Kamen Rider DCD #20 Review (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS...for whatever the hell it was that I just watched]

Is there some unwritten rule about Heisei Rider shows turning to shit midway through their run?

Episode #20 felt like the first episode of a new series…and a not very good one at that. To begin with the next episode trailer, it appears that our screens will be graced very soon by a form of the DCD suit that someone has appears to have vomited on before attempting to clean up the mess with Faizu cards. I’m pretty sure I can live without that.

Working back from what may be the worst mistake since Den-o’s DenLiner Form, episode #20 is populated with inept teachers, second rate Riders and the Roman Club from Sundome, all of whom conspire to make the Den-o arc look like a thoroughly well-plotted and complex two-parter.

I honestly don’t know what to say about this as I’m finding it hard to specifically think of good points to highlight. Fair enough it’s nice that Diend has become a somewhat more heroic character, it’s interesting that this world may in some way be fake and, fair due, I was only recently complaining that Natsumi no longer seems to have a role in this series but, and here’s the kicker, even though she’s on screen during 80% of this episode, she still does nothing. In some ways it feels even more insulting to draw out this storyline and send her running around after the Roman Club and a bunch of posturing ‘dark’ Riders  than to keep her on the sidelines. At least when she was in the background, the stories weren’t going off in the deep end.

If this series is going to carry on then it seriously needs to pick up again because this episode comes damn close to undoing all the work of the preceding worlds and reseting the story to the bland crossover-for-crossover’s-sake dynamic of the first episode.

Sadly, I don’t think I can say anything more. I want to believe this is just a dip in quality and I possibly be acting in a reactionary manner because I enjoyed the redefinition of prior material that we’ve been treated to over the past 18 episodes and I’m a little lost now that we’ve come to DCD has to reveal its ‘own’ storyline as a series, but I can’t help but feel overwhelmingly disappointed that, based on this episode alone, the storyline seems to be the standard melodramatic Faizu/Den-o/Kiva fair of dark Riders, simpering supporting characters and resistance fighters against  evil Riders that has so defined previous Heisei series.

"Sadly there was no maid!Spa treatment that could cleanse Tsukasa of the sensation that they were stuck in a dire storyline."

I honestly hope this Fake!World only lasts for two episodes and not ten because if this is the new shape of things, then I think I’m going to go back to watching Super-1 and Black.

That is all.

Kamen Rider DCD #17 Review (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS...you know the score]

First off, the music for this incredibly heartfelt episode has been rightly epic, especially the slow piano version of Journey through the Decade. For the first time since, you guessed it, Hibiki, the music in the franchise has that right mix of ‘never give up’ and orchestral melancholy.

Speaking of which, there’s a lot of melancholy in this episode. It was only during re-watching #16 that I realised that TheBee was probably a Worm and that Kabuto was in fact Mayu’s older brother. It certainly didn’t occur to me though that Mayu might have been a Worm as well, an event I’m assuming is in relation to the original series’ Kusakabe Hiyori, who I remember there being a big fuss about back in the day when her status as a Worm was revealed.

One element of this that I found particularly striking was, whilst they were both being hunted down by Worms and prior to Mayu’s realisation of her own nature, Natsumi backed away as soon as the villain began to focus in on Mayu…almost as if, had not Mayu saved herself by transforming (or rather, had Mayu been human) then Natsumi would have been too scared to try and save her.

That possibility is truly scary in what implies and the fact that it again reaffirms that, in a world of monsters and armoured heroes, humans are fragile and terrified things…or it could have just been a plot device in order to introduce Mayu’s Worm status, but you know…

Another melancholy aspect of the story is the fate of Souji/Kamen Rider Kabuto, who is doomed to forever remain in the ‘Clock Up World’. This kind of event, this kind of heroic yet tragic melancholy theme makes both this arc and the character of Kabuto as much as the tragedy of Agito’s World made those episodes. We call this improving on the original.

I was somewhat disappointed not to see more of Arata/Kamen Rider Gatack as he came across, even when in opposition to Tsukasa, as a genuinely likeable character and I was surprised when noting that TheBee’s Worm form was familiar, to discover that this was the same suit used in the short ‘SMAP x Rider‘ special, Kamen Rider G.

"Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."

Points of real significance for me were both the final fight, the style of that fight and, most importantly, Tsukasa’s heroic entrance into the final reel and Kaito’s cute gesture of triumph.

After that reel, things get a little tense. I almost cried when I thought Hat Man might actually be Hibiki but, from what I can see, there is a Hibiki present and, whilst he’s not your and my friend (and incidentally one of the two most Rider-like characters of the Heisei era in terms of character and heroism) Hosokawa Shigeki, he does appear to be an older character – which is ace in my book. I’m also over the moon to see the return of Shibue Jouji, Matsuda Kenji and Akiyama Nana in an unprecedented move on Toei’s behalf almost as if they were trying to make an apology to the author of this blog in fact.

I’m not so keen on seeing the Inoue-era silver Oni suit that looks like it was built on the cheap from cannibalised parts of other suits as they tried to ‘re-invent’ the show but we’ll give and take. Perhaps I can stomach all of this when, on top of the aforementioned returning cast members, Momotaros also makes a cameo – a character so perfect for a Hibiki cameo that words cannot express how happy I am about this (though, on the downside, I did also notice Ryuki there as well).

Certainly both this episode and, hopefully the next, have been events worth getting out of bed for. All that remains now is to see what the show, like Toei itself with the franchise, will be able to achieve post-Hibiki.

Natsumikan!

The super talented おぷりんす strikes back with super cute Natsumi portraits from DCD #14. Mildly not-safe-for-work.

奥さん、泣けるわよ！