[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 30 - "MADAM, HOW ABOUT THE FIREWORKS"




I really love the summer episodes of Kamen Rider.

They're usually more playful, more adventurous. I wonder if it's the heat, making everyone involved in the production that extra bit more loopy? Whatever it is, there's a sort of welcome exhaustion to what's going on, where it's all about making a game out of what's happening, keeping things loose and slightly stupid. Everyone's just enjoying the day, waiting for things to relax at night.

And so we get this episode, evenly split between prideful antagonism during the humid daytime, and the unspoken delight of friends and family in the evening. The first part is all stress and nonsense, the second part is all forgiveness and smiles. We've got three stories that overlap, but let's talk about them one by one.

The Deneb/Yuuto thread is terrific, with Deneb trying to start a new life away from Yuuto. Deneb feels like he's a burden to Yuuto, and he opts to run away from home. (I absolutely love that Yuuto says that Deneb ran away from home. It's reframing their fight as something intensely childish and temporary, which sets the appropriate tone for this story.) What follows is Deneb trying to assist Ryotaro, and it going terribly for Ryotaro. (It does not go super great for Deneb, either!) It's mostly just Deneb trying to copy Momo enough to fit in on the DenLiner, and Momo having his usual zero tolerance policy in regards to Drama and Feelings. While Ryotaro is trying to be a good listener and offer non-judgmental options, Momo gives Deneb a literal swift kick in the ass and tells him to go home and work things out. It's a cute little story that never gets as insane as you'd think/hope (some neat physical comedy, though), but keeps a solid tie to the other stories and ends itself well.

That ending to the Deneb/Yuuto story! So great! Yuuto was grumpy at Deneb having a slightly fake emergency last episode, but he wasn't really mad at him. Ryotaro compares their fight to the kind siblings have, where your affection for another person, and your shared history, causes whatever heat had built up between you to eventually just evaporate into the air. It's a bond that can't really be broken, so if you wait a little bit it'll return to its normal shape. Yuuto proves his forgiveness to Deneb by throwing his last Zeronos card in the river, yelling at Deneb that losing the card was less important than losing Deneb. There's a petulant exasperation on Yuuto's face that is absolutely adorable, his frustration at needing to say these things out loud to Deneb. These two weirdos... so great. So great!

The Airi/Ryotaro story is a little mirror to the Deneb/Yuuto one, the example of how fleeting ill will can be when you really care about someone. I love that the only real speech about Feelings in this one is when Ryotaro explains what siblings are like to Deneb. Yuuto gives a huffy little I'm Not Mad Now Come Home And Shut Up tantrum to fix things with Deneb, and Airi and Ryotaro don't even say anything about their fight being over. It's just, like, the sun went down. There are fireworks. Let's all just hang out and relax.

The Fireworks Family story is the linking element, and it gives us fireworks, but I sort of hate it? It's trying to do the same thing as the Deneb and Ryotaro threads, where Some Emotions Are So Big You Don't Need Words, but this dude abandoned his family for five years because he wanted to make fireworks. That is a way bigger thing than inconveniencing a friend or fighting over culinary chemical warfare! I don't know how or why this guy's wife is supposed to forgive him, let alone support him? Beyond a poorly articulated sense that he wants his family back, he doesn't really seem to regret his actions or take responsibility for what happened. He's just like When I'm Great At Fireworks She'll Come Back, and the show's like Yup? It's a weirdly dark monster plot featuring a horrifyingly bad husband and father, who gets what he wants in the end? Weird! Did not like this story or how it ended.

Besides that, though, real fun episode. Great action, beautiful shots (the one with Deneb and Yuuto on the bridge!!!), another clever non-teamwork take on Climax Form, and a cute little story about pride and the resiliency of friendships. Fun to watch.



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-An astonishing amount of great gags in this one, but my two favorite ones were the crime scene set dressing of Milk Dipper (the chalk outline around the teddy bear!) and the mother scolding her child for staring at Deneb. I love the conceit that Deneb In A Summer Hat just reads as some unfortunately deformed individual, and society shouldn't make him feel bad.

-As someone who also gets the occasional summer cold, Kin has become even more relatable from this episode. The joke about Kin's sneezing in Climax Form wrenching Momo's shoulder, A+ stuff.

-The use of Climax Form in this one felt a little gratuitous (feels like Gun Form or Rod Form could've taken this Bird Imagin out?), but it worked for me because it was just Momo using the other three as armor. Every time the Teamwork Form is about Momo being as callous and selfish as ever while still caring about his friends in the larger sense, I love it.

-The cage over the head of the Bird Imagin makes for probably my favorite monster design in this series to date.