[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Die calling my interpretation of that scene with Newsuke and his bike a "good catch" is maybe giving me way too much credit. I ended up watching episode 2 a whole day before 3, and spent most of that gap kicking that specific scene around in my head not because I had some genius read of it ready to go, but because I was wondering why the heck Tasaki directed it to look so aggressively meaningful.
The camerawork is going out of its way to scream at the viewer about how important the bike's lack of motion is, using these abrupt cuts where it pans over like Newsuke is about to drive off before smashing right back where it was, and if it weren't for that inspired direction giving me pause for thought, I would've let the moment slip right by. Tasaki was being smart so I didn't have to be! (And while I'm on the subject, there's a certain novelty to seeing Tasaki direct something even Kuuga-adjacent in general, since he started working on Rider with Agito.)

I like that your way of refuting my praise is to point out that you merely thought about it for an entire day before having a brilliant read on it.

...I honestly can't tell if you're really this humble, or if this is a gag, and I'm not sure which would make me madder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Tsukasa and Natsumi maybe have one of my favorite hero/heroine dynamics in Rider history, by the way? They're constantly giving each other crap in a way that's about as dysfunctional as you'd expect from Heisei Rider, but at the same time you can tell they care about each other quite a bit, complete with him having a pet name for her and her always calling him Tsukasa-kun all affectionately.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

They've always felt very much like siblings to me? And way more than most blood siblings in Toku usually do; they feel very real and grounded in how much they annoy and nag and can't stand each other but in a very affectionate way. Their relationship is so fun and endearing and one of my favourite things about the show!

So, the thing that I think makes the Tsukasa/Natsumi relationship land so well is that it's of a slightly different duration than we've seen in other Heisei shows. Most of the dynamics in the other shows are either long-term relationships where the main character has a warm relationship with the other character (Wataru/Shizuka, Ryotaro/Airi, Asumu/Hitomi), or relationships that only start in the first episode and are all prickly and weird (Wataru/Megumi, Ryotaro/Hana, Asumu/Akira). The Tsukasa/Natsumi relationship is right in the middle, since he's only been hanging around for a little while. It's new enough that she can lose her temper at his quirks, but established enough that they can have little nicknames and friendly banter.

The two of them... it's right in this sweet spot of Antagonism and Affection, you know? Good energy.