll just see how much he registers on your radar after this episode.

We'll see! I like him already, though. He's forthright, which is a good kind of person to be on this show.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I think Ibuki is sort of my stealth favorite Hibiki character? He's not someone that I get particularly fired up about, but I just kinda feel happy when he's onscreen. Switchblade put it pretty well. I think the show knew what it was doing having his first scene be that chance encounter with Asumu's mom, too. That sort of feeling of "I met the nicest young man the other day. And so handsome too!" is pretty much the absolute core of his character. He's just a real swell dude.

The way he just gives Asumu a lift over to see Hibiki, it's such a nice thing to do. He sees that this kid is worried about Hibiki, so why not let him see how Hibiki's doing. So simple. It's not heroically generous, it's just a nice gesture. So underplayed! So this show!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I think that's why this show works. There are usually two kinds of protagonist; those you can relate to and those you can idolize. But this show has both and through their interactions, it feels like Hibiki is personally delivering the moral to viewers using Shounen as our perspective. It's the same thing I praise Lupinranger VS Patranger for with the two Red Rangers and the moral that conflict isn't always black and white. Shounen idolizes Hibiki as this really cool guy and feels inadequate by comparison but that's only due to Hibiki being older and more experienced while Shounen is just trying to live too fast.

I think that's a good way of looking at it, as Asumu's impatience to be a grownup causing him to get in his own way. Music is all about pace and rhythm, right? Hibiki is here to show him how to slow down, think things through, and figure out what he wants before he tries to get it.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Shounen Yo is my favorite ending theme of the Heisei Era, not that there's much choice. I complain about the lack of ending theme in Lupinranger VS Patranger so I'm glad Saber's compensating me for that. Going back to Hibiki, it's interesting how the emotion changes depending on the setting. Sometimes the other characters are happy and having fun and then it's more melancholy with them sitting idly looking glum. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be relevant to the tone of the episode or something else. What's your take?

Having only seen three different takes so far, I'd probably attribute it more to an evolving sense of what the show is, rather than trying to loop into the episode's emotions. (I mean, there hasn't been an episode yet that I'd call melancholy, so I don't think that's it!) The first couple are sort-of contemplative, mysterious. The newer one is more celebratory, warm. The newer one just feels like this show.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Sometimes, Ibuki feels more like the Primary Rider than Hibiki, but only when he's in focus. At 19 years old, a more conventional protagonist age, he's the youngest active Oni in the Kanto region, he has a bike, he's more willing to embrace his role as a mentor and has my favorite fight scene and arc in the show which I look forward to mentioning later.

If this were any other show, Hibiki would've been killed in this one and Ibuki would take over as the primary Kamen Rider.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

EDIT: 200th post, yay!

Congrats!