The Red Combo Cometh . . . Later(Kamen Rider OOO 19)

I was hoping this episode would mark the glorious new age of the Red Combo, but my hopes and dreams were crushed last week when OOO 19 ended with a preview of how awesome full Red will be. Don't get me wrong, this week's episode was still exciting, as it marked some new developments in Yummy creation/attributes, along with some alright series plot progression.

The episode opens in the Cous Coussier. As Eiji running into work late, he notices a familiar face mopping the floors: OMG, it Gotou!!! He seems to have left his old life behind in order to figure out exactly who he is inside. Satonaka enters shortly after and is shocked a bit as well to see Gotou doing manual labor in this fine establishment, but then she informs Eiji that he is wanted at the Kougami Foundation.

It seems as if Kougami got everyone a present from his trip to Europe, and for Eiji, he has another one for Ankh's cores. After careful rash consideration, Eiji decides to give the medal back to Kougami, so that Ankh is not tempted to leave the body of Shingo to die. Kazari, elsewhere, is up to his old tricks again.

After breaking the ruthless criminal Toichi Yamagane by infusing him with a Yummy, Kazari meets up with Maki, who explains that he can;t come by the lab for a while, since Date has now taken up residence there. Yamagane, fueled by revenge for his partner who sold him out and the detective who locked him up, starts to hunt down his marks, and guess who the detective responsible for his arrest was? That's right, it was Shingo!

Heading back to the Cous Coussier, Eiji runs into the other mark, a hapless criminal/pinhead named Yasuji "Yasu" Okumura, who wants to protect the man who saved his life. Comic-style flashback ensues; Ankh decides to use him as bait. I love how he has selective memory when it comes to Shingo's past. He boasts earlier in the series that he knows everything Shingo knows, and yet he doesn't remember this dude at all. WTF!?!

Anyway, Yamagane attacks again and transforms into a new, odd-looking Yummy: it's a hybrid Lion-Kurage Yummy. Ankh is immediately worried, as this means that Kazari has incorporated Mezool's Cores into his body. The Yummy can also spawn jellyfish with multiply when slashed, and it's resistant to a blast from the LaKiriEtar, due to it's dual nature. Date arrives soon after this, becomes Birth and begins his assault before Kazari jumps into the fray. Kazari manages to knock Birth off the side of the building that they are fighting on, while the Yummy proceeds to rape OOO. During the fight, Yasu steals Ankh's medal case, and gives it to Kazari. ZOMFG, IT'S A TRAP!!!

Forced out of his henshin, Eiji lies helpless as Kazari reclaims all but one of his cost cores, and transforms into an incredibly powerful form. What will happen next?

9/10! The suspense is killing me!

The Episode That Proves That Eiji is an Idoit (KR OOO 18)

Barnaby here with another exciting episode recap and review of Kamen Rider OOO 18! In this week's episode we see some new equipment for both OOO and Birth, plus we get some insight into how Birth's abilities work. But enough talk, lets get into it!

As you saw in last week, we had a first for OOO universe, a two-stage Yummy. By that, I mean a Yummy who was able to represent two-step desire spawned from Rie, a young kendo student who wants to become stronger for some unknown reason. The original Yummy, a kabuto-type, was destroyed by Birth and OOO at the end of 17, but before that, a second Yummy, a kuwagata-type, budded off of it vowing to destroy everything.

So we open to see Eiji and Ankh coming back to the Cous Cossier after an unfruitful search for the kuwagata. Eiji theorizes about the new development that not even Ankh had seen before, while meanwhile across town, Gotou is silently stalking our new buddy Date.

Honestly I really like Date and his personality. He's kinda goofy yet determined, but no where near as bad as Eiji. Too bad he's not going to be permanent. Oops. Um, well . . . spoiler alert. X-/

Anywho, Gotou decides to try and kill himself by running out in the rain all night. Eventually he stumbles into the Cous Cossier, thinking that he's passed into the afterlife. Not a bad way to be greeted though, if you think about it. I surely hope that when I die, Hina and Chiyoko are there to soothe my sorry soul.

Eiji and Ankh make they way over to Rie's dojo to find out what her true heart's desire was when Date interrupts, boasting that he already knows. She's in love with her instructor, who as it turns out is engaged and is going to be married on the next day. OH NO!!!!

Here's the kicker: before the entire plot is spilled, both Ankh and Date nod in agreement of what's really going on, but Eiji is still completely lost. Turns out that he just doesn't get relationships, at all (which kinda explains the whole "not-hitting-on-Hina" thing; he's just an idiot), so he never considered that to be an option until it was the only thing left.

Oh Eiji, will you ever get a clue?

While he goes off to hid in the corner, Date readies himself to give Rie a pep talk when Trash Yummy burst into the dojo. Date still delivers his words of wisdom while kicking a$, which inspires Rie to run off and stop the kuwagata. It's a bad idea, yes, but she's do damn cute that it doesn't matter.

Date saves Rie from this blunder right in the nick of time, transforms into Birth, and begins to take on the Yummy when Eiji shows up. Turns out that he slipped a Tako Candroid into his bag while he was asking for love advice. Transforming into OOO, Eiji and Date team up on the Yummy when Uva butts in.

Now it's time for some new equipment kids! Birth deploys his Drill Arm and the new Caterpillar Legs, which operate like tank tracks and are also magnetized, and starts to beat Uva senseless. I image he could also scale metal walls with this new attachment, but that has yet to be seen.

"Oh, what nice legs you have." "All the better to take your medals with."

Meanwhile, OOO uses the long over-due Unagi Medal and Cheetah Medal to keep the kuwagata at bay. The Unagi Core Medal deploys two electric whips, which seem to work very well against his foe.

Whip it like you know you should.

Back at the Kougami Bio Labs, Maki gets a visit from the head honcho himself, back from his vacation. As they watch the battle unfold on a monitor, Kougami boosts about having two perfect means of collecting medals: Birth for Cells, OOO for Cores.

On the battlefield, Birth ask for OOO to keep both Uva and the kuwagata at bay while he charges his Breast Cannon to max capacity, which is done by continually loading in cell medals. I hope this works with other attachments, but, once again, only time will tell if this is true. Birth blasts the sh!t out of the kuwagata as Uva escapes just in time, then he proceeds to collect all of the medals with his Crane Arm attachment. You know, Date would be able to meet his goal a whole lot faster if he didn't just waste Cell medals left and right. I mean the overcharge was cool, but was it really necessary?

'Nuff said b!tches.

After the battle, Eiji offers a partnership, which Date outright refuses, as he see Eiji as a weak person. Nevertheless, Eiji is impressed with the type of person he sees in Date, and it seems as if he looking forward to working with him regardless of what Date thinks.

So ends 18. 7/10, mostly for the new equipment. The next episode looks exciting; Kazari gets back into the mix, and it seems as if Kougami has a present for Eiji in the form of a new Core. Can't wait! ( ^.^ )-b