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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Kabuto
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12-31-2020, 12:30 AM
#
394
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 25
The show had set up a massive cliffhanger with the last episode, and the payoff... it's a pivot they go for, and while I can see
why
they did it, I really wish they hadn't done it.
Our heroes opened a weird door in the ruins of Shibuya, looking for answers about Hiyori's past, and what's inside is... basically nothing helpful for Hiyori, but way more questions for Tendou and Kagami. It becomes a story that's less about providing information to help with healing, and more about getting across to the superheroes that they are pawns in a massive conspiracy.
It's a pivot away from a story with clear emotional stakes, into something that's a lot more Superhero Plotting, and, yeah,
didn't love it!
The story more or less abandons Hiyori. She's gotten nothing helpful from all of this frustration, and Tendou has changed up his attitude towards her from condescendingly withholding to
sympathetically
withholding, which is not a great look. When the most relatable character on the show (YMMV) outright tells the hero that her troubles are because he's being so withholding, and the hero just, likes,
commiserates
with her?
What even is that!
It's like they went into that basement as three people who cared about each other, and came out as two superheroes trying to solve a mystery about their origins. It treats Hiyori's story as, like, a booster rocket, something that can be discarded now that the
real
story is taking place.
(And, sure, you can say that Tendou and Kagami's interest in solving the 35-year old mystery surrounding the Masked Rider program is a way to get answers for Hiyori, but given what's on-screen in this episode, that is a
stretch
. That is being
incredibly
generous to two guys who basically tell an inquiring Hiyori to
not worry her pretty little head
about their new Masked Rider discovery. Like, the
next scene
with Kagami and Tendou is them talking about what ZECT might be up to, and how to best find out.
Neither of them mentions Hiyori at all!
And they went to Shibuya
specifically
because of her!
I'm honestly getting more mad at this episode the longer I type!
)
And that real story... honestly, it's not bad. There's an exciting sense of the boys being tired of having ZECT out there, manipulating them from the shadows. (Literally! And also
with
Shadow!) Now that they know that ZECT's been working on the Masked Rider program from as far back as the Showa era, and the boys
clearly
do not truck with Showa, it's evident that ZECT has greater plans than just protecting Tokyo.
That alone would be enough to set up a more direct conflict with ZECT's leadership, but the show drops a weird-ass bombshell by putting Kagami's identity as Gatack's operator in the Masked Rider #1 journal from 1971. (And, yes, I got the reference, no need to call it out. I laughed at it immediately.) It's something that could be easily ("easily”) explained away by having Kagami's dad create a prophecy he could eventually have his son fulfill, but that's still pretty crazy. Almost as crazy as the raging, chained-up lunatic that's locked behind a door
in the basement of a vault
. That's someone who is going to be a problem!
(Throwing this out there: it's the original Tendou, not the Worm that's been Tendou for the last seven years.)
The rest of the episode has a lot of
things
happening, mostly fun to watch (Tendou quickly climbing the ranks of the police makes me wonder why he needed ZECT's help to work in one hospital for one day), but, man, not into this pivot away from Hiyori's story! I honestly wanted the second half of this post to be a little room to praise the tension of the Misaki/Kagami raid on ZECT HQ, or all of Tendou's charm offensive (his smile is so fake!), or Tsurugi's brief appearance so he can Win At Diving, or how nice it is to see Daisuke return to grumpily save TheWorst, but no. I don't really want to do any of that, because the show followed up a story where Tendou and Kagami put Hiyori's needs ahead of their own, by having them both toss her to the side when a cooler story came along. She specifically tells Tendou that she is still hurting, that nothing got better, and he's just like Sometimes There Are Mysteries.
I don't think the show wants me to be as mad at Tendou as I am right now!
(Kagami is not winning any prizes, but he also isn't hiding things that'd probably make Hiyori feel better.) Moving the story off of Hiyori without giving Hiyori any reason to feel better... it sucks! I don't love it as a story choice!
A QUESTION
And now I gotta live with being mad at this show for a couple days, because I'm changing up the scheduling for New Year's. The 31st is going to be a special piece, something I'm already 20% done with. The 1st is going to be Episode 26, the 2nd is going to be the movie, and with the 3rd we're back to normal scheduling with Episode 27.
But none of that's a question! With New Year's nearly here, it's time to make some resolutions.
Do you have a tokusatsu resolution for 2021?
Something toku-related you'd like to accomplish? My next few years are pretty well charted out, Rider-wise, but there's something I've got in mind for Decade that I really hope I'm able to make happen. What about you?
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on
KamenRiderDie.com
!
Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 08-29-2023 at
07:33 PM
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