[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 13 - "’KAY, CAN'T HEAR YOU!"




I like the new kid! I'd probably like him more if some of the mystery hadn't been spoiled, but I still like him!

There's clearly a story happening with the Park Grandpa and one of the Youths, where we're going to talk about how different generations relate to each other or something like that. It's only hinted at in this one (where the Youth was formerly a good kid who cared about animals), but I'm sure the next installment will provide more details to unpack that story. As it is, not much to say about it.

Luckily, there's a new resident in Ryotaro's body, and he's pretty fun.

I don't... I feel like I don't really have anything to say about this episode? (I just took a few minute break between paragraphs, something I don't usually do when writing these up.) Like, it's a fun episode. It's full of dancing and shouting and I'm starting to realize there's really not much more? Like, there are maybe five actual scenes in this episode and they are long. Real long.

Not the usual long takes or scenes where there's tons of information coming at you, but scenes where it's like We Are Still Trying To Hypnotize Ryotaro and The New Guy Has A Dance Routine and The Imagin Fight Over Ryotaro's Body and The Park Is Full Of Animals. They're good scenes and all, but this isn't exactly a swiftly-told story. It's full of scenes where you get the point, and then they just do another minute or so of it.

It's very thin, this one. There's a thing that happens, Ryotaro gets possessed by a new Imagin and the crew tries to figure out why, but that's the entire story. There aren't really any additional levels to it yet, no subtle twists or surprise turns. There's a mystery, but that's not really a complete story. This one's all set-up, and not much more than that. It's like a fifteen-minute story stretched out to a half-hour.

It's fun, though. Well, maybe not "fun", that makes it sound more satisfying or memorable than I found it. It's... entertaining? I guess? It's nice to see a story so full of crazy monsters, and having Ryotaro in danger is a good escalation at this point in the series. But, like, man, not much to talk about from it? Hopefully the story part of the story will be more apparent in the second installment!



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-I do like the physicality of Gun Form. There's this playfulness to it that sells Kid Imagin. All that bobbing and weaving, the dips and struts, it's very fun to watch. A great new form for Den-O

-Airi! Has some new memories I guess! And a pocketwatch! And a mysterious man from her past that is likely Pocketwatchman from the various Den-O fight scenes! That's about all I have to say about this mystery!

-Sorry this post's so short? I just found it really... like, what is the entertaining version of Bland? Because that's what this one was. Technically a weak outing (I'm already sick of talking about it), despite it having some fun ideas and new characters. It's just, god, it is so unnecessarily drawn-out. I feel like I just watched half an episode at half-speed.