[Fish Sandwich]

EPISODE 32: "Obstacle"

Something interesting to note about these episodes is that they're directed by Osamu Kaneda. Kaneda is a pretty prominent figure throughout Kamen Rider's history, and there's probably a lot that could be said about him, but what's important here is that he was the action director for all but a few early episodes of Kuuga. Which is why there's definitely a logic to giving him this two-parter, which is not only way more about action than normal, but is about a very specific kind of action -- bike action.



It actually takes over five minutes of the runtime before we even see Yuusuke this episode. The beginning carries right over from the last episode, and since that one wanted to end with Kuuga riding off on the way to his next adventure, it means this one just starts with him already transformed, and doesn't really give it a second thought. It's sort of retro how much screentime is given to Kuuga in costume here. Yuusuke is generally only transformed when he's in the middle of a fight, but here, he gets a fair bit of dialogue in-costume, chatting it up with Ichijou during a break in the action. It's not long before it's right back to that, though, and the Try Chaser is definitely put to the test here, and it ultimately proves incapable of standing up to Badaa, who has to be chased off for the moment by Ichijou. The poor thing is so worn down at this point that Yuusuke can't even flip the colors off the "Kuuga" setting, which might sound like a bad thing if I knew how that worked in the first place. Still, it's evident Yuusuke is in need of a new ride. That's why the police finishing up development on the brand new Beat Chaser 2000 would be great news, if Unidentified Lifeform #4 being involved with a massive explosion a while back wasn't putting pressure on them not to give it to him.

The central dramatic thrust for this episode is, of course, Ichijou trying to sort this mess out. His immediate plan is to try telling chief Matsukura that the explosion wasn't #4's fault, which... well, one, it's arguable if he's even right there. Two, it doesn't matter anyway, because as Matsukura points out, the police are just trying to avoid getting caught up in the matter at all. Whether Matsukura actually agrees with that line of thinking or not is another question, however. In the meantime, Ichijou works together with... basically everyone, to get a plan together to stop Badaa with what they've got. It'll take at least that much effort. He's going around on a motorcycle killing anyone else on bikes faster than they can keep up with, so the plan here is both big in scale, and also simple in concept. Essentially, they're going to put one of their guys on one of the also newly completed mass-produced Try Chasers, using him as bait to lead Badaa through a series of blockades, with the end goal being to lure to him a secluded enough spot that #4 can blow him to bits without worrying about damaging anything. Simple in concept, yes, but an operation that huge needs quite a lot of manpower behind it.

This includes #4 himself, of course, because the cops actually out in the field dealing with monsters every day don't really have the luxury of pretending they don't need him. Ichijou is a little busy running the show and trying to talk the higher-ups into giving the Beat Chaser to Kuuga, however, so this episode pulls the interesting twist of having Yuusuke hang out with Sugita, of all people. This is a really fun twist on the formula. Sugita has such a massively different energy from Ichijou, being a lot older and gruffer, but Yuusuke is still just his usual self, so the contrast is great. Sugita, presumably above caring, after all the impossible things he sees on a regular basis, doesn't even take a second to question that Yuusuke is Kuuga. It sounds obvious, but even with him on the bike when they meet, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a moment where Sugita is obligated to say some kind of generic "so are you really #4?" line, but this is way more in-character.

Eventually, Kuuga gets another chance at taking Badaa down, leading to an insane last couple of minutes of these guys fighting on their bikes. They quickly move from the street onto a rocky shore, and from there, it is just on, man.



These guys are riding next to each other. They're riding between each other. Kuuga narrowly dodges a tire to the face when Badaa uses his own front-wheel punch move on him. They're going over things, under things. I mean, if stairs don't mean s*** to Kuuga on a bike, than some random rocks mean even less. There are a couple moments here where Kuuga, and by Kuuga I mean Takumi Narita, seems to lift his bike clean into the air through sheer force of will, just to turn 180 degrees a little quicker. You can also tell the episode was directed by the same guy who handles the action because one of those shots is shown in loving slow motion. This sequence is a spectacle. If it weren't so hard to find frames that aren't blurry from all the intense motion going on, I probably would've just covered this one in screencaps. It's like every second some new exciting thing is happening. And then to top it all off, the episode ends with Badaa stealing the Try Chaser?! Are you kidding me?! This episode rules!

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Yuusuke gives this episode the thumbs up.



Total thumbs up count: 56+1 = 57

EPISODE 33: "Cooperation"

Kuuga has a habit of revealing cliffhangers to be less perilous than they seem at first, but the excuse this episode comes up with is far more clever than usual, because the thing that saves Kuuga is actually more bad news. Badaa's fun with his new ride is almost immediately cut short when the poor, overworked Try Chaser's engine finally just gives up completely, and he leaves the smoking wreck on the ground without a second thought to go back to his old bike. That climax last episode was a final tribute to one of the coolest Rider machines of all time, and, after over half a year of invaluable service to Kuuga, the Try Chaser 2000 has hit its limit.



So, at this point, there's really no getting around it. Kuuga needs the Beat Chaser to stand up to Badaa. Which is why it's good everybody's doing their best to make that happen. Enokida is stalling the guys who have come to take the bike into their custody, which gives Ichijou time to get over there and try to talk some sense into them, something Matsukura is doing on his end too, telling the brass to take a second to really consider what the best choice is to protect the people. After all, there's a killer grasshopper on the loose, and they can't stop him just by worrying about their image. Oh, and speaking of Badaa and pretty images, there's a fantastically shot scene of the Grongi in this one. Like, Ishida level beautiful.



One other cool thing here is that after losing his bike, the first thing Yuusuke does is try to think of a plan that works around that. The idea he comes up with is to try hitching a ride on Gouram and using Pegasus Form. There's something about the scene of him just calmly working out the logic on this with Sugita in his car I really love. I guess it goes back to how much I love seeing heroes using training and preparation. Yuusuke isn't some super genius, so there's a distinct flow to him gradually thinking up the plan, and realizing the drawbacks. You can almost see the "oh" moments happening in between his sentences where he thinks of stuff like "what if he goes in a tunnel though?"

Once he and Sugita arrive at the next location Badaa is headed for, there's another cool moment, where Yuusuke heads off on a mass-production Try Chaser (actually asking permission to borrow the bike this time!), and after Sugita hands him his gun to use for Pegasus Form, Sakurai realizes who Yuusuke is as he's driving away. It's a perfect place for the obligatory "was that guy...?" moment, and Sugita's nonchalant response is once again wonderfully in-character. This also means we have the rare mid-episode fight scene in Kuuga, which is yet more reason why they gave these ones to the action director. Yuusuke puts his plan into motion, and it doesn't work out, but he at least remembers to switch out of Pegasus Form before he hits his time limit.

As amazing as the action is in these episodes, there's also some supremely solid character building going on to, with the scene of Yuusuke and Sugita chatting in the car after the failed attempt to use Gouram being a highlight of the entire two-parter. Like I was saying, these two build some good chemistry in a short time, and the show takes advantage of bringing Sugita face to face with the guy who saved his life all the way back in episode 4, when he was just some mysterious Unidentified Lifeform, to give him a chance to apologize for the early misunderstandings between Kuuga and the police. Spending a day alongside Yuusuke is really all it takes to realize how absurd it was to have ever considered #4 an enemy.

After this, Ichijou comes bearing some good news for Yuusuke. Not only has he worked out the situation with the Beat Chaser (under the impression he's breaking the rules to do so; he won't find out until the ending that Matsukura fixed things on his end too), he actually rides the bike there to give it to Yuusuke, which is all kinds of awesome. There's yet another fun little payoff where actually witnessing Yuusuke transform into Kuuga manages to get a reaction out of Sugita, after all this time being so unfazed.



So yeah, the Beat Chaser 2000. I'm not going to lie, the Try Chaser will always be my favorite of the two out of sheer sentimental value, but it's not like this bike is any less cool. It's debut can't quite top the absurd stunts of the Try Chaser's final stand, either, but it's a cool showdown in its own right, with a much greater sense of speed. So much speed, in fact, that the Beat Chaser comes equipped with its own parachute to slow it down. Kuuga uses this ability to race far ahead of Badaa to where it's safe to blow him up, and hits him with a Rising Mighty Kick, bringing an end to to their epic rider rivalry.

These episodes are absolutely fantastic. In terms of the greater story, it's this start of a new chapter, with more direct and involved cooperation between the police and Kuuga to stop Grongi with as little harm to their surroundings as possible. On its own, it's a thrilling, adrenaline-fueled action adventure with a great villain, and tons of epic hero moments, culminating in Ichijou's arrival with the Beat Chaser. There's a very feel-good tone to these ones. It's also worth noting these are the last episodes of the show by a guest writer. I didn't find a good spot to mention it, but Inoue wrote 32, and is credited alongside Arakawa for 33. From here on out, though, it's all Arakawa, all the time.

THUMBS UP COUNTING CORNER

Kuuga shows his approval of a fancy new bike the only way he knows how.



Total thumbs up count: 57+1 = 58