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Thread
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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Den-O
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02-18-2021, 01:37 PM
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Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,079
KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 1: "I'VE ARRIVED!"
I feel like I'm really going to enjoy what this show is about.
Even within an episode that's ridiculously jazzy and jazzily ridiculous, there's a melancholy to it. Ryotaro's story so far isn't just about magical trains and hourglass monsters and cute goth girls and street youths. It's about the things we have inside of ourselves, and how important it is to find a balance between what we are, what we want to be, and what we're afraid of becoming. How our demons and angels live inside of us, and our ability to harness them is what defines a good life.
Also, just,
so much goddamn fun
.
Everything in this episode has a madcap energy that reminds me of my favorite Phase 2 shows. There's parts of Fourze (weird girl shouting at boy to Henshin already so he can detonate a monster), parts of Ex-Aid (unlucky schlub protagonist), parts of OOO for sure ("helpful" monster who finds themself tied to the fate of the protagonist), but the character of Ryotaro is what makes it all feel like more than just the progenitor of my favorite Kamen Rider tropes. (
Just!
)
He's shy, cowering, in a way that could not be more the opposite of Kabuto's Tendou. Ryotaro is someone who... it's a weird thing, where the show almost goes out of its way to view his reluctance to fight as less cowardly, more placid. You know? He's reluctant to cause a disruption, so he just gets hit a bunch. He's not some monk, he
really
doesn't want to get pummelled, but he'd rather suffer than speak up. That's a really intriguing twist on what could've been some flailing scaredy-cat. Instead, it all feels like a conscious decision to not fight back.
The
intentionality
of that... you can see the first flash of it in the early Ryotaro Vs Street Youths scene, where he could run away, but instead he stays and gets beat up. There's something with the jingling keychain of Tetsuo, probably, maybe, but Ryotaro opting to take their punishment rather than flee... yeah, I'm fascinated by that idea. It's a fun riff on the Kamen Riders Don't Back Down trope, where the hero takes a heroic beating, but it's reframed as someone who'd rather absorb pain than push back against aggression.
The way Ryotaro's contract monster (who I'm going to pretend I don't know is Momotaros, the most readily-available Shinkocchou Seihou figure) becomes the part of him that
only
wants to fight, that is pure aggression, I love that as an expression of the show's theme. That Ryotaro won't fight for any reason, and his monster doesn't need a reason to fight, and how the conflict in the episode is how they find a way to work together... just a super on-point story for a premiere episode, one that has me excited to follow the hero's journey.
Quite a world that's been built for him to journey through, as well! It's an overstuffed episode, maybe (might not've hated them skipping the coffee house scene with Airi and her Airimirers), but the runaway train feel of the pacing was a definite plus. Just a million things and people (
Mana from Agito!
) that there is basically zero attempt to explain or give context to. I really respect that, actually. It's way smarter to spend the first episode making me care about Kamen Rider Den-O, and then in subsequent episodes explaining what he's fighting against. The mysteries of the hourglass monsters (such a cool visual idea, their split top-and-bottom thing) and the train pass and who the people on the Den-Liner are... that can all come later. I don't need that yet.
What I need is a Kamen Rider that grabs my imagination, and this one's managed to do that exceptionally well. There's the melancholy, where Ryotaro feels practically imprisoned by his emotions. There's the great acting, the switches between Normal and Possessed that make for some kinetically unpredictable scenes. There's that Henshin, with Plat Form giving way to Sword Form (the way the lenses come down like a train car before splitting open like a bug's shell!) and an absolutely gorgeous suit. There's Ryotaro's innate goodness, never quite letting his trepidation keep him from doing the right thing.
Absolutely fantastic first episode of Kamen Rider Den-O. I am
fully
on board.
__________________
Currently working on:
KAMEN RIDER W
! Archive of previous shows on
KamenRiderDie.com
!
Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-11-2023 at
08:16 PM
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