Welcome back to my ongoing recap series for the second Heisei era Kamen Rider show, Kamen Rider Agito!
Last week ended with G3 being horribly useless while Agito defeated two Unknown single-handed. And with the cat monsters exterminated Agito had turned his violent wrath upon the helpless G3! Things pick up right away as Agito completely tears G3 apart, which again leads to nothing but constant shouting from G3’s mission support about how horribly beat up he’s getting.
The battery on the suit fails and the defensive system that protects Hikawa shuts down, which means that any further hits he takes will be just like getting hit as a regular human. And that’s when Agito decides it’s time to prep for another Rider Kick. Just before Hikawa is exploded into lots of itty bitty G3 chunks though Agito comes to his senses, looking down in disbelief at his hands before he flees from the scene.
Shouichi de-Henshin’s and tries to escape but finds that he’s overcome by a piercing headache that causes him to wipe out his bike. Mana finds the collapsed Shouichi and he begs her for help which is a pretty dark way to jump to the credits!
When we’re back to the episode it’s the next day and Shouichi is feigning sleep in bed while the professors son Taiichi wonders if Shouichi is sick, but doesn’t let that wondering stop him from demanding Shouichi get up to cook them all breakfast. So I guess the jackass doesn’t fall far from the tree.
But speaking of Jackasses Hojo is actually being a nice guy now. Maybe he was just misunderstood!
Apparently being shoved into a tree by an angel like cat Kaijin changes your outlook on life. Hojo not only backs up everything Hikawa has been saying but also tells the police brass that they should be putting their trust and resources into Hikawa and his department since the G3 system is the only chance they have against the Unknown. Of course the G3 system has so far not managed to injure any Unknown but, you know, still better than nothing I guess. Hojo does recommend they enter mass production with it and that makes a little more sense as a defense measure.
Meanwhile our third lead, Ryou, has escaped from the hospital when the doctors weren’t looking which leaves his coach to worry about him. Also his coach steadfastly remains the only friend or family member he’s had care about him at all which is kind of weird isn’t it? Is that not just me? I mean he just vanished from the hospital and the hospitals response was just “Meh I’m sure he’s fine.”
We do see Ryou out stumbling around in his street clothes at least so it’s not like he’s wandering the streets in a hospital gown but seriously the guy was in a coma I feel like some authority needs to be alerted here.
Over in the G3 Trailer Hikawa apologies to Ozawa and the other guy (His name is Omuro you can read it on his name-tag but I don’t know if anyone has ever said it) about being a really crappy pilot for the G3. Ozawa just agrees with him and says she’ll get on fixing it. And then for some reason Hikawa decides he’s going to try and argue that Agito is a good guy.
I mean we know Agito is the star of the show but even the audience hasn’t seen him be a hero yet, we just know he likes to jump kick monsters to death. And since he also almost jump kicked a police officer to death it’s rather hard to say what side he’s on, he could just be a fight happy kind of guy. So Hikawa is kind of dumb to say “Yeah he almost killed me but he didn’t so he’s probably a good guy.” This is not exactly the most compelling argument you can make.
Also Ozawa tells Hikawa he should stop trusting Hojo since Hojo was originally the candidate to use the G3 system but it was passed over to Hikawa instead. Which means Hikawa somehow got the G3 unit without even knowing who his competition was? I can see why they skipped on giving it to Hojo (he’s a dick), but no offense to Hikawa we haven’t seen a really good reason why they should have put a bumbling doofus in the G3 system. Only time shall tell I guess.
At the O-parts lab Mikumo and her group have almost finished decoding the cross made of dials. Which… good thing it was accelerated last week by the cat monsters I guess?
Okay so we as the viewers at home know the Unknown want this thing opened up which means it’s going to be terrible for all the humans (since the Unknown so far have done exactly one thing and that is shove humans into trees), but seriously even without that how could you think this was a good idea? I mean in the real world yes if we found ancient super technology we’d probably be keen to study it, but lest we forget this is a world that has gone through everything that happened in Kuuga but apparently with some kind of bad ending.
So these researchers already know there was an ancient race of serial killer monsters with super powers, and when new even more powerful serial killer monsters show up at the same time as an obscure artifact their response is to think it sure would be neat-o to see what was locked away behind some of the most complicated locks known to man? They don’t even have safeguards present! I mean at least have an armed guard. I know he’d be useless against the Unknown but you could at least say you tried.
At some archaeological dig site an archaeologist finds a dead body buried in the dirt, and while everyone crowds to see it an Unknown pops out of the ground to watch and he looks hilarious!
Nobody sees him somehow, despite being a giant dirt colored silver head jutting out from the ground, and he scurries off to leave the body behind. When the police show up they confirm the body was buried deep but without any apparent digging around it which matches up to the previous cases where the murder seems to be impossible to commit by human means. Unless one of the archaeologists planted the dead body but NOPE definitely the polices first response is going to be ancient monsters this time. Hikawa decides to investigate the guys apartment to see if he can find any clues as to what’s really going on here.
Shouichi is up out of bed now, but he’s just glumly stroking his spinach out in the garden. Mana comes to check up on him because he’s being a big gloomy Gus.
That’s a remarkable way to phrase the idea “I just turned into a super hero last night, blew up two monsters, and almost killed a police officer, and now I’m not sure what I should do about that.”
Her uncle pulls her aside as he explains that Taiichi and him think they’ve overworked Shouichi, since he’s basically their live in slave. He does all the cleaning, cooking, gardening, laundry, and all other assorted chores for the family and no one lifts a finger to help him. Considering he’s just some random amnesiac they took in that is remarkably dickish! I am also not entirely sure it’s legal to take amnesiacs and turn them into your unpaid servants?
Though shockingly when the Professor suggests the family split up the chores Mana is the one who thinks he’s reading the mood wrong and they shouldn’t. Which… I mean he is but also it’s kind of dickish on her part? Apparently the whole family is just jerks?
And then in a wacky montage the family members all fail at simple household chores in a chain of events that leads to Mana’s hair almost being ripped out by a vacuum cleaner, Misugi’s foot being scalded by boiling water, and the house almost being burnt down. I want to stress that they almost kill each other while vacuuming, ironing, and making dinner. So this is a university professor, a psychic girl, and a bratty kid who would die if forced to do the basic things one has to do to survive.
Shouichi has to put the fire out and thus save the family, and he rather cheerfully decides to go back to doing all the chores. I’m not sure if that’s a happy ending or not!
Meanwhile Hikawa finds his decisive evidence!
A bottle with a coin in it.
Have I mentioned that I have my doubts about how good Hikawa is at his job yet?
Also lest you think I’m joking about how inept Misugi and his family are, after Shouichi does all the chores for them in a jaunty montage this is their reaction.
They’re not teasing or anything either. Legitimately they watch in stunned silence as Shouichi irons, vacuums, and cooks, and their response is to give him a standing ovation like they just saw the most amazing thing in the universe. I… again I’m not sure if this is the best way to treat an amnesiac! You’re really going to give him a distorted view of the way the world is supposed to work.
Ryou meanwhile hands in his resignation to another player on the swim team so it gets passed along to the coach. Fun bit, it’s like the second or third time when the coach has missed Ryou and every time he does he growls “That Punk…” Angrily under his breath. I don’t know why but I imagine that being like his wacky catchphrase.
While the coach storms around in a fuss the cross dial is near complete, and in matching to the last dial spinning Ryou is experiencing terrible pains in his gut! Could it be his… gut instinct? (Ugh, terrible, so terrible. I am literally ashamed at that one.) Also yeah his belly starts glowing again. But we know he’s not Agito so what’s going on?
Shouichi is in much better spirits and tells Mana he learned a valuable lesson. That everyone has somewhere they belong and doing minor housework for their family so they don’t kill themselves because they are all incompetent is his place, and he’s willing to fight to protect it.
Hey the show said it, not me!
Hikawa reveals his stunning evidence to Ozawa and Other Guy (Omuro). Because you can’t normally fit a coin in that bottle, and they had a photo that was kind of weird, he is ready to jump to the conclusion that all the victims had something abnormal about them. I wonder if he freaks out when people do the fake thumb removal trick for kids. Ozawa decides to set up a meeting for Hikawa with an expert on such things that used to be a teacher of hers, and you’ll never guess who it is!
Yeah so that’s going to be fun! I have to imagine Ozawa knows how much Misugi hates the occult and psychic phenomena and intentionally is putting Hikawa in touch with him just so Hikawa can be properly humiliated.
Alright once again we go consult the internets because the Unknown that burrows through the ground with his sharp drill hands is the… if you guessed Mole Unknown man you’re way off as it’s a Sea Turtle Unknown! But who cares what actual animal it is because it’s Fall so it’s playing in leaf piles!
Also it grabs a guy who is doing really poor kick flips tricks on a scooter and murders him. And because the Unknown seems really focused on the scooter it almost implies he’s doing it because the guy is doing really poor tricks? I can sympathize is what I’m saying.
Shouichi once more gets a psychic shock alerting him to the Unknown activities and races off on his motorcycle to find them. Hikawa also heads off to the scene after getting a report on the police radio despite the fact that G3 isn’t ready for deployment so I’ll give him at least the guts for going to fight a monster without his power armor.
Shouichi arrives first and finds the discarded scooter (so did he see an image of the scooter in his mind or something?) and then he is ambushed by the Sea Turtle! Which means it’s time for Shouichi to tap into his otherworldly powers and Henshin into the oh no wait he decides to try and hit it with a stick.
Shockingly that plan does not work out well for him. Who knew that bullet proof Kaijin would also be stick proof?
Mana had followed him to the scene on her bike, which means she’s watching when Shouichi finally decides to Henshin to Agito. Just like last time he strikes his pose (which involves crossing his hands and then slapping both sides of the belt he summons), before a bright flashlight glows at his waist. It keeps blinding with the light until finally the sound of an engine rev comes on while the white flash disappears to show him as Agito. And since ‘Believe Yourself’ is already playing it looks like there is no time to waste before the butt kicking!
The fight is really short but Agito is completely in the lead until out of nowhere a gold colored… ugh… Gopher Turtle (and now I do feel dumb because they actually CAN dig) shows up to grab Agito from behind, while the Sea Turtle rams into his front and maaaaan is that awkward looking.
Agito breaks free and readies himself for a Rider Kick, jumping off the Gopher Turtles back to deliver it. Unfortunately the Sea Turtle turns and when Agito hits his shell… the kick fails to do any damage! Wow, episode 3 and already the Rider Kick isn’t enough.
With Agito on the ropes and Hikawa still racing to the scene, the action comes to a halt as the last thing we see before the end of the episode is the dial cross opening up while all the scientists look on in awe. Opening to reveal! Things!
Yup… those are… things alright. And that’s the episode!
So, Final Thoughts?
Not going to lie this episode is a bit of a let down after the previous two weeks. The plot is still moving of course but there’s a lot that just feels listless and rushed.
This episode has a bunch of plots that wrap up shockingly quickly. Shouichi is depressed after finding out he has super powers… and then nope he’s back to his old self immediately. Mana has been wondering what great secret Shouichi could be hiding… and she finds out. The giant cross that is the biggest mystery of the series… just opens! It’s like all these things they implied they would be building towards both big and small are just pushed away to make room for something new, as though the writers were getting a bit bored of what they had been doing.
The only fight in the episode is short and kind of hard to judge. It’s very weird to just have a monster show up this quickly that can no sell a finishing move that was previously shown to be unbeatable. It really makes everything kind of out of whack.
And Ryou, of course, does even less this episode than he has the past two. C’mon, he’s supposed to be the third lead here!
On the whole I do still like this episode as I like Agito in general. But this episode definitely sprints fast and ends up tripping over itself because of it.
And now, on the next Kamen Rider Agito!
Agito sees Mana! Ryou is going to show his coach stuff! Apparently those ‘Things’ look like DNA to Hikawa, but since he’s kind of thick we can probably ignore that! And G3 and Agito fight against the Turtles again!
More turtle action to come next week in Kamen Rider Agito Episode 4:Puzzle Decoding!
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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