[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Yeah, that was Zanki. Not even going to pretend. He's played by an actor named Kenji Matsuda, who has a pretty good track record with both action movies and tokusatsu. He'll be back after this as a regular on Kiva, too, and he had a big role in the second Garo series. He's one of my favorite tokusatsu actors; even in just two short scenes here he radiates cool.

The thing Zanki does that I really enjoyed is that he has this tone of, like, Why Is No One Here For This Child, which is 180 degrees from how Hibiki has been treating Asumu. Zanki immediately gets that this kid needs a kind word of support, and then Guitar Themes his way out of the scene. It's very cool!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I totally get you on Asumu feeling shortchanged this time. It's not like he didn't have some story, but the big focus here is on the monster fight and he's just not part of that. It's also pretty obvious that the show is using his story as a way to introduce Todoyama and Zanki, which makes Asumu feel even more sidelined.

The bigger problem I had with this story, and why it maybe bugged me more than Asumu's visit to Trauma Bookstore, is that this story is just something that Happens To Asumu. He doesn't bring it on himself (although it seemed like he might've been ignoring it last episode, due to some general thematic stuff that was going on, this episode doesn't treat it as anything more than Asumu's oversight), and there's really no lesson or theme to draw out of it. He got sick, and then he got better. Two points might make a line, but they don't make a story.

That said, I appreciate the monster plot trying to loop in Asumu's story by making the Deranged Douji's weak spot his tummy. Everyone's got insides that are nothing but trouble! There's your theme, viewers!