[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 8 - “SLACKING OFF, HAVING NO DESIRE, AND TAKING A BREAK”

Probably not going to be my favorite OOO two-parter, despite how much I enjoyed this installment. (I really enjoyed this installment.) The Uva stuff is dispatched more or less before the opening credits, Gamel abandons his plot halfway through, and the Yummy never feels looped into anything that’s going on. (Eiji could’ve been fighting literally any monster for any reason, it’s ridiculously perfunctory.) There’s really only one story in this episode worth discussing beyond an It’s Funny To See Ankh Harrassed By Children level of identification, and that’s the Momoko/Takeshi one.

Uva, Gamel, and Mezool stuff rather reminds me of something in Kobayashi's show, but well, it's about Yui splashing Shinji and Ren with water during their argument, in Mezool also doing that to the other 2. Among the monster group, it's the female too who breaks up their infighting, and make them think more straight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And he does that in a supremely OOO way, which is by reaching a hand out, and not much more. Eiji blunders his way through his discussions with Momoko and Takeshi, frequently making terrible comparisons that reduce the complexity of adult relationships into misguided metaphors about summer vacation and overeating. (I mean, good for the intended audience, but sort of disappointing for Eiji’s maturity.) Eiji never quite gets what’s happening between Momoko and Takeshi on a relatable level, but he pushes back on both of their assertions that Takeshi has lost his desire, instead helping to reframe things as guy who needed a reset and a woman pushing him to put a date on that reset's conclusion. Eiji’s role isn’t to solve their problem, it’s to help them see that they both want to solve their problem. After that, after he’s given them a hand, they can solve it themselves.

Eiji's effect feels stronger on Takeshi compared to Momoko with Eiji's talk about people not forgetting their ambitions easily, with a more sound comparison in Eiji still remembering his love for fried buns. Makes me wonder though if it's a right thing to do to butt in into other people's business like Eiji does here, in the end it worked great but it doesn't seem appropriate to do it, something I wished that Revice used it more in its MC that has busybody problem. Still wish that this is more related to the Greeed schemes, likely to see what happens when they find an opposite where the person they're targeting on seemingly lost their drive/desire, rather than the usual being consumed by it like the previous ones.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s, again, very cute. I like stories where the resolution is reached due to the decency and humanity of the Kamen Rider, rather than its powers or transformations. It just… I sort of also like the powers and transformations? And when every part of the episode feels like it's telling the same story? Instead, with this one, we get elements that are randomly discarded throughout the episode, like the production team couldn’t remember why they ever cared about them in the first place. I guess that’s at least thematically fitting?

While generally the Riders on the good side will similarly detonate monsters with their powers, this is something that you'd get more from the lead Rider character types, the ones who are selfless and compassionate, while the other Riders on the good side, not all, but often, they're more of jerks who can't treat others with decency while beating up monsters. This might be a hot take from me, but I see kinder people as something that makes them more heroic than the jerk types who care less about others, driven by vengeance, would throw others under the bus with 'hard choice' pragmatic tactis, etc., where while they're still heroic (though some'd veer to anti-hero category), their negative traits makes them less and can make them lean to grey more.