[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 33 - "TIME TROUBLER KOHANA”



There are these episodes in Kamen Rider sometimes, where it's just a pile of things happening. This is one of those. New train lines are developing, Hana's a kid, Yuuto's no longer a Kamen Rider, the world learns how majestic the music of Kamen Rider can sound when played on a piano... it's a whole bunch of things happening.

The nicest feeling for me as a viewer is when the Why of all those things locks in. Why are you telling me all this? Why now? Why this way?

How the Yuuto and Kohana plots dovetail made me pretty happy. There's a reason why you'd do them this way, even if the impetus was accidental. Yuuto's used up all of his Zeronos cards, Airi's forgotten him, special guest star Sawada who is definitely in England has forgotten him... he feels frustrated by his cosmic irrelevance. The universe exists to squander his potential, rob him of his rewards, and humiliate him. Yuuto's got people like Ryotaro who pity him, people like Deneb who care for him, but he doesn't have anyone who understands him. No one who can sympathize with what he's going through.

And then Hana shows up as a child, and we're in business.

I can't really think of a good Hana/Yuuto plot that's been done. There really wasn't any time, no pun intended. We had Yuuto's introduction, then Sieg, then all of the movie stuff, then the Climax Form stuff, and then Hana's gone. We got a little bit of Hana needing info from Yuuto in one episode, but that plot was overshadowed by Tiger costumes and monsters who were not that into Urataros. (Also, Hana didn't even learn anything too valuable from Yuuto.) There never was a solid Hana/Yuuto story, and that's a shame.

Maybe it's okay, though, because that makes this story feel refreshingly original? The episode is sort of sloppy and overstuffed (while also feeling sort of thin?), but the combo of Yuuto and Kohana is pretty goddamn great. The two of them are the most cosmically shit-upon characters in the show, so giving them both a chance to team-up and get their lives back on track (pun intended) is a pretty clever way of making lemonade out of some production lemons. I'm not missing Hana as much, because now I've got Yuuto/Kohana. It's not what I'd wished for, but it's what I can live with.




THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Did that above section feel short? Well, that's because the part that's most worth discussing occurs halfway through the episode and lasts about two minutes. Like I said, it's not a great episode for how it feels both overstuffed (Hana's change, Yuuto's epilogue, the IOTW plot, Ryotaro trying to explain to the younger/less-attentive viewers exactly what happened at the end of last episode) and also weirdly thin. The Piano Man stuff was fun to watch, but it sort of goes on a while. There's what feels like a ton of restating of premises, and teases for future stories, and very little Present Tense storytelling.

-While we can't get Zeronos in this one because his Zeronos cards are gone forever, irrevocably, no tapbacks, no continues, at least we get Deneb taking an active role in the current Imaginvestigation. Seeing him try to stealthily tail a dude in tails, or fill Yuuto's shoes in combat, it's very sweet. Any episode where Deneb attempts a catchphrase is worth watching, to me.

-Also worth watching? An episode of Den-O that includes someone who guested in one of the greatest, most ridiculous Blade stories of all-time. Piano Man is a total 180 from what's basically Takoyaki Capulet, but it's always nice to see an Inoue all-star make a return appearance.