[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 22

Die already took the "I am who I am" quote, so please accept this more random screencap of Gatack as I celebrate Gatack now being in the show. This is such a moment, man! But before I get to that, let me just say I adore Gatack's design, and it was my favorite set of suits from Kabuto both before and after watching the series. I always thought it was clever how the Masked Form actively fights against the inevitably of the show only wanting to use the Rider Forms by having exclusive sweet shoulder cannons, and the Rider Form itself is a glorious spinoff of Kabuto, contrasted by an emphasis on more sharp edges, and of course, the blue color that guarantees I'd like it anyway. Even the voice of the Zecter is my favorite.

Moving on to the actual story, this episode does a thing I always use a sign of strong narrative focus, which is having a short cold open that lays out the theme of the story. There's a quote from Misaki in response to Kagami waking up in a hospital bemoaning his inability to become Gatack: "If you could become something just by wanting to, you wouldn't have any trouble." That's really the heart of Kagami's growth here, and yes, I'm going to disagree with Die's initial post and say this is very much a story about Kagami growing. You see, Kagami wasn't upset he failed to become Gatack; he's upset for the same reason he always is – because he couldn't become Tendou.

He wants nothing more than to be that cool guy who can effortlessly waltz into any situation and come out on top, but the thing he accepts here, the crux of his literal death and rebirth as Gatack, is accepting himself for who he is, and what only he can do, rather than lament who he isn't. When Kagami tells Tendou he can't be anyone but himself at the end, it's said with a sort of genuine contentment that I don't think he's ever felt before. It's the payoff to the theme established in the cold opening. A sort of realization that his flaws aren't the end of the world. Kagami can't be Kabuto, and TheBee and Shadow weren't for him, but he's the one and only Gatack, and that's his pride.

And, dang, I'm pretty proud of the guy for making it here, too, which is how I know this show is doing something right. This is a spectacular episode that continues all the same great direction, atmosphere, and surprisingly well-integrated comic relief, while also having the benefit of being the back half where the actual development happens. There's all these smaller touches all over the place that make every scene a joy, even down to establishing Tsurugi's habit of misplacing the emphasis on words, and even getting a quick fight in with Kabuto in his Worm form; Yonemura went out of his way to include both those things in the very first two-parter he used Sasword in, and he didn't even need to! Not when the main focus of the plot is on this level of importance.

It's a major turning point for Kabuto as a series. Merely seeing Kagami's name in the opening credits with "Kamen Rider Gatack" right under it is HUGE, and the episode itself lives up to that. Among the things in here I'm most fond of is something Die called out, which is how Gatack taking down the Worm at the end parallels episode 4's climax, very much bookending this stretch of Kagami's journey as a protagonist. I think what's extra impressive is that the show doesn't actively call attention to it in any way whatsoever. There's a subtlety to the writing in this one I was shocked to see from Yonemura, a writer I have evidently been severely underestimating all this time.