Life goes on, anything goes: OOO 1 – 4
Jun. 14th, 2015 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameWelcome to the OOO Challenge! This is a really misguided attempt at reviewing an entire 48 episode series in a little under a month. My reasoning is that at the time of this posting, in June 2015, I'm trying to work out a comprehensive personality profile on Eiji, and because my best comprehensive profiles come in the term of endpoint analyses...why not give myself a ridiculous amount of stress and sleep deprivation and review the entire series while I'm at it, since I planned on doing it eventually anyway?
This challenge was not very well thought out.
So don't expect this kind of mad update schedule for anything else—Ryuki, I had at least challenged myself to finish in 2012, to coincide with the 10th anniversary. I didn't try to do it all in a month. Also, as far as updates go, they'll probably be on Sundays, though I can't promise anything—I am still working on that application, after all, and I wind up with such a backlog of episode notes that it takes a while to type them all up. Again, I'm breaking it down into 4 episode batches, two arcs per batch, to try to maintain some degree of sanity.
I'm working off the TV-Nihon subs, though when I get around to Megamax (which won't be until I get to Fourze anyway), I'll probably do a combination of TVN and Over-Time. You'll see some Japanese terms for the Medals and candroids, but that's mostly because these are the names written on-screen, and if I need to help get across the combo naming schemes (expect me to complain about TaJaDor/TaJaDol). Generally, though, I end up nicknaming things anyway or going with whatever the easiest thing is to type.
Music videos and movies will also be reviewed, but probably at a later date, because the 48 episodes from June 10 through June 30 is insane enough. The endpoint analysis will also take some time, since I want to do the images I did for Ryuki and to be able to devote a lot of time and attention on the other characters beyond just Eiji.
As with Power Rangers in Space, I will be listing the director for each episode as well as the writer, listing their full name the first time, and any subsequent appearance with just their surname (for example, "Kobayashi/Tasaki").
Also, I've heard it said that OOO had some very different original plans, like Eiji originally being a more cynical character before they cast Shu Watanabe, Ankh becoming the enemy at the end, Maki getting killed off earlier, no purple Medals, and Date being a homunculus. A lot of these rumors I heard on TV Tropes, so I know to take them with a grain of salt, but some come from Igadevil, a major source in the Kamen Rider fandom. Still, though, without actual evidence, I can't do much with them beyond mentioning they're rumors—I am still a little jaded from my experiences with Digimon Frontier way back when (read up on a guy named "Omnitor" and a "puppetmaster" someday). But I do have my own theories about certain developments, particularly about Eiji's age and the sudden tone shift and philosophical debate of the final episodes, and I'll mention them where appropriate. Especially the last part, because I think it'll come in handy later when I review Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters.
Medal, Underwear, A Mysterious Arm (writer: Yasuko Kobayashi/director: Ryuta Tasaki): At the Kougami Art Museum, two security guards try to steal from the archives. They don't fear the newbie finding out, since they drugged him and left him asleep in the break room. While they go through the fancier valuables, a stone coffin rests off to the side, with strange Medals left outside it—mostly silver ones, marked with an animal on one side and an X on the other, but there's one red one with a hawk on it. The Medals gather together to form the rough form of a hand as it reaches up on top of the coffin and breaks the seal, tripping a silent alarm. This alerts the Kougami Foundation's elite security force, the Ride Vendor troops, who mobilize and get to work as the coffin breaks down into more Medals, forming several bodies. Shintaro Goto, the captain of the First Platoon, wastes no time opening fire and alerting the organization's president, Kousei Kougami, who orders the creatures' destruction. Just to be thorough, Goto and the others blow up the whole building. But the creatures, the Greeed, slaughter the mostly nameless riders of the First Platoon (and if you look carefully on a computer, you'll see one of the names given as "Ryuya Tazaki"—it's possible they were all named as puns on the crew of the show). As the red shirts go down, leaving Goto as the only apparent survivor, Kougami bakes a cake and sings along to "Happy Birthday." Yes, this is what you're going to see for the whole damn series. His secretary, Erika Satonaka, says that he foresaw this kind of destruction, but he seems oddly disappointed by what's happened. And it has nothing to do with his museum being destroyed and the implied deaths of several people. Kougami indeed is upset, but because he believes all birth is "WONDERFUL!" (direct quote), maybe the Greeed's rebirth isn't all that bad.
A red Medal just like the one outside the coffin hits the sleeping security guard in the face, waking him up. Still groggy, he assumes it's his pay for the day, and he strips down to change. But hanging up his uniform knocks down the rest of the wall, exposing him in nothing but his boxers to a crowd of police and firefighters. My friends, this is Eiji Hino, our hero and lead Rider this season.
A sidenote here: The theme is "Anything Goes!" by Maki Ohguro, and it's really catchy and fun—the kind of song that you have to like because it's stuck in your head already and there's no way you can live with that song stuck in your head if you don't like it; therefore, you must like it. I'll be talking about the songs pretty frequently throughout these reviews, since the soundtrack is fantastic, and as I said in the preface, I will at some point go back and review the music videos. But the opening deserves note, since it's in the Heisei tradition of making sure it's symbolic, and it shows off some important things to note about our three leads, Eiji, Hina, and Ankh. Of note, we see Eiji wandering around the desert before finding a red Taka Medal; and we also see Hina following Ankh before a red silk tapestry gets in the way; when she pulls it away, he's gone. Later, she sees another tapestry just like it, and knowing that he's behind this one, she hugs him from behind, with him unable to understand why. There's also this great bit in the middle, where you see what really, everyone's roles will be: With the red Medal in the background, Ankh looks at his Medal; Eiji looks at sand slipping through his fingers, with the yellow Medal in the background; Hina watches them both from the green Medal before her hat flies away from her. It's abstract, but it'll make sense as the series goes on.
Back to Eiji in the middle of probably everyone's worst nightmare, Detective Shingo Izumi questions him over why he has no idea what happened and how he slept through such a huge explosion. As the crooks are taken away in an ambulance, Eiji expresses concern for them, insisting they're nice because they got him a drink earlier—he doesn't know them otherwise, but this is the judgment he's made. This is an important part of his character for setup, but the naïveté is awkward and contrived, wisely dropped later on. To add to it, Shu Watanabe's performance as Eiji is very shaky at this point, and the naive behavior very obviously doesn't come naturally to him. He's chewing the scenery and choking on it, like he just came off of watching Kamen Rider W and thought that because Renn Kiriyama had hammed the shit out of Shotaro, he was going to have to do the same. Fortunately, within a few episodes, he gains his stride and figures out that there are very few people in the world who can pull off ham like Shotaro, so it's not really a requirement for Neo-Heisei Riders.
He reveals that he's a nomad with no permanent address, traveling the world and living off the contents of his pockets—just some spare change and his underwear for tomorrow. Unfortunately for him, his spare underwear was burnt in the attack. Somehow. Eiji shows his first display of distress, freaking out over not having a tomorrow because he doesn't have underwear, and I promise this actually will get explained to some degree. But he still has the Medal, and unknown to him, he's being observed by a strange hand.
We have a brief, artistic intro to the enemy Greeed: Gamel, Mezool, Uva, and Kazari, all of whom have color-coded silk tapestries to their names (grey, blue, green, and yellow, respectively). It's a nice bit of scenery painting that Kobayashi does with this season, and had done with previous shows—if you remember Ryuki, at the end, black feathers that symbolized Yui's presence were suddenly directly interacting with Kanzaki, convincing him that she was still there and that he needed to stop. OOO is similar. The tapestries actually don't seem to symbolize anything, but the Greeed do interact with them. It's just a thing that exists. Don't question it. In any case, they realize something is wrong—their bodies haven't completely regenerated, and they're missing Core Medals. Kazari notes that he thought he saw Ankh, their fifth member, with a few that didn't belong to him, and Uva's especially pissed that the assbird took them, especially when he could barely take form.
With no job, no place to stay for the night, and no underwear for tomorrow, Eiji begins to wonder what to do when he notices a strange vending machine. He goes to get a drink, but he fishes the Medal from his pocket, unaware that he's still being watched closely. He doesn't know what the Medal is, but a person passing by him bumps him, causing him to drop it under the machine, where he can't reach. He tries to tilt it back to reach the Medal, but he can't seem to get help, although a young woman passing through seems to notice. The strange hand, Ankh, tries to grab at the Medal, but Eiji loses his grip on the vending machine and drops it on Ankh. The young woman, Hina, hears Ankh's screams and thinks Eiji hurt himself, so she runs over to help, using her inhuman strength to lift the machine and free Ankh, who has the Medal back. She runs off screaming, seeing him hide behind Eiji. Eiji doesn't know what scared her until he turns around and sees Ankh for himself. He likewise freaks out, knocking the Medal from Ankh's hand...well, self, and running off. But because he has the Medal again, Ankh chases after him.
Meanwhile, Uva attacks a jewelry store, selecting a woman and placing a Medal in her, creating a Yummy—a mummy-like monster that consumes the rings from her fingers before eating all of the jewels in the store. As it does so, it builds up Medals and changes form from the weak, staggering mummy to a praying mantis. Uva charges his Yummy with finding his Medal, and he bursts out of the store, almost hitting a patrol car as it passes by. But inside the car are Shingo and his partner, and they decide to pursue the monster.
Ankh finally catches up to Eiji, promising not to harm him if he returns the Medal. Eiji tries to explain he only found it, but Ankh says he'd dropped it trying to escape the museum. Unfortunately, the Yummy has found them and attacks. With Eiji still in possession of his Medal, Ankh is forced to protect him, but he can barely deflect the attacks. Bothered by how one-sided the battle is, Eiji steps in, but he's thrown aside just as easily. Shingo finally arrives, and his partner starts shooting the Yummy, but it has no effect; it only makes him mad enough to blast at their car, causing them to crash. The unnamed partner is injured, fading in and out of consciousness. Shingo holds on a little longer, but he's seriously wounded and collapses. The distraction, at least, buys Eiji some time to escape, and he runs to Shingo's side. Ankh tries to hold off the Yummy from attacking him, but the Yummy turns on him again. With Shingo dying and Ankh losing, Eiji does the only thing he can do—he picks up Shingo's gun and shoots at the Yummy. It doesn't do much other than annoy the Mantis, but he tells Eiji to keep out of it. However, Eiji argues that although he's just met both Shingo and Ankh that morning, he's got a connection to them already; this officially is his business. The Yummy only attacks Ankh again, so Eiji shoots again. When he runs out of bullets, he charges, but the Yummy throws him around again. Ankh realizes that the kind of idiot who'd risk his life to save people he barely knows? May be the exact kind of idiot he needs. He saves Eiji from serious injury and gives him the coffin's seal, which transforms into the OOO Driver as it bonds with him. He also gives Eiji two of the Medals he stole, telling him to defeat the Yummy. The Yummy tries to talk him out of it, insisting there's a price to be paid, but Ankh insists a little risk is worth it. Eiji agrees, saying that no matter where he's been, he's found it's always hard to save lives. Using the stolen Tora/Tiger and Batta/Grasshopper Medals, as well as the Taka/Hawk Medal he already had, he transforms into OOO, TaToBa combo.
Another sidenote—the Driver sings. I mention this because I suspect that one day, it won't be taken for granted that henshin belts have some sort of gimmick designed to make kids buy those toys and make adults buy more expensive versions of those toys. Heisei Era belts started off simple, like Kuuga's and Agito's, gradually becoming more complex—the card systems of Ryuki, Blade, and Decade, the tech of 555, the separate toy and cast-off system of Kabuto, and the add-on transformation modes of Den-O and Kiva. Neo-Heisei Kamen Rider, the post-Decade decade, decided they had to make their belts more distinct. W used plug-in USB memories. Fourze uses various switches. Gaim has fruit locks with various, pre-programmed phrases. Drive has a sentient belt. Wizard and OOO sing, along with their add-ons, rings and Medals. And in the case of OOO, the singing voice is Akira Kushida, a pretty famous singer for various anime and toku themes—he did "Dragon Road" for Kamen Rider ZX and the puts-hair-on-your-chest level manly Space Sheriff Gavan theme, along with the rest of the Space Sheriff themes. He calls out the name of each Medal and sings each combo, and it is glorious and catchy as hell.
As it turns out, Eiji does notice his belt singing and is generally confused about the whole thing. Ankh tells him not to think too much about it and shoves him into battle. The Yummy attacks, and Eiji quickly starts to discover what powers OOO has, such as claws on his arms and super jumps with his feet. But a counterattack almost neutralizes the transformation, so Ankh trades out Tora for Kamakiri (Praying Mantis), giving him blades on his arms that finish the battle, exploding the Yummy into Medals.
But Shingo's phone starts ringing, cluing Eiji in that the detective is still dying. And with no body of his own, Ankh decides a human body is better than nothing. He attaches himself to Shingo's right arm and merges with him...changing his haircut while he's at it. Because this is a Yasuko Kobayashi Rider series, and if Den-O taught us anything, it's that possession gives you a new haircut and a dye job. In Ankh's case, blond, curly on one side, and close cut on the other before a thin braid runs along the side.
On the other end of the phone, Shingo's younger sister, Hina, wonders why he hasn't answered.
At the Kougami Foundation headquarters, Kougami decorates a cake in celebration of the birth of the new OOO.
At the battlefield, Goto watches and releases a flock of Taka candroids...
Greed, Ice Candy, Present (Kobayashi/Tasaki): As soon as Eiji transforms back, Ankh takes the Driver from him and stores it...wherever he stores those things. Eiji asks why he possessed Shingo, noticing that Ankh's arm is now human—he's merged so completely that he can hide his Greeed form. Ankh insists that being just an arm put him at a disadvantage, and since Shingo was already dying, why not use him as a meatpuppet? But they spot the hawks taking Medals from the scene, and Ankh isn't happy, snatching one back and demanding answers from Eiji. But even though Eiji doesn't know what's going on either, Ankh realizes just how far humans have come since he was sealed. In fact, the Takas belong to Kougami, depositing the Medals before returning to can form. Kougami looks on a horde of Medals he's already collected, thinking on how things will work out now for his life's goal, the Greeed, and OOO.
Ankh comes across an ice cream man and steals three ice pops from him, leaving Eiji to pay. Yes, this is the start of an addiction and a running gag. Yes, this is a Kobayashi series and you'll never be able to eat this without crying. When Eiji asks again what's going on, he starts to explain his backstory, about his birth 800 years ago from the Core Medals, but Eiji fails to follow and is really more worried about Shingo. Ankh insists Shingo will be fine and that he'll let him eat, pointing out that he can indeed taste, picking up on the cold, sweet flavor of the ice pops—remember this later. The alternative is that he consumes things through his hand, but Eiji doesn't like that, accidentally detaching him while trying to stop him. At first, he's relieved, but Ankh points out he's the only thing keeping Shingo alive, so Eiji hastily puts him back. Unsure what to do about Shingo's predicament, Eiji starts to moan and complain, so Ankh shuts him up by sticking an ice pop in his mouth. One lead male shoves a phallic object into the other lead male's mouth. It's like Ryosuke Miura was warned that people would be shipping them, and he decided to encourage everyone. It doesn't help when he explains that he did it to make sure Eiji himself eats—he needs him, so he needs to keep him alive. Proper care and feeding of your Rider. With the ice pops providing a helpful visual aid, Ankh explains the two types of Medals. Core Medals are at the center of a Greeed, like the stick. Cell Medals compose the body, like the ice. A Yummy, therefore, is the ice without a stick. To illustrate, Ankh stuffs the ice back in Eiji's mouth and removes the stick. Thank you, Ankh, you're doing all the work for everybody. He also explains that while the Cores are the most important part, most of theirs went missing while they were sealed. And since he only regenerated as a right arm, he took a few of the others' Medals to level the playing field.
To our lead female character, Hina comes to the international restaurant, Cous Coussier, for a job. She texts her brother a message about trying to get a job that has nothing to do with her being a "power-type"—the only explanation we get for her super strength—and sends along a picture. But Eiji still has the phone and is not only hurt knowing that Shingo has a younger sister, but shocked to recognize the young woman who'd helped him earlier.
Inside the restaurant, owner Chiyoko Shiraishi has tethered the door to a series of heavy weights. Hina manages to open it, learning that Chiyoko did this as a test, to find a ridiculously strong girl. She's kind of crazy, like if Owner from Den-O and Sanako from Ryuki had a daughter who opened her own restaurant. She dresses Hina in a pirate costume and asks her to bring over a milk can, and when Hina grabs a much larger one, she realizes she's gotten more than she expected. But then the police call to let Hina know that her brother disappeared.
At the hospital, one of the injured crooks tries to convince the other to help him hijack an armored bank car, but the other is tired of these schemes. Uva appears and creates another Yummy from his greed. And a note on translation: TVN mostly starts off using "greed" for the word "yokubou" before switching to "desire." Which I honestly don't mind, depending on context. "Yokubou" appears to be more of a catch-all term, where the English "greed" has more negative connotations. But it's also used in contexts to support it as a good emotion, so the more neutral "desire" works better in that context. In fact, Kougami tries to explain how it's a good thing, producing energy to create the world. Gathering the Medals born of that desire creates infinity. OOO, then, is a power over infinity. I think Over-Time used the same translation convention, and I think it's a good choice, switching between the two or trying to use the more neutral term as much as possible.
The Yummy attacks the armored car and consumes the money inside. Ankh senses it, hearing the Cell Medals forming, and drags Eiji off to meet up with it at a bank. But he refuses to let Eiji fight, insisting that it needs to feed to create Medals, and all Medals are created from human desire anyway. It molts into what the wikis say is a weevil but I honestly just acknowledge as an eldritch creature born of pure nightmare, and attacks a high-rise building. Ankh is excited at the prospect of more Medals, since this Yummy is fucking huge, but Eiji's worried about the people who will be hurt if the Yummy devours the building. Ankh tells him that his priority is harvesting Medals, and Eiji is not to fight until enough have formed. Using Eiji's own words against him, he insists that saving lives isn't just hard—it's not free either, and the price is that Eiji listens to him and does what he says, even as the building starts to topple and crashes into the one next door, where a fancy party is being held.
Hina heads to the scene of the crash and sees the patrol car—unmistakably her brother's, since it has the teddy bear omamori she gave him hanging from the mirror. She desperately tries to call Shingo again, and Eiji sees her on the caller ID. He realizes that she must be crying, and he has a mysterious and distressing flashback to a young girl crying among the ruins of a city or town, while he reaches out toward her with bleeding, dirty hands. She's just out of his reach as rockets explode around her, and the vision ends in flames. Eiji looks down to his hand now and comes to a decision—he races into the second building, running upstairs until he reaches the party. Just in time, he pulls a man away from the Yummy, but as soon as he gets him to safety, the floor beneath him starts to shift and crack, causing him to fall out the window. He's barely hanging onto the edge as Ankh tries to both save and reason with him. But because Ankh came in hand form, Eiji's more worried about Shingo, and Ankh tells him to start worrying about himself instead, trying to hand over the Driver. Eiji refuses unless Ankh promises to let him transform when he wants, and not to prioritize the Medals over people's lives. Ankh doesn't like the deal, but the Yummy's movements cause Eiji to call completely. He gets the Driver on him, but even in the face of imminent death, Eiji makes him promise.
When Ankh finally agrees, Eiji uses TaToBa's claws to slow his descent. Goto arrives with a "birthday present" from Kougami—a Cell Medal-powered sword, the Medajalibur. I hate spelling it, so you're not going to see its name very frequently around here. There are additional Medals to use with the vending machines, the Ride Vendor bikes, and he also provides Eiji with several candroids—Tako, or octopus. Eiji proceeds to geek out over the little mechanical octopi, which create a road for him to ride up, and can link together like a bungee cord to catch him when he falls again. With three Medals, the sword powers up enough to rip not only the Yummy in half, but reality itself, at least in the immediate vicinity of the attack. But everything else goes back to normal afterwards, so Eiji's not quite as destructive as he could be.
Eiji sends Hina a text from Shingo's phone, claiming that he's on an undercover assignment and can't come back home for a little while, sending along a picture of Ankh to prove it. Hard as it is to send the message, Eiji hopes that he can keep the promise at the end and someday separate Ankh and Shingo, so Shingo can go back home to his sister. Ankh, however, is more worried about why humans are collecting Cell Medals, and he ends up running into Hina, who immediately mistakes him for her actual brother and grabs him in a hug. Eiji watches his entire plan fall apart not even a minute in as Ankh reveals his Greeed arm behind Hina's back, trying to figure her out...
Cat, Evolution, A Glutton (Kobayashi/Takayuki Shibasaki): Eiji starts to panic as Hina hugs Ankh, asking about the supposed case. Unsure who she is, Ankh scans Shingo's memories. Once he figures it out and she notices his hand, he tries to strangle her. Eiji races to her rescue, but she grabs Ankh's arm and throws him, ripping him off Shingo. The confused talking hand once again freaks her out, and she passes out. Well, we're off to a wonderful start: one hero was caught lying, a second hero tried to murder the third hero, and that third is unconscious. Oh, and that other guy is still dying over there. Eiji tries to help Hina, with Ankh very confused how a human can be that strong. When Eiji asks what his deal is, Ankh explains that Shingo's sister would naturally get in the way of them collecting Medals. So kill her, and there's no problem. He then smacks Eiji out of the way so he can finish the job. But Eiji proves he's got a clever, almost manipulative side—he threatens to drop the Driver into the water if Ankh doesn't get away from Hina right now, acting innocent and stupid right until he makes his conditions known. When Ankh does move away, Eiji goes to take Hina to the only safe place he knows he can bring her—Cous Coussier, as seen in her photo. Chiyoko is running an Indian theme that day and greets him as a customer before realizing that he's got the new girl unconscious on his back. He weakly explains that she's not feeling well, and Chiyoko leads him to the attic bedroom, while Ankh sulks on the roof about Eiji's surprising deviousness. Chiyoko lays Hina on a couch to rest and thanks Eiji, who apologizes for dumping her on Chiyoko. But she offers him dinner sometime and asks where he lives. He answers evasively about living nearby "lately" and leaves. As she wonders about him, she notices a photo on her counter, from somewhere in the Middle East or, more likely given what we learn later, North Africa. In the left corner, in the background, is Eiji, apparently asking for directions. At the park, Eiji washes out his (hopefully new) underwear and admits his worries—he'd hoped they wouldn't run into Hina, and now he doesn't know how to explain anything to her. Ankh once again advocates homicide, and Eiji gives him a dark look.
The Greeed emerge from a tunnel and engage the police, all photographed on onlookers' phones. We see a close bond between Gamel and Mezool, which will come up a lot: Gamel uses up too much strength too fast, and Mezool donates some Cell Medals to help him out. She reminds them all that while they need to find Ankh, they also need to gather Cell Medals. Kazari blasts away the police with wind and volunteers to go next, believing that because humans have changed, so too has their greed—it seems to be much larger than before and harder to satisfy. He selects a man with...well, a serious overeating problem, since the guy is constantly buying and eating food to the point that people around him are staring. But the Yummy doesn't emerge from him—bandages appear on him instead, and he becomes possessed by his desire. He begins eating every piece of food in sight, even straight out of a delivery truck. Ankh hears the Medals and brings Eiji to the fight, but Eiji's worried and confused when Ankh tells him the Yummy is a human—more specifically, a parasitic Yummy inside the human parent. Ankh still doesn't want to act until it's built up more Cells, but Eiji snatches the Medals anyway and transforms, deciding he's not going to wait for the victim to get hurt.
He tries to talk the Yummy out of him, and it goes about as well as you'd expect. The Yummy-possessed man throws boxes at him and spits energy blasts at him. Eiji gets past the attacks, but he's unwilling to fight if it means hurting an innocent person, so he gets his ass kicked. Ankh says the Yummy won't come out until it's fully mature, so Eiji has to attack and kill the human host. When he won't, Ankh fights instead. Eiji tries to stop him and remind him of his promise, but being a reactive little assbird, Ankh tells him that he's the boss, Eiji's the minion, and it's past time Eiji started following orders instead of giving them. But in the midst of their argument, they leave their backs open, allowing the Yummy to attack as a smokescreen while it runs away. Goto arrives, passing along his Ride Vendor, intending for Eiji to use the candroids. Eiji misunderstands and transforms it into bike mode, wasting a Medal before changing it back and taking the hawk candroid. Ankh, of course, yells at Eiji for wasting a Medal and fails to negotiate a return. Eiji sends the hawk after the Yummy while Ankh questions Goto, who claims humans have evolved over the past 800 years and even have weapons to deal with the Greeed. So he pulls a gun on Ankh. Eiji then puts himself directly in the way of the gun to try to break up the fight, and this moment is scary in retrospect. Eiji is in front of the gun. If Goto's finger slips, he will be shot and he will die. And yet, he seems to understand this possibility and is more worried about everything else going on around him. Goto and Ankh don't even seem to consider the possibility that they might end up murdering their Rider in just the third episode. But luckily for Eiji, Goto reconsiders and decides it's not worth shooting Ankh, and he leaves. Eiji still thinks generously of him, however, pointing out to Ankh that Goto's helped them before even though they know nothing about him. Ankh also wonders who he is, but he decides he needs to focus more on the advancements of humanity across eight centuries, so he accesses Shingo's memories again. He leads Eiji to the Izumis' apartment, very briefly explaining that because he's possessing Shingo's body, he's got full access to his mind as well. And since he needs to research whoever's using the Medals for technology, as well as what happened to the other Cores, he'll use Shingo's computer.
Kougami monitors Eiji's progress and notes that while he's strong, he lacks resources and knowledge, and must make up for them with the Ride Vendors and Ankh. This is the concept of "technique vs. power," a theme for Riders from the very beginning. Takeshi Hongo, Kamen Rider 1, is known as a Rider specializing in technique—he was a genius with multiple skills, and he relied on that in his fighting style. Hayato Ichimonji, Kamen Rider 2, is the Rider known for specializing in power—from his creation, he was stronger than Hongo, but he wasn't as smart or skilled. Kamen Rider V3, Shiro Kazami, was created by the both of them, and thus specialized in both technique and power. Eiji, at this point, is a power-type Rider. This works out in Kougami's favor, because by providing the "technique" Eiji's lacking, he's getting Medals from him. So Goto will be in charge of monitoring Eiji and assisting where necessary.
Hina finally wakes up, and Chiyoko talks with her about what happened. She suggests that Hina's attacker may not have been her brother, since he didn't seem to recognize her, but Hina's still sure that she wasn't mistaken. The Yummy bursts in the door and throws Chiyoko aside when she tries to explain they're closed. He then tears apart the kitchen, devouring all of the food, while Taka monitors.
Ankh is still googling, and as a nice little Easter egg, we see an ad for the Kougami Foundation on the search engine. Eiji warns him not to break anything, so he scans Shingo's memories again, remembering he was constantly online. He realizes Shingo had bought an iPhone 4 and hid it from Hina, and he finds it in the closet. Eiji steps out of the room and spots a butsudan in the corner, with offerings and a photo of Shingo's and Hina's parents, and it hits him suddenly that Shingo is all Hina had left. The candroid returns and leads Eiji and Ankh to Cous Coussier, where Hina and Chiyoko are ready to call the police when the Yummy turns on them again. Hina blocks an attack, but he keeps coming for them. A candroid is tossed in, catching his attention, and it rolls out, luring him out of the restaurant. As Hina shuts the door behind him, she spots Ankh outside.
The Yummy catches the candroid and opens it, activating an octopus. It sprays him with ink, stopping him long enough for Eiji to grab him. The hawk holds out a steak, luring the Yummy out of him. But Ankh shoves Eiji aside and lets the Yummy back in. He tosses over food, trying to build up the Medals, insisting that this particular one is harmless as long as it gets what it wants. Eiji argues that the human parent will be hurt, but Ankh insists the man's own gluttony was what created it. As the man's body begins to bloat from all the Medals, Eiji desperately tries to get the Driver and Cores, but Ankh throws him back. He calls Eiji's bluff, insisting that if he really does throw away the belt, he loses all chance and ability to save anyone. Eiji is a determined little idiot, however, and tries to wrest the food from the man and reason with him, knowing he'll die at this rate. The Yummy starts beating the shit out of Eiji, and Ankh's attempts to talk him out of getting himself killed go nowhere; he just keeps getting up again and insists it's better than doing nothing, and we get another flashback to the crying child.
The Yummy finally emerges, taking the form of a spiky, fat cat. Now, Ankh helps, but all weapons bounce off its body, and it can bounce off surfaces to body slam Eiji. Only kicks seem to work, so Eiji tries TaToBa's Rider Kick—the Batta legs transform the feet into what honestly looks like prosthetic running blades, allowing Eiji to jump high into the air. Taka's eyes close in on the target, and Eiji passes through a circle of each Medal's color, which provide extra powers: red provides wings for flight/descent, yellow for claws and cutting, and presumably green has the kick itself. I say "presumably" because someone throws concrete pillars in Eiji's way, which absorb most of the impact and save the Yummy. Ankh reveals it was Kazari, who finally shows himself...
Doubt, Photo E-Mail, Saving Hand (Kobayashi/Shibasaki): Ankh says that the whole skulking in the shadows thing is pure Kazari, and he remembers that Yummy parasites are his specialty. The Yummy returns to safety inside its parent and seeks more food. Eiji tries to run after him, but Kazari attacks him with a blast of wind. Ankh warns him that he wants back one of the Cores Eiji has, but Kazari insists he's not looking for a fight. He doubts Ankh has all of the missing Medals, since he could only regenerate his hand, so he suggests that Ankh dump Eiji and hang out with another Greeed like him. Try as I might, I can't get it to sound like anything but "dump that loser and hook up with a REAL MAN." He claims that because the original OOO sealed them, there's no way Ankh can work with the new one. He tries to feed Ankh's ego, but while Ankh claims he's only working with the human as a matter of convenience and security, he needs time to decide whether or not to join the Greeed again. Kazari agrees and takes a parting shot at Eiji before taking off.
The beaten Eiji pulls himself up, leaning heavily on a fence, shocked at the power a Greeed has—there's a different quality to it compared to the Yummies', more than just strength. Ankh reminds him there are still three others and that Kazari isn't even at full strength, and Eiji remembers an earlier warning Ankh made that the Greeed at full power would "devour the world." Ankh threatens to take up Kazari's offer if Eiji doesn't play his way, but Eiji refuses, still believing that there's more to humans than corruptible desires. So Ankh leaves to play with his phone, searching maps and the internet while waiting for the Yummy to grow. Kougami observes him, deciding that they can't be straightforward with him, and that they need to plan around him, in case he does decide to leave Eiji. Still, Kougami has a particular plan he wants to see through to the end.
Eiji hears Shingo's phone ringing, but to his shock, Hina is right behind him. She'd taken off after Ankh, determined to find answers, and now she sees that Eiji has her brother's phone. He tries to explain, but his injuries are too much, and he passes out. She brings him to Cous Coussier, and Chiyoko muses on the strange coincidence that he carried her in last time, only for her to carry him this time—because this is Hina, I assume she did pick him up and carry him the whole way. Hina brings him up to the attic and puts compresses on his back to help with the pain, and he comes clean to her about Ankh and Shingo. He apologizes for lying and sending the photo, but it was the only thing he could think to do. She asks how they can help her brother, but he's afraid of getting others involved, worried that Ankh will hurt them or decide to dump Shingo if it's too much trouble. He tells her that even though Ankh looks like Shingo, they couldn't be more different. But he promises to save him and asks her to keep away from Ankh. She asks if she can trust him, since after all, neither she nor her brother even know him. Why would he make this promise? And as if Kobayashi is trying to shake off Eiji's naïveté from the first episode, he gives a different and much better answer this time around: he has to. He's not doing it because he's a nice guy, he can't ask Hina to trust him, and he might not even be able to do it. But if he doesn't try to help out as much as he can, he won't be able to live with the regret.
Chiyoko gets a call from a neighboring restaurant, and she passes along the warning to Eiji that the Yummy is there. Hina asks if he's going to fight, even with his injuries, but he insists that she took care of him and gave him replacement compresses, so he'll be okay. Ankh, having found an uploaded pic of the Yummy parent completely bloated, arrives and meets up with Eiji. He asks for Eiji's answer; since he's figured out how to use modern tech, Eiji's got to convince him he'll be useful. Eiji again tells him no, that he's not merely a tool, and Kazari assumes this means Ankh will join him. Afraid this is the case, Eiji takes the sword and tries to fight Kazari on his own. But just as Kazari starts to charge, Ankh strikes, revealing that everyone saw Kazari spying on them and posted it online. Ankh has learned Twitter, congratulations. He played along to get Kazari to lower his guard, fully expecting a betrayal, and made sure to betray him first. Low as his opinion of humans is, he prefers their honesty. He holds off Kazari again and tosses Eiji the Medals, but Eiji can barely hold his own, even with Kamakiri's blades. As they clash into each other, Kazari dislodges that Medal from the Driver and decides to keep it. Just as Ankh begins to regret his decision to stay with Eiji, part of Kazari's armor crumbles away. Eiji reveals another clever moment—he'd used the clash as a chance to steal some Medals from Kazari, knowing he'd lose otherwise.
The Yummy emerges and completely swallows up its parent. Ankh again insists it's the man's own greed that consumed him and that he isn't worth saving. Eiji, however, says it's not his job to determine a person's worth. Ankh decides he will, though, and promises that if he ever decides Eiji's worthless to him, he'll abandon him. In turn, Eiji promises to figure out Ankh's weakness and save Shingo, even if it means they have to fight. So we have our heroes promising to betray one another and basing their entire relationship around the fact that they one day will have to fight. We really are off to a wonderful start; even Shinji and Ren didn't acknowledge this until episode 21. Ryuki is officially more functional than you guys.
Again, Eiji finds himself unable to cut through the Yummy's fat without using force, which might hurt the human inside. A deeper cut does expose him trying to get free, and Eiji realizes the key is to just shift the Medals out of the way. Ankh tosses him one of the new Cores—Cheetah, with feet resembling sneakers—and it provides super speed and rapid kicks. Eiji digs through the Medals and reaches for the man, pulling him to safety so he can use the sword's finisher. An ambulance takes the man away, and he promises not to binge anymore and to learn self-control. Eiji tries to use this as proof that humans aren't all bad, but when the man asks about the quality of the hospital's food, Ankh insists he was right all along.
As they walk off, a car stops in front of them. Satonaka steps out and removes a computer screen, formally introducing them to Kougami, who celebrates this meeting as a portent for a coming birth...
This challenge was not very well thought out.
So don't expect this kind of mad update schedule for anything else—Ryuki, I had at least challenged myself to finish in 2012, to coincide with the 10th anniversary. I didn't try to do it all in a month. Also, as far as updates go, they'll probably be on Sundays, though I can't promise anything—I am still working on that application, after all, and I wind up with such a backlog of episode notes that it takes a while to type them all up. Again, I'm breaking it down into 4 episode batches, two arcs per batch, to try to maintain some degree of sanity.
I'm working off the TV-Nihon subs, though when I get around to Megamax (which won't be until I get to Fourze anyway), I'll probably do a combination of TVN and Over-Time. You'll see some Japanese terms for the Medals and candroids, but that's mostly because these are the names written on-screen, and if I need to help get across the combo naming schemes (expect me to complain about TaJaDor/TaJaDol). Generally, though, I end up nicknaming things anyway or going with whatever the easiest thing is to type.
Music videos and movies will also be reviewed, but probably at a later date, because the 48 episodes from June 10 through June 30 is insane enough. The endpoint analysis will also take some time, since I want to do the images I did for Ryuki and to be able to devote a lot of time and attention on the other characters beyond just Eiji.
As with Power Rangers in Space, I will be listing the director for each episode as well as the writer, listing their full name the first time, and any subsequent appearance with just their surname (for example, "Kobayashi/Tasaki").
Also, I've heard it said that OOO had some very different original plans, like Eiji originally being a more cynical character before they cast Shu Watanabe, Ankh becoming the enemy at the end, Maki getting killed off earlier, no purple Medals, and Date being a homunculus. A lot of these rumors I heard on TV Tropes, so I know to take them with a grain of salt, but some come from Igadevil, a major source in the Kamen Rider fandom. Still, though, without actual evidence, I can't do much with them beyond mentioning they're rumors—I am still a little jaded from my experiences with Digimon Frontier way back when (read up on a guy named "Omnitor" and a "puppetmaster" someday). But I do have my own theories about certain developments, particularly about Eiji's age and the sudden tone shift and philosophical debate of the final episodes, and I'll mention them where appropriate. Especially the last part, because I think it'll come in handy later when I review Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters.
Medal, Underwear, A Mysterious Arm (writer: Yasuko Kobayashi/director: Ryuta Tasaki): At the Kougami Art Museum, two security guards try to steal from the archives. They don't fear the newbie finding out, since they drugged him and left him asleep in the break room. While they go through the fancier valuables, a stone coffin rests off to the side, with strange Medals left outside it—mostly silver ones, marked with an animal on one side and an X on the other, but there's one red one with a hawk on it. The Medals gather together to form the rough form of a hand as it reaches up on top of the coffin and breaks the seal, tripping a silent alarm. This alerts the Kougami Foundation's elite security force, the Ride Vendor troops, who mobilize and get to work as the coffin breaks down into more Medals, forming several bodies. Shintaro Goto, the captain of the First Platoon, wastes no time opening fire and alerting the organization's president, Kousei Kougami, who orders the creatures' destruction. Just to be thorough, Goto and the others blow up the whole building. But the creatures, the Greeed, slaughter the mostly nameless riders of the First Platoon (and if you look carefully on a computer, you'll see one of the names given as "Ryuya Tazaki"—it's possible they were all named as puns on the crew of the show). As the red shirts go down, leaving Goto as the only apparent survivor, Kougami bakes a cake and sings along to "Happy Birthday." Yes, this is what you're going to see for the whole damn series. His secretary, Erika Satonaka, says that he foresaw this kind of destruction, but he seems oddly disappointed by what's happened. And it has nothing to do with his museum being destroyed and the implied deaths of several people. Kougami indeed is upset, but because he believes all birth is "WONDERFUL!" (direct quote), maybe the Greeed's rebirth isn't all that bad.
A red Medal just like the one outside the coffin hits the sleeping security guard in the face, waking him up. Still groggy, he assumes it's his pay for the day, and he strips down to change. But hanging up his uniform knocks down the rest of the wall, exposing him in nothing but his boxers to a crowd of police and firefighters. My friends, this is Eiji Hino, our hero and lead Rider this season.
A sidenote here: The theme is "Anything Goes!" by Maki Ohguro, and it's really catchy and fun—the kind of song that you have to like because it's stuck in your head already and there's no way you can live with that song stuck in your head if you don't like it; therefore, you must like it. I'll be talking about the songs pretty frequently throughout these reviews, since the soundtrack is fantastic, and as I said in the preface, I will at some point go back and review the music videos. But the opening deserves note, since it's in the Heisei tradition of making sure it's symbolic, and it shows off some important things to note about our three leads, Eiji, Hina, and Ankh. Of note, we see Eiji wandering around the desert before finding a red Taka Medal; and we also see Hina following Ankh before a red silk tapestry gets in the way; when she pulls it away, he's gone. Later, she sees another tapestry just like it, and knowing that he's behind this one, she hugs him from behind, with him unable to understand why. There's also this great bit in the middle, where you see what really, everyone's roles will be: With the red Medal in the background, Ankh looks at his Medal; Eiji looks at sand slipping through his fingers, with the yellow Medal in the background; Hina watches them both from the green Medal before her hat flies away from her. It's abstract, but it'll make sense as the series goes on.
Back to Eiji in the middle of probably everyone's worst nightmare, Detective Shingo Izumi questions him over why he has no idea what happened and how he slept through such a huge explosion. As the crooks are taken away in an ambulance, Eiji expresses concern for them, insisting they're nice because they got him a drink earlier—he doesn't know them otherwise, but this is the judgment he's made. This is an important part of his character for setup, but the naïveté is awkward and contrived, wisely dropped later on. To add to it, Shu Watanabe's performance as Eiji is very shaky at this point, and the naive behavior very obviously doesn't come naturally to him. He's chewing the scenery and choking on it, like he just came off of watching Kamen Rider W and thought that because Renn Kiriyama had hammed the shit out of Shotaro, he was going to have to do the same. Fortunately, within a few episodes, he gains his stride and figures out that there are very few people in the world who can pull off ham like Shotaro, so it's not really a requirement for Neo-Heisei Riders.
He reveals that he's a nomad with no permanent address, traveling the world and living off the contents of his pockets—just some spare change and his underwear for tomorrow. Unfortunately for him, his spare underwear was burnt in the attack. Somehow. Eiji shows his first display of distress, freaking out over not having a tomorrow because he doesn't have underwear, and I promise this actually will get explained to some degree. But he still has the Medal, and unknown to him, he's being observed by a strange hand.
We have a brief, artistic intro to the enemy Greeed: Gamel, Mezool, Uva, and Kazari, all of whom have color-coded silk tapestries to their names (grey, blue, green, and yellow, respectively). It's a nice bit of scenery painting that Kobayashi does with this season, and had done with previous shows—if you remember Ryuki, at the end, black feathers that symbolized Yui's presence were suddenly directly interacting with Kanzaki, convincing him that she was still there and that he needed to stop. OOO is similar. The tapestries actually don't seem to symbolize anything, but the Greeed do interact with them. It's just a thing that exists. Don't question it. In any case, they realize something is wrong—their bodies haven't completely regenerated, and they're missing Core Medals. Kazari notes that he thought he saw Ankh, their fifth member, with a few that didn't belong to him, and Uva's especially pissed that the assbird took them, especially when he could barely take form.
With no job, no place to stay for the night, and no underwear for tomorrow, Eiji begins to wonder what to do when he notices a strange vending machine. He goes to get a drink, but he fishes the Medal from his pocket, unaware that he's still being watched closely. He doesn't know what the Medal is, but a person passing by him bumps him, causing him to drop it under the machine, where he can't reach. He tries to tilt it back to reach the Medal, but he can't seem to get help, although a young woman passing through seems to notice. The strange hand, Ankh, tries to grab at the Medal, but Eiji loses his grip on the vending machine and drops it on Ankh. The young woman, Hina, hears Ankh's screams and thinks Eiji hurt himself, so she runs over to help, using her inhuman strength to lift the machine and free Ankh, who has the Medal back. She runs off screaming, seeing him hide behind Eiji. Eiji doesn't know what scared her until he turns around and sees Ankh for himself. He likewise freaks out, knocking the Medal from Ankh's hand...well, self, and running off. But because he has the Medal again, Ankh chases after him.
Meanwhile, Uva attacks a jewelry store, selecting a woman and placing a Medal in her, creating a Yummy—a mummy-like monster that consumes the rings from her fingers before eating all of the jewels in the store. As it does so, it builds up Medals and changes form from the weak, staggering mummy to a praying mantis. Uva charges his Yummy with finding his Medal, and he bursts out of the store, almost hitting a patrol car as it passes by. But inside the car are Shingo and his partner, and they decide to pursue the monster.
Ankh finally catches up to Eiji, promising not to harm him if he returns the Medal. Eiji tries to explain he only found it, but Ankh says he'd dropped it trying to escape the museum. Unfortunately, the Yummy has found them and attacks. With Eiji still in possession of his Medal, Ankh is forced to protect him, but he can barely deflect the attacks. Bothered by how one-sided the battle is, Eiji steps in, but he's thrown aside just as easily. Shingo finally arrives, and his partner starts shooting the Yummy, but it has no effect; it only makes him mad enough to blast at their car, causing them to crash. The unnamed partner is injured, fading in and out of consciousness. Shingo holds on a little longer, but he's seriously wounded and collapses. The distraction, at least, buys Eiji some time to escape, and he runs to Shingo's side. Ankh tries to hold off the Yummy from attacking him, but the Yummy turns on him again. With Shingo dying and Ankh losing, Eiji does the only thing he can do—he picks up Shingo's gun and shoots at the Yummy. It doesn't do much other than annoy the Mantis, but he tells Eiji to keep out of it. However, Eiji argues that although he's just met both Shingo and Ankh that morning, he's got a connection to them already; this officially is his business. The Yummy only attacks Ankh again, so Eiji shoots again. When he runs out of bullets, he charges, but the Yummy throws him around again. Ankh realizes that the kind of idiot who'd risk his life to save people he barely knows? May be the exact kind of idiot he needs. He saves Eiji from serious injury and gives him the coffin's seal, which transforms into the OOO Driver as it bonds with him. He also gives Eiji two of the Medals he stole, telling him to defeat the Yummy. The Yummy tries to talk him out of it, insisting there's a price to be paid, but Ankh insists a little risk is worth it. Eiji agrees, saying that no matter where he's been, he's found it's always hard to save lives. Using the stolen Tora/Tiger and Batta/Grasshopper Medals, as well as the Taka/Hawk Medal he already had, he transforms into OOO, TaToBa combo.
Another sidenote—the Driver sings. I mention this because I suspect that one day, it won't be taken for granted that henshin belts have some sort of gimmick designed to make kids buy those toys and make adults buy more expensive versions of those toys. Heisei Era belts started off simple, like Kuuga's and Agito's, gradually becoming more complex—the card systems of Ryuki, Blade, and Decade, the tech of 555, the separate toy and cast-off system of Kabuto, and the add-on transformation modes of Den-O and Kiva. Neo-Heisei Kamen Rider, the post-Decade decade, decided they had to make their belts more distinct. W used plug-in USB memories. Fourze uses various switches. Gaim has fruit locks with various, pre-programmed phrases. Drive has a sentient belt. Wizard and OOO sing, along with their add-ons, rings and Medals. And in the case of OOO, the singing voice is Akira Kushida, a pretty famous singer for various anime and toku themes—he did "Dragon Road" for Kamen Rider ZX and the puts-hair-on-your-chest level manly Space Sheriff Gavan theme, along with the rest of the Space Sheriff themes. He calls out the name of each Medal and sings each combo, and it is glorious and catchy as hell.
As it turns out, Eiji does notice his belt singing and is generally confused about the whole thing. Ankh tells him not to think too much about it and shoves him into battle. The Yummy attacks, and Eiji quickly starts to discover what powers OOO has, such as claws on his arms and super jumps with his feet. But a counterattack almost neutralizes the transformation, so Ankh trades out Tora for Kamakiri (Praying Mantis), giving him blades on his arms that finish the battle, exploding the Yummy into Medals.
But Shingo's phone starts ringing, cluing Eiji in that the detective is still dying. And with no body of his own, Ankh decides a human body is better than nothing. He attaches himself to Shingo's right arm and merges with him...changing his haircut while he's at it. Because this is a Yasuko Kobayashi Rider series, and if Den-O taught us anything, it's that possession gives you a new haircut and a dye job. In Ankh's case, blond, curly on one side, and close cut on the other before a thin braid runs along the side.
On the other end of the phone, Shingo's younger sister, Hina, wonders why he hasn't answered.
At the Kougami Foundation headquarters, Kougami decorates a cake in celebration of the birth of the new OOO.
At the battlefield, Goto watches and releases a flock of Taka candroids...
Greed, Ice Candy, Present (Kobayashi/Tasaki): As soon as Eiji transforms back, Ankh takes the Driver from him and stores it...wherever he stores those things. Eiji asks why he possessed Shingo, noticing that Ankh's arm is now human—he's merged so completely that he can hide his Greeed form. Ankh insists that being just an arm put him at a disadvantage, and since Shingo was already dying, why not use him as a meatpuppet? But they spot the hawks taking Medals from the scene, and Ankh isn't happy, snatching one back and demanding answers from Eiji. But even though Eiji doesn't know what's going on either, Ankh realizes just how far humans have come since he was sealed. In fact, the Takas belong to Kougami, depositing the Medals before returning to can form. Kougami looks on a horde of Medals he's already collected, thinking on how things will work out now for his life's goal, the Greeed, and OOO.
Ankh comes across an ice cream man and steals three ice pops from him, leaving Eiji to pay. Yes, this is the start of an addiction and a running gag. Yes, this is a Kobayashi series and you'll never be able to eat this without crying. When Eiji asks again what's going on, he starts to explain his backstory, about his birth 800 years ago from the Core Medals, but Eiji fails to follow and is really more worried about Shingo. Ankh insists Shingo will be fine and that he'll let him eat, pointing out that he can indeed taste, picking up on the cold, sweet flavor of the ice pops—remember this later. The alternative is that he consumes things through his hand, but Eiji doesn't like that, accidentally detaching him while trying to stop him. At first, he's relieved, but Ankh points out he's the only thing keeping Shingo alive, so Eiji hastily puts him back. Unsure what to do about Shingo's predicament, Eiji starts to moan and complain, so Ankh shuts him up by sticking an ice pop in his mouth. One lead male shoves a phallic object into the other lead male's mouth. It's like Ryosuke Miura was warned that people would be shipping them, and he decided to encourage everyone. It doesn't help when he explains that he did it to make sure Eiji himself eats—he needs him, so he needs to keep him alive. Proper care and feeding of your Rider. With the ice pops providing a helpful visual aid, Ankh explains the two types of Medals. Core Medals are at the center of a Greeed, like the stick. Cell Medals compose the body, like the ice. A Yummy, therefore, is the ice without a stick. To illustrate, Ankh stuffs the ice back in Eiji's mouth and removes the stick. Thank you, Ankh, you're doing all the work for everybody. He also explains that while the Cores are the most important part, most of theirs went missing while they were sealed. And since he only regenerated as a right arm, he took a few of the others' Medals to level the playing field.
To our lead female character, Hina comes to the international restaurant, Cous Coussier, for a job. She texts her brother a message about trying to get a job that has nothing to do with her being a "power-type"—the only explanation we get for her super strength—and sends along a picture. But Eiji still has the phone and is not only hurt knowing that Shingo has a younger sister, but shocked to recognize the young woman who'd helped him earlier.
Inside the restaurant, owner Chiyoko Shiraishi has tethered the door to a series of heavy weights. Hina manages to open it, learning that Chiyoko did this as a test, to find a ridiculously strong girl. She's kind of crazy, like if Owner from Den-O and Sanako from Ryuki had a daughter who opened her own restaurant. She dresses Hina in a pirate costume and asks her to bring over a milk can, and when Hina grabs a much larger one, she realizes she's gotten more than she expected. But then the police call to let Hina know that her brother disappeared.
At the hospital, one of the injured crooks tries to convince the other to help him hijack an armored bank car, but the other is tired of these schemes. Uva appears and creates another Yummy from his greed. And a note on translation: TVN mostly starts off using "greed" for the word "yokubou" before switching to "desire." Which I honestly don't mind, depending on context. "Yokubou" appears to be more of a catch-all term, where the English "greed" has more negative connotations. But it's also used in contexts to support it as a good emotion, so the more neutral "desire" works better in that context. In fact, Kougami tries to explain how it's a good thing, producing energy to create the world. Gathering the Medals born of that desire creates infinity. OOO, then, is a power over infinity. I think Over-Time used the same translation convention, and I think it's a good choice, switching between the two or trying to use the more neutral term as much as possible.
The Yummy attacks the armored car and consumes the money inside. Ankh senses it, hearing the Cell Medals forming, and drags Eiji off to meet up with it at a bank. But he refuses to let Eiji fight, insisting that it needs to feed to create Medals, and all Medals are created from human desire anyway. It molts into what the wikis say is a weevil but I honestly just acknowledge as an eldritch creature born of pure nightmare, and attacks a high-rise building. Ankh is excited at the prospect of more Medals, since this Yummy is fucking huge, but Eiji's worried about the people who will be hurt if the Yummy devours the building. Ankh tells him that his priority is harvesting Medals, and Eiji is not to fight until enough have formed. Using Eiji's own words against him, he insists that saving lives isn't just hard—it's not free either, and the price is that Eiji listens to him and does what he says, even as the building starts to topple and crashes into the one next door, where a fancy party is being held.
Hina heads to the scene of the crash and sees the patrol car—unmistakably her brother's, since it has the teddy bear omamori she gave him hanging from the mirror. She desperately tries to call Shingo again, and Eiji sees her on the caller ID. He realizes that she must be crying, and he has a mysterious and distressing flashback to a young girl crying among the ruins of a city or town, while he reaches out toward her with bleeding, dirty hands. She's just out of his reach as rockets explode around her, and the vision ends in flames. Eiji looks down to his hand now and comes to a decision—he races into the second building, running upstairs until he reaches the party. Just in time, he pulls a man away from the Yummy, but as soon as he gets him to safety, the floor beneath him starts to shift and crack, causing him to fall out the window. He's barely hanging onto the edge as Ankh tries to both save and reason with him. But because Ankh came in hand form, Eiji's more worried about Shingo, and Ankh tells him to start worrying about himself instead, trying to hand over the Driver. Eiji refuses unless Ankh promises to let him transform when he wants, and not to prioritize the Medals over people's lives. Ankh doesn't like the deal, but the Yummy's movements cause Eiji to call completely. He gets the Driver on him, but even in the face of imminent death, Eiji makes him promise.
When Ankh finally agrees, Eiji uses TaToBa's claws to slow his descent. Goto arrives with a "birthday present" from Kougami—a Cell Medal-powered sword, the Medajalibur. I hate spelling it, so you're not going to see its name very frequently around here. There are additional Medals to use with the vending machines, the Ride Vendor bikes, and he also provides Eiji with several candroids—Tako, or octopus. Eiji proceeds to geek out over the little mechanical octopi, which create a road for him to ride up, and can link together like a bungee cord to catch him when he falls again. With three Medals, the sword powers up enough to rip not only the Yummy in half, but reality itself, at least in the immediate vicinity of the attack. But everything else goes back to normal afterwards, so Eiji's not quite as destructive as he could be.
Eiji sends Hina a text from Shingo's phone, claiming that he's on an undercover assignment and can't come back home for a little while, sending along a picture of Ankh to prove it. Hard as it is to send the message, Eiji hopes that he can keep the promise at the end and someday separate Ankh and Shingo, so Shingo can go back home to his sister. Ankh, however, is more worried about why humans are collecting Cell Medals, and he ends up running into Hina, who immediately mistakes him for her actual brother and grabs him in a hug. Eiji watches his entire plan fall apart not even a minute in as Ankh reveals his Greeed arm behind Hina's back, trying to figure her out...
Cat, Evolution, A Glutton (Kobayashi/Takayuki Shibasaki): Eiji starts to panic as Hina hugs Ankh, asking about the supposed case. Unsure who she is, Ankh scans Shingo's memories. Once he figures it out and she notices his hand, he tries to strangle her. Eiji races to her rescue, but she grabs Ankh's arm and throws him, ripping him off Shingo. The confused talking hand once again freaks her out, and she passes out. Well, we're off to a wonderful start: one hero was caught lying, a second hero tried to murder the third hero, and that third is unconscious. Oh, and that other guy is still dying over there. Eiji tries to help Hina, with Ankh very confused how a human can be that strong. When Eiji asks what his deal is, Ankh explains that Shingo's sister would naturally get in the way of them collecting Medals. So kill her, and there's no problem. He then smacks Eiji out of the way so he can finish the job. But Eiji proves he's got a clever, almost manipulative side—he threatens to drop the Driver into the water if Ankh doesn't get away from Hina right now, acting innocent and stupid right until he makes his conditions known. When Ankh does move away, Eiji goes to take Hina to the only safe place he knows he can bring her—Cous Coussier, as seen in her photo. Chiyoko is running an Indian theme that day and greets him as a customer before realizing that he's got the new girl unconscious on his back. He weakly explains that she's not feeling well, and Chiyoko leads him to the attic bedroom, while Ankh sulks on the roof about Eiji's surprising deviousness. Chiyoko lays Hina on a couch to rest and thanks Eiji, who apologizes for dumping her on Chiyoko. But she offers him dinner sometime and asks where he lives. He answers evasively about living nearby "lately" and leaves. As she wonders about him, she notices a photo on her counter, from somewhere in the Middle East or, more likely given what we learn later, North Africa. In the left corner, in the background, is Eiji, apparently asking for directions. At the park, Eiji washes out his (hopefully new) underwear and admits his worries—he'd hoped they wouldn't run into Hina, and now he doesn't know how to explain anything to her. Ankh once again advocates homicide, and Eiji gives him a dark look.
The Greeed emerge from a tunnel and engage the police, all photographed on onlookers' phones. We see a close bond between Gamel and Mezool, which will come up a lot: Gamel uses up too much strength too fast, and Mezool donates some Cell Medals to help him out. She reminds them all that while they need to find Ankh, they also need to gather Cell Medals. Kazari blasts away the police with wind and volunteers to go next, believing that because humans have changed, so too has their greed—it seems to be much larger than before and harder to satisfy. He selects a man with...well, a serious overeating problem, since the guy is constantly buying and eating food to the point that people around him are staring. But the Yummy doesn't emerge from him—bandages appear on him instead, and he becomes possessed by his desire. He begins eating every piece of food in sight, even straight out of a delivery truck. Ankh hears the Medals and brings Eiji to the fight, but Eiji's worried and confused when Ankh tells him the Yummy is a human—more specifically, a parasitic Yummy inside the human parent. Ankh still doesn't want to act until it's built up more Cells, but Eiji snatches the Medals anyway and transforms, deciding he's not going to wait for the victim to get hurt.
He tries to talk the Yummy out of him, and it goes about as well as you'd expect. The Yummy-possessed man throws boxes at him and spits energy blasts at him. Eiji gets past the attacks, but he's unwilling to fight if it means hurting an innocent person, so he gets his ass kicked. Ankh says the Yummy won't come out until it's fully mature, so Eiji has to attack and kill the human host. When he won't, Ankh fights instead. Eiji tries to stop him and remind him of his promise, but being a reactive little assbird, Ankh tells him that he's the boss, Eiji's the minion, and it's past time Eiji started following orders instead of giving them. But in the midst of their argument, they leave their backs open, allowing the Yummy to attack as a smokescreen while it runs away. Goto arrives, passing along his Ride Vendor, intending for Eiji to use the candroids. Eiji misunderstands and transforms it into bike mode, wasting a Medal before changing it back and taking the hawk candroid. Ankh, of course, yells at Eiji for wasting a Medal and fails to negotiate a return. Eiji sends the hawk after the Yummy while Ankh questions Goto, who claims humans have evolved over the past 800 years and even have weapons to deal with the Greeed. So he pulls a gun on Ankh. Eiji then puts himself directly in the way of the gun to try to break up the fight, and this moment is scary in retrospect. Eiji is in front of the gun. If Goto's finger slips, he will be shot and he will die. And yet, he seems to understand this possibility and is more worried about everything else going on around him. Goto and Ankh don't even seem to consider the possibility that they might end up murdering their Rider in just the third episode. But luckily for Eiji, Goto reconsiders and decides it's not worth shooting Ankh, and he leaves. Eiji still thinks generously of him, however, pointing out to Ankh that Goto's helped them before even though they know nothing about him. Ankh also wonders who he is, but he decides he needs to focus more on the advancements of humanity across eight centuries, so he accesses Shingo's memories again. He leads Eiji to the Izumis' apartment, very briefly explaining that because he's possessing Shingo's body, he's got full access to his mind as well. And since he needs to research whoever's using the Medals for technology, as well as what happened to the other Cores, he'll use Shingo's computer.
Kougami monitors Eiji's progress and notes that while he's strong, he lacks resources and knowledge, and must make up for them with the Ride Vendors and Ankh. This is the concept of "technique vs. power," a theme for Riders from the very beginning. Takeshi Hongo, Kamen Rider 1, is known as a Rider specializing in technique—he was a genius with multiple skills, and he relied on that in his fighting style. Hayato Ichimonji, Kamen Rider 2, is the Rider known for specializing in power—from his creation, he was stronger than Hongo, but he wasn't as smart or skilled. Kamen Rider V3, Shiro Kazami, was created by the both of them, and thus specialized in both technique and power. Eiji, at this point, is a power-type Rider. This works out in Kougami's favor, because by providing the "technique" Eiji's lacking, he's getting Medals from him. So Goto will be in charge of monitoring Eiji and assisting where necessary.
Hina finally wakes up, and Chiyoko talks with her about what happened. She suggests that Hina's attacker may not have been her brother, since he didn't seem to recognize her, but Hina's still sure that she wasn't mistaken. The Yummy bursts in the door and throws Chiyoko aside when she tries to explain they're closed. He then tears apart the kitchen, devouring all of the food, while Taka monitors.
Ankh is still googling, and as a nice little Easter egg, we see an ad for the Kougami Foundation on the search engine. Eiji warns him not to break anything, so he scans Shingo's memories again, remembering he was constantly online. He realizes Shingo had bought an iPhone 4 and hid it from Hina, and he finds it in the closet. Eiji steps out of the room and spots a butsudan in the corner, with offerings and a photo of Shingo's and Hina's parents, and it hits him suddenly that Shingo is all Hina had left. The candroid returns and leads Eiji and Ankh to Cous Coussier, where Hina and Chiyoko are ready to call the police when the Yummy turns on them again. Hina blocks an attack, but he keeps coming for them. A candroid is tossed in, catching his attention, and it rolls out, luring him out of the restaurant. As Hina shuts the door behind him, she spots Ankh outside.
The Yummy catches the candroid and opens it, activating an octopus. It sprays him with ink, stopping him long enough for Eiji to grab him. The hawk holds out a steak, luring the Yummy out of him. But Ankh shoves Eiji aside and lets the Yummy back in. He tosses over food, trying to build up the Medals, insisting that this particular one is harmless as long as it gets what it wants. Eiji argues that the human parent will be hurt, but Ankh insists the man's own gluttony was what created it. As the man's body begins to bloat from all the Medals, Eiji desperately tries to get the Driver and Cores, but Ankh throws him back. He calls Eiji's bluff, insisting that if he really does throw away the belt, he loses all chance and ability to save anyone. Eiji is a determined little idiot, however, and tries to wrest the food from the man and reason with him, knowing he'll die at this rate. The Yummy starts beating the shit out of Eiji, and Ankh's attempts to talk him out of getting himself killed go nowhere; he just keeps getting up again and insists it's better than doing nothing, and we get another flashback to the crying child.
The Yummy finally emerges, taking the form of a spiky, fat cat. Now, Ankh helps, but all weapons bounce off its body, and it can bounce off surfaces to body slam Eiji. Only kicks seem to work, so Eiji tries TaToBa's Rider Kick—the Batta legs transform the feet into what honestly looks like prosthetic running blades, allowing Eiji to jump high into the air. Taka's eyes close in on the target, and Eiji passes through a circle of each Medal's color, which provide extra powers: red provides wings for flight/descent, yellow for claws and cutting, and presumably green has the kick itself. I say "presumably" because someone throws concrete pillars in Eiji's way, which absorb most of the impact and save the Yummy. Ankh reveals it was Kazari, who finally shows himself...
Doubt, Photo E-Mail, Saving Hand (Kobayashi/Shibasaki): Ankh says that the whole skulking in the shadows thing is pure Kazari, and he remembers that Yummy parasites are his specialty. The Yummy returns to safety inside its parent and seeks more food. Eiji tries to run after him, but Kazari attacks him with a blast of wind. Ankh warns him that he wants back one of the Cores Eiji has, but Kazari insists he's not looking for a fight. He doubts Ankh has all of the missing Medals, since he could only regenerate his hand, so he suggests that Ankh dump Eiji and hang out with another Greeed like him. Try as I might, I can't get it to sound like anything but "dump that loser and hook up with a REAL MAN." He claims that because the original OOO sealed them, there's no way Ankh can work with the new one. He tries to feed Ankh's ego, but while Ankh claims he's only working with the human as a matter of convenience and security, he needs time to decide whether or not to join the Greeed again. Kazari agrees and takes a parting shot at Eiji before taking off.
The beaten Eiji pulls himself up, leaning heavily on a fence, shocked at the power a Greeed has—there's a different quality to it compared to the Yummies', more than just strength. Ankh reminds him there are still three others and that Kazari isn't even at full strength, and Eiji remembers an earlier warning Ankh made that the Greeed at full power would "devour the world." Ankh threatens to take up Kazari's offer if Eiji doesn't play his way, but Eiji refuses, still believing that there's more to humans than corruptible desires. So Ankh leaves to play with his phone, searching maps and the internet while waiting for the Yummy to grow. Kougami observes him, deciding that they can't be straightforward with him, and that they need to plan around him, in case he does decide to leave Eiji. Still, Kougami has a particular plan he wants to see through to the end.
Eiji hears Shingo's phone ringing, but to his shock, Hina is right behind him. She'd taken off after Ankh, determined to find answers, and now she sees that Eiji has her brother's phone. He tries to explain, but his injuries are too much, and he passes out. She brings him to Cous Coussier, and Chiyoko muses on the strange coincidence that he carried her in last time, only for her to carry him this time—because this is Hina, I assume she did pick him up and carry him the whole way. Hina brings him up to the attic and puts compresses on his back to help with the pain, and he comes clean to her about Ankh and Shingo. He apologizes for lying and sending the photo, but it was the only thing he could think to do. She asks how they can help her brother, but he's afraid of getting others involved, worried that Ankh will hurt them or decide to dump Shingo if it's too much trouble. He tells her that even though Ankh looks like Shingo, they couldn't be more different. But he promises to save him and asks her to keep away from Ankh. She asks if she can trust him, since after all, neither she nor her brother even know him. Why would he make this promise? And as if Kobayashi is trying to shake off Eiji's naïveté from the first episode, he gives a different and much better answer this time around: he has to. He's not doing it because he's a nice guy, he can't ask Hina to trust him, and he might not even be able to do it. But if he doesn't try to help out as much as he can, he won't be able to live with the regret.
Chiyoko gets a call from a neighboring restaurant, and she passes along the warning to Eiji that the Yummy is there. Hina asks if he's going to fight, even with his injuries, but he insists that she took care of him and gave him replacement compresses, so he'll be okay. Ankh, having found an uploaded pic of the Yummy parent completely bloated, arrives and meets up with Eiji. He asks for Eiji's answer; since he's figured out how to use modern tech, Eiji's got to convince him he'll be useful. Eiji again tells him no, that he's not merely a tool, and Kazari assumes this means Ankh will join him. Afraid this is the case, Eiji takes the sword and tries to fight Kazari on his own. But just as Kazari starts to charge, Ankh strikes, revealing that everyone saw Kazari spying on them and posted it online. Ankh has learned Twitter, congratulations. He played along to get Kazari to lower his guard, fully expecting a betrayal, and made sure to betray him first. Low as his opinion of humans is, he prefers their honesty. He holds off Kazari again and tosses Eiji the Medals, but Eiji can barely hold his own, even with Kamakiri's blades. As they clash into each other, Kazari dislodges that Medal from the Driver and decides to keep it. Just as Ankh begins to regret his decision to stay with Eiji, part of Kazari's armor crumbles away. Eiji reveals another clever moment—he'd used the clash as a chance to steal some Medals from Kazari, knowing he'd lose otherwise.
The Yummy emerges and completely swallows up its parent. Ankh again insists it's the man's own greed that consumed him and that he isn't worth saving. Eiji, however, says it's not his job to determine a person's worth. Ankh decides he will, though, and promises that if he ever decides Eiji's worthless to him, he'll abandon him. In turn, Eiji promises to figure out Ankh's weakness and save Shingo, even if it means they have to fight. So we have our heroes promising to betray one another and basing their entire relationship around the fact that they one day will have to fight. We really are off to a wonderful start; even Shinji and Ren didn't acknowledge this until episode 21. Ryuki is officially more functional than you guys.
Again, Eiji finds himself unable to cut through the Yummy's fat without using force, which might hurt the human inside. A deeper cut does expose him trying to get free, and Eiji realizes the key is to just shift the Medals out of the way. Ankh tosses him one of the new Cores—Cheetah, with feet resembling sneakers—and it provides super speed and rapid kicks. Eiji digs through the Medals and reaches for the man, pulling him to safety so he can use the sword's finisher. An ambulance takes the man away, and he promises not to binge anymore and to learn self-control. Eiji tries to use this as proof that humans aren't all bad, but when the man asks about the quality of the hospital's food, Ankh insists he was right all along.
As they walk off, a car stops in front of them. Satonaka steps out and removes a computer screen, formally introducing them to Kougami, who celebrates this meeting as a portent for a coming birth...
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-14 06:34 pm (UTC)When a few months ago I rewatched OOO with a friend I was introducing to Rider (OOO is my series I ALWAYS use to introduce Rider - it's rather approachable), we came up with the theory that the reason Hina's superstrength is never explained and she's so out of focus is well.. her actress is kind of embarassingly bad. Really, really bad. So they took the focus off her because uh, play to your strengths. (Also, running gag from near the end of that viewing continuing to other things: Hina's critical weakness to nets from episode... 34 I think. "A net fell on me and then I passed out!")
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-28 07:02 am (UTC)https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/with-this-ring-young-justice-si-story-only.25076/
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-28 12:41 pm (UTC)