Not much to add about this episode, so I'm going to talk about the OOO suit instead. I think it's one of the all-time greats. The black undersuit does a great job of serving as a base for the different colored animal patterns and the circle on the chest helps tie the three areas together. Not every blend of colors looks amazing, but they all work a lot better than they would if the suit was more complicated.

I also like that each of the three sections in full sets have different shades of red/green/yellow/whatever. It adds some nice variety when mixing and matching but still looks clean when it's all brought together.

Four episodes and I don't think I once talked about the suit. A new record!

It's an all-timer, for sure. I really like how the colors are so balanced with the black suit, so nothing ever feels like it's overtaking the motif. (Super TaToBa does this, to my disappointment, but that's a later conversation.) All the colors feel like accents, so any combination of them looks good. It's gorgeous with every form change, and that's hard to say about any other main suit.

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 5 - “A GAME OF TAG, A LAIR, AND A CELEBRITY”

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A GAME OF TAG:
One of my favorite things about how OOO structures its season-long plot is that the Core Medals are constantly changing hands. (They even have to keep a slot in the opening to explain exactly which Medals the heroes had at the end of the previous episode!) It makes the power struggle between all of the characters slightly more tactical, and gives both sides something they can lose. We aren’t just in a story where The Line Goes Up – heroes and villains alike are at the mercy of whichever Medals they’ve got on them when the fighting starts.

And we get to see that a few different ways this time, which is a blast. The Greeed are manipulating each other to take out OOO and Ankh, resulting in both this episode’s climactic battle with Uva – that kicks off sans Ankh, leaving Eiji to scramble for his life until his partner arrives – and the various machinations of the remaining Greeed. Like, they’re all completely duplicitous weirdos? (Well, not Gamel, anyway.) Kazari hides the fact that he’s got one of Uva’s Cores from last time, while Mezool casually mentions her plot so that someone else will go fight OOO for her. This is exactly the stuff that Ankh predicted, and it’s happening immediately after he predicted it. This show! It never slows down!!!

A LAIR:
Well, it does slow down a bit. Namely, we get the Mezool version of a Yummy, which is – befitting the water-based Greeed – a big ol’ clutch of eggs in an apartment, growing off of the all-consuming hunger for material goods from one of Hina’s classmates. It’s the first episode where there isn’t a Yummy to fight, filling the space with a lot more detail. We actually get to know the story’s human victim, which is a huge step up over the last few versions of this story. (It… I sort of still can’t believe that we spend two episodes with the Glutton guy and they never even tell us his name? Or give him any backstory?) Yamano’s incrementally adding to her collection of material goods, and the Yummy eggs are getting bigger all the time. The Yummy are slowly growing in the background, while Mezool and the other Greeed wait…

…in their lair! Two lairs! Unbelievable.

This episode introduces the Greeed’s new human forms: Leather Guy, Tank Top, Ryutaros, and Girl. It’s a fun mix of designs, eschewing any sort of thematic coherence as Greeed for a million tiny details about their individual forms and influences. (Uva’s got a little bug design on his t-shirt as Leather Guy!) Their hangout is an abandoned bar, which is a nice negative contrast to the rich and vibrant Cous Coussier. It’s appropriately moody and foreboding, even if I think one of them could maybe sweep up for a minute.

AND A CELEBRITY:
I… don’t really know what this refers to? I assume it’s Yamano, the victim for this story? This installment sketches her in more than any previous victim, but it still leaves a lot of blanks for later. She spends a lot of money, she’s clearly trying to fill the void left by her dad not being around (He’s in America! For work!) with material goods, and she’s now immediately and irrevocably broke. (I love that he’s just like We’re Bankrupt Get A Job. I honest to God hope that the next episode isn’t trying to redeem this jerk!) She’s very thinly defined, with hopefully more to come next time. Is she a Celebrity, though? I think not.

I mean, it could be Kougami? I guess he’s moderately famous in the world of OOO? I liked his slightly predatory pitch to Ankh and Eiji – only SEVENTY PERCENT of their Cell Medal take! – if only because Ankh treated everything as a provocation, while Eiji just played with the new toys. One of them’s a grasshopper! That’s also a phone! And I bet you can buy it right now, kids!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo05b.png

Even though セレブ is taken from the English word "celebrity", apparently the way it's commonly used in Japanese often refers more broadly to just people who have a lot of money like a typical celebrity. So even though that gets obscured when translated back that directly, yes, I think you figured it out anyway.

I remember this one purely for a) being the first episode not to directly follow on from the last and b) the CG Yummy swarm. Should probably rectify that.

It also has one of the vanishingly few appearances of Hina’s friends (last seen in episode 1)

So you're saying it's NOT Gotou, then? But he's like a cool, famous cameo every episode!

It sort of still does, though? Everything the Greeed are doing in this episode -- taking human forms, getting a hideout, lying to Uva -- is built on what happened at the end of 4. It's not an explicit cliffhanger resolution or anything, but it's entirely motivated from the previous Ankh/Kazari story.

Guess this episode rather explains why Ankh'd rather deal with Eiji and humans than Kazari, with a Greeed being his manipulation victim where Uva had one of his medals being stolen by Kazari. Ankh is the same as the other Greeeds, not exactly better, just that his decision happens to benefit the selfless hero, like how Woz wants to create a dictator, which happens to benefit a selfless hero (at that time). Though seems by this episode, Ankh and Eiji has grown closer, with how Eiji's only complaint is Ankh eating too many ice cream, and that Ankh didn't scheme against Eiji when Eiji didn't have his medals, but just telling him that he's OTW to give him TaToBa.

In other places, the title seems to be Rich Girl rather than Celebrity, but dunno about translations. Also, guess about Yamano being unlikable, this continues the theme of if the victim is deserving to be helped/saved or just deem them as a lost cause that got their just desserts, like the glutton guy before. Yeah, one'd be likely more accepting in a likable victim being the one who get helped (though many'd be indifferent for minor character's fate), but as you said, what makes people like Eiji heroes are him helping the ones not deserving too - what is 'redeeming' by this? Otherwise, Hina too never got to be mean back against her and still tried to help her despite her stuck up behavior against her.

Other than Eiji playing with the new toys, Eiji also questioned Kougami's motivation, so he's got a clearer head than his dopey act of playing with toys would suggest. For now though, Eiji rolls with Kougami claiming his motivation is secret, which makes him suspicious.

I think Ankh had spent enough time with the other Greeed the first time around to know that he'd have an easier time manipulating Eiji than surviving the manipulations of the other Greeed.

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 6 - “FASHION, A CONTRACT, AND THE ULTIMATE COMBO”

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It’s late, I’m exhausted, let’s plow through this episode!

FASHION:
No better place to mention it: I really love that Ankh’s outfits have one irregular sleeve, to match the Greeed hand on Shingo’s body. I assume Ankh is compositing these outfits together himself, ruining half of Shingo’s wardrobe in the process, which sounds exactly right for Ankh.

But that’s not the point of Fashion in this episode’s title! No, we’re here for the emotional conclusion of Yamano’s story, where an Eiji moral becomes a Hina pep-talk, giving Yamano the support to leave the crutch of materialism behind and embrace her… I guess she’s a baker now? Sure, a baker.

It’s a good individual lesson for Yamano – that her need to fit in became a massive obstacle to anyone getting close to her, while also never giving her the tools to face the world – but it’s a better explanation of how this show doesn’t take an all-or-nothing approach to things like desire. Yamano is always going to care about fashion, but using it to hide away from reality is where it becomes destructive. Excess is the problem, not desire. Eiji’s initial example of Y’know It’s Not Like Money Doesn’t Have Other Uses is a great clarification for this story about rampant spending and materialism, because money as a concept is not the core dilemma here. (Also, this can’t exactly be a condemnation of buying things, because it’s a TV show devoted to selling toys to Japanese children.) Eiji adds some needed nuance, and it allows for a sweeter ending than just making Yamano feel bad about her choices.

A CONTRACT:
An episode full of choices! Most of this episode’s B-plot is Ankh trying to navigate Kougami’s offer from last time, and a step towards Ankh understanding the value of partnership instead of belligerently ordering someone around. (You can tell he’s open to the possibility, because he pragmatically gives Eiji the TaToBa Medals so that Eiji can’t get ambushed again by the Greeed.) Ankh plans to just murder Kougami and take what he wants, but eventually concedes that a portion of his Medals is worthwhile if the Medal System can make OOO more productive/efficient/mobile/survivable.

That’s the meat of the scene; the juice of the scene is in how Ankh’s sneering pompousness bounces off of Kougami’s boisterous menace, creating a layer cake of a performance that tastes exquisite. It’s super cartoony and broad, but completely hilarious. The twist that Kougami stood firm on 70% knowing that he could eventually get Ankh to exactly 60%? Chef’s kiss.

AND THE ULTIMATE COMBO:
Which, y’know, I’d argue was actually Kougami and Ankh, but the show would probably consider GataKiriBa.

It’s our first Full Combo (or whatever the show termed it; late, exhausted) and I like it pretty good. The stag beetle as the face mask works like a charm, and the multiplication powers are a nicely unique skill for the form. I don’t love that we are AGAIN in a final fight with a computer graphic, but at least the swarm of OOOs against the swarm of Yummies makes a case for it. It’s not my favorite ever ending fight, but it does a decent job of making the new (too powerful) form come off well.

The end! I’m so tired!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo06b.png

Ah, Gatakiriba, the form whose power was definitely well within the limits of a TV show budget and definitely not too prohibitively expensive to use more than a couple of times. It's a nice suit; the greens all look really good together and I love the mask design. Looking forward to seeing so much more if it, especially the Kuwagata medal which will absolutely not shortly disappear outside of a few movie appearances.

These episodes are, I think, a good place to call out how great the Ridevendor is. I think it's probably the last great Kamen Rider bike. Not that all of the ones after it weren't good, but the Ridevendor is the last one that really feels like it has an identity. Obviously there's the great gag with one in this episode, but they feel like a major part of OOO kit at this point, not just something that gets thrown into a couple of scenes in the first few episodes to sell the toy and is then never seen again.

A mass of identical CG forms that don’t make as many appearances as their peers. But enough about this week’s Yummy, it’s GataKiriBa’s debut.

In terms of what I have to discuss, I have to wonder how rich Kougami is that he can just put up vending machines that ordinary people can’t use on street corners and isn’t receiving any grief from… well, anyone with the authority regarding these sorts of things.

For me, it's the opposite. I remember Wizard vividly, since I'm a big Wizard fan and I rewatched it at some point during the late 10s, but I've only watched OOO once while it was airing.

Makes sense that the guy whose defining trait is his total lack of desire is not the driving force of this memorable pair of main characters. Eiji wants to save people, a noble goal but not a goal that has an end. Ankh's goal is clear, he wants Medals, so the friction between them comes from Ankh having to work around Eiji's inconvenient heroism and Eiji having to keep Ankh from going too far. Ankh is an entertaining character for sure, but I think Eiji brings out the more interesting parts of Ankh, which is why this dynamic works.

Same here! Cheetah is actually 1/3 of my favorite mismatch form, which I'll be sure to point out when it appears.

Must suck for all the kids who want to purchase Candroids but don't have Cell Medals.

Congrats on your 2700th post!

It's a great bike. So great, in fact, that THREE different named characters ride around on one in this episode!

I've always appreciated how beefy it is, and how, like, diegetic it is. The entire Medal System provides a context for where the bike is, how it's disappearing and appearing, and why it looks the way it does. It feels woven into the show more than later bikes -- like, immediately later; I don't recall the Fourze bikes having a ton of reason to exist.

To my knowledge, it's never addressed in the show, but my headcanon is that the Ridevendors dispense consumer goods if you put in yen, but dispense Medal System stuff if you put in Medals.

True! They're designed in very complimentary ways!

Wow, OOO is *so* good at not doing things wrong that it can even get Die to praise a suit for how it uses an insect theme. I guess that's how you know GataKiriBa really is the Strongest Combo!

(I always did find it hilarious that it's the first of those themed episode titles for the Combos, and GataKiriBa's descriptor immediately makes it sound like everything after this can only be less cool. Given how impressive the swarm gimmick is, maybe that's not too far off!)

Anyways, the bikes are neat and all, but really, this seems like as good a spot as any to mention what an absolute triumph of creativity on Bandai and Toei's part the entire OOO ecosystem is? The connection with the idea of currency -- and the implications of greed that often come with that -- takes the more abstract idea of desire and gives it this very literal form that's easily identifiable to basically anyone. There are cool narrative benefits to having the bike this year be a mass-produced series of vending machines, but the mere imagery that comes with Kamen Rider popping coins into those things all year has a ton of value just on its own.

Character growth! Insect-themed costumes kept reaching their hands (or horns) out to me, and eventually I reached back!

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 7 - “A BAD HUSBAND, A TRAP, AND A JACKPOT”

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A BAD HUSBAND:
Takeshi, obviously, with his desire for money at the expense of his marriage, but… maybe also Eiji or Ankh?

It’s nice to do a little story about a bickering couple and contrast it with a story where Ankh and Eiji never share the screen together. Most of the danger our two heroes are in is because there’s no teamwork or communication going on. Eiji is working at Cous Coussier and trying to solve Momoko and Takeshi’s marital squabbles – or at least, y’know, keep Takeshi from being beaten up – while Ankh is scouring the internet for more Core Medals. There’s no sense that either of them is concerned with helping the other, until they both need help, and then it’s too late.

I’m probably reading too much into this one? I really want this to be a paragraph delineating all of the parallels between the married couple and our OOO partnership, but it feels incredibly flimsy. Eiji and Ankh aren’t bickering in this one (like normal), they’re just completely separated. I’m sure Takeshi wishes he was separated from Momoko for this one, but he’s definitely not. It’s just him getting chased by her, and him wanting to win a whole bunch of money for semi-understandable relationship reasons we’ll probably get into next time. This one’s just them fighting, and the heroes in separate stories, and it never really feels like it connects in the way I’d like it to.

A TRAP:
Most of this story is setting up the twin perils Ankh and Eiji are facing, with a heavier emphasis on Gamel’s part of this Greeed scheme.

It’s basically just to be a big dumb distraction, and he does that effectively; that’s to say, this is a fairly dumb plot. We’re a million miles away from the comparatively deep story of a lonely girl trying to fit in with the crowd; instead, we’re in Pure Id territory, as Gamel just wants to watch people get hit by stuff after watching Momoko throw a shoe at Takeshi. It’s just AGAIN as the A-plot for a toku episode.

I didn’t completely hate it, though? There is some legit fun to be had with a million quick edits of extras getting hit in the face with debris, or buckets slammed onto their heads. But it’s not much more than that? It’s supposed to be a distraction from Kazari and Uva’s attack on Ankh, but it takes up the majority of the runtime. The lazy distraction is most of this episode, and that feels… inconsiderate to the audience?

The Ankh part is interesting, since it relies on Ankh not having been around for the Leather Guy part of Eiji’s confrontation with Uva in the previous story, but it’s not a plot with a bunch of moves. Uva instantly goes HA HA I’M UVA and then Ankh’s boned. The danger is more intense and personal, but it doesn’t help this episode to have the two dumbest Greeed be the ones directly interacting with our heroes.

A JACKPOT:
Takeshi’s lottery win, sure, but also A BRAND NEW MEDAL!

It’s the Lion head from Latorata/Ratorata (you do you), and its presence here is to blind the enemies with how awesome it is. I mean it makes sense – it’s maybe my favorite combo for OOO, and its head alone is something to stand in awe of. The new Medal allows Eiji to turn the tables on Gamel and his Yummy, sending them scurrying away into the next episode. It’s not a win, but it at least makes the Lion Medal feel advantageous to own.

…especially since Ankh is presently being drained of Medals in the B-plot! Which we’ll deal with tomorrow!

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Dunno if this feels like rather a bait. Eiji was the one that took Yamano's money earlier, and talks about using it for his livelihood and wanting things not being bad, which have other character being the one to call out a supposed most righteous/virtuous character in them doing something wrong, that Eiji doesn't live up to his vow of helping others in need. With at the end Eiji telling Hina to return the money to Yamano instead.

And at the end, Yamano not being materialistic is what allows her to bond with Hina's friends as well (Hina's always nice with Yamano from the start). Also, do you see this as redeeming her with what you said before? I rather thought that Hina saying that she relates with Yamano would be also about Hina being a fashionsta herself, which is also what she's interested in, but it's more about general wants. While the show won't condemn wanting/buying things, likely people'd just think it's Eiji being too nice to be tolerant to people's vices while viewing them as being unable to change to be like Eiji in actually letting go of any desires and not be corrupted by them.

Kougami holds the biggest power, so anyone'd be forced to comply to him. Other than Ankh here to force himself to give himself the 60% of the medal, Eiji is also told by Goto to be forced to work with them. I don't know if this is understanding the value of partnership, when Kougami rather blackmails Ankh by making OOO powerless if Ankh doesn't comply, by shutting down the medal system required for him to fight at full power.

Though OOO has individually stronger final forms, probably GataKiriBa is the actual ultimate combo/power of OOO by this. Because of its ability to duplicate itself with all the clones having the same strength as the original, with them also being able to change forms themselves. The way to nerf GataKiriBa so that it can't spam these OP ability is the production budget (yes full combo can tire out the user but likely, it applies to any full combos).

I don't... think that's what's happening in this scene? The audience is definitely supposed to think that Eiji's going to keep the money -- he's in a story where Hina doesn't know if she can trust him, so he needs to appear somewhat untrustworthy -- but that was never going to happen. He saved the money that Yamano had thrown away, and straightened it up so that Hina could give it back to her.

It's Eiji doing two different things in that scene. First, he's getting a chance to reframe this problem as less about Money and more about Overindulgence; holding onto the money lets him talk about the fact that everyone in society needs at least some money to live, and we all need to survive. Second, he's specifically letting Hina be the one to give the money back to Yamano, since Hina's connection with her is worth more than Eiji's words as a stranger.

Long story short, Eiji was never keeping that money.

I love how, ignoring the context, Gamel in this picture to me looks like a grongi warrior who decided the hunt is pointless and decided to live as a human and now observes things around him while eating snacks. :lolol

So I don’t remember much about this episode (is it the one where Chiyoko says “Repeat after me” in perfect English, or is that still upcoming?), so I’ll cash in on the first appearance of Gamel’s Yummies to discuss the etymology behind the names of the Greeed.

Uva: from “ubau”, meaning consume (his Yummies tend to eat somehing related to the desire that spawned them)

Kazari: from “kazaru”, meaning decorate (his Yummies possess their hosts and gradually manifest physically on them)

Mezool: from “aizuru”, meaning “to love” (her Yummies follow their creator around as they live out their desire)

Gamel: from “gameru”, meaning “pilfer” (his Yummies are created from himself based on other’s desires)

Ankh is the one exception, probably to highlight him as an outsider to the others, but in the early concepts, he was supposed to be called the more thematically appropriate Ashu, meaning “dominate”.

Neat! Thanks!

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 8 - “SLACKING OFF, HAVING NO DESIRE, AND TAKING A BREAK”

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SLACKING OFF, HAVING NO DESIRE, AND TAKING A BREAK:
Not even worth separating those three out into different sections, because they’re all talking about the same thing. Like this episode!

Probably not going to be my favorite OOO two-parter, despite how much I enjoyed this installment. (I really enjoyed this installment.) The Uva stuff is dispatched more or less before the opening credits, Gamel abandons his plot halfway through, and the Yummy never feels looped into anything that’s going on. (Eiji could’ve been fighting literally any monster for any reason, it’s ridiculously perfunctory.) There’s really only one story in this episode worth discussing beyond an It’s Funny To See Ankh Harrassed By Children level of identification, and that’s the Momoko/Takeshi one.

It’s one of those cute toku stories that never really seems like a toku story at all. The Yummy is briefly inspired by Momoko’s violent frustration with her shiftless husband, but that’s nothing she really has to directly confront. OOO is necessary to save lives and defeat monsters, but it’s really Eiji who’s necessary to hear out two frustrated people and try and help them see how much they still care about each other.

And he does that in a supremely OOO way, which is by reaching a hand out, and not much more. Eiji blunders his way through his discussions with Momoko and Takeshi, frequently making terrible comparisons that reduce the complexity of adult relationships into misguided metaphors about summer vacation and overeating. (I mean, good for the intended audience, but sort of disappointing for Eiji’s maturity.) Eiji never quite gets what’s happening between Momoko and Takeshi on a relatable level, but he pushes back on both of their assertions that Takeshi has lost his desire, instead helping to reframe things as guy who needed a reset and a woman pushing him to put a date on that reset's conclusion. Eiji’s role isn’t to solve their problem, it’s to help them see that they both want to solve their problem. After that, after he’s given them a hand, they can solve it themselves.

It’s, again, very cute. I like stories where the resolution is reached due to the decency and humanity of the Kamen Rider, rather than its powers or transformations. It just… I sort of also like the powers and transformations? And when every part of the episode feels like it's telling the same story? Instead, with this one, we get elements that are randomly discarded throughout the episode, like the production team couldn’t remember why they ever cared about them in the first place. I guess that’s at least thematically fitting?

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Adding on to this, according to one of the old episode guides, at least, the specific order of events was:

- Really early on, they were going to have Eiji come up with the insanely half-hearted name "Toori", because he's a tori.
- After deciding that was too half-hearted for its own good, they came up with Ankh from the Hindi word for "eyes", because he's literally got the eyes of a hawk.
- The suggestion to give him a name derived from Japanese to match the other Greeed came after that, but they were already attached to "Ankh" by that point.

Interesting! Thanks!

That's what I meant as a bait, tricking the audience to think Eiji's keeping it but turns out he's not, called red herring.

Eiji shouldn't be biased towards Ankh, as the selfless hero he should treat anyone equally, not prioritizing those he knows better. So other people like Momoko and Takeshi's well-being should be in Eiji's radar rather than treating them as unimportant because Ankh needs something from him too. Ankh is just, one of who Eiji would help among the others due to his nature, Ankh just happens to be the show's other lead so he has more screentime. And for Ankh, Eiji is just a means to his end, if he can obtain what he wants in some other way, he gotta chase after it even if it wouldn't involve Eiji.

This feels more like stock surface-level toku to just have the monster being a threat to the public and emphasizing that to have the hero come in and save the day.

And OOO committed vandalism here to destroy some people's cars in doing so here. Japan word has no L, so L is converted to R. Lion would be Raion in Japanese's katakana (English/foreign words converted to Japanese letters). Goto starts to be grumpy in him being forced to assist OOO by Kougami, though it's because OOO is affiliated with a Greeed, Ankh. Goto seems to be prejudiced to Greeed and lumps anyone associated with them as bad, but he also takes it out to OOO as well, further destroying the cake.

To be fair, that cake was basically already destroyed from Gotou having his faced shoved into it (accidentally!) by OOO, so I can't exactly blame him for finishing the job.

The photographer story in 7 and 8 feel really Den-O to me, if that makes any sense. Something about the story beats and characters feel like they could have come straight out of that show instead. Probably a combination of the same writer and some beats that feel similar to the story with Shimada/Smart Lady and her boyfriend. It did play out a little differently, though, and I really appreciated the scene with Eiji and the dude having their little urban campfire chat. I think that moment, in particular, gave us some good insights into Eiji's world view. It's kind of fun revisiting these moments knowing how much I ended up liking him; I'd really written him off as a bargain basement Yusuke when I was originally watching the show.

So Uva got his Kuwagata medal back already. It's a pity, but the show swaps medals so much that I'm sure Eiji will get that one back pretty soon and we definitely won't only see it again in movies, right?

Yeah, I can see that. While I appreciated how the text of the episode is that Everyone Needs Desire In Their Life, to continue to push back on the easy read of Desire being a bad thing that the villains profit from, the subtext is a lot more nebulous, and definitely feels more about letting go of an idealized future in order to enjoy the present and recapture the past. That's a very Den-O story!

This was a minor thing I forgot to mention, but I like the tiny touch in this story where Ankh doesn't tell Eiji that he lost Uva's Medal. There's a beat where Eiji asks for it in battle, and Ankh's like Uh Maybe Try This New Medal Instead For Reasons. In a story about lack of communication, that's a nice little beat!

Uva, Gamel, and Mezool stuff rather reminds me of something in Kobayashi's show, but well, it's about Yui splashing Shinji and Ren with water during their argument, in Mezool also doing that to the other 2. Among the monster group, it's the female too who breaks up their infighting, and make them think more straight.

Eiji's effect feels stronger on Takeshi compared to Momoko with Eiji's talk about people not forgetting their ambitions easily, with a more sound comparison in Eiji still remembering his love for fried buns. Makes me wonder though if it's a right thing to do to butt in into other people's business like Eiji does here, in the end it worked great but it doesn't seem appropriate to do it, something I wished that Revice used it more in its MC that has busybody problem. Still wish that this is more related to the Greeed schemes, likely to see what happens when they find an opposite where the person they're targeting on seemingly lost their drive/desire, rather than the usual being consumed by it like the previous ones.

While generally the Riders on the good side will similarly detonate monsters with their powers, this is something that you'd get more from the lead Rider character types, the ones who are selfless and compassionate, while the other Riders on the good side, not all, but often, they're more of jerks who can't treat others with decency while beating up monsters. This might be a hot take from me, but I see kinder people as something that makes them more heroic than the jerk types who care less about others, driven by vengeance, would throw others under the bus with 'hard choice' pragmatic tactis, etc., where while they're still heroic (though some'd veer to anti-hero category), their negative traits makes them less and can make them lean to grey more.

Yeah, this is a weird one for Eiji to get so involved in. This is a married couple with years of conflict, and he just met them this afternoon. He's probably not the best guy to be giving them advice! Luckily, he's sort of not giving them advice? Most of what Eiji's doing is letting things slow down, listening, trying to relate (unsuccessfully), and letting the two of them make the next right steps.

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 9 - “SOAKING WET, THE PAST, AND THE BLAZING COMBO”

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SOAKING WET:
Watery explosions, shark Yummies that glide through concrete, a climactic battle in a river… you bet we are in a Mezool plot!

I say that, but the Mezool part of things is pretty minimal? The seeding of the Yummy nest happens before the episode starts, her first appearance is at the midpoint as she’s killing time with Gamel and Uva, and her involvement at the end of the episode is quickly truncated by the debut of Latorata/Ratorata (you do you). This isn’t really a story about her subject yet, and it’s definitely not a story about her.

THE PAST:
It’s a story about Eiji’s Tragic Past, and it’s a good one.

It’s so refreshing, the way this show never lets you get tired of inevitable reveals or whatever. It’s never precious with story, and I love that. Any other show would’ve let the mysterious Doll Man slink off as a cliffhanger, but this show adds a final scene where he’s named as Dr. Maki, and introduced as the head designer of Kougami’s Medal System. They just tell you! Right away!

And it’s the same way with Eiji’s frequent flashbacks about a crying child in a war zone, or how he knows that a bomb’s been set off. Hina clocks the second one two scenes later, in case you missed it, and the first one hasn’t really been beating us over the head. But we’re a fifth of the way through the series, so why not give us a little more background on Eiji?

It explains everything about his need to help people, that time where he could only reach out. Eiji’s guilt is a huge motivation for him, but his heroism is in how he didn’t let it crush him, or darken him, or see any futility in only being able to reach out a hand. Even when he’s clearly trapped in his flashback around Hina, he quickly recovers and finds that old Eiji charm to put her at ease. It’s sad, that he has to do that, but sort of sweet that he can still find it in himself. He’s clearly still grappling with a lot, and masking, but there’s a logic to it all that’s built around trying to be there for people.

AND THE BLAZING COMBO:
Plus, he can turn into a blazing cat hero!

First full appearance of Latorata/Ratorata (you do you), and it’s as brief as it is dazzling. This isn’t the climax of the story, it’s the midpoint, so trotting out Cat Combo feels a little less astonishing than The Ultimate Combo. OOO uses it to defeat one (1) Yummy, and fend off two relatively low-powered Greeed. It’s not exactly as though his back was against the wall; it all just felt sort of Well He’s Got A Combo So. It’s a good combo! I really like it! But its presence here is sort of the negative side of what I was talking about earlier – I’d’ve maybe saved this one until it felt more vital?

(I mean, Eiji passes out from the strain afterwards, so the show is trying to make the point that it was dumb for him to go to Cat Combo so recklessly, but there’s no actual consequences, so I’m going to stick with thinking they could’ve held it off until Episode 10.)

I like it a lot, that suit. The gradated yellow against the solid black gives it some character, and the big claws getting flipped out as weapons is exciting. The big shiny head being a big shiny weapon is another deft touch, and I like that it sells this Combo as being powerful.

It’s a good suit! But it’s not the best Cat thing in this episode!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/satoneko.gif

Though obviously I'd still want for Eiji to care for them and their problems because it's what goody-two-shoes supposed to be, to care for everyone, and not be biased over their own circle such as Ankh, just being confused over how to properly act on it, not about that he interfered at all, the proper way to do it (often, it's shown by them jumping into danger and helping/saving strangers they don't know from monsters). What annoys me, for other stuff that isn't OOO, is when this type has a 'gentleman' attacking a male for hitting their wife (here, it's about stopping a female from railing on her husband).

I wish that this'd be more well-known and widespread among the fanbase. That trauma isn't automatic start of darkness in someone like people often use to justify villains turning that way due to their dark past (or to deflect blame to anyone else 'responsible' for said dark past), that they did nothing wrong, they're entitled to commit crimes for their dark past, that anyone would be like them in their position so they shouldn't condemn. Trauma can be a drive for someone's heroism instead, where they don't want anyone to suffer like they or the people they failed did. Eiji is one of the more well-liked goody-two-shoes protagonist among the KR fanbase, but trauma being a cause for heroism is still not widely acknowledged.

It feels as if LaToraTah is more impressive by just standing there.... menacingly!!! rather than it being actually in action. As just standing there menacingly drives away Greeeds, while him attacking the Yummy feels like more usual toku fights. Guess at least LaToraTah manages to show too why it's a combo, after it feels that GataKiriBa cannot be topped, as OOO's actual strongest form.

Episode 9, in which the crying foreign child flashbacks get some elaboration. While not named in the show, the novel for OOO reveals that her name is Lou. I have no idea if that’s a common name in Africa (where the destruction seems to be taking place).

Also, we get the debut of Dr. Maki. And the Tokusatsu debut of his actor Yu Kamio, who after this got quite a few appearances across several shows (mostly Rider, where he had guest spots in Fourze and one of Ghost’s spin-offs and a regular role in Amazons).

And in a non-episode related note, the discussion on how to spell the cat combo reminds me of how there’s a Transformer with a similar name and before an official romanisation was agreed upon (Latolatah, I think), his page on the TFWiki made a joke of spelling his name differently every time it was mentioned, to the point one of the image captions is the belt jingle for the cat combo.

Yeah, it's definitely a suit that makes a huge entrance but can't really maintain it for the fight. Good entrance, though!

So, as I mentioned at the start of this thread, I watched Amazons before I watched OOO, so I knew the actor first as a sketchy corporate guy, and then as a sketchy corporate guy with a doll on his arm. Pretty weird journey to go on with one actor!

Also the group Captain on Ultraman X, a villain in the Garo spin-off Zero: Dragon Blood, and a Sentai merch salesman with a dill on his arm in Akibaranger. I’m not a fan of Dr Maki for reasons I’ll get into later, but I love this guy and his commitment to the genre.

Oh wow, OOO! My relation to this is watching the first quarter or so way, way, way back circa 2012 on the dodgiest JEFusion upload with jank subtitles. I remember little baby me having a good time, but Wizard was starting and the excitement of a new show to watch along with everyone else got to my head. And I never went back and finished it. There was always either something else to watch, or my own chronic ineptitude (I have seen the first episode of Gavv and then have the next 11 or so right there to watch, and have yet to do it). But I think despite having not seen it, everyone in the commuity just has so much affection and love for it that it's rubbed off on me?

I think, regardless of specifics, it's a very easy show to enjoy? The main Odd Couple dynamic of the leads is timeless, the pace is agreeably hectic, and the theme song is pretty great. I hope you get a chance to catch the rest of it someday! Except for Movie War Core!!!

Listening to Anything Goes and other, spoiler-y cuts from the soundtrack album 100x over is basically the true OOO experience, right?

There's no wrong way to watch these shows! Including, uh, not actually watching these shows!