[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 31 - “RETURNING A FAVOR, A PLOT, AND PURPLE MEDALS”

It’s a very Part 1 Of 2 episode, with a whole bunch of interesting ideas that don’t really add up to much more than that. It’s solidly done, for an episode that reintroduces Uva, debuts the Purple Medals, spends some time with Team Greeed, and wraps it all up in a Yummy Dilemma that’s directly commenting on Eiji’s potentially apocalyptic helpfulness, but it all feels a little too much like the setup for next episode’s statement.

There's something smart about Uva's schemes here that, to have the Trash Yummies emerge from all of the workers, spitting out one Medal each, building up their greed for their day. Uva actually thinks about maximizing Medal profits, but this time, limiting the danger to themselves. The Trash Yummies are too weak to build up much, but one at a time, from a lot of people at once, over the course of time takes care of a lot. Uva seemingly has been running this operation for a while, without drawing any unwanted attention. This is probably why Uva can now go toe-to-toe with TaJaDor too, Uva has stepped up his game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And I’m not sure how disappointed in that I want to be? There’s nothing really wrong in this episode; to the contrary, it’s a brisk installment that deftly balances foreshadowing with a present-tense conundrum, while never losing sight on how this all affects our core cast. But it still has that problem of not really being fully about its topic or theme yet. We’re given some truly enticing things – Maki and the Purple Medals, Uva’s payday loan scheme (?), Sakata’s desire to help out someone who once helped him – but it's all stopped at the point where this would maybe cohere into something resonant, instead of just entertaining. Every plot is an ellipsis, rather than a period or an exclamation mark.

If Sakata is seen as somewhat culpable for unwittingly falling for a scam (probably also unknowingly helping a Greeed), dunno if this'd be the same to for example, the noble Rider unwittingly playing into the villain's hands by working for their secretly evil organization, such as the actually evil BOARD (Blade) or Fenix (Revice). Generally yes, someone wouldn't be held as culpable if they didn't know at all about the truth of them being unwitting pawns, where people like Kenzaki or Hiromi would be still viewed as a noble hero that has clean hands and did nothing wrong. Hina also points out Sakata's desire backfiring isn't his fault, there's a difference between someone unwittingly causing misfortune, to one deliberately and knowingly doing bad things and convincing others that it's for the greater good (e.g. well-intentioned extremist villains).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which is, y’know, the Kamen Rider template, especially in this era. They’re almost all two-parters, and Part 1 is usually chock-a-block with cliffhangers. I’m not sure why this one hit me so weirdly. It’s maybe exhaustion with this type of format? You see enough of this scheme and you start to ache for the deviations. It maybe feels more exhausting for how many parts of this episode are tantalizing teases of things we’ll discover later, rather than a complete statement on anything. I want something to talk about, to think about, but everything here feels like the discussion comes tomorrow.

Yet W, OOO, and Fourze are shows that no one criticizes or says anything bad for. I'm someone who prefers serialized stuff to MOTW stuff, which is primarily why I follow KR for toku. But it can seem that two-parters format is just safer for a show to be done, as these show's flaws are seemingly more ignored to have the fanbase deem the shows as perfect, if the flaws relate to the MOTW stuff like Tsukuba's plot twist. Den-O's the one show that is well-received and have the fans acknowledge their flaws, but it seems KR simply only needs the main cast dynamic alone. Though it doesn't really come out often that the fans want KR to be back to the two-parters format so that they can relieve the W, OOO, and Fourze era again, for those thinking they're still way above anything until now.