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Thread
:
Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Den-O
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03-06-2021, 04:10 PM
#
308
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 15 - "BATH JACK PANIC”
Oh, man,
best episode
.
Just a perfect episode. Literally everything I want in a Den-O story: a sympathetic victim, a series of unfortunate events that culminate in the comedy version of tension,
another
sympathetic victim, multiple form changes, a frustrated Momo, a cunning Ura, a blundering Kin, a gleefully violent Ryu, a Hana who bristles at being underestimated to the degree
that she basically resolves the plot
, a crucial Airi appearance that shines so much sunlight into this story that I might need to see a dermatologist, and it's wrapped up in a compelling story about the unhealthiness of living in resentment rather than making a change for the better.
Like, it's such a
pleasant
story, you know? It's some typical Den-O comedy-of-errors setup, where Ryotaro's unluckiness gets him from Shopping In A Market straight to A Hostage Situation within about thirty seconds. And that's delightful, for sure. But it's the way this weird story keeps ballooning out into more
empathy
, more
understanding
, that really had me captivated.
It's for sure my favorite mode of Kamen Rider, when someone who's making a dumb choice in their life isn't treated like a villain to defeat, but a person to be helped. Even though the bike thief took multiple people hostage, there's a need to hear him out when he's confessing that things just got away from him. When the bath house hostage becomes the next hostage taker (!), everyone's still like How Do We Help This Guy So This Doesn't Happen Again. It could come off as the show not taking the stakes seriously, but it feels to me like it's just how a hero should work. Monsters need to be detonated, people need to be helped. That's it. That's the formula.
And it's a good one! I could watch a million episodes about Kamen Rider casts working together to figure out how to get someone back on the right track (sorry), which is a thing that bothered me a lot about the last two stories. 13/14 didn't have a human interest story at all, really, and 11/12 put all of the improvement on the
victim
, not the perpetrator. Here, it's two guys who are clearly making rash decisions that they instantly regret, and it's up to our heroes to improve their fates. Getting to see basically the entire cast coming together to juggle this bizarre set of circumstances and potentially save several lives... yes?
Forever
, please?
It helps that this particular story has so many fun moves to it. The hostage-taking happens incredibly fast, and then it's just one insane turn after another as Hana and Airi get involved, Ryotaro keeps leaving and returning, the Imagin try and contribute to various levels of effectiveness (Ura: Very! Kin and Ryu:
Not So Very!
), and the whole episode keeps the plates spinning perfectly. I cannot
believe
how packed this episode was! It's like night and day from the last two slogs of episodes. This thing was dynamic and clever, from first to last. Breathtaking in its humor, its empathy, and its craftsmanship. A massively entertaining return to form.
THE BAGGAGE CAR
-Killer editing in this. There're these rapid cuts as the bike thief is scoping out the bath house for any other hostages that race through a boring Here's The Geography Of This Space necessity, and keep the energy high. So much of this story is about never letting the viewer feel complacent in the plot (that's why folks keep wandering into and out of it), which the editing helps sell. Great direction, but brilliant editing.
-One of the best sources of humor in this episode were the little background gags the actors would pull. I will stan
hard
for any Momo/Hana fight scene, but even I was distracted by the cute shot of Naomi and Ura spinning their chairs in the background.
-Best Airi episode for me, I think. It's the comedic twist on her kindness from 7/8, where she's sweetly oblivious to whatever danger might be occurring. (The bit where she's walking into a scene of a man pointing a gun at Hana and she just goes Oh Hana's Here Hi Hana!
Best underplayed reaction for comedic effect ever!
) There's just the power to her tranquility that takes a tense situation of men making terrible choices and transforms it into a scene of everyone enjoying lunch together. Insane! Could never work on another show, but I bought it 1000% here.
-I feel like this is the first time we got more personalized Henshins for Kin and Ura? Kin, for sure? He's got this new music (I think?), and a completely different sumo pose. I like it! I like them each having a different idea of what it means to change into Den-O.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on
KamenRiderDie.com
!
Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 09-14-2023 at
03:49 PM
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