[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BUILD EPISODES 19 - 22



A solid story to start tonight, but not the most entertaining one I've seen on Build. It's a gloomy couple of episodes, focused with laser precision on the various reasons, beyond ideology and survival, that people fight in war. Sento, Banjou, and Grease are characters in the middle of a conflict between nations, but they aren't fighting for nations. Sento is fighting to protect people, Banjou is fighting for Sento, and Grease is fighting because he's good at fighting. (Also to protect the Crows, but that comes later.) None of them have a deep need to fight for Hokuto's Prime Minister or Military Adam Driver. They each have their own personal reasons to fight. But, like in the previous episodes, the point is made that it doesn't matter why you fight in a war. Sento can claim defense and Grease can claim offense, but it's still warfare.

The other big topic in these episodes is how easy it is for conflicts to escalate, even when both sides are trying to avoid it. The Crows power up to support Grease, risking their lives in the process. Banjou continues using the Sclash Driver, even as it's destroying him. Rogue is so desperate to take out Hokuto that he's disowned by his father. Sento not only takes advice from Stalk (such a bad idea!), he eventually uses the Hazard Trigger, knowing it could drive him insane. Everyone is ramping things up in this story, even though almost no one wants to. This is going to end great for everyone!



Hey, d'you remember that Fourze story, with the kid who used an Astro Switch, and he comes back to school? And it's a thinly-veiled metaphor for teenage addiction? And how difficult it can be not to relapse when it seems like everyone around you is waiting for you to fail? Hey, what if there was an even darker Kamen Rider episode?

What if there was an episode about the unforgivable cost of taking a life? About the ways war consumes morality, and how good people can make terrible choices? About the ways combat feels validated, until the fight is over and you have to live with the consequences? About PTSD, and the debate over whether war is worth the human cost on both sides?



So, yeah. This episode. This heartbreaking, wonder of an episode.

I don't think I was prepared to see a Kamen Rider episode that treated "vanquishing a henchman" as the catalyst to utterly destroy Sento. The fact that Sento doesn't view it as just regrettable, but as a murder. He's not conflicted, he's hollowed out. The whole episode is suffused with grief. (Over the death of one-third of a comedy trio!) Most of the scenes play out absent of background music and in extreme closeup, letting the tiniest whimpers and movements tell the story of a hero who can't bear the weight of war. The winter landscape is stark, skinny trees and abandoned machinery. Sets like the cafe are no refuge, the friends who support him are something from which to escape. The only people he can listen to are the people who hate him, or want to manipulate him. It's here that the episode climbs to a level that, honestly, might make it my favorite Kamen Rider episode so far.

Grease wants revenge for his friend's death, but he still wants Sento to understand that it's no one's fault that Aoba died. It's war, he knew the risks, and Sento might've been killed if he'd held back. The idea of "no one dies" in a war is ludicrous, and a promise Sento could never realistically keep. The two episodes prior to this one should've made that clear. There's more at stake than a villain's scheme, and sometimes in war you can't just knock someone out and call it a day. Grease 100% is not forgiving Sento for killing his friend, but he's telling Sento to forgive himself for doing what he had to. It's a moment where the show never loses sight of the stakes of its story or the humanity of its characters. It's beautiful, in its sadness and honesty.

But coming to terms with grief isn't enough. Sento doesn't need to be at peace, he needs to fight, and one of the only people who can motivate Sento out of his despair and into a useful rage is Stalk. Yep, Hipster Dad is back to play both sides, letting Sento know that if he decides not to fight Grease, Banjou'll do it, he'll lose, and Touto is screwed. It's amazing to me that this show, after putting Sento through the goddamn wringer this episode, just tightens the screws at the end by putting him in an impossible predicament. Fight, knowing you might kill again, or don't fight, and your best friend might die and your country is lost. Every decision hurts him. It's brilliantly cruel storytelling.

This episode, and the two before it, have atomized Sento. There's nothing left inside that Build suit of the character I care about. I can't imagine who comes out the other side of his fight with Grease even if he wins.



What a goddamn roller-coaster ride this show is! Action, pathos, humor, intrigue... does this episode have everything?!

Mainly, it's got an epic, episode-length battle between Grease and Build that more than lives up to the runtime devoted to it. Both sides have clear objectives and obvious stakes, with a mix of personal animosity and guilt to keep things dramatic. The fight choreography is hampered slightly by the TV budget and small scale, but this is still one of the better Kamen Rider fights I've seen. Black Hazard is a terrifying suit, and the change in the way the suit actor moves in it sells the implacable nature of the form. More than that, the frequent silences are a huge boon to the storytelling, dropping the usual cacophony of punches and kicks and Driver noises for a calm before the storm. Just, like, so many silences before so many storms. For a full-length fight, it's never repetitive: momentum flows back and forth as each Rider focuses on their hopes and fears, threading personal drama through a war between nations.

And, honestly, it's that personal drama that maybe hit the hardest. Grease's hopeless goal of keeping his friends safe, thwarted by their idiotic loyalty. Sento saying the most hurtful thing possible to get Misora to be his failsafe for the Hazard Trigger. (THAT SCENE! The camera slowly pulling back, keeping them both in frame, highlighting the distance between them! The silence between dialogue! The look on her face when he tells her she's also responsible for his choices! Five stars! Series highlight! Devastating!) And then Banjou, showing his friend he cares by beating the shit out of him when he needs it, the most Banjou thing of all time.

It's perfect. It's all perfect. These last two episodes, man. I was not sure about this Hokuto War arc. It seemed like it was losing some of the easy humor and fun of the early episodes, in favor of something darker and sadder. And, I guess it did? But it also gave me something deeper and richer. I don't know what comes next. (Other than more Stalk duplicity and a new Seito Kamen Rider, obviously.) Maybe there's a turn this show could make that'll lose me. All I know is they've shown me the horrors of war and the warmth of family, and they killed me with both. Kamen Rider Build forever.