[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 13 - “GHOST HUNTER 2018”



I really wanted to love this one – Ghost! Decade! Agito and Hibiki, sort of! – but it didn’t come together for me in a major way.

It’s real disjointed, you know? It feels like a very transitional episode, shifting gears into a new Act. We’ve got dissension in the ranks of our heroes, a new bad-ass lieutenant for our villains, and not much more than that. There isn’t a lot in here to unpack thematically (it definitely doesn’t feel like it’s About anything), and the amount of stuff in this episode keeps it from really affecting Team Zi-O. I assume/hope that’ll change in the second half, but this one just felt like it was three different chunks of story, wedged together.

-ZI-O CHUNK-

Unfortunately, this was the least fleshed-out part of the episode. It’s mostly just Team Zi-O attacking the premise in the most straightforward way possible. There’s a monster, they’ve already got the Ghost RideWatch, and that’s kind of it for them? It gets a little more complicated when Sougo has to confront the consequences of defeating a zombified Another Ghost, but that only gets a couple seconds of screentime, and no resolution. All set-up for Part 2.

The rest of their antics were Geiz’z increasingly violent attempts to keep Sougo’s attention, which were honestly delightful. I love the idea of Geiz spending an introductory scene in each episode trying to kill Sougo, and then just immediately calling a truce as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Kaito is off somewhere rolling his eyes so hard at this kid.

-GHOST CHUNK-

The meatiest chunk of the story, despite it featuring both Shibuya and Narita, the most worthless Ghost characters. (Even the puppet was more integral to Ghost’s story!) But we also get Takeru, back in his 2015 hair color (my preference), working as a ghost hunter. The story he’s in this episode is sort of Adel’s story in miniature, so it’s One Of Those for Zi-O. In lieu of doing anything that directly addresses our core cast, let’s just run ‘em through a Legend Rider’s story, giving the Legend Rider in question most of the screentime. It’s fine, as a basic celebration of the show in question, but it’s not the most clever or impactful use of the returning cast.

Because we’re just doing a story about a guy who wants to turn people into ghosts out of a misguided need for control. There’s the complicating factors of His Sister and Is A Zombie, but it’s all still in the Kamen Rider Ghost mode of needing to emotionally rescue some person who’s letting their fear and anger keep them from engaging with the world. Also, they’re dead!

This part of the episode… again, fine. I’ll never ever care about Shibuya and Narita, but it’s fun to see Takeru again.

-DECADE CHUNK-

But nothing in this episode compares to the undiluted ecstasy of seeing Tsukasa hang out and make everything worse for Kamen Riders.

I couldn’t even begin to guess at what his role in this story is going to be, or why he’s working alongside the Time Jackers. It’s Tsukasa, so the reasons could be anything from Upcoming Betrayal Of Villains, to Evil Again, to Felt Cute Might Destroy World Later. You can have Tsukasa show up in any story, for any reason, and you probably should.

He’s great in this. I love the Neo DecaDriver. I love that it’s magenta. I love seeing him lounging around in an observation tower at a helipad or wherever (what is up with those flashing lights at the end?) and just drinking coffee until Ora asks him to go murder Geiz. I love how little context we’re given for his actions. I love him just doing his catchphrases and looking cool as hell.

I am too easily impressed, when it comes to Decade. Beyond shit-stirring, which is what Tsukasas do best, there’s really nothing about Decade’s appearance to even talk about. I mean, we don’t even see the Decade suit at all! Not once! We see Agito twice! But I don’t care. I don’t care! Tsukasa’s great, and any moment he wasn’t on the screen, I was asking Where’s Tsukasa.

Overall, not a great episode of Zi-O. Too scattered in its storytelling, rendering everything a little too basic and lacking in thematic weight. (There’s a vague thing in here about Working With Villains, but it’s too incomplete to construct.) Good scenes, pleasant Legend appearances, but it really didn’t add up to much.

-I DON’T CARE THOUGH BECAUSE TSUKASA-



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KAMEN RIDER ZI-O COMPLEMENTATION PROJECT EPISODE 13.5 - “GHOST TEACHER”

Takeru’s confidence and generosity is the best. He’s great with these three weird teenagers, even as Tsukuyomi says he’s getting too old -slash- isn’t Shinnosuke, and Sougo cheerfully points out how much of Ghost’s mechanics were lifted from Dragonball. (Geiz, the Makoto of Team Zi-O, is very quickly won over by Takeru’s burning spirit.) It’s fun to hear about cost-saving shooting techniques, especially when they’re delivered by such a cool teacher.

I missed Takeru!