[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

This is exactly why I love this part of the show. After spending the first half dozen episodes throwing new characters at us left, right, and center, we're at a point where the show dials it back and really focuses on just this core group of Touma, Yuri, and Mei. It works in part because it gives the characters room to breathe and develop when they aren't part of a massive ensemble. It also works because Yuri and Mei are both goddamn delightful, both in isolation and together. This is when I really fell in love with Mei (not how she's not getting shot into the air, Team Rocket style, anymore) and Yuri is just fantastic as this fish out of water who's constantly amazed by modern innovations.

It's funny, because you can see in this episode the shape of a different first act of the series, a more traditional first act. Touma meets a swordsman, they have a two-part adventure, and then we move onto the next one; rather than a quickly accumulating pile of co-workers that barely get a single defining feature in their debut.

I don't know if I'd've liked that better, honestly? A lot of what makes the Touma/Yuri/Mei stuff work is that this is, like, a rebound swordsman for Touma. The SoL is still out there, and absolutely nothing's settled, so Yuri comes of like a pleasant distraction. If this had just been, like, Episode 7, I don't know if it would work as well.

(And that's even getting away from the larger discussion about the necessity of the first act's Everyone Becomes Great Friends speedrun narrative, in order to make the second act's dissolution make any sense.)