[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 23



First off, I love the fact that the secret area that ZECT is guarding is called Area X. Just... so dumb, it is awesome. At first, I was laughing at the obviousness of them calling the mysterious area Area X, just planting a flag and letting everyone know that THIS AREA IS FASCINATING AND DANGEROUS SO DON'T COME IN, just shouting to the world that it's a secret. But then I wondered if maybe the other areas aren't A through W or whatever, but if ZECT gave every area an intriguing name: Area X, Area Omega, Area Damocles, Area Hellfire, Area Phantom, etc etc etc. I kind of love that more, if ZECT decided to hide its most valuable property by making every outpost seem super badass, confusing would-be investigators and saboteurs. It's a militarized organization of nebulous authority that's just, like, having fun with it, and yet somehow being smarter for that playfulness.

Which, hey, that's also this episode of Kabuto!

It is completely insane, and I have no greater proof of that than, at a point where a Worm transforms to kill a fortune teller mid-fortune telling and Gatack is ready to stop it, backlit by moonlight on top of a crane, I went Wait Is Inoue Back Already and checked the Wiki to see who wrote this episode. But, no! Regular Kabuto guy! But it's still a regular episode of Kabuto where:

-Jiiya opens a ramen cart powered by his own shame

-Tendou, Juka, and Hiyori take over Jiiya's Shameful Ramen Cart

-Kagami enjoys a bowl of ramen, at which point Tendou declares that the Shameful Ramen Cart now owns him

-Tsurugi misconstrues a line for the Shameful Ramen Cart as a parade in his honor

-Tsurugi, having never heard the word "ramen" before, assumes the cart serves the french dish La Men.

-Tsurugi declares his intention to Win At Eating and Win At Standing In Line

-The Kabuto Zecter also works at the Shameful Ramen Cart

-Tsurugi misconstrued a dropped rag as Tendou challenging him to an honor duel, proceeds to dress up like the Pied Piper of Hamelin to accept this non-challenge

-Tendou, when confronted by Tsurugi, immediately breaks eye-contact and tries to walk past him without engaging

-And Kagami gets a sweet new bike that appears from a fog bank, like he's somehow launched himself fully into a Honda commercial.

It is an insane episode, but it's also 1000% character-driven. Everything up there is drawn from the journey these characters are on, and the secrets that are starting to be revealed. (Well, maybe not the bike. That's pretty egregious toy shit right there.)

Like, the Shameful Ramen Cart. As bonkers as everyone suddenly working it seems, it honestly makes perfect sense? Jiiya's been lying to Tsurugi about their financial liquidity; namely, they don't have any. When ZECT says that having Gatack on staff means they can ditch independent contractors like Sasword, Jiiya sees their only income evaporate. (Although, not to tell ZECT how to run a militarized organization of nebulous authority, but contractors are the way better way to go, financially! Staffing costs can be insane, and you've got a lot of employment regulations you have to follow. It's cheaper and more flexible to just bring in guys like Sasword on an at-will basis.) So, of course, Jiiya needs to get a job.

That job is cooking, because it's Jiiya's most bankable skill. (Indulging The Aristocracy is not in that high demand, unfortunately!) So, yeah, Jiiya starts a ramen cart, motivated by his shame at potentially letting Tsurugi down and/or face the truth. If Uber existed fourteen years ago, he'd probably do that, but it didn't, so: Shameful Ramen Cart.

And yeah, Tendou's going to happen upon it (it's like he can sense Jiiya), and yeah, Tendou's going to offer his free time to studying Jiiya's technique, and yeah, Tendou's not going to allow Jiiya to work the Shameful Ramen Cart because he is proof that humanity is worthy of Tendou's grace, and yeah, Tendou is going to strongarm all of his friends and family into working the cart with him because Hi Did You Not Watch The Last Twenty-Two Episodes Of Kabuto, and yeah, Tsurugi is inevitably going to get involved in the plot, and yeah, Tsurugi is going to somehow transition the plot from Wacky Food Cart to His Honor Demands Kabuto's Death. It is smooth as butter, the way this thing steadily escalates. It just Yes Ands its way to greatness, letting these massive egos and bizarre secrets mix together into a delicious broth, tasty and filling.

Unbelievably, the entire insane runner about the Shameful Ramen Cart is tied-in, thematically, with the main Kabuto plot! That's why I thought Inoue wrote it!

The ostensible main plot for this episode (although, come on, the Shameful Ramen Cart is the clear winner in this one) is that various secrets are starting to come to the fore. Now that Gatack has arrived on the scene, the Worms are likely going to step up their activities, whatever their real plan might be. Meanwhile, Kagami being a Rider puts added pressure on Hiyori to deal with her feelings surrounding her parents' deaths, and The Boy In The Belt.

It's a typically strong episode for Hiyori, refocusing some of the recent heroic achievements of the cast as maybe not so great if you think a Rider killed your parents. (And, yeah, this episode confirms that Hiyori thinks The Boy In The Belt murdered her parents. It's easily the toughest part of the episode to get on board with, because it's so circumstantial and weak that it's difficult to even vaguely buy into her interpretation of the events. I know she believes it, but the show does a terrible job of making me believe it.) She's assaulted by Worms, and surrounded by untrustworthy men.

But she, as always, can't articulate those feelings. Even when she's attacked by Worms, she doesn't scream or plead or call for help. She just sits there, frozen, staring. When she's lied to by Tendou and Kagami, badly, she doesn't know what to do. In a moment of crisis, she opts to visit her parents' grave. They're the only people she can trust to always be there for her, to never let her down, because they're frozen in time. Tendou and Kagami are real people, alive and complicated. She unloads on the headstone that she hates feeling like she's going to lose her friends, but every time she looks at them she sees killers, liars. She doesn't want those feelings, but they just won't go away. She's tried ignoring them, but the secret is coming out.

Which, y'know, that's what this whole episode of lunatics is all about: secrets can't be ignored forever, and the longer they take to be exposed, the more dangerous things get. I mean, Jiiya didn't want to tell Tsurugi that they were broke, and it led to an attempted murder of Tendou. Don't keep secrets, you guys!

A QUESTION

One of the things I noticed in this episode is how fitting the Sasword Zecter's appearance is, in relation to Tsurugi's personality. The other Zecters soar down out of the sky, effortlessly landing in the hands of the Riders. The Sasword Zecter bursts up out of the ground, destroying property in its goal of uniting with Tsurugi. That's so him, isn't it? He needs the Zecter, so anything in its way... well, that stuff shouldn't have been in the way to begin with, so he's not to blame if it gets wrecked. It's so on-point, visually, for Tsurugi. We also got a thing this episode where the Kabuto Zecter makes some food to communicate with Tendou, and I don't think I need to point out how on-brand that is for Tendou. It got me thinking about how, if I had a Zecter, I'd probably keep finding it in bags of fast food. If you had a Zecter, what would it emerge from?

[Switchblade]

Remember like five episodes ago when Tsurugi first showed up and seemed like a serious and legitimate rival for Tendou? Yeah, me neither. The "La Men" bit and the duel are definitely Tsurugi firing on all cylinders, although we still haven't hit my personal favorite "Oh, Tsurugi" moment yet.

Meanwhile, we're starting to get back into Hiyori's backstory after a lengthy pause. Can't comment on this too much now since I remember some of what's coming, but we're definitely going to start getting into the mystery of that strange green stone that Hiyori has been holding on to since all the way back in the start of this episode.

On a related note, gotta love how Kagami managed to hold onto his secret identity around Hiyori for all of half an episode. Our boy is never going to change.

[Androzani84]

Since your subs don’t seem to have it, I thought I’d just share a video of the after credits scene promoting the movie, Masked Rider 35th Anniversary File.

And lo and behold, the first video I found was a compilation.

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

One of the things this episode tries to do is disentangle Kagami's impetuousness/recklessness/stupidity from his kindness/empathy/generosity. Like, he's not an idiot because of his strong moral code, he's an idiot with a strong moral code. Part of what he realizes in this episode is that his quirks and idiosyncrasies aren't necessarily bad things.

And, I don't know that his burning desire is to kill all Worms? In this one, he's the one character who is trying to salvage some humanity from the Worms actions.

Well, exactly, I wish those with strong moral code is viewed as what you said there, if they happened to be an idiot like Kagami (idiot with a strong moral code). A good number of audiences equates strong moral code as inherently being idiot, which causes them to look down on kindness/empathy/generosity as a whole (being kind = being stupid/naive or incompetent). For those audience they think nice means they always help and give everything to other people regardless of their condition which would make them easy to be exploited because they always lend a hand without concern about themselves. Which means to them that, they lack knowledge to know that people are only using them, or that they're stupid because they're letting themselves be used as tool. There's also already good number of media portrayals for this, like stock shonen heroes (which usually have strong sense of justice and scatterbrained), or cynical writers portraying those with boundless optimism as naive, or redeemed villains turned more incompetent at heroes' side, etc.

As by this audiences can encourage more pragmatic and unethical approach done by anti-heroes, I want for the negatives of that to be acknowledged too, like Sasword creating needless infighting to Kabuto because of him wanting to be the one to kill all Worms, potentially making the Worm escape instead. Or that when those characters efficiently used no-mercy approach and supposedly left no loose ends, but it turns out that he was mistaken, and later they found out too late that a loose end did show up later in an unexpected place to start a new round of conflict (for revenge, for instance). Based on their limited knowledge, he might not be able to foresee that such a loose end would have existed and arose to prominence.

Also, there's a clear shot of that Kagami's burning declaration. 2 of them:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, I don't know if I want to make a rule about it or anything, but I think having a comedic subplot to cut away to (at least in the first half of 22) kept this thing from being too dark. As it is, the second half features Kagami being murdered by a boy he was trying to defend, so having some goofy-ass story about Tsurugi's birthday party was a pretty smart choice in the story. It still left room in the second-half of the episode to really drill into its themes and maintain a consistent atmosphere, so I'm good with it.

My point was about, if it's ok if the Kagami part has no comedic part about it. Like if for you, Kagami's part should have comedic bits into it to be (more) enjoyable. And again I think comedic isn't always lighthearted, for reasons I said before like comedic sociopathy, with the consequence like bad behaviors being justified or giving emotional cruelty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I think that's a good compromize. I've heard a lot of people call Kagami the true protagonist but I don't think that's entirely fair on Tendo. It's just that the former expresses heroism though feelings and the latter expresses it through actions. Tendo feels as well but he doesn't need to express them, since he doesn't need to prove his heroism to people by talking like a hero, he knows he's a hero and he doesn't really care if anyone else understands him. If someone looks at the sun and says "are you the sun?", the sun doesn't need to answer, it doesn't need to prove itself. It's the sun and Tendo is a hero, whether people accept that or not.

Well, by definition, actions are what define the hero/villain archetype. Heroes are those that performed good deeds where their actions make positive change to the environment, where villains are those that performed bad deeds where their actions make negative change for the environment.

Of course, if you only evaluate by actions, any hero is the same; by that people like Shinji, Ren, Takumi, Hibiki, Tendou, Kagami, Yaguruma, Shinnosuke, Emu, Hiiro, Sento, Katsuragi after return, etc. are all the same; all use their powers to kill monsters, therefore saving people. But the one that distinguish them is their characterization, so things are more complicated than just that. Their characterization, like methods, motivations/goals, worldviews and personality all contribute to determine if they're anti or traditional (for hero and villain respectively). Anti-hero performs similarly heroic deeds that traditional heroes do, and usually had similar positive effect, but they have more negative traits compared to traditional heroes, like self-interest, selective care, love for violence, more unethical methods, etc.

Yeah, if you evaluate by actions, Tendou, and every traditional and anti-heroes are the same, that "Tendou doesn't need to prove his heroism to people by talking like a hero and doesn't really care if anyone else understands him", but if you delve into deeper, then Tendou is an anti-hero, that he wants to protect all lifeforms on Earth, but he had negative traits where he looks down on others, had a selective care towards Juka and Hiyori, can be pragmatic in his methods (like ransacking police station to uncover a Worm), and had fewer empathy to other problems beyond just saving other lives (like showing little empathy for hospitalizing Kageyama, he's a shithead but it's not known yet in that scene, or the only concern for Kagami in ep. 15 being that "his life is saved").

And also, from something I said before, other than the mindset that heroes are people who beat up bad guys, and the bad guys are bad because the heroes beat them up. In relation to beating up bad guys, some people can think that heroic deeds is as simplistic and limited to saving other's lives, and by that those that are saved have no right to behave in any manner other than being grateful; like objecting to something. While admittedly, someone who acts completely as a jerk to the savior is a complete dick move (and it'll infuriate me, and other audiences), but some people simplify heroic as only about saving other lives can be an uncaring view to it.

There are much more legitimate life problems other than just being saved or not, like Kagami feeling worthless after realizing that he's just a tool used by Kageyama. The view of heroic being only about saving lives can be callous towards anyone's problems as long as they live and not get killed, and while obviously saving others is a good thing to happen, performing heroic deeds is much more than only that, saving is only a part of it, but neglecting the other part isn't complete heroic deeds; what I said is aimed to someone who thinks characters like ideal heroes such as Eiji or anti-heroes such as Kaito as exactly similarly heroic because limiting hero definition as just anyone that can actually save people in need and treating what they do it for (money, recognition, etc.) or any character flaws as something that doesn’t matter, as long as they can save people. Which means that definition only takes "save people" into account and applies to my lecture here, as in KR mostly anyone on protagonistic side regularly kill monsters that attack humans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 23

First off, I love the fact that the secret area that ZECT is guarding is called Area X.

X Makes Anything Cool. A lot of people use it gratuitously on a name, product, model, etc. just so it has some sort of edge to it. It doesn't matter where, as long as there's an X. And it has to be a capital X. Lowercase x is just too puny to be cool. Just don't add 3.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, the Shameful Ramen Cart. As bonkers as everyone suddenly working it seems, it honestly makes perfect sense?

I mean, even if Tsurugi and Jiiya are ditched by ZECT and Mishima, even if begging for still paychecks even if half or one thirds, but still, Tsurugi is a royalty not only having a job in ZECT, but he also runs a powerful corporation... so what's the deal with their non-ZECT businesses? And well yeah, Jiiya's most bankable skill is only cooking, where, as someone Tendou compares directly to himself, Tendou has talent in various field, although he's not interested in pursuing anything unless his belt activates. Tendou and Hiyori already ran a restaurant as one of Yumiko's staffes.. so them running a cart is a downgrade... (while Tendou claims it's an upgrade for Jiiya). Tsurugi's "honor demands Kabuto's death" is what he's about in his first scene, so the transition is completely expected? And for their duel, it seems that Tendou finally beats Tsurugi, clearly at the end, with Tendou disarming him and dual-wielding like Gatack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The ostensible main plot for this episode (although, come on, the Shameful Ramen Cart is the clear winner in this one) is that various secrets are starting to come to the fore. Now that Gatack has arrived on the scene, the Worms are likely going to step up their activities, whatever their real plan might be. Meanwhile, Kagami being a Rider puts added pressure on Hiyori to deal with her feelings surrounding her parents’ deaths, and The Boy In The Belt.

And I would add a complete irony, where you mentioned that Hiyori's parents are the only ones she can trust, and hat they're frozen in time... while... Tendou and Kagami... the 2 that she acknowledged always helping her, that she wouldn't trust as the ones killing her parents based on their belts, are also... well... frozen in time.. literally as they can use Clock-Ups. Hiyori's lack of knowledge regarding supernatural elements in their world such as ZECT and Worms adds up to her trouble here, that it's the only reason that she had feelings that Tendou and Kagami are killers, because that, ZECT produces more than 1 belt, and as Kagami pointed out here, more that she missed is that his belt is produced recently, and that how Tendou got the belt is still a mystery. Also, for how Hiyori froze when when Worms attack her instead of screaming or pleading for help, there are many people who act like that throughout the franchise, and people that are like that (well, agenda for non-action ones) can be bashed by some audiences.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

A QUESTION

One of the things I noticed in this episode is how fitting the Sasword Zecter’s appearance is, in relation to Tsurugi’s personality. The other Zecters soar down out of the sky, effortlessly landing in the hands of the Riders. The Sasword Zecter bursts up out of the ground, destroying property in its goal of uniting with Tsurugi. That's so him, isn’t it? He needs the Zecter, so anything in its way… well, that stuff shouldn’t have been in the way to begin with, so he’s not to blame if it gets wrecked. It’s so on-point, visually, for Tsurugi. We also got a thing this episode where the Kabuto Zecter makes some food to communicate with Tendou, and I don’t think I need to point out how on-brand that is for Tendou. It got me thinking about how, if I had a Zecter, I’d probably keep finding it in bags of fast food. If you had a Zecter, what would it emerge from?

The part where Kabuto Zecter makes some food... that's, something where Zecters are shown to be able to behave more. Obviously anyone can't choose what Zecter they'd end up with, but for me the Zecter would emerge from closed storages.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Meanwhile, we're starting to get back into Hiyori's backstory after a lengthy pause. Can't comment on this too much now since I remember some of what's coming, but we're definitely going to start getting into the mystery of that strange green stone that Hiyori has been holding on to since all the way back in the start of this episode.

I imagine it'll be connected to the floating green blobs in the opening that are terrorizing Hiyori, as well as her ability to fix Rider belts by touching them. The show hasn't really leaned too hard on Hiyori Has A Mysterious Backstory, but they've never let it drift too far from the main narrative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

On a related note, gotta love how Kagami managed to hold onto his secret identity around Hiyori for all of half an episode. Our boy is never going to change.

HOW IS HE ALLLOWED TO BE IN A SECRET ORGANIZATION. HOW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Also, there's a clear shot of that Kagami's burning declaration. 2 of them:

Yeah, but that was a while ago? I don't think Kagami's even close to being the same guy he was back then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I mean, even if Tsurugi and Jiiya are ditched by ZECT and Mishima, even if begging for still paychecks even if half or one thirds, but still, Tsurugi is a royalty not only having a job in ZECT, but he also runs a powerful corporation... so what's the deal with their non-ZECT businesses?

I don't remember the show mentioning Tsurugi running a corporation? They've usually kept his status as Royalty, and that means he can absolutely be broke. I mean, he was working part-time for ZECT when he was introduced? The idea that Tsurugi and Jiiya need money is pretty well-established by this point in the show.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Tsurugi's "honor demands Kabuto's death" is what he's about in his first scene, so the transition is completely expected?

Sure, which was my point, but the fact that their rivalry re-escalates due to a misunderstanding in the midst of a plot where everyone works at Jiiya's Shameful Ramen Cart... that is pretty unusual!

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 23

Die was polite enough to somehow focus more on a ramen cart than Hiyori in this one, which leaves me with a much appreciated opening to pick up the slack.

Don't get me wrong, all that stuff is exactly as good as he says it is, but it's nowhere near as impressive to me as how much weight the show is treating Hiyori's feelings with. Like, it's never really been a matter of how her feelings affect Tendou, or how they affect Kagami, or anyone else – it's just a matter of how she feels, and that's awesome. That scene at her parents' grave is a real winner. It's shot gorgeously, for one thing; they picked a very nice location, and seemingly waited for the exact right amount of cinematic wind to be blowing before rolling the camera. It's got a sort of classic cinema vibe that's pretty aggressive about how much it wants to provoke an emotional response in the viewer, but I can't hate that about it when it's working so well.

It's a fantastic look into Hiyori's psyche, giving her a chance to explicitly lay out her thoughts in a way her personality simply doesn't allow her to do around other characters. A monologue that captures a very specific emotion I really liked the emphasis on, which is how much Hiyori loathes herself for not being able to trust her friends more readily. It's made very clear that she's more upset about that than she is the mistrust itself, and I thought that whole idea – that she's trying to be a better person than she is, and is angry at herself for not being able to push past those limits – was super in-line with everything that makes me love her character so much in the first place.

It's a pretty nice way to expand on episode 14, where Hiyori originally tried to brush all this off after coming to the conclusion that the Tendou she knows deserves better than her constant suspicion. That was pretty noble of her, too, to bottle up all that unresolved trauma largely out of concern for someone she'd realized she cares about. And it's precisely because it was such a noble thing to do that she feels selfish for letting that get to her all over again, even extending to Kagami this time. She's operating under the assumption she shouldn't be allowed all this doubt. That it's entitled of her to make her own problems anybody else's, even as Kagami and Tendou are making their need for secrecy Hiyori's problem.

I'm not sure I have any real concluding point here, but I don't know, I just thought it was a very considered and logical bit of characterization for a very private character. It's a great scene that makes a good episode that much better than it would be otherwise. Maybe my overall point is just how much I like Hiyori? Not like that's news or anything by now, but still.

There are other neat things in the episode, if that even matters. I loved how Gatack's two scenes early in the episode emphasize his larger than life status with some classic heroic entrances (the one on top of the crane could only be more Showa if he was standing on some rocks in a quarry), reflecting Kagami's state of mind really well. I feel like it might be done to deliberately fake the audience out by getting them to revel in Kagami's whole superhero fantasy come true right before asking them to consider how much less fun this all is for Hiyori. I mean, that might be giving the episode too much credit, and I've definitely just got Hiyori on the brain, but considering it's only those two scenes that are like that, and they're both placed before she asks Kagami about the belt, I do think there's a chance that was the intent.

Gatack's fight scene at the end, by contrast, is a lot more standard for this show in its execution, and gets the audience to revel in the superhero fantasy the normal way for modern Kamen Rider – throwing lots of toys in there. It's the first time we see him on his bike, which is cool (bike action is surprisingly rare in this show), AND the first time he uses his iconic hedge trimmers to crush a Worm so hard it explodes. Hard to go wrong with some good old fashioned Rider Cutting, but it's nowhere near as characterful as when he's using the swords separately; I love how aggressively Kagami slices up his enemies with those things. There's a sort of grace to the movements still, but it makes for a massive contrast with Kabuto, a character whose body language is all about the slow and subtle approach. To the point I'm almost tempted to try and write an entire paragraph dissecting how great a job Takaiwa does at portraying the simple act of Kabuto crushing a pebble in his hand here. But that's only tangentially related to Hiyori, so why bother, right?

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Die was polite enough to somehow focus more on a ramen cart than Hiyori in this one, which leaves me with a much appreciated opening to pick up the slack.

I'm glad I did, because that was great!

...also because, if I had spent more time on that (very touching) scene of Hiyori at her parents' grave, I would've ended up talking about how hard, and how inappropriately, I laughed during one part of it.

It's after Hiyori's big confession to her parents, that she thinks she's being a terrible person for not trusting her friends implicitly. And then the camera turns to the hillside, to show Tendou there watching, before he turns to walk away, with a now-in-frame Kagami watching him go.

The construction of that shot was baffling to me, because I couldn't figure out how everyone got there, and in what order. Did all three of them go together, and Tendou wandered off? Did they arrive separately, and Tendou was fine just watching from a distance and then leaving without a word? Did Tendou and Kagami show up together, and Kagami is now pissed off at Tendou leaving because they agreed they were going to talk to Hiyori together? Was Tendou just wandering by this cliffside graveyard by accident?

It's a shot that's all about Mysterious Tendou Broods From A Distance, but, like, did he go there specifically to brood from a distance or what.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It's a shot that's all about Mysterious Tendou Broods From A Distance, but, like, did he go there specifically to brood from a distance or what.

A foolish question. Do you look at the sun in the sky and ask why it watches over you?

(I chuckled a bit seeing Tendou's routine there too, to be honest)

[Kamen Rider Die]

I am not even one minute into Episode 24, and it is already more insane than the previous episode:



I have literally no idea what could happen after that horn noise, and Sasword's declaration. I think my brain broke? It definitely has a kind of dream logic that is freaking me out.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

That scene at her parents' grave is a real winner. It's shot gorgeously, for one thing; they picked a very nice location, and seemingly waited for the exact right amount of cinematic wind to be blowing before rolling the camera. It's got a sort of classic cinema vibe that's pretty aggressive about how much it wants to provoke an emotional response in the viewer, but I can't hate that about it when it's working so well.

It's very scenic, yeah, but I have a weird pet peeve for tiny fake cemeteries in movies/TV shows. I get that not every show can film in a real cemetery, but it looks weird when an entire graveyard consists of only 6-8 graves.

Quote:

I loved how Gatack's two scenes early in the episode emphasize his larger than life status with some classic heroic entrances (the one on top of the crane could only be more Showa if he was standing on some rocks in a quarry)

This one will always be my favorite: https://twitter.com/i/status/1043987874910109696