Kamen Rider Agito Ep 1 Recap – Man Eating Trees

Welcome back all my loyal readers and to my new readers welcome to my new series of recaps for Kamen Rider Agito! It’s been a year to the day since I started this blog and even I’m a bit amazed I was able to stick with it this long. But who wants to hear about me when we can jump into some Kamen Rider goodness?

Before the episode starts there’s a card to inform us that it is the 30th Anniversary show for Kamen Rider (so I’m not the only one celebrating an Anniversary) and then we’re straight into the eye of a storm. Lightning crashes and winds rage for a few seconds before we catch up with the aftermath of the storm as a family of junk scavengers starts picking through the remnants of the storms destruction left behind on a beach. That is until the youngest of the family stumbles on something seemingly out of this world.

He turns one of the dials on the cross before his grandfather runs up and tears him away from it, admonishing him not to touch the thing when suddenly all the dials start spinning. They’re left to wonder what the heck is going on and we finally get the title card shown at the top of the page. No opening yet though, that’ll have to wait for the next episode!

Now that the episode is into gear proper it’s time to meet our Kamen Rider. Wow that’s pretty fast actually. We’re not even two minutes in and he’s already suited up and ready for business. And he’s getting ready for some training in the… Unidentified Lifeform Practice Room?

Wait a second, the Unidentified Lifeforms… that should be pretty familiar to anyone who came over from Kuuga since that was the public name of the Grongi from Kuuga. But there’s little time to think of it as the mission control watching over our new Kamen Rider… named Kamen Rider G3 the go ahead for the training maneuvers. So not Agito. Okay that’s a bit of an odd choice with having the show not named after the Rider but we can roll with it.

The dummy in front of him starts launching actual cannonballs at him. He dodges a few and they show that they have enough force behind them to embed themselves in the wall behind him before he casually catches one. Then he proceeds to whip out his pistol and start blowing them out of the air the moment they’re launched.

The police all seem suitably impressed by his display of target shooting skill, monitoring all his data on a series of monitors they have in their little overlooking room, and finally give him the go ahead for training to end. They call him by his name, Hikawa, and he removes his helmet with a techno sounding whirr as we see the smiling face of our new Rider.

After the training Hikawa heads over to the O-Parts research division (O-Parts being a term meaning ‘Out of Place Artifacts’) but the leader of this research group is not who any of you Kuuga fans might be guessing but a new sunny faced scientist named Mikumo. They’ve apparently dug out the giant metal cross from before and wired up a bunch of monitoring equipment to it. It’s so old that according to Mikumo Ancient doesn’t begin to cover it, which is some amazing hyperbole, and the police are going to be testing out all the dial combinations on it to try and figure out what the point of the artifact is.

If any of you out there are wondering why the police are doing this kind of studying just remember that the police are the leading edge of research into ancient monsters, what with the having to kill them and all, and giant creepy metal crosses are pretty much screaming ‘ancient monsters’.

At a nearby middle school, there’s a dead body in a tree that a student looks at and fails to see because she has abysmally bad peripheral vision.

I mean look at that angle she was looking right at that tree how did she miss that? Anyway a second look and she screams in terror along with a bunch of other kids as we get some multiple angle shots of the dead kid and then we’re off to Jouhoku College! There Professor Yoshihiko Misugi is reviewing his students graduate theses and has a problem with one of the kids who wants to write about people having psychic powers just because of the minor quibble that people don’t have psychic powers, as though that’s a barrier to the whole thing.

Another kid shows up but he’s not one of the professors students, he’s there to deliver some books as he apparently lives with Professor Misugi. He then cheerfully informs the Professor he’s going to be handling the cooking duties tonight.

So our introduction to Professor Misugi is him crushing one of his students dreams and then rather bluntly telling some kid he lives with that his cooking is terrible. What a cheerful way to greet one of our main characters! After the kid leaves Misugi explains to his students that the boy wasn’t his son but it just someone he’s looking after because of reasons, which means making him run errands for him and then insulting him in front of a group of people he doesn’t know is okay I guess?

I would be remiss to not point out that the boy was carrying a motorcycle helmet with him, because it’s not like those have ever been important in a show about a hero who is named for his ability to ride motorcycles.

Outside we meet up with another biker though, one who has wild hair and a fashion sense 30 years old, in honor of the anniversary perhaps.

He and the boy cross paths and a nearby bands music cuts out when they do, leaving an eerie stillness when they walk by one another. While the biker in the loud shirt seems to note something odd the other rather cheery young man just continues on the way to his own bike… which he decides to walk home rather than ride. But at least we find out why! A young girl named Mana shows up and asks him about it and he reveals that it’s out of gas. We also get his name!

Shouichi isn’t upset at her calling him by his name, he’s upset because he’s an adult and she’s referring to him as a little kid. In some heavy exposition dumping we also learn that he has amnesia! Shockingly he’s pretty cool with not remembering anything as he’s a bit worried he could have bad memories but Mana wants him to remember stuff because if it turns out he was really rich she wants to get her hooks into him and get married.

Notably Shouichi seems to be more terrified of that than if he remembered he was a wanted criminal so that should perhaps tell you something about their relationship.

The wild haired biker drops into the pool and sits at the bottom of the water until the coach shouts at him and we learn the bikers name is Ryou. It turns out he is the ace swimmer for the school but he’s been out of commission after an accident where he was RUN OVER BY A TRUCK.

I’m not going to mince words here there is no way he should be back to 100% anytime shortly after an accident like that. The coach says that Ryou seems to be even healthier than before the accident but he just laughs it off when obviously there is something supernatural at work. I have never heard of someone getting run over by a truck and suddenly turning into a super athlete. I am pretty sure if this because if that were true you’d hear about dudebros throwing themselves in front of trucks all the time.

At the police station Hikawa expresses to his support staff that he is concerned about the middle school kid found in the tree because, and I quote, ‘Normally, that boy wouldn’t be there!’ Astute deduction!

We then get a shot of some guying going to work while his wife is worried about seeing some red cloth flapping near a tree. So… that happens. Then at the O-parts lab we see they’re still spinning those dials, while Shouichi is doing light housework and Ryou is swimming at a race.

How does all that tie together? Well it turns out the red cloth is actually a cape being worn by some sort of leopard handed monster!

He moves his fingers in a reverse Z direction over the back of his hand which kind of looks like he’s making a Christian sign of the Cross style gesture. At that moment one of the dials sequence is completed and it recedes into the cross and suddenly both Ryou and Shouichi have all the sound cut out for them before a screeching static kicks in and they collapse in pain. And since one of them is underwater that’s not good!

The leopard monster grabs the man he was staking out and eventually pulls him out of shot, and with it the headaches stop for Ryou and Shouichi. When the wife comes out to find her husband she finds him stuffed into the tree like the earlier boy, but this time we get a clear shot of just how messed up ‘stuffed into a tree’ actually is.

His body has been actually crammed into a tree knot. That’s pretty messed up! Also when the police show up they reveal that was the kids dad. I wonder if there’s some sort of connection there (of course there’s a connection how many people get shoved into trees?)

While the cops cordon off the scene outside Hikawa goes to interview the mans wife and yells at her and makes her cry. Seriously Hikawa her family was just shoved into trees, you might want to give her some time to process that! Hikawa makes ready to leave when, in an absolutely hilarious moment, another cop shows up to inform Hikawa that he is out of his jurisdiction. Because Hikawa is supposed to be investigating Unidentified Lifeforms. And this incident, in which I would like to remind you two people have been literally SHOVED INTO TREES, obviously isn’t related to anything like ancient monsters.

Now in the real world if something bizarre happens yeah we’ll assume it’s not actually magic and there’s a logical explanation. But in a world where ancient monsters with magical powers who like to murder people based on specific sets of rules are a known thing, then finding people crammed into trees might tip you off that they have something to do with it! It’s a toss up as Idiot Cop is in the running but for now we’re going to call this guy Jackass Cop. It will prove to be a fitting title.

Ryou seems to have not handled the headaches well as his coach had to take him to the hospital where he’s overheating and convulsing, but Shouichi seems to be doing just fine as he tends to his families outdoor garden with the Professors young son Taiichi, and it turns out Mana lives with them too! Apparently Shouichi always grows excessively large vegetables which makes Mana wonder if he used to be a farmer, which Shouichi dismisses with a bad pun that only he laughs at! Well it’s good to see the standard for comic relief remains the same from Kuuga!

Hikawa gets a call from the wife who says she has something to show him that might be related to the murders. Rather than meet him at her house she decides to meet him in the middle of the night in the middle of a park which I’m sure is going to work out great for her.

Or you know a Leopard Kaijin with a halo over his head will stalk her from the shadows. I mean that’s always a very probable thing too.

When he attacks her we find both Ryou and Shouichi once more torn apart by headaches, confirming their ties to the previous assault. The leopard snaps her neck as his halo fades away while Ryou’s heartrate goes into overdrive while he snaps out of his sleep and lurches and thrashes about. Hikawa arrives at the park too late and finds the woman’s purse with a photo of her son in it, before spying her arm dangling from another hole in a tree. The Leopard Kaijin attacks Hikawa after but seems to have no interest in finishing the job as it knocks him aside and makes to leave, which gives him time to call in for his support to deploy the G3 system. In a fun note the male support officer whines that they don’t have authorization to deploy and the female officer just tells him they don’t have any time for that kind of nonsense when an actual monster is roaming about murdering people.

The G3 system has to actually be driven to the scene of the crime in a giant truck called the G trailer, which means Hikawa is forced to fight outside of his suit for the time being. So it’s time to see if the Kaijin this time around are bullet proof!

That’s not a well timed freeze frame, no it turns out the Leopard Kaijin has the power to just freeze the bullets in mid air and then vaporize them. Thankfully since Hikawa is absolutely no threat to him now the Leopard is comfortable just jogging off rather than killing the helpless cop before his support crew arrives. He climbs into the trailer and in a bit I really like he’s incapable of putting on the suit himself, and rather than have any Henshin declaration or transformation sequence he actually has to piece by piece assemble the armor with the aid of his support crew.

They’ve got cameras mounted up in his mask which allow them to monitor his activities in the battlefield, and after confirming the systems he mounts up on his motorcycle (what you thought he wasn’t going to have a motorcycle?) which is an upgrade from the ones that Kuuga rode now called the GuardChaser. In another nice touch it is actually deployed out of the back of the moving G Trailer by rolling down a ramp so that it hits the road already traveling at speed which is pretty cool.

It even has lights and siren! But considering that this time rather than be a loaner from the police with it actually being an officially sanctioned officer riding official police equipment that makes a bit more sense. Also to note it has the same bit where the handle is actually the key that turns the bike on which was something of a silly design choice from back in the Kuuga days but it’s nice that they decided to stick with it at least.

He manages to catch up to the Leopard Kaijin who is fleeing on foot, and corners him in an industrial district. When he loses sight of the Leopard he dismounts and grabs the pistol he was using earlier in training (called the GM-01) which has to be remotely activated by the support crew. Also he just saw that bullets do not in any way work against the Leopard so maybe that wasn’t a smart idea? I’m pretty sure if you can just magically stop bullets in the air and disintegrate them it wouldn’t matter whether they were super special bullets or not is what I’m saying.

And shockingly I’m correct as he spots the Leopard and opens fire only to have the bullets fail to do anything! Hikawa actually openly expresses his surprise at the fact that a monster he knows to be bulletproof is not affected by gunfire. Perhaps Hikawa… wasn’t the best choice as pilot for the G3.

The Leopard at least identifies him as a bit more of a threat now, rushing him and knocking the GM-01 out of his hands before kicking him straight into a car.

And we get to hear the support staff the whole time talking about how badly G3 is getting beat! This is not perhaps the best proper show off of our new Rider’s abilities?

G3 puts up an admirable fight, managing to land a few blows but never really looking like it injures the Leopard Kaijin. The Leopard is able to blow up a few cars by throwing both G3 and the cars around and beat the tar out of G3 pretty handily, eventually doing enough damage that he breaks the camera and the main control system for the suit which means the G3 is now inoperative and Hikawa is down to normal human strength. His support crew yells at him to retreat but he’s not exactly in a good position to make his escape.

Just when it seems like the Leopard is about to finish off our new Rider for good he is stopped when he hears the same static that Ryou and Shouichi heard earlier, and he turns to face the source of it, which is a shadowy figure projecting a light from a belt slung across its waist.

In a pretty kickass moment he steps right in front of one of the flaming cars that the Leopard was throwing around and the explosion of the car is what lights up this new Rider for the first time so that we can get a good look at him.

This new Rider seems to have an easy time taking on the Leopard, deflecting his blows and knocking him around while G3 takes the chance to struggle and regain his footing. And then… it happens. First of all, this new Riders horns spread open to reveal six instead of the two you see up there. Why? Well for what is probably one of the silliest reasons. For those of you who read my Kuuga recaps you might remember there was a pretty big deal about how four horns were better than two horns. Well what’s better than four horns? Six obviously!

If trends continue by the time we get to Kamen Rider Decade he’ll have like 24 or so horns so let’s hope that continues because that would be awesome. But for now something far more important than just the arrival of bigger numbers. It’s time for the ending theme to kick in! Why is that important? Well you know in Kuuga usually I would just talk about what I liked about a song but in this case you’re going to have to listen to it yourself. Because you just won’t ‘Believe Yourself’ how amazing this song is until you hear it. (The song is named ‘Believe Yourself’, yes I am ashamed of that terrible joke.)

The new Rider gets into a pose while the symbol from the opening title card appears in gold around his feet, which is in general a pretty awesome thing but since it’s two dimensional it means that half the time everyone around him probably can’t even see it which makes it kind of silly now that I think about it.

The symbol is absorbed into his feet and when the Leopard charges at him the new Rider leaps into the air and delivers a Rider Kick straight to the Kaijins chest. The force actually blows the Kaijin away, causing him to skid along the ground before toppling over. The new Rider, being a cool guy, elects to turn around first so that he does not have to look at the Kaijin when he explodes.

G3 is still barely on his feet when the new Rider turns to walk away, and we see two more Cat Kaijin looking on from the shadows as they name the new Rider ‘Agito’ Which is helpfully confirmed by the closing title card that zooms out the action!

Well no wonder G3 sucked so hard, he wasn’t even our proper Rider! Now I don’t feel so bad for watching him be a miserable failure!

So, Final Thoughts?

Well this is the first episode of a new Rider, or in this case… two new Riders. How does it hold up? Pretty good! You want a first episode to hook you into a story and so far just like Kuuga before it Agito is going for the mystery approach. We’re introduced to a number of characters in pretty rapid succession with just a bit of story to flesh them all out, and we don’t even get to see who Agito really is! Considering the static thing it’s likely enough either Ryou or Shouichi, but at the moment that answer is still up in the air.

I’ll talk about G3 more as the series goes on but I really like the idea in concept and I like the way he’s handled here. We’ll get to it more as I talk about how Kuuga and Agito are actually connected but in this case when we know that the police have been trying to find means to deal with the Unidentified Lifeforms even though they developed a number of weapons in the last series the only thing that truly worked against them was Kuuga, so it makes a lot of sense for the police to try and replicate that design with a Rider of their own. Having G3 come out the gate as such a horrible failure is also a pretty great way to ratchet up the stakes here. The police were clearly quite impressed with the system early in the episode so having the Leopard Kaijin show up here and trounce it before having Agito show up to ruin the Leopard is a pretty fast way to establish the relative strength of everything at play here.

If there’s one weakness it’s that there’s so much building going on here with so many characters there’s not enough room to let personalities shine through. Of the three real ‘main’ characters we know that Hikawa is a somewhat brash but dedicated police officer Shouichi is an amnesiac with a poor sense of humor who likes doing housework, and Ryou… swims. Really that’s about all we’ve got for him.

But there’s plenty more Agito left and plenty more to learn, and I for one am looking forward to getting into it!

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

Ryou’s condition is getting worse! The ‘Unknown’! The G3 is totally useless, again! Mana things Shouichi might be right that Amnesia is super cool! Jackass Cop accuses Hikawa of making up a monster fight that I’m pretty sure they have video evidence for! Shouichi gets more headaches, A Cat Kaijin gets a bow, the G3 gets a grenade launcher and Agito gets a staff!

Awaken the Soul, by the by, is the tagline for the series. Next week is looking pretty packed again so join me for then for Kamen Rider Agito Episode 2: Blue Storm!

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.