[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 37 - “SLEEP, A HUNDRED MILLION, AND BIRTH’S TRANSFER”



While this episode will surely be remembered for Gotou and Eiji’s investigation into Date’s lead poisoning and speculation on his need for exactly one hundred million yen (perhaps he’s looking to get 31,250 Birth Figuarts, excluding tax?), what I liked best about this episode was how delightfully retro its monster storytelling and structure were.

This is the first story since the Greeed reconfigured into their newest status quo, and – variations in cast not withstanding – it all just feels like we’re back in Episode 5, but in a good way. Mezool and Gamel have built a new hybrid Yummy, it makes people unable to sleep so that they’ll desire sleep, and then it puts everyone to sleep in order to cash out the Cell Medals it’s created. It’s a real back-to-basics OOO Fights A Yummy thing, and I loved it.

The Yummy itself nicely has a personality, marrying Gamel’s dimwitted laziness to Mezool’s subterfuge and sneakiness to create a scheming monster that very much does not want to fight a superhero, and sort of resents OOO for showing up. It makes for a fun old-school monster to set up against Eiji and Ankh, even bringing back classic OOO tropes like not having the right Medals to counteract the monster’s strengths. (Eiji definitely needs to pay closer attention to the pre-show Medal roster! It’s there for a reason!) Everything about the Yummy plot here is like tokusatsu comfort food – clever action, fun jokes, and a low level of threat to keep everything from feeling too tense.

Because, y’know, we’re also in an episode where Date’s lead poisoning and desperate need for cash is stressing out Gotou and eventually -slash- unconvincingly causing Date to flip to Maki’s side of the battle. It’s a tough part of the episode to discuss, for a couple main reasons. The first is that we’re only getting Gotou and Eiji’s conjecture on Date’s need for cash, and it’s fairly colored by their own life experiences. Eiji immediately connects Date’s desire to his own, but it’s maybe flattering Date too much to be accurate. The other main thing is… I mean, do we really think Date straight up joined the Greeed? For even a second? It makes for a dynamic visual at the end of the episode, Date’s smug grin as he stands next to the villains, but it’s hard to accept. Much like Eiji’s view of Date is a little too generous, this version of Date depends on thinking the worst of him. You might’ve been able to sell this turn 10 episodes ago, but I think we’ve gotten a good enough read on Date to think that some deeper play is happening. We’ll find out next time!

Yeah, I liked this one a bunch. The Date stuff might not’ve been as convincing as the cliffhanger assumes, but it’s still a fun exploration of how characters like Eiji and Gotou perceive him. More than that, though, this was just a super-solid old-school Yummy outing, with a cool monster that requires different levels of strategy to overcome. Classic OOO storytelling!