[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

I have to say that I was kinda disappointed with this one. Not that it was bad, because it wasn't, but because my favorite moment played out differently than I remembered. The way I remembered Yuri's phone call with Shima was that Otoya had randomly created a massive street dance in the background. I hadn't realized at the time that the dancers were already there and he just joined in. Still adorable, but less perfectly random and bizarre.

That would've been amazing, but I can't feel even a little disappointed with what we got. The blocking for that gag, with Otoya perfectly matching his choreography with the other dancers while Yuri tries to give a report over the phone to Shima... it's wonderful. It's so perfectly Otoya to not just try and cover up his injuries in front of a woman, but to go so far overboard in his faking that he's dancing in the streets. I loved it.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Like, Wataru is swinging that hammer around for Kengo, man! It stands out a bit, despite not being a particularly elaborate fight scene.

Yeah, for all the clever camerawork these episodes had, the final fight against the Rhino Fangire was sort of forgettable. But the way Kiva is 1000% not screwing around makes it still come through, emotionally.

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

Its a submachine gun that turns into a sword, which isn't that unique or anything, but its pretty wonderfully elegant how it manages to be a weaponised cross in both modes.

One of the things it does, and it's a tiny detail that I love in Rider weapons, is that it changes form via physical manipulation. Like, IXA transforms it by hand between the two modes. It gives it such a playful, DX feel that I find it very charming and engrossing. I like the reality of it, I guess.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

It's a very appropriate debut for sure. I'd also like to point out how the lightning backdrop in his finisher could be a metaphor for anger, symbolizing Wataru's anger towards the Rhino Fangire for sadistically destroying the dreams of his victims and attempting to do the same to his new friend. The other symbolism is of course Frankenstein but I mostly like what it says about how ticked off Wataru is in this scene. It's the same anger that Kiba felt when he fought Owl Orphenoch.

Yeah, this fight is personal to Kiva in a way that even Megumi's kidnapping wasn't. There's a sadism to the Rhino Fangire, a joy in crushing dreams, that's antithetical to Wataru's worldview. The Rhino Fangire needs to be erased from the world. It's an intensely cathartic finale.

(One tiny thing that cracked me up, though, is when Wataru gets to the Rhino's shrine. Wataru is looking for confirmation that the Fangire is preying on Kengo, and Wataru has to look over the entire shrine multiple times to pick out his best friend from a group of two dozen people. Is Wataru face-blind? Was he so stressed that he briefly forgot what Kengo looked like? It's a small thing, but it made me laugh just before the darkest part of the episode. I would maybe have edited that scene differently!)

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Nago gets his just desserts for shifting the blame for his defeat to IXA, which Shima pointed out that it can be Nago not capable enough to bring the best out of IXA . Other than that, it's seen again for Nago's self-righteous extremism, that he gives excessive punishment to a human criminal that even Megumi had to stop him as he can potentially kill the human. Again, unfortunately some people are like-minded with Nago here to kill anyone who does bad, because likely being influenced by media negativity to think the law is never competent even once for dealing with criminals (them getting off scot-free) for one of the reasons.

One of the nicest things about the Nago scene is the way Shima and Megumi's tone communicates to the audience that everyone knows Nago is being a gigantic baby after losing to Kiva. He's folding his arms like a grumpy toddler, refusing to own his mistakes, and making everyone treat him with kid gloves. It was such a fun scene to watch. I like petulant and childish Nago! He's so weird!