[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Like I'll honestly be shocked if you tell you weren't taking some degree of inspiration from my now well-documented love of Hiyori there, as you use the visuals of the opening as a springboard to talk about the importance of the female lead in this Kamen Rider show.

I may have been subconsciously (because the loss of both characters feels very similar in how everything that comes after is suspect), but... man, my memory is terrible. Terrible. TokuNation member MrWilliamGraham stopped by my store a couple weeks ago, and in the process of talking about Kabuto I needed to go to the Wiki to look up Hiyori's name. And that was maybe a month after I finished watching Kabuto? My brain does not retain this stuff very well! It's like a sponge that fills up and gets wrung out every few months. So, absolutely, there's a chance that your post got me thinking along those lines, but not in a way that I was trying to reference.

I think we both, for all of our disagreements, come at these characters the same way. There's a freedom in the women of Kamen Rider to explore different types of heroism; different shapes of heroes. The loss of that part of the narrative feels especially damaging for how fragile it is, how ancillary it can feel. When there's a really great performer finding something really powerful in their performance, and then it's so unique to begin with, the absence there is greater than one person not being around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Den-O is a show all about dumb things happening on the surface, so an episode that uses an even more ridiculous than usual episodic premise to slide into a much bigger picture capital P Plot episode... I sort of think it's brilliant?

God bless you. Never change.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

That kind of attention to characterization is what defines Kobyashi's writing, and it extends to every facet of this episode, from Airi going out of her way to turn down Slimy Bank Dude's "proposal" without a second thought, after misleading the audience to think that the drama is that she might accept, to the very end, where the excuse to keep Den-O from getting out of a pinch with the power of Climax Form is that Ryutaros is too childishly proud to admit he can't win by himself with Gun Form. Even the action cliffhanger is about the characters first and foremost.

There's a subplot in here that could make me really appreciate the second part, and it's how this chapter is about four characters who are afraid of Airi's autonomy? Ryutaros is ready to murder everyone who looks at Airi funny, Yuuto and Ryotaro are concerned about what could happen to Airi if she learns the truth, and the main adversary in this one is some jerk who's trying to blackmail her into marriage! Every man (and man-shaped monster) in this story is scared of what'll happen if Airi starts making informed decisions for herself, and that's a really intriguing premise, if done correctly. I don't... I'm not sure the show is going to do it correctly (serious Airi plots have not worked out to my general satisfaction!), but it's making some possibly inadvertent points that I find interesting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Hopefully the second opinion is appreciated!

Always! I love it when people want to talk about what's going on in these episodes, even if (especially if?) they're getting something else out of them. I'm looking for conversation, not consensus. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!