[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

25/26 are the very first episodes of Kamen Rider directed by Shoujirou Nakazawa, who was working exclusively on Super Sentai for a long time prior, and would go right back to that after Kiva... until he became the main director for Wizard, which naturally means he's a favorite of mine. I'm not to the point where I can actively describe his style very well, but there's a cleanliness to his work that I just adore. He was also Ex-Aid's main director, a fact I hope speaks for itself (both of these shows are known for being pretty to look at), because, again, I'm often at a loss for words talking about this guy!

If I can make a broad generalization after a single Kiva episode (and I can!), I'd say he shows a pretty deft hand at catching performances? A ton of this story rests on the viewer keying into Maya's deadly curiosity and Mio's existential despair, and I think the direction really brought those across. There's less frenetic editing, and longer takes, and a mixture of middle reaction shots to keep the performance grounded in a space. As someone who adored Ex-Aid, I feel like Makes Complicated Character Motivations Legible is his main skill?