[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 39 - “A NIGHTMARE, A SECURITY CAMERA, AND ANKH’S COUNTERATTACK”



Y’know, if Gotou being Birth is even partially responsible for the best episode yet of this show, I am okay if Date never returns. Like, this thing was perfect, and I barely know where to start, so we’re just going to do this one bullet point-style:

• GOTOU AND SATONAKA: There’s something about the chemistry between these two that always delivers for me. (If I have one complaint about this series as a whole, it’s that the show never used Satonaka enough.) Gotou’s serious heroism set next to Satonaka’s whole I’m Just Doing My Job lackadaisical indifference -slash- constant understated competence is funny on its own, but this show always ups it by reminding the audience that Satonaka is actually Gotou’s boss. Him having to politely suffer through her lack of urgency is maybe my favorite attribute of Gotou’s, and this episode thankfully leverages that to immediately undercut Gotou’s big boy costume change and tactical backpack to make him STILL the sidekick to a more charismatic actor. Even if the rest of this episode had been scenes of the production team destroying my Figuarts collection, I’d’ve still cheered this episode on. Satonaka and her sidekick, Birth! SPLENDID!!!
  
  
• SPECIAL GUEST-STAR ARCHIMEDEL FROM GEATS: Sorry to steal Androzani’s thunder, but you think I’m not going to talk about the guy who played a memorable character on my all-time favorite Kamen Rider series?! He’s hilarious here, a self-important busybody who’s actually the flunky of his domineering wife. He’s broad as hell, but that’s all to clue you in to the register this one’s operating at: full buffoonery. I mean, there’s a segment where Hina throws a ladder to incapacitate a Bird Yummy, followed by a segment where Hina holds a rag in front of Chiyoko so she doesn’t see that Ankh is fighting alongside OOO. It’s ridiculous, Archimedal (wink) is ridiculous, it’s all so much fun.
  
  
• WHOLE EPISODE ABOUT ANKH’S ETERNAL FEAR OF BEING ABANDONED: It’s the tragic part of Ankh, his fear of abandonment. A lot of his abrasive personality traits are symptoms of his betrayal by the original OOO, and his certainty that he’s only at risk if he lets people get close to him. But it’s been 10 months since he possessed Shingo and teamed with Eiji – he’s let people get close to him. He has relationships, and that means he has something to lose. His nightmare isn’t that Lost Ankh will kill him, it’s that Lost Ankh will replace him with Eiji; his fear is that no one wants him around. The irony that he’s most at risk because he’s a sneering asshole that hijacked a comatose body isn’t lost on Ankh, but it’s also nothing he can do anything about right now. He’s terrified of being replaced and abandoned, but that fear is just making him more of belligerent weirdo than usual. The tension of all of that drives this episode, and it’s almost the best thing in it.
  
  
• THE BIRD YUMMY SPAWNED FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION FIGHTS USING RED TAPE: This is it. This is the best thing in this episode, and it’s also the episode where Satonaka fights a Yummy in a cute outfit. BEST EPISODE YET!