Welcome back to my ongoing recap series for the second Heisei era Kamen Rider show, Kamen Rider Agito!
The before credits this week is entirely catching up on what happened last week. But considering there was a lot of action to get through that’s not all that surprising. For those who need a refresher Shouichi was arrested by Hikawa for the murder of a woman he’d met who may know something about his past, while Hojo stepped into his role as the new G3 with efficiency and ruthlessness as he risked the safety of a child hostage in order to take down an Octopus Unknown.
Oh and Ryo did nothing apparently last week. What’s that dear readers? He’s the third main character and is the only one of the main characters who has yet to meet the mysterious Evil Man who seems to be controlling the Unknown despite having been born after they appeared? And that all that might be interesting too? Ha ha, silly. I’m sure if something like that had happened last week it’d have been shown in the start of the episode recap!
After the credits we find Shouichi in an interrogation room with Kouno and Hikawa. Everyone gets caught up on events we already know but we do learn that Hikawa does believe Shouichi is telling the truth about his having amnesia. The interrogation is interrupted when Hikawa gets a call from Ozawa about Hojo’s performance and Hikawa passes along his congratulations to Hojo for defeating the Unknown. And unsurprisingly Hikawa seems genuinely pleased to hear Hojo is doing a good job. I mean Hojo may be a jerk but since Hikawa is a good guy he doesn’t want civilians dying or anything. But with the news of the Unknown’s appearance they have it’s murder M.O. set (impossible drownings), which doesn’t match up with Miura’s death.
Okay so they know that Unknown probably didn’t kill her but how do they know it wasn’t some other Unknown? Seriously just because her death was possible? I mean I know all the Unknown so far have been using impossible murders as their M.O. but it still seems a bit early to say it definitely wasn’t one.
Still the facts don’t match up well for Shouichi, especially as his defense is that he never met her and waited an hour for her, but she was found dead right at their planned meeting spot. Professor Misugi is getting ready to call in a big shot lawyer he knows to help Shouichi which sounds uncharacteristically generous from him but remember that without Shouichi around the Misugi family is about ten minutes away from burning their own house down with their general incompetence. Mana though wants to go and meet with the police right away, and she ominously states that there might be something she can do to prove Shouichi’s innocence.
Hojo meanwhile has taken Ozawa and Omuro out to a super swanky restaurant to celebrate taking out the Octopus Unknown, but Ozawa doesn’t really like stuck up joints and point blank calls Hojo out on risking an innocent in his last battle.
Oh did I mention that when Hojo doesn’t look like a smug jerk he looks like a psychopath? I mean really look at him there while he’s bragging about how he was such a good shot he knew he could fire right at a kid without hitting him. I’m shockingly getting on Ozawa’s side here as I’m not sure I want anyone who ever looks like that piloting a super cyber suit of armor for my protection. Hojo vows to capture Agito next and Omuro seems totally on his side. Do remember though, Omuro is at worst not really a character, and at best an idiot.
We get a quick shot of some gooey ooze slushing through an alley before it finds a dirty basin of water, and after falling in starts to make the same slurping sounds as the Octopus Unknown did while tentacles begin bursting out of it. Hmm… I wonder what could have happened?
Back at the police station the cops have taken a break from their interrogation to bring Shouichi a Katsudon bowl.
For those of you who don’t know that’s a common trope in Japanese police shows and movies for suspects to be given Katsudon to eat while they’re being interrogated. I have no idea if it really happens or not but what I do know here is that the gag is that Shouichi is in no way taking any of this seriously, and is acting like he’ll be getting out in no time to meet up with his host family while the detectives are both pretty sure he’s going to be found guilty of the murder he’s been accused of. He even gets wacky gag music and everything! Oh Shouichi, you lovable rascal and potential murderer you.
Thankfully the wacky music cuts out when Shouichi accidentally admits to buying wire, which was the murder weapon. Even Shouichi seems to recognize that isn’t a good look for him. But hey enough about Shouichi’s problems we actually have a chance to meet up with Ryo! After all the crap that’s been going on in his life he’s literally just sitting alone in the dark in his house when he lets a call go to voice-mail and it’s his uncle, hey that’s nice Ryo has some family after all! I mean it is kind of weird that his uncle never checked in on him while he was in the hospital or anything but hey maybe he’ll have some good news. Oh! He’s actually calling about Ryo’s missing father!
Maaaaan. I can’t really take this show you are really picking on Ryo way too much. He just cannot have anything go right for him can he? The news does snap him out of his funk though, but even though he was startled by the news we don’t know yet what he’s going to do about it.
The police interrogation though continues to be an oddly jarring mix of comedy and seriousness. Hikawa serves Shouichi tea and Shouichi complains about it and asks to remake it himself… because Hikawa is terrible at everything of course. And then when Hikawa tries to ask about Shouichi’s day to establish a timeline Shouichi keeps getting side tracked by being super excited about his gardening and cooking. Which is all kind of goofy fun until Kouno takes Hikawa aside to confirm that the wire Shouichi bought is an exact match to the murder weapon. Kouno also reveals that he tried to track down Shouichi’s identity but couldn’t match his fingerprints and notes he doesn’t match up to any known missing persons report.
I see what you did there Kouno!
Mana shows up at the police finally and takes Hikawa aside for a chat. She actually gets Hikawa to agree that Shouichi just doesn’t seem like the murdering type but thankfully Hikawa is professional enough to note that he can’t let his feelings dictate the case. However Hikawa isn’t professional enough to turn down Mana’s request to handle evidence. She doesn’t even explain what she’s going to do with it she just asks him if she can touch stuff from the crime scene and he’s apparently fine with it.
Of course Mana’s psychic abilities kick in and the first thing she learns is that Shouichi totally bought the wire used as the murder weapon. Huh… well case closed then! Except actually Shouichi was knocked over by a stranger and that person stole the wire from him. Also since this is all psychic vision stuff everything is blurry and out of focus. Because that’s how psychic stuff works!
Mana witnesses the murder but still can’t make out the culprit, only able to tell Hikawa the perp has black clothes. Well I’m sure that there’s only a few people in all of Japan who match that description. Of course Hikawa is immediately skeptical of Mana’s claim to psychic powers. I mean it’s just incredibly convenient that Mana would just now claim to have them when her close friend has been arrested, especially when those psychic powers exonerate him in favor of a vague ‘black dressed man’. And ha ha ha of course not Hikawa is totally immediately ready to believe her, and then when Mana reads off his driver’s license number (which she could have easily peeked at one of the many times she’d run into him before since he visits there house a lot), Hikawa is basically totally on board with her having supernatural powers.
I mean he’s right but still… c’mon Hikawa! Even if you believed she could remote view your license that doesn’t mean she has psychometric powers too. It’s not like even if psychics were real that they would just have every single psychic power. In any case they go to the crime scene and though Hikawa says they thoroughly searched the whole place Mana finds a footprint they missed. And since Mana knew where the murder took place she could have easily went there first and faked it. And all she picks up is a partial license plate number… yes from the footprint… which would be the perfect info to send a detective on a wild goose chase.
So of course Hikawa buys it. Look I know as the audience we know this is all true but Hikawa. Really. You are seriously not even going to question this? It’s really sad when your hero is only a hero because the world he’s in happens to excuse his incompetence. Hikawa in our world would be the worst detective ever.
Ryo meets with his uncle and they go over what’s left of Ryo’s father’s things. It turns out he didn’t have much and he somehow died of a mental breakdown… which seems like they’re leaving something out of the story but whatever we’ll just roll with it. More importantly we learn that Ryo’s uncle knows jack all about his fathers death and he was the one who came to Ryo looking for information. And even more more important than that we find out that Ryo’s father had disappeared… right after the Akatsuki-Gou incident! Oh my, things are finally starting to come together!?
And even more more more interesting we learn that Miura, the recently deceased, was listed in a notebook that Ryo’s Father had on him. So much mystery!
Hikawa has dragged Kouno off into investigating cars on the partial plate he got earlier, though he at least has the sense not to tell Kouno why he’s following that particular line of investigation. Hikawa though realizes while they’re futilely hunting down cars that the clue might have actually been pointing to the freight car number on a train. Because reasons! Seriously he just sees some lines on a railway crossing and completely changes his line of inquiry. And Kouno never asks where he would have gotten a ‘tip’ that was so vague it might have applied to either a car or a train.
Far more interestingly we get to watch the head of the revived Octopus Unknown fly into the air and poop a body out.
So that happened.
At the rail yard Kouno and Hikawa have met up and found a single freight car with the numbers on it they were looking for and decide arbitrarily that it must be the right one. Up to the point that they draw their pistols before checking it’s contents. I mean I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry but somehow that seems a little violent for checking up on a rather vague and sketchy lead.
And shockingly enough, they do find something inside!
I can honestly say that I did not see that one coming. The Evil Man! Well things are actually starting to come together! I mean it may not all make sense but hey at least he’s in the plot proper!
And… the next scene is Shouichi being released from police custody. That’s really all we get. They find a hobo in the back of a train and the police apparently decide that is sufficient to release the prime suspect in their case. I mean Shouichi purchased the murder weapon and has an incredibly sketchy alibi along with known plans to meet with the deceased. The Evil Man is… a guy they found in the back of a train. Brilliant detective work there Hikawa. But I expected more out of you Kouno!
On the way from the police station, with Shouichi giving Mana a ride (she was waiting for him, naturally), Shouichi has to turn away though as he catches a flash that indicates the Octopus is on the attack again! And someone else is on the way to the crime scene as well!
So yeah Hojo is still planning on taking down Agito. Also Hojo is still a bug eyed crazy psychopath. Wanted to be sure you were all still up to date on that info dear readers.
G3 is able to make it to the scene first and rams the Octopus Unknown on the Guardchaser before he’s able to finish off the child from before and the kids mother. Hojo is pretty surprised that the Octopus is still around and tries to shoot him a few times with the GM-01 but realizing that the pistol just isn’t having much effect he opts to give the GG-02 another try.
But considering how well it worked last week you can guess how things turn out this time around. Spoiler alert, G3 gets clowned pretty hard. I mean mostly the Octopus just whips his big wobbly tentacles at him which I guess is supposed to be dangerous?
G3 isn’t beat up so bad that it can’t keep on fighting though, Omuro and Ozawa are keeping track of his vitals and inform him that even though he’s been damaged it’s well within the expected range of what the suit can hold up to. And now it’s time for the fight proper to start up! It’s finally time for Hojo to show us what he’s made of when put up with a real proper challenge.
Wait… could it be!?
Ha ha ha ha! And he doesn’t look any less psycho when he’s fleeing in abject terror either!
Oh I will never stop enjoying this. It’s so wonderfully perfect. Hojo talks a big game. And he’s actually really good at what he needs to be able to do. But when push comes to shove he is a complete and utter coward.
Of course that does leave the mother and child without anyone to protect them which will temper my glee somewhat. I mean I can’t cheer too hard in the face of innocents dying. But thankfully Agito is quick to show up and relieve me of that burden with a rather short and sweet fight scene. I mean it’s nothing great but there’s a few fun punches and a weird jumping uppercut from Agito before things hit their inevitable jump kick based conclusion.
After that we just have a little wrap up where we learn that the Evil Man confessed to the crime as soon as he was brought into police custody (so… blah, I’ll give you a pass on letting Shouichi go I GUESS) but since then he hasn’t said a single word. And with HIkawa and Kouno wondering about the mysterious man in police custody, and with him just standing silently in a cell, we’re off to the next episode!
So, Final Thoughts?
Things really are picking up from a story telling perspective. I mean that doesn’t mean everything makes tons of sense or anything but they’re at least getting more settled into a proper groove.
The Octopuses return was laughably pointless in the end. He doesn’t do anything special ‘Octopus’ like at all. They really could have just had another Unknown show up this week and it wouldn’t have done much… but him having survived the first encounter with G3 does help make Hojo seem like even more of an abject failure in the end. Hojo’s track record as G3 is thus putting a child in danger, not finishing off an Unknown and failing to confirm it’s destruction, and then fleeing the scene of an Unknown attack while abandoning expensive police equipment at the scene. It’s pretty hilarious how quickly things turned around on him.
It’s also the kind of thing that’s not really built up to or anything. We’ve not had any actual hints that Hojo is a coward before. We’ve seen that he’s backstabbing, sneaky, manipulative, and honestly kind of unhinged. But on the other hand we have seen that Hojo thinks that he just deserves things, and that he should never suffer hardships. So having him completely fold in the face of his first proper challenge is completely believable.
Funny enough the whole goofy psychic plot ends up working out in the end even when it seems like it shouldn’t. If anyone else had been the culprit and they’d tried in any way to present actual evidence it would have come off like a crock. But having the Evil Man just immediately confess to the murder both ties in well to the mysterious nature of the crime and absolves the story of needing a good conclusions to tie up the loose end of it’s protagonist in jail.
And hey, Ryo is finally getting a little more screen time that actually ties him into the main story. Way to go Ryo I knew you had it in you!
All in all a very fun episode, and a good sign of things to come.
And now, on the next episode of Kamen Rider Agito!
Desiccated corpses! Some lady digging up stuff from a lake! And Agito gets double teamed by some Unknown while Hikawa takes up his old arms by grabbing hold of the GM-01 once more!
Will Hikawa reclaim the rest of the G3 suit? Will Hojo be even more humiliated than he was this week? Find out next time in Kamen Rider Agito Episode 11: The Past Tied Together!
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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