[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI VOLUME 37 - “REVIVED THUNDER”



“I’m back with scars to show
Back with the streets I know
Will never take me anywhere but here”

-The Weakerthans, “Left & Leaving”

Boy, I really wanted to like this one.

I think there’s some good ideas in it, but it just really fumbles the execution. There’re a bunch of big emotional beats that, to me, 100% do not land. The actors are trying, but the material here is … it’s biting off way more than it can chew.

There’s just not nearly enough space to deal with Akira’s inner turmoil, Shuki’s crusade, Ibuki’s duty, and Zanki’s disappointment. It’s too much for a set of problems that basically stop and start in the same episode. As a result, so many turns are rushed, and the big connective tissue that should help support those turns is left to a couple lines of dialogue. This thing needed at least another episode to really work.

Akira’s story is the one I’m most interested in, and the one that maybe comes out the best. (The best of several bad plots, but still!) Her problem is that, on the one hand, Shuki is offering the comfort and certainty of Anger as a motivation. Akira knows how to operate by channeling her rage into her job, and Shuki is telling her that not only is she smart to do that, but that Shuki can teach her ways to become even more powerful as an Oni. On the other hand, she’s got the men of Takeshi, who… are also in this episode.

I think Hibiki’s trying to let her find her own path, to let her make up her own mind for what works. But, basically, the other Oni are giving her nothing that makes sense to her. Ibuki shrugged his shoulders last episode and says maybe two words to her in this one, and Zanki can't seem to offer any alternatives. Shuki is telling her that anger is a tool, and that sounds familiar to her. The other Oni are saying Don’t Do The Thing That Makes Sense To You, and giving her zero other options. Is it any wonder that she ends up throwing her lot in with Shuki?

It’s one of those big turns, though, that I don’t think works super great. I can see why Akira would do that, why she'd go with the person who's telling her there's nothing wrong with her instead of the men who are treating her like she's in a play that no one gave her a script for; but it feels so massive, and happens so quickly, that it’s a little hard to buy. The idea of Akira burning her bridges with Ibuki and not even talking to him about? I don’t see it happening! I don’t think you can do an Akira Turns Her Back On Her Family moment with Zanki. Nope! It’d be like Asumu deciding to become Hibiki’s apprentice, and it happens in a scene with him and Hinaka. They got fun scene chemistry, but that moment needs the right partner, or you’re squandering so much drama.

I don’t… Personally, I don’t love Akira turning her back (even briefly) on Ibuki and the other Oni. I’m not going to say It’s Out Of Character, because I think there’s a way to tell that story that could square that circle. It’s just, what’s here is not that compelling of a case, and it sort of leaves the character worse off narratively than she started.

It’s the Zanki and Shuki plot that really didn’t work for me, though.

A lot of it is down to a writing choice that… I see where the writer was coming from. The idea seems to be that Shuki is Zanki to Zanki’s Todoroki. If Zanki’s always been the coolest, most reserved Oni, let’s see his teacher, who makes Zanki look like an over-the-top emotional buffoon. Shuki is ice-cold in this story, which is a fun idea… but it makes this story dramatically inert.

There’s no shading to Shuki, no layers. She wants the power of an Oni to kill the monster that killed her parents (a parallel to Akira’s story that is so on the nose that it made me laugh), and she’ll do anything to get that power. That’s it. Her whole character is in the three seconds where she tells Akira to Stay Angry Ponygirl. She’s ruthless in pursuing her objectives, which makes her dull to debate with. If there’s any conflict inside her about her actions, they’re buried so deep as to be undiscoverable. She’s just a dull antagonist, someone that’s all plot mechanics and no character. (There is a scene where the Fancy Dress Douji and Hime show up and tell Shuki she’s a monster just like them, and her response is, almost literally, Nuh Uh.) All of the actual drama is coming from Zanki, and all of that is just backstory. They have barely one scene together, and Shuki is giving him nothing in the moment. It’s like Zanki’s acting to a ping-pong ball. I’d absolutely believe you if you told me Shuki was composited in later. There’s zero chemistry, and nothing in that scene makes me give a shit if Shuki lives or dies. It’s an unconvincing, one-note take on an Ahab story.

Which means that Shuki’s sacrifice… I didn’t care? For even a second? I wasn’t able to find anything compelling about her character in this episode, so her offing herself was… I mean, one, it didn’t make me feel anything about her character or Zanki’s character. But, two, it made me mad because it takes the dilemma that multiple scenes have been focused on, What Do We Do About Shuki, and then completely lets every character off the hook. What will Ibuki do? Doesn’t matter! What will Zanki do? Doesn’t matter! It’s such a cheat, and it made me really dislike how this episode told its story.

I’m glad the Akira story isn’t over, though. I think there’re more places you could follow that character. The Shuki and Zanki stuff, though… boy, wanted to like it, but it just did not work. Bummer.