Bueaty, Love and Sea Monsters (Kamen Rider OOO 23-24)

In this mini-arc, we are privileged to encounter another pure form, all-blue Shauta Combo or "Marine Combo" as some have come to know it. We also inch closer and closer to a rider change and upgrade in the Birth camp.

Yes, but not in the way you would expect. . .

But first off, episode 23 starts with Kazari and Maki crafting plans, Ankh fretting over the lack of medal combos he and Eiji have managed to procure, and Kazari sets up a marine-type Yummy to ensnare a researcher, Yumi Sakura, who's sister, Rei, runs the beauty company where they both work, hoping to capitalize on her jealously of her sister's beauty. This last bit seems not to work out so well at first, as Uva is quick to point out to his ex-partner, but Kazari assures him it will all work out with time.

Yumi, who loves her role in the company and puts up with the abuse, runs into Date at the ol' oden cart, whom she use to travel with and seems to have a crush on.

Date and Yumi literally run into each other at the oden cart.

Date has to run off to face off against a Greeed, so he promises to meet her later on that night at the oden shack.

Kamen Rider Birth's Drill Arm (Made in China) is shattered by Kazari. Don't worry kids, it gets fixed in 24.

The chance encounter seems to re-spark her flames of passion, which the Yummy seizes upon, feeding to desire to it's full potential. Taking the egg with her, Yumi proceeds to go back to the lab, entrancing everyone she crosses with he newly obtained beauty.

She even manages to ensnare Eiji, who is left dumb(er)struck by her presence. Date is unfazed.

This is what happens when a Kamen Rider falls in love. It's stupid, has no finisher and it's surrounded by hearts. At least it has knee-caps, since falling in love in hard on the knees.

The plot thickens in 24, as it's not up to Date to save the day (or at least for the time being it is, since Eiji is completely useless at this point). Yumi manages to escape, assaulting the Date and Ankh with a swarm of Ei Yummy spawns. The next day, Rei starts freaking out since her sister is no where to be found, and she needs her report in order to make it seem as if she in control of everything (see kids, even exploitation has it's downsides). Yumi enters, bent on controlling the company from hence forth, captures Rei, and proceeds to handle the press conference on her own.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. And underwater.

While everyone else is entranced by her face, Date is still unaffected and rushes to the lab to talk some sense into Yumi. Just as he confesses that he was more impressed by the true Yumi, the Ei-Sai Yummy attacks. Shintaro shows up as back-up as Date transforms into Birth, now with an upgraded CLAWS Drill Arm, to protect the Sakura sisters. Yumi in injured in the attack badly, yet Date manages to remove enough Cell Medals to remove the "Sai" element of the Yummy, morphing it into a large Itomakiei Yummy which bursts out the building.

FIND A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!

Meanwhile outside, Eiji as OOO and Kazari are going at it, as Ankh has sensed the presence of a Yummy near the lab, hoping that the transformation would snap Eiji from his daze. The plan works, and Eiji uses the Take head to steal Mezool's Shachi Medal from Kazari, allowing him to go Shauta Combo. Kazari flees as Eiji uses his new found water powers to dominate the Yummy on land and sea, finally dispacting it with a Scanning Charge: Octo Banish attack. As things start to cool down, Yumi thanks Date, who decides to pass on her for now, and says he has some work to complete first.

This arc was pretty sweet, mainly due to the insight into Date's past and the reveal of Shauta Combo. As a whole, 8/10.

The Justice Mini-Arc Complete (Kamen Rider OOO 21-22)

JUSTICE!!! This is a fantastic arc, filled with heroes, pseudo-heroes and punks. Lots and lots of punks. This one a double-dose of OOO, so time to dig in!

The mini-arc deals with justice, in all of it's dimensions. Shintaro, Eiji and the crew are out buying supplies for the Valentines Day festivities at the Cous Coussier when they notice a grown man picking on a little kid. Shintaro rushes out to scold the man, with Eiji following close behind. The boy's father shows up soon after, and Chiyoko recognizes him as her old classmate Susumu Kanbayash. His son, Takashi, just like his old man, has a strong sense of justice and punishment for the wicked. Susumu wants to become a lawyer, and in a flashback we discover that he's run away from his wife and kid until he manages to pass the exam.

Susumu takes Takashi away and warns him to watch himself, which leads to Takashi cursing his ol' man and running off. Failing to give chase, Susumu is approached by Uva, who spawns a Yummy from his desire for justice. Meanwhile, Eiji presses Ankh for information on why he cannot obtain his true form, even after collecting more of his cores. Before he can reply in full, he sense a Yummy. They race to the scene to find Susumu, bruised and unconscious, and a Hopper Yummy . . . beating up a purse-snatcher??? What's going on? Eiji transforms, defeats several Trash Yummies, but lets the Yummy escape after he witnesses it give the purse back to a terrified woman.

Confused, they head back to the Cous Coussier, where Chiyuku patches up Susumu before he runs off to his part-time job. Later that night, Susumu confronts some loud youths, blaring music in the park. The Yummy appears again, as if summoned by his will, and proceeds to f*^k their sh!t when OOO and Birth drop in on the scene. Uva shows his face to tip the odds back in his favor, forcing Eiji to use the new ability Giga Scan by means of the Kujaku Core. Right as he is about to unleash his fury, Susumu gets in the way, he wants to use this power to punish the wicked. Inspired by this father, Takashi also shields the Hopper from an attack.

Takashi and Susumu leave to go off and punish the wicked. Elsewhere, Shintaro is still trying to master the Birth Buster, improving ever so slightly with every passing day. While Maki is completely opposed to the idea of Shintaro training to take over for Date, Date forces the scientist to understand. As Date and Shingo wrap up a training session, the Yummy makes his move. OOO shows up first, goes GataToraBa to clear out some Trash Yummy, then questions Susumu's sense of justice as he allows his Yummy to attack a defenseless coward. Date and Shintaro show up, Date goes Birth and helps combat the Yummy and meddlesome Uva while Shintaro tries to get Takashi to safety. Birth and OOO team up to weaken Uva enough for him to abscond, and OOO delivers a Giga Scan straight to to face of the Hopper. Now that is what I like to call . . . JUSTICE!!!

Everyone heads to C.C. for a good time, and everyone lives happily ever after. For now. These episodes are gonna have kinda a weird scoring. 21 is a 5.5/10, 22 a 6/10, however together they make a 7/10 arc because there is enough good stuff in both to out-weigh all the crap.

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

The Bloated Blockhead Bastard Strikes! (KR OOO 16)

Hey all! Hehe, so after that boasting about having more free time ahead, I immediately got sick and have been out of commission until now. Also, I've added an0ther reason to why I should never EVER go back home again: you catch the flu within 16 goddamn hours. Speaking of sedecim, OOO 16 has been out now for a bit, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about you. In fact, I have your medicine right here!

Maki and Kazari are wrapping up their container experiment with Gamel, as he has now ingested 14 Core Medals. The power of having multiple Cores is apparently a bit much for Gamel to control, even after his body morphs to adapt to his new found power. Such a fool, he thinks he's following Mezool's wishes , when really he's it' s just a tool. Maki pushes his luck with Kazari, who dispatches of him easily and leaves with his "fee": Ankh's Core!

Meanwhile Hina is trying to patch up Eiji back at the Cous Coussier, although she might be doing more harm than good. Ankh is no where to been seen, which we find out to be because he is off visiting the Kougami Foundation to eat their brains and gain their knowledge . . . I mean just to gain knowledge. Kougami seems unphased by the idea of Maki plotting against him, since Maki moving toward his general goal of greed changing/save the world. He begs for Eiji (oh yeah he barges in and starts throwing he's "weight" around) and Ankh to hold back and wait for Maki's experiment, whatever it might be, to unfold.

Ankh leaves in a huff, but Eiji hangs around to get some more information about the Core Medals and the Greeed. Now we finally get a true explanation of the birth of the Greeed and the purpose of the Core Medals. But first, let's check in on our betrayed Greeed, Uva and Mezool. It appears that Mezool managed to retain one Core, which Uva now wants, but Mezool manages to escape with. Uva sends some trash Yummy after her, while we start to hear an explanation for the Greeed. FINALLY!

So 800 years ago, scientists of the time tried to make an artificial life form. Wait. This sounds kinda familiar. That didn't well either. Oh scientists, when will you ever learn? Anyway, they compressed some creatures into coins, then ordered them in groups of nine which eventually began to gain consciousness. That consciousness started to develop a greed complex, and now here we are, in the future, with crazy a bugmen trying to murder a landshark lady.

Land Shark | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

So OOO was made to control/suppress the powers of Greeed/greed. Now Eiji is even more unsure of his or Ankh role in all of this. After defeating the trash, Eiji of course unknowingly protecting Mezool in the process, we flash over to Maki in the lab talking about destroying the world.

Gotou steps in and tries to arrest him for his role in last week's episode, but stops when he realizes that Birth is complete and he could wield it if he stays on his good graces.

Meanwhile, Gamel starts wondering around town looking fro Mezool, and eventually drifts into the Cous Coussier's Christmas fair. Eiji unwittingly serves him while struggling to figure out why he looks do damn familiar. Gamel mistakes Hina for Mezool, then goes crazy when he realizes it's not her and releases so much energy that he breaks everything in the shop and runs out.

Eiji gives chase, then tries to stop Gamel from rampaging. Mezool shows up and fuses with Gamel, who is all too willing to give her all of himself. Maki shows up to help complete the experiement with Mezool now, and he throws in thousands of more Cell Medals plus two of Uva's Core Medals. This causes Mezool to complete change forms into a giant Cthulhu-esk landshark thing, and she immediately loses control and begins to rampage. It kinda looks like a more retarded Castle Doran.



Eiji goes OOO TaToBa, but lacks the power to do anything. Right as things look extremely bleak, Birth shows up and uses his capsule machine inspired powers to damage PsychoMezool, sending two of Uva's Core's flying. Seizing the opportunity, OOO goes GataKiriBa and finishes her off. Cores go flying, and Ankh, Kazari and Uva all fight for their share with Ankh only grabbing two.

On the way back home, Birth come back. Dropping his henshin, we see not Gotou, but an unfamiliar face. Who is this man? (spoiler alert - his name is Date Akira)