[Kurona]

So, right off the bat; we've come to the end of my Funny Kuuga Gun count. And we're actually ending on quite the banger; because I tried my damndest to get a screenshot of Kuuga Mighty grabbing the gun before changing into Pegasus at the end of 44, and when I finally managed it? It was blurry in the most perfect way possible. The first image at the bottom of this post is my final gift to you all.


So now we've got the superfluous superficial stuff out the way, let's talk about toys for a second. Kamen Rider from the very start of the Heisei Era has played a very delicate balancing act in telling a coherent story and having to sell a colourful product filled with goofy sounds. And I've always admired how well it's able to balance that -- I heavily admire how recent shows which have a billion upgrades are able to somehow work them all naturally into distinct moments of character development.

But what I admire even more, though, is when the show introduces something that there's no explicit toy of. Agito Trinity, for instance -- at the time the form was introduced, there were no actual figures of this form. Sure, using the Souchaku Henshin's armour gimmick you could 100% just kitbash the form together which I'm sure is exactly what Toshiki Inoue did, and not long after Bandai added a little sticker to the box saying you could turn it into Trinity; but there wasn't any actual specific merch for it like there was for Flame or Storm. For the purposes of telling the story of Episode 29 as best they could, a story about regaining a certain sense of self and advancing beyond that; the staff of Agito just came up with a form all on their own with no explicit toy connection, and it didn't even show up again until 2014.

All of which is to say, I'm sorry Dreamsword, but I adore this. Especially as Kuuga was one of the last five Heisei shows I watched, there was a real bluster and confidence to me in introducing a non-final form with very few episodes left. Heck, this combined with the last episode recap; it's almost like they were saying "alright, alright, we got the Rising BeatGouram out the way or whatever; now onto the REAL shit"!

I joke about how this is all superficial of course... but it's stuff like this that shows me when a Rider show's storytelling really, really cares. When they introduce wholly unique sounds and forms that's in-line with the merchandise but isn't exactly merchandise itself; when it goes out of the way just for the sake of telling their story the best way they could; when it does things that just downright could not have been healthy for toy sales. I'm sure more than a few kids rushed out to their local Toys R Us, wanting the new Black Kuuga form; saw that there wasn't one there but there was this weird veiny spiky Kuuga and got upset and went straight back home. But what would have followed will have been so, so much more important for them.

And besides, Amazing Kuuga got like a ton of SHFs and Model Kits and Statues and everything well after this. He straight up maximises Bandai's profit margins now by being an easy repaint! And I suck it up like the absolute fool I am.




... oh, right, and there's a whole emotion story in here too about Enokida which I just completely adore in so many ways! I got out a lot of what I liked about it a couple weeks back, where I was talking about how wonderful Enokida and Jean's chemistry is and how you can read into it very differently; but this seriously goes the extra mile. Once again, I love how Kuuga is a show that absolutely refuses to say "no, she's definitely in the wrong and needs to learn". I love that Enokida is a character who knows how awful it is that she's having to skip out on her son; I love that she feels so much guilt over it; I love how it's not about her making the wrong decision but how she feels about the decision she's made!

And most of all... I think I love Jean's reaction to her. Once again, so many shows would have the scene where the other character stands up and give an impassioned speech be about how the person feeling guilt needs to get a grip, or how they need to just get over it. But Jean's not about that. What he is about is making sure Enokida understands just how much she's loved by the people around her, and letting her do what she wants with that information.

Just like with Mika back in Episodes 7 & 8; just like with Hiraku back in Episode 25 & 26; the emphasis is not on telling the other character what to do. It's not about patronising them. It's not about laying out a path for them. It's about giving them the information and the support they need, and having enough trust in that character with what they'll do with that.

And what's so, so wonderful about Kuuga is that the other character will always prove that the trust in them was never displaced, and never could be.