Kamen Rider Black RX Episodes 23-26

EPISODE 23

This episode combines elements from nearly each one of my least favorite filler plots. Asinine horseshit of people being turned into animals? Check. A bullied kid needing to learn confidence? Check. The bullied kid finding the bad guy tech and using it for his own gain? Check.

It again highlights the incompetence of Crisis, as they mess up their own evil doohickey and must be sent a replacement -- and that replacement falls into the hands of a kid because that kid kicks a soccer ball which hits the car of the Crisis goons delivering the part, causing it to crash. I mean...cripes, are there any more pathetic toku villains? These guys are damn close to Rita Repulsa levels of non-threatening, incompetent dunderheads.

We actually get a scene where the bad guys buy that someone used the device to change Koutarou into a pig. This entire show's not shameful enough, but they actually made Tetsuo Kurata suffer the indignity of putting on a pig mask and crawl around squealing. And this ends up being a trick, it's actually a disguised Joe, in what's the worst physical match-up until John Travolta and Nicolas Cage swapping places in Face/Off. The stupidity is astounding.

Dumb episode. People got paid for this.

Random notes:

1) One of the henchmen delivering the replacement device is Jiro Okamoto, who provides this episode's only true moment of amusement as a comedically cigar-chompin' thug. He's the human form of one of Crisis' grunts, those Jason-Voorhees-if-he-was-playing-laser-tag looking guys. I think those skull mooks are better, but they're just randomly used. I used to think they were Maribaron's personal grunts, but I think they popped up in an episode that was meant to be one of the other generals' plans, so...*shrug* The grunts, by the way, are called "the Chaps." *throws up hands*

2) Of all of the Crisis villains, Bossgun's the only one I come close to liking. He has the most personality in that he's a snob, and I like how reserved he is. Suit actor Yoshikatsu Fujiki plays the part well, moving with a real calm and self-assuredness, and I like just how subdued voice-actor Shozo Iizuka is -- it's really unlike most of his other toku roles. Fujiki's also just a tall, imposing dude. I bring up Bossgun because this episode is his plan, and it makes him look stupider than he's usually made to look. This is more of a Gedorian plan.
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EPISODE 24

This episode is called "Papa is Dracula." That tells you all you need to know, and the quality you're going to be getting.

Crisis sent a spy to Earth ten years ago, and the guy ended up falling in love and starting a family instead of whatever the hell Crisis wanted him to do. (Which probably WAS to betray them by falling in love and starting a family, because these aren't good bad guys, guys.) A vampiric Crisis monster turns him into a vampire, controlling him so that he'll turn other people into dimestore vampires. B-movie chaos ensues... An unessential episode...

But there's a couple of things in its favor.

1) The episode begins with Papa Dracula's young son trying to drive a stake in his heart. Not the expected way to begin a show as sugar-coated as this one.

2) Yoshinori Okamoto plays a businessman-turned-vampire.

3) RX uses the Revolcane, in lieu of a wooden stake, to pierce the Crisis vampire monster's heart. That was pretty cool. In part vampire, part toku tradition, it frees everyone of being a vampire.

4) The kid playing Papa Dracula's son is pretty good, and just goes for it, giving zero shits. He's blubbering half of the episode, he's always got tears going, he's really sad. And he gives some great shocked reactions like this:

5) I'm ashamed to admit that I found Joe a little funny in this episode. When he's ganged up on by vampires, he gives them a warning: "I'm not a regular human, I won't taste good! I WON'T TASTE GOOD!"

In this episode and the previous one, we learn that Joe's a blunt guy. He got yelled at by Koutarou in the last episode for just flat out spilling to the gorilla kid that the animal people have a short life, and here he's laying into the bawling kid who won't spill the details about his vampire dad. Joe doesn't waste time, he doesn't sugarcoat shit. That's kinda refreshing for a toku hero. I don't want to come out of this rewatching a Kasumi no Joe fan, dammit!

6) This episode marks the debut of the song "Kuroi Yuusha," the only song on the soundtrack sung by Tetsuo Kurata. I...kinda like this song. It's an action-y song that sounds like something that could be used in the training montage of a Rocky movie.
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EPISODE 25

A nutty mess of an episode. There's boring conniving amongst Crisis members, and there's the plot to kidnap brides who are Scorpios in order to sacrifice to the Crisis Emperor. This leads to a plot where Reiko, a Scorpio, decides to go along with Joe and stage a mock wedding to Koutarou in order to trap Crisis. Koutarou acts realllllllllly weird when he hears this suggestion. Like, it's supposed to be funny, but he just goes overboard and seems like a mental patient, the idea of marrying Reiko just tooooooooooo crazy to contemplate, LOL!

It's sad. Black would have played this scenario straight, and probably had Koutarou already engaged to Reiko and their wedding actually be taking place during Crisis' kidnappings, so it would have been a real threat. Instead, this thing is played for laughs, with Koutarou going through with the mock wedding, but switching Reiko out with Joe in a dress at some point. (It's sad to say: when the monster is hauling Bride Joe off and Joe's stumpy, hair legs flop out and it horrifies the monster...I actually found it kinda funny. The monster's reaction and Joe's reaction back... I don't want to be a Joe fan, dammit!)

Bossgun still manages to grab Reiko, though, after a neat scene where she's hiding in a car and Bossgun carves the car up like it's tofu with his super special sword. (The super special sword which, after Bossgun spends a scene boasting about its strength, ends up being easily karate-chopped in half by Robo Rider. That was pretty cool.)

Eh. This episode has a wonky tone, but I didn't mind it. Cool fight scenes, nice filming. The more the show remembers to use Makoto Sumikawa, the better. It's really sad how misused she is, though; it's a shame they don't treat Reiko more seriously or respectfully. She's there for comedic purposes or to saved. With someone as awesome as Sumikawa, it's just such a shame that the relationship with Reiko's not taken more seriously. "Little boys don't want that shit in their karate-chopping bugman show," I can already hear some whine. Shaddap! If I saw RX when I was a kid, I'd certainly be disappointed at how the actress-formerly-known-as-Diana was used. It's even worse than what happens to Kazuoki Takahashi, going from super-cool Change Griffin to goofball sidekick Kita in Metalder.
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EPISODE 26

In today's adventure, Bossgun is still gunning for Jackie's position and decides to get a fancy new sword to go take on Koutarou. His plan is to target all of those closest to Koutarou. Joe, being a kaizo ningen, easily escapes his attacker by just jumping out of a window, in classic kaizo ningen tradition. Reiko's in a nasty car wreck and hospitalized. The monster threatens the Sahara mother to cut ties with Koutarou, which she does, but Shigeru and Hitomi don't listen to her and go off to find Koutarou.

Villains going after a superhero's loved ones is a common storyline. It's why a lot of superheroes keep their identities secret. Yet, Koutarou -- and a lot of other heroes -- keeps his a secret, and it still happens. It's something that's been beaten to death and continuously forgotten on CW's The Flash. Barry/The Flash constantly gets loved ones in trouble by hiding he's the Flash and always has to learn that it's better to be open and give the other person the choice to still be around him, give them the warning that they might be in danger, too. A secret identity is damn near useless when your villains know who you are. So, enough comedic shenanigans, Koutarou -- just be honest with people. But there's still too many episodes left and we know that's not what the show will do.

The monster of this episode chomps on RX's face and blinds him, which is how Koutarou ends up screwing up so much -- first Shigeru and Hitomi are kidnapped and then Joe has to fight extra hard in Koutarou's place, taking a serious wound in a duel with Bossgun.

And it's this episode where I realized that Makoto Sumikawa should have played Joe. No, I don't expect her to always be the spunky and kick-ass Diana, but...why'd they even cast an action actress for what little Reiko does? Meanwhile here's Joe, a fellow cyborg, who DOES get in on a lot of action, and yet is played by a regular actor who CAN'T do action and...what sense does that make? Well, I guess that's just RX. If it doesn't make sense, it's RX.

You could have kept that Koutarou felt a sibling love for a Sumikawa-Joe. Not only by fighting alongside her, not only in that they're both cyborgs, but Koutarou could have still looked at her as the new Nobuhiko and not only that, but she could also remind him of Kyoko Akizuki, as well. WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS OR CARES ABOUT KYOKO? #justiceforkyoko