[DreadBringer]

I've read about the Decade talk, it's likely will be a different experience when it unfolds...

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I haven't watched it all, obviously, but it seems like he's a in the middle of a character arc? One that has him acting heroically? And becoming a Kamen Rider?

This refers to something I talked about before that (iirc) hasn't been responded yet; as a womanizer Otoya is only concerned about certain people, which is women in general, that he wants to entertain and protect any kind of them (but even more so for those he had meaningful relationship like Yuri), which is his primary reason to fight as a Kamen Rider. But as a womanizer he can be detrimental to non-women ones like for example males, which he'll likely be neglecting or potentially dangerous to them; a form of toxically masculine (yours was about how 'women didn't need to suffer' part though) to be hostile to other men and see them as oppositions.

Before I said too about how a womanizer has either 2 outcome, being fiercely protective to any women and likely detrimental to non-women (like Otoya), or being detrimental to the women itself for the objectification and tactless approach (like Spider Fangire). While Otoya doesn't have exactly zero decency traits, like a few of his amicable interactions with certain male which is Oomura before and Nago in this episode (and he still wants to gloat and gain glory for his deeds saving him), I'd (and likely those people who discuss about Otoya before that has watched entire Kiva) think it's a big stretch to label him as "generally decent" or "champion of justice" for being mainly caring and protective of only certain part of humans, like women only (applies likely either to "only loved ones" bias or sexism double standard as in Daisuke in Kabuto).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 27 - “80s: ANGRY RISING BLUE”

The best part of this whole sequence, beyond Kengo’s delight at officially becoming Nago’s student, is how stock this story is - heroes framed for a crime by a villain! - until you make Nago the protagonist. He’s so colossally unsuited to freeing wrongly accused friends, since a) he doesn’t even believe in the term “wrongly accused”, and b) he doesn’t even believe in the term “friends”. Megumi and Shima might as well be asking Rook to free them. Putting Nago in a position of altruistic heroism is so uncomfortable for him, and it’s a really cool starting place for this story.

But yeah it'll be interesting to see how it unfolds as being framed for something isn't something that can be solved by brute force, if anything using brute force may just making it worse. Just thinking about how Megumi didn't fight back, but Nago did. Or that Wataru is still unbelievably weak in his human physique, that usually Riders are able to fend off monsters after fighting as them for a while, with Ryotaro as a notable exception as the one's doing the fighting the most are the Taros Imagins. But for Nago being made as a protagonist here, I'll talk about it below.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The first thing to go wrong is Rising IXA, which… I mean, what the hell is even going on with Rising IXA. It’s got a cellphone that appears out of thin air, like we’re watching Faiz or something (it even unlocks with a variation on Kaixa’s 9-1-3 code!), and then it’s just a mess of a suit. The chest panel is now some red starburst furnace? The helmet is a samurai? There’s a heart-shaped choker?! And the color palette, man. Red and blue and white and gold and silver? Crazy. Way too busy. I don’t know why I was expecting more from the W.A.K.E.U.P. design team that gave us the Ixcavator, but I suppose I was. I guess some things just peaked in the 80s.

O̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶p̶e̶a̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶8̶0̶s̶,̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶s̶t̶a̶l̶g̶i̶a̶ ̶g̶o̶g̶g̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶.̶ For IXA Rising, I guess this is an unusual type of form debut, to have it not be used as an absolute destroying of the opponent that fights them, albeit IXA Rising still shoots the opponent to the water nearby like Inoue's standard. But still while the form design may be worse (for form designs to every Rider I already got to know them with games like Climax Heroes), the important thing is the power it holds!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Well, maybe not everything was great in the 80s. After getting rescued from the cops by Tanahashi, a painter who IXA nearly killed back in ‘86, we finally get the details of this scheme. Tanahashi blames IXA and all of W.A.K.E.U.P. not just for his injuries, but for the mysterious disappearance of his muse: Maya! Since his recovery in the late 80s, Tanahashi has - and I swear to god that this is his explanation - trained to be a cop, spending decades rising through the ranks, all to have the kind of authority that would allow him to frame multiple people for crimes.

I think, Tanahashi is a reflection of Nago himself, he's done to likely represent what Nago was in the past. Like how Nago is hell-bent to destroy Kiva, same goes for Tanahashi to destroy IXA, and for Tanahashi, he's doing it because an incident in the past that he almost got killed due to IXA's attack, and likely same goes for Nago as he thinks Kiva is an evil incarnate. Nago is purposely made as the protagonist in the episode to deal with practically his own previous self, the one even more vicious as in never admitting mistakes or weakness (Nago did for weakness just at last episode). And Tanahashi looking at the organization that he despise and subverting it is a type of villainy that is similar to Kusaka (and Nago had Kusaka traits too before), gaining full prejudice (with pettiness) to everyone involved with the organization, without ifs, ands, and buts, which is to end every single people got involved with Aozora.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which, he can? Thanks to a not-trapped Jiro? And a Castle Doran that was underground? And Castle Doran’s heretofore-unmentioned Time Door? That sends Nago back to 1986, to interact with Otoya and Yuri?

Though yeah, although it's not entirely known about Castle Doran, the solution here can seem like a cop out, to suddenly have something that allows people to time travel to the past. I'd say Otoya possessing Wataru in the present is similarly unexplained... yet. What I want to happen within Nago strolling in the past is to get to know about how both people are the parents of people he closely works with; Wataru for Otoya and Megumi for Yuri respectively. There's an ongoing conflict of Nago with Otoya for finding out that he's an IXA user too. Though probably it's not introduced the best way, Taiga is another major character for this series to be introduced this late, like Mio before. I don't know how and when Wataru and Shizuka met, but it seems that they met after him and Taiga are separated, and Wataru is always made fun or chastised by his timid nature like not having friends.