The Birth of . . . Well, Birth (Kamen Rider OOO 17)

Oh OOO, you never cease to amaze. New rider and new movie scene, all in one episode. That's about where things start to slow down in OOO 17 however. It's a good episode, with some interesting developments, it's just very slow.

Eiji and Ankh kick off the show by meeting the man behind the mask of Birth: Akira Date. He's just some dude. Really. No joke. There are very few clues about his origin right now; we know he's been out of the country for a while (he comments about how bad his kanji knowledge has gotten), and from the patch he has on his right leg (which can best be seen at 23:58) we can see that he spent some time working for what look like the New Mexico Metropolitan Detention Center. Really? That pretty f*cking random. Other than that, he carries around a large tank full of Cell Medals and a user manual from the Kougami Bio. Labs.

Speaking of Birth, I haven't said much about the Rider itself. The suit design is so-so imo, but I do like the idea of a capsule rider. It could make for some interesting abilities and puns later on. I just hope his secondary form looks nothing like this.

Akira Date, wearing the Birth belt, posing in all of his . . . um. . . glory? (Image from HenshinJustice.com)

Anyway, the rest of the episode primarily focuses on a kendo student named Rie who never wants to loss at a another kendo match again. So it's no big surprise when Uva shows up to spawn a Yummy from her desire. During Eiji's first encounter with this yummy, it never evolves, which is really bizarre. It manages to escape right as Date shows up by knocking Rie out cold, which (like always) distracts Eiji.

Oh forgot to mention this tidbit earlier, but apparently Hina and Chiyoko when to Egypt and bought gifts for everyone, so not Eiji has a scarf and Ankh has a nifty O Medal Holder. I really could give two sh!ts about the scarf, but that holder could be promising. I'm thinking that Eiji might snag it sometime down the line, allowing him to transform at will.

This episode also introduces a new Candroid: the gorilla. It seems that Date's the only one with access to it right now, but it can sense the appearance of Yummy. Yet another tool for Eiji if he ever decides to go rogue.

My terrible attempt to make a great joke using Photoshop. Spoiler alert! I'm bad at Photoshop. XD

Meanwhile the Yummy rampages enough to molt into the Kabuto Yummy. Ankh alerts Eiji of the change, and he attacks it in TakaGoriBa to compensate for it's extremely hard shell. Things are going quite well until Kabuto starts flashing and buds off a second Yummy. WTF!

It's seems as if Rie true desire was to destroy everything with her new strength, which seems to suggest that if some one has an ulterior motive, they can spawn multiple Yummies from a single coin.

This second Yummy, a Kawagata-type, tips the balance back towards the enemy right before Date jumps into the fray. Unleashing two new abilities, he shows the power of Birth's Drill Arm and Crane Arm, which both seem to have magnetic properties to allow for the easy collection of Cell Medals. Using a gross amount of Cell Medals, he blasts everything, OOO and Ankh included, with his Birth Buster, and defeats the Kabuto Yummy. Knocking Ankh away from his prize, Birth uses his Crane Arm to collect all that loose change and deposit it into his canister.

Breaking his henshin, Date clues Eiji and Ankh in on his true goal: to earn money by collecting 100 million Cell Medals. That's his job, and no one will stand in his way.

Eh, watching Birth in action pretty much saved this one. Other than that it's was kinda slow. 6.5/10. The next episode look a bit more promising, as we should see some new stuff for both OOO and Birth.