[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

But instead, it's seriously as simple as Otoya telling Nago to go fall for a woman to get stronger, him doing that, rewriting history, and then leaving. I don't think it's exactly flawed in its construction, but it feels like a script that needed some extra spark to it somewhere. A little more meat.

The core problem for me in this story is that it's about Nago recognizing some shortcoming in himself and making a change because of it, yet Nago is a character that is literally designed to never question his choices or interrogate his motivations. Telling a story that hinges on him not only getting where he went wrong, but conveying that to an audience is... I mean, you'd have an easier time telling a story about Nago having a pathological fear of buttons. You have to nearly reinvent the character to do it how this story tried, and it's a bit of an unforced error.

Because, honestly? There's maybe one thing they could've done that, if not salvaged it, then created a bit more follow-through on its intentions. I think it needed someone in 2008 (Megumi, most likely) to have a tiny scene with Nago where he expresses his thoughts on what the hell happened in 1986. Some way to hear him explain why he fell for Maya, what specifically about her got to him, and what it unlocked in his heart. I don't know, something to try and communicate what he was feeling, because What Nago Is Feeling is almost the entire point of this episode! But Nago hates feelings! And he also hates talking about feelings! They picked an incredibly tough story to tell with Nago, and it just needed a bit more attention to crack it.

(Like, I don't even think this was a script that needed another pass or two; this thing is busted on an almost molecular level. If they wanted to do a story where Nago Gets His Groove Back and learns to see some humanity in Fangires, I don't think this was the way to go about it.)