[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 23



First off, I love the fact that the secret area that ZECT is guarding is called Area X. Just... so dumb, it is awesome. At first, I was laughing at the obviousness of them calling the mysterious area Area X, just planting a flag and letting everyone know that THIS AREA IS FASCINATING AND DANGEROUS SO DON'T COME IN, just shouting to the world that it's a secret. But then I wondered if maybe the other areas aren't A through W or whatever, but if ZECT gave every area an intriguing name: Area X, Area Omega, Area Damocles, Area Hellfire, Area Phantom, etc etc etc. I kind of love that more, if ZECT decided to hide its most valuable property by making every outpost seem super badass, confusing would-be investigators and saboteurs. It's a militarized organization of nebulous authority that's just, like, having fun with it, and yet somehow being smarter for that playfulness.

Which, hey, that's also this episode of Kabuto!

It is completely insane, and I have no greater proof of that than, at a point where a Worm transforms to kill a fortune teller mid-fortune telling and Gatack is ready to stop it, backlit by moonlight on top of a crane, I went Wait Is Inoue Back Already and checked the Wiki to see who wrote this episode. But, no! Regular Kabuto guy! But it's still a regular episode of Kabuto where:

-Jiiya opens a ramen cart powered by his own shame

-Tendou, Juka, and Hiyori take over Jiiya's Shameful Ramen Cart

-Kagami enjoys a bowl of ramen, at which point Tendou declares that the Shameful Ramen Cart now owns him

-Tsurugi misconstrues a line for the Shameful Ramen Cart as a parade in his honor

-Tsurugi, having never heard the word "ramen" before, assumes the cart serves the french dish La Men.

-Tsurugi declares his intention to Win At Eating and Win At Standing In Line

-The Kabuto Zecter also works at the Shameful Ramen Cart

-Tsurugi misconstrued a dropped rag as Tendou challenging him to an honor duel, proceeds to dress up like the Pied Piper of Hamelin to accept this non-challenge

-Tendou, when confronted by Tsurugi, immediately breaks eye-contact and tries to walk past him without engaging

-And Kagami gets a sweet new bike that appears from a fog bank, like he's somehow launched himself fully into a Honda commercial.

It is an insane episode, but it's also 1000% character-driven. Everything up there is drawn from the journey these characters are on, and the secrets that are starting to be revealed. (Well, maybe not the bike. That's pretty egregious toy shit right there.)

Like, the Shameful Ramen Cart. As bonkers as everyone suddenly working it seems, it honestly makes perfect sense? Jiiya's been lying to Tsurugi about their financial liquidity; namely, they don't have any. When ZECT says that having Gatack on staff means they can ditch independent contractors like Sasword, Jiiya sees their only income evaporate. (Although, not to tell ZECT how to run a militarized organization of nebulous authority, but contractors are the way better way to go, financially! Staffing costs can be insane, and you've got a lot of employment regulations you have to follow. It's cheaper and more flexible to just bring in guys like Sasword on an at-will basis.) So, of course, Jiiya needs to get a job.

That job is cooking, because it's Jiiya's most bankable skill. (Indulging The Aristocracy is not in that high demand, unfortunately!) So, yeah, Jiiya starts a ramen cart, motivated by his shame at potentially letting Tsurugi down and/or face the truth. If Uber existed fourteen years ago, he'd probably do that, but it didn't, so: Shameful Ramen Cart.

And yeah, Tendou's going to happen upon it (it's like he can sense Jiiya), and yeah, Tendou's going to offer his free time to studying Jiiya's technique, and yeah, Tendou's not going to allow Jiiya to work the Shameful Ramen Cart because he is proof that humanity is worthy of Tendou's grace, and yeah, Tendou is going to strongarm all of his friends and family into working the cart with him because Hi Did You Not Watch The Last Twenty-Two Episodes Of Kabuto, and yeah, Tsurugi is inevitably going to get involved in the plot, and yeah, Tsurugi is going to somehow transition the plot from Wacky Food Cart to His Honor Demands Kabuto's Death. It is smooth as butter, the way this thing steadily escalates. It just Yes Ands its way to greatness, letting these massive egos and bizarre secrets mix together into a delicious broth, tasty and filling.

Unbelievably, the entire insane runner about the Shameful Ramen Cart is tied-in, thematically, with the main Kabuto plot! That's why I thought Inoue wrote it!

The ostensible main plot for this episode (although, come on, the Shameful Ramen Cart is the clear winner in this one) is that various secrets are starting to come to the fore. Now that Gatack has arrived on the scene, the Worms are likely going to step up their activities, whatever their real plan might be. Meanwhile, Kagami being a Rider puts added pressure on Hiyori to deal with her feelings surrounding her parents' deaths, and The Boy In The Belt.

It's a typically strong episode for Hiyori, refocusing some of the recent heroic achievements of the cast as maybe not so great if you think a Rider killed your parents. (And, yeah, this episode confirms that Hiyori thinks The Boy In The Belt murdered her parents. It's easily the toughest part of the episode to get on board with, because it's so circumstantial and weak that it's difficult to even vaguely buy into her interpretation of the events. I know she believes it, but the show does a terrible job of making me believe it.) She's assaulted by Worms, and surrounded by untrustworthy men.

But she, as always, can't articulate those feelings. Even when she's attacked by Worms, she doesn't scream or plead or call for help. She just sits there, frozen, staring. When she's lied to by Tendou and Kagami, badly, she doesn't know what to do. In a moment of crisis, she opts to visit her parents' grave. They're the only people she can trust to always be there for her, to never let her down, because they're frozen in time. Tendou and Kagami are real people, alive and complicated. She unloads on the headstone that she hates feeling like she's going to lose her friends, but every time she looks at them she sees killers, liars. She doesn't want those feelings, but they just won't go away. She's tried ignoring them, but the secret is coming out.

Which, y'know, that's what this whole episode of lunatics is all about: secrets can't be ignored forever, and the longer they take to be exposed, the more dangerous things get. I mean, Jiiya didn't want to tell Tsurugi that they were broke, and it led to an attempted murder of Tendou. Don't keep secrets, you guys!

A QUESTION

One of the things I noticed in this episode is how fitting the Sasword Zecter's appearance is, in relation to Tsurugi's personality. The other Zecters soar down out of the sky, effortlessly landing in the hands of the Riders. The Sasword Zecter bursts up out of the ground, destroying property in its goal of uniting with Tsurugi. That's so him, isn't it? He needs the Zecter, so anything in its way... well, that stuff shouldn't have been in the way to begin with, so he's not to blame if it gets wrecked. It's so on-point, visually, for Tsurugi. We also got a thing this episode where the Kabuto Zecter makes some food to communicate with Tendou, and I don't think I need to point out how on-brand that is for Tendou. It got me thinking about how, if I had a Zecter, I'd probably keep finding it in bags of fast food. If you had a Zecter, what would it emerge from?