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.

Kamen Rider DCD #16 Review (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS...for the penultimate world!]

…and we’re back on track, which I’m relieved about as it proves the rule thus far that series that I didn’t care for first time around return with elements that make them much more palatable this time.

I won’t pretend to understand Kabuto but I was impressed with Nirasawa Yasushi’s redesigns of DevilMan characters so it was nice to see them in action during the course of this episode, even if they did come across as being a bit plain – although I think this may be in part due to the fact that the majority of ‘kaijin‘ appeared to be of the lesser class…apparently.

One of the things that impresses me the most is that, despite the set up for the original series being incredibly close to Inoue’s work on Faizu, the approach here is suitably distinct. I still don’t really know what ZECT are doing and the Worms aren’t that different from the Ophenoch but the atmosphere is what makes this better than Faizu. Perhaps though, this arc accounts for why Faizu’s World was such a radical departure from its original series.

Whilst the whole corporation-Rider angle isn’t dwelt on too much for these reasons, what the episode *does* do is provide some awesomely unique fight sequences – again on the Faizu note, the idea of using Faizu’s Axel Form against the super-speedy secondary Riders was fantastic – and some great character moments. The real show stealer is 16 year old Mayu (played by Kanno Rio who appeared in the film Dark Water) who I think might be comparative with the younger sister of Mizushima Hiro’s character in Kabuto. Considering the fusion of characters in Agito’s World and, in regards to how this episode ends, I’m pretty much sold on the idea of this world’s version of TheBee somehow being comparative with the original Kabuto character.

Don’t quote me on this as I really don’t know how it would work but I do think this could be a possibility.

In other news, it’s nice to see Tsukasa using his Kuuga card again (as opposed to another appearance from Kiva) and it’s also nice to see him learning some lessons about fighting enemies that put him in his place without devaluing his role as the lead character. Likewise, the comedy value of DCD’s Den-o form character/armour cards and their utter uselessness is another nice moment. I also swear this is the only Heisei Rider series that makes the prospect of Rider vs. Rider battles seem actually interesting.

I, of course, am also very pleased to see the return of the RiotTroopers. The ZECT-Troopers are pretty cool but somehow they don’t seem as cool, although I couldn’t for the life of me explain why.

"Encore!"

But more than anything, I’m just relieved to see the pace of previous pre-Den-o arcs restored and for the series to generally be back on top form again.

It seems to be DCD’s role as a series to fix Inoue Toshiki’s mistakes…and it’s doing a very good job of it too!