[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

So I've always found the story of Sakurai and Airi to be equal parts fascinating and frustrating. The show really wants to bill them as star-crossed lovers (stargazing snuggle count is up to 5, btw), but it's hard to make it work when she doesn't remember that he exists and he's just a dude in a trenchcoat and two hats who shows up for ten seconds every other episode. Yeah, we get Yuuto, but it's always been clear that this isn't the same dude, it's him when he was a jerk teenager and he barely knows Airi at all. It doesn't not work, but it also doesn't really work.

It's definitely a plot that needs some link between Yuuto and Airi that feels dynamic, but all we're given is blank stares and evasion. It's like the show wants this to be a Doomed Romance, but all they're giving us is Doomed? No real Romance?

There's a neat bit in this one where Yuuto's dilemma with Airi is revealed to be fate-based. He's supposed to become this man that Airi loves, but he isn't that guy yet. Worse, even when he becomes that guy, he'll disappear and she'll end up forgetting about him. It's a depressing future that Yuuto somehow is failing to live up to. It's no wonder this kid is so grumpy and stressed out!

On the other hand, Airi is unaware of her relationship with Sakurai, and doesn't see Yuuto as anything more than Ryotaro's friend. There's zero(nos) chemistry between them, and absolutely no intention to change that. Airi mostly doesn't think about Yuuto, and Yuuto is weird and closed-off around her. He's a child, she's an adult. He knows he ends up with her, but he's not really attracted to her, at least that the show's felt like dramatizing. (Because it would look very weird! He's way younger than her, developmentally!) And she's not pining for Sakurai, so...

It's an interesting enough idea, What If You Loved Someone And Lost Them And Then They Showed Back Up As An Unlikeable Asshole Who Isn't Here To Make Friends, but the show sort of presents it as a complete concept, rather than anything that needs to be worked at or attended to. It presumes a level of audience investment in these two somehow making it work (for a future value of Making It Work) that's like, not a goal of mine as a viewer? I don't care if Airi and Sakurai/Yuuto have a happy future/past? I'd rather she just got on with her life, as she's been doing fairly successfully for the last while?

Yeah, weird plot.