This isn't even something that is built up through a whole series, despite that people including you would like to see it that way. For Eiji part that is, where the impact is on Ankh's side to now reach out to Eiji and trying to survive as well as entrusting something to the casts like the Taka medal to Hina. The first episode already had Eiji claiming that he'd help both Shingo and Ankh because they have connection with him, small connection would count for Eiji to reach out to someone. Eiji is an all-loving type. So I guess this part shows that Ankh is important in OOO's battles in throwing medals where Shingo doesn't do quite as good of a job, though he's not that bad due to already knowing some of his battles for Ankh possessing him like the Medal's elements.

This Eiji's decision, while well-meaning, can be something that ends up bad instead, the part of a hero isolating himself from everyone due to thinking that they'd just bring misery to them. A problem Shoma had during the early part of Gavv, but what he had solved in ep. 5. At least the virtuous and straight up heroic kind wouldn't be someone who turns into a jerk to others, even if it's just an act (of which, it's often used to justify jerks), though Eiji can make it hard for others with him being tight-lipped about his intentions too. The problem of Eiji going to save Ankh can be about how Ankh may try to possess Shingo again, after he's fully conscious this time.

Seems that Lost Ankh got more powerful by absorbing Ankh, or that Eiji has emotional or control issues using PuToTyra, as this'd be perhaps the first time that the final form loses in a fight. When PuToTyra loses control, it'd become another combo that has eyes in a similar color to the rest of the body like TaJaDor. If Eiji doesn't require food, then he also doesn't require to work anymore.

I mean, you don't think the show has spent 40+ delineating the bond between Eiji and Ankh?

Who's this Ankh guy? Is he related to Gotou in some way?

I don't believe that show has featured any of Gotou's family members. You're probably thinking of Anko, Date's best friend, who is also a red bean paste.

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 42 - “ICE, BECOMING A GREEED, AND THE BROKEN WINGS”

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So, Eiji.

He’s a character that lacks a motivating impulse. He doesn’t want anything, or need anything, or hope to achieve something. He isn’t trying to be a king, or write a book, or make friends, or excel in a field. Where you can sort of see the shape of any other Rider’s future beyond his series, Eiji’s feels as blank as the world the Greeed might devour. He exists, and that’s sort of the extent of him.

That absence of desire not only makes him the right vessel for OOO, it also makes him a pretty compelling hero. Because his motivation is always someone else’s motivation – he’s a hand reaching out to you, which means you are the operative article; his action needs your existence, not the other way around. He fights for you, which is a stronger motivation than fighting for himself – selflessness versus selfishness. It means that whatever he’s up against, as long as you need him to fight, he’ll find the courage to continue. It’s transcendent. It’s beautiful, like this episode.

It’s also heartbreaking. And terrifying.

Because there will always be a hand reaching out for help. There always be someone crying out for OOO to save them. If Eiji exists to help others, what does that leave him in a world where people will always need help? With the power of OOO, there’s an increasing level to which Eiji can help people – crowds of innocents, rather than a single crying child – but his Greeed-like hunger is that he can’t stop himself from destroying his future to save others’ present. Eiji will never be able to stop himself from protecting people from monsters, even if that means he becomes a monster himself.

So, Hina.

Hina’s job, again, is to be the person in Eiji’s life who doesn’t innately view Eiji’s sacrifice as noble or brave, but as regrettable. Her introduction to this series is seeing her brother nearly killed because of the Greeed while trying to protect others, and she understands the danger that poses. Eiji fighting monsters for others, endlessly, at the cost of his connection the world, is something she’ll never view as a fair trade. She’ll always fight against that concept.

She’s the one who fights for Eiji.

It’s recontextualizing that image of a hand reaching out, into hands reaching for each other. Eiji fights for Hina, and Hina fights for Eiji. Eiji is pulled back from the brink while he’s lifting up others. It’s the concept of desire as a reciprocal machine, adding life and vibrancy to a world, rather than deducting it through hunger. It’s about protecting everyone, even those who’d protect us. Heroism can as big as saving the world, and as small as keeping one person safe. Everything’s heroic.

Anything goes.

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Well Eiji has a tried and true method for perma-killing Greeed now. Thankfully, Ankh wasn’t in control of his body at the time.

Two things have always really stuck with me from this episode.

One is Eiji remarking on how flavorless food is to him now, which I like both because the comparison to chewed up gum is simple but extremely effective (imagine *every* meal you ever had feeling like that), and because of how that's then used to make both Eiji and the audience realize the tragic significance of Ankh's otherwise mostly quirky popsicle addiction.

The other is how clever I think it was to have Eiji's big entrance into that crowd use the Lion head's established power to actively frame OOO as some holy light arriving to save us mere mortals, because I think that's pretty thought-provoking imagery in the whole context of Hina saying Eiji isn't a god and all these random people actively calling out to be saved in a way that hasn't been typical for this show. I mean, it's OOO, so this isn't too surprising, but I feel like there's kind of a lot of layers going on there all at once.

Yeah, but Eiji's (and the other similar noble characters like him) someone who doesn't need for you to build a bond for a long time to get him to care for you. He cares about everyone to a self-destructive degree. As I said there too, in ep. 1-2 Eiji already resolved to help Ankh and Shingo for having a tiny bit of connection to him against the Yummy. Though there I pointed out the bond part in Ankh's side to beg for Eiji, guess about him finally reciprocating Eiji.

Which is caused by the PTSD of his suffering through failing to save the little girl he befriended back then. Eiji struggles through his flashbacks, memories, fears, and anxiety. Despite being outwardly happy-go-lucky and only thinking about his underpants, he has a depression that makes him lack interest in his previous hobbies, making him the empty person that he is to never want, need, or hope for anything, while also being triggered by events similar to his failure, like bomb explosions, or when he doesn't take action to save others, which remind him of his powerlessness to fail to save said little girl. Otherwise, it feels like Eiji has less anger and hatred towards Maki here compared to when Maki lets his fellow scientist got killed as a test subject for the Yummy that had Eiji punching a wall.

The irony that, regarding how Hina insists that Eiji's not a god, as Shingo points out to her, even the Izumi family wants something that can only be achieved by Eiji, like Hina wanting to save Ankh, and thus, OOO fighting Lost Ankh is what they truly want, despite them being in denial about it; asking Eiji to do something, then claim to not want Eiji to fight. In a way, even Hina and Shingo have their own prayers towards Eiji that were fulfilled in this episode, not unlike those civilians who called out for OOO to save them. Ironically, Eiji does fulfill a god-like role for others including the Izumis, where he takes everyone's selfish interests, suppressing his own wishes, as in those are prayers, to do them favors, no matter what he wants. The saved Ankh, with full body, still takes the form of Ryosuke Miura rather than the Lost Ankh body with current Ankh's personality, unlike Den-O which keeps the monstrous form of the Imagins joining Ryotaro's side.

It's indeed common for the KR supporting cast to be those who disagree with the primary Rider or similar type of characters' self-sacrificing tendencies to a destructive degree; not only Hina here, but also Date previously, and also for some other series, Sakurako in Kuuga, Mai in Gaim, Daiji in Revice, etc. Kobayashi's previous series Den-O was the one that actually featured the main protagonist disagreeing with self-sacrificing, in Ryotaro. The main Rider for most of the time will never listen to those of which, the supporting casts are forced to do their job to keep the main Rider stable. Of which while those dedications are heartwarming, dunno if this'd rather paint the supporting cast as in the wrong to try to stop the main Rider doing favor to others, albeit here Shingo points out that there's Goto to take care of the threats, though Shingo doesn't seem to know the power levels of the fights well, like how Lost Ankh can only be beaten by PuToTyra, in a close fight.

It's certainly important, with 6 episodes left to go!

They do a great job of deifying OOO in the back half of this episode, giving Eiji an appropriately messianic suffering and dedication to delivering people from torment, which works wonders at centering Hina's declaration that this is the wrong way to treat Eiji. Smart storytelling!

That character's look is too iconic! There was no way they'd make Ankh a suit monster or a floating hand. Ankh knows that that face pays the bills!

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 43 - “A VULTURE, A CONFRONTATION, AND ANKH’S RETURN”

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Ha ha ha, of course. Of course this is what happens next!

It’s very fun, after a string of episodes that both confirm Ankh’s defining tragedy – his fear of abandonment – and illustrate the lengths to which Hina, Eiji, and even Shingo (his goddamn hostage) will go to save him, to have Ankh immediately remind everyone that he is an 800-year-old desire monster that is biologically motivated to fulfill his own needs at the cost of literally everyone else. We are barely half a scene removed from his triumphant return before he hijacks a now-conscious Shingo, tells his friends that he couldn’t care less about how cruel it is because it’s what he needs, steals his remaining Medals from Eiji, and then runs off to do a straight-up Q1 Yummy rampage scheme to revive Uva. Eiji and Hina have replaced Lost Ankh with regular Ankh, and it turns out to be a lateral move at best.

With Ankh on the run and Shingo in danger, we’re mostly left with how both of those things eat away at Eiji and Hina’s relationship. Amidst larger plots involving the Greeed, the best part of this episode for me was how Hina and Eiji try to navigate this new, horrible status quo (which is hilariously similar in most regards to their previous year-long status quo, but with everything turned up to This Sucks) and their complicity with both its outcome and what might happen next.

Like, we’re back to Hina Wants Shingo Saved, and that super sucks for Eiji, because it really means he has to save Shingo in order for Hina to be happy. It means he has to continue to fight, and that’s accelerating his transformation into being a Greeed. Additionally, he’s now powerful enough to challenge 6-Core Ankh, and the Purple Medals give him the ability to permanently end Ankh’s existence, to keep Shingo safe for good. (I really like how the Purple Medals’ established power as Anti-Desire allow them to destroy Core Medals, the embodiment of desire. Smart plotting!) This is exactly what Hina was afraid of last time, and now she’s doing it all over again to Eiji. Her desire to protect Shingo is forcing Eiji to push himself into danger and contemplate destroying his friend.

The incredibly clever thing this episode does is postulate Acceptance as Desire’s antidote. It’s not about eliminating desire – Hina very much wants Shingo safe from Greeed possession, and just generally not a meat puppet – but more about how we temper that emotion with an ability to accept the reality and limitations of the present. Hina can try to solve this problem, and she probably will with Eiji’s help, but endlessly focusing on it as an absence in her life just makes it worse for everyone around her, without really solving the problem to begin with. Taking a breath, supporting a friend, and keeping perspective are the best ways to keep our desires from overwhelming us.

As with most OOO episodes lately, I really enjoyed how the soft center of character drama and self-examination dwelled within this high-stakes, fast-paced installment of tokusatsu action. The main series plot continues to excite with its twists and upheavals, while the show never loses sight of the impact of each twist on the characters we care about. Killer stuff!

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