Kamen Rider Agito Ep 14 Recap – Cake Boss

Welcome back to my ongoing recap series for the second Heisei era Kamen Rider show, Kamen Rider Agito!

This week picks up right on the cliffhanger from last. The Scorpion Unknown has managed to poison Agito (thanks to the fact that Agito’s armor doesn’t cover any of his joints), and with Mana cornered while our hero is unconscious it looks like there’s going to be no hope for survival! Can anyone save our heroes?

Why it’s G3! So… going to go with no, don’t think they’re that much better off than they were without him being there considering G3’s track record. G3 does pull out an old weapon again, the GS-03 Destroyer. You might remember that as the high frequency blade that kind of works like a chainsaw and may be able to damage the Unknown. Or I guess it would kind of work like a chainsaw if he managed to land any hits with it, which, again, he does not. I can’t find myself being too surprised.

Despite being unable to finish off the Scorpion, or land a serious blow on him, or really at all make himself seem like the slightest threat at all, G3 does manage to sneak in a few shots with his pistol and the Scorpion Unknown is actually flung back by it, and apparently having grossly overestimated the threat that G3 provides he decides to escape. But even though the immediate threat is gone Shouichi is still poisoned, and now doomed to die!

After the credits Shouichi is taken to the hospital where they run… X-ray’s on him. Because apparently when people have been poisoned that’s the first thing you decide to do? And what’s crazier than that is it turns out to have been the right call since they find out that instead of any kind of normal poison the Scorpion’s stinger actually injects a little bit of metal that seems to swim through your body to sit next to your heart.

Luckily for Shouichi it seems that despite being Agito there’s no real change to his own body makeup or chemistry so the doctors don’t detect anything else strange about him after their battery of tests. Shouichi asks what can be done to save him but shockingly Hikawa just cold answers him that he’ll die within 24 hours. Dude doesn’t even try to sugarcoat it. Could be a little nicer to someone you’re giving a one day death sentence to.

Ozawa of all people has to come in and be the kind one. But not before she busts out some great pseudo-science!

Yes it seems that after studying the other victims they found that same metal hunk (which explains why they were looking for it), but that they’ve deduced that the metal steals the warmth out of your body, and because naturally when people get cold they age… quicker… okay look I’ll buy some silly science but come on Agito, you know how people age and it’s not because they get cold!

Anyways Ozawa has a theory that if the Unknown dies before the 24 hours is up than Shouichi might survive, and Shouichi asks the police not to inform Mana of the danger he’s in. When he leaves to go meet up with her though on the way the music starts to swell as he happens to pass by a stranger in the hallway.

It’s Tetsuya! If you recall he’s the man who had almost written his own name down as Shouichi, and here he clearly looks at our hero and recognizes him. That’s… well that’s all that really happens but I figure that’s enough to earn a ‘Dun Dun DUNNNNNN!’ I mean, it’s not anything really surprising since Shouichi has amnesia but still at least confirming that this dude knows who Shouichi is is kind of important right? Maybe I should take away the capitalization and just make it a ‘dun dun dunnnn.’

Shouichi heads off with Mana though, while Tetsuya goes to meet up with the Evil Man who was, apparently, staying in the exact same hospital. Seriously police you are just the worst with that now that it’s clear he’s in just… you know like a regular hospital people go to. Dude is a suspected serial killer and you just let him hang out right near a bunch of regular folks! Seriously, Agito police, you are the worst.

Mana doesn’t want to go to school after the attack from the day before, but Shouichi recommends they go to his cake making class instead so she can feel better by eating tons of cake, which she is all sorts of down for. Of course we all secretly know Shouichi is dying but dude keeps up a complete show of being all sorts of happy which casts a sort of tragic pall over his plans to make Mana happy, as he is possibly devoting his last day on earth to trying to cheer her up.

Back with the police, Hikawa shows his partners the items he found at Mana’s father’s house, and reveals the truth of the odd black ball they found.

It’s a tennis ball, but one that has magically been turned inside out! That all fits in with Hikawa’s theory that they’re looking for people with psychic powers… though I can promise you that if I had the psychic power to turn tennis balls inside out I would feel like I was pretty gypped in the power department.

With the ball explained though, the group turn to the tape that was found to figure out what was on it. Also they kind of act like Hikawa may not have looked at the tape yet which does fit in well with the general competence I’ve expected from the police so far. Unfortunately they find… nothing of use. Literally!

Omuro actually thinks he sees something for a moment, but then decides that it’s not really worth taking a second look at the tape and figures it was probably nothing. Seriously Omuro? You have this shocking hidden evidence that may tie together to a major mystery you’re investigating and you figure it’s not really worth at least looking at it again? I feel like a broken record with just how terrible the Agito police are.

Ozawa takes a moment to wonder about Shouichi though. Considering how comfortably he took the news he was going to die she speculates as to whether he’s very tough or just very stupid. And the next scene has goofy music while a bunch of old women fawn over his cooking talents so we can probably all agree the latter is more likely.

Actually despite the Professor’s constant complaining about Shouichi’s cooking it turns out that despite having signed up as a student within a few classes he has so far surpassed all the other women that they all treat him as the teacher now. Dude now I want to try one of his cakes! Also for no reason Mana seems like… angry about this? I don’t see how you can be angry that someone who lives in your house and cooks for you has just been shown to be like, an ultimate cake master. I am pretty sure that is unequivocally good news.

Back at police HQ Hikawa passes by Hojo in the hall and Hojo says that he still hurts from Hikawa’s punch but then is all, ‘Ha ha, just kidding!’ Again no points for guessing that Hojo looks completely insane while he’s trying to replicate a natural person’s smile. But then Hojo goes off to a meeting to the top brass to reveal that what he’s been working on in secret is… the ‘Agito Capture Plan!’ Dude is done being a dick to Hikawa and is now moving on to being a dick to some of our other heroes it looks like.

Oh hey, did you forget we had a third protagonist?

Ryo, despite not having shown up for a week or two in the show, is apparently still investigating his father’s diary. He goes to the apartment of a man named Kino but finds out that Kino has already moved on. After breaking into the apartment (yet still removing his shoes when inside as is Japanese custom, Ryo is nothing if not a considerate criminal), he finds in the house, another inverted tennis ball! But since Ryo is disconnected from all of the other main characters he doesn’t think anything of seeing a black ball and just leaves the apartment.

Well, good catching up with you this week Ryo! Thanks for just… proving that there are multiple inverted tennis balls out there? That maybe some guy named Kino can invert tennis balls and knew Mana’s dad?

Hikawa goes to meet up with Mana and Mana confirms that her dad probably didn’t have psychic powers himself since he never told her about them, and he would have likely just to bond with her and her own powers. Maybe he was just embarrassed since she has cool clairvoyance and object reading powers and he just could invert tennis balls? Also she notes she has no idea why he would have hidden a blank tape. We do learn though that her dad was a professor of myths and legends who was trying to find proof of an ur-legend. A legend that tied and connected all other legends together.

Weird brotherly pair huh? One professor studying ESP while attempting to disprove it, and the other studying legends while searching for some proof of a font of all myths.

Hikawa steps out to talk with Shouichi and asks him how he’s feeling, and Shouichi complains that he has eaten two much cake and picked up weight. When Hikawa stresses that wasn’t what he was asking about Shouichi takes a few moments before catching on to the whole ‘I’m going to die thing.’

He’s not just playing it up either. All evidence is that Shouichi actually forgot he was going to die in four hours. He wasn’t even keeping track of the time! So now everything that was weirdly tragic earlier where Shouichi was working to make Mana happy with his last day on earth is instead just a kindhearted idiot who is in fact so stupid that he would forget that he was DYING.

Hikawa is understandably a bit pissed at Shouichi for not taking this seriously, since they’re basically friends, and Shouichi just plays it off saying he probably won’t die because he just has a good feeling he’ll live. And it doesn’t even seem like he’s counting on being Agito to save him, guy would probably be acting the exact same way if he were just a normal dude. I have to agree with Ozawa here, I don’t know whether to be impressed or pity him.

And then my pitying side turns right around to impressed when Shouichi starts using the fact that he’s going to die to bully Hikawa into helping him with simple chores.

I have to say that I am strangely approving of the fact that since Shouichi really does think he isn’t going to die he is totally fine with using Hikawa’s fear of it as blackmail material.

In the very next scene though Mana comes out to check on them and Hikawa is already gone, because Shouichi explains that Hikawa’s natural talent for being terrible at everything transferred over to weeding and he was doing such a crappy job Shouichi just sent him home. Man, how bad do you think Hikawa feels right now huh? I think the fact that we didn’t even get to see Hikawa fail makes him seem even more pathetic than usual. Poor Hikawa, how is it that Shouichi is dying and yet you’re the one I really feel sorry for?

Mana starts helping Shouichi and says the reason she’s feeling fine is because she trusts Shouichi to always be there to protect her, and it’s in that moment that the seriousness of the situation finally hits him.

While Shouichi doesn’t really care about his own life or safety and can be very flippant with it, her faith in him makes him realize that his death would leave her defenseless to the Unknown that is hunting her and that is what seems to terrify him more than anything else.

Shouichi thus decides that they need to make her birthday cake today, even if it’s the day before her birthday, because he knows now he might die before he gets a chance to give her the gift he wanted to. Which once again wheels everything right back around to tragedy. There’s nothing he can do to save himself until he detects the Unknown, so the best he can do at the moment is to just try and do something good with the few hours he has left.

Kouno is back at the coffee shop investigating the murder of Mana’s dad, and the owner implies Kouno comes by a lot to try and see if he’ll luck into running into the other man that was there with him. But this time Kouno finds an important clue!

The owner explains that everyone who was at the coffee shop on that particular day (as it was the 10th anniversary), got one of those cups as a souvenir gift. Which means the man Kouno is looking for has that very same cup! Two problems though, there’s the one the show brings up which is that finding someone with a certain coffee cup is basically impossible. And two which is the problem I’m going to bring up is that Kouno has been visiting this shop for like two years and just now he happened to collect this piece of evidence. Seriously Kouno? It took you two years to even get the basic facts of the case squared away? I think you may have earned the police incompetence of the week award and considering your competition that’s pretty impressive.

While Shouichi is driving Mana out to buy cake supplies we find that Hikawa is secretly tailing them in his car. And when he spots the Scorpion Unknown nearby he actually manages a nice save as he drives his car straight into the extending head tail to knock it aside when it tries to attack the pair of bike riders. When the head tail flicks back to life Shouichi manages to grab it and orders Hikawa to drive Mana off to protect her. Once they’re on the road Shouichi moves to cut off the Scorpion and gives us a pretty cool Henshin still!

I like how his Henshin pose kind of makes him look like he’s just modeling for the camera there.

The Evil Man and Tetsuya are having a chat, and the Evil Man reveals that he knows Agito is going to die, but Tetsuya seems to think that wouldn’t work out well for them.

Tetsuya and the Evil Man both speak with a kind of odd echo effect behind their voices, but while the Evil Man seems to be a bit uncaring about the whole thing Tetsuya argues that they shouldn’t just let Agito die as they would have some sort of vague use for him.

The fight between Agito and the Scorpion Unknown has somehow gotten to a shipping yard somewhere, and the two toss each other around a bit with Agito taking the clear lead. When he tries to press his advantage to land his Rider Kick though, the Scorpion just pulls that shield of his out again.

The same invisible force field protects the Scorpion as before, flinging Agito back away without a bit of damage transferred through. With little other options Agito runs over to his bike to mount up so he can try to ram it into the Scorpion.

However, while he’s on his way the Evil Man slams his palm against the window of his hospital room, and the symbol from the back of his hand appears glowing on the ground in front of Agito’s bike. And when Agito rides over it the energy gets sucked into his bike, making it glow! With evil!

The Scorpion Unknown flings his axe at the advancing Agito and our hero finds that his controls are locked and he can’t dodge the bike out of the way. With the weapon incoming he is forced to leap up off of his bike, but as he flips through the air the bike transforms underneath him, shifting into… a hoverboard!

Also even though it’s never said by any character in the show, I’ll note that his bike does get it’s own theme song that names it as the ‘Machine Tornador.’

The hoverboard proves to be more maneuverable and when the Scorpion Unknown flings his boomerang axe again this time Agito is able to just slide out of the way, and then he picks up speed. After prepping himself to jump again this time he has the Machine Tornador hard brake while he leaps off of it, letting him transfer all of the momentum that was in the bike into his Rider Kick, flinging him out at speeds that make him nothing more than a blur.

And yes, it looks really cool.

The impact is so great that he floors the Scorpion hard enough to plant him into the ground and break the concrete, while also kicking a hole straight through the shield he was hiding behind. Agito himself flies past him and has to actually skid to a stop, kicking up smoke as his feet slide along the ground.

And then, despite Ryo having only a minor appearance this week Agito decides to take a lesson from him and actually look at the pretty sweet explosion this time, rather than do his usual turning around victory pose.

Back at the Misugi household Shouichi unveils his… cabbage and brussels sprout cake. Okay I take back earlier when I was saying it was a good thing he was cooking in the household. He claims that the cabbage juice should take out the egg flavor in the same way that vanilla would in a normal cake but also I’d like to point out he adds no defense for why he is garnishing the thing with brussels sprouts.

Taichi goes to fetch coffee cups for everyone when he accidentally drops one on the ground and shatters it. A very familiar, yellow looking coffee mug. A very familiar yellow coffee mug that Kouno believes the murderer might own.

The professor comes in to clean up the mess but he seems to have a very emotional reaction to the mug itself, as it clearly means something important to him. He doesn’t say anything about it though, and instead goes back to join the family for cake, though there’s something off about his smile as he seems now a bit… distracted.

And that’s the episode!

So, Final Thoughts?

We’ve got our usual Agito mixed bag this week of stuff that works and stuff that is just frustrating.

Shouichi coming to grips with his mortality and finding a reason to fear death is very good! We get a good look at his happy go lucky side but when he realizes his death could have a serious effect on those he cares for that’s when everything becomes truly real for him. That’s a very good look into how his personality works and it matches up well with the kind of person we know Shouichi is.

The mystery stuff is… kind of a mixed bag this week. The tennis ball revelation is very minor and Ryo exists only to introduce the idea that a character named Kino might be connected to all this. But since we have no idea who Kino is and Ryo is currently completely disconnected from the rest of the plot all that is kind of a wash. As I’ve said before when you add mystery onto too much mystery it starts losing it’s impact. We need to have some answers to start moving forward. Tetsuya and the Evil Man having an interest in Agito is important, with the Evil Man even going so far as to using his powers to help Shouichi out in a fight. And especially learning that professor Misugi might be connected to the murder of his brother is a big and shocking revelation.

However that revelation brings us to the ever present problem in the show, just how terrible the police are. Kouno has been investigating this murder for two years trying to find the mystery man with no leads and it is the victims brother. Considering the implication is always that the coffee shop owner would know him if he saw him that means that Kouno never took photos of the people the victim knew to show the coffee shop owner! I understand they’re trying to craft a mystery here but sometimes the writers are really bad at leaving these huge plot holes that only make sense if the police in Agito are completely terrible at their jobs.

The fight scenes this week are alright, nothing to complain about, but all in all some things feel a little rushed. Agito can be a fun ride, but it remains one that the more you think about… the more frustrating it gets.

And seriously, like a minute of Ryo this week? Come on.

And now, on the next Kamen Rider Agito!

Taichi is sick! Taichi calls out for his mother and… she may actually show up!? And while Agito fights a new Unknown Hojo puts his Agito Capture Plan into action, even if it means they’ll have to kill Agito to do it!

Will the police prove to be a more competent enemy for Agito or will they continue to be as terrible at the job as everything else they’ve tried? Will the Misugi family drama have any connection to the overall plot? And will Ryo show up at all again!? We’ll find out next week in Kamen Rider Agito Episode 15: A Trap Begins!

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.