[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Sunred

I just realized Biggie is Die's way of calling Dai-chan. I was beginning to wonder why Die started mentioning Biggie Smalls outta the blue.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Based on the screencap, it seems to be a translation by whatever subs Die is using. Over-Time do this sometimes, like for Kei-chan (Kairi's nickname for Keiichirou) and Ansatsu-chan. But TV-Nihon just keep the original names.

Yeah, I got subs that just call him Biggie the whole time. Sorry for any confusion!

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

On the whole, I do like these episodes, although its more for the past segments than the present ones. I get more interest out of watching Jirou teaming up with Otoya to team up against Rook while Yuri gets knocked unconscious repeatedly. the modern day stuff with Dai-chan gets old for me really fast. It leads to a big pay-off in the end, but it's something that feels like Inoue recycling old plots.

Yeah, I guess I got lucky in that, since I didn't know the origination of this plot, it was able to surprise me a little. I didn't think things would work out great for everyone (as soon as Shizuka and Wataru were like Everything's Working Out Great, I immediately went Oh No), but I did not imagine it would be as clean of a break from Biggie to Rook as it was.

Plus... I don't know, I found all of the Gentle Giant stuff really charming? For all of the death and destruction the plot ends with, it's a nicely low-stakes middle section, with mistaken deliveries and forgotten miso soups.

I think it's that the actor for Rook does a good job in portraying Biggie's innocence as... it feels fleeting, even when there are a half-dozen scenes of him screwing something up in an adorable way. The intercutting with his past villainy and the general foreboding nature of This Is Going To Fall Apart makes those little segments... yeah, real charming. The 1986 stuff was better, for sure, but I did enjoy the 2008 stuff.

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

The modern story does properly introduce the Powered Ixer, though. Because nothing fits the "holy knight Kamen Rider" aesthetic like a barrel-throwing dinosaur crane.

It's weird when they start adapting stuff straight out of Bram Stoker's Dracula, like with the Ixcavator, without giving it a toku twist, but at least it's grounded in theme and tone.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

The point of the reveal of Dai-chan's true identity as Rook was probably to further show how Wataru has gone from trusting nobody but Shizuka to trusting everybody and teach a moral that a little skepticism can be helpful sometimes, continuing from Kengo getting deceived in the previous arc. It's like Takumi acts after he commits to being Faiz in Episode 10, he starts overcompensating for his inferiority complex which causes him to look like an idiot. Here it's Wataru thinking how awesome people and the world are now that he has a few better experiences, but he forgets that people and the world can also be terrible, which prevents him from heeding Shizuka's advice about being cautious of strangers. Sometimes character development has to go backwards before it can go forwards.

Maybe! I think his need to care for Biggie is a little more about his dad, and the way Wataru latches onto different male figures to fill a void in his development. They flip it around here, with him needing a son more than a father, but it's still him trying to configure a healthy family dynamic out of spare parts. Wataru is, like the Fangires, grabbing whatever he can from other people to complete his emotional development.

But, yeah, I can see it being an outgrowth of his recent (few!) positive experiences with people. Although, man, I don't know if Wataru should be feeling too open to people after Kengo vanished following a fight and the Rhino Fangire was such an object lesson in how manipulative people can be!