[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 06

You know, I think in a weird way, pretending to be a bad guy and pointing a gun at Kagami is one of the biggest signs yet that Tendou legitimately loves having a best friend.

I mean, he's trolling everybody in this episode with the exception of Hiyori and Juka, of course, but something about this particular moment stands out to me a lot more than anything during the interrogation scenes. When he's being obstinate with ZECT, I mean, that's just a Kamen Rider rejecting systems of authority, and I love Tendou for that, but to come up with this elaborate skit while escaping like this, I can only conclude there's this "oh man, I can't wait to see the look on his face...!" sort of joy he must find in it that I don't think he'd get from any random person out there. He's probably more excited to have Kagami in his life than Kagami is to have him... not that I can really blame Kagami when Tendou has such an unusual idea of how... well, how most things work.

I don't have a complaint about this one. Yeah, yeah, the premise is faulty at its core, but whatever; we're having fun here, and I like fun. Tendou is a regular barrel of laughs throughout, and I'm a sucker for any plot in anything that involves the heroes stealing uniforms from bad guy grunts to pull off some kinda daring infiltration/escape. And in this case it's both at once! Love that Tendou and Kagami both come up with the idea completely independently, too, showing just that tiny bit of similarity between the two, despite the vastly different levels of tension they're each feeling. Kagami is a bundle of nerves while Tendou spends the entire runtime in control of everything except when Hiyori hangs up the phone. Which is really saying something about Hiyori when Tendou is the guy so in control of everything he lets his enemies walk into his Rider Kicks for him.

The word I'd use to describe this episode has gotta be "romp". It's pretty much the opposite of profound and deep, but it's having such a great time with itself the attitude is infectious. The uneven aspects of it get drowned out handily by what works, and on top of all that fun you even get the odd bit of genuine emotion or a good thrill.

I loved the sort of in-episode next-episode-previews new Riders got in Ryuki, and it's no less hype in Kabuto. The scene here doesn't even make sense literally and I adore that about it. Just standing around transformed overlooking the city for no reason other than to show off to the audience; a time-honored tradition that would be carried into many a Movie War in future years. I mean, if you had a super suit that cool, wouldn't you want to dramatically stand on rooftops?

The genuine emotion part maybe didn't hit that great with me at the very end with the Tokyo Tower bit, but since Die said I could, I will take the time out to mention more stuff about Hiyori – the way she habitually avoids eye contact is so aggressively real, and it's fantastic. There really is a depth to the performance. It's not as simple as her not looking at people, which would get the point across, it's all these little half-movements and glances that paint such a clear picture of who she is as a person and how she feels at any particular moment. She'll talk to people without ever turning to face them, or look juuust enough away to avoid properly meeting their gaze outside a few rare moments, sometimes done with great effort, and sometimes more accidentally than anything, with her darting her eyes right back.

It's easy to take for granted, but conversations in TV shows and the like are generally staged so that people in a conversation look like they're conversing, so avoiding that so often with Hiyori takes a much appreciated conscious effort on the part of the people making Kabuto.

And hey, to top all this off, I've actually got a good answer to one of Die's questions for once! Back when Gaim was on the air, and everyone including me was all hyped up about it, I genuinely started eating a ton more fruit for a while, including a few I typically avoided. Mind you, it was never some grand experiment to try everything that got made into a Lock Seed or anything, and it didn't result in any serious long-term dietary changes, but it did turn out I enjoy oranges way more than I thought I did, and that's stuck with me to this day.

Oh, and despite being a huge Wizard fan, I didn't go through any similar phase with donuts – probably for the best! If anything, I think the lesson I took away from Haruto was how to aggressively avoid trying new things at all costs. Some people just know what they like already!