[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

So, is this the first episode not to focus on a Fangire? I just realised that the only one in this episode is unceremoniously offed by Proto-IXA (which isn’t anything official. It’s just how I distinguish the ‘86 version with the show-only deep voice belt from the ‘08 version with the toy-accurate normal voice belt).

Yeah, the two Fangires in this episode are the story-less one who just randomly pops out of a floorboard to spook women, and the Joker one from 5/6. There was just no room for a Fangire story in this one! Too busy rocking!

I was also thinking of IXA '86 as Proto-IXA. That's just how my brain works after watching Drive.

One thing about Proto-IXA (IXAlso, sorry, that's his name now) and his debut was that, when he starts venting steam from every seam, I just assumed he was going to pull Delta and immediately die from trying to use a Rider System. I honestly didn't think it was going to be Zanki. I thought it was going to be some W.A.K.E.U.P. nobody, and that'd be the reason why Yuri got passed over (using IXA will kill you) and why Nago eventually got the nod (no one is going to mourn him). Not the way they went. Not sure if their way is better or worse, though!

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Originally Posted by Kurona

Kengo was a character I liked a lot. Past tense but I adored his friendship with Wataru and that was easily the highlight of the show for me for a while

They are incredibly charming together. I kept waiting for Kengo to be dismissive of Wataru's shyness, or steamroll over him in discussions, but Kengo's just a very good friend? Exuberant, bordering on deluded, but he's honestly pretty nice to Wataru?

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Originally Posted by dreamcastegirl

Sign me up for this when it does happen! I remember really quite liking everything about these episodes; from Shizuka's absurd role in the story, the reminder of the fact this is children's television, that it's supposed to be fun, to the relationship between Kengo and Wataru.

I'm sure it'd be diminishing returns if they pulled out a story like this every week, but I'm so thrilled when a Kamen Rider show gets goofy. Ryuki's a series about the impossibility of knowing other people, the enormity of compromise, the need to always ask questions, the value of curiosity even when it doesn't solve a problem... but, like, my favorite episodes are the ones where Yui destroys an apartment looking for a missing woman (pretty sure she looks inside a microwave) and where Kitaoka silently Henshins and dives into a river to escape a date. I love comedic Kamen Rider so much.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

But don't you think Yuri has the right to seek revenge on the castle tattoo guy who killed her mother? I mean, she's already part of the Wonderful Aozora Organization dedicated to protecting humanity from Fangires, so it seems cruel that Shima would deny her IXA, a keepsake of her mother, even when it would make her even more effective at her job.

Oh, I think her boss is being a dick, absolutely. But there's a visceral need from her to be IXA that starts to look like Nago's psychosis, and anytime you can make a comparison to Nago, someone's screwed up. I think there're a million good reasons for Yuri to be IXA, but this episode paints her desire as blind vengeance (and, like, I don't know that she isn't already getting a form of that vengeance by professionally hunting Fanigres? I don't think she has to find and kill one specific Fangire?), and I think that's something in herself she needs to address.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I'll talk more about this in the next episode, but I also wanted to point out that the death date on Yuri's grave is obscured by the flowers. It looks like there's a 6 or an 8 at the end, so could that be something like 1998 or 2006?

Didn't notice that! Good catch!