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akinoameImperer (Toshiki Inoue): Previously on Kamen Rider Ryuki: Ren made peace with Eri when she fell back to sleep, overall finishing his character arc; Tojo was revealed to be Tiger and killed Alternative, Nakamura; and Kagawa was forced to confront his ideal of heroism while a mysterious herd of gazelle-type Monsters keeps attacking.
We’re in for a batch of Inoue here until Kobayashi brings us to the finale. So remember how last time, I gave a defense of Inoue as a writer? I still stand by it, but I have serious problems with this stretch of episodes. I don’t know if he burnt himself out writing EPISODE FINAL and 13 Riders, but…well, I’ll get to it in a minute. Let’s just say that I have questions about how he writes Kobayashi characters.
The beginning of the episode reveals that Imperer sicced his Monsters on everybody in the battle and watched from a distance. Alternative Zero calls Tiger to leave because of the time limit, and after he fends off Ouja, Ryuki Survive tells Knight to do the same. When they get back, Kagawa frantically calls his wife, much to Tojo’s surprise. He promises to come home early, then notices how Tojo is surprised that Kagawa truly feels that his family is important to him. Kagawa tells him that a hero has to understand the importance of human life. But now Ren’s caught up to them and tells Kagawa off for being willing to sacrifice his family and argues with the both of them that it’s not heroic. And I do like this. Once again, we see how Ren’s philosophy is incompatible with Kagawa’s. To Ren, if you value somebody, you have to protect them, never sacrifice them; it’s part of being human, not being a hero. He then heads home to find Sanako in a depression because Tojo quit. He also notices that Shinji checked himself out of the hospital and asks him if he’s really feeling that much better. Shinji insists he’s fine, but more importantly, he checked himself out so he could keep an eye on Yui. They agree that one of them will stay with her at all times, to protect her from Kagawa and Tojo. Let’s see how long it takes for them to fuck this up.
Kitaoka is having a nice meal at home when Asakura headbutts the door. Goro is ready to beat the shit out of him, but Kitaoka invites his nemesis inside. Asakura claims that Tojo is now at the top of his hit list and demands information. Kitaoka doesn’t know where he is and suggests he ask Shinji. As a show of intimidation, Asakura steals Kitaoka’s meal and eats even part of an oyster shell as he demands to know where Shinji is.
And here’s where I start to have a problem. See, I don’t think Inoue knows how to write Kitaoka. I really don’t. Sure, he wrote the second episode where he was introduced, but those early episodes are really the only time he’s written him well. The two episodes where he tried to entrap Shinji? Weird tone, but he did a pretty good job. Otherwise, he seems to always be working off Kitaoka’s very first appearance. While Kobayashi handled his most dickish moment (when he tricked Shinji into thinking he’d killed Goro), Inoue writes him with more casual dickery—basically, what you see in episodes 29-30. And he’s the buttmonkey. It’s actually worse than Ryotaro in the Den-O series and Momotaros in all of the subsequent movies. Kitaoka’s supposed to be this fairly cool guy, who can gracefully recover after being shot down. But Inoue constantly makes him come off as pathetic. Things like “Zolda’s Assault” (episode 26), when Shinji uses Magnugiga as a shield. “Marriage Interview Battle” (episode 29), where he constantly strikes out with Reiko even when he’s helped save her. “Zolda’s Lover” (episode 30)—just all of it. Most of the romantic implications between Kitaoka and Reiko are written by Inoue, and it’s a guarantee that Kitaoka will strike out, where Kobayashi has Kitaoka still showing respect to her when he’s been shot down. Typically, Kitaoka is kicked around to make Asakura look cooler, as here. Sure, he’s done some great bits, like tackling Goro’s backstory, but even when he makes Kitaoka a good guy, he tends to smack him around unfairly. Best example I can think of is in the movie, when he tries to help Miho, only for her to beat the utter shit out of him, leading him to quit the Rider War and accept his approaching death.
And this difficulty he has with the Ryuki characters isn’t limited to Kitaoka, though I think that one’s simultaneously the most subtle and the more pervasive. Inoue is good at writing plot, but not so much at writing characters. Much as I praise his episode of Gokaiger, even while I was watching it I knew that Marvelous was out-of-character—when has he ever been afraid of an enemy, let alone too afraid to act? He’s a fucking PIRATE! Their motto is along the lines of “If we don’t like something, we blow it up." Marvelous is out-of-character to make Gai Yuuki of Jetman look cooler, which is the exact problem that happens with Kitaoka and Asakura. These character difficulties are more apparent with the others: Shinji’s naïveté ping-pongs all over the place, and it’s at its worst here—he’s another massive buttmonkey in Inoue’s works, similar to the later Keitaro and Kaido in 555. Remember, we’re at a point where he’s losing his innocence, and Inoue has him making mistakes from the Scissors arc. Ren and Reiko wind up as tsunderes who you’d be hard-pressed to believe actually care about other people, and who have to be incredibly stupid for the plot to work. Ren trolls more in Inoue’s episodes and tends to be the angry jerk—think a trolling version of early Book 1 Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender, before his backstory was revealed—and his character development is largely thrown out the window. When it isn’t, Inoue’s just copying stuff that Kobayashi already covered. There are moments where he’s spot-on in characterization, like the great job done with him in 13 Riders, but there are other times where I can’t even believe this is the same character. To make a comparison to Power Rangers, it’s as bad as what happened in the RPM/Samurai crossover event “Clash of the Red Rangers,” where a new writer who’d never done RPM before took on writing RPM Red Ranger Scott, only to base all of his characterization off his zanier Sentai counterpart, Sosuke, with tons of plot-required stupidity on the parts of both Red Rangers, Scott and Jayden. EPISODE FINAL is a great example of that problem: When he sees Ryuga and mistakes him for Shinji, Ren doesn’t question why Shinji is acting out-of-character; he immediately starts suspecting him. This is a guy who—in an episode Inoue himself wrote—wouldn’t once believe that Shinji kidnapped his coworker and so spent money he didn’t have to hire the best lawyer in Japan to defend him. He shows no concern over Shinji at all and completely fails to act when he sees Ryuga overtaking him. He might cry over Yui’s death, but he still completely forgets all about her and fails to call her his friend, when we know he’s close to her and has known her longer than he’s known Shinji. Thanks to inconsistencies, Ren practically has mood swings—as I pointed out, between episodes 14 and 15, Ren’s attitude goes from settled and accepting of the changes happening in his life (having exposed Kitaoka to help Shinji and stopped fighting against the Atori group becoming more like a family) to moody and depressed and picking on Shinji. Sure, it’s believable, but it’s still startling to see Ren take a massive step backwards in development the very next day. I can’t say the same for Reiko when she’s out-of-character—she starts yelling and raging in a way totally unlike the cool, professional journalist. Neither one of them can get a clue, like Ren throughout all of EPISODE FINAL and Reiko during the Asakura backstory episodes. And ORE Journal is at its most insane when Inoue writes them, with Okubo losing all pretense of being the boss and just being another nut in the asylum.
Which brings me to the next scene. Shinji is stunned when he walks into work to see Shimada’s photo of the Monster. Okubo notices that he doesn’t seem too surprised and watches him carefully as he fakes bewilderment. Then Asakura walks in. It takes Okubo a minute to recognize the highly-publicized escaped convict who’s assaulted several officers, held a whole restaurant (including Shinji) hostage, and killed a few people, whom they’ve been covering in their stories for quite a while (see what I mean about plot-required stupidity?), and then he, Shimada, and Megumi promptly panic. Above their insanity, Asakura calmly asks Shinji to talk outside, and Shinji cautiously agrees. They head to a fire escape, where Asakura asks where to find Tojo, but Shinji refuses to help him if he’s going to kill Tojo. Any potential fight is broken up when the ORE trio runs up a nearby fire escape, armed with makeshift weapons and armor. Asakura escaped once he heard them clambering up, and though he insists he’s fine, Shinji can’t help but ask his would-be heroes why they’re too far away to help him, so Okubo changes the subject.
Reiko, meanwhile, went to visit Kitaoka with the photo. Despite her evidence, he insists it’s nonsense, so she argues that he’s hiding something. He finally offends her to the point she walks out the door, but he offers to take her home, though she has him drive to Seimeiin. There, Reiko asks Kagawa more about Kanzaki, cluing in Kitaoka that Kanzaki had done his research in that lab, and he notices that Tojo seems a little more than suspicious. Reiko is turned away, and the two of them sit down outside one of the buildings at the university, drinking coffee. She’s still fixated on Kanzaki’s research, and both of them are unaware that Tojo is watching them from the window behind them. Kitaoka suggests investigating something different if she’s stuck and starts flirting inappropriately. He then notices Tojo closing the blinds, seconds before sensing a Monster. Destwilder bursts out of the window to attack them, but Kitaoka’s quick actions protect her, though she’s knocked out. He then holds his deck to the window to transform, but Tojo opens the blinds, discovering his identity and revealing his own. As the battle begins, Tiger insists that he targeted Reiko so he could become a hero. While they fight, Ren and Yui are on the road and spot the battle, leading Ren to drop the whole bodyguard duty to intervene. But it’s a good thing he did, since Zolda nearly gets killed by Tiger’s Final Vent when Knight attacks Tiger, giving Zolda the chance to get free. After the battle, Ren goes to check on Kitaoka, who is injured and exhausted, leaning heavily against the window. Kitaoka can’t believe that he lost to a nut like Tiger and asks if it’s because Tiger’s strong or because he’s weak—echoing Ren’s argument to him back in episode 23. His vision suddenly acts up, and he passes out. Ren fails to wake him and rushes him to the hospital.
The next part is pretty good, but Kobayashi does it better later on. We have a quiet shot of Ren sitting on an empty bed away from Kitaoka’s, waiting. Kitaoka suddenly wakes and realizes he’s there. Ren tells him that the injury from battle wasn’t that bad and he knows why Kitaoka fainted. And guess why: Because Kitaoka’s doctor told him. Every time I have complained about the breach in privacy (not the breach in security, like when Eri escaped the hospital, or questionable care practices, like when even Sanako thought the hospital should have kept an amnesiac Ren for more observation), it has been in an Inoue episode. He relies on gimmicks as much as a Ben 10 writer. Rather than devoting time to having the characters reveal it themselves, which takes skill and development, he cheats and uses this gimmick. For example, in ANOTHER episode he wrote, episode 16, Tezuka simply followed Ren to the hospital and overheard him promising to save Eri. Kobayashi then wrote Tezuka confronting Ren and telling him that he’d followed him that day, and then had Tezuka reveal everything to Shinji, knowing Ren didn’t want him to tell. She also had Yui do a little detective work upon discovering Eri in the hospital—off-screen noticing that Ren frequently went to visit her, only to confront Ren about it later and get him to reveal the truth. That required development on the parts of all characters involved in the scenes: Tezuka, Ren, Shinji, and Yui, and the first case was done by both Kobayashi and Inoue, to boot. Simply having the doctor tell them, as done here, doesn’t do a damn thing. So Kitaoka tells Ren that it’s none of his business, and though shaken by the truth, he pretends to agree. Kitaoka asks why Ren saved him, and Ren insists he thought it would be good to have Kitaoka in his debt. Kitaoka laughs humorlessly, knowing it’s a lie, and calls Ren despicable, only for Ren to smirk and tell him the same. It’s supposed to imply that nothing’s changed between the two, but it’s clear that everything has. Ren has been brought into Kitaoka’s very close circle of secret-keepers. There is no way they can be enemies, no way they will ever be able to raise their weapons against each other. That knowledge will always make it too awkward for them to fight.
Kagawa again tells Tojo off for being so kill-happy, this time about Reiko. He admits that he’s worried that Tojo enjoys his power as a Rider. Tojo insists he’d only trying to protect Kagawa’s research, but Kagawa tells him not to act on his own again. He admits they need allies, especially after Tojo killed Nakamura.
Which brings us to Kamen Rider Imperer, Mitsuru Sano. When we meet him, he’s working part-time as a parking garage attendant whose skill is flattery, which is how he manipulates rich people into tipping him. I really don’t care for this character. It’s not that I hate him or anything; he’s just whelming—neither overwhelming nor underwhelming; nothing special in either direction. He greets Shinji at Atori, presenting a business card identifying him as Imperer. He tries to flatter both Shinji and Ren to ask for an alliance in exchange for money. You know, it was only cute when Date did it. Naturally, Ren facepalms and then throws him out. Shinji argues that they might need allies to protect Yui, but Ren has half a brain and argues they can’t trust Sano. And sure enough, he’s right: Sano goes to do the exact same thing with Kagawa and Tojo. Monsters (the spelling I’ll use is Shereghosts, though I’ve seen various others), so he decides to give a demonstration. Ryuki Survive is fighting a couple of them when Imperer arrives. He defeats one of them easily and then asks what “they” think. Ryuki is uncertain, reverting from Survive, unaware that Tiger is attacking from behind…
Room 401 (Toshiki Inoue): Ryuki turns, but Tiger still manages to hit him. Imperer cheers Ryuki on, but can’t help him because Shinji didn’t hire him. Once again, it was only cute when Date did it. Or when Jack Sparrow did it. So Ryuki is once again saved by Zero reining in his student’s homicidal behavior. The would-be heroes return, with Sano insisting he’s a great deal. And props to Kagawa’s actor, Satoshi Jinbo, for looking like he’d rather take up that job teaching detention at Amanogawa High School. Tojo calls out Sano on cheering on Shinji and asks what his angle is. That’s right, folks: Tojo is questioning his loyalty.
We see that Sano wants to live a privileged life, and he heads to Atori. Shinji panics and immediately gets him away from Yui. And then he proceeds to tell Sano, who he knows isn’t loyal to him and who appeared to be on Tojo and Kagawa’s side, that Tojo and Kagawa want to kill her. Excuse me for a moment.
WHAT THE HELL? SHINJI IS NOT THAT STUPID!
No, really. This is what I’m talking about when it comes to that ping-pong naïveté. Shinji is written as outright stupid in some of these episodes! Sure, he might not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s not someone who’s going to endanger his friends by trusting someone he himself knows shouldn’t be trusted! Why, Inoue? Why were you relying on the exact premise of the Scissors arc? That was way in the beginning of the series! Did you not realize that Shinji has matured?
So they argue once again about Sano’s “contract,” and Shinji asks what he’s fighting for. Sano says that his luck sucks, he can’t hold down a job, he can’t keep a girlfriend, and he was beginning to wish he’d die, so Kanzaki gave him a deck. You know, Ryotaro and Eiji each had about half that trouble—minus the girlfriend deal—and both of them were infinitely more sympathetic and likable. Shinji’s sympathy is piqued, leading Sano to again flatter him into submission. Sano then reports back to Kagawa and Tojo, having failed to get money out of Shinji—only an offer of free food and drink at Atori. He tells them that he knows what they’re after, and Kagawa insists that they’re not killing Yui out of a personal grudge, but for the good of all of humanity. He realizes that Sano doesn’t get what they’re doing or their idea of heroism, but to “get to the conclusion” (i.e., for plot reasons), he hires him anyway.
Kitaoka checks out of the hospital, knowing they can’t do anything for him anyway. Thinking on his near-loss to Tiger, he admits to Goro that he’s gotten weaker as a Rider, and he’s not sure why. He denies it’s part of his illness and admits that maybe he’s not as strong as he thought he was. Goro insists he is, and Kitaoka is playful for a moment in response. Reiko meets up with him at home, and he lets slip that he was in the hospital but won’t explain why. Like many things going on in this arc, this is never followed up on, rendering it completely pointless. Reiko asks what happened the day before, admitting she felt like she’d been attacked. When she came to, Kitaoka was gone, and she knew there was a window behind them. In a moment I can’t tell whether is good or bad, Kitaoka finally loses his temper and tells her to stop chasing fantasy stories and start behaving like the journalist he admires. So she storms off to go blow off steam at the batting range. What. Goro calls him out on this, but he admits he did it to protect her from the danger of getting too close to the Rider War…though even he admits that it’s not like it’s going to stop her. Once again, completely pointless. Goro admits that he likes this aspect of him, but Kitaoka argues it’s what’s made him weak.
Ren questions Shinji’s sanity in hiring Sano, especially since he did this without consulting Ren first. When Shinji explains that he did this because Sano had a sympathetic backstory, Ren rebels against the script, throws a mop down, grabs Shinji, and tells him off for being uncharacteristically stupid (seriously, these are pretty much his words) and that he’ll protect Yui without Shinji’s help. He decides to go to Room 401 and stop Kagawa once and for all.
While all of this is going on, Asakura was eating (in an Inoue episode. I know, shocking) when Kanzaki appeared. Kanzaki tells him to go kill Kagawa and Tojo…which begs the question of why he didn’t have the homicidal maniac do this in the first place. Kanzaki’s already proven that he can get around prison security. He could have sicced Monsters on the guards to stage a breakout at any time. Hell, there was a whole period of time where Asakura was free and on the run right after Ren killed Odin where there was NOTHING else Kanzaki needed to do, and he’d already failed to have two Monsters kill them because Tiger and Ryuki Survive fought together. Why not take advantage of the fact that Nakamura and Tojo were both after Yui, who was protected by Shinji while they were both looking for Ren? Argh. Evil Overlord List questions aside, Asakura arrives at Room 401 to find it abandoned, with only toppled desks and the mirrors left behind. Asakura starts smashing things when Kitaoka walks in, this time not bothering with the police. He starts borrowing from Ren’s used character development and begins dehumanizing Asakura and deciding to model his own behavior off of him. But it really doesn’t go anywhere (I swear, this is a drinking game here) because Shinji and Ren arrive.
Acting with some logic, Kagawa abandoned the lab because it was too risky to stay what with everybody knowing about it. He heads out to dinner with his family, bringing Tojo along. Mrs. Kagawa compliments him on being her husband’s best student, though Kagawa warns her that she’s apparently embarrassed the young man. His son, whose name has now been written as Yuta, gives him a drawing of him giving the boy a piggyback ride, and Kagawa tells Tojo to think about why he invited him to his family outing—to get him to learn more about people and why they need to matter to a hero. But Tojo can’t seem to understand.
Not bothering to care about the amazingly contrived coincidence that all four major Riders are gathered in one place, Asakura challenges them all to a fight. Shinji is just getting aggravated at Asakura’s homicidal mania, but Kitaoka sticks up for him and asks Shinji what he’d want from everybody’s favorite sociopath. He also argues that Shinji is the same as Tojo if he wants to seal the Mirror World. Shinji denies being in league with them and asks Ren for help, but Ren admits there is a similarity. Then comes another one of those funny but bizarre sequences that are typical of Inoue Ryuki episodes. Kitaoka stops Shinji from flailing in anger at Ren and puts the matter to a vote. Is Shinji terrible? Kitaoka and Ren raise their hands without hesitation. For a moment, Shinji is touched that Asakura didn’t raise his hand, but Asakura calls him an idiot and says he just didn’t care. So Kitaoka asks who thinks Shinji is an idiot. This time, all three raise their hands, and confetti rains down on Shinji because A Loser Is You. Asakura then decides that the whole thing was stupid and walks out the door, followed by Kitaoka and Ren. Tell me again why we needed this scene? What did it accomplish? Shinji complains about getting no respect—which honestly could have happened after Ren got pissed off at him—and rides home until Sano gets his attention. Sano continues to flatter him, then walks away. Yui is walking home with groceries and senses Sano’s Monsters all around her. Shinji races over, but she’s pulled into the Mirror World again. Imperer attacks Yui, but Ryuki holds him off just in time. The fight becomes worse when Zero and Tiger join in. They throw Ryuki to the ground long enough for Zero and Imperer to sic their Mirror Monsters on Yui. With no escape possible, Yui instinctively begins commanding the Monsters psychically, with a bright light shining on her, and the Monsters turn against their Riders. And I promise you, this is the most contrived bit in the entire series. It never comes up again after this arc. Never. If you remove this arc from the context of the series, things make a lot more sense about her. There are only two things that this arc accomplishes: revealing to Ren the secret of Kitaoka’s condition, and the very next thing that happens.
Alternative Zero goes to attack her while she’s unresponsive, but Tiger attacks him. Tiger decides that the way to be a hero is to win the Rider War, so he hits his teacher with a Final Vent, shattering his deck. He admits that Kagawa was the most important person in his life, so sacrificing him would cause suffering, which would make him a hero. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, you team-killing fucktard! Crying, dehenshinned (and let’s not even get on the fact that the physics of the Mirror World are incompatible with the physics of the real world, and it’s implied to be something akin to a matter-antimatter reaction but less explosive), he carries Kagawa’s body until it disintegrates.
Ryuki tries to get Yui to answer him, wondering what’s going on. But Yui can’t hear him. In her mind, she’s in a white field, with black feathers falling all around her, and her own voice saying the word “chosen” over and over. She then closes her eyes and welcomes the feathers as they fall upon her face…
The Hero Fights (Toshiki Inoue): With Ryuki unable to snap Yui out of it, the Monsters attack him to protect her, on her command. While he fights, she turns and walks away. Shinji rushes into Atori in a panicked state, looking for Yui, only to disturb any customer who remotely resembles her. Ren drags him into the apartment, neither one hearing Sanako asking them to help with the shop. Shinji finally has the chance to tell him everything that happened, realizing that Yui really is connected to the Mirror World and if she’s not back, then she must still be there. Pissed and protective, Ren decides to go look for her, and Sanako’s pissed when they leave (why? They’re going to the Mirror World—they don't have to leave the building to do that) and decides to quit.
Tojo wanders the city, dazed. Sano meets up with him and says he’s surprised that he killed Kagawa. He’s curious if Kagawa’s contract is still valid, but Tojo answers that he’s through with Sano. Sano tries to convince him he’d be better as an ally, but Tojo insists that if he’s going to win the Rider War and become a hero, he has to do it alone. Sano then notes the dead look in his eyes, indicating some level of humanity in the both of them before he leaves. He heads back to work, where he’s tired of bowing and scraping to rich folks, so he decides it’s time for a change. Having had no luck finding Yui (who was watching him the whole time), Shinji heads back to Atori, depressed, only to find Sano sitting at the counter, having helped himself to food and drinks as per Shinji’s offered contract. Understandably, Shinji flips out and throws him all over the place, refusing to listen to Sano’s insistence that he wants to join him. He’s furious that Sano targeted Yui, and he punches him. Sano manages to get out the door, knowing this was a bad idea, and apologizes as he flees. Question: Are we supposed to feel sorry for him? Because this is the guy who attacked Yui just last episode and will change sides at the drop of a hat. I’ll get more into this in the Endpoint Analysis. He heads to Kitaoka’s next, where the super-lawyer looks just as whelmed as I am and mostly ignores him. He even tells Goro not to bother giving him tea since Sano’s not staying. He tells Sano that there’s no point in this and he’s not interested in working with other Riders. But he does agree to write a letter of recommendation for him to give the others.
Asakura comes across Tojo at a ramen stand and challenges him to a fight (yes, after eating his food). The fight edges into Ouja’s favor, as Imperer arrives to watch. Tiger is hit by one of Ouja’s Final Vents, and he only barely manages to escape to the real world, injured. To avoid Asakura finding him, he jumps into a river and hides under a bridge. Asakura rages over losing him, and Sano approaches him for an alliance, showing him the letter. Asakura reads it in disbelief, and Sano tries to massage his shoulders, totally failing to recognize the twice-escaped convict that has been shown by every news organization in the city. Asakura shows him that the letter only had the word “fool” written on it in big, impossible-to-miss kanji. Sano then realizes he’s pissed off a very dangerous man and flees.
The next day, Tojo is reading Kafka’s The Metamorphosis on campus—and this is actually an appropriate choice of reading material. The story is about a man who wakes up one morning to realize he’s transformed into a repulsive, insect-like creature, and he becomes a burden to his family—all of which really can be read as an allegory for mental illness, especially since it was inspired by Kafka’s own experiences. You’ll see that Tojo is struggling with pretty much the same thing later on in the episode, leading into the next. Kitaoka approaches him, reminiscing about his own college life, and telling him that it’s bad to have unattainable dreams as he challenges him to a fight. Tojo laughs, deciding that Kitaoka can’t be a hero because he’s petty enough to be mad that Tojo attacked Reiko. But Kitaoka insists this has nothing to do with her and says he never wanted to be a hero anyway. We cut to our heroes for a moment, where Ryuki and Knight are searching again with no luck. Psyco-Rogue attacks them, but they defeat it easily. Back to the other guys, Zolda gains the advantage and preps Shoot Vent. Tiger begs him to stop, but Zolda reminds him that a hero doesn’t plead for his life. But Ouja blindsides him and goes after Tiger. Zolda Final Vents them, barely missing. They return to the real world where Tojo, despite his injuries, begins laughing as he runs away. At this point, Asakura agrees with Kitaoka that the guy is crazy, which you know is never a good thing. Asakura then challenges Kitaoka to a fight. Kitaoka points out that Asakura is bleeding, but Asakura insists it’s just a flesh wound. As Kitaoka pulls out his deck, Asakura passes out. So Kitaoka just leaves him there. Question: Why? Even if we’re going with Kitaoka not bothering to get the police involved because they can’t do anything about Asakura, your plan is just to leave him lying there? You want to win the Rider War, and you really hate this guy, so…henshin and drag him into the Mirror World. Finish him off there. Whatever.
Tojo staggers away but collapses, and Sano finds him before he passes out. Tojo awakens in Sano’s apartment, where Sano is sitting in a corner, watching over him. He promises to take care of Tojo until he’s healed, since Tojo can’t take care of himself. And I’d be fine with this, particularly given the use of The Metamorphosis earlier, if not for the fact that Sano has been established throughout his arc as being a self-centered individual who changes his loyalty at the drop of a hat and wouldn’t be swayed by someone being more pathetic than he is. Sano then gets a call telling him his father died, and he bizarrely fails to react.
Kanzaki finds Yui sitting along a brook in the Mirror World. An army of Monsters is approaching behind him as he tells her she shouldn’t be there. He turns to the Monsters and commands them to stop, but Yui still commands them to approach…
The Happiness of Glass (Toshiki Inoue): Despite Kanzaki’s attempts to control them, the Monsters stand guard around Yui as they begin fighting among themselves. Kanzaki tells her that there’s still time and that she needs to head back to the real world, but the otherworldly Yui stands up and says she’ll stay before collapsing, much to his concern. Once again, this whole thing going on in the past two episodes makes no sense within the context of the series. When we see Yui later on fulfill her destiny, there’s absolutely nothing going on like this—she’s still herself. We don’t see this goddess of the Mirror World. I’d be almost okay with it if it were a tie-in to the movie, but even then we don’t see Yui act this way. Yes, Monsters—at least the wild ones and Dragreder—won’t harm her. But it’s enough to believe that this is under Kanzaki’s orders. Ryuki is a complex enough series. Inoue’s additions this arc make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you have any hope of understanding what happens to Yui and Kanzaki in the finale, you have to forget everything about this subplot, just like the rest of the series did.
Ryuki is still searching when he finds Yui lying unconscious in the road…which brings up the question of why her overprotective brother would just leave her there? We’re talking about a man who implicitly killed himself to give him free reign in the Mirror World, set thirteen people against each other, gave a man a terminal illness and aggravated all his symptoms, released a homicidal maniac, put a classmate in a coma and then tried to kill her so her boyfriend would follow orders, and let hundreds of unconnected people get murdered just for his sister. Did this not occur to Inoue when he wrote up this bit? Anyway, Shinji brings Yui back, where she wakes in confusion with no memory of what happened. He explains the attack on her, but he can’t bring himself to explain what she was doing. Later, when they get back to Atori, he asks Ren if it’s a good idea to tell Yui that she was controlling the Monsters, but this being an Inoue production, Ren says no. Meanwhile, Sanako is in a weird state, blowing bubbles and telling them she’s shut down the café because they don’t help out anymore. And as a sidenote, does Ren even live there anymore? He left in 34-35, and we saw him living somewhere else in 38. I can’t even remember him going back into the bedroom again after that. It’s kind of ambiguous, then, if he moved back in or if he just hangs out at Atori to help protect Yui. They agree (or at least Shinji and Yui do and Ren doesn’t argue) to do whatever she says, which you know is trouble.
Back to Sano, he heads out, still barely reacting to his dad’s death. Tojo gets out of bed in a panic, covering up all glass and breaking a mirror. Sano meets with some of his father’s advisors at his company, and it turns out he was disowned two years ago as a tough love measure by his father—a family tradition to force their children to grow up—hoping that adversity would mature the young Sano enough to take over the company. I’m sure there’s no way that can possibly backfire in real life. I guess it’s kind of implied that these three advisors are manipulating Sano, since they’re convincing the board of directors to work with him and hire only him, possibly because he’d make a good puppet, but it really doesn’t go anywhere. Sano still continues to care for Tojo in the meanwhile, asking him why he wants to be a hero. Tojo says that he hopes people will like him. I won’t lie—this is nice. But it’s got two major problems. First of all, it’s way too late in the game to introduce this as a motivation. Tojo’s been around for a while. It’s not as bad as introducing a motivation for Asakura right now, but it’s still too late in this character’s story to reveal this as a motive, when nothing has hinted at it before. And second, this team-killing fucktard killed off both of his allies and betrays everyone who shows him even the remotest trace of kindness. Then Sano asks him what happens if your wish comes true before the Rider War ends, and he realizes there’s no point in being a Rider—something that has Tojo appearing worried. Sano reports to work the next day, acting like the big shots he envied. Kanzaki appears and reminds him of his job as a Rider. Sano tries to return the deck, but Kanzaki warns him that once a Rider, always a Rider. Sano insists he should have a choice in the matter, but Kanzaki warns him that if he chooses not to fight, his Monsters will eat him. Sano must fight to the end so he can wish to quit and live his new, privileged life.
There’s a subplot that becomes important in the next arc, where ORE is getting abuse from their readers over the results of the photo, resulting in canceled subscriptions and loss of revenue. But it only shows up in one brief scene. You’d think that one photo wouldn’t mean such catastrophic disaster to the news organization that got so much out of the Asakura debacle—after all, American news organizations get away with a lot more crap than this. But whatever. Sanako puts her plan into action at Atori, and it makes no fucking sense. Yui has to dress up as a moe maid as a ton of little kids and their moms enter the café. Sano arrives, and it takes Shinji a moment to recognize him. Sano offers to hire him and Ren to protect him from his Monsters, offering a briefcase full of money, resulting in Ren being tempted for longer than a minute.
Once again, it’s only cute when Date does it.
Okay, let me get this out of the way. I think you might have noticed how many times I’ve been saying that it’s cute when Akira Date of Kamen Rider OOO does the whole greed thing while it’s not cute here with other characters. And given that as of this writing, Kamen Rider Wizard is about to begin and so OOO has had a whole year to rest, I think I can spoil this without too much worry.
When we meet Kamen Rider Birth, Date, he makes it clear that he’s in this for the money. A million yen, to be exact. It would be very easy for him to be an unlikable character because of this, but he’s not. He’s fun. He’s like a kid in the body of a grown man. He’s not terribly bright, but he’s still smart enough to be a doctor and to pick up on things that our brighter hero, Eiji, might miss. He’s lighthearted, but he’s seen a lot from his travels and from the war he was caught in. He’s terrible at strategy, preferring to wrestle a problem to the ground (and by problem, I mean “Yummy,” the monster type of the series), but he’s wise enough to be a good mentor to Goto, his successor as Birth. He’s got a Dee-Dee bit (if you’ve ever seen Dexter’s Laboratory) where he just has to touch something he’s not supposed to, annoying the utter hell out of his developer, Dr. Maki, but he genuinely values him as a friend and both admit that they regret that they became enemies. And while he might be tempted by vast amounts of money, to the point that Goto has to act as his voice of reason and tell him why it’s a bad idea, he’s good through and through, trustworthy enough that the heroes’ benefactor Kougami knew he could take a bribe from Dr. Maki and act as Kougami’s double agent within Maki's ranks. Date is adorable, and much as I love Ren, I can’t say the same about him.
But on top of an adorable personality, Date has a reason to want the cash. His motivation never changes—he always wants the money. But there’s a why behind it, something that doesn’t feel as true with Sano. Back in the war, Date was shot in the head, and the bullet is still in his brain—part of a kind of running homage to Iron Man. The bullet is located in a really sensitive portion of his brain, so sensitive in fact that no doctor will operate because of the risk of killing Date. The bullet is slowly traveling, something made worse by fighting as Birth, and by the end of his arc, Date begins having debilitating headaches and blackouts during battles. He needs a million yen to hire a less scrupulous doctor to perform this surgery and save his life. It’s a sympathetic reason behind his motivation, coupled with a lovable personality, that makes these kinds of behaviors more forgivable with Date than with anyone else featured in these episodes.
Back to people who are not Date, Sano makes the same offer to Kitaoka, who doesn’t have Shinji around to tell him no. But once Sano leaves, Kitaoka reveals his plan to Goro—drafting a contract may take him a few years, long enough that the Rider War will be long since over, and Goro thinks it’s brilliant. Sano begins to realize that Kitaoka probably screwed him over, so Tojo is all he can depend on. He visits the still mostly catatonic Tojo and asks what he thinks of him. Tojo admits that he’s grateful, and Sano is the only person other than Kagawa who has been this kind to him. Sano asks if this means they’re friends, and though he can’t see it, Tojo nods. And here’s where I’m conflicted. And here’s where I’m conflicted. I want to like this. It’s actually beautifully written, which comes as a major surprise, I’m sure, given how much I’ve complained about how Inoue dropped the ball these four episodes. I suppose I’d really like this bit if it were two other characters, say Takumi and Yuji in 555. But Inoue himself has built up Sano to be so selfish that his selfless kindness to Tojo feels awkward. Even at times, it seems like Sano is using him, like when he realized that Tojo is the only one who might be able to protect him. Had Sano been developed with a thread of selflessness all throughout—similar to the Date example I gave above—rather than as a sudden instance, then I’d feel more for him at the end of the episode. As it stands, I can’t mourn him.
Sano then meets with another of his father’s friends and his beautiful daughter, Yuri. Apparently, the fathers had always talked about setting up Sano and Yuri, but now it turns out that they really seem attracted to each other and might be suited to one another. They go out and Yuri agrees to date him, leaving him almost speechless in happiness. As they go for a walk, one of Sano’s Monsters attacks, and Sano saves Yuri and henshins in front of her. Motivated to win, Sano sends a Monster after Shinji, who henshins and defeats it, only to face Imperer. As Ryuki holds him off, Imperer calls out for help from the nearby Tiger. They gang up on Ryuki, but Tiger’s betraying people thing acts up again, and he sics Destwilder on Imperer before stabbing him in the gut. Tiger apologizes and explains his twisted reasoning that if he kills his friend, he’ll become even stronger. Ryuki pulls Tiger off Imperer and yells at him to run. The injured and horrified Imperer gets away, but he’s attacked by Ouja, who destroys his deck. Yuri is left waiting in the rain, and all Sano can do is call to her helplessly from a broken mirror as he disintegrates, devastated because all he wanted was to be happy…
We’re in for a batch of Inoue here until Kobayashi brings us to the finale. So remember how last time, I gave a defense of Inoue as a writer? I still stand by it, but I have serious problems with this stretch of episodes. I don’t know if he burnt himself out writing EPISODE FINAL and 13 Riders, but…well, I’ll get to it in a minute. Let’s just say that I have questions about how he writes Kobayashi characters.
The beginning of the episode reveals that Imperer sicced his Monsters on everybody in the battle and watched from a distance. Alternative Zero calls Tiger to leave because of the time limit, and after he fends off Ouja, Ryuki Survive tells Knight to do the same. When they get back, Kagawa frantically calls his wife, much to Tojo’s surprise. He promises to come home early, then notices how Tojo is surprised that Kagawa truly feels that his family is important to him. Kagawa tells him that a hero has to understand the importance of human life. But now Ren’s caught up to them and tells Kagawa off for being willing to sacrifice his family and argues with the both of them that it’s not heroic. And I do like this. Once again, we see how Ren’s philosophy is incompatible with Kagawa’s. To Ren, if you value somebody, you have to protect them, never sacrifice them; it’s part of being human, not being a hero. He then heads home to find Sanako in a depression because Tojo quit. He also notices that Shinji checked himself out of the hospital and asks him if he’s really feeling that much better. Shinji insists he’s fine, but more importantly, he checked himself out so he could keep an eye on Yui. They agree that one of them will stay with her at all times, to protect her from Kagawa and Tojo. Let’s see how long it takes for them to fuck this up.
Kitaoka is having a nice meal at home when Asakura headbutts the door. Goro is ready to beat the shit out of him, but Kitaoka invites his nemesis inside. Asakura claims that Tojo is now at the top of his hit list and demands information. Kitaoka doesn’t know where he is and suggests he ask Shinji. As a show of intimidation, Asakura steals Kitaoka’s meal and eats even part of an oyster shell as he demands to know where Shinji is.
And here’s where I start to have a problem. See, I don’t think Inoue knows how to write Kitaoka. I really don’t. Sure, he wrote the second episode where he was introduced, but those early episodes are really the only time he’s written him well. The two episodes where he tried to entrap Shinji? Weird tone, but he did a pretty good job. Otherwise, he seems to always be working off Kitaoka’s very first appearance. While Kobayashi handled his most dickish moment (when he tricked Shinji into thinking he’d killed Goro), Inoue writes him with more casual dickery—basically, what you see in episodes 29-30. And he’s the buttmonkey. It’s actually worse than Ryotaro in the Den-O series and Momotaros in all of the subsequent movies. Kitaoka’s supposed to be this fairly cool guy, who can gracefully recover after being shot down. But Inoue constantly makes him come off as pathetic. Things like “Zolda’s Assault” (episode 26), when Shinji uses Magnugiga as a shield. “Marriage Interview Battle” (episode 29), where he constantly strikes out with Reiko even when he’s helped save her. “Zolda’s Lover” (episode 30)—just all of it. Most of the romantic implications between Kitaoka and Reiko are written by Inoue, and it’s a guarantee that Kitaoka will strike out, where Kobayashi has Kitaoka still showing respect to her when he’s been shot down. Typically, Kitaoka is kicked around to make Asakura look cooler, as here. Sure, he’s done some great bits, like tackling Goro’s backstory, but even when he makes Kitaoka a good guy, he tends to smack him around unfairly. Best example I can think of is in the movie, when he tries to help Miho, only for her to beat the utter shit out of him, leading him to quit the Rider War and accept his approaching death.
And this difficulty he has with the Ryuki characters isn’t limited to Kitaoka, though I think that one’s simultaneously the most subtle and the more pervasive. Inoue is good at writing plot, but not so much at writing characters. Much as I praise his episode of Gokaiger, even while I was watching it I knew that Marvelous was out-of-character—when has he ever been afraid of an enemy, let alone too afraid to act? He’s a fucking PIRATE! Their motto is along the lines of “If we don’t like something, we blow it up." Marvelous is out-of-character to make Gai Yuuki of Jetman look cooler, which is the exact problem that happens with Kitaoka and Asakura. These character difficulties are more apparent with the others: Shinji’s naïveté ping-pongs all over the place, and it’s at its worst here—he’s another massive buttmonkey in Inoue’s works, similar to the later Keitaro and Kaido in 555. Remember, we’re at a point where he’s losing his innocence, and Inoue has him making mistakes from the Scissors arc. Ren and Reiko wind up as tsunderes who you’d be hard-pressed to believe actually care about other people, and who have to be incredibly stupid for the plot to work. Ren trolls more in Inoue’s episodes and tends to be the angry jerk—think a trolling version of early Book 1 Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender, before his backstory was revealed—and his character development is largely thrown out the window. When it isn’t, Inoue’s just copying stuff that Kobayashi already covered. There are moments where he’s spot-on in characterization, like the great job done with him in 13 Riders, but there are other times where I can’t even believe this is the same character. To make a comparison to Power Rangers, it’s as bad as what happened in the RPM/Samurai crossover event “Clash of the Red Rangers,” where a new writer who’d never done RPM before took on writing RPM Red Ranger Scott, only to base all of his characterization off his zanier Sentai counterpart, Sosuke, with tons of plot-required stupidity on the parts of both Red Rangers, Scott and Jayden. EPISODE FINAL is a great example of that problem: When he sees Ryuga and mistakes him for Shinji, Ren doesn’t question why Shinji is acting out-of-character; he immediately starts suspecting him. This is a guy who—in an episode Inoue himself wrote—wouldn’t once believe that Shinji kidnapped his coworker and so spent money he didn’t have to hire the best lawyer in Japan to defend him. He shows no concern over Shinji at all and completely fails to act when he sees Ryuga overtaking him. He might cry over Yui’s death, but he still completely forgets all about her and fails to call her his friend, when we know he’s close to her and has known her longer than he’s known Shinji. Thanks to inconsistencies, Ren practically has mood swings—as I pointed out, between episodes 14 and 15, Ren’s attitude goes from settled and accepting of the changes happening in his life (having exposed Kitaoka to help Shinji and stopped fighting against the Atori group becoming more like a family) to moody and depressed and picking on Shinji. Sure, it’s believable, but it’s still startling to see Ren take a massive step backwards in development the very next day. I can’t say the same for Reiko when she’s out-of-character—she starts yelling and raging in a way totally unlike the cool, professional journalist. Neither one of them can get a clue, like Ren throughout all of EPISODE FINAL and Reiko during the Asakura backstory episodes. And ORE Journal is at its most insane when Inoue writes them, with Okubo losing all pretense of being the boss and just being another nut in the asylum.
Which brings me to the next scene. Shinji is stunned when he walks into work to see Shimada’s photo of the Monster. Okubo notices that he doesn’t seem too surprised and watches him carefully as he fakes bewilderment. Then Asakura walks in. It takes Okubo a minute to recognize the highly-publicized escaped convict who’s assaulted several officers, held a whole restaurant (including Shinji) hostage, and killed a few people, whom they’ve been covering in their stories for quite a while (see what I mean about plot-required stupidity?), and then he, Shimada, and Megumi promptly panic. Above their insanity, Asakura calmly asks Shinji to talk outside, and Shinji cautiously agrees. They head to a fire escape, where Asakura asks where to find Tojo, but Shinji refuses to help him if he’s going to kill Tojo. Any potential fight is broken up when the ORE trio runs up a nearby fire escape, armed with makeshift weapons and armor. Asakura escaped once he heard them clambering up, and though he insists he’s fine, Shinji can’t help but ask his would-be heroes why they’re too far away to help him, so Okubo changes the subject.
Reiko, meanwhile, went to visit Kitaoka with the photo. Despite her evidence, he insists it’s nonsense, so she argues that he’s hiding something. He finally offends her to the point she walks out the door, but he offers to take her home, though she has him drive to Seimeiin. There, Reiko asks Kagawa more about Kanzaki, cluing in Kitaoka that Kanzaki had done his research in that lab, and he notices that Tojo seems a little more than suspicious. Reiko is turned away, and the two of them sit down outside one of the buildings at the university, drinking coffee. She’s still fixated on Kanzaki’s research, and both of them are unaware that Tojo is watching them from the window behind them. Kitaoka suggests investigating something different if she’s stuck and starts flirting inappropriately. He then notices Tojo closing the blinds, seconds before sensing a Monster. Destwilder bursts out of the window to attack them, but Kitaoka’s quick actions protect her, though she’s knocked out. He then holds his deck to the window to transform, but Tojo opens the blinds, discovering his identity and revealing his own. As the battle begins, Tiger insists that he targeted Reiko so he could become a hero. While they fight, Ren and Yui are on the road and spot the battle, leading Ren to drop the whole bodyguard duty to intervene. But it’s a good thing he did, since Zolda nearly gets killed by Tiger’s Final Vent when Knight attacks Tiger, giving Zolda the chance to get free. After the battle, Ren goes to check on Kitaoka, who is injured and exhausted, leaning heavily against the window. Kitaoka can’t believe that he lost to a nut like Tiger and asks if it’s because Tiger’s strong or because he’s weak—echoing Ren’s argument to him back in episode 23. His vision suddenly acts up, and he passes out. Ren fails to wake him and rushes him to the hospital.
The next part is pretty good, but Kobayashi does it better later on. We have a quiet shot of Ren sitting on an empty bed away from Kitaoka’s, waiting. Kitaoka suddenly wakes and realizes he’s there. Ren tells him that the injury from battle wasn’t that bad and he knows why Kitaoka fainted. And guess why: Because Kitaoka’s doctor told him. Every time I have complained about the breach in privacy (not the breach in security, like when Eri escaped the hospital, or questionable care practices, like when even Sanako thought the hospital should have kept an amnesiac Ren for more observation), it has been in an Inoue episode. He relies on gimmicks as much as a Ben 10 writer. Rather than devoting time to having the characters reveal it themselves, which takes skill and development, he cheats and uses this gimmick. For example, in ANOTHER episode he wrote, episode 16, Tezuka simply followed Ren to the hospital and overheard him promising to save Eri. Kobayashi then wrote Tezuka confronting Ren and telling him that he’d followed him that day, and then had Tezuka reveal everything to Shinji, knowing Ren didn’t want him to tell. She also had Yui do a little detective work upon discovering Eri in the hospital—off-screen noticing that Ren frequently went to visit her, only to confront Ren about it later and get him to reveal the truth. That required development on the parts of all characters involved in the scenes: Tezuka, Ren, Shinji, and Yui, and the first case was done by both Kobayashi and Inoue, to boot. Simply having the doctor tell them, as done here, doesn’t do a damn thing. So Kitaoka tells Ren that it’s none of his business, and though shaken by the truth, he pretends to agree. Kitaoka asks why Ren saved him, and Ren insists he thought it would be good to have Kitaoka in his debt. Kitaoka laughs humorlessly, knowing it’s a lie, and calls Ren despicable, only for Ren to smirk and tell him the same. It’s supposed to imply that nothing’s changed between the two, but it’s clear that everything has. Ren has been brought into Kitaoka’s very close circle of secret-keepers. There is no way they can be enemies, no way they will ever be able to raise their weapons against each other. That knowledge will always make it too awkward for them to fight.
Kagawa again tells Tojo off for being so kill-happy, this time about Reiko. He admits that he’s worried that Tojo enjoys his power as a Rider. Tojo insists he’d only trying to protect Kagawa’s research, but Kagawa tells him not to act on his own again. He admits they need allies, especially after Tojo killed Nakamura.
Which brings us to Kamen Rider Imperer, Mitsuru Sano. When we meet him, he’s working part-time as a parking garage attendant whose skill is flattery, which is how he manipulates rich people into tipping him. I really don’t care for this character. It’s not that I hate him or anything; he’s just whelming—neither overwhelming nor underwhelming; nothing special in either direction. He greets Shinji at Atori, presenting a business card identifying him as Imperer. He tries to flatter both Shinji and Ren to ask for an alliance in exchange for money. You know, it was only cute when Date did it. Naturally, Ren facepalms and then throws him out. Shinji argues that they might need allies to protect Yui, but Ren has half a brain and argues they can’t trust Sano. And sure enough, he’s right: Sano goes to do the exact same thing with Kagawa and Tojo. Monsters (the spelling I’ll use is Shereghosts, though I’ve seen various others), so he decides to give a demonstration. Ryuki Survive is fighting a couple of them when Imperer arrives. He defeats one of them easily and then asks what “they” think. Ryuki is uncertain, reverting from Survive, unaware that Tiger is attacking from behind…
Room 401 (Toshiki Inoue): Ryuki turns, but Tiger still manages to hit him. Imperer cheers Ryuki on, but can’t help him because Shinji didn’t hire him. Once again, it was only cute when Date did it. Or when Jack Sparrow did it. So Ryuki is once again saved by Zero reining in his student’s homicidal behavior. The would-be heroes return, with Sano insisting he’s a great deal. And props to Kagawa’s actor, Satoshi Jinbo, for looking like he’d rather take up that job teaching detention at Amanogawa High School. Tojo calls out Sano on cheering on Shinji and asks what his angle is. That’s right, folks: Tojo is questioning his loyalty.
We see that Sano wants to live a privileged life, and he heads to Atori. Shinji panics and immediately gets him away from Yui. And then he proceeds to tell Sano, who he knows isn’t loyal to him and who appeared to be on Tojo and Kagawa’s side, that Tojo and Kagawa want to kill her. Excuse me for a moment.
WHAT THE HELL? SHINJI IS NOT THAT STUPID!
No, really. This is what I’m talking about when it comes to that ping-pong naïveté. Shinji is written as outright stupid in some of these episodes! Sure, he might not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s not someone who’s going to endanger his friends by trusting someone he himself knows shouldn’t be trusted! Why, Inoue? Why were you relying on the exact premise of the Scissors arc? That was way in the beginning of the series! Did you not realize that Shinji has matured?
So they argue once again about Sano’s “contract,” and Shinji asks what he’s fighting for. Sano says that his luck sucks, he can’t hold down a job, he can’t keep a girlfriend, and he was beginning to wish he’d die, so Kanzaki gave him a deck. You know, Ryotaro and Eiji each had about half that trouble—minus the girlfriend deal—and both of them were infinitely more sympathetic and likable. Shinji’s sympathy is piqued, leading Sano to again flatter him into submission. Sano then reports back to Kagawa and Tojo, having failed to get money out of Shinji—only an offer of free food and drink at Atori. He tells them that he knows what they’re after, and Kagawa insists that they’re not killing Yui out of a personal grudge, but for the good of all of humanity. He realizes that Sano doesn’t get what they’re doing or their idea of heroism, but to “get to the conclusion” (i.e., for plot reasons), he hires him anyway.
Kitaoka checks out of the hospital, knowing they can’t do anything for him anyway. Thinking on his near-loss to Tiger, he admits to Goro that he’s gotten weaker as a Rider, and he’s not sure why. He denies it’s part of his illness and admits that maybe he’s not as strong as he thought he was. Goro insists he is, and Kitaoka is playful for a moment in response. Reiko meets up with him at home, and he lets slip that he was in the hospital but won’t explain why. Like many things going on in this arc, this is never followed up on, rendering it completely pointless. Reiko asks what happened the day before, admitting she felt like she’d been attacked. When she came to, Kitaoka was gone, and she knew there was a window behind them. In a moment I can’t tell whether is good or bad, Kitaoka finally loses his temper and tells her to stop chasing fantasy stories and start behaving like the journalist he admires. So she storms off to go blow off steam at the batting range. What. Goro calls him out on this, but he admits he did it to protect her from the danger of getting too close to the Rider War…though even he admits that it’s not like it’s going to stop her. Once again, completely pointless. Goro admits that he likes this aspect of him, but Kitaoka argues it’s what’s made him weak.
Ren questions Shinji’s sanity in hiring Sano, especially since he did this without consulting Ren first. When Shinji explains that he did this because Sano had a sympathetic backstory, Ren rebels against the script, throws a mop down, grabs Shinji, and tells him off for being uncharacteristically stupid (seriously, these are pretty much his words) and that he’ll protect Yui without Shinji’s help. He decides to go to Room 401 and stop Kagawa once and for all.
While all of this is going on, Asakura was eating (in an Inoue episode. I know, shocking) when Kanzaki appeared. Kanzaki tells him to go kill Kagawa and Tojo…which begs the question of why he didn’t have the homicidal maniac do this in the first place. Kanzaki’s already proven that he can get around prison security. He could have sicced Monsters on the guards to stage a breakout at any time. Hell, there was a whole period of time where Asakura was free and on the run right after Ren killed Odin where there was NOTHING else Kanzaki needed to do, and he’d already failed to have two Monsters kill them because Tiger and Ryuki Survive fought together. Why not take advantage of the fact that Nakamura and Tojo were both after Yui, who was protected by Shinji while they were both looking for Ren? Argh. Evil Overlord List questions aside, Asakura arrives at Room 401 to find it abandoned, with only toppled desks and the mirrors left behind. Asakura starts smashing things when Kitaoka walks in, this time not bothering with the police. He starts borrowing from Ren’s used character development and begins dehumanizing Asakura and deciding to model his own behavior off of him. But it really doesn’t go anywhere (I swear, this is a drinking game here) because Shinji and Ren arrive.
Acting with some logic, Kagawa abandoned the lab because it was too risky to stay what with everybody knowing about it. He heads out to dinner with his family, bringing Tojo along. Mrs. Kagawa compliments him on being her husband’s best student, though Kagawa warns her that she’s apparently embarrassed the young man. His son, whose name has now been written as Yuta, gives him a drawing of him giving the boy a piggyback ride, and Kagawa tells Tojo to think about why he invited him to his family outing—to get him to learn more about people and why they need to matter to a hero. But Tojo can’t seem to understand.
Not bothering to care about the amazingly contrived coincidence that all four major Riders are gathered in one place, Asakura challenges them all to a fight. Shinji is just getting aggravated at Asakura’s homicidal mania, but Kitaoka sticks up for him and asks Shinji what he’d want from everybody’s favorite sociopath. He also argues that Shinji is the same as Tojo if he wants to seal the Mirror World. Shinji denies being in league with them and asks Ren for help, but Ren admits there is a similarity. Then comes another one of those funny but bizarre sequences that are typical of Inoue Ryuki episodes. Kitaoka stops Shinji from flailing in anger at Ren and puts the matter to a vote. Is Shinji terrible? Kitaoka and Ren raise their hands without hesitation. For a moment, Shinji is touched that Asakura didn’t raise his hand, but Asakura calls him an idiot and says he just didn’t care. So Kitaoka asks who thinks Shinji is an idiot. This time, all three raise their hands, and confetti rains down on Shinji because A Loser Is You. Asakura then decides that the whole thing was stupid and walks out the door, followed by Kitaoka and Ren. Tell me again why we needed this scene? What did it accomplish? Shinji complains about getting no respect—which honestly could have happened after Ren got pissed off at him—and rides home until Sano gets his attention. Sano continues to flatter him, then walks away. Yui is walking home with groceries and senses Sano’s Monsters all around her. Shinji races over, but she’s pulled into the Mirror World again. Imperer attacks Yui, but Ryuki holds him off just in time. The fight becomes worse when Zero and Tiger join in. They throw Ryuki to the ground long enough for Zero and Imperer to sic their Mirror Monsters on Yui. With no escape possible, Yui instinctively begins commanding the Monsters psychically, with a bright light shining on her, and the Monsters turn against their Riders. And I promise you, this is the most contrived bit in the entire series. It never comes up again after this arc. Never. If you remove this arc from the context of the series, things make a lot more sense about her. There are only two things that this arc accomplishes: revealing to Ren the secret of Kitaoka’s condition, and the very next thing that happens.
Alternative Zero goes to attack her while she’s unresponsive, but Tiger attacks him. Tiger decides that the way to be a hero is to win the Rider War, so he hits his teacher with a Final Vent, shattering his deck. He admits that Kagawa was the most important person in his life, so sacrificing him would cause suffering, which would make him a hero. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, you team-killing fucktard! Crying, dehenshinned (and let’s not even get on the fact that the physics of the Mirror World are incompatible with the physics of the real world, and it’s implied to be something akin to a matter-antimatter reaction but less explosive), he carries Kagawa’s body until it disintegrates.
Ryuki tries to get Yui to answer him, wondering what’s going on. But Yui can’t hear him. In her mind, she’s in a white field, with black feathers falling all around her, and her own voice saying the word “chosen” over and over. She then closes her eyes and welcomes the feathers as they fall upon her face…
The Hero Fights (Toshiki Inoue): With Ryuki unable to snap Yui out of it, the Monsters attack him to protect her, on her command. While he fights, she turns and walks away. Shinji rushes into Atori in a panicked state, looking for Yui, only to disturb any customer who remotely resembles her. Ren drags him into the apartment, neither one hearing Sanako asking them to help with the shop. Shinji finally has the chance to tell him everything that happened, realizing that Yui really is connected to the Mirror World and if she’s not back, then she must still be there. Pissed and protective, Ren decides to go look for her, and Sanako’s pissed when they leave (why? They’re going to the Mirror World—they don't have to leave the building to do that) and decides to quit.
Tojo wanders the city, dazed. Sano meets up with him and says he’s surprised that he killed Kagawa. He’s curious if Kagawa’s contract is still valid, but Tojo answers that he’s through with Sano. Sano tries to convince him he’d be better as an ally, but Tojo insists that if he’s going to win the Rider War and become a hero, he has to do it alone. Sano then notes the dead look in his eyes, indicating some level of humanity in the both of them before he leaves. He heads back to work, where he’s tired of bowing and scraping to rich folks, so he decides it’s time for a change. Having had no luck finding Yui (who was watching him the whole time), Shinji heads back to Atori, depressed, only to find Sano sitting at the counter, having helped himself to food and drinks as per Shinji’s offered contract. Understandably, Shinji flips out and throws him all over the place, refusing to listen to Sano’s insistence that he wants to join him. He’s furious that Sano targeted Yui, and he punches him. Sano manages to get out the door, knowing this was a bad idea, and apologizes as he flees. Question: Are we supposed to feel sorry for him? Because this is the guy who attacked Yui just last episode and will change sides at the drop of a hat. I’ll get more into this in the Endpoint Analysis. He heads to Kitaoka’s next, where the super-lawyer looks just as whelmed as I am and mostly ignores him. He even tells Goro not to bother giving him tea since Sano’s not staying. He tells Sano that there’s no point in this and he’s not interested in working with other Riders. But he does agree to write a letter of recommendation for him to give the others.
Asakura comes across Tojo at a ramen stand and challenges him to a fight (yes, after eating his food). The fight edges into Ouja’s favor, as Imperer arrives to watch. Tiger is hit by one of Ouja’s Final Vents, and he only barely manages to escape to the real world, injured. To avoid Asakura finding him, he jumps into a river and hides under a bridge. Asakura rages over losing him, and Sano approaches him for an alliance, showing him the letter. Asakura reads it in disbelief, and Sano tries to massage his shoulders, totally failing to recognize the twice-escaped convict that has been shown by every news organization in the city. Asakura shows him that the letter only had the word “fool” written on it in big, impossible-to-miss kanji. Sano then realizes he’s pissed off a very dangerous man and flees.
The next day, Tojo is reading Kafka’s The Metamorphosis on campus—and this is actually an appropriate choice of reading material. The story is about a man who wakes up one morning to realize he’s transformed into a repulsive, insect-like creature, and he becomes a burden to his family—all of which really can be read as an allegory for mental illness, especially since it was inspired by Kafka’s own experiences. You’ll see that Tojo is struggling with pretty much the same thing later on in the episode, leading into the next. Kitaoka approaches him, reminiscing about his own college life, and telling him that it’s bad to have unattainable dreams as he challenges him to a fight. Tojo laughs, deciding that Kitaoka can’t be a hero because he’s petty enough to be mad that Tojo attacked Reiko. But Kitaoka insists this has nothing to do with her and says he never wanted to be a hero anyway. We cut to our heroes for a moment, where Ryuki and Knight are searching again with no luck. Psyco-Rogue attacks them, but they defeat it easily. Back to the other guys, Zolda gains the advantage and preps Shoot Vent. Tiger begs him to stop, but Zolda reminds him that a hero doesn’t plead for his life. But Ouja blindsides him and goes after Tiger. Zolda Final Vents them, barely missing. They return to the real world where Tojo, despite his injuries, begins laughing as he runs away. At this point, Asakura agrees with Kitaoka that the guy is crazy, which you know is never a good thing. Asakura then challenges Kitaoka to a fight. Kitaoka points out that Asakura is bleeding, but Asakura insists it’s just a flesh wound. As Kitaoka pulls out his deck, Asakura passes out. So Kitaoka just leaves him there. Question: Why? Even if we’re going with Kitaoka not bothering to get the police involved because they can’t do anything about Asakura, your plan is just to leave him lying there? You want to win the Rider War, and you really hate this guy, so…henshin and drag him into the Mirror World. Finish him off there. Whatever.
Tojo staggers away but collapses, and Sano finds him before he passes out. Tojo awakens in Sano’s apartment, where Sano is sitting in a corner, watching over him. He promises to take care of Tojo until he’s healed, since Tojo can’t take care of himself. And I’d be fine with this, particularly given the use of The Metamorphosis earlier, if not for the fact that Sano has been established throughout his arc as being a self-centered individual who changes his loyalty at the drop of a hat and wouldn’t be swayed by someone being more pathetic than he is. Sano then gets a call telling him his father died, and he bizarrely fails to react.
Kanzaki finds Yui sitting along a brook in the Mirror World. An army of Monsters is approaching behind him as he tells her she shouldn’t be there. He turns to the Monsters and commands them to stop, but Yui still commands them to approach…
The Happiness of Glass (Toshiki Inoue): Despite Kanzaki’s attempts to control them, the Monsters stand guard around Yui as they begin fighting among themselves. Kanzaki tells her that there’s still time and that she needs to head back to the real world, but the otherworldly Yui stands up and says she’ll stay before collapsing, much to his concern. Once again, this whole thing going on in the past two episodes makes no sense within the context of the series. When we see Yui later on fulfill her destiny, there’s absolutely nothing going on like this—she’s still herself. We don’t see this goddess of the Mirror World. I’d be almost okay with it if it were a tie-in to the movie, but even then we don’t see Yui act this way. Yes, Monsters—at least the wild ones and Dragreder—won’t harm her. But it’s enough to believe that this is under Kanzaki’s orders. Ryuki is a complex enough series. Inoue’s additions this arc make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you have any hope of understanding what happens to Yui and Kanzaki in the finale, you have to forget everything about this subplot, just like the rest of the series did.
Ryuki is still searching when he finds Yui lying unconscious in the road…which brings up the question of why her overprotective brother would just leave her there? We’re talking about a man who implicitly killed himself to give him free reign in the Mirror World, set thirteen people against each other, gave a man a terminal illness and aggravated all his symptoms, released a homicidal maniac, put a classmate in a coma and then tried to kill her so her boyfriend would follow orders, and let hundreds of unconnected people get murdered just for his sister. Did this not occur to Inoue when he wrote up this bit? Anyway, Shinji brings Yui back, where she wakes in confusion with no memory of what happened. He explains the attack on her, but he can’t bring himself to explain what she was doing. Later, when they get back to Atori, he asks Ren if it’s a good idea to tell Yui that she was controlling the Monsters, but this being an Inoue production, Ren says no. Meanwhile, Sanako is in a weird state, blowing bubbles and telling them she’s shut down the café because they don’t help out anymore. And as a sidenote, does Ren even live there anymore? He left in 34-35, and we saw him living somewhere else in 38. I can’t even remember him going back into the bedroom again after that. It’s kind of ambiguous, then, if he moved back in or if he just hangs out at Atori to help protect Yui. They agree (or at least Shinji and Yui do and Ren doesn’t argue) to do whatever she says, which you know is trouble.
Back to Sano, he heads out, still barely reacting to his dad’s death. Tojo gets out of bed in a panic, covering up all glass and breaking a mirror. Sano meets with some of his father’s advisors at his company, and it turns out he was disowned two years ago as a tough love measure by his father—a family tradition to force their children to grow up—hoping that adversity would mature the young Sano enough to take over the company. I’m sure there’s no way that can possibly backfire in real life. I guess it’s kind of implied that these three advisors are manipulating Sano, since they’re convincing the board of directors to work with him and hire only him, possibly because he’d make a good puppet, but it really doesn’t go anywhere. Sano still continues to care for Tojo in the meanwhile, asking him why he wants to be a hero. Tojo says that he hopes people will like him. I won’t lie—this is nice. But it’s got two major problems. First of all, it’s way too late in the game to introduce this as a motivation. Tojo’s been around for a while. It’s not as bad as introducing a motivation for Asakura right now, but it’s still too late in this character’s story to reveal this as a motive, when nothing has hinted at it before. And second, this team-killing fucktard killed off both of his allies and betrays everyone who shows him even the remotest trace of kindness. Then Sano asks him what happens if your wish comes true before the Rider War ends, and he realizes there’s no point in being a Rider—something that has Tojo appearing worried. Sano reports to work the next day, acting like the big shots he envied. Kanzaki appears and reminds him of his job as a Rider. Sano tries to return the deck, but Kanzaki warns him that once a Rider, always a Rider. Sano insists he should have a choice in the matter, but Kanzaki warns him that if he chooses not to fight, his Monsters will eat him. Sano must fight to the end so he can wish to quit and live his new, privileged life.
There’s a subplot that becomes important in the next arc, where ORE is getting abuse from their readers over the results of the photo, resulting in canceled subscriptions and loss of revenue. But it only shows up in one brief scene. You’d think that one photo wouldn’t mean such catastrophic disaster to the news organization that got so much out of the Asakura debacle—after all, American news organizations get away with a lot more crap than this. But whatever. Sanako puts her plan into action at Atori, and it makes no fucking sense. Yui has to dress up as a moe maid as a ton of little kids and their moms enter the café. Sano arrives, and it takes Shinji a moment to recognize him. Sano offers to hire him and Ren to protect him from his Monsters, offering a briefcase full of money, resulting in Ren being tempted for longer than a minute.
Once again, it’s only cute when Date does it.
Okay, let me get this out of the way. I think you might have noticed how many times I’ve been saying that it’s cute when Akira Date of Kamen Rider OOO does the whole greed thing while it’s not cute here with other characters. And given that as of this writing, Kamen Rider Wizard is about to begin and so OOO has had a whole year to rest, I think I can spoil this without too much worry.
When we meet Kamen Rider Birth, Date, he makes it clear that he’s in this for the money. A million yen, to be exact. It would be very easy for him to be an unlikable character because of this, but he’s not. He’s fun. He’s like a kid in the body of a grown man. He’s not terribly bright, but he’s still smart enough to be a doctor and to pick up on things that our brighter hero, Eiji, might miss. He’s lighthearted, but he’s seen a lot from his travels and from the war he was caught in. He’s terrible at strategy, preferring to wrestle a problem to the ground (and by problem, I mean “Yummy,” the monster type of the series), but he’s wise enough to be a good mentor to Goto, his successor as Birth. He’s got a Dee-Dee bit (if you’ve ever seen Dexter’s Laboratory) where he just has to touch something he’s not supposed to, annoying the utter hell out of his developer, Dr. Maki, but he genuinely values him as a friend and both admit that they regret that they became enemies. And while he might be tempted by vast amounts of money, to the point that Goto has to act as his voice of reason and tell him why it’s a bad idea, he’s good through and through, trustworthy enough that the heroes’ benefactor Kougami knew he could take a bribe from Dr. Maki and act as Kougami’s double agent within Maki's ranks. Date is adorable, and much as I love Ren, I can’t say the same about him.
But on top of an adorable personality, Date has a reason to want the cash. His motivation never changes—he always wants the money. But there’s a why behind it, something that doesn’t feel as true with Sano. Back in the war, Date was shot in the head, and the bullet is still in his brain—part of a kind of running homage to Iron Man. The bullet is located in a really sensitive portion of his brain, so sensitive in fact that no doctor will operate because of the risk of killing Date. The bullet is slowly traveling, something made worse by fighting as Birth, and by the end of his arc, Date begins having debilitating headaches and blackouts during battles. He needs a million yen to hire a less scrupulous doctor to perform this surgery and save his life. It’s a sympathetic reason behind his motivation, coupled with a lovable personality, that makes these kinds of behaviors more forgivable with Date than with anyone else featured in these episodes.
Back to people who are not Date, Sano makes the same offer to Kitaoka, who doesn’t have Shinji around to tell him no. But once Sano leaves, Kitaoka reveals his plan to Goro—drafting a contract may take him a few years, long enough that the Rider War will be long since over, and Goro thinks it’s brilliant. Sano begins to realize that Kitaoka probably screwed him over, so Tojo is all he can depend on. He visits the still mostly catatonic Tojo and asks what he thinks of him. Tojo admits that he’s grateful, and Sano is the only person other than Kagawa who has been this kind to him. Sano asks if this means they’re friends, and though he can’t see it, Tojo nods. And here’s where I’m conflicted. And here’s where I’m conflicted. I want to like this. It’s actually beautifully written, which comes as a major surprise, I’m sure, given how much I’ve complained about how Inoue dropped the ball these four episodes. I suppose I’d really like this bit if it were two other characters, say Takumi and Yuji in 555. But Inoue himself has built up Sano to be so selfish that his selfless kindness to Tojo feels awkward. Even at times, it seems like Sano is using him, like when he realized that Tojo is the only one who might be able to protect him. Had Sano been developed with a thread of selflessness all throughout—similar to the Date example I gave above—rather than as a sudden instance, then I’d feel more for him at the end of the episode. As it stands, I can’t mourn him.
Sano then meets with another of his father’s friends and his beautiful daughter, Yuri. Apparently, the fathers had always talked about setting up Sano and Yuri, but now it turns out that they really seem attracted to each other and might be suited to one another. They go out and Yuri agrees to date him, leaving him almost speechless in happiness. As they go for a walk, one of Sano’s Monsters attacks, and Sano saves Yuri and henshins in front of her. Motivated to win, Sano sends a Monster after Shinji, who henshins and defeats it, only to face Imperer. As Ryuki holds him off, Imperer calls out for help from the nearby Tiger. They gang up on Ryuki, but Tiger’s betraying people thing acts up again, and he sics Destwilder on Imperer before stabbing him in the gut. Tiger apologizes and explains his twisted reasoning that if he kills his friend, he’ll become even stronger. Ryuki pulls Tiger off Imperer and yells at him to run. The injured and horrified Imperer gets away, but he’s attacked by Ouja, who destroys his deck. Yuri is left waiting in the rain, and all Sano can do is call to her helplessly from a broken mirror as he disintegrates, devastated because all he wanted was to be happy…