[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 47 - “A RED CRACK, SATISFACTION, AND EIJI’S POTENTIAL”



Ha ha, what if Eiji’s the show’s big bad?

It’s a fun twist, if you can call something the show’s been talking about for 46 episodes a “twist”. Everything over the last half-dozen episodes has been pointing towards Ankh as the selfish bully that Eiji will have to overcome in order to save the world, but this one pivots fully into an Eiji Emergency, with Ankh as the world’s only hope to contain a possibly apocalyptic humanitarian.

I like it, not for how unexpected it might be, but for how naturally it flows into the conversation this show’s been having around Eiji. The thesis statement of this show is that any desire without concern for people is bad, and that includes a lack of concern for yourself. Desire needs to be tempered with compassion and care; any desire without those guardrails is dangerous. So, yeah, an Eiji who can no longer see the benefit in keeping his scope personal, and his aid to only what he can reach, is going to be a massive problem for the show to solve. Hina pushing Eiji into saving Shingo is bad, but we’re well past the point where anyone’s asking Eiji to do these things. He can’t see anything but the desire to be powerful enough to save everyone, even if it means becoming a world-destroying monster in the process.

Balancing this rampaging Eiji against a contemplative and vulnerable Ankh is just one of many nervy, unsettling choices this terrific episode makes. (So much weird editing and cutting! It really makes for a disorienting episode! In a good way!) Getting to see Ankh go from uncertainty as to why he cares about what he’s done for Eiji, to a realization that he maybe put an addict back on the road to a relapse, and then tying it all up in Ankh’s acceptance that – much like Eiji did for him – Ankh’s going to have to fight to save Eiji’s life, it’s real good. Turning this whole thing, in one episode, from a story of partners at each other’s throats to a story about a friend reaching out to another friend if it’s literally the last thing he does… hard to do! Hard turn to make! But with an episode this solidly done and smartly written, it looked weirdly easy.