[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

I'm also not too fond of the idea of Asumu becoming a doctor (seems a bit out of nowhere, especially with how he's been going towards things that enrich peoples' lives rather than save them), but I guess I can see it and wouldn't blame anyone else including the showrunners from figuring that's where he'd go. Still weird to me mind.

I don't love them swerving from Asumu The Artist to Asumu The Doctor (so much better thematically if he wants to bring smiles!), but I think the episode hedges its bets by having AsuMum wonder out loud if Asumu's really that dedicated to medicine. He's always been an indecisive kid, so I don't think it'd be a huge shock for him to land in a completely different field. The only thing he says definitievely in the finale is that he won't be an Oni. I like to think he got back into a drama club in university, and then pivoted back to entertaining.

(Also, I wonder if the implication is that spending more time with the chronically-ill Naomi made Asumu want to study medicine?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaiserBlue

Its a shame that for a series like Kamen Rider, such poor writers were chosen for the second half of Hibiki. Like i get the first half wasnt budget friendly, but at least try to keep the writing. if you want to cutback, cutback, not frankstein together a completely new plot and royally demolish what the first half was aiming for. I loved the first half, the nuances and layered storytelling was exceptional, brought a level of humanity and realism to hibiki as people before masked heroes. If i were Shigeki Hosokawa, after this mess, i wouldnt want my name associated with Rider either.

This finale is impossible to defend creatively, but I actually think there were a few smart choice in the second phase. I'll dig into the phase as a whole tomorrow, but there were some attempts at more conflict-oriented storytelling that I thought were solid. Mostly, it's Asumu's story that I think the show did a more-or-less good job at landing. The rest of it, uh... a little more problematic!