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What are you watching? (Kamen Rider Edition)
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07-01-2019, 08:22 PM
#
15428
Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
Den-O 47-49
Let me say this to start! Stick with the Final Trilogy Special Edition version of these episodes. I think this is the first time I watched the original versions and I should really thank TV-Nihon for saving me some trouble by not including them in their batch when I first watched the series. They aren't a drastic overhaul, but the pacing is massively improved by the new cuts, especially 49, which as aired was missing half of Ryutaros' last bit of character development, and also had a much shorter ending. The director's cut gives things way more time to breathe, all around, and makes more explicit a few plot points that otherwise require the viewer to fill in some blanks.
That being said, either way, you're in for a good time with Den-O's last episodes. You could say this of the show as a whole too, but they're almost the exact polar opposite of Ryuki. Instead of all that layered drama featuring intertwining subplots and morally complex characters, here Kobayashi goes for a very simple, straightforward final showdown with the bad guys, and she knows how to make that work. The first two parts build the tension masterfully by establishing the stakes, foreshadowing some of the resolution, and whittling away at the cast to truly sell that this is as serious as it gets. While Kintaros and Urataros were fairly static characters compared to some of the others, their sacrifices cement the development they have had throughout the show, and are just plain cool scenes in their own right. But where this really shines is in how in leads into the finale, which pays everything off by throwing all the heroes together and letting them go to town on Kai and his goons.
It truly is a climax from start to finish. Whether it's Ryoutarou and Momotaros fighting side by side, or the extremely memorable way the killing blow is landed on the Death Imagin with
everybody
getting in on it, it's classic stuff. There are also a lot of great parallels and bookends throughout, from Ryoutarou finally making a wish to Momo, to him fearlessly tackling Kai off a skyscraper after one of the early episodes established him as being afraid of heights, to the very end with him riding alongside the Den-Liner on his bike, the sense of closure here is impeccable. Even the ticking clock effect at the end moves forward instead of back for what I'm pretty sure is the only time in the show.
The way the overarching plot all comes together is similarly quite impressive. It took us the whole series to get there, but once all the puzzle pieces are finally in place, they all line up precisely and cleanly. There are things about Ryuki's plot I think it's legitimately impossible to understand because there simply
aren't
explanations, so it's easy to appreciate that, despite coming off just as complex at a glance, Den-O's keeps things far simpler. I don't think I've actually talked at all about the rules Den-O sets up for itself this whole time, which is strange, because it's one of my favorite things about the show. It's one of the most insanely easy to grasp takes on time travel you'll find, and also a brilliant use of metaphor while it's at it. The central concept that people's memories ARE time itself is both the mechanical and the thematic core of the series, and that level of synergy is truly special. It adds a lot more depth to the series because the simple act of the protagonists protecting time inherently carries more weight to it this way. Den-O gets tons of mileage working messages out of this idea, and it's great that a show that is
absolutely
funny enough to get by entirely on jokes actually has that substance to it. I don't know if my obvious bias is making me oversell this or not, but I genuinely do feel there are things in Den-O worth reading into. It's like the watch says: The past should give us hope.
Den-O is still my favorite Rider series Kobayashi has written. I just want to make that clear before I shower OOO's final episodes with praise. Just like Ryuki, there are holes you can pick in it if you're no fun, but come on,
it's Den-O
. Fun is the name of the game, and I'm pretty sure Toei and Bandai could still be making bank off of new spinoff movies and whatever else they wanted for this show to this day if they felt like it. Momotaros is practically as much of an icon as freakin' Rider 1 at this point. Yeah, I said it! I also said I have an obvious bias in favor of Den-O, and unlike Ryuki I couldn't totally tell you why. It inherently lacks the same nostalgia factor Ryuki and OOO have for me. The fact that it's the only Kobayashi series with Toshihiko Sahashi doing the music can't account for it because I didn't realize how much I loved him until years later. If I'm being totally, completely honest, most of the things it does have been done just as good in other Rider shows, but... I mean, geez, I didn't even want to type that last bit. I said way back at the beginning of this whole project that "something about this show is just magic to me", and I
still
don't have a better explanation than that. Maybe I will though. Someday, in the future...
Don't be fooled though. The climax isn't stopping for a while yet.
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