[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER KUUGA EPISODE 20



So, uh, yeah. Sorry! This last month has been relentlessly busy (built a new store, my birthday happened, Thanksgiving, etc.) and I had to take a time-out on, like, everything nonessential. No Kuuga for Kamen Rider Die, unfortunately. Luckily, things have settled into merely So Much Work and I'm able to get back on the Kuuga viewings.

It was incredibly gracious of the production team to time this episode for my return to the series (that's how time works right?), what with it being a relaxed check-in with every character and every plotline. I was a little afraid I'd've forgotten too much in the last month, but I was able to follow what was happening in the episode.

Did, y'know, did anything happen in this episode? I liked that this one took pains to show that there were stakes to Godai's death and resurrection, even if Godai is his typical goofy self, but it maybe spent too long on acknowledging stakes. There needs to be a middle ground between Neo Heisei's "walk it off” attitude to being cosmically eradicated and reconstructed, and half an episode of people telling a Kamen Rider that they're glad he isn't dead anymore.

Maybe if the episode was structured differently? It's very, very front-loaded with dialogue scenes and emotional connections, with a monster attack only occurring at the very end. Worse, it's a monster we've already seen Kuuga beat, and one who doesn't even blow up at the end. It's an anticlimactic fight (which is noted in a way that I assume they'll come back to) in an episode that desperately needed some kind of big action finish.

(There was a very cool shot, though. After Kuuga defeats the monster, as he's standing next to Ichijou, the camera pushes in on Ichijou past Kuuga, then pulls back out and it's Godai standing there. One fluid camera move, no edits or effects. Totally immersive. Big round of applause for that shot.)

So, yeah, weird one to come back to. It felt like a nice refresher, but it was hardly the rousing superhero show that'd get me back in a good routine.

I am trying to get back in a good routine! I promise not to disappear again. Unlike Ichijou and Godai's dead fathers (ALL DADS ARE DEAD), I won't abandon you.