[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don't know when I've ever been down on a show for incorporating a mom in a sizable way? I mean, for one, there are very few 'mom role' characters over the last 23 years of Kamen Rider. For another, I'm pretty sure I frequently declared Asumu's mom from Hibiki (Asumum) as one of my favorite characters from that series? Finally, I've been annoyingly vocal about how much I loved the Build HBV for its messaging on the importance of honoring maternal guidance. I generally enjoy mom characters on these shows?

I know you've appreciated actual moms, but I guess I feel this coming from how iirc you deem non-mom female characters (I also didn't know if the term Time Mom for Tsukuyomi is sarcastically mocking after your initial impression of her, though still... people in general acknowledge Junichiro's parental instincts/role and warmth/niceness more than her too... only got seen as irrelevant instead) who display maternal or mom-like characteristics, as diminishing them as a woman that they aren't complicated and lack flaws.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

DEAR GAGA - PAGE 2

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.

As what you said here... perhaps it's the reason why Hiromi is a straightforward hero that is more well-liked than most of the main Riders that, he loses thus he feels more like an actual underdog to root compared to main Riders who get main protagonist privileges.... But as usual, Hiromi's the loser and underdog kind of good guy, which I wouldn't want if people'd blame Hiromi's goodness of why he's "weak" (like what George brags about it to him), and that to be strong you have to shed those principles and become cruel, encouraging it, but the good guys choosing to remain weak and suffer to uphold those... as if it's an inherent part, but no, there can be competent good guys too. I actually thought at the beginning Hiromi failed to become Kamen Rider because of his hidden dark traits, and that he'd be someone like Nago or Yaguruma who is initially presented as noble admirable man, but they're anything but.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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'd be a hot take, but I actually don't think that Dear Gaga series works well with me, especially regarding how Hiromi later returns. I feel that though as you've said before, sacrifice first, ask questions later is something bad and detrimental for Hiromi or any hero upholding that, I don't think that Hiromi's learning about it here, that his father dying in an attempt to save civilians is treated as something that needs to be completely emulated, which'd mean Hiromi stays on this self-destructive path. Ofc his father is a noble and heroic man, but I do want for self-preservance to be also considered to improve things and taking into account of what Daiji said before that it's not wrong, it should be considered to rescue people effectively and keep you alive to do so in another time.