[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 22 - "TRANSFORMING COCOON"



"How's everything at the front of the house?
The drums exploded and our amps are down
But Matthew's got it wired and we're coming around"

-Superchunk, "FOH"

One of the weirdest things about this show, especially over the last ten or so episodes, is how much of a special event it feels like when the title character shows up to fight a monster. Like, that's the baseline expectation of a Kamen Rider series, and yet I'm always a little like Gosh How Were They Able To Get Hibiki For This Episode. He feels like a special guest star in his own goddamn show! Between Ibuki's spotlight and Todoroki's intro AND spotlight, somehow Hibiki Fights A Monster has become a rare, nay, freak occurrence.

But, upshot, holy shit is it awesome when Hibiki arrives at the end of this episode. He gets that big ol' hero frame, ready to lend his strength to the overmatched youngsters. It's a powerful finale, as all three Oni combine their attacks to bring down the Mutant Makamou, but... I mean, I had a big problem with it.

The gimmick is that they're synchronizing their attacks to defeat the monster, playing together as a band. Hibiki specifically uses the phrase "harmonize". But then they... just play their normal solos? It doesn't sound harmonic at all, it sounds like three people that have completely different rhythms. I was hoping they'd make some song out of their attack, but it's just them doing what they'd normally do while two other guys did the same. Felt like a missed opportunity for something really special.

It's the opening that really wowed me, though. It's tense and kinetic, with a nice mixture of tight close-ups (to make the fight feel impossible and claustrophobic) and long takes. There's one long take in particular that showed off how good the choreography was, as Todoroki tries to protect Akira while the Douji and Hime keep making runs at them. A really nice, uninterrupted fight sequence. I dug it!

I did not dig the Asumu thread which... I mean, I'll give the show points for tying together the Mutant Makamou's cocoon with Hitomi noting how much Asumu has transformed since meeting Hibiki. Yes, okay, I approve. But the resolution to the Sayuri plot makes almost no sense to me. Tonally, it's all over the place. Ha ha, Hibiki is carrying that doctor on his back! Oh god, these two kids are holding this old woman's hand while she maybe dies. And there's still zero reason why Hibiki had to run around for help when any of them could've just called a doctor. It's wacky and weighty at the same time, which (for me) just rendered it nonsensical. There's a moment or two in there, the weighty stuff, that has enormous potential. Doing a small story of Asumu overcoming his fear to comfort someone, yes, absolutely. But there's no payoff to any of this (the three main characters just leave her, offscreen), and the thing it's doing to bring up Hitomi noticing/crushing on Asumu is over before the halfway point in the episode. It's like, this was too much of the last episode, and not enough in this one. It also needed at least one more beat to it, since it all feels too arbitrary for its own good.

Weird couple episodes! The Oni action was great, Hibiki feels like he's in a contract dispute with the producers (I cannot imagine what his role looks like when he actually dislikes the show he's on), and the Asumu/Hitomi plot is maybe two-thirds of an idea. Not... not my favorite two-parter for this show!