[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 11 - “A TRAVELER, A BUTTERFLY, AND A CELEBRITY”



A TRAVELER:
This is pretty much what I think of when I think of OOO episodes. This format, this structure. A person is letting their desires run amok, there’s a monster running loose facilitating it, and eventually someone learns a lesson about jealousy/gluttony/wrath/lust/etc. It’s a solid template, even if this episode isn’t its best representation.

Like, we’re just in a Professional Jealousy story, across a couple different threads. Tsukuba is trying to become a famous travel blogger, while Gotou is desperate to prove that a lack of charisma and an extra large rocket launcher can let him surpass OOO. (I don’t… remember Gotou’s performance being this wooden and unconvincing? He’s a pretty bad actor in this episode, never quite letting his semi-reasonable objections to Eiji’s primacy come across as anything more serious than pissy whining.) Both Tsukuba and Gotou chafe against the limits of their skills, hoping for a combination of bad luck for their rivals and good luck for themselves to show the world their capabilities. But they both sort of suck?

Tsukaba’s the harder one to assess, since we a) never really see much of his writing and b) probably couldn’t tell the difference between Good Travel Blogging and Bad Travel Blogging. But I think we’ve all felt a mixture of seething resentment at out contributions going unappreciated, and a desire to have the secret sauce that makes someone else better than us. It’s relatable, his mystification at his own irrelevance.

Gotou, on the other hand, is way way way easier to assess: he’s just a skinny dude trying to fight desire monsters, and he’s 100% going to get his ass kicked. We’ve never seen Gotou be anything greater than a delivery boy for OOO, and that’s not going to change just because he brought a rocket launcher. (Which: he brought a rocket launcher.) There’s a desire in Gotou to not just be a hero, but to save the world. It’s a hilariously high-minded goal, especially in comparison to Eiji’s more grounded hope to just help out if there’s danger. But Gotou’s animating principle is exactly the sort of ridiculous concept that’s prone to overdoing it – where Eiji can keep perspective by protecting people in immediate danger, Gotou always needs to be doing more.

It’s a problem he shares with Tsukuba, how an act isn’t important unless it’s bigger, better, more recognized. Tsukaba enjoyed his life as a traveler, but he let Being The Best Blogger compromise that happiness and endanger others. Gotou’s a solid helper, but his need to outshine OOO, uh, sort of got OOO blown up?

A BUTTERFLY:
The Yummy this time out is one of Uva’s, and it’s a butterfly. (Surprise!) I liked the suit, even if the monster plot was maybe the weakest part of this episode.

It’s not a very interesting sequence of events. It’s the monster going out and assaulting one of Tsukuba’s professional rivals (even if the rivals don’t even know Tsukuba exists), stealing their creativity, pollinating it (?) to Tsukuba, and then repeating it a couple scenes later with some other guy. It’s easy to follow, but sort of boring to think about. OOO only gets there after the Butterfly Yummy has accomplished its goal, and the first person to clock that Tsukuba has been changing is Hina, about two minutes before the cliffhanger. Once the Yummy comes in, OOO just plays catch-up for the rest of the episode, and it’s sort of boring.

The one hiccup is Gamel showing up, but that scene actually doesn’t make a ton of sense? Ankh says that they don’t have time to fight Gamel, tosses Eiji the Core Medals, Eiji loses Mezool’s Core Medals, then Eiji’s like We Don’t Have Time To Fight Gamel, and splits to take care of the Yummy. It’s a scene that only exists so OOO can lose the Core Medals Ankh snagged from Mezool two episodes ago, all without Eiji ever using them or Gamel being involved with this plot. It’s a weird scene, because it requires Eiji to pause for a fight that he doesn’t want to be in just long enough to lose something he never used. It’s weird! It doesn’t make sense!

AND A CELEBRITY:
Beyond maybe referencing all of the fictional celebrity bloggers in this one, and therefore Tsukuba’s jealousy of them, I can’t imagine what else this is in reference to. I mean, other than Tsukuba’s actor appearing in the most glorious Kabuto episodes of all time: The Dark Chef two-parter.

It can’t be anything else!