[DreadBringer]

The episode title wordplay lol, "Seiyuu! Say Me!" lol. It happened.

Though outwardly the episode is a breather one, this seems to center around Ikki more, bringing his soccer occupation previously that he quit to take care of Happy Spa. Subaru Kimura is brought up as Ikki's former mentor but his real life occupation is brought up here in the voice recording as well. Aside from the cliffhanger at the end, previously he seems to be open and connected to any of the soccer player under his care, including when they leave soccer and takes up other occupation like Ikki now as family caretaker or Kamen Rider, and also Koji who now is aspiring to become a seiyuu, but now is holding a grudge to Ikki. Other than being supportive to both former soccer player's current occupation, Kimura sets up the voice recording for them to talk as well.

Though previously the one who called Ikki out was the depraved Kudo, now Kimura claims both Ikki and Koji had big egos, which, probably does confirm about Ikki's darker side before, at least from more reliable source than Kudo. And of course his soccer days were something in the past so Ikki's busybodiness is still not checked yet. Ikki has grown better now, but Koji was a victim of it that still harbors a grudge to Ikki until now, and the next previews shows Ikki regretting. Koji's grudge doesn't help things either though, and it's unknown what Koji wants, to get back at Ikki or to solve the problem (with spite). Ikki was also apparently genius striker previously as well, so he wasn't ordinary player, but his soccer trick was only used on ep. 1 so far. So other than Vice obsessively fanboying over Kimura, apparently Vice's taste is that Kimura's the most handsome man for him.

For the Fenix side, Daiji repeats his plan of going after Akaishi to cure Fenix, kinda feels like the series puts that on hold for some reason before for the Kagerou part or something, it has never begun yet. Or probably it's on purpose which Akemi addresses that, to claim that mere righteous speech preaching can make it hollow. Which if Daiji really is holding off his plan until now, it'd be true that he can make claims to cure Fenix all he wants but it won't happen if he only talks, he should prove himself by taking actual action. But in reverse, action only isn't all good either, because someone can create a good outcome, but doesn't mean that it's a good thing, like... someone morally questionable taking out a monster (for those who glorify taking action as 'killing monsters'), especially if it's bad guy taking out another bad guy, or villainous organizations that experimented on others thus creates heroic Kamen Riders. That doesn't mean the bad guy "turns good", bad guys can target other bad guys, or that the organization can be cleansed due to the heroic Kamen Rider part only. They unintentionally create a good outcome but speechs can be important too to address something that is wrong and likely overlooked.

She's not involved much yet though I hope she'd be more involved, but so far Akemi is usually amiable, except to Hiromi when he's persistent before, but she didn't give George a coffee. Though he's likely redeemed now, previously George doesn't seem to be someone who is hated among the Fenix, and only those who knows his dirty secrets do like Hiromi or the Igarashi siblings before, of which he made up to the latter now.

Regarding Akaishi, there's a new speculation of him, coming from his biodate which due to how he's 57 year old as a 1964-born, but though he looks old now, he stops aging, looks the same as him decades ago, which'd imply he's a descendant of Giff (relation he has to the Igarashi siblings would be...). As someone running both Fenix and Deadman, he was said as Masumi's boss in NOAH as well, instead of Agariyama. NOAH is split into Fenix and Deadman with Akaishi still the leader of both seems to be done by he himself with his own purposes of splitting the organization. Akaishi manifests a red devil that is likely the one behind Genta's parents death as well, so there's set up for his personal significance. Akaishi is shorter than I expected too at 168cm in said biodate. In Weekend, there's another showing of some genuinity of the Ushijima family's company over the Igarashis other than Kimiko enjoying the onsen, Hikaru seems to genuinely view Sakura as a friend as well, being overjoyed to have her on his side. Sakura's outfit is made different to.. show off her legs as well, obviously for meta reasons of eye candy...

There's another setup of Aguilera burning her dress and dons a civilian outfit, not as disguise anymore. And also Tamaki bringing up his family in a Gundam reference as Ikki accidentally punched him. Don't know about this, the family part can just be throwaway line like Hiromi's bullied backstory so far, was hoping more but it's unlikely. And don't know what'd Aguilera do next, kinda hope she's used better than Tamaki. She may have her own breed of difficulty of socializing as someone bratty and spoiled, paralleling Tamaki I guess.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Unfortunately, Jiiko, an aspiring VA, shows up and rains on the soccer team's parade with his sour mood. He has some kind of old grudge with Ikki, which reminds me of that arc of Wizard with Kishida Tatsuya. But Jiiko is also saying all these weird cryptic things, like how Ikki even scares him. Are we finally getting to the point where we learn about Ikki's past hinted in the OP? What kind of terrible person did he used to be to warrant such an extreme reaction from a former friend?

This sounds kinda demonizing Ikki a bit to accuse him as terrible person in the past. It may be Ikki causing a terrible outcome that is probably unintentional (though of course it comes from Ikki's flaw to lack understanding of others), and I brought up this because creating a terrible outcome for others has been done by some of the previous protagonists (that aren't morally grey) as well, like Shinji for his early idiocy or Sougo for his early obliviousness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

-Aw maaaaaaaaaaaan they brought back the "egoist" bit. That's my least favorite plotline for Ikki, it feels like it's for a totally different character?

I think it's an appeal for Ikki to me that, even if he's nice, well-meaning, and not doing anything morally questionable, he can still cause disastrous consequences, and in a way other than a character being made impossibly idiotic. Also shows that flaws aren't only toxic traits, making flawed characters doesn't mean they have to be made as completely immoral jerk, awful, completely messed-up, which is a misguided take some has.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

-I don't really like "You forgot your promise! But I won't tell you what it was, because I'm Upset!", as a storytelling function? Like I totally get it as a irl emotional response, but when for stories it just feels like an excuse to extend the conflict.

This one'd be the usual debate if it's a poor writing or character flaw intended as that.