[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 46 - "NOW TO REVEAL LOVE AND TRUTH”




Everything after those two words was perfect.

Before that, I can't really say much good about it. It's Ryotaro trying to piece together a mystery about a man I don't care about, being stonewalled by a friend who knows every answer, and left with no avenues for a solution. It's Time Nonsense, and I don't care about that. I'm watching this show because I'm invested in these characters. A mystery about someone I've never met doesn't mean anything to me.

Airi, though.

Having Airi be at risk, be the key to everything, is excellent. It changes the entire equation for the better. Airi matters. I care about Airi, beyond just what she might mean to Ryotaro or Yuuto. She's an established character with strengths, someone who is crucial to the functioning of this show. She's played by someone who finds grace and dignity in the most absurd situations, elevating banal lessons into universal truths. Making her the lynchpin makes this entire endgame work, and work well.

Like, that scene on the DenLiner. I mean, holy shit.

It's one of the most beautiful things this show has ever done, and its special bonus Christmas gift to me is that, while it explains some of the mechanics of what's going on, it also demonstrates why those details are a distraction. You could do that entire scene without dialogue and it'd work at least as well as it already does. It's all on the faces of Airi, of Ryotaro, of Yuuto. It is simultaneously the most heartbreaking scene this show has ever done, and the most uplifting.

The how of it all, Here's How It All Fits Together or The Truth About Sakurai Is Whatever... it just fundamentally doesn't matter. When this show grounds its stakes in the emotions of its characters, it is unstoppable. Taking the convoluted Time Nonsense and making it about Airi's melancholy, it is perfect. Airi realizes what has to happen next, her loss and her isolation and her undefinable sadness, but she also sees that it matters. Even if she can't articulate how it matters, she can see from a younger Yuuto and an older Ryotaro that her sacrifice will help. It'll do some good. Defining that good is irrelevant. She has faith.

It's that belief in her family, Yuuto included, that makes her sacrifice so beautiful. It's this scene that's all about the hardship these three people have endured. Airi sees Yuuto, and knows what he's given up. She sees Ryotaro, fighting for the first time in his life, and she worries. It all seems so impossible, so hopeless.

Ryotaro, though.

He's still here. He's been fighting because Airi bought them time. He's able to win because he has friends. He's doing this because she's raised him right, given him the moral clarity to meet adversity head on and find a way to help people. The very fact that they're having this conversation, quietly and gently, is proof that Kai hasn't won yet. There's still hope, because there's still time. And isn't time just the memories we've built with each other?

I've rewritten this section a few times. I hit this line, and I'm fumbling for the words to describe the second half of this episode. I started crying during it, obviously. Airi in the DenLiner, silent and saintly in white, her candle-lit walk to speak with Ryotaro. It's her last few moments, basically. It's her being confronted with the awful cost of protecting time, while trusting in the strength of the people who love her to find a solution. It's her love for them that gets that scene to greatness.

It's a scene that's not about exposition or vague stakes or mysteries or anything like that. It's about the bond between Airi, Ryotaro, and Yuuto. It's about what the two men in her life will do to protect her, and what she'll do to protect them. It's a scene of unimaginable power; hope and sadness in equal measure. The trauma of a sacrifice concurrent with the key to undoing it. It's defeat and victory in one move, one action. It's an endgame that switches from brain to heart, and it is just in goddamn time.

A perfect second-half of this episode. Absolutely perfect.




THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Best move in that Airi/DenLiner scene was dropping out the music, and keeping the dialogue split between Airi and the two boys, while giving the bulk of it to Airi. It's not a scene where two men explain to her what's going on or what they've done for her. It's a woman sympathizing with the pain two men have suffered for her, and her shouldering her share of it. She gets to be a hero in her own story, and nothing in the production is competing with her for that focus.

-When the Imagin hear that Ryotaro calls them his friends! You guys! I was already crying! They are gilding the lily!

-And Yuuto! And Deneb! On the beach! At a campfire! Committing to their friendship! I only got so much water in my tear ducts, you monsters!