[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 14 - “GO! GO! GHOST 2015”



It’s foolhardy to try and predict what Tsukasa will get up to in a story. You can’t believe anything he says, and only half of what he does. His demeanor invites everything from skepticism to outright loathing. He’s a hero who embraced the identity of Destroyer Of Worlds. He’s a wild card, if you’ll pardon the expression.

So I don’t know where the story is going to go with him, and I don’t have any guesses. But I like the use of him at this point in Zi-O, as an antagonist. I like it, not because he’s more popular or cooler or whatever, but because of the conflicting ideologies, and the metatextual read of it.

I’ll start with the latter first, because that’s how my brain works. The idea of the previous Anniversary Rider being an obstacle to the current Anniversary Rider just makes sense to me. This is a show about the future, so the biggest threat should be someone from the past. Team Zi-O represents the limitless possibilities of the future, the way we can keep changing ourselves until the best parts of us are on the surface. Decade is about honoring the past, revisiting circumstance and memory as a way of codifying it into history. Putting two generational heroes into conflict is a chance to talk about how history is different for the people who lived it, and how that history becomes a weapon they can use against the future. Old Guy Versus Young Guy is 100% where I want this story to go, and I’m happy to see it happen, even briefly.

And to do it with such diametrically opposed characters! Sougo, who turns adversaries into allies and allies into friends; versus Tsukasa, who couldn’t ever pay a compliment without making it sound like an insult. Sougo is all smiles, while Tsukasa is all smirks. Sougo is outgoing and generous, while Tsukasa is moody and unreliable. Sougo’s goals are broadly stated and aggressively pursued, while Tsukasa’s are vague and haphazardly advanced. You literally couldn’t design a better villain for Sougo to face.

So, yeah, absolutely loving how this show has integrated Tsukasa into a nebulously antagonistic role in this show. Thankfully, though, that’s not all this show has to offer.

All of the Ghost Legend Rider stuff was great. Takeru continues to be a charming guest-star, bonding easily with Sougo over the weirdness of being a Ghost. (Which… there’s a gag at the end I loved, where Sougo immediately says that he’s hungry once he’s alive again. That’s a great callback to Takeru’s need to eat again when he was a ghost, and Takeru even says I KNOW, RIGHT in response. Except, this Takeru never died, right? So how could he commiserate with Sougo?) Makoto showing up – was not expecting that! Bringing back Akari's Ghost Visibility Spray to, uh, make Takeru completely corporeal (???) was a neat way of paying homage to the cast members that weren't brought back. It’s all in service of a very Ghost plot, with Sougo using the power of a Luminary (Tsukasa) to free a tormented soul and reunite a family. It’s a very charming tribute to a frequently overlooked -slash- reviled series.

They even created a little space for both Takeru and Makoto to Henshin into Ghost and Specter, which feels a bit like the show trying to get more of the Legend Rider suits in the show. (Hell, we get the Ghost suit twice in this episode: once with Takeru, and once with Tsukasa!) After a bunch of stories where the plot required our Legends to be actor-only cameos, this story gave us our heroes in their suits as well, which is maybe how it should be. I didn’t mind the other way, but this felt better.

This was a lot of fun, and I didn't even mention how much I loved the name "Heiseiber" for Decade Armor's weapon. (I LOVE IT SO MUCH.) Last episode definitely came off a little uneven, with a lot of Decade and Ghost but not enough Zi-O, so it was nice to see both the Decade and Ghost stuff feel connected to the Zi-O stuff. Connections! One more gift from the Ghost side of things!



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KAMEN RIDER ZI-O COMPLEMENTATION PROJECT EPISODE 14.5 - “PINK DEVIL”

Weirdly, the ones that are the least tethered to providing information (or participating in our shared reality) are the best of the .5 episodes.

There’s really nothing of “value” here. It’s just the standard Decade Is Magenta Not Pink reminder that we’ve been getting since the Decade Net-Movies. (Which are brilliant.) That’s it. The end.

But just seeing Tsukasa swan around 9-To-5 and lazily demand respect while Team Zi-O tries to downplay his undeniable achievements in elevating the Heisei Rider aesthetics… super fun. Super fun! It’s all of the kids on the show playing straight man to Tsukasa’s immortal charisma and weird physicality. (He’s very balletic in this? I don’t remember Tsukasa gliding as much before.) He owns a room in a way that I think can get missed in the context of a tokusatsu show. Here, it’s like a play, and you’re just putty in his hands.

Just like Sougo!