[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 5 - “A GAME OF TAG, A LAIR, AND A CELEBRITY”



A GAME OF TAG:
One of my favorite things about how OOO structures its season-long plot is that the Core Medals are constantly changing hands. (They even have to keep a slot in the opening to explain exactly which Medals the heroes had at the end of the previous episode!) It makes the power struggle between all of the characters slightly more tactical, and gives both sides something they can lose. We aren’t just in a story where The Line Goes Up – heroes and villains alike are at the mercy of whichever Medals they’ve got on them when the fighting starts.

And we get to see that a few different ways this time, which is a blast. The Greeed are manipulating each other to take out OOO and Ankh, resulting in both this episode’s climactic battle with Uva – that kicks off sans Ankh, leaving Eiji to scramble for his life until his partner arrives – and the various machinations of the remaining Greeed. Like, they’re all completely duplicitous weirdos? (Well, not Gamel, anyway.) Kazari hides the fact that he’s got one of Uva’s Cores from last time, while Mezool casually mentions her plot so that someone else will go fight OOO for her. This is exactly the stuff that Ankh predicted, and it’s happening immediately after he predicted it. This show! It never slows down!!!

A LAIR:
Well, it does slow down a bit. Namely, we get the Mezool version of a Yummy, which is – befitting the water-based Greeed – a big ol’ clutch of eggs in an apartment, growing off of the all-consuming hunger for material goods from one of Hina’s classmates. It’s the first episode where there isn’t a Yummy to fight, filling the space with a lot more detail. We actually get to know the story’s human victim, which is a huge step up over the last few versions of this story. (It… I sort of still can’t believe that we spend two episodes with the Glutton guy and they never even tell us his name? Or give him any backstory?) Yamano’s incrementally adding to her collection of material goods, and the Yummy eggs are getting bigger all the time. The Yummy are slowly growing in the background, while Mezool and the other Greeed wait…

…in their lair! Two lairs! Unbelievable.

This episode introduces the Greeed’s new human forms: Leather Guy, Tank Top, Ryutaros, and Girl. It’s a fun mix of designs, eschewing any sort of thematic coherence as Greeed for a million tiny details about their individual forms and influences. (Uva’s got a little bug design on his t-shirt as Leather Guy!) Their hangout is an abandoned bar, which is a nice negative contrast to the rich and vibrant Cous Coussier. It’s appropriately moody and foreboding, even if I think one of them could maybe sweep up for a minute.

AND A CELEBRITY:
I… don’t really know what this refers to? I assume it’s Yamano, the victim for this story? This installment sketches her in more than any previous victim, but it still leaves a lot of blanks for later. She spends a lot of money, she’s clearly trying to fill the void left by her dad not being around (He’s in America! For work!) with material goods, and she’s now immediately and irrevocably broke. (I love that he’s just like We’re Bankrupt Get A Job. I honest to God hope that the next episode isn’t trying to redeem this jerk!) She’s very thinly defined, with hopefully more to come next time. Is she a Celebrity, though? I think not.

I mean, it could be Kougami? I guess he’s moderately famous in the world of OOO? I liked his slightly predatory pitch to Ankh and Eiji – only SEVENTY PERCENT of their Cell Medal take! – if only because Ankh treated everything as a provocation, while Eiji just played with the new toys. One of them’s a grasshopper! That’s also a phone! And I bet you can buy it right now, kids!