[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BUILD EPISODES 40 - 41



A weird one-two punch of episodes, with the larger story of Build's Dad and the Lost Bottles being told through Evol(t)'s and Grease's separate emotional evolutions, Gentoku's (oh, he earned a real name this time) fashion war crimes, and what felt like just a billion hours of recap and exposition.

Grease wasn't a character that felt like he needed a spotlight episode, but I'm really glad he got one. His motivation thus far, of trying to save his country, just felt... small? He even addresses it here, and it makes for solid rationale to grow as a person. It's not a huge shift, into more of a pure hero role, but it felt like the show took him there organically.

Evol(t), however, did not come by his evolution organically, instead basically getting emotions punched into him (Is, is that how emotions work?!) by Build. I'm going to try to hold off judgment until I see it a bit more, but it's not a change I love off the bat. I always liked how, y'know, cool Evol(t) was, and I didn't enjoy his Scream Of Rage at Build after he lost. Just, like, tranquilo, okay? Don't be a baby. Hopefully they'll find a good level for him that keeps what works about the character while finding some new shades to play with.

Wwwwwhich is a really good segue to talk about Gentoku. Formerly Military Adam Driver, now and forever Gentoku, because holy shit him in this episode. It is light years away from every single other version of character, unless you count the decidedly non-canonical opening recap. But, like, out-of-character or not, it mostly killed in this episode, him as a series of ridiculous outfits wearing a man, Misora being apoplectic literally every time he entered the room, the fact that Sento needed a scene change to get away from those clothes. I can't be critical of something that made me laugh that hard.

Except, I can, because while the show tried a bunch of funny asides and clever sight gags, SWEET JESUS IN A BOTTLE did they just pile on the exposition and recaps this time out. Exhausting, having the last 40 episodes shot into my brain like that. It's laudable that nearly every element of the show, even early stuff that felt disposable and like a show finding its feet, all of that stuff had a purpose, it's hard to praise the show when it has to stop dead to connect so, so many dots. So many dots, you guys. They made it as fun as possible, but it was still decidedly not fun.

Also, Build's Dad has been alive all of this time, but I don't know what it means to the characters yet, so I don't care about it yet.