[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 34 - "LOVING BONITO"
KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 35 - "BEWILDERING ANGEL"



"I spent all day trying to decide
About the things that you said last night
Did they mean nothing
Or were they filled with hidden clues"

-The Wedding Present, "Take Me!"

INOUE FOREVER.

I mean, this one's just perfect in my eyes. The only thing I'd change is to make Todoroki's colossally weird dinner date an entire two-part episode, but beyond that? Note. Perfect. Just an exceptionally funny and insightful couple of Hibiki episodes.

The real interesting twist on this one for me is that it's really Hibiki who ends up learning something from all of this. Oh, sure, there's wacky misunderstandings and relationship problems that basically every cast member has to overcome, but Hibiki's the one who changes and grows over this story.

Like, that's not typical? The basic configuration of the show is that Hibiki is the idealized mentor, and Asumu (or Todoroki) is the POV student. Hibiki is the one who teaches, not the one who learns. So this story putting Hibiki in the role of mystified observer, someone who can't figure out how to help because everyone's being way too weird, it's a new perspective for the show to explore.

Not that Hibiki's some sort of What Is This Emotion You Humans Call Love robot or anything. He's been in love! Passionate love! But he's always been able to focus on his responsibilities as an Oni first, so the concept of the rest of the cast being just wrecked by their various feelings of shame and jealousy... I like how weird that is to Hibiki? He's just like Do Your Job and everyone else is a disaster. He's trying to give them advice, but when that advice is basically Suck It Up... that's not going to work.

It's Midori (or Hitomi, I don't know) who sweetly fixes Hibiki in this one. Hibiki's the best non-Sabaki Oni there is, and that's partly because of how dedicated he is to his role as an Oni. That's what makes him great, but it's also what makes him unique. Everyone else is a mess of interlocking neuroses, where confidence in a job gives them confidence in their personal life, which gives them confidence in their job, which gives them confidence in their personal life, and so on. Hibiki's greatest skill is compartmentalization. (It's definitely not cooking.) Everyone else is a giant pile of noodles on a tray.

So Hibiki figuring out that Todoroki needing to get Hinaka back is the key to getting back on track as an Oni, I thought it was sweet. I can understand if people thought it made Hibiki a little too emotionless (he comes off mildly tactless for multiple scenes), but I thought it stayed on the right side of believable. It's a cute story.

It's also a hilarious story, so much so that if it did have any failings as a story, I'd be more than willing to write them off. I'm not sure I've ever laughed so hard during a Kamen Rider story. From Todoroki's almost-impossibly bad attempt to celebrate Hinaka's birthday (love that 2005 fauxhawk); to the all-time great sightgag of Todoroki pulling a meter-long wooden fish box out of nowhere (a gag so nice they did it twice); to Todoroki's clearly misplaced relief when Hinaka says that she's Just Tired (with Kasumi rapidly shaking her head in the background); to Zanki's awful, awful turn as Cyrano (he slinks away in failure while two random dudes are like WTF); to Todoroki listening to sad songs in his Honda Element (the exquisitely sad Moshi Moshi killed me dead); to Hibiki trying to get Todoroki to understand why a meter-long wooden fish box is maybe not what Hinaka was expecting (it takes a minute!); to the tears of joy shed by Todoroki and Hinaka over some world-class udon (pure joy for me, in that moment, I love these two weirdos); to the goddamn genius capper of Hinaka being slightly bummed at getting a ring when she wanted "something shiny"... you know, sushi.

It's hysterical. It's a succession of killer scenes that never let up, while still keeping things in a very A Superhero Deals With Romantic Troubles mode. There are fights, there's a monster, Armed Hibiki shows up (ugh) with a really stunning drum solo finisher (so great)... I don't know, man, I thought this one worked gangbusters. A+ episodes for me!