[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 13 - “A SIAMESE CAT, STRESS, AND A GENIUS SURGEON”



A SIAMESE CAT:
Let’s not talk about this episode’s Yummy design, because I hate it. (Why does this Genius Surgeon Yummy need to be dressed up in lingerie?! It’s a terrible design that doesn’t really suit the narrative!)

Instead, let’s talk about Kazari.

I like that Kazari is already starting to put a plan into place that, even if it doesn’t immediately secure his Core Medals, at least gets him the passive income-equivalent of earning Cell Medals. He’s got his Yummy out there plumping itself up on desire and metabolizing that into Cell Medals, which is Plan A. But if the Yummy gets defeated by OOO, he’ll just move on to Plan B: taking the 60% of the defeated Yummy’s Cell Medals that OOO will pass along to Kougami, which Kougami will pass along to Maki, which Maki will pass along to Kazari. It’s a cunning yet lazy plan, which is the perfect one to come from the Cat Greeed.

Meanwhile, the other (lazy) Greed are starting to realize that Kazari’s schemes in the human world are putting him far ahead of their meandering lair-based plots, so they’ll need to follow Kazari and Ankh’s lead and start leveraging human society and connections to speed up their regeneration.

STRESS:
Ha ha, but just ask Ankh how that’s going!

We’ve landed on something close to a status quo – any other show would lock this in for a series, with OOO we might get a few episodes – so it’s time to see how this whole “living at Cous Coussier and letting Chiyoko think Ankh needs socialization” thing is going. It’s not going great for Ankh! He’s a Greeed, so he’s a lazy piece of work that assumes all of humanity exists to serve him, which means that having to choke down Chiyoko’s (very well-meaning) attention while also being tethered to a human form that needs constant care and is overseen by a freakishly-strong sibling… it’s not going real good for our favorite avian asshole. He lacks humility, and this is the most humbling situation he’s ever been in.

AND A GENIUS SURGEON:
Just like our Yummy victim of the week, Doctor Tamura!

I don’t get this story, for the most part. I mean, I get what it’s about – thinking too much of your own abilities is a great way of driving yourself crazy, hurting others, and keeping you from getting what you want. (See also: Ankh and Gotou.) But the initial medical conflict in this episode, that comes back up to kick off our Yummy climax… what?

Like, why is the hospital keeping Tamura from doing surgeries in the first place? We’re told that she’s a genius surgeon, these are her patients, she’s never shown to be a liability in the operating theater, but the closest we’re ever given to why she hasn’t operated on anyone in a month (A MONTH!) is that she needs to be humbled because she's too cocky. And, yeah, that’s this episode’s whole thing, but everyone at the hospital is such a condescending prick about it (ALL DUDES!), and people’s lives are probably at stake here. Why in the world are they keeping her around if she’s going to get basically suspended for being passionate about her job? (Her first meeting with the main boss, she’s completely blown off while her dipshit colleague smirks over her upbraiding!) Like, for sure, it is not cool to do a bunch of surgeries at night all by yourself with zero authorization, but the impetus of this plot is that a bunch of dudes are trying to put a female surgeon in her place. I do not love the optics on this one!!!