Kamen Rider Hibiki!

Ooooh, that makes sense yeah,

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 13 - "’KAY, CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den13a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den13b.png

I like the new kid! I'd probably like him more if some of the mystery hadn't been spoiled, but I still like him!

There's clearly a story happening with the Park Grandpa and one of the Youths, where we're going to talk about how different generations relate to each other or something like that. It's only hinted at in this one (where the Youth was formerly a good kid who cared about animals), but I'm sure the next installment will provide more details to unpack that story. As it is, not much to say about it.

Luckily, there's a new resident in Ryotaro's body, and he's pretty fun.

I don't... I feel like I don't really have anything to say about this episode? (I just took a few minute break between paragraphs, something I don't usually do when writing these up.) Like, it's a fun episode. It's full of dancing and shouting and I'm starting to realize there's really not much more? Like, there are maybe five actual scenes in this episode and they are long. Real long.

Not the usual long takes or scenes where there's tons of information coming at you, but scenes where it's like We Are Still Trying To Hypnotize Ryotaro and The New Guy Has A Dance Routine and The Imagin Fight Over Ryotaro's Body and The Park Is Full Of Animals. They're good scenes and all, but this isn't exactly a swiftly-told story. It's full of scenes where you get the point, and then they just do another minute or so of it.

It's very thin, this one. There's a thing that happens, Ryotaro gets possessed by a new Imagin and the crew tries to figure out why, but that's the entire story. There aren't really any additional levels to it yet, no subtle twists or surprise turns. There's a mystery, but that's not really a complete story. This one's all set-up, and not much more than that. It's like a fifteen-minute story stretched out to a half-hour.

It's fun, though. Well, maybe not "fun", that makes it sound more satisfying or memorable than I found it. It's... entertaining? I guess? It's nice to see a story so full of crazy monsters, and having Ryotaro in danger is a good escalation at this point in the series. But, like, man, not much to talk about from it? Hopefully the story part of the story will be more apparent in the second installment!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den13c.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-I do like the physicality of Gun Form. There's this playfulness to it that sells Kid Imagin. All that bobbing and weaving, the dips and struts, it's very fun to watch. A great new form for Den-O

-Airi! Has some new memories I guess! And a pocketwatch! And a mysterious man from her past that is likely Pocketwatchman from the various Den-O fight scenes! That's about all I have to say about this mystery!

-Sorry this post's so short? I just found it really... like, what is the entertaining version of Bland? Because that's what this one was. Technically a weak outing (I'm already sick of talking about it), despite it having some fun ideas and new characters. It's just, god, it is so unnecessarily drawn-out. I feel like I just watched half an episode at half-speed.

Ryutaros is an odd ball in that within the lore it appears he is conceptualized by Ryotaro's image and perception of dragons as a whole. Meanwhile outside the lore he seems to be based off loosely of the dragon from Tatsunoko Taro, or Taro the Dragon Child(An anime adaptation by Toei translates it to Dragon Boy Taro), a novel from the 70s by one Miyoko Matsutani.

I feel like I need people to understand how weird it was trying to talk about this episode?

I've had trouble talking about episodes before, but this is the first time it's been due to disinterest. Usually it's down to too many thoughts about something, not too few. Here, it's like this episode was all smooth surfaces, nothing that really sparked a neuron. It was pleasant and forgettable. Talking about it was like trying to talk about a relaxing yawn. There's just nothing there, really?

This is the opposite of the feeling I had when I started the Ghost thread, where I was so desperate to talk about what was going on in that show. Here, it's just That Was An Episode Of Den-O, and I can't think of anything interesting to say about it.

This is a little scary!

Ryutaros is a weird name! Hopefully it'll make more sense in the next episode, when they start using it!

So I like that the show takes its time to slowly roll out the Taros instead of dumping them on us really quickly (like a show we'll talk about next year, for example). By spending four episodes on each Imagin it gives the audience a chance to get to know each one and what their deal is. It also makes these later parts of this era feel really slow and drawn out. We'll eventually get past it and start doing stuff that isn't establishing new Imagins/forms, but we still have a little ways to go.

That said, I'm excited to get to the two-parter after this one. I love those episodes.

It's just, this story can't really get going until we find out what the deal is with Kidtaros, and the show's just like We Can't Tell You That Until Part Two, like it's a federal law that they're helpless to circumvent, so that leaves this episode to vamp uncompellingly for time. It's padded from hell to breakfast, and it's only because they left the explanations and context and weight for the second half. It didn't need to be paced like this!

probably you should review two episodes at a time.

Well, I don't, for two reasons.

First, these things aired as single installments originally, so that's how I prefer to engage with them. People who were watching this live didn't get to just watch the next one to paper over their disappointment, so why should I?

Second, whenever I did that in the past, I mostly just ended up talking about the final few scenes of the story. That's not really fair to the rest of the storytelling, so I stopped doing more than one episode at a time.

Honestly, though, I think it speaks volumes about some of the pacing when the solution to a not-great story is just Watch Them Faster. That's basically admitting that these episodes suffer from analysis, and I don't think that really changes the quality?

Mind if I do my regular thread? Cant hear your answer, so I’ll do it anyway.

First off is our new kid.

Kenichi Suzumura.

Notable Anime roles: Soular in Fresh Pretty Cure, Steven in Pokémon XY, Anti in SSSS. Gridman.

Notable Toku roles: Kamen Rider W in Kamen Rider x Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen, Fushigi Beast Pitapita in Space Sheriff Shaider Next Generation, the Narrator in Tokusatsu Gagaga, Mashin Fire in Mashin Sentai Kiramager.

Notable dubbing roles: Tony Rydinger in Incredibles 2, Baily in the Finding Nemo movies,
And now for our weekly antagonist

Takaya Kuroda

Notable Anime roles: Starscream in Transformers Cybertron, Sabrac in Shakugan no Shana, Soldier Ui in The Girl Who Leapt Through Space, Oda Nobunaga in Tono to Issho, Kiyonari Ulquiga in Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere.

Notable Video Game roles: Kazuma Kiryu in the Yakuza series

Notable Tokusatsu roles: Yami no Yaiba in GoGo Sentai Boukenger, Roidmude 5886 in Drive Saga Kamen Rider Heart, Eriedrone in Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, Alien Magma in Ultraman Taiga, Shadon in Mashin Sentai Kiramager.

Notable dubbing roles: Cranky in Thomas and Friends.

It's actually pretty simple. If we dissect it in to parts, we get Ryu + taros. The Ryu has the same meaning as the Ryu in Ryuki.

It's difficult for me to decide if Momotaros or Ryutaros is my favorite Imagin. I love them both for different reasons!

Aw man, I was going to do that joke! You sure are quick, Androzani84.

Can we appreciate how talented this guy is? I was surprised when I learned he was the voice of Machine Fire, since Ryutaros sounds so high-pitched and childish and Fire sounds all deep and macho. It's amazing to think they have the same VA!

Yeah but his real genius came to fruition when he voiced Iyami from Osomatsu-san. :lolol

Kenichi Suzumura is also fairly (in)famous for voicing the main character? of Gundam SEED Destiny Shinn Asuka. He outright had someone spit in his face for the hole if I remember properly. also for random trivia he's married to fellow voice actor Maaya Sakamoto who voiced various love interests for his characters including Shinn's; Lunmaria Hawke.


* I could write a whole essay about the behind the scene issues with SEED Destiny and the massive argument of who the Main character is out of THREE options

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 14 - "DANCE WITH THE DRAGON”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den14a.png

I'm pretty sure I've said before how much I appreciate the way this series makes more out of the monster plots. It's never just A Monster Jumps Out And People Scream. (I mean, it does, and they do, but it's never just that.) There's a plan the monster is trying to enact, and a guest star that the plan centers around. It creates a more robust story for the hero to interact with, a sense that there are legitimate stakes to what's occurring. Someone's hopes and dreams are in the balance, and the hero is making a concrete change for the better.

The flipside of that expectation from a Den-O story is that when the monster plot is as thin as it in this story, when the characters are this two-dimensional and blank, it's incredibly difficult for me to invest enough in the story to care what the hero is trying to do.

I mean, they sure do pull the biggest emotional lever around by hinging the hero's success on if a cute dog survives, so they're clearly aware of how little there is in the Park Grandpa and Youth storyline. I don't know if the Youth has even a single line of dialogue in the present day? For a story that, you'd assume, would be about this Park Grandpa missing hanging out with this kid and Youth becoming more closed-off and jaded in the intervening decade, there's almost no effort put into dramatizing that plotline. Park Grandpa's just like The Dog Died And You Got Sad and the Youth nods and it's like... it's like they pulled a synopsis down off of a whiteboard and never filled it in with dialogue or emotion. The relationship between Park Grandpa and Youth never really feels like anything other than a framework for a more interesting story, and it's a bummer that it got such a short-shrift. It's the most perfunctory monster plot this show has done yet, and I'm crossing my fingers that it's the most perfunctory monster plot it'll ever do.

It definitely feels like all the effort was put on the Ryutaros story, and that's... like, I get why they did it, it's a brand-new main cast member with a mysterious backstory and a fun new energy, but it never really feels like it connects to the rest of the episode. There's a sort of vague connection with people bonding over animals, I guess, but the Park Grandpa/Youth relationship never really seems to mirror what's going on with Ryu and the rest of the DenLiner team. He's a fun character, with his dancy movements and inability to understand everyone's anger, but his story just floats in an episode that lacks much connective tissue.

And that's the big problem with these two episodes: I don't know what they're about. I know what happens in them, and the plot has some clever beats (no pun intended), but... like, take the Airi plot, for example. She wanders off in Episode 13, and we don't catch up with her until the second to last scene in 14. What did she remember? Why did she go to that observation deck? What's the significance of that watch? No answers to any of those questions whatsoever, which means there's really nothing to tie it in with the rest of the episode. The scene literally starts with Ryotaro standing up and racing off because he forgot to finish looking for Airi! It's just one more thing that happens in this story without ever feeling like it's there for a narrative reason. It's just a bunch of things happening, most of which are entertaining in the moment, without having a reason to happen. Even Ryutaros appearing after being inside Ryotaro for weeks is chalked up to He Just Felt Like It!

So, yeah. Not a fan of how lazy the writing was for this story. Too many shrugs of plotlines, too many scenes that felt like the director had to keep adding non-dialogue shots to fill up the runtime, too many times my mind wandered while I watched it because I couldn't invest enough in what was happening. Not a great couple episodes for me.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den14b.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Not to keep shitting on this episode, but having Airi remember something huge, and then having her forget it by the end of the story so the audience is kept in the dark is such a dick move. Such a bait and switch. Just lazy, lazy writing.

-Best scene in the entire story was probably Momo giving a Team Imagin pep-talk that devolved into insults and recriminations. It's that mix of teamwork and simmering resentments that is maybe why I love watching these characters hang out. For all the flaws in this story, the stuff with Momo, Ura, and Kin always worked.

The most I can say in defence of this episode is that I liked that we went to a time period BEFORE the turn of the millennium. It’s just a shame it’s still incredibly recent relative to the show’s present.

And we debit the 4th and final DenLiner car, known as Ikazuchi (which is a common word in certain circles of the fan base). Whereas the previous three together make Lightning, Ikazuchi simply means “thunder”.

Fun fact, Normally Ikazuchi is the singular character 雷 but to fit the denkousekka anagram Androzani84 pointed out a while back, as an exception Ikazuchi seems to be written as 雷電(commonly read in its onyomi form raiden) to accomodate said anagram in this case. And to complete it the order goes from Ikazuchi to Gouka, so:
Ikazuchi 雷電
Rekkou 列光
Isurugi 石動
Gouka 業火
Notice that only Ura is different in that the first character of his train's name is used while others use the latter character.
Also Ryutaros's color scheme:
Body: Violet
Eyes: Clear Orange
Metallic parts: Gunmetal
Whiskers: Gold

Man, that character development you had back around Agito and Ryuki has really stuck, huh? :p

I'd argue this doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the lazy writing when the episodes give clear enough specific reasons for both why Ryutaros stayed silent (he likes Airi), and why he's out of hiding now (he got noticed during Miura's hypnosis), but, putting that point off to the side, I can see how these ones would be frustrating with what you tend to value in an episode, to be fair. A lot of the story consists of hints towards things that will only have context in retrospect, and the parts of it that aren't that aren't particularly deep or complex, to say the least.

Still, I liked 'em a whole lot, because of course I do. In fact, I even called these episodes...

...which is definitely a pretty different take! I imagine it's probably just down to how much I like all the things happening, more so than thinking the writing is secretly genius or anything like that, though? Like, it's two episodes in a row with bike action (I'm pretty sure Den-O has already been on his bike more times than back-to-basics bugman Kabuto was in his whole series?), plus cute animals! Who even needs a story at that point? :p

One thing I know it's down to, however, is how much I love Ryutaros. Easily my favorite of Ryoutarou's Imagin, and much of what I feel is legitimately strong about this two-parter naturally springs out of his character. Like, even just having Gun Form show up in the first part, I've always thought was a brilliant touch for the hyperactive kid of the group. These memories are so vague at this point I'm not even sure how much of this I've still got correct, but I recall not being super into Den-O for a while originally, to the point I took a pretty long break ~somewhere~ around these episodes, so when I eventually came back to it and found myself way more excited about it, I very strongly associated that feeling with Ryutaros.

Everything about him is so intensely fun to me, and it really felt like he completed the group's dynamic. I've always found it weirdly endearing that the way the show chose to go about making him feel like a child was to make him disconcertingly amoral and sociopathic on top of simply being flighty, especially. It's a very specific set of traits that makes him fit right in among the rest of this insanely dysfunctional cast. Gun Form itself left a similarly huge impression on me, and is my favorite of Den-O's main four, thanks in large part to its extremely distinctive and active body language. I think all the dancing actually impresses me less than simply how Takaiwa carries himself in the moments when he's not moving too much. The huge level of collateral damage the gun causes helps further sell the idea that Ryutaros is basically just one big living hazard rather nicely, too. He's basically the absolute last person who should be using that thing!

I mean, I could just go on about Ryutaros forever, pretty much? How Kenichi Suzumura became my favorite Japanese voice actor because of him? How mind-blowing it was to go back to Den-O after picking up enough Japanese to realize his catchphrase is in future tense when he doesn't actually wait for a response? And like, how cool is that finishing move with the dragon hands on Gun Form's shoulders generating that big ball of energy or whatever?

Okay, I'll stop for a bit, but I will ask a real question to leave off on – how nice is it that the belt announces the form names now? I don't think you've outright mentioned it yet, but judging by how you're actually able to use them right away, I'm guessing that's one more familiar trope you're happy to have worked your way back up to?

I'm pretty sure when I started off with Ghost and Build, I was doing a couple paragraphs that covered two or three episodes, which seems both enormously wasteful (savor these episodes!) and barely scratching the surface. I'm definitely finding it more fulfilling now, even if it's more work for less discussion.

He's maybe the only thing worth talking about from these episodes, I'll give him that!

The innocent selfishness of the character is really interesting to me, for how it feels like a different level of troublemaker from the other three Imagin. Ryutaros is someone who is both way more upfront about how he is only trying to do what he enjoys, and sort of charming for the way he assumes everyone else is happy about that. It's like Wacky Sociopathy, and the energy of that is unique amongst the cast. He's definitely a compelling character!

You guess correctly! Kabuto had the various Henshin startup phrases, your Cast Offs and Change Beetles and whatnot, so it's not like we're creating the Phase 2 noises from whole cloth, but there's absolutely more of an emphasis on them. It's nice to have these crazy sounds and phrases getting screamed at me again!

My biggest takeaway from this one is just another reminder of how much I like Naomi. She's not the most prominent character, but I love how she's always so excited for any chaos that breaks out in the dining car. It's like she just thrives on the chaos.

My biggest issue, though? So I'm all for the cute puppy living, but if the entire premise was that it died because they couldn't get to the vet in time, how did throwing a massive Kamen Rider battle with two-monster train fight into the mix mean they got to the vet faster? That's always bugged me about this one.

Anyway, this two-parter may have underwhelmed, but the next one is one of my favorites from this part of the show.

Oh you haven't seen the last of this. I think the shot of Airi cuddling up to the mystery guy is probably the single most recycled shot in the entire series that isn't Denliner CGI.

Oh yeah, I already said above about how characters like him can be more irritating to see (including mine), that I think there are some shows out there that: (1) portray jerks/douches meeting realistic and/or negative consequences for being toxic towards others; (2) the show does not paint these jerks in a sympathetic light and also does not try to make them interesting or relatable; (3) majority of those shows' audiences don't view those jerks as cool, interesting or sympathetic.

And this creates the Refuge in Audacity effect: Making an immoral action more unrealistic and ridiculous can make it seem less unsettling and tragic and make it funnier instead, like more abstract action such "a guy is trying to Take Over the World, let's go stop him!", where the more realistic ones can seem personally more hatable because their actions call up things that the audience might have had happen to them. But personal feelings can't and should never be used to judge which is worse or better (as person). Storytelling devices may be able to seem depersonalize the villainy, like how the countless victims are those the audiences don't know (cuz a million is a statistic) or them being aware of what they're doing, but it doesn't diminish the bad traits they've done, and those can't be dismissed or forgotten. Kasumi's dad is probably a worse character, but jerks in personal life are by no means worse than a genocidal madman, person-wise regardless of personal feelings.

Well yeah, this is probably purely toy perceptive to make a new form and not adding something unique, this is a recycle of previous monster origins of them possessing Ryutaros and later becoming a form that Den-O can use. Ryutaros is most childish in personality with a love for drawing and animals, but also having brat qualities like being selfish and spoiled at first. By that he also refers to Urataros and Kintaros as "Turtle-chan" (カメちゃん Kame-chan) and "Bear-chan" (クマちゃん Kuma-chan) respectively, excluding Momotaros as he's not based on an animal. Ryutaros also enjoys break dancing, to the point to that it is incorporated into his fighting style which can cause the most collateral damage as he fires his gun aimlessly.

Other than that, this episode probably also talks about how there's an appropriate response, and there's also disproportionate response. The park keeper may not want those punks (and Ryutaros later takes them in charge!) causing a ruckus in the park, but doesn't mean that he wants anyone to do that to be exterminated, which is Imagin's idea of granting what's supposed to be the park keeper's wish.

Gun Form is also something that I like better for physicality, into the V-shaped head. Also I like the pun on the weapon name; Ryuvolver. Also, the term is probably not bland but, repetitive. The new thing in this one is probably about how the Taros probably start to cooperate for common goals, which is Ryotaro's own good, against Ryutaros. And other than that, Hana seems to bully syndrome (she does have some before, but more prevalent here), that she can keep the Taros in check that they're scared against here, and there's vulnerability on them to let her walk through them, but against the MOTW Imagin, she ran away here.

Maybe it's because I read it late at night but I swear I double checked what episode he was on and I thought he was on 16 already, my bad

If someone was like Hey Do You Want To Work On A Magical Time Train And Wear Sixteen Watches, but then I was mostly just serving coffee to families and businessmen? I would 100% cheer on (and possibly instigate) chaos between the imagination monsters from the end of time.

Like, I think Naomi expected a more ridiculous job than she got, and only now is her dream coming true.

Fair point! My only possible explanation is that the dog is so psyched to live in a world of Kamen Riders (I mean, this is pre-Kuuga, total Rider dead zone) that he found the will to live.

Ryuvolver! That is great.

And, yeah, the Imagins have previously worked together a little on helping Ryotaro defeat a monster, but this is the first time where they're deciding on their own to cooperate with each other. (14 actually does a bigger piece on this, but it starts in 13.) You can see them starting to think of Ryotaro as more than just a really nice house. They're worried about him as a nice boy, and they're protective of him as a member of the team. It's some good character development! Those parts worked well!

I get where you're coming from, but especially if it's set pre-Kuuga that doesn't make sense to me. In the 80s and 90s if there was one rule for tokusatsu (especially Metal Heroes) it was "If you see a dog, it is going to die." They were the standard sacrificial victim to prove how cruel the MotW was.

I have no idea what you're--

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kuuga/kuuga09.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kuuga/kuuga10.png

--oh.

Well I too prefer monster plots like this where the monsters are more than just obstacles, that they have meat behind their attacks. And not only Den-O, phase 1 series also have what's going on through the monsters, like Kuuga's Grongi who is playing a game and competing against each other, also Blade where the Undeads are battling in a battle royale and has something going on them on how they proceed through the battle. Though if a Rider series don't have that, I can focus on other things that mattered more, especially if monsters aren't supposed to be something central in the series.

Well, I do feel too that the youth and the park keeper's relationship is just shoehorned over in near the end of the episode, which don't seem to have proper buildup over them. It's that they interact like strangers both in the past where the youth's dog is in critical condition and is brought to the hospital, and then in the present now when they bumped into each other and talk about the park and dog death. And this one's something where the time travel ends on completely happy note, that the dog survives, contrasting something like the two-parter about Yamagoshi, where you won't change the time flow by changing something in the past. Though I know that previously, it's about how the contract holder of the week's story parallels the main cast's story, but I don't know if it's necessary for it to be good on Den-O or any Rider series though.

Airi here seems like that she's going to hook up with... well, Ozaki and they take a ride in Ozaki's car to the place they suggested to visit. But Ozaki seems to have a breakdown over the end about Airi talking with someone else (which ofc being Ryotaro).

I don't know why, I feel like Airi remembering something but having her forgot seems like a contrast to the contract holders of the Imagin, where when Hana questioned them about the event at that day, they always remember for the team to go to that time and stop the Imagin and the time flow. I know that Momo, Ura, and Kin is something similar in shows like Ex-Aid which will lead to this.

There was basically zero chance that Kamen Rider Den-O was going to end this story with that dog still being dead. They'd sooner kill that kid than leave that dog dead.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 15 - "BATH JACK PANIC”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den15a.png

Oh, man, best episode.

Just a perfect episode. Literally everything I want in a Den-O story: a sympathetic victim, a series of unfortunate events that culminate in the comedy version of tension, another sympathetic victim, multiple form changes, a frustrated Momo, a cunning Ura, a blundering Kin, a gleefully violent Ryu, a Hana who bristles at being underestimated to the degree that she basically resolves the plot, a crucial Airi appearance that shines so much sunlight into this story that I might need to see a dermatologist, and it's wrapped up in a compelling story about the unhealthiness of living in resentment rather than making a change for the better.

Like, it's such a pleasant story, you know? It's some typical Den-O comedy-of-errors setup, where Ryotaro's unluckiness gets him from Shopping In A Market straight to A Hostage Situation within about thirty seconds. And that's delightful, for sure. But it's the way this weird story keeps ballooning out into more empathy, more understanding, that really had me captivated.

It's for sure my favorite mode of Kamen Rider, when someone who's making a dumb choice in their life isn't treated like a villain to defeat, but a person to be helped. Even though the bike thief took multiple people hostage, there's a need to hear him out when he's confessing that things just got away from him. When the bath house hostage becomes the next hostage taker (!), everyone's still like How Do We Help This Guy So This Doesn't Happen Again. It could come off as the show not taking the stakes seriously, but it feels to me like it's just how a hero should work. Monsters need to be detonated, people need to be helped. That's it. That's the formula.

And it's a good one! I could watch a million episodes about Kamen Rider casts working together to figure out how to get someone back on the right track (sorry), which is a thing that bothered me a lot about the last two stories. 13/14 didn't have a human interest story at all, really, and 11/12 put all of the improvement on the victim, not the perpetrator. Here, it's two guys who are clearly making rash decisions that they instantly regret, and it's up to our heroes to improve their fates. Getting to see basically the entire cast coming together to juggle this bizarre set of circumstances and potentially save several lives... yes? Forever, please?

It helps that this particular story has so many fun moves to it. The hostage-taking happens incredibly fast, and then it's just one insane turn after another as Hana and Airi get involved, Ryotaro keeps leaving and returning, the Imagin try and contribute to various levels of effectiveness (Ura: Very! Kin and Ryu: Not So Very!), and the whole episode keeps the plates spinning perfectly. I cannot believe how packed this episode was! It's like night and day from the last two slogs of episodes. This thing was dynamic and clever, from first to last. Breathtaking in its humor, its empathy, and its craftsmanship. A massively entertaining return to form.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den15b.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Killer editing in this. There're these rapid cuts as the bike thief is scoping out the bath house for any other hostages that race through a boring Here's The Geography Of This Space necessity, and keep the energy high. So much of this story is about never letting the viewer feel complacent in the plot (that's why folks keep wandering into and out of it), which the editing helps sell. Great direction, but brilliant editing.

-One of the best sources of humor in this episode were the little background gags the actors would pull. I will stan hard for any Momo/Hana fight scene, but even I was distracted by the cute shot of Naomi and Ura spinning their chairs in the background.

-Best Airi episode for me, I think. It's the comedic twist on her kindness from 7/8, where she's sweetly oblivious to whatever danger might be occurring. (The bit where she's walking into a scene of a man pointing a gun at Hana and she just goes Oh Hana's Here Hi Hana! Best underplayed reaction for comedic effect ever!) There's just the power to her tranquility that takes a tense situation of men making terrible choices and transforms it into a scene of everyone enjoying lunch together. Insane! Could never work on another show, but I bought it 1000% here.

-I feel like this is the first time we got more personalized Henshins for Kin and Ura? Kin, for sure? He's got this new music (I think?), and a completely different sumo pose. I like it! I like them each having a different idea of what it means to change into Den-O.

So this is Yonemura's third episode of the series, and I'll readily and wholeheartedly agree that it's quite great – a huge improvement over his last effort.

It's also Ishida's third episode of Den-O, which explains why it's dripping with perfectly constructed atmosphere from beginning to end, massively enhancing everything the script is trying to accomplish – as is almost always the case with his efforts.

Well, given that I’ve sworn not to identify any of the face actors in this thread, for this episode, I’ll exploit a loophole and point out the live actor for this episode appeared in the episode my thread reviewed two days ago. http://www.tokunation.com/showthread.php?t=96971

But I will directly tell you about our Imagin VA for this week. And he’s fairly prolific.

Yōhei Tadano

Notable Anime roles: Giuliano Flip in BNA: Brand New Animal, Ochanomizu-hakase in Go Astro Boy Go!, Kudou in Great Pretender, Leslie in Hime-sama Goyojin, Shigemori Sumimura in Kekkaishi, Darjeeling Aspoirot in Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File, Miyagi in Megalobox, Milking in Milky Panic twelve, Kōji Noto in Psycho Pass, Sebastian in Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS

Notable dubbing roles: Nudis Vulko in Aquaman, Ian Hawke in Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones, Earl Unger in Home Alone 3, Hot Rod in Transformers: The Last Knight, Yoda in the Star Wars franchise (from 2014 onwards), Rick in Rick and Morty, King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph, Heinz Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb.

I sort of figured this was the case (there're too many great visuals to be anyone else), but I appreciate the confirmation! It's definitely an episode that knows what the right tone would be for this story, and hits it with every scene.

I haven't watch this episode in a bit, but from everything I hear, this episode is loved among fans. Can anyone confirm or deny?

if I remember right the comedy is completely on point so half way through there's no tension from the hostage situation and now it's all from Ryutaros being a murder hobo


EDIT removed a spoiler from the original post as I made the over tired mistake of not double checking if I had my episodes right

So about that one hostage... he used to save the Earth in 1997 while in high school. Exactly a decade prior to when this show aired in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywdhnR8cAes

Oh yeah, this is one of my favorites. Everything is firing on all cylinders here and it's fantastic. The humor is so on point - both the physical slapstick and the wacky writing (I love how this whole thing got kicked off because a guy was thinking about robbing a bank, saw a police officer, and panicked). The whole thing is just a pure delight: Hana accidentally beating up the robber, everyone breaking for lunch, the Imagin of the Week's ridiculously slow dialogue, the random shot of everyone sitting in the bath house with flashlights shining on their faces... it's impossible to highlight all of the good moments.

Oh yeah, this peak Airi. I've always loved how she seems so calm and almost unaware in the face of the chaos that is the show she lives in. This episode dials that up to 11, though, with her just seeming like she's almost out of touch with reality but in a fun and quirky way. I will never not love how she just marches past a police line to walk into the hostage situation. This is the arc that made me an Airimirer, too (but in a wholesome, non-creepy way).

For sure! There're a billion little touches that cracked me up, like both hostage-takers taping underwear up over the windows when they ran out of paper, or the toy gun getting put in the garbage before lunch to show that everyone's in this together, or the stumped police chief walking in snaking line with his stumped underlings... so perfect of an episode!

This is the episode where I sort of got how she fits into the show, into the themes, where everything else is chaotic and she's at peace and open to people. If some of what Den-O's about is how we manage the chaos inside of ourselves (as dramatized by Momo, Ura, Kin, and Ryu), then Airi is the idealized end-result of that process. She's there to be something to live up to, and this episode uses that to great effect.

Just going to add on to how great Airi is in this one by mentioning that I grabbed this screencap during my rewatch, which I felt really summed the entire episode up:

This entire scene had me in stitches, and it's not even because of this particular frame, or any specific exchange of dialogue – just the whole scenario was hilarious, and after skimming back through it, I think the secret ingredient is Ishida?

Very predictable answer from me, I know (and obviously the main ingredient is still Airi), but that rewatch predates me getting any sort of decent handle on direction in Kamen Rider, so looking back now, what jumps out at me is that there's no music in this scene at all. It's just the ambient noise of helicopters and police sirens somewhat faintly in the background, something that would ordinarily create tension, but instead just adds to the surreal vibe. Nothing happening in the scene seems to quite fit with any of the other things happening in the scene, and the end result is totally brilliant.

Yeah, visually this is a very dense episode: there're usually three or more people in each shot, there are multiple points of motion (Ura/Naomi spinning around in the background while Momo/Hana brawl in the foreground), there's an evolution to the design of the central hostage space so that every time we check in it's changed a little, etc. It's an episode that never wants you to feel settled, but it also never wants you to feel scared, so it balances that disorienting amount of visual information with a more measured sonic palette, or with contrasting performances (Airi vs the bathhouse guy, Ryotaro vs the bike thief, Momo/Hana vs Ura/Naomi) so that it all feels surreal and not terrifying.

Eh, "monsters need to be detonated, people need to be helped"? Aren't previous shows have a lesson about how it's not about it being a monster or human, but rather about the morality any living beings have regardless of the species type of them? And also, "monsters need to be detonated, people need to be helped" seems like something that always happened since Kuuga in heisei era, that in your review of episode 2, Den-O is a relief for you that this is a progenitor of phase 2 traits (that I disagree because of what you say exactly here, helping people always happen in those Rider series), about how the monsters aren't only about them being detonated (where usual Imagins here are still getting that treatment, except for the main 4 taros). It's right that people need to be helped, and I also agree about even if they did something wrong (dumb is about brain, not heart, someone like bike thief here has trouble on heart to commit crimes, though dumb can apply if he did disastrous part of committing crime without thinking straight, I mean for dumb part, many of the heroes are also dumb, like Gentaro in Fourze). I hate letting someone who made crime getting away scot-free, but I'd into helping them get back on the right track, that isn't letting them go (there's audience who, due to sympathy, white washes them and use that headcannon as an excuse to let them get away and blaming anyone who objects to them), but giving them treatment, just not overboard (like anti-heroes who kill anyone who does bad stuff, snuffing out any kind of light that may ever show in that person).

Hana chooses to instead be a hostage instead of far easier way that can potentially come from her super strength, which kinda flip-flops between her being restrained, then her KOing the thief with super strength, then go back to being a hostage. Though I wonder if Hana is immune to bullets or not (albeit the gun is fake), for Hakamada threatening her with gun. Ryotaro is the one who takes full charge here, having learning from how the Rider system work from previous fights, with him going to investigate the Takonoko Heavy Industries. Urataros' long range is effective in fighting an Imagin that is based on a whale, while the other 2 are short ranged. Ryutaros is another long ranged one, but dunno about how the gun lasers will proceed through the water. Urataros is handy that the rod can pull away.

Airi being oblivious is just like Ryotaro, like siblings, from the first episode with Ryotaro not knowing anything about the Rider system which is a contrast from him here. Airi with her power of tranquility to defuse a tense situation may be the "helping humans who take the wrong direction" thing you talk about? I think her contribution here is the most prevalent implementation of that so, "could never work on another show" is quite a lie like the other Rider shows?

My avatar is of a sweet monster from Ghost that would rather make art than terrorize people; I am totally aware of the exceptions to the rule! It's just, those are exceptions to the rule. I'm partially being reductive for brevity's sake (I definitely think there's more nuance than Humans Good Monsters Bad), but the take 99% of the time is going to be that folks need a chance to redeem themselves and be forgiven, while a superhero is around to detonate the bloodthirsty monsters. Are there irredeemable people and redeemable monsters? Sure! But that's not the template, that's specifically a variation on the template.

Like, Cubi and Music Note are interesting because it shows us a version of the Ganma that aren't that into subjugating/destroying humanity. It's a fun thing to consider, and it plays into the show's themes. If the whole show was just sympathetic monsters and shades of grey, I'm not sure it'd work as a superhero show? You need monsters to detonate, and you can't be wondering afterwards if the Kamen Rider who did it is a remorseless murderer.