[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, Javert is useless here. He's comedically useless. That's the joke. It only has a punchline if Mei complains about his uselessness.

Yeah I know. But it's not the people who are the the Most anything positive (e.g. most handsome, smart, cool, charismatic, etc.) that deserves respect, everyone deserves to be respected even if they're leaning more on a "loser" side, not only being used for physical/mental/emotional slapstick for other's amusement (can happen irl), the latter 2 including being constantly insulting and belittling them for their shortcomings without regard.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SPECTER X KAMEN RIDER BLADES

Besides that bump in the road, yeah, I liked this one a lot better than the previous part. Having it be a story about Family both provides narrative cover for Makoto to bail out his sister, and for Rintaro to have a place in the story. Without that, it’d still be a solid story about Kanon trying to spare her brother from hardship, which would’ve been enough for me. I’m glad I got more than enough!

Kanon being turned into an Eyecon was what turned Makoto ruthless, early on in Ghost, even turning against his childhood friends Takeru and Akari. But Makoto didn't have that level of rage against Kamiyu and Muller who victimizes Kanon. Or I guess it's not only that Makoto got what he wanted when Takeru used his wish on her, but that he still has improved as a person too. It's quite nice that the story had Rintaro pointing out that Reikanon punching the shit out of him was rude, it really is, regardless if it's done by female to male. For some reason Mei feels easier to annoy even by Rintaro. So Rintaro feels jealous against other family relationships for not having official one, though he doesn't take it out to them.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s not the, uh, best outing for Kamen Kanon here. She owns a substantial portion of this narrative with calm empathy and quiet power, but then basically chokes in the climax and needs Specter to help her save the day. (And, boy, it’s not even like he’s there for an extra push or anything: Kanon had pretty thoroughly bungled this one, and Makoto’s the one who saves the Non-Kanons and mostly defeats the villains.) We were always going to get Makoto showing up and superheroing, but it’s a little weird how quickly Kanon cedes her story to Makoto.

Yeah, this is what can happen for first-time watchers, so Kanon actually retains her previous character here, and that the Reikanons are just clones made for the baddie's schemes to become the ultimate lifeform and continue Danton's legacy. The story here seems to be about how Kanon addresses her "uselessness" previously of always being helped but wants to turn that around by fighting as Kamen Rider Kanon Specter. She actually got insecure when she failed the fighting at first to be unable to save anyone, but... that still applies as you said, when it's still about Specter who saves the day. The story doesn't seem to want to address people's shortcomings at the end to make it all happy but it probably would be good if Kanon still feels useless but vows to improve as Kamen Rider.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Still, fun to see Kanon get to be a Kamen Rider, fun to see Makoto get a small moment with Takeru, and fun to see Blades get the terrible Deep Specter pauldrons that inhibit his arm movements so much that he can’t really swing a sword. It’s a cute little reunion special, with a surprising amount of additional world-building to go along with the fan service.

Most of all, it’s not weird in any way that Makoto finally gets his dream of living alongside five adoring Kanons. YAY!

It's a wasted opportunity for Blades to not use his actual freezing power from his upgrades when the baddie orders Makoto to freeze. And, here it's yet another female Rider who is not the cold and merciless type (as Kanon turns out to retain her previous characterization), but at this period, being not really prominent Rider as they only make one brief appearence like in special (or for main series one, something like Poppy and Tsukuyomi, and also Necrom Pink for Ghost).