[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 21 - “MIRROR WORLD 2019”



No one said TATAKAE, 0/10.

Beyond that, I thought this was a pleasant-if-unexceptional episode of Kamen Rider Zi-O. We’re still exploring the various outcomes for a future event, which is a little tiresome. There’s a scene that basically just reiterates the many breadcrumbs of Oma Day info we’ve gotten over the last twenty episodes, but we don’t really get a lot of new information on what this all means to our characters.

And some of that’s the point! Sougo asks the Time Orphans what should be a fairly simple question: If they don’t want a future where Oma Zi-O obliterates humanity (but in a nice way), then what do they want the future to look like? They can’t just be fighting against the Misery Fields of 2068; they should have some positive goal they can articulate. Right?

But they don’t, and while that’s sweet and sad, it’s nothing this episode really explores. True to the themes of Ryuki, it’s all questions, but not much in the way of answers. What this whole Oma Day build-up is missing is more direct dialogue from Team Zi-O about what exactly the best outcome looks like for each of them. Both Wozez have been very clear about what they’re working towards. Even the Time Jackers, as dumb as their schemes are, have a clearly delineated goal. Team Zi-O’s weirdly aimless in this part of the show, preventing little tragedies but only making Serious Faces about the larger tragedies barrelling down on them. There's something poignant to that aimlessness - that the future is something you have to make happen, and if you don't, someone else will - but it still robs this episode of a sense of urgency.

(Real quick: I find the Time Jackers’ fortnightly schemes to be hilarious. I don’t at all understand how some random rampaging monster is supposed to be the unquestioned King of Time, no matter how undefeatable the monster is. Last episode’s attempt with Quiz was comically inept, just some grunting monster shambling down hallways and settling dumb scores. The idea that any of these Monsters of the Week are destined for godhood is pretty pretty funny to me.)

While the steadily mounting nervousness over Oma Day didn’t really do it for me, I did really enjoy how this show reoriented itself towards Ryuki’s investigative/horror framework. It’s nothing too special – a montage of Team Zi-O pounding the pavement and/or doing a Google search, plus one Legend Non-Rider appearance in Okubo from ORE Journal – but it felt a little more detailed than the usual strategy of running around Tokyo until they met a monster or a Rider. Like, they went to the old ORE Journal HQ! They interviewed people connected to the victims! Minimal mystery ingredients, but it’s still there, and I appreciated it.

All of the Ryuki stuff landed real well for me, give or take no one in a tan overcoat saying The Word. There’s a terror to Shinji that’s interesting to experience, considering how eternally upbeat and impetuous he was before. Seeing his apartment done up in the same reflection-blocking newspapers as the apartment where he found his Advent Deck in Ryuki’s premiere is nicely chilling. He’s haunted, literally and figuratively, which is very interesting to me.

I don’t know if it’s four episodes of Future Riders or what, but the Legend Rider parts of this episode really delivered for me. I like the show finally interrogating what the Time Orphans want if they win (RYUKI THEMES!), but not enough of this episode was about that for me to love it. Hopefully soon!