[Fish Sandwich]

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP24)

I mentioned a bit back during the Fourze episodes that I appreciated in retrospect how they laid the groundwork for something that starts truly coming into focus here, which is how utterly lonely Sougo is. A lot of things in this episode hit pretty hard emotionally, and Junichirou spelling out for Tsukuyomi that her and Geiz are legitimately the only friends he's ever had works wonders to reframe a lot of what we know about Sougo, and put it all into a much clearer focus.

Because, here's the thing: remember that first episode? Remember what your first impression of Sougo was? How many of us looked at him in that premiere and wrote him off as some weirdo, vaguely creepy kid obsessing over a stupid nonsensical dream that sounds like a life goal a five year old would have? Because that first impression of Sougo is probably the exact same one he leaves on most people he meets in-universe, and most of them don't have any reason to stick around after that. Heck, most of us were probably only following the guy at first simply because he's a Kamen Rider, and that's also why Geiz, Tsukuyomi, and Woz all started hanging out with him originally, too.

I'm not really trying to suggest the show was working some secret master plan the whole time here, mind you. I guess if I have to point to make here, it's that I feel Zi-O did a great job taking some of those rougher aspects of early Sougo and building something much, much richer around them. This won't be the last time I say something like this, but I very much appreciate how this show was able to take such an outlandish concept for a protagonist and start making him feel like a genuine human being, with real emotional issues we can empathize with and be invested in, all without ever betraying the strange core of his character.

I'm probably gushing a bit too much here, but yeah, needless to say, I ended up really liking Sougo, if that wasn't clear yet, and as such I loved these episodes quite a bit too. Kikai was a very appealing character with a fun world built around him, and that all intersected with the main cast in a great way. Definitely hard not to be feeling some things when you get to the end of this episode where Sougo is so eager about everyone working together and being friends that he'll gladly team up with his enemies... and then everyone walks off, leaving him completely alone.

And like I mention in the old post, this episode also made me way more okay with Tsukuyomi's current role, which is pretty impressive. I mean, it's still happening entirely to serve Geiz's arc, make no mistake, but by emphasizing here how she's being driven by fear, it makes her hasty and irrational decision-making seem far more grounded and believable. I don't remember it ever coming off to me like she actually wants Sougo dead or anything, and that extra little bit of distinction made all the difference for me. If it's about conflict in her heart, rather than her brain, all of this makes way more sense.