[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

And for some casting trivia, the guy playing Ikkan Nigiro is both the guy Kintaros was originally contracted to in Den-O and the journalist?s friend in Drive. He?s better known as Teppei from Ultraman Mebius.

Oh, yeah! The martial arts guy! I knew that round face looked sort of familiar. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

RealXEyes, I'll admit, out of the three Reiwa openings, I feel like they got better onwards (even though I'm still at odds with myself on which one I like better). Nothing against RealXEyes, the lyrics are clever (I'm not going to go nuts thinking there's references to past Riders, but I did put together some connections), Zero-One's name is part of the opening, something we haven't gotten since Drive, and the visuals are excellent. I'm just not too into the song, but it's not bad, it is good, but not my favorite from Reiwa.

My sweet spot for Rider theme songs was the 2010-2015 run, where it was a lot more rock oriented. (Drive, especially. BEST SONG!) The Ex-Aid and Zi-O songs... eh. Came around on them, sure, and Over Quartzer more than EXCITE, but REALxEYEZ is exactly the sort of propulsive, action-y theme song I love. The club banger types? Not so much my thing!

(Be The One excepted, obviously. That song is an ear-worm, and now you've got the chorus in your brain, too.)

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Originally Posted by Frontier

Biting Shark! We're finally at the part of the show where we're introducing form changes, but it's interesting how the show is introducing new Riders while also letting it's protagonist get to show off their latest cool form. Like usually either the form or the new Rider would take precedence, but their balancing things out here.

Speaking about the form itself, I like how Zero-One's form changes are so distinct yet simple like Rising Hopper and how they carry such a strong silhouette. Biting Shark is kid of your typical "Speedy with an Edge" form and it just looks cool.

Biting Shark really gets the short end of the stick on this one, to the degree that maybe they should've held it back for another week. This is an episode that spends a lot of time getting to see Yua at work, so why would you cut away from that -- at the apex of her awesomeness -- to show some random form change of Aruto's? Feels like a bit of a miscalculation, even if Did Not Properly Celebrate Early-Series Form Change is hardly Earth-shattering news for a Kamen Rider show.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Valkyrie's pretty great! It doesn't surprise me that they went for orange as the suit's trademark color, considering Yua and Fuwa are very much meant to be a pair. Vulcan contrasts Zero-One's design well enough, but it's not really a Ryuki thing where we're dealing with some main triangle here. Aruto's got his whole completely different fluorescent yellow thing going on (to the point his alternate forms keep the Rising Hopper armor just to keep the color), and the AIMS Riders get this movie-poster blue/orange dynamic going on with their shinier metallic colors. It's all about contrast -- hence the whole cat/dog thing -- and that extends to the characters as well. Like, you'd definitely have to try way harder to find something they do have in common, beyond their occupation? Even the direct honesty that comes as an upside of Fuwa's constant emotional intensity is contrasted by the shady actions that come as a downside of Yua's much more calculated approach to life.

Good points!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

About Aruto being alone to tell humans to get along with Humagears, this hits home about how someone have to come into terms about how something you find worthy of praise can be underrated, including many in internet, and that someone can also feel alone and contrarian in trying to explain about the worth of something they find good. Sometimes, having that view also can be discouraged, to have such outlandish different take, and that many feel forced to open up those with "unpopular opinion". Of course, the solution would be not caring about what people think and enjoy, like perhaps those who own Humagears and are satisfied, but people can vary, and it can be hard for those to try expanding their interest, but isn't successful or discouraged, and finding ways to present themselves in an interesting way.

For sure! Aruto's definitely going out on a limb here, trying to get people like the Sushi Chef and Yua to understand his point of view. It can be hard to argue for stuff that other people don't value, but it's occasionally rewarding.

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Originally Posted by Kurona

This was a super good episode, and one of the ones I remember most from 01. I think the show's early and middle stages did a good job of highlighting just how advanced AI robots would effect the workplace and the sheer personhood of Humagears through many, many different fields, just about all of them honestly quite memorable. But the chef episode here is one of the ones that comes to mind the most both due to Yaiba's outlook and because - to my mind - it's the first one that really interrogated the idea of the line between Humagear and Human being very blurry. It's a great show at... setting up those ideas.

Yeah, it's fun how Aruto's dream of becoming a comedian sort of finds this new aspect in selling Humagears; how he seems to see the Humagears as a chance for someone to do the thing they were meant to do, even if it's not him. That window into him acclimating to leadership, but still keeping his empathy and generosity... it's nice?

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Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

RealXEyez good song, Fuwa good Rider, Aruto also good Rider but in a much sillier way, if I find a unique opinion rattling round my brain somewhere I'll let you know.

Thanks! I look forward to it!