[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

On the '86 side, it really feels like the show doesn't have its heart here anymore. There are still some developments with Otoya, Maya, and Yuri, but they feel like more of an afterthought as the show has put most of its energy into the '08 story right now. There's an energy and spark that '86 used to have that really feels lost now.

Yeah, the 2008 stuff is constantly adding new wrinkles and twists, while the 1986 stuff is mostly just finding ways to delay its climax until it can match up with 2008. It's like the show realized that it ran through the '86 story faster than the '08 story, and now it has to either devote very little time to Otoya/Yuri/Maya/King, or just keep running the same plot for a few weeks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

As for Wataru, I really do like what the show is doing with him now in regards to his pulling back, which is a bit ironic since I've always complained about him sulking in his tub whenever life gets even slightly challenging. It does work here, though, because he is going through a massive amount of shit and it totally tracks that he would try to wall himself off again. What doesn't work for me is that the show uses Wataru's trauma to set up a slapstick routine where his friends run through a series of Home Alone style traps - including a freaking swinging log - when they try to get into his house. It just seems so out of place to make this the big joke scene for the episode.

This sort of worked for me, but in a way that's tough to defend. I liked the earnestness of the sequence, all of Wataru's friends braving electrified doorknobs and plastic insects to show him that they still love him. It's sweet!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deepsea

Taiga sounds like evil Tsurugi from this post, and that's amusing to me.

That's not a far-off interpretation! Taiga can definitely come off like a non-comedic Tsurugi.