Welcome back to my ongoing recap series for the second Heisei era Kamen Rider show, Kamen Rider Agito!
This week starts things off with a chance to once more watch the new Rider’s pretty amazing Rider kick and I think we can all be grateful for that. For those of you who need a refresher feel free to skip to the end of the last episodes recap where I detailed it in all it’s picturesque glory. After that we catch up with Ryo now wandering the sidewalk at night apparently exhausted from the sheer display of awesomeness he put on. In fact, that particular Rider Kick was so awesome the aftereffects of it are causing his body to literally melt down before his eyes!
So you have to choose between your body melting or never performing sweet jump kicks ever again. Tough call! Ryo sees a blurry vision walking towards him but eventually collapses from overexertion before we see the Evil Boy (plus ominous Latin chanting, naturally) as he steps over Ryo’s unconscious body and reaches out towards it. What nefarious fate does he have in store for our third string hero? Why the opening credits of course!
When we’re back with the show once more we find the episode proper starting off in the G-Trailer. That’s becoming something of a recurring theme. This time around Hikawa is showing off some more evidence to Omuro that the victims might have ESP and it’s his sketchiest evidence yet! One of the victims had bought a bunch of horse racing tickets that were all losers, but they were the winning picks for different horse races that day.
Actually your humble Recapper has a pretty strong statistical background and I can point out they’re both right! In Hikawa’s case actually picking all the right answers of a set transposed is exactly as difficult as picking all the right answers. But in favor of Omuro that set of picks is equally as likely as any other set. So basically if there was evidence the victim had done this kind of thing a lot it might mean something but without that I have to agree with Omuro. For shame Hikawa, making me agree with someone who is barely a character!
Ozawa stops in to the trailer so Hikawa finally has another character to talk to, and she informs him about Mikumo’s disappearance. Also Ozawa openly muses about whether or not the OOParts DNA experiment was a failure or not and not Hikawa. Hikawa even flashbacks to when Mikumo said that nothing happened in such a shifty way that it was obvious something happened and it’s still up to Ozawa to speculate something might have actually happened because, as previously stated, Hikawa is not a very good detective.
Now it’s time for this weeks absurd Unknown murder method!
See that blur in the background? Well this week we’ve got some kind of bird Unknown… who… doesn’t fly like a bird but actually zips around like a jet engine. Seriously he makes jet kind of sounds and doesn’t flap his wings or anything. Anyway once he’s picked out his target on the street he just straight tackles the guy at high speed and throws him into a light post and somehow… NO ONE SEES THIS. Seriously there are people standing right next to him when this giant black monster slams into him at high speed and throws him thirty feet and everyone on the scene is like “It was an accident!”
The bird Unknown (who I’ll note is a Crow and is… moderately recognizable as such) does at least have the decency to laugh at how stupid everyone is being so I’ll thank him for that.
Back at the Misugi household Mana is upset with Shouichi for doing laundry, so the family can reach new lows as they pick on him for doing his job! In actuality he had sent an outfit off to the cleaners she wanted to wear tomorrow for a special occasion. And while everyone grills her about having a date she reminds them that it was the anniversary of her father’s death. And Professor Misugi proves he definitely can reach a new low by forgetting the day his only brother died. And then he has the gall to say that though they were step brothers he was closer to him than any real brother! Just not close enough to, you know, mourn his passing or anything. Also Shouichi asks Mana to describe her father and we learn he used to work with Professor Misugi. We also learn…
I have no idea what to say to that. So I’ll just note Mana has a dream that night about a fun day at the beach she had with her dad and he seems like a generally nice guy. Nicer than his brother at least even if that’s not saying a whole lot.
There’s trouble back at the police department though. The top brass wants to reevaluate Hikawa’s qualifications to be the G3 operator for the astounding reason that he has proven to not be that great at it and Ozawa is super pissed. At both the top brass for wanting to potentially remove Hikawa from the post and Hikawa for being such a wimp and not standing up for himself. I’m all on board with the police brass myself until they mention they’re completely shutting down G3 operation until the testing is complete which… sounds a bit short sighted? I mean I know G3 hasn’t been doing that great or anything but it is still literally the only thing that can even stall an Unknown and it seems kind of dumb to put it in a closet.
After the meeting Ozawa and HIkawa run into Hojo who feigns ignorance at having anything to do with the shutdown of the G3 project,even though he seems to not only know the context of their own meeting but also has a meeting with the police brass right after them.
Look at that smile. Seriously, what an incredible dick. That is some fine market fresh dickery right there.
We get a short cut over to the Evil Boy watching the Crow Unknown zipping around in the sky before the Evil Boy walks into an abandoned hospital or triage like setup and overlooks Ryo who is passed out on a gurney, still showing his melted hand injuries. It’s clear enough the Evil Boy has an interest in Ryo but at the moment it’s impossible to guess what it could be.
Back in the G-Trailer though while Omuro and Hikawa are lamenting the shut down of operations Ozawa storms in and reveals that she did some digging and found out Hojo did have them shut down, by threatening to the top brass that he would reveal the details of the Akatsuki-Gou incident. And we finally get a reason for why they would want to keep Hikawa’s heroism secret. It turns out that the reason he had to single-handedly save the ferry boat was that the marine patrol had abandoned it, and the head of the marine patrol is a powerful man with powerful connections and it would look back on his record to have not attempted a rescue.
Hikawa is quick to defend the marine patrol chief though, as he thinks he had good cause to ignore the rescue signal the boat was putting out. Because the only reason Hikawa looked into it was that while he was on patrol he saw an impossible giant light column in the middle of the ocean.
It just so happened the boat was at the center of the column when Hikawa went to investigate it. So to recap there, Hikawa wants to forgive the Marine Patrol for seeing a giant column of light in the ocean that was putting out a rescue signal and going ‘Eh, probably nothing we’ll just ignore it.’ Ozawa rightfully points out that that’s bull but that doesn’t mean Hojo’s threats aren’t dangerous. With him willing to sell out the police’s reputation he might be able to get Hikawa removed from piloting G3.
Hikawa vows to keep fighting the Unknown even if he has to do it without the G3 and since we’ve seen how good he was at fighting the Unknown with the G3 I’ll just say it was nice knowing you Hikawa.
Over at the abandoned hospital the Evil Boy is playing nursemaid to Ryo when his hand symbol starts glowing and all of a sudden he’s transformed into an Evil Young Man! Boy, they sure do grow up fast you know? One moment they’re an Evil Baby breaking out of the mad science lab that created them from ancient monster DNA and the next thing you know they’re already out on their own medically treating monster motorcyclists holed up in filthy abandoned hovels.
It’s rather odd at least in that he seems surprised by it happening at first but then just seems to go with it right afterwords. Though considering he hasn’t said anything yet in the series it’s kind of hard to get a read on him in general.
Back at the Misugi household Shouichi is once again thanklessly vacuuming the house when his chores take him to Mana’s room which is in a slightly cartoonish state of disarray. I mean the girl has a duck on her floor. Not a live duck or anything it’s kind of like a duck statue but still c’mon Mana get your act together! While putting away a book Shouichi knocks over some newspaper clippings that reveal that Mana’s father… had actually been murdered! And Shouichi starts having weird trippy flashbacks to the murder scene, including shots that don’t match up to the photos in the paper!
You know when you’re an amnesiac I bet the first memory you want to come back isn’t one of a dead body. And the second thing you probably hope for is that if it is a dead body it’s not your best friends father. So… kind of not the best day for Shouichi there. He passes out from the strain of the flashback after, just as Mana gets home. She finds him unconcious and puts her hand to his head just to check his temperature, but suddenly her ill defined psychic powers kick in and she starts seeing the memories playing through his mind.
Memories that include some disjointed shots of the crime scene and a bird flapping about. But as she presses on further she sees her father through Shouichi’s eyes while her father begs for Shouichi to stop, before her father seems to pass away from a massive head wound. Shouichi then turns and flees in apparent fear, running away from her father’s dead body while Mana cries in the present. She’s so distraught and saddened by the sight that she doesn’t even notice Shouichi waking up until he calls her name twice.
She hurriedly wipes away her tears but is unable to fully calm her mood when she orders Shouichi out of her room, leaving him confused while he goes to answer the door. And thankfully because all that was incredibly heavy it’s Hikawa showing up to give us some comic relief! See he came by to see Professor Misugi but even though he’s out Shouichi bullies him into staying for tea where Shouichi basically puts on a full Japanese tea ceremony while they talk about psychic powers.
Shouichi also continues in the grand tradition that Godai set before him in being casually open about having super powers. And actually this scene works pretty well because not only is it some light comedy (as Hikawa certainly doesn’t believe him), but it provides some insight into how Agito works. Early on Shouichi couldn’t control Agito, but now he’s gotten the hang of it and is in control of the transformation and the powers according to him. It’s actually decently funny too because Shouichi is completely honest when he describes his powers as ‘Getting stronger’, and ‘being able to fight by punching and kicking.’ Which of course is 100% true but makes Hikawa think that Shouichi is just messing with him since he was asking about traditional psychic abilities.
Outside we see the Crow Unknown step out and do the standard Unknown ‘Z’ sign before taking off to jet tackle a hapless jogger. The incident triggers one of Shouichi’s flashes and he runs off to the scene, leaving Hikawa alone with the still un-poured tea that he was under strict orders not to touch which just leaves him sitting alone and frustrated and without tea or the tea cake Shouichi was cutting up. Poor Hikawa, and he didn’t even want any in the first place!
Shouichi shows up too late at an amusement park to save a maintenance worker from being Jet Crow slammed off a roller coaster, but he does Henshin to Agito with ‘Believe Yourself’ starting out right away so you know things are going to kick off in high gear with… Agito immediately attempting to run away from the Crow Unknown.
Also yes, the Crow Unknown apparently flies with his butt all up in the air. What you didn’t think that was aerodynamic? Seems you need to learn something about leather clad crow men! (Recappers note: Never learn anything about leather clad crow men if you want to keep your sanity in check.)
Agito immediately decides to go for the Rider Kick, but the Crow Unknown proves to be far too maneuverable and fast as he just diverts his path in mid air the moment before the collision.
He kicks Agito back to the ground and in a nice bit the music cuts out the moment Agito stops being hype. I mean it’s just kind of great that the soundtrack abandons him when he fails that hard.
At the abandoned hospital lab Ryo comes to and Evil Young Man informs him (so yes now that he’s grown up he can speak) that Ryo has been unconscious for three days and that he had best not push himself. And back at the Misugi household Mana is replaying the memories she gleaned from Shouichi and wondering what he might have to do with her father’s death.
Which is all pretty important and stressful stuff to consider before we watch Agito be picked up by the Crow Unknown for one of the silliest looking stunts we’ve seen in awhile!
Seriously dude is just hanging from a rope and carrying Agito along and we’re supposed to believe that he’s flying. Come on Agito! You can do better than that you’re supposed to save that kind of poor effect for when G3 is having a fight!
Thankfully Agito is able to regain some dignity when he’s dropped into a stuffed animal prize claw machine and severely injured.
Hey I’ll take what I can get in this fight.
Seriously that’s probably Agito’s high point as right after the Crow beats him up some more before dropping him in a pool of ankle deep water where he just assumes Agito is lame enough that such a thing must have killed him.
After that performance I can’t exactly say I disagree with the Crow’s assessment. Oh I mean… oh no! Will this be the end of Agito!?
So, Final Thoughts?
There’s a lot to love in this episode, it highlights a lot of Agito‘s strengths while also providing a prime example of some of its flaws.
The advancing story with Mana’s father’s death and his unknown connection to Shouichi is some very solid and heavy drama. Mana knows about Shouichi’s secret identity and has been surprisingly okay with it, but it’s a whole step farther to try and be comfortable and at ease with the man who may have killed your father. Shouichi however seems to have no direct memory of the events, and remains blissfully unaware of the strain he’s putting on his closest confidant.
The police politics play out good as well. The tension between the upper brass and the under performing G3 team is understandable and that Hojo uses it coupled with dirty tricks to try and drive Hikawa away from his role as the G3 operator is a smart and serious turn. While I often joke about G3’s lack of effectiveness that isn’t just something I’m making up for fun, it’s treated very seriously by the show that mankind has put years into putting their best technology forward and it just isn’t proving capable of protecting them. Hikawa and his team are doing their best to try and help people and being saddled with not only poor tech but also the weight of red tape gives the series a very honest and mature feel, and is honestly a nice contrast to the sometimes too eager to be helpful police from Kuuga.
And honestly in the comedy department Hikawa plays a good straight man to Shouichi. Hikawa isn’t really the cool type but it’s clear that’s what he wants to come off as (and often does at first impression to people), and he’s completely unprepared to handle Shouichi’s earnest silliness. Their interactions tend to be entertaining. Maybe not laugh out loud funny but usually good to lighten the mood a bit and keep things from getting too dreary.
But for some weaknesses we once more see Ryo and the Evil Young Man be criminally underutilized. After a great outing last week this week Ryo spends most of the episode passed out, and while the Evil Young Man keeps pulling out random powers and doing mysterious things he just doesn’t have enough character to make us care that much about what he’s doing. Honestly him telling Ryo to relax is the most character interaction we’ve seen from him aside from having the Gorgon Unknown kill herself. I always appreciate a mystery but at least giving him some visible agenda would help in making him a more intriguing character.
And the fight scene is only a couple of minutes long and full of some really silly stunt work. Seriously the flying special effect alternates between bad CGI and even worse cranework. I’ve said before that the fights aren’t as important to Agito as they were to Kuuga, and often that means they suffer in style and presentation. This is one of the few times the shows compare very closely as it’s clear this episodes end has a Kuuga style vibe, like somehow Agito is going to need to figure out how to handle this new threat. But without the same tone as Kuuga, with less focus on Agito’s powers and fighting abilities, it just isn’t as compelling a hook as the various drama’s playing out.
Overall a fun and solid episode, just sadly with the weakest part being the actual monster fighting at the end!
And now, on the next episode of Kamen Rider Agito!
Shockingly Shouichi survives! And Mana still wonders what he could have to do with her dad! Ryo and Evil Young Man both freak out! And while Agito fights the Crow Unknown again Mana wonders if he could have killed her dad! But who cares about that… since Agito has a snazzy new sword!
Parental homicide and new power ups in abundance next week in Kamen Rider Agito Episode 8: Sword of Red Flames!
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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