[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Kagami's problem seems to be a continuation of his personal development arc from Episode 4 and 10. Tendo wants him to be more independent and make the difficult decisions and now that Kagami is committed to being Tendo's friend over The Bee, he wants to prove himself worthy of that friendship and that he's not just using Tendo as a safety net for his potential failures as a flawed human being.

It's so strange to me that, after a not-that-well-received (commercially, if not critically) Kamen Rider series that was mostly about a non-powered character going through a ton of personal growth while being mentored by a Kamen Rider who was already great at his job... we get this series, which is doing the exact same thing. I mean, it's not Hibiki, by a long shot, but the broad strokes are remarkably similar. Weird!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This is a very tight episode of the series in terms of focus and structure.

I never ever want one of these posts to just be me saying This Was A Satisfactory Episode Of Kamen Rider, but, like, sometimes that's all they are? This one in particular, the way it jettisons the usual ZECT bureaucracy (short a cryptic comment from Kagami's dad and Tadokoro getting chewed out) for a story about a small group of friends/"friends" trying to stop a series of monster attacks, I mean... that is a super generic/basic/stock/less-pejorative Kamen Rider setup! They even lay out their strategy in the cafe! The characters make it pop, but the setup could've been in nearly any other show. (Like, this story is already 90% a Faiz story, just switch Kagami with Keitaro and the other Kabuto characters with pretty much exactly who you think.) Without all of those Kabuto specifics, and without Hiyori having a prominent role, it's a very difficult episode to find stuff in.