[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 12

This is a thought that could apply to just about any episode so far, and probably many in the future, but this one gave me the perfect screencap to use, so let me just say – I sort of hate the ZECT stuff in this show, and I sort of love that I hate it? Every scene with one and/or two shady people with vague motivations discussing whatever recent developments in the literal shade is so utterly self-serious and unironic that it's just about looping back around for me into being ironically goofy and hilarious? I feel like Kagami's dad and Gorou are contributing the bare minimum to this series right now, and it makes the level of importance they carry themselves with come off as so absurd. It's not really an issue, because the show knows to keep the scenes as short as possible, but it's something worth mentioning.

And on the subject of absurd things I should hate but kinda love anyway, how about that Tendou/Daisuke plot in this one? Sure, Tendou's blatant feelings of inferiority towards his new rival are still hugely out of character, and sure Die is completely on the mark about it doing a poor job of elaborating on Daisuke himself, and, sure, this is an episode of Kamen Rider where the hero chides a supporting character for treating women like objects mere moments after saying, in Tendou's usual metaphorical manner, that all flowers (women) know they bloom in the presence of the sun (him, of course), but – and I'm preemptively sorry about this – I did find it all pretty amusing.

This is another reason why I mentioned ZECT now; it gives you context for my thought process when I say this episode achieves such insane levels of pure tackiness that I can't even be angry about it. It's riding a very, very fine line, but it comes off as tongue-in-cheek enough to be more fun than frustrating to me. Definitely going to be a "your mileage may vary" situation; I would not bother sticking up for this one at all if you told me it was crass garbage, because that is exactly what it is.

Inoue seemed to save all the genuine quality writing for the Kagami/Tendou plot, where my opinions line up with Die's pretty much perfectly. It lands on something a lot smarter than I expected from the last part, and it made me happy to see in a pair of episodes that are otherwise notably uninterested in emotional resonance or interesting character development. I will mention here that I do still love everything about Drake, though. I don't have a particularly hard tier list for Kabuto designs, but I like his color scheme, and his Zecter might just be my favorite of the series? It's really tough to say in a show where basically every Rider design is a winner.

Also, I'm trying my best to answer all of Die's questions, but all this one reminds me of is how weird it is the guy who was causally dodging knives in the premiere now can't win a simple game of chance without trying a dozen times. No wonder Tendou is so upset about it; it's like Inoue thought he was writing Shinji again or something!