Welcome back from the dead everyone as we embark onto the post resurrection run of Kamen Rider Kuuga!
We pick things up where we left off last week, with Godai and Ichijo deciding to head off on a little date to celebrate Godai’s recovery from the grim specter of death. But since our two leads can never seem to stop talking shop even when out having good times Godai has gotten on discussing that while he really enjoys being a super hero, he thinks it’d be cooler if he had more catchphrases. I mean he says ‘Henshin’ whenever he transforms, but what about when he transforms while he’s already transformed?
Ichijo is of course cool with that because he knows a good thing when he hears it (Again, ‘Chou Henshin’ means ‘Super Transformation’, very… er… original.) Godai celebrates by doing some Stomp on the cars dashboard and then singing into the cop cars PA system, broadcasting it through the streets which Ichijo seems to have absolutely no problem with. Godai’s abuse of police property is totally ignored since the detective is just grinning like a love-struck idiot.
Also, this episode is going to be mostly devoted to Godai and Ichijo driving around and just having a fun day together. I can’t wait!
When we come back from the credits, we find Tsubaki giving Godai a little… examination.
Stop reinforcing my ridiculous assertions Kuuga! If you’re going to film suggestive scenes like that you have to accept I’m going to post pictures of it! Well, anyways it seems that Tsubaki is inspecting Godai’s stone. The one that’s stuck in his stomach people, get your mind out of the gutter!
Apparently Godai was only mostly dead last week. When the stone realized that the poison needed warmth to spread it shut his body temperature down and released white blood cells to clear out the entirety of the foreign bodies in one go.
Of course, while Tsubaki is explaining all this he keeps feeling Godai up and once Godai gets uncomfortable with that he grabs the doctors hand and the two start arm-wrestling through the full of Tsubaki’s exposition.
Godai manages to prevail and thus… I suppose earn the right not to be felt up anymore. It would not surprise me to learn that that is a Japanese medical custom. Ichijo starts to speculate on what the stone could be, theorizing that it’s either some kind of ancient machine with lots of complicated functions built into it or else it’s basically just magic that they’ve never encountered before. Tsubaki says that he can only figure out the medical aspects of what it can do and Ichijo laments that they’ll have to go and ask Sakurako about it since the ancient texts are really their only lead.
Before he slips out though Tsubaki asks Godai if Sakurako is single, and though Godai confirms it Ichijo objects to the matter. Not for any reason stated but I’m going to go with he just figures Tsubaki can do better. I mean Tsubaki may be a molesting, dissection obsessed creepy womanizer, but at least he’s not so lazy he routinely lets his friends stumble into dangerous situations he could’ve helped them out of by taking the time to read a book. Tsubaki also points out that his current girl dumped him because of all the work Ichijo has him doing, so it’s basically Ichijo’s fault he needs to go find a new girl to creep on.
Oh, and Tsubaki returns the good luck charms to Godai. Which is nice!
From there we find a couple of fisherman talking about how there are no fish, and then kind of casually talking about seeing a hand floating in the water.
We get a closeup of it, and it is definitely a hand stuck on something in the water and is quite clearly visible. These brave fisherman make the worst possible decision in this situation which is to just say ‘Eh, don’t worry about it.’ Seriously! If you see a stray body part floating in the water, either go check it out like a good citizen and report it to the police, or, and this holds doubly true when you live in a world where evil monsters show up once a week to mass murder people, get the heck out of there! I mean they even said they’re not catching fish so why hang around right across from a dead body?
Ichijo and Godai show up at Jounan to visit Sakurako, who has been just staring at Godai’s mask from episode 1 while waiting on them to show up. Does this mean she’s completed all the research they’re going to be talking about today and thus she has time to slack off? Place your bets readers!
Also, though Ichijo walks in through the door like a normal person, Godai climbs up through the window and tries to sneak up on Sakurako to scare her.
Yes, Godai laments about the good old days when he used to break into her offices all the time. Oh what fun and possibly illegal shenanigans those were!
So, now that current shenanigans are out of the way, it’s time for work. Sakurako does her usual job now of naming things, saying the stone in the belt is called ‘Amadam.’ Well that’s all well and good, I mean it’s nice to know the proper name for things but can you tell our heroes anything about this stone Sakurako?
Thanks for living down to expectations Sakurako! As a side note I can’t help but read that as her being super evasive. Like rolling her eyes aside while going ‘Yeeeeeeah… that’s a real puzzler ain’t it?’
Godai for once calls her out on her BS, by pointing out that if this stone is so important it’s kind of unbelievable that they wouldn’t write about it. Sakurako admits that maybe they did write about it but it’s… you know… probably encoded or something. Which is just her way of saying that she hasn’t actually bothered to do the translating on those sections yet.
Ichijo gives her the out and says that it may take awhile to translate it if it’s in code, and before he can take that back Sakurako quickly changes the subject to talk about Gouram. She doesn’t want them figuring out she doesn’t really do anything! She just speculates that the green stone in Gouram is like the Amadam, and as evidence she presents… nothing at all. She just pulls out some sentence from the texts that says that Gouram will be really helpful to Kuuga and seems to correctly predict that since Godai will be super happy to think about having a flying rock monster as a partner he’ll forget all about the previous discussion.
And before she has to pull out any more stalling tactics Jean shows up! Jean recognizes Ichijo not because he’s met him, but because Kameyama was lamenting that he didn’t get to meet up with Ichijo while he was delivering Gouram. And in a great moment it takes Ichijo a little while to remember who Kameyama is when Jean asks him to give the poor guy a call sometime. And then finally when Ichijo recalls his old subordinate, who apparently greatly misses his former and well respected superior, Godai makes fun of the poor officer and everyone just laughs at him behind his back.
And I know I’m just exaggerating for comedic effect but seriously Ichijo doesn’t even agree to give Kameyama a call like Jean asks. Once they laugh at how stupid Kameyama is they just drop him from the conversation. Poor Kameyama, I kind of feel bad for you! Not enough to give you a call either because you’re whiny but still!
Sakurako promises to call if she finds out anything new, which is a promise she has to make all the time since she’s always behind the rest of the group, and while she gets ready for another day of slacking off Jean asks Ichijo if he can go to the Police Research Institute where it’s being held so he can help study it and maybe also help with the deciphering. Ichijo says he’ll think about it, because… I really don’t know why? I mean Jean is a smart guy who wants to help out just let him help out Ichijo geez! He must be distrustful of anyone who would stand up for Kameyama.
Back at the water some kind of… egg like thing grows out of the side of the hand and it is pretty gross.
Is that special for the Mushroom Grongi (spoiler I guess?) or do you think all Grongi are born from eggs that pop out of dead hands… what a strange and unique life cycle animals have. Especially the rubber suited kind!
At Minori’s school all of the children swarm out in slow motion and it’s probably supposed to be cute but for some reason a horde of children running and screaming in slow motion just gives me the wibblies. Maybe because I just saw the miracle of birth via a rotting hand?
Godai gets swarmed by the kids but is of course super happy to see them too. The one kid from the last episode who was stuck at school because of the Grongi attack is telling Godai about how awesome Kuuga is, and you know that’s gotta be a nice thing to hear. As the kids beg Godai to finally get to the Stomp performance the show has been hyping for a few weeks now Ichijo goes over to have a little chat with Minori.
See, he feels pretty bad because he called her to tell her her brother was dead when whoops! It turned out he was actually totally not dead! That’s gotta be pretty traumatizing and Ichijo feels responsible for putting her through that.
Minori is just pretty happy her brother’s alright though so she says it’s no big deal. Godai and Minori share a look and start to have a little chat about his revival and Ichijo wisely steps aside so the two can talk. Godai apologizes himself for being late and Minori says she was never that worried about the whole thing, which of course leads to thumbs ups all around while Ichijo quietly smiles to himself and the whole thing is just really sweet and sentimental.
And then Godai starts drumming on playground equipment.
It’s… well… it’s certainly something is what it is! Hey the kids seem to like it at least. While Godai drums along on slides and basketball hoops we get another shot of the hand egg and it’s all growing and pulsing and looking grosser by orders of magnitude, so… that’s probably going to turn out well.
The Grongi are all standing in some… well it’s not like a location really it’s just that the film focus is really bad so we can’t tell where they’re at. For once the Rose Woman isn’t around, and we get a name for her, ‘Baruba!’ She’s off meeting with the ‘Go’ League, who seem to be better off than the ‘Me’ Grongi we’ve been hanging around with.
The Bat Grongi interjects that he can make it to a Go too, and the female Grongi just smacks him and doesn’t even bother commenting on the matter. Instead they just decide the Gegeru is on hold until Baruba gets back from her errands.
Her errands which involve her walking slow motion towards a large mansion. Seriously?
I mean where are the Grongi finding these places to put hideouts at!? They don’t have jobs to afford the places or anything and I kind of think if you just murdered some guy who owned a mansion so you could steal it someone would figure it out. People who own mansions tend to be the kind of people that are missed!
We get another shot of the now human sized egg floating next to the dead hand and I wonder what kind of river it’s floating down in the middle of Japan where nobody sees it but… well it won’t be an egg much longer as we see a hand burst it’s way out of the egg. Symbolism maybe? Like… the egg was born from a hand and the… hand… born from an egg? Representing the… cycle of… yeah I got nothing.
At the Police Science Research Institute (Still a great name), Enokida and her fellow scientists are worrying about the Gouram being back to just a pile of rocks. Enokida decides to give Ichijo a call about it after having an idea, but Godai answers instead and…
It is… well let’s just say that impressions are probably not one of Godai’s 2000 skills. He drops the act pretty quickly, and as soon as he reveals who he really is Enokida is quite quick to drop something way more shocking than his little attempt at a joke.
Godai is quite taken aback by Enokida’s forwardness! As I am quite sure we all are! Seriously even her tone of voice for that is… problematic to say the least. She never seems to realize that her protests could have been taken the wrong way and is quick to explain she wants him to touch Gouram because it reacted to his touch last time.
Godai wants to stop and grab some lunch first though, and though Enokida tries to get him over faster he’ll have none of it because Godai knows a good place to stop at. And you can almost see the look of panic on Ichijo’s face as he turns to Godai.
Oh yes, it’s time for a trip to Pore Pore! Inexplicably filled with sunglasses wearing be-suited men today! This visit is a particularly crazy delight. First of all Manager points out that Ichijo is incredibly handsome and doesn’t know what he should call him, and Godai just suggests they nickname Ichijo ‘Handsome-San.’ Nana protests that Godai is the real Handsome-San, and then finally they decide that the pairs name should be…
Ichijo just chuckles and smiles the whole time that everyone is basically talking about what a cute couple he and Godai make. I mean Nana clearly still is holding out hope for snagging Godai here but I think even Manager is finally caught on to what’s going on between the two, and I don’t mean super-heroics. Also, the line of men in suits who sit there silently for the entire scene and just nod at the end are never explained and don’t really come up in the jokes at all so… I mean I don’t even know it’s just that Pore Pore is one weird place to eat.
Isn’t it kind of weird that even though Godai is supposed to be working there he just stops there to eat? I mean, Manager and Nana don’t even seem to ask about where he’s been and it doesn’t seem like they were ever told that Godai was, y’know ‘dead.’ After they head off from their lunch date Godai and Ichijo talk about Manager some and Godai is quick to say he’s less like a Father to him and… you know more of an Uncle. Which makes it sound like even Godai is distancing himself from Manager and is kind of sad… though understandable because Manager has untreated mental problems and may be a rubber suit monster if my theories are correct.
Godai and Ichijo share a little about their pasts. Godai’s dad died in Afghanistan when he was very young, and his mother died in the hospital when he was 18. So after traveling the world for awhile he just kind of settled down at Pore Pore. Ichijo’s dad, as we know, also died when he was young, and he’s just been with his mom ever since. Surprisingly enough this scene isn’t a particularly emotional one. I mean, we get a bit of pointing out the similarities between the pair and Godai reveals that his jokey personality partly comes from working to keep his mom and sister happy, but it’s all pretty casually gone over. Though in truth most of this was noted before so it might just be to help catch the audience up if they missed those episodes.
I mean, Ichijo seems pretty relaxed just hanging out with Godai which is nice, their relationship can’t just always be based on hunting Grongi or it’ll never work out you know? Speaking of though, we get another cut of the now reborn Mushroom Grongi crawling out of the water, complete with scary music and weird squishy sound effects!
The episodes almost over Mushroom Grongi, if you want to get in some murdering you had better hurry up!
At the Police Science Research Institute (Still somehow not diminished in awesomeness in title despite multiple repeats), Enokida explains her very scientific plan to the pair.
I mean, she’s not wrong that that’s a good idea but her plan is basically ‘There’s a bunch of stuff we don’t understand going on so just, you know, try random stuff.’
But hey, I mean she’s not wrong because it works! The scientists all stand by on monitors while the pieces of Gouram start absorbing the metal around them, glowing and pushing together like they’re going to rejoin again. But before it can happen another researcher runs in in a panic. Somethings wrong with the samples they have from the Mushroom Grongi and they need to go check it out quick!
It’s all growing and gloopy and oozing all over the place. Pulsating and looking like it’s coming back to life. Thankfully they have the super hero Kuuga with them! So what is Godai going to do you think? Shoot the growing mass of Grongi cells in Green Kuuga form? Maybe try and somehow to jump-kick the whole mess?
No way man he grabs a nearby blowtorch… a… scientific blowtorch I guess? For all that blowtorch science researchers have to do? Anyways, he grabs it and sets all that stuff straight on fire! Well, I mean it’s effective but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting!
Ichijo puts the fire out and gets a call informing him that the Mushroom Grongi has shown up again elsewhere. Enokida is quick to figure out it is probably another clone like the one that was growing in the lab, grown from one of the exploded bits off the original. But that’s hardly good news. The Grongi always explode when they’re defeated, and if they aren’t able to collect all the pieces wherever it detonates well…
Remember in the past the Grongi talked about how the Mushroom got stronger when it was beaten, but I can say I wasn’t expecting anything like this!
Godai henshin’s and grabs the now fixed and upgraded Trychaser, with a spiffy new dial in control panel.
Soon he’s putting in the code to change it to Kuuga’s color scheme… and considering we’re twenty episodes in I think I am finally done whining about it. Maybe. We’ll see. Anyways, the new control panel at least looks way cooler than the old one with the dials on it. It even has a nifty little RPM thing that lights up and a digital radio! Far more stylish for the hero on the go.
Ichijo calls in to Godai to reveal that Enokida has done a quick analysis and figured out that the cloned Mushroom doesn’t have the ability to create new clones because it’s cells have mutated. Which… well it does reduce the danger a bit considering exploding things is all our hero knows how to do.
At the Mushroom Grongi’s rampage it is tearing through some construction workers and seems to be completely feral minded. Just growling and attacking randomly until the police show up and encircle it.
Far be it for me to claim the police have a bad plan here but I shall remind you that the bullets they are firing have no effect on the Grongi. Which normally isn’t so terrible… I mean, it is… but this time it’s way worse because they are standing in a circle. Look at that two cops are quite literally aiming directly at each other! So they are firing bullets into a monster that is immune to bullets, and if they happen to miss they’re going to hit a cop who is definitely NOT immune to bullets.
Thankfully, before any police drop to friendly fire the Grongi has the good sense to charge them and start the usual Grongi police slaughter. Considering he’s just throwing them into barrels he’s probably a lot less lethal to the officers there than the cops themselves would be right now!
Sugita, in a pretty badass moment, tries to actually club the Mushroom Mutant with the butt of his gun but just gets beat up for his trouble. Just when the Mushroom is about to deliver the coup de grace to our named police officer Kuuga shows up and starts delivering some wheelie kicking justice.
He lands a few front wheel smashes, and then for once actually gets off the bike himself rather than be thrown off. Which turns out to have been a bad idea because the now wild Mushroom Mutant seems to be a few shades stronger than our hero! He picks up Kuuga and throws him around a bit, finally choking him and repeatedly slamming him into the scenery.
It’s a pretty nicely brutal fight scene. They use a lot of breakable props so every time the Mushroom smashes Kuuga into something metal it shatters noisily apart and gives a really solid weight to every blow. The Mushroom is fighting very violently and very uncontrolled as opposed to the more martial arts approach Kuuga usually uses. He throws a few claw swipes but mostly he’s tackling and slamming Kuuga’s head into various metal objects which works very well for hyping up his mindless and dangerous nature.
The fight has one of the sweetest finishes we’ve had yet too! Still pressing the advantage the Mushroom throws Kuuga into a water tower, where Kuuga manages to flip and instead stick his feet to it, and use the force to springboard off into his Rider Kick!
Notably even the Mushroom Grongi, despite being a mindless mutant, sees Kuuga manage that feat of impressive acrobatic finesse and just throws his hands up rather than fight, as if to say ‘Oh man that is so sweet, please after witnessing that I deserve to be kicked!’
But it’s not over quite yet! After landing the flaming kick Kuuga knocks the Mushroom off the top of the building they were fighting on, but after hitting the ground the Mushroom doesn’t explode! While he looks on in shock Kuuga doesn’t seem to realize that his own feet have started crackling with lightning.
Kuuga and Ichijo go to check out the Mushroom Mutant, as though he has not blown up yet the cracks that spread on his body from the kick impact haven’t gone away.
It stays there for a bit before finally just dissolving, turning into a weird and pretty gross looking puddle of goo on the ground. Could it have something to do with Kuuga’s lightning feet? Or maybe because the Mushroom was a mutant instead of a regular Grongi?
Whatever the case is, all I know is Ichijo is just as disappointed as I am!
He ran all the way there so he could see another sweet explosion! And as our two heroes lament not getting to have any kick ass explosions this week we cut to the ending… but things are a little different this time. Rather than the usual end title card which is just colored to match whatever color Kuuga used in the episode, this one is crackling with lightning… and even distorting the screen with static like the tape the broadcast is on is being messed with because of the energy present. What could that be all about!?
So, Final Thoughts?
Another solid, if slightly disjointed episode. Half of the episode is sort of about Godai catching back up with the world after being dead and it is surprisingly low key. I think that works for the show though, considering Godai is a pretty mellow guy. I mean it is very nice to see him and Ichijo just kind of taking a day off from all the violence to ride around and have a fun time together where they go chat with folks. And just speaking from an acting standpoint they do have a noticeable chemistry. It’s very easy to buy them just enjoying one another’s company. Ichijo often projects this mood of being very serious and stoic yet still enjoying the weirdness of Godai deep down, while Godai is often very goofy but at the end of the day is right about his priorities and thus doesn’t grate on Ichijo too much.
The other half of the episode just revolves around a lot of mysteries. The fight scene is almost an afterthought, not that it’s not a good fight! But I mean even the Grongi kind of don’t care about what’s going on this time. They don’t seem like they’re even aware of the Mutant Mushroom. In any case more of the time is devoted to trying to figure out what’s going on in the season long plot than what’s going on this week. The Gouram is still mostly not understood, they have no idea how the Amadam works, and at the end there’s hints with the lightning feet that something new and unexpected is going to happen to Kuuga.
There’s nothing really wrong with this episode, as it is certainly a fun watch and there’s nothing I love better than tossing some more mystery into Kuuga. It doesn’t quite hit the heights of some of the recent episodes but it’s kind of hard to match up to an episode that literally had our hero die and come back to life just so he could throw three jump kicks into someones face. So I’m willing to give it a solid pass for just being another enjoyable run.
And with an ending that has no explosions, lightning feet, and distorted static video who knows what’s going to happen on next weeks Kuuga? Oh… we do! Thanks to the…
And now, on the next Episode of Kamen Rider Kuuga!
Someones attacked by the Bat Grongi! Godai calls some guy who asks if he’s getting married! Jean’s in a good mood! Enokida really wants to see more explosions too! Underground Mysteries and auditory hallucinations! The new Grongi can turn invisible! And Kuuga sees something just off screen that shocks him!
Will we be back to seeing explosions again? Maybe more lightning? Maybe more… dare I hope… lightning explosions!? You’ll have to tune in next week to find out in Kamen Rider Kuuga Episode 21: Secret Maneuvers!
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.
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