Yeah, it... I wouldn't say it redeemed the episode's flaws (of which I thought there were a bunch!), but the willingness to have Ryotaro fail in such a dispiriting way, and then to have the twist of be that Den-O could fail because he couldn't stop a monster in time, but Ryotaro couldn't fail because people will always find a way to reconnect with each other if you give them the chance, I really liked that touch. It's another story that points out the limitations of superhero action, and the necessity of Ryotaro's holistic view of saving people.

IIRC, the last one about Yuuto/Kohana was about Kohana being treated like a little child (obviously) by Yuuto like when he carries her while she's smacking him along the way to not treat her like a child. Like others said, Kohana's antic being funnier than Hana comes from a fact where Kohana was more of a comic relief compared to Hana, and this treatment continues in the DenLiner where Kohana gets subjected into bubbles and a bit of a payback from the Taros Imagin. Feels deja vu into Sieg's powers turning Imagins small, which is now happening to princess instead.

And there's literally erasing any record and history about certain someone, called un-person. And there's certain ends in a series that is about erasing that person's memories from everyone else, or also the starts of their journey where that person is pissed off that nobody knows who they are, especially if they have fame/infamy previously. Seems that there shows the consequences of how forgetting people can be like a death. D̶u̶n̶n̶o̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶,̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶p̶i̶c̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶a̶p̶p̶e̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶y̶e̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶c̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶,̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶,̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶S̶h̶i̶r̶a̶t̶o̶r̶i̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶?̶ ̶K̶o̶h̶a̶n̶a̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶r̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶t̶i̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶I̶n̶s̶t̶a̶g̶r̶a̶m̶.̶

I've seen about your post before regarding acting this way to a stranger, like one of the Ghost's victim of the week. But this is more about how the acting is inappropriate for opening up to a stranger rather than the act of opening up to a stranger right? Because the staple of ideal hero like most of the main Riders in KR series is how they'll extend a hand to even strangers that need help (oh well, this one's the coma man asking for help to the piano man). Otherwise would quite agree that while those 2's relationship is already established, the beginning scene feels off to have someone dump down all the piano and life issues he have, like it feels the story to rush out what's that character about. But this scene probably proves that acting isn't only about throwing all your emotions, for those who cry out about characters showing lack of emotion. I̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶l̶a̶i̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶N̶a̶o̶m̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶e̶n̶t̶h̶u̶s̶i̶a̶s̶m̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶v̶i̶o̶l̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶m̶a̶t̶c̶h̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶'̶r̶e̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶l̶a̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶i̶d̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶.̶

Well yeah a good chunk of Den-O's comedy is about the craziness that happens in a DenLiner, so it can be more of a daily stuff rather than the part of the IOTW journey. What she did was driving away Urataros, like usual, from going too far, in this case, flirting with a nurse. I guess about DenLiner crew reacting to her new form, Kohana will have a new issue about her not being taken seriously as a child, probably worth knowing about how others in Imaginvestigation will react to her trying to help Riders save the day. Deneb again tries to make Yuuto on good terms with the others but Yuuto still doesn't take it well, he hasn't completely shedding away his negative traits yet.

But this is something already established before, that Imagins can go out of control and go apeshit with stronger form, a la Ex-Aid's Bugster Union form. Something new I got that is worth attention was the train collaboration and circling to end the biggest threat yet.

Yeah, exactly. I think it's actually really great to do a story about someone feeling inspired enough by a stranger (who was actually their inspiration years ago?) to find their way back from depression and hopelessness. It's a nice idea. The way it's portrayed here, though, is a guy playing piano and another guy screaming at him about how terrible his life is and how this guy is saving it. That's a weird way to start a friendship!

We've seen Imagins have a Final Form before, but I'm not sure we've ever seen one have over a dozen separate Final Forms? It was a bizarre escalation, like something you'd get in a series finale or something.

I remember watching this the first time and thinking WTAF :lol It has not seemed any less weird to me at any point since then. That having been said, the juxtaposition of the bizarre-escalation line and your Den-Oh signature image made me laugh out loud :D

I'll just start off by dropping this in first:

...and then say that, despite reading your thoughts on some of the tonal issues kicking up vague memories of me maybe having the same reactions, this is another episode set I really like. That amazing piano version of Double Action lodged itself in my brain the first time I saw those episodes and basically never left, though, so that might account for my extra attachment to it.

Also! I forgot to say this when it was more timely, but this is the relevance of episodes 21/22, the first ones after Zeronos' debut, explictly taking place around Tanabata. Some dialogue from Ozaki and Miura broadly touches on the subject, but I think it's mostly assuming the audience will understand the significance.

- And naturally, the clever of idea of Deneb being what allows Altair Form to turn into Vega Form is yet another cool thing about Zeronos. I'm telling you, they went all out with the theming on this dude!

It's unbelievably weird, since it feels more apocalyptic than, like, the movie? This is just some gunslinging squid who steals pianos! Why is he crammed full of the entire Imagin army?! It would not shock me at all if the next episode opens with Owner saying to the team Well, Since Den-O Defeated All Of The Remaining Imagin, Let's Have Cake. Show's over, y'all!

I feel like this two-parter had the end hook in mind, that forgotten things can be remembered, and the Den-O Fight Music (Piano Ver.) instrumental, and not a whole lot else. It felt strangely inert for a lot of it, like everyone was standing around waiting for something to happen. There's a poignant nobility at the end, and some great music cues, but a lot of wasted opportunities.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 35 - "THE CARD'S TRAGIC REVIVAL - ZERO"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den35a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den35b.png

God, aces episode. It starts off being a look at how Ryotaro processes responsibility, then transitions into a look at how Yuuto processes responsibility, then wraps those two threads together in an astonishingly ambivalent and sad look at the costs of being a Kamen Rider.

There's jokes in there, too, and they're great. The whole training montage is shot beautifully, and had me in stitches: Momo mistaking Ryotaro's desire to learn to fight better as a request to fight more, and basically declaring war on the yakuza as sparring practice; Ura using Ryotaro's request for help as an excuse to just hardcore flirt with five women, with some light deception to keep himself in fighting shape; Ryuta opting to be no help whatsoever, and letting his advice to a struggling Ryotaro be Don't Lose; and Kohana, muscling all of these dinks into a shape that could, at the very least, not get Ryotaro killed.

So it's down to Kintaros to train Ryotaro, an idea that goes on exactly as long as it could. Kintaros is too well-meaning to get Ryotaro into the kind of trouble that can fill up an entire episode, so what we get with him and Ryotaro is some cute callbacks, some good physical humor, and a chance to get at what's really bothering Ryotaro.

The whole Getting Better At Fighting thing is mostly a cover. Or, not a cover, but it's Ryotaro not really dealing with his guilt over Piano Man's transitional state. Ryotaro can't really deal with the fact that some people don't get saved, even when Den-O saves the day, so he thinks if he can maybe fight harder, no one will get lost in time. But Den-O doesn't work that way, and Ryotaro training harder isn't anything more than Ryotaro trying to put his guilt somewhere. It's not productive, and Kintaros eventually needs to address that reality with Ryotaro. (Kohana is less likely to challenge Ryotaro than the Imagin, which is an interesting idea that the show doesn't really explore. It's maybe about how protective Kohana is of Ryotaro, as his bodyguard, in a way that the Imagin can be more blunt? Dunno. Not a thing the episode feels like dwelling on, unfortunately.) Kintaros sees that Ryotaro is looking at his guilt as a dereliction of his responsibility. Ryotaro thinks he's feeling this weight because he's not been as effective a Den-O as he should be; this guilt is his punishment. But it's because he's so invested in protecting people, so wounded by one displaced soul, that Kintaros can see that Ryotaro is plenty strong. His feelings of responsibility and duty are what makes him effective, not the other way around.

But that's only half of what this episode is trying to say about guilt and responsibility.

For the other half, we turn to Yuuto, who is more or less shifting full-time to Retired Brat. He can't really help Ryotaro any longer, since he can't transform into Zeronos. He's given up his future to save time, and now he's free to make new memories. Protecting time and saving people, that isn't his responsibility any longer. He's free of that burden.

Until Sakurai shows up with a new deck of Zeronos cards, and an unspoken explanation of Yuuto's role in this story. (It is, predictably, my least-favorite part of this episode. I get that Sakurai is probably wrapped up in whatever endgame narrative Den-O has been barrelling towards since Episode 1, but it is Episode 35. You can give us a little bit more to go on than Silent Double-Hatted Future Selves and Portentous Stopwatches and Crestfallen Allies. It would not hurt this story to spell out some of these mysteries! If you need to drag it out this long, it maybe is not that good of a story to begin with!) Yuuto has to decide if it's worth losing what little life he's managed to nurture, just to keep fighting as Zeronos.

It's the flipside of Ryotaro's personal strength being his advantage. It's less about believing in yourself and leaning on your friends, and more about self-sacrifice and self-negation. It's Yuuto being asked to scourge himself of hopes and dreams in favor of The Mission. It's exactly as sad as Ryotaro's story was uplifting. Yuuto's story is tragic, and he's seen the arc of that tragedy. He gets to immolate himself, slowly, in the fires of Zeronos, and in the end his reward is that no one will care. But the alternative is for Yuuto to put time itself at risk, to know that he could have fought harder and chose not to. It's the guilt of inaction, and it drives Yuuto to destroy himself. It's a feeling of responsibility that lacks perspective, lacks any ego.

There's a great inversion for Ryotaro and Yuuto this episode. It starts with Ryotaro beating himself up for not being flawless, and Yuuto finding some happiness in a future without responsibility. But then Ryotaro learns that there's solace in feeling loss, and Yuuto burdens himself because he can't do anything less. It's an episode about the ambivalence of responsibility, and about the limits of guilt.

It's not a happy ending for anyone in this story. Yuuto is doomed, Deneb is crushed, and Ryotaro is frustrated. For the Shocking Return Of Zeronos, it's a remarkably somber episode of Den-O. I loved it. A great, hopefully permanent, return to form for this show.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den35c.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Awesome twist for this episode's contract holder. His whole story was incredibly slight, and was mostly there to keep this episode looking like it was going to be all about Ryotaro Learning To Be Strong. As such, it doesn't really do a lot. (There is some stuff contrasting his ridiculous nonsense with two men who have actual problems and are handling it with more dignity, but that's not focused on too much.) But! Laughed my ass off at this guy's motivating loss being at a singing contest. That is some A+ humor writing. Hilarious twist.

-Really thrilled with how screwed this episode made Yuuto's existence out to be. The idea of your future self showing up in a beige trenchcoat and saying, basically, TATAKAE (because that's what you do if you wear a beige trenchcoat on a Kamen Rider show, I don't make the rules), robbing you of all hope... that is rough! Even for a franchise of doomed heroes, Yuuto literally dies a hero or lives long enough to see himself become a gigantic asshole who keeps wrecking his own life! That! I mean, THAT!

Yeah, this is a really good one. I loved all of the stuff with Kohana and Kintaros. Kohana really is sliding into her role on the show very smoothly here; she feels like the same character, just smaller and a bit sillier in how she approaches disciplining the Taros.

I'll let Androzani handle the voice acting angle, but I do want to highlight this episode's Imagin. The Mole Imagin is going to go on to be one of the most heavily reused suits from the show. It appears in almost every Den-O movie from here on out and in a number of the Rider team-up films during Phase 2. It's a really good design, to be fair, but get used to seeing it.

Yeah, despite there being three different VAs for the th Mole Imagin, only the one with claws had a VA I felt was worth talking about. So here we go.

Kōichi Sakaguchi

Notable Anime roles: Arbok and Mr. Contesta in Pokémon

Notable Tokusatsu roles: Zu-Gumun-Ba in Kamen Rider Kuuga: Special Chapter, Duke Org Yabaiba in Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, Five Venom Fist Rinjuuken Yamori-Ken Moriya in Juuken Sentai Gekiranger.

Notable dubbing roles: Silas in Transformers Prime.

I will point out that the dojo master is played by Jiro Okamoto, the suit actor for Kintaros (along with several characters on Rider and Sentai since 1985, to the point that CSHT had a sight gag where one of the tournament matches is Team JIRO vs Team TAIKAWA). And since he’s already in every episode, I’m not breaking my taboo.

And yeah, Zeronos’ return. I saw it coming, even without my habit of checking Final Form toy compilations on YouTube (my personal favourite is one where Kaixa’s final form is the Kaixa Driver on a beach covered in sand). That said, it’s not entirely the main focus of this two-parter, hence why I’m bringing it up here.

But have you ever wondered why so many contractors imagine the same mole appearance?