[Fish Sandwich]

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP27)

I was all prepared to give some huge rave about that Uncle/Sougo scene, but it kinda warms my heart to see everyone already seems to get everything I could say about it.

Conversations between those two are generally a highlight of the show, but this particular one is a shining example of what I mentioned earlier about how well the show put its earlier, arguably weaker episodes in a more nuanced context retroactively. When you watch those first couple episodes, it's like, you're just wondering why Sougo's uncle is so weirdly not-pushy with him, and you can probably write it off as that just being his weird character quirk or whatever, but along comes this episode, which reframes all that in a way that's real and emotional and sad and touching. He treats Sougo that way because Sougo was a little kid going through a lot at a young age, and Junichirou wanted to be as supportive and caring as possible, to the point where it maybe became a fault.

I mean, it's one of those things where I feel like me trying to explain it ruins the point of why I like the scene so much, which is how it can get you thinking all this and making these connections with just a few lines of dialogue that don't even hit you over the head with it that much. There's a particular flavor I feel Zi-O's character drama has that I've always felt is different from most of the other recent Rider shows, and I struggle to describe it. The current version of my theory about that, thinking about the series a lot thanks to this thread, is that maybe, it's because I like how small and personal the emotions end up being, despite the scale of the story?

Like, Sento around this point in Build was constantly worried about the ethical ramifications of scientific progress, and the weight of his own past actions as someone who had developed weapons, and stuff like that, you know? I don't need to tell anyone that Build's themes were thoughtful and interesting in their own right, but I bring it up to highlight the contrast when I say how nice I find it that Zi-O could take a story about a future despot and two soldiers from a ruined tomorrow trying to change fate, and ultimately make it about a kid trying to grow into the adult he wants to be, and how much his friendships mean to him. That's a core part of the appeal of any fantasy story to me -- how you take those outrageous concepts and explore something immediately identifiable and relatable with them -- and with how Zi-O handles that, especially during this stretch, I guess it's hardly surprising that, exactly as I suggest in that old post, it ended up being a favorite for me. It's on a long list of favorites, mind you, but still! I don't even know why I was still pretending to have my doubts by this point. I really was Geiz!

All this is to say, I liked the episode a lot! We're over to Tasaki on direction now, too, which extra sells how important this arc is. I adore touches like the way the usual cold open is handled, as well. This is the first ever time since the premiere that we don't open directly on Woz, because the visual of Geiz and Zi-O fighting kinda says it all.

I also loved the Woz VS Woz action in this one, which I'm sure is another opinion that doesn't need much explaining. "Indeed, the power of Kamen Rider Woz... is in the hands of Woz." might be one of my favorite lines in a show filled to the brim with lines I like (it's also a long list!), and it really highlights how good Keisuke Watanabe was at differentiating the two characters. White Woz has a completely different set of facial expressions, and it's impressive how much he starts to genuinely feel like a completely different person.

Also! The BGM accompanying the one true Woz's transformation is pretty great!

While I praise how different Sahashi's work on Zi-O is from usual, this one has him playing in his comfort zone a lot more, and proving that isn't a bad thing. This track is still very Woz, but it's also distinctly a little Den-O, and I dig it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshToku

That track might have been played in brief snippets in part, but it has yet to be played in any significant capacity. I can confidently say that because I distinctly remember the first time the show really puts it to good use, and I have a good feeling you know what exactly that first time is too ^_^

!!!

Oh right! Thank you for mentioning this, because it also made me realize that I'm probably misinterpreting the song title here? I kind of assumed they just messed up using "II", but given there are quite a few pieces on the soundtrack that have a "2" at the end of them, in actuality, it might be as simple as this being the second motif for Zi-O, rather than one specifically for Zi-O II? It's grouped with the ones that are named after his upgrade forms though, so I don't know. Not that it matters either way, I guess.