A New Pain, a New Pride (The Book of Gills)

 

Kamen Rider Agito is a show overflowing with mysteries, with most of them either being totally resolved or leaving enough for the viewer to make their own conclusions. However, one of the more mysterious aspects is the character of Ryou Ashihara/Kamen Rider Gills. And a lot of that is by design; we're pretty much sharing Ryou's journey, thrown into the mix. If the point of Shouichi's storyline is that he's such a genuinely good person that he remains that person even with amnesia -- he's someone who knows himself that well, on a spiritual and emotional level if not on a memory level -- then Ryou is someone who has to find himself, his place, his meaning, throughout the show. (Duh, his theme song is even called "Searching For Myself.")

Series creator and writer Toshiki Inoue has often said that he's a fan of mysteries -- Agatha Christie being a favorite writer of his -- and that he often likes to leave certain things mysterious. And does he ever with Ashihara and Gills! But I think there's enough there that you can either come to your own conclusion or come away from the show with a decent understanding. I've seen a lot of criticism against the character, with people feeling like he's out of place or pointless, but those people aren't getting what Inoue's saying with this character.

We're first introduced to Ashihara as he's trying to bounce back from a nasty accident -- from the flashback, his motorcycle appears to have collided with a truck head-on. He's a talented swimmer for his college team, or was -- he's facing difficulty getting back in his old shape after recovering. We learn in several episodes that Ryou, prior to his accident, wasn't the nicest, most caring guy. His ex-girlfriend, Mayumi, talks of how poorly he treated her, putting his swimming before her, pretty much leaving her to focus on his sport. His dad talked about what a rude punk his son was. His accident upends things for him, but he apparently thinks he can continue with his swimming, and his attitude probably hasn't changed much...

And then it happens. For his first race back, he comes to a painful stop in the middle of a lap, eventually needing hospitalized. His body is transforming, as he'll soon discover. Why does it hit out of nowhere? I think it's in reaction to Shouichi's Agito power awakening and the appearance of the Jaguar Lords and the Oparts. For the first few episodes, like many werewolves before him, all Ryou knows is that his body's transforming and he doesn't like it. It hurts him. It mutates him. It frightens him. It breaks him.

Ashihara begins to really isolate himself. In the past, it sounds like he was a bridge-burning loner, but this is different behavior -- he's scared. He hides in his apartment, he dodges phone calls. His persistent coach finally gets Ashihara to open up, and the truth terrifies the coach so much that he cuts ties with Ashihara. Ashihara reaches out to his ex, Mayumi, for support. Still stinging over his past behavior, Mayumi is also targeted by the Unknown, who successfully killed her dad, putting her next on their kill list. She witnesses Ashihara's first full transformation into Gills, and it frightens her; she fears that Ashihara is no different than the monsters who are after her, and she leaves town, abandoning HIM this time.

This transformation is painful for Ryou. It physically marks him -- often times looking like it ages him -- and he often falls into unconsciousness. At one point, a passed-out Ryou is saved by the black-clad Mysterious Youth, who heals him. Ryou awakens and finds he has an instinctual reaction of fear to the Mysterious Youth, and attempts to attack him. The Youth notes that Ryou is not becoming an Agito, but "Gills," calling the form a "rarity." If you want to believe the story that Toei came up with for the tapestry that's shown in the opening credits, it says that the very first Gills was the offspring of the white-clad Mysterious Youth and a human woman. So, I guess that means Ashihara's a descendant of a demigod. BUT I remember fans at the time trying to guess what Gills could mean, and a lot of theories at the time was that the Gills power was the opposite of Agito's -- Agito's came from the white-clad Youth of Light, while this theory floated that Gills could have been the result of the black-clad Youth of Darkness trying to create his own army once upon a time, and is the reason why he goes to the trouble of saving and healing Ryou.

Shortly afterward, Ryou receives news of his father's death. His father, who we'll see later on, is the complete opposite of the way his son has been described. The elder Ashihara is warm, kind, eager to help out when something's going wrong. After the passengers of the Akatsuki-gou became traumatized from their experience, the elder Ashihara seems to become a vagrant, dying on a park bench with few possessions. One of the possessions is an address book, with the name of everyone who was aboard that ship. This begins Ryou's journey to find out more about what happened and what he's becoming. Most importantly for the character, this sets him on the path to meeting Shouichi Tsugami...

At this point, Ryou retains some of his old attitude. He's gruff, he's quick to get violent. But he's afraid, he wants answers, he wants to understand, he wants to break down his walls and find company with others. His first real meeting with Shouichi isn't that great; Shouichi wants to push his hippy philosophy on the severely depressed Saeko character, whose brother perpetuates a fantasy for her to live in so she can find SOME comfort in her shattered life, after she broke down from the trauma of the Akatsuki-gou. Ashihara relates to her and knows too well the need for a distraction, an escape plan, that reality can be too ugly to face. His viewpoint totally clashes with Shouichi's, and it earns Shouichi a punch.

After Saeko's death-by-drowning, Ashihara continues to seek out the names in his father's notebook. He attempts to meet with a certain Kino, but when he can't be found, he moves on to Aki Sakaki. Aki, who's feared being found by monsters since the events of the Akatsuki-gou, initially seeks Shouichi (knowing he's Agito) for protection, before settling for Ryou once she finds out he's able to transform, as well. They're two broken, frightened people, and they make a connection, the first real connection Ryou's made since his transformation. But before they can go anywhere, Gills is gunned down by Hojo's police squad and presumed dead by Aki. After this brutal attack by the police, including a rough fight with G3, Ashihara's physically worse off than ever before; he's often unconscious, but he begins to hear voices calling for him to do harm. (The voices he hears is a BIG thing that I think the show should have attempted to answer, but they don't. But it certainly lines up with the fan theory that the Gills powers came from darkness.)

Ryou eventually recuperates, finding Aki when it's too late and she now has blood on her hands, killing the police officers she thought had killed Ryou. When Agito is seen holding the corpse of Aki, who had been killed by an Unknown, a heartbroken and furious Gills attacks Agito, believing him responsible. (Hey, if the cops thought Agito was an Unknown early on, then there's a chance Ryou would, too. This is the first time he's seen Agito.) After an intense battle with both Agito and G3, an inconsolable Ryou resumes his search for the people who knew his father. He eventually contacts Masumi, who's seen to be close to fellow Akatsuki-gou passenger Katsuhiko, and they both are in contact with Kino. Masumi seems paranoid and claims that Kino orders the death of Ashihara, but we eventually learn that she's possessed by the El of Water, a high-ranking Lord. After attempting to kill Ryou, Ryou strikes back in self-defense, seemingly injuring Masumi, angering Katsuhiko, who eventually kills Ryou with his newly-enchanced super-powers.

And here's where I need to talk about episode 28. The sore-thumb episode. The episode filmed in full-screen, setting off the tug-o-war between the show's aspect ratio. The only episode of the series not WRITTEN by Inoue, although he's credited as overseeing it. There's a lot of criticism against the so-called randomness of this episode. I, personally, thinks it kinda slows the momentum of the show a bit, but I wouldn't say it's a bad episode. Taken at face value, it's about an incident a few weeks back when Ryou saves a kid from the Unknown who killed his parents and teaches him how to take responsibility and face death. Now...

Ryou's still on a path of growth and coming to accept his own situation. If this episode takes place a few weeks ago, then this just doesn't really jibe with where the Ryou character's at. He's not at a place himself to be dispensing this learned knowledge -- but he gets there. Just not yet. So I've always taken this kinda reading of the episode in that...we see Ryou dying in the river. He's flashing to events the series has shown us, yes. But we're getting this new adventure, one that's meant to stick out as being something different and special in the way they're filming it and presenting it. So, my reading of this episode is...

This episode is a journey of Ryou's spirit. Ryou's joyful, open and happy in this episode. This is a Ryou unlike any other time we've seen him in the series, because he's free. Free of his pain, free of his sadness, free of his burden. The boy he encounters, who's run away from his parents' funeral, he's actually dead, too. Ryou encounters this spirit and saves him -- not only from the Unknown, but from the suited guys who pursue him. The suited guys are trying to get the kid back to the funeral, but look at the way they behave for most of the episode -- they don't act like guys just trying to find the kid and help him return to a service, no. The way they act is highly unusual; they're rough, they're fierce. They CHASE him throughout the city. I think they're entities trying to convince the kid's spirit to accept his death, that his soul needs to join his family in the afterlife to rest. The Unknown we see chase him represents, of course, The Bad Place. The suited guys seem unnecessarily rough, but see their demeanor once the kid willingly returns to the "funeral." They're smiling. They're happy to see the kid, they offer him calming words. He's made the right choice in joining his parents. When the kid says he doesn't know Ryou's name, one of them tells him that he'll be seeing him again...

It doesn't all fit -- hello, random appearance by Shouichi, to remind us all of whose show we're watching! -- but the best way for me to make sense of episode 28 is to view it as an afterlife tale. Ryou helps a kid's spirit and finds some peace as he dies, especially once that kid moves him by crying for Ryou's unhappy life. Ashihara's a guy who would probably have been happy to die, but Tetsuya Sawaki has other plans for him. (Sawaki actually apologizes to the lifeless body of Ryou for this reason.) Sawaki seeks to build an army of Agitos for war, wanting to resurrect Ashihara. He first recruits Katsuhiko, who fails, and then Mana, who ends up succeeding, despite it initially seeming to fail. (That this takes a toll on Mana and her arms age the way Ashihara's does makes me wonder if Mana would end up being a Gills instead of an Agito.) As Ryou regains life, he keeps getting vague images of Mana and is soothed by the light she shines. Once revived, Ryou feels indebted to Mana, wanting to help her at any cost. (I love that she enlists Ryou to help protect Shouichi when he breaks down at seeing the El of Water again.)

Ryou is resurrected and has a new outlook on life. (Also: after he revives, he no longer suffers any side-effects of being Gills.) Ryou is more open to people and their help, he sees everyone who's seemingly happy with a place of their own -- especially Shouichi, the life he's made with the Misugi family, and their love for him -- and he aspires to find his own place of peace. He's spent so long in solitude and pain -- some of that solitude out of his own behavior and attitude. And then when Kino arrives, with false promises of using his power to protect people with supernatural and/or Agito powers, Ryou eventually takes on Kino's false promise, but makes it a truth. Kino ends up severely injuring Ryou, but he's saved by Akatsuki-gou member Majima's sacrificing his Light of Agito for his sake. This results in the nearly dead Ryou becoming Exceed Gills. (So, if you want to follow the story that the designer of the tapestry came up with, then...Gills is already a direct descendant of the Power of Light. But now that he has an Agito seed within him, shouldn't that make him even more powerful?)

As Exceed Gills, Ryou's first action is to defeat Another Agito -- he looks to nearly kill him until stopped by Majima. This leads Ryou to instead save Kino, and later tell him that Kino's initial words, although Kino didn't mean them, inspired Ryou and gave him a new purpose. I think this act of mercy by Ryou is crucial to getting Kino to abandon his power-hungry rampage and turn him into an ally, one who ends up responsible for saving Shouichi's life. Ryou gives Kino the help that he desperately sought for most of the show. Through his mercy and telling him that he had been an inspiration, Ryou helps Kino push past his trauma and become more like the good, decent man he used to be.

And I also like that Ryou's the one who gets through to Mana, when she comes to dislike the Agito power, telling her that she can't blame Shouichi, the Agito power or Yukina on her dad's death, because Yukina was probably scared like he was when his powers started to wake. This results in another important moment in that it spurs Mana to plead for Shouichi to reclaim his power and fight the Youth of Darkness. (And that's one of my favorite moments of the show, man. Especially when Shouichi charges and G3-X breaks through the Mysterious Youth's barrier in order for Shouichi to land a punch.)

Before I get to Ryou's final arc in those weird feeling, time-jumping final five episodes, I'd like to point out a moment that goes right in Agito, but wrong with Inoue in Faiz. After Ryou is resurrected and learns that Agito -- who, remember, he's kicked the ass of a couple of times -- is Shouichi, the guy he's sworn to look out for, Ryou has some questions. He asks Shouichi what the hell happened with Aki way back. And Shouichi tells him. And Ryou believes him; Ryou knows what type of person Shouichi is and that he was incapable of hurting, much less killing Aki. And that's that! A big complaint of mine with Faiz were all of these forced clashes that, if the characters were behaving as actual human beings, would be easily brushed aside with a simple chat. Now...

A lot of confusion, a lot of characters fighting and being antagonistic with Takumi is just the type of person he is; the gruff exterior he's putting up. So, fine, some scenarios there can fly, like his clashing with Kusaka. I can even get why Takumi would feel so let down by his failure to protect Mari that he goes along with being accused by Kiba, whatever. The character's young, it fits with how bottled up he keeps himself and his emotions. But then there's silly shit like Kusaka running around and pretending to be Faiz and beat up Kiba and then pretend to attack Takumi as Kiba and that kicks off a frustrating 17-parter where the two friends hate each other, when it should have been resolved quickly, easily, with WORDS between the two. "Hey, man. Did you henshin and beat me up yesterday? I thought we were pals, that didn't seem like you." "Well, actually...hey, this sounds like a Kusaka plot!" Kiba was certainly mature and wise enough to have seen through this, but, no, we get this forced scenario that's just time-wasting and makes your characters seem dumb.

Ryou's supposed to be 20/21 in Agito, so he's not that much older than Takumi, and he's even actually younger than Kiba. But he's written like a person who thinks and uses judgment and character assessment and...look at the difference! So, I basically think Inoue approached writing Agito as if he was writing a prime time series for adults, and he approached Faiz as if he was writing an afternoon teen soap. Anyway...I need to move on from this.

The final arc focuses heavily on Shouichi and Ryou, to an almost shocking degree. Nearly every other main character -- Mana, Hikawa -- is pushed aside as we follow Shouichi and Ryou a couple of months after chasing off the Mysterious Youth. (Hikawa's absence is sort of explainable; I've read that Jun Kaname had begun to film another show at this point, which is why Hikawa goes completely missing for two episodes, being injured. But WHY ignore Mana?!) Ryou's started to work for Showa Rider suit actor Tetsuya Nakayashiki -- the ORIGINAL Mr. Kamen Rider, not you, Seiji Takaiwa, not YOU -- at his motorcycle garage and crosses paths with a female biker, Risa. Ashihara's experience as Gills has not only toughened him up, but has kind of aged him, giving him new viewpoints on life that he didn't have previously. He recognizes the reckless punk he used to be in Risa and they're drawn to each other, with him trying to guide her to a better path -- providing the guidance that he himself could have used in the past.

Ryou's more open to Risa, less short with her, when he first meets her. I think this is because he finally feels a chance to make a connection, look for love, in this period where the Unknown have been absent, maybe even defeated. Remember, the Mysterious Youth has gone into hiding and the Unknown haven't been seen for a couple of months. But soon after, the bubble is burst, and Ryou faces the first Unknown in all that time, an El at that. He gets beat up and soon after that, he starts to act shorter and colder to Risa. I know some people question his attitude here, why he seems to treat her so badly, but to me it's obvious that he realizes that he tends to lose anyone close to him when the Unknown are around. (This guy went from mistreating and flat out abandoning Wendinu to focus on his own thing, his swimming, to willingly separate himself from someone like Risa for her own good. He's willing to sacrifice his own happiness and reputation for her safety. He's on a path more Shouichi-like: selfless.) He thought maybe he was beyond that, but he was wrong, and so he's worried. But Risa's tough, she's not going anywhere. And Ryou was right to be worried, as she ends up being one of the sacrifices the Mysterious Youth makes to set in motion his attack on humanity.

It's a shame these final episodes are so rushed, specifically what happens to Ryou at this point. He's, of course, enraged and shattered to find Risa dead, directly taking on the El responsible, pretty much with a death wish. The El looks to mortally wound Gills, stabbing him through the throat and throwing him off the bridge. We're shown Ryou sinking, we're shown Ryou wash ashore (in a style most likely to intentionally evoke Shouichi's washing ashore) and then he shows up for the final battle with the Els. The way it plays makes it seem like it's there for shock value only -- just to make you think Ryou was dead and went out in a dramatic fashion typical of his character, but surprise, he's not dead, and...it's a bit of a mistake, especially when they end up trying to pull the same "Is he dead?!" thing with Shouichi just a few minutes later. I think we needed another scene with Ryou pulling himself together. It's just too sudden, and makes the whole thing with Risa, the time devoted to it, seem unimportant.

But I imagine Ryou woke up ashore and just took stock of everything. The last time we see him in the show, he's relaxing, taking in a sunset, going on a journey. Looking for peace. He wants to live a life like Shouichi, but that's not who he is, that's not the cards that have been dealt him, but he's going to try his best to look for his place, for that peace, and persevere. He went into that fight with the El after it killed Risa, urging the El to kill him; he woke up to find he's still alive, showing up to that final battle saying he's immortal. And maybe that's true. As Shouichi keeps evolving his Agito abilities -- the Mysterious Youth being scared of his ability to "endlessly evolve," maybe Ryou's reached a point where that's the same for Gills. Maybe he could one day become closer to an Agito.

I remember Inoue once saying of Shouichi that he's the type that, even if he knows the world is ending tomorrow, he's still going to plant his vegetables and hope for their future. So I think Ryou reaches a point where he knows that he's going to be dumped on, but he's got to hold out hope for his future, for his peace. I think the mutated and monstrous form of Gills is an indication of what type of person is wielding the power; if Agito is the highest, purest form, a holy power, the power of light, and someone like Shouichi -- pure, selfless, caring, worthy -- is the type to best wield that power, then I think the Gills form is a mutation that happens to people with darkness in them. That doesn't necessarily mean they're bad or evil people, but that could just mean perhaps selfish, depressed, traumatized, unbalanced, or someone not at peace. I think what we see with Ryou over the course of the show is this power -- which comes from a higher place -- being used as a way to humble a person, maybe even make them pay a penance.

And I think that's why Kino, despite being called an Agito, is as monstrous looking as he is. He's caught between being an Agito and being a Gills. Kino didn't start out as a cruel man, but he is in a profession that's accused of playing God, so there's probably always been an ego on him. But he becomes warped and traumatized after the incident on the mountains where he loses his little brother, and then that's further compounded by the terrifying ordeal on the Akatsuki-gou. That pushed him over the edge to where he wanted to take care of and save everybody, in his mind to make up for failing Masato. So when his powers manifest, he's caught between the two powers, and is deformed.

Ryou Ashihara has a character journey. One that relies on drama, conflict, characterization, and NOT Bandai toys or stupid gimmicks. (It must yet again be said: damn, I miss when Toei took Kamen Rider seriously.)

Ryou Ashihara fits the classic Kamen Rider mold. Being a Kamen Rider isn't supposed to be fun. It's not a blessing, it's damnation. It's tragic. It's a curse. But some folks have the strength of character to use that curse to their advantage, using it to fight to protect people from evildoers who are too much for the law to handle. And for the Riders in Agito, the powers don't just come with setbacks, but for the Agitos and Gillses of the world, it's a target for which the Unknown will seek you. 

 

And G3 certainly faces his own form of suffering, tragedy in the show. I've mentioned before that superheroes are needed for superthreats that ordinary folks and cops can't handle. And, well, I'd like to say...I'm fed up with the way the G3 Unit gets criticized by viewers for "not doing anything." I know this is a Gills post, not a G3 one, but it's my blog. Hikawa's struggle was the point. He didn't have superpowers, but he was going to put his ass on the line to fight the monsters and save people. People always wonder about the lack of law enforcement or military in toku when there's a crazy threat, but...what the heck are they supposed to do?! That's why we need a Sentai team or a Kamen Rider in the first place. Sometimes shit happens, and who you gonna call? Kuuga gets kudos for having "competent" police characters, but all of Enokida's inventions were basically stall tactics to hold back the monster until Kuuga could hit the scene. I don't see Kuuga's cops as being any more effective than Agito's, because they're after the same thing -- they're going to hold up their end until the superhero can step in.

The three Riders of Agito -- who Inoue says represent past (Gills), present (Agito) and future (G3) -- could each hold their own show. Agito's richer for having the three share the story, share the screen, but I do think any one of them could have been their own show, and it would still have been a great show and a worthy entry of Ishinomori's franchise.

Agito: A Sprawling, Ambitious Tapestry

I just finished rewatching Agito for the first time in a while. It's refreshing to watch a good Kamen Rider show after all this time. Agito's still my favorite Kamen Rider series, one of my favorite tokusatsu of all, and I think it's the most ambitious tokusatsu series ever made.

Kuuga producer Shigenori Takatera wanted to change the face of tokusatsu with Kuuga. He certainly altered the format for Kamen Rider -- for better or worse -- but I always thought that the show had a whole array of flaws. Too many characters, too many undifferentiated characters, a limiting set-up, narrative straying. It's a good show, but doesn't hold up to a lot of rewatching or scrutiny. Maybe it's a case of playing it safe -- Toei was counting on it to bring the Kamen Rider franchise back in a big way...

And it did. Kuuga was a success. Agito could ride that success and put it to its use. Agito could take what Kuuga did, but learn from its mistakes. Agito could put on a better show than Kuuga. And I think Agito succeeds in all of those endeavors. While I certainly appreciate what Kuuga did -- its approach to realism, how a weird "henshining" power would affect a person, how society would react to a hero and toku monsters rampaging -- I think Agito is miles above and beyond Kuuga. It's a much more interesting show. It's jam-packed -- it does so much, has such scope, and tells so much story. It's filled with distinct, memorable characters, who all serve a purpose. It's filled with symbolism. It's not a wannabe anime, and it's not shoving toys down your throat. Agito is a pretty well-oiled machine, with a layered plot, twists and turns. Even early on, trying to have ties to Kuuga, it knew what it wanted to be and what it wanted to do. It laid out numerous -- numerous -- mysteries and storylines and didn't brush aside a single one and trusted the audience to keep up. It resolved every questioned it raised, while also leaving developments open to viewer interpretation. For that, Agito is a rewarding experience upon rewatching. I've often said that you can rewatch Agito and still spot something new, something you didn't notice in previous viewings. Kuuga was 99% police procedural, but in a superhero take. Agito was 30% police procedural, but covers a variety of other genres: paranormal, drama, mystery...

He might be a punching bag now, but Agito is really Toshiki Inoue's baby. Like Naruhisa Arakawa with Kuuga, Inoue is given the rare "series composer" credit for Agito. It's a rare credit for a writer in tokusatsu to have, as it means the writers have way more clout and leeway than is the norm. (Kuuga and Agito are probably the only two Toei tokusatsu shows I can think that have that credit. It's not uncommon for a main writer to have that credit in the Ultraman franchise, for example, but Toei's shows are usually committee, where the chief producer is the loudest voice.)

Agito was the first series produced by the now reviled Shinichiro Shirakura, but you know what? I think he was kind of careful in his first go-round. I think, if you look at Agito and look at the other shows Shirakura was chief producer on, it's clear that he kind of stood out of Inoue's way. I think the further he had success, the more he let it go to his head, and the more hands-on and weaker the shows under his watch became. Certainly with Agito's monster success, I think he felt more emboldened, and you can see more Shirakura come through in Ryuki and (especially) Faiz. You can probably blame a lot of Faiz's shortcomings on Shirakura more than Inoue, but that's a whole other mess to get into.

The only real weakness in Agito is the last several episodes. They aren't bad, but they're a step down in that...up until that point, Agito had taken its time. It successfully shuffled a wide range of characters, and each character got a decent amount of time per episode. But those last few episodes seem to have 37 episodes' worth of ideas crammed into them, with a drastically reduced cast. My theory? Inoue had so many ideas for Agito, he could have filled another series. So, he tried to work in his biggest ideas into those final episodes. But? The last episodes of every toku series suffer from Toei's mindset of "Sorry, pal, but we're giving the new show all the money. The final ten episodes of your show can make do with the budget of a new-wave music video."

(A real quick sidenote: why does Kamen Rider Blade, from its very first episode, look like its entire budget was that of a new-wave music video? It's such a damn cheap, shoddy production, it really does reek of those "final episodes when Toei gives us no money," but FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES.)

Anyway, it's not like those final episodes are *bad*, but they're rushed, not given the budget it requires, and cut out too many cast members in favor of some new cast members whose stories don't have a complete impact because everything's so rushed. But it all goes back to Agito's ambition. Inoue treated this show like an American production, a show that could go on for years. Agito's just too big and ambitious for a single-year production to contain.

A lot of people have complained about the tediousness of Heisei Riders having two-parters, and while Agito CAN be broken down into two-part installments, there's so much going on, so many little clues and building blocks being tossed at you, that it never does feel like it's a two-parter or three-parter or whatever; it's truly serialized, just unsprawling itself.

Now, onto some of the characters, the heroes. Shouichi Tsugami is one of my favorite tokusatsu leads, and usually this kind of character can be grating, but Inoue's smart enough to give Shouichi some shades and have characters react to him differently. I've long said that Shouichi is Godai done right. For as realistic as Kuuga wanted to be -- and it did a lot well -- one great, big, huge blunder, IMO, was how Godai was handled. Godai was a big old child-like goofball who could do no wrong, but my big problem was...nobody had a problem with him. Ichijou grumbled a couple of times early on, but let's face it -- Godai's personality would rub a lot of people the wrong way. When I think of Godai, one scene comes immediately to mind -- he's in the meeting room with the police, who are all serious business, giving the latest reports, and Godai just busts in with a "Daijobu!" and thumbs-up and stupid, stupid expression on his face...and they all just laugh. Like, "Oh, that Godai!" In real life, Godai would get a couple of punches.

Shouichi is similar in goofy demeanor, marching to his own beat, but I feel like he's more of a person. For being an amnesiac, he and the show and the audience know who he is more than we ever know about Godai. But Shouichi showed moments of doubt. He showed moments of fear. Shouichi went through the wringer a couple of times. Godai will take a hit and wave it off with a thumbs-up. Furthermore, Shouichi marches to his own beat and has that very hippie/optimistic look on life that he'll try to force onto others, like Godai, but people will call him on it. They don't just chuckle and go "Oh, that Shouichi!"

Initially, Hikawa thinks Shouichi's head is in the clouds. Ashihara actually punches him out when he's about to force his philosophy onto a character who it wouldn't help. But, gradually, people become swept up into Shouichi's world, and the things they experience in battle with the Unknown start changing them and their perception. It helps that actor Toshiki Kashuu is just perfect casting -- like Kamen Rider Black's Tetsuo Kurata, it's hard to believe it was his first acting job. (Toei threw both Kurata and Kashuu into acting lessons before and during their show, which is probably more than they do now.) Kasshu is also said to be a lot like Shouichi in real life.

The G3 portion of the show is a bit Metal Hero influenced, but takes the idea of those Winspector-y types of shows and improves upon them. For all of the cracks made by fans about how G3's constantly beat up, he at least does more than the Rescue Police heroes did in three shows combined. Hikawa's really underrated, when...look at some of the cool stuff he does. He dives into the center of a storm to save the Akatsuki ship. He dives into the center of danger to save people from Unknown attacks, time after time, while waiting for his armor. He's the first one to pick up on the Unknown attacking people with supernatural abilities. He's a normal guy, but doesn't hesitate to put himself in jeopardy for others. Hikawa's a hero through and through, he's selfless, he's always even polite to everyone -- even Houjou, until it reaches a boiling point. (And the fact that Hikawa does have his limits makes him more realistic.) When all of the other Riders have lost their powers, who's the one still fighting? A severely injured, half-blind Hikawa.

One of my favorite moments is when he's beating up one of the elemental Lords in the finale, and they're surprised, saying "Who are you? How can you cause such damage," and G3-X responds "I'm just a plain human!" I feel like G3 could have had his own show, but the fact that he's just one third of Agito speaks to just how much ground this show was covering.

While I'm talking about the G3 side of the show, I'd like to say that there's really only one thing that I think can be tedious upon Agito rewatches: Houjou's antics. It's really depressing to find out that Inoue considered Houjou his favorite character in the series, but I guess not all that surprising since he does favor asshole characters like Kusaka and Kiriya. (Some would say Gai, but those people should shut up.) Houjou has his moments, and he's a necessary source of conflict for the police side, a source of conflict completely missing from Kuuga, but he's mainly just a pain in the ass, and I think the character is beyond actor Jun Yamasaki's abilities.

Yamasaki's mostly just stiff, and you can never get a real bead on what the character's really after. The worst is his moronic "Protect the Unknown" scheme from the final episodes. If you were meant to take into account the way Aki and Gills attacked him, and Houjou's concerns were genuine, then Yamasaki never lets you know it, with his monotonous line-reading and plastered on shit-eating grin. I mean, I do think Houjou is meant to be unreadable, to a certain extent, but I think a better actor would have made his intentions SOMEWHAT more visible.

Ashihara makes up one portion of the show that leaves some things in the air, there's more room for interpretation with his side of things. I remember some early, early information that said that maybe Ashihara's powers came from the Unknown. I know some people think Gills is a half Unknown/half Agito power. I think, if you look at Ryou and Kino and take into account that the Sawakis were Agitos because of what good, selfless people they were, then the more monstrous powers of Gills and Another Agito were because of the type of people they were, or that they had some darkness in them. If Ashihara's Gills powers HAD been from the Unknown, that would have been an interesting tie to the original Riders by Ishinomori, but I think the story still has the same effect -- the Rider powers are a curse to our hero, but they'll use that power for good.

So, Ashihara is kind of a classic Rider type. The powers cause him pain, cause him to be constantly on the brink of life and death, and nearly everything he loves is taken away, but the journey he's placed on ends up making him a better person. When we first see him, he's cold, stand-offish. His ex-girlfriend and father talk about what an unreliable punk he used to be. But after his experiences and after being swept up in Shouichi's world, he becomes warmer, more caring, more open-minded.

I like my Rider designs monstrous and ugly. And you can't get more monstrous and ugly than Another Agito! (Designed by Yutaka Izubuchi.)

Kino was an interesting character to throw into the mix, and it was certainly nice to have an older Rider. While he might have been a sign of bad things to come in terms of rival Riders who "want to be the best!!!" at least Kino's given more dimension than those guys, at least he has a plausible reasoning. Unlike nearly every Rider show afterwards, the initial rivalries and Rider VS Rider fights came about with logic. With Gills, they all thought he was an Unknown, and he thought Agito killed Aki, attacking in a blind rage. With Another Agito, it's not "You're a better make-up artist than I am, you must pay," it's that Kino's psychologically damaged; he's traumatized. He has a complex, he wants to save everyone he can because he wants to make amends for failing to save his brother. Add on top of that that he's given god-like powers when he's in a profession that's accused of playing God, you can see where he's coming from.

There seems to be a lot of Christian imagery in Agito. Burning Form is reminiscent of the Sacred Heart: note the vein-y heart muscle look to the chest armor as well as, of course, the flames.

Agito's also probably one of the only Rider shows to feature interesting female characters. Mana's kind of the heart of the show, and I like how she steps up and puts her powers to use for little things like, oh, I don't know, helping Shouichi beat a murder rap, helping the police find Miura's killer (the Mysterious Youth), helping the police solve some murders, resurrecting Ashihara and deciphering Yukina's letter. I like the way the show had people gradually finding out about her abilities. I can picture some later shows really dragging it out.

Not only is Mana the backbone of the show, but she's a source of encouragement for Shouichi -- but the writing is good enough to let her act her own age at times. In a typical X-Men fashion, she has moments where she doubts her place or fears her powers. So, to me, it's believable later in the series when she's upset about her dad and the Agito powers and she's one of the reasons Shouichi gives up the power. It's easy to imagine how that scenario would play out in a later Rider show -- one deprived of any logic -- but she's also the one who gets Shouichi to fight again and reclaim his power. For her age, Rina Akiyama does a great job, she hits all the right notes with the character, and I *still* think it was sad to see her so wasted in Den-O.

I think something that would have helped those off-seeming final episodes would be to replace the Kana character with Mana (only drop the romantic interest part of it). Kana's a weak character, she spends most of her time in the show being completely unlikable. It's hard to feel for her and get why Shouichi cares so much. With some reshuffling, it could have easily been Mana -- she started to go Agito and it scared her and they could have still done the recreation of The Real Shouichi and Yukina, while The Real Shouichi could have still earned his (awesome) redemption by helping Shouichi save her.

Another key character is Ozawa. Another case of spot-on casting, because Touko Fujita brings the perfect amount of quirkiness to the offbeat genius, when it could have been easy to just play her as stuck-up or unlikable. Ozawa's a bit cynical, a realist who speaks her mind, but she's often right in her assessments of characters or situations, one-step ahead of everyone else. She's tough, competent, and can hold her own. Her G3 creation is awesome, and she's hilarious on top of it.

The "Deep Breath" album cover. Not only an awesome song, but also a kickass homage to the classic Ishinomori eyecatch. Serious or curious?

And I feel like I should stop there. There's just too much to get into with this show. I'll have to follow up in a subsequent post. Great supporting characters (how have I not mentioned "Sawaki"?). Near perfect casting. Strong action sequences by Kazuyoshi Yamada, with some of the best suit-actor performances you'll see by those guys. (Agito gets criticized for being too talky, but pay attention to the action sequences. They aren't loud, CGI effects-heavy commercials but well staged pieces. Even when it's not a fight scene, the suit actors are treating the scene like a samurai drama. Suit scenes with suit ACTING, not action scenes with Bandai acting. Yamada gets to the heart and drama of a scene.)

A great soundtrack (not counting the awful, awful 24.7 version of the OP), killer monster designs by the talented Yutaka Izubuchi. Too much! It's overstuffed! And even if Toei shot down some of those ambitions, it still probably does more than the past ten Rider shows combined. Every series afterward wanted to be Agito, but they didn't come close. When Gaim is considered to be a "deep" series with good writing and characters, it's depressing and makes you realize how many people either haven't seen Agito or didn't appreciate it. When I was just rewatching it, I was kind of surprised that Toei even had the balls to make it in the first place. And I can't imagine Toei ever finding the balls to make something like Agito again.

Wishful Casting: Another Agito Edition

When I first watched all of Kamen Rider Agito, a highlight of one of the later episodes was Yutaka Hirose's return to tokusatsu after a five year absence. But...I was disappointed to find that he was playing such a small role, that of a corrupt G3-Unit chief who's only in a handful of scenes. And then it dawned on me...

Why didn't they get Hirose to play Kaoru Kino/Another Agito? Can you think of a more perfect Kamen Rider for him to play? He was written to be older, an anti-hero. Another Agito's Yutaka Izubuchi design was a throwback to Showa Riders, with his bike Dark Hopper's name possibly being a nod to the Battle Hopper of Kamen Rider Black, the Kamen Rider role Hirose auditioned for in '87. Also, Agito main writer Toshiki Inoue always likes to write parts for Hirose, and director Takao Nagaishi always likes using him, so I just couldn't understand why they'd give Hirose a small part instead of a role so perfect for him...

I had a theory that maybe he was intended to play Kino, but took the small role in gratitude -- maybe he was still upset about losing the Black part, maybe it's because he was getting ready to put acting aside to focus on being a talent manager. However, I recently discovered that he wasn't considered for the part, that they thought of him from the start for the Naoyuki Shirakawa role. Pretty disappointing, if you ask me. And while I really like what Takanori Kikuchi ended up doing as Kino...as I said, I think Kino would have been a perfect fit for Hirose, and a great note for him to end his tokusatsu run on.