I have student loans, I totally get where Date is coming from.

They even mention the recession in this episode! Date is based on very relatable motivations to most adults!

Iwanaga as Date was such a surprise to see at the time having previously seen him in Rescue Force, the toku rescue hero show that was backed by Bandai's competitor Takaratomy during the 2000s. Iwanaga showed so much improvement acting-wise compared to Rescue Force. His portrayal as Date felt very natural.

Like a handful of other heroines, Akiko's also someone who complains about the (true) Kamen Riders' tendency to focus on helping and protecting others, despite that Akiko's someone who was shown to regularly help others too during W. I tend to think that those who try to stop people from helping others (Hina also qualifies against Eiji helping others) can be suspicious, but these are done by the heroines who also do that, so rather conflicted on processing this. I'm also still confused regarding this heroic abandonment issues yeah, but what do you think one should handle these scenarios, when Riders know that the civilians need help and that they're the only ones that can stop the threats? And that Riders can't be anywhere at once... I've always thought about how one shouldn't be biased to only care about personal loved ones only as an ultimate good ... well I guess there's Blade thing in Umi dealing with Kenzaki 'not helping' her but dunno.

I feel that for OOO portion, it's Eiji's worldview that is validated, rather than it being criticized, as clearly Nobu is in the wrong here. Nobu has to learn to embrace Eiji's worldviews, to not only be focused on his ambition, which is what KR fanbase usually would expect in how KR deals with desires, it's something you have to let go for the sake of others, in Nobu using his remaining time for Yoshino's sake, like above in how being a Rider is about prioritizing others even at the expense of your own happiness. Eiji using his pay to help others (and seemingly have his generosity being taken advantage of), people'd likely view Hina as the bad influence to the hero trying to stop charity, my frustration is people thinking that kindness is only limited on giving everything you have, when it can come in many forms other than must be giving.

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 18 - “DESTRUCTION, REASON, AND EEL WHIPS”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo18a.png

DESTRUCTION:
Shiratori’s motivation is exposed, and it’s eminently relatable to everyone except Eiji. (Even Ankh is like Yeah That Tracks!) She’s a teen girl, and she has a crush on an older man who completely does not see her in that way. Why wouldn’t she want to destroy everything?

It’s a sweetly sad story, this girl who realized that she had an unrequited crush but still couldn’t help dreaming of both requitement and crushing. She swooned over a man and wanted to destroy her rival, even though literally no one else knew they were in this teen girl’s story of heartbreak. (I especially like that her teacher and his wife never learn about how Shiratori accidentally put them both in danger. This is a story about her choices, not anyone else’s culpability or judgment.) Shiratori’s Yummies are just her adolescent rage and shame bubbling to the surface, which makes her the most perfect victim yet for these autonomous metaphors.

Her motivation is the entry into the real story happening here, but it’s honestly not the part I’m most going to remember.

REASON:
It’s the first full Birth story, so what I’m probably going to remember is how Date solves this problem, and how his worldview finishes fleshing out the basic OOO dynamic.

Where Eiji constantly reaches out to pull people to their feet, Date exists for those occasions when you have to pick yourself up off the ground if you want to have any hope of getting better. Eiji shouldn't fight this battle for Shiratori, and Date gets that. Date is a guy who understands that needing help and needing a chance to help ourselves are two very different things, and self-reliance exists alongside the selflessness of someone like Eiji.

Date is like this liminal space between Eiji and Ankh, preaching a Do What You Think Is Best ethos while cautioning it with a But You Gotta Live With It warning. It’s about desire as a resource to be harnessed, but also a temptation to be wary of, making him another great addition to this show’s nuanced take on human want.

AND EEL WHIPS:
He’s also a great addition to this show’s awesome action sequences!

It’s nice to have an additional participant for some of these fights. Ankh’s there, but mostly as a coach. He throws Medals and offers strategies -slash- scolding, but he doesn’t really get to battle anyone serious. (I definitely feel like the show’s growing reliance on Pseudo-Yummies was just to give Ankh something he can brawl with.) Birth is another Kamen Rider, so he can actual fight monsters.

I continue to enjoy his different capabilities! Where OOO relies on quick form changes in a vaguely magical way, Birth is just grinding it out with a limited toolset running off of a finite power source. OOO can keep using Core Medals forever, but Birth has to pay out for every upgrade or weapon he generates. It allows for a more methodical pace alongside the rapid-fire OOO stuff, and there’s some really harmony as the show cuts between them.

Oh, and OOO used the Eel Medal for part of this fight! That was neat!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo18b.png

This episode does such a good job of selling Date as a character. I love his whole laid back but serious vibe. The moment where he told Shiratori to take care of her own desires but do it in a way that doesn't make her cry is fantastic. It's a fantastic establishing scene.

As a quick side note, all of the in-helmet HUD shots are so 2010.

The new wave of toys just came out so now Eiji finally gets to use those blue medals he's been carrying around for several weeks now.

Dunno if you'd think making the assumption of being in love because of Shiratori being a teenage girl is something reductive against a gender, and I do see a handful of people thinking it's reductive if a girl character is made to be in love with someone. And it seems that love is more commonly used to refer to romantic interest in someone else, but more rarely about something like, for example, compassion for others, or even family affection, which can fit to people like Eiji too in why he'd take care of others, he's an all-loving hero type.

Here Date seems to be someone who has better social skills than Eiji (it's common that the main Rider types wouldn't excel in anything other than their virtue, Eiji's the social part, many others are about being naive/idiot), where he gets through Shiratori better. And Eiji's the one in the wrong in this episode too, that Date calls him out for being insensitive to blurt out Shiratori's true desire. If not for Date's happy-go-lucky demeanor, maybe he can be condemned more by the fanbase at this point for wanting money (or just anything else, for KR formula) and also being an obstacle to the protagonist regardless of what (Date did say to not involve others in reaching desires), Ankh (despite him being a much worse scumbag, but he's the lead), as Eiji has no need for collecting medals, though Date did refuse Eiji's offer to work together, albeit it's due to Eiji's type.

Man, most teen girls fall in love! Most teens fall in love! It's not reductive or gender-biased to do a story about a teen girl having a crush. Eiji's the only character who doesn't think this is all completely normal and obvious, and that's only because Eiji is not super perceptive when it comes to romance. (Hilariously so!)

Secondaries lean towards the extremes of the idealism-cynicism scale, so Primaries can function as a balancing role to develop them for the better. Of course, Primaries can be wrong and need development as well, but they're at least usually facing in the right direction. The cool part about Shinji is that as soon as he hears about the offer of the wish, he immediately stops trying to stop the Rider War and tries to change the Riders instead. Even though he's an idiot, he's smart enough to know when something won't work. The important difference between an improbable best case scenario and an impossible best case scenario is that only one of those is worth fighting for.

If Keiwa wasn't tempted by desires, then Giroli wouldn't have even bothered inviting him to the DGP. World peace and reviving the dead aren't "little things to change the world for the better", those are very big things! Much too big for one man to do alone, which is why Keiwa feels like he cannot forsake the DGP, using the delusion of protecting people and helping rivals to make himself feel better and feed his inner cynicism that they owe him for his heroic deeds. Somebody without desire like Eiji certainly wouldn't have joined DGP or fought for them in Desire Royale. Neither would Shinji, who wants a complete stop to the fighting.

Date is kind of like what I imagine Ankh's role would be if Ankh actually cared about other people's problems. In a show that often vilifies desire, it's a good moral that it's okay to have desires as long as you don't end up hurting others to obtain them. Date is a selfish yet noble man, so he's qualified to deliver that in a way that Eiji isn't and motivated to deliver in a way that Ankh isn't.

On the other hand, Birth never has to worry about losing access to any of his powers, as Cells all give the same output. If OOO loses his only Batta for example, then no more Tatoba until he finds a new one. But Birth knows he's going to burn through Cells no matter what, so he only has to think about turning the fight in to a profit, which means he can afford to be more reckless than OOO.

Oh right, I did promise Fish that I would point out my favorite mismatch form when it appeared. Of course, I'm talking about TakaUnagiCheetah! I think the passive spatial awareness of Taka, the large AOE of Unagi and the super speed of Cheetah seem like a good mix for manipulating the distance between OOO and the enemy to OOO's advantage.