Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider OOO
 

Hi. My name is Kamen Rider Die, and this thread is “Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider OOO”.

I first watched Kamen Rider OOO in three days.

It was my… I want to say fourth Kamen Rider series? I did Ex-Aid, and then Double – which weirdly took me a long while, big break in the middle – and then the first season of Amazons because it was on Amazon Prime. I don’t think I ever did more than a couple episodes in a day for any of those. But OOO? Devoured it, with a passion and intensity that would make even the Greeed suggest that I throttle back some. I literally couldn’t stop myself from seeing what would happen next, spending almost every waking minute for three days burning through this show.

The result is that, for a long time, it was both my easy pick for Best Kamen Rider, and also I show I could barely recall. It doesn’t exist as a year’s worth of narrative, like a Geats or Gotchard. It doesn’t exist as several months of measured exploration, like the Phase 1 Heisei shows. It’s just this solid mass of storytelling – smooth and difficult to dig into, but consistent and flawless.

It’s a show I frequently described as being The Best not through frequent perfection or personal connection (Geats, to both) but by never doing anything wrong. If it never 5-starred any segment or element of being a Kamen Rider show in my estimation, it did absolutely everything at 4-stars for me. I enjoyed it all, and never felt betrayed by a story choice or let down by a lack of emphasis. It was the most complete Kamen Rider experience I’ve ever had.

I also, uh, don’t remember any of it! Broad strokes, big name characters, and literally nothing outside of that. I know how it ends, and where it’s all sort of going, but the minute-to-minute story of any and every episode is going to be basically brand-new for me. I’m thrilled to rewatch this show at a slower pace because I honestly regret not savoring it more the first time, to let some of these moments lodge in my brain better. (I say that, but I don’t remember basically anything from the shows I’ve spent months writing about, so.) I want to give OOO the attention it deserved the first time, since I know how special of a show it is now.

And what could make it more special than by rewatching it alongside TokuNation? I did this show way before I knew that such a haven existed for Rider fans, and I’m very excited to get to delve into OOO with the feedback and discussion that’s made this site so integral to my toku journey.

Before we get started, a couple returning ground rules!

ONLY DISCUSS THE EPISODES WE’VE COVERED SO FAR IN THIS THREAD. While I’ve watched this whole show once before, I’d prefer it if we could keep the discussion to the episodes I’ve posted up here, and nothing beyond that. It’s my hope that we can all really appreciate the individual installments of OOO, rather than just rushing to the end. I did that once before! It’s a little wasteful!

ON THE OTHER HAND, I MIGHT RUIN SOME STUFF FROM OTHER SHOWS. It’s not intentional, but I might vaguely reference other Rider shows (Den-O and Ryuki for sure) while I talk about OOO. If you’re trying to stay spoiler-free from every other toku show, consider this a warning.

OUR DYNAMIC IS WHY I’M HERE. Literally the only reason I write this stuff anymore is in the hopes that it’ll spark a discussion. My episode posts are a conversation starter, not a final judgment. I love hearing from all of you about what you’ve taken away from an episode – good or bad – so please chime in if you’ve got anything you want to talk about.

I think that’s it? (I never remember if that’s it.) Much like the 2024 threads, my plan is to post daily, except for Wednesday. (Wednesday is Gavvday!) I’ll be using the OZC-Live subs for the main series, and a smattering of other sources for the ancillary material. We’re on this ride through… I don’t know, April? I don’t foresee anything that’d cause skips or delays, but I’ll always try and give a heads-up if it’s unavoidable.

Okay! Preamble done! Let’s jump into OOO and see if I can show it the love it deserves!

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KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 1 - “MEDALS, UNDERWEAR, AND THE MYSTERIOUS ARM”

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There’s a thing that I’ll always associate with Kobayashi, and it’s the idea of partnerships – specifically, how two people can pull in the same direction without necessarily wanting the same things.

I wonder sometimes if it’s her expressing the feeling of working on a toku show, where her ideas and a producer’s ideas have to coexist within one narrative, regardless of how often those ideas are mutually embraced. It’s just… it’s you and another person, someone you may not have chosen to partner with, trying to accomplish a goal that’s been set for you. Being an adult means needing to work in concert when you aren’t friends, or even exactly friendly.

(Ex-Aid hits some of the same ideas for me, but it’s more about a workplace than an explicit partnership. It’s about people seeing each other as supporting cast members, but we’ll talk more about that in a few years!)

OOO is maybe the Most Kobayashi show, for exploring the dramatic and comedic potential of that template. Den-O gets at it early, but resolves into a friendship fairly quickly. Go-Busters keeps the tension to a minimum, outside of a few short stories, to focus on the bond of family between the cast. Ryuki has it with the Contract Monsters, but they don’t really have enough character to be a part of the narrative. But OOO! OOO is the show where a disembodied hand outwits a well-meaning vagabond, as the best Henshin sounds in any series ever try to distract from the peril.

It’s hard not to just talk about Ankh and Eiji, even this early. The beats land instantly – Eiji’s eagerness to defend a disembodied hand from a monster made out of impulses, Ankh’s quick decoding of Eiji’s eagerness to create a patsy that can secure his future, and the low-level animosity that dances with the enthusiasm of defeating a shared foe. The instant chemistry of this series, man! Eiji immediately buys into what’s happening here, to a gloriously absurd degree, which is maybe the only way this premiere episode could fit in a complete adventure, tons of series setup, and the actual full opening title sequence. You can only do that in 20-odd minutes if your hero jumps in with a smile on his face, ready to make some new connections.

I love that little idea floating through this episode, that meeting anyone new, experiencing anything new, is an objective good. Kougami being excited for the Greeed’s appearance because it’s something brand-new in the world, Eiji’s willingness to defend a cop he had one conversation with that morning and a mildly terrifying disembodied hand that is maybe mugging him because he’s known them for all of a few minutes and that’s enough for him to want to help them… I love that. I love how Eiji’s simplicity and guilelessness never looks like childishness or stupidity; it’s charmingly direct heroism, full stop.

But it’s the monster story aspects that made this episode pop for me, beyond the promises of the start of an indelible partnership over a year-long serial. The violence was unexpected, for one thing – the Greeed wiping out a platoon of Kougami Mooks (Ridevendor something-or-others; they’re Mooks) while a haunting orchestral version of Happy Birthday plays? That’s some dark stuff, despite the trappings of monster suits and vending machine motorbikes. (I love how the bonkers Kougami gear is, like, the first toku thing this show introduces. Why not!) But the Greeed’s immediate goals of reconstituting their bodies is a nice way of grounding the early battles and minor adversaries that a levelling-up hero needs to interact with. I get what these four villains are trying to do, and giving them all the same We’re Just Getting Started energy as the heroes is more appealing to me than a show where an implacable adversary is cackling from a fortress, waiting for a hero to get 40 episodes of power-ups under its henshin device and make a run at defeating him/her/them. I like that the Greeed are introduced as weak as OOO, you know?

OOO the hero, not OOO the show; show isn’t weak at all! There’s so much energy in just this first episode, with an emphasis on embracing new experiences and fighting for new friends -slash- manipulative disembodied hands. Loved it all, especially that theme song. It grew on me!

(But, boy, that OOO Driver jingle is just where my love lies the most. TA TO BA! TATOBA TATOBA!)

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo01b.png

Looks like I picked the right day to pre-emptively copy my OOO folder off the external hard drive.

There's no wrong day! As long as you've got your OOO folder on an internal drive and the underwear you're going to wear tomorrow, you're all set.

Not too sure if it applies to all of her sentai shows as well at the moment other than Go-Busters, but yes for her rider shows looking back now. Ryuki had Shinji and Ren, Den-O had Ryotaro and Momo (or would it be Yuuto in this case?), OOO had Eiji and Ankh.

I just... I'm not sure if I'd put Ren and Shinji in the same bucket as the other partnerships? That's more of your standard Rider pairing; arguably the template for your standard Rider pairing. (Agito toyed with that stuff, but there wasn't a ton of cross-pollination between the Shoichi and Ryo parts.) With the Kobayashi partnerships I'm thinking of, it's all about forced partnerships, or contracts. Even Go-Busters is like These Are Your Assigned Guardians, rather than a conscious choice made by a group of children. The Contract Monsters are the Ryuki iteration of all of that in my mind, not terribly different in concept than the Imagin of Den-O, if not wildly different in personality and narrative utility.

Yeah, Shinji and Dragreder is much more aligned to what you're thinking now that you mention it.

I won't be following along this time, as OOO is a show that I wanna revisit on my own terms. That particular pair if underwear is being saved for a later date. Hope you have fun though!

The Contract Monsters are the partners that Ryuki and Knight did actively choose, though! And they get along with their Riders much better than those Riders generally get along with each other! I'd definitely say Shinji and Ren still fit into what you're talking about even if the exact details of their situation are different. If it's also a standard Rider pairing, maybe that just means the template itself is already quite close, which would explain why Ex-Aid can touch on similar ideas.

Anyway, it's nice to see OOO having the chance to chance to impress you all over again. I can definitely relate to the feeling of burning through one of these shows so fast everything except how much you enjoyed it immediately becomes a blur, even if that's not OOO in my case.

No, OOO is, as I've probably mentioned in your threads somewhere before, my very first Rider show, since I got into Rider when it was airing, but in part because of that, it's also a Rider show I've just never appreciated the way other people seem to? Like, this premiere was literally the first ever episode of Kamen Rider I watched, but most of what I still remember about that night is watching Kuuga?

Not that I'd want to downplay how strong a premiere it is, though, for reasons I probably don't need to explain to anyone. Fitting your idea of OOO maybe being the best because it's maybe the "least wrong" Rider show, I think pretty much anyone would struggle not to be charmed at least a little by everything going on here.

Ah, OOO. The show where I couldn’t decide if I wanted to watch it or Fourze next (it was also one of my early ones, having watched Zi-O, Drive, Decade and Gaim beforehand. And I started Faiz and Kiva during my watch of this one). I went with both, and ended up finishing this one first due to how I pace my watches.

I’ll save my overall thoughts for when it’s appropriate, but as for the episode, I remember being distinctly confused by a lot of stuff, like why a hobo was living in the museum. And there’s some things about the actors that surprised me to read about them.

Ryosuke Miura (who plays both Ankh and the poor bugger he possesses): You’d think the Ankh hair was a wig, while the detective is his natural hair, but nope. Other way round.

Hina: Despite looking older (and being treated for all intents and purposes as an adult by the narrative), the actress was only 14 when she began working on the series. Mezool’s actress is similarly young, which is probably why she spends a notable amount of time transformed into a monster voiced by a different actress.

My hands would be full, following 2 watch threads at once now. Also, the other show that is featured on the analysis link of my signature, by akinoame. I'd try to limit what I write here about my own thoughts, though I also hoped that the analysis on my signature would be noticed/read by you too, with you starting over OOO again. They're at least Fish threads' level or more.

Kobayashi's reucrring theme is also about desires. For example, in Ryuki, characters grapple with the wish of becoming the winner of the Rider War. Den-O explores the idea of imaginations becoming reality, while OOO centers on desires, which is quite evident. Additionally, Kobayashi has a notable tendency to change a character's hairstyle and color when they are possessed.

It's Eiji in general who has an innate desire to protect others, even those he barely knows. Just meeting someone briefly is enough for him to see them as connected comrades, which aligns with the typical Kamen Rider sensibility seen in most leads of the series. However, early in the show, Eiji's perception is quite naive. He mistakenly believes that the security guards are nice simply because they serve him a drink, when in reality they are thieves who drugged him. Ankh here just happens to be the other show's lead unlike those other people Eiji met. Like Momotaros in Den-O, Ankh is a baddie here too at the start of the show, and by this he perceives Eiji's virtue as a weakness. For the opposite, Eiji also receives help from another important character, Hina.

Kougami would be someone suspicious for seemingly not caring about the casualties, even among his own men. His focus is on celebrating any births, regardless of the individual, whether it's a Greeed or OOO. He would be pleased even if a dangerous villain emerges, such as Kuroto (who was always just a villain on the same page as the heroes since mid Ex-Aid) witnessing the birth of Gamedeus with excitement, as it represents the emergence of a living being.

The term "mooks" is typically used to refer to the minor, disposable villains in a story. In contrast, the equivalent term for the minor, disposable heroes is "Red Shirt." In one scene, when Eiji and those around him scream due to Ankh's actions, the next scream appears to be in response to Ankh as well, with the jewelery store displaying various hand displays, but turns out that that the source of the screaming is Uva, who is revealed as the first MOTW in the show. Uva has a Rider-like appearance, characterized by his round eyes.

I don't blame you! I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!

Fair enough! Thanks for the feedback!

Ha ha, no, I would definitely assume that sloppy brown mop of hair was the wig! It's hideous, but effective at delineating the human detective of the beginning from the Greeed at the end.

I think it's more that he sees Eiji's virtue as a thing he can leverage to get what he wants. Ankh needs Eiji's immediate participation, so he tells the empathetic, slightly-reckless hero that Hey, You Gotta Defeat This Monster. Like, it's a thing Ankh would find weak, but it's also a button he can push in Eiji to get what he wants. And the Greeed are all about manipulating the desires of others to get they want!

Not sure where to start with this and which observations to hold off on for later. I've got a lot to say about the show OOOverall and I want to parcel it out.

I remember watching the first episode twice when it came out: once raw and again with subs. This was back in the day when subs didn't come out within 24 hours of the show airing (especially if you waited on TV-Nihon) and I was really excited to see W's successor. I was still really new to Rider and this was the first time that I got to live through a show transition instead of seeing them in hindsight. I liked the episode a lot at the time and I think it still holds up pretty well today, although the fight scenes maybe do feel a little more on the pedestrian side.

I think I'll go with my thoughts on the monster designs for OOO for now: I'm not a huge fan. I think the main Gree(e)ds themselves are good, but the Yummies tend to leave me cold more often than not. Can't really put my finger on what it is about them, but the whole aesthetic of the Yummy designs just didn't click with me.

It's a relatively quick fight sequence between OOO and the monster, but I like the way it escalates in an efficient and reasonable manner. Like, there's a mid-stage where Eiji tries firing a gun at it, which feels integral to understanding his feelings on defending the people he cares about, but also in spotlighting his easily-missed cleverness. Eiji can come off as absent-minded or obtuse throughout the beginning of the episode, but he's incredibly astute when things are tense and people need help.

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 2 - “DESIRE, ICE CREAM, AND A PRESENT”

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That ending! That ending is why I burned through this series the first time around.

Through this episode, we’ve been slowly following Hina’s day, and her growing concern that something’s happened to her brother. She eventually finds out that he’s missing after last episode’s Yummy attack, and desperately messages Shingo’s phone – the phone that Eiji picked up, and is being stressed out by the knowledge that Hina’s suffering. Eiji texts her as Shingo, claiming that he’s undercover, and telling her she won’t hear from him for a while. Problem solved, as Hina’s worries are assuaged and she can live blissfully unaware of the fact that Ankh has possessed her brother’s body, and that body is near death without Ankh’s possession.

And then THE VERY NEXT SCENE is Hina running into Ankh, blowing up the entire deception.

That’s what makes OOO such a perfect series to me, the way it never feels precious with its narrative. Storytelling in OOO is like Cell Medals: The actions of the characters are always creating more to be harvested, so don’t worry about gorging yourself right now. A subplot where one female character lives in blissful-if-infuriating ignorance while The Boys go off and have Kamen Rider adventures might be the sort of thing another show would lean on for a dozen episodes – Gavv; I love Gavv, but I hate how the show uses Sachika – but OOO dispatches it with barely a breath of separation, and in the funniest way possible. It’s nothing but delicious cake, all the way through.

Whole episode’s like that, thankfully. Ankh is both an eager storyteller (there is nothing he likes better than talking about himself) and a captivating one, spending a chunk of this episode explaining the mechanics of the Greeed to Eiji. It’s sparkling dialogue, giving Ankh some fun metaphors to illustrate the difference between a whole bunch similar-sounding Proper Nouns, and the standard impeccable chemistry between a pompous Ankh and a game Eiji.

(I honestly... I just sort of didn’t remember Eiji being this cool? I sort of have in my head a picture of him being sort of dopey, or easily misled, but he’s an outstanding scene partner in this episode. Eiji’s harried, and slightly baffled, but he never feels completely overmatched or dimwitted. It’s just the right amount of buy-in to keep the exposition scenes moving without forgetting how bizarre this is all meant to be. The actor nails that tricky balance, and I can’t believe I forgot that.)

Not a completely perfect episode, though? I completely didn’t care about the Yummy in this; CGI nonsense, boring objective. The finale is cool for showing off the new toys – Gotou is a very menacing child, despite all the gifts – but it doesn’t have much juice to the conflict. The heart of this one’s resolution is all in Eiji asserting his need to protect people over Ankh’s laissez-faire view of monster fattening, which is great, but the Yummy is a generic monster to serve as an obstacle. (Even the human genesis of it is just one of the crooks from last time, comedically repurposed by Uva.) Quickly dispatched, and not terribly clever in its implementation.

But everything else! Everything else was delightful, and I didn’t even really talk about the goofy interlude where Hina gets a job at Cous Coussier. (Another insane boss on this show!) Loved seeing this episode talk about the ways that desire is both a useful tool for human civilization, while also being easily weaponized into something harmful. I like Kamen Rider stories where the heroes and villains are using essentially the same resource, but view it in diametrically-opposed ways. Smart episode, brilliantly paced.

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The two things I remember:

Chiyoko’s hiring policy of “whoever carry’s this milk can inside”. It’s one of those kooky methods that’s surprisingly effective.

Ankh getting an iPhone, because Bandai isn’t the only company paying Toei for product placement (every Toku show spends time as the “now at McDonald’s”, for another example).

And because I forgot it last time, and this show has as much Toku actors returning from prior productions as the shows airing either side of it, I’m continuing the actor alert thread in lieu of coming up with something more relevant for OOO.

First off, our secondary lead Ankh is played by Ryosuke Miura, who you’ve probably seen elsewhere as Momose/the Toger Orphnoch in Decade’s Faiz two-parter*. But you probably haven’t seen him as Kane/Beetle-Sazer in Chousei Kantai Sazer-X.

And carrying on through the Greeed, Gamel is played by Hiroyuki Matsumoto, who was previously Nephrite in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, another show head-written by Kobayashi with Ryuta Tasaki as the main director. He’s also had villain of the week guest roles in Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, Kamen Rider Kabuto and Avataro Sentai Donbrothers.

And last but not least, Takashi Ukaji, the guy playing Kougami the memetic “Cake Boss” was previously in Ultraman Gaia as the Captain of the show’s Defence Team XIG.

*Speaking of Faiz, one production fact I read is that Kougami’s company were modelled on Smart Brain since every other Rider corporation was too unrealistic a basis, with Satonaka being a toned down Smart Lady.

I've never worked food service, but it feels like being able to lift and carry a lot of heavy things is probably a decent skill to have.

Hina is my number 1 pick when it comes to Heisei Rider heroines. That super strength, yo.:lolol

She's nicely woven into the storytelling, in that she has a definitive goal from the jump. It doesn't hurt that she also has a visually-cool ability!

Okay, so while I don't love the Yummies themselves, I definitely appreciate OOO's version of the annual "episode 2 big budget CGI monster that we'll never do again." It's ugly and unsettling in ways that are much better than the giant T-Rex head we got in W. Made for a pretty good action sequence, too.

Getting the fully formed version of Ankh in this episode is one of the things that really starts kicking OOO into high gear for me. Ankh is one of the show's best characters and Miura does such an amazing job of bringing him to life. I'm not the world's biggest Eiji fan, but Ankh is still one of my favorite Kamen Rider characters of all time (another one of those all-timers is also from this show, but we're going to have to wait a bit).

This is the first time I've watched OOO since it originally aired back in 2010, which is some math I did not want to accidentally stumble into doing just now. I still remember the show pretty well, though, compared to what's going on in FishSandwich's Wizard thread right now. Somehow, I was still unprepared for how completely unhinged Cake Boss is. That is a performance that makes choices (good choices, to be clear - bonkers, but good).

Yeah, I don't... I didn't really have Fond Memories of Kougami, you know? Tonally, he somehow felt at odds with the already incredibly weird tone of OOO, to a degree that I never got what he's there for. With this rewatch, I sort of love him? He's playing it to the cheapest of cheap seats -- using a tube of frosting to draw an ouroboros on a table, and then add a circle so it's an OOO, and then scream out OOO at the top of his lungs -- but it somehow feels tethered to a story about the wondrous unpredictability of existence, and the excitement of discovering something brand new in the world.

You know, like a new Kamen Rider series.

I was delighted at the time when Miura was announced as Ankh having seen him as Caine/Beetle Sazer from Sazer X. Toei did a great job casting him.

Side note, for those who want to see what pre-Ankh Miura was like, enjoy.
Skip to 00:34 if you want to see his part right away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YNVorgMuac

But did you have fondant memories of him?

That just exactly describes how virtue is deemed as a weakness that left one open to exploitation, manipulation.... people think being kind just allows people to use you and if you change to be unkind then you won't be used anymore, when any human desire or traits can be manipulated, not limited to one being kind (which people often equate with naivety, also a weakness). About Greeed manipulating the desires of others to get what they want.... obviously, they're evil monsters, including Ankh at this point. Evil-doers often think virtue is weakness as a reason to embrace being evil.

I don't know if miscommunication which is also a tool used to add drama would be similar to this, in general about hiding/refraining something and making the situation more contrived, which you loved for Faiz, of which it's not only about Sachika, Gavv also has similar thing as Takumi and Yuuji not knowing each other's identities or secrets, in how Shoma and Hanto hides each other's secrets too while fighting as Gavv and Valen respectively. Cake is also... Gavv's mid-season upgrade, and was what Shoma motivated himself for as a promise to Sachika, eating it together.

Probably the fanbase in general never remember the goody-two-shoes lead as cool tbh, they'd dismiss their feats as just plot armor and ofc, looking down on them as being dopey, dimwitted, or easily misled, which they attribute to kindness making one dumb and naive, thinking (with how smart people in fiction are often cold jerks). Only the cold jerk protagonists got acknowledged as cool like Tendou with their feats being acknowledged as actual badass, or that they constantly talk about how cooler the secondaries or the villains than them. I do wish that the cool parts of the goody-two-shoes leads who are more likely to be dismissed as boring, flat, or lame to be acknowledged more, if it's there, which'd be why I want the analyses to be more widespread. Maybe there's much more than only Eiji who has this aspect.

This is like the previous Kobayashi show too, Den-O, where the main lead forces their monster companion, who was still evil at that time but needed said protagonist, to abide by their morality and actually help their good cause, where Momo apologized after Ryotaro was beaten up in Plat Form (which was also repeated in Revice ep. 2), while Ankh finally promised when Eiji was about to fall to his death. Eiji has no leverage to Ankh when he broke the promise though. This also explains Kougami where he gives birthday presents to new births, including OOO here in the toys Goto gave to him. The Medajalibur finisher gives cool visual of cutting the reality but it's undone so it's just as if only the monster target is slashed.

Continuing Kobayashi's tradition, Chiyoko is the lovechild of Den-O's Owner and... Ryuki's Sanako/Auntie. About the desire talk, TV-Nihon initiially used the word "greed" (which has negative connotations) before changing it to "desire". Though "desire" is more neutral, as you said here that it can be weaponized or evolving, seems it's still negative enough for KR fanbase, given those who hate Geats for advocating 'selfish desires', and that Eiji is a hero who is about having no desire, which is something negative for him, but some people may still use that to explain how heroic Eiji is, no desires that would tempt/corrupt him and that he'd only cater to other's needs.

Icing what you did there.

I mean, I think it's just my poor memory? I don't remember a lot about this show!

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 3 - “CATS, EVOLUTION, AND GLUTTONS”

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Our first real two-parter, so let’s try a slightly different format to these posts.

CATS:
We’ve switched up from the last couple Uva plots into one by Kazari, the Greeed’s cat guy. For all of his prominence in the title, he’s not really present for this story? He kicks it off exactly how Uva did in Episode 2 – random guy gets coin in head, mayhem ensues – and then doesn’t pop up again until the cliffhanger. He doesn’t… he’s not really anything to talk about yet?

Beyond Kazari, or only cat character is this episode’s Yummy, and I really liked it. It’s this sort of monstrous Lucky Cat, exploding out of the shredded bandages of the proto-Yummy form. I like how the cheeks of the cat face act as a brow for the human face underneath it, and how the bulk of the Yummy makes for a tougher combatant that Eiji has to strategize around. It made for a fun, if brief, closing battle.

EVOLUTION:
A lot of time spent in this episode with the Greeed – both Ankh and the more overtly-villainous four – starting to realize that their gameplans from 800 years ago are not going to get the job done against a human civilization that’s progressed significantly while they’ve been asleep. While Kazari is trotting out a parasitic Yummy to gather Cell Medals, Ankh is harvesting Shingo’s knowledge to figure out what parts of human technology can give him the edge.

I think Ankh’s prominence in my memory over Eiji has less to do with Eiji’s sweetness than with Eiji's tendency in the narrative to be mostly reacting to Ankh’s cruelty/hilarity. This episode alone is largely just Eiji trying to work around Ankh’s more human-indifferent goals, while Ankh is the one deciding where to go next and how to approach a problem. Eiji’s job is to work within Ankh’s restrictions and push back on Ankh’s imperiousness, which makes for a solid episode of tense conflict between our leads, but definitely gives Ankh the juicier part.

Regardless, I think Ankh having an iPhone is just a really fun idea. He seems like the type to get incredibly distracted by the ubiquity of modern human communication!

AND GLUTTONS:
Because Ankh is, naturally, one of two main gluttons in this episode.

The other one is our (I believe) unnamed human victim, who Ankh lacks even the illusion of pity for. There’s a little bit near the end of the episode where Ankh’s objection to safeguarding the human becomes equally about Ankh’s desires for Cell Medals and with the way the human created the circumstances for his own manipulation by the Greeed. Like, this guy was already a glutton, and Kazari just took advantage of it. This guy was probably going to eat himself into an early grave regardless of whether some ancient desire monster pushed him into a rampage, so why bother trying to save him from it?

It’s the sort of cold pragmatism we’d expect from our avian asshole, and Eiji’s resistance so far is more about a general belief in human life than a specific counter to Ankh’s worldview, but I’m sure that’ll come in time. The tracks are already being laid for a discussion about how some of the people who least deserve help most need it, and that probably includes Ankh.

Ankh, who is absolutely gluttonous this episode when it comes to harvesting Cell Medals. We’re still at a point with Ankh where his blatant contempt for humanity is making his partnership with Eiji horribly ineffective, and threatening both of their objectives. Definitely a good place to leave the first half of a two-parter!

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At the same time as this episode, Dan Kuroto is mid-breakdown over his dad pushing him too far when a kid in weird clothes freezes time to make him a king…

Anyway, this time, I’m trying to stick to actors who’ve already appeared in something before OOO when discussing the episode cast, but I will say that our victim this week is one Sentai fans will be seeing again 13 years on, in another world. If you get what I’m talking about.

Also I think this is the one time OOO does his Rider Kick for TaToBa… and it fails. I’m guessing someone wanted to get it over with.

I mean, it's also pretty cool? It's neat to get a hint that something's weird right before Kazari (finally) shows up again. It's a cool cliffhanger!

*Googles person* Good lord, it is him. :rock:

I really love Ankh and Eiji's dynamic at the start of the series. Ankh is such a complete bastard but Eiji does a good job of holding his own in their interactions. He's idealistic, but you don't get the sense that he's naive enough (because this isn't Move War Core) to think Ankh has better angels to appeal to.This leads to a lot of creative thinking on his part to work around Ankh rather than with him. I enjoy that.

I also like that the four Greeds have different ways of creating Yummies. One of my favorite old-ish school tokusatsus is Metalder, which had this great concept where the villain had four different armies under his command that were made up of different kinds of monsters. Black RX played around with similar ideas. The Greed aren't quite that divergent (the Yummies share the same aesthetics regardless of origin), but it still adds variety to how an OOO story can play out.

Oh shit, it is. I'm 100% with Ankh on this one: let him eat until he explodes.

It's the thing this show does better than any other Rider Rivalry (or whatever you want to call the standard friction between main cast members): Eiji and Ankh are constantly trying to outwit each other, and keep each other in check. They vaguely want the same thing -- defeating the other Greeed -- but they want it for such different reasons that their ostensible partner is also their most immediate obstacle.

This tendency seems to be not limited to Eiji and Ankh, but just media in general, where the sweet heroes would feel reactive, only reacting to problems that happen to others to help them, and that the villains, or at least much more morally questionable good guys, would be the proactive one, driving the plot by going after their goals. Also, how heroes are seen as just predictable that they're only about doing the right thing, where the other can have variety in what they do for their goal. I don't know if this common trait of media can be actually solved, while still having the heroes retain Eiji's virtue (rather than, well, making them morally questionable as said above). Then again, Eiji is someone without a desire.

Superhero shows would usually have the people who least deserve help getting help, by the righteous characters, but seems that many of real life people, even those who believe they're good people, would discourage it and wish for 'karma' for someone that deserves it, particularly villains they have a sympathy for, but also including those who make foolish decisions like said glutton V/MOTW. This can make those virtuous heroes feel less of a human and more of a messianic-like figure to not feel the same way as them and instead being seemingly incapable of holding negative feelings and contempt like humans'd be expected to.

Dunno if Ankh'd think Eiji being nice means he'd be a doormat that'd please Ankh anytime (or the people Ankh assigns to 'help' for his own purpose), which isn't limited to complete bastards like Ankh, but also many normal people thinking this. But ofc, being nice means one should oppose wrongdoings, like Ankh's callousness or attempt to murder innocents like Hina. Wish this'd be more widespread rather than being seen as Eiji 'knowing the time to be an asshole' to Ankh. About Eiji trying to fight the parasite glutton and endangering himself, missed a chance to have Eiji further threaten Ankh to lose his only means to regenerate, but after the Yummy came out, Eiji is now shown to be a capable fighter that can stand up to the Yummy's attacks as human.

He actually gets a couple more in there throughout the series, but it will never *not* drive me insane that OOO had such a cool Rider Kick and basically never got to use it in any standout moment. Like, if you're gonna do this subversion so early, at least make him finish off something in the first two episodes with it so there's something there to subvert!

That's what makes people like Eiji heroes!

Alternately, if you've already had two successes by coin-operated sword and in-built arm blades, and one failure by kick, that's maybe why Eiji doesn't go to the Rider Kick well that often! This is just the show providing context for the character to go a different way, maybe.

(I will also now carry with me the headcanon that as Eiji goes to finish off every Yummy from now on, he does a little mental calculus before he's about to leap into the air for a Rider Kick and thinks But What If Kazari Is In Hiding Somewhere, and then just cuts the monster in two.)

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 4 - “DOUBTS, PICS, AND A HELPING HAND”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo04a.png

DOUBTS:
We’re only in the second half of our third story for this series, so it’s the perfect time to interrogate its foundations. With the breathtaking speed of OOO’s storytelling, we don’t really have the sort of stability that would make a test on Eiji and Ankh’s partnership a non-starter. It’s completely believable that Ankh would flip on Eiji, because we just don’t know enough about either one of them – the series to date has mostly been them scrambling to figure out a dynamic that works around various impediments and… I mean, Ankh. A dynamic that works around Ankh.

Which is what makes this episode’s pivot from Will Ankh Betray Eiji so fun. Like, yeah, it’s eminently believable that Ankh would drop Eiji in a heartbeat, mostly for spite, somewhat for expediency. So let’s instead spend some time figuring out what Eiji’s in this for, and why he’s willing to continue the fight against the Greeed even if he loses the Core Medals and OOO Driver. There’s more depth to Eiji right now that we really haven’t plumbed.

What we get is a solid story of how haunted Eiji is by guilt, despite his carefree demeanor. Eiji’s clearly lost before, failed people before, so he can’t live with the thought of turning his back when it’s within his power to help. It’s less about seeing the value in a person, or in people, and more in his own neuroses and hang-ups; it’s a motivation that could be either a weakness or a strength, which makes it perfect for the hero of this show.

(I mean, Eiji clearly cares about people, and would sacrifice himself for others, but the motivation for him is guilt and regret. It’s something within him, not within others.)

PICS:
While we’re getting a subdued and heartfelt story from Eiji and Hina – mostly there to dot i’s and cross t’s about what happened to Shingo, much appreciated – the B-plot in this one is Ankh playing with an iPhone and tormenting children, so you know I loved it.

(I didn’t really touch on this last time, but I love how much the OOO team plays up the bird physicality of Ankh. Last episode had him always up in a tree, or on a roof. This one has him sitting on a beam high above the battle. Even sitting down on a bench, he looks like he’s perched. It’s great!)

It’s mostly there for the eventual reveal that Ankh’s been using the internet to track Kazari, while Kazari has been wasting his time waiting for Ankh to go search on foot. This episode does not do a lot to make Kazari seem unbeatable or all-powerful, despite the mauling he gives OOO in the beginning. Kazari’s sly, but he’s easily countered by Ankh’s modern knowledge and Eiji’s clever fight tactics. Kazari comes off as a guy that haasn’t learned a new trick in 800 years, and that’s a very fun aspect of the other Greeed to get to explore. I like villains that have to work for their success!

AND A HELPING HAND:
Just like the heroes need to work for their success! The Yummy is dispatched with the teamwork of Eiji and Ankh, after Ankh declares his loyalty to Eiji by pointing out that the other Greeed would eventually betray him, while Eiji’s trustworthy despite being a frustration. That OOO teamwork!!! It’s a thing of beauty.

I liked the literalism of Eiji reaching out his hand to pull the unnamed victim out of the Yummy. It’s 1000% on the nose, but it’s such a strong visual, and it just gets to the heart of this show. Eiji can’t promise he’ll save you, and he can’t always make everything right, but he can always reach his hand out. (I mean, the other guy on this show is a literal hand. Kobayashi is not trying to be subtle with this stuff!) I like shows where the promise of the Rider is that he’ll always try, if nothing else. I think that’s a more real thing to be able to promise kids, and it’s maybe even more valuable to adults. Knowing someone will always reach out if you’re in trouble? I think we could use someone like that in the world.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ooo/ooo04b.png

Would’ve replied earlier, but I forgot what I had to say until now.

According to Ankh’s iPhone (Product Placement Kita!), this two-parter took place on September 13th 2010, which was in real life exactly a day after episode 2 aired. Meaning that the show’s early events all apparently took place 8 days after the show began (I certainly don’t remember much in the way of “next day” transitions, but I might just be struggling to remember).

Also, the fat guy’s still eating even after this experience. I guess so,e desires are hard to let go of/really control.

Eiji's explanation here is significantly better than the really dopey 'they give me a drink' one in 1st episode. About one wanting to help others because otherwise they'd be haunted by guilt and conscience, this is also can be used by people to insist that these guys aren't genuinely heroic and selfless and are also doing good deeds for ulterior motives in making themselves feel good, to validate their belief that humans are inherently rotten. Otherwise, the show seems to not realize that currently Hina helps Eiji more than Eiji does so, but it still only notes Eiji's niceness in his concern for Hina to stay away from Ankh about the 'kind strangers being suspicious' trope, unlike, well, Gavv, where it's Sachika who Shoma questioned her motive for in helping him.

People'd likely just insist that Ankh is being a tsundere in his reasoning to stick with Eiji, but this infuriates me tbh, that the ones on the good side aren't all similarly virtuous and caring about people 'in different flavor' (e.g. this 'tsundere excuse'), particularly for more lighthearted shows that many people think they're black and white. There can be those who only do good deeds because otherwise it's detrimental to their interests (e.g. Asakura saving a little girl as a monster bait) and people should acknowledge that, of which Ankh thinks Kazari is more untrustworthy to work with because Kazari may betray him later, so he happens to benefit the main hero in his decision. I'd think at this point Ankh siding with Eiji is rather like Kuroto siding with the CR or Woz aiding Sougo, they're bad guys who happen to benefit the heroic protagonists, token evil teammates.

This isn't the climatic problem of the series, but it seems that generally the righteous way is usually made seemingly impossible at first despite the hero insisting that they don't want to sacrifice others, in how taking down the Yummy here has a risk of taking down its human host too. Eiji's only able to do so by obtaining something he didn't have before and what the audience didn't know before, the Cheetah medal. There'd be people who think that this is an asspull to validate the heroes' belief rather than properly testing them, but this is may be less noticeable due to this only being an MOTW plot. The Yummy's consequence is still there that the VOTW is actually hospitalized due to the Yummy making him overeat, despite being saved.

It's nice that this story ended up with an ending where both Eiji and Ankh could feel correct, even if Ankh was probably more correct in this situation.

I mean, someone could feel that way, but I think it'd be sad if they did. Eiji's heroism is messy and complicated, but no less resolute than a character that doesn't suffer from guilt or failure. It's way more interesting to watch someone like Eiji navigate his past than it would be to see a character without his baggage.

The way OOO pretty actively leans into the messiness of Eiji's motivations is for sure one of the things that makes the show special, in my opinion. Even here, one of the two things I most remember about this episode is how even though Eiji's little monologue about reaching out his hand does work as a straightforward motivational heroic speech, there's like this palpable sadness to why he feels that way. I think you're hitting the nail on the head when you mention how fitting it is for the show that the motivation can be both a weakness and a strength, because those sorts of grey areas are absolutely key to the way OOO generally examines that whole theme of desire.

Also, the other thing I most remember is just how much I like the Cheetah Medal. Nowadays, that actually includes the beautifully put together sequence of OOO reaching out his hand, because the Yummy plot here is one that sticks out to me from the whole series. Back when I was originally watching the show, however, I'm not sure I absorbed much more than how funny/cool it looks when he's just turbo-kicking that monster to make the hole in the first place.

What's really great about the actor's performance is how locked in his concept of Eiji is by just the fourth episode. His talk with Hina, he's just haunted by something he doesn't want to talk about, and he's practically collapsing from the guilt, but always with a cheery demeanor and a slight smile. This guy who is always trying to stay one step ahead of a guilt that would crush him in an instant... I like seeing that guy continue to reach out to people! Because someone else is always reaching back!