[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 19 - “RED MEDAL, A DETECTIVE, AND BETRAYAL”



There’s really two main modes for modern-day (Heisei/Reiwa) Kamen Rider stories: Morals and Pulp. You can sort of slot every episode of every modern-day series somewhere on that spectrum, from Pure Morals – little short stories about people and the lessons we can learn from their heightened tokusatsu dilemmas – to Pure Pulp – extravagant adventures of super-powered people with not much in the way of lessons learned. A story will likely drop in somewhere between the two poles (a Pulp story with a little bit of a Moral, or a Moral with a tiny Pulp subplot), but that’s kind of the formula of the franchise, tonally.

The thing that’s always elevated OOO for me is how confidently it can attack both tones, and how easily it can swing from one to the other without losing focus. The last two-parter was a straight up Moral story (Shiratori’s need to won up to her feelings, in order to control them) without much to say about the Pulp plotting that makes up this show’s spine. Now that Date’s been fully introduced, the show swings back into Pulp mode, with an emphasis on Core Medal distro.

The Yummy of this one is an escaped prisoner who wants revenge on the guy who sold him out, plus the detective who put him away, plus maybe their family members, plus a guy he stole clothes from, plus a fire plug. It’s not exactly a relatable moral that kids can grow from. (I mean, god, I hope!) Eiji and Ankh are mostly just protecting themselves and Hina here, not trying to understand the motivations of a crazed attacker. We are not learning anything in this one.

But we are being entertained, and that’s the easier lift for a Pulp-heavy story. This one’s got its mind set on reintegrating Kazari into the plot after the last few stories, and he’s working every angle he can in order to get the Cores of his that Ankh’s been helpfully carrying around in a Core Medal case. (It’s seriously just asking to get swiped!) A Kazari-instigated problem is usually a more Pulp-heavy story, with more angles on it than an Uva dilemma (straight-ahead, really not too difficult) or a Mezool plan (desperately trying to avoid detection). Kazari schemes in a way that the other Greeed just plot, and his stories tend to have the greater number of moving parts and goals.

Like, hey, Yasu is working for Kazari! Kazari went out and employed a duplicitous henchman to take advantage of Eiji’s protectiveness! I like a story where it feels like the villains have been watching the same show I have, and they’ve learned the weak points for the hero emotionally as well as physically. Kazari gets how the Eiji/Ankh team works, so he’s able to plant a weasel in their midst to get what he needs. It’s smart! He’s a smart cat!

I really dug this episode. It’s not trying to do much more than progress the overall plot in the most thrilling way possible, and it’s incredibly good at doing that. (Even around the edges we got Gotou working at Cous Coussier and Date living in Maki’s lab, two things we’ll probably come back on very shortly.) I do not mind a healthy dose of Pulp when it’s served this smoothly!