Kamen Rider W proved to be a good success for Toei and Bandai, while ratings for the show were about the same as its predecessor Decade, it made a lot of revenue in merchandise sales. To put in perspective how much W made in comparison to the first Heisei phase, the best selling Heisei phase 1 series was Kamen Rider Ryuki at 13.9 billion yen during its life. W made 19.8 billion yen in its time. a 47% increase in comparison to the third series of the revival and W was the first part of a new era. Considering the show is well liked by many (myself included) it was a pretty good start to the second phase of the Heisei era and going forward Toei was hoping to give one up their efforts from last year for the series. By adding another slot onto a belt. Yeah the first three seasons of Heisei phase 2 seemed to one up another on the collectible trinkets and driver. W required to transform, the one we are talking about now OOO's Requires three trinkets and then next season will have four slots for collectible trinkets, I'm guessing the reason that stopped was to ensure the belts didn't get to overloaded or the transformation sequences to last nearly ten minutes. But jokes about the one upping the previous series henshin device, Kamen Rider OOO's was also going to be sorta of a major milestone. As stated when talking about Gokaiger vs Gavan, 2011 was a major year of toku celebrations and in this case, Rider was celebrating not only 40, but 1000 episodes under its long running, ever expanding to this day, belt. So, OOO's was shaping up to be something, taking into account the then its superstar writer of Yasuko Kobayashi hot of the heels of Shinkenger for Sentai and while it was a while before this for Rider Den-o and a slew of talented new and old directors of Kamen Rider. OOO's seemed like it had a lot of potential within it. So did it meet the desires of the audience or was this first half of the 2011 celebration something you could count off.
SYNOPSIS
Eiji Hino seems like your average travelling man living off what he carry with him. After finishing a job as a guard at a museum, he begins to go on about his life until he finds comes across monster attacking a group of people. You see, at the museum he was guarding housed a sarcophagus that housed monsters known as the Greeed (yes, their is an extra e, thats just how greedy they are) and during his time as guard, one of them, Ankh, breaks the seal and releases all five of them, now they desire to fill the void in them by consuming the desires of humans. Ankh intially chases after Eiji to get the medal he accidentally picked up as it is one of his core medals that gives him form, but when he saves him from the monsters, the Yummy (This show is a little silly) Ankh sees someone he can uses so hands him the seal which is actually a driver and two more medals and instructs him to transform into OOO's. Ankh intends to use Eiji to collect cell medals and to secure the remaining core medals of the other Greeed, Eiji on the other hands, intends to use the new powers he has to protect the people from the Greeed. But Eiji and Ankh are not the only people interested in the greeed, there is the Kougami foundation who have developed many items to use in junction with the cell medals. Led by their mysterious and rather birthday happy chairman Kousei Kagami, his calm and stoic secretary Erika Satonaka, Shintaro Goto the inital leader of the foundations motorcycle brigade who initally comes off as very jerkish and overly serious, the creepy researcher and scientist Kiyoko Maki, and later Akira Date, another traveler who is working with Kogami Foundation to earn money and becomes their own rider, Birth.
Like the previous series, W. OOO's is very much focused on its characters with the story being more simplistic. That's not to say there wasn't much to make the watcher interested in continuing watching, Eiji's past, how the Greeed come into creation, Kougami's past and he came to know about the medals, and more alongside a really great cast.
HEROES AND ALLIES
While Eiji may initially come off as sort of weird, cloud cukoolander traveler, the show is quick to show he is a lot clever then he actually is when dealing with Ankh and arguably one of the more traumatic past for the intended audience of the show. Eiji fits a lot of standard hero tropes when it comes to Rider, Kind, compassionate, and always willing to help others in need. But OOO's takes those same characteristics and shows the negative side of them. The primary theme going on in OOO's is that of desire and balancing those desires, not overindulging in them but indulging enough in them to satiate enough to make you satisfied, and ignoring the logical impossibility of having no desires, Eiji's real lack of a desire ends up making him the perfect host for purple medals, medals that had dinosaur's on them and sought out those with no real desire like Eiji himself that turns him into a berserker who attacks anyone he sees. This ends up becoming one of the two arcs that Eiji ends up having, getting a desire to help remove the purple medals. But the thing is, he already has his true desire answered by Ankh and the OOO driver and medals, the ability to reach out and help as many people as possible and would do anything to attain that power, which through the Greeed he sort of got in the form of the OOO driver. It is a surprisingly well done characterization and take on the selfless hero that really works well without causing some issues with the character. The other is a more standard, you are not alone, you'll always have people around to help you. Eiji is a really good main character but he is further complimented by his co-star.
Ankh is very much not a good person, if the fact he is willing to kill someone just to keep her out of the way. Unfortunately for him, he ends up choosing to be around Eiji and inhabit the body of Shingo Izumi (In the first episode he inhabits the body of a nearby officer since he is intially incomplete). Ankh also is also one of the primary early sources of comedy in the form of slapstick and how the others treat him, especially Hina. But Ankh is initally a very self serving character, his reason for picking Eiji is just because he initally thought that he was an easy person to control, he is very much in control of the medals for OOO's being the one who hands him certain combos depending on the situation and oftens doesn't feel like doing anything that might give away cell medals or his core. I also think this is what really works for him and as a foil to Eiji, he is not helping the heroes because he wants to, its because it is something he feels benefits him the most and Eiji is very honest about what he desires, and this one of the best things about OOO's, the chemistry shared between Eiji and Ankh is exceptional with both characters ideals and personalities clashing and melding well with one another and the series makes it perfectly clear that both are merely using one another for their own ends, Eiji to help people and Ankh to reclaim his body, and the series makes perfectly clear that in any other circumstance, Ankh would've been a villain, in fact that was the original intent for the character for him to become the final villain of the series but that was changed due to the chemistry he and Eiji shared throughout the show, and that was a change for the best in terms of how the character.
While he does end up becoming a villain for a short time nearing the climax, its very clear that the ankh we started with is very different, having spent time inhabiting Shingo's body has given Ankh the human emotions and feelings he never had before hand, tasting, sensing, feeling the things around him that has made him come to despise his existence as a Greeed seeing as how they will never feel any kind of true satisfaction like he did inhabiting shingo's body. He has also come to accept Eiji and Hina as his friends even if doesn't want to admit. What I also like is that the series never tries to redeem himself and make him a better person, he knows who he is but chooses to be a good guy for the people he has come to care about and to put an end to the evil that his group has become.
Eiji and Ankh are not the only major bromance that ravenous fangirls and fanfic riders could sink their teeth into, and a pretty good twist on the secondary rider. Initially, we are introduced to Shintaro Goto who leads the Kougami foundation's motorcycle, he seems like the perfect person to become the secondary rider, he is very much a good contrast to the main rider, antagonistic since he feels EIji and Ankh are not trustworthy to help. He even is the person transform into birth in Movie War Core, it seemed everything the series had going in it was setting up Goto to become the secondary rider. But then OOO's throws a curveball at the audience, instead of Goto becoming Birth, it instead goes to someone entirely different, and it still works out even better.
Date definitely is a stand-out in terms of secondary writers, notably in the fact he really doesn't show any kind of antagonistic behavior towards the main rider and is suprsingly a chill kind of guy. He just wants to do his work so he can get his money for whatever he wants to do. But despite that, he ends up being probably my favorite character, acting as a mentor to Eiji and Goto when they need it, escpecially Goto who he treats like a little brother. While he may not have a major character arc through the shows duration, but he shows his age through some of the shows emotional and funny moments, escpecially his early stuff with Maki.
Like with the OOO's duo, most of the development goes more to the other half of the group in this case Goto who has to learn to swallow his own pride in order to become birth, this starts with him becoming a waiter at the Cous Coussier and then becoming Date's apprentice for birth, and you can see as the series goes on following these changes he makes how he softens from his original personality, and by the end how he goes to his own boss to ask him for the remaining money upon hearing about Date's predicament, its far and away different from who he started as, and it all culminates in him finally becoming birth, no longer clouded by his pride to help the people he now knows as his friends.
Then for the side characters we have Hina who, she's kind, caring, and have whole lot of strength in that body, if Eiji and Ankh are like two younger brothers, Hina is close to an elder sister who takes care of them. She also is the one who constantly tries to keep Ankh in order whether it is smacking him upside the head or forcing him to eat healthy (by eating birds, the monster.)
Chiyoko serves as another form of comedic relief, and owns the place that Eiji and Ankh end up staying at through the story, she is a bit of ditz but well meaning and often changes up the places look and cuisine as a means to bring in customers, while she initially has no major part in the story until the end when she does learn, she does have something to do with...one of the villains.
Over on the Kougami foundation side, we have Erika Satonaka, she is the stoic, rather bored expressioned assistant to Kougami. I initally liked as she offset her bosses eccentricities, but I started to like even more when she became Goto's assistant when he became birth and often proved unhelpful because of how her own maintence.
Now I did like Erika, But Mr. Kougami, is a treat, he is so over the top with how he handles the situation and you can tell the actor is enjoying it, but inside of this boisterous person is someone who knows what is going on.
VILLAINS
Despite being a group, the Greeed through most of the series are just a group with similar goals, its only at the end when they group up in order get back their medals. Even then for most of the series its not really an ensemble of villainy and mostly focuses on Kazari as the main bad through most of the mid point of the series, as Gamel and Mezool end up sort of dead before the midpoint, and Uva is just there for a good chunk of it.
So starting with the Greeed with less time, lets start with Gamel and Mezool since the two are connected, having a sort of youger brother/child and Elder Sister/mother. Gamel probably gets the least development of the original four villains as much of his character and desire is tied to Mezool whom he wants to be happy, he's childish, a bit dim-witted, and rather protective of Mezool.
Speaking of her, Mezool serves as the mother of the four, the kindest amongst as she is willing to share what little medals she has and does her best to keep them in line when fighting OOO's, for the little bit that matters. Like Gamel, she suffers from not appearing much and being thrown into the background for me, even if her final appearence may be one of the creepiest plans to absorb desire that is in the series.
Of the initial four Greeeds we get, Uva is probably my least favorite. Not for lack of trying, he's hotheaded and of the Greeed, the one who is most hellbent on regaining his core medals for Eiji and Ankh, but he was just the blandest of them, he had the blandest means of creating monsters, the one who's goals are never stated and never really stepping out of the other greeed's shadows. It also doesn't help that he kind of disappears for a bit , though when he does come back it shows that he didn't waste it, as he has harvested a ton of Cell medals that actually makes him on par with the others despite not having ll of his core's.
This now brings us to Kazari, he cunning, arrogant, and rather easy going compared to the others, which is considered ironic how much of a traitorous scum he is. Kazari is the first to really want to go beyond just collecting cell medals and to evolving himself, Kazari ends up becoming the primary force of evil alongside Doctor Maki in trying to defeat OOO's to claim all the Core's. While he is a competent schemer, his arrogance proves to be sort of his undoing as he thinks he is smarter than most everyone and how he ends up treating the rest of the Greeed make it that no one cares when Maki gets rid of him when he gets his butt get handed to him because of the kind of person he was.
This leaves us with the two villains introduced during the course of the story, spoilers regarding both, Ankh lost works well as an evil... (no that's not it)...corrupted version of Ankh, yeah that's a good description. Lost starts the series as a child, both in body and mind, he very much embodies the image of that creepy child, not really speaking for his first couple of appearances and serving as a bodyguard to Kazari, its only as the series goes on from his introduction that reveals more about his character as a psychotic child seeking his other half to feel whole again. Like his other half he ends up becoming quite the schemer and unlike a good chunk of the Greeed and their plans which have limited success, Lost does end up getting what he wants after training, for about a one episode.
That leaves us with Maki, he initially starts as sort of a joke, especially when Date showed up and made it his goal to find everything that annoyed him, he seemed like he was going to be the cloud cookoolander who developed equimpent through most of the show, until he ends up teaming up with Kazari and he is slowly revealed to be a hardcore nihilist. While the other Greeed show the negatives of overindulging in one's desire, Maki show's the negative side of having no desire, unlike the rest he simply ends up making greeed from a candle because he requires no desire from people to make them stronger, when he learn that his own sister was getting married, he decided to set his own house on fire with her in it just so she doesn't leave her is one of the biggest twist of the character and fully starts to see how deprived he is. He only cares about bringing about the end of the world and even when he is eventually defeated, he's not damming the heroes for what they are preventing, he merely feels complete by his incoming demise. Showing how he had become quite possibly even more monstrous than the actual monsters in the series.
AESTHETICS and MUSIC
Aesthetically speaking, I really like how OOO's looks overall, the suit looks really cool with a focus on black as the primary color here with the colors, red, green, blue, gray and yellow playing as secondary on the suit initally depending on the combo, even when a full combo is used black still plays the primary role with my personal favorite being Shauta (Blue is my personal favorite color.) This also applies to the final form (yeah, I know there is debate between this and Tajadol as the final forms but most media after ooo's treat this as the final form) Putotyra has this kind of monsterous look that fits its maddening nature for Eiji, and any form that gives someone a melee weapon that also becomes a gun is a win in my book.
I also like Birth's look to, having this more mechanical look to it than ooo's somewhat more natural look and its gashapon look also works seeing as how the kougami foundation uses cell medals as currency which also works in with birth have to use cells to access weapons, that being said I am not fond of his super form, or lack their of, its just all of his weapons activated at the same time and looks like a mecha that wasn't finished.
But going back on the positives, I do also like both henshin devices, OOO's driver might be my favorite of the one's we talked about so far, its simplistic, but striking with the light cyan contrasting well with the black giving it this sort of weird futuristic look despite it being long ago and the birth driver got immediate like points from me for how satisfying the pop sound it makes when he turns the dial after putting a cell medal into the driver it just never got old, even OOO's belt when it calls out what medals are being used and if it is a combo form is such a good sound. This brings us to the music which is also amazing, the main opening theme Anything goes is just this amazingly energetic rock piece that is a great warm up for the show, and many of the inserts during fights also work really well with the standout being Tajador's "time judges all."
Narmy name aside, the yummies and the greeed's design are good, the base yummy design is fine, a black suit with some bandages covering the body until it has absorbed enough desire to gain their more unique forms, some are anthropomorphic while others have this kind of homunculi fusion between a human and elements of the animal they have become, it'll lean more into anthropomorphic when we have fusion of two different animal kingdoms.
The collectible trinket of the year, the core and Cell medals, also look amazing, The choice of keeping it to their colors works really well and the symbols they use for the animals represent each well despite the minimal details that could've been used.
FAVORITE/LEAST FAVORITE EPISODES
Favorite 17-18: Akira Date formal introduction after being introduced at the end of the previous arc, its not only a good introduction to Date that gives us a good amount to go off of, it is also the start to Goto's arc. It also offers a satisyfing mystery with the victim of the week that feels very satsisyfing.
Favorite 29-30: this is very much a backstory arc, delving into the pasts of both the Greeed and the first OOO's and Kiyoto Maki's past. It is particularly chilling on the end of Maki as while he was not a bad person, it was this moment that pushed him to full monster territory, it also gives a pretty good introduction for Ankh Lost.
Least favorite? 27-28: Okay, least favorite may be an overstatement, I don't dislike or particularly hate one set of episode, this episode is more on the case how it contributes to the story. So breaking the fourth wall, Kougami brings together the main cast sans the Greeed to celebrate Kamen Rider's 1000th episode by making a film recreating the original series, but as it turns out, one of the actors is a former member of shocker out for revenge. While I will compliment them for not going for just a clip show of the past 40 years, it still feels like pure fluff, but its the good kind of fluff, the attempted recreation of the first series has this kind of low budget, just out of school or foreign remake feel to it you can't just smile. Really, I only consider it a least favorite because of how it effects the stories flow (though this could be consider a breather considering the following episode would take the series in darker directions.) but it is harmless enough fun for me to like, just not to the standard of the rest of the series.
Least Favorite Movie War Core:......
CONCLUSION
While not without minor issues throughout, Kamen Rider OOO's is an amazing show throughout. Its characters for the most part are gripping, likeable for the right reasons, and hateable for the right reasons. The music extremely catchy and well done, the action well choreographed and exciting, with a story that is well paced, well acted, and well toned. Nothing is truly perfect, but OOO's is one of best riders I have watched so far.
FINAL GRADE: S
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