[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 42 - “ICE, BECOMING A GREEED, AND THE BROKEN WINGS”



So, Eiji.

He’s a character that lacks a motivating impulse. He doesn’t want anything, or need anything, or hope to achieve something. He isn’t trying to be a king, or write a book, or make friends, or excel in a field. Where you can sort of see the shape of any other Rider’s future beyond his series, Eiji’s feels as blank as the world the Greeed might devour. He exists, and that’s sort of the extent of him.

That absence of desire not only makes him the right vessel for OOO, it also makes him a pretty compelling hero. Because his motivation is always someone else’s motivation – he’s a hand reaching out to you, which means you are the operative article; his action needs your existence, not the other way around. He fights for you, which is a stronger motivation than fighting for himself – selflessness versus selfishness. It means that whatever he’s up against, as long as you need him to fight, he’ll find the courage to continue. It’s transcendent. It’s beautiful, like this episode.

It’s also heartbreaking. And terrifying.

Because there will always be a hand reaching out for help. There always be someone crying out for OOO to save them. If Eiji exists to help others, what does that leave him in a world where people will always need help? With the power of OOO, there’s an increasing level to which Eiji can help people – crowds of innocents, rather than a single crying child – but his Greeed-like hunger is that he can’t stop himself from destroying his future to save others’ present. Eiji will never be able to stop himself from protecting people from monsters, even if that means he becomes a monster himself.

So, Hina.

Hina’s job, again, is to be the person in Eiji’s life who doesn’t innately view Eiji’s sacrifice as noble or brave, but as regrettable. Her introduction to this series is seeing her brother nearly killed because of the Greeed while trying to protect others, and she understands the danger that poses. Eiji fighting monsters for others, endlessly, at the cost of his connection the world, is something she’ll never view as a fair trade. She’ll always fight against that concept.

She’s the one who fights for Eiji.

It’s recontextualizing that image of a hand reaching out, into hands reaching for each other. Eiji fights for Hina, and Hina fights for Eiji. Eiji is pulled back from the brink while he’s lifting up others. It’s the concept of desire as a reciprocal machine, adding life and vibrancy to a world, rather than deducting it through hunger. It’s about protecting everyone, even those who’d protect us. Heroism can as big as saving the world, and as small as keeping one person safe. Everything’s heroic.

Anything goes.