[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 04

Let's talk about how Tendou shows affection.

I mean, it'll get redundant between what Die and Sh Ranger have already had to say – I even thought about doing that exact bit with the baseball pictures myself before (correctly) realizing Die is way too smart to not already be all over that – but still, I think my angle on things is a tiny bit different.

Namely, I think this is the perfect place to do this story. One episode of setup for Kagami's brother is one more episode than Kasumi got in Build, so if I'll let that slide, I'm sure as heck not going to give this episode any grief. Not when it's doing exactly what the second episode/episode couplet of any Heisei Rider show is supposed to do, and making a firm statement on what the series is really going to be about. In Kabuto's case, that's the relationship between Tendou and Kagami, of course, which simultaneously hits a major turning point in this episode... and yet is only just beginning.

There are three very important things to understand about Tendou. One is that while you shouldn't expect him to make his feelings obvious with his words, you can always see his heart in his actions, if you look hard enough. The second is that he considers himself the supreme authority of the entire planet, and as such he utterly disregards suggestions from people he considers even slightly beneath him. The third is that he acts that way because nearly everything in the world transpires exactly as he envisions it.

So with all of that in mind, it's no surprise that Tendou feeds ZECT the information about Ryou. He knows ZECT will refuse to involve Kagami, and he knows this is for the best, because Kagami is too fragile emotionally to handle taking down a Worm with the face of his little brother. Tendou sets it up so all he needs to do is go finish the Worm himself as Kabuto, sparing Kagami that pain, and everything will work out perfectly, exactly as it always does when people act how he wants.

And then Kagami changes the equation. He protests, insists with fire in his eyes that settling this score himself is something that matters to him, and tells Tendou right to his face to stay out of his business. And amazingly, Tendou does exactly that. When he fights as Kabuto, he lets Kagami make the final decision as to whether or not to destroy the Worm. Tendou defers to someone else's authority. Now think about those three rules again. It's unlikely Tendou would take this gamble in the first place if he thought Kagami was weak enough to say no. It's unthinkable he would yield this decision to Kagami if he thought he was just some spineless idiot. And finally, because he's acting this way, there's only one undoubtable truth.

In this episode where it seems Kagami is as low as he'll ever get, he's also won one of the biggest victories anyone ever could – Kagami has earned the respect of the man who walks the path of heaven.

...I still have more to say, but that's a good spot for a break, so here's that visual aid I was talking about.



Tendou literally orders the dang fish in this one, prompting TV-N to realize their mistake and get it right this time. Why Earthly didn't take the opportunity to go back and change episode 3 to be right also, I have no clue.

Okay! Back on track now! This is a real good episode. I only half remembered that the iconic rain fight was also the Kagami's Worm bro plot, but both of those things individually have stayed in my head relatively well over the years. The special effects work still holds up, which is true for most if not all of Kabuto, and the story behind it has a lot of great raw emotion. It's a very, very good showing for this series.

It also helped me lock on to what I think is a reason Kabuto doesn't resonate with me at all, which is that I might not actually give a s*** about Kagami's macho declaration he's going to "surpass" Tendou?

It's a great, strong direction for the overarching character growth, don't get me wrong; I don't mean to say any of this is bad so much as that Kagami's motivations as the protagonist (and yes, he is THE protagonist) don't have the same personal appeal to me so, so many other Rider leads do. What I know about Kagami right now is that he joined a shady organization in large part to pursue a personal vendetta, and that just can't grab me instantly the way watching Yuusuke or Shinji see a crying girl and realizing they have the power to stop that from happening again can.

Which is a totally unfair comparison to make! I can't be clear enough about this! This isn't analyzing the episode anymore, I'm just trying to understand why I don't feel much of an emotional connection to Kabuto, and I think that lack of a great heroic motivation presented upfront for either of its two heroes is a big part of that. Like I've said before, I love these ideas conceptually, and I would never want every Rider show to do the same exact things over and over, so the variety is awesome, but I think Kabuto might be a case where that results in a series that's a little more for others than it is for me. At least that's my theory at the moment, anyway. Still plenty of this show left to see how I feel about.