[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BUILD EPISODES 32 - 33



So, I didn't care much for last episode because it was information without character impact, and character growth that lacked specificity. And along comes this episode, that I guess read my post from a day ago and went back in time to do it better? Is... is this the time-traveling Kamen Rider series? Have I just not been paying attention to the credits?!

(jk, the credits might be the one part I wouldn't want to miss)

Yep, I felt almost the exact opposite about this episode as I did 31. The big info about Banjou's genetics is deployed immediately, and classically. I cannot believe that Sento just blurts it out like a) it's only vaguely interesting, and b) it won't change anything. I could not stop laughing, not just because it's another great way the show swerves on exposition, but because it's exactly what that character would do. (Also, he's exactly right on both counts, as proven by the rest of the episode!) This whole episode is full of smart, in-character decisions that progress the story without feeling like the boot of the plot is on the show's neck. There was no way Grease was going to give the enemy what he'd fought so hard to keep from them, so he just doesn't go save his people. We could've gotten some betrayal, then some team-up, then some reconciliation, and that would've killed an episode, but it would've sucked. (Also, thank god those farmers ran for Touto because they were being used for leverage, like, daily.) Likewise, Rogue is enough of a tactician to realize that, if the farmers don't work as leverage, there's zero point in killing them. Plan didn't work, cut 'em loose. He'll destroy anything that gets in his way, but he's not going to murder restrained civilians. This was an episode where the plot moved according to character decisions, and it was the better for it.

That's evident in the main runner with Banjou, as he sort-of grapples with his newfound otherworldly heritage. It's great how the show dealt with it. Banjou's faced with an existential crisis, but Banjou doesn't even know what "existential" means, so he's mostly just grumpy about it for half a day and then he's over it. That's fantastic. Even better, I feel like I got the most clarity yet on what being a Kamen Rider means to Banjou. The idea that he's not like Sento, that he doesn't care about people the way Sento does, but he wants to be that kind of man and he's going to keep fighting until he is, I found that explanation enormously compelling. Way, way more compelling than the winter movie's "I want to protect some people sometimes" explanation.

A super-smart episode all the way around, where character decisions shape the plot rather than the other way around. That's almost all it takes!



Lot of arc stuff around the edges (Evolt, Evol Driver, all of the Hipster Dad backstory), which is kind-of a hallmark of the third act of Kamen Rider shows I've seen. (Not to be one-size-fits-all about it, but: First act, Introduction; Second act, Elaboration; Third act, Revelation; Fourth act, Resolution. The end of the first act is usually around the winter movie, the end of the third act is usually around the summer movie. I'm sure there are a billion exceptions to this framework!) We're certainly given some sense of what Stalk's been up to the last decade, and what he's trying to achieve. We don't get a lot more with Banjou's alien abilities, but it's still mentioned as a thing. We do get almost a whole episode with Rogue, though, and I loved it.

Military Adam Driver is a tricky character, a constantly-shifting antagonist who seems exactly as crazy as the current plot needs him to be. I'm not going to say I didn't care about him, but I cared about him a little less once he abandoned Touto (and Night Rogue) for Seito (and Rogue).This episode went a long, long way to making me care about him again, maybe the most I ever have.

I dig Tragic Riders. Not every show has them (most don't), so it's always a treat to me when one is worked into a show. Rogue is, like, a textbook example of a Tragic Rider. He's a villain with a goal, and it's a goal that is only 3 degrees away from being reasonable, but he just takes his ambition way too far and ruins basically everything in his life. Eventually, he gets some clarity, and tries to harness the poor decisions he's made to redeem himself, but... uh... there's this expression, it's about how many wrongs you need to make before something right happens, I can't remember it right now, but you know the one I mean, probably. Anyway, things inevitably go even further south, right towards rock bottom. That's the journey Rogue has been on, and I super dig it. This episode takes some pretty diverse portrayals and, remarkably, makes them all seem like the path of one person. He's not some raving lunatic or a calculating overachiever, he's someone who got their life ruined by a freak accident and is only now able to find his way out of some poor decisions. But, it's Kamen Rider, and he's a Tragic Rider, so there's one more thing in his life that needs to go wrong.



ALL DADS ARE DEAD.

Oh, and speaking of dads: Kamen Rider Evolt! Love the bottles, love the henshin, love the color scheme on the suit, love the helmet design, love the astronomy motif on the suit (science!), don't love the shoulders a whole lot. Feels like shoulders are a design weakness a lot on Kamen Riders. Frequently they're just too floppy, too obtrusive, and I'm not a fan of the "more power = bigger shoulders" design philosophy. The shoulders, swinging and flopping everywhere, end up making the fights between powerful adversaries look a bit too goofy as movement is hindered. Not my favorite part, but Evolt still has a lot working in its favor. I'm excited to see where it goes as it moves into other phases. Shoulders as big as a Rider? A boy can dream!