OOO

I was supposed to write here this morning, instead I spent all day on tvtropes. That's fine.

I've recently finished the Kamen Rider OOO (pronounced "oze" or "O's") series, and I know I keep saying that I'd tell you about one of these shows, well I'm definitely doing that now!

After the high that was the Kamen Rider W series I wasn't sure where to turn to next. Wait, that's a lie- I went from there to Kamen Rider Den-O because of how popular that series was, and how often characters from that show turn up in crossover movies (again, due to their immense popularity). This was a great choice on my part, because, yes, I was quite correct that I'd need that show to see a bunch of other stuff.

But hold up, I'm trying to talk about OOO.

It was from Den-O that I wasn't sure where to go, and OOO had a couple of things working against it. The biggest was that, after reading the basic premise, that OOO fought the "Greeed" and their "Yummy" monsters- for a merchandise driven series, the hypocrisy of such a premise tasted bad to me.

And what a merchandise driven series! The Kamen Rider this time out transforms via a number of coloured "core medals" (think coins) that, depending on the combination, would yield different battle forms- collect them all!

However, the series isn't a straightforward divide between selfless heroes and greedy/desirous bad guys, things are more nuanced than that, with an emphasis placed especially on the idea that desire isn't in itself a bad thing. While OOO himself (the characters name is Hino Eiji, but that's harder to remember than just saying OOO all the time) generally fits the mold of that messianic, selfless figure, other characters are allowed to have their own dreams/desires. Also, nearing the end of the series OOO lack of desire actually became a PROBLEM for all the characters, as in the bad guys could have won if Eiji didn't get his own desire.

This is obviously a reversal of how the heroic ideal is usually presented, and is reflective of the common criticism of superheroes as reactive beings, working to maintain the status quo without actively making things better. It's the same reason we see Doctor Horrible as the protagonist of his story, not just because his name is in the title and everything, but because Captain Hammer is such a clod that all he can do is punch out people and absorb applause.

As someone who, ever since learning and considering the phrase "the root of suffering is desire", consciously tries to have as little desire as possible, this is all very interesting to me. Valid points are being made!

The biggest proponent of desire on the show, surprisingly not the Greeed, is the president of the whatever company (forget) who is a large ham that goes around baking cakes to celebrate birthdays ALL. THE. TIME. He's vaguely villainous throughout the series, but I'll spoil it for you, he's an okay dude, just very, uh, weird. He'll often be screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" if you thinks you've made some kind of fresh start in life (good luck if it's your ACTUAL birthday I guess) and he usually doesn't care if you do something underhanded and sort of betray him, so long as it's in service to your desire, because again, he thinks desire is awesome. Desire is the spark of life, the driving force of creation and evolution. We were one thing, then we wanted to be something else, then we became something else.

I was turned off at first by this president character, but now he's probably one of my favourite things about the show.

The guy that gives OOO the ability to transform (or rather, "Henshin!") in the first place is Ankh, a turncoat Greeed that, due to an unforseen accident 800 years ago, is now just a floating hand. He's arrogant and selfish, but beneath his hard exterior lies... a pretty hard interior as well! Yeah, he softens a bit, and in the end sort of earns himself a soul so he can stick around when his body is destroyed (spoilers, I know I know) but overall I found it hilariously amazing how little this angry little guy changed through the course of the show. Important to note is that he spends most of his time possessing the body of this comatose detective who would die without Ankh being attached, at least until the last quarter of the show when the detective wakes up.

The detective, when we finally get to learn more about him, is a sweet, hard working guy, that cares about justice, and mostly loves his sister. He's really nice, I'm glad he didn't die.

The detectives sister is Hina, another main character. Because it's a kids show they're never anything but friends, but you can tell she really digs Eiji/OOO. She's also got super strength that's NEVER explained, but it's not supposed to be, and it's more of a joke than anything else. Which is the kind of gag I really get behind.

There's also the "second Rider" or "seventh Ranger" to talk about. Okay, first let me explain those terms just now. Whenever I explain the concept behind Kamen Rider to someone I like to start by saying it's like if the sixth Ranger (think Power Rangers) had his own show. Pretty awesome, right? The lone wolf, going out, being great. Good stuff. Well, about a quarter of the way through the show, the bad guys are getting tougher, and the sixth ranger protagonist, Kamen Rider, is starting to have some trouble. That's when his mysterious rival appears. Some new Rider, aka, the second Rider, aka the seventh Ranger. Makes sense? Great.

So in this show it's Kamen Rider "Birth". This Rider system/power/belt/whatever was created by a fairly mad scientist in the employ of that president dude. And so obviously the president names the Rider "Birth". Again, he's odd that way. So when Birth shows up we expect it to be this guy Gotou, a really serious guy that wants to "save the world". But he's too insistent on it, gets in the way, and so the President gives it to some other guy.

Actually, the mad scientist WAS going to give the Birth driver (as it's called) to Gotou, so long as Gotou would ignore this one little breach of protocol that the scientist did. But no way, he had too much integrity! Gotou-chan, nice!

Ha, ah man, I love this guy: Date Akira ends up being Birth. He's working towards a goal of a hundred million yen payout, so it looks like all he cares about is money, and the first thing out of his mouth is very cool and straightforward... but then he immediately retracts it, worrying whether that sounded too cold, and reintroducing himself. In short, he's a seriously goofy guy. He eventually teams up with Gotou, taking him on as an apprentice to train him to be the NEXT Birth when Date has to leave to get some life saving surgery (the whole point behind him taking this high risk job is to get the money so he can live), so whenever Gotou does something good or whatever, Date looks to him, throws a thumbs up and says "Gotou-chan, nice!" The nice is in english, it's hilarious and amazing. I'm also INCREDIBLY glad that Date got through this series alive. I was pretty worried about it.

I've probably spent too long talking about this, I've got other stuff to do today (and honestly, I started writing this up yesterday...) so I'll quit here. As you can see, there's a reason I haven't quite dived into telling you about these Kamen Rider series- I get into too much detail.

I should just go:
Eiji/OOO- good guy, you can't help but like him
Ankh- you'll love him, because he's an amazing jerk
President- Amazingly over the top
Gotou-chan- nice!
Date Akira- Awesomely fun guy. Likes udon soup. Is actually a doctor!

Obviously I'm skipping out on a bunch of characters, like all the major bad guys for one... yup, well, I guess you should watch it! (That way you can save Kamen Rider W for after... that one is still my favourite!)