[Kamen Rider Die]

RIDER TIME: SHINOBI EPISODE 2 - “NEXT NINPOW!! VOLUME: THE DARK NINJA’S ASSASSINATION"



I think Farce is a good space for this series to exist in.

There’s a part of me that would’ve loved to see a real attempt to craft a serious Kamen Rider Shinobi story. Something that mixes wacky hidden-identity hijinks with something darker or sadder. Nothing to the extent of, like, Amazons, but something less frivolous than this episode.

But with such a limited run-time (this one’s not even fifteen minutes) and probably a miniscule budget, going with a super-campy and completely unserious lark is enjoyable enough for me. There’s nothing but gags in this story, and the few nominally poignant or complicated emotions are immediately played as satire, only missing the laugh track to really hammer home the show’s targeted tone.

Funny gags, though! It’s almost all following the Rule of Threes, where a joke is funny, then not funny, then REALLY funny. By the third torn-off-clothes costume change, I was dying. Stuff like that, or Iroha’s incredibly quick No Thanks to Icchy’s vow to protect her, was delightful. This whole thing was practically an HBV, with how nonsensical and broad it was. (Hattari having absolutely no poker face! In either identity! At all times!)

Still, the emphasis (financially-motivated or otherwise) on humor over pathos or stakes, it’s not what I’d’ve hoped for from this mini-series. I get why Toei hasn’t announced anything for Shinobi in 2022. Why bother? It’s a gag premise, and not a particularly deep one. This is like the Kamen Rider Brain stuff: what you’re getting is plenty, so let’s not wear out the joke.

But they’re good jokes!