Seeing Red

Kuuga continues! And so do the spoilers, but if you haven't watched this yet... go do that, then come back here.



Back? Okay.

Kamen Rider Kuuga Episode 2: "Transformation"
Written By Arakawa Naruhisa
Directed By Ishida Hidenori



This episode achieves something remarkable: it is simultaneously a part 2, a complete story on its own, and another chapter in a larger, series-spanning saga. While every Kamen Rider episode manage to be at least one of those, it's rare to find one that manages all three, and to do so as well as this one.

It's continuing story threads from the premiere with Kuuga's continual evolution, the fall-out from his first battle and the rematch with Zu Gumun Ba. It lays groundwork for what's to come by establishing new aspects of Kuuga, the Grongi, and where the characters are heading from here. It also just tells a great little tale in the vein of the old shows about a mysterious church, a sinister figure and a hero finding his purpose.

For anybody writing a Kamen Rider story, this episode is a good bar by which to pace yourself. Because if you can achieve even a fraction of the excitement that this does, you're on the right track. Even in its slower, quieter moments, it always had me completely enthralled.



I think a lot of that can be attributed to the direction. Ishida's one of the grand old men of Kamen Rider now, having directed some episodes of every series since Kuuga plus a bunch of 90's Metal Heroes. I read that he was originally slated to start with episodes 3 and 4, but the show was rushed into production so he wound up on the opening two. Supposedly things got so intense that at one point on episode 1 he had to have his hand-picked assistant director step in when he collapsed. I can believe it, because you don't get television this good without breaking a few eggs.

Fans talk a lot about writers, actors, and suit actors, but I think the directors are one of the most critical parts of how any show or movie turns out. Ishida also directed Missing Ace and God Speed Love, and there's definitely a visual flair to them, with at least one big "trailer fodder" set piece action scene each. It's not hard to see why Kuuga episodes 1 & 2 were recut into the "movie" version, because they're already very cinematic in a way.

Take for example the opening scene, which is one of the best of its kind ever in Rider. It's not exactly a new idea, but it's executed with such brutal swiftness, it might as well be lost footage from the 1971 show. And they cut it at just the right time too. I still can't believe this was on at 8 in the morning! It's kind of what the opening moments of THE FIRST went for, though of course nobody can watch that scene anymore without thinking about what it would be like if Riku and Eijirô hung out.



So the great direction from last time continues here, but I think the writing (or the editor) deserve a lot of credit too. It really moves. We pick up with Godai having to face the tough questions from Sakurako and Ichijô, and this is what I'm talking about when I say that with the right material, Odagiri can bring the magic.

Godai's nonchalant reaction to becoming Kuuga is strikingly different to many past (and future) Riders, and very telling of his character. Odagiri plays it with a sense of casual wonderment so that no matter how much others worry about him, you always kinda feel like he's right: it will all be okay. He's really good in this episode, isn't he? I like that face he makes after licking the salt (?)

I also need to point out that this is where the "bomb disposal interrupted by a bear" line comes from, because I'm fond of referencing that.



Ichijô does some namedropping in this episode, hinting at a future character Godai needs to go see, plus a certain TRCS-2000. I like his little overeager cop buddy Kameyama. Most importantly though is that almost from the first time he appears in this episode, Ichijô's stance on Godai (and Kuuga) is established: that he really doesn't want him putting his life at risk and he needs to stay out of police business.

Over the course of this episode, this stance will get demolished, but it's a gradual thing. I like how they're practically shoving each other out of the way before the first fight scene, and the confrontation in the hospital is great stuff. It's a million miles away from the "Stay out of my way or I will destroy you!" bitchfests of some subsequent Rider heroes. There's real weight here and it's not just rampant egos at war. Ichijô is right, but so is Godai.

This is what I meant last time with liking the slightly more antagonistic relationship of the early episodes. Obviously it couldn't go on forever, because for the show's message to work Ichijô and the police HAVE to come to trust Kuuga. Throughout the series Godai fights a battle on two fronts: against the Grongi, and later, against himself. Having him still get dogged by the police later on in the series would have just gotten in the way, so it's important to start the ties of trust this early on. Even if it takes a while before everybody's on the same page, through Ichijô, Godai has an authority figure he can count on. He's got a way in to the hearts and minds of others. This is demonstrated considerably in the next few episodes.



Although the episode title is mainly referring to the big moment towards the end, it's also a theme of the episode itself. In the beginning Godai and Sakurako discuss the nature of him transforming into Kuuga, with her worrying about it being a one-way thing and him explaining how it was tied into his motivation to fight (also note here how Godai implies he dislikes "that feeling".) It's further explored with both Kuuga's next progression, and through the first Grongi to take on another form.

Watching this episode now, it's funny to think that the Grongi assuming human form (or should that be humans assuming Grongi form?) is now an accepted, practically expected thing. We're so used to it that it was kinda weird in Decade to not see Gamio running around as some character actor for a bit. But here, where it's all being done for the first time, it's really interesting. On first viewing, I think most people could probably figure out that the priest was going to turn out to be the bat guy. I did, but that's because of Kamen Rider V3 (I'll get back to this later.)

It's still an effective twist though and it adds another layer to the villains that will be kicking into overdrive next episodes. They walk among us! The actual transformation scene later in the episode is cool, a blend of practical effects and CGI that's pretty great-looking really.

Zu Gooma Gu, the aforementioned bat guy, is the main monster this time. Like Gumun before him, he's classic. I'll get more into Grongi design in a future review, but I remember being pleased in 2000 that they were really going for a back-to-basics approach with the villains in this show. There's been a lot of bat guys in Kamen Rider, but I think the best ones are those that hew closest to what Kômori-Otoko laid down: you gotta have the wings, and you gotta drink the blood (or at least the bite.)

Having the luxury of foreknowledge of what's to come, I'm not sure how I feel about Gooma surviving to become the show's target for abuse. His ultimate fate is pretty cool and builds Daguba up as an even bigger badass than we thought, plus he's a great source of dark humor. Who doesn't love seeing him get smacked around? On the other hand though, while he's a weird creepy little guy later on, in this episode? He's downright chilling, and could have worked just as well as a one-off.

Part of that is the setting, which I'll get to next, but another part is that he's just written and acted as a real heavy threat here, which he won't really be for some time after this. I suppose ultimately I'm torn between having a good villain go out on a high, or keeping them on past their expiration date to where they become increasingly desperate and even nastier than ever (which is ultimately what happens.)



The church helps a lot. I love that church. Love the idea of it, love the way it's shot, love how they utterly demolish it at the end. Apparently the second episode of a series usually gets a slight budget increase to help bring viewers back after the premiere and then keep them around for the rest of the series.

It sorta makes sense if you think about it, since that's where they roll out the big CGI beastie or effects-laden battle that always seems just a bit more ambitious than usual (Personally I think with Decade they managed to spread that out over 1, 2 and 3.) So the story goes, for Kuuga, it was spent on burning the set down!

I mentioned how watching V3 made me guess the priests' identity (well that, and him speaking in Grongish.) This is because of course V3 pulled a similar trick in its own second episode. It isn't the only example though, so I think this is less a case of OMG HOMAGE FTWBBQWUTGENIUS!!1! and more of using an old Tokusatsu standby (the priest is a monster!) Sometimes there's references, and sometimes it's just stuff that comes with the territory.

Back to the church though. The scene where Godai investigates is awesome. Again, if you were going to teach a college course on writing Kamen Rider episodes (you may want to use my book, coming out in 2014!) this would be something to highlight. It manages to be both scary and funny, which I think is one of the best combinations you can pull off. The "light" bit (screencapped earlier) always gets a laugh from me, but it also doesn't undermine the threat. This scene is intense, especially with the payoff shot at the end.



And there's a mid-episode fight! That might not seem like a big deal now, but I'll be bringing it up again later in the series. I've commented before that I sometimes felt like Kuuga was a 45/60-min show in a 23-min show's body. It really has so much story to tell that in a couple episodes, the fighting is only just squeezed in at the end, or reduced to barely more than Godai transforming through a Kuuga form or two before the end credits roll. The battle at the end of one episode/beginning of the next becomes the mid-way fight... of the story. Every now and then though, an episode manages to get in two or more fight scenes, as seen here. In some cases the fight runs nearly the length of the episode, though broken up by a clip show.

This is where Growing Form really begins to show its limits, and sets things up for the climax. Godai realizes that the white-armored guy he's becoming isn't the red-armored guy he keeps seeing. Ichijô's pretty much had it up to here with Godai, and is putting himself at risk to stop the monster single-handedly. And then comes the part where Sakurako attends the archeologist guy's funeral, and Godai sees the crying girl. It's one of those defining moments, where the hero realizes what he's fighting for and makes his mission statement (though that's coming up a bit later.)



Something I really like about this is that Godai is, essentially, an outsider. While it's clear he has some significance because the belt called out to him, that significance is left very open to interpretation. But Godai doesn't really have a personal stake in things beyond the fact that the Grongi were trying to kill him and his friends and he knows someone who knew the guys that got killed in the first place, and it's not even his fault they're dead. But it does become personal because of his empathy. The sight of one girl crying hits him hard, and makes him realize just how serious things are, but they do it in a way where it's not so much "Godai learns a lesson" as it is "Godai is moved to action". This goes back to what I said about both him and Ichijô being right.

This is important because, as was hinted earlier, Godai would prefer not to keep on fighting. He just wants to go back to being a regular adventurer. But he's gotta do what he's gotta do. Keep that in mind as the series progresses.

The 15-minute mark is where this episode goes from great to flat-out incredible. Ichijô busting into the church with a shotgun has become another of those all-time favorite moments, and a really defining one for the character. Even though he's injured and way out of his league, he still goes in, guns blazing. I kind of take this and Taki's church-going experience from the first chapter of Spirits to heart when coming up with my own action scenes, because they're both strong ones. I guess it's something about churches.

I've already mentioned Gooma's transformation and the fire (which even Ichijô catches, giving us a real Taki-ish moment) so let's cut right to the three big things about the rest of this episode:

Godai's transformation, which follows the great moment where his motorcycle explodes (!) and he tells everyone exactly why he's fighting. The actual Henshin scene is of course iconic, as all the first transformations tend to be. I've always liked Kuuga's pose, which manages to have a little bit of Rider 1, and a lot of originality. Having the belt appear before the arm movements was actually kind of a unique idea at the time, and it's practically standard operating procedure now! As a holdover from last time, we still get the piece-by-piece CG transformation where Godai's already fighting as he changes.

I dig the sound effects of Kuuga's belt, and lament to this day that I didn't get the 1/1 size version, or even the original DX one. The Legend Rider version I do have ain't that bad, but I wouldn't say no to either of the other ones if I saw them at the right price.



And next... the design. I said I'd talk about this, so I'll do so here, at least for Mighty Form. To understand how I feel about Kuuga's basic look you have to again go back to 2000. In the days before it seemed like every other Rider was some impossible-to-define insect that was actually really a shark or a pumpkin, Kuuga managed to both stick out and yet feel like a return to form. Keep in mind that the three Riders prior to Kuuga were Shin, ZO and J. Shin was, and still is, the odd man out of any group photo, even though he's one of the most grasshoppery of them all. ZO & J were Ishinomori and Amemiya taking the original Kamen Rider idea and playing around with it as in more armored, 90's looks.

Kuuga comes along and, while being the first beetle in some time, also brings back a few things dropped with the last 3. He's got an actual, separate Henshin Belt. He's got the little O-Signal dot on his head, which ZO & J dropped (and which drives me nuts, since basically every other Rider ever has some version of it. Even Hibiki has his golden Oni face thing!) His mouthpiece (or "crusher") is a return to the Rider 1/2 style, rather than the segmented V3 style sported by the last two.

He also keeps a couple of their additions though. That armory look/feel, with the kneepads and hand-pad thingies. And still no scarf, though I don't really hold that as a critical design element. Basically: I love it when it's there, I don't mind when it's not, and when I design a Rider I put one on because it just feels right.

Long story short, I liked Kuuga's look then, and I still like him now. I'm especially keen on the chest armor for Mighty Form, which is sort of like an update of the Double Riders' chest armor. While I generally like all the basic Kuuga forms, Mighty stands out as my favorite. Growing basically being a white, short-horned and orange-eyed version makes sense and I've got a soft spot for that one too since he's used in some great fight scenes.



And then of course there is the big fight, which is every bit as good now as it was in 2000. It helps that they use that music again. Zu Gumun Ba swings in and joins the fun. I sort of wish that Kuuga had engaged in more 2-on-1 fights, because given that we're going without henchmen for this series, they're a good way to raise the stakes. Especially so here, where it's only thanks to timely intervention from Ichijô that our main man prevails. I like that moment where everyone just stops and watches Ichijô pass out before resuming with the brawl.

I tend to think this fight was partly inspired by the original Rider comic where Rider 1 takes on Kômori-Otoko and Kumo-Otoko comes back for a rematch, though that's probably just me being a comics fan. Also I don't know if Kuuga stabbing Zu Gooma Gu with a giant cross would have gotten past the TV-Asahi people.

We get our first Rider Kick too, though it's done in such a unique way that you'd be forgiven for not realizing it happened until Gumun begins to go nuclear. It's kind of like a Rider Kick in reverse, where Kuuga boosts himself away from the monster. We'll see a further evolution of it as the series goes on, culminating in that infamous city-destroying kick, but I'll talk about that when we get to it.

And to top it all off, we end with the moment that pretty much single-handedly launched Kamen Rider slash fiction, with Ichijô waking up on Godai's shoulder. This episode really does have something for everyone, I guess.

Next Time: It's 150 miles to Tokyo, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.

Hit it.