[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 25 - “RACING AZURE”

The Hibiki thread is a lot of fun, with Ibuki serving as a way-too-optimistic trainer (You’re Doing Great is not helpful advice for someone who’s trying to push himself, Ibuki!) and Kasumi bored out of her goddamn mind.

Kasumi was brought along because of Ibuki, obviously! Need someone Ibuki admires to talk on with and make moves with. It's like asking why brought Hitomi, Ikuko, Hinaka with Asumu and Todoroki. And probably, exactly why he tries to fight Kappa alone, because probably he knows that Kasumi doesn't give the impression that she thinks he's cool? Then he tries to change her by doing something... reckless. "does he think she thinks he’s cool?" shouldn't be questioned, it's probably exactly there, and the driving reason for Ibuki to do that.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The stuff with the rest of the cast at the public pool, it’s fantastic.

There's a reason, Todoroki thinks he has to catch up to Hibiki, so he's imitating him in trainings like swimmings.... though I wonder what's the purpose of bringing Asumu around, he doesn't want to become Oni (Todoroki claims we can't be beaten). Though coming from Hinaka, she's still the weird and goofy one too, as a foil to the responsible Kasumi, doing that to Todoroki?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This status quo is not sustainable. Keeping Hitomi in this kind of limbo, it’s going to have consequences for both of them. If Asumu doesn’t wise up soon, he’s going to lose a friend.

Well, ok then, feels a bit more vaild to give more percceptives about what bad things can happen if the situation stays as it is like potentially losing a friend, though from what I said before, wrong move also, can be disastrous, like if it not working out, you can lose a friend too and likely end up worse than that. And nobody can predict the future. And the "crushing" part is still, well, an outwardly perception.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I'd be a bit more excited if the show had Asumu look for whistle-guidance from Ibuki, but, well, seems unlikely at this point.

Oh right, Oni's Makamou hunting also includes whistling too to henshin or to call disc animals... how did I miss that part, very nice point.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Sure, but the show hedges its bet by making the thing Todoroki wants to quit a thing that's vital to his success. He's not quitting some hobby, he's quitting a part of his job that he doesn't like.

But I think you could make the argument that he'd still be better off applying himself and overcoming his failings. Even if the skill itself is irrelevant, the perseverance is valuable.

I know, I wrote that in this case, Todoroki's training is necessary, I was leaning more towards Asumu, which the story mirrors, because that one is likely a hobby; no one would force Asumu to join and excel in band.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Asumu is being called out in the text of the show for being clueless when it comes to Hitomi's feelings! Hibiki brought her up to Asumu in the last story. Hinaka is so mad at him for missing the signs in this one. And, spoiler, his own mom mentions that he's oblivious with girls in the next one. If you think it's a toxic take, okay, but it's a take that is basically just me stating what the show is doing right now.

And you know, what I wrote there, is taken from an article to criticize girls, like those characters in the story (Hinaka, his mom, I know you lumped Hibiki together but iirc not as significant as those others) doing what you say here and what the story does, that they should take into consideration into what's going on the boys first before bashing them as oblivious or something. It just means the girls being at fault, and they should be the one given some talk sense, to not only consider their own, or just their gender's feelings. And just blindly treating everything coming from girl (like what those think) as right and those coming from boys (like ignoring their scuffles) as wrong is double standard-y. It could be that, like your previous criticism, you saying Asumu being "not-so great" being "fought over" by 2 women, but he knows that he's like what you describe towards him, and therefore doesn't feel that he's worthy to be Hitomi or Akira's partner thus he never goes further? (and I can already know that's awry at least from you, making moves you're not-so great, didn't do so and he's frustratingly oblivious )

Also, from what the show is doing, still, just because the show is doing that doesn't mean that the audience should exactly follow (I know you do but I'm still telling about how for this case you seem to be inconsiderate, and for it being toxic take... probably the story IS being unintentionally toxic, it can happen in various stories, author can't necessarily account for reader reactions).

You don't just want this thing to be believable—you want it to have the characteristics it needs to have for the story to work, and in inverse of Show Don't Tell, for its difficulty to achieve that, authors sometimes, consciously or not, go "screw it. Why go through all the trouble?" and just have the narration or another character say something like, "she is brave", "this is sharp", "this is sturdy", etc. there, problem solved. But readers can conclude from what they experience for themselves, not 100% taking their word for it, whatever "it" is, like actively seeking reasons to ridicule the concepts they tell them are profound. Like like for example what you say in Kuuga thread about Man of Steel's ending being meant for triumph, but you wouldn't call it a win unlike what intended) is forced to think that way, or that someone that is constantly told as heroic by other characters because they're on protagonistic side but the audience knows that they aren't even close (Designated Heroes). It's difficult to draw the line regarding where the ratio of informed feats to actual feats becomes unfeasible, and deciding for what audience think can be taken to the extremes like altering everything for their headcannons yeah, they had to be flexible and not run totally by bias (like because an author did a mistake then every single thing they convey is flawed, only what we think is right! - full ego) too.