[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Well if Faiz was Kamen Rider as a soap opera, then Den-O is Kamen Rider as a sitcom. Only thing it's missing is the canned laughter.

But the thing is, I don't think it's meant to be a sitcom? Or even explicitly sitcom-influenced? There's still action and drama and mystery and and and, it's just that the chemistry is so good with the DenLiner crew that I feel like the writing is skewing too far in that direction. It's a problem of Going With What Works in a way that I totally understand the reasoning, but wonder if it's detrimental to the long-term health of the series.

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

I wasn't really looking forward to this arc. One of the reasons why I rarely get into Sentai is that I feel it relies on too many stock plots and situations that you keep seeing again and again, year after year. This episode's A plot is one that feels like that. I've seen this exact story before in tokusatsu and I know that I'll see it again. I don't have a lot of time for idol and manager stories.

That said, I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Part of that is that we get our first exposure to Kintaros's trigger phrase (and things that sound close enough that why the hell not?) and I'm always down for some Kintaros well-intentioned bumbling destruction. Mostly, though, I just think that Kasumi is really well realized as a character. They got an actress that can make the character sympathetic and engaging, which does a lot to help carry this story.

And yeah, her dad does look really familiar and it's bugging me (albeit not enough to just google it).

I don't know that Kasumi worked for me! A little too bland, in that her sadness is kept so under wraps that I wasn't connecting with the character. She didn't win me over in the first installment, but I'm glad it all landed better with you than you were anticipating.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

There are already some parts in the franchise where character's good looks is remarked in-universe, but yeah, no mention of Hana's looks in this part about modeling?!

It feels like a bizarre exclusion!