[Fish Sandwich]

EPISODE 5: "Distance"

This episode opens up with a triple threat of new supporting characters. First comes the glorious introduction of Jean, a character I love because of his remarkable unremarkability. He's got that righteous normal guy energy at all times, and always seems slightly off in his own world, just happy to be around. It makes him into a total enigma. You know, like what are his hobbies? Does he collect postage stamps? He seems like a guy who would collect postage stamps.

After the opening, it's finally time to meet Pops, and what more perfect introduction could he receive than boring Ichijou to death with a story while he waits for Yuusuke to show up at Pole Pole? Naturally, Ichijou is out the door the second he sees Yuusuke, and together they go to meet someone much more charismatic. Tsubaki is probably my favorite member of Kuuga's extended supporting cast. Extraordinarily useful to the plot, but also quirky enough to be more than a simple device for exposition. Although make no mistake, he's great at exposition. This episode makes it explicit that there's little functional difference between Yuusuke's body and those of the Grongi, and further establishes that his belt is gradually fusing with him, which could present some problems in the future. For now, though, it's just making Yuusuke awesome at fighting monsters, especially in his right leg, for some reason. That last bit of information probably won't amount to anything, though.

The main emotional thread for this two-parter is Sakurako's concern for Yuusuke's safety. Again, his childlike enthusiasm has a tendency to make him look reckless, so I don't blame her for being upset when she finds out that not only did Ichijou not stop him from fighting last episode, he gave him a fancy bike and sent him on his way. Yuusuke tries to explain that he fights as Kuuga because he's the only one who can, but it's not much help. Sakurako loses the will to keep deciphering the ancient texts (not helped by an inappropriately timed comment from Jean), and while Yuusuke is confident she just needs some time to think about it, that's where we leave everyone, since the last seven minutes of the episode are all about the action.

There's a truly egregious sequence of Yuusuke riding to the scene of the crime on his bike that lasts a full minute, that feels an awful lot like padding, and is also awesome. Look, I'm just not going to say no to any amount of a Kamen Rider on their bike. I long for the days when it was even possible to say "hey, maybe it'd be okay if there was a little less bike action in this episode". Plus, it does serve the purpose of showing off the Try Chaser's ability to shift into an on-brand Kuuga color scheme. Can't say I've ever understood how that works, but it's a cool visual. Brings to mind the extra bits of the Cyclone popping out back in the old days. You know what, just to prove my point, I'm gonna pad out this very post with screenshots of this scene, and I defy you to tell me you can't hear those sweet guitar riffs in your head just looking at them.





Once Kuuga manages to eventually get where he's going, he makes another sweet hero entrance catching a cop who was just thrown off a building by our bad guy for these episodes, Zu-Badzuu-Ba. He's one of the particularly memorable monsters from Kuuga, on account of being the grasshopper one. Er, well, a grasshopper one, anyway. His design deliberately incorporates classic Rider elements like the scarf, and the tears beneath the eyes, and I believe his human form's funky hairdo is actually directly inspired by Shoutarou Ishinomori's own? It's a whole lot of Showa goodness packed into one monster design, and even if you don't care for the significance of this show being cocky enough this early on to have its hero go up against a villain representing the franchise's roots (which I assure you was more cheeky fun than pointed jab), just as a villain, he gets the job done great. Using his grasshopper leaps to take people up to high places and then throw them off is brutal, and you can tell throughout his fight with Kuuga how much he's enjoying himself. You want to see him get taken down a peg, but to do that, Kuuga's gonna need some mad hops of his own. Which means it's time for our first form change!

Dragon Form's debut is yet another example of Kuuga's desire to break rules resulting in a way more entertaining show. There's still that sense of wonder at what these mysterious new powers represent, but it starts getting undercut from the second Yuusuke utters his nonchalant reaction of "I turned blue!". The idea that Yuusuke has zero clue what's going on adds such an extra dimension to the scene. He has to work out what the details of this new form are through trial and error, and as it turns out, he can't do it fast enough. Rather than this new piece of merchandise immediately being the key to a heroic turnaround, it actually just throws him off, resulting in Badzuu easily overpowering him, giving Kuuga the same treatment as all his other victims: tossed from a skyscraper for the trouble. It's a heck of a way to end an episode.



THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

This one keeps things simple.



Total thumbs up count: 11+1 = 12

EPISODE 6: "Azure Dragon"

Okay, so first off, about the title. I'd like to clarify real quick that seiryuu is one word in Japanese, so the episode naming scheme is totally intact.

What's a lot less intact is Yuusuke, who's in the hospital after the beating he took from Badzuu. As soon as Sakurako is informed of this, she naturally rushes over to see him... only to find him on his way out, smiling and assuring her he's fine. Tsubaki begs to differ, saying that even with his enhanced strength, his injuries shouldn't be healed this fast. Sure enough, the next we see of Yuusuke, he's not looking so hot.



So right there, it's official. Yuusuke downplays his own problems to avoid worrying the people he cares about. The guy says he's fine, and barely manages to drag himself to a bed to pass out on. This scene makes it even more believable when Ichijou admits to Sakruako that the reason he let Yuusuke go was because he realized there was no stopping him even if he tried, because he realizes they're similar. Just a few episodes ago, we did, in fact, see Ichijou pull this exact stunt. So kudos to the show for taking these two characters that are purpose-built foils to one another, and still making that line from Ichijou land. They legitimately do have a lot of similarities for how different they are.

Sakurako is still freaking out a bit over everything that's happening, especially since those fears are turning out to be justifiable. A conversation with Minori sets her straight though. She gets to vent that she realizes it's selfish of her to try and avoid everything happening, and Minori tells her to just think and act how she normally would, which is almost identical to Yuusuke's own advice in the previous episode. It actually really helps sell that these two are siblings, and you've gotta love how gentle they are when it comes to advice. Minori's immediate response to Sakurako saying she wants to run away is "That's fine!" I don't think it's possible to get any less pushy than that.

Sakurako gets back to work, trying to decipher anything helpful about Kuuga's new powers, which is a good thing, too, because Pops' advice on choosing sauces for curry, while a surprisingly adequate summation of how form-changing heroes work, isn't gonna be much help to poor Yuusuke. Especially not when he's already out there getting beat up again. Sakurako figures out that Dragon Form is supposed to use long objects as weapons, but in all the carnage, Ichijou is unable to answer his phone, meaning she has to go into action herself to relay the message.

This is just a super smart narrative decision. Her character arc for these episodes, learning to do the thing only she can, is basically over already, but obviously it wouldn't be that satisfying for the climax of that to be her sitting in a chair. It's dynamic and interesting to see her speeding to the scene on a moped, even busting through a police barricade to get there in time. The fact that she's explicitly heading directly into the danger also nicely underscores the fact that she's no longer scared. It's a very solid resolution to the plotline, and the resulting fight with Dragon Form is short but sweet. Especially thanks to the killer jazz fusion background music, which is a nice change of pace from all the hard rock. This is a strong episode that does a great job showing that even though Kuuga fights alone, he's never *alone*.



THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

It's around this point that it starts to become apparent how big Yuusuke's influence on people is.







Total thumbs up count: 12+5 = 17