[Kamen Rider Die]

DEAR GAGA - PAGE 2



The thing that’s great about Hiromi is that he loses.

He’s a terrible Kamen Rider, if we’re going off of metrics like Monsters Detonated or Times A Character Wasn’t Thrown Off Of A Cliff. He’s mostly a chump as a superhero; he’s marginally better as a commander, if you ignore the various traitors above and below him in the hierarchy of Fenix, or the crashed helicarriers, or the terrorist cult members who escaped justice under his watch. He’s introduced as the guy who failed so spectacularly that Ikki – a genial spa employee – needed to become a Kamen Rider, and he never really improved from there.

But the point of him as a character isn’t to succeed, or to treat the possibility for success as the only condition for action. The point of him is to dedicate his life to protecting people, even if it’s a lost cause. Getting beaten isn’t failure, it’s a sign that he’s willing to suffer for his ideals. It’s all there in his (hilariously) sacrificial catchphrase, where he’s willing to lay down his life to protect anything and everything that’s in danger: he knows he could be beaten or killed, but it’s still worth it if it might save a life.

That version of Hiromi gets to be in a story worthy of him in Dear Gaga, which is one of the best pieces of Revice storytelling I’ve seen yet. It’s minor in its scope – the heroism is pretty much just Hiromi staying by his mother’s side for her final days – but sweeping in its sensitivity and humanity. It’s not a story that rehabilitates Hiromi’s character, so much as it recontextualizes his role as punching bag/scapegoat/laughingstock. He’s weak, emotionally and physically, but as long as he’s willing to risk it all for people in need, he’s still a hero. Him failing is besides the point; him continuously laying down his life for people in danger is what’s important.

It’s really charming, this emotionally vulnerable story about a guy who constantly comes up short, but finds dignity in never backing down. He’d forgotten that, in his running away from Fenix, but remembered it in his role as a son. Not everyone can be saved, and those that can be saved might not be saved by him. But he’ll never stop trying to protect people. Even at the cost of his life.

I’m glad this series has a loser like Hiromi in it.