[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER GENMS - THE PRESIDENTS EPISODE 2



Man, what?!

I can’t complain about the Dans getting all weird and out-of-character, since they’re both Bugster Viruses born out of Gai’s neuroses, so they’re going to be incredibly weird versions of their differently incredibly weird Ex-Aid characters. Being slightly off-model is sort of the point.

But, god, I can’t figure out what the point of this story was for Gai. His revelation that he didn’t love his company enough (Thouser Innovations or whatever) doesn’t really have any basis in this two-parter, aside from a general He’s Stressed thing. We never see Gai valuing anything other than his company, and he practically kills himself trying to rescue his one (1) employee. He’s as laser-focused on his company as he’s ever been, despite being menaced by two revived presidents.

To wrap this whole thing up with Gai Learns To Love Being A President… what? It’s the thing he spent forty episodes of Zero-One loving! It’s his main attribute as a character! Literally the worst lesson Gai could learn at this stage of his development is that he didn’t love being a president enough! I don’t… I cannot understand what this story was supposed to be about for him.

What an unexpected misfire. The rest of the episode is fun, sure. It’s mostly just Kuroto yelling MASAMUNE and Masamune yelling KUROTO, but both actors seem like they’re having a blast. But the Gai arc in this thing is baffling, in both its lack of motivation and its seeming ignorance of Zero-One’s story. So weird to fumble this hard!