[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deepsea

This makes me think, characters like tsukasa, tendou, and sento are all prideful but flawed, but dont irk you like this. So I'm guessing the grumpiness and lack of respect towards others are the bigger reasons for not liking him.

I think, I think the most apt comparison I can make to Kotoro is Gou from Drive (and a character from saber). They're both show offs who are actually using that confidence to cover up for their feelings of inadquecy (and hate/guilt in Gou's case). I feel like early Gou pulls off that confidence better because he feels more human/kind, while still kind of being a shit. I dont know, what do y'all think?

I mean, it's really two things at work: a mediocre actor and diminishing returns.

Kotaro's actor is incredibly light on charisma. Nothing about his performance gets you on his side. There's a way to play the part that differentiates it from Yuuto, but this guy just plays it as off-puttingly as possible. There's none of Yuuto's barely-concealed sadness, or Original Ryotaro's boundless empathy. There's just this Legacy Rider, some kid who expects the world to revolve around him because Do You Know Who My Family Is, and we keep getting these stories where he learns to be less of a self-involved twerp.

Which is the other thing, that we are on our third story with New Den-O and it's another story where Kotaro learns to be less self-involved. And that's on top of how inessential this story is to begin with, how little it bothers to connect dots or utilize its cast (SIEG) or feel like it belongs alongside one of the most revered Kamen Rider series of all time. Everything in this movie feels exhausted, and Kotaro is both a victim and a symptom of it.