[Sh Ranger]

A green Secondary Rider named Sakurai? Never heard of him!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

So that's what the new DGP format is about that can potentially make Ace lose. After the reveal of it as a reality show, it'd also work like it too, with the winners being decided by the votes of the audience. I guess Ace's wish of turning him into The Star of The Stars of The Stars can help him somewhat into giving him the popularity for getting votes, but the new (to viewers) contestants Sae and Daichi are also famous themselves and can get more votes than said Ace by that, and also their progress on the game. The difference for the game being based on votes is that, now the game isn't determined by results alone, even when Ace is the one who found and killed the principal Jamato. So it's what can make Ace potentially lose, as questioned in the episode's summary.

Even Neon, Daichi and Sae shouldn't have comparable popularity to the most famous Star of the Stars of the Stars, other than Sara for Neon. For Ace to be only ranked third, it supports my hypothesis that the viewers and sponsors are unaffected by resets and thus don't celebrate them like everybody else, so the results would be based on performance in the game and likability, much like any reality show. People like to see tall buildings get knocked down, so I imagine there'll be a lot of viewers bored with Ace's constant wins and they'll vote tactically to make him more likely to lose.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

There can be even various speculations on why each player is suspicious, Ace for his connection to the management as family, or his meeting with Gene as Daichi suspected, etc. Keiwa probably for the focus on the Joker card he got; it's Takahashi's staple to put his nice guys through hell (and make them reach breaking point), but I'd hope that his insane bad luck in this episode is something more like related to the game/show instead of just standard butt-monkey abuse (and I really hope that his development sticks, to live up his name as a tanuki). Neon for her connections, or apparently 'fake' friendliness as Sae suspected, or her behavior towards Keiwa like leaving him out in the beginning, including her asking if it's the time to wave, despite previous episode of all 3 being chosen (dunno if her slapstick to Keiwa along with Sae also qualifies for this). Sae for her kill stealing Tycoon, which was highlighted when Desire Star was announced. Daichi due to him deflecting his faults to everyone else, and using smart talk to convince others.

That's a good analysis of the reasons for and against each player being the Desire Star. I'd like to add that since the DGP want Ace to lose, they probably wouldn't give him an easy way to win. Keiwa's the only one who's not a popular celebrity, so they might give it to him, even though he'd be against betraying others for personal gain and might deny that option. Alternatively, I think this could be very likely: Nobody is the Desire Star and the DGP only told everybody that to break their trust.

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Originally Posted by Tokumonkey

The is the first episode that felt to me that it fumbled the ball a little, given that the reality-show premise being something the players knew nothing about wasn't called out at all. Can Keiwa or Neon even be said to be willing participants? Until five minutes ago, Keiwa was under the impression that he was fighting the Jyamato in order to help people.

It's welcome free publicity for Neon, which increases her chance of getting noticed by her true love. The communal living is a bonus, as she can easily get out of her house for a few weeks, while Irumi probably goes mad with worry. Sucks to be 1% Man Keiwa though.

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Originally Posted by Tokumonkey

The tidbit where Ace meets his fan in the audience was very interesting. Even more so what the fan whispered. Sounds like the implication between that and the discussion among the other... audience?... is that Ace is actually an artificial being? It'd be very much in keeping with Kamen Rider as a franchise for him to be some sort of cyborg that gets his power from the enemies who created him.

I totally think there's something screwy about Ace's recollection to make Niram consider that he's lying about it. Like maybe the DGP didn't veto Ace's original desire, but rather the desire is impossible. Even Daichi's desire for all of human memories got accepted, so whatever's the deal with Mitsume, I guess it's not something included in "human memories". Ace has memories of Mitsume, therefore he's either not human, or delusional. Mitsume must be the key to unlocking this mystery and that's why the DGP are so tight-lipped about her existence.