Reviews Series / Kamen Rider 555

Open your eyes for the next Faiz! Does the end Justiphi the means?!

I didn't go into Kamen Rider Faiz with many expectations. I had heard the theme song and seen the rider designs, and I thought they were cool, so I decided to give it a watch.

My reactions, overall, were... mixed. It's still incredibly enjoyable and worth a watch, but it's not as good as the previous three.

The story is one of the weaker parts of Faiz. Takumi Inui gets a mysterious belt, and has to fight Orphenochs, humans reborn after death. It has a whole lot of plot threads and a large amount of intrigue, but here's the thing: Barely anything gets resolved. We still don't know a whole lot of the answers in the end, and while that can WORK, in the case of Faiz it... doesn't. It feels unfinished, like there was supposed to be an epilogue movie or a second series that never happened. That's hugely disappointing because I did like what happened! But around the last dozen or so episodes, the plot started getting messy.

The characters are pretty good. Takumi is derided as a background prop by some, but I thought he was pretty damn interesting. His backstory was a large mystery for a while, and I loved loved loooooved his character resolution in episode 18. Goosebumps man. Freaking goosebumps. The rest were all pretty cool, (although Mihara's boring) and the orphenoch trio were all awesome (Kaido is seriously one of the best characters ever) but there is ONE PARTICULAR GUY who I hated.

Masato Kusaka, AKA Kamen Rider Kaixa.

He was an infuriating douche and barely ever developed, just showing more and more that he was a douche. As a villain, he was AAAGH. He got things done, but it was mostly just to show he was a douche and didn't serve THAT much purpose. And it's played off like we're supposed to root for the guy? 'The hell, Toei?

The suits were all awesome, but here's the thing: the form upgrades for Faiz didn't serve any purpose other than toys. In Kuuga, Agito, and Ryuki to an extent, the form upgrades were integral, but in Faiz? They just happen with barely any explanation, and it's really just there because Kamen Riders have form upgrades now.

For as much as I'm insulting it, I loved Faiz. It was unique, dark, and hella edgy, but some things drag it down. Still a solid entry however.

Now then, I've gotta go attend Smart Brain high school. (Damnit, Decade. Seriously, what the hell?)