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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Den-O
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04-10-2021, 03:22 PM
#
698
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 44 - "RESOLUTION OF A SINGLE-ACTION”
Man, this
episode
.
It's almost a complete 180 from last time. There's a
sincerity
to this episode that I think the last one obscured with Time Nonsense and miscommunication. The fact that this episode kicks off with Momo and Ryotaro getting into a shouting match about Momo's secrecy and Ryotaro's martyrdom is
extraordinarily
refreshing, a total palette-cleanser from the previous chapter.
Like, last episode left a cloud of frustration and resentment hanging over everything, but this episode quickly grounds its emotional stakes: Ryotaro can't stand by and let people sacrifice themselves, let alone be complicit in the act. It's frustrating to him to have to explain all this to Momo. The fact that Momo still sees this all as just some chance to knock around heads, and to see Momo treat his own life so casually, it's disgusting to Ryotaro.
The thing is, that's not even close to what Momo's talking about.
My absolute favorite choice this episode made is to have Ryotaro be completely in the wrong. This story ends up being a sequel to the Return Of Zeronos story, where Ryotaro is fine with his own self-sacrifice, but he refuses to let others make that same decision. It's his heroism turning him into a martyr, where he can't allow people their own chances for heroism. Back in that Zeronos story, Ryotaro needed to trust in Yuuto enough to know that he was fighting as Zeronos with his eyes open, and doing it for the right reasons. It's the same thing he needs to understand about Momo in this story.
One of Ryotaro's biggest flaws as a hero is that he's oftentimes unable to see the heroes inside other people. His need to protect others makes him see them as fragile, keeps him from letting them protect themselves. He cares
so much
about his friends that that feeling is amplified, where he'll make terrible, selfish choices to keep them from danger. It's the sort of well-established character trait that really pulls this episode together and keeps it from feeling as cruel and adversarial as last time.
But it's Momo's side of things that makes this episode more than just a Ryotaro Needs To Learn To Let Go retread. We've seen Momo as a good friend to Ryotaro, as a concerned boss to the other Imagin, and as an unstoppable fighter. What we've maybe never seen him be is a
hero
.
The entire fight scene between Ryotaro and Momotaros was absolutely epic. It's pure emotion conveyed through an action sequence. Both characters are trying to explain how resolute they are in their decision-making. Momo is going to fight the Imagin, and Ryotaro will never allow it. It's a total stalemate, with Momo kicking the crap out of Ryotaro for about seven straight hours (I did not check the clock, bit of a ballpark) and Ryotaro refusing to accept defeat. They are both pushing each other as hard as they can, and neither one is willing to give an inch.
So they just stop pushing.
Ryotaro breaks down. He tells Momo that he can't stop fighting to destroy the Imagin's timeline, which would destroy his friends on the DenLiner, but he also can't let them be a part of that. What Ryotaro's doing is tragic, and it'd become
impossibly
tragic if had to use his friends in their own destruction. He feels guilty and responsible and it's crippling him. He sees his friends as something to protect, and he's letting them down, no matter what he chooses.
But his friends
aren't
just something to protect. They're people(-ish), and they're becoming heroes of their own. Momo tells Ryotaro that he's not just mad that Ryotaro won't let him fight; he's mad because Ryotaro won't give him the chance to protect people. Ryotaro has changed the Imagin, acting as a beacon to lead them into the light. He's taken imagination monsters from the end of time and, through friendship, made them want to be heroes. Momo's mad, just like Yuuto was, at the hypocrisy of Ryotaro to deny them the chance to help people.
It leads to an incredibly sweet ending fight that works on a couple levels. On an emotional one, it's this intensely cathartic battle with every single Form getting some licks in on the Armadillo Imagin, every DenLiner Imagin feeling seen by Ryotaro. On a tokusatsu level, it's a great late-stage showcase for how good these suits are. We're nearing the end of the show, which usually means signs and warnings that Your Form Must Be This Powerful To Ride. So a final fight scene for all these early suits is really nice to get. (Ghost did a quick story for all of its abandoned early-days Forms near the end of its run, which I hope I enjoyed as much as I did this one. I don't remember!)
Overall, this was everything I thought the last episode was lacking. It drilled the story into being a fight between Momo and Ryotaro. It made Ryotaro's argument simultaneously relatable and irrational. It let Ryotaro be wrong. And it grew Momo's character in a surprising, organic way.
I liked this one.
THE BAGGAGE CAR
-Of all the weirdo sets this episode used to show off the Time Station's flexibility, I loved that the big Momo/Ryotaro fight happens in
Smart Brain's hallway
. A Faiz reference? That... might be why that scene worked extra good on me.
-The Deneb/Yuuto runner with Deneb geeking out for Station Master merch was a hilarious non-sequitur. Yuuto is right to not want to interfere in Momo and Ryotaro's argument, but it leaves him and Deneb with no real reason to be around for this episode. Not a complaint, since letting them just be weird is never a problem, but worth pointing out.
-Any episode where Airi gets to lay down some advice over a melancholy montage is probably going to be a good one, no matter what else occurs. It's a well the show thankfully doesn't go back to too often, so it never gets to be cliched or predictable.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on
KamenRiderDie.com
!
Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-18-2023 at
09:46 PM
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