With all this chatter about Den-O being Kuuga 2, I just assumed we'd have a later episode where Ryotaro presses the blue button and says "I turned blue!"

Ryotaro used Den-O Blue form, but the downside is it turns Momotaros blue! Hilarious hinjinks ensue as we learn a valuable lesson in personal expression, with a B-Plot in Airi-dmirers trying to figure out what her favourite colour is. Also there's an Imagine somewhere destroying everything blue.

And then Owner shows up in the end to get really excited about how colors are only a matter of perception and therefore of little relevance to the greater cosmos, much like all human endeavor, please go buy Den-O merch.

"Does the particular expression of one's self matter, if the result is still you? Blue, red, you are still yourself."

"What was that old man? I'll-"

*Momotaros is then kicked by Hana, ending the episode, you feel the need to huy the Momotaros voice changer helmet*

If it was the TVN subs, it took them awhile to get a proper translation of the theme song. In particular, they had some problems with the "ii jan, ii jan, sugee jan" part, mishearing "jan" as "jump." I think they updated that bit twice, but there was definitely a point where it was translated as "Good jump, good jump, great jump."



...


Why the hell do I remember this shit?

Yeah, I think that's it! Thanks for having a better memory for that than I have for this utterly useless trivia.

I just remembered that there is exactly one complaint I have about episodes 3 and 4. Episode 3 debuts the show's first insert theme, Double-Action, which is a pretty cool little duet by Ryoutarou and Momotaros' actors, but I think they made a huge mistake not holding it back specifically for the climax of 4, where its use fits so much better since it starts up the moment Momotaros apologizes. It's this absolutely perfect bit of punctuation, but the premature use of the song the episode before undercuts some of that weight.

Oh, and speaking of things I've only just remembered, I might as well say this now:

Ryoutarou and Airi was my answer to this question. There's just a specific general feel to their bond I've always really liked for some reason. The whole "did you get hit by a tricycle again?" exchange maybe sums it up perfectly. They're both unusually passive oddballs in their own unique ways, who are clearly used to looking out for each other, and I love that about them. There's a warmth to their interactions I never get tired of.

This kind of thing can happen pretty frequently. I remember TV-N had a ton of trouble with Next Level's lyrics, too, and slightly more recently, Over-Time changed up Wizard's at least once. Picking out the words in a song by ear can be tricky work! (And yet TV-N never changed "Is hope acute?" in Blade, did they...?)

And his shoulder pads shrink. :lolol

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...swordform1.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...swordform2.png
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Not even done with this episode (not going to end up being one of my faves), but I needed to drop everything to post these screencaps. I love the gag of Momotaros' poses being an in-universe thing, and that he's frustrated by Hana blocking him from finishing his heroic narcissism while a child is in danger of being monster-murdered. It's such a good gag!

Yeah, that was my real answer, too.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 5 - "WON'T YOU LET ME REEL YOU IN?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den5a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den5b.png

It's a funny story, but it's not a Ryotaro story, and that just sinks it for me.

Like, the main characters for this episode are one of the Airimirers (harrrrrrd passsssssss) and the newest Imagin, Urataros. They're both slimy jerks, and I'm not rooting for either one of them. Ryotaro spends the majority of the episode unconscious, and the team of MomoHana are left cut out of most of the story, playing catch-up. There're fun gags (that Ore Sanjou pose!) but it all feels like filler, and it's happening so early in the series. Just a let-down, this one.

It doesn't help that we've got so many unpleasant or half-baked threads to cling to. The soccer kid is a cowering mess for most of the story, and there's nothing about him that's really able to be dug into. He blew a big kick in a previous soccer match, and now he... something? We never get to hear what his wish is, but I'm betting the lesson he needs to learn is that sometimes the best thing you can do on a team is support another player, he says as he gestures towards Momotaros' inability to take down the Crab while the Brand New Imagin waits on the DenLiner.

(There is a moment that cracked me up in that kid's story, though. He's in bed at the hospital, and he looks under the covers at his bedsheets and sees something that alarms him, which made me worry Wait Which Coming Of Age For Boys Lesson Is This Story About To Be. Luckily, he only saw a puddle of sentient imagination monster sand, so we were saved from an intensely awkward story.)

Meanwhile, there's the thing with the Airimirers trying to get in good with Ryotaro, to get in good with Airi, which just ends up being them getting played by Urataros. But, man, we spend so much time with those doofs, and I don't understand why. They are aggressively unsympathetic, and I could not care less about their agenda. Any episode that spends time with them is going to lose points with me, and this one spends so. much. time with them. Do these guys have fans in the viewership? Am I missing some crucial detail that renders them enjoyable? Fill me in!

That leaves the debut of Urataros, and his feud with Momotaros, which... this plot needed some sort of balancing influence between these two self-involved lunatics, and the lack of a Ryotaro or a Hana in their plot makes it too chaotic and broad to feel much connection with. Without Ryotaro involved in the struggle, it's a comedic subplot stretched out to full-length. It's two caricatures in a tug of war, and I don't care enough about Urataros yet for a non-Ryotaro Imagin plot to work. I care about the Imagins because of their relationship with Ryotaro. An Imagin story that Ryotaro is largely absent from just fundamentally doesn't work for me. Without that core, it's just a noisy episode of people I mostly don't care about, doing things I mostly don't care for. There's laughs, but no heart. Pretty weird for an episode with so many declarations of love!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den5c.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Urataros! He's a non-stop schemer, and I definitely did not warm to him in this episode. Am I supposed to? Momotaros was instantly charming, with his high-energy idiocy, but this new guy is just a creep? Like, he's a worse version of an Airimirer, and I can't think of a more brutal insult than that. Bold choice to make him a central character of this story!

-Seriously, though, some quality gags in this episode. The thing with Airi calming an Airimirer by informing him of Ryotaro's thrice-yearly examinations at a hospital, the gag where an on-the-go Hana explodes out of a cupboard, Naomi egging on Urataros and Momotaros to fight, that stellar gag about Momotaros needing more room to get his hero pose off... I mean, I didn't like this story, but it's still a pretty fun episode.

-The Crab Imagin had an interesting exchange with Momotaros, where he's confused as to why Momotaros is stopping him from murdering a child. That idea, of how the various Imagins get along... I do like it, and I wish there was a way to tell that story with Ryotaro more in the spotlight. Like, the Crab trying to talk sense into Momotaros is clever, and the feud between Urataros and Momotaros is clever, but it doesn't feel like Ryotaro has skin in the game, even though he literally does.

If there is a dedicated Ozaki and Miura fanbase, they are very quiet about it. There really isn't much to the characters: they're comic relief. Ozaki does the rubber-faced overreactions, Miura plays victim to most of the slapstick. They both want to get into Airi's pants. That's it. Why the creators felt that the show needed more comic relief on top of every character that lives in the Denliner, I'm not sure. They never really get better and they never really do anything important, even when stuff happens that you would think they'd get personally invested in. Personally, I sometimes find Miura amusing but Ozaki's just flat-out terrible.

Urataros can be pretty fun, though. Not my favorite of the show's mainstay Imagin, but he has his moments. He's the character that dumped all of his points into Charisma and that can lead to some pretty fun moments. Honestly, I tend to like him more when he's possessing Ryotaro then when he's doing stuff on his own.

If there's a problem with Kamen Rider Den-O (and judging by how nearly anti-dramatic the previous episode felt, gonna go with Yeah Maybe on that), it's that there's too much stuff, in ways that feel kind of obvious. Why are there two Hang Out sets? Why is there both the cafe car on the DenLiner and Milk Dipper? Why do you need two different creeps pestering Airi? Even Airi... she's sweet! I get that people are fans of her relationship with her brother! But it feels like she's included because You've Got To Have One Of Those, not because she fits into the narrative in a convenient way.

And, it's like, I remember saying almost exactly the same thing about Ryuki, where Shinji had two completely different jobs with two completely different casts. It's too much! Kobayashi was apparently still at the stage where she couldn't self-edit when she was doing Den-O, because I sure as shit don't remember OOO feeling fatty with distractions and douchebags.

We'll come back to this one.

Urataros is based off the Japanese folklore Urashima Taro, a story of a fisherman who saved a turtle from a bunch of brats that was being mean to it. Turns out that turtle was Otohime, the daughter of the Ryujin(aka ruler of the Ryugujyo or Dragon Palace) in disguise. Taro went down there and spend the next few days with her. However he got homesick and wished to return to the surface world. Allowing him to go back, Otohime presented him with a box that must never be opened. Upon reaching the surface world, to his surprise what seemed like days were centuries later. Saddened that everyone and everything he knew were gone, he opened the box given by Otohime. The box let out a puff of smoke and Taro became old, the end.

Mind if I feel you in with my next round of information about the VAs?

First off, we’ve got our blue button Imagin Urashima Taro

Kōji Yusa

Notable Anime roles: Shadow the Hedgehog in the Sonic series, Gin Ichimaru in Bleach, Zuo Ci and Xu Huang in Battle Vixens, Eiji Sasazuka in Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro, Kyōsuke Hyobu in Zettai Karen Children, Demolishor and Thrust in Transformers Armada, Demolishor and Wing Saber in Transformers Energon, Atticus Rhodes in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Notable Tokusatsu roles: Evil Agito in Kamen Rider Ryuki Hyper Battle Video, Hades Beastman King of Hell Yeti Zee in Mahou Sentai Magiranger, Kamen Rider Accel in Super Hero Taisen.
Notable dubbing roles: Dr. Johnathan Crane in the Dark Knight trilogy, Harvey Dent in Gotham, Drew Lansing/Kamen Rider Torque in Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, Leonardo in Ninja Turtles: the Next Mutation, Elgar, the Phantom Ranger, Psycho Blue and Jayden Shiba/Samurai Red Ranger in Power Rangers, Iceman in X2, Prowl in Transformers Animated.

And we’ve got our monster for this week, who totally does not look like KR Scissors as a monster.

Kyousei Tsukui

Notable Tokusatsu roles: Deputy Zelmoda in Gekisou Sentai Carranger, Trinoid 12: Yatsudenwani in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, Engine Carrigator in Engine Sentai Go-Onger, Mugura-Roid in Ressha Sentai ToQger Vs. Kamen Rider Gaim Spring Vacation Combining Special.
Notable dubbing roles: Acer in Cars 2, Inspector Gadget, Donald and Douglas in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Anything else I say about this two parter, I’ll say next time.

As someone who loves this show, yeah, I don't really have many good things to say about Airi's simps. They're there to have some characters at the Milk Dipper so I wouldn't call them extraneous, but man I wish they done something that's not these two.

At least they're marginally more interesting than Useless Monk Apprentice #1 and Useless Monk Apprentice #2 from Kamen Rider Ghost.

I'm definitely enjoying those two a lot more; they at least fill out the monastery and give Onari someone to play off of when doing investigations. Nothing special, but hey; not every character needs to be.

It is funny you should bring those two up in the Den-O thread, though... but I'll save that part

They do a good job at being incompetent so Onari can shine brighter, but when Specter, Kanon and Alain join the team, they kind of just become redundant and by the time one of them gets a focus arc, it's too late for me to care.

And yeah, I see where you're going there with Den-O.

Yeah, but thinking about Airi compared to characters like (dunno if these are good comparison) Kotaro in Blade, or Hinaka in Hibiki. The keeper (or one of the many) in one of the places the cast resides in and those seem to be tolerated more, while the one in charge of the place that fights off monsters are less so like Riku (or likely Tadokoro at first) in Kabuto's ZECT.

Well as said above yeah, those 2, Ozaki & Miura are the comic relief the series has. They're recurring yeah. But I wonder, if they aren't Airimirers, would you tolerate them more, based on your previous take of these type? As they're "slimy jerks", and they're comic relief, so those qualities are played for laughs, which is similar to something like Faiz' cast or Tsurugi in Kabuto. And you seem to advocate those type of characters to have their value acknowledged, like a part of Inoue's writing, or some episode before like Tetsuo and Yamagochi.

"Cowering mess", that's a word that can be applied to Ryotaro for the more jaded audience.... But yeah, in this episode, the soccer kid's wish isn't heard at all here, but this is a 2-parter, so it won't end here yet, and he'd learn his lesson definitely. His main tale here is more that he was afraid of the Imagin.

Lack of Ryotaro or Hana? Yeah but, Urataros joins as the major character just like Momotaros, he's not a guest star that is only central here. Urataros should be lumped together with Ryotaro, Hana, and Momotaros. If you care about Imagins because their relationship with Ryotaro, then Urataros is also one of them that you should look out for, because Urataros is on the same league as Momotaros in importance, he's one of the central character for the whole series. Urataros is made as a contrast to Momotaros, that while Momotaros is an idiot and hot-blooded (similar to shonen leads, also the spiky hair), Urataros is non-confrontational and is clever type, a trickster.

Den-O is the series about quality gags.

Monster interactions happen again this time, here about how seemingly monsters should always behave the way that the monsters are for being malicious, like stooping so low to grant their contractor's wish, like just murdering a child. I don't know what will happen if Momotaros did smack the thugs that harass Ryotaro with the pipe or something, but Momotaros is currently turning into a better monster as per Ryotaro's plead on him to apologize for his morally questionable choices. Monster interactions had happened too before on phase 1, particularly for series like Kuuga, where the Grongi's point is that they lose because of them competing and trying to one-up each other, in contrast to the main cast's teamwork.

Hey, they had names! I forget what the first one was, but the second one was called Onari.

Onari was the head honcho who gave us them memes. The two you are referring to are Shibuya and Narita. Kinda disappointed that was the best they could give them, surnames that happen to be an area in Tokyo(Shibuya) and either a city in Chiba prefecture or that one well-known airport(Narita). That's some Gargoyles type stuff. :lolol

Narita and Shibuya are more likable cause they aren't trying thir hardest to sleep with Akari; they sometimes even get to do Ghost Hunting! The pair here, I think I came around on the spiritual one a little for some reason, but the other one never quite hit anything beyond "Oh, you're still here."

As for Turtle Jerkle, yep, he's a slimeball! And I think he's 100% meant to be unlikeable right now, since we're stocking the team with a very unheroic hothead and a very self-absorbed sleaze. Of course, Ryotaro's meant to be the missing link, what brings the team back to the side of "Doing good for people"... but he sits this plot out, which takes all the wind out of it.

No-one ever told them if hope was acute or not.

Any time we get a crab-themed villain, these threads seem to perk up. Hilarious!

Thanks for the info, you two!

Yeah, I think it's this weird thing of them being both creepy and inconsequential that makes me so mad at them, and the show for including them. If they'd been creepy but essential to the plot, fine. If they'd been inconsequential but charming and funny, fine. But they're weird creeps who are totally irrelevant to the plot of the show, and that's just infuriating.

And, sort of disagree that you need them for customers, or any customers at all? Plenty of these shows have slid by with empty cafes, and A Cafe With Only Astronomy-Themed Books That Is Hidden From Public View feels like exactly the type of cafe that should be customerless.

Those guys at least told Takeru when there were monsters attacking! They were integral to the start of at least half of Ghost's plots!

Sure, I'd think he'll grow on me, but... like, Ryotaro is literally and figuratively the vessel these characters exist in. He is the thing that gives them shape, definition. Without him, everything's everywhere, and it's a mess. I'm very much looking forward to how he interacts with Urataros!

Yeah, I always prefer shows where the monsters have competing goals, or non-uniform approaches. It gives so much more nuance to what the hero is up against, so I'm glad that Den-O is already starting to explore the Imagin.

oh no

so he's still going to be here

This might be a good time to mention, actually -- this is completely intentional! Our first villain was a bat (okay, common Rider fare), but then we also got a chameleon, and now a crab...

I guess slight spoilers for the themes of the next few imagin, but the first set of imagin we got here are little references to Ryuki riders by using the same themes! Just a bit of fun


I think for this series though and the type of character Airi is, it is to Den-O's benefit to have milk dipper customers. Den-O in general is pretty slice-of-lifey and Airi isn't in the know about Rider shenanigans at all, so some recurring customers make it feel like a real and grounded environment that Ryotaro comes home to. It's essentially the backdrop of his real life beyond just his sister; replacing a setting like a job or school would offer. I just don't think Airi's simps are a fantastic execution of that!

I'm sorry you had to find out this way.
Airi's just that good, she stole all the customers from Nascita by accident. She almost did it to Jacoranda, but some Mantis guy showed up and asked her very nicely to not do that.

(Also I'd totally go to an astronomy themed cafe, but that's just me.)

Oh, that's awesome. Thanks for the info!

I see what you're saying, but I'm not sure the show even feels that way? One of the better Airi scenes so far is the one where Hana drops in to try and find Ryotaro, and that happens in an empty Milk Dipper. It lets the story keep moving, and retains a focus on the most compelling characters. I'm not sure the verisimilitude of that place having customers outweighs the expediency of keeping that set free of distractions and dead-weight?

I like the empty milk dipper scenes too! But I think part of what makes them work is the contrast to normal; whether framed as eerie or as just seeing what Airi’s actually like. I can definitely see why the scenes with customers at milk dipper don’t work for you, but I think for me this part of the show wouldn’t work as well without them.

I know I brought up Jacaranda as a joke, but do you think Milk Dipper would work if it were more like that - rather than, say, two big customers, we just have a variety of small background extras that interact with Airi about generic coffee/cafe stuff?

I think Some Background Extras Saying Rutabaga To Each Other is literally all I want with the customers at Milk Dipper. This show has so much going on already (TWO CAFE SETS!!!) that, unless the plot absolutely requires the customer to speak in order to set up the monster plot for the episode, I'd rather the speaking roles stick with Airi, Ryotaro, or someone from DenLiner who pops in.

The joke was that Onari is also a useless monk apprentice. Because I really don't like the character and want to cruelly diminish his contributions to the show.

But them memes though. That is good contribution I think. :lolol

Onari's a fun character! My rewatch has honestly made me adore the entire cast more. And they certainly offer more than... honestly I was gonna look up their names but third time's the charm, I'm gonna keep calling them Airi's simps. Airimps? Milk Dipper's top donaters?

Fortune deities.

Milk Simpers.

That sounds dirty

Guys, please don't go insulting Shibuya and Narita by even suggesting that they're on a comparable level to Miura and Ozaki. I mean, I have a lot of love for a lot of random space filling side characters in Rider (I'll spare Die having to read the name of a ~certain~ perfect example from Kuuga), but even I mostly tolerate the presence of these two goofs in Den-O.

The crux of it is that I just plain don't find they're anywhere near as funny as basically everything else in this extremely comedy-focused Rider show? For whatever reasons, their dynamic feels so much less natural to me than all the other characters (although admittedly, being fake IS their whole thing), and they're so much less interesting to watch because of that. I can broadly see what their presence contributes, especially in this episode pair specifically centered around a scumbag Imagin making trouble for Ryoutarou, but it's hard to say the execution was great.

Arguably that could also be said about this episode as a whole, perhaps as a direct result of that, but while I certainly don't recall this one being a favorite, I do think it highlights just how... leisurely Den-O could be, which is something I think sets it apart from a lot of the crowd. I don't necessarily like a plot spending this much time with deliberately unsympathetic characters squeezing out the ones we like, but I do like that there's space to have it, if that makes any sense? I also feel like it's just kinda hard for any episode following directly after 4 to not come off like a huge step down, which maybe makes me feel that much more generous towards it.

Oh, and for yet more trivia, Urataros' suit actor is Eitoku, who would start going by that stage name midway through this show. He's not a fan-favorite emo Rider this time, but a major recurring role as the designated #2 Taros is still a big step towards playing designated #2 Riders later on. Like, even on Saber right now, he's the blue guy to the main red guy, so arguably not much has changed in all these years.

I'm okay with that.