[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

He's a sweet kid and all, but the show is already asking questions about how useful his sheepishness/pacifism is as a lifestyle. I'm not sure if he's really being portrayed as a saint when he's repeatedly (and correctly) told to fight!

There are varying reasons of not wanting to fight. As the series established him, he's weak. No point of going to fight if you're too weak to do so, it wouldn't lead to good outcome (and there aren't anyone on the monster's way that time to excuse a sacrifice for instance), don't know what's good outcome for fighting thugs either, but of course Ryotaro has no idea at all about the fantasy elements in his world at that time, he would've thought that he must fight off monsters in his human form (and even then, Den-O Plat is a joke form, and Ryotaro has no idea how to use the Rider powers), but he does want to help other people whenever possible (whenever possible, not by meaninglessly charge to battle just to instantly die), and of course, not every problem is about fighting. Ryotaro's reason to not fight (and being told to do so) is not about moral flaw, I mean being "told to fight" can also happen to be done by morally ambiguous characters, trying to "corrupt" the character refusing to do so, like what some other Riders do to Shinji in Kobayashi's previous series Ryuki.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Kuuga and 555 constantly place in the top 5 on popularity polls is the thing, and then you've got the endless merchandise for Decade, and Ryuki and Blade are cult favourites...

I understand, but you said it yourself, Ryuki and Blade are cult favorites. They're well-received, but are cults. For sure Kuuga is highly regarded, but from what I've followed (cmiiw, again), people's remarks about Kuuga is mostly about praising Yusuke, and sometimes Ichijou or their relationship, or the Kuuga's suit (including its forms, progression, power) but Kuuga's other stuff (other characters like Sakurako/Tsubaki/Enokida/Jean, the joke references like "Jean Michel Polnareff" which combines both JoJo's Polnareff and Michel Polnareff, etc. The one meme that I recall get talked about in good amount is the Kuuga curse), I didn't see them talked much in community. And yeah in Japan 555 is top popularity, though I can't say (if anyone have an info they can tell).