[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER AGITO EPISODES 26 - 27



Ugh. Ugghh. Ugggggggghhhhh.

Let me talk about three things I enjoyed from this story.

First, there's a moment in the opening scene where, after throwing a tantrum when he's told that Hikawa will be operating G3-X, Houjou leaves a meeting in a huff. As he's leaving, he kicks the wheel on Ozawa's chair. That is amazing. It's so childish, so petulant, so hilarious, so perfect. It's far and away the best thing in this story, and it happens about a minute in.

Second, after Shouichi splits to investigate the true Tsugami ("Truegami”), Mana and family are sitting around eating breakfast when the phone rings. At each ring, Uncle looks to a kid, waiting for them to go answer the phone. At the third ring, when they just sit there eating breakfast, he resigns himself to getting the phone. It's a small bit of business, but it makes them feel like a real family. That comedically frustrated look on Uncle's face, the No, Fine, I've Got It, You Keep Eating Breakfast passive-aggressiveness of it all, I thought it was great storytelling.

Third, Agito's new Combo Form is a nice visual representation of his healed psyche, of a complete person. I don't know that I love the This Plus This basicness of its aesthetics, but it was a thing that helped lift some of the story.

The rest of this thing, though, jesus. Such a slog. A pretty epic miscalculation on a lot of levels.

The biggest problem for me was that the camerawork was atrocious. I don't know why the film crew decided to spend two episodes using 47 ferrets as a camera stand, but it did not make for good television. I still have a headache from trying to watch this jumbled, jittery mess. A scene of two characters talking while sitting on a couch does not need to have the camera shaking like it's on a paint mixer! I get that the director wanted to instill a sense of tension, but this mess was practically unwatchable. It made me sick. They keep shooting them like this, I'll genuinely have to quit watching Agito.

The overbearing use of filters and gels certainly didn't help things. I have no idea why someone, anyone in the production thought that each of the three threads needed a monochromatic color palette. It makes no sense and adds nothing to the storytelling. It's just, green for Shouichi and Truegami, blue for Ryou and the mutants, red for the occasional flashback/climactic moment. These are not threads that needed a heavy-handed color palette to help differentiate them! It's literally the same types of threads we've had the last twenty-odd episodes. We have seen all of these characters before. Far from adding anything to the scenes, either narratively or thematically, it only detracts. Every scene is doused in one color, flattening out anything happening with lighting, with set design, with costuming, with anything. It makes an already nauseating set of visuals dull and boring. I wish I could go back in time and fire everyone who shot these episodes. Terrible, terrible ideas on a fundamental level.

And the story... eh. I don't 100% get the ending yet, or at least I hope I don't. Gills seems pretty dead, despite showing up pushing his bike in the Next Episode teaser, so I've got no clue what happened there. But HOLY SHIT did Shouichi just forget all of his memories again?! After two episodes that served to fill in a couple minor blanks (Truegami and Mana's dad worked together on mutant powers, Shouichi had a sister who died under mysterious circumstances, Shouichi was on the Akatsuki-gou to visit Truegami and get answers), whatever character growth we might've gotten is now completely scrubbed?! Am I... Am I seeing that right?!

Unbelievably mad at these episodes!