[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 16 - “A CONCLUSION, A GREEED, AND A NEW RIDER”



A CONCLUSION:
Is this it for Mezool and Gamel? I honestly don’t remember.

If it is the end for Tank Top and Girl, it’s a sort of underwhelming conclusion for the two of them. It’s interesting in how their bond is used to showcase both the innate desire of the Greeed for things like love and safety, while still being amplified to an unnatural hunger that threatens the world. But it feels a little light on individual conflict, keeping Mezool and Gamel apart until Gamel gets absorbed into Mezool and then Mezool gets flooded with Medals until she becomes a giant CG amphibian monstrosity. It all happens sort of quickly, and the episode doesn’t make it enough of a focal point for my liking.

(I mean, it’s for sure a part of this episode, and there’s been enough groundwork to the Mezool and Gamel relationship to still make their destruction affecting, but I’d’ve definitely liked this more if we’d seen them together for a little longer in this episode.)

It’s a smart way to raise the stakes, to seemingly (?) knock off half of our named antagonists to illustrate the danger and peril of the Greeed.

A GREEED:
Which is what this one’s really all about, in a way that’s less expository than it is exhilarating.

All of this could’ve been super dry, with Eiji learning more about the origins of the Greeed while Maki runs his diabolical experiments until things get destructive enough to qualify as an Act Break. But it manages just enough ambiguity to entertain, building out both the menace and the tragedy of the Greeed at the same time.

For an episode that’s nominally about defining the threat of the Greeed gaining their Core Medals – via a large amphibious monster wrecking an empty park – there’s so much fascinating sadness to the Greeed’s existence that we learn about from Kougami’s exposition. Ankh’s a pissy baby, Uva’s a slimy doofus, Kazari’s a duplicitous prick, Mezool’s an untrustworthy matron, and Gamel’s a blundering child, but they’re all driven by a need to reclaim their Core Medals. There’s a (if you’ll pardon the pun) core deficiency to their lives as Greeed – they’re all missing a part of themselves from birth, and their existence is about trying to reclaim that missing part of themself. Their lives are the rapacious hunger brought about by an unfillable void, and the existential terror that knows how easily they could be reduced to nothingness. (Much like, uh, everyone!) In that light, Kazari and Ankh’s quest to collect Core Medals feels less like world domination than it does the fervent hope that mortality can be held at bay, and maybe some solace can be found in its place.

It’s agreeably sad, that aspect of the Greeed. It’s a thing that Eiji can lock onto as a reason to help Ankh – this isn’t about power, or malice, it’s about someone who wants to feel safe, and needs a hand obtaining that safety. Who could say no to that?

AND A NEW RIDER:
Probably the new guy!

It’s a solid debut for what I remember being one of my favorite characters in Kamen Rider. Birth gets the standard Secondary introduction of absolutely demolishing an enemy with the sort of pyrotechnic display and overwhelming firepower that we will never, ever see again as he struggles to hold off Pseudo-Yummies or that corgi who barked at Ankh or whatever. This is his birthday, so he gets to be the special boy.

Everything about Birth is so smart, aesthetically. We’re in the Coin-Operated show, so naturally the new Rider is a goddamn Gashapon machine. (That little POP! I love it.) Where OOO runs on Core Medals, Birth churns out his form changes through Cell Medals. Where OOO is about the power of desire as a cornerstone of civilization, Birth is the raw avarice that undergirds the system. OOO is the spirit, Birth is the body. And so on, and so forth.

He’s great, in just this little bit we see from the end of this episode. (He carries around his instruction manual! I love it.) Very excited to get to talk more about this guy soon!