[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 23 - “IT’S KIKAI! 2121”



We’re back in Future Rider territory, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

I liked the stuff with Kikai, the same as probably everyone else. They went for a terrifically goofy late-Showa vibe to everything (Rento’s all-denim outfit! With bell bottoms!) and it was the right move. Rento himself is a stalwart defender of humanity and a friend to children, with a charming lack of guile. And as much fun as it was to see Rento walk stiffly and smile slightly unnervingly, it was equally entertaining to watch Kamen Rider Kikai full-on punch an old lady in the face. I mean, it was a killer robot old lady, but it still looked pretty funny. Really good time hanging out in 2121.

And I also liked it for how it slowly built out this episode’s theme of How Can We Trust Something Dangerous. That’s the trouble Team Zi-O (which is, uh, pretty much just Sougo and Geiz this episode) is having with Zi-O II’s recent creation. In the future, Rento is sworn to protect humanity, but there’s a part of him that could become evil and destructive. It’s the same thing in the present, as Geiz has to decide between putting his faith in Sougo’s ability to be a force for good, or siding with Tsukuyomi’s newfound bloodlust/realism. We’re in a story where everyone’s just a little bit afraid of someone else’s power.

The rest of the episode was a weird mix of character plotting I’m not totally on-board with (yet?), and comedic storytelling that’s right up my alley.

The specific struggle between Geiz’z belief in Sougo and Tsukuyomi’s pragmatism/impatience feels less an outgrowth of recent events than some writerly shift towards Internal Conflict, and I’d need a lot more from Tsukuyomi than I’ve gotten to buy into it. For someone who traveled back in time specifically to avert a time execution, she’s uncharacteristically all-in on killing Sougo immediately. There’s for sure a story to tell about Tsukuyomi reconsidering her beliefs, but we haven’t been given the incremental beats of the story that Geiz got for his arc. I’m okay with this story as some bump in the road for the team dynamic, but it’s not exactly hitting the Geiz/Sougo heights of Episode 16.

The comedy parts, though! Those were great! Coming back to Sougo’s established Terrible Math Skills as the bridge to get him dozing off and seeing the future was great, but Geiz’z Helicopter Time Dad stuff was even better. He’s so mad when he thinks Sougo is cheating on a test! He’s so mad when Sougo isn’t studying hard enough! It’s adorable!

(I don’t 100% believe in Tsukuyomi’s turn on Sougo – she’s scared, I get that, but she is all WHY HAVEN’T YOU MURDERED SOUGO YET GEIZ in basically every scene here, without bothering to sketch out why she’s so insistent – but I kinda loved how she’s the new Grim Executioner to Geiz’z Time Dad this episode. Geiz trying desperately to get Sougo to take his education seriously, while Tsukuyomi schemes to kill Zi-O… it’s a cute switch-up, even if half of it lacks explanation.)

I’m hoping the larger arc stuff for Team Zi-O clears up more in the next episode, but if it doesn’t? We still got a fun story about putting your faith in something dangerous, some great action sequences, a clever Another Rider (wood is the opposite of metal, I guess), some funny gags, and the Time Orphans sort of continuously creating Oma Zi-O, no matter what they do. (Woz at the end pointing out that emotionally isolating Sougo and trying to destroy him is a pretty great way to make a genocidal despot!) It wasn’t a perfect episode, but I had a good time with it.