[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 19 - "STRUMMING WARRIOR"



"Sign your life away, who cares?
We will be there to
Pick you up when you come through
Because we care for you"

-Superchunk, "June Showers"

So, first of all: the dog is named Hibarki.

Second -- wait, I've got to eat this piece of cake from Portillo's.

Okay, back. (It was so good.) Where was I? Oh, yeah, second: is there such a thing as an episode of Hibiki being too tranquil? And I acknowledge that I'm describing an episode where Todoroki explodes multiple giant crabs and Hibiki does sick jumps on a dirtbike as "too tranquil", but... yeah, not exactly a big, exciting episode of Kamen Rider.

Like, I had a really good time watching this episode, but I'm finding it difficult to come up with things to talk about from it, beyond just, like, listing all of the many cute scenes. Because there were so many cute scenes! It's an episode of almost only cute scenes! Everyone's very cute! And charming! But!

This is maybe one of those two-parters where the first part is all tone, and the second part is all incident? I don't know, I can't see the future. What's in this one, besides the aforementioned cute scenes, is just Todoroki, and him being hilariously over-confident.

Or, maybe not over-confident, but... excited to contribute? He's working his ass off and having a blast, so goddamn pumped to be an Oni that he's having celebratory rock-outs on his sacred weapon of monster exploding. (I love that neither Ichiro, nor the returning Zanki, are able to discern from Todoroki's training footage that he's having fun. They're both like What Is The New Technique, and it's one of the best gags in a very funny episode.) He never comes off as sure of himself, which is maybe what's causing his problems. He's an Oni, but he maybe doesn't feel confident as an Oni, so he's pushing himself way too hard. He's got this sweaty desire to please, this air of neediness that's both a really fun energy (he gets in way too close when telling Ichiro that he's going to work hard) but also probably going to get him killed. Still, fun to watch!

The rest of this episode... yeah, fun to watch! Nothing that feels like it adds up to anything yet (Asumu's new job at Team Hibiki Bar and Grill feels like it's going to parallel Todoroki's overcompensation), but, shit, I love this cast, I don't care if they just want to introduce themselves to each other for an episode.

Which, they do! If there's a secret connection amongst the cast, it mostly gets brought to light as everyone stops by the restaurant for at least a scene and reveals who they are and what their significance is. (I mean, not to Hitomi, of course. She's a girl! You can't tell a girl about monsters, despite literally everyone she interacts with in this episode knowing about them!) It's... cute. It's just a very cute episode, full of charming scenes and stray dogs and a sweaty tryhard superhero and a group of men who are a beat away from saying That Boy Ain't Right and not much else.

Actually, since this one's coming up a little light on content, I'm just going to talk about Asumu's mom, AsuMum.

She's fantastic in the one scene she's in, and... look, you'll think I'm kidding, but she might be my favorite character on the show.

She just nails every single scene she's in, and she gives all of her scenes with Asumu this really kooky energy. She's a fun mom without ever forgetting that she's a mom. She's so proud of Asumu, and it elevates stuff that might seem dull on paper (teenage boy on superhero show gets a part-time job at a restaurant) into really compelling stories. She's got universally fun delivery that always feels natural, like when she stops encouraging Asumu for just a second because he never thanked her for breakfast. She's so, so good on this show. That little song she starts singing as the scene ends!

It's a thankless role, being the mother of a teenage boy on a superhero show, but AsuMum always delivers. An amazingly talented actor.

I don't know, that's all I got for this one! It was fun to watch, but not one I'm going to spend a lot of time thinking about! Sorry!