[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER AGITO EPISODE 42



Uh, I don't know about this one.

In the present day, nothing really happens. G3-X, Gills, and Another Agito generally get their asses some degree of kicked by the Manta Unknown. The beginning of the fight, from the end of the previous episode, had some flash to it, with the Unknown using the Riders attacks against other Riders. This one, it's mostly just an unstoppable badass who stands up to every attack and form change. It's a time killer, and not much more.

In the past... hoo, boy.

As the end of the series approaches, we'd have to get the final word on what went down on the Akatsuki-gou. It's been danced around for nearly the entire series. What happened on the boat? Why won't anyone talk about it? Did Kino really know Shouichi? Did Aki really know Shouichi? How do the mutant powers and Agitos factor into it?

The answers (and bless them for actually providing real answers instead of another variation of We Don't Talk About That)... honestly, I found it all slightly underwhelming.

The big reveal here is the introduction (I guess? Technically?) of Agito Jesus, the white chocolate bore to Spooky Man's dark chocolate intensity. Good ol' AJ (if you will) fought the Spooky Man at the dawn of time, and used his last moments of life to seed humanity with the power of Agitos. Spooky Man found that abhorrent, and millenia later, for some yet to be disclosed reason, AJ shows up on the Akatsuki-gou, drops dead (or is murdered), waits for the boat to be enveloped in evil weather, bestows his powers on the passengers in general and Shouichi in particular, and then leaves just before Manta Unknown shows up to knock Shouichi into the water and threaten the mutants.

Agito Jesus, it's an okay idea. The motivation is fine, playing into the duality of man, the light and dark, whatever. It's a little trite (why always light and dark as motifs), but the familiarity fills in a lot of the gaps in the narrative, letting the visuals of Agito Jesus and Spooky Man help you understand the stakes, the conflict. It's nothing stunning or surprising, but it's not bad.

And, honestly, that's a lot of my feelings about this episode. Nothing that happens on the Akatsuki-gou, that backstory, is bad. It's just sort-of dull? I'd be more into them bringing back all of the dead mutants for a flashback episode if those mutants had felt like real characters to me. Like, remember the Fourze summer movie? The emotional climax of that film is that everyone that Gentaro interacted with, everyone he saved and befriended, they all play a role in saving him at the end. But that beat only worked because we spent time with all of them, saw them change and grow. Here, with the boat mutants, most of them were barely a quirk before they were monster-murdered. Seeing them here, it's just, Oh, Aki, or Oh, That Glasses Girl Was Always Horrible. (The one cool thing is seeing Casual Kino tell everyone that they're responsible for their own future and no one else can affect it. This guy, who is obsessed with saving his dead brother, is telling everyone else how to live for the future. Hilarious! Ironic!) It's like the show was so proud of itself for bringing everyone back that they forgot that only three of these characters really matter to anyone. It's all just putting pieces together, but there's no heart to it. I don't care about these people, and I know how they end up, so it's just... it's all just so inert, narratively. Things happen, we learn details, but it's all just, like, Okay, So?

Plus, man, some of those details are dumb. The Manta Unknown decides not to kill them on the boat for what reason, exactly? Some vague sense of honor? But first he swears them to secrecy, despite the Unknown constantly murdering people in broad daylight? I'm not sure there was ever going to be a good enough reason for why no one could ever give a straight answer as to what happened on that boat, but this, god. I'd almost wish the Manta Unknown had said "You're not allowed to tell anyone what happened on this boat until episode 42! FORTY-TWOOOOO!" It all feels like the show wanted to keep the boat details for a late-series reveal, but also didn't think of those details until the week before filming this episode? Like, some of these answers are not worth the wait.

I don't know. This information all had to come out, and I guess it's better they dramatized it in an episode than had someone exposition-vomit it out over a bunch of scenes. And this episode was a much, much better take on giving Shouichi his memories back. (Why... why does he only get his memories back when he's almost killed by Agitos?) But, yeah, it was very much a brain episode, but not really a heart episode, if that makes sense. It was necessary information without a compelling story.

Also, still no Ozawa, D-.