3-2-1 Recap! Remember to hit your gas the moment the 2 drops if you want to get that early speed boost, though… taking the lead may mean a blue shell is coming your way. Sorry all, I may or may not have spent nigh the entirety of the Fourth of July playing Mario Kart 8 (incidentally it is awesome), but with that out of my system I’m in full on Kamen Rider Kuuga mode.
This week kicks off with a rehash of Badaa’s motorcycle murder from last week meaning that the clip show was entirely superfluous as the only bit of forward momentum in the plot was bound to be covered anyways. Some bystander happened to witness the sweet mayhem though, including Badaa’s transformation back into his human guise, and has reported it to the police.
After shouting the obvious at Ichijo (seriously how many scarf wearing motorcycle riding Grongi do you think there are Godai), our heroes peelsout towards their targets location while we slip into the credits.
After showing up at the scene of the police report Kuuga hears a scream and starts looking around where he finally spots Badaa on top of a building. Badaa mimes flipping a coin and it makes his hand move into a thumbs up and YOU GUYS, I just realized (like was not aware of it before writing these recaps), that Badaa’s coin flipping habit was meant to mirror Godai’s love of thumbs ups because of this. That is amazing. I mean that’s the kind of thing that’s really minor but really great when it comes to creating a mirror for our hero like Badaa is supposed to be.
Kuuga chou henshin’s to Blue and leaps to the top of the building but after looking around it seems like Badaa has fled and he’s only able to find his most recent victim. Ichijo shows up a little after and after Kuuga calls down to him the detective finds a service elevator so he can ride up to the roof of the building.
As the elevator doors slide open the dramatic music swells and the detective only has a moment to dive aside when he realizes that the Grongi they’re chasing is on the other side.
Thankfully Badaa misses Ichijo with his bike, and he seems content to just head off rather than try and wheel around to try again. Kuuga stops by for a moment to check on Ichijo but realizing that they need to stop the escaping Grongi he mounts up on the Trychaser to head off in pursuit leaving the detective to catch up in his non two wheeled form of conveyance. All those extra wheels only slow you down Ichijo get with the program!
While Ichijo calls in for support (and reveals that he’s Car 01 in the police force because of course he is he’s awesome), Badaa is clearly waiting for Kuuga to catch up with him so the two can get to racing, and in a pretty cool scene weave in and out of traffic while they burn out along the road.
They finally pull off onto a more secluded road and end up facing off against one another, where Badaa pops a wheelie and the pair wheelie smash their tires into one another because this episode is getting off to an awesome start. Badaa seems to win out on the exchange, knocking Kuuga back while he rides off away. When Kuuga manages to recover and catch up to him Badaa has shifted to his Grasshopper Grongi form and seems ready for the proper showdown.
After revving his engine Badaa pops a wheelie and starts charging at our hero, which causes Kuuga to pull the same. The camera cuts back and forth between the two while they drive on their wheelies at one another, keeping up the stunt for way longer than is necessary entirely for the sake of showing off. Which is of course, awesome.
When the pair cross they turn to clash wheels and Kuuga is straight up owned as he’s knocked aside by the Grasshoppers superior bikesmanship. Ichijo shows up just in time to see Kuuga get flung from the accident, but rather than run to check up on him Ichijo pulls out his ready rifle and pulls off a pretty impressive shot, catching the back of Badaa’s Grongi bike as he tries to ride off. Smoke starts rising from the bike and Badaa rubs his face some, implying that he’s likely bothered by the gas bullets effect, and he decides to ride off and leave the finishing blow for another day.
After checking in to see that he’s okay, Ichijo decides that it’s certainly not Godai’s fault he’s been losing these meet ups with the Grasshopper. Nope, it’s gotta be the bike.
And it turns out Godai is aware of the new machine the police have in development, the Beatchaser 2000!
Ichijo calls Enokida (who was busy not spending quality time with her son and instead reading the newspaper at the office), asking if they can have the bike. But after Enokida names the Chief (Matsukura, man has he been around forever without me knowing his name!), she drops some bombshell news. It turns out with the public freaking out that just because Kuuga nuked a couple of blocks of Tokyo with his jump kick the police are worried about further collaborating with him and don’t want to hand over the new machine.
Ichijo looks pretty pissed off about the news, and for once maybe it’s not because the cops aren’t willing to give his boyfriend a fancy new toy. I mean this time they really did build that bike explicitly for Kuuga’s use, right down to it being designed specifically with fusing with Gouram in mind, and they’re… just going to give it to some random cops in Kanto? What the heck are they going to do with it?
Ichijo then asks about the new bullets in development, and when Enokida says they’re not going to be ready yet he points out that Badaa has a lot of similarities with the Grasshopper they fought back in the day, who was the first one to be super weak to the gas, and since his shot now just had a good effect they might want to load up on some strengthened gas bullets. Ichijo continues to be great at his job.
Then this happens.
Dangit I was so long past complaining about the color changing Trychaser and then they had to go and do this. How does that make any sense at all! So it really is just some built in feature of the bike that can break if it gets hit around enough? How in the world does that work? Man just break down already Trychaser and give me a new bike so I can stop being so unnecessarily angry at your dumb color changing!
While Godai rides off in search of Badaa Ichijo decides to head back to headquarters so he can try and talk the higher ups into letting the dangerous super powered monster he’s personally friends with have the experimental new police super motorcycle, which is at least a step up from the last time this happened where he just stole the experimental new police super motorcycle for his at the time unknown super powered monster friend that was at the time a wanted fugitive.
Oh and Badaa is off running more motorcyclists off the road by ramming them with his bike and then killing them when they run away. Which is how one proves they’re the best motorcyclist I believe.
Actually, the murder scene for his next one is overall pretty cool. He keeps ramming some cyclists back tire till it knocks him off the road and then the guy flees, weaving in and out of parked cars and trucks in an alley before he finds a spot to hide. He’s looking over his shoulder for Badaa to come when Bada instead shows up from another direction and proceeds to smash through all the trash in the way until we just hear a crunch and the unlucky motorcyclists screams.
It’s a nice return to Horror Movie Kuuga form, as the super persistent serial killer is always going to be a nice frightening little diversion. And then Abacus shows up to click off a bead. Man… how does he keep up with Badaa when he’s biking around everywhere? Does Abacus have super speed or maybe his own sweet motorcycle we don’t get to see him ride around and wheelie off screen?
At police headquarters Ichijo and Chief Matsukura have the weirdest debate ever. First Ichijo tries to claim that Kuuga didn’t blow up all the buildings (which he definitely totally did and you are fully aware of that so way to lie for your boyfriend Ichijo), and then Matsukura says it wouldn’t matter if he did and there weren’t any severe injuries from the explosion anyways. What’s important is that it’s a bad time for the police to look like they’re helping Kuuga with all the negative press he’s getting. Oh man, politics!
While leaving the office Ichijo runs into Sasayama who asks him what they should do. Oh, and she brings up that they’ve clocked Badaa’s bike.
For those of you used to English units that’s about 250 mph, and for those of you who have forgotten the Trychaser only has a top speed of 300 km/h. Considering they have no way of catching Badaa Ichijo realizes a capture operation is pointless, but he still has the police issue an order that all motorcycle riding is prohibited to try and minimize the casualties as those are his targets of choice.
Oh and shockingly it seems like despite Sakurai last week being all up in Ichijo’s grill for not revealing more information about Kuuga he and Sugita are actually pretty on board with our hero helping the police out.
If of course by ‘help’ you mean kill all but like, two of the Grongi by himself because the police have no consistent means of dealing with them themselves then yes, Kuuga has ‘helped’ out in the past.
Oh and you know who else has been helping out? Sakurako! No silly not with the police or with the investigation into the Grongi or with anything else you’d expect a linguist intimately familiar with the lore of the monsters who yet still stalk the streets day and night looking for innocents to murder. No she’s helping out at the smell and taste of the Orient, Pore Pore!
I mean I know a lot of college students work waitress gigs to help pay for school but I’m pretty sure Manager isn’t paying her a dime. I mean Minori is helping out too so I guess it’s her day off… or maybe she too has abandoned her life’s goal of being a school teacher helping out small children to instead make it in the high stakes world of working at a crappy restaurant. Live the dream!
Oh and Nana is of course pretty sure that Sakurako is there because she’s into Godai, which seems like it’d be a bad plan because in the past he always spent more time avoiding his work crashing at the university… but let it never be said that Nana showed a wealth of sense making. She is related to Manager after all.
Back at police headquarters Ichijo comes up with a pretty awesome plan to fight Badaa. They’ll have a motorcycle act as bait to lure him out, and lead him along a designated path to a secluded area where his explosion won’t do damage when he fights Kuuga. They’ll use the police to set up roadblocks to help control the route and arm them with gas bullets to help direct Badaa’s path. On top of that they’ll plan out a number of alternate routes so that if he goes off course they’ll be able to lead him back the way they want to go. Once again the police are right on the ball this week.
And once the plan goes into motion, it’s time for some proper introductions!
In a pretty sweet moment right after Sugita introduces himself Godai first asks about his son Hazuki the piano student, which is a really nice little reminder of the kind of personality our hero has. They may be getting ready to set out on a mission to hunt down a serial killer monster but Godai is definitely the kind of person who is going to care about the personal lives of the people he is working with because he is just a nice dude. He also gets introduced to Sasayama over the radio which is again, a nice touch.
While Badaa keeps up the murder spree (there’s a nice moment where he runs someone over and while they scream we just see their helmet rolling across the road), the Grongi are doing their weekly meet up. And this time it’s on top of a crane overlooking a river which… I mean would be rough on people with a fear of heights but does at least give a gorgeous view!
The Grongi are all standing around wondering if Badaa will be able to defeat Kuuga or not, though really none of them seem to care all that much about it, while the Bat continues to hang in the back and look all shifty eyed because he’s been planning secretive stuff for weeks now that nothing has come of. I barely remember what it was even, I mean he was growing rocks and rubbing guitar picks but man when are you actually going to do anything about that Bat? Anyways there’s really nothing else for them to do this week so it’s back to the action!
After filling in Godai on the plan and announcing that he and Badaa are going to be fighting on a secluded beach, we get a report in from one of the polices other Trychaser units. Because yup, now the cops in general have Trychasers! I mean it was a prototype you know they were going to eventually build a production model.
There’s a few differences with it. It has a police light and siren for one, and I’m going to assume for two that it DOESN’T have an entirely unnecessary color changing dial. In any case the bike cop has managed to track down Badaa and has decided to engage him directly despite warnings from Sugita and from the bike cops own local backup which is probably a bad idea, but let’s see how it works out for him.
You mean the Grongi who specializes in knocking people off of their motorcycles and then running them over knocked the policeman off his motorcycle and ran him over, who would’ve guessed?
Badaa does pull a sweet rampless jump over a cop car to escape just as Godai and Sugita show up too. Which doesn’t seem necessary as there is plenty of road for him to just go around the car but man am I ever not going to complain about it.
Oh and it turns out that was the cop who was supposed to lure Badaa to the beach, whoops! Ichijo seems a bit pissed off about his plan falling apart right at the start but really that’s less his fault than it is that cops inability to follow orders, so I’m not going to fault Ichijo for this one.
The Kanto police show up at the Police Science Research institute and demand Enokida hand over the Beatchaser and she just cold stares them down and doesn’t say anything.
That is the look of a woman you do not want to mess with. And since this woman’s hobby is designing weapons for combating super serial killer monsters you REALLY don’t want to mess with her. But before we can see how that scenario plays out we’re back to the Badaa action.
Godai henshin’s to Kuuga and the hard rock kicks in while the two get ready for their climactic showdown! Bike against Bike, Rider against Rider, with only the open road ahead of them for Badaa to show off his superior machines speed and handling!
By which of course I mean they go off-roading!
Somehow it seems like Badaa will lose a little of his speed advantage on the rocky terrain but hey who’s got time to think about that when you can take advantage of some sweet rock climbing action, surely even Badaa isn’t immune to the desire to do super cool things. He is, after all, a motorcyclist.
The two jockey for position which involves less actually hitting one another and more pulling off sweet jumps and wheelies and various other motorcycle stunts, which I really have trouble finding fault with. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to avoid doing sweet motorcycle stunts when you’re out on rocky dunes.
After a few run ins and some light dust ups in between all the showing off, the music finally drops out so we can be serenaded by the alluring sounds of crashing waves and roaring engines as the two finally stare down and get ready to bring this to a climax. And what could be more fitting for a climactic meeting than a GIANT CHARGING LEAP RIGHT AT ONE ANOTHER?
The motorcycles collide in mid air, each unseating the other rider as the clash tosses them both apart in a very cool looking scene.
Badaa manages to recover first, and the Trychaser has landed right next to him. Mounting up on our heroes ride he starts to charge just as Kuuga realizes he has nowhere to run and readies himself to stand down against his own machine… now under the control of his Grasshopper Rival!
And as Badaa readies to wheelie right into Kuuga, we cut to the credits!
So, Final Thoughts?
Wait, you mean we get another Badaa episode!? Sweet! Yes if there’s any Grongi deserving of a three-parter (especially when one of those parts was a lame clip show), it’s Badaa! This episode is really solid all around. You can tell how much action is going on when watching it because they don’t have a lot of time to devote to any of the usual character building just with all the story and action they have to get through.
Badaa’s motorcycle kills remind me of something Stephen King would put together (as he’s quite fond of the ‘killer machine’), having Badaa just mercilessly run down people again and again really works both on the horror movie bend and on characterizing him. For his chosen murder method he has picked to hunt down people who have the exact same hobby he has, which seems to be something he’s chosen specifically to stand as a rival to Kuuga. It really works in building up this notion of arrogance and self confidence that seems to naturally hang around the aloof Grasshopper.
It’s really nice to see some serious fallout from the Golden Red Kuuga Rider kick rather than just bad news reports. You can’t really fault the polices stance here, it’s got to be hard to publicly support a super hero even when that hero isn’t causing massive property damage. And of course the police continue to show off their competence under the helm of the always bright Ichijo.
And having Badaa steal the Trychaser is honestly quite the surprise move and a great cliffhanger to end the episode on. They seem to keep building up to the notion that Badaa was just going to wreck it, but considering his seeming obsession with Kuuga having him ready to run over our hero with his own ride is a hell of a point to leave things off with. All around a great return to form with a great episode of Kuuga!
And now, on the next episode of Kamen Rider Kuuga!
Ichijo and Enokida stand off against the Kanto cops over the Trychaser! Golden Green Kuuga goes after Badaa while hanging off Gouram! And Kuuga mounts up on a new bike and stakes it all on another race against Badaa!
The showdown continues next week in Kamen Rider Kuuga Episode 33: Cooperation!
Kamen Rider is Copyright Toei Company, TV Asashi, and Bandai. The Subbed version recapped in this article was produced by the wonderful folks at Midnight Crew Subs
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