[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 40

This is the best shot in the episode, because it has Hiyori playing with a bird and that's adorable. No other reason. I mean, it's framed nicely and everything – of course it's framed nicely – but I just want to lead off with an obvious display of simpleminded bias to emphasize how unqualified I feel to dissect this episode. Like, Die is outright expecting to me to flip out over the direction, and I can do that, but this thing is WAY too cultured for me to even fully comprehend, let alone explain to other people.

There's a perfect example of what I'm talking about right after the opening. These episodes make repeated use of a Shinto shrine for a setting, and at the start of this one, Yaguruma and Kageyama are introduced walking up on Daisuke and Rena there, looking for trouble and each spouting some dialogue in a threatening tone. The trick is that it's shot with closeups of the pair of komainu statues at the shrine, making it look as though the statues themselves are talking, before the Hoppers brush by the frame.

Now, I only even know what a komainu is because I looked it up, so as for explaining the significance this has? I can only grasp at straws. It could range in complexity from Tasaki simply happening to think that made for a cool and interesting sequence with no deeper thought, the fact that komainu also come in pairs, or something even more over my head. The statue shown first, with Yaguruma, even has its mouth open, while the second one for Kageyama has its (mostly) closed, which is also apparently some symbolic thing with komainu representing the beginning and the end (so like, big bro/little bro?) through Sanskrit, but... man, do you see how deep this is getting already? This is less than half a minute of the episode and it's not even important!

Tasaki might be as crazy as Ishida, in his own way. Sure, he's not lighting everything on fire, but this man will point a camera at basically anything that catches his attention. He seems to live for finding these focal objects to frame scenes through or around, and I can't even hope to track every little instance of that in this one. Or rather, I can sit here and point at them all day, but anything more than that is beyond me.

Here, I'll give one more instance of a sequence that's way too smart for me – it's Die's first sceencap, actually, when Rena is giving Daisuke that message for when she loses herself again. It consciously defies basic film conversation logic by having Daisuke's reaction shots on the exact same side of the frame as Rena, looking in the exact same direction. The latter is because Rena is turned away from Daisuke, but I mean, go look at that picture again. Your brain assumes there must be someone on her left there, doesn't it? And again, I'm reasonably sure this is somehow brilliant, but I couldn't pin it down if I tried.

And that's so much of this one. Even the most simple things in this episode are still completely genius, like a lovestruck Yaguruma noisily clicking his heels together as he stares at flowers in the grass. It even gets added on to later, when Yaguruma casually steps on the same flowers as he's walking off with Kageyama at the end, having gone back to the usual brooding routine. It's all so great! I seriously do want to just sit here listing off moments, but I've got other things to talk about, too, so I'd better do that.

Once again, the script is quite good, and Die put it all very nicely. Also once again, I'll add on a bit about Tendou, which is just how much I like the way he's used here, with him finding common ground with Daisuke, and having the obligatory Kabuto fight be him simply making sure Daisuke and Rena don't get interrupted. Having Tendou be sort of adjacent to the spotlight is the kind of thing I find his character is practically made for, and this was a fun way to show that Daisuke is someone he has respect for, at the end of the day. It fits a rivalry that was never too serious. I also have to give the episode due props for shutting me up about two things I bemoaned last time. Not only does Drake use Clock Up in a memorable fashion during the climax, but the Hopper scene in 39 turned out to be less redundant than I thought, acting as a clear contrast to Yaguruma's short-lived shift in attitude here.

Fantastic fourth installment for the Drake trilogy! It maybe needs a new name now, but Daisuke's appearances are firmly a matter of quality over quantity, and that shows as much as ever here. Major props to this one in particular for not even having a cliffhanger for the next arc. This is Tasaki's final episode on Kabuto, unfortunately, but Inoue will be back for one last pair soon – and just in time for Christmas, too!