[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER AGITO EPISODE 36



I can't tell if I hated this episode or not.

It's full of Kino stuff, as it probably should be. He's the newest Rider, he's a big ol' question mark, and it's nice to get a better read on him. But, holy shit, did I hate his story in this episode. Ryou falls in love with him, Majima dedicates his life to being more like him, he's a helpful bike mechanic who can also do double surgeries, whenever he's not onscreen all of the characters ask "Where's Kino,"... it's a lot! He's, like, a parody of a hyper-competent badass. All of the cool characters immediately respect him, and he's not just good at what he does, he's so good that men swoon and society trembles at his greatness. (Double surgery! That's not and never will be a thing!) I could not stop laughing at how hard the show was trying to make me think Kino is awesome.

Then he tries to kill Majima, boasting that he's the only Agito the world needs so every other Agito has to die, and that whole hyper-competent setup played as a lot less funny. It's a solid swerve, a surprising reveal, and I'm a lot more into what Kino brings to the story now. Like, I still think it went hilariously too far (maybe he's just a cool guy who's a good surgeon, maybe he doesn't have to break the world's record for surgeries or whatever), but it's nice that there was a deeper reason for it.

So, yeah, Kino's an Agito-killing lunatic, and that's pretty much all we get this episode. I guess that was the other reason I hated most of it? There's basically no time for anyone else. Ozawa and Omuro only get one scene to set up a later Houjou scene that reframes the series problem as maybe not Too Many Unknown but perhaps Too Many Agitos. Topical, what with Kino losing his goddamn mind in the next scene, and I'll never say no to Houjou, but it's a set of scenes that barely get to breathe in this story.The Uncle/Taichii scene is fun, and it's nice that they've let Uncle be really really weird lately. That dude's mind broke back when Mana ran away, and I don't think he's been right since. I love it!

This wasn't a great episode for me, what with all of the Kino Admiration, but I'm glad it was just a one episode swerve. I'm really into Kino being a hyper-competent Nice Guy murderous lunatic, so we'll see if the next one gets me back.