[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This entire scene had me in stitches, and it's not even because of this particular frame, or any specific exchange of dialogue – just the whole scenario was hilarious, and after skimming back through it, I think the secret ingredient is Ishida?

Very predictable answer from me, I know (and obviously the main ingredient is still Airi), but that rewatch predates me getting any sort of decent handle on direction in Kamen Rider, so looking back now, what jumps out at me is that there's no music in this scene at all. It's just the ambient noise of helicopters and police sirens somewhat faintly in the background, something that would ordinarily create tension, but instead just adds to the surreal vibe. Nothing happening in the scene seems to quite fit with any of the other things happening in the scene, and the end result is totally brilliant.

Yeah, visually this is a very dense episode: there're usually three or more people in each shot, there are multiple points of motion (Ura/Naomi spinning around in the background while Momo/Hana brawl in the foreground), there's an evolution to the design of the central hostage space so that every time we check in it's changed a little, etc. It's an episode that never wants you to feel settled, but it also never wants you to feel scared, so it balances that disorienting amount of visual information with a more measured sonic palette, or with contrasting performances (Airi vs the bathhouse guy, Ryotaro vs the bike thief, Momo/Hana vs Ura/Naomi) so that it all feels surreal and not terrifying.