I sort of figured this was the case (there're too many great visuals to be anyone else), but I appreciate the confirmation! It's definitely an episode that knows what the right tone would be for this story, and hits it with every scene.

I haven't watch this episode in a bit, but from everything I hear, this episode is loved among fans. Can anyone confirm or deny?

if I remember right the comedy is completely on point so half way through there's no tension from the hostage situation and now it's all from Ryutaros being a murder hobo


EDIT removed a spoiler from the original post as I made the over tired mistake of not double checking if I had my episodes right

So about that one hostage... he used to save the Earth in 1997 while in high school. Exactly a decade prior to when this show aired in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywdhnR8cAes

Oh yeah, this is one of my favorites. Everything is firing on all cylinders here and it's fantastic. The humor is so on point - both the physical slapstick and the wacky writing (I love how this whole thing got kicked off because a guy was thinking about robbing a bank, saw a police officer, and panicked). The whole thing is just a pure delight: Hana accidentally beating up the robber, everyone breaking for lunch, the Imagin of the Week's ridiculously slow dialogue, the random shot of everyone sitting in the bath house with flashlights shining on their faces... it's impossible to highlight all of the good moments.

Oh yeah, this peak Airi. I've always loved how she seems so calm and almost unaware in the face of the chaos that is the show she lives in. This episode dials that up to 11, though, with her just seeming like she's almost out of touch with reality but in a fun and quirky way. I will never not love how she just marches past a police line to walk into the hostage situation. This is the arc that made me an Airimirer, too (but in a wholesome, non-creepy way).

For sure! There're a billion little touches that cracked me up, like both hostage-takers taping underwear up over the windows when they ran out of paper, or the toy gun getting put in the garbage before lunch to show that everyone's in this together, or the stumped police chief walking in snaking line with his stumped underlings... so perfect of an episode!

This is the episode where I sort of got how she fits into the show, into the themes, where everything else is chaotic and she's at peace and open to people. If some of what Den-O's about is how we manage the chaos inside of ourselves (as dramatized by Momo, Ura, Kin, and Ryu), then Airi is the idealized end-result of that process. She's there to be something to live up to, and this episode uses that to great effect.

Just going to add on to how great Airi is in this one by mentioning that I grabbed this screencap during my rewatch, which I felt really summed the entire episode up:

This entire scene had me in stitches, and it's not even because of this particular frame, or any specific exchange of dialogue – just the whole scenario was hilarious, and after skimming back through it, I think the secret ingredient is Ishida?

Very predictable answer from me, I know (and obviously the main ingredient is still Airi), but that rewatch predates me getting any sort of decent handle on direction in Kamen Rider, so looking back now, what jumps out at me is that there's no music in this scene at all. It's just the ambient noise of helicopters and police sirens somewhat faintly in the background, something that would ordinarily create tension, but instead just adds to the surreal vibe. Nothing happening in the scene seems to quite fit with any of the other things happening in the scene, and the end result is totally brilliant.

Yeah, visually this is a very dense episode: there're usually three or more people in each shot, there are multiple points of motion (Ura/Naomi spinning around in the background while Momo/Hana brawl in the foreground), there's an evolution to the design of the central hostage space so that every time we check in it's changed a little, etc. It's an episode that never wants you to feel settled, but it also never wants you to feel scared, so it balances that disorienting amount of visual information with a more measured sonic palette, or with contrasting performances (Airi vs the bathhouse guy, Ryotaro vs the bike thief, Momo/Hana vs Ura/Naomi) so that it all feels surreal and not terrifying.

Eh, "monsters need to be detonated, people need to be helped"? Aren't previous shows have a lesson about how it's not about it being a monster or human, but rather about the morality any living beings have regardless of the species type of them? And also, "monsters need to be detonated, people need to be helped" seems like something that always happened since Kuuga in heisei era, that in your review of episode 2, Den-O is a relief for you that this is a progenitor of phase 2 traits (that I disagree because of what you say exactly here, helping people always happen in those Rider series), about how the monsters aren't only about them being detonated (where usual Imagins here are still getting that treatment, except for the main 4 taros). It's right that people need to be helped, and I also agree about even if they did something wrong (dumb is about brain, not heart, someone like bike thief here has trouble on heart to commit crimes, though dumb can apply if he did disastrous part of committing crime without thinking straight, I mean for dumb part, many of the heroes are also dumb, like Gentaro in Fourze). I hate letting someone who made crime getting away scot-free, but I'd into helping them get back on the right track, that isn't letting them go (there's audience who, due to sympathy, white washes them and use that headcannon as an excuse to let them get away and blaming anyone who objects to them), but giving them treatment, just not overboard (like anti-heroes who kill anyone who does bad stuff, snuffing out any kind of light that may ever show in that person).

Hana chooses to instead be a hostage instead of far easier way that can potentially come from her super strength, which kinda flip-flops between her being restrained, then her KOing the thief with super strength, then go back to being a hostage. Though I wonder if Hana is immune to bullets or not (albeit the gun is fake), for Hakamada threatening her with gun. Ryotaro is the one who takes full charge here, having learning from how the Rider system work from previous fights, with him going to investigate the Takonoko Heavy Industries. Urataros' long range is effective in fighting an Imagin that is based on a whale, while the other 2 are short ranged. Ryutaros is another long ranged one, but dunno about how the gun lasers will proceed through the water. Urataros is handy that the rod can pull away.

Airi being oblivious is just like Ryotaro, like siblings, from the first episode with Ryotaro not knowing anything about the Rider system which is a contrast from him here. Airi with her power of tranquility to defuse a tense situation may be the "helping humans who take the wrong direction" thing you talk about? I think her contribution here is the most prevalent implementation of that so, "could never work on another show" is quite a lie like the other Rider shows?

My avatar is of a sweet monster from Ghost that would rather make art than terrorize people; I am totally aware of the exceptions to the rule! It's just, those are exceptions to the rule. I'm partially being reductive for brevity's sake (I definitely think there's more nuance than Humans Good Monsters Bad), but the take 99% of the time is going to be that folks need a chance to redeem themselves and be forgiven, while a superhero is around to detonate the bloodthirsty monsters. Are there irredeemable people and redeemable monsters? Sure! But that's not the template, that's specifically a variation on the template.

Like, Cubi and Music Note are interesting because it shows us a version of the Ganma that aren't that into subjugating/destroying humanity. It's a fun thing to consider, and it plays into the show's themes. If the whole show was just sympathetic monsters and shades of grey, I'm not sure it'd work as a superhero show? You need monsters to detonate, and you can't be wondering afterwards if the Kamen Rider who did it is a remorseless murderer.