[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 35 - "THE CARD'S TRAGIC REVIVAL - ZERO"




God, aces episode. It starts off being a look at how Ryotaro processes responsibility, then transitions into a look at how Yuuto processes responsibility, then wraps those two threads together in an astonishingly ambivalent and sad look at the costs of being a Kamen Rider.

There's jokes in there, too, and they're great. The whole training montage is shot beautifully, and had me in stitches: Momo mistaking Ryotaro's desire to learn to fight better as a request to fight more, and basically declaring war on the yakuza as sparring practice; Ura using Ryotaro's request for help as an excuse to just hardcore flirt with five women, with some light deception to keep himself in fighting shape; Ryuta opting to be no help whatsoever, and letting his advice to a struggling Ryotaro be Don't Lose; and Kohana, muscling all of these dinks into a shape that could, at the very least, not get Ryotaro killed.

So it's down to Kintaros to train Ryotaro, an idea that goes on exactly as long as it could. Kintaros is too well-meaning to get Ryotaro into the kind of trouble that can fill up an entire episode, so what we get with him and Ryotaro is some cute callbacks, some good physical humor, and a chance to get at what's really bothering Ryotaro.

The whole Getting Better At Fighting thing is mostly a cover. Or, not a cover, but it's Ryotaro not really dealing with his guilt over Piano Man's transitional state. Ryotaro can't really deal with the fact that some people don't get saved, even when Den-O saves the day, so he thinks if he can maybe fight harder, no one will get lost in time. But Den-O doesn't work that way, and Ryotaro training harder isn't anything more than Ryotaro trying to put his guilt somewhere. It's not productive, and Kintaros eventually needs to address that reality with Ryotaro. (Kohana is less likely to challenge Ryotaro than the Imagin, which is an interesting idea that the show doesn't really explore. It's maybe about how protective Kohana is of Ryotaro, as his bodyguard, in a way that the Imagin can be more blunt? Dunno. Not a thing the episode feels like dwelling on, unfortunately.) Kintaros sees that Ryotaro is looking at his guilt as a dereliction of his responsibility. Ryotaro thinks he's feeling this weight because he's not been as effective a Den-O as he should be; this guilt is his punishment. But it's because he's so invested in protecting people, so wounded by one displaced soul, that Kintaros can see that Ryotaro is plenty strong. His feelings of responsibility and duty are what makes him effective, not the other way around.

But that's only half of what this episode is trying to say about guilt and responsibility.

For the other half, we turn to Yuuto, who is more or less shifting full-time to Retired Brat. He can't really help Ryotaro any longer, since he can't transform into Zeronos. He's given up his future to save time, and now he's free to make new memories. Protecting time and saving people, that isn't his responsibility any longer. He's free of that burden.

Until Sakurai shows up with a new deck of Zeronos cards, and an unspoken explanation of Yuuto's role in this story. (It is, predictably, my least-favorite part of this episode. I get that Sakurai is probably wrapped up in whatever endgame narrative Den-O has been barrelling towards since Episode 1, but it is Episode 35. You can give us a little bit more to go on than Silent Double-Hatted Future Selves and Portentous Stopwatches and Crestfallen Allies. It would not hurt this story to spell out some of these mysteries! If you need to drag it out this long, it maybe is not that good of a story to begin with!) Yuuto has to decide if it's worth losing what little life he's managed to nurture, just to keep fighting as Zeronos.

It's the flipside of Ryotaro's personal strength being his advantage. It's less about believing in yourself and leaning on your friends, and more about self-sacrifice and self-negation. It's Yuuto being asked to scourge himself of hopes and dreams in favor of The Mission. It's exactly as sad as Ryotaro's story was uplifting. Yuuto's story is tragic, and he's seen the arc of that tragedy. He gets to immolate himself, slowly, in the fires of Zeronos, and in the end his reward is that no one will care. But the alternative is for Yuuto to put time itself at risk, to know that he could have fought harder and chose not to. It's the guilt of inaction, and it drives Yuuto to destroy himself. It's a feeling of responsibility that lacks perspective, lacks any ego.

There's a great inversion for Ryotaro and Yuuto this episode. It starts with Ryotaro beating himself up for not being flawless, and Yuuto finding some happiness in a future without responsibility. But then Ryotaro learns that there's solace in feeling loss, and Yuuto burdens himself because he can't do anything less. It's an episode about the ambivalence of responsibility, and about the limits of guilt.

It's not a happy ending for anyone in this story. Yuuto is doomed, Deneb is crushed, and Ryotaro is frustrated. For the Shocking Return Of Zeronos, it's a remarkably somber episode of Den-O. I loved it. A great, hopefully permanent, return to form for this show.



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Awesome twist for this episode's contract holder. His whole story was incredibly slight, and was mostly there to keep this episode looking like it was going to be all about Ryotaro Learning To Be Strong. As such, it doesn't really do a lot. (There is some stuff contrasting his ridiculous nonsense with two men who have actual problems and are handling it with more dignity, but that's not focused on too much.) But! Laughed my ass off at this guy's motivating loss being at a singing contest. That is some A+ humor writing. Hilarious twist.

-Really thrilled with how screwed this episode made Yuuto's existence out to be. The idea of your future self showing up in a beige trenchcoat and saying, basically, TATAKAE (because that's what you do if you wear a beige trenchcoat on a Kamen Rider show, I don't make the rules), robbing you of all hope... that is rough! Even for a franchise of doomed heroes, Yuuto literally dies a hero or lives long enough to see himself become a gigantic asshole who keeps wrecking his own life! That! I mean, THAT!