[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Man, that character development you had back around Agito and Ryuki has really stuck, huh?

I'm pretty sure when I started off with Ghost and Build, I was doing a couple paragraphs that covered two or three episodes, which seems both enormously wasteful (savor these episodes!) and barely scratching the surface. I'm definitely finding it more fulfilling now, even if it's more work for less discussion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

One thing I know it's down to, however, is how much I love Ryutaros. Easily my favorite of Ryoutarou's Imagin, and much of what I feel is legitimately strong about this two-parter naturally springs out of his character. Like, even just having Gun Form show up in the first part, I've always thought was a brilliant touch for the hyperactive kid of the group. These memories are so vague at this point I'm not even sure how much of this I've still got correct, but I recall not being super into Den-O for a while originally, to the point I took a pretty long break ~somewhere~ around these episodes, so when I eventually came back to it and found myself way more excited about it, I very strongly associated that feeling with Ryutaros.

Everything about him is so intensely fun to me, and it really felt like he completed the group's dynamic. I've always found it weirdly endearing that the way the show chose to go about making him feel like a child was to make him disconcertingly amoral and sociopathic on top of simply being flighty, especially. It's a very specific set of traits that makes him fit right in among the rest of this insanely dysfunctional cast. Gun Form itself left a similarly huge impression on me, and is my favorite of Den-O's main four, thanks in large part to its extremely distinctive and active body language. I think all the dancing actually impresses me less than simply how Takaiwa carries himself in the moments when he's not moving too much. The huge level of collateral damage the gun causes helps further sell the idea that Ryutaros is basically just one big living hazard rather nicely, too. He's basically the absolute last person who should be using that thing!

He's maybe the only thing worth talking about from these episodes, I'll give him that!

The innocent selfishness of the character is really interesting to me, for how it feels like a different level of troublemaker from the other three Imagin. Ryutaros is someone who is both way more upfront about how he is only trying to do what he enjoys, and sort of charming for the way he assumes everyone else is happy about that. It's like Wacky Sociopathy, and the energy of that is unique amongst the cast. He's definitely a compelling character!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Okay, I'll stop for a bit, but I will ask a real question to leave off on – how nice is it that the belt announces the form names now? I don't think you've outright mentioned it yet, but judging by how you're actually able to use them right away, I'm guessing that's one more familiar trope you're happy to have worked your way back up to?

You guess correctly! Kabuto had the various Henshin startup phrases, your Cast Offs and Change Beetles and whatnot, so it's not like we're creating the Phase 2 noises from whole cloth, but there's absolutely more of an emphasis on them. It's nice to have these crazy sounds and phrases getting screamed at me again!