[Fish Sandwich]

Ryuki 27-28:

Two pretty memorable episodes this time. One features an audience surrogate child getting scared straight by Ren after he sees him transform and decides being a Kamen Rider sounds cool. It's a pretty on the nose plot, but Ryuki is a perfect show to do something like this in. It's also written by Kobayashi, which means, you guessed it, Shinji's gyoza comes up again! Apparently that's more of a subplot than I remember. Oh, and it also means the episode is in safe hands and delivered in a way that really sells it. I love how Ren's plan to fake getting beat up by a monster gets interrupted by him genuinely getting beat up by other Riders. All around, it's a great reminder that the fight between the Riders isn't fun and games for those taking part in it.

But man is it ever fun for the spectators! The other episode is the one where Odin shows up to make a small correction, which I'm pretty sure is one of the most famous bits of Ryuki? I don't know how to go about proving that, though. Just like how Shinji doesn't know how to go about preventing the same tragedies from repeating even when given a chance to stop them. The whole Time Vent plot was an extremely clever twist on the normal concept of a recap episode, showing the events of the series up to this point play out again in a fashion that reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode or something. The whole context of the episode is that Shinji is completely powerless and can't even remember he remembers what's going to happen most of the time, which is kind of horrifying, and gives things a very different atmosphere than the usual clip show where people sit there reminiscing about things in a laid-back manner. Actually, I keep comparing it to a clip show, but I'm not even sure that's fair. It might just be a total coincidence the episode functions as a summary of the story, because I have to imagine restaging a bunch of old scenes again probably ruins the low-effort part that usually motivates such things, even if most of the Rider action is recycled. At any rate, I love this episode to bits because it's one I think of whenever I think of how captivating this show was to me at the time (and obviously still is). It seriously felt like anything could happen by this point.

Den-O 27:

So, in case I need to explain this to anyone, Den-O made the choice to have episodes of the TV show directly set up the usual summer movie, which, to this day, hasn't been done before or since. Sure, plenty of them nowadays do have a specific place in the show's canon (W even acknowledged it in-series), but Den-O is still one of a kind in having a direct prologue episode that aired a day after (yes, after) the film came out. It literally goes right up to the start of the movie, then ends with what is essentially a trailer. Part of me doesn't like this whole idea because it feels like such shameless promotion, but then, the whole point of Kamen Rider is shameless promotion, so what's the big deal, right?

The episode itself is also crazy sharp. The amount of energy it has and the way it all flows together into one big entertaining romp is peak Den-O to the point where even without an ending, it manages to stand on its own. I can't stress that enough. Watching it made me realize all over again just how much Den-O had found its groove by this point. This show is on a roll, and it ain't stopping anytime soon.

OOO 27-28:

Firstly, how cool is it that OOO was the show that got the honor of airing Kamen Rider's 1000th episode? The show is already riding high anyway, and then a golden opportunity to throw a huge party like this comes along. It's perfect.

Secondly, Shouji Yonemura got the honor of writing this arc, and judging by what he wrote, I think he was pretty jacked about that.

And thirdly, these episodes are completely insane. Ankh is desperately trying to pretend things are still normal, but even he gets caught up in the wild meta antics of Kougami's efforts to make the ultimate Kamen Rider fan film. He's not screwing around, either. You will never be as hardcore of a Rider fan as Kougami. He can watch every Rider show ever at the same time and his ideas for the movie are all heavily inspired directly by the OG show, so you can tell he respects the roots. Mixed in with this crazy premise is the equally crazy premise of a Shocker grunt that wants to prove the glory of all the mooks in Rider history by defeating OOO, and the end result is a pretty spectacular two-part celebration of the franchise that knows not to take things too seriously.