Kamen Rider Kuuga Ep 18 Recap- Kiss on My List

We’re back to moving forward this week with another action packed episode recap of Kamen Rider Kuuga!

This week we kick things off with an introduction to another explicitly numbered skill, skill number 1808 “Stomp”. Not like, a downward heel kick. No no, this is Godai actually mimicking the theater group ‘Stomp’ who uses random objects as percussion instruments.

Nana comes up while he’s performing because Godai is actually doing this just randomly on the street with no one watching. I mean after she compliments him on his ability to just randomly hit objects he mentions he’s practicing because he’s supposed to play for Minori’s class later so I guess it’s alright. Except that Manager yells at him right after for ditching work to do his drumming so we can thankfully jump to the credits after reaffirming that Godai is the worst employee ever even when not being a superhero.

After the credits we jump on over to Sakurako who is listening to a radio interview about some show called ‘Onigiri Joe’ that just got done filming. It is about some guy running an Onigiri store and dealing with family drama and sadly it is way more intriguing than what she is up to. She’s just, you know, pretending to research on her computer again.

Pro tip, don’t make the fake show you’re talking about sound more interesting than what we’re watching on screen Kuuga. Ichijo calls her and in a mark of how useless she even thinks herself to be she just immediately assumes he’s calling for Godai. When Ichijo notes he is actually checking to see if she got any translation work done because the research institute is having trouble figuring out the rock beetle she obviously says she hasn’t figured anything out either. Come on Ichijo you should have guessed that one out by now!

Sakurako does perform her now delegated task of naming things though, saying that the Horse Armors real name is ‘Gouram.’ We know this is the right name because the weird psychic trill music plays right after.

We get a shot of Enokida just catching us back up to speed on what happened two weeks ago, which kind of explicitly confirms last weeks recap episode and one off fight didn’t really matter. For those of you who forgot, the Trychaser turned back to normal when Gouram broke back into pieces and fell off it, and it seems to react to Godai’s touch.

After that we meet a weird looking man… woman… walking around in an alley next to some noisy fans. And she… er… he’s got on a fancy bead bracelet, and creepy music is playing!

Then this… ok English really lacks a good androgynous pronoun doesn’t it? This they kisses a woman which makes a weird sucking sound effect, and the woman immediately dies. Then this they flicks a bead on their bracelet, says something in Gronginese while grinning to themself.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that they are definitely maybe probably the new Grongi guys! Oh also they had a weird tattoo that looked like a mushroom on their hand. You know, in case the audience hadn’t caught on yet.

Back at Pore Pore Godai is back to Stomp practice, and Nana and Manager are digging his performance. Manager decides he’s going to join in but instead of Stomping he attempts to Scat (not… you know, poop everywhere, he’s doing the jazz singing thing.) It is really terrible and he looks absolutely ridiculous doing it and I love him for it.

Nana eventually smacks him with some sticks and tells him he’s doing it wrong because he should be hitting things, and I just don’t think she appreciates his improvisational spirit. Also in possibly less important news Godai gets a call at the shop from Ichijo about the new Grongi showing up. Godai makes his apologies and dashes off, which has to be weird for Nana and Manager. I mean every time Godai’s handsome young bachelor male friend calls, Godai runs out in a hurry for meetings he won’t tell anyone about. Meetings he sometimes comes back from roughed up and injured and often very happy. You really have to wonder what’s running through their heads…

Oh, also Manager tries to Stomp proper and hits himself while doing it. In fact he hits himself hard enough to actually hurt, and keeps on going without missing a beat. Because for some reason this episode he’s actually decided to be kind of funny? Is this Stockholm Syndrome? Have I been submerged in his shtick now long enough to enjoy it as an acquired taste?

Also Minori is with her class and confirms that even she knows that Stomp is Godai’s 1,808th skill (seriously how would you keep track of that?). Then she further confirms that he will absolutely definitely be making it to play with all the kids later, and not be sidetracked while we also have footage of him rushing off to the latest Grongi attack. I’m sure nothing bad will happen!

The androgynous Grongi approaches a man this time, and things get… uncomfortable.

Not the guy on guy bit, as I am quite the fan of Ichijo and Godai’s relationship you can be sure that’s not what I have a problem with. There’s just quite the ah… forceful vibe going on from this little exchange which has some unpleasant connotations.

Thankfully the Grongi finally murder-kisses the business man before things can get too weird. Godai shows up just seconds too late as he finds the dead man on the ground, and before the Grongi plants a murder kiss on our hero Godai manages to knock them back into a fence where they finally shift to their Grongi form. And uh… it’s… well, it kind of looks like a mushroom. If a mushroom was a tall lanky tan guy with a split topped somewhat bulbous mushroom shaped head.

We’ll just go ahead and say that the Grongi is a man from this point and move forward before I end up typing something out that I’ll regret. But I mean I’m not the only one who sees it, right!?

Godai henshins and the Mushroom Grongi is quite shocked that his latest kiss target was actually Kuuga. The fight starts off and the Mushroom is horribly outmatched. He basically just whimpers helplessly as our hero beats the tar out of him, but to be fair he doesn’t really look like much of a fighter in the first place. He’s far less bulky than most of the Grongi we’ve seen.

That all turns around though as the music just cold cuts out the moment the Mushroom Grongi is able to sneak a kiss onto Kuuga, a quite steamy kiss indeed.

There’s an acidic sound as Kuuga starts choking and gasping for air, soon collapsing to the ground in writhing agony while the Mushroom Grongi falls back and nurses his wounds.

Kuuga tries to chase after him only to fall down again, dropping back to White Kuuga as he shivers and helplessly chokes for breath. And it is… kind of hard to watch. It does not get any better as Ichijo shows up and Godai has entirely de-Henshined, now pale faced and blue lipped with a dead eyed stare as he is moving even less than he was a few seconds ago.

An ambulance shows up to take Godai off to the hospital Tsubaki works at while Ichijo calls Sakurako to let her know about her friends condition, and to ask her to contact Minori about it. Which Sakurako completely fails at! She calls the Wakaba Nursery that Minori works at, but when her co-worker picks up the phone and says that Minori is out Sakurako just decides to call back later. Not to, you know, leave an important message like that HER BROTHER IS IN THE HOSPITAL. Way to trip over another low bar Sakurako.

But hey we finally get to catch up with that creepy date of Tsubaki’s we were promised weeks ago and it does not disappoint! He is complimenting all the individual body parts of his date and she is getting majorly weirded out by it. It is delightful.

Before Tsubaki has a chance to take her off to some dark secluded basement somewhere he is once again interrupted in his romantic pursuits by Godai and Ichijo, although thankfully this is a little more important than that business with Chono that broke up our fun last time. Still, I better get more of Tsubaki’s dates in the future show! You owe me Kuuga!

Back at the crime scene, despite Godai being in critical condition Ichijo is in full on detective mode. He manages to find the business man’s glasses from earlier and makes a really important discovery.

It’s like a little shine in the corner of the glasses, but he’s able to pick up on it and has it run off for analysis. Notably even while he’s still at the top of his game, we get a few close up shots of Ichijo that show him looking a bit… on edge. He’s not letting it interfere with his work but Godai’s injuries are clearly affecting his mental state.

Tsubaki shows up at the hospital just as Godai is being wheeled in and he takes over as the lead doctor for the time being, which considering he’s the only person who knows about Godai’s weird physiology now that he has a magic belt fused to his stomach makes sense.

Sakurako manages to very luckily time her second call for the exact moment when Minori got back with the kids from their walk, and Minori does the professional thing. Making sure that her coworker is clear to cover her first before she runs off to the hospital, unlike Sakurako’s just cold sprinting out the moment she heard Godai was hospitalized.

At the research institute Sugita shows up to drop off the glasses for study, and things just keep getting depressing.

Kaburagi was one of his fellow officers who was killed in the attack by the Leopard Grongi. The attack that almost killed Sugita before Kuuga saved him. Apparently today would’ve been Kaburagi’s wedding day… so, yeah. This is just shaping up to be a real downer of an episode.

As Enokida gets to researching the glasses, Minori and Sakurako show up at the hospital and run into Tsubaki where introductions are made. But before we can get to Godai we have to check up on the injured Mushroom Grongi. While he’s trying to recover from his wounds the Rose Woman and her cadre of Grongi show up to warn the Mushroom that he can’t be slacking off on his murder spree.

All the Grongi take turns insulting the Mushroom, but when the Bat goes to try and steal his bracelet the mushroom plants a big old sloppy one on the Bat which causes him to cry out in violent and frankly hilarious pain.

The Bat Grongi spends the rest of the conversation retching pathetically on the ground while half curled up into a ball, which is of course a delight. The Mushroom Grongi seems pretty confident Kuuga is going to be dead soon, and with our hero out of the way the Mushroom is quite sure that the 125 more people he’s got to kill will go by in no time. It’ll even be fun!

At the hospital Tsubaki tells Minori and Sakurako that things are bad but that they shouldn’t give up hope, then he immediately excuses himself to call Ichijo to tell him the truth of the matter of what’s happened to all the other victims of the Mushroom Grong.

Apparently, some of their bodies began to just fall apart on the way to the hospital itself. But thanks to the magic of the stone in Godai’s stomach, psuedo-science is on the way to save the day!

But apparently even Kuuga’s vaguely scientific defenses aren’t going to help all that much. They’ve kept him from dying so far sure but the stone in his stomach seems to be changing, and Tsubaki’s overall prognosis isn’t very good. He basically tells Ichijo not to be hopeful about the results which leads to one of my favorite moments in the series.

Ichijo clutches his hand to his chest and asks Tsubaki to pass on a message for him, and while striking a fiercely determined look he slowly unfurls a thumbs up he’s holding close to his heart.

His fist is shaking softly as he stares off and closes up his fist, and it is just an amazingly pure little moment that the show doesn’t dwell on too long. It just works.

Sakurako decides she can be of more help back in her research lab, promising to do what she can while she goes to search for information that could help Godai. Considering the only time she ever gets serious about her work is after her friend has already been injured I wonder if we’ll find out that there was some stuff she could have dug up before hand that would’ve been useful… no, I’m sure that won’t happen. I mean it’s not like it hasn’t happened almost every other episode so far.

Sugita calls Ichijo to pass on the results of the analysis. The Grongi is probably fungus related, may be a crossdresser (my speculation, not Enokidas) and all the industrial fans we’ve seen it by weren’t a coincidence.

Ichijo is able to pretty quickly put two and two together and figures out that the Mushroom Grongi has been targeting people next to the hot air being pumped out from the air conditioning ventilation systems of buildings. The police decide to set up a sweep and look for him now that they’ve got a solid lead on his location, especially since he’s been killing only in the Shinjuku area so far.

Of course, while Ichijo was a big strong man and thus capable of taking the harsh news about Godai’s condition, Minori is just a flighty woman so Tsubaki decides to just point out that since Godai had a bunch of protective charms from all the students on him (he kept the birthday present, that’s nice!) he’ll be fine.

This isn’t me making weird gender notions, this is pretty much all the show. I mean it’s her brother I’m pretty sure she has a right to know what’s going on here Tsubaki.

We get a close up of the charms at Godai’s bedside as he still struggles to breathe, and a news report confirms that the police have found the Mushroom Grongi and are cornering him. There’s a report that all schools in the area have ended early as a safety notice, and Minori decides for some reason that means she should go off and do something at her school. Which leaves Tsubaki just about as confused as I am about what her plan is, considering the news just said her job was over for the day.

But before I have time to think on it action music kicks in as the police surround the Grongi’s location, and proceed to roll out hardcore!

We get a little lock and load montage of them all cocking their rifles before Ichijo sets the plan in motion and they fan out to search for and destroy the Grongi. The action music keeps pumping as the cops file through the alleyways, spreading out to cover the full area to make sure he doesn’t escape.

And the action music continues to go at full throttle while Sakurako… runs a search engine.

And the thrilling pulse pounding excitement keeps coming as the musical score doesn’t let up for a second while Minori… leisurely jogs back to work.

Just because you can’t think of interesting things for our female leads to do doesn’t mean you have to pretend like they’re exciting and hope we won’t notice Kuuga!

Back at the hospital the music finally lets up, but only because Godai’s condition seems to be worsening. We aren’t explicitly told this, it’s just that the machines that sounded like they were doing things normally have started to ping faster and numbers are changing where they weren’t changing before. Oh, and the only nurse on attending duty goes all bug eyed.

To be fair it is an effective way to quickly convey to the audience that something has gone very, very wrong.

Meanwhile the Mushroom Grongi manages to somehow avoid the police, sneaking up on one and ripping off his gas-mask. Just before he can give him the deadly lip lock a rifle sounds off as smoke pops out of the Mushrooms back.

It’s Ichijo! He managed to swoop in just in the nick of time to save the other officers life and/or virgin lips! Ichijo manages to unload another two shots into the Mushroom before the Grongi emits a yellow smokescreen so he can escape, as these new gas bullets do seem to be proving quite effective in injuring the Grongi so far.

Back at the hospital the nurse finally runs off to call for the doctor, and just as Tsubaki shows up to check on Godai… who is still hooked up to all manner of equipment…

Godai flatlines.

And as Tsubaki stares on in numb shock, we stay on the flat line on the monitor as the long drawn pitch of it fades away into the ending credits.

So, Final Thoughts?

To make up for last weeks Recap, this episode is amazing! Really a high bar for the show emotionally. Not that it doesn’t have its faults.

Sakurako being chiefly among them. And I realize now it is not just because of the poor writing that often makes her seem incompetent, but sadly her actress just doesn’t measure up to the other two leads we have. She often has this kind of goofy smile thing going on, and never seems to be able to portray very strong emotional impact when a scene calls for it.

This episode has a lot of great acting out of silence though. Ichijo’s looks off into the distance and the strain he’s clearly under at Godai’s injury, Minori’s obvious determination to try and be useful even when she’s just a school teacher, and Godai’s sheer pain at struggling to breathe in the hospital bed. Even Tsubaki manages to show a lot of emotion this week, especially at the end as he just seems completely stunned silent and still by Godai’s death.

The new Grongi is actually pretty interesting. The cross dressing aspect is weird, not that cross dressing is weird, it’s just… I mean the Grongi aren’t sexualized at all usually and this one shows up both straddling gender lines and kissing everyone to death. It’s unusual!

But that’s rather par for the course with Grongi, being a bit out of the norm. What’s quite unusual though is he’s explicitly put forth as weak. The show never tries to imply he could take Kuuga in a fair fight, but thanks to his poison he doesn’t have to. It’s an interesting change of pace that definitely makes him feel dangerous without having to retread the territory we went through with the Squid, Rhino, and Grasshopper.

Overall this episode has a very serious feel hanging over it, despite starting out with the silly (but actually not bad musically) Stomp performance. And boy, does it make you want to tune in for the next episode.

Speaking of…

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

Godai is still flat-lining! Kuuga doesn’t show up to fight the Grongi! Godai is CONFIRMED DEAD! Minori believes that Godai will somehow recover from being dead! The Mushroom Grongi looks a little different… and he’s now not hurt by the rifles gas bullets! Sakurako… actually researches something, about dilated pupils and sleeping!

Godai… he’s just sleeping right… RIGHT!? Tune in with me next week to find out in Kamen Rider Kuuga Episode 19: Spirit Stone!

Don’t you dare die on me Godai!

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.