Because I found myself thinking about it:

Kamen Rider Kuuga rules for many reasons but the reason on my mind at the moment is still that the question is never "Will Godai, as Kuuga, kill this supervillain?" but instead "What will killing this person do to Godai?"

Admitedly, it's meant to read differently because all the Grongi are framed as monsters/monster-people/kaijin but at the same time it's a massive plot element that they're indistinguishable from humanity at large save for the ways they've modified themselves.

The question is interesting because with USian superheroes, the question is frequently "Will [HERO] finally kill [LONG-RUNNING VILLAIN]?" and the act of killing is treated as a binary thing, particularly in the grim darkness of the fanosphere where there is only war.

"Batman should kill the Joker"
"Iron Man was right to kill Stane"
"Superman should've been snapping necks this whole time!"

The focus on the act of domination which killing embodies flattens things a bit to me, makes it about the hero's moral superiority somehow.

In Kuuga, they take the question off the table because putting the explodo on these people is the only way to even slow them. We are assured by the framing of the work that Godai's options are: 1) Kill these people or 2) Allow an order of magnitude more to die RIGHT NOW.

And with that question (that HORRIBLE question that is treated as horrible) out of the way, it's instead moving past the question of violence as vector for expressing personal moral supremacy.

In Kuuga, violence is a neutral thing, the question is what it DOES.

To elaborate: If we allow that violence can broadly be defined as a removal of agency, then both parties are incredibly violent. Murderously so, even.

And in that we find nuance in the violence:

The Grongi want to murder as many people as possible as part of a bid for hierarchical supremacy.

Kuuga wants to stop that.

Kuuga's acts of violence, framed this way, are just as violent as the villains's.

Which says a lot about the power of framing.

But because the series, by its nature (karate bugman hits monsters until they explode is the format of the Kamen Rider franchise) cedes the argument of whether or not fatal violence can ever be justified, we are left with consequence, something rarely discussed in cape comics.

Godai doesn't want to hurt people.

Killing these monster people is not an act of swaggering supremacy, it is not *fun* for him, it is not easy, and the weight of it makes it so that by the end of the series, he can no longer be a part of the world which he loves.

The weight of what he's done changes the protagonist, means that he does not find joy, makes him a shadow of himself. Depending on your interpretation, it kills him not because "violence is always wrong" but because killing a lot of people isn't good for you.

And that's, by and large, a thing missing from a lot of USian cape comics, where the decision is an expression of moral agency but also of supremacy.

"I am better than you because *_I_* choose X"

"My exercise of agency means I am superior"

And I guess in my rambly way, I'm trying to say that I appreciate taking the dick-waving smugness out of it. It's not about "being the better person", it's not about what Godai wants, it's about what hurting lots of people means to a person who believes in kindness.

Again, this is not "I want Batman to murder more of his enemies because criminals are so eeeeeeeevil". Nothing of the sort. (Also, don't refer to people as "criminals")

This is more about trying to put into words the idea in superhero media that holding someone else's life in your hands is treated as a heroic act of moral agency and personal superiority--

which sort've means that it is heroic to seek out that power.

And we shouldn't WANT the power to decide if other people get to be alive or not.

That's not a power any of us should have and if any of us are given it, IT'S NOT A POWER WE SHOULD ENJOY.

Having that power is a matter of extremity.

It's not healthy. It's too much for any person to exercise, particularly if they look at the rest of the world.

And over the course of Kuuga, we see that Our Hero loses himself because he has that power and it makes it harder and harder for him to relate to people. He shrinks away.

He dies inside because he is a paradox: a humanist who kills.

And for all we put a lot of gasp-shock-drama! around the question of our heroes killing (as we should), the way we do it is wrong because it's done in a way that lets us frame the situation as one which has a good outcome AT ALL.

There's no "good" there.

Just mitigated tragedy.

Godai even has a bit where he expresses the theme of the series explicitly, talking about how it's normal to want to hurt people who are being cruel.

But does it help? CAN it help? CAN it stop the cruelty?

Sure, that's a paraphrase but it's still the core question.

Because that's the other thing:

The discussion of killing The Joker (for example) posits that if you kill this one guy, you stop All The Badness.

But that's not how it works.

Killing one person doesn't change the world which created them.

Kuuga is triage, at best.

And, sure, in the end Kuuga "wins". Gets to go away, gets to fight no more.

But the things the baddies represent are still there.

Cruelty still exists.

We are reminded of that time and again and it's heartbreaking because the series recognizes there is no good answer to that.

Kamen Rider Kuuga is good because it removes the idea that you can kill someone and fix a bad situation.

Godai kills all the bad people, but all that happens is that a LOT of people are dead. Fewer than if he hadn't intervened, but still.

And that's what makes it work:

The violence Kuuga represents cannot fix the world. It can stand between people and cruelty and it is good when it does so because protecting human life is of utmost importance. But it won't make you happy.

It won't fix the world.

It's said that Shotaro Ishinomori, in his youth, won a fight and, standing over the other kid, he started crying because he hated what he'd done. Hated winning that fight because it wasn't a "win".

Wins are good things, after all.

And for all the ways Kuuga diverges from the classic Kamen Rider series where it's portrayed as an absolute good that Kamen Rider wrecks the shit out of the baddies, it keeps to the soul of Kamen Rider because the series is ABOUT that feeling of hating doing harm.

And, more, it's not about feeling justified or superior because you would or wouldn't kill.

Again, it's about hating being in a situation where that decision is both present and important enough to make.

And in an era where a lot of people do a lot of smug dick-waving about their capacity to do harm and express certitude that they would "save the day" or be Big Damn Heroes if allowed to be, a series that reflects on that desire with horror is very good.

Because if you want to have someone else's life in your hand, what are you?

Are you a hero? Is it heroic to speechify around holding someone's life in your hand?

By removing that question, Kamen Rider Kuuga makes a much more powerful statement on that power: that it's poison.

Anyway, um.

Black lives matter.
Defund the police.
Prosecute ICE.
No more evictions.
Universal Basic Income now.
Donate to your local bail fund if you can.

Be kind to one another 'cuz we're all we've got and we can't hurt one another into happiness and it's folly to try.