Kamen Rider Kuuga Ep 12 Recap – RIDER KICK!

Welcome back to my ongoing Kamen Rider Kuuga recap series. You picked a great week to show up!

Seriously, this episode is amazing.

We start out where we left off last week, with Kuuga falling to be impaled upon the Rhino Grongi’s horn. Only for Kuuga to pull out of it at the last second by catching the Grongi’s horn just before he’d be run through!

He uses the momentum to flip over and throw the Rhino, and while it’s a bit of a narrative cheat to have him sneak out of that situation it is such a cool move that I am totally going to give him a pass on it.

After the opening credits cut in we get a shot of Ichijo racing to the scene only to cut back to the Rhino charging at Kuuga. Regaining his footing just in time Kuuga leaps into the air and lands a jump kick right at the Rhino’s chest, sending him flying back.

Only… The Rhino just stands right back up! That’s not fair, we even saw Kuuga’s foot smoking and everything, he’s supposed to be all exploded by now! The music turns dark as the Rhino gets ready to charge once more, only to have a blur flash by and tear a hole out of his chest.

So who was Kuuga’s mysterious benefactor? Why, it’s the Piranha Grongi that was ready to come to blows with the Rhino earlier! The Piranha darts around at super speed, landing a few more blows till the Rhino manages to grab him. The two start yelling at one another while completely ignoring Kuuga, because really he’s not putting up much of a threat at the moment to be honest.

The two wrestle for a bit and end up falling off a nearby cliff into a river below and disappear, leaving Godai alone and alive. Ichijo shows up and Godai fills him in on what happened. Godai feels that since the Piranha had come to stop the Rhino for the time being they should focus on trying to take down the Rhino, but admits he really isn’t sure how to do it.

He’s got a point, and I mean this without jest, because for once… JUMP KICKS DIDN’T WORK. This is serious! This is a show about jump kicking monsters to death after all.

Less serious is that Sakurako spots the tag on Kanzaki’s luggage, and realizes that he’s the teacher that Godai was going to meet. So all that comedy of errors nonsense is at least done with, thankfully. We also stop by Pore Pore real quick where Minori is introduced to Manager’s niece Nana from last week, and Nana is pretty straight up with Minori that she is going to be stalking her older brother.

For once manager is kind of funny, because he immediately drops his dishes when she makes the proclamation without changing his posture or expression at all, and the comic timing is pretty good! Also moderately funny is that Minori insists that her brother isn’t popular at all much to the relief of Nana, who doesn’t want any competition in her creepy stalking pursuits.

We find the Rhino Grongi having washed out of the river, back in his human guise and as always fuming mad. He actually yell heals himself, just shouting loud enough that his wound closes up almost in apology. And of course he happens to spot a truck at a nearby road and goes off to kill its owner because he just really, really hates trucks. SO MUCH.

Kanzaki tells Sakurako he really hopes Godai will show up as it will mean a lot to him and I will take a moment to remind everyone that it wasn’t until that morning that Kanzaki even remembered he was supposed to meet Godai that day. So, y’know, kind of a double standard there Kanzaki! You are very self centered, is all I’m saying.

Back at the river Ichijo notes the police are on Grongi tracking duties now, and points out he’s aware Godai was having an important meeting that day. I mean, that conversation never happened on screen so am I allowed to imagine that it came up over pillow talk? Probably not, but c’mon Ichijo is all kinds of sad that Godai has to fight on a day when he was so hyped to meet someone. Godai himself says it’s alright, and now I beg you to get ready for some awesomeness.

I mean, up until now this episode has been just average. A pretty neat fight and some slightly better than average comedy. But we are about to get into the good stuff. Because we’re now going to get into Godai’s plot for the episode.

YES. This is a jump kick episode! It is wholly devoted to jump kicks! Oh man, I am so on board for this! Godai talks about how this is something he’s been thinking about for awhile and all I can say is you and I both pal. The awesome train keeps on rolling as Godai notes he’s going to be using his 107th skill to help his training. Yes, his skills are explicitly numbered and yes, that is completely amazing.

I wonder what the 107th skill could be that it would help with jump kicking? Martial arts training… self visualization exercises… maybe just some hardcore work out skills? I can’t wait to find out!

Back on the bus Kanzaki owns up to the fact that if he hadn’t been spring cleaning he wouldn’t even be on the way to meet Godai, and Sakurako admits that in his shoes she wouldn’t have even come in that case. And she is super happy about it.

Considering we’ve seen that Sakurako is kind of a spiteful jerk in the past I find that assertion completely believable. But she does point out that Kanzaki actually making the trip out at the last minute is pretty nice and I’ll agree on that count. Give him some points for effort. Might be because I’m in a good mood as I know jump kicks are incoming though, I’ll be honest.

We get a short interlude where the Rose Woman and Bat Grongi meet a weird dude in an alley.

Like, the guy is intentionally sucking his chin in an odd way just to look even weirder. He hands over a briefcase to the Rose Woman and they show that he’s got an earring that looks like her horn ring, but before the Bat can pull out whatever is in the package the Rose Woman smacks him around a bit and he looks like a chump. So, rather par for the course for the Bat really. Also par for the course is that weird dude laughs at him for being such a chump and I am just liking weird dude more and more!

Godai drives out to a park and see’s a tree he really likes, and I am actually somewhat angry that we cut away from that to the bus again. Kanzaki and Sakurako set out to the school though and… it’s marked for demolition. Which is really pretty sad. Kanzaki talks about how everything he is associated with is destined to fail and… I’m starting to see how meeting up with one of the few students whose lives he touched would be a real big deal for this guy. Kanzaki figures that’s the end of their little exhibition.

Sakurako isn’t so ready to give up though, and suggests they take a page from Godai’s playbook and break in to the school. I’m not so sure Kanzaki needs to be brought in on the fact that his once beloved student has grown up into a part time criminal but hey, at least he’s made something of himself.

We join Sugita on the radio with Ichijo where he reveals they’ve gotten to the bottom of the Rhino Grongi’s plans. They did figure out that everyone was in an idling truck when they got killed, but rather than just guess that like usual that’s part of some weird pattern they go ahead and figure that he’s a road rage-a-holic.

Which is correct, of course, but still seems like a bit of a leap of logic. Sugita had the police put out a public warning for drivers not to idle, but that doesn’t really give them a plan on how to stop the Rhino, even though it seems like Ichijo might have gotten an idea.

We return to Godai and it is revealed that his 107th skill is… sketching in the dirt using a stick!

I un-ironically love this. Godai draws a line between the two stick figures and is not impressed, and then he rubs out the line and draws one with a loop in it and suddenly has a huge revelation. I should note that all this sketching is accompanied by exciting music that makes it all seem like a really huge deal. It’s great.

Godai stands up and starts stretching out, before he runs forward and pulls off an incredibly sweet standing front flip.

Are we going to see… A FLIPPING JUMP KICK!? Do I already know the answer and am yet still totally hyped about this? I would argue anyone who wouldn’t be stoked are the weird ones!

Then there’s… well an actually pretty sad scene. First of all, is there any setting more depressing than a condemned school building covered in snow?

Kanzaki basically gets into the details of his problems, and they’re about the systemic corruption creeping into the school system… though they’re a bit different than the ones I’m used to hearing about in the states. While the parents just care about good grades, which sounds about right, apparently his superiors have been on him to just give the children whatever they ask for, and because of that all the kids are just getting immediate rewards and not caring about the future.

And all the while he remembers back to all the classes he taught when he was younger. Where all the kids were just happy and playing and everything worked. But now he’s just lost and confused and doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life anymore.

When he found Godai’s note, he realized that Godai could be the one student he actually inspired. And if that student had cared enough to remember the promise to meet it might have proven he had some value as a teacher. And perhaps more importantly, he could ask Godai what it was that he did to inspire him because he’s pretty sure he’s not the kind of person who’s capable of inspiring people.

It’s… well, a downer. I wonder if there’s anything capable of cheering me back up.

Maybe something like GODAI DOING A FLIPPING JUMP KICK INTO A TREE!?

Look at that. I mean, people are actually like just chilling in the background while this dude in the park is jumping ten feet in the air and executing a perfect form front flip jump kick into a tree. How completely insane is that!?

But I mean look at it, it’s glorious! They show it from like five camera angles because it is dynamic as hell.

After landing the kick Godai is definitely ready to go. And good timing too, because Ichijo reveals his totally insane plan to catch the Rhino. He’s going undercover as a trucker!

And is it going to work, is the Rhino going to take the bait? Well that’s a 10-4 good buddy!

The Rhino shows up in human form and punches the truck back about ten feet, before doing his crappy blur shift special effect into his Grongi state. He runs up and smashes in Ichijo’s window, and Ichijo does the one thing all the drivers should’ve been doing up till this point and peels out, slamming his foot on the gas and dragging the Rhino along with him.

Back at the school, Sakurako reveals that Godai is out likely using his 2000th skill right now (remember, 2000-‘Transforming into the Super Hero Kuuga, powered by ancient mystical might to battle a race of evil monsters’, 107- ‘Stick Figure Drawing’), and Kanzaki realizes that he remembers what Godai’s promise was.

In series we saw him get the 2000th one so that was pretty down to the wire on timing… I mean, depending on when you set your count maybe he failed but considering I don’t want Kanzaki to be mopey anymore I’m just going to side with Sakurako and give him credit for it. She remarks on the thumbs ups and Kanzaki recalls that he was the one who taught them to Godai. Of course… his lesson is complete and total BS. Just because I am starting to feel sorry for Kanzaki doesn’t mean he became a better teacher.

 

According to Kanzaki, in Ancient Rome the ‘Man who could successfully do everything’ was given the thumbs up. Now I’m no scholar but I do have access to Wikipedia. Most of the myth on the thumbs up is that the Gladiators were given the Pollice Verso, or ‘with a turned thumb’ signal, to indicate whether they should kill or spare their opponents in the arena. Modern debate continues on what exactly the gesture used was, but is commonly depicted in art and media as ‘Thumbs up’ means spare their opponent, and ‘Thumbs down’ means to kill them. So maybe a little ironic that Godai is always giving Thumbs Up after killing Grongi?

Anyways, Kanzaki once again proves to be a pretty crappy teacher. That said, this scene provides some complete awesomeness. First of all Kanzaki is reminiscing through his speech and when he’s talking about how Godai should grow up to be a great man worthy of the Thumbs Up, it’s played over Godai popping a wheelie so he can ram the Rhino Grongi off the side of Ichijo’s truck.

And yes, he hits the Rhino in the butt, which c’mon readers don’t be childish. (It is hilarious.) Sincerely though, great juxtaposition.

Also Kanzaki reveals he gave Godai the speech because as a kid he was depressed since his dad died so… yeah OK, I’ll give him a pass for fudging the facts a bit. Kanzaki also reveals he’s the one who taught Godai to fight for peoples smiles, and that is played over a shot of him transforming into Kuuga.

Hey, I don’t know about anyone else but I’m smiling right now so that’s at least +1 smile for Godai. And after his rousing speech Kanzaki breaks down crying from the emotional weight of his memories, his tears falling to smear out that nice drawing Godai did when he was a kid. It’s pretty emotionally heavy dear readers, which is of course why it is immediately followed by the fight scene!

Kuuga has gotten back on the Trychaser and proceeds to repeatedly ram into the Rhino, much to my continued delight.

Sometimes I feel like this episode was written just for me. I’m not kidding. The Rhino runs away for a bit, only for Kuuga to catch up and start wheelie kicking him AGAIN. It’s almost a solid minute of the Trychaser repeatedly slamming into him and it is just amazing.

All good things must come to an end, and finally the Rhino is able to toss the bike over, flipping Kuuga off of it. The fight just degrades into a brawl with the pair trading blows until Kuuga is surprisingly able to just punch the Rhino back about ten feet to the ground. That’s pretty shocking considering how overpowered Kuuga was at the start of the episode, and though they don’t give any specific reason for it I’m going to go with the fact that being hit in the head about ten times with a motorcycle is going to take a bit out of you.

Kuuga surveys the scene for a moment, and then actually proceeds to back up and away from the Rhino. Not because he’s afraid, but because he knows how much running room he’s going to need for what is to come. The Rhino gets up and starts charging at Kuuga and as Kuuga charges back at him actual fire erupts from Kuuga’s feet while he’s running. Fire that sparks up with each step.

When he gets close Kuuga leaps into his front flip and extends in the same form we saw Godai practicing earlier. Although now it has broken all expectations and become even more awesome because his leg is ON FIRE.

The kick lands square on the Rhino’s face, and actually manages to snap off his horn from the sheer force of it.

The Rhino, obviously, explodes. I mean if you don’t explode after taking a flaming kick to the head I don’t think you’re ever going to explode. Ichijo shows up just in time to see it happen, but Godai doesn’t even stop for his usual post jump kick thumbs up as he has business to attend to. He rips the Trychaser out and races off as he has not forgotten his important appointment with his inspiration teacher. Also, he does it against a sunset background and it is pretty dang cool looking.

Kanzaki and Sakurako are leaving the school in much better spirits at night, and Kanzaki reveals that his book had another sketch from Godai in it and it is totally adorable.

Is it great that Godai always draws his mole in his self sketches? It is!

Just as they’re about to get to the fence, what do they hear coming up the way but the sound of a motorcycle engine roaring. The Trychaser pulls up to the gate and Godai without missing a beat of course jumps the fence, because when has he ever showed hesitation about breaking and entering, and this episode ends the only way it ever could.

Man what a great episode!

So, Final Thoughts?

I am completely in love with this episode on all fronts. It’s got tons of the Trychaser wheelie kicks, it’s got Ichijo putting his life on the line to investigate the latest monster attack, it’s even got pretty good drama and back story build up which makes me care about a sad elementary school teacher while at the same time illustrating a whole bunch of how Godai came to become the man he is today.

And that’s not even taking into account that Godai’s plot in the episode is that he devotes his time to training to get a better jump kick! Side note, the flip version of his jump kick is Kuuga’s official Rider Kick, and the official name for it is ‘Mighty Kick’, as the official name for Red Kuuga is ‘Mighty Form.’ Officially.

Also… and I am so glad I get to say this… this is not the coolest jump kick he does in the series. I mean we’ve just gotten started. Yes, flaming flip kick to the face is great but… I don’t even want to spoil it for you. Let’s just enjoy the moment, shall we? And what a moment it was.

And now, on the next episode of Kamen Rider Kuuga!

A Grongi is arrested! Some Grongi Chatter! Weird Rocks! Sakurako talking about armor! Godai talking about big insects! Some fight scenes! And GRONGI INTERROGATION!

Tune in next week to see if the series can continue on a roll with Kamen Rider Kuuga Episode 13: Doubt!

Kamen Rider is Copyright Toei Company, TV Asashi, and Bandai. The Subbed version recapped in this article was produced by the wonderful folks at TV-Nihon.