[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 25 - “A BOXER, A LEFT HAND, AND A BIRD YUMMY”



One of the perils of a rewatch like this one is when you hit an episode that only really works to its full potential if you buy into its misdirection. There’s a sweet little story here about a boxer trying to overcome his secret desire to stay in the ring, but the episode (sadly) switches out from that premise pretty quickly, spending the majority of its second half on the very real possibility that Ankh has spawned the new Yummy that everyone’s trying to stop.

And I can’t really engage with that in the way the episode needs me to, despite the tension being so goddamn watchable.

The show goes to enormous lengths to make Ankh not only the prime suspect but the only conceivable suspect, with his normal smirking indifference curdling into suspicious obfuscation. Eiji and Gotou immediately realize that only Ankh’s Core Medals could spawn a Bird Yummy, so this can’t be Uva or Kazari. The presence of an Ankh hand around the events only drives home to the audience that Gotou and Eiji’s theories are correct. And then we get the end fight scene, where Ankh gives Eiji strategically unsound Medals, while a Greeed hand blocks Birth’s shot. It’s an entire second half that’s shouting at the audience that Ankh must be behind this.

And I’m sure the first time I watched this, I totally bought into it. Everything about this episode is in the shape of damning (if circumstantial) evidence, and Ankh resolutely refuses to provide anything resembling an alibi or a defense. Eiji’s desperate for Ankh to tell him he’s wrong, but Ankh just smirks his way out of the scenes. It seems, for all the world, that Ankh is the culprit.

As long as you don’t notice the recurring details (even inserted in the TITLE via a red herring) that point to a completely different possibility, of course.

I kind of love it for that, even if I’m not connecting with this episode on the same level it’d prefer. It’s blatantly obvious what’s really going on here, if you pay close attention. The pre-credits scene practically screams it, while the very specific phrasing of the flashback to Ankh and Eiji’s conversations about Ankh’s lack of regeneration – the specific things Kobayashi needs you to keep in mind – gives you all the clues you need to connect the dots. Even the story going on with the boxer, about a man warring against his own body… big clues! Incredibly big clues about what’s really going on here!

Hopefully we’ll get a chance to talk more about that soon.