[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 43 - “LIGHT AND DARKNESS TWINS”

Like, I want to applaud this show for leaning into Yuuki’s mounting absurdity to devise an episode whose first-half conceit – that a deranged Yuuki is gleefully cartwheeling through school, vandalizing people and property alike in the good name of Space – is the most believable fake-out ever broadcast under the Kamen Rider banner, but at the same time that sort of doesn’t portray Yuuki’s performance and character development in the best light, if you’ll pardon the pun. The only reason the first chunk of this story can work is that Yuuki’s become such a bonkers character over the last 40-odd episodes that we can all sort of see her tagging a few dozen schoolmates in order to celebrate space. It’s not a million miles away from praying to a rocket for guidance, or bringing Hayabusa everywhere (even though I love that puppet), or cramming space books haphazardly on library shelves, or whatever else comes to mind when you think back to Yuuki’s comedic highlights. This is an episode that really foregrounds how overblown Yuuki’s performance has gotten, and I don’t know if that’s making lemonade out of lemons, or just hanging a lantern on an unavoidable topic.

I guess, as Riku Sanjo is behind this, and is the one that makes Yuki as insane as he can be, it seems to be more than just her response to Erin (unwittingly dismissing her with her rocket god worship), where here, the real Yuki also acts jerkish throughout the episode, talking about before she was being mobbed, like pulling an old Kengo to accuse Gentaro as being a bad friend like for forgetting ticket, or also going apeshit on Miu for properly questioning what's going on, accusing her as abusing her chairwoman position. And Yuki's portrayed as dark inside too here at Riku Sanjo's hand for having Dark Yuki claiming she secretly wants to sabotage Kengo, making space popular through any means, pranking her friends. No wonder Yuki can come off as jerkish, albeit subtle, in Riku Sanjo's hands like ep. 37. Yuki does earn hatred in this episode in fandom for unwittingly causing disaster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s kind of funny, if nothing else, that this episode drops in a tiny tidbit that Yuuki has been driven insane by cosmic whisperings since she was a child, retroactively framing every burst of Yuuki Yammerings as “Oh, so she was just going cosmically crazy according to some astrological phenomenon, not some increasingly goofy kid.” Again, it’s a choice! Maybe not a great one, but one that can feel logical in light of where the character’s at. There’s more to come on that front, and Yuuki’s backstory with Gentarou, but it’s interesting to see so much work being done to refocus Yuuki’s energy and passion into something possibly nefarious and manipulated.

About Gamou acknowledging Yuki's story of hearing things from space, this'd be seemingly also a setup for Gamou's actual goal for now, and him using Gemini is a step towards achieving it. I guess Hayami would mock Yuki's story as ridiculous, as he also didn't really know what is Gamou's true goal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The whole episode’s pretty much consumed with Yuuki’s backstory, in ways small – hints of her history with Gentarou, and why he doesn’t remember pivotal events – and large, namely finally meeting Yuuki’s parents! And, if you asked me to choose one Heisei all-star to pop up as one of Yuuki’s parents for a montage where the Joujima family participates in a bunch of culturally-appropriative and borderline-disrespectful dinners… well, it’d be Chiyoko, obviously. But if you asked me to choose a second Heisei all-star to pop up as one of Yuuki’s parents for a montage where the Joujima family participates in a bunch of culturally-appropriative and borderline-disrespectful dinners, it’d be Doctor Maki, ably demonstrating the over-committed buffoonery that helped shape Yuuki into one of the least defensible members of the KRC, somehow dropping below Ohsugi. (He’s great in this episode! I love his manic cop nonsense!) In an episode that does not lack for characters going over the line into parody, Yuuki’s mom and dad feel like they’re dropped in from the broadest HBV, for a scene that’s only a minute long, but is still interminable and basically not funny. (It’s just mugging and accents! There’s no jokes!)

The parents not believing Yuki when she heard sounds from space makes them sound like normal in contrast to the weird Yuki (especially in Riku Sanjo's episodes), but the parents turns out to be as crazy or probably more. As a longtime friend, should be obvious that Gentaro has been in Yuki's house before, where her parents seem familiar with Gentaro. Yuki's parents rather give me Tassel vibes, of which it seems to be more accepted to you, while they're too broad for you here. I'm not really into either, for my case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

At least Gemini is fun? I thought Gemini was fun. I didn’t love the daddy/daughter stuff with Sagittarius at the end – I just feel like the energy of this story is all wrong for his flavor of villainy? – but Gemini herself is the best part of this episode, allowing for a couple of tense and chaotic action sequences, with enough physical comedy to balance against the threat of an insane Yuuki; or, more insane? I don’t know. Gemini is a fun foe, regardless of where she comes from or how it might imperil Yuuki.

Yuki is given a Bully Maguire arc here by Gemini claiming that Yuki has repressed darkness of secretly wanting to be mean, of which said dark entity realizes them by Gemini tearing up the astronout proporsal, vandalizing stuff about space, and also throwing Miu who pisses her off as the chairwoman off several stories. Also another combination for Cosmic States in Launcher + Net, the rockets form a net to trap the opponents. Wonder if by this, the rockets would be less dangerous as something that didn't release damaging explosions, but more effective long-term to have them vulnerable by the net. There's a benefit after Tachibana died, Meteor doesn't seem to need to keep any secrets anymore, as Tachibana was the traitor Virgo who backed up the KRC.