[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 49 - "THE CLIMAX GOES ON, NO MATTER WHAT”




The last few days, I honestly didn't know if I even liked this show. Was I just talking myself into it? Was I fixating on the few things I liked while trying to diminish the many things I didn't? (ha ha) Did I want to like Den-O more than I actually liked Den-O?

And then there's this finale, and I can't stop crying, so I guess I really liked Den-O.

The plot machinations, the Time Nonsense, it's whatever. I'll talk more about its strengths and weaknesses tomorrow in the Series Wrap-Up post (which feels like it's going to be massive; lot of topics to cover), but for this episode, it existed mostly to be a thing to defeat. Like most of the junction point stuff, the Hana reveal is one that feels right while falling apart the second you try and explain it. She's the safety net that keeps Kai from winning long enough for the heroes to defeat him. It's difficult to parse and full of underexplained elements (there was a timeline once where Hana was raised by her parents but Sakurai erased her memory of it, I guess?), and it all shows up way later than you'd like, but it's fine. It's just there to allow for a victory condition. It's not the point of any of this.

The point is about friendship, and memories, and how even when a TV show ends, it gets to live on forever in our memories.

The second half of this episode was probably the absolute best way this show was ever going to end. It's not my favorite series ending or anything (Faiz or Blade, maybe Fourze?), but it's the best version of this show's unflinching sadness and boundless optimism.

Having the Imagin just disappear after Kai's defeated is heartbreaking. No tearful goodbyes or supportive morals, they're just gone. It's impossible not to feel shocked by that, to not have that visceral stab of loss push you to tears. All these characters you spent a series with, and that's it. Gone. Ryotaro's grief was just a mirror of what I was going through. Like Yuuto, I'd've eaten a thousand bowls of (gross) mushrooms to honor Deneb's passing. It's incredibly effective as tragedy.

And then the reveal that, no, of course all of these heroic imagination monsters from the end of time aren't gone. They wanted to wait a beat, then surprise their friends, but now the moment has gone on a little long and oh no they are crying really hard and it feels bad and uh oh this joke is going to feel a little cruel now and uh he's still crying and now Hana's crying too and Sieg's realizing that Ryotaro didn't even mourn him like the rest and they're all being a little too loud and the jig is definitely up because Ryotaro is looking this way hi I've arrived ha ha whoops.

It's this impossibly difficult transition from tears of sadness to tears of relief, and I'll probably praise Kobayashi for it forever. As frustrating as her inability to do a mystery plot is (her skipping one in OOO, or at least not calling it out, is probably why it's my favorite work of hers so far), her ability to nail emotion is unsurpassed.

The whole point of this series is that even when things end, as they inevitably do, they never really end as long as we remember them. It's a lesson that's important for kids, who are going to gain and lose friends rapidly over their adolescence, but it's one we could all stand to consider more often. Our memories are our strength, and they testify to our convictions. People change and grow, but there's a part of all of those relationships that we'll carry around forever. It's not a loss when someone's not around, because they're always around as long as we remember them. The past should always give us strength, you know?

That's a nice sentiment, for a lovely finale.



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-A lot of little touches that I liked in this episode.

-There's a moment where Kai just does a two-second scream of frustration, out of nowhere, and it's a great piece of acting. It's not a huge close-up or a dramatic wide-shot. He's just got this scream of frustration in him that he needs to get out, and it really helped center him in one of his final scenes.

-It looks like the show added some dust to the puffs of smoke when Imagins got hit in the fight scenes this time. I noticed it a bunch in the Momo section. Could just be the winter chill getting the smoke to come out a little thicker, but to me it looked grittier. Definitely made Momo's sword strikes seem deadlier, like chunks of the monsters were being hacked off.

-The Death Imagin wasn't even really a character, but I liked the visual of everyone sharing a finisher on him. It's teamwork, and friendship, and everyone winning the day together. Pretty much how the final move in Den-O should go.

-Boy, I'm going to be crying about this finale for a day, aren't I? Goddamn.

-It's Androzani84's birthday!