[Switchblade]

Really good two parter, this. If I'd have made one change it's that you'd have the bit at the end where Fourze and Yuki are talking but you'd be able to see the girls hurl Makise off of the bridge in the background. It was distant and out of focus, let's go full Showa/Super Dave Osborne and just enjoy watching a fully dressed mannequin flop around in the air. It would be both really funny and entirely deserved on Makise's part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Fourze 11-12

In which Kengo learns to stop being such an asshole and Gentaro beats up an incel.

So I guess this was actually the final team gathering episode, in a way. Kengo's been there from the start, but this is the point where he finally accepts Gentaro and the others as friends and partners in the battle against evil. It's a nice change of pace, even if I thought Kengo got a little too melodramatic at a couple points.

The Zodiart for this arc worked pretty well. With a high school setting it makes sense to have a put-upon loser use his powers to get revenge. Stuff that's been going on in the news in the last few years made this one a little creepier, though, what with his plan centering around kidnapping and murdering all the girls who rejected him. The guy was definitely a creepy asshole and I'm glad we're still in the days before the villains got friendship handshakes because this fucker did not deserve one.

Episode 12 brought in the first hint that Sonoda is working with the bad guys, although I don't think there have been many active hints that she's Scorpio (there was a bit a few episodes where she sneezed when the Scorpio horoscope was mentioned, but that's about all I've noticed). Looks like Libra/Hayami/Garren arrives next episode, so she should be out of the closet soon enough. I'm glad that we're going to be losing her soon, if only to make Ohsugi less of a pathetic creeper.

This was another good arc. There was some good drama and tension and good fight scenes. I liked how the main Zodiart clearly couldn't fight, which led to the final showdown with Gentaro being amusingly one-sided.

Has Yuki gone crazy yet? No. She tried to get an immediate moon landing launched, but it came from a place of emotional desperation and not something silly. She's very much still the grounded heart of the KRC at this point.

There's probably something to be said about the episode that Kengo was both doomed by the actions of a pervert but also saved by the actions of a different pervert; I really don't want to try unpacking that, though.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

It's a nice change of pace, even if I thought Kengo got a little too melodramatic at a couple points.

Kengo saw Shun's weepy breakthrough and knew he needed to match that Beginning Actor energy.

No, I kid. I think Kengo's always run pretty hot, which makes him both a natural foil for Gentarou, and also clearly his future best friend. If he's histrionic and overbearing here, well, he's gonna die alone on the moon! It's okay this time, as opposed to him getting mad at people laughing and having fun and not being awful to each other!

[Fish Sandwich]

I think this two-parter was probably the first time back in the day that kinda made me step back and realize all over again how much I love this show? Not that there had been a single week so far that I hadn't been having a blast (not that there ever would be, either), but like, I adore the whole structural thing of having Kengo be the guy who basically starts the show and then also having him be the last to accept the basic premise. Even though there a few episodes left before the now traditional "season finale" that capped off 2011, this very much felt like the appropriately climactic ending of the show's first act.

It was a really touching story with a lot of great details. The use of the KRC flag is obviously great, for one, but I'll also shout out Miu giving that hug to Yuuki here too. Even though I simply cannot condone Die knocking Tomoko down from the top of his ranking, for what it's worth, I was also frequently more impressed by the material Miu in particular gets than I remembered on a rewatch, and that little moment is one that's stuck with me since.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I like that scene as well, although, it's not like Tomoko uses makeup as something to hide behind, as she is a goth after all.

Yeah, it's sort of tough for me to describe without making it sound more contradictory than it is, but I'll give it another shot. Tomoko's makeup is definitely a part of how she expresses her true self, but it's precisely because of that I think there's an aspect to it where it's also her armor, in a way? It's something that makes her more comfortable confronting the world -- a small way she can sort of put things on her own terms -- and that's what makes her still feel exposed without it, even though she's still the same person either way.

To give Gentarou more credit than Switchblade and Die did, I also think that's part of the point of his little speech about the Moon and the Earth? Because obviously lots of things change on this planet all the time, but the planet is always still the Earth, regardless of the details.