EPISODES 41 - 44
There's a lot I like in these episodes, but the misplaced comedic air that blows throughout this run of episodes holds 'em back. That, and there's some ideas that needed to cook a little longer.
Probably my favorite bits from these episodes are what involve Toujou, and how much more we realize just how messed up he is. When Kagawa holds him back from killing Ryuki, later lecturing Toujou that he kills too easily? That's strike one against Kagawa. When he sees a relieved Kagawa phoning his family? Strike three. (Toujou's a nut, he's skipping right to strike three.) Once Kagawa actually took Toujou to dinner to meet his family? You knew things weren't turning out nice for Kagawa and you can see the exact moment Toujou decides he's going to kill him.
I like that Ren's pretty disgusted by and takes such a dislike to Kagawa having so casually ignored the danger his family was in; it's a nice mirror to Ren's situation, which is he's putting everything on the line for his loved one. He can't fathom someone sacrificing a loved one in such a way, especially for the sake of being a "hero." Ren's never claimed to be a hero, but he's in the role as one, so this becomes another of the show's examinations at what constitutes a hero. Here's Kagawa, (supposedly) ready to sacrifice loved ones for what he sees as a bigger cause. Some would say that Ren's a hero since his motivation is the well being of someone else, but he's not afraid to hurt others or kill monsters or bloody his hands and blacken his soul -- is that heroic? And Kagawa's thinking is a little too clinical, his attitude is a little too self-satisfied, he says what he thinks sounds good, so he's not exactly a hero, either. And then you have Toujou, who takes Kagawa's "lessons" and warps them beyond recognition! (And let's not forget Nakamura, who was more motivated out of revenge than wanting to help people.)
Ren doesn't do much in these episodes, it's strange. This one scene with Kagawa's one of the bigger things he's given. (Was Matsuda off doing something else or what?) It's a missed opportunity to not have him get mixed up with Kagawa more. I guess why have characters with clashing beliefs face off when you can focus on Asakura's touring the filming locations to steal other people's food? I don't know why the show thinks these scenes are amusing, but they're not.
I like that Asakura's obsessed with tracking down Toujou -- he's focused on dealing with him before anyone else -- but I definitely don't think he's the type to just overlook his intense hatred of Kitaoka and Shinji, seeking them out to ask for Toujou's location. (Asakura showing up at the ORE Journal's office has always been a big shark-jump moment for the character, IMO. It's not amusing, it's stupid. Lose it. And the ONE thing that was almost comedic about the scene, which is the ORE Journal staffers coming to Shinji's aid -- while keeping a very safe distance -- is ruined by the show acknowledging said safe distance.)
I also like that it's Kanzaki who ends up telling Asakura where to find Toujou. A tad too late, since by the time Asakura breaks into Lab 401, Kagawa's cleared out. You think Kanzaki would have done this long ago. It was, what, ten episodes ago when he asked Ren to deal with Kagawa's group? When nothing came of that, Kanzaki's next move should have been to unleash Asakura on them. You can't have Kanzaki be seemingly omnipresent, but then act like he's off and busy with paperwork when it's convenient for your story. It's hilarious the way Asakura reacts to Kanzaki, though. He's always happy to see him, offering him a bite of his food. Kanzaki might be the one person Asakura likes. And with Asakura as the one person who's enjoying this whole Rider fight, you think Kanzaki would show him some preferential treatment. Where's Ouja Survive, eh? Asakura could clean up so many of Kanzaki's messes. Reward the two guys who keep getting in your way, though, Kanzaki, you genius.
The worst, worst, absolute worst scene in this episode -- maybe even series -- is when Kitaoka, and then Ren and Shinji (I just had a brainfart which made me almost type "Stimpy") join Asakura at the abandoned Lab 401 where they...yuk it up like some shitty MCU heroes. We have our hapless hero, his fair-weather friend who once tried to get a psychopath to kill him, the asshole lawyer who tried to convince our hapless hero to kill himself, and the said psychopath who's had all three of these other assholes on his kill list. This is just such a...lame, pandering, fan-servicey moment, down to them actually saying "Wow, it's rare that the four of us are together! Cool, eh?" And it becomes a goof on Shinji, where they all take votes on whether they think he's a hindrance and an idiot. Asakura participates, his second shark-jump so damn soon... It's just, like...gah, I hate when writers just totally disregard the types of people their characters are just for a laugh or something they think would be cool. Bah! And even with how much Kitaoka's changed, I don't picture him participating in any of this baloneyshit.
And these episodes do suggest that Kitaoka's become a changed person. He realizes he's weaker in Rider battles -- and not just because of his medical condition -- and he gets into a bad fight with Tiger, which hospitalizes him, in an attempt to protect Reiko. (Ren gets him to the hospital and learns his secret in the process. This show has the chattiest doctors I've ever seen. Between everyone blabbing about Eri and Kitaoka, there's lawsuits all over Tokyo General.) Kitaoka even tells Asakura he'd like to be like him -- it would be easier to be an uncaring subhuman. This idea for a potential redemption of Kitaoka is interesting, but I don't know if I buy it from the guy we were first introduced to. It's brought about more as the writers try to cover how much more lighthearted they've made the character. It's something that needed a little more development, treated a little more seriously than as an explanation for why they changed the character's course.
You can look at the show and realize, sure, Goro, Shinji, Reiko, they're all meant to have had a positive influence on him, they've each tried to get him on a better path or be a better person. And if you take Episode Final and this show's own finale into account, I feel like Kitaoka reaches a point where he makes peace with his fate and just wants to live out the rest of his life in a happier and purer way, in a way with a clear conscience. As a fan of the Kitaoka character, that's all interesting to me, but...I just can't help but feel like the way it's handled here is just a Band-Aid for taking the character to often silly extremes, stripping him of his initial edge.
Another interesting idea, but even more poorly executed is...Mitsuru Sano, Kamen Rider Imperer. I like the idea of a Rider who gets what he wants -- what was his entire motivation in becoming a Rider -- and basically being damned to be a Rider because he can't just drop out because his wish actually came true independently. The problem with this is making the character so comedic and yet also so obnoxious and unlikable. It's just pretty tone-deaf, at this point in the show, to bring in the last Rider the show will see and make him a goofball. A lot of that is in the one-note way actor Takashi Hyuuga plays him, but...when you look at the character, he's kind of a shithat. He's a brown-nosing, manipulative, greedy, quick-to-abandon-you-for-greener-pastures schmuck, but the show acts like he's supposed to be somehow endearing. He's a bullshit artist, and I guess the show is somehow trying to fully realize Shinji's goofy Engrish t-shirt. (We've had winpy characters and womanizers, for example.)
He's just such a waste of time and of a Rider; there's nothing consequential that comes of his existence. Remove him from these episodes and you not only have better episodes, but would have had more room to further develop better ideas with characters who matter. So, Imperer ends up kind of like Verde to me -- just a waste of a Rider. I don't know what Inoue was thinking, I don't know what Kanzaki was thinking when he selected Sano. Kooky theory: I'll once again wonder -- was Megumi going to be in the role of Imperer? The goofy, scammer airhead. She stumbles back into Kitaoka's life, she thinks she's dying, but she really isn't -- maybe that would have been her reason to be a Rider, but then she finds out she's not really dying, and that would have been the reason she felt she no longer needed to be a Rider...? Megumi Asano (M. aSANO) = Mitsuru Sano (M. SANO)? Eh? Eh? And these are Kitaoka-heavy episodes. OK, it's a stretch. But...maybe, just maybe, this was Inoue's plan, but he was shot down, that they wanted Miho to be the show's only female Rider since she was the "first" female Rider.
Hyuuga looks a little to me like Timeranger's Masaru Nagai, and with Mitsuru being the disowned son of a rich dad who ends up inheriting his family's fortune and company, it's easy to see him as some kind of Dark Tatsuya. It's hard to feel bad for Sano when he was just a rich guy's slacker son, was cut off for a few years and then fell ass backwards into all that money, who meets his end because he alienated everyone as he tried to scam them for money, pretending to be on their side. So, try as they might, but...I don't find his death scene all that emotional. I think it's a well done scene in terms of the way they make you feel the panic of being trapped, the desperation to escape the Mirror World. I think it's a cool idea that he sees the girl he's supposed to meet within the mirror shard he's holding -- like she's so close but just can't hear him. But I don't feel a thing for the character. (Listen to Sano's casual reply to being told of his father's death on the phone. He's like "Oh, OK." He doesn't care about the man, just the way it improves his life. So...he's a bit of a bastard and not the amusing guy they seem to think he is.) This knucklehead only exists, really, because somebody thought it would be funny to have a Rider use his Deck as a meishi holder.
We need to talk about Toujou...
He really lets his nutball flag fly in these episodes. Kagawa's diminished in his eyes, and so Tiger finally decides to cut him down. (He does this just as Alternative's about to attack Yui. Toujou says his main motivation is that he no longer wants to close the Mirror World, so Kagawa was right on the money when he accused Toujou of abusing his powers and enjoying it.) He's such a sick little creep as he cries and smiles while carrying Kagawa's evaporating corpse. And this is after he breaks bread with Kagawa's family! Kagawa, recognizing the monster he might have at the end of his leash, tries to show Toujou a picture of normalcy, of love and joy, and it just doesn't register for Toujou.
Kagawa didn't realize the level of Toujou's craziness and paid for it. Toujou has no sense of right or wrong, so how can he tell what's heroic or not? You have to question Kagawa's intelligence for not picking up on the warning signs, really. Toujou takes Kagawa's lessons and twists them to suit his own psychosis. He takes Kagawa's "a hero is willing to sacrifice anything, even those important to him" and warps it to justify his casual murders -- if he senses anyone getting close to him, he kills them to prevent him from being weak, to try and make his sense of weakness go away. That's pure serial killer logic.
Earlier on, there's this nicely filmed scene where Toujou is seen stalking Kitaoka and Reiko along from within a building, closing the window's blinds when Kitaoka spots him. When Kitaoka goes to transform via the building's window, the blinds are drawn and he finds Toujou on the other side, ready to transform. Once transformed, they charge at each other, going into the Mirror World. A cool little sequence.
Toujou does get quite a beating in this run of episodes, mainly by Asakura, who finally catches up to the little bastard and is disappointed by how easily he kicks his ass in the Mirror World. (Tiger narrowly dodges Ouja doing Raia's Final Vent, and then later takes Zolda's Final Vent along with Ouja. Crazy keeps you kickin'!) Opportunistic Sano takes Toujou back to his place to recover. (Takatsuki's good in the scene when he's just totally shut down, in a dark place, when holed up at Sano's, flipping out at the sight of everything in the place with a reflective surface. He's also good in his confession to Sano that he wants to be a hero so more people will like him. Before you might feel bad for him, consider that scenario. Say that Toujou does win the Rider battle and becomes a hero -- the same people who would like or even idolize him, he would see as a threat to his strength. That's a lot of dead people.) Sano ends up paying the price for sucking up to people for his own benefit -- when Toujou mistakes him for a friend, Tiger attempts to kill him. (He doesn't know he lived long enough for Ouja to finish the job.) And it's a nice moment for our hero -- I like when Ryuki, who had just been targeted by Imperer's army of monsters, realizes the screwed-upness of what Tiger's doing, and fights Tiger off so that Imperer can make an escape. It's a good example of Shinji's compassion, especially considering that Shinji was so pissed at Sano for backstabbing him and trying to attack Yui that he smacks him around and kicks him out of the Atori. (And it's also nice after the "Dump on Kido" theme running through these episodes.)
And because we're in the final stretch of episodes, we get some hints of the end game, with the worrisome appearance of Episode Final's noisy Shear Ghosts and with Yui taken to the Mirror World and displaying control over its monsters. (I still don't think she should be able to control Alternative's monster, but she does. Unless she can control ANY monster in the Mirror World, and not just the ones created by her...?) All of this just leads to time-killing scenes of Yui wandering the Mirror World as Ryuki and Knight drive around to find her. Yes, drive, as in they use their Ride Shooters which look like they go one mile per hour. (If that! They actually look like they don't run and are being pulled by a production assistant. So I guess the Ride Shooters are the first rickshaws in Kamen Rider history.)
Pointless Point Out of a Pointless Scene: What's the deal with the brief scene where Sanako apparently wants the Atori to be a maid cafe, so Yui's dressed as a maid? It serves no damn purpose and is one of the many, many attempts of this show at just doing something stupid and pointless for the lulz. Just like: Ren going out of character by being wowed by Sano's suitcase of money.
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