Recap

Kouta encounters a mysterious young man called Jiro, who turns out to be a robot of unknown origin. Meanwhile, Professor Ryouma decides to try some amateur brain surgery.

Aqua’s Thoughts

Gaim seems about beaten into the ground by the short end of the stick it got as far as crossovers are concerned. After the snore-inducing slog that was the ToQger teamup and the absolute disaster that Kamen Rider Wars is alleged to be, Kikaider is next in line. Toei’s reboot of the seventies toku franchise — unsurprisingly called Kikaider Reboot — is hitting theatres soon, and what better way to promote your new guy in a rubber suit than by interrupting a crucial plot in a story-oriented show for some money-grubbing hijinks? While no one at Toei thought of dumping this obligatory crossover onto the entirely unambitious and distinctly plot-lacking ToQger is a mystery to me, but I guess Super Sentai already got shafted for this year’s Super Hero Wars movie. Oh, the economy of children’s entertainment. How it fascinates me.

Luckily, this Kikaider crossover manages to do the impossible by making itself actually quite enjoyable. It firmly establishes Jiro’s character and mannerisms, and his musings on conscience and fighting for protection fit surprisingly well in the world of Gaim. Though cheesy as usual, the subplot with Kouta and his dog was a nice diversion — making for some heartwarming cuteness and general levity all the same. What makes this episode stand out from the other Gaim crossovers we have seen, however, is the fact that everyone remains firmly in character. Kouta is all-loving and idealistic, Mitchy barely hides his disdain for everyone and everything and even Akira continues her quest to teach her brother some work ethic. If not for its extremely unfortunate timing, the crossover feels like an actual, canon, episode of Gaim: equal parts action and character development, musings on good and evil and a dash of humour, it works much better than the ToQger crossover ever did.

It helps that — in spite of being the blatant movie advert it is — the episode does tell a story that stands on his own. The literal reboot of Jiro at the end erases the character development he went through over the course of this episode, but leaves us (and Kouta) with the feeling that he’s a pretty cool guy. Furthermore, it provides a cliffhanger in the best possible way, fueling our interest in this Kikaider character and how transforming into his true form makes life as a human virtually impossible for him. In stead of a blatant exposition dump, Jiro himself figures out what he’s all about alongside the audience, making this crossover more of a teaser — a prologue, as it were — than an outright cash grab. By revealing the character’s main gimmick only at the very end of the advertisement, Toei has effectively managed to leave me wanting to see more of Jiro and his armoured alter ego.

Of course, the true star of the spectacle is Professor Ryouma. Getting his ‘friends’ to send him Hakaider for some testing was a clever way to involve him into the plot and the idea of him surgically inserting his brain into Hakaider is so bafflingly idiotic it becomes funny again. Smugly chewing the scenery as usual, robo-Ryouma serves as an effective way to unite Jiro and Kouta against a common threat, and Tsunenori Aoki’s barely contained insanity — apparently, drawing on his forehead was an ad-lib — makes Ryouma’s stint in the spotlight definitely worth it, if only for the awesome battle at the end. Some great action choreography and special effects, especially in the unmorphed fight sequences, tops off a decent crossover that should satisfy even the staunchest purist’s desire for more Gaim until next week picks up the plot again. Seriously though, how did no one in this episode notice then huge Overlord rampaging around?

Random Observations

• Lots of reds and blues in this episode. Kamen Rider colour symbolism at its finest.
• Kouta not knowing what a reboot is continues the long-standing tradition of Kamen Riders being complete technophobes.
• And now for something completely different: Enjoy this series of dumb Febreze commercials starring Mahiro Takasugi as an increasingly more obsessive high schooler with a questionable taste in sweaters. Where have I seen that before?

Zigg’s Thoughts

I think that our major feeling about this Kikaider crossover has been annoyance that it has to interrupt our main plot. That being said, this is way WAY better than most movie-shilling crossovers and works pretty solidly as a stand-alone episode. There’s some decent fish out of water comedy, some good action and an attempt at pathos that feels kind of forced, but earnest nonetheless.

The key to making this episode work is that everyone is able to sort of extract themselves from the main plot while still staying pretty much in character. Though it’s nowhere near farcical, there’s definitely a pleasant tone of ‘otherness’ to the entire affair. One thing I was consistently impressed by was the restraint that was shown in the writing here. But restricting Jiro’s transformation until the very end of the episode we’re allowed to get to know him as a character first, and that makes this much more interesting discovery story and less extended advert. ‘Robot learns to be human’ has been done to death and they don’t exactly bust boundaries here, but they’re trying for character work, which is better than 99% of other crossovers.

There’s also the added bonus of great action. Ryouma putting his brain into an evil cyborg is an enjoyable visit from Kamen Rider‘s more ridiculous side and he clearly has so much fun hamming it up it’s difficult not to feel it too. The final battle in the car park is excellent choreographed and packs some surprisingly good special effects. The football kick finished is amusingly silly also.

All in all, this crossover achieved what few do – it actually made me curious about the property they’re hawking. Ending on a sort of semi-cliffhanger is a great way to encourage people to continue the tale in the Kikaider Reboot movie while also neatly resetting everything for that story. Sometimes it’s fun to step outside a show’s comfort space for a bit, and this was the sort of entertaining break I can get behind. Mission accomplished.

Random Observations

• Ryouma wearing a bandage around his head is a terrifically dumb sight gag.
• Also terrifically dumb – Jiro playing an unplugged electric guitar as he strolls away.
• Mini Kouta still wears his dumb life preserver.
• I really like the way they’ve subtly updated the Kikaider costume to make it look more modern.
• Seeing Mitchy as anything other than a homicidal bastard is sort of disconcerting.