[Kurona]

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 5



This show's seriously got to stop giving me a billion things to talk about. Like, something I distinctly remember from when I first watched it is that the 'Last time on OOO, these three things happened!' section didn't actually cover everything that happened in just three broad statements, and I think that's a real testament to just how much OOO is able to have occur in one episode yet still feel completely balanced.

Like, let's talk formulas and structures for a sec. Usually in a show like this, ESPECIALLY in a Toku show; where you have a particular group of main villains you'd usually give each their own focus episode near the start of the show to really get viewers accustomed to them and start fleshing them out for later. It's standard but it works and plenty of great shows build on that. So, ostensibly this episode is Mezool's; a personal favourite among the Greeed for me for reasons that unfold later. But despite this being her Yummy, her getting a big fight and grand entrance to Eiji in, you've also got Kazari manipulating things behind the scenes after he took the stage last episode, and then almost the entire back third is an introduction to and fight with Uva! And the best part is that in comparison to that previously-stated formula, it all feels so natural. Thing A leads into thing B while thing C naturally spun-off from the others; it's all very much within their nature, you see the Greeed tying each other around their claws and backstabbing each other whenever they can for their own benefit. It is wonderful villain stuff, and once again their new hideout, disguises, and discussion in the dark is so very VERY Grongi in a way I simply love.

But that's not the only thing that's really broken out of here, because his is hardly a Greeed-centric episode -- aside from Mezool's introduction and Uva's fight, you've also got the A-plot of a rich girl spending so much every day; you've got Hina's lingering conflicts; Ankh clashing with Kougami -- and again, all of it is so well balanced. All of these elements get the exact time they need to shine, no more no less; giving you just enough of the picture to feel satisfied while still getting you excited for what's coming up next. Kougami's deal is only truly established at the beginning but throughout you see Ankh trying to fight back against him until eventually he has to fall back on his tech; there's enough cutaways to the rich girl to get her story; Hina's conflict is interwoven with hers... and I really like how I can't really fit any of this into a three-act structure or anything else, yet all of it just works. Something I really enjoy seeing is when people used to working on the genre and know it inside-out are able to play around with it and not stick to the rules so much -- every decision here feels deliberate and like there's true intent behind every little detail.

Couple more fun points? Once again, we see Eiji's hidden cunning at work -- Ankh tries to stomp off to trick Eiji into thinking he doesn't know where the Yummy is in order to stockpile more medals... but despite how dumb he looks, Eiji tricks him right back with a facade of helplessness because he knows right away where Ankh was looking. In what would usually be a decent ploy to draw the episode out, this is a great bit of genre-savviness that still feels fresh all these years later and adds more personality to Eiji than you'd think. It's also very subtly displayed in the opening of the episode, too -- the whole time you think he's not listening to the conversation between Kougami and Ankh, that he's obliviousness; but no, he clearly heard every word and is considering him despite how goofy he's acting. Oh, and then the Uva fight scene goes and has a big bike scene! In Kamen Rider! Imagine! Bikes! In Kamen Rider! What a concept! I'd be tempted to mark that off as another Kuuga-ism if OOO's immediate predecessor wasn't just as obsessed with making great bike scenes, but something that adds to it is that Ankh's riding too. It's something kind of fun about the Ridevendors; that they're not relegated to just a Rider's equipment and you see a lot of characters using them throughout the show. And just to top it off... boom. Eiji and Ankh stole more medals for their first full set. I don't remember if every episode had a change to the medal count, but it's starting to feel like that was the case!









Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 1





This is one of the best first episodes Kamen Rider has ever had and you won't convince me otherwise.

Not that Kamen Rider is bad at first episodes or anything -- most seasons I can think of aside from Zi-O do a phenomenal job and really stick with me; and even for seasons like 555 where I didn't enjoy it, I can still appreciate how good of a first episode that was at nailing the tone right off the bat. But Ghost's, to me, is very special in how much it's able to establish and how well it's able to establish that. I just talked in this post about OOO being a master of balancing a thousand things at once and this truly feels like it comes close -- Akari and Onari, even if you might find them a bit annoying (I have things to say about Akari later), are already very well-realised characters with a lot of personality from the second they open their mouths. They're very loud, very passionate; you can easily see what's going to be a big source of conflict for this season yet at the same time their love for Takeru rises above all of that. It's not like they're smothering him, but there's a real subtle natural element to the bond they have with Takeru that makes it feel real and that there's enough there to get them without fleshing out the details just yet. Talking of which, Takeru has a hell of a lot more self-esteem issues than I remember! Like. Oh good god we need to get this lad some therapy ASAP, though I guess a season of Kamen Riding will have to do for working out his feelings? There's a very relatable lack of confidence in everything he does and how he feels he's living up to his father that you might as well name him Rodimus and call it a day, and that seriously helps with all the 'believe in yourself' stuff later on. Usually that'd be pretty stock shonen/toku stuff, the kind of thing you tick off on your Sentai Bingo Card; but here it feels like there's a lot more legitimacy to it in both how he talks and his body language. I don't know why I didn't pick up on it the first time around but there's so much character to Takeru right off the bat. Like, hell, he lives shut away in a basement! To quickly shift gears, actually? Love Tenkuji Temple. The set design alone is drop-dead gorgeous, and the way the camera follows Akari running through it near the start gives such a great continuity of location to the place that you immediately map out the place in your head. Is that just me? Because despite how big the place is I straightaway know how all the main areas connect and am so ready to see it for 50 episodes. Pretty great parallel to how well the characters are set up, in fact!

So that's why I actually did kinda feel something when the main character dies at the 10-minute mark. I don't think I truly appreciated how much of a way this is to start off your children's show about funny ghost shenanigans and learning all about Beethoven and Himiko? Like just over a year from now parents are writing complaints to Toei about having to explain the concept of death to their kids on Christmas because Takahashi decided to kill the funny bike gamer man, but Fukuda's out here like. Nah. 10 minutes. That's all you get bud. It's kind of amazing and creates a fantastic hook within so little time, especially with the time limit!

The remainder of the episode is mostly a fight scene, but it's a fight scene riddled with wonderful and characterful choreography. Something I did have a complaint with in the later stages of the Heisei Era was how bad the fight choreography got; I adore Build and I liked Zi-O, but neither of these had me enjoying the fight scenes much because it was either a very simple repeated one-two punch or it was full of special effects; scenes like RabbitRabbit and Zi-O II's debuts were truly saved by the emotion behind it all. I don't know why this was, I assume maybe it was because Taikawa was probably getting a bit tired by that point... but in Ghost he's showing his stuff! Ghost has a very distinct style of fighting compared to any Kamen Rider we've seen before, with very intentional strikes and punches clearly derived from Takeru's background and training at the temple. This early on it's not quite perfected, but that's because Takeru isn't either -- he's clearly a novice at this with all his bumbling while trying to float around, getting hit back and forth, leaving himself open. Ghost's fight scenes are very very rich with great action and it's something I'm looking forward to!

There's a few complaints I have; particularly Akari and the fact a new form is used right in the first episode -- I really feel like first episodes should have the Rider's main form and nothing else, unless it's a pre-form like Den-O's Plat Form or... well, Ghost's transients; or you're pulling off something unique like Kuuga. But this was an issue I had with my literal two favourite shows in OOO and Build, and Musashi has a lot more emotional weight behind it than poking a Smash with a Hedgehog hand; so I can more or less excuse it. What is here is exciting enough to have me hooked!