[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER GEATS EPISODE 49 - “DAYBREAK I: HERE COMES THE HIGHLIGHT!”



I wasn’t planning on writing about this show for another seven years, but I needed to write about this finale.

This is my favorite Kamen Rider series of all time.

It’s breathtaking in its action; deft in its humor; raw in its emotions; clever in its twists; comprehensive in its humanity. It’s a show that I loved from the start, and never found a reason to doubt or dislike. Every move was assured, and every outcome was ideal.

It’s a show that talked about all the things I want to talk about. How we’re shaped by corporate narrative, but end up shaping that narrative in turn. How our dreams are simple and hopeful in youth, but fracture and darken as we age, but with hard work we can find that spark again as we mature. How dreams propel us forward, but at the risk that we lose sight of where we’re going. How cooperation struggles against a world that asks us to achieve individually. How no amount of systematic control can rob us of our desires, as long as we’re willing to keep believing in our dreams.

It’s a show that put all of its energy into telling stories about people, rather than warring organizations or secret societies or eternal monsters. The conflicts were about how our cast would change and grow; the villain was always a society that would rather monetize and weaponize their dreams, not one that longed for their eradication. The crux of the finale was about how storytellers inevitably cede the story to the audience, not about averting an apocalypse or redeeming an adversary. We were always in a show that would rather analyze narrative, and the ways it shapes how we approach our lives, our dreams, our fears. The DGP was just a single method of analysis, and one that could be defeated without it feeling necessary or obligatory.

I loved this show: every episode, every scene, every frame. I wish I had the time and energy to explain that all right now, but I’m more than happy to do so in a few years.

It’s my dream to do so, and dreams can come true. This show was proof.