[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER 555 EPISODE 24



--1--

Things seem pretty fucked right now, in the real world. Pretty, pretty fucked. People are protesting police brutality, the police are responding with more brutality... I don't know, man. I don't know.

I had one of my stores looted last night. Actually, due to not being able to get to the store because of the Chicago-wide curfew, it got looted six times. (Cameras caught it all, including one guy taking his sweet-ass time dumping Pop vinyls into a big bag.) Took over two hours to get there today (usually takes twenty minutes) due to sanitation trucks blocking off nearly every street into downtown Chicago. When I got there, the broken window had already been boarded up, but nothing had been cleaned up inside. Four huge metal bookcases had been knocked over, with product still inside. Total loss. Toys and games were stolen, along with office equipment. Filing cabinets and boxes were rooted through. A $1K life-size Spider-Man was stolen. Just a whole bunch of random theft and damage. No idea if tonight's going to be more of the same. Long day. Long day.

But, man, I still support the protestors. This wasn't them. This was asshole looters taking advantage of a situation. The protests, they still matter. They're still right. It's hard to give a shit about Kamen Rider when you watch some of these videos, people trying to save other people from open warfare. I don't know.

You probably don't care about my thoughts on this. There isn't going to be some smooth transition where I mention Kamen Riders fighting for justice or the power of entertainment or some horseshit like that. Centuries of systemic abuse and the frustrated response of a demoralized populace aren't something I feel like I can put a sweet bow on. It's on my mind, though. I... I don't know.

--2--

But, fuck it, let's talk about Kamen Rider 555.

I watched this one almost a day ago, and I'm not sure how much of it I remember. I'm pretty sure it's a lot of Kaido and a lot of Lucky Clover. Does that sound right?

--3--

The Lucky Clover stuff in this show, I think it's pretty good. I don't know where it would rank on a list of memorable Faiz things, but probably not super-high. There's not really been a Lucky Clover story or plot that's been as dramatic as, say, anything internally generated from Team Faiz or Team Orphnoch.

What I'm saying is, I don't know if this show really improves with an external villain group? I like the characters, they're never a drain on the show, but it feels (right now, at least) so unnecessary to the main storytelling. It's not as bad as the buried-alive workers at the Ryusei Cram School, who get a check-in every few episodes for one scene, but it's not something to look forward to.

Here, they're still trying to find a fourth member, since Kusaka has decided he'd rather not be a part of a group where at least 50% of them would be fine killing him. Also, he was only doing it to try and destroy Smart Brain, and this ended up being not a great scheme to do that.

So, they decide to choose some random kid who's become an Orphnoch. That kid, I'm just going to call him Kouhai (since Kaido's Sempai), isn't doing great. He's a monster, and he wants to die. He needs help understanding what it means to be a grey monster, and for better or worse he's got Kaido to lead him.

--4--

Almost the whole second half of this episode was Kaido and Kouhai, and it was a blast. Kaido's losing his mind after Mari's final-but-hopefully-final-for-Kaido-this-time-too rejection, and he wants some way to to get revenge on a world that's stolen all his happiness. Luckily, Kouhai's easily impressed by Kaido's strongly delivered advice on Being The Best Monster You Can Be, and praises Kaido's mentorship so much that Kaido goes totally off the rails.

(I love all the ways this episode establishes how crucial flattery is to Kaido's well-being. It might be the only thing that sustains him!)

With Kouhai's help, he gets a chance to join Lucky Clover's ranks if he completes one simple job: steal both the Faiz belt and the Kaixa belt. Easy!

And, holy shit, he does it. He plans a scheme that draws out the Kamen Riders, they tussle a bit over the belts (I know it's in context, but I love that there is a fight scene in a Kamen Rider where the monster's goal is to undress the Kamen Riders), and then they fake being cops to take the Smart Brain cases off of the heroes. Mission goddamn accomplished.

It's a bonkers plan, and the fact that it succeeded relies entirely on cartoon logic. It would not have surprised me if an earlier draft of Kaido's scheme included painting a tunnel on a wall and hoping Faiz drove into it. Like, where the hell did they get all of the shit for their barricade? But it's so goofy, and it completely works, so it's nothing I'm upset about. Worth noting, but not worth criticizing.

--5--

That plan's success gives us the awesome episode-ending image of Houjou and Kageyama Henshining into Faiz and Kaixa. (There's even a smaller person than usual in the Kaixa suit! Neat!)

This episode worked pretty well, I thought. It's heavy with Lucky Clover stuff in the beginning, but that transitions into a fever-dream of a Kaido story in the second half. Really fun stuff.

It's nice to think about Faiz. I really needed this. I hope things are less fucked soon.