[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

His philosophy about keeping promises could be founded in this, one that I also share. I have little tolerance for people who throw around promises like spare change without the will to follow through on them. Words have power and like any weapon, it's important to wield them wisely and with honor. While Touma does make a dangerous amount of big promises that I would probably feel uncomfortable with, he definitely risks his life to see them through. Fukuda managed to write yet another protagonist after Takeru whose heroism really shined for me. Easily my favorite Reiwa protagonist so far!

I guess I get what you're bringing up here, as I too feel uncomfortable with Touma making a promise that sounds too big to be fulfilled in getting Ryota's parents' back from a place too dangerous for normal humans. I do think that promise can be big-mouthed to make as not only confidence, it also feels as if you can see the future. And the danger if it goes unfulfilled... but what if it fails not due to it being purposely broken, but due to Touma's death trying to fulfill it and (what-if) Rintaro's failure aftermath? It'd still have similar outcome to those purposely breaking it. Though as usual, I'd probably think, one shouldn't only blindly cling to principles, as there are also bigger pictures one also should see.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Revi for me, but Saber is a solid second. I used to think Brave Dragon was overdesigned, but I gradually grew to love it for its own merits. The dragon looks kind of derpy with its tongue sticking out, but in an adorable kind of way that reminds me of Go-Onger's Engines. My only main complaint is how the Wonder Ride Books stand out too much on the Seiken SworDriver, unlike the Progrise Keys that were neatly stored inside the Zero One Driver.

Yeah... I like overdesigned stuff (or to be specific, those that are detailedly designed), not that I don't have limit though. I̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶h̶y̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶K̶a̶m̶e̶n̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶'̶s̶ ̶s̶u̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶g̶e̶n̶e̶r̶a̶l̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶S̶e̶n̶t̶a̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶U̶l̶t̶r̶a̶'̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶i̶g̶n̶s̶ ̶(̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶f̶a̶v̶o̶r̶i̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶F̶u̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶U̶l̶t̶r̶a̶s̶)̶.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

For sure, Rintarou the Eclair Man is my favorite Reiwa Secondary Rider so far! Like, even without the superficially edgy coolness that brooding antihero types have, Rintarou isn't some pushover to be taken lightly. His politeness and affability arguably makes him look more impressive, since he lets his skill and discipline as a Swordsman speak for itself. He's like a competent version of Tachibana in that way, with how he strives to be a good example and sempai to Touma. It's not surprising that Mei is so impressed by him.

For the brooding anti-hero types, the opposite of what you talked above, there seems to be those who insist that words don't matter as "actions speak louder than words", in how anything those type of secondaries do is swept under the rug, as long as they put themselves in danger fighting monsters. They also can be viewed as less superficial due to the view that (of which you seem also to value honesty highly) "politeness is deceptive, bluntness is honest"; being polite as Rintaro showed here also can be treated as misleading others about their true power. Other than Mei's comparison with Akiko... there's similar stuff here too with both of them being female leads who swoon over the secondary. Of which ofc, Akiko swoons over the 'edgy coolness' Terui had which is recognized as 'hard-boiled' (though not with limits as shown when Terui goes too far in his revenge).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 3 - “A FATHER, AND A SWORDSMAN”

This one’s the first two-parter in the series, so it gets a little bit of slack for not exactly tying its many threads together as elegantly as I’d like, but… wow, it’s a messy one. We’ve only just met Kento (I think that’s his name? There are a lot of introductions in this episode!), gotten a hint of his role in Touma’s Narratively-Convenient Amnesia, before he’s basically gone from this episode entirely. It’s so weird that he’s a member of the Sword of Logos, is hanging out at their North Pole base, but doesn’t go with the rest of the team when there’s a monster to detonate and a boy to save. I guess it’s some COVID restriction on how many actors/suits they could use at once? But the episode never even bothers to explain why he showed up at the bookshop, said Hi, and then went back to his job. Kento was just, like, checking in? I guess? It’s such a random element of the narrative, with so much weight coming off the cliffhanger, to then be nothing more than some light exposition and hints toward the greater mystery.

Dunno what are your expectations here, but probably this is meant to 'subvert' expectations again? In case you'd think Kento has minor role. Probably this is sorta a 'filler'/out of place introduction, but no need overthinking in this case for Kento coming to the place and checking in, I mean as this episode establishes, Kento is Touma's childhood friend, why can't he check in to reunite with his friend? Mei seems to have... an opposite of 4th wall awareness, where here she seems to be aware that Touma and Kento are story characters, with her reacting like an audience would over a sweet Kentouma reunion. Otherwise, this series seems to not care about gender of who's made as the butt of the jokes... with poor Mei here getting all her eclairs eaten by the boys.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And Buster’s, just, like: yeah. Yeah, it would be awesome as a kid to have your dad be a Kamen Rider with a big-ass sword who takes you to monster detonations like it’s a trip to the store. But as an adult, Buster just feels like a guy who’d be crushed under the weight of too many responsibilities, if he wasn’t so resilient. Like his turtle inspiration, he’s built to carry an insane amount of weight on his back, in a way that makes him almost long for the contradictions of Warrior Dad. He’s a dedicated soldier in a war against the apocalypse, but he’s also a devoted father who thinks his kid’s awesome. Like Rintaro, he’s just really wholesome and cool?

Gotta state it to you here, he's the 3rd introduced Rider in the series, but he's not the tertiary. And honestly this is not a spoiler tbh, as it's already revealed in the marketing materials (order of introduction in press conferences). As stated ther, he does have passionate love for his child, but I'd think he's not as wholesome as Rintaro though, as he can be gruff and condescending towards the younger ones like Touma, which he speaks ill of. He provides some of the subverted expectations you'd think about Rintaro before of brushing off their attempts to join him, though well, aside from carrying too much duties, he seems to be the strongest Rider so far by one hit killing 2 Megids.

For Saber and Blades though, while Saber does have potential before, it seems that Blades still has some edge over him, like how he uses Peter Fantasia, and as usual, Blades isn't condescending seeing Saber's failed use. But wonder what if Peter Fantasia is the first one Saber used when Blades claimed he's not ready for 2 volumes yet.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The thing that elevates the story is that, like many adults, he finds the flightiness of young men in tokusatsu series to be an endless frustration, so he immediately dislikes Touma’s fascination with the narrative power of his life. He doesn’t have the bandwidth to think about the thematic relevance of his duties; he’s got too many duties. For a Saber that’s all about the power of storytelling, and a Blades that’s all about the impossibility of living up to the stories that taught us, here’s a Buster to show us what it’s like when indulging in fiction can cost you everything.

To further talk about Mei, she seems to fit over the manic pixie dream girl archetype, other than her wacky overreactions and being pushy towards Touma for the manuscript editing, here she's also pushy towards Sora, trying to liven up his life... whenever Sora likes it or not. She means well towards him but yeah, it's bad to force someone against your will even if it's what you think is good/interesting for them, as it only wears them down, and worse in her being inattentive and getting Sora trapped here. She does feel regret here, but often these type of character can have their faults overlooked, like invading personal spaces to bring someone "out of their shells" and have them deemed as 'cute' and 'romantic' instead of acknowledging it as harassment.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Watch Threads were originally just a thing to get me current; I was inevitably going to catch up, and that point arrives with Revice this spring. Any post-Revice shows... we'll see? There'll be a slowdown -- I want to spend the second half of the year reformatting all of the posts TokuNation broke, and then putting them on my own site for safe-keeping -- but I'm interested in spending a few years (!) covering all the Heisei shows I never wrote up, and trying out some other franchises. I can see there being a Rewatches Geats Etc series of threads, but I'll probably give them some distance first. Geats would be... god, maybe 2026? At the earliest?

Yeah, I've seen your old threads being broken in wording, so you'd actually fix them. Wonder if you'd remember those old shows better (I hope, kinda). So the recent show you've watched is Geats.... (dunno until which episode) of which yeah it returns back to some of the franchise's established formula like abusive mom or non-easy teamwork.... as the show before it, Revice, should perhaps defy your written expectations here.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

(I get real mad about the Keiwa Is Kagami 2.0 people! They are very different! They have very different places in their respective narratives!!!)

Anyway, yeah, I like how easy the teamwork is for our Riders. This isn't Zero-One or Ex-Aid (or Geats), where part of the thematic framework is in trying to examine terms like Friendship or Cooperation. It's a show about how we process storytelling: how it gives us strength or locks us into roles. It doesn't benefit from Blades and Saber being assholes to each other.

Didn't know you'd get actually mad about Keiwa = Kagami 2.0, as you didn't really care about the "Blade's (THE ONDUL SERIES, OK) secondary" debate between Tachibana and Hajime previously; of which yeah it similarly happened too for claiming Keiwa's the MC instead of Ace, or Michinaga's the secondary instead of Keiwa, p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶c̶l̶a̶i̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶T̶s̶u̶m̶u̶r̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶e̶m̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶N̶e̶o̶n̶.̶ There's a valid reason why they make the comparison though, albeit surface level; they're both secondaries that are paired with the cocky hypercompetent protagonist, who is also the straightforward good guy type (Rintaro seems to start the trend of the secondaries being nice lately??) that is also made a struggling loser, giving them underdog vibe to watch them grow while being sorta 'mentored' under said protagonist.

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Originally Posted by Kurona

It's awesome in general to see bulkier suits like this in Rider, and the massive Cloud Strife-ass buster sword for which he's named is SUCH a cool focal point.

And Ogami's son is also named "Sora".