Yuuya himself wasn't important. It was Kouta's realization that he killed somebody he thought of as a friend. Would have had similar impact if it was anybody he knew.
The problem is its a friend that we know and care next to nothing about.
But the only episode that really raised questions about Mai's family is this one so far, and it was definitely not a plot-progressing episode.
No, I'd say I raised those question quite a while beforehand too.
Didn't Wizard have Haruto use the word "hope" whenever he could? I didn't see the show beyond the Decade special, but the themes don't sound like they came "strictly from character motivation and action and their backstory" if it still needed someone to talk about it like that.
The difference here is Wizard says the word hope, and Gaim does weak uneducated filibusters on the human condition and social dynamics.
Well, they're characters in a story. Seeing characters do things that aren't relevant to the bigger ongoing plotlines can be fun, but I don't know how that's really necessary. And characters can't do anything without the staff and actors anyway, so they always are pawns by definition, even when they don't look like it.
Except stories shouldn't be written where that is obvious.
Gaim manages to be a story focused show that actually focuses on the supernatural and action element of the series, alongside the main plot, unlike most of Inoue's stories, which focus heavily on side elements and slice of life during a large part of their running time. It's a different style, and I don't see how it's invalid. You might prefer the other one, but that doesn't make it the only one.
Problem is that focus comes with the detriment of everything else, and in of itself is relied on Big Ideas to wow the audience, but nothing to support it.
That's exactly the point. It won't have an effect on the viewer, so it won't receive much screentime or focus. It's just addressed as necessary by the narrative. Trying to make the viewer feel for someone they barely know is a big mistake that just ends up backfiring most of the time, and they expertly avoided that here.
... But that again is just not a good thing.
Okay, I already answered this very same arguement in a different thread, so I'm gonna make a short reiteration:
This isn't the only way to do this and Gaim builts its story elements on Yuuya's disappearance. But without any reason to care, there is thus no reason to care about the story elements either.
Because he had a convenient childhood trauma and liked donuts?
... I don't think you know what plot convenient means.
We learn right from the start that Kouta is somewhat self sacrificial, left his hobby to help his sister, and now is planning to carry a heavy burden alone in order to avoid hurting anyone else. We learn that he wants to become more like an adult, but his sister still sees him as childish - and self serving, as opposed to the self sacrificial view held by Mai. Just because it isn't tied to some convenient flashback and traumatic event it doesn't mean that it isn't there.
Except it isn't there. Have we actually seen this self-service in any kind of effect other than that one or two episodes? Does it make a lick of difference in the rest of the show? Self-sacrifice maybe, but its not in anyway more remarkeable from any other Rider.
And what does these ultimately tell about Kouta other than being extensions of being nice?
And notice how most of these come from the first five episodes, and have since then not been an any kind of factor since, what, the one episode after the christmas ones?
And, really, you have a good idea about Haruto's personality? They never even seemed to decide if he was supposed to be somewhat smug and arrogant, superficially, or just a normal sarcastic guy. He'd say things like "I'm the last hope" as catchphrases that didn't seem to fit at all with his standard behavior.
... You know those things aren't mutually exclusive, right? I don't want to sound dickish, but this is implying a rather rigid and narrow view on characterization on your part.
In Wizard, the theme managed to suppress any kind of logic or internal consistency that the series built several times. The WizardDragon became good and befriended Haruto why exactly? It didn't have any subtleness at all. They also managed to completely forget to characterize important, plot relevant, elements of their final villain (Gremlin wants to become human again... why?)
First, those latter point have zero to do with the premise of your blanket statement of an arguement. Second, how is Wizardragon's turn questionable yet the pathos with Yuuya isn't? I am very confused by the priorities you are setting here. Weird alien being in the background giving superpowers is put in question, but a character whom the show has explicitly built its character and story elements on shouldn't?
Okay, let's put up an example. Imagine if Narumi Sokichi in W. Now imagine if he were completely removed from the show, sans a few vague mentions on how Shotaro can't tell Akiko, and maybe that flashback at the beginning. No Movie Wars, no character comparisons, no speeches about " being hard-boiled" or whatever. He is just a vague figure we are just supposed to care about excusively by that he is Shotaro's mentor, nothing else.
Now of course, Narumi of the show has a lot more significance than what the narrative insists on about Yuuya, but it illustrates the same point.
Was it then be "a waste of time" with giving Narumi those small hints of character?
And third, you should probably not argue anything about Wizard anymore if the extent of your understanding of is this lacking and filtered through overt bias.
Sagara gave an exposition about what he believes in and cheered up Kouta, but it's not like it was forced or unfitting for the narrative.
"Cheer up" is not what that scene did.
See, you are arguing through the internalized logic of the show, but Im arguing about just how overall its executed badly
This isn't Faiz where for unexplained reasons that the viewer can only assume antagonists end up giving new equipment to the hero at certain points. He was clearly waiting for someone who could follow his path, and sees that in Kouta. I don't see why the main hero receiving backing from someone somehow hurts what's happening going forward. How is that worse than things just coming from nowhere just because the main character has "feelings"?
Except this is exactly what's happening here. "He clearly was waiting" is only there as a decoration for what essentially is the same as what Faiz is doing. Randomly giving new equipment so that the hero can keep brute-forcing through the narrative to "break even" in the most vaguest sense.
The only difference is that they are prettifying it with one random character to give exposition about the themes of the show and how Kouta should adhere to these themes.
And your vague diss at Wizard: You know, atleast that was actually built on actual character growth and established ideas of Haruto's character. Atleast there it went through motions and Haruto had to do something to earn the Infinity Upgrade. The scene with the kid was actual consoling that the DJ Sagara tries to do but fails. In that scene there was actual emotional interaction that also subtly reinstates the themes of the show and the way Haruto relates to them, which incidentially have also been established way back in the show.
The scenes in Gaim is exposition that blatantly states what Kouta should be doing and just hands Kouta a new superpower without any merit of his own other than that's his role now.
In Wizard, we had different characters reacting to the situation and interacting with Haruto through it 'till the climax of the episode. In Gaim, Micchy was there to give his usual spiel and then DJ Sagara shows up and all things are solved, just put on that magic band-aid and it'll be alright. Oh, there was also mystical Mai, but what she is doing is basically just an extension of what DJ Sagara is doing.
And I didn't even get into how this revelation completely hinges on Kouta being dumb enough to never think that "Hase => Invess = Yuuya => Invess". And don't tell me "that's because Kouta wanted to think Yuuya was still out there" and all that. You are putting words in the writing's mouth, not what the writing is actually doing, which is ignoring Yuuya sans few scant mentions for the explicit purpose of being a plot revelation.
Or that this show is now becoming more and more of a PMMM rehash, which in itself was rehash of Utena and Kamen Rider Ryuki.
