[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 35

It's amazing how much I really have forgotten about this show.

First of all, thank you to Die for only briefly mentioning the sequence that closes out the episode, with the Hell Brothers transforming for the first time, because it's the only way I wanted to start this post. Not only is it a moment I feel should've been burned into my brain a long time ago and yet wasn't, it's a sequence that basically acts like a signature from Ishida, who you'd better believe I'm going to talk about yet again.

It's another one of those moments that could only come from him, I think. To have Yaguruma and Kageyama walk off into this tunnel with a slight red glow coming from it, and then somehow find themselves in a crimson void with no discernable scenery in it whatsoever, transforming for reasons that are even more unclear, it's all so not literal, as a way to tell the story, you know? But them posing for their own Televi-Kun pages this way, and making such a conscious effort to project a cool image, it perfectly matches the emotion of the scene, and it ends up feeling sensible because the mood is so cohesive. You're still being told everything you need to know, except instead of all boring and factual, the episode does it with style, and that's this one in a nutshell, because creating a mood is always what Ishida does best. I could point to a lot of individual moments, especially with so many of the usual punchy dialogue scenes, but in the interest of space, I'll merely give a quick shout out to Kabuto's transformation into Hyper Form here, which is perhaps needlessly glorious, but like... I mean, tell me if that sounds like a complaint or not.

Getting back to Kageyama, though, I have to say, I did not remember a single thing about how he became PunchHopper, and that's why I was more than a bit shocked to find that, not only did I enjoy this episode, but it might even be one of my favorites of the series so far. I'm not saying it is, but it was a thought that genuinely crossed my mind after it was over, so let's see if I can work out the why of that.

I was so pulled in to everything it was doing right from the cold open. The director was perfectly matched to the episode here, because this is a script that swings pretty wildly between emotional highs and lows. It'd be the kind of thing where the atmosphere could come off as inconsistent, with each scene having trouble landing, but, as I mentioned, Ishida is a master when it comes to crafting an overall vibe for any given scene. As such, this one stays supremely easy to follow even as it's rapidly switching up the tone on the viewer. Broadly speaking, however, there is an overall arc to it, with a comedic start that eventually collapses into madness.

The episode is a little bit about everyone, but it's ultimately very much about Kageyama, and I'm impressed how much this episode managed to make me engage with a character I remember loathing so much. At first, his usual brown-nosing is cute, but it's seemingly only in support of a plot thread that can basically be summed up as Tendou Regrets Taking Management Positions. He's just one more nuisance to a guy who's clearly five seconds away from getting out of both a militarized organization of nebulous authority AND the restaurant ownership business (which I guess he's in???), and it's funny on that level. But after so many scenes in a row of Kageyama being, well, TheWorst, doing all his usual tricks – all the blatantly feigned emotions, the outright cheating, and the general disregard for people not named Kageyama – I started to feel like I understood him a bit more? It's tricky to describe, but a lot of the episode is basically a day of the life of Kageyama, and considering he just got demoted, it's even more clear than usual how... empty he is, as a person. He seriously can't consider anything beyond some vague quest for status I doubt he even remembers why he wants, and where this episode jumped from being merely a normal great Ishida episode for me to being something that's maybe more special is when it decides to pull all that back after the halfway mark and suddenly make it dead serious.

Basically every remaining loose screw in Kageyama ends up falling out completely, and he loses it. He impulsively embarks on a mission to assassinate some guy he doesn't know for people he ought to know he shouldn't put his faith in, and in the process lowers himself from being merely at the bottom of the ladder of ZECT to being an outright enemy of them, and just about everyone else. And then, at his lowest moment, as he lies wounded and waiting to die, comes along one of the first people Kageyama ever betrayed... and he's looking for a little brother.

Kind of a lot going on in this story, to say the least! I mean, there's so much more I'd like to touch on: maybe talk about the great mysterious cold open with a rare moment of genuine shock from Tendou; examine the significance of Kagami saying he and Tendou aren't friends; or just rave about the direction forever, but at the end of the day, I think it's that Kageyama plot thread that's most worth noting.

This is a stretch of the show that's weird for a lot of reasons, with a lot of refocusing going on and new central elements being introduced left and right, and, maybe because of the lack of Hiyori (which will never not be an issue!), it's also a part of the show I don't remember too much about – even more than usual. So I didn't expect to watch this one again and find out how much strong writing, direction, and performances (seriously, crazy Kageyama is amazing) could keep me so enthralled by a plot about basically none of the things in Kabuto I actually care about. So yeah, I think I cracked why I liked this one so much right there – it was the very definition of a pleasant surprise.