Now this one, I remember a lot, but mostly for what happens in the second half of the episode. The most I can say about this episode in particular is that the song Chiyoko chose for her “Revolutionary France” theme is an English song written by a German composer. Are we sure she’s as well-travelled as she claims?

But I can talk about our Yummy host of the fortnight.

Rider-lert!

Erena, the actress/model playing the older sister seems to have something of a typecast in that regard. She was previosuly in the Ryuki movie as Miho’s older sister and in an episode of Go-Onger as Saki’s older sister. All three are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of character. Away from this typecast, she was also in Drake’s debut two-parter in Kabuto as the girl Daisuke falls for and the woman the Worm killed to replace her.

Now it explains that the Greeed requires the Core Medals of other Greeeds along with their own to have them match the mid-season upgrade of this series, TaJaDor.

Though you'd not acknowledge this based on how you process shows, the nerdy one's given name is Yumi. Not realizing that it's rather similar to the MOTW name of this series. And I feel that it's not merely about her taking off the glasses to be hot, as Eiji is, well, already around someone extremely beautiful all the time (many of the fandom specifically bring up her for beauty), Hina. Eiji doesn't have the same reaction for her, yet he's lovestruck by Yumi with the Yummy egg. Dunno if it's the Yummy having a spell that brainwashes the people around, except Date who knows Yumi well. Yumi's actress have appeared in Kobayashi's previous series, Ryuki, as Miho/Femme's older sister.

I mean, there's also a sign in English advertising "Franch Dessert", so I think Chiyoko is more concerned about the vibe than the facts. Anything Goes, etc etc

Is it? I honestly thought her name was Sakura, but I went back and found out that's her family name, not her name. My mistake! In my defense, literally no one calls her Yumi anywhere in the episode? Rei calls her Sis, her employees call her Boss, and Date calls her Sakura. I got confused because the episode didn't give me any other info!

Sounds like getting hit by a bullet train! However, I wonder if a form like TakaGorillaCheetah would suffer from poor weight distribution making it difficult for OOO to stop or turn, kind of like Fire Gotchard SteamHopper where the attack is strong as hell, but only effective as long as the enemy stays in a straight line.

Well, it would probably be the opposite of Birth, which is Death. A member of Metsuboujinrai technically has dibs on that now though. And Diend already has the "end" part. Maybe Finale could work.

Shinji wasn't even aware of the War part of becoming a Rider. He saw Knight fighting monsters and saving people and assumed Riders were all best buds fighting for justice. He totally refused to play the game at all until the final arc and even then, he realized he was wrong on his own when he couldn't bring himself to kill Ren. It's also left to viewer interpretation whether Ren seriously lost or threw the fight since he didn't want to kill Shinji either. I personally believe the latter.

I'd agree that Ankh becomes a tsundere towards Eiji, Hina and Chiyoko. But him caring about Shiratori's unrequited love triangle with a married man? Depends on whether or not she carries ice pops. I think apathetic characters can exist in various shows, regardless of tone.

I think this is a complicated moral that needs to be conveyed carefully though, since there's a critical difference between justice and evil disguised as "justice". I don't want viewers to conclude from this episode that justice is wrong or an excuse to commit evil deeds. It's just that justice is a relative term. While Eiji doesn't desire justice for his own sake, he still fights for other people's justice, as long as it doesn't bring harm to others. Maybe we sometimes take for granted how Ishinomori heroes typically subvert the values of conventional heroism shown in other media, so it's important to not take everything at face value and read between the lines to understand what these powerful words actually mean, before we try applying them for ourselves.

Congrats on your 6500th post!

Sucks to see annoying outdated Western stereotypes in a Japanese show. It's the 21st Century, but unfortunately this kind of thing still happens.

Yeah, it's a moral that lands better in OOO than nearly any other show, because it's talking more about Moderation and Perspective than it is about Justice. Eiji's not saying you shouldn't stand up for what's right or protect people from what's wrong, but when you make it into a crusade you risk becoming part of the problem. Wanting justice too much, like wanting anything too much, can push you into some bad places if you let it.

For sure, it's fitting for OOO's main themes and I guess I should praise Mouri for starting his first arc of the show with such a dangerous premise, that a lesser writer might've screwed up. Hopefully it worked and most viewers have drawn the right conclusion from this.

Well yeah, it's not brought up in the episode, which is why I brought up about how you process those shows (though yes, Sakura's obviously her family name). I knew that her given name's Yumi by reading akinoame's OOO episode reviews where I put said link in my signature (specifically, this'd be the ep. 21-24 section). I haven't followed the ep. 24 yet, watching it or reading said review.

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 24 - “MEMORIES, LOVE, AND THE OCEANIC COMBO”

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Happy Valentine’s Day, here’s the Love Combo!

Obviously, that’s not the big deal new Combo for this episode, no matter how holiday-appropriate it might be. No, it’s Shauta, the aquatic Combo that’s been teased for a little while now. And it’s apropos, considering we’re at an aquarium, fighting a Stingray Rhino Monster (rhinos being the natural enemies of eels, after all). The form itself is pretty neat, despite a large portion of its usage being completely computer generated. I like the pointed brim of the helmet, and the electric cable-style eel whips that attach from the wrist to the shoulder. Stylish, when it’s a physical suit.

As much as that’s the climax to this episode, and another excellent tactical fight sequence that depends on overcoming limitations through strategy and teamwork, it’s all sort of vestigial to this episode’s solid combo of comedy and pathos.

Let’s talk about the comedy first, because it’s what I remembered the most about why I loved this episode. All of the stuff with Hina and Ankh having to navigate Eiji’s love-impaired mental state was killer. Hina getting bashful when Eiji asks for romantic advice! Ankh getting repeatedly smacked in the head for the immortal OOO gif! Ankh having to get Kazari to hold on a minute before a fight, so that he can get Eiji ready, and Kazari being like Wait What Okay Fine! And Hina and Ankh having to team up to perform an OOO Henshin on Eiji’s unconscious body! It’s laugh out loud funny, and all of this show’s comedic potential shoved into one ridiculous subplot. Any time Hina and Ankh need to work together is great, but having it be to protect a lovestruck Eiji from his own distracted impulses? Genius.

The pathos side of things works nearly as well, since it’s all about digging into Date’s past and illuminating his strengths. (The stuff with the Sakura sisters… it’s fine? They both wanted what the other had, without seeing how to value what they already had, which is a very OOO way to defuse desire. Much like Date, I was completely ready to be done with their elongated melodrama.) Date’s immune to Yumi’s Love Whammy powers because he finds her superficial beauty to be a huge step down from the vibrant woman he knew as a doctor in Africa. Date fell for Yumi for her selfless dedication to helping people despite her anonymity, and he’s vaguely repulsed by the new shallow version that craves the love of strangers. She was beautiful before because she cared so much about people, and had such big ideas, that it was intoxicating. Now she’s sexy, but it’s nauseating to him.

It’s all a really nice rebuttal to the previous episode’s weird glamorization of an already classically beautiful woman through the tired trope of A Little Makeup And No Glasses, since it basically sidesteps all of that to talk about how her goals changed into something selfish and vindictive, which is more ugly than anything skin-deep. Date’s story with Yumi gets at his attraction to people’s motivations, and his embrace of people who fight for their ideals. A woman like Yumi who uses evil to get adoration… that’s not gonna work for the Fighting Doctor.

Whole episode worked for me, though. Loved this one, from front to back. What a holiday treat!

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Now his one is probably a real contender for favourite episode based purely on the comedy subplot. And yes, Love Combo is a hidden sound in the CSM OOO Scanner’s dialogue mode.

It’s also the debut of my personal favourite OOO combo, in ShaUTa, the reasons for which is something I talked about at length in the Memory of Heroz Let’s Play. And recently, thanks to DreamSword, it’s the one Figuarts I own (mostly because in that same Let’s Play, I inadvertently made myself a challenge to get merch for every water themed Rider/form. So far, aside from the Figuarts, I have the Decade cards for Bio Rider and Kuuga Rising Dragon, the WAP figure for Wizard Water Style and all of Blades’ roleplay items), which made me take notice of the gimmick where the whips plug into the arms as tubes. Though personally, I took more note of this Bio Rider-esque ability to turn into water.

Sure, the episode is cool and all, but I'll still never forgive the sound editors on this one for being so distracted by shirtless Date that they forgot to put Shauta's insert theme in there.