[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 38 - “FAILED SLAYING SOUND”

I thought this one was pretty shitty? Like, for the first time, I get the criticisms about the second phase of Hibiki. This episode just fluctuated between emotional scenes that were incredibly wrong for the characters, and dopey monster sequences that felt dropped in from another show entirely. Everything in this one, except for one character’s story, just… I mean, that Nails On A Chalkboard move by the Hime was how I felt watching most of this episode.

There will probably be plenty of things I’ll rip apart from this episode (or I’ll just bail in a couple paragraphs, we’ll play it by ear), so let me start by saying the Ibuki stuff from this episode, and only the Ibuki stuff from this episode, worked great. The only honest moment in this entire episode was when Ibuki is explaining to Zanki how much he feels he let Akira down. It’s raw and visceral, a side of the normally self-assured Ibuki that we never get to see. Here, he’s a parent who had their kid run away, and he doesn’t know what to do. He blames himself for not understanding her better, for not guarding her from her fears and doubts. He’s doubting himself, for the first time ever. It’s a very sweet scene that gives gravity and stakes to Ibuki’s side of the story with Akira, something that was missing from the last episode.

So then the episode shits all over it by having Zanki punch Ibuki in the face.

It’s a stupid way to end that scene. It takes all of the real emotion and douses it in bravado and nonsense. It moves Zanki from his usual cool demeanor into just being an aggressive asshole. It sucks. It made me sad.

The Zanki/Todoroki thing that came after was equally dumb to me. Todoroki demanding that the critically injured Zanki start fighting with him again is unconscionably thoughtless, and Zanki’s tough love abandonment is infuriating. It’s a scene where not only do I not buy anything either character is doing, but it was making me angry just to watch. It’s bullshit drama.

So, the good news is that this episode and the next can't be blamed on Inoue as he didn't write them, despite that very Inoue punch scene.

The bad news is that, as I mentioned earlier, this arc is written by Yonemura Shoji. He's infamous in the west for writing one of the most contrived and hated movies, Super Hero War. Most recently, he wrote Pretty Den-O which fans are still waiting to get subs for. This arc is a preview for what kind of OOC nonsense you can expect from Kamen Rider Kabuto so you might have some problems with that.

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

Hey, you think he's still up there?

"There will be no finale for you." implies he'll be up there for a very, very long time.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

(the answer to my riddle. The bolded words were what the individual kanji in his name translated to when I tried Google translating them individually)

Damn, I never would have thought to do that. Clever!