Find something to fulfill you: OOO 5 – 8
Jun. 21st, 2015 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameGame of Tag, Nest, Celebrity (Kobayashi/Osamu Kaneda): Kougami waxes philosophical about how their meeting has an unknown outcome, just like he has no idea how the cake he's baking will turn out. This, naturally, confuses the hell out of our heroes, so Satonaka handles the introductions. She also gives them a gift—a set of 12 candroids: hawk, octopus, and grasshopper (Batta), proving to them that they've been their mysterious benefactors the whole time. Eiji's just so damn excited that he starts playing with the candroids, but Ankh understands that Kougami's also the guy who's been collecting Cell Medals. So Kougami offers him a deal—he'll provide weapons and support equipment in exchange for 70% of the Medal profits. Ankh calls bullshit, but Goto tries to shoot him again before he can get to Satonaka. Eiji, on the other hand, has discovered that the Battas act as communicators, already ready to take the offer. But despite his spaceiness, Eiji does think to ask Kougami why he's collecting the Medals in the first place. Kougami says it's a secret, and Eiji just rolls with it. You're not making Ankh think of you as any less of an idiot, Eiji. But they decide to let Ankh have some time to think it over.
A young man on a skateboard enters an abandoned bar, joined by a tough-looking guy in a green jacket and a tall and strong, but very childish man—Kazari, Uva, and Gamel, who have adopted human disguises to operate quietly among the humans. And Uva is wearing Ben 10's jacket. No, really. It looks like he beat up Ben and stole his jacket. Great fucking job, Uva. But their reasoning is that if they're going to keep up with the humans, they also need to evolve. But Mezool is missing, and Kazari reasons that she might be putting her new form to good use.
Haruka Yamano, a rich young woman, returns home from a shopping trip with several bags of expensive clothes. A teenage schoolgirl meets up with her at the elevator and asks if she likes shopping. Yamano insists she didn't buy a lot, despite her many bags and new jewelry, and the girl, Mezool, reveals herself and places a Medal inside her. Yamano wakes up inside her apartment, which is already full of stylish clothes and shoes...and a nest of Yummy eggs growing behind her, just out of her perception.
Hina goes to her school, Musika Fashion College, depressed. Shingo used to drive her whenever she overslept, so now she's feeling the loss more. Her friends only seem to know that he's away and tease her for being overly worried, but they are indeed sympathetic and remind her it's supposed to be a temporary assignment. The truth, however, weighs on her, and she wonders if Eiji really can fulfill his promise. But as it turns out, Yamano is a classmate of hers, and in her distraction, Hina bumps into her, knocking her new jacket to the ground. She offers to pay for the dry cleaning, but Yamano tells Hina to keep it, since her out-of-control desire means she no longer wants it. Hina's friends comment on the snotty attitude, though Hina points out that Yamano is rich and would of course look down on her. But they point out that because Yamano goes to a school with middle class students, so if she shouldn't act like that or at least transfer to a more expensive school.
Ankh tries to research Kougami while Eiji realizes that he's almost out of money—he's been out of work too long and Ankh's ice pop habit is getting expensive. Ankh, however, senses something he describes as similar to a Yummy, but he can't be too sure what it is. He leads Eiji to the river, then urgently tells him to henshin. Mezool appears and attacks, and Eiji again doesn't stand a chance against the Greeed, though at least for him, she mostly just evades his attacks and escapes. Eiji asks Ankh if she's made a Yummy, and Ankh says that even if she did, it wouldn't show—hers grow in nests. But his gaze is toward an expensive high-rise apartment building across the river, and Eiji isn't stupid. He makes a fuss about Ankh seeming to just let the Yummies fatten up again, but the moment Ankh walks away, he drops the complaining and confidently decides to check out the area himself, arguing only to deflect suspicion from himself.
Mezool returns to the bar and tells Uva and Gamel about the encounter, worrying that her Yummies will be destroyed and the Cells taken. Uva decides to go after OOO himself, and Gamel notices how angry he is. Kazari says it's because two of his Medals were taken, and he can sympathize. But Mezool herself is suspicious, since Kazari's never been sympathetic before.
Hina goes to visit Yamano and return the jacket when she runs into Eiji, who leads her away, warning of possible Yummies. Something to note, that I'll mention later on is that at this point, Hina only calls him "Hino-san," politely and distantly talking to him because she doesn't know him very well and isn't really sure how to think about him. She warns him that her friend lives there, so he warns her to stay away until he can check it out. But Evil Ben 10 confronts them, much to Eiji's confusion...until Uva reveals his true form, at which point Hina screams and Eiji tells her to run. He tries to use the Driver, but without Ankh and the Medals, it's definitely not hero time. Uva's not happy that Ankh is a no-show, but since both Eiji and Ankh are easier to defeat alone, it's better to kill Eiji now that he's powerless. Eiji runs, sending a hawk after Ankh, who's still checking every single Kougami Foundation branch in search for the crazy cake man. Through Batta, Eiji tells him that he's caught in a hellish game of tag with Uva, and when he suddenly screams, Ankh tells him to keep running until he can get there. When he activates a Ride Vendor, Kougami appears on a screen outside the building and trolls him about how useful their tech is.
Hina manages to find Yamano, who thinks that she's still worried about the jacket. Hina tries to warn her about the danger of the Yummies and Greeed, but Yamano doesn't understand, assuming she means that tourists are hanging around the ritzy apartments. But she soon a call from her father in the U.S., telling her the family's gone bankrupt. She asks what to do, and though he apologizes, she snaps that it doesn't help her.
Eiji manages to jump a fence and stumble through an alley before finding a Ride Vendor. But Uva is fast and agile enough to keep up, jumping from car to car and blasting lightning at him. Ankh finally catches up as Uva jumps on Eiji's bike, grabbing him by the neck, but Eiji makes a sharp turn that throws Uva off, where Ankh tries to run him down. Ankh passes along the Medals so Eiji can fight, and we get to hear Eiji's first image song for the first time, "Regret Nothing ~ Tighten Up ~" (all translations by icepath unless stated otherwise). While the OOO soundtrack is overall good, this song is one of the truest to Eiji's character. It gets the sense of his personality and outlook, how he's decided not to let his regrets hold him back and to live a life where he can reach out and help everybody he can so he'll never regret anything again. What's interesting about it, however, is that the song really has nothing to do with TaToBa—it never mentions the form or the words "Tighten Up" anywhere, which makes it different from every single other song in the show. So I have the feeling that it was originally meant just to be Eiji's image song and the battle theme, but afterwards, they got the idea of the various combos having themes too, so they adapted it as the TaToBa theme.
Uva tries to rip his Medal out of the Driver, and Ankh realizes he has no idea that Kazari took the Kamakiri Medal, so he clues him in. The shock of betrayal stops Uva in his tracks, so Ankh has Eiji switch to Cheetah. While Eiji's not fond of the method, his rapid kicks do enough damage fast enough that Ankh can grab more of Uva's Medals—a full set of three...
Western Clothing, A Contract, Ultimate Combo (Kobayashi/Kaneda): Uva asks if Ankh's trying to take all of the Cores for himself now, startling Eiji, but Ankh insists that greed is part of a Greeed's nature. But Uva realizes he's been a tool and decides to get even with Kazari. He confronts him at the bar, but Kazari claims that Ankh has a long history of lying. Unsure of what to believe, Uva lashes out at everyone until Mezool calms him down, reminding him that they don't have the luxury of fighting. Since they still need to conserve their strength, she promises to share the Medals her Yummies are growing.
Eiji asks Ankh just why he's collecting the Cores and what it means. Ankh, of course, is evasive and tries to liken it to Eiji's fascination with underwear. Eiji doesn't take the redirect, though, and he asks what will happen. Ankh explains that the Greeed have three types of Cores, corresponding to the head, arms, and legs of OOO. Eiji then realizes that this means instead of mixing and matching, he can use a full set—a combo, which will tap into the Medals' true potential. Understanding that Eiji is clinically incapable of keeping himself out of trouble, Ankh decides to leave him with the TaToBa Medals, so if he's ambushed, he won't be unable to fight again. But he also knows he needs the Kougami Medal System, but he wants it for free. Eiji tries to warn him off of doing something incredibly stupid, but Ankh redirects him by confirming that there is indeed a Yummy nest in the apartment, so Eiji has to leave him to go fight.
Sympathizing with Yamano, Hina chases her inside the apartment, but Yamano takes refuge inside the elevator and breaks down before going up to her room. Afraid of losing everything and haunted by a memory of herself depressed and alone, she clings closer to her possessions. Outside, Eiji's not sure where to look, but Goto provides footage from the candroids—initially, Batta did all the communications and video, but it seems like later, they decided to go with Taka for video, maybe for convenience. The footage reveals that the Yummy is in Yamano's room, and he urges Eiji to accept the Foundation's offer. When Eiji reminds him that Ankh's the reluctant one, Goto asks him how Eiji expects to save the world if he can't control just one Greeed. Stunned at the weight thrust on him, Eiji resolves to focus on what's in front of him right now, rather than on the whole world.
Yamano comes down as Eiji prepares to head up, but Hina's still waiting and calls over to her, worrying Eiji when he realizes how close she is to danger again. Hina tries to ask if Yamano's okay, but Yamano is insistent on shopping away her grief. Hina reminds her of her financial situation, but she can't stand the thought someone might pity her, and she points out she still has plenty of hard cash. Eiji tries to break up the argument, asking if Yamano's been attacked by any monsters—just the kind of question you throw out there casually, you know? Naturally, she's confused and upset, and she throws the money at Hina, running back to her room. Hina starts to pry open the elevator doors, but Yamano calls out her strength as monstrous, scaring her away.
To Hina's disbelief, Eiji collects the money and smoothes it out once they go outside. She assumes the worst about him and starts yelling at him, and he really doesn't help his own case, pointing out that money is important. He says he really can't stop Yamano from doing what she wants—everyone's like that. He's been everywhere, and he's never met anyone who didn't want something. Interesting that he says that, as we'll see. But their desires aren't always tied to money—usually, it's something more than that. And that kind of thinking is necessary for survival, so Eiji can't think of desire as a bad thing. The important thing isn't desire, but what you do with that desire. Then he gives Hina the money, asking her to give it back to Yamano, who is shopping online until she maxes out her credit. She finally sees the massive Yummy nest, and the eggs hatch, the Pirhana Yummies (or they're supposed to be Pirhanas, anyway) hatch and swarm out the window. Eiji sees and tells Hina to stay while he fights. He transforms in front of her for the first time, and she realizes she really has thought about him the wrong way and he's really trying to help.
Kougami boxes up a cake as Satonaka brings in Ankh. Turns out, Kougami fully expected Ankh to find him sooner or later, and he asks if Ankh's taking the deal. Ankh, instead, plans to kill Kougami and take the Medal System for himself, even as Eiji tries to take a Ride Vendor to fight. It won't transform, however, and he tries everything possible to get it to work, even tipping it over and sitting on top of it in a moment of his sanity finally breaking, resulting in the most memetic image this season. Kougami claims that his "will" controls the Medal System, so if Ankh kills him, it's all useless. So Ankh has to negotiate a percentage. Kougami's insistent on the 70%, and Ankh finally raises his offer to 60%—which is what Kougami wanted all along; his cake even anticipated a 60% profit. Ankh is pissed at the magnificent bastard and even goes along with the advance payment of 100 Medals, just out of aggravation. Kougami finally allows the transformation as Eiji mopes, but the audience sees that Goto's been controlling it with a remote the whole time. So...how long does Ankh go thinking that Kougami controls all this stuff telepathically?
Hina wraps the jacket around the trembling Yamano, explaining that while she doesn't know exactly what the Yummies are, Eiji's explained to her that they're created from human greed. Yamano realizes that they symbolize the ugliness she's been clinging to—though she was rich, she was very lonely, especially after moving to Tokyo. Wearing expensive clothes made her feel good, and it became a crutch. Hina realizes this sounds like her; after her parents' death, she clung to her brother and let him fill in the void in her heart in an unhealthy way. She hasn't lost just her brother—she's lost everything she relied on to make herself feel better instead of dealing with her problems herself. As she watches Ankh ride past her, once again watching her, she re-affirms Eiji's statement that desire is good and what matters is not what you want, but what you do—clinging to something isn't enough.
Eiji tries to fight the school of Pirhana Yummies, but there are too many, so he asks Ankh what the combo does. Ankh insists the power is immense and Eiji will hurt himself trying to use it, but Eiji decides to take the risk anyway, much to his surprise. With a fierce cry, he unleashes the power of the Kuwagata (Stag Beetle), Kamakiri, and Batta combo—GataKiriBa. The theme this time is "Got to keep it real", and while it's not quite as completely "Eiji" as "Regret Nothing," it is a ridiculously catchy theme, especially with the re-arrangement of Akira Kushida's "GataKiriBa" song.
GataKiriBa's power allows him to clone himself multiple times. But despite the obvious CG costs, the fight just looks silly. The Pirhana models are too small and awkward for an actual fight scene, and they can really only be thrown or cling onto OOO. CG improves it greatly, since GataKiriBa can punch them into Medals, and they can form a bigger fish. The finisher is a simultaneous Rider Kick from all of the clones, which looks spectacular...until they show the fight within the fish, which is just blurry multiple views of one GataKiriBa hitting nothing. Like they used up all of their CG budget and broke all of their models just beforehand and had to fake it.
The clones re-merge back into one Eiji as the Yummy explodes, but as soon as he breaks his transformation, Eiji drops to the ground in a dead faint, completely exhausted, as Ankh figured he would be. Yamano takes up a job in a bakery, and Hina and her friends visit her, now on much better terms. Eiji watches over and notes that Hina seems to be a lot happier now. Ankh claims not to care, but he privately wonders if the combos might be too dangerous for Eiji.
Useless Husband, A Trap, Big Win (Kobayashi/Satoshi Morota): Warning: This episode...it's not domestic abuse. But it's violence from one spouse to another, played for laughs (likely because it's the wife beating up her husband). I debated warning for it, but it's something I think might be uncomfortable for some people, at least. Also, possible gambling addiction? This couple has issues.
Cous Coussier is holding an Edo theme as Hina comes in, having taken some time off for exams. But in the meantime, Chiyoko hired Eiji to fill in as a samurai, and Hina's very thrown by the familiar way he greets her and the informal terms Chiyoko refers to him—as "Eiji-kun," rather than Hina's use of "Hino-san." She also can't believe at how naturally he gets into character, playing up the samurai thing perfectly.
The Greeed have some downtime at the bar—Uva finds a golf club and starts wrecking things, Kazari flips through magazines and tech catalogues, and Mezool blows bubbles. Gamel is off on an errand for Kazari, which concerns Mezool, since he doesn't really have much of a will of his own. In her opinion, he's very easily manipulated by others' desires—which is the whole point of Kazari's errand. Gamel will see something he wants and pursue it, thus fulfilling his part of the plan.
A man, Takeshi Komori, desperately runs away from his wife, Momoko, who kicks her shoe at him as soon as she catches up. Gamel watches the confrontation while eating a jar of candy. Takeshi's stolen from Momoko's wallet, and not for the first time, so she throws another shoe at him. Gamel's entertained by the fight and plops a Cell Medal into himself, creating a fully-developed Yummy, a bison. Kazari then tosses Uva a phone and tells him it's time. Uva doesn't like taking orders from him, and he throws the bottle of liquor he'd been drinking, but he goes off. Mezool is a little tired of Kazari's bullshit and asks what the plan is. He explains that they're going to retrieve their Cores from Ankh and destroy him.
Meanwhile, Ankh has gotten an iPad from somewhere, using it to track everyone's Medals. Altogether, he's collected nine—two of his own, three of Uva's, and four of Kazari's. Uva and Kazari each have roughly four to five, and Gamel and Mezool each have somewhere between five and eight. About nine are completely unaccounted for, and he has no idea where to begin looking.
Hina starts work, dressed in a kimono, and Chiyoko explains how she hired Eiji in the first place. She'd come across him in the park and realized that was where he'd been living—something that makes Hina understand quickly why Chiyoko was so fast to hire him. But Chiyoko admits that kind of lifestyle suits him—no permanent home, constantly traveling, living off only off the clothes on his own back—it's what she'd love to do herself. And though Hina had also seen Eiji in the background of Chiyoko's photo, she had no idea that this was what his life was really like. But with Hina back, Eiji quits, thanking Chiyoko for giving him a job when he desperately needed one. Chiyoko tries to offer him a full-time job and a room in the attic to live in. Hina's surprised, but knowing that it'll be too cold for Eiji to sleep in the park anymore, she tries to help convince him. But he's hesitant to accept and nearly runs out the door without his pay. Just then, Momoko, an old friend of Chiyoko's, bursts in, looking for Takeshi. She begs Chiyoko to keep an eye out for him and to hold onto his money if he comes in, but as she runs off, they realize she doesn't have any shoes on. Chiyoko tries to bring her a pair of sandals, but with customers coming in, she and Hina are too busy to go after her, so Eiji volunteers to bring them. Chiyoko warns him of Momoko's temper and to stop her if she goes off.
Kougami and Goto review the footage of GataKiriBa's battle, and Kougami's extremely pleased that Eiji used that much power so easily. So pleased, in fact, that he has another gift ready for him—something that Satonaka hands him to place on the latest cake. Goto, however, objects on the basis that Eiji's allied with Ankh, who's dangerous enough already. When Kougami reminds him that his job is to observe only, Goto reveals that he'd once been with the police, but quit because he had dreams of saving the world and thought he'd have that opportunity with the Foundation. Instead, he's become a glorified cake delivery boy.
Ankh searches through social media and finds rumors of a green Medal. Ankh, are you soliciting Medals on Craigslist? What are you doing? Have Eiji and Hina gotten around to teaching you about scams, or have you just tuned them out because they didn't have ice pops? Anyway, Mezool approves of the ridiculously obvious trap, but she worries that Eiji will save him as always. But Kazari's got that taken care of already—Gamel's job is to distract him.
The Bison Yummy's powers involve some kind of gravity inversion, flinging random objects through the air and hitting people, which Gamel thinks is the funniest thing in the world now. While this is going on, Takeshi spends all of the money he stole on lottery tickets. Momoko catches up to him, and Eiji catches up to her, but he doesn't have a chance to stop her from punching out her husband. Before it can get worse, Eiji steps in, insisting Chiyoko had asked him to help. She tells him to butt out, but he hands her the sandals and asks them to calm down and talk this thing out. But of course, the second he walks away, she's at it again. And because Eiji Hino is incapable of keeping out of other people's business, he tries to break it up again and holds Momoko back. She argues that her husband doesn't work and "fools around"—implicitly, that he has a gambling addiction. Eiji starts apologizing, much to her surprise and aggravation because he's not the one who did anything and thus not the one she wants an apology from. At the same time, the Yummy's activity increases, throwing people around now. Eiji feels the gravity inversion, and as Takeshi wins the jackpot, stuff comes flying toward them. The Yummy appears, and Eiji tells them to run, running himself toward the trouble so he can save others as much heavier objects start coming toward them. The Yummy changes its focus onto Eiji, with Gamel cheering on as it narrowly misses hitting him. Eiji henshins, but none of his attacks seem to do any damage.
Ankh walks into the trap to meet with his contact, the Evil Ben 10. Well, not that one. Or that other one. Actually, now that I look at the counterparts, I'm finding a disturbing number of Evil Ben 10s, far more than when I left the fandom. Uva is the frickin' ICING on the cake. Ankh sends Eiji a Batta to let him know what's up and where to meet him, but Eiji is suitably distracted by the Greeed. Bruised too, for that matter. Annoyed that Eiji didn't ask for permission to fight, Ankh goes over to meet with Evil Ben 10. Uva can't believe he fell for this—again, it cannot be stressed enough—really fucking obvious trap and reveals his true form. He attacks, hurting him with a single blow, exposing the weaknesses of a human body. He starts strangling him, and Ankh again says Kazari's been playing him like a fiddle in burning Rome. But Uva rips Ankh away from Shingo, threatening to take all of his Cores as he digs his claw into Ankh's hand.
As Eiji starts to get the upper hand in the fight, Gamel joins in, mad that Eiji's picking on his pet Yummy. He proves to be ridiculously strong, causing more damage than the others hand, beating Eiji seriously. Goto arrives and provides cover fire with a shotgun. He's reluctant to hand over the cake, but the Yummy leaps down at them from above. Eiji pushes out Goto out of the way, and...well, Goto's carrying a cake. You do the math. The gift sticks to his icing-covered face, and Eiji removes it, finding one of Kazari's Cores, the Lion Medal. He asks why, but Goto insists he wants to know why Kougami would trust such a precious item to this dork. Eiji uses the Lion Medal in place of Taka and unleashes a bright flash of light that almost blinds both Gamel and the Yummy. As he goes off to fight, Eiji asks Goto to thank Kougami for him, and Goto has to remind himself that he's suffering this humiliation to save the world.
Eiji fares a lot better when his opponents are still blinking spots out of their eyes, and they decide it's time to go. The Yummy sends cars toward Eiji, but he cuts through them, only to see they've escaped. But as it turns out, the Komoris are still fighting. Though Takeshi's won a million yen, Momoko points out that the old him would have cried pathetically for joy, not acted like this. Eiji can't believe they're still going at it, and again goes to intervene.
Uva badly injures Ankh, and as Ankh tries to escape, Uva slashes him, releasing two Medals...
Slacking Off, Lack of Ambition, On a Break (Kobayashi/Morota): Eiji again breaks up the fight, and Takeshi tries to cash in his lotto ticket. When Momoko snatches it away and runs, Takeshi blames Eiji for not stopping her. Momoko tosses it into the river, and Takeshi goes down to retrieve it. Eiji asks her if she's sure this is a good idea, but she's fine as long as she teaches him something. But Takeshi just jumps into the river after it.
Uva retrieves his Kuwagata Medal, along with Kazari's Cheetah. Ankh hides, having released the Medals as a diversion, and he warns Uva to see for himself how trustworthy Kazari really is. The Batta candroid broadcasts his voice as loudly as it can, making him sound a lot stronger than he is. In addition to the injuries Shingo's body has taken, Ankh's arm is losing definition and turning black. But Uva takes Ankh's warnings seriously and attacks Kazari, demanding the return of his Medal. Mezool blasts them with water and tells Kazari to give it back. When Uva goes to attack again, she reminds him that he now has one of Kazari's. They agree to trade, and upon re-integrating their Cores, their breastplates regenerate. Mezool then leaves, I'm assuming for a stiff drink.
Chiyoko starts to worry when Eiji fails to come back. Hina points out how scary Momoko was, and Chiyoko explains that a lot happened to her and Takeshi. Some of the photos at the restaurant were taken by Takeshi, who was an award-winning landscape photographer. But he let the money get to his head and started slacking, his skill wearing down until he had to turn down all of his jobs. Momoko finishes telling the story to Eiji, explaining that he sold his equipment and developed what still seems implied to be a gambling habit. She laments that he wasted his skill, becoming obsessed with riches. Eiji tries to make a comparison to going back to school after vacation, and resenting your mother for insisting that you study. But the analogy falls flat, and Momoko is sure to tell him so. She says Takeshi's lost his ambition, though Eiji says that ambition is something that can't be lost so easily. Again, very interesting comment from him. But when Takeshi starts thrashing around in the water, looking like he's in trouble, Eiji goes in to help him.
Ankh finds that he's regenerating too slowly and wonders if Shingo's body is at its limit. He detaches and tries to fend for himself, but some kids find his hand and think he's a snake, so they hit him with sticks. When he jumps up and yells at them, they throw rocks at him. Realizing he has to go back and wait it out, he returns to Shingo, but he's in desperate need of Cell Medals. But based on Eiji's previous defiance, he's afraid to let him see his weaknesses, worried that it'll give Eiji more power in their fucked-up relationship. And he's forced to admit that Eiji's a lot smarter than he thought.
Goto again registers his complaints with Kougami, and Kougami finally asks what he really has a problem with: giving Eiji the Core, or Eiji being OOO? Goto admits it's Eiji he doesn't approve of, finding him unqualified for saving the world. So Kougami challenges him, asking if Goto himself is worthy. He reminds him that like it or not, Eiji is OOO, an incredibly powerful being who could even seal the Greeed. The original OOO freely used the Medals in combos, defeating the Greeed (or at least, Uva, Kazari, Mezool, and Gamel) at full strength while his castle burned down behind him. We even get a sneak preview of the next combo, the fast and agile LaToraTah. Kougami wonders if Eiji will follow the same path as his predecessor, but Goto is still worried that Eiji's not taking this seriously enough, and he asks why he can't fight instead. Kougami finally just tells him to let Eiji do his job, and it's great to see this serious side to him. While his actor, Takashi Ukaji, is still fairly subdued in his performance and hasn't gone 100%, full-blown, honey-baked ham all the time yet, he's still just silly enough to really make this moment work. Kougami rarely seems like he's taking anything seriously and just lets everyone do whatever. But just this once, he tells Goto to shut up and trust that Eiji has everything under control. And it's great.
Chiyoko asks Hina her opinion on Eiji working there full-time. Chiyoko really likes him and thinks he'd fit in perfectly there. Hina has to think about it for a moment, remembering his statement that he had to help as much as he could or the regret would kill him. Finally, she admits it's a good idea—he's a good person, and she sees that more and more. But Chiyoko worries that Eiji's afraid to say yes, and he seems extremely worried about Hina. She asks what's up, teasing Hina by suggesting that maybe there's something going on there. Hina denies it, but she does think she knows what's making him hesitate.
With their clothes fully soaked, Eiji builds a fire so they can dry off and warm up, and he and Takeshi talk about his childhood. His grandfather liked to travel the world and would often take the young Eiji with him. Grandpa also told him, "A man never knows when he'll die, so he should always have a good pair of underwear for tomorrow." Hence the boxer fixation. Takeshi asks if Eiji's back home to earn money for his next trip, but Eiji, as always, is evasive. With another flashback to the crying child, he smiles and says he's on a break. Takeshi sympathizes, seeming to pick up that it's somehow related to burnout. He too is burnt out—he'd achieved his dreams, but it wasn't enough. Eiji tries to liken this to eating too much of his favorite food, age-manju, a deep-fried bun that's a specialty of Asakusa, Tokyo, telling us where he's probably originally from. He says it's like loving age-manju, but after too many, he feels sick and never wants to eat another again. Of course, this comparison also fails, and Takeshi says he's lost his ambition and believes that once it's lost, it's gone for good. Eiji admits that Momoko said the same thing and suggests they're better in-tune than they think. He also re-affirms that he doesn't think ambition can die so easily. Bringing it back to his weak analogy, he insists that he still loves age-manju and remembers the joy he felt trying it for the first time. Then, after he almost sets his underwear on fire, he realizes he hasn't heard from Ankh in a while. During that time, Ankh starts realizing that he's not going to make it, with how badly injured he is. Eiji heads to the Kougami Foundation, and when he sees Goto, he immediately thanks him for the Medal—much to Goto's annoyance, of course. But he's there to ask Kougami for a favor.
Momoko and Takeshi think on Eiji's words, and both realize the mistakes they've made. Momoko pushed too hard, and Takeshi forgot his love of photography. They bump into each other and work it out.
Gamel walks his Yummy home, pulling it on a leash. The bright lights from Eiji's attack are still bothering his eyes, and when his Yummy bumps into him by accident, that's it. He runs off, crying to Mezool that it's OOO's fault. The Yummy, however, only processes that last bit. It attacks a factory near Ankh, searching for Eiji. Ankh hears it and hopes to get enough Medals to regenerate. But Eiji's suddenly right next to him, teasing him for looking more humbled. Even so, he reveals he'd guessed Ankh had gotten himself in trouble, so he took out a loan of ten Cell Medals from Kougami. Ankh asks what the condition was, and when Eiji says "nothing," he doesn't believe him. Eiji insists it's between him and Kougami; he himself doesn't worry about the future terms—he's fine as long as he has his underwear and doesn't die. He hands over the Medals, fully regenerating Ankh and allowing him to heal Shingo's newest wounds. While he doesn't get Eiji's philosophy, he admits Eiji's pretty useful for an idiot. Eiji quips back that Ankh's pretty useful for a Greeed. They go off to fight the Yummy, and Ankh's able to deflect the exploding barrels that would have hit Eiji pre-henshin. He notes that Gamel Yummies won't earn them much—they use up Medals using their powers. Still, to his annoyance, Eiji fights anyway, leaping off the thrown concrete pipes in attempts to evade. But it's still too much, and he asks for GataKiriBa. Ankh tells him not to be so reckless with the combos and tosses over Kamakiri. It's still not enough, and Ankh is just about to toss him the Cheetah Medal when Eiji pulls out Lion, much to his shock. Eiji smugly explains that Kougami gave it to him and again blinds the Yummy before finishing off with a slash from above, still blazing with light. A single Medal is earned, and Eiji notes it's not enough to repay Kougami.
While Chiyoko prepares the food for the day, Momoko and Takeshi visit her and the others. Takeshi's back to taking pictures—or he will be, as soon as he gets a new camera. Momoko then reveals that she'd taken out a loan so she could buy back all of his stuff from the pawn shop as soon as he'd sold them, hoping a day would come where he'd come back to it. Chiyoko tells him to make sure he pays her back, but Momoko admits that Eiji helped her realize she was making things worse. They thank Eiji, much to his confusion and embarrassment. Chiyoko again approaches him about the job, but he runs off, thanking her for the money this time. At the park, he muses on how humans need desire to live and tells Ankh that this is why the Greeed can't feed off it. Ankh snarks that he doesn't want Eiji's desire for just underwear, as he plays with his app, adding Kougami to the Medal tracker. Hina finds Eiji, and he immediately tries to usher her away from Ankh. But she walks right up to him, her suspicions confirmed: Eiji had turned down Chiyoko because he wanted to protect Hina from Ankh. He tries to reason with her, but she insists she'll be okay. She admits she doesn't really like her strength, but she's powerful enough to hit the tree hard enough to knock Ankh right out of it. As he dangles upside down, she grabs him by the wrist and insists on having her brother's body close by so she can keep an eye on him. While Ankh yells at Eiji to help, she asks him to take the job. It's enough that Eiji finally starts laughing, jumping down to join them. He holds out his hand, and she throws Ankh aside to shake. As Ankh sulks, Eiji just laughs, relaxing into a new normal.
A young man on a skateboard enters an abandoned bar, joined by a tough-looking guy in a green jacket and a tall and strong, but very childish man—Kazari, Uva, and Gamel, who have adopted human disguises to operate quietly among the humans. And Uva is wearing Ben 10's jacket. No, really. It looks like he beat up Ben and stole his jacket. Great fucking job, Uva. But their reasoning is that if they're going to keep up with the humans, they also need to evolve. But Mezool is missing, and Kazari reasons that she might be putting her new form to good use.
Haruka Yamano, a rich young woman, returns home from a shopping trip with several bags of expensive clothes. A teenage schoolgirl meets up with her at the elevator and asks if she likes shopping. Yamano insists she didn't buy a lot, despite her many bags and new jewelry, and the girl, Mezool, reveals herself and places a Medal inside her. Yamano wakes up inside her apartment, which is already full of stylish clothes and shoes...and a nest of Yummy eggs growing behind her, just out of her perception.
Hina goes to her school, Musika Fashion College, depressed. Shingo used to drive her whenever she overslept, so now she's feeling the loss more. Her friends only seem to know that he's away and tease her for being overly worried, but they are indeed sympathetic and remind her it's supposed to be a temporary assignment. The truth, however, weighs on her, and she wonders if Eiji really can fulfill his promise. But as it turns out, Yamano is a classmate of hers, and in her distraction, Hina bumps into her, knocking her new jacket to the ground. She offers to pay for the dry cleaning, but Yamano tells Hina to keep it, since her out-of-control desire means she no longer wants it. Hina's friends comment on the snotty attitude, though Hina points out that Yamano is rich and would of course look down on her. But they point out that because Yamano goes to a school with middle class students, so if she shouldn't act like that or at least transfer to a more expensive school.
Ankh tries to research Kougami while Eiji realizes that he's almost out of money—he's been out of work too long and Ankh's ice pop habit is getting expensive. Ankh, however, senses something he describes as similar to a Yummy, but he can't be too sure what it is. He leads Eiji to the river, then urgently tells him to henshin. Mezool appears and attacks, and Eiji again doesn't stand a chance against the Greeed, though at least for him, she mostly just evades his attacks and escapes. Eiji asks Ankh if she's made a Yummy, and Ankh says that even if she did, it wouldn't show—hers grow in nests. But his gaze is toward an expensive high-rise apartment building across the river, and Eiji isn't stupid. He makes a fuss about Ankh seeming to just let the Yummies fatten up again, but the moment Ankh walks away, he drops the complaining and confidently decides to check out the area himself, arguing only to deflect suspicion from himself.
Mezool returns to the bar and tells Uva and Gamel about the encounter, worrying that her Yummies will be destroyed and the Cells taken. Uva decides to go after OOO himself, and Gamel notices how angry he is. Kazari says it's because two of his Medals were taken, and he can sympathize. But Mezool herself is suspicious, since Kazari's never been sympathetic before.
Hina goes to visit Yamano and return the jacket when she runs into Eiji, who leads her away, warning of possible Yummies. Something to note, that I'll mention later on is that at this point, Hina only calls him "Hino-san," politely and distantly talking to him because she doesn't know him very well and isn't really sure how to think about him. She warns him that her friend lives there, so he warns her to stay away until he can check it out. But Evil Ben 10 confronts them, much to Eiji's confusion...until Uva reveals his true form, at which point Hina screams and Eiji tells her to run. He tries to use the Driver, but without Ankh and the Medals, it's definitely not hero time. Uva's not happy that Ankh is a no-show, but since both Eiji and Ankh are easier to defeat alone, it's better to kill Eiji now that he's powerless. Eiji runs, sending a hawk after Ankh, who's still checking every single Kougami Foundation branch in search for the crazy cake man. Through Batta, Eiji tells him that he's caught in a hellish game of tag with Uva, and when he suddenly screams, Ankh tells him to keep running until he can get there. When he activates a Ride Vendor, Kougami appears on a screen outside the building and trolls him about how useful their tech is.
Hina manages to find Yamano, who thinks that she's still worried about the jacket. Hina tries to warn her about the danger of the Yummies and Greeed, but Yamano doesn't understand, assuming she means that tourists are hanging around the ritzy apartments. But she soon a call from her father in the U.S., telling her the family's gone bankrupt. She asks what to do, and though he apologizes, she snaps that it doesn't help her.
Eiji manages to jump a fence and stumble through an alley before finding a Ride Vendor. But Uva is fast and agile enough to keep up, jumping from car to car and blasting lightning at him. Ankh finally catches up as Uva jumps on Eiji's bike, grabbing him by the neck, but Eiji makes a sharp turn that throws Uva off, where Ankh tries to run him down. Ankh passes along the Medals so Eiji can fight, and we get to hear Eiji's first image song for the first time, "Regret Nothing ~ Tighten Up ~" (all translations by icepath unless stated otherwise). While the OOO soundtrack is overall good, this song is one of the truest to Eiji's character. It gets the sense of his personality and outlook, how he's decided not to let his regrets hold him back and to live a life where he can reach out and help everybody he can so he'll never regret anything again. What's interesting about it, however, is that the song really has nothing to do with TaToBa—it never mentions the form or the words "Tighten Up" anywhere, which makes it different from every single other song in the show. So I have the feeling that it was originally meant just to be Eiji's image song and the battle theme, but afterwards, they got the idea of the various combos having themes too, so they adapted it as the TaToBa theme.
Uva tries to rip his Medal out of the Driver, and Ankh realizes he has no idea that Kazari took the Kamakiri Medal, so he clues him in. The shock of betrayal stops Uva in his tracks, so Ankh has Eiji switch to Cheetah. While Eiji's not fond of the method, his rapid kicks do enough damage fast enough that Ankh can grab more of Uva's Medals—a full set of three...
Western Clothing, A Contract, Ultimate Combo (Kobayashi/Kaneda): Uva asks if Ankh's trying to take all of the Cores for himself now, startling Eiji, but Ankh insists that greed is part of a Greeed's nature. But Uva realizes he's been a tool and decides to get even with Kazari. He confronts him at the bar, but Kazari claims that Ankh has a long history of lying. Unsure of what to believe, Uva lashes out at everyone until Mezool calms him down, reminding him that they don't have the luxury of fighting. Since they still need to conserve their strength, she promises to share the Medals her Yummies are growing.
Eiji asks Ankh just why he's collecting the Cores and what it means. Ankh, of course, is evasive and tries to liken it to Eiji's fascination with underwear. Eiji doesn't take the redirect, though, and he asks what will happen. Ankh explains that the Greeed have three types of Cores, corresponding to the head, arms, and legs of OOO. Eiji then realizes that this means instead of mixing and matching, he can use a full set—a combo, which will tap into the Medals' true potential. Understanding that Eiji is clinically incapable of keeping himself out of trouble, Ankh decides to leave him with the TaToBa Medals, so if he's ambushed, he won't be unable to fight again. But he also knows he needs the Kougami Medal System, but he wants it for free. Eiji tries to warn him off of doing something incredibly stupid, but Ankh redirects him by confirming that there is indeed a Yummy nest in the apartment, so Eiji has to leave him to go fight.
Sympathizing with Yamano, Hina chases her inside the apartment, but Yamano takes refuge inside the elevator and breaks down before going up to her room. Afraid of losing everything and haunted by a memory of herself depressed and alone, she clings closer to her possessions. Outside, Eiji's not sure where to look, but Goto provides footage from the candroids—initially, Batta did all the communications and video, but it seems like later, they decided to go with Taka for video, maybe for convenience. The footage reveals that the Yummy is in Yamano's room, and he urges Eiji to accept the Foundation's offer. When Eiji reminds him that Ankh's the reluctant one, Goto asks him how Eiji expects to save the world if he can't control just one Greeed. Stunned at the weight thrust on him, Eiji resolves to focus on what's in front of him right now, rather than on the whole world.
Yamano comes down as Eiji prepares to head up, but Hina's still waiting and calls over to her, worrying Eiji when he realizes how close she is to danger again. Hina tries to ask if Yamano's okay, but Yamano is insistent on shopping away her grief. Hina reminds her of her financial situation, but she can't stand the thought someone might pity her, and she points out she still has plenty of hard cash. Eiji tries to break up the argument, asking if Yamano's been attacked by any monsters—just the kind of question you throw out there casually, you know? Naturally, she's confused and upset, and she throws the money at Hina, running back to her room. Hina starts to pry open the elevator doors, but Yamano calls out her strength as monstrous, scaring her away.
To Hina's disbelief, Eiji collects the money and smoothes it out once they go outside. She assumes the worst about him and starts yelling at him, and he really doesn't help his own case, pointing out that money is important. He says he really can't stop Yamano from doing what she wants—everyone's like that. He's been everywhere, and he's never met anyone who didn't want something. Interesting that he says that, as we'll see. But their desires aren't always tied to money—usually, it's something more than that. And that kind of thinking is necessary for survival, so Eiji can't think of desire as a bad thing. The important thing isn't desire, but what you do with that desire. Then he gives Hina the money, asking her to give it back to Yamano, who is shopping online until she maxes out her credit. She finally sees the massive Yummy nest, and the eggs hatch, the Pirhana Yummies (or they're supposed to be Pirhanas, anyway) hatch and swarm out the window. Eiji sees and tells Hina to stay while he fights. He transforms in front of her for the first time, and she realizes she really has thought about him the wrong way and he's really trying to help.
Kougami boxes up a cake as Satonaka brings in Ankh. Turns out, Kougami fully expected Ankh to find him sooner or later, and he asks if Ankh's taking the deal. Ankh, instead, plans to kill Kougami and take the Medal System for himself, even as Eiji tries to take a Ride Vendor to fight. It won't transform, however, and he tries everything possible to get it to work, even tipping it over and sitting on top of it in a moment of his sanity finally breaking, resulting in the most memetic image this season. Kougami claims that his "will" controls the Medal System, so if Ankh kills him, it's all useless. So Ankh has to negotiate a percentage. Kougami's insistent on the 70%, and Ankh finally raises his offer to 60%—which is what Kougami wanted all along; his cake even anticipated a 60% profit. Ankh is pissed at the magnificent bastard and even goes along with the advance payment of 100 Medals, just out of aggravation. Kougami finally allows the transformation as Eiji mopes, but the audience sees that Goto's been controlling it with a remote the whole time. So...how long does Ankh go thinking that Kougami controls all this stuff telepathically?
Hina wraps the jacket around the trembling Yamano, explaining that while she doesn't know exactly what the Yummies are, Eiji's explained to her that they're created from human greed. Yamano realizes that they symbolize the ugliness she's been clinging to—though she was rich, she was very lonely, especially after moving to Tokyo. Wearing expensive clothes made her feel good, and it became a crutch. Hina realizes this sounds like her; after her parents' death, she clung to her brother and let him fill in the void in her heart in an unhealthy way. She hasn't lost just her brother—she's lost everything she relied on to make herself feel better instead of dealing with her problems herself. As she watches Ankh ride past her, once again watching her, she re-affirms Eiji's statement that desire is good and what matters is not what you want, but what you do—clinging to something isn't enough.
Eiji tries to fight the school of Pirhana Yummies, but there are too many, so he asks Ankh what the combo does. Ankh insists the power is immense and Eiji will hurt himself trying to use it, but Eiji decides to take the risk anyway, much to his surprise. With a fierce cry, he unleashes the power of the Kuwagata (Stag Beetle), Kamakiri, and Batta combo—GataKiriBa. The theme this time is "Got to keep it real", and while it's not quite as completely "Eiji" as "Regret Nothing," it is a ridiculously catchy theme, especially with the re-arrangement of Akira Kushida's "GataKiriBa" song.
GataKiriBa's power allows him to clone himself multiple times. But despite the obvious CG costs, the fight just looks silly. The Pirhana models are too small and awkward for an actual fight scene, and they can really only be thrown or cling onto OOO. CG improves it greatly, since GataKiriBa can punch them into Medals, and they can form a bigger fish. The finisher is a simultaneous Rider Kick from all of the clones, which looks spectacular...until they show the fight within the fish, which is just blurry multiple views of one GataKiriBa hitting nothing. Like they used up all of their CG budget and broke all of their models just beforehand and had to fake it.
The clones re-merge back into one Eiji as the Yummy explodes, but as soon as he breaks his transformation, Eiji drops to the ground in a dead faint, completely exhausted, as Ankh figured he would be. Yamano takes up a job in a bakery, and Hina and her friends visit her, now on much better terms. Eiji watches over and notes that Hina seems to be a lot happier now. Ankh claims not to care, but he privately wonders if the combos might be too dangerous for Eiji.
Useless Husband, A Trap, Big Win (Kobayashi/Satoshi Morota): Warning: This episode...it's not domestic abuse. But it's violence from one spouse to another, played for laughs (likely because it's the wife beating up her husband). I debated warning for it, but it's something I think might be uncomfortable for some people, at least. Also, possible gambling addiction? This couple has issues.
Cous Coussier is holding an Edo theme as Hina comes in, having taken some time off for exams. But in the meantime, Chiyoko hired Eiji to fill in as a samurai, and Hina's very thrown by the familiar way he greets her and the informal terms Chiyoko refers to him—as "Eiji-kun," rather than Hina's use of "Hino-san." She also can't believe at how naturally he gets into character, playing up the samurai thing perfectly.
The Greeed have some downtime at the bar—Uva finds a golf club and starts wrecking things, Kazari flips through magazines and tech catalogues, and Mezool blows bubbles. Gamel is off on an errand for Kazari, which concerns Mezool, since he doesn't really have much of a will of his own. In her opinion, he's very easily manipulated by others' desires—which is the whole point of Kazari's errand. Gamel will see something he wants and pursue it, thus fulfilling his part of the plan.
A man, Takeshi Komori, desperately runs away from his wife, Momoko, who kicks her shoe at him as soon as she catches up. Gamel watches the confrontation while eating a jar of candy. Takeshi's stolen from Momoko's wallet, and not for the first time, so she throws another shoe at him. Gamel's entertained by the fight and plops a Cell Medal into himself, creating a fully-developed Yummy, a bison. Kazari then tosses Uva a phone and tells him it's time. Uva doesn't like taking orders from him, and he throws the bottle of liquor he'd been drinking, but he goes off. Mezool is a little tired of Kazari's bullshit and asks what the plan is. He explains that they're going to retrieve their Cores from Ankh and destroy him.
Meanwhile, Ankh has gotten an iPad from somewhere, using it to track everyone's Medals. Altogether, he's collected nine—two of his own, three of Uva's, and four of Kazari's. Uva and Kazari each have roughly four to five, and Gamel and Mezool each have somewhere between five and eight. About nine are completely unaccounted for, and he has no idea where to begin looking.
Hina starts work, dressed in a kimono, and Chiyoko explains how she hired Eiji in the first place. She'd come across him in the park and realized that was where he'd been living—something that makes Hina understand quickly why Chiyoko was so fast to hire him. But Chiyoko admits that kind of lifestyle suits him—no permanent home, constantly traveling, living off only off the clothes on his own back—it's what she'd love to do herself. And though Hina had also seen Eiji in the background of Chiyoko's photo, she had no idea that this was what his life was really like. But with Hina back, Eiji quits, thanking Chiyoko for giving him a job when he desperately needed one. Chiyoko tries to offer him a full-time job and a room in the attic to live in. Hina's surprised, but knowing that it'll be too cold for Eiji to sleep in the park anymore, she tries to help convince him. But he's hesitant to accept and nearly runs out the door without his pay. Just then, Momoko, an old friend of Chiyoko's, bursts in, looking for Takeshi. She begs Chiyoko to keep an eye out for him and to hold onto his money if he comes in, but as she runs off, they realize she doesn't have any shoes on. Chiyoko tries to bring her a pair of sandals, but with customers coming in, she and Hina are too busy to go after her, so Eiji volunteers to bring them. Chiyoko warns him of Momoko's temper and to stop her if she goes off.
Kougami and Goto review the footage of GataKiriBa's battle, and Kougami's extremely pleased that Eiji used that much power so easily. So pleased, in fact, that he has another gift ready for him—something that Satonaka hands him to place on the latest cake. Goto, however, objects on the basis that Eiji's allied with Ankh, who's dangerous enough already. When Kougami reminds him that his job is to observe only, Goto reveals that he'd once been with the police, but quit because he had dreams of saving the world and thought he'd have that opportunity with the Foundation. Instead, he's become a glorified cake delivery boy.
Ankh searches through social media and finds rumors of a green Medal. Ankh, are you soliciting Medals on Craigslist? What are you doing? Have Eiji and Hina gotten around to teaching you about scams, or have you just tuned them out because they didn't have ice pops? Anyway, Mezool approves of the ridiculously obvious trap, but she worries that Eiji will save him as always. But Kazari's got that taken care of already—Gamel's job is to distract him.
The Bison Yummy's powers involve some kind of gravity inversion, flinging random objects through the air and hitting people, which Gamel thinks is the funniest thing in the world now. While this is going on, Takeshi spends all of the money he stole on lottery tickets. Momoko catches up to him, and Eiji catches up to her, but he doesn't have a chance to stop her from punching out her husband. Before it can get worse, Eiji steps in, insisting Chiyoko had asked him to help. She tells him to butt out, but he hands her the sandals and asks them to calm down and talk this thing out. But of course, the second he walks away, she's at it again. And because Eiji Hino is incapable of keeping out of other people's business, he tries to break it up again and holds Momoko back. She argues that her husband doesn't work and "fools around"—implicitly, that he has a gambling addiction. Eiji starts apologizing, much to her surprise and aggravation because he's not the one who did anything and thus not the one she wants an apology from. At the same time, the Yummy's activity increases, throwing people around now. Eiji feels the gravity inversion, and as Takeshi wins the jackpot, stuff comes flying toward them. The Yummy appears, and Eiji tells them to run, running himself toward the trouble so he can save others as much heavier objects start coming toward them. The Yummy changes its focus onto Eiji, with Gamel cheering on as it narrowly misses hitting him. Eiji henshins, but none of his attacks seem to do any damage.
Ankh walks into the trap to meet with his contact, the Evil Ben 10. Well, not that one. Or that other one. Actually, now that I look at the counterparts, I'm finding a disturbing number of Evil Ben 10s, far more than when I left the fandom. Uva is the frickin' ICING on the cake. Ankh sends Eiji a Batta to let him know what's up and where to meet him, but Eiji is suitably distracted by the Greeed. Bruised too, for that matter. Annoyed that Eiji didn't ask for permission to fight, Ankh goes over to meet with Evil Ben 10. Uva can't believe he fell for this—again, it cannot be stressed enough—really fucking obvious trap and reveals his true form. He attacks, hurting him with a single blow, exposing the weaknesses of a human body. He starts strangling him, and Ankh again says Kazari's been playing him like a fiddle in burning Rome. But Uva rips Ankh away from Shingo, threatening to take all of his Cores as he digs his claw into Ankh's hand.
As Eiji starts to get the upper hand in the fight, Gamel joins in, mad that Eiji's picking on his pet Yummy. He proves to be ridiculously strong, causing more damage than the others hand, beating Eiji seriously. Goto arrives and provides cover fire with a shotgun. He's reluctant to hand over the cake, but the Yummy leaps down at them from above. Eiji pushes out Goto out of the way, and...well, Goto's carrying a cake. You do the math. The gift sticks to his icing-covered face, and Eiji removes it, finding one of Kazari's Cores, the Lion Medal. He asks why, but Goto insists he wants to know why Kougami would trust such a precious item to this dork. Eiji uses the Lion Medal in place of Taka and unleashes a bright flash of light that almost blinds both Gamel and the Yummy. As he goes off to fight, Eiji asks Goto to thank Kougami for him, and Goto has to remind himself that he's suffering this humiliation to save the world.
Eiji fares a lot better when his opponents are still blinking spots out of their eyes, and they decide it's time to go. The Yummy sends cars toward Eiji, but he cuts through them, only to see they've escaped. But as it turns out, the Komoris are still fighting. Though Takeshi's won a million yen, Momoko points out that the old him would have cried pathetically for joy, not acted like this. Eiji can't believe they're still going at it, and again goes to intervene.
Uva badly injures Ankh, and as Ankh tries to escape, Uva slashes him, releasing two Medals...
Slacking Off, Lack of Ambition, On a Break (Kobayashi/Morota): Eiji again breaks up the fight, and Takeshi tries to cash in his lotto ticket. When Momoko snatches it away and runs, Takeshi blames Eiji for not stopping her. Momoko tosses it into the river, and Takeshi goes down to retrieve it. Eiji asks her if she's sure this is a good idea, but she's fine as long as she teaches him something. But Takeshi just jumps into the river after it.
Uva retrieves his Kuwagata Medal, along with Kazari's Cheetah. Ankh hides, having released the Medals as a diversion, and he warns Uva to see for himself how trustworthy Kazari really is. The Batta candroid broadcasts his voice as loudly as it can, making him sound a lot stronger than he is. In addition to the injuries Shingo's body has taken, Ankh's arm is losing definition and turning black. But Uva takes Ankh's warnings seriously and attacks Kazari, demanding the return of his Medal. Mezool blasts them with water and tells Kazari to give it back. When Uva goes to attack again, she reminds him that he now has one of Kazari's. They agree to trade, and upon re-integrating their Cores, their breastplates regenerate. Mezool then leaves, I'm assuming for a stiff drink.
Chiyoko starts to worry when Eiji fails to come back. Hina points out how scary Momoko was, and Chiyoko explains that a lot happened to her and Takeshi. Some of the photos at the restaurant were taken by Takeshi, who was an award-winning landscape photographer. But he let the money get to his head and started slacking, his skill wearing down until he had to turn down all of his jobs. Momoko finishes telling the story to Eiji, explaining that he sold his equipment and developed what still seems implied to be a gambling habit. She laments that he wasted his skill, becoming obsessed with riches. Eiji tries to make a comparison to going back to school after vacation, and resenting your mother for insisting that you study. But the analogy falls flat, and Momoko is sure to tell him so. She says Takeshi's lost his ambition, though Eiji says that ambition is something that can't be lost so easily. Again, very interesting comment from him. But when Takeshi starts thrashing around in the water, looking like he's in trouble, Eiji goes in to help him.
Ankh finds that he's regenerating too slowly and wonders if Shingo's body is at its limit. He detaches and tries to fend for himself, but some kids find his hand and think he's a snake, so they hit him with sticks. When he jumps up and yells at them, they throw rocks at him. Realizing he has to go back and wait it out, he returns to Shingo, but he's in desperate need of Cell Medals. But based on Eiji's previous defiance, he's afraid to let him see his weaknesses, worried that it'll give Eiji more power in their fucked-up relationship. And he's forced to admit that Eiji's a lot smarter than he thought.
Goto again registers his complaints with Kougami, and Kougami finally asks what he really has a problem with: giving Eiji the Core, or Eiji being OOO? Goto admits it's Eiji he doesn't approve of, finding him unqualified for saving the world. So Kougami challenges him, asking if Goto himself is worthy. He reminds him that like it or not, Eiji is OOO, an incredibly powerful being who could even seal the Greeed. The original OOO freely used the Medals in combos, defeating the Greeed (or at least, Uva, Kazari, Mezool, and Gamel) at full strength while his castle burned down behind him. We even get a sneak preview of the next combo, the fast and agile LaToraTah. Kougami wonders if Eiji will follow the same path as his predecessor, but Goto is still worried that Eiji's not taking this seriously enough, and he asks why he can't fight instead. Kougami finally just tells him to let Eiji do his job, and it's great to see this serious side to him. While his actor, Takashi Ukaji, is still fairly subdued in his performance and hasn't gone 100%, full-blown, honey-baked ham all the time yet, he's still just silly enough to really make this moment work. Kougami rarely seems like he's taking anything seriously and just lets everyone do whatever. But just this once, he tells Goto to shut up and trust that Eiji has everything under control. And it's great.
Chiyoko asks Hina her opinion on Eiji working there full-time. Chiyoko really likes him and thinks he'd fit in perfectly there. Hina has to think about it for a moment, remembering his statement that he had to help as much as he could or the regret would kill him. Finally, she admits it's a good idea—he's a good person, and she sees that more and more. But Chiyoko worries that Eiji's afraid to say yes, and he seems extremely worried about Hina. She asks what's up, teasing Hina by suggesting that maybe there's something going on there. Hina denies it, but she does think she knows what's making him hesitate.
With their clothes fully soaked, Eiji builds a fire so they can dry off and warm up, and he and Takeshi talk about his childhood. His grandfather liked to travel the world and would often take the young Eiji with him. Grandpa also told him, "A man never knows when he'll die, so he should always have a good pair of underwear for tomorrow." Hence the boxer fixation. Takeshi asks if Eiji's back home to earn money for his next trip, but Eiji, as always, is evasive. With another flashback to the crying child, he smiles and says he's on a break. Takeshi sympathizes, seeming to pick up that it's somehow related to burnout. He too is burnt out—he'd achieved his dreams, but it wasn't enough. Eiji tries to liken this to eating too much of his favorite food, age-manju, a deep-fried bun that's a specialty of Asakusa, Tokyo, telling us where he's probably originally from. He says it's like loving age-manju, but after too many, he feels sick and never wants to eat another again. Of course, this comparison also fails, and Takeshi says he's lost his ambition and believes that once it's lost, it's gone for good. Eiji admits that Momoko said the same thing and suggests they're better in-tune than they think. He also re-affirms that he doesn't think ambition can die so easily. Bringing it back to his weak analogy, he insists that he still loves age-manju and remembers the joy he felt trying it for the first time. Then, after he almost sets his underwear on fire, he realizes he hasn't heard from Ankh in a while. During that time, Ankh starts realizing that he's not going to make it, with how badly injured he is. Eiji heads to the Kougami Foundation, and when he sees Goto, he immediately thanks him for the Medal—much to Goto's annoyance, of course. But he's there to ask Kougami for a favor.
Momoko and Takeshi think on Eiji's words, and both realize the mistakes they've made. Momoko pushed too hard, and Takeshi forgot his love of photography. They bump into each other and work it out.
Gamel walks his Yummy home, pulling it on a leash. The bright lights from Eiji's attack are still bothering his eyes, and when his Yummy bumps into him by accident, that's it. He runs off, crying to Mezool that it's OOO's fault. The Yummy, however, only processes that last bit. It attacks a factory near Ankh, searching for Eiji. Ankh hears it and hopes to get enough Medals to regenerate. But Eiji's suddenly right next to him, teasing him for looking more humbled. Even so, he reveals he'd guessed Ankh had gotten himself in trouble, so he took out a loan of ten Cell Medals from Kougami. Ankh asks what the condition was, and when Eiji says "nothing," he doesn't believe him. Eiji insists it's between him and Kougami; he himself doesn't worry about the future terms—he's fine as long as he has his underwear and doesn't die. He hands over the Medals, fully regenerating Ankh and allowing him to heal Shingo's newest wounds. While he doesn't get Eiji's philosophy, he admits Eiji's pretty useful for an idiot. Eiji quips back that Ankh's pretty useful for a Greeed. They go off to fight the Yummy, and Ankh's able to deflect the exploding barrels that would have hit Eiji pre-henshin. He notes that Gamel Yummies won't earn them much—they use up Medals using their powers. Still, to his annoyance, Eiji fights anyway, leaping off the thrown concrete pipes in attempts to evade. But it's still too much, and he asks for GataKiriBa. Ankh tells him not to be so reckless with the combos and tosses over Kamakiri. It's still not enough, and Ankh is just about to toss him the Cheetah Medal when Eiji pulls out Lion, much to his shock. Eiji smugly explains that Kougami gave it to him and again blinds the Yummy before finishing off with a slash from above, still blazing with light. A single Medal is earned, and Eiji notes it's not enough to repay Kougami.
While Chiyoko prepares the food for the day, Momoko and Takeshi visit her and the others. Takeshi's back to taking pictures—or he will be, as soon as he gets a new camera. Momoko then reveals that she'd taken out a loan so she could buy back all of his stuff from the pawn shop as soon as he'd sold them, hoping a day would come where he'd come back to it. Chiyoko tells him to make sure he pays her back, but Momoko admits that Eiji helped her realize she was making things worse. They thank Eiji, much to his confusion and embarrassment. Chiyoko again approaches him about the job, but he runs off, thanking her for the money this time. At the park, he muses on how humans need desire to live and tells Ankh that this is why the Greeed can't feed off it. Ankh snarks that he doesn't want Eiji's desire for just underwear, as he plays with his app, adding Kougami to the Medal tracker. Hina finds Eiji, and he immediately tries to usher her away from Ankh. But she walks right up to him, her suspicions confirmed: Eiji had turned down Chiyoko because he wanted to protect Hina from Ankh. He tries to reason with her, but she insists she'll be okay. She admits she doesn't really like her strength, but she's powerful enough to hit the tree hard enough to knock Ankh right out of it. As he dangles upside down, she grabs him by the wrist and insists on having her brother's body close by so she can keep an eye on him. While Ankh yells at Eiji to help, she asks him to take the job. It's enough that Eiji finally starts laughing, jumping down to join them. He holds out his hand, and she throws Ankh aside to shake. As Ankh sulks, Eiji just laughs, relaxing into a new normal.