Recap: Kamen Rider Zi-O, Episode 10 – Taka & Tora & Batta 2010

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Hina and Diet member Eiji introduce themselves to each other before Hina uses her superhuman strength to bust the chained door open. Eiji wants to stop King Kuroto.

Sougo sees Hina leading Eiji out of the holding room, but doesn’t stop them. Woz pops up and says Eiji also has qualifications to be king. Sougo says he feels that as well.

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Eiji meets Kuroto who is accompanied by two Yummies and says he must stop him before he continues to make the people suffer. Sougo runs in and asks Kuroto what kind of country he wants to build when he becomes king.

Sougo says everyone wants to stop Kuroto from being king without knowing if he’ll be a good king or not.

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Kuroto says he will turn into Grand Supreme King Kuroto and will make all commoners bow at his feet. Eiji says that cannot happen. The Yummies attack Eiji and toss him to the floor. Sougo ties him up and tells Kuroto he’ll take care of him and Hina.

Sougo asks Eiji if he wants to become king. Eiji says all he needs is some money and a fresh pair of underwear for tomorrow.

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Over at the shop, Tsukuyomi heals Geiz’s wounds with her tablet. Uncle Junichiro hurries in with the first aid kit, but is surprised to see Geiz is healed.

Geiz regrets giving Sougo the benefit of the doubt. But now he’s sure Sougo will really become the evil demon king. He storms out. Tsukuyomi starts to wonder if that may indeed be true.

Uncle Junichiro returns from the kitchen with some water. He sees Tsukuyomi looking at the poster of Oda Nobunaga and he says he likes him. She asks why he would like a demon king. But Uncle Junichiro says if he truly was a demon king, no one would have joined him in his quest to unify Japan. He adds that you can’t judge a person’s true character from just one point of view.

Tsukuyomi remembers Sougo saying he trusts both her and Geiz’ judgments. She decides to go out and see for herself.

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Geiz calls Sougo out. Sougo apologizes for being too rough with him earlier, but Geiz doesn’t care because he’s set on finishing Sougo right here, right now. Geiz henshins.

But Yummies appear and engage him. Sougo also henshins and asks Geiz why he thinks he will become an evil demon king. Geiz asks why Sougo would join #TeamKuroto. Sougo answers that he wants to learn so he can become a nice demon king.

Sougo protects the factory workers when the Yummies turn their attention to them. He and Geiz finish the Yummies off.

Back in the castle, Sougo unties Eiji and Hina, apologizing for earlier. Sougo explains he was just interning for King Kuroto so he can learn how to be a nice demon king. They don’t understand.

Sougo says it’s not so much he wants to become a king, but that he’s was born and destined to be one. Eiji is amused. He says if Sougo wants to be king, he must remember there are things he can’t do alone. There are lives he can’t save alone. That’s why Eiji will reach his hand out to many people across the country.

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Kuroto interrupts. Sougo says he sees now the wrong way to be a demon king. Kuroto says he’s not a demon king. He transforms to Another OOO and knocks Sougo and Eiji around the room.

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Hina picks up Eiji and whirls him around to whack Another OOO out the building.

Eiji helps Sougo up and hands him two Ride Watches. He believes Sougo will become a great king.

Sougo runs out and henshins. He says the job of a good demon king is to defeat the bad demon kings. They battle. But Ora flies in with her Time Mazine to help Another OOO.

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Geiz arrives and henshins to Genm Armor. He helps Sougo by telling him he needs to go to 2010, though he still believes Sougo will become the demon king. Tsukuyomi flies in and scoops Sougo up.

Sougo pilots the Time Mazine against Ora. Sougo uses the OOO Ride Watch and the Time Mazine gets a new face. That allows him to get the upper hand against Ora’s Time Mazine. He then uses the Tajador Ride Watch to fly up and take on Ora in the air.

Sougo delivers a Giga Scan Time Break at Ora’s Time Mazine before he and Tsukuyomi zoom off to 2010.

“Farewell, Zi-O,” Geiz says.

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Along the way, Tsukuyomi explains that Dan Kuroto killed his father after becoming Another OOO. Papa Dan put a lot of pressure on Kuroto to reach the top, but Kuroto ended up being the same greedy person his father was.

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In 2010, Kuroto is frustrated by his lack of success at his project. That’s when Uhr appears to shove the Another OOO Watch into Kuroto.

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At this moment, Eiji is finishing off Neko Yummy and then he immediately dehenshins, unsure of what’s happening.

Sougo arrives in Kuroto’s office and henshins. They battle.

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Sougo uses the OOO Ride Watch to uphenshin to OOO Armor. Woz pops in to wish everyone a Happy Birthday and to proclaim Sougo’s inheriting another new Rider power.

Sougo and Kuroto battle some more. Kuroto says he is the only legit king. But Sougo says the choice is up to Geiz, Tsukuyomi and all the people living in this era.

Sougo delivers a Scanning Time Break to finish off Another OOO and release Kuroto. Kuroto proclaims he is god, but Woz congratulates him on being fertilizer for Sougo’s becoming king.

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Eiji and Hina say their goodbyes to each other. Eiji says he has a lot of hands to reach out to.

Sougo and Tsukuyomi get back to the shop. Uncle Junichiro asks where the chicken for dinner is, but both of them forgot. He decides to go out himself. But Uncle Junichiro first asks why Geiz took all his things and left.

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Geiz is walking downtown saying to himself that Oma Zi-O is not his friend and he came to this era to defeat him. Ora smiles while watching him.

Meanwhile, a familiar face picks up an orange as he stands outside a much larger new Drupers location.

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Recap: Episode 10.5 – Mouri vs. Shimoyama

Sougo doesn’t think it’s in his character to become the evil demon king. Tsukuyomi also notices that even when her character says she will judge whether Sougo is truly Oma Zi-O, she still automatically trusts him. She wonders if she’s a dere.

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Tsukuyomi thinks it is very out of character. Geiz asks for a script and sees that the writer for this episode is Mouri Nobuhiro. The first eight episodes are written by Shimoyama, so maybe Mouri is responsible for changing the characterizations.

Geiz points out Mouri wrote OOO episodes, so he would be a good person to do this OOO arc. But Tsukuyomi points out this was more of a Dan Kuroto arc anyway, so that’s a waste.

Geiz says if Shimoyama can be swapped out, then Nobuhiro can too. They run off to do just that.

But Sougo says that is very out of character for them. He points out the directors as well.

Tsukuyomi sees they have had seven different directors over 12 episodes plus the upcoming movie.

Geiz says he’s never heard of a show that’s had that many different directors in a quarter before. But it’s because they’re bringing in legendary directors for the tributes.

Sougo says that if they keep bringing in new directors, the different characterizations will turn into a mess. That’s why it is their responsibility as actors to take care of their own characters even with through different writers and directors.

Sougo screams that it is their duty!

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Geiz and Tsukuyomi point out that Sougo screaming this is out of character.

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Episode Thoughts

Hmm… it was an okay episode. I do kinda wish it was more of an OOO tribute rather than another Kuroto focus when he got an entire three-part epilogue movie series basically for himself already.

We didn’t really add anything to Kuroto’s story that hasn’t already been done. Again, it makes sense he’d be a good host for Another OOO. But he really did take over the arc.

That definitely made Eiji and Hina’s scenes that much more of a premium. They were certainly a welcome sight after such a long time. (Super Hero Taisens excluded.) Hina’s super strength and Eiji’s underwear were obvious and expected callbacks to OOO and their characters.

But how about Kiyo-chan randomly hanging out in Kuroto’s office. As creepy and awesome as ever! Lol

With our main trio though, we get it spelled out as Geiz regrets giving Sougo the benefit of the doubt. He felt like he could trust Sougo and maybe get close to him, but had his hopes dashed by that one choice by Sougo. Though of course, Geiz had already had a bias against Sougo from the beginning. With what little trust he had developed for Sougo, obviously one wrong move from Sougo would force Geiz back to his original conviction.

Interesting to see what will happen with his leaving the shop and Ora’s sneaky smile while watching him.

I wish Woz gave a more emphatic “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” though. lol

Episode 10.5 is back to the funny (and many times true! lol) meta discussion on the season. These *wink*wink* little skits certainly don’t excuse the show of lazy writing or any other missteps they might make through the course of the season. But they’re still fun.

I always enjoy when the actors on toku shows are the complete opposites of their characters. Gaku Oshida is definitely the opposite of Geiz, being actually more fun and more of a joker in real life, based on his social media posts with the cast and even in these X.5 episodes. Shieri Ohata as Tsukuyomi is the same as well.

Overall, this OOO/Dan Kuroto arc was just okay. I think not enough Eiji and Hina, a little too much Kuroto. And for Sougo, Tsukuyomi and Geiz, we’re basically back to where we were at the end of Episode 8.

2 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Zi-O, Episode 10 – Taka & Tora & Batta 2010

  1. It was good to see Kuroto again, although Eiji and Hina could show a little more in this episode. I was worried a little, when Geiz left. Perhabs now he really wants to kill Sougo 🙁
    I saw spoilers of next episode and Geiz was seen with Time Jackers! 😮 What can this mean? A betrayal?
    In the preview I saw two Sougos(!) LOL Could it be a bad double?

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