[DreadBringer]

[QUOTE=Kamen Rider Die;800677]I would say that I agree with them! For the most part, the objections people seem to have to Otoya's character aren't just that he's awful; it's that he's awful AND we're supposed to be invested in him and Yuri. The show has spent a lot of time with Otoya trying to win over Yuri, and it's also spent some time showing a gentler, better side to Otoya. You can argue that the show shouldn't be forcing that pairing, but you can't argue that the show isn't investing in it.

That's the thing that actually earns Otoya a designated hero trait, because while you said, the show spent some time showing a gentler, better side of him, his good qualities perk up few and far in-between each other. How the show handles its showing of Otoya's gentler, better side can be the exact reason for those objecting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 10 - “SABRE DANCE: GLASSY MELODY”

Wataru’s relationship with Oomura doesn’t really change after he learns that Oomura’s a Fangire, which is the perfect choice. When you’ve got one Rider like Nago who is Always Certain (he screams that he’s always right and never wrong as he’s storming out of a lunch with Wataru, totally normal thing that every sane person does, it’s the new See You Later), the opposing force is to Ask Questions. When Wataru sees a person he respects turn into a giant frog (with pink buttcheeks), he’s going to let them tell their side of the story. Oomura didn’t stop being a Guest Dad just because he’s a monster. Wataru’s heroic enough to see people for their actions, not their reputation.

In similar virtuous morally upright Rider fashion (not Inoue exclusive thing...like characters such as Kenzaki, Kagami, and Ryotaro before, or someone like Takeru and Emu after), the main character learns that a monster isn't evil or completely evil, and strives to protect them too and is shaken about him fighting off monsters to seek which monsters are good/neutral or bad instead. Wataru's the one having his moment here, he'd resort into questioning about Oomura's backstory, of how he got into there. You claim asking question is what every sane person does like Wataru here... but, unfortunately fiction has made people support Nago's way of dealing with "baddies", that they think to ensure safety for people, heroes should follow that example, to just finish off anyone's bad without any second thoughts, because that's the most efficient way to ensure safety, preventing the risk of the spared baddies taking advantage of that to do another crime unprovoked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Nago, of course, gets the final blow on the Frog Fangire. Kiva was never going to take him out, and we ain’t at the point in Heisei where guest-star monsters get to go make art in peace. (Cubi! I hope you come back for that Ghost/Saber thing!) That just left IXA. (Also, this is the IXA introduction story, so it was always going to end with IXA killing Oomura. Always.) The whole IXA Calibur (yeah, I got it) Rise Up thing was amazing, IXA using the power of the sun to defeat his adversary. It’s the obvious flip on the eclipse finishers Kiva uses, but it’s also so classically Nago: a nuclear furnace of unstoppable force, washing out shadows and nuance, blinding in its horrifying intensity. Kiva is all moonlight and serenity; IXA is all sunlight and force. It’s a great showcase for IXA, and as demoralizing as you’d assume a Nago Wins finish was going to look like.

Nago is a self-righteous executioner, he has blasphemous boast to keep talking about how God is in his side, his ally, etc. and dedicates his killings of Fangires to God. Nago doesn't only use an excuse but he uses emotional manipulation here too to guilt-trip Oomura. It's deeper look yeah to see Nago's arch enemy as moral relativism, but I think it can be both for Fangires being his arch enemy too, because Nago has black-or-white view of judging someone by their species; if they're Fangire it means they're automatically bad no matter what. You describe Nago's sun as something demoralizing here, a total contrast of the sun description you gave to Tendou (although the sun description of IXA here still can fit to Tendou, he's an anti-hero too albeit milder one). Oomura's violin creating and mentoring Wataru part of creating art can be rooted, but the part of sound trigger (to stop people playing badly) shouldn't be rooted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s Otoya who comes out the best in this episode, which is why I’m talking about him last. After this, there’s no higher point to end on. It’s an episode that redeems Otoya by taking him away from his worst impulses (Yuri; still had a killer comedic scene with her in the beginning, absolutely great rapid-fire jokes, he asks her if she thinks he looks like a liar and she goes Of Course and he goes Fair) and letting him focus on his craft. It’s that mirror to Oomura’s story that I really respected, where they’re both men that want to be artists, but they keep getting in their own way. I think Otoya is self-aware enough to see that parallel, his own womanizing and Oomura’s possessiveness for the Black Star, and how those things keep them from being their best selves. Otoya can sympathize with Oomura as a man with weaknesses.

I'm more convinced of the showing of Otoya's gentler, better side here, rather than his protective interaction to women. The part of protecting women only means middle finger to men. Which is Otoya having a civil interaction with another men, as womanizers tend to see other men as enemies and competitors in his way to get women (toxic masculinity btw). I'm also with Otoya here for warning Yuri about Jiro being a monster, which just got shut down by Yuri due to her disdain to him. So Oomura was actually a standard villainous Fangire before, but he redeemed himself to stop attacking humans as a promise to Otoya. So Oomura before meeting Otoya wasn't innocent or morally ambiguous (though by hindsight he may), but after meeting Otoya, Oomura turns innocent to not attack humans anymore.