[Kurona]

Kamen Rider OOO Episode 16




And a happy new year?

Yeah, bit late on this one, huh! Was expecting to have a quiet Christmas, and I did; you still end up a lot busier than you think you'd be even without work (cannot express how lucky I am to be working at a Supermarket yet my schedule lining up just right to get boxing day and new years off). Between that and not getting in the right headspace to talk about stuff and hence defaulting to watching more Ultraman Tiga, which is quickly proving itself to be a lot of fun despite defying my expectations; this took me a while! Still, it's not too bad -- I'm not gonna keep this a secret, both OOO and Ghost took a 2-week break after these episodes. This is pretty standard for Toku I'm finding; taking a week off for new years after Christmas and only catching up around mid-January. So it's not quiiite going for the experience I wanted, I funnily enough ended up right in the mid-point of those two weeks; but hey, it works.

Anyway this episode is a pretty good mid-season finale! A few details first of all -- this was in the last episode too, but there are multiples scenes of Mezool falling over badly hurt... and medals are falling out of her to simulate bleeding. Mwah. Perfect. Funny yet at the same time makes a lot of sense, is quite sad to watch, and is perfectly symbolic of desire being the lifeblood of these creatures. Can you honestly get more toku than that? Also, second and last time Gatakiriba gets used in the show! If you liked that form... well, I hope you like OOO's movies and spin-off material! I promise they get better after War Core. And finally because it would be a crime to leave any OOO thing just short of three points, the shot at the end of Ankh going for the Core Medals only for Ankh and Uva to also jump in in a triangle, all aiming for the Medals and getting their share? Beautiful. I don't have much to say just, look at this, man. Love it.






Now, what is there to say about this episode? A lot! Like, wow; it doesn't seem like it at first but this is where a lot of things are converging. So let's knock this one out first: The Lore. Now if you know me, I don't need a lot of Lore to enjoy a Toku show. Kuuga was very intentional about not giving a lot of details about its backstory and I loved that; Zi-O had... a mess of a story and I liked that too; Sentai and Ultra are almost consistently light and I always find something to like there. But when there's a good backstory to the whole thing while managing to keep all the things I love about Toku intact, wow can it draw me in! Every single line Kougami drops about the Greeed's creation, the people who made them, what was changed about them and what the old King did with it all... I don't know what it is about 2010 Japanese television and alchemy, but apparently it's just always a good mix! Or maybe I'm just that attached to the concept of creatures made up of base human desires and how they function with little concept of the world around them and clawing and fighting for things they've convinced themselves they want when actually it's all they know? ... man, at this rate maybe Birth should have just been a walking suit of armour with Gotou's soul hastily drawn on the neck.

Right, Birth! What an incredibly sick move to have the last shot of the show for two weeks be Birth de-transforming into a guy we've literally never seen before instead of Gotou after so much teasing that the secondary hero would be, well, our secondary hero? Sorry to disappoint DS, but I've got good memories of this guy! Can't say anything yet of course but he makes a great impression -- what's his deal? What's his desires? Why's he hauling around a giant milk can? Why is him forgetting what his Rider name is and just holding up the manual instead so ungodly funny?

The best thing about Birth though? He's barely in the spotlight! ... Now hold on, I did just say I liked him! But I can't help but love when a writer doesn't let a new toy get in the way of a story they're telling and instead keep the focus directly on elements that you can't buy in store now for 3800 Yen. The Greeed have their best showing in this and this is what it's all been leading up to. Gamel is wonderful in this episode -- on the surface he's just The Dumb One, the stupid childlike muscle with no depth. And... he is! It's not like he's secretly a genius or anything, there's no new revelations about his character here. But what makes this work is how much they do with that concept; how much he's stumbling around lost looking for the only person he knows and loves, how sad and desperate he's becoming, how perfectly emblematic that is of how much it doesn't matter how many Core Medals you have and how it doesn't matter to how happy you'll be. All it does is break everything down; Uva's suddenly chasing after Mezool for her single remaining core medal despite their established comradery so far, and all the Greeed are succumbing to their desire only for it to ultimately lead to the end for half of them. We're not seeing Gamel or Mezool for a while, and it all leads to the revelation that the reason Ankh wants the core medals; the reason all of them are after this... is because the Greeed are fragile. They lead cursed lives with fragile bodies and incomplete existences after their tenth core medal was ripped from their hearts, and what Ankh wants more than anything else is to be whole again. It's a wonderful scene where it's laid out just how genuine Ankh is about it all yet it doesn't diminish his or the other Greeeds' villainy at all; the same horrifying overture is played over it, it's right in the aftermath of a battle where that desire could have destroyed the world, and the actions leading here are no less horrific. All that remains is Eiji's desire to reach out however he can.












Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 12




This is what I was waiting for.

First of all, um, apologies to Fish! I already went on a whole spiel up there about how I meant to watch these sooner, but he's made little secret of this being one of his favourite episodes he goes back to a lot; and especially with me pouring so much love into this rewatch and saying I wanted to watch this on Christmas day I'm sure he was anticipating this. Uh. Sorry for taking a bit!

But maybe it'll compensate a little if I say that not only am I mad at myself for not loving this episode on my first watch, not only is this exactly what I wanted out of a Ghost rewatch - for me to fall in love - but that this is the first time I've preferred the Ghost segment of this rewatch to the OOO?

I know, right after I had so much to say about OOO! After so much of that was about the core of what I adore about that show! And having said that this is the first time it's been in the lead, that’s not to Ghost’s detriment at all - every episode so far has been competent and enjoyable at worst; with very emotional highs and compelling drama at its best, with me noticing new things each episode that make me glad I committed to this. But OOO is, well, it’s my favourite and perhaps next to Kuuga is the most intentional Rider show I find; one where every single detail is finely tuned and worked into an overflowing matrix of Kobayashi’s grand plan. It’s a HELL of an act to live up to; most of the Toku shows I love are not able to be that good -- and that’s fine, damn; you do not need to be that good. But my point is that this can make it a bit harder for Ghost to stand out in this rewatch and yet episode 12 had no problem.

There’s... so much going on this episode that’s hard for me to not just say “watch it and see for yourself”, it’s one of those where the acting is doing most of the legwork and that’s a compliment to the cast. I’ve found every actor on this show really good so far but this is where they all get to showcase that they’ve got serious skill -- this is the episode dealing with the aftermath of Takeru giving up his wish in order to save Kanon instead, so not only do they have very little time to get the Eyecons again, not only do the Ganma actually have a couple themselves, but they don’t even know if any of this will work and their wise sage has disappeared on them. And a lot of this is done through implications but you see Takeru deciding that he is very staunchly in the acceptance stage here -- he’s decided that he’s accepting his death; he wouldn’t have been able to save Kanon if he wasn’t ready to do that and he is convincing himself the entire episode that that’s what he’s doing. So he’s remaining calm, all smiles; all being fun and friendly at new year’s and making sure to try and make his friends happy in his last remaining days. It is a shockingly well-done episode of someone on his deathbed; just portraying what that person is going through and what he wants to spend his last days on. And what really puts a pin in all that is that on the night before his death day, well, there’s a reason I said convincing himself he’s in the acceptance stage: he’s not. He’s really not. He can’t sleep, he’s just about on the verge of tears, he’s crying and we see the spectre of his father looking down on him in sadness. And all of this is conveyed just through the strength of the actor and the implication behind each action without the need for more than very little dialogue. This is toku at its best; this is... this has very quickly become one of my favourite Kamen Rider episodes of all time.

But it’s not just Takeru, it’s how his friends around him are reacting. We get a small scene with Makoto and Kanon but what’s really focused on are Akari and Onari; throwing themselves desperately into their work to try and help Takeru but failing at every step and eventually breaking down in tears as they realise there’s too little time and there’s nothing they can do. There’s a wonderful scene on the beginning of the last day where Onari asks Akari if she’s okay and if she’s eaten and Akari says she doesn’t feel like eating, and that’s a very basic exchange dialogue; nothing wrong with it it’s just what you expect for this sort of subject matter, and yet her actress has all these subtle quiverings and she’s delivering it so well and it gets you in the goddamn heart. Even the scene after where Takeru’s saying he might not disappear, he’s just saying goodbye just in case, and they all laugh about it and the way it’s done is... is amazing! It got to me! Every single bit of acting in this episode got to me!

And then Toucon Boost saving his life is... oh good god it’s so good and relieving. And I know there's a lot of people who will criticise this as very cheap; after the 99-day rule was so clearly laid out he gets saved by his dad overwriting all the rules, and I get that and if that's how you feel fair enough; but... I can't disagree more! It’s a reward for his good karma in choosing to save the life of another, and even then just a temporary extension granted through sacrifice. It’s a beautifully heroic moment and one with all this wonderful fire imagery as Takeru’s life burns bright, and maybe resolve through a new powerup and beating up the powerful bad guy is the most basic modern toku gets; but fuck if it’s not what I love and if it’s not what hits! The wave of relief and restored resolve that comes with it at the end of the episode as the series takes a 2-week break is such a perfect ending I can’t put it into words. What can I say? Kamen Rider Ghost is awesome.