[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 24 - “MEMORIES, LOVE, AND THE OCEANIC COMBO”



Happy Valentine’s Day, here’s the Love Combo!

Obviously, that’s not the big deal new Combo for this episode, no matter how holiday-appropriate it might be. No, it’s Shauta, the aquatic Combo that’s been teased for a little while now. And it’s apropos, considering we’re at an aquarium, fighting a Stingray Rhino Monster (rhinos being the natural enemies of eels, after all). The form itself is pretty neat, despite a large portion of its usage being completely computer generated. I like the pointed brim of the helmet, and the electric cable-style eel whips that attach from the wrist to the shoulder. Stylish, when it’s a physical suit.

As much as that’s the climax to this episode, and another excellent tactical fight sequence that depends on overcoming limitations through strategy and teamwork, it’s all sort of vestigial to this episode’s solid combo of comedy and pathos.

Let’s talk about the comedy first, because it’s what I remembered the most about why I loved this episode. All of the stuff with Hina and Ankh having to navigate Eiji’s love-impaired mental state was killer. Hina getting bashful when Eiji asks for romantic advice! Ankh getting repeatedly smacked in the head for the immortal OOO gif! Ankh having to get Kazari to hold on a minute before a fight, so that he can get Eiji ready, and Kazari being like Wait What Okay Fine! And Hina and Ankh having to team up to perform an OOO Henshin on Eiji’s unconscious body! It’s laugh out loud funny, and all of this show’s comedic potential shoved into one ridiculous subplot. Any time Hina and Ankh need to work together is great, but having it be to protect a lovestruck Eiji from his own distracted impulses? Genius.

The pathos side of things works nearly as well, since it’s all about digging into Date’s past and illuminating his strengths. (The stuff with the Sakura sisters… it’s fine? They both wanted what the other had, without seeing how to value what they already had, which is a very OOO way to defuse desire. Much like Date, I was completely ready to be done with their elongated melodrama.) Date’s immune to Yumi’s Love Whammy powers because he finds her superficial beauty to be a huge step down from the vibrant woman he knew as a doctor in Africa. Date fell for Yumi for her selfless dedication to helping people despite her anonymity, and he’s vaguely repulsed by the new shallow version that craves the love of strangers. She was beautiful before because she cared so much about people, and had such big ideas, that it was intoxicating. Now she’s sexy, but it’s nauseating to him.

It’s all a really nice rebuttal to the previous episode’s weird glamorization of an already classically beautiful woman through the tired trope of A Little Makeup And No Glasses, since it basically sidesteps all of that to talk about how her goals changed into something selfish and vindictive, which is more ugly than anything skin-deep. Date’s story with Yumi gets at his attraction to people’s motivations, and his embrace of people who fight for their ideals. A woman like Yumi who uses evil to get adoration… that’s not gonna work for the Fighting Doctor.

Whole episode worked for me, though. Loved this one, from front to back. What a holiday treat!