[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 37 - "I BET MY FACE GIVES IT AWAY, DOESN'T IT?”




So, Ryutaros.

If we're going to have an endgame kick-off that draws from characterization, Ryuta is the best character to focus on. He's the most unpredictable, the least stable. His connection with Ryotaro isn't a contract, a mutually agreed-upon spirit of cooperation. He snuck in, tried to destroy Ryotaro, but fell in love with the idea of family. He's part of the team, but the least-trusted member. His motivations are inherently selfish, inherently childish. If anyone's story is going to eventually doom the crew of the DenLiner, it's Ryuta.

(I mean, him or Ura. I wouldn't be shocked if a future story is some Imagin attacking the train and screaming HOW COULD YOU BREAK MY HEART at Urataros.)

The situation with Ryuta and Ryotaro and Airi and Yuuto, it's untenable. The show put a pin in it a while ago, when Ryotaro told Ryuta that he'd die before he let Ryuta kill Yuuto, but there wasn't a real sense of growth to Ryuta. Even here, he brushes off his reluctance to kill Ryotaro as him being bored with trying. Ryuta has become more integrated into the cast, and more charming for his coloring and excitability, but there's still this feeling like he can't be managed long-term. If he wants something bad enough, he's going to go after it.

A lot of this episode is just reminding the audience of that aspect of Ryuta. We haven't really seen this side since his early appearances, and most of his more recent uses have been as a kid brother to the other Imagin. Here, we're back in Loose Cannon mode for Ryuta, where he's hijacking Ryotaro's body, freaking out Airi, and threatening Yuuto. It's not so much an escalation of any of those things as it is an indication that this side of Ryuta never really left. It's interesting to see again, to know that the show isn't done talking about this plot, but it's not really a new take on any of it.

And then Kai shows up.

Den-Parado! I liked him. I always like happy villains, ones who are menacing because they're so upbeat, not in spite of it. They seem more powerful for how they don't take the heroes/society seriously, how it's some game they're playing on Easy Mode. (Sorry, he just reminds me so much of Parado!) Kai has that part down cold, as he's constantly wondering if his smiling means he's mad or not. He feels more inhuman than any threat the show has had before, with his absurd curiosity at how to be intimidating, or in his simultaneous vague disinterest and laser-like focus in getting Ruta to complete a task for him. He feels like the best possible Den-O villain: an exterior of humanity and an interior of unknowable malevolence, portrayed by spinning out emotions he doesn't care to understand.

His interactions with Ryuta were great, especially the dance-off. It's the perfect way to manipulate Ryuta at this point. He doesn't feel like the DenLiner crew are taking his emotional needs seriously (Momo 100% is tired of playing along with this kid's unrealistic obsession with Airi), and here's Den-Parado, meeting him on his level, speaking his language, playing his game. It's not about trying to control Ryuta, it's about using Ryuta's needs to manipulate him. It's trying to craft a Win-Win that the DenLiner crew can't seem to convince Ryuta of. Den-Parado is friendly without ever seeming like a friend, and I find that kind of villain addictive to watch.

This was the start of our push into the endgame, and as such it's only really about introducing a new major villain. With that goal, it's a huge success. Den-Parado gets me more psyched about escalating this show's threat level than anything else they've tried. (They haven't tried a lot!) Not even close to sure of where the story might be headed, but I'm glad it's got this much momentum. Really fun plot-via-character-driven episode.



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-When this show needs to get melancholy, it knows how to get there fast. Having a sunset training session with Ryotaro and Momo, where it's fraught with this tension of impending dissolution (whether that's The New Train Line or just the metatextual The Show Is Ending In A Few Months), it's unbelievably bittersweet. It feels like a goodbye, almost. Momo's making sure Ryotaro can keep being Den-O, even if he's not around to see it. More than any villain intro or new setting, this scene is the announcement that we are entering our final batch of stories for Kamen Rider Den-O.

-Speaking of new settings! We don't see a lot of the Train Stop (???), but its very existence feels compelling, simply because it's a tactile new thing the show can have its characters interact with. There's a frustrating amount of nebulous worldbuilding in this series, so I will absolutely applaud the series for showing a new thing and in the same episode saying Let's Go To There. Yes! I am okay with the odd bit of immediate gratification, rather than five straight episodes of cryptic comments from Owner! It's a pleasant change of pace!