Kamen Rider Kuuga was... something special to say the least, the revival project was a phenomenal return to television for the franchise and still remains one of the best entries in the franchise as a whole. Even 23 years down the line Kuuga still remains something that I don't think Kamen Rider has managed to recaptured. And of course it did well in terms of ratings, merchandise sales and housewives all gossping wishing their husbands were Joe Odagiri. But it was not the end of the plan that Shotaro Ishinomori had left, one more season was planned as part of the revival. Of course the season did have to do the impossible of following up Kuuga, but it was also initially more of a direct sequel, so even more pressure. While their was initally ties, the decision was made to make it a more stand alone season as to let it stand on its own and not undo all the hard work the previous cast had. The other notable thing was the season potentially being the final season at the time, since the season had been planned alongside Kuuga, it was like finishing what had been started. Ultimately that didn't happen because of 9/11 and the show that had been planned became the next rider. But enough about that, lets talk Agito and if it truly is awaken one's soul.
SYNOPSIS
Two years... or more... doesn't really matter. Bizarre murders begin to rock Japan as mysterious creatures hunt down humans. As these murders rock Japan, three men find themselves more involved in it. Shouichi Tsugami, an amnesiac that washed up near a village and become a nanny for the Misugi family, as the unknown begin attacking, he enters a trance and becomes the warrior they call Agito, using this power he fights to protect the people around him. Makoto Hikawa, a police officer who becomes the main user of their Kuuga based rider suit G3, battling the unknown and police politics as Toru Hojo attempts to usurp the position of the G3 unit. And finally Ryo Ashihara, a college student and aspiring swimmer who starts to transform into a monstrous being known as gills as he tries to uncover the truth surrounding his transformation and the dissapearence of his father.
Agito feels like three different shows mashed together, we have Agito the family sitcom, G3 the police procedural and Gils the... Thriller/Mystery. All of these stories do intermingle and become more connected as it goes on, but the importance to the main plot varies. Said story does have some solid twists and mysteries that will keep you going. But its issue more comes in what exactly is the main focus.
CHARACTERS
Despite being the title character, Shouichi involvement in the plot initially is rather lacking, when compared to Makoto and Ryo, since whenever he needs to transform into Agito its more like the character having to jump in to a different show. And as a character he is fine, while the show would try to differentiate himself from Yusuke, but I feel he is a less interesting character as a whole, being the nice guy the Yusuke was and just being the best at what he is tasked with doing. While the later parts of the story delve into his backstory and need to grow stronger, Agito is probably the weakest part of his own show. Not in the bad way, as his portion of the show is where we get a lot of the comedy that actually does pretty well all thing considered. Nothing too out loud funny but it is solid.
Makoto on the other hand has plenty of early plot developments regarding the myth of what the unknown are. And I thought his parts of the story were much more interesting compared to Shouichi. And I did think he was a lot more interesting, and his comedy chemistry with Shouichi brings out the best in regards to him, a the first secondary rider of the heisei era, he... spends much of the initial portion of the season getting his ass handed to him as G3, it makes sense in story since they were developed to fight the grongi over the new unknown, but G3 either needs the help of others early on until the development of G3-X when he can stand on his own as a walking armory. But Makato's portion are really good.
As is Ryo's stuff or as I like to call it the suffering of Ryo Ashihara. Dear lord this poor guy goes through so much between Gils monstrous work on his body and losing everyone close to him and the manipulation he goes through, you kind of want to hug the poor guy. He is the most standoffish of the trio never really wanting to work with others and mostly on his own, which I think does work for him since he is like more noir esque story. I also liked him, I do think Makato's story is a bit better because of the addition of his supporting cast, but I was rooting for him to get something good to happen to him after everything he goes through. Even as he loses two girlfriends, is betrayed by most everyone, he still gets a puppy by the end, and hey better than nothing.
In terms of side characters, the Misugi family is good at the helping to bring the levity into scenes. Mana gets the most focus due to her own growing psychic powers and helping Makoto in certain stories. Meanwhile the males serve the roles of reasonable father figure and pint sized boy you would find in your traditional family sitcoms.
The more interesting side characters come from Makoto's portion. Sumiko's no nonsense blunt attitude really won me over early, and it carried on through the whole show as she stood against the politics happening in the police station and Toru's own scummy nature. And she remains just as strong as the series go on, even acknowledging the flaw of making something too good, she was arguably the best character of the season.
On the other hand, Takahiro really does not have much besides being a helper to Sumiko, they try to be meta in him acknowledging he doesn't really do much as a funny we get you, but I think that... then give him something to do. Rather then just being a person who is their for comedy.
Toru Hojo is an ass, most of his time in the show is being a thorn in the side of the G3 unit and trying to one up them. But he often sees commupence, whether its getting his ass handed to him in G3 after claiming he would be better or his personal suit getting thrashed by G3-X. It is easy to claim that he is the hate sink you often enjoy seeing getting owned whenever his plans explodes in his face. But he is also one of the more multi-layered characters of the season, he may be a jerk but he is a jerk with principals, when his mentor murders a man and tries to blame it on the unknown to end the G3 unit, he instead turns him in, and even helps when Makoto starts to struggle with temporary blindness. Showing that he still is a man of justice and not some corrupt glory hound. Don't get the wrong idea, he still is a jerk who constantly reminds you that he believes he is superior and constantly planning out stories, also the fact he was willing to assist the unknown in killing people by stopping agito shows that he is still an anti-villain.
Ryo doesn't really have much of a supporting cast, often coming in contact with the other stories. He gets probably the lest interesting group in the Akatsuki, a ferry where the first unknown attack occurred. Their effectively similar to the Ryusei school students, most of them don't really do much besides a few members and even then, I kind of struggle to remember them, even their leader Kaoru who is the 4th rider of the show is kind of forgettable, an egomaniac who wants to be the only agito who after getting whomped and humbled joins the heroes in fighting the unknown.
Speaking of them, I do like the idea of the unknown, later named lords as a concept. They are much more anti-villainous as a faction, they only are doing what they need to do to keep human from evolving and being too dangerous, and it is a good mystery as to who they are and the methods they go about killing others. But in practice, they are kind of forgettable.
While some do take more pleasure in it, they have no real characterization beyond just carrying out their mission of killing humans from the Overlord, we don't see the hierarchy or them gathering together to talk. That was made the grongi special in that we at least saw something of a personality and how they acted, if it were not for the overlord, one could claim it was just the planet sending out monsters to kill people, which I feel would've worked a lot better as the Overlord is... not interesting, just a god like being who fears his creation and just... leaves when he realizes that humans are very, very, complex.
AESTHETICS
Being developed alongside Kuuga, Agito does take similar approaches to design wise, they both have some similar issues in that they don't have much below the chest making it feel unfinished, the suit design I do think is fine, nothing outstanding from the intial suits, their is the base form, a fast form, and a tough form. With the forms having different shoulder pads, not as interesting as Kuuga's forms, I do think his final forms look better, I like the craggly look that burning form has going for it that goes to the shining... shining form, it also feels like its own and not Kuuga two like the earlier forms do.
Though G3 does have a lot of Kuuga but it makes sense since it was developed with Kuuga in mind in order to face grongi-level threats. And I like how it does kind of look, being the most armored since it makes use of weapons to fight, and when G3-X comes in it looks even better with the additional armor and more Dakka, meanwhile Gils also looks solid, kind of a more primitive and beastial form for an at times berserker form, the exceed form I am not fond of the additional spikes and stuff doesn't look real. And then their is Another Agito... not fond, It tries to be an in between of agito and gils and doesn't really work.
The lords design clearly do have some differences to the grongi, while the grongi were often these dark, monstrous looking amalgamation of the animal they are based on and human body. Many of the lords are lot brighter in terms of color design, it can be hard to differentiate between them, going to be real if you showed me a monster from either season and asked me, is it a grongi or lord, you would probably just have to shoot me because it can be hard with some of them.
The music is okay, I do like the opening, almost reminds me of a more controlled version of those power ballads of the 80's. And a lot of the tracks are also decent, but I do think that nothing beats Kuuga.
EPISODES
Favorite: Episode 11, their is always something enjoyable about a snake getting his ego blown up, and watching Toru run for the hills after he gets smacked around a bit is fun. The episode also has some good building around the myth arc for the whole season.
Favorite: Episode 23, again, really like the ass beating Hojo gets from time to time, and its an excellent intro to G3-X, spending much of the season up until needing help to bet unknown to completely curb stomping it with everyone's favorite method, more dakka.
In terms of bad episodes its kind of hard to decide, as the worse episode is more just meh than anything else, not like their bad just not memorable.
CONCLUSION
Kamen Rider Agito is a season that at times struggles with its own identity, while it does find it (only to do the Kuuga where is everyone and is the main character dead.) It is a solid season that is ambitous in its story style, but it never really has a big defining moment for me, its perfectly average in most aspects with the biggest fault being a weak villains. I would still say its worth a watch as a decent, if at times unmemorable experience.
FINAL GRADE: C
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