[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 17



Pretty fun episode of Kabuto! A lot of ups, and just a few downs.

Let's tackle the downs first, since they're less about this episode and more systemic. Namely, they're all related to this being the first part of a Kabuto two-parter, so get ready for people acting like complete assholes with no clear motivation (yet), and a plot that mostly revolves around When Exactly Did Tendou Figure It All Out.

The first part is the big flaw in this episode, even if I'd say it didn't really harm the story. Daisuke is almost unconscionably dismissive of Gon here, treating her alternately as a liar; a slacker; a pest; and an anchor. In the same way that the show wants there to be no confusion as to whether Kageyama deserves to burn (gleefully assaulting both women and children in one episode), there's just wall-to-wall Daisuke being awful in this chapter. Worse, it basically comes out of nowhere? I'm sure (I hope) the next episode will sketch in why Daisuke suddenly didn't give two shits about Gon's obvious terror, but here it's just him getting worse and worse until WAIT HE DOES CARE. It is... I do not love a surrogate father slowly abandoning his ward! It is not a fun thing to watch, especially when it's like Of Course Daisuke Actually Cares About Gon. There isn't shock or tension, there's just this steadily mounting disappointment in both Daisuke as a character, and Kabuto as a show. Him fighting Kabuto at the end, it's like... where was all of this at any other point in the episode. (He is so disinterested when she says a man grabbed her at night in a park! What the hell, Daisuke?!)

And, speaking of that fight with Kabuto, that's kind of the other downside of this one, and Kabuto stories kind of in general? I mean, it's a setup, right? Not from Daisuke, maybe, but Tendou has totally Clocked Up to what's going on here. He always does, which makes cliffhangers that put him in jeopardy sort of nonstarters for me. There is a trick, or a ruse, or a stratagem, and he'll do his Skinny Jeans Poirot thing later in the second part, where he lays out what's really been going on in the story, and... like, that's this show. I'm not completely mad at it, but there's a use of the formula that is wearing a little thin, and I really felt it at this episode's conclusion. I didn't buy the cliffhanger (the cut to the ZECT camera on ShootHopper's gun felt way too intentional), so the end of the episode was a bit of a shrug for me. It's something that's happened more than once for me on this show, where the tension of a plot evaporates because I never for a second think the dilemma has gotten away from Tendou. That's a structural flaw that... I mean, I'm only a third of the way through the show and it's becoming hard to dismiss. That's not great!

But, again, neither of those things really sank the episode for me. It's an inventively-shot story that focuses on Gon's past, Hiyori's compassion, and the ways found families carry within them a fear of abandonment that never goes away; while also making time for bathroom antics, quality fights, and an overconfident Kagami who will not stop telling his one story.

That Kagami story... I mean, the joke is how over it all of his friends are, but I never got tired of that gag. The way it keeps escalating in his mind, where he looks cooler and cooler the more he thinks about it, and how from the first telling of it in this episode Tendou wishes he made a different choice last episode to help him. But the fact that the episode kept visually embellishing it, it just sold the joke for me.

Similarly, Gon's flashbacks are, like, the version of Hiyori's flashbacks that I wanted. The way the world outside the bus is a children's drawing of the world, and Gon's mother's face is blurred out (wild guess: the woman who's interviewing Daisuke) because she can't make sense of it all yet... it's a lot of incredibly specific touches that make the tragedy of Gon's past something that feels like more than just some random accident. It's like Kagami's story, where it feels heightened, mythical. It's less an accident than an origin story.

Daisuke may spend the episode being total scum (Tendou's words, not mine, but also I would use those words), but there's a lot from Gon's side that makes him seem worth caring about. That little scene, when Gon asks to hold Hiyori's hand, and then drops it because it only feels right with Daisuke? My heart! I can only take so much sadness! And it's all so sad here, as Gon is so much more of a little girl than the Brains Of The Outfit we're used to. To see her need comfort, reassurance, and to look for it in Daisuke... it's doing this double-act of making him seem like a refuge, and then making it hurt more when he refuses to comfort Gon. It is taking a dynamic I was already invested in, and making it seem like its dissolution would be the end of the world.

And that's a theme that... I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into it, but it seems like it's exploring how precarious found families can feel. Found families are all over Kamen Rider (since, typically , ALL DADS ARE DEAD), as a group of weirdos and outcasts find strength in their friendships, elevating them into unbreakable bonds. But, there's always this sense that people could still leave that you don't get with your original family. There's a strength in choosing to say These People Are My Family, but it's still a choice, and that choice can always be unmade. God knows people can (and do!) choose to break familial connections all the time, but most stories are about how hard that is to do. You Can't Turn Your Back On Family and all that. But with Gon and Daisuke, it feels totally insecure, like an agreed-upon delusion. They're family as long as neither of them gets sick of it. Even in the beginning, Daisuke says he can't commit to always holding Gon's hand. Telling a story about that, how a found family is a constant, daily commitment to one another... that's a story I'm not sure I've seen before?

Like, I can't for a second argue with the stakes of this episode. Daisuke's motivation is frustratingly vague (he's a dick from the jump), and I don't believe Tendou's out of step on this one, but A Little Girl Needs Her Rider Dad is such a bulletproof idea for a story, I can't really come down too hard on the flaws. This episode was a machine designed to put my goddamn heart in a vice, and it did that with precision. Sort of terrified to watch the next episode!

A QUESTION

Kageyama! Boy oh boy, Kageyama. Him giving Gon that little smile, just before he abducts her? Pretty terrible! On a scale of 1 (Let's See Where This Goes) to 10 (I've Already Wiped Him From My Memory, Like Gon's Mom's Face), how done are you with Kageyama?