Recap: Kamen Rider Build, Episode 8 – Memory Starts to Talk

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Hokuto authorities are searching for Sento and Ryuga, but Kyoko points them in the wrong direction. Once they leave, she gives Sento and Ryuga the all clear.

Kyoko asks them if what Blood Stark said was true about her son. They head inside.

Meanwhile back in Touto, the prime ministers are having a hologram conference about why the Kamen Rider and Smash have popped up in Hokuto. Both are Touto exclusives, so what could they be doing there? The Hokuto and Seito PMs believe Touto is using the Kamen Rider as a military weapon and they will respond in kind if it comes to that.

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Gentoku steps forward and assures them the monsters will be dealt with. But he also will not tolerate this as an excuse for an attack on Touto. The Hokuto PM laughs, but Gentoku waves his hand and the two PMs disappear.

Gentoku tells his father that the two other PMs are out to invade Touto and they must build up their forces. Gentoku thinks his father isn’t as hawkish only because he wasn’t exposed to the light from Pandora’s Box. Unlike the other two PMs who were.

Papa PM says Gentoku is the one who has changed. Touto’s focus should be on a stable economy, not getting into war.

Gentoku asks Blood Stark what happened in Hokuto, but Blood Stark says what’s more important is to get Katsuragi’s data to develop the militarized Rider system.

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Back in Hokuto, Kyoko tries to understand the situation. Sento asks about how Takumi was as a person and son. Kyoko explains that he loved and hated science. His father was a scientist and Takumi loved him so much that he wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Papa Katsuragi was the one in charge of Pandora’s Box. Takumi had been at the ceremony the day of the Skywall Tragedy. And after that day, Papa Katsuragi had been subjected to hate and bashing to the point that he committed suicide.

Takumi continued on as a scientist to clear his father’s regrets. Kyoko says whenever Takumi got caught up in something, he’d lost all power of judgment. She wonders if someone was manipulating him when he created Faust, though that doesn’t excuse him creating something that has hurt so many people.

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Sento says they are here because they believe Takumi entrusted her with important data. But before she can say anything, Ryuga’s stomach growls. Kyoko serves them some tamagoyaki. Sento remembers Takehiko telling them that Kyoko makes tamagoyaki every day just in case Takumi ever returned.

Ryuga digs in, but Sento remembers why Kyoko makes it. Ryuga says it’s too sweet. Sento says Ryuga has zero delicacy.

Sento tries a slice and says it is delicious, so much that he is crying.

Kyoko reveals that Takumi came home a week before dying to give her a USB with his research. He says that if anything happens to him, she must give the USB to someone she can trust.

And that USB is in Touto. She hid it somewhere there before moving to Hokuto. Sento asks for its location, but she insists that she will go get the USB herself. And she will decide if they get it once she has it in her hands.

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Kyoko drives to the Skywall border with Sento and Ryuga hiding in the trunk. They manage to get past the checkpoint, but suddenly the car comes under attack.

Sento and Ryuga bust out of the trunk and see Night Rogue Gentoku has taken Kyoko. Before they can chase after them, Guardians appear to fight Sento and Ryuga. And when they’re taken care of, Kyoko and Gentoku are gone.

Kyoko wakes up at Faust HQ and is greeted by Gentoku who introduces himself as Takumi-kun’s old boss. He asks her where Takumi’s research is. She refuses to say. But Gentoku tries to entice her with what is supposedly Takumi’s final letter to her before he died.

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She decides to take the letter and gives Gentoku a key to a safe deposit box at Touto Bank. Gentoku takes it and hands her the letter. But the letter is actually just a blank piece of paper.

“Do you really think he was the type to feel gratitude toward his parents?”

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Kyoko goes to slap Gentoku, but Nariaki grabs her wrist to protect his boss.

Gentoku orders the Faust scientist to administer Nebula Gas on Kyoko and ensure she remembers nothing.

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Back at the lab, both Sento and Ryuga are upset they were not able to protect Kyoko. Misora says there is a report of a Smash downtown. Sento realizes that could be Kyoko. He and Ryuga hurry downtown. Before they leave, Misora gives Sento a new Shoubousha FullBottle while Soichi gives Ryuga his latest costume change.

Sento tries getting people to safety, so Ryuga steps in with his FullBottle only to get knocked aside. Sento prepares to henshin. He tries Kaizoku and Shoubousha FullBottles, but they are no Best Match. He then tries Harinezumi and Shoubousha Full Bottles and they are a Best Match.

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Sento henshins to Fire Hedgehog and takes care of the Smash with a Vortec Finish. He collects the elements and reveals Kyoko is indeed the Smash.

Kyoko wakes up, not remembering anything.

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Meanwhile at Touto Bank, Gentoku and Nariaki find the safe deposit box only has a note from Takumi saying “Unfortunately, I cannot trust you.”

Sento and Ryuga bring Kyoko to safety, but she has one request of them. She sends them to the abandoned site of Naniwa Heavy Industries where Papa Katsuragi worked. It is here that she buried the USB.

But Blood Stark arrives and grabs the USB. Sento henshins and he and Ryuga try to take on Blood Stark. Gentoku arrives and henshins to join the fight.

Sento takes on Night Rogue while Ryuga faces off against Blood Stark. Blood Stark is amused by Ryuga’s quickly rising Hazard Level as they battle. Because of that, Blood Stark decides it might be a good idea to let them have the USB drive after all, to facilitate Ryuga’s continued growth.

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Night Rogue questions Blood Stark’s decision, but Blood Stark holds him off to allow Sento and Ryuga to rocket away.

Blood Stark says Sento is the only one who can correctly make use of the data and Ryuga may even be able to benefit from it as well.

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At the cafe, Kyoko decides to give Sento the USB. She believes Sento understands what Takumi was thinking.

Kyoko says she doesn’t remember anything about Faust, but knows that she must have done what her son told her to do since she no longer has the safe deposit key.

Takumi had specifically planned everything and told his mother to give the key to any untrustworthy person who comes looking for the USB.

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Kyoko comments that Takumi was always one step ahead of other people, but didn’t even know his mother’s feelings. Sento says that is not true. He shows her the anagram from Takumi’s last page which says “Thank you for giving birth to me.”

Sento says Takumi must have just been bad at expressing his feelings. Kyoko is emotional as she remembers the last moments with her son.

Later that night, Sento inserts the USB into his computer. Ryuga warns that they may not like what they find. But Sento says he would hate not knowing even more.

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They open the files on the USB and it reveals:

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Project Build?!

Episode Thoughts

Another good episode. Some nice character moments for the three leads of this episode: Sento, Ryuga and Mama Katsuragi. Even a little bit of a peek into Takumi’s character as well.

It was really interesting seeing that first scene at the home where Sento and Ryuga are asking Kyoko about Takumi. Her responses were almost like those interviews with the parents and family of serial killers or mass murderers and terrorists who are like “I never knew they were like this…”

It took a pretty dark turn when Kyoko revealed that Papa Katsuragi had committed suicide because of all the pressure and hate against him. And it’s not too far off to assume that maybe Takumi also suffered from some kind of similar pressure and feelings as well. Of course it doesn’t justify what he did, but that will be an interesting aspect to explore in the future. Better mental health discussion in a Japanese children’s television program then on a Filipino noontime variety show? That is very easy to believe.lol

Getting to see the Hologram Prime Ministers again was good. It helps to continue that world building. I also like that the other two districts are continually going to be involved in some way. Sometimes both Kamen Rider and Sentai can feel so insular and just focused on Tokyo for example. But knowing that there are two other districts and two prime ministers who have their own agendas possibly in addition to everything else that’s going on kind of adds to the idea that the whole season story is far-reaching and not just self contained in one small area.

I really like that scene at the end with Kyoko, Sento and Ryuga. Especially when Sento gave Kyoko the anagram message from Takumi. I actually almost teared up there. It was a really emotional scene and the fact that it was that affecting shows that it was really well developed these last two episodes.

I definitely enjoyed the scene of them driving back to Touto. A funny story. Right at the moment Kyoko, Sento and Ryuga were crossing the border, my dad, who didn’t immediately recognize I was watching Kamen Rider assumed I was watching a drama series about North and South Korea.

The stuff between Katsuragi and Blood Stark is pretty interesting. But for now they’re part of just building up the foundation of the season.

Build being a government development is not a surprise. Especially since Kyuranger just did that same plot last week with Champ being revealed as originally created as a government weapon of mass destruction. Certainly nothing new for a toku show. But it certainly does fuel the fire of Soichi being more than he lets on. Though of course, he’s let on a lot so far.

Overall a really good episode. I really enjoyed it with a lot of great action, nice emotional scenes and a lot of nice character moments.

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