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”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo05a.png

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”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo06a.png

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.