KR Den-O Episode #40: "Change Imagin World"

My Den-O watching habits have been a little screwed up lately, with no episode last week and missing it this week (I later downloaded it, than you internet.) I neglected to review episode #39 during a particularly difficult week, and believe me when I say I'm struggling to figure out a good course of action to take from here. I've sort of decided I'll keep up with the remaining few episodes, cover the big chunk I missed in a pre-finale marathon early next year, and then start off 2008's series with a clean slate and new format (more on that another time.)

Double Action Spoiler Warning! Form

We begin with a recap to last week, which ended on quite a bang: Yuuto died, and as a result the time-space continuum was torn a new one and Ryôtarô returned to a world where Airi never knew anybody named Sakurai Yuuto and Mr. Ozaki & Mr. Miura are now Ms. Ozaki & Ms. Miura. I'm not kidding about that last part.

Our hero returns to the Den-Liner to find that the Imagin have forgotten about Yuuto as well, since he never met them in the first place now. This includes Deneb, who is now one of the usual crew and shares a connection with Ryôtarô. Capital R has a flashback to Yuuto's parting words (notice how he dies Ryuki Mirror World-style?) and comes to the conclusion that messing with time = bad.

New opening theme! Well, it's more like a new spin on the old opening theme, "Kamen Rider Agito 24/7 Version"-style. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they renamed the show "The Adventures of Momotaros, his Imagin friends & some Rider Guy", so having them sing the opening theme is pretty much a natural progression.

While everybody goofs around, Owner waxes philosophic and brings up the fact that Yuuto may not be a Singularity Point like Ryôtarô. Later, our hero is on the move with Kohana, who gets kidnapped by the surviving Snail Imagin. Den-O in Axe Form shows up to save her, but Kai's also there. He remembers Yuuto, and Kohana realizes Kai may be a Singularity Point too. The evil dude summons up a couple rehashed monsters from the movie (Gecko & Newt) and explains his true goal: he's been after Sakurai Yuuto (the watch-holding one who always appears in the past) all along. He then reveals all the Imagin lights floating in the sky. Kai's ultimate goal is a world where humans and Imagin coexist, but in order to achieve that Sakurai has to bite the bullet. And since his younger self (the Sakurai Yuuto who becomes Zeronos) is dead, logically, the older, watch-bearing one should be history too.

Ryôtarô is torn over what to do. While Kai's intentions are ultimately noble, his methods for going about them aren't. And he can't let someone like Yuuto die for he greater cause, no matter what. This is a nice little character dilemma, somewhat undermined by a reeally awkward scene with Airi. But what scene with Airi (that doesn't involve actual plot development) isn't awkward? We also see that while Ozaki & Miura do in fact still exist, they're now swimming in girls (Ozaki) or married with kids (Miura).

A Deneb-possessed Ryôtarô goes shopping and there's some tomfoolery with a fortune teller. Later, Ryôtarô and Kohana decide it'd be a good idea to hang around a dam and talk cuz, you know, nothing bad ever happens at dams in Kamen Rider! Kai shows up, and taunts our heroes as usual, but Ryôtarô reaffirms that no matter what, he won't forget about Yuuto. Unimpressed, Kai summons his posse, but before Ryôtarô can be erased from time as well, the Zero-Liner shows up to save them. And Yuuto appears as well!

It seems that the cards he uses to transform somehow protect him from effects of changes in the past. So despite not being a Singularity Point, he's still able to rock time and space like it's no big deal. This plot twist really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but if you think about it all too much (the fact that Sakurai gave his younger self the power to transform and thus he's able to show up in the present despite seeing himself die in the past because of the magical cards given to him by his future self, who now hangs around in the past) your head will explode. So let's just be happy he's back, right?

Ryôtarô is glad, and Kai is ticked, so he sends Snail Imagin back in time (by pulling himself in half! This always freaks me out) to kill Sakurai again, and sics the rehashed monsters on our main man. Yuuto pulls out a new, red-backed card, and transforms along with Den-O. Deneb shows up to use a Rider Ticket and figure out where Snail Imagin went, and Plat Form uses the Den-Gasher Sword Mode for some inexplicable reason. Zeronos & Deneb follow the Imagin back to 1999.

Den-O remembers he has that Climax Form thing and switches to that. Snail Imagin prepares to pop a cap in the older Sakurai (watch guy), but the Zero-Liner shows up to save him too. Zeronos, in Altair Form, goes up against the Imagin, but soon pulls out the red-sided card. He puts it into his belt, which says "Charge & Up", and then promptly gets shot off the building. He lands on the pavement below, and as his suit suddenly begins to rust and turn reddish, his memories too "rust away" and vanish. At the same time, the present seems to be effected, as Airi turns to see a familiar recipe book.

"You rusted?" says the Snail Imagin, and Zeronos, now in Zero Form, responds with his signature "KAA-NAA-RI" catchphrase. He pulls out the Denebic Buster: Deneb in bigass gun form! Zero Form makes short work of the Imagin in the past while Climax Form defeats the monsters in the present with a Rider Kick.

And so everything in the present seems to be back on track... or is it? The watch kept under Yuuto's telescope has rusted, and Airi still doesn't remember Yuuto at all...

If we learned one thing from this episode, it was:

• Nakamura Yuichi: Not even being erased from time itself stops him!

Next Time: Yuuto meets Airi for the first time... again.

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