[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 36 - “A BROKEN DREAM, A BODY, AND THE RETURN OF THE GREEED”

It’s not bad, to be clear. There’s a nice tension throughout, and a bunch of fun escalations of the series-long plot, both small and large. (My favorite little touch was that the Purple Medals inside Eiji allow him to sense the presence of an active Yummy, just like Ankh can. He’s steadily becoming a Greeed, and this is a neat way to signify it.) It’s an episode that reintroduces Mezool and Gamel into the mix, while setting Uva back at the same time. More than anything, it’s an episode that allows Eiji to control PuToTyra from start to finish, allowing him to combat three Greeed at once. Big episode! Lots of important stuff happening!

It takes Purple Medals for Eiji to sense Yummies, where in Ryuki, it takes only the default Advent Decks so that the Riders can sense the Mirror Monsters. And so, Mezool and Gamel indeed died back then, but got resurrected now. Eiji controlling the powers shouldn't change about how final forms are supposed to destroy, those weaker Greeeds when he can pummel current Kazari, the change is that, Eiji being a danger to his allies are solved now.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It just meant that, for me at least, the whole Unicorn Yummy plot never really went anywhere. There’s a little bit of Eiji talking about how a dream needs to be nurtured and cared for in a longer timeline than a desire, but this was kind of never supposed to be an Eiji plot? It was a Hina plot, and tangentially a Shingo plot, but then none of that really matters at the end. Hina decides to forego her dream in order to guard over Shingo, just like she did before she was hit by the Unicorn Yummy. Shingo’s still more or less comatose the whole time, so Ankh just takes his body back. (It even seems like Hina got her dream back? Maybe? It’s unclear!) The consequences of everything feel ephemeral, and the status quo seems to be right back to where we were at the end of 34, as far as the trio of Eiji, Ankh, and Hina are concerned.

There have been previous Yummies where their damages are undone when they're destroyed, such as Tsukuba's Yummy, but yeah, it's unclear here if Hina and the others get their dreams back, which, it should be if Shouko hopes to see Hina again in school, of which if Hina throws away her dream, she'd be no longer going to school. Hina does seemingly decline her offer to go to France, but still continue pursuing her dream, but Shouko's story is what I feel is more inconclusive about her daddy issues, with her seemingly not dropping out as well despite being forced to by her dad, and that it's her main conflict that puts her at odds with Hina to claim to see Hina again in school. So it seems the Yummy is like those previous ones. Like Ryuki though, obviously Eri and Shingo waking up won't last long, and the status quo would be kept so the viewers won't feel different in watching OOO.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The episode suffers from a lack of focus, if I had to diagnose a single cause to how much of a shrug several of these plotlines ended up as. There’s a bunch of momentum heading into this episode from the end of 35, but then the Greeed stuff dominates this episode in a way that renders everything else rushed and thin. (I sort of can’t believe we had a story where Shingo wakes up and they didn’t think to write one dialogue scene between him and Hina?) While saving Hina from dreamless slumber is a motivation for Eiji, it kind of immediately stops being a story that Hina can actively participate in, and that’s such a bummer. There’s nothing wrong with doing a story that continues to drill into Eiji’s lack of obvious motivation, but it sucks to pivot from a (rare!) Hina story in order to accommodate it. Add to that another Date/Gotou subplot that neither requires any of the other cast members nor causes any complications for them, and you’ve got a two-parter that feels like it accomplishes a bunch of Important Things without generating a compelling enough story to do it.

They seem to make the Yummy problem here a more mortal one, in how at least 2 of his victims, Hina and the artist, have their bodies deteriorated as they live without desire and dream and thus need the Yummy to be taken down to save lives as well. This seems to be done so that it feels more necessary to take down the Yummy, prioritizing toku flick (like the Greeed reunion in this episode), but I do feel that the story would be likely more impactful if the Yummy's victims stay conscious and active (so Hina can participate), and to show the problems of living empty without them going unconscious. I want to see more of Hina's talk about claiming to dream about becoming a designer being 'selfish' compared to what's going on (likely about taking care of Shingo) and about when she regains her dream, which some people may claim those who want that are bad for not volunteering for 'noble' jobs like doctor or such, or yes, "not thinking about others' that have it worse" (likely what Eiji is about to focus on taking care of other people).

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Originally Posted by GodSpeedLove

I agree, and that's partially why I like Date so much, in relation to Eiji! Date's really looking out for himself, but it's not shown as a bad thing in the show. On the other hand, Eiji is the standard hero trope of always being selfless, but to a fault, and he gets himself in constant danger. Some shows would have Date be a jerk and Eiji be the hero all the time, but the show really stresses that Date's a nice guy who rightfully puts himself first when needed, and Eiji needs to learn from that.

Yeah, but this'd be why there is little to no rivalry between Eiji and Date. Jerks tend to create conflicts more due to their incapability to treat others well, and rivalry, though not always, sounds like a conflict that creates heated up situations. And if it's against a nice guy, conflicts are often about them dealing with awful people who has no qualms making things worse (even about denied happiness in someone), putting them at odds with said nice guy who wants to protect happiness. If Date is nice while wanting money, then by that character he'd be also doing Eiji a favor in also taking care of others, yeah.