[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 20

One of the big joys of going back to a show you've forgotten so much about is whenever you get to feel pleasantly surprised by something you had been remembering incorrectly for so long. Case in point, I was under the impression Kabuto held back a lot more on Tsurugi than it does.

I had it my head he spent a good while as just some comically obnoxious jerk before the scripts start taking him places and adding depth to him, but uh... that's pretty much all here in this one already? Or at least a lot more than I expected. I even worded my post on the last episode pretty ambiguously when it came to what exactly makes him a favorite character of mine, thinking I might be jumping the gun on developments that could be dozens of episodes away. But no, I only had to wait one episode to tell everyone the basics of why Tsurugi is great, and I'm happy to see so much agreement already pouring in from everyone.

(Oh, and as a quick side note: of course we're calling Tsurugi that when it literally means "sword" and he's the guy with the sword; the simplicity makes it easy to remember! Although between him and Daisuke, I'm now realizing there's a weird split in this show between characters who nobody calls by their family names and ones who nobody ever refers to by their given names. Like, when's the last time you ever saw somebody talking about Souji or Arata? Never, right?)

Anyway, I'd break what makes Tsurugi great down into three major points, and none of them have to do with his construction as a foil to Tendou. The more the series pushes him away from that concept, the better it does for him as an individual, naturally. That being said, I will take this time to give credit to just how much Tsurugi in particular went to the extreme ends of that concept. The utter lack of subtlety, even giving him his own egocentric catchphrase derived from his name's meaning, I don't mind it, honestly. For a guy who wants to stand at the top in everything he does, Tsurugi certainly represents a sort of pinnacle for rival Riders who act as foils to Tendou. It would've worn out its welcome had that been all there was to him, but thankfully, that's not the case.

Instead, we've got a character who, first of all, has a surprising capacity for honestly admitting his own faults. Not that he's even that great at it, mind you, but he's certainly better at it than most people in this series; the idea that Tsurugi would genuinely be willing to put in the work to be a better person, and is ultimately kept from doing so more from simple ignorance than from anything actively malicious, I find it does wonders to keep him endearing. Stemming right out of that, the second thing is that his botched attempts to exist among the common people are just plain funny. Watching him constantly bumble his way through daily life the way only a rich fool could, it's hard not to fall in love with it after a while. The poor guy is just trying so hard, you know?

The other big thing is that the show instantly takes his vendetta against the Worms, and makes it far more intriguing than it otherwise would be by having the cruel twist that Tsurugi is one of the monsters he's fighting. Dead sister or no, a guy who goes around single-mindedly pursuing revenge could easily come off cold and unlikable, but when you throw in a dramatically ironic fate like this, I think that gets the viewer to feel for them in more complex ways. It's also a sort of throwback to the classic trope of the Rider being a monster, which I always love, but admittedly, it's probably incidental in this case. Tsurugi's particular setup is pretty clearly more of a natural outgrowth of the premise of the Worms as shapeshifting imposters than anything. Still great stuff, though, and also by far the thing I was most shocked to see revealed this early on! For whatever reason, I didn't think the viewer gets more than minor hints about this for a while. Perhaps I was mixing Tsurugi up with a certain ashen wolf monster this whole time?

Who knows, but at any rate, I'm happy to have Tsurugi and all his crazy baggage here again. The episode built around all this is, once again, notably simplistic, but never a drag or anything. There's a bit of a running gag in this one where Kagami is constantly doing the worst job feigning ignorance when the subject of those mysterious phantom thieves comes up, and if I could single anything out from that side of the plot I want to people to know about, it's that for sure. Just scene after scene of Kagami being a sweaty, nervous wreck who seems one good question away from cracking like an egg at any given moment. It's hilarious, while also highlighting the sort of childlike earnestness Kagami has that ultimately makes him Kabuto's definitive hero, even if he's not always the best at it. But hey, I'm sure he'll get there one day, right?