[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 43 - “A VULTURE, A CONFRONTATION, AND ANKH’S RETURN”



Ha ha ha, of course. Of course this is what happens next!

It’s very fun, after a string of episodes that both confirm Ankh’s defining tragedy – his fear of abandonment – and illustrate the lengths to which Hina, Eiji, and even Shingo (his goddamn hostage) will go to save him, to have Ankh immediately remind everyone that he is an 800-year-old desire monster that is biologically motivated to fulfill his own needs at the cost of literally everyone else. We are barely half a scene removed from his triumphant return before he hijacks a now-conscious Shingo, tells his friends that he couldn’t care less about how cruel it is because it’s what he needs, steals his remaining Medals from Eiji, and then runs off to do a straight-up Q1 Yummy rampage scheme to revive Uva. Eiji and Hina have replaced Lost Ankh with regular Ankh, and it turns out to be a lateral move at best.

With Ankh on the run and Shingo in danger, we’re mostly left with how both of those things eat away at Eiji and Hina’s relationship. Amidst larger plots involving the Greeed, the best part of this episode for me was how Hina and Eiji try to navigate this new, horrible status quo (which is hilariously similar in most regards to their previous year-long status quo, but with everything turned up to This Sucks) and their complicity with both its outcome and what might happen next.

Like, we’re back to Hina Wants Shingo Saved, and that super sucks for Eiji, because it really means he has to save Shingo in order for Hina to be happy. It means he has to continue to fight, and that’s accelerating his transformation into being a Greeed. Additionally, he’s now powerful enough to challenge 6-Core Ankh, and the Purple Medals give him the ability to permanently end Ankh’s existence, to keep Shingo safe for good. (I really like how the Purple Medals’ established power as Anti-Desire allow them to destroy Core Medals, the embodiment of desire. Smart plotting!) This is exactly what Hina was afraid of last time, and now she’s doing it all over again to Eiji. Her desire to protect Shingo is forcing Eiji to push himself into danger and contemplate destroying his friend.

The incredibly clever thing this episode does is postulate Acceptance as Desire’s antidote. It’s not about eliminating desire – Hina very much wants Shingo safe from Greeed possession, and just generally not a meat puppet – but more about how we temper that emotion with an ability to accept the reality and limitations of the present. Hina can try to solve this problem, and she probably will with Eiji’s help, but endlessly focusing on it as an absence in her life just makes it worse for everyone around her, without really solving the problem to begin with. Taking a breath, supporting a friend, and keeping perspective are the best ways to keep our desires from overwhelming us.

As with most OOO episodes lately, I really enjoyed how the soft center of character drama and self-examination dwelled within this high-stakes, fast-paced installment of tokusatsu action. The main series plot continues to excite with its twists and upheavals, while the show never loses sight of the impact of each twist on the characters we care about. Killer stuff!