[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER AGITO EPISODES 24 - 25



So good!

This whole story, the G3-X thing, was just front-to-back great. There's a constantly shifting landscape as characters take the fall, jockey for position, get reassigned, get (I guess) dereassigned, switch sides, and just generally behave like they're on a reality show version of Masked Rider Agito. There's a speed to this section of the story that I really appreciated. It made each scene unpredictable, even though obviously Hikawa's going to be the G3-X operator/equipper/leash.

There's a pleasant amount of twists before that happens, though, making his inevitable "victory" (we'll get to the quotes) feel earned. It's fitting, to start, that Hikawa's inaugural outing as G3-X a) nearly killed him, and b) was a roaring success that he basically was comatose for. That's... I mean, as someone who loves to see Hikawa fail, *chef's kiss*. I could not have asked for a better way for Hikawa to obliterate his competition. So the rest of the story becomes a question of which should be replaced, Hikawa or the G3-X, and I love how nearly every character who gets a vote seems to change their answer several times throughout the story. Ozawa wants to replace the G3-X, leaving Hikawa as the operator of V1. Houjou wants the G3-X replaced, leaving himself to operate V1. Hikawa wants himself to be replaced, OF COURSE, with Shouichi as the G3-X operator. But then, Shouichi kicks ass as G3-X, leaving G3-X as basically the only choice, and then it's a race to see who the pilot's going to be. Houjou tries buttering up Ozawa (hilarious) and picking the brain of Shouichi (priceless), while Hikawa happily lets himself be demoted back to eating ramen with his old partner, and Shouichi pretty much decides that being G3-X is lame. With that variably-motivated group of weirdos, it's not much surprise when Ozawa takes charge and dumbs down the G3-X enough so that Hikawa can both pilot it and not die. Another thrilling victory for Team G3-X!

So, yeah, about that choice by Ozawa. It's sweet, it's her belief in Hikawa, it's totally character-driven. I'm not mad about it, really. But, man, the fact that she had to make the suit less-effective in order to give him the victory, I don't know. I suppose a tainted victory, a win with an asterisk, that's pretty much the most Hikawa kind of victory there is, but it still felt... not great. If the compromised nature of the G3-X AI becomes a plot point down the line, then I like the story choice. If it doesn't, ehhhh.

But there's somehow still more to talk about from this episode! In keeping with the way the monster plots have been going, they are decidedly not worth discussing, despite how cool the kills look. (Dropping someone through an entire building? Such a great visual!) It's just, the victims have no story. They're a thing to motivate the heroes to go out and fight, but there's no narrative to them right now. The monsters are no better, being completely interchangeable from story to story, to the degree that the episodes now don't even really acknowledge what steps the police are taking to prevent them besides hoping to catch them in the act. I don't really need the monster parts to get better, since there's so much other great stuff happening, but it's still worth noting how not worth noting they are.

No, the big non-police things from this story are another brutal Gills/Agito fight, and the cliffhanger.

First, the fight. Uh, pretty terrific! In the same way the monster fights have felt lackluster because the monsters don't really have a character or a compelling motivation, this fight was two characters I'm highly invested in emotionally having a fight to the death. There's a great use of the location, with a very vertical staging. Folks are thrown up and over, a big chunk of the fight happens on top of a tall structure, and the way Gills knocks Agito off into the river, yeah, I'd assume that dude was dead, too. It's a hell of a climactic fight.

Except, that's not the climax. After pulling himself out of the river, Shouichi's now washed ashore with his memories. All his memories! Everything! ...allegedly. We'll see for sure next episode!