[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 20 - "I'M WARNING YOU NOW”




One of my favorite things about the structure of Den-O is how the various Contract Imagin the heroes use are really just aspects of a personality. One of the themes of the show is that we have all of these things inside of us, all of these parts of who we are, and we need to figure out how to best utilize them in order to live a worthwhile life.

Like, Ryotaro's Imagin are all characters on the show, but they also represent parts of him that he's buried, or that he's obscured in some way. Momo is his passion, Ura is his cunning, Kin is his bravery, Ryu is his protectiveness. How he balances the powers of the Imagin to detonate monsters is really just a metaphor for how we each get through a day. How we juggle all of these impulses.

The best part, to me, is how the show is clear that these impulses can be good and bad. Momo is passionate, which is something Ryotaro could stand to be more of, but Momo's passion can have him acting rashly and causing problems. Ura's cunning is helpful for solving problems and overcoming obstacles, but it's easy to see how it could become lying for its own sake. Kin's bravery is necessary for staring down an impossible situation and surviving it, but it can also make someone feel invulnerable and interject themselves into problems that don't need their attention. And Ryu's innocent devotion to Airi spotlights Ryotaro's commitment to family, which can also be twisted into overprotectiveness.

The thing is, the show's been telling that story for its run so far, and they usually come at it as Bad Trait > Good Trait > Neutral Trait. We see Momo act rashly, then we see Momo's rashness as a way towards victory, and we realize that emotions and drives are more about how their used. But it's almost always Bad before it's anything else.

So it's nice to get this Yuuto/Deneb story that has a jerk human and a good Imagin, giving us an inversion of the typical formula. It's a story where we get to see a team that's both more effective, and more unhappy.

If the main Imagin are the parts of Ryotaro that he has trouble expressing, it is delightful to see through Deneb that Yuuto's buried emotions are Politeness and Empathy. Whole scenes of Deneb trying to make a good first impression, trying to push Yuuto into being a better person, trying to let more kindness into the world... fantastic. And it's still following the No Good Or Bad Traits thing by showing how Deneb's deference and obsequiousness can create barriers to Yuuto's success in combat, in life-or-death situations. There's a time for politeness, and A Jellyfish Imagination Monster From The End Of Time Is Trying To Kill You is maybe not it. Maybe!

It's a great episode for showcasing the Yuuto/Deneb team. It's dead-on Den-O storytelling, but completely flipped around. It's about a kind, heroic Imagin trying to harness the power of a petulant, disruptive human, and how the balance of Kindness and Pragmatism finds success. It's a very fun story to tell.



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Sort of shocked that this show would have the guts to do an on-the-nose Buried Past story as the monster plot in a two-parter that is largely concerned with the Sakurai of the past. Bold! I think it worked okay as a parallel to the Airi/Sakurai plot that's more in the foreground lately, plus I just thought it was sweet? It's this very minor story about a guy whose fiance died, and about how him living a happy life is honoring her more than clinging to the past, and about how hard it can be to move on from grief. I just liked it.

-Naomi and Ura's synchronized choreography in the background of Owner's ZeroLiner exposition is maybe the main Den-O Thing that I'll remember after I've forgotten everything else from this series (a month after I finish watching it). It's just two actors screwing around while Very Serious Plot Things happen in the foreground, and I love it.