[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 4 - "GET OUT, DEMON! I'M SERIOUS.”




It's cute! It's a very cute story.

I mean, there's still a bummer of a final note about the indifference of the universe and the idea of failure and success being largely meaningless terms, alongside an episode-length look at the ways we conflate material wealth with happiness at the risk of our ability to deal with setbacks, but, y'know... a cute story about partnerships!

Smart choices in this Momotaros/Ryotaro story, right up and down the episode. After finding out that Momotaros has been using Ryotaro's body to get into scrapes with Yamagoshi and rip off the mob, Ryotaro is putting his foot down. We've seen the scared Ryotaro, and the unlucky Ryotaro, and occasionally the courageous Ryotaro, but this is our first look at the principled Ryotaro.

Ryotaro can't hurt people. That's, like, the core of his being. Everything about Ryotaro spokes out from that concept. Helping Hana as Den-O, getting pummeled by street youths, risking the timeline when someone has fallen emotionally... it's all in service of not letting someone be hurt, through the action of not hurting someone. He's all about saving people, never about causing them pain. It doesn't matter if the money comes from bad men, or if it's going to be used to help Yamagoshi feel better. Taking things is wrong, because someone is hurt by it. It doesn't matter who. That's not the point to Ryotaro. It's an action that introduces more sadness to the world, so he's against it. Period.

But Momotaros, his partner in this adventure against the Imagins, isn't burdened by these morals and ethics. Momotaros isn't a thief, but he doesn't mind protecting some thief if there's money he can gain to pay back Ryotaro. The ends justify the means, so what's the harm?

That attitude is why Ryotaro cuts off Momotaros, and it leads to a pretty stellar Rider Gets Beat Up To Prove A Point fight scene at the end of this one. Ryotaro fights the Chameleon Imagin in Plat Form, because he won't let Momotaros out into the world. He can't beat the Imagin, but he won't indulge someone who can't see how his actions were wrong. He'd rather lose with his principles than win with Momotaros' relativism.

So we get the brave, principled stand of Ryotaro, that ends with a request for both more and less than Momotaros' vow to only do good, to stop using Ryotaro's body for nefarious purposes. That full-throated refutation of his roguish ways is nice and all, but Ryotaro doesn't need that. He needs contrition. He needs Momotaros to admit he was wrong, and apologize.

That's so cute to me. That you've got this huge, heroic scene of Ryotaro taking a stand, and Momotaros impotently watching from DenLiner while begging to be tagged into the fight so Ryotaro doesn't get monster-murdered, and then it's just Ryotaro wanting his partner to say I'm Sorry. Like, the specificity of that is so great. He doesn't need an explanation or a justification or a roadmap for an ethical life. He needs Momotaros to realize he screwed up. That's it.

Having that understanding between the two of them, where Momotaros has learned some respect for how hard Ryotaro believes in certain things, and Ryotaro sees there's more to Momotaros than his worst impulses, it's a sweet story to tell.



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-And then there's the resolution to the whole story, where... it's bleak? It's a little bleak, and I liked it. Yamagoshi's past has been altered, so he makes it to his big audition, but it doesn't matter. His band fails the audition, they break up, and Yamagoshi is still hawking his CDs for 500 yen. He doesn't have the regret of If I Only Had The Money, so he's a little more content, but he's not much better off than he was before he ran into Team Den-O. It's a humbling moment for Ryotaro and Hana, that they couldn't really save Yamagoshi, but it's viewed as an encouraging outcome by Owner. See, if time can't be altered, that means Den-O will always win. The Imagins' mission to destroy the past will always fail. It's not great for Yamagoshi, but it's okay for the universe, and maybe that's enough?

-Another weird tangent of a trip to Milk Dipper, which covers for its vaguely inessential feeling by giving Airi a non-Airimirer to play off of for a change. (Zero Airimirers this episode! WE DID IT!) Her scene with Hana was pleasant enough, even if the best part was the cutaway to Naomi's mad scientist barista skills. It's just, everything about these little Airinterludes feels so inconsequential, and they're the first thing I'd cut if it meant more time with our core trio. Not a single one of these scenes has felt additive to what's going on, even ones like this that are actually nicely poetic! Just, man, they feel like diversions.

-Everything the Momotaros suit actor is doing to fill out that character's identity is brilliant. The physicality tells you everything about his boredom, his wounded pride, his need to feel included, his guilt, his growing admiration for Ryotaro... like, the VA is great, but I could tell you everything about Momotaros without a single line of dialogue, and that is all down to the guy in the suit.