[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER 555 20TH: PARADISE REGAINED

?2?

That darkness suffuses this movie, but it never feels like it?s Inoue wallowing in it. The point of this film, as evidenced by Takumi?s reclamation of the original Faiz suit for the climax, is how the idealism of our past ? the ways we wanted to make things better instead of just protecting what we have ? is never really gone from us. There?s no inevitably to turning your back on hope. We may lose sight of our optimism as we get older, but we can always fight to get it back. Society may not consistently improve, but we can always fight to make it better.

There's a lot of humor in this movie for sure, as I would expect from the Faiz world and characters. Without those lighthearted moments, there wouldn't be anything worth protecting in the dark world. For Takumi though, that darkness gradually wears him down, as typical of him he doesn't want to burden others with his own problems and feels like he's just slowly waiting for his time to die already.

But Takumi is Takumi, no matter how much time passes. Everybody loses their way sometimes, but Takumi always finds his way back to what he believes in and I love how the return of classic Faiz (the best Faiz) symbolizes his return to being himself again.

It's a big contrast to the now non-canon epilogue for Takumi in Kamen Rider 4. While I had with a heavy heart accepted Takumi's death after hearing how he had made peace with his fate, I'm glad that this movie instead gives Takumi a reason to live, even in a time where it seems like the world has moved on without him. As long as people have dreams, Takumi is still needed.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

?3?

The way this movie foregrounded Mari?s role in things, boy, so grateful for that. She was a lynchpin for me on the original show, and the use of her here was exceptional. Thematically, she?s here to talk about the difference between allyship and having skin in the game, which is a nice way to talk about how people can find themselves reexamining their motivations as they get older, and end up needing the very support they used to offer others from a distance. (I don?t just want to go Trans Metaphor, but, y?know, Trans Metaphor.) Dramatically, though, she?s also here because the movie needs someone to call Takumi out on his constant hypocritical bullshit. One of the best scenes (in a movie full of great scenes) is the one in the abandoned hospital, where Takumi shifts from Orphnochs Have No Future So I Should Kill Them to Mari How Dare You Try To Kill Yourself. Mari?s argument with him helps spotlight Takumi?s internal struggle, and how his fatalism will always lose out to his protectiveness, so long as he gives it time. That, and she?s here to finally get her long-awaited chance to give some pain back to Kusaka.

I was surprised to see this movie do something that I had speculated about in the episode conveniently titled "Mari Dies", where Mari dies for the second time after getting betrayed by Sawada. There was the idea of Mari reviving as an Orphenoch and how that would affect her and her relationship with her friends. Third time's the charm, with this actually happening 20 years later. How ironic that Takumi is the nekojita, but Mari, as a wildcat, is literally a nekojita.

This movie also focuses on Takumi/Mari as a canon ship, which was only seldom teased in the show as Takumi and Mari each had their own romantic focus with Saya and Kiba respectively. However, 20 years is long enough time for platonic relationships to develop romantically offscreen and Inoue has been known to tactfully use time skip epilogues to leave events to the imagination. Like you said, Mari turning Orphenoch makes her closer to Takumi. Before, she could sympathize, but now she can empathize. Takumi's dilemma is now Mari's dilemma and they choose to face it together.

Of course, Kusakabot immediately goes haywire upon his "protect Mari" and "destroy Orphenochs" directives conflicting with each other. He can only mimic Kusaka's behavior though, so I guess we'll never truly know how the real deal would react to the shock of Mari being an Orphenoch.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Kusaka instantly wants to fire them all as soon as they've outlived their usefulness, which is pretty much exactly how I think Kusaka would be as a dad, so I'm forced to agree with that assessment.

Even before this movie, remember that we already established that Kusaka is Takumi's father.