Eiji is at his angriest here after the confrontation with Maki back in ep. 10, shown in the overwhelming power the Purple Medals he unleashed to Ankh, of which turns out it's directed against Ankh betraying them and harming Shingo, not against Lost Ankh seemingly absorbing Ankh before. Ankh still has not mellowed out yet, despite the tease of him reciprocating his friends' gestures to him. He'd still commit crimes like harming Shingo for him to possess, and actually spawn a Yummy like he said back then, clearly harming innocents, as he can do it now. The show doesn't absolve him too, where Eiji outright states that his desire is no excuse for his cruelty. He also expresses contempt to the main cast like Eiji's lectures, and he does this because he no longer needs Eiji, he can now function like the other Greeeds, after becoming full again due to Lost Ankh's defeat. Shingo just seems to be simply a nice guy that cares about others, as an ideal cop, of which it was said/teased by Yasu, the criminal who looks up to him in ep. 19-20, where here he's shown to not really hold it against Ankh for his possession before and now.

Maki's goals to eliminate everything in the world while he himself still lives to enjoy the remains, reminds me of Glion's goal in Gotchard. Both of them aim to preserve the world's current beauty and not let any following events ruin them, but Maki does that in ending everything before they got further ruined like Hitomi in his eyes, while Glion wants that by turning everything into gold so nothing will move forward and ruin it. The Purple Medals is the biggest threat, and it's not only about Eiji going berserk, but also about Maki, who IS the main antagonist of the show and is the most depraved villain of them all, so it's indeed about the biggest natural enemy to the world. Guess at least Satonaka seems to be at least more concerned about Eiji's situation to show more reaction to it.

I don't know if Hina is really culpable as she feels, where previously she tried to stop Eiji and begging for people to not pray to him. It's Shingo who stopped her and get her to realize what she truly wants. Otherwise, the show having Hina do this feel like the show indeed blames others for having a selfish desires that forces Eiji to do favors for them, or have them being able to be used to spawn Yummies. You said here it's not about eliminating desire, but it likely wouldn't be seen this way by some people, due to how Eiji, the role model and the example of the series (most main Riders are) is someone without desire and which is why he's so kind, he has nothing he wants for himself to prevent himself doing favor for others, thus it's others that need to become more like Eiji, and here, it's Hina who's shown to change to focus on supporting Eiji, without Eiji needing to do anything. Eiji obviously will always said that others' desires aren't bad, but it'd be likely viewed as just him being overly positive and seeing the best in everyone.

Have to admit, when I first watched this episode, I did not see the Yummy victim being Uva-possessed. I just thought he was some bitter old hermit.

I mean, I think the show has had a fairly ambivalent take on how much Eiji's lack of desire should make him a role model? Eiji's a guy who spends nearly the entire show with his life on pause out of fear of his own desires, and multiple characters have pointed out that it leads him to be too reckless with his own life. (It's sort of what Hina's been talking about for a while now!) Eiji's an example of something in the series, but I don't know that it's an uncritical How To Live Your Life.

The green eye flashes were a giveaway for me. We only see those eye flashes on Greeed (specifically Maki and Eiji lately), and Uva's been in the wind for too long, so it just added up. Fun way to get him back in the mix!

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 44 - “AN ASSEMBLY, A COMPLETE REVIVAL, AND YOUR DESIRE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo44a.png

It’s to this show’s credit – and arguably one of the major reasons it’s so well-regarded – that Ankh’s endgame villainy feels both logical and inevitable.

If watch enough Kamen Rider series (“enough” meaning “a sufficiently large sample size”; there’s no such thing as enough Kamen Rider) you’re likely familiar with the late-stage turn of a major character to the evil side of things. It’s as much a staple as quarterly power-ups and underutilized female characters. Once a year, someone Goes Bad: could be a slow descent into self-negation and madness; could be a split-second breaking point because of a tragedy; could be a horrible misunderstanding; could be a potent metaphor for how our childish dreams of charity and generosity curdle with age into a desperate desire to protect what’s closest to us, due to a society that constantly reinforces selfishness as a virtue in order to pit the masses against each other. (You’re never going to get me to dislike Keiwa’s arc! NEVER!) There’re about 25 variations on it, to an equal variety of narrative quality. I don’t know that it’s ever felt as ridiculously perfect as this, though.

If you don’t buy Ankh legitimately turning on Eiji and Hina to rejoin the Greeed, I don’t know if this show even works. Beyond feeling like the inevitable result of everything we’ve seen from Ankh over the course of the series, the specific events of the last three episodes make Ankh’s motivation crystal clear. He’s said from Day 1 that he wanted the safety of a physical body, and after being briefly absorbed by Lost Ankh, which was his nightmare, he reformed in a world where Eiji can now obliterate the Greeed permanently. For a character motivated entirely by a fear of being harmed by the people closest to him, the idea that Eiji can end his life is going to be the final straw. He’s been turning on Eiji since the start, and the last two episodes are just the last nail in the coffin.

Ankh as an endgame villain is the best thing this show has going for it, and that’s because we’ve watched him change and grow enough to see that there’s more to him, even if he won’t let himself see it. Eiji and Hina know where he came from, what he’s capable of, and they still want to redeem him. The power of that is what makes Ankh’s defection to the Greeed so compelling – we know that Ankh can be more than this, but he won’t acknowledge it.

On the other hand…

It is incredibly difficult to take the rest of the Greeed seriously at this point, and I’m glad that the show barely asks us to. The certainty with which they reflexively betray one another is their most prominent attribute, but after 44 episodes it’s sort of becoming their only attribute. Ankh can barely finish pitching them on collaborating for a single goddamn fight before Kazari loses his shit and attacks him. While it makes for the occasional fun action sequence, the increasingly dull repetition of the Greeed undercutting one another starts to strain credulity; how in the world did they last a single afternoon 800 years ago, let alone potentially weeks or even years? I literally could not have cared less about Kazari tricking Gamel into attacking Ankh by telling him Ankh was going to run off with Mezool, and I only cared slightly more when Kazari got Dino Murdered twice over. There’s not much of Kazari to have ever found compelling on his own to me – no real nobility, and nothing approaching Ankh’s tortured backstory. Kazari was just a scheming jerk, and eventually he went up against a force too powerful to scheme against. There’s a hilarious irony to his deathbed assertion that he nearly Had It All, since, like, had what, exactly? What did Kazari ever do or want or almost get? He was the Tricky One, and then he ran out of tricks. That’s it.

But Ankh! Ankh’s got some fun juice to villainy, and this show’s the better for it.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo44b.png

The one with a gratuitous flashback to the creation of the Core Medals, which leaves me with one question: If they were created by a European monarch, why are the announcements in Japanese and English, rather than, I don’t know, German and French?

Also, the creatives finally get to bust out that Dino Greeed suit that’s been lying around since the production of Core. And it’s a pretty good suit all things considered.

Because the Core Medals were created by alchemists, and Gotchard clearly established that the Alchemys Union is based in Japan. Continuity!

For starters, while we both disagree with prioritizing self-destructive and sacrificial ways for heroism and to save the day, I see many of the audience encouraging it, putting anyone who risks their lives and/or self-sacrificing themselves on pedestal, and viewing them as pure saints who are supposed to be an example of all of them, compared to the selfish way one lives their life to not have regard for others, regardless of what type of person they were before. I often see these type (including in Tokunation other discussion in other threads) dismissing good/heroic deeds if the ones who do it don't suffer/sacrifice in the process, thinking that they're only choosing to be good when it's convenient or such, they often only judge characters/person based on what they'd do in extreme situations.

About the ones that are considered perfect, honestly it's more about if the character was never really good in the first place. The characters just wait for their opportunity to actually commit villainy and get what they want. They don't really change, though perhaps that's why it feels more logical, but I think the ones that are actually good (I mean, similar to Eiji or Date type of righteous person) go bad can't be treated similarly as this. For another 'perfect' stuff, I think Micchy from Gaim is another case of someone who's already somewhat bad since beginning, of which it's may be overlooked due to him acting happy-go-lucky, but he's already cold towards his fellow school students, and is manipulative to throw his Kureshima family name, and stealing Takatora's Lockseed in 1st arc. He only cares about his friends (which made him on protagonist side that time), or to be exact, the people who please him, where as early as ep. 12, he already advocated for civilians (not his friends) to be slaughtered. Kaito is more obvious as an outwardly asshole, but indeed he didn't change as well that he always views the weak as deserving to be purged, not caring a bit about them or even siccing Inves on them, and at the end the whole humanity is his next target.

Where for above, Ankh is, well, I'm the one who has been saying it repeatedly, he's the token evil teammate of the main cast, where he only wants something for himself, and even back then on Eiji's side, he already had no qualms about harming innocents or murdering them, such as Hina, to achieve that. Ankh was mostly just limited that he's dependent on Eiji, can't create Yummy, of which he already claimed that he would if he could, and that Hina's super strength prevents Ankh from causing further damage. You claimed that Ankh only sent out empty threats to Hina back then, but, well, dunno if this should prove that wrong. He already said that his power boost makes him no longer need Eiji anymore, holding his own against Kazari despite his human body. If this part of Ankh is acknowledged as a villainy (I thought it's about him spawning a Yummy himself like the other Greeeds), what'd make Lost Ankh wasn't? Felt he acted on his own for his later scenes.

I still feel that though Hina still feels some pity for Ankh, she never really knew or understood what Ankh really wants yet for now. What he wants is survival, a complete resurrection of his body, of which for now, he still only has an arm due to his Cores being destroyed, and that, to solve his villainy problem, which'd lead to steps of redeeming him, said missing Core part should be addressed. Not addressing what said villain personally wants won't work towards redeeming them.

What I think was just that, Kazari seems to get a second chance from the fellow Greeeds, even from the paranoid Ankh and Mezool, and ofc, he still blows it. It'd show that he has burned bridges with everyone and the fellow Greeeds won't miss him after his demise. Kazari is just the OOO's take on Tojo/Kamen Rider Tiger from Kobayashi's previous series Ryuki, a feline-based fighter who can't help to backstab his allies. His death also has Tojo's vibes, wandering the city in a daze. I also expected that, making an alliance with Maki wouldn't end up well for anyone, Maki ofc has no qualms about turning on those who has been useless to him. Otherwise, as OOO gets his final form, the show lets the Greeed obtain a full revival, in Kazari getting 9 of his Core Medals, now getting a prehensile hair power, and can even beat up PuToTyra, albeit perhaps Eiji was already tired.

As always, these hypothetical people sound miserable. I'm grateful I have had completely different experiences with the fandom!

KAMEN RIDER OOO ALL-STARS - “THE 21 STARS AND CORE MEDALS”, PART 1

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/21stars1a.png

Once again, I’m binge watching a thing that you’re meant to consume in small portions over days, if not weeks. But we don’t have that kind of time! TWO NIGHTS! DOZENS OF VIDEOS! LET’S GOOO!

LET’S PLAY WITH EIJI-ONIISAN
Not getting off to a great start! It’s a POV game thing where Eiji keeps cheating by using different OOO forms. The camerawork due to the POV aspect really hurts this one, as it’s sort of nauseating. Thumbs down!

DO YOU LIKE ANKH’S COSPLAY
Not really! It’s one of those sketches that really relies on an understanding of regional accents, so this foreigner sort of bounced off of it. The costume changes were… okay?

HINA AND THE VIRTUAL ZOO
I just… I am not crazy about how romantic this date is between Hina and her brother! I know that she’s technically pretending that Ankh is her brother, but that sort of makes it even worse? There is more chemistry and tension between Hina and Camera Ankh/Shingo than in an upcoming actual date sketch. No thank you!

BIRTHS, STARTING TODAY I’M THE SHOP OWNER!
I genuinely can’t believe this sketch has continuity with the Den-OOO Net Movies. That is so absurd and self-referential that anything afterwards is gilding the lily, as far as I’m concerned. A+++, plus it’s always great to see Date.

GOTOU-CHAN AND A VIRTUAL DATE
He’s just so stiff and charmless, but in almost adorable way? Instantly a terrible date, as expected, but good for him for realizing that being a superhero is more fun than hearing him talk about his character arc and heroic motivation. Shut up, dude! Just Henshin already!

SATONAKA THE STRONGEST
Canon to me now. Satonaka should absolutely confiscate the Birth Driver and make the two boys her supporters. This Net Movie alone validates the entire enterprise.

UVA’S WORRIES. LET’S MAKE HIM MORE APPEALING
A dull advice sketch that ends in a callback to the actor’s gag at some then-recent live event. It’s, like, one joke, and that joke is just goofy wordplay. You are still a boring Greeed, Uva!

KAZARI DOESN’T LIKE THIS JOB?
I would also insult Uva, chastise Date and Gamel, sell off Eiji and Ankh, and flirt with Satonaka, so I take back every negative thing I said about Kazari yesterday. He’s the Greeed we can believe in!

GAMEL’S WORRIES. LOVE PLAN
Mostly just fun to see Gamel’s actor stretch a bit, you know? The joy of these Net Movies is that they can do blatantly non-canonical stuff, so yeah, gimme Suave Gamel or whatever.

MEZOOL’S END
Thank you, Net Movies, for not doing this Horny Mezool sketch with the teenager who plays her in human form. Horrifying to contemplate! The version with the rubber monster suit sexually assaulting the sociopathic scientist is maybe the more appealing version of this sketch!

CHIYOKO’S WORRIES. PROBLEM EMPLOYEES
Ehh. They definitely never knew where to go with this one, but it’s cute to have it end in a little sing-along.

MAKI AND VIRTUAL KIYO-CHAN
It’s just the standard gag of Date being obsessed with Maki’s doll rituals, but now shot from the doll’s perspective. That’s okay, though? I will never get tired of Maki’s escalation from stone-faced dissuasion to shrieking refusal, while Date grins like a maniac. The Odd Couple energy these two had could’ve powered a dozen full-on V-Cins!

And that’s it for tonight! Second half tomorrow night!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/21stars1b.png

I’ll just mention that here is a female Birth in the S.I.C stories, but it’s Rinko from Wizard. No, I don’t know why.

Also, since the cheerful henchwomen get more airtime here and in the trailer than the actual movie, I’d do the usual feature pointing out what else the actress has been in, but painfully, that hadn’t happened yet at the time of the movie’s release.