[dreamcastegirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Nothing in this three-way dance ever felt like it was coming from an understandable place, so there's even less incentive to explain away Jiro's sizable flaws.

Absolutely agree, although I do feel that Yuri's... reaction to the oncoming train-wreck of the concrete evidence of the status quo in the 2008 setting vs what the 1986 setting has been flirting with is actually really compelling as a narrative—an unpleasant one for sure, but also something that I found really moving. This story about attempts at forgiveness where forgiveness is impossible is where I found Kiva to be at its best, and maybe a lot of that is me sitting on my own personal baggage as I watched the show unfold, whilst the original creators were all perhaps like, "Don't think about it Character A loves Character B now. What? A mass murderer, you say? Don't worry about that."

I don't want to touch on this subject, to be honest. I think I can, however, empathise to a degree with loving someone who is cruel. Not grand guignol cruel, but nonetheless cruel.

But yes, the show does a poor job of reconciling Jiro's nature with the role it wants him to play later on and it suffers for it. You said all this far better than I did so I won't try and rephrase all your points.

Gosh. I am inarticulate today.