[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER OOO - THE RESURRECTED CORE MEDAL PROLOGUE



Never watched this one before! It’s a little five minute promotional thing from TTFC, with all of the financial and narrative limitations that implies. We get a single brief action sequence against Kazari, a couple lines from Chiyoko, and then a longer dialogue sequence for Hina and Eiji. It’s really not very much.

And yet, I think it’s sort of great? I’ve got complaints, for sure – I don’t think it really leverages time the way that it should; this all feels like it could’ve happened during Fourze – but I think the immediate connection between this scene and the final Hina/Eiji/Ankh scene from OOO is a smart way to reengage the fans with what they loved most from the original series. I sort of wish they hadn’t spelled out that it was a reference by patching in the shot from 48, but I understand that not every viewer just watched that episode earlier in the week, like I did. Still, I immediately perked up when I saw that staging – Hina, center of frame, with Eiji to the left and an absence to the right. (They even recreated that strobing light effect!) It’s such a great way to visually state that the situation is still unbalanced, still broken. Eiji’s back, and that’s very cool, but OOO isn’t back until Ankh’s there, too.

Kind of amazing that this thing could do all of that in just a few minutes!