[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 32 - "BURSTING WITH SONG"



"I'm genuinely sorry
That I missed your party
You should try holding
All the guilt I still carry"

-Camera Obscura, "I Missed Your Party"

Fun, but, like, not much to talk about?

It's leaning real heavy into the humor, this one. Kogure's ridiculous. The new Douji and Hime are ridiculous. Kiriya is extra ridiculous. The whole thing is colossally off the rails. It's very fun, don't get me wrong, but it's also so untethered from anything dramatic that it just barely sticks in my brain.

There is a moral here, though. Kogure is forcing Todoroki to contemplate incredibly dangerous actions to gain his approval, something that Zanki immediately sees as pointless and opts out of this story. Meanwhile, Kiriya is getting, impossibly, more insufferable as Asumu won't help him get in with Hibiki. Both characters are burning themselves out to get the approval they crave, which is a fun idea to explore.

Except, it's applied to characters that just don't matter that much? Todoroki especially comes off too weird here, as his need to prove himself to Kogure feels like an insult to Zanki. We've never met Kogure before, and, yeah, Todoroki is going to be the most needy Oni when it comes to the approval of others, but it feels way too quick and way too dangerous here. Todoroki was at the meeting where two different Oni said that Kogure's new weapon broke their powers, and he's just okay with endangering himself? I don't know, I can sort of see it, but it requires Todoroki to be Comically Short-Sighted for it to work for the story. It was a little too much for me. Fun, but hard to invest in.

The Kiriya plot is more believable, for sure. Kiriya is already losing his shit over not being able to test himself against Hibiki, so it's no real surprise that he'd openly insult Asumu (who's just like What Are You Even Talking About to most of it, which I loved) and tag along to wherever Hibiki is going to be. It doesn't amount to anything, of course, but it makes sense for Kiriya's character. But my problem is that it leaves Asumu with nothing to do this episode, and I don't know if that's ever going to work for me in a Hibiki episode. Other characters can get the spotlight (this one's a heavy Oni episode), but Asumu at least needs the B-plot for the episode. Here, he gets a couple reaction scenes and nothing else. Don't love that!

The rest of the episode is just insane. Kogure is a parody of a stern disciplinarian, and while it's funny as shit (the spankings!), it's so over-the-top that it's hard to care much about winning him over. It's like trying to impress Super Nintendo Chalmers, from the Simpsons. He's a joke. Why bother?

The new Douji and Hime are great as the villains, though. I love their excitable, goofy energy. I'm way more of a fan of human-sized fights, so an episode of Doujis Vs Himes, that concludes with all three Oni versus the new Douji and Hime at Kamen Rider Cliff? Hell yes. Very into that in principle, and the fight more than delivered. It had multiple level, cool powers, great costumes, and unpredictable villains. What's not to love?

But, like, that's the thing about this episode. On paper, it's full of things I like. The jokes are great, there's a theme, and the fights are great. But the construction was too wacky, and the characters were too broad. I don't know. It was fun, but it's not really one I can defend. Bit of a misfire. Could probably have used some correction!