[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 33



I loved this episode.

The smartest thing it does, at least for a guy like me who did not love the last episode, is that it makes a lot of the last episode's details... less important. They're still there (Hiyori being a Worm is sort of crucial to Tendou's dilemma), but they're not really key to understanding the stakes. The stakes are Hiyori Is Missing, and that's all that matters. How she's missing, the last few minutes of 32, it's not really a big part of this episode? We're a week past that for the characters, with the shock worn off and everyone trying to figure out their next move.

It's laid out perfectly in that first Misaki/Kagami scene, where she's wondering why the most impetuous member of the cast has been moping around for the last seven days while one of his best friends is missing. The answer is that she's missing because of a situation no one understands, and there's really nothing anyone can do yet. Kagami's left to wait until an opportunity presents itself, but he's not going to take action just for the sake of taking action.

Cut to Tendou, and the theme of this episode becomes clear: Everybody Feels Trapped And No One Is Making Good Decisions.

I love it as a theme. I love the desperation of it, how it pushes characters into riskier territory. Tendou's someone who's the consummate planner, the guy who won't make a move until he's certain it's the perfect one. (Although, by dint of Tendou making it, it is the perfect move, but let's not quibble over details.) He's someone who's unflappable, unerringly precise... except when Hiyori's in danger. Then, he gets reckless.

His move is the one Tendou always makes when he feels the walls closing in, and that's to do it all himself. I'd mention that a big problem that he's grappling with is a lack of humility, an inability to wait for an opening, a reluctance to ask for help, but I've probably drilled those themes into the ground by now. He's distraught over Hiyori's disappearance, and he's convinced that when she returns she'll be in danger as a Worm. The solution? Destroy ZECT, as well as every Rider.

It's a terrible plan. Awful. It requires Tendou to defeat everyone in the show, including Kagami. It means he'll need to bring down ZECT all by himself, something that's eluded him previously. And even then... he still doesn't know where Hiyori is. He feels more isolated than he ever has, and he's lashing out. The world is too chaotic for his liking, full of too many ways Hiyori could be taken from him. So he demands it conform to him, to his needs. It's the worst he's ever acted.

And, yeah, I love it. I love the idea of a villainous Tendou that draws fully from who he's been portrayed as thus far. He's a control freak, and he'll do anything for the people he cares about. If you push that idea far enough, he can justify any heinous action. He'd rather be a villain than do nothing, because doing nothing would destroy him.

It's even better because of how it forces Kagami into the Tendou role, preaching calm and patience to someone who doesn't seem to be aware of the consequences of his actions. Tendou is tearing the world apart, since he sees the world as a threat to Hiyori. It's only a matter of time until he tears something that can't be put back together.

On that miserablist note, it's the return of Yaguruma! Can you guess how I felt about this dude rearing his head?

KickHopper, man, so good. I love that Yaguruma left the narrative to get his shit together, to work on himself, to be the best Yaguruma he could be... and this is what comes back. It's the best? It's the best. He's easily the biggest disaster yet to become a Rider (sorry, Kagami, they're all garbage), and everything about him is phony. He's so pretentiously miserable that I can't help but find it adorable. I'm excited to find out what presumably innocuous series of events led him to be sponsored by Hot Topic and written by a machine that was fed terabytes of abandoned LiveJournals from 2005. I can't imagine it'll live up to (or down to) my fevered imaginings, but the very fact that I'm able to be so fascinated with a character is a win in my book. He's the best. Maybe it's recency bias, but he's my favorite Rider on this show. By, like, a lot.

And I like him extra (and he is so extra) because he's so tied in to that idea of humility, which is the main thematic driver right now. Tendou can't accept that this is a situation he can't control, can't allow himself to feel weak enough to wait for an opening. Yaguruma took the idea of being humble way too far, viewing himself as a loser, a laughingstock. (Everybody knows it's Kageyama who's the laughingstock!) Tendou sees his value as primary, his ideas as unbeatable. He'll do whatever he needs to do because his needs matter the most. On the other hand... Yaguruma.

Great episode, man. I had a blast with this one. Very much back on track!

A QUESTION

And, of course, we have Tsurugi. Did you really think that, for an episode where Everybody Feels Trapped And No One Is Making Good Decisions, that we'd avoid talking about Tsurugi? He has a banner storyline in this one, where he sells the Sasword Zecter to Tendou in order to rebuild his family fortune. It's monumentally short-sighted, both because he'll need that to defeat the Worms, and because if he tries to fight Worms without it, he's almost definitely going to have a Worm Tantrum.

Luckily, Tsurugi has access to the mighty Discalibur (love that name, love that name), the Discabil family's legendary sword... except Jiiya already sold it, leaving only the hilt in the sheath. (The scene of Tsurugi assuming that the sword must be invisible is... I don't want to make a Priceless pun, but it is so good you guys.) Jiiya ends up rebuying Discalibur, at the expense of all the money Tsurugi made selling the Sasword Zecter, plus Jiiya's paycheck. It's a boondoggle of epic proportions, proving that Tsurugi is the man who stands at the top of losing money.

Or is he? What's something collectible you've sold that you've ended up rebuying later?