[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 25 - “ANOTHER ZI-O 2019”



Long day, late night, let’s see how quickly we can bang this one out.

I thought this episode was fine for what it was. We’re in a version of the show that purposely avoids a lot of the stuff I liked about it: the warmth of Team Zi-O, the fun takes on Legend Rider themes, and self-contained problems for our heroes to resolve. Everything here is sort of sad, and tense, and sprawls in an unpleasant way. Like I said, this is this portion of the show Working As Intended, but it’s not a ton of fun to exist in.

It’s another neat episode for Sougo’s crushing isolation and his At All Costs friendship with the Time Orphans, though. For him to be like Maybe If I Fight A Monster I’ll Get To See My Buds Again… sad! Real sad! But touching, since it just reinforces how much Sougo wants to get his life back to the happy state it used to be: going on Time Missions and only occasionally finding out he’s destined to destroy humanity.

The Time Orphans, meanwhile, are just sort of vaguely existing, running through the same routines as the last couple episodes. Tsukuyomi would like to see Zi-O defeated by Geiz. Geiz would like for Tsukuyomi to get off his back. Hat Woz is… around. It’s missing even the frustrating nonsense of Tsukuyomi’s terror, subsisting entirely on Geiz’z cornered unease with this whole conflict. There’s separation, but no one can really explain why, or how long it’s supposed to last for, so we get everyone being slightly bummed out.

That just leaves the introduction of Another Zi-O, and, again: fine. I like where this story seems to be going, how it looks to be about how Sougo's never let his suffering or loss turn him into a bad person, even though Hiryuu is maybe Exhibit A in how Sougo could’ve gone bad. Sougo and Hiryuu had the same background trauma (with, I’m sure, more details to come), but Sougo kept himself optimistic, while Hiryuu probably didn’t.

I say “probably”, because BOY is this the first part of a two-parter. There’s almost nothing concrete to talk about with Hiryuu, so I’m left to speculation and inference. Another Zi-O is running around terrorizing former Another Riders (so many fun cameos!), but the How and Why of it all is left for next week. I usually don’t care about these types of mysteries, and this one’s no different. There’s almost nothing for me to hang onto here. Swartz did something, and it’s bad, but no one says why it’s bad. Hiryuu has a grudge, and he seems bad, but it’s unclear what he’s really after. He has a backstory with Sougo, but maybe he doesn’t, since Sougo doesn’t seem to recognize him. There’s a lot of foreboding here, but nothing of any real substance.

Maybe this wasn’t fine? I don’t know. Maybe I’m just tired. I’m sure I’ll like the second part of this story better. Like I said, there’s some interesting thematic stuff the Another Zi-O concept is hinting at. Sougo’s date night with Woz was real cute; total episode highlight. But there’s just too much mystery at this point in the show, too much that’s About To Happen. I need some goddamn payoff!