[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 34

I really love Hyper Form's proper debut. It's another one of those things I've always vividly remembered from Kabuto. When I think of the single moment that most defines Tendou to me, it's always been the one where he declares that he's already taken ahold of the future, and summons his own big power-up from beyond the reaches of time itself, mere moments after it was just blown up by the villains. The line itself is just kind of a cool hero thing to say, and also parallels his speech from when he originally got the Kabuto Zecter back in the premiere, which I had forgotten about. The context of the scene, though, the unapologetic nature of setting up this dilemma of Mishima destroying the Hyper Zecter only to immediately use such a "cheap" way of getting out of it, I think – for better or for worse – it's about as Tendou as Tendou is ever written. I have to say, I've always been a fan in this case.

The following fight itself isn't particularly memorable in terms of choreography, but it's still set up in an awesome way on a writing level, illustrating the nature of Hyper Clock Up's ability to travel through time both very obviously through having Kagami get un-murdered, and in a super neat subtle bookend with Renge looking up at the roof after Tendou disappears in front of her, implying she literally saw him having already won the fight the instant after he left. Mind-bending stuff, right there! Toei set out to make the strongest Rider ever with Kabuto, and it's pretty telling of how successful that was that most of his competition is other people who have his powers... which is why the real secret is that Kabuto isn't the strongest; Tendou himself is. Remember, the time travel itself is far less impressive than the weaponized narrative convenience he uses to achieve it.

The actual amazing action happens in the lead-up to this, by the way, with another Tasaki-directed sequence of Kabuto Casting Off while falling down the side of a building, but this time it's significantly more elaborate, with him jumping after Renge to save her life, passing up a chance at the Hyper Zecter to do so. Like so many effects-heavy sequences in this show, I'm shocked how nice it still looks.

There's a lot of great things to say about this episode in general, and I think Die covered a lot of them already. Tsurugi wearing the clothes of a small child is also the defining moment for his character to me, for the record. He's so earnestly trying to humble himself, never realizing how much he's embarrassing himself, and this episode that ends with him saying he'll be a manservant to his own manservant really cements his growth from arrogant jerk to lovable weirdo. With Hiyori being gone-but-not-forgotten for now, Tsurugi was by far the character in this stretch of the show I was most emotionally invested in. The man is a precious ray of sunshine.

There's also one other memorable thing about this episode I don't think the English-speaking fandom will be very aware of? Which means I get to do this again!

Learning Unmeino- the Easy Way! (#1 of 1)



The episode prior to this one debuted the show's second ending theme, LORD OF THE SPEED, which has the distinction of being sung in-character by Kagami's actor, Yuuki Satou. Despite being an image song for Kagami, it's just the general-use insert theme, which means it doesn't always get used for when Gatack is doing something cool. And in this case, the second ever use of it in the series, it starts playing while he's dying a horrible death in a fiery explosion, entirely so Tendou can show off his new powers. Not only is this the second time Yonemura has killed Kagami to demonstrate the use of Hyper Clock Up, following the movie, but this time his own theme song is playing, and rather memorably, the lyrics only start up right after he bites the dust.

This, among other things, led to tons and tons of jokes being made about Gatack's pathetic status, in a bit of déjÃ* vu for a stag beetle secondary Rider. Well, I mean, at least everyone agrees Gatack IS the secondary, so Kagami's got that much going for him. But on top of frequent Leangle-esque jokes about his status as the "God of Battle (*chuckle*)", those first two words of Lord of the Speed's lyrics, unmei no, have become the blanket title for a series of jokes associated with the song. I'm only broadly familiar with this stuff, but basically, the two main gags seem to be playing Lord of the Speed over footage of random characters exploding, and just as often, a flood of comments on videos involving the song mimicking Kagami's "UWAAAAAAA!!!" as he's about to detonate. That's the gist of what I know, so to close things out, I'll allow Kagami to demonstrate an example of the phenomenon in action.